Audio Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)
By Laini Taylor
Narrated by Khristine Hvam
****
(I downloaded this title for free from the www.audiobooksync.com summer reading program.)

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.” 

Karou is a teenager who attends a school for the arts in Prague. She has blue hair and tattoos, most obvious of which are the eyes on each palm and "true" and "story" on each wrist. She's also a brilliant artist and her friends love to look at her sketch book for the fantastic creatures she draws there. In addition to the beautiful drawings, Karou tells stories of the different "characters." What her friends don't know is that these creatures are real, and they're Karou's family.

Karou's family are Chimera - creatures made up of different animal parts (kinda like the Sphinx). Unbeknownst to Karou, her family has been fighting a war for a century; a war against the angels.

Enter Akiva, a beautiful angel who comes to earth to close the portals Karou's family uses to access our world. Akiva meets Karou and the sparks (and flames) fly. They fall in love, but there's far more to their story than either could possibly guess.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a mesmerizing mix of love and hate, peace and war, romance and tragedy. Taylor has fused together two worlds in a fascinating and believable way and Hvam narrates it beautifully. And just when you have hope that everything will work out for our star-crossed lovers, Taylor comes along and sucker punches you. Thank heaven's there's a sequel! (It'll be available in 2 months.)

This is a great story for anyone who enjoys paranormal romance, mythology, or stories that take place in foreign locales. Highly recommended.

P.S. Check out this book trailer I did for Daughter of Smoke and Bone!

Meg-A-Rae Episode 4: A Very Special Fairy Tale Episode

In this installment of Meg-A-Rae, Meg and I discuss Fairy Tales. Meg reviews Grimm's Fairy Tales, whilst I review Neil Gaiman's Stardust!

Next Up: A Very Special Heartfelt Episode

Graphic Novel Review: Rapunzel's Revenge

Rapunzel's Revenge  *****
by Shannon Hale, Nathan Hale, and Dean Hale

From Goodreads:
Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally climbed to the top of the wall and looked over into the mines and desert beyond.

Newbery Honor-winning author Shannon Hale teams up with husband Dean Hale and brilliant artist Nathan Hale (no relation) to bring readers a swashbuckling and hilarious twist on the classic story as you’ve never seen it before. Watch as Rapunzel and her amazing hair team up with Jack (of beanstalk fame) to gallop around the wild and western landscape, changing lives, righting wrongs, and bringing joy to every soul they encounter.

From me:
Rapunzel's Revenge is a graphic retelling of the Rapunzel story that takes place in the Wild West and sneaks in other fairy tale characters. Rapunzel is on a mission to rescue her mother and defeat the evil witch and she uses her long braids as weapons to right wrongs and conquer foes. It was a light read with good illustrations - the artistic style matches the tone of the story.

This story was shelved in the YA section of the library, but I think it could possibly fit the J Fic or Tween section a bit better. It was fun, but didn't have a lot of depth.

Book Review: Cinder

Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1)  *****
by Marissa Meyer

What if...Cinderella was a Cyborg. I can honestly say I've never asked myself that question. But Marissa Meyer did, and I'm so glad! Meyer takes the classic fairy tale and puts it in a futuristic, sort-of post-apocalyptic world, and manages to keep it fresh and new, yet familiar. I read more fantasy than sci-fi, and this was my first venture into a Cyborg story, but I really enjoyed the journey.

The new and fresh: Cinder lives in New Beijing, over one hundred years after the 4th World War, and the world is unrecognizable. Here, a person will become a cyborg when they've been badly injured and surgeons will add robotic parts and advanced computer technology to take the place of body parts too damaged to work. Cinder has a robotic leg and arm, can access the Net with a thought, and see news and data literally out of the corner of her eye. While these operations save lives, the newly created cyborgs are considered less-than-human and are reviled in society.

Another new aspect to the story is that some time in the book's past, people from Earth colonized the moon, but the moon changed them. They (the Lunars) are able to influence the bioelectrical something-or-others and basically control the thoughts and actions of others, including making themselves appear beautiful and making someone else kill themself. And now they're trying to take over Earth.

The other major plot point is a plague that has been decimating Earth, one that is highly contagious and kills quickly. Through a series of events, Cinder becomes a test subject in the search to find a cure (becoming a test subject is certain death in this world) and discovers that she is somehow immune.

The familiar: despite the fact that we're dealing with cyborgs and Lunars and plagues, there's still a ball, an evil step-mother, and two step-sisters (though only one is evil).

Will Cinder make it to the ball? Will she escape her step-mother? Will the prince return her foot???