Never After

Never After by Laurell K. Hamilton


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

OK--I have to get this book off my desk and turned back in, so here is my shorter-than-usual review:

These are upside-down romance novellas, with the heroine of each trying to get OUT of marrying someone.

The first two novellas in the book were OK. Laurell K. Hamilton tells a story about a young girl whose father basically sells her to a known pervert/dirty old man/rapist, and she chooses to escape by publicly announcing she's going to rescue an almost-mythical prince, believing it's better to die that way than be tortured by her vile husband-to-be.

Yasmine Galenorn writes about a selkie hiding from the selkie prince who raped her a century ago as a way to force her into marrying him. He finally catches up to her in the Puget Sound area and nearly kills her fiance, her supernatural friends, and her.

I enjoyed the last two novellas the best. Marjorie M. Liu tells of an unconventional princess whose father sells her in marriage to a fearsome warlord in exchange for border protection. She goes on a journey to the magical Tanglewood forest in search of guidance and discovers both some new friends and the dangerous ice queen imprisoned by a crown of thorns. (This story was hard to put down.)

Sharon Shinn's novella, "The Wrong Bridegroom," is the story of a spoiled brat of a princess whose awful father holds a bloody tournament, with the champion getting to marry the princess. The post-tournament journey to meet the future mother-in-law is eye-opening and character-building. (Shinn is a master with character development.)

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General Winston's Daughter

General Winston's Daughter by Sharon Shinn


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not quite sure how to categorize this book. It's YA because the eponymous character, Averie, General Winston's daughter, is 18 years old. It's fantasy in that Shinn set her story in a made-up world, although no one has magical abilities or rides dragons or has any other trait typical to the genre. Other than that...it has elements of romance, although that's not the focus. It's almost a commentary on war--the complexities of aggression, suppression, and rebellion--but not entirely.

What it is, is excellent, especially if you love character development. The story begins with Averie and her chaperone, Lady Selkirk, sailing to Chiarrin, a hot, dry country recently invaded by the Aebrian army, of which Averie's father is the commanding general. Averie is joining her father and fiance (also an officer in the army) with little understanding of the military and political maneuvering shaping her world. But as she befriends both a lieutenant from the long-since conquered country of Xan'tai and a young Chiarrizi woman, she begins to reevaluate her country's actions, both current and historical.

The climax of the book took me by surprise--it was far bigger in scope than I had anticipated. Which is pretty much all I can say about it without revealing too much.

For reader's advisors: character and story doorways. No sex or bad language, although there are some kisses by moonlight.

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Gateway

Gateway by Sharon Shinn


My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 1/2 stars, actually.

Gateway is the story of Daiyu, a Chinese-American teenager who buys a ring at a fair in St. Louis, MO, and ends up in a world called Jia the instant she walks under the St. Louis Arch. She's been brought there to infiltrate the upper echelons of the local Han society and get close enough to the charming prime minister that she can slap a bracelet on his wrist and send him back to his own world before he can do any more damage on Jia. During her training, she falls in love with a young stonepicker called Kalen, who is the only person she's certain she can trust.

This is the first of Sharon Shinn's books set partially in our world--specifically modern-day St. Louis. I found it a little difficult to get into the story for some reason (most likely because I ended up reading in such short chunks), and I thought the characters were a little less well developed than usual. But the story gets quite exciting by the end, and I did enjoy the book overall. I just had a hard time believing in the romance between Daiyu & Kalen, and I wish Aurora & Ombri's characters had been more three-dimensional.

For reader's advisory purposes, the main doorway was story. Character was probably intended to be the secondary doorway.

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The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever

The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever by Julia Quinn


My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Julia Quinn is one of my favorite romance authors, but this is not my favorite of her books. I've now read it twice because I couldn't remember what happened in it/wasn't sure I'd read it before. I had. It just wasn't that great. I liked that the heroine, Miranda, wasn't ravishingly beautiful, for a change. And there are some funny moments. But the hero, Turner, takes a ridiculous amount of time to realize he loves his wife, and in the meantime, he makes her miserable. Frankly, I found Turner to be irritating and thought Miranda really could have done better for herself.

This is the first book in the new Bevelstoke series, and the next book, What Happens in London, is one of my new favorites. Read that one instead of this one!

Typically Quinn writes books with both story and character doorways, but in this case, I don't think the characters are quite well-written enough to justify a character doorway label. However, I would say setting is a secondary doorway since it's an historical romance.

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Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My very favorite part of this truly excellent children's book is when Trixie goes "boneless." Cracks me up every time. Well, the whole thing does, really. I LOVE this book! You really can tell that Willems knows kids and can capture their expressions in his artwork perfectly.

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Leonardo, the Terrible Monster

Leonardo, the Terrible Monster by Mo Willems


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love Mo Willems' books. This one is an adorable story about a young monster who is terrible at being scary. It'd work well as a read-aloud at home or for a storytime. Just be sure to take a deep breath before reading Sam's big rant. :)

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Quatrain

Quatrain by Sharon Shinn


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sharon Shinn is one of my favorite contemporary authors because her stories are compelling, her main characters feel like people you know or want to know, and the worlds she creates seem real.

In Quatrain, Shinn tells four stories set in four separate worlds. The first--"Flight"--fits into her Samaria series--just before Gabriel becomes Archangel. Salome has spent the past 17 years avoiding angels and raising her niece, Sheba, and now her past is about to find her again.

In "Blood", Kerk's search for his long-lost mother leads him to a new understanding of the gender-based power dynamics in gulden society and a new appreciation for one particular indigo woman. This novella fits into the world Shinn created for her novel Heart of Gold, and the only thing I didn't like about it was that it wasn't longer! I actually exclaimed aloud in protest as I turned the last page and realized I'd come to the end.

The third novella, "Gold," is set in a world I didn't recognize (although for all I know, it may be from one of the remaining Shinn novels I haven't yet read). A petulant seventeen-year-old crown princess is escorted to safety in the magical kingdom of Alora to wait out the impending war. The longer she stays, the less she remembers her home and family. I think it's the weakest of the four stories, but I give Shinn credit for her portrayal of the self-absorption of so many teenagers.

The fourth and final story was, of course, my favorite. "Flame" features Senneth and the world of Gillengaria and its Twelve Houses. This one takes place in the days leading up to the start of book 1 of the series, Mystic and Rider. Senneth burns down three plague-ridden cottages as a favor for a village and later saves a small child from the flames of a hearth fire. In the process, she's exposed as a mystic and faces prejudice from both strangers and acquaintances when mysterious fires start erupting all over town.

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