Skip this uninspired entry into the world of medieval love and court intrigue.
In an imagined setting evoking medieval England, King Jameson of Coroa pursues Hollis Brite.
The independent teenager makes Jameson laugh, but she lacks the education and demeanor people expect in a queen. Her friend Delia Grace has more knowledge of history and languages but is shunned due to her illegitimate birth. Hollis gets caught up in a whirl of social activity, especially following an Isolten royal visit. There has been bad blood between the two countries, not fully explained here, and when an exiled Isolten family also comes to court, Jameson generously allows them to stay. Hollis relies on the family to teach her about Isolten customs and secretly falls in love with Silas, the oldest son, even though a relationship with him would mean relinquishing Jameson and the throne. When Hollis learns of political machinations that will affect her future in ways that she abhors, she faces a difficult decision. Romance readers will enjoy the usual descriptions of dresses, jewelry, young love, and discreet kisses, although many characters remain cardboard figures. While the violent climax may be upsetting, the book ends on a hopeful note. Themes related to immigration and young women’s taking charge of their lives don’t quite lift this awkwardly written volume above other royal romances. There are prejudicial references to Romani people, and whiteness is situated as the norm.
Skip this uninspired entry into the world of medieval love and court intrigue. (Historical romance. 13-16)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-229163-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Rarely—perhaps not since the author’s own Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer (2007)—does a series kick off so deliciously.
A love thought lost proves anything but when another world’s 1,000-year war spills over into this one.
Seventeen-year-old Karou leads a double life: as an art student in Prague with normal boyfriend troubles—and as a runner of bizarre errands for Brimstone, a scarred and saturnine sorcerer with the head of a ram and the lower body of a dragon. With similarly chimerical associates, he has raised her from infancy and dispatches her through magic portals to destinations all over the world. She knows nothing of her past or purpose—until a sudden, fiery closure of all the portals cuts her off from the only family she’s ever known, and an initially violent but ultimately “sweet and beckoning collision” with winged, inhumanly beautiful Akiva leads to revelations of an ancient conflict between Seraphim and the supposedly bestial Chimaera. Switching points of view and settings, Taylor then fills in a back story that links Akiva and Karou in an older tragedy, while planting seeds that might lead ultimately to peace. The plot hinges on major contrivances, but along with writing in such heightened language that even casual banter often comes off as wildly funny, the author crafts a fierce heroine with bright-blue hair, tattoos, martial skills, a growing attachment to a preternaturally hunky but not entirely sane warrior and, in episodes to come, an army of killer angels to confront.
Rarely—perhaps not since the author’s own Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer (2007)—does a series kick off so deliciously. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-13402-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fun, roof-jumping adventure that could benefit from subtler Occupy ideology.
In a near-future dystopia, a rich boy and a wrong-side-of-the-tracks girl find love while fighting the corrupt system.
Hunter is bored with luxury. He's not just a Citizen (a coveted status in an energy-strapped London where most either scrabble for coveted permanent IDs or rebel as illegal Outsiders), he's also one of the wealthy 2 percent. While his friends entertain themselves in virtual-reality boxing matches, Hunter braves roof jumping in the favelas, the city's multiethnic slums. He has no desire to risk his life of privilege, but he crosses paths with the Kossaks, the brutal police force, as they casually murder a fleeing Outsider. Now Hunter's running with Uma, the Outsider girl who's hiding the linchpin of the whole rebellion. Hunter and Uma are defending the key to the Dreamline, the semi-magical underground Internet. The Dreamline is used globally by those illegally rebuilding Outside society into a model of green energy, peace and love, and the Kossaks want it gone. As the pair flee through the multilingual alleys, rebels educate Hunter with unsubtle polemic about "ordinary people...united under a common cause": anarchy, togetherness and energy independence. Political choices—and all choices in this world are political—spring more from mythic overtones or contemporary-world parallels than from consistent worldbuilding.
Fun, roof-jumping adventure that could benefit from subtler Occupy ideology. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2414-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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