Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. Random House. 2012. Review copy from publisher. Edited to add: Morris Award winner. The Plot: Prince Rufus has been murdered; not just murdered. His head is missing, which indicates a dragon was involved. It’s been forty years since peace was declared between the dragons and the humans of Goredd, but at [...]
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones. Firebird, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). Reissue 2012. Original publication date: 1985 (Greenwillow Books). Personal copy. Part of the Diana Wynne Jones Blog Tour. The Celebrate Diana Wynne Jones Tumblr. The full tour schedule. The Plot: Polly Whittacker, 19, is packing for college when she begins to [...]
Froi of the Exiles (The Lumatere Chronicles) by Melina Marchetta (Candlewick Press, 2012). Companion to Finnikin of the Rock (Candlewick Press, 2010) (my review). Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Froi has spent the last three years making Lumatere his home. He is loyal to those who have befriended him: the royal family, the guards, the returned [...]
Liar’s Moon by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic. 2011. Review copy from publisher. Sequel to StarCrossed. Spoilers for StarCrossed. The Plot: Lord Durrel Decath is in prison, accused of murdering his wife. Decath saved Digger’s life once. She owes him. She knows he could not have done it, and uses her skills as [...]
StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Scholastic. 2010. Library copy. The Plot: A robbery gone bad means Digger, sixteen, must flee her home city of Gerse. One lie leads to another, and the next thing she knows, Digger is going by the name Celyn and is a lady’s maid to a young, shy noblewoman, Merista Nemair, living [...]
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic. 2011. Review from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Every November, there are the Scorpio Races on the island of Thisby. Every year, people die. This is not a regular horse race; the horses are capaill uisce, water horses, horses captured from the sea. Horses that want to return [...]
The Returning by Christine Hinwood. Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin. 2011. Reviewed from ARC from publisher from ALA conference. The Plot: A young man comes home from war, returning to the small village he left as a boy. At first it seems that only Cam Attling, missing an arm, has been changed by the [...]
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente, illustrations by Ana Juan. Feiwel and Friends, an imprint of Macmillan. 2011. Reviewed from copy from publisher. The Plot: September is washing teacups in the kitchen when the Green Wind comes, asking if she’d like to come away with [...]
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Little, Brown. 2011. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Karou is just another art student in Prague with a sketch book full of characters “gorgeously rendered and deeply strange“: Issa, part serpent; giraffe necked Twiga; Yasri, with a parrot beak; and Brimstone with his great ram’s [...]
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson. Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. 2011. Reviewed from ARC from publisher. The Plot: Elisa, Princess of Orovalle, weds Alejandro de Vega, King of Joya d’Arena on her sixteenth birthday. Elisa is not just a princess; she is also the bearer of the blue Godstone, lodged in [...]
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