I love a good premise.  I love good characters, but I usually pick up books because something in the premise grabs me—so how could I resist The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig?  It’s a fantasy of traveling to anywhere a map records—in the present or the past, real or imagined.

For sixteen-year-old Nix, this is normal.  She’s lived her whole life aboard her father’s sailing ship, as he sails them into history.  But he’s on a quest to the one place he can’t seem to reach: Hawaii, 1868, the time and place when Nix was born—and her mother died.  Her father hopes to find the perfect map to change the past, while Nix fears what that will mean for her life—and even for her existence.

The book takes us through several times and places, and while I almost always wind up wanting more with this kind of premise, I liked the places we got to visit and how well they were brought to life.  The magic is fascinating, especially as more rules and details emerge around just how this fantastical travel works.

From the good premise the torch was picked up by good characters.  Nix is likable and tough with vulnerabilities she keeps carefully hidden.  She’s cautious about commitments, sometimes impulsive, and struggles with complicated choices, sometimes making questionable ones.  She’s also smart and creative and game for adventure. Continue reading “Book Review: The Girl from Everywhere” →

I hate it when I have to begin a review by saying how much I respect the author—but…  Unfortunately, today I have to say that I hugely respect Marissa Meyer and absolutely loved her Lunar Chronicles—but I found Heartless to be sadly disappointing.  It’s true that Lunar Chronicles set the bar very high and that may have been a factor, but I found Heartless frankly baffling on a couple of levels.

Heartless brings us to weird and whimsical Wonderland, where Catherine just wants to open a bakery—even though her mother, minor nobility, is determined that she will marry the kind but foolish King of Hearts who has come courting.  When Catherine meets the mysterious new court joker, Jest, she swiftly falls for him, even though there seems to be no way they can be together.  Also, there’s a Jabberwock turning up here and there attacking—which I can’t quite figure out how to put smoothly into my plot description, because it doesn’t fit all that smoothly in the story either.

For three-quarters or more of this book, I was hopeful.  Catherine is a reasonably good heroine.  I don’t love her the way I loved Scarlet, Cress or Winter, but I didn’t love Cinder either and she was still an engaging heroine.  Catherine had potential, and she did make mouth-watering-sounding pastries.  I didn’t love Jest the way I loved Wolf, Thorne (!) or Jacin, but I also didn’t love Kai and he was still fine (and grew on me over the series, for what that’s worth).

And I liked the idea of a heroine who didn’t want to marry a king, she just wanted to run a bakery, and was trying to figure out practical concerns like paying the rent.  That’s SO right up my retelling-alley.

But.  For those three-quarters of the book (more or less), there was also a bit of a sense that the story was spinning its wheels.  Catherine has clear goals, but she keeps hitting walls.  And the Jabberwock plot thread, while an interesting mystery that was actually quite well done, felt oddly disconnected from everything else.

Mostly, I kept reading along wondering how Meyer was going to manage the ending.  I had heard this described as the origin story of the Queen of Hearts, and I didn’t quite see how we were going to get from here to there in a way that would be satisfying.  Well, surprise.  It wasn’t.

And from here THERE BE SPOILERS so you have been warned!!  But I really can’t discuss this book without discussing the ending. Continue reading “Book Review: Heartless by Marissa Meyer” →

We’re a long way into the Once Upon a Time challenge, and I’ve finally read a fairy tale retelling!  Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu was recommended to me by Katy (AKA, A Library Mama) long ago, and she was absolutely right.  It was a wonderful retelling of the Snow Queen–loosely, though a lot closer than Frozen was!

Hazel and Jack have been best friends since they were six years old.  But now they’re eleven, both facing challenges at home, and their friendship is changing.  The adults say this is just normal drifting apart, but Hazel doesn’t know how to live in her life when the only place she feels she belongs is with Jack.  When Jack disappears and Hazel hears a story that he disappeared into the woods with a mysterious pale woman, she sets off to rescue him, whether he still wants to be friends or not.

I loved Hazel.  I often read books where the hero/ine is fine but doesn’t especially grab me.  Hazel was one who grabbed me.  I have a soft spot for kid characters who are sensitive and imaginative and unappreciated by the adults in their lives.  Hazel is a good kid trying to be a good friend to Jack, and not always making the “right” choice.  Both kids are dealing with things that I think are even tougher than they realize themselves.  Jack’s mother has serious depression, Hazel’s father recently left her and her mother, and neither kid fits well in a school that doesn’t value imaginative thinking. Continue reading “Book Review: Breadcrumbs” →