I found reading this book frustrating. I enjoyed it, and then I’d slam into a sentence or phrase that reminded me the author is a man. I have no inherent problem with male authors and I know men can write women, but this author seems to have had a hard time letting go of the male gaze. It did impact my enjoyment and lowered my star rating. Also lowering my rating were the endless letter/info dumps. I’ve read some other CBR reviews of The Rook, […]
“The fact is, the contest has always been invulnerability, and even when you win, you still lose.”
Paper Valentine started off promisingly, an intriguing cross-genre YA story that explores loss and the fine line between challenging and enabling your personal demons. Hannah Wagnor is an almost uncomfortably silent protagonist, whose mind is always going a thousand miles a minute but who lets precious little of those thoughts slip through her lips. Part of that is self preservation — she’s (actually) haunted by the ghost of her recently deceased best friend, Lillian, and she isn’t in a hurry to make that fact known […]
How to Suck All the Life Out of Original Worldbuilding
The Arcana Chronicles began with an interesting premise: young adults with fantastic powers who battle it out in an “there can be only one” apocalypse battle of the fittest. And because it’s Kresley Cole it’s full of sexy characters who smolder. And of course the obligatory YA love triangle. The whole thing is loosely built upon the idea of each character = tarot card. Basically it was my catnip. Now we’re four books in on a series that doesn’t seem like it’ll end soon. Or […]
Magic Ladies Run the World
In many ways Sorcerer to the Crown is what Jane Austen would have written if she were a full on fantasy writer in modern times. It would have to be modern times because the hero is black and the heroine is brown. It has to be fantasy because this world has magic users, magical creatures, and familiar spirits. And almost everyone is smart, except the human villains who turn out to be totally impotent; it’s their magical accomplices who have both real power and personality. […]