Review: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Title: Crimson Bound
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Series: n/a
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: May 5, 2015
Source: received from publisher via Edelweiss
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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.

(This is a standalone novel, not part of the Cruel Beauty Universe.)

I loved Crimson Beauty so much that I've already read and/or listened to it over five times since I received the ARC a little over a year ago. Beauty and the Beast has always been one of my favorite fairy tales, followed very closely by Little Red Riding Hood. Intriguing that one of my new favorite authors on the scene has retold both now. And her sophomore novel may have trumped her debut on my list of favorite retellings ever.

The thing is, I can't really talk about the aspect I loved the most in this story because it would probably be considered a major spoiler to most if I revealed anything about it. And because I value romance pretty highly, I myself would consider any mention of this type of romance to be ruining. I can say that the way this romance plays out would disappoint many, especially those who feel very strongly on the kind that feature three points. I discussed it in great length with Lauren, who famously despises LTs and as far as I know, she has plans to stay very far away from this one. Just in case you were wondering. :)

Here's the thing, kids. I've been trying to write this review for weeks. I was blown away by this book when I read it and I've wanted to tell the world ever since, but I wanted to be coherent when I did so. Apparently, when it comes to me and one of Rosamund's books, that's maybe an impossibility I've yet to accept. It's just…the way she weaves a tale you already know and love into a story that's wholly it's own is rather remarkable. I don't like to compare authors because they all have their own style and their own methods, but the way Hodge writes her characters reminds me a lot of Sarah J. Maas. I just love how they always have questionable motives and very little compunction. I live in the gray areas, and I like to see characters that do the same, that battle with good and evil, black and white, on a daily basis. It makes them more real to me.

Crimson Bound is not only based on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood but also on the story of The Girl With No Hands. I absolutely LOVED how Hodge combined these tales to make one truly engaging story, one where the evil is closer than you know or want to admit, and trusting anyone else might be your biggest mistake yet. It's a story where girls are allowed to kill and have unpure thoughts and villains aren't necessarily all evil. I just love a redeemable bad guy….like, there's no other character I like to see more. Besides the heroine who's allowed to be selfish and want things for herself, even if she knows it goes against what she's been taught or who she's sworn to protect. Not everything is black and white, and I fully appreciate a story that can illustrate that without being preachy.

Also, Hodge reminds us of the story's origins by including faerie folk and reminding the MC constantly of what is owed, but I still love how understated the faerie presence is in her stories, despite the fact that many fey have made themselves noticeable at this point in the story. I really enjoy how this author takes fairy tales and flips them on their heads; these stories are definitely inspired by some of my favorite fairy tales, but they don't follow through with those essential happily ever afters, peaking the interest of a hard-core fairy tale lover like me.

This is technically the third story I've read from Rosamund Hodge, but I have to say, it's my favorite. Her characters have become increasingly more complex and the story that much more frenetic, and I have a hard time controlling myself when one lands in my lap. Her stories are not the type to be read sparingly, bit by bit. No, Hodge's stories inevitably need to be read all in one go, by someone who fully understands that life isn't black and white but lived in shades of gray.

GIF it to me straight:

In other words, trust no one.

About the author:

I love mythology, Hello Kitty, and T. S. Eliot. I also write YA fantasy novels: CRUEL BEAUTY, where Greek mythology meets Beauty and the Beast, and CRIMSON BOUND, where Little Red Riding Hood meets . . . many strange things.

Find Rosamund:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: beautiful covers, crimson bound, demons, faeries, favorites, harper-collins, immortals, little red riding hood, must-read, retellings, reviews, rosamund hodge

#Tuck40th -- 40 Days for 40 Years: Tuck Everlasting Blog Tour

I didn't discover the magic of Tuck Everlasting until the movie's release was imminent back in 2002 or so, but I'm one of those people who can't see a movie until they've read the book, so I promptly devoured -- and fell in love with -- the story. I love a book that challenges its readers:  to challenge themselves, to think outside of the box, to think of the future, or to think about all the possibilities of a life really lived.

As part of the 40 Days for 40 Years:  Tuck Everlasting Blog Tour, each blogger on the tour has been asked the same question that Tuck Everlasting has been asking for 40 years:

"What if you could live forever?"

Duh, I'd read all the books ever.

Seriously, though, IF I could -- and I'm not saying I'd necessarily want to -- but if I could live forever, it'd need to be an immortal existence where my presence didn't cause humankind any great harm. Think more like The Doctor and less like blood-sucking vampires, and you'd have what I'm envisioning. I'd want to spend my eternity seeing anything and experiencing everything. I'd take risks, do all the things that I'm afraid to do now. When you know death is next-to impossible to achieve -- if at all -- the world is at your fingertips. I wouldn't say I'd traipse across the globe, acting as if my actions had no consequences. But I'd definitely let my inner adrenaline-junkie loose more often.

However, I don't know that I could take that path and drink from the fountain myself. It would be thrilling at first, I'm sure. To see so much change, so many technological advances...it would be a marvel. But it would also be a very lonely existence. It would be a life of loss and isolation, never blending in or being able to make close attachments. Not unless you had a fellow immortal to traverse time with.

Either way, the questions this book asked made me appreciate this one life I've been given all the more...the first time I read it and again, more than a decade later. Whether you're reading it for the first time or the fifth, I hope Tuck Everlasting gives you something to think about, too.

Title: Tuck Everlasting: 40th Anniversary Edition
Author: Natalie Babbitt
Series: stand-alone
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Publication Date: January 20th, 2015 -- that's tomorrow!
Pre-order from Macmillan

Tuck Everlasting asks readers “What if you could live forever?” Doomed to, or blessed with, eternal life after drinking from a magic spring, the Tuck family wanders about trying to live as inconspicuously and comfortably as they can. When ten-year-old Winnie Foster stumbles on their secret, the Tucks take her home and explain why living forever at one age is less of a blessing than it might seem. Then complications arise when Winnie is followed by a stranger who wants to market the spring water for a fortune.

Upon the book’s publication in 1975, Natalie was greeted with concern from parents and educators who were stunned to read a book about death written for children. She is an author who challenges her readers and thinks the best questions are the ones without answers.

With a brand-new introduction from Gregory Maguire, the author of Wicked, and additional bonus materials, this 40th anniversary will introduce a whole new generation to this timeless classic. The book has sold over 3.5 million copies in the US alone, and has never been out of print since publication.

Image Source

About the author:

NATALIE BABBITT is the award-winning author of Tuck Everlasting, The Eyes of the Amaryllis, Knee-Knock Rise, and many other brilliantly original books for young people. She began her career in 1966 as the illustrator of The Forty-Ninth Magician, a collaboration with her husband. When her husband became a college president and no longer had time to collaborate, Babbitt tried her hand at writing. Her first novel, The Search for Delicious, established her gift for writing magical tales with profound meaning. Knee-Knock Rise earned her a Newbery Honor, and in 2002, Tuck Everlasting was adapted into a major motion picture. Natalie Babbitt lives in Connecticut, and is a grandmother of three.

Find Natalie:

Website | Goodreads | IMDb

So, this all begs the question:  What if you could live forever? Would you drink from the spring?

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Labels: anniversary, blog tour, favorites, historical fiction, immortals, macmillan, middle-grade, natalie babbitt, tuck everlasting, tuck40th

Review: Mortal Danger by Ann Aguirre

Title: Mortal Danger
Author: Ann Aguirre
Series: Immortal Game, book #1
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: August 5, 2014
Source: ARC received from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

In Ann Aguirre's Mortal Danger, Edie Kramer has a score to settle with the beautiful people at Blackbriar Academy. Their cruelty drove her to the brink of despair, and four months ago, she couldn’t imagine being strong enough to face her senior year. But thanks to a Faustian compact with the enigmatic Kian, she has the power to make the bullies pay. She’s not supposed to think about Kian once the deal is done, but devastating pain burns behind his unearthly beauty, and he’s impossible to forget.

In one short summer, her entire life changes and she sweeps through Blackbriar, prepped to take the beautiful people down from the inside. A whisper here, a look there, and suddenly . . . bad things are happening. It’s a head rush, seeing her tormentors get what they deserve, but things that seem too good to be true usually are, and soon, the pranks and payback turns from delicious to deadly. Edie is alone in a world teeming with secrets and fiends lurking in the shadows. In this murky morass of devil’s bargains, she isn’t sure who—or what—she can trust. Not even her own mind.

I've never read any of Ann Aguirre's adult novels, but I absolutely loved her YA zombie series. The Razorland trilogy was strong from start to finish, so it saddens me to no end that this new series is off to a rocky start. In fact, I almost DNF'd this book, wondering how it could possibly have been written by the same author who wrote Enclave. But since it was written by Aguirre, I kept hoping that the story would turn around and redeem itself.

Unfortunately, that never happened for me. Mortal Danger was very slow to start and very slow to reveal anything of a paranormal nature. But once it did -- sometime after the halfway mark -- I think it was just too much for one book. It's not that there were too many paranormal elements; I just think the author tried to include too many baddies, too many nightmarish creatures to keep track of.  I knew some of them from folklore, but others I had little knowledge of, and I don't think the author explained their purpose or intent as fully as she might have done. Also, the "game" aspect between the two immortal companies wasn't fully developed, or at least not to my liking, and though I'm sure it will be expanded upon in future books, I just felt too ill-informed at this point. And it made me wonder how Edie could just jump at this opportunity, asking little of her benefactors, especially as to what their motives might entail and what that would mean to her.

The romance in this novel was overwhelming, too. It felt very rushed and very unrealistic. And it was not at all what I was hoping for. The summary makes Kian sound mysterious and dangerous, and he is those things. But he quickly becomes the object of Edie's infatuation, despite the fact that she shouldn't trust him. I would have much preferred Edie to continue to question Kian's trustworthiness and have him remain an enigma. And not have him so easily reciprocate Edie's affections. It would have been one thing for this to be completely one-sided, but this was full-blown insta-love and it almost completely wrecked this story for me.

The bullying aspect -- and consequently the vengeance scheme -- were well-intentioned, but I think they had the opposite of the intended effect on me. I empathized with Edie's situation, that she had suffered in silence, and I understood her desire for revenge. Where this path all went wrong for me was when Edie all but gave up on her plan. Basically, she got this awesome magical makeover, turned into a completely vain wretch, and forgot everything that led up to her almost attempting suicide and the subsequent transformation. She does infiltrate the clique that made her life hell, and she finds herself becoming friends with them. And then what does she do? She starts sympathizing with them. I get it. She's not a terrible person and no longer wants to exact the revenge she'd been hell-bent on before. But considering that's what the book's synopsis all but promises, I feel a little cheated.

If you can't tell, I was really disappointed with Mortal Danger. It wasn't creepy. There wasn't nearly enough revenge. And the paranormal bits needed to be expanded upon for me to fully appreciate them. I wanted to love this one. I've been anticipating this book since I first knew of its existence. I'm crestfallen that it didn't live up to my expectations. I hate to say it, but I'm not even sure I'll continue with this series.

GIF it to me straight:

About the author:

Ann Aguirre is a USA Today bestselling author with a degree in English Literature; before she began writing full time, she was a clown, a clerk, a voice actress, and a savior of stray kittens, not necessarily in that order. She grew up in a yellow house across from a cornfield, but now she lives in sunny Mexico with her husband, children, and various pets. She likes books, emo music, and action movies. She writes all kinds of genre fiction for adults and teens.

Find Ann:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: ann aguirre, beautiful covers, demons, disappointments, horror, immortal game, immortals, macmillan, magic, mythology, paranormal, retellings, reviews

Review: Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Title: Cruel Beauty
Author: Rosamund Hodge
Series: n/a
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication Date: January 28, 2014
Source: ARC received from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl's journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart.

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him.

With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people.

But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical rooms-enthralls her.

As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

Confession time:  I'm a huge fan of Beauty and the Beast.  I could rewatch the Disney version with my daughter a hundred times and never grow tired of it.  "Gaston, you are positively primeval."  But since it's confession time, I feel like I should admit that I haven't read all that many retellings of the tale.  And with all the buzz this book has inspired, I was a little skeptical when I first picked this one up.

I really shouldn't have worried, though, because this novel is only loosely based on the original story and focuses a lot of its attention on Greek mythology, much to my delight.  If there's one thing I like more than Beauty and the Beast, it's Greek mythology, so naturally I loved seeing it infused into this gorgeous story, dark as it may be.  Also, faeries...there are faeries in this retelling, though they're not called that outright.  It's seriously like the author said "What three [awesome] things have no business being in a story together?" and made it work.

And it soooo works.  The story starts out slow, with the author spending quite a bit of time introducing the reader to the kingdom of Arcadia, the residents essentially trapped under a dome, not one of them ever having seen the true sun. Even so, Hodge's writing evoked a sense of romance, just in the way Nyx's situation is described, the tragic yet beautiful way her circumstances unfold.  The day has come for her to live up to her life's mission, and it's both heartbreaking and empowering.

"Death is always interesting to you, isn't it?"
He advanced on me like a cat stalking a bird. "You want me to worry more about my own demise?"
"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly bother you. Do go ahead and rest in comfortable ignorance."
"The better to kill me in my sleep?"
"It would be rude to wake you first."

Nyx is perhaps my favorite type of protagonist.  She's strong and capable, yet the author allows us to see her vulnerability, even when she shows it to know one else.  And I don't just mean her sorrow at being married off to a monster so that she might destroy him.  I'm also referring to her anger at her situation, at the fact that her father is sacrificing her to make amends for his own mistakes.  I think a person who finds herself in this situation should be allowed her anger, should be given time to wallow in self-pity and doubt before being sent off to complete her task.

Pretty much all of the characters in this novel have questionable morals and intentions, and though that will likely be off-putting for many readers, I reveled in it.  If characters can't be relatable or likable, I at least want them to be genuine with hints at their darker natures.  And none of the characters in Cruel Beauty are particularly likable.

Except maybe Shade, but considering the dark and deceitful natures of everyone else Nyx encounters, I decided immediately that I wouldn't trust him.  Ignifex, on the other hand, never hid the fact that he was evil and leaned toward being brutally honest and forthright with Nyx by comparison.  I tend to fancy a villain who straddles the line between good and evil, who sees things in shades of grey rather than in black and white.  Which means I was over the moon happy when Nyx felt a pull towards him.

"But you know what you are, and what you deserve.  You lie to me but not to yourself.  That's why I love you."

I will probably always ship the villain who can be redeemed.  Or at least has the potential to be redeemed, i.e. Warner (from Shatter Me) and River (from Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea -- which I was reminded of time and again while reading this novel). Ignifex isn't pure evil per se, but he doesn't exactly have a heart of gold.  Yet, he can see Nyx for all her faults, can see past what her father has forced her to become and see the girl beneath the cool exterior.  For a girl who's only purpose in this life seems to be that she is to be used by everyone, this is epic.  Even Shade, for all his sweet and tender gestures, wants something from her.  Is it any wonder that she should feel something for Ignifex, even if it goes against everything she's been taught? Making it forbidden just makes it that much hotter to me.

I was warned about the love triangle way in advance of reading this novel.  I think it either desensitized me to the situation, or the manner in which the triangle was resolved itself was just so stunning that I can forgive it anything. Honestly, I saw it coming -- how everything would end -- pretty much from the moment Nyx met Shade, but sometimes it's all in the execution, not the outcome, as in this case.

I found everything about this story to be captivating:  the nature of Ignifex's curse, the castle that seemed almost to be sentient, the death threats and banter between Nyx and Ignifex that bordered on coquettish.  I loved every second of this strange, beautiful story.  This may be a "tale as old as time" but it's been made completely new again in the capable hands of Rosamund Hodge.  I want more from this author, and I want it now.

GIF it to me straight:

About the author:

I love mythology, Hello Kitty, and T. S. Eliot. My debut novel, CRUEL BEAUTY (a YA fairytale fantasy, where Greek mythology meets Beauty and the Beast), is due out from Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins in Winter 2014.

Find Rosamund:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Labels: 2014 debut, beautiful covers, cruel beauty, demons, faeries, favorites, harper-collins, immortals, must-read, mythology, retellings, reviews, rosamund hodge

Review: Unbound by Georgia Bell

Title: Unbound
Author: Georgia Bell
Series: All Good Things, book #1
Publisher: self-published/indie
Publication Date: November 2, 2013
Source: free via Amazon Prime/Kindle Lending Library
Purchase: Amazon

After her father dies, Rachel realizes she is scared and stuck. Scared of heights, of cars, of disasters harming the people she loves. Stuck in a life that is getting smaller by the minute. Stuck with a secret she has kept all her life: Someone has been watching over her since birth. Someone who tends to show up when she needs him the most. Someone she believes is her guardian angel.

Eaden is a 1,500-year-old immortal who wants to die. Drained by a life stretched too thin, he has requested his final reward – a mortal sacrifice bred specifically to bring him death. But something went wrong. Rachel’s ability to grant death has mutated in ways that threaten to upset the uneasy alliance between mortals and immortals. And utterly beguiled, Eaden discovers that although Rachel is the key to his death, because of her, he no longer wants to die. And he will do anything to protect her.

Swept into a world of legends, caught between the warring political factions of immortals, and carrying the future of mortal kind in her flesh and bone, Rachel must risk everything to save her world and the man she loves.

I think I was pitched this book, either through a Goodreads friend request or email or something, but I'm being lazy and don't feel like looking it up.  Either way, I didn't acknowledge the request because that summary wasn't the best and I already had enough on my plate.  But I saw an excerpt on another blog that caught my attention, and so I thought I'd give it a go anyway.  I noticed that the book was available in the Kindle Lending Library for Amazon Prime members, so rather than requesting from the author after however long it had been, I went ahead and borrowed it.  Also, if I'm being honest, it's easier for me to honestly review a book -- no holds barred -- when I didn't receive it directly from the author.

Fair or not, I instinctually picture another sparkly immortal whenever mention is made of a really old young guy who falls for a girl who's pretty much shut herself away from the world.  Eaden does tend to lurk and follows Rachel around for the first quarter of the novel, but it's not so bad as all that in this story.  Though it still kind of squicks me out to think of a guy with all of this worldly experience and hundreds of years under his belt falling for -- and potentially bedding -- a virgin girl who can't possibly fathom what she's just gotten herself into.  The romance suffers from a severe case of insta-love, at least on Rachel's side; he's been watching her since she was in the womb.  There's a reason for that, and when it all comes out, it's less creepy than it sounds, but until I figured out what was going on, I still found it all a little squicky.

Honestly, when I started this one, I thought it was going to focus on angels, but that is far from what Eaden actually is. He may have acted as Rachel's guardian angel more than once, but that's because he has a vested interest in her well-being.  Of course, she doesn't discover exactly why until a ways down the road, and even then, she easily forgives him his well-intentioned deception.  Rachel's character is kind of par for the course for a paranormal romance, but she didn't irritate me entirely like others have in the past.  Through constant encouragement from Eaden, she grows some lady balls and actually starts to live a little.  Because of that, I can overlook some of her other transgressions.

“There was something about the possession of a book that was important to me. Owning it gave me proprietary rights on the story. It meant that I could read as quickly or as slowly as I liked. No expectations, no deadlines, no proscriptions on bent spines or crumpled pages. I was not gentle on my books. I read while I ate, I read in the bathtub. At night, I rolled over on top of my books that had fallen between the covers as I dozed. For me, the worn pages and tattered covers were a sign of devotion. Like the Velveteen Rabbit, the books I read were only real when they were loved. And I understood that love was not always gentle.”

I was actually a little impressed with the writing, though the book could have used another round of editing. (There was nothing major that impeded my comprehension of the story, but there were just some general errors that needed tidying up.)  Still, considering the supposed subject matter and the insta-love, this book surprised me.  As did the decidedly unexpected turn the second half of the book took.  One second I was reading a paranormal romance focused on an immortal record keeper, and the next, they're gallivanting off to Scotland, meeting up with witches and a secret council, and suddenly all of history has been rewritten. Honestly, it almost felt like I was reading a different book for the second half of Unbound.

I was definitely entertained by this book, if not always for the right reasons.  I liked the theme of sacrifice that ran throughout the novel and how it was incorporated into the ending and especially the fact that it wasn't the lovelorn immortal who had to pay the ultimate price, as per usual.  And although this is the first book in a planned series, I'm iffy as to whether I'll continue it simply because I like the way things were tied up at the end of this first book and I already have enough series to keep track of.  But who's to say I won't see another excerpt from the sequel that convinces me yet again that I need to read it?

GIF it to me straight:

It wasn't great but it also wasn't terrible, which is okay in my book. :)

About the author:

Georgia Bell was raised on a steady diet of science fiction and fantasy, courtesy of her father, a man who loved his family, fishing, scotch, and science (although not necessarily in that order). Georgia is an avid reader of young adult fiction, and a lover of good wine, music, children, and cats (although not necessarily in that order).

Find Georgia:

Website | Twitter | Goodreads

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Labels: all good things, amazon prime, georgia bell, immortals, indies, new adult, paranormal, post hs ya