Angieville

I waited for this one to become available at the library for quite awhile. It was always checked out and that, coupled with the rather rave reviews I'd read, made me excited to get my hands on it. The cover is decidedly hokey, but I've come to regret bouts of cover-snobbery many a time before. So I resolved not to let it get to me this time. Besides. I finished the book and  still  can't wrap my mind around what the tairen actually look like. So the creature on the cover is as good a rendering as any, I'm sure.  Essentially, it is a Cinderella story. One in which the prince is actually a king. A massively overbearing, centuries old king at that. Rain Tairen Soul is well-known throughout the world as the man who almost destroyed it all when his beloved was killed. His rage was of such a magnitude that it nearly scorched the world. Thousands upon thousands died as a result. This all took place nigh unto a thousand years ago and Rain has spent the intervening years basical

I have had the entire Hollow Kingdom trilogy sitting in my TBR stack for awhile now and finally settled in with the first one and read it through. The first thing to catch my eye was the dedication. This is often the case with me. I was wandering the bookstore with my cousin just other night, talking about what a sucker I am for a good dedication. I should probably be keeping some sort of top ten list or something. If I did,  Laurie R. King 's dedication in  The Game   would certainly be on it.  For librarians everywhere, who spend their lives in battle against the forces of darkness. That one still sends chills down my spine, it's so awesome. I've fallen in love with many a Lloyd Alexander dedication as well and that's why this one in  The Hollow Kingdom   stood out to me. Because it was dedicated to him.  This book is respectfully dedicated to Lloyd Alexander, who gave the world Eilonwy and brought Gwydion back to life. Yep. Another happy dance-inducing dedication. Ka

As readers of this blog already know, I am a huge  Sharon Shinn  fan.  Archangel   is one of my very favorite comfort reads and so is  Mystic and Rider --the first in Shinn's  Twelve Houses series . Her characters become friends so quickly I forget what life was like before I read them. That's why the Twelve Houses series is so much fun. It follows a disparate group of six travelers who, despite differences of rank, temperament, and fundamental beliefs, become first allies and later friends. Shinn tracks this six of them through four books, eventually wrapping up each thread of the overarching story. Or so we thought.  Fortune and Fate   is a companion novel to the Twelve Houses series. An unexpected and delightfully welcome fifth volume.  Wen was a King's Rider, one of fifty elite guards dedicated to protecting the king with their lives if necessary. Until the king died. On her watch. Shortly after, Wen resigned her post and rode out of the capital city forever. Two years

Here is the cover for Meg Rosoff 's forthcoming 2009 novel The Bride's Farewell, due out from Viking in August. Sort of gothic and whimsical, isn't it? Love the title font. From the publisher: In 1850s England, a young woman named Pell runs away from home on horseback the day she is supposed to marry her childhood sweetheart. Pell is from a poor preacher’s family; made poorer by the ever-increasing number of mouths to feed. Pell understands horses better than she understands people, so she sets off for Salisbury Fair, where horse trading takes place, in the hope that she can find work and buy herself some time while she decides what to do next. As she rides further and further from home, Pell’s emotional ties to her parents, to her many siblings, and to the fiancé only become strengthened and eventually alter the course of her travels. The Bride's Farewell is a beautifully told novel about learning how to live, how to be human, and how to love.

Is it weird that I kind of got a kick out of the main character's name in this book being Allie? It's not my name. I do have a dear friend by that name. But I think the main reason was that I just haven't read a book in a long time that featured an Allie, and it seemed to lend the story a certain appealing freshness. The other names in the book are equally appealing. Zayvion Jones. Violet Beckstrom. And the idea for the story is undoubtedly intriguing. Magic to the Bone is set in an alternate America in which magic "came out" to the world rather like vampires did in Charlaine Harris 's Sookie Stackhouse books. Soon after people become users and consumers of magic, much like they use and consume alcohol. And just like a night of hard drinking, any use of magic leaves the user with a monster hangover. This "hangover" manifests itself in a variety of unsavory ways from intense bruising all over the body to a flu that will lay you low for a week. Allie

You may have already seen this, but I just had to post a link to Holly Black's hidden library as featured on The Steampunk Home . Who knew there was a Hidden Door Company ? And I really want one of those mantels. This is one fun blog. Check it out!

And here's the cover for Melissa Marr 's upcoming Fragile Eternity . Due out in April. I'm looking forward to getting some good Seth time in this one. Must be nice to get such lovely covers, musn't it? Thanks to Urban Fantasy Land for the heads up!

So it turns out I unwittingly chose the perfect book to follow  Heir to Sevenwaters .  I needed something sweet and scary, with a little humor and some faeries.  I didn't really know much about  Lament ,  so it was kind of surprising how much I was looking forward to it. But I was just getting this vibe. Like good things would be inside. And these good things seemed to carry with them a hint of  Melissa Marr  goodness mixed with some  Holly Black  awesome. I got what I was looking for and more. Deirdre plays the harp. Her best friend James is a piper. And hilarious with it. The two of them together are exceptionally cool  John Green -esque geeks. Besides James, Deirdre's got an overbearing mother, an aunt from hell, and a very weak stomach. The story opens at one of her competitions. She is lurking about the girl's bathroom about to lose her lunch, as she always does before a performance, when the mysterious Luke Dillon (who Deirdre's never met before but seems to know

I couldn't believe it when I heard that Juliet Marillier was writing another Sevenwaters book. It's been eight years since Daughter of the Forest was first published and six since Child of the Prophecy and I honestly thought that ship had sailed. I had accustomed myself to the notion that all I would ever have would be the original trilogy to keep me warm on those cold nights when only the Sevenwaters magic will do. And then the unbelievable happened and she announced a fourth volume. And instead of following its predecessors and taking place a generation after the previous book, Heir to Sevenwaters would be set just three years after the events of Child of the Prophecy. The story follows Clodagh, the third of Sean and Aisling's six daughters, and the one the entire household looks to in times of strain and dissension. Known for her exceptional domestic skills and attention to detail, Clodagh is forced to take the reins as her mother approaches the delivery of her fina