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If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you may remember me gushing about Anna Elliott’s “Twilight of Avalon” last May. In fact, it even made my ‘Best of 2009′ list at the end of the year. Well, the second book in the trilogy, “Dark Moon of Avalon” is being released September 14th. I can’t wait, I’m hoping to get a copy from the publisher in my hot little hands any day now.
If you also can’t wait for the next installment in this series, or if you want to check out Elliott’s writing style and see if this is for you, she is currently giving away a couple of short stories electronically on her website. The first one, “The Witch Queen’s Secret” is available right now in .mobi, .epub, . pdf, or as .xhtml to read on the web. All are free, unless you want it delivered wirelessly to your Kindle, that costs $0.99 (due to Amazon policy).
Here’s Elliott’s description of the story:
The Witch Queen’s Secret: a free short story set in the Twilight of Avalon universe
The Witch Queen’s Secret features a minor character from Twilight of Avalon, but it’s self-contained; you don’t at all have to have read any of the Twilight of Avalon trilogy to understand it. A bit more about the story:
In the shadow of King Arthur’s Britain, a young mother will need all her courage to save the Queen’s castle from the hands of a traitor…
Dera owes Britain’s former High Queen Isolde her life. But as an army harlot, the life she leads is one of degradation and often desperate danger, with small hope for the future either for Dera or for her small son.
Through a Britain torn by war with Saxon invaders, Dera makes her way to Dinas Emrys, last stronghold of Britain’s army, to beg Queen Isolde’s help once more. Isolde offers Dera a new life, both for herself and for her child. But when Dera and Isolde uncover a treasonous plot, Dera must leave her little boy and undertake a dangerous mission, the outcome of which comes to her as a stunning, but wonderful, surprise.
And as she risks her life, Dera also draws nearer to Queen Isolde’s most closely-guarded secret: one that Britain’s courageous witch-queen may be hiding even from herself.
Katherine and Anna are twin sisters. Or, rather, they were. Now Anna is dead and Katherine wishes she was too, she has no desire to live without her sister, particularly because she blames herself for Anna’s death. The Centennial Fair in Philadelphia provides Katherine the perfect opportunity to end her life. All she has to do is go to the top of one of the tall buildings at the fair and throw herself off at the right time. Unfortunately, her dead sister’s boyfriend, Bennett, is haunting her like a ghost, trying to keep her from ending everything.
In “Dangerous Neighbors,” Kephart takes us through Katherine’s present grief and guilt, and slowly works through what happened between Katherine and Anna to bring things to this point. As always with Kephart, the writing is absolutely gorgeous and lyrical. People who think that YA books can’t be ‘literary’ would do well to read her work, her writing consistently ranks among the best I’ve ever read.
That being said, I felt that something was missing in the plot and characterizations. Because the entirety of Katherine’s story takes place after Anna becomes involved with Bennett and the sisters begin to grow apart, I didn’t get a good sense of the close relationship the girls had once had, it was notable only by its absence. Yes, I knew that Katherine felt guilty about Anna’s death, but I never learned it on my own, I was simply told repeatedly. I felt that I never got a really good feel for Katherine and her motivations, despite the fact that the entire book was told from her perspective. It seemed to me that so much was given over to making the writing gorgeous (and it really, really was) that not enough attention was paid to the characterization. I would have also liked to see the plot developed a bit more, the book was under 200 pages, so it was not bloated with excess, and could have been a bit longer.
I love Kephart’s work, but this was not my favorite. If a great book for you means beautiful writing first and foremost, then this is a great book and you will adore it. Personally I need more of a balance between writing and plot/characterization, of which there was not as much as I would have liked. If you are like me in what you need from a book, try some of Kephart’s other work, “Nothing But Ghosts” and “Undercover” strike this balance particularly well.
This review was done with a book received from Winsome Media.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
Published by Putnam Books, an imprint of Penguin
When an art restorer is shot in his home in the middle of a summer rash with art theft, it seems to be no more than a robbery gone wrong. Unfortunately, that proves not to be the case. A valuable, almost unknown Rembrandt is missing. There’s too much at stake to make this public knowledge, so the art dealer who has been in possession of the Rembrandt contacts his old friend Gabriel Allon, an art restorer and retired Israeli spy and assassin. As Gabriel begins to investigate the history of the painting, he discovers it has a very dicey provenance, disappearing from the possession of a Jewish man in Amsterdam during World War II. This history makes things personal for Gabriel, and he is determined to do whatever it takes to find this painting and get to the bottom of the theft.
What a smart thriller! One thing I really appreciated is that Silva does not treat his readers as if they were stupid. One thing that drives me crazy about a lot of thrillers is that authors often write unnecessarily short chapters with ridiculous cliffhangers in order to keep the story moving. Sometimes it works, but oftentimes it is simply obnoxious. Silva does not indulge in any of that. His chapters are as long as they need to be, without any manufactured drama. It made me feel as if Silva valued my intelligence as a reader. Yes, it meant that “The Rembrandt Affair” started more slowly than many thrillers, but Silva built suspense organically, the tension growing as Gabriel got deeper into the case. Indeed, every time I picked up the book, it grew more and more difficult to put it back down.
Gabriel, by the way, is my new favorite spy. Yes, he’s an assassin, but he’s an assassin with a conscious. Plus, he is a cultured, sophisticated art restorer – and this is a real passion, not simply his cover. And he’s in a monogamous relationship, so no oh-so-predictable sexual tension between the main character and the woman he must work with, which was refreshing for a change.
Let me also just say, this is one of the most beautiful hardcover books I’ve seen in some time. The art on the inside of the front and back covers was lovely, and the page before the title page was gorgeous, looking as if it had been painted, with texture so realistic I could almost feel it. And the paper it was printed on was rapturous. Yes, I know, that sounds far too strong a word for paper, but it was so incredibly thick and luxurious that every time I turned the page I stopped and thumbed the page. Actually, I was a bit worried when I first saw the book, because I assumed from the heft that it was well over 700 pages, but it was really just under 500 pages of wonderfully thick paper.
A great, smart thriller in an absolutely beautiful package. Personally I can’t wait to get my hands on more books from the Gabriel Allon series. Highly recommended.
This review was done with a book received from Lydia at Putnam.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
I had every intention of getting this post up around 8 or 9 this morning, but I woke up this morning to a conspicuous lack of electricity. Actually, the lack of electricity is what woke me up, because the battery back up on the modem and the wireless router started beeping. Although we were only without power for about 30 minutes, my husband asked that I not turn anything back on, in case they had to cut the power again to fix whatever the problem was.
So then we left for church, then it was lunch with the inlaws. Now I’m home and the power and internet are finally back on and I’m finally getting this written around 5 pm.
Anyway, this was a good week, reading wise, and really just in general. I finished two audiobooks, both by China Mieville and narrated by John Lee, the first of which I have already reviewed (click the cover of “The City & The City” for review):
I also finished four books in print, the first three of which I have already reviewed (covers link to reviews):
Look out for my review of “Dangerous Neighbors” this coming week. In addition to reviewing a majority of what I read this week, I also reviewed the audiobook of “How to Buy a Love of Reading” by Tanya Egan Gibson:
How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson, narrated by Renee Raudman
Published in Audio by Tantor Audio
Published in Print by Plue, an imprint of Penguin
Synopsis:
Carley Wells doesn’t have a whole lot going for her. She’s heavy, not particularly good at school, and not exactly popular in rich and chic Fox Glen. Eager to make her shine for her 16th birthday: they are going to commission an author to write a novel to coordinate with her birthday party theme. The author, Bree McEnroy, has been tasked with writing a book that Carley will love, but as Carley doesn’t think much of books and reading, this may be a more difficult commission than Bree bargained for. Hunter Kay is another complicating factor. As Carley’s best friend and a huge fan of the written word he initially spends a good deal of time helping Bree and Carley’s creative process along, but it becomes increasingly apparent that Hunter’s use of alcohol and prescription drugs is a much bigger problem than he wants to let on – a revelation that has great impact on all of the people around him.
Thoughts on the story:
I am completely amazed that I didn’t absolutely hate each and every character. Everyone, with the exception of the author, Bree McEnroy, had entirely too much money for his or her own good, to the point where frivolous purchasing what the name of the game. I mean, for pete’s sake, Carley’s parents basically bought her a novelist in order to impress their friends and make her look better for colleges. What could be more ridiculous than that? Then there’s the fact that the only things most of the kids in Fox Glen seemed to care about were drugs and sex – maybe being popular and fitting in as well. Really, not much could sound less appealing to me.
And yet, Egan Gibson managed to humanize her main characters to a degree I would not expect, given their most prominent qualities. In fact, I was really impressed with how, not only did I not completely hate the characters, I actually felt sympathy for most of them. And that’s really saying something, because ‘poor little rich girl’ doesn’t usually elicit much sympathy from me. That, in my opinion, is an impressive quality in an author.
Thoughts on the audio production:
I very much enjoyed Renee Raudman’s work narrating “How to Buy a Love of Reading.” I thought that she was well cast in the part, and she gave both life and depth to her characters. And, praises be, she did not interpret them as whiny, as she might have most annoyingly done. Her narration certainly helped keep Egan Gibson’s characters in the realm of surprisingly sympathetic, instead of simply obnoxious spoiled brats.
Overall:
I was definitely nervous during the first part of this book that I was going to hate the characters so much that I wouldn’t be able to finish it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the depth introduced by Egan Gibson and the way that Raudman’s narration supported the story. Recommended.
Note: although the chief protagonist of the story is a high school girl, “How to Buy a Love of Reading” doesn’t come across as a YA book. I believe that adults, as well as older teens, would enjoy this story.
The audiobook has a similar cover design as the hardcover, but “How to Buy a Love of Reading” was recently released in paperback, with this new cover.
Buy this book from:
Powells: Audio/Print*
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound: Audio/Print*
Amazon: Audio/Print*
This review was done with a book received from the Tantor audio.
* These links are all affiliate links. If you buy your book here I’ll make a very small amount of money that goes towards hosting, giveaways, etc.
Beth F
Sandy
bermudaonion (Kathy)
Stephanie
Trisha
Here’s Elliott’s description of the story:
The audiobook has a similar cover design as the hardcover, but “How to Buy a Love of Reading” was recently released in paperback, with this new cover.
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