Wings by E. D. Baker

Wings by E.D. Baker

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

There’s always been something a little unusual about Tamisin. Her freckles look more like sparkles, and the full moon makes her want to dance.

But nothing could have prepared her for the day when real, working fairy wings sprout from her back. At school there’s a new guy names Jak, who seems to know something she doesn't. As her world get stranger by the minute Tamisin finds out more about herself and the fairy world.

Jillian’s Review:

This was really a cute story, with great detail, but it became silly (my nice word for stupid) when the fantasy land came into play (e.i. during a battle between goblins and fairies, the fairies throw pixie dust on the goblins which makes then grow really big noses, or shrink, or some such nonsense).  This is a middle grade novel which would explain the silliness, I guess.

That being said, I did enjoy the characters and Baker’s descriptions are wonderfully visual, I especially liked the description of the emerging of Tamisin’s wings.

I do think younger girls would enjoy this one a lot more than I did.

The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

In the tradition of Gail Carson Levine, Karen Cushman, and Shannon Hale comes a magical debut that weaves favorite fairy tale elements into a fabulous new story starring an irrepressible heroine.

Jillian’s Review:

This was a lot like reading The Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, only The Princess Curse is Middle Grade instead of Young Adult which means there’s not nearly enough romance for my taste. That being said, it’s still a great read. There’s lots of action and humor with a great heroine.

As with the majority of MG and YA novels I’ve read, the heroine is strong willed, smart, and determined, which are all great qualities (especially when reading about a person with them) but not true to the typical teenager. I often forgot that the main character was only 13 and thus kept looking forward to the romance. It never came, which it good when the main girl is only 13! I wrote the sequel to this one in my mind after I finished reading it. My sequel was YA a few years afterwards so the girl is old enough to have a romance with the guy and I went to sleep happy.

A great book for girls ages 10-13ish.

 

Forbidden Sea by Sheila A. Nielson

Tuesday got away from me again... let's just go back for a moment!

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

A mermaid haunts Adrianne's dreams . . . is she coming to warn her, save her, or drag her down into the depths of the briny sea forever? When Adrianne comes face-to-face with the mermaid of Windwaithe Island, of whom she has heard terrible stories all her life, she is convinced the mermaid means to take her younger sister. Adrianne, fierce-willed and courageous, is determined to protect her sister from the mermaid, and her family from starvation. However, the mermaid continues to haunt Adrianne in her dreams and with her song.

Jillian’s Review:

A refreshingly clean YA fantasy loosely based on Hans Christen Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. The story was great though Nielson has a tendency to tell rather than show. I really enjoyed reading about a young girl who had an amazing strength though wasn’t so strong she was unrealistic. I appreciated that the guy she loved didn’t even notice her. It was a great change from the usual YA where every guy notices the beautiful main girl and the guy she likes and she fall desperately in love with each other. That’s just not true to teenage life.

I wish more time had been spent underwater instead of the daily grind that Adrianne had to face. Some descriptions were a bit tedious and I found myself skimming through some of it. However, every character was realistic, the scenery was descriptive easy to envision, and it had a great ending.

This would be perfect for girls ages 10 up.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.
As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors--one welcome, and the other decidedly less so--brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.
With Shannon Hale's lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

Jillian’s Review:

I know many people thought this book to be a really slow read, but I loved it from beginning to end—both times through. I love—LOVE—Dashti. I love that she’s strong, sensible, and positive. Even when locked in a tower with the sulky and unstable Lady Saren, Dashti manages to look on the bright side of things. “And here’s the bit that makes me tremble with delight—in our cellar there is a mountain of food! … Seven years’ worth. Such a thing I never imagined. Even though I can’t see the sky, it’s hard not to want to dance about, knowing that for seven years at least I won’t starve.”

After a couple of years and the loss of an enormous amount of food because of a rat infestation and a Lady who won’t stop gorging herself, Dashti is a little less lighthearted and somewhat bitter. However, she never lets it get the better of her. She pushes forward, believing it an honor or at least somewhere close to an honor to serve a Lady.

And then enters the dashing Khan Tegus. Ooh, I liked him from the start. He’s kind and thoughtful and appreciates Dashti for who she is. It probably helps that their first couple of encounters they don’t see more than each others' ankles (thanks to the fact that Dashti is still locked in a tower with a slightly insane Saren). I love how the story progresses and ends. Yay, a happy ending.

Hale has a great talent for describing every detail so that it’s vivid and bringing each character to life, with just the right twist of humor thrown in. I had the perfect quote from the book as an example, but I can’t find it now. I guess you’re just going to have to read it and find out for yourself how great this book is.

A Curse Dark As Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Synopsis (from goodreads.com):

This ravishing winner of the ALA's William C. Morris YA Debut Award is a fairy tale, spun with a mystery, woven with a family story, and shot through with romance. Charlotte Miller has always scoffed at talk of a curse on her family's woolen mill, which holds her beloved small town together. But after her father's death, the bad luck piles up: departing workers, impossible debts, an overbearing uncle. Then a stranger named Jack Spinner offers a tempting proposition: He can turn straw into gold thread, for the small price of her mother's ring. As Charlotte is drawn deeper into her bargains with Spinner-and a romance with the local banker-she must unravel the truth of the curse on the mill and save the community she's always called home.

Jillian’s Review:

This was wonderfully written and riveting at times. The characters were realistic and after being submerged in this novel, the magic was believable as well. The fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin was wonderfully woven into the heart of this tale. I hadn’t realized that’s what it was about until I was 1/4 of the way through.

I appreciated how clean this one was. There was maybe one chaste kiss and barely any swearing.

I loved the relationship between the two sisters. They’re both strong willed, yet I found myself wishing the story was written from young, spit-fire Rosie’s point of view instead of the uptight Charlotte’s. It was also difficult at times to know exactly what Charlotte was feeling in each situation because Bunce doesn’t expound on Charlotte’s emotions well enough. And more frustrating that that was how blind Charlotte was and how unwilling she was to ask for help. So much of the mess she got herself into could have been prevented had she just told Rendell (you’ll find out who that is if you read it) the truth from the beginning. Another annoying aspect of this novel was that I didn’t know how old the girls were. Rosie is said to be too young to live on her own, yet her character acts as if she’s nearing her twenties and we don’t discover that she’s 14 until the second to the last page.

I found myself glued to the book the last 100 pages. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to pick it up the first 300 pages. Not that it isn’t a great story, it is. It’s just that the few happy events were far, far outweighed by all the bad and I knew it was only going to get worse before it got better. It did get better at the very end and the ending was great. I only wish there had been more uplifting parts throughout.