Review: Mariana

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Susanna Kearsley is becoming my go-to for light Gothic dual-time historical fiction / romance. I don't read this type of book often, but when I need something a little different from my usual fare, I find that Kearsley's books hit the spot. There's just the right mix of history, romance, mysterious ghostliness, and an ephemeral sense of times past and present.

Even though the format of Kearsley's books remain similar to each other with the time-slip discovery narrative, the situations that are explored in both time periods are still unique. The similarity is familiar and comforting enough that I'm actually hoping for it when I pick one up, but I also wouldn't recommend reading them back-to-back.

Mariana was the book that launched Kearsley's career, so it wasn't as good as the later ones I've read, but still very good for a debut novel. The time-slip aspect is almost exactly like the one in A Winter Sea, but this was not as polished or satisfying. Both time periods could have used - something - more to make them more compelling. And the present-day romance was not as good as it could have been, and not well tied into the earlier timeline.

Still, it did hit that spot with the dreamy, ghostly echoes of the past trying to make itself heard in the present.



View all my reviews

Review: The Hob's Bargain

The Hob's Bargain by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The Hob's Bargain is a high fantasy that focuses on a small farming valley and a small town with medieval-type trades. There's supposedly a lord who should be protecting the people, but a magical disaster has cut the valley off and the people are on their own. The disaster awakens old magic, some friendly and some feral, so the townsfolk are suddenly dealing with a resurgence in angry Fae as well as an army of raiders.

What makes the story interesting is the mish-mash of old magical creatures running wild, the strong heroine who is rejected by the town because of her own taboo magic, and the mischievous hob who is the prejudiced town's only hope of survival. There's a tiny little bit of romance - just a touch, and it's very sweet.

I found this an enjoyable, quick read, perfect for a lazy Saturday afternoon. It's the first book I've read by Patricia Briggs - I decided to start with her older works instead of a series that isn't finished yet. So I can't speak to how this compares to the quality of her later work, but I do know I'll be looking for more by her.



View all my reviews

Review: The Chalice

The Chalice by Nancy Bilyeau

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I've had a hard time categorizing this series. The Crown was nominally a historical mystery, which is why I had picked it up, but ended up being more historical suspense. Now The Chalice drops mystery altogether, focusing instead on a prophecy for Sister Joanna that throws her into danger. So maybe historical suspense is the most appropriate label, at least so far. The fact that it is difficult to categorize is one of the reasons I'm enjoying the series.

The story focuses on a Dominican novice during the time when Henry VIII was dissolving the monasteries and priories and stripping the churches to fill his coffers. Joanna, who took vows to avoid the tumult of politics, has been torn from that peaceful existence and is now trying to make a living in the village near her old priory. A few of the friars and nuns remain together, attempting to continue their observances as well as they can while being reviled by the locals who once came to them for aid and education. They find themselves at the mercy of petty authorities with the weight of King Henry behind them.

This is a great perspective on the time period. It does not deal very directly with the Royals, instead showing how ordinary, loyal papists made their way through the tumultuous changes of the English Reformation. From this angle, it was not a holy enterprise!

At the end of The Crown, I had an idea of where this sequel might be headed. I thought that with the Priory closed and Joanna no longer a novice, she would settle down and find herself a new life - most likely (hopefully!) with Geoffrey. She would maybe run into some new intrigues and mysteries related to his position as a constable. In my experience of historical mystery/fiction with a side of romance, this was the predictable route, and one that I would have been perfectly happy to explore.

I was completely wrong! There was very little about this book that I could have predicted. Although there was part of me wishing for those next steps that I had envisioned, it was refreshing to find myself being led around by the nose without any idea of where it was going to end up. The way that Bilyeau intertwines Joanna's life with actual events of the time, giving this insignificant woman an importance that few people are aware of, is brilliant.

Joanna is once again caught up in politics against her will, dragged into matters beyond her understanding by family ambitions, and tossed about by forces beyond her comprehension. She is confused and changes a lot during the book, betraying her sense of self and struggling with guilt. The prophecy forces her into crises, muddies the waters of right and wrong, and inexorably drags her in a direction she does not want to go. But rather than making the plot predictable, the prophecy plays out with enough twists to bring about a satisfying ending, so that you look back on what happened with new understanding.

Both novels so far have been very well done. I'm looking forward to the next installment but I no longer have any expectations about where it could go next. (I still have hopes for where it might end up eventually.)



View all my reviews

Review: A Curse Dark As Gold

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I really wanted to love A Curse as Dark as Gold. A historical fantasy set in a mill during the Industrial Revolution - what a perfect setting for a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.

Unfortunately, it was really hard work to get through this and I skimmed a lot. The writing is tedious, the details of running the mill too thorough and dry. Plus, I was expecting something a bit more industrial out of the setting with a more Dickensian or Gaskellian feel - a mill in a place like Manchester, not in a superstitious village.

The story itself is extremely slow to take off. A hundred pages of mill management could have been chopped out easily. I didn't really like any of the characters either. Most of them remained fairytale remote the whole time. The ending was decent, at least, but a haunted mill with a generational curse should have been much more interesting.



View all my reviews

Review: City of Jasmine

City of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I loved this! It's a historical adventure set in Damascus and the nearby desert during the 1920s. We have an intrepid British female pilot and her scandalous old aunt, a parrot, a dead husband not quite dead, archaeological treasure, and deadly pursuit across the desert.

Once again, Raybourn brought both the place and the time period alive. She put me down right in the desert with the sights and smells, and awoke my sympathies with the personal nature of the cultural conflicts after the Great War.

I liked it even better than A Spear of Summer Grass because it was more full of action and adventure. I also liked it better because there's none of the promiscuity that I disliked in that book, but Evie is still a liberated, willful heroine. I loved both her and Gabriel and their spirited sparring.

A note of caution - don't read the prequel novella before reading this! It gives too much background information. The mystery of Gabriel wasn't much of a mystery to me, unfortunately. I wish I knew how much I would have loved it without knowing anything about him beforehand.



View all my reviews

Review: Whisper of Jasmine

Whisper of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm not usually a big reader of novellas because they're too short to be satisfying, but this leads up to the actual book I want to read. (Seems like it could have been included as a prologue instead???)

As far as novellas go, I think this was a good one. We see Delilah from Spear of Summer Grass before her husband goes off to the war, so if you've read that book this will mean a lot more. Delilah also introduces us to a new character for City of Jasmine, which I can't wait to read. So this was a nice teaser, I suppose.

It was free when I bought it, but is now $.90. I don't think I would actually pay for it at 50 pages. On to the main feature...

Edit: After reading City of Jasmine, I would recommend saving this prequel for afterwards. This novella gives you some background information that spoils it a bit. I still enjoyed it, but if I hadn't known what is revealed here it would have been even better.

View all my reviews

Review: Hollow World

Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



If you're a fan of Michael Sullivan's, you've probably heard by now that Hollow World is completely different from his Riyria Revelations series. It has a different tone, setting, and themes. There's a more modern feel with cultural references and modern language tossed about. But the sense of humor is still there, as well as the seemingly simple twists that somehow end up meaning more than I expected.

It starts out in the present-day with a man who has nothing to live for (and is dying anyway) and so decides to try out his time machine. The future that Ellis experiences is really strange, but also cool. There's a sense of wonder at Hollow World - it's not a Dystopia, which I appreciated. But the world is not without its problems, and Ellis finds himself right in the middle of them. Along the way, he discovers what living really is and what he really cares about (too late?).

I liked it. My main complaint is that I'd like to read more. I feel like I just got to know these people and had a small taste of their world, and I want to spend more time there. I hope there will be sequels.

**Received free arc for review



View all my reviews

Son of the Shadows - Juliet Marillier

Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Son of the Shadows continues the story of the Sevenwaters family, focusing on the next generation - Sorcha’s children. (It is not an overt fairy tale retelling like the first book was.) I waited a long time to read this after reading Daughter of the Forest because although the writing was beautiful and it was very well done, the overwhelming feelings that stuck with me were sadness and pain. So I wasn’t exactly eager to dive into this sequel even though reviews said it was very different. Mostly convinced, I bought the book and then let it languish on my TBR list. Now I wish I’d gotten to it sooner.

This book does have its sadness and is haunting in parts, but it’s not the whole story. There’s more that happens in this book than in the first, where Sorcha spent a lot of time sitting around, busy and silent with her grueling task. I really liked that the main character, Liadan, didn’t just take what the gods told her she had to do but determined that for herself. Sorcha suffered so much because the goddess told her to. Liadan is much more in charge of herself. She’s one of those ‘strong females’ that really is strong. She follows her instincts and stands firm when she believes she has to stand alone. She isn’t just tough and stubborn, though. She’s compassionate and loves with abandon. Her love story is both wonderful and full of heartache.

I'm really interested to see how the prophecy plays out with Liaden's choices - has she derailed everything, or was this what was supposed to happen all along?

This is one of those books that I couldn’t stop reading. That actually happens rarely, and I was so surprised that this ended up being one of those books! I lost sleep over it, couldn’t wait to get back to it when I had to stop for work, and I really didn’t want it to end even while I was racing through it. Now that I've finished, I’m upset that the next book will move to another generation so I won’t get to be with these characters in the same way again. But I don’t think I’ll be waiting as long to pick up the next book.

I do have to say that the ending itself was a bit anticlimactic. I was expecting something a bit more momentous and final, and less - psychological, I suppose. But still the overall reading experience completely grabbed me. I don’t know if it will do the same for others, but I loved this book. It had a depth and range of emotion that I found gripping. It’s always hard for me to explain this gut reaction that I have to a book when I love it. It’s so completely subjective and emotional. How do you begin to explain it rationally? I feel bereft now that I've finished, and can’t quite bring myself to start something new yet.

The complete inability to stop reading until the end, that need for a pause between books, when I feel that silence needs to be kept just for a day before moving on, and the way that I still miss the characters after they've moved beyond the pages - that's what makes this a 5 star book for me.