Carey, Janet Lee: Dragonswood

Expected publication: January 5, 2012
Penguin Young Readers Group
YA Fantasy, 416 pages 
Acquired and read: Through Around the World ARC Tours - sorry for the late review! I read it in about two hours

Wilde Island is in an uproar after the recent death of its king. The uneasy pact between dragons, fairies, and humans is fraying, and a bloodthirsty witch hunter with a hidden agenda whips villages into frenzies with wild accusations. Tess, a blacksmith’s daughter from a tiny hamlet near the mysterious Dragonswood, finds herself caught in the crosshairs of fate when she is accused of witchery and has to flee for her life along with her two best friends.

Not even Tess’s power to see the future can help the girls as they set off on their desperate journey, but she keeps having visions of a man wielding a sword. And when she finally meets him, Tess has no idea how to handle the magnetic attraction she feels for him, or the elusive call she hears from the heart of the Dragonswood.

In this epic romance, an ancient prophecy comes true in a way neither dragon, fairy, nor human would have predicted.

Okay. If Janet Lee Carey wasn't already ranking on my list of favorite fantasy authors, she's really skyrocketed up there by now.

You probably remember my Teaser Tuesday/brief review of her previous book, Dragon's Keep - which as it turns out, is a prequel/companion to this new adventure. Where Dragon's Keep focused on Rosalind, the beautiful Pendragon princess with a hidden curse beneath her gloves, this story is all about Tess, an abused blacksmith's daughter who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and is accused of witchcraft. After she lets her friends' names slip under torture (and honestly, who can blame her?) all three of them have to flee their little hamlet and run headlong into adventure.

As usual, Ms. Carey creates a unique, believable heroine, under fire from all sides and with a thorny nature to protect herself from the threats she sees around her. I wasn't as fond of her friends - particularly the healer girl, Poppy, who despite her gift came off to me as self-centered, flighty and all too eager to capture male attention. Meg, married at fourteen and constantly concerned about her daughter and husband that she left behind in danger, was a bit more easy to sympathize with.

Of course, runaway witches disguised as lepers isn't enough. There are dragons (yay!) and a handsome, all-too-likable love interest Garth Huntsman - but is he more than just the King's loyal servant. I also loved the twist the author added in with Tess's surprising bloodline and the conflict within Rosalind's descendants.

Also, Lady Adela? Best evil witch hunter slash bad girl ever. I mean, I can't say I ended the story liking her a bit more, but  I did understand where she came from - doesn't mean I thought she deserved a happy ending, though.

Warnings: Illegitimacy (for those who it might trouble). Maybe some mild language and thematic violence here or there, but all in all an amazing fantasy read.

Final verdict: Try to get through the first chapter and put it down. You won't be able to resist. Trust me.

Mafi, Tahereh: Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)

November 15, 2011
HarperCollins
YA Dystopian, 338 pages
Acquired and read: Through Around the World ARC Tours in exchange for a fair and unbiased review; read in a day

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

Though Shatter Me is touted as a combination between The Hunger Games and X-Men, I think it's fair to warn you that the superhero factor of the story doesn't really get going until the last hundred or so pages. I do have to agree that the dystopian factors of the story will appeal to Hunger Games fans, minus the love triangle (no opposing Gale, guys - sorry). The main bad guy, Warner, in particular reminds me of President Snow, minus that creepy detail of the blood-tainted breath.

Oh, and Warner's like nineteen. That was another detail that really threw me off. From the way Juliette describes him at first, I was picturing him as a sleazy old man. (Just goes to show you that I need to read a little deeper into my context clues...)

On the whole, I can see why Shatter Me appeals to trendy teen readers. The writing style and plot speed reminded me more than once of Twilight, and the heroine has an appropriate troubled past and unsure future. The world is appropriately dark and hopeless - food is scarce, people are dying and the new government that has promised a solution to it all is more interested in cruel dictatorship than a hopeful future.

However, for some reason, I really couldn't attach myself to this one. It might be the hype; recently, I find that if there's too much media storm around a title, I end up pinning too high hopes on it, and get disappointed when I find that it's not really what I expected. More importantly, there's a lot of strong language (one of my major pet peeves, as you probably know by now) and a few moments of what Hollywood would probably deem "brief sensuality".

Definitely not a PG read in my opinion.

Besides the language, my other main bone of contention was with the copious use of idioms and similes and metaphors that were rather distracting and in some places, quite disturbing. (My personal favorite: "my heart was a water balloon shattering in my chest" - my own heart gave a little uncomfortable lurch at that one. It sounds less like a moment of extreme tension and more like a medical emergency.)

The general conclusion? Not really my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it won't be someone else's. Maybe I've had too much dystopians for this year...but then again, we're about to go head-on with 2012 and the Apocalypse in a couple of weeks, so we could also take it as a year well spent in preparation.

Warnings: As mentioned before, brief sensuality and strong language.

Final verdict: Not my type of dystopian, but I'm not going to knock it for anyone else.

Meyer, Marissa: Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Expected publication: January 3, 2012
Feiwel and Friends
YA Sci Fi/Fantasy/Fairy Tale Rendition, 400 pages
Acquired and read: Through Around the World ARC Tours in return for a fair, unbiased review; read within around three hours (I told you I love fairy tales)


Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future. 

Where my tween-aged self found a soulmate in Ella Enchanted, I seem to have found it in Cinder.

The whole Cinderella oddball meets Wonder Boy Prince Charming might seem a little overdone by now, but really, Ms. Meyer does an awesome job of keeping the basic details of the storyline alive with her own little twists. First of all, there's the whole sci-fi cyborg thing. Of course, who wants to live with that - especially in Cinder's world where being half-robot makes you subhuman - but how cool of a character trait is that? And then there's the evil queen that lives on the moon, an android with a smart-mouthed personality, and of course...the Prince.


Who is very, very charming.


Cinder holds her own as a heroine. Who can't love a girl who can detect lies, has a dark, mysterious past (though, I must admit, the mind-bending twist the author throws in the last five pages was a bit of a far stretch, even for me...) and is loyal to a girl whose mother tortures her every chance she gets? No self-suffering, "someday my prince will come" warbling for this girl. She's like a matured, street-smart version of Ella, and she has the nuts and bolts to prove it.


Maybe I should have written this review a few hours after the "gah I just read a good book" high wears off. Do I sound like I'm babbling? Okay, in summary...


Sci-fi + fairy tale retelling + charming prince + high-wired heroine = MUY BUENO. 


Go read. Right now.


Warnings: A heartbreaking character death (I'm not trying to give any spoilers, just letting you know that you might need a hanky on hand) and a sprinkling of innuendo here and there but NO PROFANITY. It's a miracle.


Final verdict: Yes. Yes. YES. (Why do all these books have to be part of a series?!)