Category: YA

YA

Review: The Seven Year King by Kiki Hamilton

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Faerie Ring #3

It is the seventh year—the time when the UnSeelie Court must pay a tithe to Seelie royalty to remain a separate entity. Sacrificed at midnight on Samhain, the UnSeelies call their offering the Seven Year King. This time, Donegal plans to sacrifice someone Tiki loves. To make matters worse, Fiona disappears, Johnny lies near death, and the threat of the liche comes closer. Tiki’s only hope is that she and Rieker can find an ancient faerie treasure and outsmart the Winter King before the turning of the seasons. In this third book of The Faerie Ring series, Tiki is pulled between two worlds—and unable to find peace in either.

A deadly sacrifice, a heartbreaking choice, an uncertain future…

4 Drink Me Potions

It still constantly amazes me how well Hamilton was able to immerse the land of mythical fey with 19th century London.

In this 3rd installment of the Faerie Ring series, we get to see more of the Otherworld as Tiki spends more time there, having accepted her role in leading the Seelie Court. The novel starts off with a bang as 1) Dain has been captured at the end of The Torn Wing and possibly going to be sacrificed on Samhain, and 2) Johnny has been captured by the liche, aka hideous monster that’s been doing the Winter King’s bidding.

Torn between keeping her family safe in London and saving those who need her in the Otherworld, I was glad to see that this book really picked up the pace where The Torn Wing was a little lacking. Without ruining too much, basically some action starts happening as the liche continues to hunt down Tiki and her family, in particular Fiona.

And as always, Hamilton is the best at incorporating tidbits of new information and introducing new characters. This time, we get to see the amazing (and sometimes horrifying) creatures of the fey. From tree dryads (who are really witches!) to ugly hobgoblins and their distant relatives the Redcaps, crazy things continue to happen as Tiki embarks to rescue Dain.

I smell a love triangle with Dain, but for those who don’t love them, rest assured, I don’t think Hamilton made those hints of feelings into anything more, at least on Tiki’s side of things. Her heart is safely with Rieker (as it well should be). Oh and finally! Some seriously hot romantic action goes on here with our favourite pickpocket-slash-handsome-lord.

The one thing I felt a little off with this story was Johnny and Fiona’s romantic chemistry. I honestly didn’t feel like they knew each other well enough before suddenly, they were “in love” or something like it from the way Fiona freaked out about Johnny’s capture. But anyway, this book really won’t disappoint with suspense OR romance. The land of the fey and the gorgeous old city of London ever continues to amaze me in The Seven Year King. Not to mention, a few more real life facts/artifacts thrown into the story!

Overall Recommendation:
The Seven Year King was a truly enjoyable read. Hamilton is a master story-weaver as she immerses us into both the land of the fey and 19th century London this time. With two friends’ lives hanging in the balance, Tiki and her companions are on a timeline to save them. Not to mention there is still a horrible monster hunting them down for the Winter King. This surely sets the foundation for the ultimate conclusion to the series. Please, do yourself a favour and read it. Romance? History? Fantasy? Suspense/action? No other story blends these elements as well as this does.

YA

Review: The Torn Wing by Kiki Hamilton

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Faerie Ring #2

the torn wing -kiki hamiltonLondon 1872 –

A bloody escape, a deadly threat, a shocking revelation…

As an orphan who stole the Queen’s ring – only to find the ring was a reservoir that held a truce between the world of Faerie and the British Court – Tiki’s greatest fear suddenly becomes all too real: the fey have returned to London seeking revenge. As war escalates in the Otherworld, Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold, is attacked. In order to protect her family and those she loves, Tiki needs to know the meaning of an fáinne sí, the birthmark that winds around her wrist. But will she be brave enough to face the truth?

3 Drink Me Potions

Hmm, where should I start? The Torn Wing continues the story of Tiki and her band of misfit orphans, now living with the ever-handsome Rieker, aka Lord William Richmond.

I’ve always loved the historical setting of 19th century London. To mash it with the land of the fey is just perfect. Two worlds, both uniquely beautiful in their own way, with a deep mystery at the heart of it all.

Right from the prologue, there is a stirring for war as the UnSeelie Court threatened to take over both the thrones of the Seelie Court and of London’s from Queen Victoria. The mystery surrounding Tiki’s involvement with the fairies is further developed, although her initial denial of any such involvement deeply annoyed me.

The characters were sweet and intensely themselves. By that I mean, Hamilton writes in a way that makes each character something special and uniquely their own. Tiki’s family of orphans are all so different, not just because of their age. They are young, but their eyes have seen the horrors of living on the streets. They’ve developed street smarts, they’re loyal and caring for others less fortunate, yet they still maintain a sense of innocence. It’s hard to describe, but even when you want to shake them for being stubborn or doing little petty things, these are trademarks for what makes them such great characters. They come alive, doing things as little children or young orphans do.

With such great secondary characters, of course the protagonists were also enjoyable to read. Tiki may be hugely stubborn, but her heart holds enough love for anyone. Rieker always remains an enjoyable love interest, and I was a little saddened to see that Hamilton didn’t further develop him in any way in this book at least. Besides being a love interest, he’s different from any other main male characters in the YA genre these days. He also lives a double life, as a pickpocket and a lord, but there’s so much more to him. He’s just not predictable, which makes him more exciting.

The plot wasn’t as intense, although the book started off with a chaotic event. The main thing Tiki and her gang were involved in was finding the Stone of Tara, which would roar for any true queen/king of Faerie. Besides that, it didn’t really pick up too much. Mostly, Tiki was learning to accept what she may be, and Rieker was dealing with…an old frenemy.

Larkin. I don’t know what to make of her. From The Faerie Ring, I thought I knew what to feel for her, but she isn’t a straight-cut villain. There are so many layers to her, and I’m still figuring her out as I’m writing this.

Hamilton is good with the twists and turns. As new characters come into the story, new pieces of information keep falling out that continually surprises me. My goodness, talk about unpredictability. It’s rather exciting!

Lastly, I have to say, not everyone loves historical novels. I myself sometimes do find it a tad tiresome as it’s set in a society that may not be as exciting or fun as modern or even post-apocalyptic societies may be. However, to mesh olden day London and its real life history (i.e. Queen Victoria and her sons), with similarly “true” legends of the fey there, it’s absolutely fascinating . I love the author’s note explaining real life places where Tiki and her friends have gone to in the novel, and teaching the readers how to pronounce some of the Gaelic words that are used. It makes everything more real and solid, knowing Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace are real places I could visit if I wanted to.

It takes talent to creatively piece actual facts with an imaginative world of faerie lore, and to do it with such elegance and air of magic. For that, even though the pacing wasn’t all too amazing in this one, The Torn Wing has reminded me of what storytelling should be like these days. It is DEFINITELY a read that needs to be in your collection of “read books”.

Overall Recommendation:
I may be biased, but I absolutely love the setting in which this series takes place in. Imagine 19th century London with a hidden veil of the Otherworld of the fey at certain locations. And these places take into account real life locations in London, like King’s Cross Station or Hyde Park.

Cemented into this glorious setting, a dark adventure unfolds as Tiki is drawn farther into the dealings of the fey, with an old enemy coming back to warn her and the gang of an impending war. Wrought with well-developed characters from The Faerie Ring and new ones appearing, Hamilton delivers unpredictable plot twists and surprising developments as some answers are given of Tiki and Rieker’s involvement with the faeries.

YA

Review: Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Spellbound #1

spellbound -cara lynn shultz What’s a girl to do when meeting The One means she’s cursed to die a horrible death?

Life hasn’t been easy on sixteen-year-old Emma Connor, so a new start in New York may be just the change she needs. But the posh Upper East Side prep school she has to attend? Not so much. Friendly faces are few and far between, except for one that she’s irresistibly drawn to— Brendan Salinger, the guy with the rock-star good looks and the richest kid in school, who might just be her very own white knight.

But even when Brendan inexplicably turns cold, Emma can’t stop staring. Ever since she laid eyes on him, strange things have been happening. Streetlamps go out wherever she walks, and Emma’s been having the oddest dreams: visions of herself in past lives— visions that warn her to stay away from Brendan. Or else.

3 Drink Me Potions

Let’s just say that initially, Spellbound did not start off as pleasantly as I would have hoped. The protagonist, Emma, just annoyed me with her immature attitude and her analogies for situations. For example, right off the bat into the story, we see Emma complaining about attending her new prestigious school with her baby cousin. And by “baby”, there was only a two-year gap between them in age.

I knew that juniors did not hang out with the lower classes. It was like hanging out with a bunch of vegetarians and wearing a bacon necklace.

I let that slip by, as a few other reviews I read prior to beginning the book warned of Emma’s strange comparisons. However, what really annoyed me was the way she handled a comment that she had no smart comeback for.

Anytime I couldn’t think of something clever to say, I just told the person they were whatever we were talking about….
“It’s dinnertime, kids,” she [mother] would call from the kitchen. “Turn off the TV.”
“You’re a TV!” we [brother and I] would call back in unison.

Heck, I know this “joke” brings back fond memories of what her family used to do, but she did this several times throughout the story at the most random of times. It was just seriously tiring to read and felt unnecessary to add.

Oh, and this book really went all out with the cultural references. There were mentions of more pop culture things than most stories would go, kind of like those movies where branded items were “discreetly” placed for viewers to see. Cara Lynn Shultz mentioned things like Jay-Z music videos, Family Guy, Hulu, and countless more references pitted throughout the novel. I’m not normally the kind of person who minds any acknowledgement to current popular culture but this was intense. So for anyone out there who actually does mind, I’d warn you about that considering it even got on my nerves. I didn’t even understand every little reference she used either. Is the author trying to sound like she knows teenagers very well and had to use whatever tidbit she could get her hands on to make it seem so? I have no idea.

BUT, that’s where my annoyances stop. It was a lot of grievances, I’ll admit, but I eventually warmed up to the story a bit. A thousand year old curse that somehow seems linked to the antique necklace Emma was given to by her late brother? A somewhat stereotypical yet still charming guy who was hard to understand? I thought it was worth the shot to keep going.

Here’s the shorthand of what Spellbound felt to me.

The pacing
It wasn’t all that exciting for a long while into the book. I think it made it easier for me to breeze through the first half because I was reading the ebook version, otherwise flipping so many physical pages might have deterred me a lot earlier. But, as soon as the curse was first brought to light, it did intrigue me more.

Shultz did not just briefly mention a story of long ago, but actually went into detail of how it came to be. I like the intricacies of detailing what had brought such events to pass instead of breezing through a short tale because it didn’t matter as much as the present.

From there, the story unfolds at a decent pace, although it wasn’t strangely exciting either. This brings me to my next point.

The predictability
I should’ve known how the curse would’ve played out by the end of the book. I will admit, I was hoping for a far more intriguing and original way to conclude the story and break the curse. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take too many guesses to figure that out. The action and climax that led up to the final conclusion at least still had me intensely waiting it out.

The only part that I couldn’t piece together was the involvement of her brother, Ethan. His role was always unclear to me, and to this end, I’m still uncertain as to how and why he was acknowledged into essential portions of the plot.

Also, I didn’t see how Emma’s impending “death” would arise from. In hindsight, I should’ve seen it coming, but I was too focused on another crazy character and the predictability of the exact “moment” it would happen in.

Unoriginality
I must admit, a lot of this story wasn’t very original or…new. Reading it, you get a lot of the “ah, been there, done that” moments, like you’ve read this piece of the plot before or figured it would play out sort of in this way.

The characters weren’t very well-developed. Sure, Emma’s friend Angelique was definitely different, considering she was a practicing witch. But it was the stereotypical kind of portrayal of one. Do they have to be all loner types that jump at the opportunity to whisper an incantation for someone? Another example would be Emma’s baby cousin, Ashley. She’s just an enthusiastic girl who looks up to Emma, rather naive and way too perky about everything. Kind of the ideal little girl attitude who worships an older role model. There was never any real depth to any of them.

Emma and even Brendan felt a little bit like that at times. Yes, Emma grew up in this story (thank God!). I wouldn’t have lasted if she was still so annoying. However, they still need a dose of character development that felt lacking. Brendan’s mysterious, but he’s apparently kind-hearted with good intentions underneath everything. I’d rather Shultz showed me that rather than just tell it.

Concluding thoughts…
Okay, I will admit, this was not a glowing review. Or what would have been expected for a 3-star review. But for some reason, I still liked it enough to give it 3 stars.

It may not be original, but Shultz incorporated elements of stories which made me like those stories in the first place. So sometimes, originality isn’t the key to a great story as it can get confusing when authors try to make everything brand new and never done before.

I liked the intrigue behind the curse, the anticipation of Emma’s impending predicament, and their romantic moments(albeit, not a romance that was as well-developed as I would’ve hoped for, even though they are soulmates). Okay, the romance may fall more into the category of “could’ve been better”…

Either way, Spellbound was enjoyable enough to keep reading on a boring afternoon (or on the commute from school). If you don’t expect too much and just take the story as it is, it can be entertaining to follow along.

Overall Recommendations:
Spellbound held grievances that were definitely big enough to take note of. Initially starting off with an annoying protagonist, lacking well-developed characters and the use of strange prose throughout the novel, this may stack up to be more than one can take.

I suggest that if you already sound disgusted at these things, this isn’t the book for you. However, if you just want a mildly entertaining romance with its moments of darker intrigue and suspense about a curse between star-struck lovers, then give it a go. This book isn’t for everyone, so be warned. At most, it may surprise you to be quite enjoyable, and at worse, it may end up in further grievances.

Spellbound is a lot of surprising things, so keep your mind open as you dive in. That’s my best advice. Not the worst debut novel I’ve read, but certainly not near the best. Entertaining enough to thrive off boredom, but ultimately, it’s a forgettable novel that leaves no lasting imprint.