Review: SUMMER’S CROSSING by Julie Kagawa

TITLE: Summer’s Crossing (Iron Fae Novella)
AUTHOR: Julie Kagawa – Web, Blog
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy
FANTASY ELEMENT: Faery
PUBLISHED: Harlequin Teen (June 1, 2011)
FORMAT: Kindle/PDF
SOURCE: Julie’s Website-free download!

SYNOPSIS: (back of the book)

A Midsummer’s Nightmare?

Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Summer Court prankster, King Oberon's right hand, bane of many a faery queen's existence—and secret friend to Prince Ash of the Winter Court. Until one girl's death came between them, and another girl stole both their hearts.

Now Ash has granted one favor too many and someone's come to collect, forcing the prince to a place he cannot go without Puck's help—into the heart of the Summer Court. And Puck faces the ultimate choice—betray Ash and possibly win the girl they both love, or help his former friend turned bitter enemy pull off a deception that no true faery prankster could possibly resist.

REVIEW:

When you get a hold of a free novella by anyone else, you pretty much take your time to get to reading it. But when it’s an extension of a story you just can’t get enough of, there’s no chance you’ll wait a day to devour it. It only took me a little while to read this from beginning to end. I could have held my breath for the short amount of time it took to read and how thrilling it was to delve into a new adventure in the world of faery. GIVE ME MORE, DANG IT!

This is a grrrrreat extension to the Iron Fae series. I enjoy reading every book in this series. What is most unique about this one is that it is told from the point of view of Puck, the silly prankster who seems to be loyal to no one but himself. Even though his voice could have been stronger, the story line makes up for anything he lacked in being the narrator. It was a great short adventure.

RATING:

Obviously I loved this novella, the only terrible thing was that it ENDED! Give me more, oh Julie Kagawa! I rate this novella at a 5: Excellent, definitely worth the time. It and all of the Iron Fae is easily on my favorite series list.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

I would totally recommend you read ALL the other books first so you know what the heck is going on and go here to download this free novella for when you’ve gotten through them! Read it, read it, read it. Hey Pam, read it!

Read my Reviews of the Iron Fae series:BOOK 1: The Iron King
NOVELLA 1: Winter’s Passage
BOOK 2: The Iron Daughter
BOOK 3: The Iron Queen
NOVELLA 2: Summer’s Crossing (Your Currently Reading)
BOOK 4: The Iron Knight (Yet to be realeased at the time of this review.)

Review: LOST VOICES by Sarah Porter

TITLE: Lost Voices
AUTHOR: Sybil Hodge – Web, Blog
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy
FANTASY ELEMENT: Mermaids
PUBLISHED: Harcourt Children's Books (July 4th 2011)
FORMAT: Kindle
SOURCE: ARC provided by NetGalley

SYNOPSIS: (Provided by GoodReads)

Fourteen-year-old Luce has had a tough life, but she reaches the depths of despair when she is assaulted and left on the cliffs outside of a grim, gray Alaskan fishing village. She expects to die when she tumbles into the icy waves below, but instead undergoes an astonishing transformation and becomes a mermaid.

A tribe of mermaids finds Luce and welcomes her in—all of them, like her, lost girls who surrendered their humanity in the darkest moments of their lives. Luce is thrilled with her new life until she discovers the catch: the mermaids feel an uncontrollable desire to drown seafarers, using their enchanted voices to lure ships into the rocks. Luce possesses an extraordinary singing talent, which makes her important to the tribe—she may even have a shot at becoming their queen. However her struggle to retain her humanity puts her at odds with her new friends. Will Luce be pressured into committing mass murder?

REVIEW:

This book has a beautiful cover and an interesting enough synopsis for me to request to preview it. But page after page left me disappointed. I was thrilled that someone was using mermaids instead of vampires and were-animals. The story was very slowly paced and not a whole lot happened. I kept wondering what the point of the story was and when it would really blow my mind. It never did. It is very dark and there are many aspects of the book that made me cringe.

Luce was a decent main character and could easily be sympathized with, but when a main character alienates themselves, there tends to be a set-up for mediocrity. Because you only see the obsessive lonely thoughts of that one character and not a lot to see. When main characters don’t do much the book drags on and on. I just wanted her to get to the point already. I didn’t really know what the point was until the end. So I had a hard time coming back to the book day after day.

The descriptions of the mermaids were adequate, but I’ve never read a book that had to describe singing. It was hard to conceive at first but it was interesting how she described the way the mermaids sang the seafarers to their death. She used emotional and physical descriptions on how the song would rise or fall. I would say that it was the only cool thing about this book.

RATING:

Oddly enough this story is quite unique and original. But that doesn’t compensate for how boring it was. It really could have been so much better. Maybe the author is holding the good stuff for the next two books in the trilogy? If so, that is a big mistake, because she lost me at Book 1. I won’t be reading them because of how disappointing this book was. I’d rate this book at a 2: Fair. Not quite worth the time to read.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

I would not recommend this book for younger teens because elements of child abuse. But mostly I don’t think this book will keep younger teens’ attention long enough to complete it. So I’d recommend it only for older teens and adults... if you dare.