Review - Splintered by A.G. Howard

This stunning debut captures the grotesque madness of a mystical under-land, as well as a girl’s pangs of first love and independence.

Alyssa Gardner hears the whispers of bugs and flowers—precisely the affliction that landed her mother in a mental hospital years before. This family curse stretches back to her ancestor Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa might be crazy, but she manages to keep it together. For now.

When her mother’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Alyssa learns that what she thought was fiction is based in terrifying reality. The real Wonderland is a place far darker and more twisted than Lewis Carroll ever let on. There, Alyssa must pass a series of tests, including draining an ocean of Alice’s tears, waking the slumbering tea party, and subduing a vicious bandersnatch, to fix Alice’s mistakes and save her family. She must also decide whom to trust: Jeb, her gorgeous best friend and secret crush, or the sexy but suspicious Morpheus, her guide through Wonderland, who may have dark motives of his own.

Yay for book birthday presents! Splintered by A.G. Howard is a book that I've been wanting to buy for a long time but for some reason kept putting it off. Until my birthday last month. Thank you to my husband for buying it for me.

First of all, the cover art is absolutely stunning. And I probably would have gotten it based on that alone (yeah I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I can't help it), but the premise of the story was pretty interesting as well. I don't need to say much in summary since the book blurb thingy pretty much sums it up.

Alyssa is kind of morbid. But for good reason when you find out that she hears bugs and plants talking to her. Her mother is in a mental facility and she really doesn't want to end up there too so in an effort to silence the voices she turns bugs into art. She's got a pretty groovy sense of style. From synthetic dreads to tutu-like skirts to ass-kicking boots, but all of it is to try and squash any resemblance to her mother. She's got a lot of internal battles going on and, in this story, definitely a lot of external foes to fight as well, but she is courageous and strong and is determined to fix things her great-great-great grandmother messed up to free herself and her mother from the curse she believes she's inherited.

Jeb is, at first, the annoyingly intrusive but protective big brother to Alyssa. Butting in to her life and conspiring with her father to keep her "safe" and look out for her. Which is what big brothers are supposed to do. But he's something much different to Alyssa and is seemingly completely ignorant of it until their journey through the looking glass and in to Wonderland. Although, his appearance there is quite by accident. He's chivalrous and charming and everything you think a strong protector would be. He's prepared to sacrifice everything for Alyssa, even though she doesn't need him (or want him) to.

Morpheous was hard to pin down for me. The mysterious childhood friend of Alyssa's is both seductive and enticing while being suspicious and conniving at the same time. Dangerous combinations. His stated motives for bringing Alyssa to Wonderland and his actual motives are not exactly in line with each other, something Alyssa finds out too late. But while his intentions aren't exactly pure, he does care for Alyssa. So, there's a bit of redemption for him in that at least.

This story was kind of Tim Burton-esque for me. It was more like what I imagined his movie version of Alice in Wonderland should have been. The creatures were absolutely hideous and grotesquely wonderful and seeing all the characters in true form (the "Mad Hatter" was one of my favorite) was lovely. Nostalgic and yet... not. Old friends but complete strangers at the same time. We find out that the descriptions given by Carroll of Alice's adventures in Wonderland was very skewed and incredibly tame compared to the actual inhabitants of that world.

I loved the book. And I can't wait to read the next one. If you like "re-tellings" (although this wasn't a re-telling per se, it was more a modern day continuation), you should definitely grab this and give it a read!

Review - Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo.

Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality.

When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce. The lastest that I've read of her FairyTale Retellings. It's a retelling of The Little Mermaid... but not the redhaired teenager with the fish for a best friend and the crab for a babysitter.

It's a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen version of the story. The one where she falls for the prince, but he's fallen in love with (and marries) the woman he THINKS has saved him from the storm he almost died in. The little mermaid was permitted by the sea witch to turn her tail in to legs in exchange for her voice AND with the added awfulness of EVERY step on land being excruciating pain. Her sisters barter with the sea witch for a way out. They give their hair in return for a knife that will kill the prince and allow the little mermaid to return to the sea and just forget everything, but she can't bring herself to do it.

Lo remembers that she hasn't always been Lo. But she can't remember who she was before she was Lo. She tries desperately, but to no avail. Her "sisters" explain to her that if she were able to make a human love her she could drown them and steal their soul, turning her back in to her former self. But... who is that?

Celia can see a persons past through touch. She feels pretty useless compared to her sisters because who needs to know what they've already been through... right? Until Lo. FINALLY Celia can help SOMEONE. But at what cost?

Jude. The "prince".  A handsome guitar player who fumbles and falls in to the ocean only to be pulled to shore by Lo and subsequently "rescued" by Celia. He falls for Celia, thinking all along that it was SHE who saved him from drowning. Something Celia doesn't try to correct for a while.

So... Celia feels pointless. Her sisters always tell her that they are stronger together but she never feels like she fits in. I don't know how many of you can see the entirety of a persons past with the touch of your hand, but I think it would be a pretty interesting power to have. But I guess I can kind of see her point. In the... adventures of her sisters... the past doesn't really matter. Much. So I get that. I get the whole "Woe is me, what am I doing here. What's the point?" I do. She's looking for her purpose. And until Lo comes along, she hasn't found it.

I don't know if her eagerness to help Lo is because of her desire to actually be of some use to someone, or if she truly cares about Lo. I think after a while it may be a mixture of both. And I think that Lo got more than she bargained for. They say ignorance is bliss. Lo discovers that she is Naida (Sofia Kelly's sister from Sweetly!) and thinks that the knowledge of her past can bring her nothing but good things.

But it doesn't. She puts herself through excruciating pain on a regular basis to uncover more of her past, and again, I get that part. But unless she can get someone to love her to the point where she can steal her soul, what good is it? She knows that Jude doesn't love her. And even if he did she couldn't bring herself to kill him.

I like that there are different points of view in this story. Sometimes we read from Celia, sometimes we read from Lo. And sometimes, we even get to read from Naida when she remembers who she is enough to narrate. I can't remember how many times I've read a book where I wished I could get in to another characters head but it was only told through the point of view of one person. This book switches between the 3 seamlessly and effortlessly. I never got confused as to who I was reading. Not even when Lo and Naida switched between herself? each other? Anyways.

The more I think about the original story, the more parallels I can see between it and Fathomless. I think that for the most part, this follows it's original much more closely than the other two retellings. Not that that's what makes it better, just something I noticed. However, in tying together with Sweetly in that we find out where Sofia's missing sister went, it also brings in the werewolves from Sisters Red and from Sweetly.

Like before, I was kind of disappointed to find that there was no actual sea witch. And that the "angels" all of the "old ones" spoke of were, in fact, the werewolves from the previous two stories. But I suppose for the sake of bringing the plots full circle it was necessary. It is interesting to see what a different role the "bad guys" played in stories that don't seem like they'd be related in any way.

I love retellings. and I loved this one a lot. I suppose you could read it as a stand alone, but it's more impressive if you've read the other two. Once you find out who is who and what is what it's one of those "OOOOh!" things. I definitely recommend giving it a read!

Review - Sweetly by Jackson Pearce

The forest invites you in . . . but will never let you go.

As a child, Gretchen's twin sister was taken by a witch in the woods. Ever since, Gretchen and her brother, Ansel, have felt the long branches of the witch's forest threatening to make them disappear too. Years later, when their stepmother casts Gretchen and Ansel out, they find themselves in sleepy Live Oak, South Carolina. They're invited to stay with Sophia Kelly, a beautiful candy maker who molds sugary magic: coveted treats that create confidence, bravery, and passion.

Life seems idyllic, and Gretchen and Ansel gradually forget their haunted past -- until Gretchen meets handsome local outcast Samuel. He tells her the witch isn't gone -- it's lurking in the forest, preying on girls after Live Oak's infamous chocolate festival each year, and looking to make Gretchen its next victim. Gretchen is determined to stop running and start fighting back. Yet, the further she investigates the mystery of what the witch is and how it chooses its victims, the more she wonders who the real monster is.

Gretchen is certain of only one thing: a monster is coming, and it will never go away hungry.

I love Jackson Pearce's Fairy Tale Retellings. Sweetly is a retelling of the classic Hansel & Gretel. It comes complete with the candy house, "witch", and the "fattening up" of the brother while the sister wants to leave. Sort of.

There are enough similarities in the two stories to consider it a re-telling. But it is definitely a modern, YA uptake on the children's story. Gretchen had a twin sister who was taken by a "witch" in the forest when they were little. I don't believe we learn her name until almost the end of the story (if I'm even remembering correctly). Ansel falls in love with the owner of the "candy house", Chocolatier Sofia Kelly. Now, her house is not literally made of candy, but there is definitely plenty of it to go around. And... he falls in love with her.

Now, she doesn't stuff him in the oven and try to eat him, but she does plan to offer up Gretchen to the "witches" we find out from Samuel are actually werewolves. I was a tad disappointed in that. BUT, there was an actual tie in with Sisters Red so it was easy to overlook the fact that there weren't ACTUAL yellow eyed old-lady witches in the story.

The small town seems typical of small (read: TINY) towns where everyone knows everyone and they all know your business. It's also an old town with a lot of old people who, once they're pissed at you they stay that way. Which is unfortunate for Sofia Kelly.

That part did bother me, however. She seems genuinely hurt that the towns people dislike her... because they believe she had something to do with the disappearance of their daughters after her Chocolate Festival for the last few years. She's upset when there aren't as many RSVPs as she was hoping for.

But I mean... can you blame the people? She really DID have something to do with their disappearances. And in a WAY worse way than the towns people can even fathom. So, while I can kind of understand her motives behind her actions (her sister Naida who was taken before hand and is being held captive by the "witches"), I do NOT understand her butt-hurtedness at the fact that some of the people in Live Oak can't STAND her. They really do have every right to their feelings and are, in fact, justified in them.

Ansel... love sick puppy. A rock for his sister, but a drooling love sick puppy. You've got to hand it to him though... he is definitely a "Knight in Shining Armor". He wants to save Sofia and he's been saving his sister their entire lives. Almost without regard to himself. But, the fact that he's a love sick puppy blinds him to the fact that there's something not right with his precious Chocolatier.

Gretchen. She's the oldest teenager I've ever read. Forced to grow up way beyond her years with the disappearance of her sister, the death of her father, and the subsequent disowning of her step-mother. I guess you could say Ansel was too, but when I read him I just picture him falling all over Sofia. Oy. Anyways. Gretchen has PTSD and rightly so. Even being near trees gives her anxiety like you wouldn't believe. She doesn't want to disappear (metaphorically and literally). She doesn't want to feel like she doesn't exist. But she's tired of being scared all the time. So she finds Samuel and decides to take her fate in to her own hands. She starts making things happen rather than being terrified of things happening TO her. Good for Gretchen.

And Samuel. Kind of the actual hero of the story in my opinion. The one who opened Gretchen's eyes to the reality of her "witches" and helped her overcome her fear of the forest to the point where she was able to take care of herself AND make the decision to try and protect the other girls of Live Oak.

It was a good book. Again, kind of disappointed about the werewolf thing but I liked the tie-in to the other novel. If you like retellings or contemporary fantasy (whether you know Hansel & Gretel or not), I definitely suggest you give this one a read.

Stacking the Shelves #4

Thank you to Tynga's Reviews for hosting STS every week!

So, I haven't gotten much in the way of books. I don't anymore because my bookshelves are finding themselves almost maxed to capacity.

Thank you to my lovely library and their once a month sales, I was able to get a copy of each of the first 3 books (still hoping the 4th will be published one day) of the Halfblood Chronicles by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey. I've had all of them before but through moving several times, a couple have gone missing. Nice to have them back together again.

Two masters of epic fantasy have combined in this brilliant collaboration to create a rousing tale of the sort that becomes an instant favorite. This is the story of Shana, a halfbreed born of the forbidden union of an Elvenlord father and a human mother. Her exiled mother dead, she was rescued and raised by dragons, a proud, ancient race who existed unbeknownst to elven or humankind. From birth, Shana was the embodiment of the Prophecy that the all-powerful Elvenlords feared. Her destiny is the enthralling adventure of a lifetime.

The powerful magic of ruthless Elvenlord masters has for centuries rules the world. Even Shana, the legendary Elvenbane prophesied to deliver the oppressed into freedom, is helpless before such power. She and her ragtag band of outcasts, half-blood wizards, escaped human slaves, and free-thinking dragons have gained only a token victory against the mighty lords. Only the long-forgotten Iron People, a band of human nomads, have escaped the tyranny of the reigning wizards. How have they survived through the centuries? As the winds of change sweep the world, and as tensions seething beneath the surface of Elven society threaten to break into open revolt. Shana meets the ancient tribe. Could an age-old secret free Shana and her people...or will its discovery call down their doom.

In this long-awaited new novel in The Halfblood Chronicles, fantasy greats Norton and Lackey tell the enthralling story of the reclusive elvenlord Kyrtian, who emerges as a hero in a world torn by politics and war. When his cousin, Aelmarkin, tries to prove that Kyrtian is unfit to run his estate, the plan backfires, and soon Kyrtian, who doesn't share the venal, greedy nature of his cousin, finds himself with more power than he ever wanted. Like his father before him, Kyrtian has always treated the humans on his estate like servants, instead of enslaving them as other elvenlords do. His father's legacy also leads Kyrtian to learn ancient military skills long since lost to elvenkind through the carelessness of the elvenlords. Kyrtian's rediscovered knowledge piques the interest of the current elvenlords, and soon Kyrtian finds himself appointed the new commander of the army, to the relief of his ruling peers. For the sons of the most powerful elvenlords, the Young Lords, have rebelled against their fathers and are waging war. But by taking advantage of both the privileges of his new command and the help of some unexpected new friends, Kyrtian finally gains the resources to embark on his own, personal quest--resuming his father's search for the Great Portal, the magical doorway through which the original elvenlords entered this world. As war rages between some sons and fathers, Kyrtian searches desperately for his own lost father, hoping to uncover not only the mystery of his disappearance, but also the secret behind the origin of elvenkind.

I also got a book called Snow in Summer by Jane Yolen. Pretty cover and it sounds interesting enough. Sort of a re-telling of Snow White.

With her black hair, red lips, and lily-white skin, Summer is as beautiful as her father's garden. And her life in the mountains of West Virginia seems like a fairy tale; her parents sing and dance with her, Cousin Nancy dotes on her, and she is about to get a new baby brother. But when the baby dies soon after he's born, taking Summer's mama with him, Summer's fairy-tale life turns grim. Things get even worse when her father marries a woman who brings poisons and magical mirrors into Summer's world. Stepmama puts up a pretty face, but Summer suspects she's up to no good - and is afraid she's powerless to stop her.

What did you all get this week?

Review - Ember by Bettie Sharpe

Everyone loves Prince Charming. They have to—he’s cursed. Every man must respect him. Every woman must desire him. One look, and all is lost.

Ember would rather carve out a piece of her soul than be enslaved by passions not her own. She turns to the dark arts to save her heart and becomes the one woman in the kingdom able to resist the Prince’s Charm.

Poor girl. If Ember had spent less time studying magic and more time studying human nature, she might have guessed that a man who gets everything and everyone he wants will come to want the one woman he cannot have.

Ember by Bettie Sharpe is a retelling of the classic fairytale, Cinderella. It is not, however, a book for anyone under the age of 18. It's got lots of foul language, violence, and sex.

Ember's mother, a wise woman, dies. Leaving Ember, now a witch, and her Father sad and trying to make ends meet. After one of his business trips he brings home a woman to be his wife, along with her two "daughters" to be friends with Ember. However, they are not really related. And they're not the noble women her father thinks them to be. They're courtesans running from the law.

That doesn't much bother Ember though. They get along well and they take care of each other. Ember gladly bestows her finer clothing on her new family members and goes back to wearing her comfortable woolen dresses (the neighbors think that the new step-family is being unreasonable to Ember and forcing her to dress poorly).

Prince Charming has a name in this re-telling. Adrian Juste. And he's been cursed. Although some find it hard to view it as such, that's exactly what it is. Everyone loves him. And not because they want to, but because they have to. They take one look at him and their minds are overwhelmed by the power of his affliction. They have no choice but to fall head over heals all over themselves. Except for Ember. She refuses to look at him. After one mistake early on in life she will not make another. And he desires her all the more because of that.

But she will not let him have her.

Unfortunately, Ember's father dies and after paying off debts they're left with little more than the home they live in. So her "sisters" resume their prior business as courtesans and Ember becomes their bookkeeper. This business decision, however, brings her dangerously close to the one person she doesn't want to be around. The prince.

*

This was an interesting re-telling of Cinderella. I liked how the step-sisters and the step-mother weren't haughty and unkind. That it was just the way the neighbors perceived things that made it seem so. Adrian Juste wasn't the dashing, debonair, and chivalrous Prince this time. He was demanding, rude, and spoiled (sometimes he was evil, in my opinion, forcing people to let him have his way with them when he knew good and well that they didn't want it). And Ember... Ember wasn't the golden haired, fair voiced beauty who made friends with mice and had a fairy godmother. She was a fiery red-head with a face plastered in freckles, a twisted foot, and a finger missing. She was intimidating to most men, and she knew it.
The characters were relateable, and believable (even though some of them were less than savory in their business endeavors). They were loyal to each other and truly had good hearts. And the prince... he had some secrets of his own.

Those secrets, unfortunately, were quite easy to predict. I personally knew what was going on long before the end of the book and then spent the rest of the book wondering when everyone else was going to figure it out too. The sex scenes, while not supposed to be loving and poetic, were repetitive and crass. I realize a lot of the other parts of the book were not exactly tasteful, and that was fine, but a pet peeve of mine is repeating the same thing over and over and.... you get the point. Regardless of whether it's crass and vulgar or sweet and syrupy.

Over all, I liked the book. It was a short read and kept me engaged for the majority of the time. I did skip over a few bits that just seemed to draw on longer than my attention span wanted to let them, but it was an interesting read. A good contrast to the original fairytale.

Again, I would not recommend this to anyone under the age of 18. But fans of fairytales in general, and fairytale retellings might find this a good one to read.

Book Trailer - Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce

Because I'm a tad bit slow, I've just recently picked up Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. I saw Sweetly and wanted to buy it, but hadn't read the first book yet and even though I know they're two different stories, I still wanted to read them in order. I'm excited to read it because I love re-tellings. They make me remember why I love the stories to begin with. And they're always exciting.




How many of you have read this one already?