River Secrets and Forest Born

Okay, so I just realized that I have apparently been on quite the Shannon Hale reading kick lately! She just put out so many great books that I hadn't yet had a chance to read and they were just what I was in the mood for...

River Secrets
by Shannon Hale
Books of Bayern, book three

Razo has never been anything but ordinary. He’s not very fast, or tall, or strong, so when he’s invited to join an elite mission escorting the ambassador into Tira, Bayern’s great enemy, he’s sure it’s only out of pity. But when they arrive in the strange southern country, it is Razo who finds the first dead body. As they try to learn more from the Tirans about the ever increasing murders, Razo is the only Bayern soldier able to befriend both the high and low born, including the beautiful Lady Dasha. And as Razo finds allies among the Tirans, he realizes that it may be up to him to get the Bayern army safely home again. (description from Amazon.com)

Can I just start out saying that I love Razo? I know each book in the series technically has its own main characters and that Razo just plays a minor (though usually somewhat essential) part in the other books, but he's such a strong, unique, and well, FUN, character that he seemed to sort of hijack the whole series.  I was SO glad when I realized that he had his own book!  

I love that Razo's so sort of unaware of how truly awesome he is until the right person comes along to point it out to him.  He needed Dasha to help him gain self confidence and through his faith in himself, he found love, happiness, and helped to save his kingdom...once again! 

I also loved that Isi and Enna's relationship continued to grow and evolve, and expanded when they finally came to accept someone else who had a similar, yet different gift that they needed assistance controlling.  Each of the girls became even more confident in her abilities and place in the world.  These characters make great, realistic (yes, even with Enna's temper!) role models for young readers.

Forest Born 
by Shannon Hale
Books of Bayern, book four

Rin has always been a quiet, helpful girl, but a secret has been eating away at her, and the solace Rin once could find among the tall trees surrounding her forest home has vanished. When she leaves home to join her older brother in the city, she finds intriguing answers to her questions, an adventure she doesn't expect, and a sense of self she never thought she would find. (description from Amazon.com)

Happily, I discovered that the final book in the series featured Razo's younger sister, Rin.  Rin was a fabulous character...especially in the way that she grew through the book.  Rin goes on quite the journey, both physically and emotionally.  She sees new aspects of the world that she never knew existed and she begins to truly find her own place within the great wide world.  

While this book didn't have the romance that the previous novels did, I really loved the fact that Hale chose to have Rin stay true to only herself at the book's conclusion. Rin had too much still to learn about herself before she'd be really ready to find and embrace love.  This book felt the most "real" out of all of them, and while I ADORED the folk tale-y feel of the others, this one really hit my heart hard. I wished I could reach right into the book and give Rin a hug...to help her heal and feel less alone... 

What a stellar ending to the series.  These four are books I will definitely reread someday. 
(Books one and two are The Goose Girl and Enna Burning, respectively)

Full disclosure: Audio books borrowed from my Library, Books purchased for my Nook

Mini Reviews: The Second Novella Edition

Bad Yeti

by Carrie Harris

Kate Grable series

 

Jonah Grable hasn’t minded living in the shadow of his older, zombie fighting sister Kate, but this weekend he’s definitely raising his profile. A weekend of epic epicness—waving swords and flirting with girls in elf ears at his LARP club event—is totally up Jonah’s alley. But when his alter ego, Sir Talatien Maguirier, Nightdark Clanlord, comes face to face with a real, live Yeti, Jonah—or, rather, Tal—has to take matters into his own hands. So he sets off with gamer goddess Lady Amethyst, brown-eyed Europa, and Calamity, a braid-wearing barbarian in fur into the great unknown on a search for yeti-related awesomeness. . . . (description from Amazon.com)

 

SUPER FUN. I love this series hardcore and to have this little glimpse into that world from Jonah's perspective? So much awesomesauce.  I love the geekiness and the bravery and the general paranormalness of this series.

 

 

The Grimm Diaries Prequels Volumes 1 - 6

by Cameron Jace

 

The Grimm Diaries are pages written in a Book of Sand, where each fairy tale character confessed the true stories once altered by the Brothers Grimm two centuries ago. To keep the truth about fairy tales hidden, the Brothers Grimm buried the characters in their dreams to never wake up again. But the curse is broken now, and the characters are allowed to wake up every one hundred years. They intend to tell the truth about really happened, and about an untold cosmic conflict between fairy tale characters. (description from Amazon.com)

 

While the premise for this series is very intriguing and each short story had a compelling set of characters and circumstnaces, I was SO distracted by the poor writing technique in these stories that it was all I could do to finish them.

 

Tortured

by Caragh O'Brien

Birthmarked series

 

"But what about Leon?" Now, in this new story that bridges the gap between Birthmarked and Prized, Caragh M. O'Brien answers her readers' most common question with a tale of suffering and determination from Leon's perspective. (description from Amazon.com)

 

I really wish I had read this one before I read Prized, but you don't have to... it was so good to delve back into Gaia's world.  It was very interesting to see things from Leon's more privledged perspective, too. I can't wait to read Promised and find out how their story finally ends.

 

The Witch of Duva

by Leigh Bardugo

The Grisha Trilogy

 

There was a time when the woods near Duva ate girls…or so the story goes. But it’s just possible that the danger may be a little bit closer to home. This story is a companion folk tale to Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel, Shadow and Bone. (description from Amazon.com)

 

I loved this the same way I loved Sarah Maas' novellas. While they do not actually progress the story already written in the first book in each series, they are wonderful for fleshing out the fantasy world that each is set in.  Here, this is a folk tale, similar to Hansel and Gretel, that exists within Alina's world.  It really helped to flesh out the darkly Eastern European feel of the world she lives in. 





 

Full disclosure: All enovellas purchased for either my Nook or my Kindle App

Selkie Girl

Selkie Girl
by Laurie Brooks

Elin Jean has always known she was different from the others on their remote island home. She is a gentle soul, and can’t stand the annual tradition of killing seal babies to thin the population. Even Tam McCodron, the gypsy boy to whom she is strangely drawn, seems to belong more than she does.

It’s just a matter of time until Elin Jean discovers the secret of her past: her mother, Margaret, is a selkie, held captive by her smitten father, who has kept Margaret’s precious seal pelt hostage for 16 years. Soon Elin Jean faces a choice about whether to free her mother from her island prison. And, as the child of this unusual union, she must make another decision. Part land, part sea, she must explore both worlds and dig deep inside herself to figure out where she belongs, and where her future lies. (description taken from Amazon.com)

This a well-written, haunting folk tale based book. I loved the imagery of the selkies shedding their skins, their underwater culture, stories told through song...I was so sad at the descriptions of the culling, a brutal practice.

What struck me the most every time I picked this book up, though, was how awful this cover choice was for this particular story. The art team that created this cover obviously had no inkling of what the story was about... it literally made me cringe every time I looked at it. A. There are NO mermaids in this story. B. The coloring, wavy lines, etc. makes it look like a frothy fantasy...ummm. No.

Thankfully, they redid the cover for the paperback and now, though still not fantastic it is a much, MUCH better fit! The darker tones are much more fitting to the somberness of the story (it really reminds me of the moody feel that I always got from "The Secret of Roan Inish") and the girl suspended in the water perfectly matches a description of Elin Jean in the book.



A much better choice!

I highly recommend this book. It's very similar to Donna Jo Napoli's Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale in tone. It has excellent themes (self-acceptance, love, belonging, morality) and is well told.

Water Steps

Water Steps
by A. LaFaye

Kyna likes her friends, her purple hair, and taking photographs. But there's something she definitely doesn't like: the water. Every time she comes near it, she feels the sinister pull of the depths trying to draw her down to a watery grave. Even the calm water in the bathtub reminds her of the torrential storm that took the lives of her sailing family when she was just a baby. But Kyna's adopted parents love nothing more than to swim and splash about in lakes and streams, or even the local pool. When they decide to spend the summer at a beach house on Lake Champlain, Kyna is convinced that they're trying to teach her something about water that she's not ready to learn. Little does she know that the water will reveal far more than she ever could have imagined.
(description taken from Amazon.com)

Kyna's story has been likened to the movie,"The Secret of Roan Inish" and I do have to agree. It is a story with a supernatural secret and a wonderfully folk-taleish rhythm. Though this story does deal with *Spoiler Alert* selkies... it really focuses on Kyna overcoming her fear of water. Ever since her family drowned when she was but a toddler, Kyna cannot even sit in a bathtub without having a full fledged panic attack.

As her adoptive parents gently coerce her to take "water steps," Kyna learns to overcome her fear and eventually conquers it *Spoiler Alert* in her quest to save a friend's life. Though she uncovers a deep family secret, more importantly Kyna learns how to really live with her new family.

I listened to this book on CD narrated by the author. The Irish accents were charming. The pacing was reminiscent of being told a story in front of a warm, cozy fire. A beautiful tale told in a charming way!

Full disclosure: Audiobook sent to me for review for AudioFile magazine