The Book Junkies

I was very excited to read this book, and I was enjoying it as I started reading, but the farther I got into the book, the more disappointed I became with how the plot was unraveling.  Pearl was found in the sea as a child and grew up to be extraordinarily unusual appearance wise.  Her skin was virtually transparent, her hair silvery.  She suffered as an outcast from the village, the only thing that kept her sane were her weekly meetings with her best friend, a boy she had met on the beach, the prince, James.  Now, I had guessed that this was a retelling of the Little Mermaid, but the angle that the author took was completely unappealing to me.  You can tell that James was going to propose to Pearl, but then come along a mermaid and her brother and they ruin the whole thing.  The mermaid falls in love with James and the merman has been in love with Pearl forever, and all of a sudden, the four of them are tangled up in a plot to James’s father, the king.  Towards the end the whole story became very silly and I was very much sick of it!  Throughout the entire book, I had been hoping that James and Pearl would end up together, but it ended up that Pearl and the merman end up together, whereas the mermaid gets James!  I was very upset!  But don’t let this deter you from reading this book if the plot sounds interesting to you.  If you like what you hear, then I urge you to read this book, if not, then don’t read it.  My opinion, in general, is that this book was silly and took a very wrong turn and ended up as a train wreck.  But that’s just me.

I give this book 3 out of 5 bookmarks!

Reviewed by: Austen A.

The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn was, in my opinion, a good book!  As you might have noticed by reading some of my other reviews, I am  a fan of Suzanne Weyn’s work!  This is another of those “Once upon a time…” books, this one being a twist on one of my favorite fairy tales, the Twelve Dancing Princesses.  Now, just a few books before reading this, I had read another rendition of this same tale, titled Princess of the Midnight Ball, so it was interesting to compare and contrast.  This is the story of lively Rowena, the youngest of twelve sisters.  The girls’ father, Sir Ethan, has locked his daughters in their manor, forbidding them to ever leave, afraid he might loose them as he did their mother.  Rowena, though, manages to slip out and eventually convinces her sisters to sneak out and go dancing each night with her.  The other main character is part of Arthurian legend, the knight named Bedivere.  While searching for the Lady of the Lake, trying to return Excalibur, he meets Rowena and they are instantly smitten with each other.  Bedivere accepts Sire Ethan’s challenge to find out where the girls go at night and to win Rowena’s hand in marriage.  I enjoyed this book.  I don’t know that I would say it’s one of my favorites, but I didn’t dislike it.  I loved the Arthurian legends mixed in and I liked Bedivere and Rowena.  Rowena, although somewhat clever, and a tad brave, was a little too damsel-in-distress-like for me.  She needed too much saving!  I mean, I like a female heroine with a bit of a vulnerable side, but she can’t be in need of a guy to constantly come in and save her.  She was a bit annoying.  I have to say that even though I really did like this book. Between the two that I’ve read based on this tale, I liked Princess of the Midnight Ball much better, but then again, that’s just my opinion.  If you think this one sounds more interesting, don’t read the other instead, just because of what I’ve said!

I give this book 4 out of 5 bookmarks!

Reviewed by: Austen A.

This book, Sunlight and Shadow, was a book that I do not want to read again.  Based on Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, this book started out well.  The character interaction was interesting, the story line was moving at a good pace, and the whole idea seemed truly interesting!  Mina is the daughter of Sarastro, Mage of the Day and Pamina, Queen of the Night.  mina was born on the longest night of the darkest month of the year.  Mina grew up with her mother, never aloud to be seen by her father until he stole her away at age sixteen to choose her suitor.  Her mother was furious and lured in a prince and convinced him to rescue Mina in return for her hand in marriage.  After reading about all of the characters’ histories for more than one third of the book and then finally getting to the actual plot, I was not so sure about how this book would turn out anymore.  Sure, it made many valiant attempt to redeem itself, but it failed.  Horribly.  The end of the book was definitely not what I had hoped for!  The climax of the book was very cheesy, sappy and rushed.  The back of the book describes a great quest that Mina and her prince embark on, but the book spends less than one fifth of the book on this fantastic adventure. I don’t really recommend this book to anyone who has something else to read.

I give this book 3 out of 5 bookmarks!

Reviewed by: Austen A.