A quick read with some interesting fantasy elements, but the passive heroine and sometimes-confusing worldbuilding...
Brianna Paxton has always suspected she is invisible to boys.
It turns out there's a supernatural explanation: A silver bracelet her grandmother gave her keeps Brianna from revealing herself as an uber-desirable and uber-dangerous bandia. According to Blake, the boy who takes it upon himself to educate her about her powers, Brianna is the descendant of Danu, a goddess who punished Killian, the one man she couldn't make love her, with a curse. Now Brianna is embroiled in a cosmic war against the Sons of Killian, an order meant to extinguish the descendants of Danu. (Unsettlingly, the Sons perpetuate themselves through “selective breeding” and seek out high school girls to date based on their gene pool.) To complicate matters, Brianna and Blake share a kiss that forges a magical bond between them, and Blake spends the novel torn between his desire for Brianna and his distrust of her powers. Despite Brianna's supernatural abilities, she is more often passive than active. Others teach her about her powers and history without being asked; she is attacked but rarely goes on the offensive; and romantically, she mostly waits around for Blake to make up his mind.
A quick read with some interesting fantasy elements, but the passive heroine and sometimes-confusing worldbuilding disappoint. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3303-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Frannie turned her demon boyfriend Luc into a human with her magical Sway in Personal Demons (2010). Now he's living in his...
A demon-turned-human, a lecherous succubus, an angelic—if bratty—brother, an "insanely beautiful" archangel; with all these mystical creatures in her life, no wonder Frannie's overwhelmed.
Frannie turned her demon boyfriend Luc into a human with her magical Sway in Personal Demons (2010). Now he's living in his own apartment while barely resisting Frannie's seduction attempts. Frannie divides her time between Luc, her summer job and her increasingly distant friends. Frannie and Luc's dating is complicated by the constant presence of Matt, Frannie's guardian angel, who was once her twin brother but died during childhood. Through alternating, brief first-person accounts, all three narrate the continuing saga of Frannie vs. Hell. Lucifer wants to punish Luc for his defection and gain control of whatever power turned him human; luckily, Hell doesn't know about Frannie's Sway. Meanwhile, Matt is distracted from his duties by uncontrollable feelings for Lili, a strange new girl in town. The protagonists pop in and out of Hell like there's no tomorrow; secondary characters are merely damned for all time. The battle against Hell is punctuated by frequent steamy encounters: There's "crippling desire," lust that’s "totally raw and all-consuming" and characters who "sink into the sheets, into each other." For all that sex, it's a shame that the sexuality of all the girls other than Frannie is subject to disturbingly intense slut-shaming.Pub Date: July 5, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2809-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
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
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