A fantasy romance novel that shows much promise as the kickoff to a series.
A princess must choose between her kingdom and her true love.
Princess Alera, heiress to the throne of Hytanica, has reached a crossroads in her life. She has agreed to marry to benefit her kingdom. But Alera is displeased with her father’s choice of suitor, the egocentric and arrogant Lord Steldor. Selected for his firm hand and military skill, Steldor can expect to wield much power over the inquisitive and spirited princess–Hytanic tradition favors the rule of males, so Alera must settle down and defer to her leading man. As preparations for marriage are made, the return of a long-lost child of Hytanica, Narian, from the rival Cokyri people sends shockwaves through the kingdom–and Alera’s heart. The Cokyri are renowned for their violent and bloodthirsty ways, and Narian is welcomed warily by the masses. Alera is quick to warm to him–he is mysterious and daring, fearless and capable. And Narian takes her seriously. Their clandestine relationship leads Alera to take dangerous risks, especially when the Cokyrians’ plans to reclaim Narian as their own come to light. The looming conflict jeopardizes their nascent love affair, as well as the whole of Hytanica. The princess finds herself not only pitted between two suitors but forced to decide between her royal obligations and her heart’s deepest desire. Debut novelist Kluver’s solid world-building skills flesh out this dynamic coming-of-age romance with strong detail and cultural development. Alera is fiery and likable and will find favor among young adult readers. Lively secondary characters, with the exception of a somewhat flat depiction of Steldor, and sharp dialogue, combined with richly imagined Hytanic legend and history, keep the pace of this epic moving until the last scene. However, the tale’s abrupt cliffhanger leaves both major story lines frustratingly stalled until the sequel.
A fantasy romance novel that shows much promise as the kickoff to a series.Pub Date: April 15, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-9802089-7-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fun juvenile fiction with lively, precise narration and a strong tendency to allegory.
Whimsical quest fantasy.
Caught between the dependence of childhood–particularly the lack of a driver’s license–and the pubescent yearning for autonomy, 13-year-old Carrie faces another boring summer day at home. At her mother’s urging, she settles down in her father’s rock garden to tackle one of the remaining titles on her summer reading list, The Hobbit. Her reading is interrupted, however, when Earth momentarily scrapes Vale, a planet from another dimension. This improbable intergalactic event deposits Carrie on a world of talking birds, animals and insects, where her attention is immediately arrested by a shard of glowing amber that speaks to her, revealing itself to be Alma, a goddess trapped eons ago by Lucifer. To be freed, Alma needs Carrie to deliver the amberstone to Lobo, the Great Wolf Spirit, an appropriately Tolkienesque quest that Carrie readily takes up. Aided by a pill bug named Tilt and two youths from the near-utopian city of Safe Keep, Carrie faces natural disasters, ravenous predators and, most daunting of all, the prevailing view that the amberstone should be returned to Safe Keep rather than to Lobo. Finally, Carrie is forced to choose whether to listen to her instincts or to the voices of those who have helped her. Clearly an allegory about emerging from adolescence to find one’s moral compass, Carrie’s journey is dominated by two spiritual systems, one represented by the Guardians–ethereal, Miltonic angels who serve the Creator and guard Safe Keep–and the other embodied in Lobo, Alma and even the imps of Bleak Meadow. Lobo and Alma embody the intuitive and immanent portions of Carrie’s youthful identity, while the Guardians are the transcendent, superego of the adult world–how she chooses to balance these elements will say much about her path to maturity. Heavily influenced by Tolkien and Lewis Carroll, Lecoq’s promising debut is a lighthearted amusement powered by crisp and economic descriptive prose. The dialogue, unfortunately, rarely matches the quality of the narration, and this weakness dilutes the drama of Carrie’s adventures. Billed as young-adult fare, this would appeal more to an even younger audience.
Fun juvenile fiction with lively, precise narration and a strong tendency to allegory.Pub Date: July 2, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-3114-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A well-shaped piece of exotica, full of danger, dash, allegory and love under the banana tree.
A smart, vibrant adventure romance wrapped in a quest, fashioned to touch a wide audience.
The setting for this tale is India–the India of today, but also the India of yore and that of Western imagination, with its hot colors, heavenly scents and rich mythic history. Eighteen-year-old Kelsey Hayes finds herself in the subcontinent in the company of a circus tiger she was caring for back in Oregon. The tiger, named Dhiren, is also Alagan Dhiren, Prince of Mujulaain, commonly known as Ren–but that was back in 1657 AD, the year a curse was placed on him by Lokesh, a raja greedy for wealth and power whom Ren had thwarted. Kelsey can break the curse, and that quest takes the protagonists through challenges that would make Steven Spielberg proud. Houck has a mostly steady hand with the story’s pacing, purposeful and deliberate as she takes her time to unspool colorful nuggets of Indian history and flesh out each milieu–visiting, for instance, the butler’s pantry and spice room in Ren’s house, or the elephant’s stables and the king’s balance in the fabled city of Hampi. But she drags her feet when detailing Ren and his brother’s squabbles and takes forever to make even the most demure hay between Kelsey and Ren. Still, when she does it’s sweet fun–“I have no idea how long I was kissing him like this...My bare feet were dangling several inches from the floor.” Minor missteps–what is a GPS doing in a quest?–don’t seriously detract from the fun. Houck suffuses the book with the sheer otherness of India–monkey gods, battle elephants, caste relationships, the drape of a sari and the possibility of pure magic. Readers can’t throw a brick without hitting one shape-shifter or another in these pages. Houck conveys the mysteries with ease and clarity, drawing in readers, who’ll be glad for the wide-open ending.
A well-shaped piece of exotica, full of danger, dash, allegory and love under the banana tree.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4392-5043-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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