Princess Pulverizer: Grilled Cheese and Dragons

Grilled Cheese and Dragons by Nancy E. Krulik
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A spoiled brat princess hates her teacher and her Royal School of Ladylike Manners. She wants to go to Knight School instead because that looks way more fun. Her father tells her she can go to Knight School on the condition that she will first go out into the world and do eight good deeds, bringing back proof of each. This proves harder than she imagined, since honor, kindness, and sacrifice are not her strong suits, but eventually she gets an ogre to capture her so she can try and retrieve the jewels he stole and return them to their rightful owner. Along the way, she grudgingly teams up with a Knight School dropout and his dragon friend who wants to be a chef. One down, seven more good deeds to go!

I bought this book for my daughter, and it's pretty cute. I like how the self-centered princess (very) slowly begins to think of others, which bodes well for the later books in the series. I do wish Lady Frump and the ogre weren't basically caricatures of stereotypes, but perhaps they might be given depth and nuance later on in the series? I won't hold my breath on that, though.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character secondary. Very fast-paced. Good for showing that not everyone fits neatly in predetermined gender (or species) roles, and even misfits have strengths to contribute.

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The Princess in Black and the Giant Problem

The Princess in Black and the Giant Problem by Shannon Hale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's a quiet, snowy winter day and time for a superhero playdate, when suddenly the fun is interrupted by a giant who starts squashing everything and doesn't respond to the usual superhero tactics. What to do? Call in reinforcements, of course! Soon the Princess in Black, Princess in Blankets, and the Goat Avenger are joined by not just their superhero friends, but also 8 NEW superhero friends and animal sidekicks. Together they trap the giant in a giant-sized twine playpen, and the giant starts to...cry??

My kids and I love the theme of friendship and collaboration, and it's fun to see the silly combination of disguises the new friends come up with. You don't learn anything much about the new characters, but that may come in future installments in the series.

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Bloom of the Flower Dragon

Bloom of the Flower Dragon: A Branches Book by Tracey West
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My kids loved this book; I was bored out of my mind and annoyed to boot. These stories are quite formulaic, which bothers my kids not a whit. I wouldn't mind so much if the formula was better--I'm really not on board with the 8-year-olds-save-the-world-completely-without-grownup-supervision concept.

In this iteration of it, Drake and Worm transport Ana and Kepri to some mountains where there are tiny dragons living in a field of flowers near a village but somehow without the villagers knowing about it. The dragon stone chose a blond boy to be the dragon master for the tiny dragon who first came to Bracken to ask for help. The "twist" this time is that the blond boy is rude to this little dragon because he's not thrilled the dragon is small, and he doesn't want to help because he's determined to go search for his missing father instead. Lovely.

A seer has predicted the imminent arrival of a monster, so the children go off to the field and figure out that Kepri can use sunshine powers to charge up the tiny dragons so they can basically hypnotize & heal the monster, which turns out to be a werewolf-type creature--i.e. a human who ate the wrong berries & morphed into a murderous beast. Most adults will be able to guess this outcome of this story.

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Once More Upon a Time

Once More Upon a Time by Roshani Chokshi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm having a hard time deciding on a rating for this one because on the one hand, it was an absolutely delightful second-chance romance tale of a young King Ambrose and Queen Imelda whose love was taken away by a curse the day after they married, in exchange for saving Imelda's life. To rule their tiny kingdom, they must love each other, however, so they were forced out after a year and a day had passed. Only then, on a quest to steal a potion from one witch to give to another, do they discover that though they no longer remember being in love, there never was anything preventing them from falling in love all over again. They simply wasted that year. The journey they undertake together is both literal and figurative, with plenty of personal growth and adventurous escapes from carnivorous beds, enchanted animals, and potion-wielding witches. Both the narrator (the witch) and a cloak that thinks it's a horse provide plenty of humor along the way.

On the other hand, I somehow forgot it was a novella and was unpleasantly startled when the book ended just as it was getting going. This really would have been better as a full-length novel, in my opinion. Not because I think the romance needed to take any longer to rekindle, but because there was so much more story to be told of how they found their way once it was and adjusted to their newly realized heart's desires. Their healing from adolescent traumas was just beginning, and I wanted to stay with these characters as they built something new.

But Goodreads doesn't allow half stars, so I think I'll round up to 4 because I really did enjoy the novella until there were no more pages.

For readers' advisors: character and language doorways are primary, but setting is strong as well, since it's beautifully written, humorous fantasy based on the fairy tale of the dancing princesses. Though the target audience is adults, it works for older teens as well. It's steamy, but the one sex scene happens off-screen. No real gritty violence or profanity that I can recall.

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Kill the Farm Boy

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars 

This is a fantasy novel that takes many of the usual tropes and turns them upside down: the Chosen One is not a innocent farm boy (saying who it *is* would be a spoiler); Fia, the warrior, hates the bikini chain mail she begins the story wearing; the Dark Lord isn't very dark; the rogue is both female and not very good at sneaking or questing; the witch isn't really wicked; the quest goes sideways constantly and for unusual reasons (both helpful and not); there are allusions to pop culture (Nardstromp's department store at the Goblin Market, artisan cheese and crackers), and so on. The authors were clearly having a great deal of fun writing the story, and it's very entertaining but not as riotously funny as I was expecting (which is not the authors' fault, just a fact of how other readers/reviewers had hyped the book). I am looking forward to the next books in the series, though!

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character and setting are secondary. Characters have various skin tones/colors, although the fictional world of Pell and its surrounds doesn't map culturally to our own. There is some creative language throughout, especially from Argabella the bard, who likes to say words like "Shoutful," "Songful," and "Deadful." Argabella and Fia have a very sweet romance. There is quite a lot of violence, but it's not graphic--often more absurd than anything. A few main characters don't survive the quest.

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Chill of the Ice Dragon

Chill of the Ice Dragon: A Branches Book by Tracey West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Five stars for kids, 3 stars for adults.

My children LOVE these books, and they are very fast-paced and exciting (even to me). I have a hard time not commenting on some logical fallacies & oversimplifications, not to mention the absurdity of 8-year-olds being dragon "masters" or being sent to a far-away country to battle an ice giant that bested a powerful adult wizard and save a whole kingdom that has been frozen in magical ice with zero adult supervision. BUT...as I said, this book was very fast-paced and exciting and not only kept my 7-year-old and 3 1/2-year-old riveted, but also conned me into reading the entire book in one sitting, resulting in an absurdly late bedtime. So I will go with a 4-star rating for the enthusiasm it engendered in my kids and for the attempt to have a couple of non-white secondary characters.

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Waking the Rainbow Dragon

Waking the Rainbow Dragon: A Branches Book by Tracey West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Five stars for kids, 3 stars for adults.

My children LOVE these books, and they are very fast-paced and exciting (even to me). I have a hard time not commenting on some logical fallacies & oversimplifications, not to mention the absurdity of 8-year-olds being dragon "masters" or being sent to a far-away country to battle a trickster giant spider's spell and save a whole country from drought with zero adult supervision. BUT...as I said, this book was very fast-paced and exciting and kept my 7-year-old and 3 1/2-year-old riveted and really mad when I only read 4 chapters at bedtime, then begging me to read the rest the next afternoon. So I will go with a 4-star rating for the enthusiasm it engendered in my kids and for the attempt to have a couple of non-white main characters, although the series clearly isn't OwnVoices.

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Secret of the Water Dragon

Secret of the Water Dragon by Tracey West
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Four stars for kids, more like 3 stars for adults. My daughter loves these books, and they are very fast-paced and exciting. I have a hard time not commenting on some logical fallacies & oversimplifications, not to mention the absurdity of 8-year-olds being dragon "masters" or being sent to a far-away kingdom to battle an evil wizard's spell and rescue one boy's family with zero adult supervision. BUT...as I said, this book was very fast-paced and exciting and kept my almost-7-year-old riveted and really mad when I only read 3 or 4 chapters at bedtime. So I will go with a 4-star rating for the enthusiasm it engendered in my daughter and for the attempt to have a couple of non-white main characters, although the series clearly isn't OwnVoices.

In this volume of the series, dragon master Bo gets a threatening note telling him his family has been imprisoned by the Emperor of his kingdom and to save them Bo has to steal the Dragon Stone. The evil wizard Maldred has put a spell on the Emperor, which Bo's water dragon, Shu, must undo. Bo and the Emperor are depicted as Asian, although it's not precisely our world, so the empire in question is vaguely Chinese or Japanese or some amalgamation thereof.

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The Lightning-Struck Heart

The Lightning-Struck Heart by T.J. Klune
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An apprentice to the King's Wizard who gets kidnapped constantly, pines for the hunky Knight Commander, loves his parents, and has a hornless gay unicorn and a half-giant for best friends? Hilarious!! Absolutely crazy, and you just have to go with the flow. Or quest. Because, you know, rescuing the prince who's been kidnapped by a talking dragon and all that.

This is a long book (in print it's almost 400 pages, and the ebook version I read was over 600 pages), full of sass, snark, adventure, romance, heartbreak, sex puns, and magic. The characters are delightful--even the supposed villains cracked me up--and the dialogue had me convulsing with laughter.

Warning, though: you must have a VERY high tolerance for profanity and gay sex puns to enjoy this book. Seriously. So. Much. Swearing. And reference to sex--acts, organs, feelings. No actual sex scenes until the last few pages, though, unless you count the...er...interspecies encounter Sam unfortunately overhears a few chapters earlier. (He'll never get those images out of his brain! Gah!) As a straight woman, the actual sex scenes weren't my cup of tea, but they're more or less analogous to hetero sex scenes in some of the steamier romance novels I've read.

Almost all the characters were queer--mostly gay, one was asexual, and "Mama" was a drag queen. There were some token CIS characters, namely Sam's parents, the King, and the female members of the Ryan Foxheart fan club. I loved that being gay was completely ordinary and unremarkable. Even the Prince was gay, and that was no big deal because somehow gay men could have babies (although how was not explained).

The one thing that kept my rating from being 5 stars (and I know it's kind of nit-picky) was that the author & his copy editor REALLY need to learn the difference between "who" and "whom." Every single time "whom" should have been used...it wasn't. And there was at least one case where "I" was used in place of "me." The grammar mistakes yanked me out of the story and made me long for the ability to teach Mr. Klune & his editor about the difference between subjective & objective pronouns. It wouldn't have hurt for the book to have been a teensy bit shorter, although I feel like I should duck and cover for saying that.

This is the first in a series, and I look forward to reading the next installments!

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Jeweled Fire

Jeweled Fire by Sharon Shinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Corene grew up as a princess in the royal court of Welce, believing she had a decent chance of becoming the next queen. When that changes, she is left without direction or purpose and decides to make a big change to demonstrate her independence. Stowing away aboard a ship headed for Malinqua and a chance to become a queen there by marrying one of the empress's three nephews seems like a grand adventure...until she realizes the current ruler is playing a mysterious game of her own, and the visiting princesses competing for the throne are more like pampered hostages than guests. Still, the chance to reinvent herself gives Corene the opportunity to make close friends--something she's never really had before. Along with Foley, her steadfast bodyguard, Corene and her new friends must uncover the secrets hidden by members of Malinqua's court if they are to survive the struggle for succession.

Corene wasn't my favorite character in the first two books, although she definitely grew on me as Ms Shinn developed her character and gave glimpses of the hurting girl beneath the spoiled behavior. She really gets her chance to grow up and shine in this volume of the series, though! Her impulsive behavior at the beginning definitely fit with the developmental stage of an older teenager, but by the end of the story, I kept thinking she was older than her chronological age.

Interestingly, none of the primary characters in this book has magical abilities, unlike in the two previous volumes. This makes for a different feel to the story. Not better, not worse--just different.

For readers' advisors: character and setting doorways are primary, story and language strong secondary doorways. Sharon Shinn is a master of world-building! The 3 mild swear words--2 in the same sentence--are the reason I hesitate to mark this book as "clean reads." There are strong elements of romance and murder mystery, although not enough to label them as either of those genres, especially romance since the story would remain even if the romance between Corene and Foley were removed. Book #3 in this series starts off at a leisurely pace that intensifies as it progresses toward the suspenseful climax. Despite the entire book taking place outside Welce, it still should be read in series order so as to fully understand and appreciate the history and context.

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Paladin

Paladin by Sally Slater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lady Samantha of Haywood has always been a tomboy, but after a demon kills her mother, she decides to become a Paladin--a demon-slaying warrior. There are no female paladins, however, so Sam practices in secret for two years, then runs away from home, chops off her hair, disguises herself as a boy, and invents a new heritage in order to begin her training. She is assigned both a mentor and a roommate. The first is her hero and the man who saved her life. The second is a half demon/half human whom the other students taunt and fear. After the trio save the training fortress from a demon attack--the first in its history--they are sent on a quest to learn more about a new fighting force rising in the East, the Uriel. Their orders are to capture the leader of the Uriel and bring him to meet their High Commander, but all is not as it seems, and new information shifts allegiances.

I'm so glad this is the first in a new YA fantasy series! I absolutely loved it and stayed up way past my bedtime because I couldn't put it down. Sally Slater did an outstanding job building the relationships between Sam, Tristan, and Braeden, and I can't wait to read the next book.

There were a few puzzling things here and there, such as how Sam managed to keep her sword practice truly a secret in a castle full of servants, why she thought her father didn't care about her in the slightest, and how she could hope to maintain her masquerade while traveling when her companions would know she never had to shave and did have to (presumably, unless on this world reproduction is different) deal with menstrual cycles which are never mentioned, but these were minor in comparison with the overall arc of the story.

For readers' advisors: Most YA fiction has story as the primary doorway, but this book was more about character development and world-building, although plot was also strong. There was a small amount of swearing (mostly "shite"), and a some sexual innuendo (primarily during the scene when Tristan decides Sam needs to "become a man" and drags both trainees to a brothel...which doesn't go so well). Otherwise it's a pretty "clean read." This would be an excellent read-alike for fans of Tamora Pierce, particularly her Alanna the Lioness series.

Many many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Shadow Scale

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dragons loyal to the Comonot are battling those of the Old Ard who want to depose him and return to the days where humans were food. They claim exposure to humans taints dragons, making them impure and in need of having their memories excised. Seraphina, Queen Glisselda, and Prince Kiggins know they must gather allies to help them battle the dragons of the Old Ard in order to save the humans of Goredd, so the Queen sends Seraphina as her emissary to nearby kingdoms to persuade them to provide assistance. The journey has another purpose, however: Seraphina has read of a sort of mind-net that was once created to defend against dragons in a former time, and she resolves to seek out her fellow ityasaari (half dragons) to learn whether such a thing is possible today.

Things do not quite go as planned, of course, and Seraphina learns that another half-dragon, Jannoula, who has the ability to invade and take over the minds of other ityasaari, is searching for the same people Seraphina hopes to find. Jannoula plans to use the mind-net for her own purposes, although uncovering all the twists and turns in her devious plot will be a long, frustrating challenge for Seraphina. One by one, she watches her friends fall under the spell of Jannoula, unable to save them until she learns the secret of unlocking her own mind-fire.

There are so many things to adore about this book, but I think the saving grace for me was that it was so easy to immerse myself instantly in the world Hartman has created, no matter how little time I had to read--including sometimes just the couple of minutes it took to heat my lunch in the microwave. I had to be creative in order to carve out a few minutes (or a whole half an hour!) here and there when I could read, and with Shadow Scale, I could pick up right where I left off and be transported immediately into the world of the story. Rachel Hartman's world-building skills are outstanding.

My second favorite thing was the character development, particularly of Jannoula. You really got to see and feel sympathy for how she came to be so twisted, and you understood the guilt Seraphina felt for her inadvertent role in that. I also loved the variety of characters and relationships, including that they were so seamlessly woven into the fabric of the story.

I also appreciated that not everything was tied up with pretty little bows at the end. Don't get me wrong--I LOVE happy endings. In this case, though, it felt so much more real for some things to be left a little more open-ended. In a war, people are injured and die, and not just "the bad guys." This story takes place during wartime, with some battles occurring far from a traditional battlefield.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the free Advanced Reader's Copy of the ebook for this fantastic sequel to Seraphina!

For readers' advisors: setting, character, and story doorways are strong. Language, too, given the many words Hartman has invented. There is no sex, and if I recall correctly, any swearing uses made-up words or phrases. The violence is not at all graphic and mostly happens "off-screen." It's LGBT-friendly.

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Royal Airs

Royal Airs by Sharon Shinn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book #2 in the Elemental Blessings series features Princess Josetta and her sister Princess Corene. When Corene flees her abusive stepfather, she is rescued by professional gambler Rafe Adova not too far from the shelter Josetta runs just south of the Cinque, the five-sided boulevard separating the nicer part of Chialto from the slums. That encounter is a turning point the lives of all three, as well as the start of an unexpected turn in the complicated politics of the nation.

I was grateful for the explanatory charts of characters, blessings, calendars, and money that Shinn includes at the start of the book. I referred to them time and again to help me keep track of the complicated relationships between characters, especially. It had been a while since I'd read the first book in the series, and the family connections are even more muddled now, thanks to revelations in Book #1 (Troubled Waters) as well as in the second half of Book #2.

For readers' advisors: setting and story doorways are primary, character secondary. One swear word, and the few sex scenes are nearly entirely offscreen.

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Kenny and the Dragon

Kenny and the Dragon by Tony DiTerlizzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kenny Rabbit is a bookish sort of a boy. He lives on a farm with his parents, and his best friend is the town's bookseller. Then Kenny's dad spies a dragon on their farm, and Kenny learns that not everything you read in books is true, certainly not when it comes to dragons. THIS dragon loves creme brulée and hasn't ever eaten a princess. Unfortunately, the townsfolk are fearful of having a dragon in their midst, and Kenny must come up with a daring plan to save his new friend.

I absolutely fell in love with this sweet story of friendship, loyalty, bravery, and ingenuity! I can see why it won Switzerland's Prix Chronos award, which, according to Tony DiTerlizzi's website is "an inter-generational book award with the ambition to encourage people to read and to bring together generations: children at the age of 10 to 12 and elderly people together read and review five nominated books."

For readers' advisors: It's got some great vocabulary words, so it might be a bit of a stretch for some 3rd and 4th graders, but it would make a great choice for reading with an adult at bedtime.

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Etiquette and Espionage

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sophronia Temminick is shipped off to Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality as a covert recruit--meaning neither she nor her family know it's actually a training academy for lady spies. Sophronia becomes suspicious during the journey to the floating school when their carriage is ambushed by flywaymen intent on stealing a mysterious "prototype" from Mademoiselle Geraldine...who turns out not to be the headmistress after all.

Sophronia's natural inquisitiveness and propensity for sneaking, er, exploring, lead her to make friends in unusual places--always useful when one wants to gather information and thwart nefarious plots. With help from her roommate, Dimity, a few of her fellow first-year students, and her friends Soap and Vieve, Sophronia discovers a demoted classmate knows more than she should about the missing device, and they collaborate to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

Carriger does a fantastic job of world-building, bringing to life a Victorian England where servants are mechanical, vampires and werewolves can be teachers, and a school can float courtesy of massive coal-fired boilers. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Sophronia's universe, and I look forward to the rest of the series. I will have to check out Carriger's adult series, now that I know this is a YA spinoff of that one.

For readers' advisors: setting doorway is primary, story is secondary, as the plot doesn't really ramp up until later in the book. No sex or bad language.

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Battle Magic

Battle Magic by Tamora Pierce
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fans of Pierce's "Circle of Magic" and "Circle Opens" quartets will probably like the latest installment of the "Circle Reforged" series. This time, Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn have been invited to meet the emperor of Yanjing and tour his famous gardens. Their stay is not always a comfortable one, as the emperor shows off not only his gardens but his vast armies, lightning-fast mood swings, and absolute control over his subjects. While there, the trio befriend Parahan, heir to a nearby kingdom, sold into slavery by his uncle. When Parahan escapes...with a little help...on the eve of their departure, the emperor goes ballistic, ordering a vast manhunt to recapture his prized possession. Soon Briar, Evvy, and Rosethorn are dodging Yanjingyi soldiers as they flee to the border with news of an impending invasion, joining the fray as battle mages for their friend, the Gyongxin God-King.

As always, Tamora Pierce's world-building is outstanding, her stories exciting, and her characters well-developed. My main reason for the relatively low 3-star rating is the inexplicable decision to have Rosethorn cheat on Lark with Parahan. The affair comes completely out of the blue and is utterly gratuitous (albeit occurring offscreen, thankfully). It in no way moves the story along or has any other redeeming purpose. Removing it would not impact the sequence of events in the slightest. I'm sorry, Ms. Pierce, but what were you thinking?! Just because someone is bisexual does not automatically mean she's also adulterous! And if you ARE going to include infidelity, there better be a literary reason for it. I am still flabbergasted by this pointless artistic choice. Flabbergasted and disappointed. I lost so much respect for those two characters...and the author...the moment I read the first scene where Briar sees them embracing.

For readers' advisors: setting, story, and character doorways. Despite the adultery, it's a clean read, since none of that is actually described. This book is shelved with juvenile fiction in my library, but that is an error, in my opinion. Evvy is, I believe, twelve, Briar is sixteen or so, and Rosethorn is an adult, as are all the other characters, apart from the God-King. I would definitely consider this to be young adult fiction.

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Kiss and Spell

Kiss and Spell by Shanna Swendson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love how Shanna Swendson continues to keep this series so entertaining by tweaking what happens with the main characters' magical lives--i.e. in this volume granting Katie magical powers she's never had before. In the previous book, Owen had to cope with magical immunity for the first time ever. It gives Swendson a chance to play "what if" with her characters, to discover how they would react, adapt, and work together.

In book #7, Katie is delighted to spend her days receiving private magic lessons from Owen & Rod. The secrecy isn't terribly fun, but she gets to experience life as a magical being. Soon she realizes that something odd is happening at the office, but before they can get to the bottom of the mystery, she wakes up in an alternate New York City, where she works at a coffee shop in a bookstore that Owen has just purchased. Only the occasional memory flash pokes Katie to wonder if something just might be awry. Some folks just seem so familiar, though....

My favorite thing about this volume in the Enchanted, Inc., series is that Katie and Owen finally get a chance to go on real dates and actually deepen their relationship. They finally have a chance to build a more solid foundation, to learn more about each other, and to confirm that no matter the reality, they really are meant to be a couple. It's the much-needed eye of the storm. But don't worry--the fast-paced action returns quickly.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways, setting is secondary. No sex, and I don't remember any bad language.

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No Quest for the Wicked

No Quest For The Wicked by Shanna Swendson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Katie Chandler is Bored. Bored bored bored. Now that MSI is pretty much the only game in town as far as magic goes, there isn't much for the marketing department to do. That is, until her boyfriend discovers that the language has changed on the ancient document he's translating, indicating that the Eye of the Moon--an incredibly powerful and dangerous gem lost for centuries--is now on the move and may be in New York City. The last time anyone used it, war broke out, so tracking it down is imperative, and only magical immunes like Katie and Owen can be trusted to locate and recover it. Unfortunately, they soon learn that the Eye, which gives the holder power over others, has been fused with an Elven knot, which bestows invulnerability. Katie and Owen are not the only ones determined to find the Eye, and soon there is a knock-down, drag-out race raging across the city between an ever-increasing number of factions, all with their own agendas.

Whew! Talk about fast-paced! Book #6 in the Enchanted, Inc. series is a whirlwind of a novel--fun and funny. The addition of Katie's grandma and former boss to the mix was highly entertaining. I also appreciated the character development as Owen learns to cope with his new non-magical reality.

For readers' advisors: story and character doorways. No sex, violence (not really), or bad language that I can recall. Setting is contemporary New York City.

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Much Ado About Magic

Much Ado About Magic by Shanna Swendson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book #5 in the Enchanted, Inc., series begins with Katie Chandler returning to New York City just in time to become embroiled in a propaganda war between her employer, MSI, and their rival, Spellworks. A series of dark spells has the magical community flocking to Spellworks for protection amulets and bracelets, never realizing the whole thing is part of a more sinister plot. Katie's boyfriend, Owen, is working feverishly to reverse-engineer the spells and find a way to neutralize them before they get even more out of control, but it soon becomes evident that a key part of the competition's strategy involves discrediting and falsely accusing Owen of creating the mess in the first place. Even Katie's boss, Merlin (yes, that Merlin), is powerless to stem the tide of rumor and suspicion. It's up to Katie to sort out fact from fiction in time to prevent a corporate takeover with deadly consequences.

I was so excited when I stumbled across a WorldCat listing for one of the later books in this series and realized that although my library couldn't purchase print copies of volumes 5, 6, or 7, we could get the ebooks through OverDrive. Hooray! I love this quirky, humorous series, and I was bummed when I had to stop reading at #4. But now my library has digital access to all seven books in the series, so I can find out what happens in the continuing saga of the battle for control of the biggest companies in the magical community.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, character is secondary. There is no sex or real violence, and I can't recall any instances of swearing.

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Shades of Milk and Honey

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

2.5 stars, really.

Plain-looking Jane Ellsworth has resigned herself to being a spinster. Well, almost resigned. She plans to help her beautiful younger sister marry well so that she might live in her sister's household someday after their father dies. Melody is eighteen and has let her beauty carry her through life, never working to cultivate lady-like accomplishments such as those in which her elder sister excels. Friction begins to creep in to their relationship when both women develop crushes on the same man, and their mutual jealousy creates a painful barrier between the sisters. When Jane attracts the attention of not one but two eligible gentlemen in the neighborhood, Melody seeks solace in the arms of a man who is neither available nor honorable. Jane must use all her skills to keep the situation from exploding into a full-blown disaster.

I received a copy of this book from a good friend, and I was really excited to read it. There are a number of very positive reviews. I think, though, that it would have been better had I not been under the impression the author was "Austenesque." Yes, the setting is roughly like that of Jane Austen's novels, magic notwithstanding, but the comparison of the two authors isn't all that apt. Kowal has none of Austen's biting wit nor social satire. The characters felt like she'd taken Austen's originals, put them in a blender, and came out with an odd mish-mash of personalities and flaws. I kept getting flashes of scenes or situations, and then was confused or reminded to reign in my imagination when what actually happened was different.

Melody really was just a pretty face hiding an immature, selfish temperament. Captain Livingston is Wickham, Frank Churchill, and Willoughby all rolled into one--how did no one predict his bad behavior? The neighbor's 16-year-old sister whom Jane befriends (and whose name escapes me at the moment, as I left the book at home) starts out sweet and reminiscent of Georgiana Darcy but then turns into an irrational shrew by the end. Likewise, the girl's older brother begins as a mixture of Mr. Darcy, Col. Fitzwilliam, and Mr. Knightley and then devolves into impetuous behavior that feels inconsistent with his character. I'm all for character development...but this didn't come across as creating depth.

Since I read for character as well as story, it didn't help matters that I found the budding relationships to be...thin? Weak? I wanted there to be more of a foundation for Jane to fall in love--with either of her suitors, both of whom seemed interested in (or hostile towards!) her merely for her skills at "glamour" (i.e. magical illusions).

I am still debating whether to read the next two books in this series. There is potential for a lovely historical fantasy series, if only Kowal can break free of Austen's shadow and just focus on doing her own thing.

For readers' advisors: setting and character doorways. It's a pretty slow-moving story until the very end. No sex, and I can't recall any real swearing.

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