Edrie Elen

I went into this book knowing pretty much nothing at all about it. It was recommended by a good friend who generally has good (i.e., similar to mine :D) tastes, so I felt good about picking it up! Funny enough, outside of Lord of the Rings, it's the oldest fantasy I've read. Which, I know I know, is hilarious, because it's only 20 years old. Haha. Fantasy isn't typically my gig, okay? Though lately I'm enjoying it more and more. Anyway!

My favorite part of this novel was the collision of old world and new - the archaic, medieval world “across the Wall,” and the more modern, WWII type world on the other side. The world (or worlds, I guess, even though they are definitely interconnected) is very layered and complex. Color me intrigued. Intrigued enough to keep reading, even when I felt the characters were kind of flat. Sabriel, god love her, was just...eh. Touchstone was slightly more interesting but also...eh. Mogget was definitely the most interesting character of the entire book. I...well, I'm not sure what I feel about Mogget! I want to love Mogget, but I'm kind of afraid to because...what is Mogget? As it is, the chain of events, piling sinister and weird on top of each other, was enough to keep me reading. Characters are, honestly, the biggest draw of a book for me. To not be totally in love with these was kind of a downer. They're sympathetic, don't get me wrong! Just kind of two-dimensional. Also, the romance? Better left out entirely than the way it was just thrown on top like too-stiff frosting. It could have been written so much better. That's really the only complaint I had about the writing though. The world descriptions were fabulous. I could see the gown Sabriel wore, could hear the winds behind the Paperwing and see its yellow eyes. I'll definitely be continuing with the series.

Nice to get a little more background on Cinder's story, even if it's only a little.

I've already said these are light and fluffy, feel-good books. Ditto for this one.

The writing got better. This one moved quickly, and was much better than Cress (which I was mildly disappointed in...but I suppose there's only so much an author can do with that storyline). Winter as a heroine was kind of meh, but the book wasn't only about her, it was wrapping up all the other characters we've come to know and love (and despise) through this series. Loved it. Flew through it. Stayed up waaaaaay too late reading it. Felt like a teenager again, because I don't usually allow myself to get that invested in book characters anymore (is that sad or what?).

So....didn't like this one as much. The story progressed well, but the new relationship (Cress and edit) felt silly and forced. I understand following the fairy tale, but honestly that part felt like a written version of the Tangled movie. That said - Cinder and Kai - awwww. I'm really interested to see how the last book will tie up all the trailing threads of the different stories. Hoping it is all it promises it could be!

So glad I kept reading this series! I am now totally invested in the story. I love the new characters introduced in this one, and it just felt like the world was a lot more fleshed out. Scarlet and Wolf are of course awesome. The other characters grow and develop as well. Totally enjoying my brain candy read. :)

I'm actually a little embarrassed to admit to reading this series. The first 2 especially were hysterically funny (I can excuse a lot in a book if it makes me laugh till my ribs ache), the third a little less so, and this one only gave me a few giggles. It's not a horrible book, but Cabot seemed to be trying - and even mentions in her comments in the back of the book - to take a look at more serious issues while still dealing with the same characters. It's not a bad book, but I really didn't appreciate the switch. :-/ I wanted funny. It was a sweet, fluff-ball story, which is what most of her books are, but I really felt it wasn't nearly as good as the others in the series.

~Full review appears on The Bent Bookworm~I've been waiting so long on this book! I had so many expectations. As I've stated before – I love the world Carriger has created. I've read every single book (not all the short stories yet, I'm working on those!) and enjoyed them all. I love the characters. I love hunting for references to the various storylines in the different series. When I sit down with a Gail Carriger book, it's like sitting down with an old friend and hearing what they've been up to.That said, I need to get something off my chest: I will never love Rue as much as I love her mother, Alexia.She's charming and winsome in her own way but Alexia has my heart. The entire time I was reading this book and the first in this series, I was missing Alexia and the Alexia/Conall vibe. I have tried to get as much behind Rue as I did Alexia and...she's definitely her mother's daughter, but she's not her mother. Which is a good thing! But I just wanted more Alexia. I need to re-read the original Parasol Protectorate series in its entirety. I've read [b:Soulless 6381205 Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1) Gail Carriger https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1314020848s/6381205.jpg 6569140] I think 3 times but definitely time to go through all 5 again. Anyway, on to the actual review!Imprudence picks up almost exactly where [b:Prudence 12799420 Prudence (The Custard Protocol, #1) Gail Carriger https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1393521574s/12799420.jpg 17947731] left off (WARNING: spoilers for the FIRST book). The queen is, as expected, rather displeased with Rue's handling of the weremonkey situation, but that quickly takes a back seat to Rue's family troubles. Perhaps it's awful of me, but I was so glad that Alexia and Lord Maccon were more in the forefront of this one! We see them through Rue's eyes, which was rather entertaining, but they are there for a good portion of the book. The family is struggling to deal with Lord Maccon's oncoming Alpha madness. He's slowly losing his grip on reality and becoming entirely werewolf. It was so sad. By the end of Chapter 5 I was bawling while reading in bed. My husband was very concerned. Thankfully they didn't just sit around moping about it – this is Alexia's husband, after all! They were very quickly off to do something about it, and rampages and capers ensued.Well, Lord save anyone if a vampire tried to steal a werewolf's prey, even if only to kill that prey himself. Especially then.I love how Rue and Alexia share the tendency to go off on their own and drag everyone else along in their wake. Also have to love that Rue seems to be the only one capable of dragging Alexia herself around – Alexia is much more concerned about appearances than I remember her being, perhaps a by product of all her time serving the Queen. Rue...Rue gives almost no fucks. Especially where her relationship with Quesnel is concerned.“Like to go somewhere more private and be scandalous some more?”Ah, yes, Quesnel, the little Frenchman we all fell in love with when he was just Madame Lefoux's charge and constantly running amok. Quesnel, as we saw in Prudence, has grown up to be a innovative inventor in his own right. He's also quite the ladies' man...but somehow Prudence has managed to twist him right around her little finger. Despite her repeated insistence that their relationship is only for “lessons” and her own experience...Ok. This is the big reason this book didn't get 5 stars for me. I can't get behind Rue and Quesnel. I wanted to. I really did. But I just...can't. Quesnel is too much of a pretty boy for me...I am Team Big-hairy-dominate-but-gentle-werewolf (aka Lord Maccon) all the way and I guess I was hoping the same for Rue. Of course she's entitled to her own taste! But it just...it seems forced. I didn't feel it, and I'd like to think I can usually feel a character's emotional involvement even if the parties involved aren't to my own preferences.Like Tasherit and Prim. I feel their attraction. I feel Prim's confusion and anxiety and flutterings. And I'm very eager to find out what happens to them in the next book!Gail wrote in one of her newsletters/posts that she was trying to wrap a lot of things up in this book, since there will not be a 3rd Custard Protocol book until at least 2018. I think she did that very well while still leaving several storylines open for exploration. Like Tasherit and Prim. Like the Woolsey Pack – oh, I almost forgot.OMG, my beloved Woolsey Pack. I can't believe what happened. That was also a large part of the tears.WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO WOOLSEY??? This was a huge turning point in the first third of the book and then...crickets. AAAAAHHHH. I think we were supposed to kind of forget but I can't. Buffy. Lyall. Channing. And of course the Kingair Pack too, even though God knows they're still off brawling in some distant land like good Scottish boys – capably led by their fierce female Alpha (who, thank GOD, will be having her very own novella some time in the near future). I really hope we have more werewolves in the next book too.Anyway, overall, 4/5 stars. And I will be eagerly awaiting whatever comes from Gail Carriger's pen next.

3.5/5 stars. This book started out pretty slow, for what I was used to from Gail Carriger, but in the end I laughed hysterically and enjoyed myself very much. Can't wait for Imprudence!!

~Full review here on The Bent Bookworm!~Girl of Nightmares is the sequel to the ever-so-popular [b:Anna Dressed in Blood 9378297 Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1) Kendare Blake https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1398637405s/9378297.jpg 14261925], so be warned there may be SPOILERS for the first book! This review is also very short because books like this are hard to review without giving too much away and ruining the fun of the read for everyone.———-- Cas is back, and he's just as moody and kind-of-sort-of angry as in the first book. He's not as hell-bent (no pun intended) on revenge, but now he's kind of mooning over the fact that Anna is gone...or is she? At first he thinks he's going crazy as he starts to see her when he's out ghost-hunting, but then he becomes convinced she is in some kind of trouble (more trouble than a usual trip to the afterlife would entail) as she always appears to be tortured when she appears. Yikes.- Cas's friends are more real in this book. At least, this time I actually remembered them, whereas when I started this one, I only had a vague recollection of there being other people involved somewhere...maybe that's my fault, my memory is not the greatest. 😛 His mom is sweet and adorable and reading the scenes with the two of them kind of made my heart hurt. Like, what is it like to be able to be friends with your parents?- Partway through, the book moves to England and I LOVED IT. It just made it that much more interesting even if they didn't get to explore nearly as much as they should have because obviously they were trying to save Anna.- Anna herself is only in this book in VERY short segments. I was a little bit disappointed by that but there was really no way to bring her into the story that would make sense.- The descriptions succeeded in making me pull my covers up and make sure my doors were locked (not that locked doors would help me if there was a ghost after me...buuuuut you know). I love it when a book succeeds in raising the hairs on the back of my neck! Surely I'm not the only one that literally has that happen...not just a figure of speech here!- The ending was...well, it was closure...and that's about all I can say without spoiling it! My hat is off to Kendare Blake for ENDING THIS DUOLOGY right here. I can imagine it might have been tempting to extend it, with the popularity of Anna Dressed in Blood, but it felt really good to finish not only a book but an entire story.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+

If I hadn't already known I was bi...

~Full review notes on The Bent Bookworm!~My first issue: I feel like that description or blurb is very misleading. “A living record of the Navajo way of life before the influence of the white man.” Um...I don't see how that is accurate at ALL, when several of the main incidents of the story involve a slightly condescending but kind white man who runs a general store near the Navajo family. So what exactly is that blurb about? Hmmmm? Anyway.This book was first published in 1931. The style of writing reflects the time, as it's very slow-paced and nothing at all like the fast moving, action packed chapter books and MG novels of today. It's thoughtful. There isn't very much dialogue. I think that most middle grade readers today would lose interest, sadly. The subject matter is fascinating, but it's not really presented in the most fascinating way. :-/ There's a brief conflict that doesn't even begin until the book is more than halfway over, and even that is resolved almost immediately and when it is, it just happens off somewhere else and Younger Brother (the main character) isn't even involved!The characters are not really fleshed out very well at all. I liked Younger Brother's way of looking at the world, of his respect for all nature, of his desire to communicate with it, but I felt like the rest of the characters were very two dimensional and rather stereotypical.Supposedly the view on Navajo culture presented in this book is pretty accurate – according to some white scholars in the 1930s. The book is written by a white woman. Which is all fine – you don't have to be a member of a nationality to write about it – but I think the #ownvoices movement has sensitized me somewhat to people outside a culture writing about it, and I really object to the covert racism here. For instance, when the Navajo family makes a trip with the white store owner, to another store, the narrator says that “his father was curious but dared not go outside the door.”I think the Newbury Award judges were trying to expand children's view of the world by even selecting a book that portrayed Navajo culture in a positive light. I really do. However. Most white people at the time weren't even...aware isn't the right word. Racism at that time wasn't looked at as anything particularly wrong, it just WAS. That doesn't make it any more excusable, but from the point of view of a white intellectual in the 1930s, this book was probably a shining example of equal opportunity. So that said, I wouldn't really recommend this for modern classes or kids, except as maybe an example of how racism creeps into even well-intentioned (?) writing. With all that going on I found it a little difficult to find things I liked about the writing, even if there was nothing particularly wrong with the style.“I know this much, Little Singer. There are secrets we cannot name, songs we cannot hear, and words we must not speak.”I did really enjoy how Younger Brother has such a respectful connection with nature. It's not just him, but the rest of his family as well. At one point the narration mentions how even the youngest child isn't afraid of bees, because she has never learned to be afraid of them. This was a real lightbulb for me. How many times are we afraid of something because we have seen someone else express fear?Overall, 2.5/5 stars. When I initially finished I felt a little more forgiving, but the longer I think about it the more irritated I become by all the issues, especially the racism masquerading as not racism.Blog Twitter Bloglovin Instagram Google+—————————Read for the Newbery Award challenge. It's really bothering me that this is clearly my edition, but mine has a different cover that IS NOT on GoodReads.

3 and a half stars. I'm a sucker for fairy tales, and after hearing about this series for a couple years now I finally bit the bullet. I was prepared to be underwhelmed but was pleasantly surprised.

I love the futuristic element. The story is admittedly easy to predict in a lot of ways, not only because of the familiarity of the Cinderella fairy tale but the VERY broad hints laid out. I actually took a note when I guessed the “big twist” of the story - page 39. That said, the writing is good, the world intriguing, and for anyone that likes fairy tales and the retellings, definitely worth reading. I had to keep reminding myself it's a YA book...therefore not to expect the depth I like in “adult” fiction. It was a fun, fluffy, mind-candy read, and I enjoyed it enough to keep reading the series.

Would prefer a 3.5 rating.

Made it to page 46. Nope nope nope nope. Too much too much too much angst and emo. Plus I smell a horrible romance/love triangle coming. Nope.