strange and random happenstance

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon in early spring of 2013 when Robin LaFevers finally had a tour stop in the Midwest to promote the second book in the "His Fair Assassin" series, Dark Triumph. Six productive years since I had first found Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos at my local Barnes and Noble. She had ten books under her belt during that time, and yes, I had every one of those books in the back of my car as I headed to Illinois. Because what was a three hour ride to finally getting to meet one of my favorite authors? My friend Marie and I were making a day of it. First there was delicious pizza to be had at Giordano's, which is located right behind Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville. Then we took in the Riverwalk and saw a rather spectacular duck. A male wood duck to be precise, and growing up in a family that sold wildlife art, yes, I have to be precise. After working off some of the delicious pizza filling our bellies we went to Anderson's to get good seats for the coming talk by Robin. Not wanting to be overeager we chose seats in the second row and Marie was happy to find the last hardcover copy of Grave Mercy, as she hadn't started the "His Fair Assassin" series yet. Then we settled in for the wait.

Usually waiting for an author talk to begin is slightly onerous. You're usually in uncomfortable metal chairs and nervous excitement leads to babbling to strangers who end up thinking you're slightly unhinged. But don't discount what a good friend and a life-size poster of Richard Armitage can do for a long wait. Seriously, as much as they messed up The Hobbit with that whole trilogy, starting with An Unexpected Journey four months earlier in December of 2012, how can you NOT be drawn to that poster on the back wall of the bookstore with Richard giving off that smoldering gaze like he's looking right at you and you're the only thing in the world? Yes, there is a reason the picture with Robin is framed in this way, I couldn't cut out Richard, or Aidan if it comes to that, even if I had wanted to. Once Robin took the stage the presentation passed in a glorious haze of assassins and the history of Brittany and how Sybella is a different kind of heroine. The signing was wonderful as well, I had specifically worn my shirt that Robin had sent me and she jokingly told the rest of the signing line not to worry about "the person with the stalker level of books, we know each other." My books signed, my love of Robin and her work confirmed, Marie and I went in search of more adventures, AKA more books and food.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Aidan Turner, Anderson's Bookshop, Assassination Vacation, Book Signing, Dark Triumph, His Fair Assassin, Illinois, Naperville, Richard Armitage, Robin LaFevers, The Hobbit, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

One day in the spring of 2007 I stumbled on a book at Barnes and Noble by an author who would quickly become one of my most favorite authors ever. Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by Robin (R.L.) LaFevers was, as some of my friends put it, the book I would write if I wrote, full of cats and mummies, and oh so British to boot. As the years went by I wouldn't just wait for Robin's new books, oh no, I would hunt them out, track down ways to gets advanced reader copies, sometimes even from her, any way to get her newest tome into my hands. There's a reason I started a blog, and that was to have a legitimate excuse to harass publishers and authors for ARCs! When she transitioned to YA in 2012 with the His Fair Assassin series I was one of the first to proclaim that she had reached a whole new level in her mastery of storytelling.

Female assassins raised in a monastery working for Death himself? If anyone other than Robin had written this series it might have been cheesy, instead it's a nuanced look at duty and loyalty and is just an amazing series that at once is historical fiction but has a hint of magical realism. But when the series ended with Mortal Heart's release in 2014 Robin went on a longer than expected hiatus emerging in Summer of 2016 with the news of a new duology set in the world of His Fair Assassin! Well that book, Courting Darkness, is FINALLY here! I couldn't not celebrate my favorite author returning to a much beloved world! So welcome to February, wherein we are taking an Assassination Vacation... Apologies to author Sarah Vowell, the title was too good not to use for my theme month...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: ARCs, Assassination Vacation, Courting Darkness, DEATH, His Fair Assassin, Mortal Heart, R.L. LaFevers, Robin LaFevers, Sarah Vowell, Theme Month, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Theodosia Throckmorton

Grave Mercy, His Fair Assassin Book 1 by Robin LaFevers
ARC Provided by the author
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 644 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Ismae almost died before she was born. Her mother tried to purge her from her body because she knew that Death was Ismae's father. All her life she has been marked by death with a dark wine stain from her shoulder to her hip. On the day of her marriage to a man she neither loves nor likes, he learns the truth and attempts to kill her. The herbwitch that tried to end her in the womb now rescues her and sends her to the convent of St. Mortain. There Ismae learns that she is cursed, but with gifts from Death himself. Trained to be a handmaiden to Death she learns all the subtle arts from poisons to seduction, though she's not too keen on the womanly arts. She becomes a finely skilled tool, an assassin for Death himself. Her first two assignments go rather well and the men are sent to their graves. The deaths of these two men though are inopportune for Brittany's government who is trying to stay an independent Duchy from France. As atonement for the inconvenience the convent has wrought the Duchy's young ruler, Anne, and her bastard brother, Gavriel Duval, Ismae is to accompany Gavriel to court and aid the country, while also serving the sometimes conflicting needs of the convent.

While at court, Gavriel is worried that he has been saddled with a loose cannon. Ismae seems no need to confide in Gavriel, or ask his permission, and seems willing to kill whomever Death has marked, whether it's convenient to Gavriel or not. Ismae though is in a world where, through Gavriel, she is starting to wonder if the convent has things quite right. She has spent the last few years cloistered away from the world and is now questioning the convents teachings. Embroiled in affairs of the Breton Court and the Privy Council, Ismae soon learns that Anne is a ruler worthy of protection and Gavriel may be a man worthy of her heart. If only St. Mortain would show her what her true destiny is.

I have been a fan of Robin LaFever's since I was wandering around Barnes and Noble back in 2007 and stumbled upon Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos. The blend of Egyptian mythology with a plucky heroine in Edwardian England seemed a book that was written to perfectly meld all my favorite things inbetween two book covers. Not to mention the gorgeous art of Yoko Tanaka. Over the years I have waited with anticipation for each of the subsequent volumes to be released. I also fell in love with Robin's other series for younger readers, Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist. Needless to say, she quickly became on of my favorite writers and one whom I've forced nearly all my friends to read. Side note, it's not cruel and unusual punishment if they end up loving the books as I do. Plus, one of my friends named her son Nathaniel, so obviously her son needed a full set of the books (four so far)! Anyways, because of this lovely thing called the internet, I was able to get in touch with Robin because I felt that she needed to be exposed to as many readers as I could get her. First she joined goodreads, which I heartily encourage of everyone, and then with the launching of my blog, I now have even more of a platform in which to declare my love of these books.

This year marks a new series for Robin. Grave Mercy is the first in her new "His Fair Assassin" series, the HIM being Death. Set in Breton in the 15th century, Robin was "curious to see what [I] think, since it is SO different from Theo!" She's right, it is SO different from Theo. But I've come to the conclusion that a great author is able to write in any genre and on any subject matter as long as they have a clear authorial voice that comes through. Robin has that voice. It changes with the characters and the timeperiods she's writing about, but there's a way she grips you from the outset. She has an engaging writing style that doesn't make it feel like you're fighting the text to get from word to word and paragraph to paragraph. It's a book where you look up and find yourself surprised that an hour or two or three have passed, or even that it's five in the morning and shouldn't you be asleep by now?

This flow in her writing is even more impressive when you think about the fact that this is Historical Fiction in essence. I read a lot of Historical Fiction and it can easily be bogged down with overly archaic language, too many historical events and plot points given to you like a lesson at school that you hated the first time around and has you scrambling back and forth over the text trying to remember minutiae of each plot and counter plot. But Robin did an amazing job of making the people real and not making the history presented in a way that it was too complex therefore making me feel dense. The book just flowed. I fell for Ismae and her evil Hogwarts convent and then fell all over again when Gavriel showed up. These characters became real to me. I was invested in their lives and with getting them together! Jane Austen had it so right with Darcy and Elizabeth, now just make one an assassin and the other an upright young man, Anne his sister gets to be Georgiana, and you just wait for them to realize the truth that, though they are so different, they are so right for each other. The thing is, now I have a problem. I want the next book now. You are all reading this and being all jealous that I already got to read it and I'm sure you have no pity for me... but now I have to wait even longer than you for the second book, think of it that way.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Beastologist, Breton, DEATH, France, Grave Mercy, His Fair Assassin, Historical Fiction, Nathaniel Fludd, R.L. LaFevers, Robin LaFevers, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

Grave Mercy, His Fair Assassin Book 1 by Robin LaFevers
ARC Provided by the author
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: April 3rd, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 644 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Ismae almost died before she was born. Her mother tried to purge her from her body because she knew that Death was Ismae's father. All her life she has been marked by death with a dark wine stain from her shoulder to her hip. On the day of her marriage to a man she neither loves nor likes, he learns the truth and attempts to kill her. The herbwitch that tried to end her in the womb now rescues her and sends her to the convent of St. Mortain. There Ismae learns that she is cursed, but with gifts from Death himself. Trained to be a handmaiden to Death she learns all the subtle arts from poisons to seduction, though she's not too keen on the womanly arts. She becomes a finely skilled tool, an assassin for Death himself. Her first two assignments go rather well and the men are sent to their graves. The deaths of these two men though are inopportune for Brittany's government who is trying to stay an independent Duchy from France. As atonement for the inconvenience the convent has wrought the Duchy's young ruler, Anne, and her bastard brother, Gavriel Duval, Ismae is to accompany Gavriel to court and aid the country, while also serving the sometimes conflicting needs of the convent.

While at court, Gavriel is worried that he has been saddled with a loose cannon. Ismae seems no need to confide in Gavriel, or ask his permission, and seems willing to kill whomever Death has marked, whether it's convenient to Gavriel or not. Ismae though is in a world where, through Gavriel, she is starting to wonder if the convent has things quite right. She has spent the last few years cloistered away from the world and is now questioning the convents teachings. Embroiled in affairs of the Breton Court and the Privy Council, Ismae soon learns that Anne is a ruler worthy of protection and Gavriel may be a man worthy of her heart. If only St. Mortain would show her what her true destiny is.

I have been a fan of Robin LaFever's since I was wandering around Barnes and Noble back in 2007 and stumbled upon Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos. The blend of Egyptian mythology with a plucky heroine in Edwardian England seemed a book that was written to perfectly meld all my favorite things inbetween two book covers. Not to mention the gorgeous art of Yoko Tanaka. Over the years I have waited with anticipation for each of the subsequent volumes to be released. I also fell in love with Robin's other series for younger readers, Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist. Needless to say, she quickly became on of my favorite writers and one whom I've forced nearly all my friends to read. Side note, it's not cruel and unusual punishment if they end up loving the books as I do. Plus, one of my friends named her son Nathaniel, so obviously her son needed a full set of the books (four so far)! Anyways, because of this lovely thing called the internet, I was able to get in touch with Robin because I felt that she needed to be exposed to as many readers as I could get her. First she joined goodreads, which I heartily encourage of everyone, and then with the launching of my blog, I now have even more of a platform in which to declare my love of these books.

This year marks a new series for Robin. Grave Mercy is the first in her new "His Fair Assassin" series, the HIM being Death. Set in Breton in the 15th century, Robin was "curious to see what [I] think, since it is SO different from Theo!" She's right, it is SO different from Theo. But I've come to the conclusion that a great author is able to write in any genre and on any subject matter as long as they have a clear authorial voice that comes through. Robin has that voice. It changes with the characters and the timeperiods she's writing about, but there's a way she grips you from the outset. She has an engaging writing style that doesn't make it feel like you're fighting the text to get from word to word and paragraph to paragraph. It's a book where you look up and find yourself surprised that an hour or two or three have passed, or even that it's five in the morning and shouldn't you be asleep by now?

This flow in her writing is even more impressive when you think about the fact that this is Historical Fiction in essence. I read a lot of Historical Fiction and it can easily be bogged down with overly archaic language, too many historical events and plot points given to you like a lesson at school that you hated the first time around and has you scrambling back and forth over the text trying to remember minutiae of each plot and counter plot. But Robin did an amazing job of making the people real and not making the history presented in a way that it was too complex therefore making me feel dense. The book just flowed. I fell for Ismae and her evil Hogwarts convent and then fell all over again when Gavriel showed up. These characters became real to me. I was invested in their lives and with getting them together! Jane Austen had it so right with Darcy and Elizabeth, now just make one an assassin and the other an upright young man, Anne his sister gets to be Georgiana, and you just wait for them to realize the truth that, though they are so different, they are so right for each other. The thing is, now I have a problem. I want the next book now. You are all reading this and being all jealous that I already got to read it and I'm sure you have no pity for me... but now I have to wait even longer than you for the second book, think of it that way.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Beastologist, Breton, DEATH, France, Grave Mercy, His Fair Assassin, Historical Fiction, Nathaniel Fludd, R.L. LaFevers, Robin LaFevers, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos

Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus by R. L. LaFevers
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: April 12th, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Challenge: Valley of the Kings
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

With Will's brother in a mesmeric trance by the Great Awi Bubu he eerily repeats Theodosia's false prophecy to the Black Sunners: "The Black Sun shall rise up in a red sky before falling to earth, where a great serpent will swallow it." Theo is instantly suspicious of this Egyptian Magician. How did he get Ratsy to say what she herself said? It's got to be a trick! But when she's trying to loose her "protective detail" that the Black Sunners have set on her, the Egyptian Magician doesn't really bear thinking about. But at least The Black Sunners have a tendency to take care of those other occultists trailing her, The Serpents of Chaos. But that Egyptian Magician comes to the fore when he appears one night at the museum, which her parents have shut down for two weeks to prepare for their gala opening to celebrate their recent discoveries from the Tomb of Amenemhab. He then asks for Theo to return to him an artifact of great value. But how could he know about the Emerald Tablet when she just discovered it in the basement mere hours before? She needs to inform The Chosen Keepers about these events, but by forcing her to deal only with Fagenbush, she'll just have to find a way to keep him occupied... perhaps a few cursed objects landing in his lap? After all, she'll do whatever is necessary to deal with Wigmere himself and cut out Fagenbush and use only Will, her street urchin best friend. But with a mummy who is haunting her brother, all these occultists and parents to keep happy, it's a wonder Theo gets anything done! But she has a feeling, if she could just find out who the wedjadeen are and get ride of the Emerald Tablet, everything would return to normal... or at least as normal as can be when you can detect curses and have mysterious powers that don't have an easy explanation.

In the third  installment of the Theodoisa series by R. L. LaFevers', we once again are immersed in the wonderful world of Edwardian England in the grip of Egypt fever. I too have that fever. I don't know if it's contagious... but those mummies coupled with that fashion sense, I wish I could dive right into these books. This book had a very satisfying ending to plot points that have been dangling for awhile, yet at the same time opening it up to a whole new level of awesome. The end of the Black Sunners and their uber creepy and inappropriate leader is at an end. The Serpents have had a little bit of a smack down and Tetley, that inconveniently "modern" mummy has been put to rest. Also, surprisingly, Theo's prophecy came true. Who would have thought that!?! But then again, as Awi Bubu told her, she is more than she could ever imagine. She has a role to play and her powers, as well as her travelling companions, indicate that the Gods themselves might have a stack. After all, who else do you know with an occasional jackal sidekick?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 2011 Reading Challenge, Awi Bubu, Black Sunners, Egypt, R.L. LaFevers, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Theodosia Throckmorton

Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R. L. LaFevers
Published by: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: April 9th, 2007
Format: Hardcover, 344 Pages
Challenge: 1st in Series
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

In the Museum of Legends and Antiquities Theodosia is trying to control the forces of chaos that wish to harm others through the curses and hexes contained in the various items on display throughout the museum. She is beset with the forces of darkness and the feeling of beetles scurrying up and down her spine that doesn't seem to affect anyone else there... even her father who was injured by one such nasty curse with a tumble down the stairs. It doesn't help much that she spends every waking (and sleeping) hour within the museum. But with her trusty cat, Isis, by her side, and armed with ancient texts, she does what she can with cobbled together spells and wax, carnelian, linen, and other such supplies. But what is she to do when her galavanting mother comes home with the discovery of a lifetime from the tomb of Amenemhab, the Heart of Egypt, with a curse so strong it could bring down a nation. Not to mention there was a bit of a miscalculation with the purifying of a statue of Bastet and Isis is now more demon than cat, her annoying little brother is due back from boarding school any day, there's a sneaky little pick pocket named Will on the prowl, and Grandmother Throckmorton is insisting Theo gets a new governess.

But when the Heart of Egypt goes missing from a hidden vault within the museum things have never looked worse. It could be the end of Theo's parents' careers. Of course, it really is something far worse! After tailing shadowy men connected with the British Museum through the back alleys of London, Theo saves the life of a could be thief and stumbles upon a secret society run by Lord Wigmere who do what Theo does, but without her inborn curse breaking ability. The Heart of Egypt must be returned to it's final resting place in order to stop biblical plagues falling down on the British Empire... but how is Theo to get to Egypt? How did the Heart of Egypt even get stolen? Does she have a traitor amongst her compatriots at the museum? And can she ever get her cat back? Chaos seems inevitable.

Theodosia Throckmorton is just a sheer delight of precocious brains, without that saccharine touch that can be seen amongst others of her ilk. She's no nonsense and straight to the point. With wonderful detail and wit, R. L. LaFever's brings us this magical and wonderful Edwardian England on the brink of World War I where mysticism and magic from the land of the Pharaohs is just as real a threat as the Germans. From Theodosia's prepping of ingredients to back alley chases, the world that's created just sucks you in and you don't want to leave. I think the best way of describing Theo and her adventures is very much an Amelia Peabody mystery, but much more accessible to younger readers, or in fact all readers, who don't like their prose to be overly stylized. Of course, I'm a sucker for all things Egyptian, so when I first saw this book on the shelf it was a must read. I'm glad that I picked it up, because the gorgeous production value of the hardcovers, from turn of the century maps to deckled edges, just touches the surface of how wonderful the book is inside. When I picked up this book, little did I know that I'd find myself a new favorite author and a new favorite heroine. I wish that a girl like Theo was around when I was younger, but I'm glad to have found her at all!

Also make sure to enter my giveaway for an ARC of the 3rd book in the series, Theodosia and the Eyes of Horus, thanks to Houghton Mifflin!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 4 comments  

Labels: Amelia Peabody, British Empire, Heart of Egypt, Isis, Museum of Legends and Antiquities, R. L. Lafevers, Reading Challenge, Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, Theodosia Throckmorton