Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Ogiwara Noriko and translated by Cathy Hirano - When myth and fairy tales collide!

 Updated folklore/mythology is one of my favorite niche genres. The big thing for me to make these good though is you have to be able to recognize the original story. If the author has deviated so far from the original path that you really are only taking their word for it that they were truly inspired by a well-known folktale or myth then that's not really a retelling and in some cases, it really just feels like a cheap marketing ploy (there are unfortunately several extremely popular YA novels that feel like this). So I was incredibly happy when Dragon Sword and Wind Child was immediately recognizable as the Japanese Creation Myth and that her changes took it from a myth to a fairy tale. 

Saya is found wandering a forest near death as a young child, she is then taken in and adopted by an older couple. Over the years she finds her place in her new village but is plagued by nightmares of fire and a shrine priestess who terrifies her. On the night of the Hagai, a festival, Saya discovers that she is the Water Priestess of the People of Darkness a group who revere the Goddess of Death and one viewed with scorn and meets Prince Tsukishiro the demigod son of The God of Light hell-bent on the destruction of the Goddess of Death. Saya has a choice to make she can embrace her lineage and save her people or continue down the path of Light that she started those many years ago when she was found in the forest. Her decision will change the fate of the world. 

This was beautifully told. I feel like this could have become unnecessarily complicated and long-winded but Ogiwara keeps the complications to just what needs to be added to keep the tension going. And she does an exceptional job of creating and maintaining just the right amount of tension through Saya's indecisiveness, the pacing in this was really excellent, it never felt rushed or too slow. I found that the simplicity of the story was the best part though. The play of light against darkness, or in this case, immortality vs death and rebirth is something that is a complicated subject but Ogiwara keeps it simple using the impact on nature to explain it. This topic alone could have become a really long drawn-out philosophical debate between the opposing forces but she avoids that which makes this book perfect for its demographic. 

In terms of the characters I absolutely hated Saya at the beginning, but through really exceptional character progression she goes from kind of whiny, indecisive, and a little bit of an entitled brat to a strong and courageous young woman at the end. However, I have to say that Chihaya was my favorite character. We don't get a lot of dialogue from him but from what we do we can gradually see the change that he is undergoing from a God of Light to a human with emotions. 

The ending of this totally had a Ponyo vibe though. Seriously, if you've watched Ponyo's Mom nicely but firmly tells Ponyo's dad to stop being an ass and she's already made a decision so he might as well accept it and the conversation between The Goddess of Death and the God of Light at the end pretty much goes the same exact way. Outside of the Ponyo vibe though the way this is wrapped up was very well done. Earlier in the book Chihaya is told that either he will have to kill his father (the God of Light) or his father will kill him, what that actually looks like in the end is not what I expected at all but is the perfect fairy tale ending. 

Overall I enjoyed this immensely and I'm looking forward to reading the next couple of books in the series.

The Honjin Murders by Yokomizu Seishi - A classic locked room mystery!

 I have something like six hundred books on my Thriftbooks wishlist so when I order books from them I just kinda pick randomly, but sometimes I end up with a bunch of say murder mysteries at once or fantasy books at once, or young adult books at once...I think you get the point. So I started adding some rules. One of which is that one book has to be written before 1984 (the year I was born) and this was what I picked under that rule. Once I got it I added it to Goodreads and noticed that the star rating on this one was pretty low but it's also considered a classic in JP so I figured that there may be some translation issues and went in with as open a mind as possible. I am happy to say I was not only not disappointed but I've found a new series to read!

Kenzo Ichiyanagi is the middle-aged head of the Ichiyangi family, a respected family in their home of village Okamura who decides to marry a much younger woman from a family of tenant farmers. His entire family is against the marriage but he knows that if he simply holds out they will eventually grant him permission to marry and they do. After holding a surprisingly small wedding ceremony given the Ichiyangi's status in the village the entire family heads to bed in the early morning hours, only for the night to be shattered by screams and the unmistakable sounds of a Koto being played chaotically. The entire family including Ginzo the bride's Uncle rushes to the annex building where the newlyweds are sleeping. They discover the entire building locked up tight and the couple not answering them. Finally, they are able to enter the room to discover a horrifying scene, the couple is dead, killed by a sword. Everyone is horrified and puzzled at once. How did the killer get out? As Ginzo's suspicions of the Ichiyanagi family mount he calls in Detective Kosuke Kindaichi to solve the crime. 

This was really such a great who done it! Up until Kindaichi dramatically explains the murders I had absolutely no idea how the killer had gotten out of the locked room or who the killer even was for that matter. It became pretty clear early on that the person that was set up to look like the killer probably wasn't, there was just too much evidence against him but who it could have actually been was anyone's guess. And I was totally blown away by the answer! Never even crossed my mind. 

Kindaichi was absolutely amazing too, he may be one of my new favorite detectives. If you watch anime and you've watched Case File n221 (yes, I can relate almost any book back to an anime it's a gift. Also, if you haven't watched Case File n221 it's a pretty amazing version of Sherlock.) it's hard not to imagine that Sherlock isn't a little bit based on Kindaichi. While Kindaichi doesn't do his big reveal by putting on a rakugo play, he shares the same kind of glee in solving the crime along with a clear love of dramatics. 

Overall I found the simplicity of Yokomizo's writing to be such a wonderful break from some of the more needlessly complicated murder mysteries I've read recently, instead of making a long and complicated tale Yokomizo makes the story itself rather short with an incredibly complicated murder which I found to be the best place for complications and dramatics. Unfortunately, it seems only certain books from this series have been translated (it appears the sixth book in the Japanese series is the second book in the English translation) so I'm hoping that the entire series will eventually be translated but in the meantime, I am definitely going to be picking up what books have been translated in this series. 

The Fervor by Alma Katsu - A prime example of why humans are the most terrifying things on the planet

 

There are different levels of scary right? Humans are, as far as I'm concerned the highest level of scary as compared to any monster, ghost, demon, etc. Racist shotgun-wielding humans are at the tippy top of the scary level because their hatred makes absolutely no fucking sense. So as a warning to those who may read this because you are looking for a good scary book with a jorogumo like I was, the yokai was the least scary thing about this book. Oh, and it was excellcent. 

The year is 1944, Meiko and her daughter Aiko are living in a Japanese internment camp while Jaime, Meiko's white husband is doing his duty as a citizen of the U.S. and fighting over the Pacific after Jaime's best friend betrays them. Besides having a white husband Meiko is also issei (a Japanese immigrant to Japan) unlike most of her other neighbors in the camp who nissei or first gen Japanese American, this fact combined with her white husband and a tangled past with one of the Japanese leaders of the camp means Meiko and her daughter are looked down upon by their neighbors. It doesn't help that Aiko has become obsessed with yokai drawing terrifying images of the Japanese demons over and over again. One day a U.S. Army Truck shows up and Aiko warns Meiko that there is a demon in the truck and people will die. Meiko doesn't believe her daughter, of course, but as the people around her start to sicken and tempers flare Meiko realizes that something is very wrong in the internment camp and it will be up to her to stop it if she is to save herself, her daughter, and her people. 

Katsu uses the idea of people being infected with hatred through the bite of a spider brilliantly, weaving the tale of Jorogumo into the rampant hatred the Japanese faced during WWII. By telling th story interchangeably between Meiko, her husband's best friend, and betrayer Archie, her daughter Aiko, and Fran a woman way ahead of her time she is able to paint a picture from several different points of view in terms of the decision to place American citizens in internment camps and how that affected those in the camps and those who choose to follow the crowd instead of doing the right thing. She also brings up many aspects of internment that were internal to the Japanese; the class differences, the Japanese viewing interracial marriages very much the same way white people at the time did, the cultural propensity to simply follow orders, and the internal struggles that came from these things individually that may be new to many Westerners. 

The only thing that I have a complaint about is that I *really* was looking forward to Jorogumo being unleashed and that's not really what happened so I didn't get to read a book about Yokai wreaking havoc in the Pacific Northwest (that place I call home) however this was such an important comment on how fear and ignorance leads to hatred and how quickly those things can spread that I'll forgive the author for getting my hopes up. This also was clearly a work that was extremely personal to Katsu and I appreciate her taking the time to write something so close to her own family and I appreciate her family members for allowing her to share their story with us even in a fictional manner. 

I want to thank Netgalley and the people at Penguin Group for the eArc to this exceptional book!

Midnight in Everwood by M.A. Kuzniar - A Sugary Sweet retelling of The Nutcracker

 The Nutcracker is one of my favorite stories, my Grammy would read it to me in the days leading up to Christmas every year when I was a child and as an adult, I kept that tradition up with my own children. So when I saw that someone was making a mature retelling I knew I had to read it. 

Marietta is a privileged Edwardian young woman living in Nottingham. She wants for absolutely nothing materially and yet she is unsatisfied with her life. The only thing that gives her true happiness, that gives her a true sense of freedom is ballet and her father has determined that after a Christmas recital that will be taken from her as well. Shortly before Christmas, a mysterious stranger enters her life, a Mr. Drosselmeyer from Germany and he quickly becomes enraptured with Marietta assuring her that he will make her his own, he casts Marietta into a world of magic, wonder, and violence hellbent on bending her to his will. What Drosselmeyer didn't count on is Marietta forging bonds with two women of incredible strength. And that they will turn the tables on Drosselmeyer. 

I have to say the one big complaint I have with this book right away. It was maybe too sickenly sweet (quite literally). The descriptions of this over-the-top world of confections and pastries were absolutely magical at first, but then about halfway through the book, I decided that I never wanted to eat sweets again.  Everything was just drenched in chocolate or marzipan (lots of freaking marzipan, I think it's actually when Marietta's hair is done with marzipan in it that I actually decided that I wasn't going to eat a sweet again for a very long time). Like we get it Marietta is stuck in Candyland Hell.  

Okay moving on. I enjoyed this retelling, in terms of creating a mature Nutcracker Kuzniar hit the mark. I do wish there had been a bit more character development, we learn about each of the characters in Everwood's backstories through the course of conversations Marietta has with each of them and they really are very short bursts. They certainly serve their purpose in explaining each character's motivation but I don't feel like we got a complete picture of each of them. Especially, the Soldier, Captain Legat, and even The Mouse King himself. 

Overall this was a good book I just wish the author had maybe done less with describing the scenes and more with the characters themselves.

February's Reading List

    Am I a little late posting this? Yes. Do I care? Actually, yes as I didn't get through as many of the books as I had wanted to last month. I got through about half though so I'd say that's pretty good. And to be fair I read a ton more on top of that as well so that's saying something. I'll be carrying over The Monk, The Taoist I Ching, and a Bond Undone for this month and adding a couple of more. The new additions are eArcs, so some aren't published yet but when currently available for purchase I'll add that information. 

Time travel, Edgar Allen Poe, and a murder mystery, I don't believe that you can go very wrong with that set up so I'm looking forward to reading this one! This is also currently available for sale and you can pick it up Here  

I've probably said it before but I'll say it again I love retellings and the Nutcracker is one of my favorite stories of all time. It is one of those stories that I have truly fond memories of, so a new updated version of this classic is right up my alley. I'm about halfway through it currently so hopefully, a review will be forthcoming. You can also grab a copy of this one currently Here

This is a short story so I really have no excuse for not reading this yet. Actually, I will probably kick it out today because it's probably the most unique book on my TBR list currently. This one can also be purchased Here

I'd honestly never heard of this until I saw the show on Netflix, which I enjoyed immensely so I'm really looking forward to reading this. This is an eArc you can pre-order it though over Here

That rounds out my list, given that it's already the 14th though I highly doubt I'll get through all of them though, especially given how many I carried over from last month. 

I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss by Nagase Sarasa AND The Faraway Paladin by Kanata Yanagino - An Isekai light novel double posting!

     I kicked out a couple of light novels yesterday that I had sitting on my Kindle so this will review will actually be two books, they are both Isekai's, although they are vastly different from each other in terms of storyline and characters. On that note on to the reviews!

Aileen D'Autriche seems to have everything going for her, she's engaged to the Crown Prince, beautiful, and spoiled. Life is pretty good. Until Lilia, the Sacred Maiden ruins everything for her by stealing away her fiance and it seems possibly her life as Aileen has realized that she hasn't always been Aileen. Remembering her past life as a sickly Japanese girl who died far too young she realizes she's been reborn into one of her favorite Otome games as the villainess. With only three months to go before she dies at the hands of the Demon King Aileen sets out to change the game. Along the way she finds allies, love (of course), and that Lilia isn't the noble heroine she appears to be.

I love isekai so it wasn't too surprising that I enjoyed this, what I enjoyed the most has to be how actually evil the "heroine" really turns out to be. Plus, it makes you wonder did Aileen's actions cause the heroine to become evil or was always hiding her less than heroic personality behind a legend that assumes she's good because in the legend the Sacred Maiden is good.

I also enjoyed Aileen's character because of her take no shit attitude. It does seem to have developed because of her status as the youngest child and her father's overbearing personality but it made this much more enjoyable to read. She never takes anything lying down. And when dealing with the likes of her ex and Lilia that's an important personality trait to have.

The *only* issue I had with this was that sometimes it was difficult to follow who was saying what in the dialogue. I had to reread portions enough time that normally since such a small issue would garner this a 4.5 stars rounded to 5 but it happened so often that I'm giving it 4. The other thing is I really wished there was more about Claude (the Demon King) in this. I hope the next book will center a little bit more on Claude because he seems like he could be a really interesting and complex character given his backstory.

It's hard not to compare this to My Next Life as a Villainess and while I love that one I found this to be just a little bit more mature and just a tiny bit better than it, that being said if you liked My Next Life as a Villainess I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy this. I'd heard about the green light for an anime as well so after reading this I'm really looking forward to it!

And of course thanks to NetGalley and Yen Press!

Will wakes up in the body of an infant, he recalls a past life where not only do both of his parents die but he saw himself as a failure of a son due to his being a shut-in. What's worse is not only does he know that he himself has died, as well, but his new guardians are a mummy, a ghost, and a skeleton. Being an adult for all intents and purposes trapped in an infant's body is bad enough being unable to protect himself against the undead is even worse. Survival instincts quickly take over though and Will if not embracing his situation makes the best of it.

As he ages, he finds his new guardians to not only be wonderful caretakers but finds the family that he recalls rejecting in his previous life in them. He loves them and would do anything to protect them, even sacrifice himself.

So I watched the anime of this (or at least part of it) a bit ago, to be honest, I didn't really remember watching it until I started reading this and I was like, "Huh this is so familiar! Have I already read it?" What that says about the anime I won't say right now as it's been long enough since I watched it that a re-watch is in order. That being said, one thing I do remember though is that the anime is extremely in line with the book, which if you are an old school anime fan like myself, who got stuck watching pieced together and/or highly/censored anime in the 90's you know that no matter how long it's been since production companies here in the states embraced that fans want the original uncut versions of these shows it's still nice to see it happening.

What I don't recall though is this being a pretty mature isekai discussing Will's depression during his first life, causing him to be a shut-in (or a NEET) and how relatable much of what he says regarding this time is. Especially considering that most of us have been stuck in some sort of quarantine or another for the last couple of years. At one point Will says that he was "Alive but not living." and that statement really resonated with me.

Gus, Mary, and Blood are wonderful characters as well. I'm 100% sure Will having undead "parents" is what drew me to the anime in the first place, it's a very unique (not necessarily original but definitely unique) concept in terms of family groupings. But honestly, they are such great parents! They are loving and supportive in the best possible ways and as a parent definitely the type of parents that I strive to be.

All in all, this was a fantastic book and I'll be picking up the second one. This is a reprint of the original publication (2016) and I think this was perfect timing given the storyline. Will gives a voice to the kind of despair many of us have felt during the quarantine. Honestly, the only drawback I found was that because I had watched the anime I wasn't as compelled to read it as I think I would have been otherwise. Like I said the anime follows the book rather well so sometimes I'd feel like skipping over things that I remembered vividly from the anime. That is definitely no fault of the books though.

And I want to thank Edelweiss and J-Novel Club for allowing me to read this fantastic light novel!

Call of the Bone Ships by R.J. Barker - Joron Twiner is my hero.

At the end of the first book in the Tide Child series I just kinda teared up, at the end of this one of was full-on crying. Not bawling mind you, however, given the progression of the tear factor I have a feeling I'll be bawling at the end of the third one.

The second book finds us back on the Tide Child with Lucky Meas and Joron Twiner and their whole crew dedicated to the cause of peace within the Hundred Isles. Our heroes (cause that's what they are) find a ship floundering and being the heroes they stop to assist. To their horror, they find a hold full of half-dead people and gullaime in the hold of the ship. This and the discovery that Safe Harbor, a free island intermixing peoples from both The Hundred Isles and the Gaunt Islands has been destroyed and the people living there taken captive, sets our daring crew off on a mission to discover just what Meas's mother has planned for these poor souls. The answer is far more horrific than anyone could have possibly imagined.

Joron Twiner and Gullaime have been officially established as two of my favorite characters of all time after finishing this book. Joron's character growth has been one of the many reasons I've enjoyed this series so much. Watching him go from an alcoholic with a death wish to a respected Deck Keeper has been inspirational. In this book, we discover that Gullaime harbors a secret that could literally destroy the world and I've enjoyed watching its relationship with Joron blossom because of this as well. They are a pair of unlikely heroes. 

The second book also builds on the world and lore, mythology as well without being I guess overbearing. We discover little bits and pieces of the puzzle that make up what the Caller is and even Meas's role in that lore/mythology as well as the story unfolds. It's just not all thrown at us at once. And I enjoy that. There is actually a lot going on in this book, sure there is the big bad, Meas's mom and the others in power who want to continue the wars, as well as the evolving of the relationships between the characters and the development of the characters as individuals. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this in the review of the first book but even if I did I think it bears repeating that I almost didn't buy the first one. Every time I walked into Barnes and Noble I'd pick it up, read the back, and put it down. Wash, rinse, repeat for months. It was finally my husband who added it to my stack because he said I obviously wanted to read it. I'm eternally grateful he did. The Tide Child series isn't the "perfect" fantasy series but it's damn close. Barker has created a world like none that I've read before. His character development is almost flawless. The pacing of the books (so far) has been spot on. I do not believe I could find anything wrong with these books even if I wanted to, which I don't because they have become one of my favorite things of all time. So if you've been sitting on this one I really cannot recommend it enough. 

On one hand, I really can't wait to finish this series up on the other hand I've thoroughly enjoyed my time in this world so I'll be sad once I finish the last book and leave it.

Neil Gaiman's Chivalry Illustrated by Colleen Doran - This was such a wonderful pick me up after a long day!

 

This was an adorably funny story about an old woman who comes across the Holy Grail in a thrift shop. Deciding it would look perfect on her mantle she purchases it and brings it home only to have Sir Galahad show up looking for it. Bartering ensues. 

I loved the story, I laughed out loud several times and Mrs. Whitaker was such a sweetheart. But I think what I really loved the most about this was actually Doran's explanation of what a labor of love this was at the end. I truly appreciated it more after reading that. Especially just how much thought she had put into the art styles she would use. And it all paid off beautifully because the illustrations are wonderful! I think the styles that she finally settled on fit the story perfectly!

A huge thank you to Edelweiss and Penguin Random House for the eArc of this graphic novel! 

An Illustrated Guide to Welsh Monsters and Mythical Beasts by Collette J. Ellis - A simply beautiful book

 

I try to keep my New Years Resolutions pretty simple, things I know I'm going to accomplish so I'm not setting myself up for failure. My 2022 resolutions were therefore to read more books on Folklore and mythology from across the globe as I previously really only focused on Japanese mythology (Japanese history was my major in college at one point so their mythologies and folklore were easy to focus on) and to finish reading the many "classic" books I own. I've done a pretty good job keeping up with the Folklore/mythology portion of that resolution and this was such a delightful little book that helped me further it. 

    It really is just a short high-level overview of the various monsters, spirits, and beasts that make up the mythology of Wales and of course, the Arthurian legend however it was still highly informative for only being fifty-two pages long. Many of these creatures would be familiar to most people through either their own culture's versions of them or through pop culture references ranging from books (of course) to video games. I found it extremely interesting that a lot of the monsters found in many of my favorite video game franchises have their origins in these tales and I kinda can't wait to replay many of them with the new knowledge acquired from this book! 

   The forward and introduction to this book I found to be possibly one of the best I've read in books of this nature. I'm not a big person on quotes but I found two that I believed were important enough to include here and really whenever speaking on these topics in the introduction by Sian Powell The first was "There should never be a "correct" version of a story or single description of a monster."  And honestly, I feel on one level that is self-explanatory and yet such an important distinction to make. Being an avid gamer I will never get the giant balls of evil fluff that make up the Cockatrices in the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise. They are actually some of my favorite monsters in the game. You'd be hard-pressed however to find some similarity between Ellis's Cockatrices and Square-Enix's and that's kind of what makes these monsters wonderful. We all have different versions of them in our heads. And they are all "correct". 

    In the next paragraph, Powell expands upon this idea "One of my favourite things about folklore is that similar stories and creatures can be found in various cultures across the world. This is proof to me that human beings are linked by a key motivation, storytelling and the oral tradition, no matter where we are from. But for all that beauty in similarity, there is also the danger of loss if we do not celebrate some of the differences too." Again, rather self-explanatory but an important distinction to make. The loss of culture I believe begins with the loss of a culture's folklore and mythology. These stories, fairy tales to us today, are the basis for many of the morals and values that a culture possesses. I also believe that they make up the "heart" of a culture so to speak. If we ignore celebrating the distinctions between these then we risk losing the culture that created them, no matter how similar one culture's folklore may be to another's the differences are what marks them as being distinctly theirs. And that should be celebrated and even cherished. 

And I cannot write a review of this without mentioning the gorgeous art included. Ellis was able to capture the snarl of a dragon and the terrifying visage of the Angelystor beautifully. Her Morgen (mermaid) is quite possibly one of the coolest depictions of a mermaid I've ever seen. Honestly, it's truly badass and I want a print of it. I have to say though the drawings that stood out the most to me though were any that included winged creatures, they are incredibly detailed and her drawing of a Pooka is by far my favorite in the book, to be fair on that count Pooka are some of my favorite little faes so I am a tad bit bias but still. 

I honestly cannot wait to purchase this book and I want to thank Edelweiss and the people at Eye of Newt publishing for the eArc, this book was truly a treat! 

The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcy Coates - A ghost story, wrapped up in a murder mystery, wrapped up in a giant hug!

 

First of all, I just want to say that the title of this book is very clever. One of those where you get to a certain point in the book and you say, "Ahh you sly fox I see what you did there." and it ups your enjoyment of the book immensely. So really like two of those stars are simply there because of the cleverness of the title in relation to the content of the book. The rest are because it's a ghost story wrapped up in a murder mystery wrapped up in a giant hug. 

Leigh Harker lives alone, just as she likes it in her giant home; made for a family of far more than one. Estranged from her sister she lives a solitary existence of routine, heading to work at the same time every day and returning home at the same time to sit down to her TV dinner, a cup of tea, and her one hobby of quilt making. She's lived in her home for fifteen years, has always felt she was at home there but that suddenly changes one night when the "Intruder" appears. The Intruder is the very thing nightmares are made of; long-dead gray hair, gnarled hands, white dead eyes, and a mouth full of terrifying teeth it makes the climb up Leigh's stairs every night to her bedroom door where it harasses her, forcing her to finally take refuge in her living room. After days of this Leigh has had enough and she decides that she and the Intruder are going to have a stand-off. Leigh's life is never the same afterward. 

Coates's take on what a "haunting" is was original, even as you start to understand that not all is what it seems in Leigh's home it's still a complete shock when you realize what has been going on. There are just enough red herrings thrown out to keep the book moving forward without losing any of the spooky atmospheres that center around the house that the two main characters love dearly. 

A big drawback for me to a lot of ghost stories is there is at least one time where I am screaming at the protagonist that they are doing something incredibly stupid and that does happen a lot at the beginning of the book and Coates manages to turn that on its head when the explanation as to why Leigh does or does not do something comes about. It's really quite brilliant actually. 

For me, though it's the Happy Ending (as with most of my books). I've found that the few of Coates's books that I have read (I plan on reading more I just never seem to get around to it) are somehow terrifying but still manage to be incredibly sweet and heartwarming. A few years ago I stumbled across a book of Victorian Ghost Stories written by Women (I swear that's the actual title or pretty damn close), there were terrifying yes, but they all had some sort of heartwarming endearment to them in the end. The dead soldier who terrifies the neighborhood who was just coming home to apologize to his father, a mother who died but had something to tell her daughter. Stuff like that. Coates's books (the ones I have read) seem to very much be in the same vein. There is more to them than just trying to scare you into never sleeping again. 

I would highly recommend it to anyone that loves a good ghost story or even a murder mystery because that's what it truly is at its heart. Sure yeah, there's ghosts and a terrifying house that may or may not be evil but really that's just window dressing to a murder mystery with an ending that even though I picked out who the killer was as soon as they were presented I could not for the life of me figure out how the hell Coates was going to make it work. Blew my freaking mind because it was such a simple explanation and yet I never even thought of it.

The Shadows Between Us - So Cheesy It was Adorable!

 

Alessandra is sick to death of a lot of things; she's sick of playing second fiddle to her beautiful but empty-headed sister, she's sick of her father using his daughters as a form of currency, and she's sick of living in a kingdom that allows these things to happen. So Alessandra has a plan and it only has three simple steps: 

1. Woo the King, which should be easy for her men as fall at her feet. 

2. Marry the King. This is simply the next natural step after the wooing. 

3. Kill the King and take the Throne. She's already killed once this should be easy enough.

What Alessandra doesn't count on is ending up in a palace crawling with people who want to see the King dead for their own reasons, a curse on the King that makes it almost impossible to kill him anyway, and oh yeah she actually likes him. 

Everything about this book is just way over the top. Alessandra tries so hard to be a villainess but it's pretty obvious early out that whether she's already committed a murder or not she just cares too damn much about the people she cares about to actually be a villainess. Her "evil queen" (to steal a phrase from the summary) is obviously a defense mechanism developed because she lives in a society that doesn't value women outside of their ability to produce heirs and look pretty. I absolutely love her. She's intelligent, witty, and funny. She knows exactly who she is as a person and while she has the huge defensive wall built she's not so insecure to not let it down around people that she cares about. 

Kallias (the Shadow King) has just as much inner turmoil. The curse that protects his life and grants him damn near-immortality also ensures he can not touch another human if he wants to live. That in itself has to be a mindfuck of epic proportions. You can live a thousand years but you can't even hug anyone? Not worth it from my perspective. His parents the King and Queen are brutally murdered by someone in his own court so now not only can he not touch anyone he can't trust anyone to boot. He fumbles repeatedly in dealing with his growing feelings for Alessandra in a way that is a very well-done real representation of how a nineteen-year-old trying to come to terms with a seriously tragic past would deal with falling in love. 

And yes while this book does touch on the important topic of women's rights to sleep with as many or as few people as they want without having to worry about society judging them for it, however, it is very superficial and honestly, at first, I thought it would annoy me but in the end, I found it to be a refreshing way to address these topics. It's not right that women are judged by a different set of standards on this topic, everyone knows that so a deep commentary really isn't needed. 

On the I suppose "side story" of the assassins other than Alessandra out to kill the king, maybe it was because I was so wrapped up in Alessandra and Kallias's story that I didn't pay enough attention, or maybe it was because I really fucking liked the guy who ends up being the assassin but I was thoroughly shocked when the who and why was revealed in terms of the assassin. I didn't see it coming at all. And I really did love this character so I was thoroughly pissed off when he ended up being an evil bastard. 

Overall, this is actually a book that I normally would have stopped reading pretty quickly. Too much romance, not enough story, superficially covering important topics; I could go on. However, I found that I thoroughly enjoyed it. But just really as a heads up if you go into this expecting anything other than an adorable, amusing, read with the depth of a kiddie pool you are going to be seriously disappointed. This is definitely a "I've had a bad day, I need to laugh, eat some ice cream, and not think too much" book. 

Dunmoor - A Gothic Letdown

 

I can't say this was the biggest letdown of my life but it was definitely a letdown. Our story surrounds Lady Helena Winters, after a less than great marriage to Drake Winters, a poet, he has now disappeared off the face of the Earth, the rumors are he's run off with one of the many women he cheated on Helena with. This being the early 19th century she is beyond embarrassed by the whole thing and has kind of become a hermit. And while Lady Winters is nursing her wounds at her father's home her father gets an invite from Lucas Lennox, he has just recently purchased Dunmoor from Lord Winters (before he disappeared) and is turning it into an orphanage, he's invited Helena's father to a ball to raise funds for his orphanage and her father in turn has invited Helena and one of her friends to attend. Helena is not exactly excited by the proposition but attends anyway. 

Dunmoor itself has a dark history; originally owned by some friars it lost its status thanks to Henry VIII and rumor has it that friars made a deal with the devil to keep anyone from ever living there, happily at least. Weird things begin to happen almost as soon as everyone arrives and it's up to Helena and a cast of characters to save the orphanage from the curse. 

Or something like that. Let me be clear there is not only a curse that has created some sort of evil ents that are able to invade the house itself, there's a cult that sacrifices people to the evil ents, there are weird women who emerge from a fountain who are also evil ents (?), there's sex trafficking of children, there's Helena's missing husband (who was abused by the cult) and who was also in an incestuous relationship with his sister, and there is an eccentric old lady who is by blood bound to the cult who is trying to bring them down. Oh and just as an addition Helena's friend disappears halfway-ish in the book after the most anti-climatic coach robbery in the history of mankind. There is so much going on in this book it's hard to enjoy it. And since there is so much going on there's really very little character or plot development. To be honest though even if the author had picked just one lane and stayed in it I don't believe I would have enjoyed this anymore. I simply didn't connect with any of the characters or the story for that matter. 

And let me just go on a small rant on the women that emerge from the fountain that may or may not be the tree monsters. In the first scene that these women appear you very much get a Lady of the Lake vibe, not even playing I kinda thought they were gonna hand Luke a sword and be like, hey cut down the evil forest with this. They are, of course, naked, and apparently, they have some sort of Double Team move (yes, I just made a reference to a Pokemon move) because they go from three women to six in like thirty seconds. They show up later on and turn into a tree monster thing and are set on fire. But they come out of the fucking water so how in the hell are they also super flammable!? I do not like these things at all in terms of "monsters". They aren't scary and they make no sense at all. 

Whew, sorry had to get that off of my chest. Moving on. 

The biggest let down though was the fact that this wasn't really scary at all. The whole creepy forest thing is less creepy and more, oh dear god will someone just set it on fire and be done with it. There are a few instances where a character mentions that a new vine has popped up and I seriously kinda wanted to just toss my Kindle after a while because really no one even tries to just chop down these damn vines. Don't know about you but if a demonic forest was trying to get into my house I'd take an ax to it for starters. In terms of the human bad guys in the cult, they are pathetically stereotypical; they stand around in circles chanting weird crap in black robes and are easily dispatched at the end of the book. And when the eccentric old lady finally explains the whole story about the cult and the tree monsters it's pointless you've already pieced it all together. 

Overall this will be my last stop in Dunmoor, I know there are two more books in this series but I just can't do it. I think it should have concluded with this one. The forest is gone, Helena and Luke are gonna get married while raising Lucy's baby, and they'll run the best damn orphanage around. Everyone's happy and the author can't add in seven more freaking topics to an already convoluted storyline.