Review: Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

Title: Lips Touch: Three Times

Author: Laini Taylor

Illustrator: Jim Di Bartolo

Genre: mythic fiction, supernatural fiction, young-adult, fairytales

Series: N/A

Pages: 266 (hardcover edition)

Published: October 2009

Source: purchased

Rating: 5/5

Everyone dreams of getting the kiss of a lifetime... but what if that kiss carried some unexpected consequences? A girl who’s always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risk killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging -- literally belonging -- to anther world entirely, full of dreaded creatures who can transform into animals, and whose queen keeps little girls as personal pets until they grow to child-bearing age.

From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three stories about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips touch..

Do yourself a favor: if you like imaginative, creepy, and dark fantasy/supernatural tales written in jawdroppingly gorgeous prose, buy this book. If that bundle of win sounds up your alley, Lips Touch: Three Times is the perfect novel for you. Do yourself an even bigger favor and do NOT buy an ebook of this - the illustrations are insane, as the only the print editions can truly show. This quirky husband and wife team hit it out of the park with the pitch-perfect, foreboding art used, as well as the fact that each successive story kept impressing me more and more. Each story is fully unique, described in the lush way that only Laini Taylor can, and fully captivating - from curses than can kill with a word to soul searching, Lips Touch is a rare pleasure. 

This is a sadly rather short novel at 266 pages, but one my advice is to read it slowly, to just luxuriate in the glow of a damn good book and stretch out the exotic and experience as long as possible. This is an all-time favorite of mine after one just one read, but Lips Touch: Three Times is an obvious, seductive winner, done in both Taylor's and Di Bartolo's inimitable styles. This is a book stuffed so full with gorgeous words and gorgeous illustrations, it demands to be reread, and I will certainly indulge that in the future.

#1. Goblin Fruit - 5/5

The shortest and least intense of the three offered, Goblin Fruit is the indicator for the tone and style of this book of short stories. I've read other full-length novel interpretations of Christina Rossetti's classic poem, but Laini Taylor has taken the well-known story and added flair all her own in the form of knife-wielding grandmothers, girls with impossible dreams and imagery ahoy ("Sometimes Kizzy imagined her grandmother knife-fighting her way down the long tunnel of death...") The use, temptation and desire of souls advance much of the plot of all three novellas and Daughter of Smoke and Bone, though in quite distinctly disparate ways, and Kizzy's tale of drastic choices is no different.

In less than 55 pages, Laini Taylor can craft a character more defined and individual than many YA authors can offer up after several books and hundreds of pages. While she (and her characterization) are sadly somewhat hampered by the extremely short length, they operate admirably under the pressure. It's easy to see Kizzy as a real person because what she wants so much, so urgently it and her immediately resonate with the audience. Kizzy's flawed and "deeply susceptible to mortification" and like every other protagonist from Lips Touch, I'd greedily grab for a chance at a full-length novel with her featured.

Favorite quotes:

"The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wistful girls.
Like Kizzy."

“She could smell the boy spice beneath the thrift-store aroma of his jacket, and the rubbing and the smell began to work to soften her -- like butter before you add sugar, in the first steps of making something sweet. It was her first experience of how bodies could meld together, how breath could slip naturally into rhythm. It was hypnotic. Heady. And she wanted more.”

2. Spicy Little Curses Such As These - 5/5

While I (at the moment) think the third and final story is my favorite, Spicy Little Curses Such As These is a close second place. It's imaginative, rich, dramatic, and romantic. It's ominious and Gothic from the start: 

“This is the story of the curse and the kiss, the demon and the girl. It's a love story with dancing and death in it, and singing and souls and shadows reeled out on kite strings.”  

and

 “Some would assert that Providence was at work shaking out its pockets in Humanity's lap. Other would argue for that mindless choreographer, Chance. Either way it was a simple thing: a lost diary fell into the hands of a soul-sick war hero on a train from Bombay to Jaipur just when he'd grown tired of the scenery and needed something to keep his thoughts from the minefield of his wretched memories.

In such mild ways is the groundwork laid for first kisses and ruined lives.” 

Like both other stories and probably everything this author produces, Spicy Little Curses is eminently quotable in a truly unique vein.  But how beautiful and tactile is that first quote - "souls and shadows reeled out on kite strings"? The image described is compelling, unique and quite dire indeed for those attached to the souls in question.

I like that Taylor switches it up with her mythology and settings - Hatchling is set somewhere in the Kazakhstan/central Asia area, and this particular story here is set in the Indian region, with all the added benefits of a rich and storied culture to pick and choose from. Infusing her fantasy plots and stories with flavors from so many varied cultures keeps each fresh and easy to distinguish between, without sacrificing any essential ingredient from the mix.

Favorite quotes:

"At the British parties in Jaipur, gossip swirled wild on eddies of whiskeyed breath. The old bitch was a popular topic of it. It was generally agreed she had been in India too long. It had "gotten to her." She spoke the native tongue, and not just Hindustani but also Rajasthani and a touch of Gujarati, and she had even been known to haggle once in Persian! It suggested to the British a grubby intimacy with the place, as if she took India into her very mouth and tasted it, like a lover's fingers."

 3. Hatchling - 5/5

The longest and by far the creepiest and most compelling out of Lips Touch, final short story Hatchling is a dark tale with several unpredictable twists and turns. It might be old by now (and obvious that Laini is my favorite YA author), but just when I think the creativity well is tapped out, this is an author that can constantly create new ideas, incorporate old ones and make the subsequent novel read freshly and vividly. Hatchling is beautiful in its poetic prose, in its alien terribleness of the Druj and in the message of hope and love at its core.

Even moreso than the first two, Hatchling left an impression - wistful, surprsingly, and utterly original. 

Favorite quotes: 

“Staring at her face, she began to fancy her outer layer had begun to melt away while she wasn't paying attention, and something -- some new skeleton -- was emerging from beneath the softness of her accustomed self. With a deep, visceral ache, she wished her true form might prove to be a sleek and shining one, like a stiletto blade slicing free of an ungainly sheath. Like a bird of prey losing its hatchling fluff to hunt in cold, magnificent skies. That she might become something glittering, something startling, something dangerous.”

Review: Red Glove by Holly Black

Title: Red Glove

Author: Holly Black

Genre: young-adult, supernatural fiction

Series: The Curse Workers #2

Pages: 352 (Nook edition)

Published: April 2011

Source: purchased

Rating: 4/5

Curses and cons. Magic and the mob. In Cassel Sharpe's world, they go together. Cassel always thought he was an ordinary guy, until he realized his memories were being manipulated by his brothers. Now he knows the truth—he’s the most powerful curse worker around. A touch of his hand can transform anything—or anyone—into something else.

That was how Lila, the girl he loved, became a white cat. Cassel was tricked into thinking he killed her, when actually he tried to save her. Now that she’s human again, he should be overjoyed. Trouble is, Lila’s been cursed to love him, a little gift from his emotion worker mom. And if Lila’s love is as phony as Cassel’s made-up memories, then he can’t believe anything she says or does.

When Cassel’s oldest brother is murdered, the Feds recruit Cassel to help make sense of the only clue—crime-scene images of a woman in red gloves. But the mob is after Cassel too—they know how valuable he could be to them. Cassel is going to have to stay one step ahead of both sides just to survive. But where can he turn when he can’t trust anyone—least of all, himself?

Love is a curse and the con is the only answer in a game too dangerous to lose.

High expectations are often a hard thing for books, especially anticipated sequels, to live up to, especially when I basically fangirled all over myself for the first book in this series, White Cat. I have to think that, after the whirlwind bundles of fun and originality that was the first novel, Holly Black stumbles just a bit with the second outing of the Curse Workers series. Set just months after the events of the first, pacing issues, much less action and adventure and other problems begin to accumulate early on, but don't mar the entire novel too badly. My main complaint about this is that the "mystery" at the heart of everything, just wasn't. I wasn't intrigued or confused - it felt transparent and obvious, but I still managed to have a mostly great time with this and Cassel, who continues to be a thoroughly entertaining main character and narrator.

Let's get the good about Red Glove out first - Cassel remains one of my favorite male YA POVs in the entire genre. Though this series is written by a mature woman, Cassel's voice, attitude and life read completely authentically - well, as authentically as can be for a super-rare Transformation worker in a series about magic-infused crime families. I'm hard-pressed to think of other authors that pull off such a feat so well. He's the same sneering bastard with a heart of gold, but he's evolved, grown up and more mature this second go-round. And while I am super, super tired of the cliched love triangle, it is somewhat interesting to read one that is male-centric - it also doesn't hurt that both girls (Lila, Audrey) are out of bounds, so it's more wishful thinking on Cassel's part than anything else. The only bad thing is about the characterization here in Red Glove is that Cassel can occasionally be as naiive as he was throughout White Cat. I know that there are maybe four people he can absolutely trust, but I wish that he would wake up and realize that hard fact as well.

Holly Black mosst certainly can't be faulted for her imagination and incorporation of her unique version of the supernatural. Her alternate universe full of ideas "hyperbathygammic" abilities and the concept of magical blowback that is truly freaky (see: anything that happens to Cassel), as well as the hierarchy of magical mafia families. Though the foreshadowing still leaves something to be desired, this is a fertile field for these characters to spin tales and deceptions, betrayals and magic. While I felt the novel diverted from the main track too often to include more about the Workers Rights platform, it is a nice addition to the social framework of the book's setting. Much like any feared and uncontrolled faction, the Workers feel persecuted as the government vacillates between forcing HBG testing or not upon its citizens. Undertones from real world racism and bigotry are obviously paralleled in Black's world and the fight for equality/anonymity is personal to many of the characters - I just wish the author had used a little more restraint when it came to getting her message across.

Red Glove simply isn't as immersive as its predecessor; a slower beginning, a more gradual pace, and an overfocus on a side plotline (Workers Rights), that while important and relevant, isn't nearly as awesome as magic-enhanced Mafia families. Compared to how awesome and unpredictable the antagonists of book one were (Anton/Barron/Philip), the duo of Agents Hunt and Jones aren't nearly as compelling. Less action-tastic than part one, I needed either the antagonists or the mystery itself to up the ante, and sadly neither thing happened for me in these 350 pages. Though the fucked-up family dynamic is still much in play in this, it's not to the same level as the first. Cassel's mom and brother Barron are more tertiary characters than before as the novel's main plot focuses on Cassel/Sam/Daneca/Lilah and the murders at the heart of everything.

All in all, there's a lot more to love about Red Glove than anything else. While it didn't take me by complete surprise or inspire the levels of fangirling that White Cat did upon completion, this was a more than rewarding read. It's original and entertaining, voiced by a compelling and truly funny main character. I'm eager to see what cons and girl problems Cassel gets up into in the third and final installment in the clever Curse Workers series, Black Heart.

Review: Gilt by Katherine Longshore

Title: Gilt

Author: Katherine Longshore

Genre: historical fiction, young-adult

Series: The Royal Circle #1

Pages: 416 (Nook ARC edition)

Published: expected May 15 2012

Source: publishers via NetGalley

Rating: 4/5

In the Tudor age, ambition, power and charismatic allure are essential and Catherine Howard has plenty of all three. Not to mention her loyal best friend, Kitty Tylney, to help cover her tracks. Kitty, the abandoned youngest daughter of minor aristocracy, owes everything to Cat – where she is, what she is, even who she is. Friend, flirt, and self-proclaimed Queen of Misrule, Cat reigns supreme in a loyal court of girls under the none-too-watchful eye of the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk.

But when Cat worms her way into the heart of Henry VIII and becomes Queen of England, Kitty is thrown into the intoxicating Tudor Court. It’s a world of glittering jewels and elegant costumes, of gossip and deception. As the Queen’s right-hand-woman, Kitty goes from the girl nobody noticed to being caught between two men – the object of her affection and the object of her desire.

Over the course of one gaudy, chaotic year, Kitty is forced to learn the difference between trust and loyalty, love and lust, secrets and treason. And when the tide begins to turn against the young Queen, Kitty discovers all too late the true weight of the diamond collar around Cat’s neck.

Sometimes, with entertainment like books and television shows, it's good to take in the pure fun side of things, the guilty pleasures one doesn't necessarily advertise as favorites. I for one, am a biiig fan of hilariously bad television, like Glee, and GCB. Much like GCB, new young-adult offering Gilt isn't the most sophisticated adaption of its source material but it is hard to stop reading from the get-go. Also like the ill-fated GCB, this historical fiction jaunt into the 16th century isn't a long-lasting endeavor; though Gilt clocks in at nearly 400 pages in the official hardback edition, those pages fly by in the unputdownable telling of Katherine "Kitty" Tylney's narrative. I definitely didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I need, nor that I would rate it 4 stars when finished, despite the anachronisms and issues that do plague the novel. However, the expansive amounts of entertainment I gleaned from the few hours it took to read more than make Katherine Longshore's  Tudoor historical debut one of the best guilty pleasures of 2012.

I found the friendship between Cat Howard and Kitty Tylney to be compelling, in a very sick and twisted fashion. Many of Cat's maids were warped by the Queen's manipulations, but it is poor, desperate and unloved Kitty that takes the cake. Even by looking at the nicknames chosen for each girl (by Cat, no less), it's an obvious power-imbalance between the two, with Kitty being the pale reflection of Cat's vaunted life. Gilt takes pains to make clear fairly early on how callous and dumb Cat is, and Kitty's dependence on the whims of an overly petulant child spell doom from the first chapter on. Katherine Tylney was a real courtier at the court of Henrey VIII, but very little is known about her, either before or after the trial of Queen Catherine. Whoever she might have been, I have to hope that the real woman had more backbone than the one shown here. While I thoroughly and completely enjoyed her narrative, Kitty herself is a limp dishrag, a doormat who refuses to speak up for anything. It's hard to root for such a limp, weak person but the growth and self-worth her character needs is delayed but there. Eventually. Cat is compelling to read about in her hell-bent cruise for destruction - even knowing what happens to nearly every character before starting, Longshore made the ride to the expected end indelibly her own.

Despite Gilt being a debut and the first in a new series, you wouldn't know it from reading it; it flows admirably well, the looming and known demise hanging offsides and off screen. Katherine Longshore easily and quickly establishes herself as quite the natural storyteller, with the appropriate touches of foreboding and lightheartedness. Though Kitty may defy basic rules of human anatomy for 95% of the novel (because she lacks a spine... ba dum dum ch!), her story and life as Cat Howard's shadow is entirely compelling. The quick-moving pacing of the novel does it many favors as well, for as the Court moves house fresh dangers and problems await at each new locale. The author also has an obvious and natural hand for evoking a feeling of atmosphere using her words - one can really feel the tension and fear build and build as the novel progresses. A note on the title of this - I  cmopletely love it; it's absolutely perfect for the novel of intrigue and backbiting it announces. I love that one single word manages to be double, and even triple-layered with meaning for the novel itself and the characters therein. Subtly alluding to the glamor that masks the danger as well as the guilt of its main characters for their respective misdeeds, the title more than compensates for the less-than-ideal cover. If the language used in the book had been more accurate and less modern ("bitchy" and "shut up"? Really?), Gilt could very well have been a 4.5 or a 5 for me, so much so was my love for the majority of this novel. 

With just the right touches of drama, romance, and betrayal set amid a glittering Court of jewels and lies, Gilt is sure to find a wide audience. Though it may not be the most high-brow of historical/Tudor fiction, it is obvious that the author has done credible research and knows her source material quite well. Outside of the dialogue and vocabulary misused, there is little to complain about and a lot to enjoy. I can't wait for more from this author and this series.

Review: A Night Like This by Julia Quinn

Title: A Night Like This

Author: Julia Quinn

Genre: romance novel-ish, historical fiction

Series: The Smythe-Smith Quartet #2

Pages: 389 (Nook ARC edition)

Published: expected May 29 2012

Source: publishers via edelweiss

Rating: 4/5

Anne Wynter might not be who she says she is…

But she's managing quite well as a governess to three highborn young ladies. Her job can be a challenge — in a single week she finds herself hiding in a closet full of tubas, playing an evil queen in a play that might be a tragedy (or might be a comedy—no one is sure), and tending to the wounds of the oh-so-dashing Earl of Winstead. After years of dodging unwanted advances, he's the first man who has truly tempted her, and it's getting harder and harder to remind herself that a governess has no business flirting with a nobleman.


Daniel Smythe-Smith might be in mortal danger…

But that's not going to stop the young earl from falling in love. And when he spies a mysterious woman at his family's annual musicale, he vows to pursue her, even if that means spending his days with a ten-year-old who thinks she's a unicorn. But Daniel has an enemy, one who has vowed to see him dead. And when Anne is thrown into peril, he will stop at nothing to ensure their happy ending…

Much like the first in the series, Just Like Heaven, this is a charming and easy read. The Smythe-Smith Quartet is shaping up nicely to become a must-read - which is something that doesn't often happen for me with this type of romance novelish book. A Night Like This is a light-hearted and thoroughly charming novel with two very likeable and compatible leads in Daniel and Anne (and scene-stealers in Frnaces, Elizabeth and Harriet.) There's much more than steamy sex scenes to look forward to in this - there's comedy aplenty (I admit I lol'd at the play chapter especially) and plenty of action and danger to keep the pages turning with alacrity. 

I freely admit don't read a ton of romance novels - I have nothing against them, but on the whole, every reader goes into that genre of novel generally knowing the final outcome: love, sex and a happy ending. What makes it fun to read these type of books are the authors who take the time to create whole, rounded characters and a real plot to keep things advancing instead of just sex scene after sex scene. I don't/can't/won't care about the sex if I am not emotionally invested in the people having it! Julia Quinn is one of those rare authors, which is why I have found myself completely wrapped up in everything in this novel.  There is am emphasis on the romance (instalove ahoy), but I didn't mind in this book, with these two. Thankfully, both Anne and Daniel are both flawed, amusing, wholly believable, personable characters with motivations and secrets of their own. They complement each other very well and have chemistry to burn but they are not utterly dependent on the other. Anne is a resourceful and smart girl that can save herself - and does on several occasions. Daniel's chacterization is a bit more typical of a young, honorable lord but his sense of humor and interactions with Miss Wynter show a more rounded version of the Earl.

I can't talk about characters in A Night Like This without mentioning the unexpected and utterly hilarious trio of girls that Anne is governess for: Frances, the unicorn-loving youngest, the middle-child Elizabeth, constantly caught between propriety and annoying her older sister, and Harriet, the earnest young playwright behind such classics as The Strange, Sad Tale of The Lord Who Was Not Finstead. Anne and Daniel are more than compelling to read about with their interwoven tales of revenge and mystery, but it is the three Pleinsworth cousins who truly make this as light-hearted and humorous as it is. Several times during their appeareances I would actually laugh-out-loud (thank you, Frances.) The cast of this novel is really the biggest attraction to he had - moreso than the slightly predictable plot, or even than the genuinely sweet romance angle of the two main leads, the large, clangorous and musically-impaired Smythe-Smith family is just plain fun to read about.

This is only the second of the series, and my imagination is already at work trying to predict the main leads for the third novel. Hugh Prentice and Sarah? Harriet? While it's a bit early to tell just now, you can be sure that I will be stalking GoodReads, waiting for the next book to pop up with information. Julia Quinn has an easy, inimitable style and her novels are an amusing way to pass an afternoon, but rewarding at the same time. With each novel of this author's that I read, I am more and more inclined to buy another. Fans of her Bridgerton series as well as of the first book will find more of the same here easy humor and steamy sexy scenes in A Night Like This.

Blog Watch Friday!!

Two days late is better than never, right? With that:

Reviews Posted:

White Cat by Holly Black - 5/5 stars - young adult, supernatural

Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris - 4.5/5 stars - steampunk, mystery

The Janus Affair by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris - 5/5 stars - steampunk, mystery

The Ruined City by Paula Brandon - 3/5 stars - fantasy

 

Fun Stuff:

This is disheartening. An interactive, state-by-state breakdown of gay rights in the United States.

Have you seen the video of the strange marine animal caught by a remotely operated camera. It's a "Deepstaria enigmatica jellyfish" and it is RIDICULOUS.

Hilarious Mindy Kaling has her own show in the works! "It's Messy" has been picked up by Fox, so it's so long Kelly Kapoor and hello new show!

 

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About DNA.

Seventeen magazine rejects "no photoshop" campaign led by teen.

Brush up on your Game of Thrones history with these short videos. Narrated by the actors from the show!

"Fan fiction promises to be a rich vein for publishers." NO, JUST NO. Stay this madness Denethor!

France elects its first Socialist president in 20 years. Adios Sarkozy, hello Francois Hollande!

The 10 Worst Celebrity Hair blunders. Sometimes its nice to know that bad hair days are universal problems.

The best of Andy Dwyer from Parks and Recreation.

The good (Robin) from How I Met Your Mother, and the bad (Ted).

Author Zoe Marriott offers her two cents on the [unending] bloggers/authors drama. Worth a read.

 

I love infographics! This one is for the most read books in the world.

This 425-year old map may hold clues to what happened at the lost colony of Roanoke hundreds of years ago.

Loki raps - Will Smith lyrics but it's awesome! Tom Hiddlestone is just dreamy - and his voice is sexxxy.

Speaking of which, the Avengers is the first movie to make $200m in its first weekend.  They also had the second-best opening day ever.

Maurice Sendak, children's author and living representative of my childhood, has passed away at age 83.

Beloved fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay is publishing a new book in 2013! "Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel is once more inspired by Chinese history, this time during the Song Dynasty, almost four centuries after the story told in his bestselling Under Heaven. The dazzling elements of the Song - cultural brilliance, vicious political rivalries, warfare against nomadic peoples, court mandarins versus the military - are rich ground for Kay's unique blending of fantasy and themes of history. " This sounds good already!

The 10 Best Comic Book Movies of All Time. I'd have to agree with this breakdown.

The always impressive Peter Dinklage is on the cover of Rolling Stone.

10 Things You See In Every Tim Burton Movie

Universal is going through with 'Kick-Ass 2'.

Review: White Cat by Holly Black

Title: White Cat

Author: Holly Black

Genre: supernatural, young-adult

Series: The Curse Workers #1

Pages: 310 (Nook edition)

Published: May 2010

Source: purchased

Rating: 5/5

Cassel comes from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they’re all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn’t got the magic touch, so he’s an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail — he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.

Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I normally try to refrain from all-caps declarations of love (exception: Christian Bale), but it is unavoidable and White Cate is worthy of them. This was a quick read but I had so much fun with Cassel that I immediately bought book two, Red Glove, literally right after I finished the final page of this. It's addictive - an all-male POV ya novel that's entirely credible and authentic in its voice, set amid a unique and compelling plotline within a magically-infused world. Fast-moving and nearly unputdownable, this is the book newcomers should try for this author. After starting and DNFing the first Spiderwick novel early last year, I was nowhere close to expecting the level of reaction that White Cat caused within me - this is one that has rocketed up to be among my favorite YA novels of recent years. 

Cassel was a strong, unique, male voice with a genuinely compelling and individual tale. This was just... so fun to read; an effortless reading experience as well- the pages flip by without even noticing. I loved the slow reveal of both the history of the 'dab hands' as well as Cassel's own personal evolutionary arc.This isn't a character or a world that you want to leave - both characters and world make an impression and it is a very favorable one. This is a lol-worthy novel, largely due to Cassel himself. He exhibits the trademark teenage self-deprecation and hatred, but unlike most teens, Cassel has the unhappy history to back up his darker emotions. He's quick, and smart but humanly and believably flawed, lonely kid. He uses a complex system of bets on other people's daily lives to feel as if he has some measure of control, as well as to feel like he has a life of his own. Cassel is easily the highpoint of the entire novel, through all his ups, downs, and quotable moments. (“She says that what you did was a cry for help." "It was," I say. "That's why I was yelling 'Heeeelp!' I don't really go in for subtlety.”) If he is occasionally a bit too. . . naiive. . at the expense of pacing and plotting, I'll take that bargain. He's a very relatable and often introspective character for a male teen (“We are, largely, who we remember ourselves to be. That's why habits are so hard to break. If we know ourselves to be liars, we expect not to tell the truth. If we think of ourselves as honest, we try harder.” and “The easiest lies to tell are the ones you want to be true.”) but it works, it genuinely does.

Everything is not perfect here, despite my overwhelming love for the first in the inventive and fun Curse Worker's series  - Holly Black is a talented and humorous storyteller, but her expertise doesn't encompass all there is to White Cat. For a novel about con men and deception, several of the twists and turns taken throughout are thoroughly predictable and/or transparent.  Not all reveals and outcomes are predicted but some are rather obvious from the get-go. Black takes care to show and not tell with her prose, but her foreshadowing could use some work. This is a novel that isn't full of surprises but one that leads you to a conclusion and then turns that predicted conclusion on its head. It's rather nicely done and impressive on the author's part. I wish that the Mafia families here had more bite and shows of power - I never quite bought the danger of the threat of the Zacharov family, for example. A larger focus on those in charge of the criminal curseworkers would be appreciated.

I was never bored while reading White Cat. On the contrary, I was constantly entertained by this fucked up family dynamic, the first I've seen to really match The Chronicles of Amber in the level of lies, manipulation, outright betrayal and felonies attempted. This is a series made of the winning mix of mafia and magic - intriguing in its conception and execution, filled with complex characters and just plain fun. I read this in early March and I think it will remain one of my favorite novels for the entire year.

Review: The Janus Affair by Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris

Title: The Janus Affair

Author: Pip/Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris

Genre: steampunk, mystery, historical fiction

Series: Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences #2

Pages: 432 (Nook ARC edition)

Published: expected May 29 2012

Source: publishers via edelweiss

Rating: 5/5

Evildoers beware! Retribution is at hand, thanks to Britain's best-kept secret agents!

Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain's latest hypersteam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance . . . with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown.

The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure. And though their foe be fiendishly clever, so then is Mr. Books . . . and Miss Braun still has a number of useful and unusual devices hidden beneath her petticoats.

I loved this. Absolutely. Frikkin. Loved it. I tried to draw out the experience and couldn't make myself stop reading the second day. Without a doubt, this impressive second novel in the newer Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series is going into my "best of 2012" shelf as well as my much less used "all-time favorites." I think I may even have loved this book like I love my hallmark series of steampunk, Gail Carriger's formidably funny and inventive Parasol Protectorate series. I literally have nothing to complain about here, and that is rare. That's a lot of praise for a book to live up to, but The Janus Affair is that rare novel, the one that manages to be delightful, zany, action-packed and original from inception to execution. Please excuse and recognize my blatant and epic fangirling for what it is -- that classic kneejerk reaction of happiness that happens right after finishing an unexpected treat - not everyone in the world will be wowed with this foray into Edwardian steampunkery but boy I was. Though the first novel Phoenix Rising wasn't quiiiite as perfect, this is the steampunk series everyone should be reading now that Alexia has wrapped up her five novel arc hung up her written parasol duties. While the main events of book two of the MoPO were neatly and explosively wrapped up without my predicting the outcome (once again, thanks to the amazing Eliza Braun), I will count the minutes wait patiently until I can get my grabby little hands on whatever else next springs from the fertile minds of Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris.

By far and away, a third of my love for this book is due entirely to the two main characters at the heart of everything, Eliza Braun and Wellington Books. (The other 2/3rds are reserved for steampunkery, excellent/unpredictable and intelligent antagonists and sheer madcap adventure.) Their banter and genuine camaraderie are prone to bustups and petty fights, but it's the underlying respect and genuine feeling of friendship between that makes reading these two feel less like characters and more like real people. It helps that Eliza is a heoine to shame most other heroines - she's brash and coarse and willful and exactly whatever she wants to be.  I love Eliza - I always liked her, from the first chapter of book one, but midway through this, I knew I loved her. (This was the exact moment: "In New Zealand, there had been such sweetness to their courtship, but back then she had been quite a different person. Still a little reckless, but in the way of a young woman not yet as familiar with black powder and explosions.") Her characterization is seemingly blunt and obvious (EXPLODE ALL THE THINGS!), but through interactions and over time and pages, with her Ministry Seven, Welly, and the women she relentlessly helps, Eliza is revealed to be much more than just a mere colonial or pistol-loving walking armoury. Wellington Books has been my absolute favorite character from the start and that is only reinforced through his evolution during the last two novels, but The Janus Affair particularly illustrated him as a man of many facets. His dry humour is still very much in tact ("Once more into the breach.." "Sorry, Welly, what was that?" "Shakespeare. I always recite it just before placing my career in harm's way.") These are definitely not stagnant characters - they grow and change, make mistakes and adapt, and most importantly, they help one another. The working relationship between the two has evolved to be effective and natural - Books can more than count on Eliza to save him from danger as many times as he saves her.

Steampunk itself seems to be evolving to blend quite naturally with two other, less fantastical genres - mystery and romance. The Janus Affair does have more than a bit of both and handles each element quite admirably - as Books would say, with aplomb. I never felt that one was cheated at the expense of the other - never does any romantic entanglement supersede the plot, nor does the mystery overwhelm the sense of compatibility and chemistry between the Sherlockian main characters. I have to think that these two authors work together more cohesively than any other pairing I've yet come across - Tee Morris and Pip Ballantine complement each other naturally and Though a lot of steampunk novels have the secret organization paired with "agents" used to protect Old Blighty from the supernatural (Parasol Protectorate, Newbury & Hobbes Investigations) and solve paranormal crimes, co-authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris go to extremely awesome lengths to create a wholly enveloped and imagined alternate universe for their characters to play within. (They even have a ton of novellas - often by other authors - in the same universe with different characters! There are editions you can purchase, or as free podcasts.) Much like their imagined version of 1800's Britain, the steampunk machines and gadgets used by the cast are wholly original, fun and useful without becoming deux-ex-machinas. I especially liked that something from the first book was referenced and used as a slight part of the plot for the second (the "aethergates" anyone?) - it reinforces the feel that this version of England is an ongoing world, not just unconnected vignettes into random episodes.

The Janus Affair, simply put, is a book that has a lot to offer across a wide variety of areas. Original plotting, genuinely twisty and murky mysteries with a high body count, several strong female characters, amusing banter, original and highly creative use of steampunk and gadgets, veeery smart and fully capable antagonists, the slight but oh-so effective romance, double agents, explosions and more. As I said, the main events and plot of this book have been neatly and effectively wrapped up, but there are some few exceptions to the rule. I don't want to spoil anything from the novel because this really is a fun mystery to try and solve independently, but there are juicy, unresolved plot tendrils enough to ensure that readers from books one and two will want to read the planned third to figure out the Maestro's plans.

I bought the first book, Phoenix Rising, on sale for Nook for a $1.99 late last year and waited several months to dig in. (I guess I like to wait on my books before I read them? Sit on them like a dragon with its hoard, jealously guarding any potential enjoyment I might have when/if I start...? I have 100+ bought and waiting to be read...I'm crazy.) The publishers were generous enough to send me an ARC copy of The Janus Affair just in time for me to realize how much I was going to love this book, series, characters and how much I needed the sequel the second I finished book one. After the last 800 pages with Wellington Books (whom I always call "Boots" in my head before I realize) and Eliza, I can say that I will be buying my own physical copies of both these books because I love them that much. Hey now that I've finished book two, any chances of a draft of book three? Philippa? Tee? Anyone? Please? In the meantime, I'll have to go read the short stories and wait patiently for whatever these creative authors are cooking up for round number three.