Etiquette and Espionage, by Gail Carriger (Finishing School #1)

Years before Alexia Tarabotti started getting in the middle of supernatural disasters, 14-year-old Sophronia Temminick broke a dumbwaiter. Sophronia is not quite the young lady her mother wishes she was. Sophronia spends her days taking things apart, putting them back together, and breaking dumbwaiters. Sophronia is a fun name to type and is apparently a real name because it isn't being underlined, so I shall be repeating it as many times as I can without sounding like an idiot. Anyway, when Madame Geraldine, from Madame Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality, offers to whisk Sophronia away, Mrs. Temminick couldn't be more relieved. What Mrs. Temminick doesn't know, is that the finishing taught here is not restricted to dance, dress, etiquette and the like, but also includes the fine arts of death, espionage, and being a lady in the most...interesting...of situations.

Set 25 years prior to the Parasol Protectorate, Etiquette and Espionage is the teen version of Gail Carriger's wonderful approach to steampunk, werewolves and vampires. This book was absolutely adorable, and I definitely recommend it to any fans of the adult series. This book is a fantastic start to the parallel series, and was connected perfectly so that it doesn't matter which series was started first. While there were several overlapping supporting characters, the main characters were completely separate from The Parasol Protectorate, so though I knew the fates of the overlaps, I did not know how the series would end.

Of all the things I could have taken away from this book, the one thing I chose to focus on upon completion was how young Sidheag must be in Parasol Protectorate. From her description I was convinced she was in her 50's or 60's, but if this book is only 25 years prior then she can be under 40! Of course, it is entirely possible that I missed one very important word revealing her age in The PP series, in which case I apologize for this rant.

One last thing: I love Madame Lefoux. She was awesome, even as a kid.

4.8 stars.

It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.

But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore.

The Fire Rose, by Mercedes Lackey (Elemental Masters #1)

After her father loses all of their money in a Ponzi-like scheme and dies shortly after, Rose is left completely destitute with nowhere to go. So when Jason Cameron, a railroad baron and secret sorcerer, offers her a position as a governess, she has no choice but to accept. Upon arrival in his manor, she discovers that her students are not two precocious children, as she was first informed, but her new boss himself. Due to a magical mistake, Jason is half-wolf, and he has hired Rose to help him with his research. However, every powerful man has enemies, and Jason's enemy, who already has the creepy steward on his side, wants to win Rose over to aid in Jason's downfall. However, Rose is nothing like the demure insipid woman the two sexists imagine her to be and are faced with a lot more than they bargained for when Rose starts training to become an elemental master in her own right.

I found this modern telling of Beauty and the Beast a tad disturbing. The romance and plot was cute, but the fact that he was still a wolf at the end made my stomach churn a bit. I understand the whole concept of looking at the inside and not the outside, but I think this book took it a little too far.

I haven't read many of Mercedes Lackey's books, but from what I've noticed, every heroine is strong, confident, entirely too sensible, and exactly the same. They all manage to be so sure of themselves that it comes off as cocky. They all think straight in completely crazy situations that make any normal person go nuts. But what I dislike the most about them, is that they seem to split people into two categories: people they like and people they don't. This wouldn't even bother me so much if it weren't for the qualifications that they use to judge, because it seems like they deem someone unworthy if they aren't as smart or sensible as the heroine herself, and she is always very smart and very sensible. They also give me the impression that they think they're better than everyone else, and that they are the only sane people around, save for one or two specific people. Maybe I'm magnifying my own slight observations and extending them to all the other heroines, but even their most staunch supporters have to admit that these girls are a bit judgy.

3.8 stars.
 

San Francisco, 1905: Rosalind, a medieval scholar, is hired by Jason, a powerful sorcerer. Jason's enemy offers to restore Rosalind's family fortune if she will betray Jason. And then the earthquake strikes. . . .

Trial by Fire, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Raised by Wolves #2)

If you haven't read my review of Raised by Wolves, click here.

Trial by Fire finds human Bryn settling into her role as alpha of a pack mostly made up of little girls. She sees the actions of other alphas and is determined to treat her pack well, but she is forced to make an uncomfortable decision when a wolf from a rival pack shows up on dying on her doorstep. Lucas tells Bryn that he was tortured by his alpha, Shay, and that he wants to join Bryn's pack. Bryn has to uncover the truth about Lucas's origins before Shay comes to claim him and takes some of Bryn's girls or an even more dangerous unknown enemy gets to her first.

For someone involved in such a cutthroat world, Bryn is way too nice. When she had the choice to give Lucas back or potentially start a war which would end with all her girls taken captive, I thought that a good leader would send Lucas back to save her pack. I know it sounds horrible to say something like that, but Bryn had never met Lucas before and for all she knew, the torture he experienced could have been punishment from his alpha for a crime which Bryn herself wouldn't have forgiven. It was incredibly naive and shortsighted of her to accept Lucas right away and I think it only proved even more so how inexperienced and unfit she was to lead her pack.

On a brighter note, this book did have a really fascinating ending, and is definitely a good read for younger readers. And as far as sequels go, this one is pretty good.

4.6 stars

There can only be one alpha.

Bryn is finally settling into her position as alpha of the Cedar Ridge Pack—or at least, her own version of what it means to be alpha when you’re a human leading a band of werewolves. Then she finds a teenage boy bleeding on her front porch. Before collapsing, he tells her his name is Lucas, he’s a Were, and Bryn’s protection is his only hope.

But Lucas isn’t part of Bryn’s pack, and she has no right to claim another alpha’s Were.  With threats—old and new—looming, and danger closing in from all sides, Bryn will have to accept what her guardian Callum knew all along. To be alpha, she will have to give in to her own animal instincts and become less human. And, she’s going to have to do it alone.

Bryn faces both the costs, and the rewards, of love and loyalty, in this thrilling sequel to Raised by Wolves.

Beauty and the Werewolf, by Mercedes Lackey (Five Hundred Kingdoms #6)

Bella is smart, responsible, and resigned to the fact that she will end up a spinster. She has a plan-learn her herbs and stuff and open an apothecary shop. Then one day on her way to Granny's, Bella is bitten by a wolf. After getting home she is carted away by royal guards to the local Duke's manor and told that the wolf who bit her was in fact a werewolf-the duke to be exact. In order to make sure that Bella doesn't turn lupine and get loose she is required to remain at the duke's castle until they are sure she is safe and fully human. While staying there Bella gets close to the duke and his mysterious gamekeeper, and tries to solve the mystery of how the duke turned werewolf in the first place.

Overall Thoughts:
I love the concept of the Five Hundred Kingdoms novels but haven't loved all the books themselves. The story in Beauty and the Werewolf was cute, and I thought combining Little Red Riding Hood with Beauty and the Beast was clever, but I found the plot kind of messy. At any point I was either really bored with what was going on and completely lost patience with the tedious details, or jumping out of my seat with excitement, desperate to see what happens next. There was no middle ground which could have very easily dissuaded me had I not enjoyed some of the previous Five Hundred Kingdom novels. I also felt like Beauty and the Werewolf would have made a better novella or short story than full blown few hundred page novel. There were many unnecessary details that could have been left out, and I also felt that Bella's adventures with Eric were completely pointless. They accomplished very little storytelling and what they added in detail and collection of information wasn't as valuable as the patience they took away.

Characters:
Bella is similar to all the other heroines in the previous Five Hundred Kingdom novels in that she is smart and a little too sensible. But while I didn't mind that in the other books and actually enjoyed having a heroine with a brain, something about Bella struck me as stuck-up. It seemed as though she judged people and if she decided they weren't smart enough or up to her standards she would write them off as stupid or vapid and act as if she was better than them. What was especially hypocritical was that she would complain and comment about her stepfamily and their friends insisting on living up to certain social expectations while she herself is inflicting her own standards on everyone she meets. Speaking of Bella's family-where were they? They were mentioned so much in the beginning and they were introduced in a way that made me think they'd be prominent characters all the way through but instead they disappeared after a few pages and only made occasional appearances in Bella's thoughts. Either they should have been mentioned more throughout the story or they should have been mentioned minimally in the beginning. Their characters were too developed to act as a real foil to Bella.

3.7 stars.

The magic continues in "New York Times" bestselling author Mercedes Lackey's enchanting new story from the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series. A beauty must battle some beasts before she rescues her prince.

The eldest daughter is often doomed in fairy tales. But Bella—Isabella Beauchamps, daughter of a wealthy merchant—vows to escape the usual pitfalls.

Anxious to avoid the traditional path, Bella dons a red cloak and ventures into the forbidden forest to consult with "Granny," the local wisewoman. But on the way home she's attacked by a wolf—who turns out to be a cursed nobleman. Secluded in his castle, Bella is torn between her family and this strange man who creates marvelous inventions and makes her laugh—when he isn't howling at the moon.

Bella knows all too well that breaking spells is never easy. But a determined beauty, a wizard (after all, he's only an occasional werewolf) and a little Godmotherly interference might just be able to bring about a happy ending.

Raised By Wolves, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Bryn was only four when her parents were killed by a rogue werewolf and she was taken in by the werewolves who rescued her. She has lived with the pack for 11 years as one of their own, but when Bryn discovers a boy locked up in chains in the basement of the pack's alpha, everything starts to change. Chase was bitten by a rogue werewolf and Bryn is convinced that he holds the answers to the mysteries of her parents' deaths. Working together with Chase, Bryn goes on a mission to make sure the rogue wolf who killed her parents and tried to kill Chase will never harm a hair on her head. (Or huff and puff and blow her house down.)

In all of Jennifer Lynn Barnes' books that I've read there's been a headstrong, no-nonsense heroine and Bryn fit that description perfectly. Bryn is mischievous and self-assured and it was a pleasure to read the book from her point of view. She had enough personality that I could picture her as I read but I was still able to put myself in her place. Bryn wasn't one of those narrators who describes herself and doesn't live up to the description; she is who she says she is plus so much more.

I don't know why but I loved this book. I think werewolves may be my favorite supernaturals to read about, and this book did not disappoint on that front. Raised by Wolves was innocent enough for younger readers but it wasn't immature or ignorant as many other books are. All in all, I couldn't put it down and I recommend it to anyone looking for a satisfying read.

4.9 stars

 
Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it.  That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two. 

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian's basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents' murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she's shaped?

Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1)

Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance.

For years Grace has watched the wolf who would sit in her backyard and he watched her back. Sam is a werewolf and after being jolted back to his human state by a bullet, he and Grace get to spend time together as human and human. However, what seems perfect is hardly that as these star-crossed lovers have to face opponents such as a volatile young werewolf, the biting temperatures of winter, and the knowledge that the time they have now will most probably the only time they have together forever, as Sam knows that the next time he turns lupine, he is never going to turn back.

Sam is one of the most angsty characters I have ever encountered. To be fair, his plot in life is pretty lousy, what with his humanity running away from him, but the dude is way more emotional than any other straight guy in literature. The only reason why I put up with him was because Grace balanced him out perfectly with her sensibility and pragmatism. The only thing that got Grace emotional was Sam, which rounded out her character nicely. Each of the pair kept the other from being totally unreadable.

Instead of being rooted in magic and fantasy, Maggie Stiefvater tries to provide a scientific and biological explanation for all of the mystical happenings in her book. Rather than attribute the wolves' shifting and nature to magic, she paints lycanthropy as a disease, one which the characters are frantic to find a cure for. I know this isn't the only book of its genre that claims to be scientific and not necessarily magical, but the difference between this book and all the rest is that the biology in Shiver actually seemed realistic and wasn't a weak explanation that attempted to make some sort of sense.

I love epilogues. I love reading about what happens after the events of the book are over and everyone moves back to their normal but now changed lives. Shiver had something better though. While reading the last chapter I resigned myself to the events of the book and was prepared to write it off as an angsty read and nothing more, until I reached the last page. I don't want to give it away but this book is totally unpredictable and I advise any potential readers not to give up in the middle.

4.5 stars.