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Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

September 1, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Three years later, Rachelle has given her life to serving the realm, fighting deadly creatures in an effort to atone. When the king orders her to guard his son Armand—the man she hates most—Rachelle forces Armand to help her find the legendary sword that might save their world. As the two become unexpected allies, they uncover far-reaching conspiracies, hidden magic, and a love that may be their undoing. In a palace built on unbelievable wealth and dangerous secrets, can Rachelle discover the truth and stop the fall of endless night?

Inspired by the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is an exhilarating tale of darkness, love, and redemption.

3 Drink Me Potions

“‘In all your life, your only choice is the path of needles or the path of pins.'”

There is such a poetic quality of that opening statement in the prologue that is really lost on the reader until a little later in that chapter. Such a strong analogy. The path of pins represents taking the easy way out by just pinning up your problems and letting them hold until they can’t anymore and need to be fixed again. Whereas, taking the path of needles sounds more exhausting. Come on, who has the time to sew up a torn mess every time a problem comes along? But it’s the choice to fix something more permanently, regardless of the pain or effort. And that is what Rachelle’s story in Crimson Bound is all about.

There are things I loved about this book and things that I appreciated. I will differentiate these things for you.

Rachelle
She was such a complex character. She was struggling throughout the story with herself, looking for redemption for what she will ultimately become: an unnatural, wicked creature of the dark Great Forest known as a forestborn.

There were seeds of darkness and black desire in her, no matter how hard she resisted the pull of the Forest and the evil being that reigned in it. She wanted to save the world no matter the risk to herself, taking the path of needles, and that’s what led her to such a detrimental consequence. BUT even with the occasional pleasure of darkness, she never gave in. Never gave up her heart without a fight. She saved human lives with whatever leftover time she had before she completely turned into a heartless, soulless forestborn.

You see? Rachelle is quite possibly one of THE strongest protagonists I have yet to read about. Crimson Bound wasn’t even written in 1st person, but there is such a clear indication through Hodge’s writing of how conflicted she was yet made strong by it.

She quite possibly judged herself the most harshly out of all the humans who knew her, but that also made her push herself harder than anyone else would. And thus, she really did take the path of needles.

“She’d never said the rosary that was to be her penance…Besides, penance was for those who had a hope of heaven, and she wasn’t at all sure that God could hear or find her in this place. But that was all right, wasn’t it? She had known she was risking her soul, but she had gone ahead anyway…She might’ve repented, but she couldn’t quite regret.
This was her home. This, her inheritance.”

Even when things went horribly wrong, and plot twists flew from areas even I didn’t imagine until too late, she put herself last, all else be damned. Or rather, she thought she was damned for all eternity for what she was now, so this was her way of being courageous.

There’s just so much to say about Rachelle that I could go on but it’s best that I don’t or else this would get so long. She wasn’t some simple, fit-into-some-mould of a YA protagonist. She was fierce and strong, yet vulnerable too when it came to the human side of her that she desperately clung to. And that shone through the best when dealing with the people she loved.

Which brings me to…

The love interest and only friend
First, I have to mention, it’s awesome that Hodge made our love interest a guy with no hands. Don’t ask why. You’ll have to figure that out for yourself in the book. But that’s also pretty original and talented on her part for making us root for a guy who honestly? I would not know how I’d feel about someone with silver hands that burn up in the hot sun. But he brought out the side of Rachelle that reminded her that she could still choose to love, even with the dark temptations inside drawing her deeper into the Forest and away from human memories. That is possibly the only reason why I loved this romance.

Here’s where I appreciated Armand, the love interest. He was a pretty confusing person too, with secrets of his own. I liked him, and especially what he was able to do for Rachelle through this love forming between them, but I just didn’t FEEL the hot chemistry between them that I was hoping for. Ah well.

As for the friend, Amelie was amazing for a secondary character. I loved how she also in another way did the same for Rachelle as Armand did. She was an anchor and testament of a human who could love a wicked creature even when no one else trusted Rachelle, not even herself.

The last character I want to touch upon is…

~~The villain~~ – The not-so-good guy
I can’t really call him that. Maybe call him the potential love triangle that could be. Although Rachelle never loved him, hate and love are pretty strong opposite end of the spectrum feelings. No matter what it was she felt for this guy, it was strong. And normally, as a reader, I can hate the other guy pretty strongly no matter what the protagonist feels.

Oddly enough, not this time. And that speaks volumes. Hodge made him into such a complex character as well. He wasn’t good, that’s for sure, yet I can’t quite bring myself to despise him. He was charming, but snakes can be charming and deadly and pure awful. He wasn’t charming in THAT sense. I think he loved Rachelle in the limited way that he could with the bad decisions he made, and honestly thought he was doing the best for them both in a twisted way.

He did unspeakable horrors and wasn’t repentant. That alone should deter me away from him. But no, at the end, I felt what Rachelle felt for him. Love, hate, and sorrow for what could’ve been.

And this is what separates good writing with brilliant ones.

I just wanted to conclude off this long review with my clarification of what I loved and what I appreciated. I loved Hodge’s extremely complex and well-rounded characters. They weren’t just flat, one-dimensional people who were just good or just bad. It’s not black and white like that, just as it is in reality. I also loved her writing and its storytelling manner. Just look at this excerpt from the beginning.

“This story begins with endless night and infinite forest; with two orphaned children, and two swords made of broken bone.
It has no ended yet.”

But what I only appreciated and thus lowered my rating was – well – the sheer darkness of it. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t dislike it or anything. It made the book gritty and full of character. I just don’t happen to love my stories extremely dark, that’s all. And it was fierce and vicious sometimes, what those characters did to each other, even in the name of sacrifice and love. Unfortunately, my little fluffy heart can’t take all that much of it in such large doses, but I CAN appreciate how well done it was and how it cemented everything together.

All in all, Crimson Bound was an epic tale of good versus evil, with a heroine that isn’t just purely good. She walked a fine line in the gray zone, but it showed that decisions and the choices we make can ultimately decide our fate and which side of that line we may fall on.

Overall Recommendation:
There’s a whole lot that can be said about Crimson Bound. It’s beyond a simple tale of good versus evil. Hodge regales us with characters that are more complex than the average fantasy hero. They may not be strictly good, but the choices made in life can determine whether they can be redeemed. So this story is basically one of redemption and conflict against the darkness, with a brilliantly written protagonist at the centre of it, fighting to maintain her human heart and the ability to love like they do. I would recommend that this be given a shot as Hodge has crafted a very dark and deliciously scary world, but this may not be the best book for those of the light-hearted. I have given you fair warning. Now go and check it out!

Review: Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

August 30, 2015August 31, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Sixteen-year-old heiress and paparazzi darling Liddi Jantzen hates the spotlight. But as the only daughter in the most powerful tech family in the galaxy, it’s hard to escape it. So when a group of men show up at her house uninvited, she assumes it’s just the usual media-grubs. That is, until shots are fired.

Liddi escapes, only to be pulled into an interplanetary conspiracy more complex than she ever could have imagined. Her older brothers have been caught as well, trapped in the conduits between the planets. And when their captor implants a device in Liddi’s vocal cords to monitor her speech, their lives are in her hands: One word and her brothers are dead.

Desperate to save her family from a desolate future, Liddi travels to another world, where she meets the one person who might have the skills to help her bring her eight brothers home-a handsome dignitary named Tiav. But without her voice, Liddi must use every bit of her strength and wit to convince Tiav that her mission is true. With the tenuous balance of the planets deeply intertwined with her brothers’ survival, just how much is Liddi willing to sacrifice to bring them back?

Haunting and mesmerizing, this retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans strings the heart of the classic with a stunning, imaginative world as a star-crossed family fights for survival in this companion to Stitching Snow.

4 Drink Me Potions

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Book Group for this copy in exchange for an honest review

**Spinning Starlight comes out on October 6, 2015**

Can I first just say that I absolutely adored this book? Oh, and that TITLE along with the cover? Just. Gorgeous.

For an adaptation and fairy tale retelling of a story that’s not as famous as some others, Lewis did a fantastic – no, a SPECTACULAR – job of spinning out Hans Christian Andersen’s The Wild Swans in her own way. And going into this, I had not read her previous novel, Stitching Snow, but I think I may have to after seeing the remarkable way she spins a tale. (Yes, I’m really going all out with the word spin here.)

Liddi initially impressed me as some spoiled girl who lived in the spotlight because her family’s big and rich in this interplanetary kingdom. She went to parties, had media following her around everywhere and a house (with a talking operating system as her friend) to herself. But that was just initially, which lasted all of maybe ten seconds. It was immediately apparent that she was none of these things. She hated the paparazzi. She never asked for the attention that came with being born into the Jantzen family, and there was so much pressure to live up to that name and the glory of each and every single one of her 8 big brothers.

Now, the tech speak and the physics of things went beyond me. That’s not my specialty. At all. But the feeling of isolation and the need to create something technological to impress the world WAS understandable. Lewis didn’t immediately make it clear what this world was exactly. It was maybe revealed in the odd sentence here and there. For example, the world is called Seven Points. What’s that supposed to mean? Okay, 7 planets as each individual points? That makes sense. Wait, what are they each called? What is the one she’s on? Is there something special about each one?

Okay, the answers slowly piled in but it took a while to understand it. There was no information dump at all, which is a blessing and curse at the same time. It took more effort on my part to get into the story in the beginning when I was confused with half of what was going on and the terminology that was being thrown around. So maybe a little information dump, more like an information pile, would have been appreciated. That’s my only complaint.

From there, danger dropped onto Liddi and the story unfolded a little slow. Who was the bad guy? Where were her brothers? If you knew of The Wild Swans, you’re just waiting for the pieces to start falling together.

But the wait was worth it. Once Liddi lost her voice and the whole evil plot involving her brothers was laid out, it was better than I thought it could be. A surprising twist there, new characters there, it took me on a wild ride indeed. It was absolutely genius in mixing this tale with sci-fi aspects like portal travelling and being trapped in a hyperdimensional state, not fully in the physical world but not fully out of it either.

Lewis put her own mark on Andersen’s basic plot and really made it her own. I want to say so much more about plot things, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise of just what they are so that limits it.

What I will say is that I didn’t think it was possible to enjoy a book that contained more descriptive writing than dialogue. It wasn’t possible for that if Liddi couldn’t speak. We were just constantly in her head, reading her thoughts and her emotions. The anxieties of time limiting her and the constant fear for her brothers’ safety. Her memories and flashbacks to her past when more of her brothers lived at home with her and when her parents were still alive. There was so much GOOD content and it was written well. It had to be or else all these monologues would just get beyond tiring. It’s an easy trap to fall into and I can’t stress enough how well Lewis did to keep me interested.

And the relationships. Oh my, the feels! There was so much love for her brothers, each and every one of them. It was clear she would do absolutely ANYTHING for them. Come on, there are EIGHT brothers. That’s a lot of people to love, but the flashbacks really helped us understand their relationship with her and how much they all loved and wanted to protect their baby sister, no matter what. There was also a romantic sort of love as well, which didn’t get my heart racing as much as other books may, but it was the sweet kind of love that is reminiscent and suiting for fairy tales. So I’m definitely not complaining.

The ending was not what I expected, but that’s not to say it wasn’t good either. And it was summed up in a quote that I must put down here, which is a testament of how relateable Liddi’s character can be to anyone who reads Spinning Starlight.

“Some journeys can only be made once. Some partings aren’t what they seem. Some endings must be so something else can begin.”

And with that thought hanging on the mind, so did the story end as well.

Overall Recommendation:
Spinning Starlight was a beautifully written prose and modern adaptation of The Wild Swans. With a protagonist who was mute, the writing did centre more on the inner monologue in Liddi’s head than dialogue with others, but that in itself was done so well that it didn’t feel like it dragged the story. It enhanced it. Mixing the old fairy tale with new sci-fi elements and tech speak, it may get confusing in the beginning but I definitely recommend you check out this clever and gorgeous retelling for yourself. I don’t think it would disappoint.

Review: The Ugly Stepsister by Aya Ling

August 23, 2015August 31, 2015 Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

When Kat accidentally rips apart an old picture book, she’s magically transported into the world of Cinderella–as Katriona, one of the ugly stepsisters!

Life turns upside down now that she’s a highborn lady and must learn how to survive the social season, including how to get through the door in a huge metal hoop skirt. To get back, she’ll have to complete the story, right to the end of happily ever after.

But the odds are huge: the other stepsister is drop-dead gorgeous, the fairy godmother is nowhere to be found, and the prince, despite being insanely hot, openly dislikes balls. Can she ever return to the modern world?

4 Drink Me Potions

Thank you Xpresso Book Tours and Giselle for the copy in exchange for an honest review

Now, who doesn’t love a good fairy tale retelling? I sure love ’em, and it’s clear that author Aya Ling does too (and that’s not just because I read her exact words describing this in the Acknowledgements –which yes, I do read too). She provided a beautiful backdrop in Cinderella land for The Ugly Stepsister.

The story jumps right to it. Our protagonist Kat is terribly shy with boys and loves to just hide in her room with a good book in hand rather than party it up like the other girls at school. Now why does that sound so familiar?

Oh right. That’s ’cause I can totally relate to that when I was around that age. As I’m sure many other readers out there can also relate to that sentiment.

Anyway, there was an immediate understanding and bond with Kat which made me like her all the more. Soon after, she falls into a completely crazy world of fairy land, but nothing seems to be working right. How does one find a fairy godmother? What’s with all these corsets? And what? The other stepsister is NOT ugly? How can that be? Kat has a lot on her hands to get the story going so that the prince would fall for Cinderella in this tale. Oh, and not to mention, all these crazy antics are pure hilarious entertainment for the goblins that had cursed Kat to this fate.

I loved a whole lot of this book. Kat had to go through a lot to first just even understand how this old historical-like kingdom system worked. And then to do it all alone, with barely any help from the goblin intermediate that would pop up in her room at night occasionally to just ask for progress. She was strong and through it all, it pushed her out of her comfort zone. Talking to hot guys? Check. Facing down lords and other royalty while trying to not completely make a fool of herself? Check. Having to live with a horrible mother who only cared to find Kat a suitor? Check.

It was slow towards the middle, I will admit. I felt Ling didn’t have to drag the plot out so much with all the horrid parties Kat had to attend in order to “find an appropriate suitor”. And man, her awful sister! Did I want to strangle that girl sometimes? And this was coming from the point of view as the sister and NOT as Cinderella? That says a lot how much I hated her.

But overall, the story brought out a lot of greatness. Kat was an amazing girl. She fought hard for things in this kingdom that mattered only in her “normal” modern day life. It didn’t matter that she kept telling herself at night that these people were only just characters in a book. She was living it and these people mattered to her regardless. Haven’t you ever felt that way about characters in a book before?

And the romance . Oh my goodness. Prince Edward was swoon-worthy (of course!). What kind of Cinderella retelling would it be without a gorgeous prince? But he wasn’t just a face. He cared about things that other high ranking nobles didn’t. His cousin was just as amazing, choosing a profession that helped the common people. It’s always good in a book to enjoy the PERSONALITIES of the hot guys the protagonist is vying for.

Alas, the ending melted me. It absolutely did. I won’t say much beyond that so it wouldn’t ruin a thing, but it did make sense from a writing point. I loved it; it was ingenious of course. But it was definitely bittersweet as well.

Overall Recommendation:
The Ugly Stepsister is not just some fairy tale retelling. There are so many of those already, aren’t there? It’s a beautiful twist of possibly the greatest classic fairy tale, and it contains such remarkable elements. With immense detail into what life would be like in Cinderella’s kingdom, and a protagonist with such strong convictions to get home, this story leaves you cheering for Kat to finish the fairy tale story and crying with her when things go so horribly wrong. I love fairy tale retellings and this definitely made it to the list of books I thoroughly enjoyed.