Warlord Reviews

I keep saying I’m going to try to save Robin’s books for when I really need them. I meant to do that with Chalice, but seriously, after she put the first couple scenes on her blog, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to know what happened next. And I already knew it was a Beauty and the Beast type story, which I’m an absolute sucker for — especially when Robin’s behind the keyboard — and so I gave in.

It’s rare for a novel to cause me to lose sleep. (One that isn’t my own, anyway.) I lost two nights of sleep thanks to Chalice and making the mistake of reading before bed. Robin’s style forces me to slow down and read very carefully, but even so, I tried to read faster in order to get to the end…so I could know what happens and I wouldn’t have to snipe at people every time they distracted me from the book.

Loved Mirasol. Loved the Master. Even loved the Grand Seneschal. Loved the bees.

Craved honey the entire time.

It’s a quiet story on the surface, deeper than it looks. It’s marketed as a YA; I can see why they made that choice, based on the subject, but it doesn’t feel like YA in its themes and symbolism: duty above self, trust, overcoming assumptions about appearances; burning and sweetness, harm and healing, dutiful politeness and real admiration.

True love.

How much did I love this book? I think it wins all my booklove for books recently read. It made my heart go pitter-patter.

My mom suggested this author for another book - THE BARCODE TATTOO - which I haven’t read yet, but I love fairy tale retellings and this one was supposed to be about the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Loved it when I read Wildwood Dancing a while back.

There were some things I really liked about this book: The cover art, the title, the melding of Arthurian legend and the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I’m afraid, though, I liked the idea of this book a lot more than I actually liked the book.

It wasn’t bad. I read the whole thing and it was nice, but it felt chopped, like the author could have expanded and gone into more detail.

*The sisters wend dancing every night, yet the reader never actually sees them go dancing. It’s just referred to.

*The dialogue is rather unnatural sounding, and there’s a lot of redundancy: for (fake) example: “Please don’t go,” so and so pleaded.

*There were twelve sisters, but the reader only gets to know two of them. I understand twelve is a lot and it’s got to be a challenge to give them more personality than a name in under 200 pages, but I never felt it.

I guess…it reads like a synopsis. It’s short because it’s part of a line of books - there are several other fairy tale retellings by different authors listed inside - but there are ways of working around short and keeping a strong, powerful story. I’d really hoped to find that here.

So, not bad, but not what I wanted it to be. It’s probably a good introduction to the fairy tale for younger readers.

Thief book! Woo hoo!

I’ve heard (seen) people rave about this book, so of course I had to see what the fuss was about. First thing I noticed? Fabulous worldbuilding. Lots of fabulous worldbuilding.

I also felt the beginning was a tad slow, unfortunately. I wanted things to happen, and instead I was trapped in backstory land. I almost gave up partway through, but I was determined to keep going — and I’m glad I did, because the second half of the book moved like lightning. Lots of twists and plot and really neat stuff to keep me entertained. I loved all the thought that Lynch put into the thieves’ heists, and how genuine it was.

While I never really cared for Locke on a personal level (I think he’s just not the kind of guy I’d bond with), he really was fascinating. Such a clever liar! All the characters were well-defined and motivated, and the Gentlemen Bastards were especially entertaining.

So, overall a yes. I enjoyed it.

I have similar feelings to this one as I had to Wicked Lovely. I found the characters interesting, well motivated, and the plot zipped right along.

Though the characters were interesting to read about, I admit, I didn’t like them very much. (Well, I liked the MHG. I always like the MHG.) The first thing Kaye does in the book is put a cigarette butt in her mom’s beer. EW. Which kind of set my attitude toward her for the rest of the book. Most of the time she was pretty clever about things, but there was that, and the time her friends said “please don’t do this because it’s important for our well-being” and she immediately went home and did it on a whim.

It’s probably just be me not really understanding the rebellious teenager characters. But she was consistently rebellious, which was good, since a lot of times it seems they kind of wuss out partway through. And she had lots of wonderfully described setting. If I ever go — I forgot the town’s name, but — there, I will be sure to wear a haz-mat suit.

This was an enjoyable book. I’d recommend it to anyone in the mood for a light, fast read.

Yes.

Ten yeses.

I got this one a while ago after hearing how great it was from a billion different people, but only recently got around to reading it. (Like I do.) I loved the easy to read prose, the villains were funny in their unfailingly evil way, and the main characters were so huggable. I don’t think there was anything that didn’t work for me here.

I was nervous after the end — I was afraid our hero wasn’t going to have learned anything — but then he proved he did, and I was very relieved. The book feels done, but it also feels like there could be more adventures one day. And I definitely want to know more about London Below.

Did I mention yes yet? Yes.

I got this one to expose myself to more urban fantasy and see what was out there besides the stuff I knew about. When I was trying to decide which book to get by this author, I kept seeing the “Author of…” on them all and tried to figure out if they were part of a series. I’m still not sure whether I managed to get a singleton or a book in the middle of a series or what, but it stood up by itself well enough.

What I’m mostly taking away from this book is, Oooh, pretty words. Because the writing is gorgeous and twisty like reading a melody. The grounding details are perfect and sharp, and she makes scenes come alive. Every time I picked up this book, I felt like I was drowning in how real it was.

However. (There’s always a however.) I’m still not sure about all the things that happened. I felt the narrator was being coy about what was going on in the story, using lots of POVs to draw out the tension I couldn’t really understand until the end…because no one ever told the main character what was going on and the other POVs didn’t think too hard on it. By the end it comes together and makes sense, but I was pretty frustrated for motivations a good bit of the book. Could be a personal thing.

I’m glad we got Nikki’s POV most of the way through. I liked her. I think she was the only character I really liked. The others were interesting and did lots of neat things, but Nikki was just a girl thrown into a war she didn’t understand. I understood her motivations, her desires and goals, and she was very sympathetic because people kept expecting things of her…and she had no idea how to give them, or whether she even should.

So, I liked it. I’m glad I read it. It’s a little dark for my taste, but it was definitely an interesting read.

Another one the Big M suggested, and who am I to deny her?

This was a quick read (it only looks huge, but the font is pretty big, at least in my copy), and there were lots of cute moments that had me smiling. I can see why it was so popular: it’s accessible, and fulfills a lot of romantic notions about vampires. “Good” vampire struggling against his nature, and the Plain Jane girl holding his attention when more beautiful girls couldn’t. (I’m not sure she really was One Of Us, though. She had like five guys begging for her time for a good bit of the book!) This is…a comfortable book.

I mean, some bad things happen, but there are good bad guys and they’ll help save you from the bad bad guys. There’s the hot guy you shouldn’t be with and you both know it, but love conquerers all and makes it okay. It’s comforting, because in reality, your hot vampires boyfriend would probably just have himself a nice long drink, but in this story, he’ll be a gentleman. (Anyway, the book is YA. There probably shouldn’t be nomming of the MC by her boyfriend. Others may attempt to injure her, but the boyfriend must remain good. Good-bad.)

So, I get it. I understand why this book was wildly popular. It’s a safe vampire novel, and it’s a safe fantasy novel for people who’re nervous about fantasy being too weird.

I’ll admit. I kept reading for the romance. I’m a sucker for angst and smoochies. I had a couple gripes as I was going, but it was, overall, a nice story. So, I’d say this is another yeah. A why-not? book. Because, in spite of its 500 pages, Twilight is a fast book, and worth reading, at least to know what the rest of the world is talking about.

The Big M recommended Briggs as a good Urban Fantasy read. And she was right!

The world in this book was fully built, filled with lots of intriguing people and conflicts that weren’t necessarily solved in this story. There’s clearly more story. (Which makes sense, since I’ve seen at least two other books in this series.) I liked that the main character was a chick mechanic, and that she had such a clear understanding of the power struggles around her.

(The cover kind of makes me laugh, though. It’s clearly trying to market this book as a butt-kicking chick in leather book, but I can’t imagine why a mechanic would wear something that showed so much skin — I mean, ow! The main character seemed way too practical to wear a skimpy tie-together-and-show-cleavage shirt while working on cars. Sigh.)

I also really liked how you never knew what was going on exactly. There were lots of things that could have been happening, but– oh no, there’s that one other thing that doesn’t quite make sense. It really was a clever plot, especially the last half, which was a lot more actiony than the first.

A couple of very minor gripes: there was lots of repeaty information, and the resolution was forever. (Why yes, I am the girl who thinks that five pages of resolution is plenty. More than plenty!) But, like I said, those are minor gripes. The book was entertaining and quick, and even though I’m not a werewolf book kind of girl, I’ll probably pick up the next one at some point. I’m more interested in reading some of Briggs’ secondworld fantasy. (I remember reading one a long time ago, and I liked it, but it was a long time ago.)

So, yeah. This wasn’t a big giant yes for me, but it was a yeah. It was enjoyable.

Well golly. I’ve been saving Robin’s books, trying to make the ones I haven’t read last, so that when I need something I know I’ll love, I can have it.

I think I hurt my face smiling so much while reading this book. Clever lines everywhere, characters I love, and even when I could tell what she was going to do, she still managed to surprise me about it. All the hints were there; I loved all the smart foreshadowing and the sense of awe and strange order of the world. Kat, Rosie, Aunt, and all the other characters were just darling. I want to hug them.

This feels like one of those books…when I reread it, I’ll find more layers and things I didn’t see. It’s like those pictures where you see more animals peeking out the more you look. (Much like the cover of this book, or Wildwood Dancing.)

Spindle’s End is a yes. A big, giant yes.

(Although it did make a little nervous, learning how to spindle spin and reading this book at the same time. I managed not to fall into enchanted sleep, thank goodness!)

Final book in the Obsidian Chronicles.

And I liked this one a lot more than the middle one. This was was nice and plotty with plenty of neat revelations to keep me interested when the plot slowed down. The first was probably the best of the three, but it was worth it to read all the way through to find out what happened.

I really, really liked all the southern magic with wizards and the leech-god. I thought all that was fascinating. I also loved the way everything grew even more complicated, but the main character kept trying to find a third option when only presented with two — both equally undesirable.

The thing that kept bothering me through this book and the last book was the repeaty. Motivations were repeated several times, and I was often reminded of plot points that happened just in the last chapter. It seemed like these parts of the novel were written for skimmers. Not being a skimmer myself, I found it more irritating than helpful. I even tried to skim over paragraphs I knew were going to be repeaty, but failed utterly.

The other thing that irritated me — although there’s a reason for it — was the main character. He…wasn’t always a nice person. Well, okay, I don’t require characters be nice, but I do like identifying with them. The main character of this trilogy was obsessed with revenge, which I get and makes sense, but he did a lot of things I was totally squicked about in the name of that revenge. The animals made me sad, and then what he decided in regards to his friend’s unborn child. It freaked me out that he was even thinking about it, and then he did it.

I can understand why and how he came to that decision. Still, in light of what he’d done to the animals, I was pretty surprised he’d even consider it. Once it happened, I figured out what was going on and what they’d made, but… Well, I can understand that he had issues and there were problems with what he’d become in the first book*, so he wasn’t exactly thinking about his friends’ feelings. But I sympathized with his friends a lot more than I did with him.

However, I think it was only because of his closed-heartedness that he could have the courage and even the ideas to do the things he did. Which did cause huge problems, but did a lot to make the world better, too. A character who wasn’t in his more-or-less unique situation wouldn’t have been able to accomplish what he did. So I kind of liked that, even while I wanted to throw things at the main character.

Overall, I’d recommend this trilogy. It’s fun and full of neat worldbuilding. The first and third are better than the second, but it’s worth it to go ahead and read all three. I mean, why not? Some important things happen. The first one remains my favorite, though.

*trying to avoid spoilers in all things…