Review - Met by Midnight

Original Title: Met by Midnight
Series: Star-Crossed Gifts
Author: Janeen Ippolito
Published: September 22nd, 2020
Publisher: Uncommon Universes Press

*THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS AND ONE F BOMB*

THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE WORST THINGS I'VE EVER READ.

Whatever this is... it's not a Cinderella retelling. Run from here as fast as you can.

I'll start by saying that, under the claim that a book is a Cinderella retelling, writers and publishers deliver literally anything. The same thing happens with the first book in the Throne of Glass series, by Sarah J. Maas. It's marketed as a Cinderella retelling, but when you read it, you can't recognize any elements from the original story. Both that one, and Met by Midnight, may have some aspects in common with the original fairytale, but that doesn't make them Cinderella retellings per se. As I read this one, I kept thinking that it did not remind me of Cinderella at all, and I kept wondering, why is this even a retelling? Just because it features royalty, a ball and a heroine in servitude?

I'm seriously angry. If you are going to write a book like this, it works just the same without saying it is a Cinderella retelling. Because if you say it is, and then turn it into some sort of unfleshed out fairytale dystopia wich such a far-fetched concept that feels nothing but forced, and it's basically cannibalism... leave poor Cinderella out of it. She deserves better.  

My point is, I understand the original fairytales are, indeed very flat and simple, but retellings like this one are golden opportunities for writers to fill the blanks and make them richer, deeper, and more complex. To tell us that the story was not as simple as we always thought it was. But this book felt more as a lack of respect to the original story. It doesn't feature the stepmother or the stepsisters, and least of all, the glass slipper.

Plus, the whole meeting each other in their dreams thing sounds more like Once Upon a Dream, from Sleeping Beauty, rather than Cinderella. 

Janeen Ippolito seriously needs a few lessons on narration and storytelling, because her entire book feels like a rough draft, not a polished novel ready for publication. The characters are flat and depthless. The setting is unfleshed out. Things happens so fast... It's like she poured all her ideas on the paper as she got them, but didn't work on making them deeper and more complex. I felt nothing reading this novel, except anger.

Don't get me wrong, though. The whole idea of Menders isn't bad, and it could have been better. Renna and her father are prisoners in a Sanctuary where Menders are used as tools by the government, forcing them to heal, and also to marry other Menders, so they  can have children that will also be Menders. This is supposed to be the dystopian aspect of it, a powerful class of people with healing powers used by the government to stay young and healthy, basically through a practice that sounds a lot like cannibalism. Apparently this Sanctuary place is ruled by Attendants and Guardians, but we never get an explanation of what's the difference between the two, which is their role there, nor we get a scene in which to see the real consequences of defying them.

Renna, the heroine, could have been a good character, but she falls flat, and she's... well, she's an idiot. I can understand how she feels about freedom, the need to leave her prison and decide her own fate. But it's so poorly written that it's not even engaging. I don't care if by the end she gets to be free or not, or if she lives or dies. She's forced to Mend, taking on her own body the ailments of others, and then suffering the consequences. During one of these sessions, she meets Lady Anlyn, who is the Fairy Godmother of the story, the one that finds out the terrible life Menders live and helps her in her quest to get the royal seal, rescue her father from the Sanctuary and take him to freedom before he dies. She's the one that provides the dress and the possibility to go to the ball. And in this ball, there's a prince, of course. Prince Jaricob, the second son of the King and Queen, apparently cursed and beyond all healing, because Menders have no effect on him.

Known as Jaric, this prince is... well, he's also an idiot. His family considers him disposable. He's in love with the girl he sees in his dreams, he's convinced she's real, and even though his parents want to marry him off and send him away to the northeastern province (conveniently, Renna's homeland), he refuses, because:

"His heart belonged to another, even though she may not exist."

He loves a woman he never met. And this, for me, it's an insta-no. I'm not even sorry. I can't root for a love story in which the people involved haven't even met. But it doesn't get any better when they finally do. Jaric follows Renna when she leaves the ballroom, and they meet in his study.

"She could no more envision him harming her than she could imagine her own parents raising a blade to her throat.

 No, this royal, this man, would only assist her.

With every aspect of her being."

Last time I checked, Renna's power was healing, not mind reading. And then:

"And that confidence raised a fresh shudder along her skin. Not of fear, but another feeling that Renna had only learned about from the book she had read on spousal pairing. A sense of deep connection, of desire fueling every part of her with heat and need."

You've got to be KIDDING ME.

And then they kiss, and the world stops, and then Jaric is called to the ballroom to announce his engagement; he checks the time and it's 11:45 PM, when it was only 10 when he entered the room. All I could think was "how long have you been kissing?"

And if this wasn't enough, Renna thinks this:

"She barely knew him, and yet all she wanted to do was lose herself in Jaric's arms at last and forever."

At last from what, if you never saw him before?? *massive eye-roll*

So cringy.

"However she also barely knew Anlyn, and Renna had trusted her a great deal. So perhaps that reasoning was not so useful?"

It's cute that she's using the word reasoning for it. Because that's not reasoning, it's just stupidity. Renna is indeed intolerably stupid.  On the one hand she has been warned her whole life that she can't trust anyone, and then this happens. 

"Her hands itched to trail up his arms, to see if his biceps truly were that large, his jaw that strong."

I thought this was a life or death situation. Would you focus, please? You exhaust me. And you are making me angrier than I already am.

Because before this scene, there was the Royal Fellowship Ball. Honestly, there's nothing I love more than a fairytale ball, to the obsession point. I've rewatched ball scenes from fantasy and period movies and tv shows I adore, more than a thousand times, and they are one of the things I love the most about them. So, naturally, I was looking forward to Cinderella's iconic ball scene. But as soon as Renna enters the ball and meets Jaric, she exits the room. And it made me furious! Because if there's anything you need to get right in a story based on Cinderella, is the ball scene.

But here, I didn't see anything, or met anyone new. And if in a supposed Cinderella retelling you cheat me out of the most important scene in the entire story, I will hate you with a burning passion. Janeen Ippolito's writing, as I said, requires polishing, and lots of it, and this was especially noticeable here, because I can't forgive that I was cheated out of this. Angry beyond reason, all I could think was "this is a royal ball, f***ng DESCRIBE IT!!". Make the world immersive, tell me about the dresses, the ballroom, the dancing, the music... ANYTHING. But everything is rushed, flat and unfleshed, and there's not even a dance scene, an intimate moment of the prince taking the mystery girl's hand for the dance that will decide her fate. Oh, and just because a book is a Cinderella retelling doesn't mean that her ballgown has to be blue. Just because Disney made it blue doesn't mean you have to do the same. Especially if you are striving to give your own spin to the original story.

The more I read, the more I hated this book. Everything about it is so wrong. The dialogue sucks. The characters are one dimensional, and that's for the hero and heroine alone, because the rest of the characters... Keddyr, Lady Anlyn, Princess Usilea... they are basically background noise. The supposed betrayal by the end -that it is, but then it's not-, the horror elements around the crimes committed by the King and Queen... SO FAR FETCHED. They didn't feel organic, or like they fit with the rest of the story. And much less a Cinderella retelling.

 As for the plot twist, with Jaric being a Mender... It was a no, for me. It didn't feel natural. Of course, since he doesn't have Renna's training to heal people, he's not ready for the consequences of Receiving, and falls unconscious. And I could not understand why he woke up in Lady Anlyn's state, to the quiet and peaceful scenes that follow, when as far as we know all the soldiers in the kingdom are looking for him. Plus, his dog, Opal, is there, and the last thing we know is that he left her in the palace after escaping the ball. How is she there? Who brought her here? Keddyr? Lady Anlyn? Who?

Calling this terrible book a Cinderella retelling is an insult to the original fairytale. There is not one single thing I liked about it. And I can't forgive the fact that I did not get to go to the royal ball. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, and I can't understand the glowing five star reviews it got. For me, it's a no.

***

Thank you for reading. Hope my next read isn't this bad.

See you soon!

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Review - I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend

Original Title: I Was Jane Austen's Best Friend
Series: Jane Austen, #1
Author: Cora Harrison
Published: January 1st, 2010
Publisher: Delacorte Press

*THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

I’ve had this book in my TBR for a long time, and I finally got to it. And sadly, I have to say, I didn’t like it. It fell too short. And what makes it even worse is that the whole idea sounded so promising! Even after finishing the book and reading the author’s note, I kept thinking it was a great concept, but sadly, ended up very poorly executed.

One of the things that surprised me the most is that this book’s protagonist, Jenny Cooper, is based on a real person. Apparently, there was a Jane Cooper, who was Jane Austen’s cousin in real life, that married a man named Thomas Williams, after only a couple of weeks of knowing each other. In my opinion, Cora Harrison had a golden opportunity with her, considering that she can’t exactly make up Jane Austen’s life, because there are lots of biographies on her, and she’s a well-known figure. Being virtually unknown, this Jane Cooper gave the author an enormous amount of freedom, that rarely appears in biographical fiction works. But I think it was wasted with the diary format, because we only hear Jenny’s voice. I think the story would have worked better as a dual perspective book, because it would have given us the opportunity of not only knowing the action through Jenny’s eyes, but also, through Thomas’.

One of the things I liked about this book was the way Cora Harrison scattered references to Jane Austen’s books here and there, that any fan can spot, mostly through the things and the people Jenny tells us about. For example:

- Jenny’s insufferable sister-in-law, Augusta, calls her husband caro sposo, just like Mrs. Elton in “Emma”, who is also named Augusta.
- Jane wants to marry Tom Chute instead of his older brother William, because he’s sickly and will probably die, like Edmund and Tom Bertram, in “Mansfield Park”.
- The Austen family is preparing a play to perform, also like in “Mansfield Park”.
- There are brief mentions of random people named after Austen characters, like Fanny Dashwood, Lt. Price, Mariah and Julia Bertram, Mary King, etc.
- Brief mention of a girl who “was aged barely sixteen when she ran away with an army captain”, and that when her relatives found her, they “had already been living together as man and wife”, so there was nothing left to do but getting them married. Obviously, this references Lydia and Wickham, from “Pride and Prejudice”.
- Jane tells Jenny that “If a lady doubts whether she should accept a man, then she certainly should not do so”, like Emma tells Harriet, in “Emma”.

And so on.

More than once, as I read, I thought the story seemed to have no point. Jenny kept writing in her journal about daily life scenes, without any real action going on. The most relevant thing that happens is that she meets George, Jane’s mentally disabled brother, that the family gave away because of it. I liked to see that Jane never forgot about him, and even put effort in teaching him words and sounds, in contrast with her own mother, that never even thought about educating him (but I liked that, in the end, she said he was her son, in front of everyone, and saved his life).

As I’ve said before in other reviews, I never buy insta-love, and this book wasn’t the exception. The way Jenny and Thomas meet could have led to something interesting, because they both kept it a secret, for the sake of her reputation. But I just didn’t like it. Jenny manages to sneak out of her school, around 11:30 PM, to get to the post-inn before the mail coach leaves at midnight, and in the process, she meets Thomas. And in that brief moment, between posting the letter and hurrying back before being caught, he escorts her, and basically tells her about his whole life. That he’s an orphan, that he has a sister named Elinor who was unhappy in a boarding school, that he has inherited a property in the Isle of Wight… To a total stranger! A sixteen-year-old girl, alone in the middle of the street, at midnight, wouldn’t be the person I would tell everything about my life after just a few minutes. This just doesn’t work for me.

I get that Jenny is just sixteen, but at one point I found myself begging her to please, make up her mind. After her midnight adventure, Thomas Williams is not seen again, until past half of the book (literally). Until then, and because she had been living with the Austen family, she sort of had a crush on Jane’s brother, Henry, and they flirt a little, here and there. She mentions him all the time. But the moment they attend the ball, and Thomas shows up, it’s like Henry never existed. She suddenly can’t imagine life without Thomas, and honestly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. As a reader, felt I could cut the entire thing out of the book, and the plot wouldn’t have changed at all.

As for the moment in which Jenny’s midnight escapade is revealed, and she thinks Thomas betrayed her, it’s a typical Austen misunderstanding, although without the comedy only she could have brought to the situation. And finally, in the highwaymen scene, it bothered me that Jenny, instead of being the protagonist in the climax of her own story, was just a witness of Thomas’ heroism, getting right on time to save everyone, as the knight in shining armour. As I said before, the author had a golden opportunity with this couple, because, as not much is known about their relationship, she was free to let her imagination fly, and could have told us a richer tale of what, she imagined, was going on between them, making them both deeper, and giving us something that could justify their relationship, after just three weeks. But sadly, she didn’t.

But the one quote that made want to flush the book down the toilet, is this one:

“When you told me how you nearly died, it frightened me. I realized then that I could not live without you. I felt that I would never be happy unless you were with me.”

Oh, my God *face-palm*

They have only seen each other three or four times, when Thomas says this! Literally. And I can’t. I just can’t. No. This isn’t for me. Not even Jane Austen herself wrote insta-loves like this. However, I’m on the fence about it, because the real Jane Cooper and Thomas Williams actually got engaged three weeks after they met, and married in that very same year. But as I didn’t fully like Jenny, and didn’t know enough about Thomas as to root for them and their love, I guess that, as far as fiction goes, it’s just not the kind of romance I like to read about.

I don’t know if I’ll read more by Cora Harrison. This book was very lacking in most of its aspects, except, perhaps, in the Austen references, here and there. Even though, in general, I liked the concept of exploring the life of a teen Jane Austen, the diary format was neither well executed, nor had likeable characters. It just didn’t do it for me.

Thank you so much for reading!
‘til next one!

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Review - The Cursed Sea

Original Title: The Cursed Sea
Series: The Glass Spare, #2
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Published: December 18th, 2018
Publisher: Balzer + Bray

*THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

It took a while, but I finally reached out and grabbed this book. It was long overdue; I dragged my feet for too long before finally deciding to read it, and get some closure on this story.

In general terms, I think The Glass Spare duology is one of those fantasy series meant to end up underrated. However, after an intense, promising first instalment, I’m not happy to say the next one fell short, and that it definitely could have been better. Although as a whole, it’s not bad, and the writing is absolutely gorgeous, I still believe that the story would have worked perfectly well as a stand-alone. A long one, that is, but a stand-alone nonetheless.

As I have said before, Lauren DeStefano’s writing is amazingly beautiful, she has this poetic way of saying things, the way they are perfectly understandable, and still stir something inside of you. Although things may twist and turn in the span of a few pages, they still make sense for the reader to understand what’s going on, and that is honestly well done. For example, I truly felt the scene in which Wil is dying after being stabbed by Loom, under Pahn’s control; I mean, my goosebumps, my accelerated heartbeat, and my true concern, were not fictional at all. However, that isn’t exactly constant in the entire book. Sometimes, the writing would get so flowery, that I would find myself losing track of what was happening in the scene. Again, the style is really beautiful and I really admire it, but it can (and does) get a little exhausting from time to time.

Also, I think the story would have greatly benefited from a first-person narrative, instead of a third person one (more so, with the dual perspective). Although you can perfectly follow Wil through her transformation, seeing how she may be alive, but her old self definitely dies as the story moves on, and she can’t go back to being the kingdom’s princess just like that, I still believe that a raw, intense narrative from her own perspective would have made the story ten times better.

In general, the character development is well done. Although there’s a small cast of them, the author makes sure everyone plays a part. Wil is a strong heroine, perfectly capable of surviving on her own, and even though she’s deeply in love and feels everything so intensely that the reader feels it too, she doesn’t let that stand in the way of other important things in her life. As for Loom, I liked him, and admired how his willingness to sacrifice anything for his kingdom’s wellbeing –even his own right to the throne–, in despite of having been banished by his own father. Both him and Wil are selfless and have a strong sense of duty towards their people, like any self-respecting royal should, and that’s really well written.

The only character I wanted more from was Zay, as she played such a big part in the first book, being a fiercely strong badass, but practically becoming background noise in this one. She’s only there to steer the ship, and I frequently forgot she was there.

On the other hand, in this book we got a lot more on Espel, the princess from the Southern Isles, turned into a deadly weapon by her own father. She’s the statement that monsters are not born, but made, and that it doesn’t matter who you were born to, but who and what you grow to be. Raised to consider her own brother an enemy, we learn that Espel’s life is mostly a façade, her cruelty hiding her most vulnerable point, which is being in love with Masalee, her personal guard. I think it is well done how Loom let her be the one to take their father’s life, and thus appoint herself queen, not only exacting revenge on what he did to her, but also, making her own decision for once, instead of following orders, and basically acting as his puppet. I just wished we could have gotten a glimpse of her on the throne, because I’m sure she would not want to rule the way her father did.

As I said, the character development is well done, and it’s visible in the love story. Wil and Loom take their romance to the next level, and you can tell they truly love each other. Their moments together are beautifully written, and when they finally sleep together, the author knew how to write it for us to be focused on their feelings, instead of making the whole thing overly physical and graphic, which is always a bonus point for me. But, as always, when these happy, peaceful moments take place, it’s not difficult to guess that something horrible is about to happen. And I wasn’t wrong. Things went downward from then on, and I liked how Lauren DeStefano was able to imbibe the story with the gloomy darkness she uses to describes the crude Northern Arrod winter. It’s like you are there, and the environment is also noticeable in the storyline itself, everything being colder and darker with each turn, just as winter settles. Bravo, Lauren!

Overall, this book seems to be some sort of steampunk fairytale. At one point it strongly reminded me of Snow White, and specially, the Evil Queen. Through a series of dreams, Wil learns the reason behind her kingdom’s curse, and upon reading it, I had mixed feelings about it. I mean, come on, cursing an entire kingdom and dooming an entire family, because your wife cheated on you? I get that people do crazy things over a heartbreak, but killing an innocent little girl who’s done nothing wrong, after years and years of bitterly ruminating his pain… It’s the childish attitude of “I’ll make everyone miserable just because I’m unhappy.” It’s exaggerated, self-centered, and it speaks of a person who isn’t mature enough to be king. I mean, his wife cheated on him, and him alone, right? That is why I want to slap the guy and yell “grow the hell up!”. Your descendants have not even born yet, and you are still going to make them pay the price of your tantrum when things didn’t go your way!

*face-palm*

Ok, the worldbuilding… I was left with some questions about it, because, although the story isn’t exactly set in our own world, in this dimension, they still divide the calendar in our twelve months, as it is said Wil was born in October, during the Northern Hemisphere’s fall. And I wonder, which is it? Ours, or a completely different, made-up world? It’s not the most important part, but I didn’t know where to draw the line. I guess this is a little too nitpicky of me, but I couldn’t help noticing.

One of the things I didn’t like about this book is how the story jumped back and forth all the time, getting confusing at certain points. Because, when Wil comes back to Northern Arrod, she says that her power doesn’t fully work, because the kingdom is cursed. Later, she tells Gerdie:

“Usually, if I can’t use my curse, there’s a horrible pressing feeling like there’s an animal trapped in my blood that wants to burst free. But it isn’t there now.”

Perhaps this is me, misreading or missing something, but how can the curse not work, when in the previous book, the very plot starts because Wil accidentally kills her brother Owen with her crystallizing power? In her kingdom. The very one that later prevents her from fully using it. So… which is? How is it? It’s difficult to ignore the lack of clarity in that regard.

Also, Baren! What happened to him? Things were going great, because he was a dark, mind-twisted character, in a position of power, with a lot of potential for further development (something that his own grandmother saw, but apparently, not the author herself). Lauren DeStefano was clever enough to reveal, as a slap in the face, that his attitude and behaviour were the product of his unhappiness, origin of a fragility that their grandmother used to manipulate him and exact her revenge. He didn’t have much of a personality, and as his family didn’t pay attention to him, he was the perfect pawn in the game of others. However, DeStefano built so much around him, telling us about his attitude, his fears, his mental instability, his bad relationship with his siblings, how much he hated Wil… And by the epilogue, the last thing we knew was that he was king, as the rightful heir being the second son, and suddenly, Addney (a character who is barely there) has both given birth to Owen’s daughter, and taken the throne as regent queen. So? Knock knock. Is someone there who can tell where the hell Baren is? What happened to him? Did he leave? Is he dead? Did he forfeit the throne just like that? Please, tell me something! Anything!

And on that note, that is one of the things that most bothered me about this duology: the lack of details when the reader most needs them. So far, the author has told me all about curses, bloodlines, places and feelings, in full detail, but when she had to wrap up the story, she delivered a rushed ending that left me with more questions than answers, that I needed to patch up the plot holes scattered all over the place. On the bright side, it’s not your typical ending, even when at one point, you think that’s where the story is going, upon Wil finding her family dead, and hence being the rightful queen. Lauren DeStefano did a good job avoiding that cliché, but still, I think the ending as a whole could have been better written.

***

Anyway, that’s it for this review!
Thank you for stopping by, and I wish you a great start of the new year!
‘til next one!

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Review - Wishful Thinking

Original Title: Wishful Thinking
Series: Wish, 2
Author: Alexandra Bullen
Published: April 1st, 2011
Publisher: Point

*THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Ok, what to say about this companion novel?

It’s nice, and lovely, but it’s definitely enough. I don’t think the concept of magical dresses that grant wishes to lonely girls could be exploited any further, so I’m glad the author stopped the series with this one. I was hoping to find a book that would be better than the previous one, and in the end, I found them to be rather similar. That is why it is a solid three GoodReads stars to me. Not terrible, but not amazing, either. An okay read.

Overall, Wishful Thinking is a book focused on family and friendship, in the context of time travel, which, honestly, isn’t the best I’ve ever read. At first, I thought, how come no one notices that Hazel is dressed differently, and has this camera that obviously is not from the present time, but then I thought, no one is going to say “this girl came from the future”, so I’ll let it sly. But, I do question Rosanna’s instant trust in her, hiring her without inquiring anything about her past, or her family, or even her last name? Later she says she never believed what Hazel said, about her parents being traveling in Europe, but it was weird that she never asked anything about the real story. Like, ok, she wouldn’t pry on things that were not her business, but before hiring someone who came out of nowhere, and bringing her to live in your property, you should find out a thing or two about her, don’t you think?

One of the things I liked the most about Hazel was that she has photography as a well-defined passion in her life, instead of spending the whole book whining about how sad her life has been. Just like Rosanna tells her, she had a lot of potential even before knowing it, a way to find beauty in unexpected places, which is, at the end of the day, some sort of survival mechanism in a life in which happiness is so scarce. That is well done, because, even with strangers that weren’t from her own time and place, Hazel was able to find her own value and recognize parts of herself she always took for granted, but were what made her special.

As for the others characters, my favourite was, actually Rosanna Scott, with her passion for art and her decision of not letting her sickness determine her decisions. Jaime, Reid and Luke weren’t really of my liking, specially Reid, because of his attitude when he knew about the pregnancy, immediately abandoning both Jaime and her baby, and ditching the responsibility for his actions. He wasn’t really the father Hazel deserved. As for Jaime, I think she was the most realistic character in the book, because all her reactions were understandable. Scared upon finding out about the baby, not knowing what to do about it, going back and forth between keeping it, or giving it away for adoption… It’s a natural reaction to an unplanned, teen pregnancy. Just, the outcome isn’t very clear, because, at one point, Jaime tells Hazel she will keep her baby, but when she returns to the present, she hasn’t kept her word, because nothing has changed since she left.

The romance was really not for me. I’m never into insta-love, and this is not exception. I honestly didn’t care about it, since they jumped into love at the two months of knowing each other, and if we think about it, Hazel had told Luke absolutely NOTHING about herself. And I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that you can say you love someone you virtually don’t know, and after such a short time. So, no, this just didn’t work for me.

The ending was bittersweet, I really was left wanting a reunion, once Hazel found out who Jaime was, and that she had another child, her half-sister. I would have loved to read about Jaime’s reaction when Hazel told her “I’m your daughter”, but it never happened. Plus, just like it happened with Wish, I think the whole book would have benefited from a first-person narrative instead of the third-person, to live the experience along with Hazel, in a more personal way.

I think the overall message of this book is good. Hazel didn’t have a happy life, moving from one foster home to another, without really belonging anywhere, but her experience teaches her a valuable lesson. Even when it’s not easy nor nice to learn that you were an unwanted baby, it’s important to know that who your parents were doesn’t have to determine who you are, that finding yourself and giving value to your own talents and passions, it’s still worthy, and that your past doesn’t have to determine your future. Plus, Hazel learns to value those who were there in her life, instead of constantly suffering for those who weren’t –or wouldn’t–, like Wendy, her dead foster mom, who saw her dream of having a child come true when she adopted her, but couldn’t enjoy it for long, and Roy, who didn’t have to take care of her, but did it, anyway.

So, I guess it was a good book, even when it could have been better. Overall, I liked the concept of Posey and the magical dresses, but I would have liked to know more about both. Yet, I think the charm lies in not knowing everything, and letting the magic flow.

Do I recommend the duology? Yes. It’s great for those fairytale fans and contemporary fantasy, even when it’s not perfect. It’s a nice read to pass the time, and they will keep you entertained for a little while.

***

Thanks for reading!
See you soon!

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Review - Wish

Original Title: Wish
Series: Wish, 1
Author: Alexandra Bullen
Published: April 1st, 2010
Publisher: Point

*THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Here we are, again with a book that was never on my TBR. I guess I was just curious, and in need of a fairytale, and that’s why I went for this one. And what can I say? It’s an ok story. Not the best ever, but not a complete disaster, either. The first thing I thought when I finished it was that it definitely lacked a certain spark that would have made it better.

One of the most prevalent aspects of this book is its narration, which I often thought, was poorly chosen. Even when the grieving aspect is well written, and the portrayal of the brokenhearted Larsen family, trying to move on after their terrible loss, is realistic, with both parents trying to unsuccessfully drown their pain in work, I still think that the third-person narrative was not the best way to go. If instead we could have been in Olivia’s mind, through a first-person narrative, her raw experience through loss and emotional swings would have been a lot more intense, and would have felt more as a personal journey than a mere plot device to justify their moving to San Francisco (not that it is, though).

For me, the best character in this book was definitely Violet, the dead twin. Through the wish Olivia makes while wearing the magical dress, she’s allowed to come back as a ghost, and immediately, you can tell her personality is completely different from her sister’s. And I think it was lacking in that aspect, as Olivia felt, more often than not, really flat as a character, without enough depth as for me to believe she could actually be a real person. That’s why I liked Violet better, as she is strong and direct, never feels sorry for herself, always takes the lead, and is virtually the driving force that leads Olivia to change her life and start to move on, finding her own self in a life in which she mostly depended on her sister to make decisions. Violet was the risk taker in opposition to the careful, restrained Olivia. Yet, I think the sisterly bond is really well written, and I liked how, by the end, Violet is the one who pushes Olivia to be herself, and find her own identity, separated from the life they had together before the tragedy.

As for the romance, I really didn’t care a lot about it. It felt a little forced, because Olivia falls for Soren without even really knowing him. I liked that he was the listening kind of guy, and that he had the nice gesture of taking her to see the stars, thinking it would make her happy. But we never really get a real reason why he suddenly breaks his solid, year-long relationship with Calla –a person who has done nothing wrong and is actually very nice to Olivia–, for a girl he has known for a couple of weeks and is in the middle of a terrible grieving process. It makes no sense. At one point, Olivia asks him what is that he likes about her, but the answer is vague and not very believable, and I was left really unfazed by their relationship, not really caring if it worked out, or not. Plus, it felt really out of place that, in one moment, Olivia is thinking that she doesn’t belong and never will in her new world, and not two paragraphs later, as she talks to Soren, she suddenly feels she does. What?

Also, at certain points, I honestly didn’t know where the plot was going, as it felt like it was rambling on and on without really leading somewhere. Although it was obvious that Violet would be gone by the end of the book, in general, she was the most interesting character, because none of the others had much of a personality. In many cases, I could have taken them out of the story, without disrupting the plot. Like the girls, Lark and Bowie. Or Miles, who’s intervention only helps to solidify the metaphor from Virginia Woolf’s book, in which the protagonist finishes her painting and moves on, as a reflection of Olivia herself. Even though I think this symbolism could have been introduced without bringing yet another character to the plot, I still think it’s well done. Just as Woolf’s character, Olivia feels she’s nothing without her sister, but not having her anymore is what has to push her to build her own life, separated from Violet’s personality. She needs to close that chapter of her life –a.k.a, finish the painting–, even if she thinks the grieving process will last forever, at the end of the day, it’s necessary to unstuck herself and continue living her own life.

As for Olivia’s parents, I think their portrayal was realistic, and well done. Doing their best to hide their pain after their loss is a natural, self-protective reaction, but I kind of hated that they didn’t seem to remember they had another daughter that needed them, and was in as much pain as them, having not only lost her sister, but also having been uprooted from everything she knew, leaving her life behind to start anew. Some family therapy was immediately needed there, no doubt. But I liked that, by the end, the family didn’t try to hide their pain anymore, choosing, instead, to do their best to remember Violet with love and joy, even if losing her was terribly painful. It’s never easy to go through such processes, but the way is described is honestly well done, for a children’s book.

And, finally, I would have really liked to know more about Posey and her grandmother, and their unusual ability to sew magical dresses. It’s definitely interesting, as it speaks of a parallel world of magic I would like to know better. Still, the fact that we do not know much about them helps to create this mysterious aura around them, so that way, it’s nicely done.

So, in short, it’s a lovely book, but it definitely could have been better. I will read the next one in the duology, and I just hope it’s good.

***

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Review - Since You Asked...

Original Title: Since You Asked...
Series: - 
Author: Maurene Goo
Published: June 25th, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic

*THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

This book is definitely one of the stupidest, most pointless pieces of nonsense I’ve ever read. I can’t explain how unbelievably glad I am that I read Maurene Goo’s other books first, because if I had started with this one, there would have been no way I would have continued reading her work, missing on her actual good novels. I still recommend the author and I think she’s great, and if you are going to judge her, please, do not do it based on this novel.

One of the most annoying things in this book was that it has absolutely no plot. I tried to find a storyline to follow after the accidental submission of the wrong article for the school newspaper, but it wasn’t possible. It’s just not there. Instead, this book can be defined as a bunch of random scenes in the life of a fifteen-year-old girl named Holly Kim, that are not even interconnected, nor integrate a bigger plot the reader can follow. Everything is so messy, with so many ridiculous characters, that there are not positive aspects to it, nor things I can say I liked. For one, it includes everything I hate about American movies set in high school. It’s full of stereotypical characters who do nothing, and seem to be created to fill space, resulting in one of the most boring pieces of literature that I’ve ever encountered.

Holly Kim, our young protagonist, turned out to be a completely unlikeable person after just a couple of pages. I mean, I get why people would like her, as she only has a couple of close friends in a school where people virtually don’t know who she is, but it’s not my case. I personally found her to be too whiny and opinionated for my taste (not that being opinionated is a bad thing, when you actually have something to say, which isn’t the case here). Half of the book consists on her columns in the school newspaper, and the only thing she does there is complaining, and saying how much she hates school events and holidays, like Valentine’s Day. And as reader, I can’t do much with them, except reading them as I wait for the actual plot to show up. But, definitely, one of the things that most bothered me about Holly was her constant whining and the fact that nothing was good enough for her. She first complains she has to spend Christmas in Las Vegas with her big family, and then, because she gets to buy her own presents, and she doesn’t even give us a reason why she hates that. She just does. And yes, her parents may be annoying, but let’s be honest, she doesn’t make her job any easier.

As every protagonist written by Maurene Goo, Holly is Korean-American, but, unlike in the other books by the same author, here her family is big and loud, instead of small and tight-knit. But her parents… *face-palm*. Her dad is nice, but does nothing nor says much. And her mom, oh my God. She’s absolutely cartoonish, and irritating, with zero redeeming qualities. I can practically see her with the anime throbbing vein in her forehead, in literally every single scene she’s in. She only lives to question Holly, scold her, and say she’s a bad daughter. And at the end of the book, they hug, and it’s like nothing happened. There’s no development, no deepening in their lives, no meaningful conversations… Nothing. Simply, nothing.

As I said before, this book is just a bunch of events and people that are not connected with each other. Holly’s supposed close friends are nothing but background noise. Their families and physical appearance are briefly described, but them, as characters directly related to the protagonist, have no distinct personalities –except for a few things, that are not enough. Same as the other characters. Maurene Goo wrote a whole scene in which Holly goes to this Matthew Reynolds’ house to interview him for the newspaper, and meets his autistic little sister, and absolutely nothing happened after it, to justify that I had to read it. At the very least, I thought Matthew would become the love interest, but not even that happened. So why writing that in the first place?

As for the romance aspect, it’s non-existent. Around Valentine’s Day, Holly keeps getting presents and cards from a secret admirer she bashes in her column, and as I read, I discovered myself feeling zero curious about who could it be. And when it was finally revealed, I just wanted to flush the book down the nearest toilet. The guy turned out to be a Latino boy named Alex Garcia, who we had NEVER seen before, in the entire book. Not once. And what the hell is that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to care about someone I’m seeing for the first time, two pages away from the ending?

I can’t with this. No. Just no.

Most of the time I felt like Maurene Goo was about to tell me something great, and at the end, NOTHING happened. Like when we meet Holly’s cousin Sara. Or when Holly secretly goes to buy a dress for the school dance; there’s an entire scene dedicated to it, as she tries one dress after another without any luck, finally setting on one that fits her perfectly, and in the end, she doesn’t even go to the dance. Or even worse, when she and her whole family go to Las Vegas for the holidays, there’s this huge description of the city, as Holly chases after the kid who ran away from his family, and when you move to the next chapter, the whole Christmas scene has passed, without anything having happened that was relevant to the plot (except more yelling from her mom). I could have cut those three things out from the book, and nothing would have changed. Literally, nothing.

And don’t even get me started on the Battle of the Bands or the ballet class, because those are just more random scenes that serve to no purpose. And Holly, honey, please, do not joke about school shootings. Never. They are not a laughing matter, and I shouldn’t be the one saying it. The author herself should know better.

So, in short, this book sucks. It’s terrible. But, I will say, I know for sure Maurene Goo is so much better than this, and that with her other books, she proved she’s a good writer. Give her a chance with titles like The Way You Make Me Feel and I Believe in a Thing Called Love, because there you can truly see character development and meaningful friendship and family bonds. I’m glad that her style and her characters’ build-up improved with each new book she released, and I look forward to her work, even if her debut novel wasn’t everything it could have been.

***

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