Tag: genre: action/adventure

• Book Review: “Moth and Spark” by Anne Leonard (ARC)

  Posted at 9:00 am by Laura, on January 20, 2014

  Moth and Spark by Anne Leonard 

  Publisher: Viking
  Publishing Date: February 20
  Genre: fantasy, young adult, adult
  ISBN: 9780670015702
  Goodreads: —
  Rating: ★★★★

  Prince Corin has been chosen to free the dragons from their bondage to the Empire, but dragons aren’t big on directions. They have given him some of their power, but none of their knowledge. No one, not the dragons nor their riders, is even sure what keeps the dragons in the Empire’s control.

  Tam, sensible daughter of a well-respected doctor, had no idea before she arrived in the capital that she is a Seer, gifted with visions. When the two run into each other (quite literally) in the library, sparks fly and Corin impulsively asks Tam to dinner. But it’s not all happily ever after. Never mind that the prince isn’t allowed to marry a commoner: war is coming to Caithen.

  Torn between Corin’s quest to free the dragons and his duty to his country, the lovers must both figure out how to master their powers in order to save Caithen. With a little help from a village of secret wizards and a rogue dragonrider, they just might pull it off.

  Though educated in politics and skilled at charming the courtiers, Prince Corin would rather be out with the soldiers, protecting and defending his kingdom. Tam, sent by her father to be with her sister-in-law at court, would much rather read and explore the gardens than wile away with idle gossip. A chance encounter in the library draws Corin and Tam together, an intense love at first sight that changes the course of Caithen’s future forever. With Corin’s quest to free the dragons and prevent destruction of his kingdom, combined with Tam’s rising powers of Seeing the future, not all is splendid for the lovers. The fate of the kingdom rests heavily on their shoulders.

  While the ARC did not have a map to help with the geography and politics and names dumped within the first few chapters, Anne Leonard helpfully linked to a map that was immensely useful while reading the book. When the final print is published, readers may often turn to it for footing. After the first few chapters of groundwork, the fun aspects of the story begins — and it was quite thrilling!

  Tam is such a powerful female character, I couldn’t help but fall in love with her from the beginning. Her love for Corin does not dampen her strength at any moment — she’s quite an individual, very unique and confident and a breath of fresh air to read (and, apparently, fresh air for Corin too!). Corin was entertaining, clearly burdened by his duties but still young and playful without being rude or misleading. The two characters complimented one another, which is excellent because they certainly rushed everything in war-torn haste.

  Name-dropping and info-dumping at the beginning of books tend to bother me, but it was key for this fantasy. Without it, the rest of the book would be lost on the reader. Pay attention to the name, the politics, the events, because it all comes back later to haunt and threaten Corin. It made the world feel real, almost like an Arthurian legend. Throw in the dragons and the hidden magic, and it’s quite an adventure!

  A very difficult book to put down, exciting from start to finish with war, magic, battles, love, and courtly amusements!

  Thank you, Edelweiss, for providing this book from Viking for review!

  Posted in books, Reviews 2014 | 6 Comments | Tagged advance reading copy, ARC, book review, books, genre: action/adventure, genre: adult fiction, genre: fantasy, genre: romance, genre: young adult, goodreads, review

• Book Review: “The Madman’s Daughter” by Megan Shepherd

  Posted at 2:03 pm by Laura, on April 15, 2013

  The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd 

  Published: January 2013
  Publisher: Balzer + Bray
  Genre: young adult, gothic, adventure, sci-fi
  ISBN: 9780062128027
  Goodreads: 3.77
  Rating: ★★★

  Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

  Accompanied by her father’s handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father’s madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island’s inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father’s dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it’s too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father’s genius—and madness—in her own blood.

  Inspired by H. G. Wells’s classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman’s Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we’ll do anything to know and the truths we’ll go to any lengths to protect.

  Juliet Moreau is a cleaning maid in King’s College, London, brought down from her place in aristocracy when her father performed illegal surgeries and disappeared. When she receives news of a possibility of his return, she seeks him out only to find her old servant Montgomery. After begging him to take her to her father, Montgomery and Juliet sail to the South Pacific and land on a remote island, filled with disfigured natives and an eerie sense that her father is hiding behind a monstrosity larger than she could ever dream of.

  Shepherd does an excellent job of maintaining interest as the book progresses. Each chapter is full of action, horror, and scientific curiosity. Each character, from Juliet to Montgomery, to Dr Moreau and the marooned Edward, from Balthazar to Alice, has something to hide. The suspense of their personal secrets, mixed with the dangers of the humid and wild jungle, make for a fantastic gothic read. It’s inspired me to read Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau, which normally I wouldn’t have read!

  However, what prevented me from giving the book four or five stars is the forced love triangle. Juliet is torn between Montgomery and Edward, and even in the most terrifying situations she mulls over her emotions. At the end of the book, after all twists and turns are revealed, this conflict is somewhat justified — to give in to animal instinct or to give in to human emotion? The story could have been much better if the triangle weren’t so emphasized or pronounced. The secrets and science and eerie quality of the island could have become more of a character itself — and it had plenty of opportunity to be a character — rather than a backdrop.

  According to Goodreads, this may be the first of a trilogy. I like the way it ended, and do not see a need for a second or third book, but it would be interesting to see what Shepherd has next.

  Posted in books, Reviews 2013 | 10 Comments | Tagged book review, books, genre: action/adventure, genre: gothic, genre: romance, genre: sci-fi, genre: young adult, goodreads, review

• Book Review: “Clockwork Princess” by Cassandra Clare

  Posted at 8:46 pm by Laura, on March 20, 2013

  Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare 

  Publisher: McElderry
  Publishing Date: March 19, 2013
  Genre: young adult, fantasy, romance, action/adventure
  ISBN: 9781416975908
  Goodreads: —
  Rating: ★★★★★

  A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.

  Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.

  As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?

  Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.

  What starts off as an ordinary mission of slaying demons in Victorian London turns into a whirlwind of plot, disaster, and inevitable death for Will, Tessa, Jem, and the rest of the London Institute. Every bit of evidence connects Tessa to Mortmain and his desire to use her for his destruction of the Shadowhunter world. No matter how much Charlotte pleas for help, her cries fall on deaf ears. In the midst of love and heartbreak, death and destruction, Tessa realizes her full potential and what she has been trained to do since capture: to Change and save, even if it means risking her life.

  As an uber Clare fangirl (I remember the days when she was Cassandra Claire), I knew I would love whatever she wrote to end this trilogy. I could not side on teams — I love Team Will and I love Team Jem, and it did not matter who Tessa chose because I would still love the decision and be heartbroken for the other. But as a critical reader, I must applaud Clare on her twist to the cliché love triangle; that, in fact, this is not a love triangle but a bond between three that is so complex and yet so understandable that every reader could comprehend the characters’ actions. Clare sums it up so well in this passage:

  ‘Think now  and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.’ Yes, [Will] would have done that for Tessa — died to keep the ones she needed beside her — and so would Jem have done that for him or for Tessa, and so would Tessa, he thought, do that for both of them. It was a near incomprehensible tangle, the three of them, but there was one certainty, and that was that there was no lack of love between them.

  While the Infernal Devices trilogy is more love-heavy than her Mortal Instruments series, it is no less action-packed. For every chapter of down-time, regrouping, meetings in halls, and whispers in bedrooms, there are two chapters for action, plot, anxiety, panic, and adventure. Each character had a voice in this book, from the Lightwood brothers to maid Sophie, from Will’s sister Cecily to Magnus. The jumps in plot and narrative are never jarring or confusion, as they overlap and fuse so well with one another to advance the story. We even get a chance to watch characters listen in through closed doors on other characters — and watch those other characters have that conversation on the other side of the closed doors. It was fun and fascinating and wonderful.

  More and more information about the Shadowhunter world is revealed in here as well. We get a taste of the culture, rituals, and meanings behind runes, books, and laws. I feel it is explained better in this series than Mortal Instruments, but Clare has dipped her toes in this world far longer at this point after her first publication. While Mortal Instruments carries more about the Shadowhunter travels and lots of information on Downworlders, Infernal Devices captures the Victorian culture and importance of rules and rituals, which works so nicely with explaining Shadowhunter rules and rituals too.

  Finally, as a lover of all things Victorian, I enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter and the numerous name-droppings of literary works the characters mention throughout the book. There are instances when Will truly did act like Sydney Carton or appear like Heathcliff, or when Tessa experienced a similar wandering through the moors like Jane Eyre. My appreciation for Charlotte’s name deepened as well (Charlotte Branwell, of Charlotte and Branwell Bronte), and all of Henry’s wacky inventions and scientific enthusiasm (at an age when science was becoming more exciting).

  I could gush about this book for forever. I don’t believe I need to share a photo of a page from the epilogue, stained entirely with my tears. (Note on the epilogue: Normally epilogues are poor things to make things tie together nicely. This was not. This epilogue was perfection and I am entirely pleased with it.)

  Posted in books, Reviews 2013 | 0 Comments | Tagged book review, books, genre: action/adventure, genre: fantasy, genre: history, genre: romance, genre: young adult, goodreads, review

• Book Review: “City of Bones” by Cassandra Clare

  Posted at 4:49 pm by Laura, on November 19, 2012

  [This is a re-read for a graduate class project as well as excitement for the movie, out August 2013.]

  The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

  Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
  Publishing Date: 2007
  Genre: young adult, fantasy, action/adventure
  Goodreads: 4.14
  Rating: ★★★

  When Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder. Much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with odd markings. This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons-and keeping the odd werewolves and vampires in line. It’s also her first meeting with gorgeous, golden-haired Jace. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in an ordinary mundane like Clary? And how did she suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…

  “We are sometimes called the Nephilim. In the Bible they were the offspring of humans and angels.”

  From the very first chapter, Clary is transported into a world within a world, unprepared and unaware of her role in it. Seeing people no one else can, shimmering edges of fantastical beasts, and recollections of events she swears she never experienced. Her life is turned upside down when her mother is taken away, and it takes an allegiance with the half-angels Jace, Isabelle, and Alec to find her. It’s an unstable allegiance, especially when she discovers that the man who took Clary’s mother could be holding her ransom for something far more important: the Mortal Cup.

  Clare’s skills lie in the perfect balance of action-packed scenes and soft, endearing moments between the characters. There is something for every reader: the descriptions of the Shadowhunter world, where faeries and demons and vampires walk among humans — mundanes, as Shadowhunters call them — where characters range from flamboyant to shy to menacing to empathetic. There is so much action that every character is at risk of death, so much plot that there’s a twist at every turn, and stolen moments of love and heartbreak, just enough to leave the reader wanting more from all the tension and unspoken words. It’s brilliant, this world of half-angels, this world Clare has created. The Mortal Instruments is a series I would highly recommend to anyone! [Sidenote plug: my favorite Shadowhunter series is The Infernal Devices, set in Victorian England and can be read as a prequel or entirely separately from The Mortal Instruments.]

  Clary is an artistic girl, easily accepting of strange and beautiful things. She sees the world through an artist’s eye, which can explain her quick (yet hesitant) understanding of the Shadowhunter world. She’s eager to learn from Jace, an honest and witty Shadowhunter determined to defend as well as expose Clary to the world he knows. Alec and Isabelle, siblings, are wary of Clary’s involvement with their schemes, but they understand her part in their world and aim to teach her to become one of them. Left in the shadows, sometimes forgotten, is Clary’s mundane friend Simon, accidentally stumbling along in the adventures and trying desperately to make Clary leave the Shadowhunters and come back to a normal life.

  However, this book is intentionally left as a cliffhanger. It is purely an introduction to the society and politics that Clary will be exposed to in future books. It is about discovery, learning the truth about individuals, finding out who one’s true family is, the shattering of an old world and learning to embrace a new one, accepting the oddness of glamours and monsters from tales walking among humans. All of this is meant to entice the reader to pick up the next book, City of Ashes. In a plot arc, this is simply the rising action. And what a ride of a rising action is was!

  Posted in books, Reviews 2012 | 2 Comments | Tagged book review, books, genre: action/adventure, genre: fantasy, genre: romance, genre: young adult, goodreads, review

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• Hello, I’m Laura!

  I'm a bookish bookworm and book hoarder. By day I'm a literary agent and librarian, and by night I'm forever rearranging my bookshelves. I have a passion for Victorian culture, Gothic lit, and music. I have a fluffy black cat named Rossetti, I love to knit, tea is my drink of choice, British TV is the best, and I'm obsessed with popcorn. Welcome to Scribbles & Wanderlust! Grab your favorite hot beverage and let's chat books!

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