#CBR9 Book 83: "The Sun is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Natasha is desperately trying to keep her family from being deported, after her father, an illegal immigrant got a DUI and attracted the police's attention. She's been in the USA since she was six and barely remembers her life back in Jamaica anymore. She's doing well in school and loves science and technology. She certainly doesn't believe in love at first sight, or fated mates or fairytale endings. Even after she meets Daniel on a crowded New York street and he insists that they are meant to be.

Daniel's parents are immigrants from South Korea and he's never stepped a foot out of line, being the well-behaved younger son. Now he's on his way to an admissions interview to get into a college he doesn't really want to go to. He'd much rather live out his dream, writing poetry, but then his parents are likely to disown him. He sees Natasha in a crowd and is instantly struck by her. He insists he can make her fall in love with him over the course of a day, but that means they need to spend the whole day together.

I finished this book at the end of August, before my social media feeds and all the newspapers became full of the disastrous news that the Trump administration plans to terminate the DACA program. I read the book because it fit into my Monthly Keyword Challenge, but it turns out that I possibly couldn't have chosen a better time to read and review this book. Reading about the desperate plight of a daughter of illegal immigrants, who never had a choice about coming to the US, trying her very best to avoid being deported was affecting enough before I knew that hundreds of thousands of young people were facing the same terrifying fate.

Earlier this year, I read Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon and liked it, but this book deals with much more serious concerns. There is a bit of a fairytale quality to Natasha and Daniel's coincidental meeting and adventures on the New York streets - can two people actually fall in love over the course of a day and do they stand a chance when their families are clearly going to be against their relationship, even if Natasha actually does succeed and her family gets to stay in the country?

Yet part of what Yoon explores in this book is coincidences and the strange ways in which lives are connected in this great big universe. How lives touch each other in big or small way, and how one momentary decision or action can have wider repercussions for so many other people. As well as including chapters from Natasha and Daniel's points of view, we get the story of how Daniel's parents came to America, how Nathasha's father's life turned out completely different from what he expected. There are chapters giving us insight into the life of the security guard who Natasha has met multiple times when trying to get her case changed, and a number of other people, whose lives are in some way affected by either of the teenagers or people around them.

While this book absolutely qualifies as a romance, it covers a number of themes, one of the more serious of which is obviously immigration, both legal and illegal. Daniel's family don't need to worry about sudden arrest and deportation, but as the son of two ambitious immigrants, it's difficult for Daniel to forge his own path, without disappointing his parents, who worked so hard to give him the best possible life. There are Natasha's mother, who has to work two jobs to support her family, and Natasha's father, who dreams of being an actor and has had to realise that his dreams are unlikely to ever come true.

While I had little interest to see the movie adaptation of Everything, Everything, a quick internet search confirms that this book is also being adapted, and this is a story I think would work really well on the screen. Based on the two novels of hers I've now read, I am absolutely going to keep an eye on anything else Ms. Yoon publishes. She's an excellent YA author.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover image is actually made up of tons of different coloured yarn and made by designer Dominique Falla. As one of the underlying themes of the book is exactly how people connect and change impact on each other's lives in big or small ways throughout life, the web with so many different coloured strands is really cool and rather unusual. The colours chosen are all really vibrant and draw the eye in a good way as well.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 82: "Dirty Dancing at Devil's Leap" by Julie Anne Long

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Avalon Harwood and Maximillian "Mac" Coltrane spent pretty much every summer together growing up, when the wealthy Coltrane family visited their giant mansion. First they were the best of friends, which developed into something more, until at seventeen, Mac broke Avalon's heart when she heard him talking dismissively about her to his father. They never saw each other again, until now.

In the intervening years, Avalon has developed a highly successful app and runs her own tech company out of San Francisco. Mac's father was arrested for fraud and embezzling and his family lost all their money. No one really knows what happened to Mac or his brother. After coming home unexpectedly and finding her boyfriend of several years sleeping with their intern, in their bed, Avalon goes home to her parents in Hellcat Canyon. While angry and grieving for her lost relationship, she discovers that the big Victorian mansion the Coltranes used to own is up for auction and she impulsively decides to buy it, only to find the price being pushed up constantly by some stuffy lawyer. Turns out the lawyer was working for Mac, who has been working as a caretaker at the house and was hoping to buy back the family house, only to be outbid by Avalon, the girl that got away.

Avalon has decided to refurbish the house and sell it to a San Francisco friend looking for a new location for corporate retreats. She hadn't quite expected that the house was going to cost her so much. She's also dismayed to discover that part of the land she remembers so fondly playing on growing up, including the hot springs and the bathing area over by Devil's Leap, are NOT included in the purchasing price. They belong to her neighbour, in fact, none other than the house's caretaker, Mac. He still wants to buy the house from Avalon and decides to do everything in his power to sabotage her sale to what he considers corporate hacks. Avalon refuses to be bested, and they begin a battle of wits and elaborate pranks, while fighting their mutual attraction.

One of my major gripes in previous reviews of Long's contemporaries is her complete failure to address safe sex, which is not really necessary in Regency historicals, but really should be a feature of all contemporary romance. It does not need to take up a lot of page real estate, but responsible couples, especially individuals who haven't seen each other for the best end of two decades, should probably have a brief conversation about being STD free, whether the woman is on the pill, or they should just use condoms as a default. In this book, there is at least one love scene where condoms seem to make an appearance, which is better than in previous books, but there are still several where apparently the couple just don't care about things like pregnancy or STDs. It really does make me annoyed.

While I'm a huge fan of many of Julie Anne Long's historical novels, her contemporaries have been a bit hit and miss and while I by no means disliked them, they've not exactly stayed in my memory and I certainly have never felt a need to re-read them, which I frequently do with my favourite romances. While a lot of romance bloggers have been raving about the previous two books in the Hellcat Canyon series, this is the first one I felt I could whole-heartedly give four stars to. It doesn't hurt that while Avalon and Mac were childhood sweethearts of a sort, the comment Avalon overheard made her hate him, and returning to fight for the house now makes them rivals. I'm a sucker for a good enemies to lovers story, especially if it involves the various parties trying to one-up one another with creative and not too harmful pranks. See also The Hating Game by Sally Thorne and Dating You/Hating You by Christina Lauren.

While Long is not back on my pre-order list (which she was for her historicals), she's now closer to "would possibly buy for full price" than she was based on her previous contemporaries. I thought this one was fun, and there were a lot of quirky elements, like a girl scout troop full of adorable young ladies, some goats, a fluffy dog and other things that amused me while reading. I wouldn't necessarily recommend you rush out and read the previous two books in the series, unless you get them from the library, but this one is worth your time.

Judging a book by its cover: I really don't particularly like the exaggerated poses of the couples on these Julie Anne Long contemporaries, and once again, I just think it's a bit much. The landscape in the picture is different from that described in the book, and I really just don't think people do embraces like that unless forced to. The whimsically tilted letter in the title font just makes my eye twitch. Please Avon cover designers, go for something a bit more sedate next time.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 81: "My Kind of Wonderful" by Jill Shalvis

Page count: 368 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Bailey Moore was given the all clear from the cancer which dominated every aspect of her life since she was sixteen, and now has a sort of reverse bucket list. While she was sick, she didn't really imagine much of a future for herself, but now there are just so many things she'd like to do. One of her first items is skiing in the Rocky Mountains, so she goes to the Cedar Ridge skiing resort, but mis-reads the map and ends up having to be rescued by ski patrol leader and co-owner of the resort, Hudson Kincaid. While she may need more lessons before she can properly enjoy elegantly sliding down the slopes, she's more than capable of handling the next item on her list - making a mural.

Hudson Kincaid is pretty much all about taking care of his ailing mother, his siblings and the financially challenged Kincaid family skiing resort. He's still feels like he drove his twin brother off after they had a big fight on their eighteenth birthday. His mother is fighting dementia, and will be crystal clear and lucid one moment, but most of the time still imagine him and his brother Jacob as young boys or teenagers. In one of her more lucid moments, she placed a call to Bailey and commissioned her to paint a big family mural for the Cedar Ridge resort. Hudson thinks it's a terrible idea, and tries to convince Bailey to go home, but is voted down by the rest of his siblings, who all think the mural could be great for business.

Bailey likes that Hudson doesn't treat her as fragile or breakable, even though it's quite obvious from her peach fuzz hair that she's recovering from long term illness. Because of her big list of adventures, she's not really looking to stay too long in one place, and Hudson has far too many commitments already to settle down with anyone. Having a passionate, yet short-term fling while Bailey works on the mural isn't going to hurt either of them, right?

Last summer, I read the first of the Cedar Ridge novels and enjoyed the family dynamics between the various Kincaid siblings who showed up as supporting characters. The eldest brother was already happily settled and in Second Chance Summer, second eldest brother Aidan reunited with his teenage sweetheart. While Hudson is the hero of this novel, and his brother Jacob doesn't really appear, he's mentioned so often and is constantly thought about by Hudson or their mother so frequently that it doesn't surprise me that he's the hero of the next book in the series.

This book was a quick read, and perfectly pleasant, but the so many of the major complications could have been solved by the protagonists sitting down and having a serious conversation or two about their expectations and thoughts. There's not really any doubt that Bailey is going to be accepted by the Kincaids, they all seem completely infatuated with her and are ready to welcome her with open arms, Hudson just takes a really frustratingly long time to realise that he's an idiot for not wanting a relationship.

This was a perfectly serviceable romance, given an extra half a star because I really like the setting and the supporting characters so much. I will probably be checking out further books in the series as well at some point, there are at least two Kincaid siblings yet to pair off.

Judging a book by its cover: Yeah, this is not a great cover. Random skier who looks nothing like the description of the hero looking off in the middle distance photo-shopped over what looks more like a drawing of a mountain top and a cabin than another stock photo. The guy is certainly fit, which is appropriate, as Hudson, the hero, spends his whole life doing physical things, but if this book hadn't been on sale and I hadn't enjoyed the first book, this cover would make me think twice about reading the book.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 80: "Beauty Like the Night" by Joanna Bourne

Page count: 336 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Sèverine de Cabriallac was orphaned during the French Revolution and adopted by one of the foremost British intelligence agents, William Doyle. Her whole childhood was spent being raised, taught or entertained by various spies. During a youthful rebellion, Sèvie ran off to Spain and joined British Military Intelligence. She was in love with a French soldier, who died. No longer really interested in the spying game so many of her family are involved in, she works as a private investigator instead. One memorable night, a mysterious stranger appears in the bedroom of the inn she is visiting, brandishing a knife. He asks about a missing young girl and a stolen amulet, and seems to think Sèverine may know the whereabouts of both.

Despite the dire warnings of both her adoptive father and her brother-in-law, Adrian Hawkhurst, currently head of British Intelligence, Sèvie is intrigued enough to take the case offered by the enigmatic Raoul Deverney. He wants to find out who murdered his wife, stole the amulet that is a Deverney heirloom, and finally where his wife's (not his) daughter is. He claims that he and Sèverine have met before, many years ago in Spain, but Sèvie has no recollection of this. Raul is not entirely sure the legendary young woman isn't involved in the death of his estranged wife, but he figures she is his best way of tracking down the murderers and achieving justice.

As well as trying to track down murderers and a missing adolescent, Sèverine is helping her family foil a rumoured assassination attempt on the Duke of Wellington. Initially, it seems the cases couldn't possibly be connected, but as Sèvie's investigation continues and the pieces keep falling into place, the same individuals may be responsible for both.

This is one of the more low-key of Joanna Bourne's Spymaster books. While quite a lot of the previous novels take place during or in the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic war, this one is set in the Regency era, after the various battles have taken place. Some of the book flashes back to Sèverine's spying career in war-torn Spain, where we find out how her and Raoul's paths first crossed. As is always the case in a Bourne novel, the protagonists are very well matched. Both have dark pasts filled with things they're not necessarily proud of. Both are extremely intelligent, observant and capable people, who find it hard to easily give their trust to someone else, because they've learned the hard way how easily such trust can be betrayed.

Sèverine was an excellent spy, having been raised in the craft as a child. She's also a diligent and efficient investigator, doing her best to help her clients in any way she can. She will occasionally help her family in matters of national security, because she cares about them, and while she doesn't want to actively spy, she enjoys the occasional mission. Raoul is also very good at what he does, which is rather more than being the wine merchant he openly claims to be. His marriage was one forced upon him and he never loved the woman, but feels he needs to bring her killers to justice both as a matter of family honour and to reclaim the family amulet. He is adamant that her young daughter is no real concern of his, but as he discovers just how badly the girl was neglected and mistreated and how much of the funds he sent to his wife for her upkeep were squandered, he begins to feel profoundly guilty about his own carelessness and ignorance of her situation.

The couple try to fight their mutual attraction for a long time, knowing it would be a very inconvenient thing for them to get romantically involved. Neither of them are looking to ever settle down with someone, yet they are so obviously made for one another. While there is a fair amount of unresolved sexual tension, there really isn't a lot in the way of love scenes, so anyone wanting more of that might have to look elsewhere. I don't know if Bourne is planning any more books in her Spymasters series, but if this is the final one, it's a very good conclusion to a very enjoyable set of novels. This book works as a stand-alone, but will probably be more emotionally satisfying if you've read some of the previous ones and know the supporting characters and their backstories better.

Judging a book by its cover: Now this is a beautiful cover. I love the use of colours, with the blue background and the red leaves in the corners. The cover model looks a lot like Sèverine is described, up to and including the red evening gown she wears in a very significant scene. I wish more historical romances had covers like this.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 79: "The Duchess Deal" by Tessa Dare

Page count: 389 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars

Miss Emma Gladstone was a respectable clergyman's daughter until a foolish indiscretion made her father condemn her and forced her to walk all the way to London during the winter. She lost a toe. Now she's making a living as a seamstress, but will be fired if she doesn't get paid for the extravagant and somewhat excessive gown she created for Annabelle Worthing, until recently betrothed to the Duke of Ashbury. To make sure she's taken notice of, she dons the over the top gown and visits the reclusive Duke in person to demand her money.

George Pembrooke, the Duke of Ashbury, known as Ash to the few friends he has left, was badly scarred in the Napoleonic wars. One side of his face and much of his upper body is ravaged by burn scars and the results of the army surgeons trying to save his life. With his engagement to Miss Worthing dissolved, he still needs to find a suitable wife to give him an heir. He takes his duties seriously and refuses to surrender his people and properties to his dissolute cousin. He's taken by surprise by the forthright Miss Gladstone and impulsively proposes marriage to her. She believes he is jesting with her and obviously refuses, but once he's settled on the idea, he decides that only she will do.

Once Emma realises that the Duke of Ashbury is entirely serious, she accepts, because she would be a fool not to. Becoming a duchess isn't a chance any woman should pass up, even if the duke is a self-loathing, brooding and rather imperious sort of man. While the scars are obviously impossible to ignore, Emma nevertheless finds Ash very attractive and suspects that she may find making an heir with him rather enjoyable. Ash has certain terms for the marriage. 1) They will be husband and wife at night only. 2) No lights or kissing. 3) No questions about his scars and 4) Once Emma is pregnant with is heir, Ash will send her to an estate in the country and she will never have to share his bed again. Miss Palmer, one of Emma's high-born customers at the modiste is pregnant, and terrified to tell her father. As Emma knows all too well how devastating parental disapproval can be, she promises to help, and if she gets pregnant quickly, she'll be able to invite Miss Palmer to come stay with her in the countryside until the babies are born, with no one being the wiser.

Of course, Emma refuses to live in an entirely emotionless marriage. She insists that she and Ash have dinner together every night and she refuses to take him too seriously. She brings a feral tomcat with her when she arrives, and Breeches, as she names the beast, proceeds to terrorise the household. Refusing to call her husband by his given name, George (it was also her father's name), Ash or the formal Duke, she proceeds to try every endearment and pet name under the sun, in order to tease him. She tries to keep herself from falling too deeply for her husband, not wanting to get hurt, but the meddlesome servants of the Duke's household do whatever they can to constantly throw the Duke and the Duchess together, desperate for them to fall in love, so Ashbury will lighten up a bit and stop making their lives more difficult with his brooding and self-pity.

Elyse over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books described this book as "a fairytale Regency that blends Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella and Batman". She's not wrong! This book has all of those elements. The Cinderella element is obviously the seamstress becoming a duchess. Tessa Dare has a previous romance with a huge gap in social status between the couple, when she has a barmaid marrying a duke in Any Duchess Will Do. That book is also excellent and one of my favourites of her back catalogue. Without wanting to spoil too much, the Batman subplot comes into the story because cranky and brooding Ash tends to wander the London streets at night rather than allow himself to sleep next to his wife, and will frequently beat up muggers and other ne'er-do-wells who try to attack him or others to channel some of his aggression. There's even a lovably young lad who insists on becoming his loyal sidekick.

This is the first book in a new series for Dare, entitled Girl Meets Duke. As well as befriending and doing her best to help Miss Palmer, Emma also makes the acquaintance of four eccentric young ladies on the other side of the square, many of whom I suspect will be heroines in future adventures. Before this book came out, I was in really a rather serious reading slump. I had only finished ONE single book in all of August, as well as re-reading one. With The Duchess Deal, I could barely put the book down. I read until far too late into the night, making me seriously sleep-deprived at work the next day, and spent every available minute I had to spare reading more. I finished the book in less than twelve hours and was so thoroughly delighted and entertained by it.

Tessa Dare tends to have a lot of rather frivolous and unlikely plot elements in her historical romances, and I can understand that for some readers, some of the seeming anachronisms and silliness can get a bit much. I thought this was her best book in years and absolutely loved it. The 'Beast of Mayfair' storyline went on for a bit longer than I would have liked, and Ash really did take way too long to realise how lucky he was to have Emma, but I also loved that he only swore in Shakespearean quotes and the bit where his long-suffering butler, Khan, finally has enough and loses his temper was worth the price of admission alone. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a quick, fun and diverting read. Even Mrs. Julien, who has previously occasionally found Tessa Dare's books to be too silly for her, liked this one a lot. I'm already looking forward to the next in the series.

Judging a book by its cover: I really can't remember which side of Ash is horribly scarred, but based on this cover image, it really can't be his left side, or there have been some serious omissions from the cover designer. I don't hate the cover, but I'm not sure I personally would have chosen what looks like a soft-focus stock photo from a slightly raunchy wedding shoot as the cover for a Regency romance. The dress the woman is wearing is far too modern for the time period, you can't just put the male model in a poofy shirt and expect that to be enough to signal "period clothing".

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 78: "My One and Only" by Kristan Higgins

Page count: 384 pages
Rating: 3 stars

While others may describe divorce attorney Harper James as somewhat bitter, cynical and decidedly unromantic, she herself claims that she is realistic and practical and her job allows her to help her clients, usually in miserable relationships have the best possible lives after their divorces. Her mother packed up and left Harper and her father on Harper's thirteenth birthday, and Harper's own marriage didn't even last six months, but she doesn't really feel that those things in any way influenced the woman she is today.

Successful and good at her job, Harper has been dating a guy for several years now, and as she's about to turn thirty-four, the same age her mother was when Harper last saw her, she feels that now would be a good time for them to take their relationship to the next level. Sure, Dennis still lives with his parents, tends to call her 'dude', has a very annoying rat tail that he refuses to get rid of, but he's tall, extremely handsome and works as a firefighter, saving lives! Harper has even bought her own engagement ring and seems very surprised when Dennis appears reluctant to agree to her fine list of bullet points on why they should get married. Her rather awkward proposal attempt is interrupted by a phone call from her younger step-sister, joyfully announcing that she's getting married. In two weeks' time. As her sister's been married twice before already, Harper thinks this may be extremely foolish and impulsive, but nevertheless agrees to be the maid of honour.

Complications arise once they get to the Montana wilderness retreat where the marriage is taking place. It turns out the best man is Harper's ex-husband, Nick Lowery, because her little sister is marrying his younger brother, after they've barely had a chance to get to know one another. Harper obviously brings along her hunky boyfriend, but it's quite clear from the moment they meet again, that there is still tons of chemistry between Nick and Harper. While Nick may think Harper never really loved him and was determined to see the marriage fail from the moment they tied the knot, Harper did actually have her heart thoroughly broken and still feels that Nick was caring and attentive until he actually made her his wife, and then turned into a neglectful workaholic.

When it's time for everyone to leave, Harper's flight is cancelled due to technical difficulties, and she ends up accepting an offer from Nick to drive with him part of the way home, until they can get her on a plane back to Martha's Vineyard. During this several day road trip, they get lots of time to talk things through, and slowly start to find some common ground again.

There is a lot going on in this book, and Harper has a whole lot of emotional baggage to process before she is in any way ready for any romantic relationship, with Dennis (who, while cute, is obviously all wrong for her) or Nick. Nick really does seem like a good guy, but it's obvious that he's laying way too much of the blame on their brief and failed marriage at Harper's door. They were both very young when they got married, Harper pretty much let herself be talked into it, but her slew of complicated abandonment issues combined with his need for success meant the marriage never stood a chance. On this road trip, it's not just about Harper and Nick possibly working through their differences from last time, Harper also gets a chance to confront the parent who left her all those years ago.

This book is standard length for a romance, but it felt longer, because so much happened in it. Due to her constant fear of abandonment, Harper has a real problem disappointing other people. While she's an efficient and fairly ruthless divorce attorney, in her personal life, she will go out of her way not to say no to people, even when it can cause major problems. In the final section of the book, there is an implausible and very frustrating complication which could have been avoided with one simple no, but instead Harper goes on to hurt more people she cares about. I will say that she turns around and grovels rather spectacularly, after a heck of a grand gesture, but it this book was all a bit too much and I doubt I will ever re-read it.

As well as the all over plot, I was constantly annoyed throughout the book by Harper's "swearing". She says or thinks "crotch" instead of more traditional swear words, and on occasion will exclaim "holy testicle Tuesday". I get that some people get annoyed and offended by swearing, but I would much rather have had that than Harper's silly exclamations.

I have heard good things about Kristan Higgins' contemporaries, and while I didn't love this, I certainly didn't hate it either. I suspect, given my tendency to buy books pretty indiscriminately in e-book sales if they cost $3 or less, that I not only own several more books by her, but that I will end up getting more at some point in the future.

Judging a book by its cover: Open-top sportscar. Check. Couple sitting close together. Check. Tiny, cute dog. Check. All these elements are in the book and it's quite obvious that this is a romance novel. I don't exactly think it's a very exciting cover, but it does what it needs to and none of the major element on the cover seem out of place or inappropriate.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 77: "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Page count: 532 pages
Rating: 5 stars

From Goodreads:
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around - and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he's been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever. 

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god?And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries - including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo's dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed?And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

I am reluctant to give more information about this book than the blurb already reveals, because as several other reviewers have pointed out before me, this book is a wonderfully immersive reading experience and the less you know about the details of the plot, the more lovely surprises there are for you along the way.

Anyone who's read anything by Laini Taylor before (and if you haven't, go check out Daughter of Smoke and Bone immediately. Don't worry, this review will wait) will know that she has a very rich prose, and is excellent at world building. She describes settings, experiences and characters so vividly and her books tend to completely engross me. This is absolutely the case here. She's also very good about writing complex individuals, there is very little black and white in her characterisation. Everyone is flawed in some way. Rarely is someone entirely good or wholly evil, but they are always interesting to read about.

The reader is taken into the story through the eyes of Lazlo Strange, an orphan who becomes a librarian and spends all his free time finding information about a mythical lost city. He vividly remembers the city having a different name at one point, but one memorable day in his childhood, it was as if it was stolen out of his mind, being replaced by the word 'Weep'. By the time he grows up, he almost doubts that there ever was a different name to it, but he still dreams. Lazlo is clever and humble, and a very good person. He will selflessly help others, even when it might lead to others exploiting his hard work and presenting it as their own. He is finally rewarded for his hard work when an exotic delegation comes to the library where he works.

There are so many other fascinating characters in this story as well, and so many different settings to explore over the course of the book. There are mysteries to be solved, and dreams that may or may not come true, and hints of romance, but also great loss and tragedy. It's also important to note that this book is NOT self-contained and ends on a heck of a cliff-hanger. There is as of yet no publication date for the sequel (I think this will happily only be a duology, so once you have the next book in your hot little hands, you'll get to read the end to the story), and if you hate unresolved endings and waiting for months or maybe years between books, maybe hold off until The Muse of Nightmares is released.


Judging a book by its cover: Both covers for this book are very pretty, but the edition I read had this, the UK cover, with the beautiful dark blue background and the stylised moth in the centre of the cover. I like that the faint patterns in the blue could be stars, or maybe tracings of a map, it's not entirely clear. Since the colour blue and moths are both very significant in the book, this cover seems wholly appropriate and the deep blue just soothes my soul.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.