The Far West

The Far West by Patricia C. Wrede
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the third book of the Frontier Magic series, Eff joins an exploratory expedition headed west to map uncharted wilderness and discover what is pushing the dangerous medusa lizards ever closer to the settlement lands. No one has ever gone quite so far and lived to tell about it--certainly not the ill-fated Lewis & Clark explorers many years ago. What they find threatens to destroy everyone and everything they know and love if they can't come up with a plan to prevent a massive magical cataclysm.

I love Patricia Wrede's books! Only 2 things keep me from giving this one a 5-star rating: 1) It's obvious from the start that Eff will go on the journey but it takes her a ridiculously long time to see that. 2) Marriage proposals without so much as holding hands or kissing or anything first?! Wrede does a great job with characterization and is a master of using a tiny phrase, gesture, or pause to speak volumes, and I'm not saying there should be some big romantic subplot, but it's just not believable even in the cultural environment of this story that anyone would leap from friendship to proposing marriage without so much as a kiss!

For readers' advisors: character, story, and setting doorways. Squeaky clean read. Written for teens but great for adults, too.

View all my reviews

Across the Great Barrier

Across the Great Barrier by Patricia C. Wrede

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In the late 1850s, Eff takes a job as an assistant to the two professors at the college menagerie in Mill City. Her twin brother, Lan, wants her to go to college, but she doesn't think that is the right path for her. Instead, she accompanies Professor Torgeson and their guide Wash Morris on a survey of wildlife west of the Mammoth River, where they make some very interesting discoveries, including stone animal sculptures that are not sculptures at all.

I very much enjoyed book two in this series, although it's definitely leading up to book three, since some major plot threads are left hanging. But I liked watching Eff mature and learn more about her magic and how to use it.

For readers' advisory: story and character doorways, with setting also due to the alternative history aspect



View all my reviews

Snow White and Rose Red

Snow White And Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is definitely not Disney's Snow White. True, there is no sex or bad language, and violence is only discussed, not really depicted, but that's really where the similarities end. In Patricia C. Wrede's version of the classic fairy tale, Snow White and Rose Red are the daughters of a poor widow who ekes out a living by making herbal remedies to sell to the townsfolk. They live next to a forest, on the edge of the border of Faerie, in the Elizabethan era of England. Living in the village of Mortlak are two sorcerers whom the girls accidentally spy casting a spell that unwittingly traps the spirit of the younger son of the Queen of Faerie in first a lamp and then a crystal. The Queen's sons are half human/half faerie, and the human half slowly transforms into a bear which is then cast out into the human world. The Queen's older son, John, sneaks out of Faerie in search of a way to save his brother, Hugh, meanwhile a trio of human-hating faeries plots to steal the lamp and crystal and break the bonds holding Faerie to the mortal world.

The language is fabulous--very much how I think Elizabethan English might have sounded. Reading dialogue in the novel is like reading Shakespeare (and I mean that in a good way!), especially toward the end when the Puck-like character of Robin is introduced. It's delightful and really adds to the atmosphere of the story and setting.

So for Reader's Advisors, the main doorways are story and language. It's billed as a YA book, but adults will love it just as much--if not more--than teens.

View all my reviews >>

Thirteenth Child

Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this series (as soon as Patricia C. Wrede writes & publishes it, that is). It is a delightful story of a young girl growing up in an alternative U.S. in the late 19th century, where magic is ubiquitous and woolly mammoths share the wilderness with dragons. Eff is the thirteenth child--the seventh daughter and the older twin of the seventh son. Until her family moves to the frontier when she is five years old, Eff is tormented by some of her many relatives about being the unlucky #13, destined to turn bad. The psychological scars prove difficult to eradicate and cause Eff to be afraid of her own magical abilities, despite the encouragement of her teachers, parents, and friends.

Once I free up some bookshelf space, I will go buy myself a copy. I already want to reread it!

For reader's advisory purposes: character & story doorways, with setting an important factor, too.

View all my reviews >>