Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends--3 Stars

This particular story was intriguing to me. It wasn't too deep, but it drew me in because I wanted to read what happened. I enjoy books like that, especially when it includes fantasy.

Shannon Hale, the author of these stories, is one of my favorite authors in my book. She always makes me feel like I'm on a first name basis with her characters, and although The Storybook Of Legends gave a younger-reader vibe, I had no trouble feeling that way with this book.

I will continue this series out of curiosity, I think, but honestly, this series was initially geared toward the interests of, say, my little sister. It was amusing to read Madeline Hatter's energy as she talked and played with Raven Queen.
Raven has but one friend in her whole school, Ever After High, which is run by the brothers Grimm. Due to her mother's reputation for poisoning Snow White in her story, no one likes Raven, and everyone ignores her. Except when they feel threatened by her; then they run around screaming and panicking.

Apple White, on the contrary, is the most popular girl in school. Beautiful, smart, and heiress of the perfect story, everyone that runs from Raven runs to Apple. Her destiny and story is entwined with Raven's, so to her it is very important that Raven does everything right. But when Raven refuses to accept that her destiny is to be evil, the stories are mixed and it is up to the girls working together to fix them.

There is not one account that I can remember that included deep gore, and so that was a plus for me. Again, I believe it was geared toward younger children and their interests. I'll have my sister read it and see what she thinks as well!

Snow White and Rose Red ~ 4 stars

I’ve been a Patricia C. Wrede reader for several years now. She wrote a few Star Wars novels and I've also enjoyed her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I’ve always liked the spicy, distinct characters in her books, so when I saw she had also written a retelling of the old fairy tale about Snow White and Rose Red, I thought I’d give it a go.

It wasn't quite what I expected from Patricia C. Wrede. I was used to reading her more recent publications, but Snow White and Rose Red was one of the first stories she had published, and her writing has changed a lot since then. Snow White and Rose Red follows the original fairy tale closely enough that I could see where the parallels were, but the characters had changed enough that the story was obviously "wearing new clothes" as I like to put it. It had been fleshed out and made more intricate. All the leaps of logic, typical of old fairy tales, had been ironed out and explained.

Patricia C. Wrede's Snow White and Rose Red is the story of two beautiful sisters, Blanche and Rosamund, who live with their widowed mother near the border of the world of the fay. When a half-fay, half-mortal man called Hugh is subjected to human magic and forced to take the shape of a bear, kind Blanche and Rosamund try to do everything they can to return him to his original shape. This means taking the considerable risk of being discovered and tried as witches by suspicious neighbors. In the end, they need the help of Hugh's brother John, another half-fay, to break the spell. In so doing, they discover that Hugh's transformation was the result of a plot to tear the human world and the world of the fay apart. 

The story concludes with the classic fairy tale ending: the fair maidens wed their new sweethearts, the half-fay Hugh and John. Usually I don't like these kinds of endings, because it makes the romances very unrealistic, but Patricia C. Wrede did an admirable job of making the relationships between the characters real enough that I could see them getting married.

I found Snow White and Rose Red to be a fairly entertaining story. It was written with a more reserved, strict style than other fairy tale retellings that I’ve read. It doesn't have the very personal style that most novels published in the past 5 or 6 years have, but this is mainly because Snow White and Rose Red was published in 1989, before that style of writing became popular. In fact, the style of Snow White and Rose Red is great for that story, because it makes it read more like a fairy tale and adds grace and elegance to it. I also enjoyed the way the original fairy tale was restructured for Wrede’s retelling, and I think that her revision of it added a lot of appeal to the story.

The biggest thing that I noticed about Snow White and Rose Red was the language. Wrede uses ‘thee’ and ‘thou’, in addition to the usual ‘you.’ Other changes to the language, such as some of the more archaic forms of words (forsooth, seemth), and even the use of ‘an’ in the place of 'if' in some cases, all make the language a little more challenging to less experienced readers. To me, these things just added to the unique style of the book, since it hearkens back to an older way of speaking. But for other, less patient readers, this might make it too difficult to be interesting. My twelve-year-old sister Jo also read Snow White and Rose Red, and although she enjoyed it, she did say that the language was sometimes an impediment.

So, in the end, I would just say this.

"An thou can read and understand it, thou’lt know why I sayeth that it seems a goodly book."

Link to author website: http://pcwrede.com/

Poison ~ 4 stars

Poison, by Bridget Zinn, is a new book to me. I first heard about it when I read a review posted on a blog I follow - Katherine Marie: Writer of Dreams. Find her review HERE. I decided to give Poison a shot after reading Katherine Marie's review, so here's what I thought of it.

Poison is Bridget Zinn's first and only novel - she died in 2011, two years before her book was actually published. Poison is the story of potions master Kyerra, a sixteen-year-old girl who specializes in making perfumes and potions - and poisons. She never imagined she would one day have to use her skills to kill her best friend, the Crown Princess in order to save the kingdom. But the poisoned dart she threw missed, and now Kyerra is on the run, trying to track down the missing princess without getting caught and thrown into the dungeon by the royal guards. With the aid of a magical piglet and a handsome stranger called Fred, Kyerra must find a way to save the kingdom from destruction and ruin. And if she can at all avoid it, she’d like to avoid having to kill her best friend.

I enjoyed Poison more than I expected I would. Going strictly by the title and the cover, I was expecting a more gritty, gut-wrenching story, but I actually found that the story had many similarities to the Castle Glower series that I just recently reviewed. Poison is comfortable, engaging, and funny, with plenty of laughs and moments of light-heartedness. It's a story that gradually reveals the backstory of each of the characters and the events that brought them where they are - a very engaging way to tell a story. There was plenty of action and adventure as well, and a strong mystery element that kept me guessing at every new chapter.

Poison is a book I picked up for fun, casual reading, not a deep, morally engaging story. It was fun, funny, and amusing. I actually laughed while reading it, and not every amusing book can do that for me. I found Poison had an interesting, well-written plot, fascinating and funny characters, and the right mix of charm. What could be more charming than Rosie, the magical piglet? It's unfortunate that Bridget Zinn died before she could write a sequel - I bet it would have been a barrel of laughs.

Poison website: http://bridgetzinn.com/index.php

Updates to the blog

     Merry Christmas, everyone, and a Happy New Year coming up here as well. 

     There are a few updates and changes I'm making to the blog this Christmas - no, I'm not setting myself a schedule for getting new reviews up or anything crazy like that. But I am going to try to make it easier to find books on this blog by adding labels to each post. Labels like "teen" or "adventure" or "fiction" or "knights". Anything that might help you find the reviews of the books that you might be interested in. Hopefully this will make my blog easier to use to find new books to read.

     For instance, if you've got a 11-year-old boy who is interested in historical fiction stories about sailors and goats, you can browse through my reviews under the categories "8-12", "historical fiction", etc. You might find something that fits. Alternatively, you might find out that I have never read a book like that, and, in fact, had no idea anyone had ever written such a book. And if you're a teen girl who likes science-fiction romances, there should be categories for that sort of thing as well - if not now, than eventually.

     The other change I'm making is the addition of author websites to each review whenever possible. I like browsing through author websites - you can find extra material, another opinion about the book, and other books by that same author if you're interested in more. So go back through the archives and look at your favorite books that I've reviewed to find the author websites.

     Hopefully these changes will make the blog more useful to you. My plan all along with Under Cover Agents has been to make it a place to find new books to read. I know you can look through online bookstores and read reviews, but its my hope that through reading my reviews you'll understand my opinion of the book, coming from my reading history. And maybe that's better than reading a dozen reviews posted by complete strangers. So I'm making these changes with the idea of making my blog easier for my readers to use in this way. Please enjoy, and let me know if you do find my blog useful to you. Thanks!

     Merry Christmas, everyone, and happy reading!

Castle Glower series - 4 stars

     The Castle Glower series by Jessica Day George is a very charming story about a girl, a griffin, and a castle that is constantly changing. I wouldn't normally describe a series with the word 'charming', since that might give you the idea that it's just another 100 page kid story. But this series really is charming: pleasant, agreeable, and even lovable.

     The story throughout the three published books in this unfinished series is interesting in itself - first the Castle in ambushed, then Celie, the princess of Sleynth, secretly hatches a griffin, and finally she and her siblings are transported to the original home of Castle Glower. I always enjoy a good story about children solving problems bigger than themselves, and Princess Celie does a very good job of that in every book of the series. Also, I was intrigued by the concept the series is built around: the mysterious Castle Glower. It almost seems to be alive, creating new rooms every few days or taking away old ones. No one is sure why or where the rooms come from or where they go to when they disappear. 

     Besides the interest of Castle Glower, the characters are also fun. First of all is Princess Celie, who is a plucky girl of twelve years. She's a fairly practical princess, and she's mapped most of Castle Glower, and is always adding the new rooms to her map. Also, she's Castle Glower's favorite person, and she can count on it to help her in it's own way when she really needs it. When the Castle is under attack, Celie is the best person to help save it. And when the Castle starts to fall apart and no one knows why, Celie is the one who understands the clues the Castle is leaving for them. Besides her special connection to the Castle, Celie is also smart and cheerful even when things get bad.

     Her brother Rolf and sister Lilah are also enjoyable characters, and they're both sweet and act just like family would. Then there's the quaint, dog-loving Prince Lulath and Lilah's sweetheart, Pogue. And there's even a griffin that Celie names Rufus, which is a cute name for a griffin.

     Besides having a great story premise and fun characters, the Castle Glower series is a nice series in other ways. One thing I really enjoyed was that when Celie is in big trouble, she goes to her family for help. In lots of stories, this doesn't happen and the character has to rough it out on their own for various reasons. While there's no problem with this - and in fact, I enjoy it a lot - there's something refreshing and appealing about a character who gets some help for once. Another thing I enjoyed was Celie's sassy sense of humor. I always enjoy characters with a sense of humor.

     I bet the Castle Glower series won't build up a fan base like the Harry Potter series or Lord of the Rings, but they're still a fun, enjoyable read. Not every book has to be a hit series to be good, or even to be someone's favorite. The Castle Glower series isn't my favorite series, but it's one that I have had a good time reading. I'd definitely recommend it, especially to kids. It's about that reading level, is completely clean, and is a very fun series. It might not be entertaining to more advanced readers, but I found it worth reading and definitely worthy of four stars.

Link to author website: http://www.jessicadaygeorge.com/

Books of Bayern wrap-up

     Well, this November of blog reviews actually went really well for me - I was busy with NaNoWriMo, trying to write 50,000  words. But I had the idea of writing all these reviews in October, so I just posted them whenever I remembered to in November. Worked really well, and gave me enough time to complete my NaNoWriMo challenge. Yay!

     The Books of Bayern have been really fun to review, and they're a favorite series of mine. Each one is different and still satisfying and enjoyable. My two sisters, M and Jo, have read them all as well, and I thought it would be interesting to figure out which book each of us liked best, since it reflects our tastes as readers.

     M is fourteen. She likes to have a good time, loves laughing, and fun action. The three top things she likes in a book are humor, well-developed characters, and a believable villain. Her favorite of the Books of Bayern is River Secrets. Razo fills the humor category, and all the characters are well-developed, as in all of Shannon Hale's books. The villain of River Secrets was believable, but I won't tell you how, since that would spoil the story for you.

     Jo is thirteen. She enjoys dramatic stories and interesting adventures. The top three things she likes in a book are villains with a real purpose, not people who are bad for the fun of it. She also likes good, sound romance, not the fluffy, fake kind. Finally, the characters have to work - and maybe suffer - in order to achieve their goals, otherwise she's not impressed. Her favorite is Enna Burning, and that book fits all her top 3's very well - particularly the characters working and suffering.

     I'm seventeen. I like fantasy stories, a varied cast of interesting characters, and a plot with many layers. The top three things I want to find in a book are strong plots, good themes to add an extra, subtle dimension to the story, and finally I like for the characters to make personal journeys. My favorite of the Books of Bayern is Forest Born, and I would say it reflects every one of my top 3 very well.

     Anyway, those are our top favorite Books of Bayern, and some of our favorite things to find in books. Hopefully this was a useful addition to the Books of Bayern series review. As you can see, we all preferred a different book out of the series, but we all agree that the series is very, very good. At the risk of repeating myself, it's well worth looking into and reading.

Forest Born - 5 stars

     Forest Born, the last book in The Books of Bayern series, is my personal favorite. It is the story of Razo's sister Rin, the only girl in a large family from the Forest. Rin is a quiet girl, and everybody thinks of her as her mother's shadow. But Rin has secrets of her own that no one has ever guessed at.

     Rin has a connection to trees that goes beyond the ordinary understanding that all people who live in the Forest have. Rin can feel them in a way that is beyond her understanding. But after she does something terrible, something which makes her ashamed to be herself, the trees turn against her and she can find no comfort in the Forest. If Rin is ever going to feel right in her own self again, she must find out how to fix what is wrong inside. 

     But she can't do that at home in the Forest among her family, so she goes with Razo to the capital city to be a waiting woman for Queen Isi. Rin admires Isi's quiet strength and her confidence and wishes she could feel that way herself. When Isi learns that there are hostile fire-speakers in Bayern again, attacking her husband's soldiers, she sets out to stop them forever, taking Enna and Dasha with her. And Rin, who is determined to stay near Isi, follows them. 

     But it's not fire-speakers who pose the greatest threat to Bayern and to Isi. Selia is back, the girl who tried to have Isi killed when she first came to Bayern so that she could become the queen. Selia escaped from her death sentence and now she's revealed herself once again. Isi and her friends are her prisoners, and it's up to Rin to somehow break them free so that Selia can be defeated once and for all. That will be harder than it sounds, because Selia has Rin's brother Razo and Isi's little son Tusken in her power. Rin will need all the courage she has to be brave enough to do what needs to be done. And in doing so, she will realize why she feels broken inside.

     Forest Born resonated strongly with me. It's a story about a girl who feels lost inside herself and doesn't know who she is. Rin is afraid of what she could become, and doesn't realize the greatness of the gifts she has been given. I found myself identifying with Rin as I read this book because she reminded me of myself. One of Shannon Hale's greatest talents as a writer is to be able to create characters who the readers can identify with as if they were themselves, and that's something to be admired in an author. When Rin is afraid of herself and when she tries to be like other people to feel more right inside, I feel her pain. 

     Forest Born was written incredibly well. Particularly captivating to me was Rin's voice as a narrator. Growing up in a rustic, backwoods family who have a blunt, down-to-earth way of speaking, Rin describes things in a way that always harks back to her roots. She is a character who is more strongly rooted in her family than even she realizes, and it's those roots that make her strong. And once she finds the balance in her gifts, Rin can find peace and contentment within herself, something that she has been missing. 

     Its hard for me to describe how much I love Forest Born. As I said, its my favorite of The Books of Bayern series. I suppose I identify with it so much right now because of where I am as a person, but no matter what age you are it's still a rewarding, compelling story. Also, like all the other books in this series, it can stand alone, although it's a bit easier to understand if you've read the other books first. And since they're all worth reading, why not?

Link to author website: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html

River Secrets - 5 stars

     River Secrets, the third book in The Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale, is a strikingly different book from the two previous ones. This book is narrated by Razo, unganly, awkward Razo, boy from the Forest and one of Isi's closest friends. Although he is not a very good warrior, for his heroic deeds on Isi's behalf in The Goose Girl he is part of Bayern's Own, a group of elite troops. And in this book, the kingdom if Tira and the kingdom of Bayern are slowly trying to mend their old alliances after the devastating war between them which took place in Enna Burning. And Bayern's Own is going to Tira as part of a diplomatic mission to help make peace.

But when they get to Tira, things are not all as they seem. The people of Tira are not particularly happy to see the representatives of Bayern, and to make things even more serious, bodies have been found. Blackened, burnt bodies. The leader of the Bayern representatives in Tira asks Razo to find out who is doing the burning, but it may turn out to be more than Razo can do alone. He may need to ask for help from some unlikely people, such as the Prince of Tira, and Dasha, a noble Tiran lady. A lady that he might be falling in love with. And there's also the danger that it could be Razo's friend Enna. Is her gift out of control again? Is she killing without even realizing it?

River Secrets is a much more jovial story than the rest of the series. Razo is a light-hearted character with a sense of humor that never shuts up, and you can count on a laugh every page or two. He's also irresistibly charming and endearing as a narrator. I couldn't help but root for him, even if I did find him annoyingly clueless and thick-headed from time to time. Razo is one of those characters you just can't help but like.

     Once again, River Secrets brings back some old characters and includes some new ones. Enna and Finn are important returning characters, and Dasha and the prince of Tira are new ones that I particularly liked. Although this book was far less serious in tone than Enna Burning and even The Goose Girl, it was far from trivial, and I definitely enjoyed this addition to the series. It was a meaningful story about loyalty and love that was fun and entertaining to read.

Link to author website: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html

Enna Burning - 5 stars

     Enna Burning is the second book in The Books of Bayern series by Shannon Hale. Unlike the first book, it isn't based off a fairy-tale, but is just as intriguing and captivating a story as The Goose Girl.

     Enna Burning centers around Enna, the best friend of Isi, formerly Anidori-Kiladra of Kilandree and now the new princess of Bayern. Enna is from the Forest, one of a practical people who live a harder life than those in Bayern who dwell in cities. To be from the Forest is to be a survivor, and that aptly describes Enna. She's a blunt, quick-thinking and -speaking person who can stand up for herself, and she's fiercely loyal to her friends and family. But things are about to change for Enna, and her loyalty and strength will be tested to the limit.

     Bayern is at war with the neighboring country of Tira. Enna's brother Liefer has mysteriously learned to control fire, and he hopes his new gift will be able to help Bayern win the war. Instead, his new gift overpowers him and burns him to death. Enna discovers how he learned to control fire: a scrap of vellum he found in the forest tells how to learn to speak to fire. Enna is now gifted like her friend Isi, who is able to speak to the wind and understand the language of birds. But Enna's gift is strong, almost stronger than Enna herself. The need to burn and burn is more than she can bear sometimes. She's afraid she'll lose control and hurt the ones she loves. Can she find a balance? Or will she burn like her brother, mastered by a gift too powerful for her?

     Enna Burning was probably the most suspenseful of The Books of Bayern. The whole struggle Enna goes through, not just because of the war, but because of her new power, is very intense, and thanks to Shannon Hale's writing it's impossible not to feel Enna's pain. Enna Burning was also the book that took me the longest time to digest, and I'll admit to actually disliking it when I first read it. Enna Burning was very different from other Shannon Hale books I'd read, and took me completely by surprise. 

     First of all, Enna Burning is more sober than the other books in this series. There's less of the fun and light-heartedness that can be found in the other ones, and although there are happy moments, there are also many, many scenes that are very sad and terrible. When I first read it, I was actually a bit frightened by it, because it was more dark and intense than anything I had read from Shannon Hale, and was completely unexpected. It took me a reread and a week to contemplate the story before I could really decide what to think, and at that point I realized it was an amazing story. It was much less intense than many stories I've read, but because it came from Shannon Hale - who has always been a writer who quietly thrills me with gentle, heart-felt scenes - I had all my barriers down and Enna Burning made a terrific impact.

     The other reason I initially thought I disliked Enna Burning is because this book also happens to be one of the edgiest of Shannon Hale's books, which is saying something, since Enna Burning is barely edgy at all. That should speak for the quality of Shannon Hale's stories. It's mostly because of Enna's character that this story feels edgy to me. Enna is a sharp contrast to the quiet, reserved Isi of the previous book, and Enna's bold actions lead her into situations Isi would never have found herself in, and there was a particular scene where I was afraid the story would go downhill. But thankfully, although Shannon Hale pushed the extent of edginess from her other books, Enna Burning is clean and safe, and isn't really any worse because of what happened.

     In the end, I would recommend Enna Burning just as highly as I would recommend The Goose Girl. It's full of powerful feelings and meaningful characters. It's more intense and less funny that The Goose Girl, but it can still make me laugh. It's also a great sequel to The Goose Girl, bringing back many of the old characters as well as including some new ones.

Link to author website: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html

The Goose Girl - 5 stars

     The Goose Girl is the first book in Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern series. It's actually a retelling of the classic 'Goose Girl' fairy tale, but Shannon Hale has done a marvelous job of expanding the story into a wonderful story about a girl who can speak the languages of animals and elements, a girl with an inner strength she never knew she had. 

     Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, has listened to her aunt's curious tales about a time when people could understand the languages of animals and even speak to the wind since she was a little girl. Ani possesses this gift of languages which has been almost lost, and she learns to speak to the swans in the royal pond and a lovely colt called Falada born in the royal stables. But as she grows, so does her gift, and there are murmurs about the oddities of the Crown Princess. Ani's mother feels she has no choice but to send her away in marriage to a prince of a distant land: Bayern.

     Who would have guessed that along the road to Bayern, Ani is betrayed by her lady-in-waiting, Selia? Selia has pretended to be her friend, but all along she has planned to murder Ani and take her place as the Queen of Bayern. Luckily Ani escapes, and with the help of a forest woman and her son, finds her way to the capital city of Bayern, the city that was to be her home after she was married. But instead of being received as a princess and a bride-to-be, Ani is a stranger in a strange land. Selia has beaten her to the capital city and fooled everyone into believing she is the real Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee. Ani makes a living as a goose girl and tries to hide from Selia's hired mercenaries as she develops a new gift: a connection with the wind.

     But it's not just Ani's life that's at risk. Her homeland of Kilandree is suddenly in peril when the much larger Bayern begins to muster troops for a surprise attack. Selia intends to destroy everyone who could possibly give away her real identity and take away her new title of Princess. And Selia can do all this because she has people-speaking, a gift like Ani's understanding of animals and the wind. This gift gives her words special weight, and she can convince people to do anything she wishes, no matter how vile it is. It's going to be up to Ani to save her native country from Selia, with only the help of her unlikely animal-herder friends and a wounded captain of the guard.

     The Goose Girl is a book I admire for a variety of reasons. It has a wonderful plot and a captivating, magical story premise because of the idea of languages. It also has amazing characters, and the characters are what make Shannon Hale's stories so enchanting. Ani became so real to me after reading The Goose Girl. She's kind and gentle and not particularly brave - unlike some of the more macho heroine's that I regularly find in other recent publications. This is refreshing and makes the story all the more beautiful. Enna, Finn, Razo, Conrad, and other characters are also fresh and distinct, all of them with a rich background that flavors their actions and even the words they say. I love how Shannon Hale draws you in with her words. She writes in a way that feels as natural as breathing to me, and it makes her books comfortable to read and read again. 

    Shannon Hale also incorporates very deep meanings into her stories - this isn't just a casual novel, but a story with meaning. Ani has the qualities of a queen, and The Goose Girl tells the story of how she realizes this and becomes a leader of a people she has made her own. Selia has chosen to do what's wrong to get what she wants, and she has allowed herself to hate Ani because she has what Selia wants most: a title and a throne and a country of obedient subjects. The contrast of these two characters and their goals are part of what make The Goose Girl shine as a story.

     I cannot recommend The Goose Girl highly enough. For people who enjoy a high-quality retelling of a classic fairy tale, this books is one of the best I have ever read. For readers who enjoy a good fantasy, this is that book. I found The Goose Girl to be a highly entertaining, captivating story full of meaning and characters who feel like family. It's definitely a must-read.

Link to author website: http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html

Books of Bayern ~ Series review

     This post is not a review itself, but a notice to all my readers. I'm going to be spending the month of November reviewing the Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale.

     I've been dying to review The Goose Girl, the first book in this series, for a long time. For a variety of reasons I never did, but now I've decided to just review the entire thing. My plan is to review it one book at a time, partly for variety, and partly because the books are all incredibly different. Also, I'd like to review every one of them separately. They're all good books, but for different reasons.

     That means that for the month of November there will be only reviews of the Books of Bayern. I enjoy my Shannon Hale, and I feel like sharing the love this month.

    But before I start posting reviews, I just want to say that the Books of Bayern deserve 5 stars. So don't wait for my reviews, get the books and read them yourselves. I'm going to review them anyway because I love them that much, but you won't regret reading them as soon as possible.

     You can find these blog posts here:

• The Goose Girl
• Enna Burning
• River Secrets
• Forest Born

Agnes Grey - 3 stars (guest review)

Guest post by jayden robyn


     Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte's first of two novels, is a quick, easy read. I liked it, but I found the overall plot to be somewhat lacking, which is why I settled on three stars for my rating.

     Agnes Grey focuses on the story of a young woman who becomes a governess in an attempt to earn her own living. The book opens with a brief overview of her childhood and relations with her parents and older sister, before moving on to Agnes taking up a position as governess at Wellwood House. Agnes struggles to handle her pupils, who are cruel and unmanageable. She is relieved of her position after a year, and after returning home, Agnes then takes up another post as governess to the Murray girls, who are older than her previous charges. She has a much better time with them, even if they are still troublesome, and she also meets the curate Edward Weston, with whom she falls in love.

     Anne Bronte is a very good writer, with prose that is clear and easy to read. She is my favorite of the Bronte sisters. However, I found Agnes Grey to "get going" almost immediately without much introduction to the characters, so I wasn't fully drawn into the story for several chapters. It is a very quiet story without much, if any, action; basically it is a snapshot of the story of a young woman making her place in the world in 19th century England.

     Agnes does not really grow much throughout the story, but Bronte does a good job of portraying the people surrounding her main character (who narrates in the first-person), from the cruel Bloomfield children and their parents to the somewhat shallow Murray girls and their mother, as well as the kind Edward Weston. The romance between Agnes and Weston is very understated and (again) quiet, but I liked that Bronte wrote it that way. Bronte honestly portrays the governess' lot of the times, and she ends the novel well, giving us a glimpse into her characters' futures without stifling the sense of completion.

     Overall, I liked Agnes Grey, but the fact that it took me several chapters to get into the story, as well as the overall tameness of the plot, lowered my rating. I prefer Anne's other work, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but Agnes Grey was still worth a read.

*SPOILERS!!* The Spook's Apprentice breakdown - What went wrong? by Noodle

     First things first: If you've not read up to book 13 of The Spook's Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney, don't read any further until you've gotten that far in the series.

Book 3

     Now, if you're still reading, you'd better have read book 13. If you still haven't, it's not my fault when I spill all the big surprises and ruin the story for you. You brought this on yourself.

     The purpose for this post is for me to explain some of the that bothered me about the way Joseph Delaney extended The Spook's Apprentice to thirteen books. On the whole, he did a pretty good job. Books 1-3 were actually almost stand-alone. They all built on the events of the previous, but more than that they introduced the County and the job of a Spook. They are my favorites out of the series because the whole Fiend episode has influenced my opinion of the rest of the story. Books 4 and 5, though, were also good. The Fiend was in them, but the series hadn't gotten all weird like many series do after they go on longer than was good for them. Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan was a series that had this problem toward the end.

Book 4

     From book 6 onward, however, Delaney ranges beyond the County to find enemies to throw at Tom, Gregory, and Alice. And although that's not the principle reason I was unhappy with the last seven books, the enemies from foreign places did contribute to making the series less enjoyable. All these people from other countries are coming to the County, and logically there are far, far too many enemies for Tom's allies to have a prayer of winning. And it's not a good story if the good guys haven't got a chance – but still somehow manage to win.

     But my main problem with the later books was that in his attempts to string his series out a few books longer, Delaney wrote books that were purely filler. Book 9, Grimalkin the Witch Assassin, is an example of that. In the beginning of the book Grimalkin has the Fiend's head and is trying to keep the Fiend's servants from returning it to the rest of his body. She has a series of narrow escapes and makes several 'last' stands, and even gets severely injured once. But at the end of the book Alice heals Grimalkin so she's back to full strength. Nothing was achieved. Grimalkin is as strong as ever, and still has the head. That's filler.

Book 5

     And book 11, Slither, was written purely to explain the new enemy that Delaney suddenly throws into the story. Basically, in Slither we find the story of a Kobalos called Slither. He narrates a story that's completely unrelated to what's happening to Tom and Alice, and the only connection between Slither and the rest of the series is formed when Grimalkin shows up with the Fiend's head. In my opinion, the sole purpose of Slither was to make it possible for Grimalkin to tell Tom what will happen if the Fiend is destroyed. And since I can give as many spoilers as I like in this post, I'm going straight for it.

What's going to happen is that the dark Kobalos god, Talkos, will be born when the Fiend is destroyed, and the Kobalos will have the power to take over the world. And in my opinion, even if Delaney had to keep the entire Kobalos extension to the story, there might have been a better way to introduce the threat they'll present once the Fiend is gone. After all, the threat the Kobalos will present isn't mentioned much, and isn't the focus of the book itself. In my opinion, Slither is mostly filler. The only important parts of it were the five or six sentences where Slither and Grimalkin talk about Talkos. A book written for half a page of dialogue. That's filler to me.

Book 7

     The other thing that really disappointed me was that he had some really interesting stories for some of his characters, and I don't think he handled them well in the 13^th book. For instance, for a long time – since book 1! – Alice has been Tom's best friend. In the later books they are in love, and the only reason things haven't gone very far between them is that Alice is a witch – a very powerful witch. For 12 books she walks the line between light and dark because although she was taught dark magic and often uses it to save Tom's life, she doesn't want to become a malevolent witch. The struggle against succumbing to the dark is a very important part of Alice's story, and so I was crushed when she ends up becoming a malevolent witch in book 13. All that effort turned out to be for nothing. To make things worse, somehow becoming a malevolent witch makes Alice beautiful and she stops loving Tom. Instead, she is in love with a dark mage called Lukrasta. And I have to say I hated the fact that becoming a dark witch should change Alice so deeply, since technically Grimalkin is a malevolant witch and she's not like that. Why should it happen to just Alice?

Book 9

     In fact, Grimalkin is the other character who disappointed me. She's a very tough, strong, fearless, and sometimes brutal character, but there's always a reason for what she does. She's very deliberate. And she's worked very hard to become the best witch assassin ever and an incredibly skilled warrior. But to have a character who's that strong and never have that person make a mistake or get hurt is terrible, and Delaney was smart enough not to do that. But it seemed to me that every time he hurt her he would find a way to get her back to her old self. When she's poisoned, Alice heals her. When she breaks her leg, she puts a silver pin through the shattered bone so that it will heal straight and strong. Then the agony of the silver, which is deadly to witches, isn't too much for Grimalkin's iron will to overcome. She's in danger of becoming a serious munchkin.

     All right, one last thing and I'll stop complaining. The final thing that I don't like about The Spook's Apprentice series is something that happens in the 13^th book, and which I mentioned earlier. The dark Kabalos god Talkos will be born after the Fiend is killed, and when he comes the Kabalos will take over the world. My thought is: Why?? Why even make up the Kabalos? Why not leave it at the Fiend and be finished with it?

Book 11

     All books or series could go on and on forever if you just come up with another problem and another problem and so on. But there's a point when the story should end. You've given the characters enough problems, and now they need to solve them all and reach a conclusion. Then the story is over. But in my opinion, Delaney reached that point – and then he kept going. Was he trying to string the story out a few more books so he could make more money, or did he really think that this plot twist would make the story even better? I don't have any idea. But in my opinion, dragging a story out just for more books and more money is one of the worst sins an author can commit, and Delaney is guilty. I was very disappointed, because in most other aspects, he's a really good writer. If he hadn't chosen to extend the series past what was healthy, I think I would have rated it much higher and enjoyed it much more.

Book 12

     Anyway, those are the things that annoyed me most about The Spook's Apprentice series. I'd like to point out that they all occurred in the last five or six books, though. The first five at least deserve a 4 star rating, and the next two or three were all worthy of 3.5 stars. But after that things went downhill, which is why I'm only giving this series 3 stars. It could have been much better, but because of a variety of big mistakes and poor choices, it turned out to be very disappointing. 

One thing to keep in mind is that the last book or books in this series aren't out yet. I know there's more to come because I haven't figured out what Tom's going to do about Talkos. Maybe Delaney will surprise me with a really great ending to his story. So I'll hang in there for the end, but I don't think it will be enough to redeem the series.

And if you read this post and haven't read up to book 13 yet, all I can say is that you've just ruined half the surprises in the story for yourself! But at the same time, you've already read about most of the disappointments in store for you, so they shouldn't shock and outrage you as much as they did me. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not sure. You'll have to decide.

The Spook's Apprentice ~ 3 stars

Book 1

     I don't like lots of horror and gore in books. The Spook's Apprentice series by Joseph Delany has both, so I actually didn't expect to find them at all appealing, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them. I would classify this series as being a thorough blend of some of the most frightening, bloody writing I've found in non-adult literature and some great characters and themes.

     The Spook's Apprentice books center around Thomas Ward, the apprentice of the local Spook, Old Gregory. As an apprentice Spook, it's Tom's job to deal with the things that go bump in the dark: ghasts, ghosts, boggarts, witches, and other denizens of the dark. They're a terrifying bunch of villanious creatures, and it takes a special kind of person to be brave enough to face them. Tom is a seventh son of a seventh son, and this makes him specially suited to fighting the dark, but even so its not an easy job. He regularly depends on the experience and skill of his master, Gregory, to help him, as well as the abilities of his friend Alice, the daughter of a witch.

Book 2

     Without spoiling the story too much, since there are many unexpected twists and turns in the plot, here's a summary of the series. Throughout the books, the dark is gradually growing strong, and it's almost more than a Spook and his apprentice can keep at bay. To make things worse, the Fiend, who is said to be 'the dark made flesh', has been summoned to the world. The only thing that is keeping him from destroying the world utterly is the fact that Tom's mother has hobbled him, binding him to several conditions. If he kills Tom, he will only be able to remain in the world for a hundred years – a mere blink to a powerful being like the Fiend. But if he can convert Tom to the dark or get one of his children to kill him, his reign can go on forever, unbroken and unhindered. To banish the Fiend back to the dark forever, Tom, Gregory, Alice, and other allies they make along the way are going to have to find a way to kill him. And a being like the Fiend isn't going to be easy to kill.

Book 6

     Hopefully that little summary doesn't give away too much of the story, but did tell you enough to possibly interest you in giving this series a try. Beyond just hinting at the plot, however, I have several things to say about the books themselves.

     Like I said, this story has a lot of elements in it which I would classify as horror. Delaney never lets you forget how close many of the characters are to a really horrible death for extended periods of time. He also describes things in vivid detail, and combining that with plenty of heart-pounding moments for the characters can give readers a shock if they don't have nerves of steel. This is not a comfy story where the heroes eventually win – it's a story where the heroes are going to win in the long run, but lots of them are going to die along the way. And that's not always appealing to every reader.

Book 8

     Also, the gore level of the Last Apprentice is very, very high. I'm not joking when I say that blood, bones, and death is mentioned on every three pages, at least. In particular, the witches of Delaney's story are quite gory and disturbing. It takes a reader who isn't easily disgusted to hang on during the first few descriptions of dead witches and blood-drinking boggarts. You'll have to be the judge of the blood and guts aspect of The Spook's Apprentice yourself. My advice is to at least read the first book and give it a try. You might find it extremely disturbing, or it could be appealing to you. Or you might be like me and enjoy the extra layer it adds to the story while not trying to imagine how incredibly disturbing the story would be in real life.

Book 10

     But just because The Spook's Apprentice can be horrific and bloody in places didn't turn me off. I actually found that although it was a gory story with creatures that wouldn't be out of place in a horror film, it was still a good story. Delaney handles horror and gore without becoming repulsive and revolting. Also, his characters have heart and substance – Tom in particular. Really bad things happen to them, and they get more of a fright than I do, but they're still great, three-dimmensional, extremely unique characters. The books wouldn't be the same without them. Also, Delaney has a wonderful narrative voice. The flow of the story is very natural, even in the most disturbing passages.

Book 13

     In the end I find myself two minds about The Spook's Apprentice. On the one hand, it's got great characters and Delaney is a very good writer. But on the other hand, the series currently contains thirteen books, and Delaney hasn't finished his story yet. And in my opinion, he's sacrificed some of the aspects of his story that I liked along the way to getting to thirteen books. I'll finish the series, but I was not pleased with the turn the series took. So in a few days, I'll follow this review with a breakdown of what I thought of Delaney's continuation of The Spook's Apprentice story. It's going to be full of spoilers, so don't read it until you've gotten to book thirteen. Please don't. It'll ruin half the surprises in store for you.

Link to author website: http://www.spooksbooks.com/

Behold the Dawn - 5 stars

     When I first got Behold the Dawn by K.M. Weiland, I didn't really have any expectations for it. I thought it might be a fun read and an interesting story, but not necessarily something which would rank among my favorite books. Within three chapters I literally could not put it down. Eating and spending time with people was reduced to the bare minimum, and I don't think I even got myself anything to drink. I didn't put the book down unless I absolutely, absolutely, absolutely had to, and then I was back as soon as possible to keep reading. That's how good it was. 

     Behold the Dawn has a lot of aspects that I enjoyed reading. First of all it was set during the Crusades, right around the time period of Robin Hood, and I enjoy reading fiction set during that time period. I was also captivated by the main character, Marcus Annan, a champion tourneyer. He's a strong and silent sort of person with a lot of pain in his past he's trying to hide from, and he is also one of the best-written characters I've read in a long time. Behold the Dawn is also a story of redemption, not the cheesy, sugary kind I've read in some books, but the kind that really rang with truth and resonated with me. 

     There were other aspects of Behold the Dawn that were very, very good as well, such as the characters, so genuine and real they should be walking off the page. There's also a slow-burning romance, strong enough to change Annan's life but not the defining feature of the book. I enjoy romance in a book, but I don't like that to be the entire focus of the story. There's also plenty of gritty action, and when Annan fights I can feel the battle. Weiland writes with passion and captures the little moments of her story masterfully. And there's suspense on every page - the secrets the characters carry will drive you mad until they're finally revealed in an stunning climax at the very end.

     The only negative thing I have to say about Behold the Dawn is that no one told me I shouldn't read it as fast as I did. It's the kind of book that should be taken at a reasonable pace so that all the details can sink in - I devoured it in about four hours. Another thing I noticed was that the book did allude to some unpleasant details of real life, and those things affected the past and present choices of several of the characters. These hints don't detract from my opinion of the book, but it was a detail I noticed which some readers might want to be aware of before they start reading this book. 

     My opinion of K.M. Weiland has definitely been boosted after reading this book. She's a powerful writer, and I highly recommend this book and any of her others as great reading material. I really can't believe Behold the Dawn is her first published novel, but it is now one of my favorite books.

Link to author website: http://www.kmweiland.com/

The Outcasts - 4 stars

Review requested by Alaina Bach


     The Outcasts is the first book in John Flanagan's Brotherband Chronicles. It's set in the same world as his bestselling Ranger's Apprentice series, and focuses on the Skandians, the Viking-like barbarians of the north. It has all the hallmarks of a Flanagan series: dry humor, fast-moving action, engaging characters, and plenty of plot twists.

     The Outcasts centers around Hal, a half Skandian/half Araluen boy who's father died in a raid. Raised by his mother and his father's best friend Thorn, Hal is about to begin his brotherband training, a Skandian method of training boys in the skills they will need to become full-fledged Skandian warriors and sea-farers. If Hal doesn't do well in his brotherband training, he can expect to have a difficult time being accepted aboard a ship when he becomes an adult. Unfortunately, Hal has been chosen as the leader of the most unlikely bunch of young Skandians, and the chances that they'll win the brotherband training are very slim.

     I enjoyed several things about The Outcasts. First, the concept of brotherband training was interesting - what kind of skills do boys need to become Skandian warriors, and how do they acquire those skills? John Flanagan is particularly adapt at writing those things and making them both fun to read and funny to read. I also liked the other boys in Hal's brotherband. They were definitely the most unlikely bunch of heroes I've read about, and the way Flanagan turned them into something heroic was well-written. Also, Flanagan has a certain style of dry humor that makes fun of a situation in a way that I really like - it's clean, it's genuine, and it's everyday humor, the kind everybody can relate to. The humor and the characters are what makes The Outcasts a good read for me.

     The reason I only gave The Outcasts 4 stars is because it was very similar to Ranger's Apprentice. Some of the similarities are simply because he's still the same author writing in the same world, but in my opinion, John Flanagan didn't make his Brotherband Chronicles separate enough from his other series. I saw the same kinds of jokes being made, and the characters of The Outcasts had many of the qualities of some of his Ranger's Apprentice characters. Ranger's Apprentice fans might find the closeness between the two series enjoyable because the Ranger's Apprentice story continues in the new Brotherband Chronicles. I had been hoping, however, to read something different from John Flanagan and see him write some new idea, and so I was somewhat disappointed that he only came up with a spin-off of his previous series. But if you are a fan of Ranger's Apprentice and are looking for more of the same, the Brotherband Chronicles are a must-read. They have all the qualities that made Ranger's Apprentice such a great series, and I've always liked Skandia, so reading about that part of Flanagan's world was also great.

Link to Brotherband Chronicles website: http://www.worldofjohnflanagan.com/the-brotherband-chronicles/