Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

Book Review: The Spellcoats

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult5 Comments

My favorite book of Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet is Book Three: The Spellcoats.  Oddly enough, it exists completely separately from the previous two books, to the point that (barring one epilogue-type note at the end), you can’t tell you’re in the same series when you read it.  In fact, I read my library’s copy a couple of times without ever realizing it was part of something else!

The Spellcoats is set centuries (millennia?) before the previous two books in the quartet.  Tanaqui, a young woman who is a highly skilled weaver, lives with her father and her siblings along the Great River.  When invaders from across the sea plunge the country into war, Tanaqui and her siblings flee down the river, in danger from their own people because of their resemblence to the invaders.  At the mouth of the river they meet the true enemy, a powerful magician intent on stealing souls.  Tanaqui must learn about her family’s past and her own magic to save her family and the country that will, eventually, become Dalemark. Continue reading “Book Review: The Spellcoats” →

Book Review: The False Prince

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult8 Comments

Some books make the circuit of lots of blogs I read…and sometimes it still takes me a long time to get to them!  I finally picked up The False Prince by Jennifer A. Neilson, after seeing rave reviews from other bloggers.  And the good thing about waiting so long?  The rest of the trilogy is already out!

The False Prince is told to us by Sage, an orphan boy who is one day plucked from his orphanage by Conner, a wealthy noble with a sinister manner.  Sage soon learns that Conner is collecting orphan boys, intending to train them to pose as the long-lost Prince Jaron and prevent a succession crisis leading to civil war.  But only one boy will be chosen for the role, and Conner’s ruthlessness and secrecy make it clear that those left unchosen will be killed. Continue reading “Book Review: The False Prince” →

Blog Hop: Blog Reading Habits

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop, Ruminations10 Comments

book blogger hopThis week’s Book Blogger Hop question: Do you follow a lot of blogs but rarely read them or do you follow a few you read regularly?

Kind of…both?  I’ve mentioned on other occasions, especially while discussing how I plan my reading, that I like lists and I tend to be ridiculously organized.  It applies to my blog reading too.  I use NetVibes to subscribe to lots of blogs, and I have those subscriptions grouped into Favorite Blogs, Secondary Blogs, Tertiary Blogs (because I like the word!) and Blogs From People I Know (off the internet, I mean)  The Favorite Blogs are a relatively small number and I check them pretty carefully; ditto the People I Know Blogs.  The rest are bigger groups that I tend to skim quickly.

My particular blog-following quirk is that I never manage to make time daily to read blogs.  Usually I spend one chunk of time once a week to catch up on everything–so if you’ve ever wondered why I comment on multiple posts on your blog in one day, that’s why! 🙂

I’m pretty much terrible at checking-in with the year-long reading challenges I join (more on those next Friday, by the way!) but I do make an effort to keep up with the posts for Carl’s seasonal reading experiences.

If I ever write a best-selling novel and don’t have to work any more, I expect I’ll read more blogs more frequently…but until then, this system seems to work.  What works for you?  How do you manage your blog reading?

Witches and Phantoms and Opera, Oh My!

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews17 Comments

I think we know that I madly love retellings of The Phantom of the Opera…and that Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series claims the “Funniest Book” spot on my End of the Year Rankings every year…so what could be more perfect than Maskerade, a Discworld retelling of Phantom?

I was inspired to pull this off my shelf recently after reading I Shall Wear Midnight, with its cameos from Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.  This is my…third?  fourth? read of Maskerade, and it stays just as funny on repeated visits.  Although my poor paperback now has a crack in the spine–which I kind of enjoy, because it’s cracked on my favorite page!  I feel like that’s a cliche that rarely actually happens…

Anyway!  Maskerade focuses on Granny and Nanny, who are coming to the unfortunate realization that you just can’t have a coven of only two witches, having recently lost Magrat as their third.  The only eligible girl in Lancre is Agnes Nitt–but she recently departed for the bright lights (and strong smells) of the big city of Ankh-Morpork, determined to reinvent herself.  Agnes wins a role at the Opera House due to her prodigious voice–but not a starring role, due to her prodigious size.  She is befriended by the wonderfully, incredibly idiotic Christine, who can’t sing but looks good in an evening gown.  When Christine’s mirror starts talking to her she insists on switching rooms with Agnes, and Agnes finds herself the recipient of music lessons from a mysterious man in a mask.

Meanwhile, the Opera’s new owner is very perturbed to find out that the entire Opera Company accepts the existence of a masked ghost who writes notes and gives directions and, in a recent development, kills people.  Granny and Nanny, from the most altruistic motives possible of course, decide that something is a bit off in Agnes’ letters home, and they must depart for the big city to investigate.

And there is mayhem and Death and hilarity and Phantom references and mad little notes with five exclamation points and suspicious cookery and sometimes most of those things all on one page. Continue reading “Witches and Phantoms and Opera, Oh My!” →

Book Review: Cart and Cwidder – Drowned Ammet

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult7 Comments

One of my goals for Once Upon a Time was to reread Diana Wynne Jones’ Dalemark Quartet, which I last read in high school and largely forgot.  I successfully read them…but didn’t manage to get to reviews!  Today I’m going to look at the first two books, Cart and Cwidder and Drowned Ammett.

Cart and Cwidder is about a family of musicians traveling in a cart through Dalemark.  And just to clear up the title, a cwidder is a musical instrument (somewhat like a lute, I think).  Moril is our main character, the dreamy one of the family who isn’t sure about his talents.  The family is on their annual trip through South Dalemark, ruled by oppressive earls, back towards the “free North.”  Moril and his siblings find themselves suddenly thrust into the center of a brewing war when their father is killed and they must undertake a vital task he left unfinished.  Oh, and that cwidder in the title?  Definitely magical. Continue reading “Book Review: Cart and Cwidder – Drowned Ammet” →