Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

This is an ARC I was lucky enough to get at BEA.  I didn't get to meet the author unfortunately, but still was able to get ahold of the ARC, and I'm glad I did.  I believe this is the first book by this author that I've read. But now I know that I need to read more!  And not just because there was a dachshund in the book. 

The main character is Hazel.  She and her brother live in a town where the forest nearby has a glass casket with a horned boy inside of it.  Now this glass is impossible to break.  People have tried over the years.  And it's not just the boy in the casket, there are fairies and other types of creatures in the forest.  For the most part their tricks are just scary, mostly harmless. Although if you are a tourist and don't know the rules, things might happen to you.  Deadly things.  Hazel and her brother Ben have lived in a house near the forest their whole lives.  They've gone to see the boy in the casket all the time.  Told him their secrets, fallen in love with him, both of them.  Before Ben was born, their mother painted a picture of one of the fairies, and the fairy woman blessed Ben to be musical.  When one of the fairies attack Hazel, he is able to play music in a way that saves her, and then they kill the fairy. They decide from that point on that they will hunt fairies.  At least they do until Ben questions his control of his musical ability.  So Hazel makes a deal so that Ben is able to get scholarships to go to a school where he wants to go to learn to control his music.  They move away from the forest.  Only things don't quite go as planned, and they move back, with Ben not wanting to play music ever again. 

The fairy folk don't just grant wishes like that without taking something in return.  And what Hazel had to promise was 7 years of her life. Which as a child she figured meant she'd die 7 years early, or at least they'd come from the end of her life.  But when the prince is broken out of the glass box, and the fairy begin attacking the town in different ways, she learns that maybe the 7 years will be taken in a much different manner than she could have ever expected.  Together with the freed prince, and a changeling that has been raised as a human, along with his human brother, (a great story!  But read it for yourself), they must figure out what they can do to save their town, Fairfold, from the Alderking and his plans. 

Such a great story.  Hazel is the knight, she will fight for her friends and family and town.  Ben is a great character as well.  Jack, the changeling, love him!  And the prince, Severin, is perfectly written.  A really great story, and I'm so glad it was my introduction to this author's work. 

Review: Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris (September Sequels Challenge #5)

Well, it looks like I read the book right before this in the series last year during my September Sequel Challenge.  So seems appropriate that this one is now.  Don't know if I'll wait till next year to read the 13th and final book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  I'll probably pick it up next summer when I'll be wishing there was one more season of True Blood.  

What I love about these books is that I may have forgotten a little about what happened in the last book that I read a year ago, but I am easily pulled back into Sookie's life and the small town of Bon Temps.  Something I realized as I read this is that Sookie is really just like those detective characters in what you'd call a cozy mystery.  And I know the author does write mystery books as well. 

In this next to last story, Sookie and Eric's relationship is a bit strained.  Partly because the King Felipe has come to see them, and is asking about his man Victor.  Yes, Sookie and Eric are responsible for Victor and his men's deaths, and yes Felipe wanted that, but they cannot let there be any proof of it, because the King will have to do something about it.  The story starts out with several problems, first when Sookie goes to visit Eric while he is entertaining the King, she walks in to find him in a room feeding on some random woman.  The woman is part were, and also may have drunk or injected herself with fairy blood to make herself irresistible to Eric.  When she is made to leave, not long after she is found dead on the lawn, something the vampires are unable to hide because the police are called before they can make the problem disappear.  Also, Sam's girlfriend Jannalyn seems to have it out for Sookie.  So she is dealing with that.  Then there are problems with the fairies that have been left behind when her great grandfather Niall closed the door to their homeland.  They want to go home, and some, the elves, need to feed to relieve their stress.  All of it will end up being tied together at the end, very neatly this time, unlike some of the books in the series that I remember. 

There are also good things happening, Sookie's brother Jason proposes to his girlfriend, Tara has her twins, and those are just a few good things.  I have to admit that I do see the actors from the tv show when I read the book, and I hear Sookie talk in Anna Paquin's voice.  So while I am going to miss the show, since it was so different from the books by this season, it is okay.  Another good read.  Now I'm anxious to read the last book, even with all the things I've heard from people who were unhappy about things in it.

The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1) by Julie Kagaway

Once again I must ask myself why I waited so long to read this book!  Kagawa's writing is the kind I really like.  It draws me in and makes it hard for me to put the book down.  This is a much different story than the Blood of Eden series, obviously as this one is about fairies, and the other is vampires.  But it is another enjoyable story with characters that you are interested in.  Meghan Chase is the main character, and she is one of those girls who just never seems to fit in at school.  Her life has been sad, her father disappeared when she was a small child, and she doesn't remember much about him.  She has a best friend, a boy named Robbie.  And no matter what he seems to be by her side.  I like Robbie, he is very funny.  Weird things start to happen, including something cruel at school.  When she goes to tutor the cute, popular boy at school, one she's had a crush on, the computers in the lab start saying things on their own, that make him upset, and mad at her.  And then, he goes out and embarrasses her in front of the whole school.  As she goes home, extremely upset, she finds things even worse.  Her mother is hurt, but refuses to go to the hospital.  Her younger brother is acting like he's sick, but also like he's not himself.  He's been scared all week, saying something was in his room watching him.  When Meghan's stepfather comes home, he insists that her mother must go to the doctor.  So Meghan is home alone with her brother Ethan.  She soon comes to figure out something is really wrong with him.  And it is her friend, Robbie, who shows her exactly what.  Robbie is not who he has said he is, he is actually the fairy Puck, and Meghan is also part fairy.  She learns her father is not who she thought he was.  And also now she must go rescue her brother who has been kidnapped with a changeling left in his place.  To do that she must go to the world of the fairies.  Once there, she finds more danger than she expected, finding out just who her father is, and that her brother has been taken by the Iron King Machina.  While there are different types of fairies, this is a kind that is destroying the world of the other fey.  She meets one of the princes of the winter fey, and soon must rely on his help.  She also learns how you must be careful in how you express your gratitude.  Just saying you owe someone can put you life in danger, you don't want to owe debts to some people, or creatures.
I love Meghan, and while there may be a bit of a love triangle, it works okay for this story.  I will have to read on and see how badly or how well it is handled by this author.  I was lucky that these paperbacks were being stripped in my bookstore, well, the 1st, 2nd, and 4th in the series.  So when I get to number 3, I'll be going to the library I guess!  And because I like to share, here is my picture from when I met Julie Kagawa at BEA 2012, before I'd ever read any of her books!

The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. I: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

The Katerina Trilogy, Vol. I: The Gathering Storm by Robin Bridges

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I got this as an e-book from Netgalley. I normally wouldn't enter the Goodreads contest to win a copy of a book I've already read, but I did really enjoy this, and since it is part one of a series, I'll want to have it to re-read before the next one comes out probably. I really liked the story to begin with. The characters really grabbed me, and it was fun to kind of read about "royalty" in a way. To read about girls who were supposed to only get married and be good wives. Yet our main character, Katerina, doesn't want that kind of life. She wants to be a doctor. Now in her country, women have been banned from going to medical school. Her father supports her, along with another doctor, and says he will help her to go to a school that does allow women. But this is not the main storyline, although it is a big part of her life. Katerina can see a light around people, a light that tells something about whether they are close to death or not. And she soon finds out, this may be because she is a necromancer. In this world there are vampires, and fairies, and zombies, and all kinds of magical things, ghosts, etc. And it is a world of it. The light and dark sides. Katerina is needed by both sides. One needs her for a ritual to help their son ascend, and then they want her powers for other things later on. The other side needs her to be able to raise a creature that can save them from the dark. The one side, the son says he's in love with her, but Katerina doesn't trust his family, or him. The other side has a soldier/royal son who irritates her, and he doesn't trust her because he can tell what her power is. But soon, a spark grows between them as they continue to be thrown together in all these dangerous situations. But Katerina may have to deny her true feelings, as the other side threatens her friends and family if she does not marry their son and do as they ask.

Now, as I've said, I really enjoyed this book. When I picked it up, I had trouble putting it down. The story was very thought out, all the background of the families and all the paranormal situations and entities. It ended at a point that I'm very eager to read on past and find out what happens, and that's the problem with reading advanced readers copies, since it isn't even published yet, now I have to wait until it's published, plus probably another year before I'll get to read on. I wish when I got an ARC of a series, I could just get all the rest early too. But I'm sure all readers feel that way. Anyway, my only complaint with this book has to do with some of how it was so involved. I feel like the book just started in with some of the paranormal stuff, but didn't really explain it well until later, which was a bit confusing. Also, Katerina didn't know she was a necromancer, or that vampires were real, but she did know there were fairies? Seems weird to know about that and not the rest. But all in all, a great book, and I totally got past that once I got into the story.



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Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

Believe it or not, I'm really not much of a fantasy reader. Yes, I love Harry Potter, but I tend to stick more to real science fiction, and maybe vampire/monster which are really more horror than fantasy. However, I got this book free from the bookstore. We had an Educator's event and had several copies of this book with a teacher's guide in the back. Our CRM told me I should take a copy since they were free since I am a teacher. So I did, and I read it at school during my lunch breaks. It actually was pretty good.

Basically the main characters are Kendra and her younger brother Seth. One of their grandparents dies and leaves money for all the children to go on a cruise. So Kendra and Seth are sent to their other side's grandparents to stay while they are on the cruise. At first it seems like a really beautiful estate with lots of pretty butterflies and lots of weird rules and people. Their grandmother is supposedly off visiting other family so they are left with their grandfather. Soon it turns out that Fablehaven is not what it seems. There is an old witch tied up in the forest where they are not supposed to go. There's a beautiful pool hidden away also in an area they're not supposed to go. Also, turns out those butterflies are fairies. And you can see them when you drink a special type of milk. Of course Seth just can't seem to follow rules, and this soon lets evil things appear on this special sanctuary for the supernatural.