Following a Hero to the Top of the World

On March 31, 2014March 26, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Young Adult3 Comments

I launched my reading for Once Upon a Time with Hero by Alethea Kontis. This also goes to my goal of reading more sequels, as it’s the follow-up to Enchanted.

Enchanted introduced us to the Woodcutter family, with their seven daughters, three sons, and penchant for stumbling into fairy tale situations. Hero focuses on Saturday, the sixth daughter. She’s spent her life out in the woods, felling trees with her father and brother, and dreaming of journeying in pursuit of a great destiny. A series of mishaps leads to Saturday’s arrival at the mountain at the Top of the World, where she meets Peregrine and Betwixt. Peregrine is an Earl’s son who was cursed by a witch’s daughter to assume her place on the mountain, and has been running around in masquerade (and a skirt) for uncounted years. Betwixt is a magical creature who frequently shifts shape, but always to something combining animals (like a chimaera or a gryphon). The three join forces to fight the witch, and the sleeping dragon under the mountain.

There’s quite a lot going on here…and I reduced half of it down to “a series of mishaps.” I had trouble with the first several chapters of this book. So much happens so quickly that I was beginning to get whiplash. But then Saturday arrives at the Top of the World, where time moves much more slowly than the rest of the world…and the book slows down too. Rarely do I talk about a book slowing down as a good thing, but this was exactly what Hero needed. The focus on only five characters on the mountain also helped…

In a way I had opposite problems to my experience with Enchanted–there, I rolled with the plot shifts but the romance felt insanely fast. Here, the plot shifts were more dizzying, but the romance felt better. The good news is that I still enjoyed both of these books!

The romance was not what I would call slow, but it still felt more like the normal YA book or chick flick speed. Peregrine does fall pretty quick (but there’s a magical explanation about these visions he’s been having…) and Saturday holds out for a while longer.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book is the gender-reversal of the two leads. Saturday is tall and strong and tough, a warrior who’s mistaken for her brother Jack. Peregrine is described as effeminate, and spends most of the book in a skirt. It’s a little vague on how much is who he really is, and how much is the curse, but it’s still the prevailing situation for most of the story. In some ways the book is somewhat heavy-handed on the subject, but hey, I’m always happy to see a fierce heroine in fairy tales!

My favorite part may be Betwixt, the shape-changing creature with a snarky wisdom. It seems to be a truth universally acknowledged that a hero in possession of a clever animal sidekick will find himself upstaged…

After a frenetic opening, Hero has a somewhat frenetic closing too, mostly (I think) setting up plot threads for the next book (which won’t be out for almost a year!) That seems to be the fate of second books in a trilogy, and I felt satisfied by the plot threads that did wrap up…and I guess I’ll just have to wait until February, 2015 for the rest!

Author’s Site: http://aletheakontis.com/

Other reviews:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
Good Books, Good Wine
The Book Smugglers
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Hero

Don’t forget, you can win a signed copy of my fairy tale retelling, The Wanderers! Just put #WanderersGiveAway in your comment to enter.

Classic Review: Silver Woven in My Hair

On March 26, 2014March 24, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Juvenile, Reviews5 Comments

I don’t know about you, but what with one thing and another, I find myself in a fairy tale mood! So until I have time to finish reading something fairy tale-related and review it for you, here’s a classic review of one of my very favorite retellings of Cinderella…

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I originally read Silver Woven in My Hair by Shirley Rousseau Murphy from the library when I was…maybe nine? I don’t really remember. Young. I read it several times, and then it somehow disappeared off the shelf. Miraculously, I remembered the title–I usually don’t. I usually remember something like, there was a bit in there where the girl is watching the royal family come back from the island and she sees the goatherd, and then she invites him into the kitchen at the inn to have dinner and it makes her stepfamily mad but he just laughs so it’s all right…oh and then they had a picnic later on in the book, and there was that really good part about the owner of the sword.

And that’s not going to help anyone find the story they’re looking for. But fortunately I remembered the title, and by the time I was in high school the wonderful world of online booksellers existed and I was able to buy Silver Woven in My Hair for my very own, and I spent an entire afternoon rereading the whole book. It was lovely.

It’s one of the best retellings of Cinderella I’ve ever read. It’s a story about Thursey, and her terrible stepfamily. The royal family was coming back from that island because they were there while the queen and the prince recovered from being captured in a war. Thursey’s father went to the war and never came back, so this Cinderella actually has a reason to stay where she is–even though she knows he’s probably never coming back, she can’t bring herself to leave, just in case.

Thursey doesn’t have a sparkly fairy godmother, but she does have friends who want to help her go to the ball at the palace. There’s Anwin the monk, and there’s Gillie the goatherd, who’s funny and charming–and very far from a sparkly fairy godmother. 🙂

I love that Thursey is a Cinderella who loves Cinderella stories. Her family runs an inn, and she collects stories from the travelers who pass through–all the different Cinderella stories from different cultures, Cendrillon and Aschenputtel and Catkin and so on. Even though Thursey’s life isn’t very good, she never stops dreaming. The ball is one aspect of the story, but Thursey’s dreams have a lot more substance than dancing a single night at a ball.

The characters, from Thursey to Gillie to the nasty stepfamily, are well-drawn and life-like. The story is very grounded in reality, in a practical world where dishes have to be washed and goats have to be fed and there’s none of the impossible and incomprehensible leaps that the original fairy tales often make. Yet there’s also something whimsical about the tale. For some reason the word “gossamer” keeps coming to mind, and I think it has to do with the writing style. Murphy has kept some of the poetry of the old tales, while giving us characters and a plot that are more substantial.

Silver Woven in My Hair isn’t exactly a fantasy…or it could be. Murphy leaves it up to the reader to decide whether some elements are really magic or not, and I’m not entirely sure what I think.

But even if you decide it’s not a fantasy, it’s definitely a magical story. And a marvelous tale.

Author’s Site: http://www.srmurphy.com/

Other reviews:
Ex Libris Draconis
Mel’s Desk
Anyone else? I am sad that this book is not better known…

Buy it here: Silver Woven in My Hair

What Are You Reading – and Give-Away!

On March 23, 2014September 27, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Novel News, What Are You Reading?5 Comments

It’s a busy week in the blogosphere, with Carl’s spring Once Upon a Time reading challenge starting on the 21st! As a fantasy reader, I have some books lined-up…and as a fantasy writer, I have another fun idea for celebrating fantasy in the spring. Since this is a What Are You Reading post, shall we start there? (And if you just want to know about the give-away, scroll on down to the second picture.)

With fantasy and fairy tale retellings on my mind, I’ve just started Hero by Alethea Kontis, sequel to Enchanted. Cramming together massive numbers of fairy tales, I look forward to picking out the different threads! I also have the last book in Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci series to read, The Pinhoe Egg, a fantasy novel that will finish my rereading of the series.

Mixing things up with some non-fantasy, I have Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness. I finally read The Knife of Never Letting Go a few weeks ago (a few years after it exploded all over the blogs I follow), went promptly on to the sequel, and am looking forward to the final installment of the trilogy. And in marked contrast to that dystopia read, I’m also midway through the nonfiction Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, all about how the mind works and why the things we expect to make us happy don’t–and vice versa.

Some nice variety, and a nice start to Once Upon a Time. And speaking of which…I decided to celebrate the fantasy reading season by also offering a give-away of my fairy tale retelling, The Wanderers. One winner will receive a signed copy of the paperback!* If you don’t already know you want to enter, here’s a little about the book:

You might recognize the landscape. You may think you know the rules. But you’ve strayed beyond the tales. Come join a wandering adventurer, a talking cat and a witch’s daughter as they fight monsters, pursue quests, and learn that sometimes, rules are no help at all.

The give-away will run from NOW until April 30th, so if the winner wants to read the book during the Once Upon a Time challenge, there will still be time. But how can you be that lucky person? 🙂 I’m doing this raffle-style, so you can enter multiple times, and multiple ways…

1) Leave a comment anywhere on my blog with the hashtag #WanderersGiveAway, for ONE entry per comment

2) Tweet using the hashtag for TWO entries per tweet

3) Mention the give-away on your blog (and send me a link) or on Facebook (and send me a screenshot) for FIVE entries

And if you want to comment during the next month without entering, I’ll just assume you already have a copy and ask no questions. 🙂

I think that covers all the bits of business today…don’t hesitate if you have questions, and don’t hesitate to enter! Now onward to the reading…

*Note for International Readers: Due to prohibitive shipping costs, I can’t mail a book outside of the United States–but I don’t want to bar my lovely readers from the UK, Canada and Australia (and if you’re from somewhere else, I’m sure you’re lovely too!) so if you win, I’ll send you the book direct from Amazon, and mail you a signature you can paste into it (or sell on eBay…whichever!)

Embarking for Fairylands…

On March 21, 2014March 23, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Ruminations23 Comments

My favorite reading challenge of the year is back again! Once Upon a Time, hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings, is a celebration of fantasy reading, especially with a fairy tale bent. As Carl put it in his launch post this year…

“…that still small voice is calling, “Come away…”

It is that voice that beckons us to Middle-earth and Newford, that calls out from the gap in the village of Wall and from the world of London Below. It is the voice that packs so much promise into four little words…

“Once upon a time…”

The “challenge” is low-key (hence my quotation marks) and focused more on the fun. No participation is too small, no pressure is involved! This will be my fourth year participating (!) and it’s begun to feel like a little reunion of bloggers every year, as old friends come out to share their posts. The “challenge” runs throughout spring, promising lots of good fantasy reading in the next three months.

Some years I’ve gone into this with a long list of books (and possibly a tall stack somewhere in my apartment) but this year I’m feeling a little more freeform. I’m hoping for some impetus to read more fairy tale retellings, a plan for this year that I haven’t fully pursued yet. Along those lines, I have Cress by Marissa Meyer on reserve at the library–#47 in line, so hopefully it will come before the challenge ends!

Beyond that, I want to finish up my rereading of Diana Wynne Jones’ Crestomanci series, and start a rereading of her Dalemark Quartet. And beyond that…I will see where the spirit moves, and expect to get many good ideas from what everyone else reads!

And if I might shamelessly self-promote for a moment–may I suggest that my novel about a wandering adventurer and a talking cat, adventuring through fairy tales, would be a perfect read for this challenge? 🙂 (Edited: And you may also want to investigate my give-away…)

Happy voyaging, wherever your reading takes you!

Enchanted by an Abundance of Fairy Tales

On March 19, 2014March 20, 2014 By cherylmahoneyIn Fantasy, Reviews, Ruminations, Young Adult10 Comments

I’ve been seeing Enchanted by Alethea Kontis float around book review blogs for a couple of years, and it’s been on my To Be Read list all that time. So have a lot of books, but I should have got to this one sooner, seeing as I have this thing about fairy tales…

The plot is, well, complicated. Sunday is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter (with three brothers besides). One day she meets a talking frog named Grumble. From there it’s “The Frog Prince,” which, upon Grumble’s restoration as Prince Rumbold, morphs into “Cinderella.” Plus there’s a wicked fairy, a couple of different threads relating to “Tam Lin,” a bit of “Snow White,” a changeling child, and did I mention there are pirates? Also a giant beanstalk, and a house shaped like a shoe…

According to the author’s note, and the evidence of the plot itself, Kontis set out to write a novel with as many elements of fairy tales as possible. She seems to have succeeded…creating a plot that is a very fun ride, although at times you do have to just throw up your hands and go with it.

Mostly I didn’t find that too difficult, and I was willing to roll with all the new developments. I mean, it’s an endless string of fairy tale elements. That’s fun!

I have to confess I had a little more trouble with the romance and some of the characters’ choices. Sunday and Grumble the frog fall in love very, very quickly. Then when Grumble turns back into Rumbold, he doesn’t tell Sunday that he was the frog…for reasons I never quite understood. There’s bad blood between their families, he thinks she won’t love him as a prince…so he invites her to three balls, which pretty much just shoves his princeliness in her face. I don’t quite understand that decision either. And yes, of course, Sunday falls in love with Rumbold very quickly too.

But, but, but–if you can suspend disbelief a bit, it is a fun ride. And very fast romances are a particular pet peeve of mine, so you might be far less bothered. Even I wasn’t bothered enough to not enjoy the book anyway. I mean, endless fairy tales references! Fun!

Author’s Site: http://aletheakontis.com/

Other reviews:
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
Charlotte’s Library
Katie’s Book Blog
Anyone else?

Buy it here: Enchanted