by Jasmyn | Apr 13, 2020 | Book Reviews, Readers, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult
Three reasons you should this Young Adult Fairy Tale Re-Telling:
- The Jabberwocky Princess by Cece Louise is a fun fairy tale with a very surprising monster.
- There are plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing at the bad guy, and several heroes that surprised me.
- Strong heroines that can take the lead and won’t take too much crap from the men who try to prevent them from playing their part.
About The Jabberwocky Princess
Title: The Jabberwocky Princess
Author: Cece Louise
Series: The Forest Tales #2
Genre: Young Adult, Fairy Tale Re-telling
Beware the Jabberwock . . . The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Kitchen maid Kainda is the daughter of a disgraced monster-hunter. She longs to learn more about strange beasts and use the hunting skills her father taught her, but kitchen maids don’t get to have adventures—especially not a girl everyone thinks is crazy.
That is until devil-may-care Prince Ander enlists her help in defeating a monster troubling a nearby kingdom. With her misfit knight best friend by her side, Kainda thinks it’s the perfect arrangement. She gets adventure and financial freedom, while Prince Ander gets to marry the princess of Fernshire.
Until the beast proves more troublesome than anyone imagined, and secrets from her father’s past raise the question: What is more dangerous—myth or reality?
A standalone read perfect for fans of sweet romance, suspense, and fairy tales!
My Review of The Jabberwocky Princess:
The Jabberwocky Princess is a fantastical fairy tale that I’m surprised Disney hasn’t taken for a movie yet. The world’s most famous monster-hunter disappeared mysteriously, but he left much of his knowledge to his daughter, Kainda. Looked down upon as a kitchen maid, she really doesn’t fit in anywhere except when she visits her best friend, a knight who plays a surprising role that I didn’t wholly expect at first.
The story alternates between Kainda and Princess Opal’s POV. Opal seems to be a bit of a stereotype, especially compared to Kainda. Opal is the princess being forced to marry the champion knight that finally rids the kingdom of the beast that is plaguing its land. But of course, she wants nothing to with it. She wants a love match and actually puts herself and her friends in some danger when she throws a bit of a fit and leaves the protection sent to ride with her.
There’s a prince sent with the knights, hoping to win Opal’s hand. Not because he loves her, but because he’s tired of his father harping on him to do something with his life. At first, the characters describe him as a bit of a philanderer and extremely arrogant. However, the first time we see him on the page, he comes across as anything but that. The author tries to explain why, but it fell a little flat.
I was very excited to see two happily ever afters, and not the ones I expected at first. It would have been a better story if there was a little more growth in the characters. They never really became more than what they started as. I also wish there had been a few clues as to who the big bad guy really was; little things sprinkled along the way that would have all made sense at the end. Instead, it was sort of dumped on you in a typical evil villain soliloquy.
I think a younger YA audience would really enjoy this a lot. As an adult with an older teenager, I think Jabberwocky Princess was an entertaining read, but not dynamic enough to really stand out.
*I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book*
by Jasmyn | Dec 2, 2019 | Readers, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult
Title: Meet Me in the Strange
Author: Leander Watts
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
2019 IPPY SILVER MEDALIST – YOUNG ADULT
Meet Me in the Strange is an intoxicating adventure set in a glittery, retro-futuristic world of glam rock, spectral aliens, and gender-bendy teens. Davi is mesmerized by a girl at a concert, who appears to lose herself in the power of the otherworldy music of Django Conn. Later, through a chance meeting, Davi becomes friends with the girl, Anna Z. She is like no one Davi has ever met: she loves to talk, talk, talk and has grandiose theories of the next evolution of humans and a strange phenomenon she calls the “Alien Drift.” But danger lurks around every corner, because Anna Z is on the run, and her cruel and controlling older brother is determined to find her, at any cost. Davi faces a daunting decision, go on living a safe existence at the magical Angelus Hotel, which has been in the family for generations, or help Anna Z escape her troubled past. When the two take off to follow the concert tour of their glam-rock idol, Django Conn, Davi and Anna Z will face the biggest threat of their young lives.
Excerpt from Meet Me in the Strange
© 2019 Leander Watts
“My name’s Davi.”
She waited just a couple of seconds, then said, “I’m Anna Z.”
That was the shortest thing I ever heard her say. Soon enough, so many words were coming out of her that I felt like I was drowning. Wild stories, charming lies, true facts and fairy tales, rambling rants, song lyrics, rhymes and riddles and beautiful secrets. But for those couple of minutes, she still didn’t know if she could trust me. So she didn’t say much at first.
I asked about her favorite album. Of course, like me, it was Man in the Moon in the Man. We agreed that it was amazing and that we could listen to it a thousand times and never use it up. Only ten songs and there was a whole world hidden there in the grooves.
“Radiation Nation,” I said.
“Signs and Wonders,” she said back. “With the wild gamba solo, right?”
“Love and Gravity, Royal Shining Things,” I said the song names like I was using secret passwords. “Forty Months and a Day. The first time I heard that one, I thought my brain was going to catch on fire.”
She didn’t walk away saying I was a freak or an imbecilo turd-toy. I’d been through that enough times before, people telling me to go away, that I was too fanatical, too wound-up, too much. But right there in front of the theater, I went up to her and started talking about Django Conn, and that’s all it took to bring us together.
“I’ve got some bootleg LPs and some really rare 45s,” I told her, not bragging, but saying it just to see how she’d respond. “I saw a ticket stub from his first show with the Reptiles. A guy had it for sale. It was supposedly autographed, but how could you prove that Django really signed it?”
I kept thinking how amazing it was that she didn’t walk away. Once she’d gotten used to me, and that didn’t take long, she stood there like she was really listening. And I did too. Of course, that was probably easier for me because she was Anna Z, and there was nobody like her on the whole planet, maybe in the whole universe. Her hair wasn’t quite so wild as at the Maxima, but there were still black snakes tangled in it. No liquid blurs of color moved on her glasses. All the same, it was hard to see her eyes. Swept up into Django’s sound, she was lost and found. Standing on the street with me, she wasn’t so free, so spontaneous. But I remembered how she’d been, and I knew she’d be that way again.
I told her about the Angelus, that my family owned it and that I had always lived there. I mentioned Sabina and Carlos and the others. And that was all it took to make the final link between us, because she told me she’d been there just a few hours before. It really was her I’d heard through the wall, talking about blood, fire, moonlight, music, and mutation. It was no phantasm I’d seen walking down the hallway to the elevator.“
About Leander Watts
An avid musician, Leander Watts has played and sung for decades in a wide variety of bands. His interests range from garage rock to skronky jazz, from baroque organ to Appalachian gospel. The first rock concert he attended was David Bowie on the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974. He teaches writing and literature at the State University of New York at Geneseo (his alma mater). Leander Watts is the author of STONECUTTER, WILD RIDE TO HEAVEN, TEN THOUSAND CHARMS, and BEAUTIFUL CITY OF THE DEAD.
Connect with Leander Watts online:
Enter to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!
by Jasmyn | Nov 11, 2019 | Book Reviews, Readers, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult
Amina is special – or as her father would say – a freak. With the ability to move things with her mind, she dreams of joining the Interplanetary Peace Squad, but her family won’t hear of it. So she sneaks away one night, takes a leap of faith, and joins the training program. This beginning portion of the book was a bit choppy and rough. The initial interactions Amina had with people at the training program were a bit cliched. They were very stereotypical – the shy girl, the flirty rich girl, the cute slightly older guy every girl wanted.
Once we got more into the heart of the story, things took a really great turn for the better. People started becoming a little more dynamic (but still a tad on the cliche side), and personalities started showing up. Amina is assigned her first training mission, and she has a chance to show the crew and her captain (the hot guy everyone wants) that she can handle herself. And she handles herself well, but not perfectly – which is great.
The romance that has been budding throughout the story didn’t always seem to fit in. There were too many times that the mission should have fallen apart because of the flirty-times going on. Eventually, the romance starts to straighten itself out, and by the end, I felt more like it was a natural thing between the two characters. But getting there was a bit rough.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
|
Title: Sunstar (Peacekeepers #1)
Author: Annalise Whelan
Genre: Young Adult, SciFi Romance
|
Amina has a secret her father’s rage and shame has forced her to keep. When she finds an invitation that offers to set her free she’s determined to accept it before it’s too late. First, she must escape her father’s world of prejudice and fear. She must find within herself the strength to stand against everything she’s ever known and enter a new life. But that’s just the beginning of her journey. She discovers others with Abilities like hers, discovers within herself heart and confidence and skill as she trains, hones her power. She’s no longer alone but she’s part of a specially trained unit that patrols the star system maintaining peace. Now that she’s discovered freedom nothing will take that away, even love, and she must tread a treacherous ledge to protect her heart. Two men tempt her heart and her peace but one may not be who he seems and the other may hold the power to destroy her. She finds mystery friendship value in her new life but also the heat and emotion of passion, the greatest depth of betrayal and grief and possibly the truest form of love. A YA scifi adventure romance with heart. Clean romance.
|
