strange and random happenstance

Winter by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: November 10th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 832 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Kidnapping Kai on his wedding day was basically a declaration of war against Queen Levana. But Kai needed to know the whole truth about Levana, and more importantly, about Cinder; that she is Princess Selene, the true ruler of Luna. The rebels, Cinder, Iko, Cress, Thorne, and Wolf, need to get to Luna to broadcast Cinder's identity, foment a rebellion, and rescue Scarlet. After their plan is formed they return Kai to his now decimated palace where he declares his continued allegiance to the alliance with Luna and his desire to still marry Levana. The wedding is rescheduled for ten days later. In Artemesia, the capital of Luna. Just as they had planned. They are going to use Kai's ship as a Trojan Horse and sneak right into the capital. Levana had thought of this outcome and was prepared, but so had Cinder and her friends, enough distractions and they have escaped Levana's grasp once more. Winter has also escaped Levana's grasp, with the help of her guard Jacin and Scarlet, her death was faked and they were able to escape the capital. The two groups meet at Wolf's mother's house in the outer sectors. Maha Kesley offers them shelter, but they know any illusion of safety won't be long lived.

They are now not just outlaws but have an entire moon's worth of soldiers actively hunting them. As rebellion begins to take hold Cinder and Wolf are captured by Levana. But with Winter using her natural charisma to enlist help for Cinder out in the outer sectors there is still hope. What's more, by putting Cinder on trial Levana made a major mistake. Cinder was able to capture Levana's true face. Using her cybernetics Cinder was able to document not just Levana's biggest secret but the travesty of her own trial. Escaping from certain death once again the rebels marshal their forces and plot their final assault. They need to attack the palace head on with their forces from the other sectors, forces that Levana has tried to kill by releasing the letumosis virus. If Levana thinks that victory will be that easy, she is sadly mistaken. Using stealth and forces within the palace as well as those without Levana just might be defeated. But in the end it will come down to just Levana and Cinder in a room. One will be victorious and the other will be dead. Can Cinder get her happily ever after for herself and her friends or was it all just a glamour?

The Lunar Chronicles for me has been a ride of smooth freshly paved concrete and Illinois highways that peter out into dirt roads. There was the perfection that was Cress and the low point of Scarlet. But through it all it has been an overall enjoyable ride. The end of the journey was just a little bumpier than I would have liked. Winter was overlong and many chapters felt like the wheels where just spinning and there was no forward momentum. I'm not saying I wasn't satisfied by the ending, everyone ended up exactly where they should, it was just rough getting there. There was just too much toing and froing. They're in the palace, they're out of the palace, they're captured, they're free, they're in danger, they're safe. Over and over and over again. Exactly how many times do you have to break into a palace only to have to break out again only to have to break in again in one book? Many many times if Winter is the benchmark and with many different subsets of characters. There's literally only so much stalling I can take, which is exactly what every setback felt like. Stalling. It's like Meyer didn't want the end to happen too quickly so she threw in so many obstacles it was almost laughable. This ending was a long time coming. At times it felt like it wasn't going to come at all.

Also, while I admit that everyone ended up where they should, perhaps there should have been some repercussions? Yes, yes, I know this is a retelling of a Fairy Tale so a Fairy Tale HEA is expected, but wouldn't there have been more weight to the story if not everyone got an HEA? In particular I'm thinking about Wolf and his non-transformation transformation. When Wolf and Cinder are captured Wolf is forcibly turned back into one of the Queen's Guards. But more than that he's not just reprogrammed, he's remade into an even more wolfy mutant wolf solider. Snout elongated, mouth widened, my grandmother what big teeth you have, the whole Big Bad Wolf makeover. All that bio-engineering to make him not the Wolf Scarlet and the rest of them knew and loved. It is stressed over and over again that Wolf has been changed so dramatically that he is no longer who he was but just one look at Scarlet and it's all fine!?! It's like all that extensive surgery actually didn't change his appearance much at all. Say what!?! Pages and pages about how he's different and then it's all fixed with a kiss. This is the most Fairy Tale aspect of the entire book and I think that if some reality had been brought to bear just in this one instance the book would have been elevated. Wolf and Scarlet die for the cause? That makes much more sense.

But overall there were a lot of things that just didn't make sense as this series drew to a close. Not just the repetitive nature of the story or the fact that EVERY SINGLE PERSON gets an HEA, but there's The Hunger Games aspect. What I have loved about The Lunar Chronicles is that it took stories that were well known and loved and gave them an entirely new spin. Cinderella is a cyborg but also a space princess! How much more out of the box and original is that? And then when we meet all the wealthy residents of Artemesia they're just extras from The Hunger Games who happened to also be residents of The Capital, in that series and this. Um, what!?! This really just threw me for a loop. I've always touted this series as inventive and original and then in the entire structure of Luna it became a rip-off of another dystopian series. Instead of districts we have sectors, many devoted to the same purposes as those in The Hunger Games. Oh, and the Capital residents, glamours and gaudy clothing and wild looks aplenty. I seriously thought that Caesar Flickerman was going to do a play-by-play of Levana and Kai's wedding. And what baffled me most of all? This wasn't the Luna that we saw in Fairest! This is an entirely new and entirely derivative Luna! WTH people! I just couldn't get beyond this and I still can't. Why, just why!?!

And in the end, the saddest thing of all was that my predictions for the character Winter came true. When Scarlet came out I bemoaned the fact that with all the new characters being added in each volume that by the time we got to Winter's story she would be entirely sidelined. And she was. And this just makes me pissed. Why? Because this book is overly long and filled with all this unnecessary padding and somewhere, deep down in its heart, is this amazing story that is only Winter's. The way Meyer has updated the story of Snow White is exquisite, from the fake death in the menagerie to Levana handing her the apple dosed with the letumosis virus, each and every aspect of this book that is only Winter's story is perfection. There's an elegance and a sadness to her story that captures the bittersweet nature of looking back on Fairy Tales when you think you've outgrown them. The way she doesn't use her power because it's against her core beliefs but is making her insane, the natural charisma that makes the Lunar people drawn to her. I just wanted a book about Winter. No one else. She deserved her own story. She has spent her life in the shadows, tortured by Levana, the least she deserved was not to have the new Queen, Cinder, do the same thing. But such is life. No one, not even fictional characters I have come to love, get what they deserve.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Caesar Flickerman, Cinder, Cress, Dystopian, Fairest, Fairy Tales, Glamour, HEA, Levana, Luna, Marissa Meyer, Scarlet, Snow White, The Hunger Games, The Lunar Chronicles, Trojan Horse, Winter, Wolf

Winter by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: November 10th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 832 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won't approve of her feelings for her childhood friend--the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn't as weak as Levana believes her to be and she's been undermining her stepmother's wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that's been raging for far too long.

Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national bestselling Lunar Chronicles series."

If you think there are other books coming out this week you are very badly mistaken.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Cinder, Cress, Marissa Meyer, Scarlet, The Lunar Chronicles, Tuesday Tomorrow, Winter

Fairiest by Marrisa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: January 27th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

Marissa Meyer spins yet another unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes full-color art and an excerpt from Winter, the next book in the Lunar Chronicles series."

Yes, I know this isn't Winter and the finale, but at least she's giving us something to keep us going till Winter is out later this year.

Mr. Mac and Me by Esther Freud
Published by: Bloomsbury USA
Publication Date: January 27th, 2015
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It is 1914, and Thomas Maggs, son of the local publican, lives with his parents and sister in a village on the Suffolk coast. He is the youngest child, and the only son surviving. Life is quiet-shaped by the seasons, fishing and farming, the summer visitors, and the girls who come from the Highlands every year to gut and pack the herring.

Then one day a mysterious Scotsman arrives. To Thomas he looks like a detective in his black cape and felted wool hat, puffing on his pipe like Sherlock Holmes. Mac is what the locals call him when they whisper about him. And whisper they do, for he sets off on his walks at unlikely hours and stops to examine the humblest flowers. He is seen on the beach, staring out across the waves as if he's searching for clues. But Mac isn't a detective, he's the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and together with his artist wife, they soon become a source of fascination and wonder to Thomas.

Yet just as Thomas and Mac's friendship begins to blossom, war with Germany is declared. The summer guests flee and are replaced by regiments of soldiers, and as the brutality of war weighs increasingly heavily on this coastal community, they become more suspicious of Mac and his curious ways.

In this story of an unlikely friendship, Esther Freud paints a vivid portrait of the home front during World War I, and of a man who was one of the most brilliant and misunderstood artists of his generation."

Um, what doesn't scream me about this book?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Cinder, Cress, Esther Freud, Fairest, Levana, Marissa Meyer, Mr. Mac and Me, Scarlet, The Lunar Chronicles, Tuesday Tomorrow, Winter

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles Book 3) by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: February 4th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 560 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Cress has spent most of her life in a small satellite looking down on Earth. Gently circling the planet as a shell spying for the Lunars... that's the only apparent use she is, being a shell means she is devoid of magic and is repulsive to her own people. But all that time alone with all that computer equipment has made her into a wicked hacker with romantic tendencies. She dreams of one day being rescued by the people on the planet she has fallen in love with. In fact, lately there is one person in particular that she would really like to be rescued by, Captain Carswell Thorne, Cinder's accomplice in escaping the Commonwealth Prison.

Cinder. Cress has taken an interest in her. She helped Cinder to warn the Emperor Kai that the Lunar Queen Levana was planning on murdering him after they marry and she became Empress. Because of this help Cinder sees Cress as another ally in her fight against Luna and the Queen in order to get back the throne that is rightfully hers and stop Kai's wedding. Therefore Cress is to be rescued from her satellite prison by the dashing Thorne! Cress is living her fantasy for real. Only things don't go quite to plan when her Lunar handler Cybil arrives unexpectedly. The result is that Thorne and Cress are falling out of the heavens on a collision course with Earth, while Scarlet is captured by Cybil, and Cinder is left with Cybil's pilot as well as an injured Wolf. Cinder decides that the time has come to return to Earth and seek out Dr. Erland, who revealed so much of her own secret past to her. In one way or another everyone is headed to northern Africa... though for Cress and Thorne it will be a far more dangerous journey through the heart of the desert, that's if they survive making their way through Earth's atmosphere without burning up... but Cinder's plan of stopping Kai's wedding is still firmly in place... it's just changed a little.

One of my first memories of school relates to Rapunzel. I was in nursery school at Saint Andrew's about a block away from my house. I was four years old and my favorite television show was Shelley Duval's Faerie Tale Theatre. What I liked so much about the show was that it wasn't the sanitized Fairy Tales that the books I had at home depicted. These weren't all happily ever afters. The "Little Mermaid" episode which aired when I was much older is to me the epitome of how this show stuck to the original versions. Poor Pam Dawber from Mork and Mindy died because her love didn't love her.

But at this time I was obsessed with Rapunzel. It had so many things that fascinated me. I wanted Rapunzel's hair (this was around the time it was deemed that because I chewed my hair that it was going to be short till I could behave, these enforced haircuts lasted until about 4th grade and I was never to have that rope of hair). Then there was the tower in which she was trapped, I kind of wanted to live there, and then the prince, rather dubious in my opinion in that he never tried to rescue her but visited all the time (enough times to get her pregnant) but more realistic, because, well, it's a girlfriend you only have to deal with when you want to. But what I loved was the fact that the prince is then blinded and wanders alone in the desert, revenge for his behavior AND just the kind of macabre thing to capture the imagination of a young Wednesday Addams in the making. I always thought of how horrid it would be to not only be blinded, but to have the grains of sand working their way into your eyes and irritating them more. As you can see, I really thought a lot about this story. Rapunzel is just so weird and odd and yet, everything about it made it unforgettable.

Back to why this relates to school. I remember one day spending all this time drawing this picture of Rapunzel in her tower letting down her hair and I raised my hand to ask the teacher a question. My question was if she could spell Rapunzel for me so I could put it on my picture so that everyone would know what it was even if they hadn't heard the story. Firstly she didn't know the story, and secondly, she could obviously not spell it. She spelt it wrong on my drawing, something I can never forgive. I remember sitting there at the little table and I know I had an arched eyebrow on my face. I couldn't believe that someone didn't know this awesome story. This was my first experience with the ignorance of adults, and in particular, educators, wherein it felt like I had to explain everything to them. I've had many great teachers in my life, but I can easily say the ignorant far outweigh the awesome.

Of course you're now thinking, ok, she's a little too attached to a girl named for, basically, lettuce, and this relates to this new interpretation how? Because Marissa Meyer nailed it! That little four year old me that has never died was fist pumping the air. Marissa got it! She totally got the story, the twists, the turns, the dark, the funny, the everything! This was it! This was the story I loved brought into a new form but keeping ahold of me in the same way that that episode of Faerie Tale Theatre did all those years ago. I loved Thorne as the "prince" he has the right "ladies man" douche bag personality, that gets redeemed through his suffering. Oh, and Cress, Cress was so wonderful as the naive princess in the tower not wanting do die before experiencing her first kiss. When the book opened on her in that little satellite going around the earth, my breath was taken away with how perfect of a modernization of the tower this was. The isolation yet coupling that with intelligence and knowledge, gave me a heroine I could really route for.

Yet in a series it isn't how the one book succeeds, but in how it succeeds in connection with the whole arc. How Cress tied into the ongoing plot while adding depth to the story made me sqwee with joy. All these little things tying together, the realization that the louche Thorne introduced in the second book would turn out to be Cress's prince. I came to realize that Marissa has really been playing an amazing long game with an impeccably plotted series. All these weird little things are tying together in ways I couldn't have imagined. Scarlet left me cold, but coming into this installment, everything in Scarlet was important, I kind of view it now as the second book was just a glut of prologue to get us to this amazing next chapter.

Everything came together. All the characters were important and Marissa balanced them all perfectly so that unlike in Scarlet, I wasn't just wanting waiting for Cinder to reappear, but I was interested in all their fates and how they were able to work as a team to pull of an amazing heist. Plus there's just little gems that you wouldn't get unless you're a dork, like me, and obviously Marissa, are... for example, did you know that in some of the versions of the tale instead of rapunzel the father gets rampion from the witch's garden? Which happens to be the make of Thorne's ship! Ok, I have to stop my giddy gushing. I was just so pleasantly surprised that now I don't know how I shall be able to wait till the final volume comes out next year. The hint we had of the Princess Winter, like a crazy Cheshire Cat/Alice/Snow White mash up... now please.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Charles Addams, Cheshire Cat, Cinder, Cress, Faerie Tale Theatre, Marissa Meyer, Mork and Mindy, Nursery School, Pam Dawber, Rapunzel, Scarlet, Shelley Duval, Snow White, The Lunar Chronicles, Winter

Cress (The Lunar Chronicles Book 3) by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: February 4th, 2014
Format: Hardcover, 560 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Cress has spent most of her life in a small satellite looking down on Earth. Gently circling the planet as a shell spying for the Lunars... that's the only apparent use she is, being a shell means she is devoid of magic and is repulsive to her own people. But all that time alone with all that computer equipment has made her into a wicked hacker with romantic tendencies. She dreams of one day being rescued by the people on the planet she has fallen in love with. In fact, lately there is one person in particular that she would really like to be rescued by, Captain Carswell Thorne, Cinder's accomplice in escaping the Commonwealth Prison.

Cinder. Cress has taken an interest in her. She helped Cinder to warn the Emperor Kai that the Lunar Queen Levana was planning on murdering him after they marry and she became Empress. Because of this help Cinder sees Cress as another ally in her fight against Luna and the Queen in order to get back the throne that is rightfully hers and stop Kai's wedding. Therefore Cress is to be rescued from her satellite prison by the dashing Thorne! Cress is living her fantasy for real. Only things don't go quite to plan when her Lunar handler Cybil arrives unexpectedly. The result is that Thorne and Cress are falling out of the heavens on a collision course with Earth, while Scarlet is captured by Cybil, and Cinder is left with Cybil's pilot as well as an injured Wolf. Cinder decides that the time has come to return to Earth and seek out Dr. Erland, who revealed so much of her own secret past to her. In one way or another everyone is headed to northern Africa... though for Cress and Thorne it will be a far more dangerous journey through the heart of the desert, that's if they survive making their way through Earth's atmosphere without burning up... but Cinder's plan of stopping Kai's wedding is still firmly in place... it's just changed a little.

One of my first memories of school relates to Rapunzel. I was in nursery school at Saint Andrew's about a block away from my house. I was four years old and my favorite television show was Shelley Duval's Faerie Tale Theatre. What I liked so much about the show was that it wasn't the sanitized Fairy Tales that the books I had at home depicted. These weren't all happily ever afters. The "Little Mermaid" episode which aired when I was much older is to me the epitome of how this show stuck to the original versions. Poor Pam Dawber from Mork and Mindy died because her love didn't love her.

But at this time I was obsessed with Rapunzel. It had so many things that fascinated me. I wanted Rapunzel's hair (this was around the time it was deemed that because I chewed my hair that it was going to be short till I could behave, these enforced haircuts lasted until about 4th grade and I was never to have that rope of hair). Then there was the tower in which she was trapped, I kind of wanted to live there, and then the prince, rather dubious in my opinion in that he never tried to rescue her but visited all the time (enough times to get her pregnant) but more realistic, because, well, it's a girlfriend you only have to deal with when you want to. But what I loved was the fact that the prince is then blinded and wanders alone in the desert, revenge for his behavior AND just the kind of macabre thing to capture the imagination of a young Wednesday Addams in the making. I always thought of how horrid it would be to not only be blinded, but to have the grains of sand working their way into your eyes and irritating them more. As you can see, I really thought a lot about this story. Rapunzel is just so weird and odd and yet, everything about it made it unforgettable.

Back to why this relates to school. I remember one day spending all this time drawing this picture of Rapunzel in her tower letting down her hair and I raised my hand to ask the teacher a question. My question was if she could spell Rapunzel for me so I could put it on my picture so that everyone would know what it was even if they hadn't heard the story. Firstly she didn't know the story, and secondly, she could obviously not spell it. She spelt it wrong on my drawing, something I can never forgive. I remember sitting there at the little table and I know I had an arched eyebrow on my face. I couldn't believe that someone didn't know this awesome story. This was my first experience with the ignorance of adults, and in particular, educators, wherein it felt like I had to explain everything to them. I've had many great teachers in my life, but I can easily say the ignorant far outweigh the awesome.

Of course you're now thinking, ok, she's a little too attached to a girl named for, basically, lettuce, and this relates to this new interpretation how? Because Marissa Meyer nailed it! That little four year old me that has never died was fist pumping the air. Marissa got it! She totally got the story, the twists, the turns, the dark, the funny, the everything! This was it! This was the story I loved brought into a new form but keeping ahold of me in the same way that that episode of Faerie Tale Theatre did all those years ago. I loved Thorne as the "prince" he has the right "ladies man" douche bag personality, that gets redeemed through his suffering. Oh, and Cress, Cress was so wonderful as the naive princess in the tower not wanting do die before experiencing her first kiss. When the book opened on her in that little satellite going around the earth, my breath was taken away with how perfect of a modernization of the tower this was. The isolation yet coupling that with intelligence and knowledge, gave me a heroine I could really route for.

Yet in a series it isn't how the one book succeeds, but in how it succeeds in connection with the whole arc. How Cress tied into the ongoing plot while adding depth to the story made me sqwee with joy. All these little things tying together, the realization that the louche Thorne introduced in the second book would turn out to be Cress's prince. I came to realize that Marissa has really been playing an amazing long game with an impeccably plotted series. All these weird little things are tying together in ways I couldn't have imagined. Scarlet left me cold, but coming into this installment, everything in Scarlet was important, I kind of view it now as the second book was just a glut of prologue to get us to this amazing next chapter.

Everything came together. All the characters were important and Marissa balanced them all perfectly so that unlike in Scarlet, I wasn't just wanting waiting for Cinder to reappear, but I was interested in all their fates and how they were able to work as a team to pull of an amazing heist. Plus there's just little gems that you wouldn't get unless you're a dork, like me, and obviously Marissa, are... for example, did you know that in some of the versions of the tale instead of rapunzel the father gets rampion from the witch's garden? Which happens to be the make of Thorne's ship! Ok, I have to stop my giddy gushing. I was just so pleasantly surprised that now I don't know how I shall be able to wait till the final volume comes out next year. The hint we had of the Princess Winter, like a crazy Cheshire Cat/Alice/Snow White mash up... now please.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Charles Addams, Cheshire Cat, Cinder, Cress, Faerie Tale Theatre, Marissa Meyer, Mork and Mindy, Nursery School, Pam Dawber, Rapunzel, Scarlet, Shelley Duval, Snow White, The Lunar Chronicles, Winter

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles Book 2) by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

Scarlet Benoit’s Grandmother has been missing for awhile. Yet no one seems to be willing to help. So Scarlet is not only filled with worry and no leads, but she also has to keep the family farm running in her Grandmother's absence. Yet her Grandmother's past and her connection to the Lunar Cyborg girl Cinder, who is on all the news feeds, not just for the commotion at Emperor Kai's gala, but then for her subsequent escape from prison, might just be the reason behind everything. While Scarlet sympathizes with poor Cinder, if Scarlet could find any link, no matter how tenuous, any information to find her Grandmother, she would use it. Enter Wolf. He is a street fighter, and he has a lead. Scarlet's Grandmother is being held in Paris and he will help Scarlet get there. While trusting Wolf might be a horrible mistake, it's a risk Scarlet is willing to take.

Scarlet picks up mere days after the events of Cinder, though refocusing on Scarlet Benoit, the granddaughter of a lady who has some connection to Cinder's shrouded past and now relocating the focus of the story to France. I have spent a year pining for this book to come out. Leaving me hanging on a cliff was not the nicest thing for Marissa to do, but seeing as I was still expectantly waiting a year later shows the power of her world building. Therefore I think this book became too built up in my head. After that long of a wait and then having to search for quite a long period of time at Barnes and Noble to actually find a copy of the book (what stupid bookstore only gets two copies and then hides them on the bottom shelf near the door I ask you) I was, I don't know, expecting something just as unique and wonderful as Cinder was and in the end I was thoroughly disappointed. I really should start a list of books that were better than the first, because really, I think I almost set myself up for these falls with unrealistic expectations... but then authors like Mary Robinette Kowal and Laini Taylor have raised the bar so high for second outings that this book really had to be something wonderful to measure up, instead I felt like I was slogging through just to get to the end.

My main problem was all the unnecessary shit that was thrown in. New settings, new characters and new creatures. I admire Marissa for expanding her world, but there was some magic in the Eastern Commonwealth that was not only lacking in France, but made France boring. How can you make France boring you ask? By having it not be futuristic. By having me feel like if I where to get on a plane and go there RIGHT NOW I could be in Scarlet's world. Cinder's world was a flight of fancy, an easy to imagine possible future, yet France was just France. Yet France being just France wasn't nearly as boring as Scarlet and Wolf. I'm sorry, but they where boring. Scarlet was flat and two dimensional. I didn't care if she found her grandmother or not. As for Wolf, whatever. He reminded me of Tom from Being Human with his old fashioned manners and, well, the wolf bit, but unlike Tom, Wolf was just a dull dull character whose attraction to Scarlet seemed to be a plot contrivance than actually real attraction. They needed to be relegated to the background. The book came alive when Cinder was around, so by making Scarlet and Wolf just people who forward Cinder's story would have sat far better with me than having to excruciatingly journey with them across France while we where to be rooting for them with their false chemistry. Though the "wolves" is what really put the nail in the coffin for me. Really, "werewolves?" After much thinking, ok, having wolves in thrall to the Lunars does make a bit of sense because in mythology werewolves are governed by the moon... but there's just too much shit populating this world. Lunars, cyborgs, viruses, world wars, plagues... enough already. NO MORE. This world is full enough. Stop it.

The big thing though that was totally unsatisfactory to me was the handling of the "Little Red Riding Hood" story. With Cinder it was a totally new and fresh spin. Cinderella as a cyborg... she doesn't leave a shoe behind but her old foot!?! How cool is that? Very is my answer.  Here... well... um, it was like almost every retelling I've read of "Little Red Riding Hood" in years. The Big Bad Wolf that is just misunderstood and reforms and falls for the girl... isn't that the Fables comics? Or Sisters Red? This was just predictable and done before. Also, stop switching up how Scarlet refers to her Grandmother, Grand-mere... I'm assuming she is actually talking in French the whole time, so then Grand-mere is what, doubly French? And that stupid red hoodie! Ug, it was just a crutch so that if you weren't already being beaten over the head with Red Riding Hood imagery, let's just mention it over and over. There was one thing that Marissa nailed with regards to the original story. The "reveal" when Red Riding Hood realizes her grandmother isn't her grandmother (what big eyes, you get the idea) is so awesomely cool that I realize this book could have been as good as Cinder. So extra demerits... I now know how awesome you could be so this sub-par effort pisses me off more.

One good thing, everything Cinder. The book was mildly redeemed by the fact that Cinder was around and her story remained interesting... even if it veered ever closer to Firefly land, at least she was there to buoy up the book... if not, do I dare suggest that I don't think I would have finished it and might have even violently thrown it across the room? Yes I do suggest that. The cover is ugly anyway, wouldn't have been a loss.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Being Human, Big Bad Wolf, Cinder, Cinderella, Cyborg, Fables, Firefly, Little Red Riding Hood, Marissa Meyer, Scarlet, Sisters Red, Summer Series, The Lunar Chronicles

Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School Book 1) by Gail Carriger
Published by: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but the also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail's legions of fans have come to adore."

Let's put it this way, love the world Gail has built, didn't love this.

The Queen is Dead by Kate Locke
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When her brother Val gets in over his head in an investigation of Half-Blood disappearances and goes missing himself, it's up to Xandra, newly crowned Goblin Queen, to get him back and bring the atrocities to light. Xandra must frequent the seediest parts of London, while also coping with what she is, the political factions vying for her favor, and the all too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who wants her head. Add this to a being a suspect in a murder investigation, a werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell bent on destroying the monarchy, and Xandra barely knows which way is up. One thing she does know is that she's already lost one sibling, she's not about to lose another.

Xandra Varden is the newly crowned Goblin Queen of England. But her complicated life is by no means over.

There are the political factions vying for her favor, and the all too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who for some reason wants her head. Not to mention her werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell bent on destroying the monarchy. Now she's the suspect in a murder investigation --- and Xandra barely knows which way is up.

What she does know is that nothing lasts forever---and immortality isn't all its cracked up to be."

Steampunk, steampunk, steampunk!

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Published by: Feiwel and Friends
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner."

Feels like I've been dying for the last year waiting for this book to come out. I literally can not wait another day for it!

Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter
Published by: Hyperion
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter: "Katarina Bishop and W.W. Hale the fifth were born to lead completely different lives: Kat comes from a long, proud line of loveable criminal masterminds, while Hale is the scion of one of the most seemingly perfect dynasties in the world. If their families have one thing in common, it’s that they both know how to stay under the radar while getting—or stealing—whatever they want.

No matter the risk, the Bishops can always be counted on, but in Hale’s family, all bets are off when money is on the line. When Hale unexpectedly inherits his grandmother’s billion dollar corporation, he quickly learns that there’s no place for Kat and their old heists in his new role. But Kat won’t let him go that easily, especially after she gets tipped off that his grandmother’s will might have been altered in an elaborate con to steal the company’s fortune. So instead of being the heir—this time,Hale might be the mark.

Forced to keep a level head as she and her crew fight for one of their own, Kat comes up with an ambitious and far-reaching plan that only the Bishop family would dare attempt. To pull it off, Kat is prepared to do the impossible, but first, she has to decide if she’s willing to save her boyfriend’s company if it means losing the boy."

More heists... man do I want to be a thief with jewels and art, high end antiquity stuff...

Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega Book 1) by Patricia Briggs
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Now in hardcover: the first Alpha and Omega novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Anna never knew werewolves existed, until the night she survived a violent attack…and became one herself. After three years at the bottom of the pack, she’s learned to keep her head down and never, ever trust dominant males. Then Charles Cornick, the enforcer—and son—of the leader of the North American werewolves, came into her life.

Charles insists that not only is Anna his mate, but she is also a rare and valued Omega wolf. And it is Anna’s inner strength and calming presence that will prove invaluable as she and Charles go on the hunt in search of a rogue werewolf—a creature bound in magic so dark that it could threaten all the pack…

Includes a new introduction from the author as well as the novella, "Alpha and Omega," originally published in On The Prowl, that inspired the series and tells how Anna and Charles's story began."

Well, I've been hoping that since this series is so popular they'd go back a re-release the first two in hardcover, and viola! What's even better is that they've logically put the novella in with the book, dream come true!

Downton Abbet: The Complete Scripts, Season 1 by Julian Fellowes
Published by: William Morrow
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013
Format: Paperback, 416 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The full scripts of award-winning Downton Abbey, season one including previously unseen material.

Downton Abbey has become an international phenomenon and the most successful British drama of our time. Created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes, the first season delighted viewers and critics alike with stellar performances, ravishing costumes, and a gripping plot. Set in a grand country house during the late Edwardian era, season one of Downton Abbey follows the lives of the Crawley family upstairs and their servants downstairs as they approach the announcement of the First World War. Fellowes succeeds in not only entertaining his audience with a combination of sustained storylines and sharp one-liners but also in delivering a social commentary of British life. The scripts from season one give readers the opportunity to read the work in more detail and to study the characters, pace, and themes in depth. With extended commentary from Fellowes, highlighting key historical or dramatic details, this book gives invaluable insight, particularly for would-be screenwriters, into how Fellowes researched and crafted the world of Downton Abbey.

Featuring full-color photographs."

Um... why would anyone want this? The show is so much about mood and looks and glances across a room and the music, it would be silly to just sit around reading the scripts instead of watching the show. Oh, but wait! Full-color photos? You've sold me... not.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ally Carter, Cinder, Cry Wolf, Etiquette and Espionage, Finishing School, Gail Carriger, Kate Locke, Marissa Meyer, Patricia Briggs, Scarlet, The Lunar Chronicles, The Parasol Protectorate, The Queen is Dead