REVIEW Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell

Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
Published by Simon Pulse
Fiction / Young Adult / Fantasy / Romance / Retelling

If you know me, then you know that I'm a sucker for fairytale retellings. Like, 'how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-Tootsie-Pop?' sucker. And I love me some Peter Pan. I hadn't read a Peter Pan retelling before Unhooked. Do I love the Disney animated film? Heck yeah I do. Did I weep like a banshee when I watched Finding Neverland? Damn right I did. Am I secretly obsessed with Colin O'Donohue's Captain Hook from Once Upon A Time? Don't tell my husband.

I originally bought this book because it seemed like the only Peter Pan retelling that sounded interesting. It was advertised for people who like OUAT's Captain Hook, so I was sitting there on the floor of the Barnes and Noble reading that review thinking, 'Well, I like OUAT's Captain Hook. This is obviously being advertised to people like me.'

It took me over a year to actually read it, but you know that's just me and my TBR habits. I hadn't read a book in a while so I really wanted to read something light, something I could get through quickly. And this was it! I got through it really quickly, I read it in about a weekend while doing other adult things that needed to be done. 

So what did I actually think of the book?

It was okay.

Yeah.

It was just okay. I obviously liked it enough to read it in the span of a weekend. But it also wasn't really that long, and wasn't really that difficult to get through. To be honest, I didn't find anything about it truly remarkable. It was kind of your general YA retelling. Sorry if that hurt anyone's feels. But after reading it, I had a few things to say about the marketing. But I'll start it off with just a general synopsis and my thoughts on it overall.

Unhooked follows Gwendolyn Allister and her best friend, Olivia (I almost forgot her name) as Gwen and her mother move to a rundown flat in London after her mother is convinced (yet again) that monsters are chasing them. Gwen and Olivia are soon kidnapped by dark creatures and taken to Neverland where they end up separated; Gwen with Captain Hook and the pirates, and Olivia with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. Gwen is torn between Pan's and Hook's narratives and lies as she struggles with why she and Olivia have been brought to Neverland, learning that she has a connection to the Fae and the realm of Neverland. 

That's it for no spoilers. Everything beyond this point is fair game. You have been warned.

Characters 

All of the characters seemed more two-dimensional than anything. Given, there were a few that I thought were more fleshed out than others. But what was more disappointing was that the fleshed-out characters weren't even the protagonists. 

I'll dedicate a whole paragraph to the protagonist, Gwendolyn, or Gwen. First of all, there was no consistency with her name. She's nicknamed Gwen on the back of the book, but was only called Gwen maybe three times. Everyone else called her Gwendolyn. Why even bother with giving her that nickname if close to no one is going to call her that? But I digress. I just really wanted to get that off my chest. Moving on. I thought her character was super bland. I couldn't tell you any particular character trait, except, maybe... empathy? She was like flavorless yogurt, Greek yogurt; not even vanilla yogurt because I actually like vanilla yogurt. Not much going for her. Barely any physical descriptions and we don't know much about her and her likes. We know about her history, and we know she likes running. I don't know what a lot of writers are thinking, but NEWS FLASH a hobby is not a character trait. It contributes to maybe certain character traits, but it is not an actual character/personality trait. Other than that, we have another case of a missing parental figure, aka her father, and she is the mature one between her and her mother. Her mother doesn't take care of her, she takes care of her mother. Just another cliche to deal with. And this was published in 2016. Why was this cliche still around? She seemed like a self-insert for the reader. Just another Bella Swan. Someone so bland that the reader can just imagine themselves in her place. Also, not to mention, not as attractive as her friend, Olivia, but manages to have the attention of both Pan and Hook. 'Kay, moving on from that cliche.

Gwendolyn's relationship with her mother is strained, I get it. We only really get to see how paranoid her mother is, and then learn she's not crazy. Then there's nothing more with her until the end of the book and she's perfectly fine. 

Olivia was your average privileged wealthy girl, but not spoiled or bratty. She was manipulated by Peter Pan throughout most of the book and became annoying to read. Not to mention the girl-on-girl hate/jealousy for Peter's affections, but the author managed to make this different by making Olivia magically manipulated by Peter to feel this way. But Olivia did have her moments that I liked. I felt a little bad for her in the end when she essentially crumbled into dust, which I was not expecting. Though, it didn't tug on the heartstrings and make me shed a tear. 

I'm not sorry.

The character of Peter Pan was handled uniquely. You always seemed to question what he was up to: If he actually liked Gwendolyn, if he was just scheming. There were a few surprises that I was not expecting. Some of his cons were clever. He was puckish, and in a destructive, chaotic way that made me want to see him as the bad guy. But part of me wanted something deeper with him. I wanted more conflict rather than just 'he's the obvious bad guy'. Especially since we're painted such distinct pictures of him compared to Hook. Added conflict would have made the story longer and more intriguing. His ending was weak though. He was taken out too easily, and it made me wonder why the faeries hadn't thought to kill him sooner once they had Gwendolyn.

Now, I shall move on to Hook. Oh, Hook. After whom the book is named. He was very clearly an important character, however, after reading this book, I felt very strongly that I shouldn't be reading YA for much longer. This is where my beef with the advertising stems. I don't know why, but when I was told that as a fan of OUAT I would like this book, I guess I didn't full know what I expected. I think I really wanted this to be a New Adult book rather than what I got.

But then I was reminded that I was reading YA.

He wasn't even remotely the same character. Which I can understand. An author wants some sort of originality with their interpretation of a beloved character. But I was essentially stuck with Colin O'Donohue minus 10 years and a dash of awkward.

I'm getting too old for this. 

So I just kept reading it for the enjoyment or whatever. He was the most three-dimensional character in the book. What made his character unique to this book as a retelling, was his magically mechanical arm. He lost his arm in his life before Neverland and it was replaced by this cool clockwork arm. I really lived for this detail even if it wasn't a traditional hook. So good work there. He had a very clear past, there were stakes for him. He had people he cared about. He struggled with his past and his responsibilities in the present. He was essentially from a different time period, Great War Era to be precise, and his mannerisms for the most part reflected that. There were the small inconsistencies where he seemed like he had that mysterious smoldering thing going for him where Gwendolyn was sure he was trying to use how attractive he was to make her feel uncomfortable, but it just didn't seem right for his character the more we got to learn about him, and it may have just been Gwendolyn being a lusty teenager or something.

But again, I'm getting too old for YA at this point. Will I still read it? Yes. But maybe try to find the mature ones. Or just strictly New Adult.

Story

I appreciated the retelling aspect of this, as simple as it was. I thought it was solid for a YA. Gwendolyn being half-Fae made an interesting twist that I didn't completely expect, and the Fae being destructive was another twist I didn't mind. 

The one thing I thought could have been truly expanded on was J.M. Barrie and his involvement. That's right, J.M. Barrie has a place in this. In this book he does exist and is referenced as having either been to Neverland and writing a story about it. Or something? You see, it was mentioned once and I already forgot it. It could have been omitted and nothing would have changed, but as soon as he's mentioned I want to know more about him and why he's involved and to the extent he is involved. But it was obviously not important since he was mentioned once at the end of the story. That was the one aspect I wanted to know more about, but alas that would have made the plot more interesting or complex and we can't have that for a YA.

The retelling additions that made the book unique to itself were beneficial to the story. The Lost Boys were murderous little heathens, but if anything they just reassured the reader that Peter was the villain. The Fae being angry with Peter and feeling used for their magic was a good addition as well and made the conflict interesting.

With how many theories about what Neverland is and who Peter is, I thought these particular aspects were interesting.

The romance was subtle and cute, but nothing remarkable. It kind of just happened, so I guess it being seamless is a good thing. The only thing that seemed out of the blue was when Hook came to rescue Gwnedolyn from Peter and the Lost Boys (it was unasked for by the way, just a duty he felt he needed to do) he said to her he thought she "was pretty and all, but..." and she was taken aback about as much as I was because I was like

But you know, it's YA and you have to get the romance in there somehow.

The ending was... kind of disappointing from a female perspective. Gwendolyn and Hook manage to get back to London together, without Olivia because she's dust now, and Hook being from a different time period is obviously terrified of this new world he's been thrust into. That lasted about 2 pages, and then he's fine. All Gwendolyn got at the end was a guy. That's it. No mention of going to college, obviously mourned her friend for a page, and she and Hook visit a WW1 cemetery to mourn his lost time and his brother (?) I think that's what happened. Magic came back at the end when he was in the hospital, because of course, and his clockwork arm that stopped working because he was no longer in Neverland started working again because...

Writing

The writing was simple. Which isn't a bad thing. It was good for an easy YA read and concise enough for everything to be appropriately descriptive and make the pacing quick and enjoyable to get through the book quickly. If anything I just wish that the story was longer so we could really explore the world more and how everything truly ties together.

Again, with how many theories there are for Peter Pan, I thought more could be done but were thrown to the wayside for the sake of a simpler story.

Overall

This was honestly just a simple, unremarkable book in a pleasant, but also boring kind of way. It could have been explored more and the characters could have been more interesting if they were fleshed out more and if the older tropes were thrown out.

Overall, I give this book:

⭐⭐⭐

Just three stars. Nothing extraordinary but made for a light read to get me back into the reading mood. For being published in 2016, some of the older tropes and cliches were disappointing to read about and made me a little tired.

I wish Gwendolyn got more in the end than a guy. Maybe a sense of direction of what to do with her life, or anything!

This book is obviously made for younger teens, maybe 14-16. It's the YA type of book that is just not made for readers of YA that are my age. People older than teens just wouldn't be able to relate to the situations, or the characters, in this book because they're just too old to find any of it consequential anymore.

I often run into stories like this and I finish it saying, "Wow... I could write that so much better." 

Not saying this was bad or I'm a better writer, but I often read stories with an expectation of what it will be about and when I'm disappointed that it was a different story, I come out of it with the desire to write the story that I wanted to read. You know, like that one saying. Either way, expect a Peter Pan retelling at some point in the future.

Thanks guys!

REVIEW The Tempest by Charlotte Hawkins

The Tempest by Charlotte Hawkins
Published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Fiction / History / Romance / Retelling

The Tempest follows Guy of Gisborne, a popular Robin Hood character from many film, books, and television adaptations, and an original character, a healer named Cassia deWarren, and their growing relationship and romance.

This is a thinly veiled fanfiction of BBC's Robin Hood based on the dark, brooding, and haunted description of the main character, Guy of Gisborne, popularly played by Richard Armitage.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't attracted to this book based on that alone, like many other reviewers and readers of this book. That being said, if you know me at all then you know that I have no qualms with fanfiction. I actively read and write it myself. This was probably one of the more polished fanfictions I've encountered. Is it by no means perfect, and there were a few things that could have used some improvement.

From what I understand, this is the first book that the author has self-published. I believe that self-published fanfiction can only be so good but I like to give things a shot if there is a possibility I might like it. It wasn't very expensive on Kindle, so I knew it wouldn't hurt. 

I feel like this review would be best organized by going over the aspects I did like and area that could have been improved upon.

Firstly, I loved the writing style. I thought it flowed well and the descriptions were strong enough for me to see it clearly in my head. I often found myself impressed with how lovely some of the sentences were. They were flowery without being too boring or oversaturated with too many pointless words or descriptors. I could tell each word had been carefully chosen.

This book was more character-driven than plot-driven. The characters were thought out, but I felt some were stronger and more developed than others, which I will go into later. One of these few was Cassia. She, to me, was the most alive out of these characters. I understood her personality, desires, frustrations, hobbies, and life. While I found several of her motivations and decisions questionable, which I will also go into later, she seemed to be the most interesting.

The other two character who I thought were interesting enough, were actually Robin Hood and Marian. Their characters were contrived, however, and made out to be unlikable so as to get the reader to like Guy of Gisborne more. The author took the cocky and shallowness of their characters to the next level, which made me actually want more of them in the story. Mostly because I've never really loved their characters despite me loving anything Robin Hood.

Guy of Gisborne is an in-between character for me. His inner conflict, demons, and desires were the most developed aspects of his character. I thought his transition from lust to love was seamless, I hardly noticed it. Which is both good and bad. It makes his arc seem weak and almost non-existent. It was good because making something seamless is impressive.

Now, what I thought could use some work.

The plot was the biggest issue with this book. More like lack of plot to put it plainly. Like I said earlier, this is a character-driven story. I don't say character-driven plot because they only go through the motions of their situations rather than drive their situations with their actions. Things happen to them, they don't make anything really happen for themselves. It seemed more like a character study in the format of a full-length novel. If I had to guess a vague 'maybe' plot it would be: Guy of Gisborne and Cassia struggle with familial and societal obstacles in order to be with each other.

If I have to guess what the plot is then you very likely don't have one.

This leads me into a few of my my other points that are related to each other.

While Cassia was the most interesting character, she had no character arc. There were no obstacles for her to overcome herself. Obstacles were overcome for her. She was more like an object placed into the story to create conflict for other characters.

This problem plays into a trope I have a huge problem with. And that trope is: the female character is only there to reform the bad boy. If I were to change my earlier attempt at explaining the plot, I would change it to just this trope. She was a well-fleshed out character but was only there for Guy to love and lust over. I think it did a huge disservice to her character. While they did have great chemistry, the stakes weren't high enough for them. The stakes that were there were not threatening enough and it prompted some very serious responses from Cassie. 

At one point, she threatened suicide if her brother and husband did not go to Nottingham and save Guy.

Cassia is known as being very clever, which I like, but this is one way to get me turned off of any character. Threatening suicide to get what you want (even if it is for love) is nothing short of manipulative, whether or not she would have gone through with it. It would have been less damaging to her character if she had just gone and saved him herself. Then they would have had an awesome showdown with Robin and the Sheriff. 

Like, boo-fucking-hoo, your brother and your husband suck because they don't give two shits about what you want and what would make you happy, so you just threaten to commit suicide? 

Where the heck did that come from?

Here's an idea, sweetheart, do something about it yourself!

Oh! It would have been difficult for you to leave because the time period and your gender would have posed as too hard of an obstacle? Figure it out! I'd rather have it be a little historically inaccurate for the female character to leave France by herself and trek all the way back to Nottingham if it meant she took some initiative for once in her life to get what she wanted than have her just sit there and be a damsel thinking she can't do anything because she's a woman. She was far more independent throughout the book than for her to just do that.

As someone who has struggled with depression so severe that I have had suicidal ideation, I found this instance to be insulting. You know who threatens suicide to get what they want? Abusers. It's mental and emotional abuse. No one who has actually thought about committing suicide would ever threaten someone they loved that they would commit suicide because life wasn't going their way and they wanted them to fix it. There was no use for this. None at all. It could have been taken out and it wouldn't have made a difference to the story or her character moving forward. All it did was move this book down a peg due to how uncalled for it was. It didn't show off her mental instability or depression, it just showed manipulation on her part to get what she wanted, which is irresponsible.

Anyway, moving on.

Robin Hood. This story features Robin Hood characters, yet less than a handful are in it. This story focuses on Guy so if you are looking to have lots of interactions with other iconic characters, then you won't get it in this book. Robin Hood is Guy's enemy. So make him the enemy. I think there was a lot of opportunity with the plot that the author didn't take advantage of when it came to utilizing the actual main character of the source material she was pulling from.

I know it seems like there was a lot that I didn't like. But these were mostly things that I really only thought could  have used improvements. Since this book is self-published, and the first the author has produced, I'm reviewing this at face value and basing it mostly on enjoyment. If this was a traditionally published book, then it would have been a different story.

I believe there are a few more books in this series. I'm still deciding whether or not I will read them since I'm unsure what else the author could do. Robin Hood and the Sheriff are both dead and the author tied everything up in a nice little bow.

Overall, I rate this book:

⭐⭐⭐

I really did enjoy this for what it was, aside from the suicide thing. I'm able to move past that one instance and flag it as a faux pas on the author's part so I can look at the rest of the book as it is. I think the author has a lot of potential to be a great writer. However, if you are looking for a solid read with Robin Hood characters, this is not for you. But if you are a bit of a fangirl for Richard Armitage's Guy of Gisborne and are looking for a decent romance that gives him the happy ending he deserved, then you'd probably enjoy this.

REVIEW Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm

Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm
Published by Amazon Kindle Publishing Services
Fiction / Fantasy / Fairytale Re-telling

Boy oh boy do I have a doozy for you guys.

I have a lot to say about this book. I wrote pages upon pages of notes and had to make an OUTLINE for this review to get all of my thoughts straight. So I'm just going to go ahead and get into it.

Warning: This review contains some spoilers, but are they really spoilers?

Heart of the Fae by Emma Hamm is a Beauty and the Beast retelling set in Ireland using heavy elements of Irish mythology to drove the fantasy aspect of this story.

It follows Sorcha, a midwife and healer, who still honors the Old Ways and worships the Fae, and her journey to save her family from the spreading blood beetle plague. After striking up a deal with the Goddess Macha, she travels to Hy-Brasil to convince the master of the island to come back to the mainland with her. Eamonn, the master of the island, is a banished Seelie Fae prince who was betrayed by his twin brother, Fionn, for the throne. During Sorcha's time on the island she becomes involved with Fae dilemmas all the while making friends with the Fae residing there, and becoming romantically involved with Eamonn.

The whole premise of an Irish Beauty and the Beast was what drew me to the book. The cover is gorgeous on top of that. The research in terms of the Irish mythology was very well done, and, as someone who works with the Celtic pantheon, I really appreciated it.

Aside from that, not much else about this book was intriguing. The plot, in concept, is interesting, but the execution was horribly lacking. Sorcha's purpose for being on the island seemed to be put on the back-burner to focus on her relationship with Eamonn. The flow was choppy and jarring with constant scene breaks. The most interesting part of the story didn't occur until 80% of the way through when Eamonn's brother finally became a living, breathing character. That was when the threats and stakes actually meant something and when I began to care about what happened. Any long or short term stakes and threats ended up not being that big of a deal because of how convenient everything became for Sorcha. So much happened for her rather than her taking action to make things happen, thus preventing any character growth by allowing her to make mistakes. Oh, you need to find these two twin Fae? Oh, well it just so happens that your neighbor you just ran into is on her way to see them right now! Oh, the island you need to get to can only be seen every seven years? Well it just so happens that it's going to be showing up in just a week! The merrow-men are after you? Don't worry they won't catch up! It takes the adventure out of everything!

Characters

There were very few characters that I cared for and rooted for. But I will be giving a list describing each character and my thoughts on them.

Sorcha: the main character. Sorcha is the daughter of a woman who was burned at the stake for being a witch. She was adopted by a man who turned the rest of his adopted daughters into sex-workers. But he designated Sorcha too special to be one and decided she should be educated and be a healer. She is your stereotypical hot-headed, forward-thinking "strong female protagonist" who will argue with and insult anyone who disagrees with her or is  the slightest bit rude to her. What annoyed me the most about Sorcha's character was how two-dimensional she was. I feel like I've read her character so many times before and the author gave her the yelling match with a sexist character to tell the readers "See? She's a feminist character because she's telling off this sexist pig that she's just as smart as a man is in a society that looks down on women!"

The most feminist characters are the ones where we don't need that told to us. I'm just tired of reading characters like that.  If you have to tell me she's feminist rather than show me an original three-dimensional character growing from her mistakes and just overall being a good person, then I'm not going to believe that you have a "strong female feminist character". What is ultimately supposed to be her flaw only makes her appear stubbornly ignorant, and her desire to see peace over fighting is contradictory to the decision she makes in the end.

SPOILER: the ending is what made me absolutely despise her character. When Eamonn's brother comes to attack she is given information that could ultimately end the slaughter of her friends and save Eamonn. But she decides to not do that because she doesn't want to be involved! How selfish is that?! And then she has the gall to ask her friend how she can stop the fighting! What?! You HAD the chance and even acknowledged it but decided to not do it. This can't be defended by calling it a mistake. That is active, selfish disregard.

Sorcha's family: as mentioned earlier, Sorcha's "father" adopts female orphans and turns them into prostitutes. Ahem, what? We're only introduced to two sisters by name, and there is a mention of twins, but there are apparently more in the brothel that we are never introduced to. I understand that this situation is meant to be represented as sex positive since the girls seem to be content with their lives and profession, but it only comes off as bizarre and kind of creepy. They seem to be living in this unrealistic bubble where they think a wealthy man will come around and take one of them as his wife. In what post-Christian medieval Ireland world would that actually happen? I will speak no further on this subject.

Geralt: I can't believe I actually made one of these for this character. Geralt is the resident Gaston of this book. He is the sexist pig that Sorcha tells off in the author's declaration of her feminist character, who is also in love with her and has proposed marriage to her sometime prior to the book's beginning.  The issue that I had with this character is that we are never given anything else about him.  We don't know why he loves her and has proposed marriage, nor do we have any indication as to what their history is.  Then he never shows up or is mentioned again.  This indicates that this character is only in the book for Sorcha to show off how feminist she is, and to show that she is desired.  He was such a poor excuse for a character and had no other relation to the plot.  His character could have been cut out completely and nothing would have changed in the story.

Manus: Manus is the captain of the ship that Sorcha sails on to get to Hy-Brasil.  He is a swaggering sailor who also honors the Fae.  To me, he was one of the few characters that I actually really liked, and the only character who seemed three-dimensional.  I agreed with him on so many things and didn't blame him for kicking Sorcha off his ship when he realized the sacrifice his men went through (a ton of them dead and dying) just to get her to Hy-brasil wasn't worth getting her to land safely.  I wish he was more of an important character, but of course he wasn't.

Oona: Mrs. Potts as a pixie.  No joke.  That's what her character was.  She was almost a cut-out copy of Mrs. Potts who served very little to the plot.  She moved some things along, but not much.

Cian: Cogsworth as a gnome, but what's the difference?  He served absolutely nothing to the plot.

Bran: I just realized that he was the Lumiere of this story.  Seriously, how many things are you going to pull straight from the Disney films?  I thought his character was interesting at first.  He is half-man and half-raven and can transform completely into a raven when he chooses.  I liked him until he opened his mouth and became the flirty best friend of Eamonn who hit on Sorcha almost every time he got the chance.  Pass.

Eamonn: Eamonn was my favorite character in this book, if I can say I had favorites.  I disliked him the least aside from Manus.  Eamonn is the brooding Seelie Fae prince banished to Hy-brasil by his twin brother, Fionn.  His 'disfigurement' is probably the most unique, original, and fascinating part of this entire book.  What makes him appear 'beastly' are his scars.  However, they are not just ordinary scars, they're filled with crystals.  He has webs of crystals protruding from his entire body.  He is often compared to a giant geode, which I loved the imagery of.  If there was anything I actually loved about this book, it was this aspect.  His personality, on the other hand, I am mixed on.  The Beast character in any Beauty and the Beast retelling is supposed to be, well, beastly.  We are shown very little of this, the only thing being that he has a temper and pig-headedness that rivals Sorcha's and he takes his anger out on throwing furniture during his hissy fits.  He is otherwise a very kind person who looks at the lesser Fae as actual living beings, compared to the other Seelie Fae who use them as slaves.  The issues with Eamonn that I have are his choices.  He keeps Sorcha on the island after she shows up and insults him to his face, throwing her in the hag hut, rather than, I don't know, throwing her off the top of a tower.  Which is what I half expected him to do given what I kind of knew about his personality, but no, he had to keep her around for the sake of the story moving forward.  Darn.  Would have done us all a favor.  Wishful thinking, but oh well.  His motivation into keeping her around was also very weak.  It was literally, "I find her intriguing."

I thought he was the only character who actually grew throughout the whole story, as little growth as it was.  I'll finish his character off with one last thing that I find questionable.  Drunk, non-consensual kiss?  I'm still squinting my eyes about that.

Fionn: Lastly, the brother of Eamonn.  He is mentioned throughout the book, but doesn't become an actual character until 80% of the way through.  He's obviously the bad guy, but I wish we had gotten more of him throughout the book other than just brief mentions of his character and what he did.  The book got 10x more interesting when he showed up because we had an idea of what he could do, and the stakes were instantly raised.  We should have gotten more of him throughout the book to further the plot and keep the stakes raised.

Setting

If I hadn't looked at the map at the start of the book and someone told me this book took place in Ireland, I would have slapped them.  The word 'Ireland' or 'Eireann' was never used.  Descriptors such as a few Gaelic words and "rolling green hills" were the only indicators given to tell the readers that it was set in Ireland.  It's very clear because of this that the setting was not well-researched at all.

To support this further, we are given no time period, nor clear description of what specific clothing looked like.  When world-building, time period and clothing are huge helping factors in developing the reader's vision of the world.  All we can deduce from this is that this story takes place in post-Christianized Ireland, given the mention of churches, no one believing in the Old Ways anymore, and Sorcha's mother being burned as a witch.  However, there is no mention of Christianity at all.  For the longest time, I actually thought this book took place in a fantasy world because there were almost no indicators pointing to the setting taking place in Ireland.

There were also a few missed opportunities when describing Hy-brasil.  This is supposed to be an island stuck between the human world and the Otherworld.  I would imagine it would be somewhat magical.  I felt like the descriptions of the island were very plain, and that may have had something to do with the fact that maybe it was glamoured.  There is a part when Eamonn opens Sorcha's third eye so she can see past the glamour and she describes her surroundings as being more colorful in a way.  We're given a look into the wondrous Fae realm and yet not much of the island is described.  Specific places such as rooms, the hag hut, and the throne room are described in much more detail than the actual island.

On top of this, the Seelie and Unseelie Courts were rather...dull.  I didn't find anything about them terribly remarkable.  This is disappointing considering it's the Fae realm.

Romance

Romance is one of the most important aspects of a Beauty and the Beast story.  You can always expect it in every re-telling but since there are so many re-tellings of this fairy-tale, you need to be able to make the romance unique in order to set the story apart from others.  This book failed in that miserably.  The romance was completely contrived, and nothing about it felt natural nor unique.  The desire started too quickly, and it made any further interactions between Sorcha and Eamonn cringey.  It felt like it was only being rushed in order to get to the cute/steamy romantic stuff.  The growth of their relationship felt forced and their arguments were petty and non-linear, making it just annoying.  Because the romance was so rushed, their relationship seemed based more on lust rather than love.

Writing and Tropes

I said this earlier in the setting portion of this review, but I will say it more clearly here: the amount of descriptions was inconsistent throughout the book.  We would get lovely detailed descriptions of specific rooms, but a passing vague sentence of something that's actually interesting.  This only constitutes into lazy world-building.

When Sorcha reaches the island, she asks Oona a TON of questions about the Fae and Hy-brasil.  We get answers of course, but we're simply being told about all of this world-building rather than having the character interact with it.  She passes by a selkie man, but we're only told that they're troublesome.  We get no physical description of the selkie man, just that Sorcha should stay away from them.  This is an excellent example of the need to show rather than tell.  The best way I can describe this and how it's a problem is by bringing in The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.  Cassandra Clare has an interesting world, but has Clary ask so many questions about it just to get the useful information out of the way, and the reader is being dragged along while they're drowning in an info-dump disguised as conversation. It's nothing short of lazy-world building, and half of the information wasn't useful for the reader to know anyway.

The originality of the content is up for debate also.  So many characters are rough copies of characters taken from Disney's Beauty and the Beast films.  Some situations as well.  Eamonn saves Sorcha's life at some point, he surprises her with a larger than life gift.  I'm not saying you can't use some of the same things that help develop character relations, but a line forms when there are just too many similarities that it takes away from your story's originality.

There is also the reveal of too much information about characters the moment we meet them.  We are given Eamonn's whole life story in the first chapter.  Apparently, this information is supposed to be a huge shocker for Sorcha when she meets Fionn.  Why not have Eamonn and his brother shrouded in mystery and have us find out with Sorcha?  The storytelling is lackluster and doesn't allow for anything to come as a surprise.  We don't learn things at the same pace as Sorcha, and because we know so much more information than her it makes everything she does look stupid.

Now...

TROPES

Sorcha is bizarre and strange but still drop-dead gorgeous

Forward-thinking female gets into feminism argument with sexist douche

NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS

Flirty side character

Main Character is favored by all-powerful beings

Almost every creature on the island she comes into contact with loves her and thinks she is so sweet and kind.

         

Okay, that's enough of that.

Editing, Pacing, and Arrangement

I was surprised to learn this book had an editor.  The amount of grammar mistakes is almost embarrassing.  It's clear that this book needed a few more looks over before being published.  This book read more like a draft, like there were still more edits that needed to be made.  There were many scenes and characters that should have been cut from the book for the sake of pacing.  Dialogue was choppy, forced, unnatural, and non-linear.  

One of the details concerning the Fae are actually the names.  If a human gets the name of a Fae it means that they have the power to control them, which is why few actual names are given in the book.  However, there were several instances where names were being dropped when Sorcha should not have known them.  This was careless editing, and I'm surprised it wasn't caught, because it appears several other readers caught it too.  

The pacing at the beginning of the book was all over the place.  It switched between being too slow and too fast.  Around chapters three and four are where it started to even out a little bit, and then it sped up again.  The romance was rushed and turned to desire and lust almost instantly.

There were several scenes that I thought could have been better served in different locations throughout the book.  This is something that is also done in editing, in order to help better introduce or serve characters or serve the plot.  If some of the scenes had been rearranged, the plot and pacing of the book would have been more steady.

Overall Rating

This was one heck of a rating, and I'm sorry it was so long.

My rating:

⭐⭐

Technically, 2.5 stars.

This book had the potential to be great, but it was bogged down by poor editing, a weak plot, annoying two-dimensional characters, and not enough research.  I really wanted this book to be good, I wanted a reason to buy a physical copy so I can have the beautiful cover on my shelves, but the blaring issues I have with it just prevent me from doing that.

What I will say is this, even though Sorcha's decision at the end of the book made me not want to pick up the second book, I actually care enough about Eamonn to be curious about what happens to him.  So I am picking up the next book on my Kindle.  Honestly, if I had a really well-plotted book just about Eamonn (and if he was just a tad bit more developed), I would buy that in a heartbeat.  Sorcha was the one character that just completely ruined it for me.

Once I read the second book, I will be doing an individual review of that one, but then I will make a YouTube video talking about the series as a whole and my overall thoughts on it.

Thanks for sticking with me guys!  Let me know if you've read this book and if you liked it.

REVIEW Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey

Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey
Published by SwoonReads
Fiction / Young Adult / Romance / Regency

I read Cindy Anstey's first SwoonReads novel, Love, Lies, and Spies sometime last year and gave it a glowing review.  After I found out about Duels and Deception being out, I bought it in a haste and waited to find the right time to read it.

You can read my review of Love, Lies, and Spies on my Goodreads page here.

I can say with confidence that I loved Duels and Deception even more than Love, Lies, and Spies! 

This book follows Lydia Whitfield, a practical heroine who believes she has her future settled and doesn't believe everlasting love would ever find her.  She strikes up a friendship-turned-romance with her lawyer's clerk, the adorable Robert Newton, and together they tackle a potentially scandalous mystery as to who is trying to ruin Lydia's reputation after she is kidnapped.

Fans of Jane Austen, both teen and adult, would find an enjoyable read in this book.  Engaging enough to keep you turn the pages rapidly, charming enough to keep you dreaming of the lovely imagery and fluttering relationship growth of Lydia and Robert, and funny enough to have you chuckling to yourself, this book evokes a flowery and witty voice that you don't find in YA very often. 

The mystery was fun to keep up with throughout the book.  I knew who the schemer was early into the book, but that doesn't mean it was too predictable.  I was still surprised at the end.

All of the characters float off the page and into my imagination with such grace, and I adored Lydia and Robert the most.  Their relationship felt so natural and I enjoyed watching Lydia navigate through her feelings for Robert.  Robert was so pure and adorable while still being dreamy.  As far as Regency heroes go, I put him up there with Mr. Darcy and Mr. Tilney.  I loved him THAT much!

The sub-plots in this book were equally as interesting.  They didn't take anything away from the story and were weaved in flawlessly.

Swoonworthy?  Indeed!!  Lydia and Robert's romantic tension was beautiful!

Overall I give this book:

💖💖💖💖💖

Technically, 4.5 stars!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves a good Jane Austen or Regency romance.  This book is perfect for a light, spring read!  I can't wait to read Suitors and Sabotage and Carols and Chaos next!

Have you read this book?  Let me know what you thought of it below!

REVIEW A Star of Song!: The Life of Christina Nilsson by Guy de Charnace (Forgotten Books Classic Reprint Series)

A Star of Song!: The Life of Christina Nilsson by Guy de Charnace
Published by Forgotten Books
Non-Fiction / Biography

                           

Christina Nilsson is an 18th century opera singer that unless you are a Phantom of the Opera buff, you probably haven't heard about. The story of a poor Swedish bumpkin being picked up and offered a chance at a life filled with music and operatic future seems like a Cinderella fairytale.

I picked up this book for research; you see, I'm writing a retelling, and I need as much information as I possibly can.  And while I was slightly disappointed by how thin the book was, I'm still happy I got it.

Guy de Charnace gives us a snippet of the beginning of Christina Nilsson's rise from an angelic farm girl into one of the most celebrated opera singers around Europe.

While I was hoping this book would be longer, and a more thorough insight into her life, this little chapter book expands her humble beginnings to several years following her operatic debut in La Traviara at the Theatre Lyrique. With several glimpses into her character, and switches between teachers, we are finally given mass details of the public interest and reaction toward the Swedish girl.

Through many roles she had undertaken we see professional growth, and a reminder than no matter who it is we idolize, even they're not faultless. Several firsthand accounts in this book, describe audience reactions, and even the quality of Christina's voice and acting choices compared to her famous contemporaries.

This was an interesting and somewhat useful insight into the beginnings of Christina Nilsson. As a research tool, this can be helpful to timeline, and even the personality of the ambitious, yet modest, Christina.  I know I will definitely be using it for my book.

Overall, I give this book:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

If this book had been longer and in more detail, I would be worshipping it right now.  But, alas, it will have to do for now as a decent source for my research.  I respect Forgotten Books for reprinting this so that it may be available to those who want to learn more about Christina Nilsson.

REVIEW The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz

The Midnight Dance by Nikki Katz
Published by SwoonReads
Fiction / Young Adult / Thriller / Mystery

I'm a huge fan of SwoonReads and their publishing. I came across this book about a year or two ago in some BookTube videos as an ARC copy. I always thought it sounded interesting, and earlier this year I caved and bought it.

Firstly, the cover is beautiful and one of the main reasons I picked this up. Also, it's Swoonreads, and I am on a journey to read a lot of their books.

This is a mind-control thriller that takes place in 19th century Italy at a ballet school. All of the ballerinas are being controlled by the owner of the school, Master/Cirillo. I love the setting, I think it's intriguing, and I am one for thrillers and the like.

I liked the idea behind this book, I liked the characters for the most part and thought it was a really solid YA book. I thought the descriptions were lovely, and I didn't have a hard time following what was going, most of the time. There were one or two points where I got a little lost and confused.

There was a lot that could have been done with this book, and most of those options I wish had been done. I was hoping for a kind of Phantom of the Opera type book; the young, pretty ballet dancer who has the attention of a dark and mysterious Master. Even if she wasn't at all attracted to him, the creepy/enticing factor could have been played up more. All the other girls seemed to be very attracted to him, which leads for a sense of mystery, and an opportunity to mislead the girls and the main character. There was misleading in the book on the Master's side, but not as much as I was hoping for.

The book jumped into the action pretty quickly, which surprised me, and I was fine with it, but by the middle of the book I wished I had had some more time with the characters and their relationships to Master a little more. He's the central figure and I wish I could have read more of Penny's interactions with him.

Spoiler-ish section:

I just learned that this is a standalone book, and that heavily disappoints me. The motivations for several of the characters were completely lost on me and were never clearly resolved by the end of the book. To give it away, Master and Bianca. Some of the characters, I got their motivations quite clearly, but those two, not so much. And knowing that this is a standalone, I will never never know completely the mysteries behind those two. It ended with me asking infuriating questions.

What was the real reason Master opened a ballet school? Was it purely for experimentation? Was he lonely? Was he trying to manipulate himself the perfect girlfriend? He begged Penny for him to explain, and I really wished she had stayed to get that explanation. And Bianca? She knew what was going on. I wanted to know her relationship to Master and why she remained so devoted to him.

Those are such important questions to just leave the reader with, and it made me kind of mad that I won't find out.

In terms of Swoonworthy? It was meh. The romance and tension could have been played up more between Penny and Cricket, and between Penny and Master.

I give this book:

💛💛💛

I wanted this book to be better, and it was good in a lot of ways, but it left me frustrated at the end because of all of the missed opportunities. I would recommend it to a friend it it was the exact type of book that they were looking for.

Note: For all Swoonreads books I will be using hearts instead of stars!

REVIEW A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
Published by Bloomsbury
Fiction / New Adult / Fantasy / Romance
Release Date: May 1st, 2018

The long anticipated novella to the ACOTAR series!

To start this off, I know why some people don't like it in comparison to the previous books. The plot is subtle, if there at all as some would say. I knew going into the book as soon as I read the premise that this was a bridge book, one to give us some extra information before leading us into the next full novel.

This is what seemed to bother people, because they felt that nothing happened in this book.

Not technically true. In terms of action on the level of, say, A Court of Wings and Ruin, yeah, not much happened. But there were some key points in here and some important information that needed to be separated from the next full novel (there should be a sneak peak into the next book), where, if this had been added into the beginning, it would have just been a weak beginning to a novel. This needed to be its own thing, and, to be honest, I appreciated it.

In this book, it's been several months since the end of the war with the King of Hybern, and the Court of Dreams, along with a few others, have been adjusting. It's close to the Winter Solstice (Yule in Paganism which she respectfully pulls from) and the time to come together and work past the pain and rebuild towards a brighter future feels necessary for Feyre. As High Lady, the first in history, she maneuvers through multiple responsibilities to try to find her place and role in Velaris. Rhysand, Azriel, and Cassian (#bae) struggle to find the roots of a brewing rebellion among the Illyrians, we begin to see more attention on the Archeron sisters and how they are coping with their new High Fae lifestyles, bodies, and place, and we witness additional tension between Rhysand and Tamlin over border legislation now that the Wall is gone.

So, technically, there is quite a lot that happens in this book. The plot just isn't as action-packed and heavy as the past novels. It relies solely on the growth of relationships and finding purpose.

To me, that's far deeper, and more interesting, to read about sometimes. Especially when it comes to characters that you've grown to love and care about. Others probably aren't at that level with these characters yet, and that's fine. I think this type of book was appropriate, even necessary, to have as we continue on to more adventures with these characters. The Hybern plot is over, but there's obviously something brewing in multiple parts of Prythian and the Fae World that will carry on to be huge plot points in the future.

Now that my defense is over, let me go into some of the more analytical aspects of this review.

I always thought that Sarah J Maas did a pretty good job of showing the effects of PTSD, and this one, she expands to show that it does indeed come in multiple forms. In this book, we see Feyre try to find her own release from the trauma, which comes in the form of painting, and ultimately results in the creation of non-profit painting classes for children and their parents trying to cope with the loss of parents in the war, and the horrors they witness when Hybern attacked Velaris.

But the most interesting character to read about in this book, was Nesta.

We begin the learn more about how Nesta is faring following the war, trying to adjust to her new body, life, and situation. Her form of coping with the trauma she experienced is by secluding herself in a hovel in the shady side of town and drinking herself into stupors to the point where limitations mean nothing. She refuses to speak, let alone see, her sisters or anyone from their group despite the upcoming holiday. From a distance, she's being unnecessarily difficult, but looking at it closer, it's understandable. She can't stand to see anyone happy, because why should they be? It's clear she's still traumatized by her transition in the Cauldron, and the death of her father at the hands of Hybrern. And probably immensely embarrassed at the fact probably everyone in the Fae Realm knows about her shielding a dying Cassian from the fatal blows Hybern had in mind for them. Showing affection was never her strong suit, and she views that instance as a reveal of weakness. Cassian sees it differently though.

I'm excited to learn where she and Cassian go and how their relationship develops. It looks like the next book will be focused on them so I'm more than giddy about it at the moment.

The other thing I am interested to learn more about in the coming novels, is Tamlin. Yes, Tamlin the Tool.

He has proved himself to be nonredeemable throughout the past three (yeah three) books. In ACOTAR, glimpses of his possessive nature glimmered in several situations, ACOMAF is self-explanatory, what a douche-bag, and then in ACOWAR he was still an asshole, but kind of came through at the end with saving Rhys's and Feyre's lives. But one good deed does not erase three books of douche-baggery.

In this book, Tamlin is only a shell of his former douche-bag self. Through Rhys's eyes, we see a lonely, disheveled ghost in a torn down palace of his own making. Wanna talk about regret? Yeesh.

He's let literally everything slide, including the enforcement of his borders in relation to the missing Wall, posing a threat to the Fae and humans, and the reason Rhys is there.

In a way, it's satisfying to see Tamlin the Tool swimming in his own regret and buried in the shattered rubble of his pride, but it's also intriguing. I almost want a book describing and guiding us through that descent after the following of ACOWAR. Yeah, it would be depressing as shit, but oh my Gods it would be interesting to read all of those raw emotions.

It's obvious we'll see more of him in future books, since the Wall issue will probably be a huge plot point in future books and he's still a major character. But I want to know one thing: what will ultimately happen to him?

I ask that because of one of the last things he said in this book, and that was: “Do you think she will forgive me?”

There's that glimmer of the regret that his pride will allow him to reveal, even to Rhys, that made me curious as to what would happen to him in the future. He seems willing to just waste away into nothing with nobody by his side. Not that I think he deserves Feyre's forgiveness, but I think there's still growth in Tamlin yet, and I can't tell you what kind I think that is. It's up to SJM now.

Now that I've finished this review that's about as long as the book itself, I overall give A Court of Frost and Starlight:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Technically 3.5 stars

I think it was a solid bridge that was necessary for this book series as it continues into further books. It's not perfect, and I think with some stronger analytical thinking it's clear that there were quite a few things in here that weren't pointless. It drives the characters forward, and I think if you also read the Acknowledgments section at the end you will see that SJM did struggle while writing some of this. It could have been a little shorter and cleaner, but it was good to read about the growth of some of these characters and where they are in relation to the next book. There's still more to come people, whatever you're waiting to read about, it will likely come in the next couple of books.

If you're the type of person who likes to really read more into characters without necessarily focusing on a mid-to-heavy action based plot, then this will appeal to you. If you don't like that, here are a few of the important things you need to know going into the next book:

Feyre and Rhysand are trying for a child, Rhysand bought Feyre a huge estate, Netsa is a mess and Cassian has been low-key stalking- I mean keeping an eye on her, Tamlin is a mess, no Elain is still not speaking to Lucien, the Illyrians are probably going to start a rebellion, borders aren't being enforced, Morrigan thinks some shady shit is still out there, and Feyre started a painting non-profit.

There you go, you're good for the next book.

And as for the first point, yes, there is a pretty sexy scene in there, it's on Chapter 22. You're welcome. Some people didn't like it, but I thought it was okay.

Look for the next review coming up I don't know when. Currently I am reading A Clockwork Orange and Throne of Glass.

Have a good one!