The Merchant's Daughter by Melanie Dickerson

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

If you know me, then you’ll know that I have a soft spot for fairy tale retellings and if that fairy tale just so happens to be Beauty and the Beast that’s even better! Beauty and the Beast has long been my favourite fairy tale – maybe it has something to do with the idea of falling in love with the beauty on the inside, despite outward appearances. Or it could be because watching the Disney film is the first film memory that I have. Whatever the actual reason, anything Beauty and the Beast pretty much automatically gets a spot on my TBR.

I’d been vaguely aware of The Merchant’s Daughter for some time before someone pointed out to me that it was a Beauty and the Beast retelling. As soon as I heard that, I knew that I was going to read it. So when I found in on NetGalley it was an automatic request and happily I got approved.

Information:

Title: The Merchant’s Daughter

Series: Stand-alone

Author: Melanie Dickerson

Publisher: Zondervan

Target Audience: (older) YA

Pages: 304

Chapters: 20 + epilogue

PoV: 3^rd person

Tense: past tense

Story: An unthinkable danger. An unexpected choice. Annabel, once the daughter of a wealthy merchant, is trapped in indentured servitude to Lord Ranulf, a recluse who is rumored to be both terrifying and beastly. Her circumstances are made even worse by the proximity of Lord Ranulf's bailiff---a revolting man who has made unwelcome advances on Annabel in the past. Believing that life in a nunnery is the best way to escape the escalation of the bailiff's vile behavior and to preserve the faith that sustains her, Annabel is surprised to discover a sense of security and joy in her encounters with Lord Ranulf. As Annabel struggles to confront her feelings, she is involved in a situation that could place Ranulf in grave danger. Ranulf's future, and possibly his heart, may rest in her hands, and Annabel must decide whether to follow the plans she has cherished or the calling God has placed on her heart.

(from Goodreads)

Thoughts and impressions: The opening paragraph or two of this week are really on the rocky side. Don’t worry, though, it picks up. As I read them, I was worried that the whole book would follow in that same vein but luckily the author soon found her feet.

The original premise is that Annabel’s family have been shirking their duty in the fields for three years now, since their merchant father’s death, and with the new lord coming to the village they’re going to have to pay up. Annabel is determined that she’ll show the villagers that she’s willing to pull her weight and that they shouldn’t hold her in contempt. If this was so important to her, I couldn’t help but wonder why she had never bothered to go against her family’s wishes in those three years if the villagers’ opinion of her mattered that much. I suppose that really that was just there to show that Annabel is not haughty like the other members of her family and to get her into Lord Ranulf’s service.

When Ranulf is introduced, he is described as being a muscular man with one brown eye (he lost the other one and wears a patch over it), brown hair and a big, bushy beard. Also, all he ever does is bellow. For a while, his speech tag is almost exclusively “he bellowed”. All I could think of was Brian Blessed playing King Richard IV in the first series of Blackadder.

Not at all flattering, but there’s the brown hair and eyes, the big, bushy beard and the inability to talk at anything less than an ear-splitting bellow. There’s a difference of about 20 years in age, but that’s only a small matter! The man depicted on the book cover is very different to this, of course, but nothing could shift this image for me throughout the whole book.

The story is set in the mediaeval period, in the 1300s. The author’s attention to detail is admirable and it lent a realistic air to everything that you don’t always find in stories set in the Middle Ages. This meant that I was able to slip into the story very easily and quickly got caught up in events. It also made this religious side of the story easier to accept. I hadn’t realised that this was Christian fiction when I started the book but it soon became obvious. However, I have read books written in the 1100s and there is often a fixation on religion. Here it stems from Annabel’s desire to read the Bible. She wants to read it so much that she also wants to enter a convent to study it. Thankfully, the religious message was not so strong as to segregate me as a secular reader, though I would have liked to have seen more of them bonding over other things (in the same vein as Ranulf’s burns) rather than the bonding mostly happening over shared religious beliefs.

Her family, of course, aren’t quite keen on this idea and they’d much rather sell her off to the Bailiff in exchange for their debt being paid off for them. I have two things that it’s worth mentioning here and I’m going to start with the family. Really, I didn’t feel that they were used enough. They were there in the beginning to set the scene but then after that, other than one short confrontation and then later a minor appearance by one of the brothers, they don’t reappear. I would have liked to have seen how their circumstances changed, or even how they tried to weigh in on Annabel’s budding friendship with the new lord, but they’re just ignored. As for the Bailiff, he’s only ever depicted in a bad light – as a pervert and a sleaze and unkempt bully – and yet all of the other villagers are willing to follow him. None of his good points are ever shown and so when I’m expected to just accept that the other villagers like the guy, I can’t suspend my disbelief that far because I’ve not been given anything to go on for it. At least in the Disney movie, Gaston was shown as being charismatic and very handsome to explain why he’s able to wrap all the villagers around his little finger.

Annabel goes into service for Lord Ranulf as a way of wriggling out of the marriage that her family is trying to force on her. Ranulf, of course, saves her from it, but Bailiff Tom isn’t going to take this refusal lying down and he gets up to all sorts of evil schemes to try to get the wife he desires. Ranulf has been hurt by a woman before and he’s promised himself that he’ll never fall in love again, but it would seem that he has his work cut out for him to keep that promise when he meets Annabel. They bond over reading the Bible and the slow burning romance between them was a real joy. Both parties are aware of their feelings for the other but neither is willing to act on them.

Annabel herself is a bit on the perfect side with the author focusing on her good side so much as to totally eclipse the tiny hints of flaws that we occasionally see. I also didn’t like how she thought about the other men – Gilbert was too much, especially when she felt revulsion at the mere prospect of him touching her. It should have been left at just Bailiff Tom. Ranulf is much more rounded. Once he’d got past all his bellowing he quickly became the sort of character that pulls at your heart strings as you root for them in every aspect.

If you’re in the mood for some clean historical romance and a bit of fairy tale magic, this book is the perfect choice.

Style: It’s obvious that the author put a lot of time and effort into making her style fit the era as much as possible (given the huge evolution of the language since then) and it really pays off. 

Final verdict: A Christian read that will also appeal to secular readers. An Enchanting retelling of the tale of Beauty and the Beast. 4 stars


Extra notes: No bad language. No sex.

Follow Friday - 03/02/12

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison can read. Each week participants are given a prompt. This week's is:

Q: Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do they all have a kick ass heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?

I haven't done a FF in a while but thought I'd do one today for who knows what reason!

After having looked at my favourites shelf, I'm not sure I could say that there's one thing that I go for. I have a mix of things - some (most) of my faves have strong heroines, others have weaker ones. Some have a yummy romantic interest, others have a romantic interest that had me pulling my hair out at how bad he is for the heroine and the last couple don't have a romance subplot at all. I don't even have a consistant favourite genre! My faves shelf is a hodge-podge of books that just happened to really work for me for whatever reason. I'm tempted to say that it's the style in the books that appeals to me more than the characters themselves, but even then I have a mix of styles. Maybe it's just happy coincidence that makes a particular captivate me. Who knows!

Happy hopping and have a great weekend!

Get A Taste: Marian's Christmas Wish

Tara of Basically Books and I often read very different books but sometimes find interesting new books to potentially add to the ever-growing monsters that our TBR piles have morphed into. However, we know that we do not have 100% the same taste and we wanted another way of getting a look at these books...

Do you ever feel like getting a bit of a taster for a book you’ve been thinking of reading but aren’t fully sold on yet? Do you feel like sharing a taster for your current read with the world? Well, here’s your chance.

Each week the random number generator will pick a number between 1 and 100 for books with pages or 1 and 25% for ebooks. We figured that these numbers would keep us out of spoiler territory. Open your book to the specified place and pick a paragraph. Share it with the world!

This week the numbers are: 
page 13 for books
22% for ebooks

My book is:

click image to go to Goodreads page

Marian sat down next to Alistair again and wrapped her apron around the cat. The babies in its belly squirmed and tumbled into each other as she rubbed the cat dry. The animal began to purr, and the sound was a balm to her jangled nerves. She smiled and scratched the cat under the chin.

"And I suppose you have a sad story to tell too, if only you could talk," she said, addressing the animal. "Something about a misspent kittenhood and the perfidy of toms."

Yes, I know, I know. It's a bit late for Christmas now! But I started the book just before Christmas after having read another Christmas-themed historical romance and I never finished it. I figured that if I didn't get it read now, I'd end up putting it off for a full year! Plus, now that it's actually cold and managed to snow a bit, it feels more like Christmas than it did a month ago.

I just finished the book this evening so the review will be coming shortly! I can tell you now that if you like sweet (and clean) historical romances, this one will appeal to you.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games. Who hasn’t heard of these books? Well, Arie hasn’t but he doesn’t count. I got this book quite a while ago when one of my best friends insisted that I should read it and Vampire Academy. Ironically enough, she told me I’d prefer The Hunger Games but I decided to read the VA series first (last May). For whatever reason, I put off delving into this book.

It was chosen as a group read back in July and I was supposed to read it then but I forgot to take it to France with me. Consequently, it ended up just sitting in the book box by my side of the bed. Until now.

At the New Year’s Eve party I attended, we saw the trailer for the upcoming movie and everyone there just assumed that I would have read the book. This made me laugh at how predictable everyone expects me to be but nothing more. It wasn’t until a couple of weeks later when I saw the trailer again that I found myself wondering about the book.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I fished it out.

Information:

Title: The Hunger Games

Series: The Hunger Games #1

Author: Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Scholtastic Inc.

Target Audience: young adult

Pages: 374

Chapters: 27

PoV: 1^st person

Tense: present tense

Story: In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. 

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister Primrose, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before — and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that will weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

(from Goodreads)

Thoughts and impressions: My very first impression was that the present tense was the wrong choice for this novel. The way it reads, it’s often like Katniss, the narrator, is addressing the reader, the naratee, by regaling them with stories of the past. For me, the present tense is much too restrictive for this. In the first part especially, Katniss often launches into side-stories to help explain her country as well as the origins and rules of the hunger games and other more personal stories about her own past. These forays into the past were all interesting and necessary for the world building, but jarring. All in all, I think the past tense would have given the novel a much deeper meaning than the present tense permitted it.

There are three parts in the book, but the story is essentially split into two parts: preparation and the games themselves. The preparation part didn’t really appeal to me much and it felt like it was drawn out too long. As soon as the games started, though, I was hooked. It was one of those books where I kept telling myself “just one more chapter” and the “just one” is never reached.

The games are where the author shone. She sends the reader through so many different experiences, caught up in Katniss’s head as she desperately attempts to survive. This is where emotional connections come into it all, too. Katniss’s connection with Rue was the very first time she had allowed her emotions to weigh in on any decisions since the very start of the story.

Katniss goes into the games in the place of her little sister, who was the one picked to be tribute. Prim is twelve years old and Katniss is very protective of her after having pretty much brought her up since their father’s death some years previously. Katniss would often insist that she was doing things for Prim, or ruminate about her, but as the reader I never felt emotionally invested in the little sister. She was just there.

Rue is another of the tributes, the 24 people who will enter the games arena. She’s the same age as Prim and the youngest person in the arena that year. At the risk of a small spoiler, Rue’s destiny becomes intertwined with Katniss’s. Even though I’d figured out her role as catalyst as of fairy early on, I still became very involved in little Rue’s destiny. I couldn’t have cared less about Prim, but I was desperately hoping that somehow they’d divise a way to see Rue survive the games as well. She filled the role of the little sister in need of protection a lot better than Prim did. I’m not entirely sure whether the author meant for this to happen. Really I think that I was supposed to care about both of them but I just didn’t.

Katniss herself was… I’m not sure. Too hard maybe. I could easily root for her but there were only certain times when I really connected with her. Maybe it was that she’d emotionally disconnected herself from everything that was happening so I couldn’t emotionally connect with it all. She was certainly an interesting YA heroine.

As a side note, this book is very reminiscent of Battle Royale. I wonder whether the author was inspired by events in BR or whether this sort of thing is easily to see in a dictatorial regime. It was certainly a very bleak view of the future.

Style: As I said, the present tense narration didn’t work for me. I think I would have much preferred it in the past tense.

Final verdict: The games themselves were great! Heart-in-mouth action, so very absorbing. Everything that led up to them, less so. 4 stars

Extra notes: I think there was some minor language but it could be that I’m getting it mixed up with my current read. No sex.

The Cover Wars: Knife / Spell Hunter

Tara of Basically Books and I decided to get together to do a weekly meme where we would compare covers of the UK editions of books with those of the US editions.

The aim of this is to just have a bit of fun. We put ourselves in the position where we see both of these books side by side in the bookstore. Which would we choose? Why that one and not the other?


This week, we will be comparing the UK and US covers of Knife by R.J. Anderson, or Spell Hunter in the US.  Tara has read the start of this book but unfortunately couldn't get into it. Despite this, she hopes to give the book another shot at some point. I personally haven't read the book but I do have a different book by the same author to read when time allows.

         

                                        US edition                                                                          UK edition

Rea says: At first glance, it was the US cover that caught my attention. It’s almost like a painting, which is both its strength and its weakness: its strength because of how pretty it is; its weakness because there’s just too much going on in it. When compared with the UK cover, it stands out for its beauty but that’s about it. The UK cover is simple yet eye-catching with that very grumpy fairy. The blue complements the ethereal fairy perfectly. What’s more, the title is both snappier and clearer. With the US cover, I wasn’t sure which one was the actual title at first, but it’s certainly clear with just the one word on the UK cover! I’m going with UK this week.

Tara says: I have the UK version and I really like it. I feel the glow of the cover is amazing and the fact that it’s so simple but pretty really appealed to me. When I saw the US version on GoodReads I loved it. I like how you can see the character in detail and it’s very colourful. It says more about the book than the UK version. Also, I prefer the US name of the book. I am going with US this week.

 

Score:

Week 2:     US: 1     UK: 0     Draw: 1

                             

Get A Taste: The Kingdom

Tara of Basically Books and I often read very different books but sometimes find interesting new books to potentially add to the ever-growing monsters that our TBR piles have morphed into. However, we know that we do not have 100% the same taste and we wanted another way of getting a look at these books...

Do you ever feel like getting a bit of a taster for a book you’ve been thinking of reading but aren’t fully sold on yet? Do you feel like sharing a taster for your current read with the world? Well, here’s your chance.

Each week the random number generator will pick a number between 1 and 100 for books with pages or 1 and 25% for ebooks. We figured that these numbers would keep us out of spoiler territory. Open your book to the specified place and pick a paragraph. Share it with the world!

This week the numbers are: 
page 54 for books
4% for ebooks

My book is: 

click image to go to Goodreads page

"The girl spared a brief nod before finishing with the books. Then she turned and strode to a closed door, rapped once and slipped inside.  A moment later she reappeared and motioned me around the counter. As she stepped aside to allow me to enter the room, I saw that her eyes were focused - not on me - but on a point just beyond my shoulder. I had the strangest feeling that if I followed her gaze, I would find nothing there. It was a disquieting sensation because, with a few exceptions, I'm the one who sees what others cannot."


This book is an ARC from NetGalley. I finished it last night and WOW! More please! The book isn't due for release until March and as such my review will not be up until early March.


It is the second book in The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens. The first book is The Restorer. If you like paranormal murder mystery aimed at adults, I highly recommend this series! I am pretty much foaming at the mouth I want to get my hands on the next one so badly!

Halflings by Heather Burch

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley. Thank you Zondervan!

Halflings is one of those books that I became aware of around X-mas time. The synopsis piqued my interest but at the same time I was aware that there was every possibility that this story would lay outside of my enjoyment zone. However, I’m one of those try-anything-once gals and when I spotted the book on Netgalley, I immediately requested it.

I’ve seen a few reviews of the book cropping up on blogs I follow over the past week or so – some good, some bad – but as of yet I have not read any of them. I wanted to go into this book with an open mind, and that is exactly what I did.

Info:

Title: Halflings
Series: Halflings #1

Author: Heather Burch

Publisher: Zondervan Publishing

Target Audience: YA

Pages: 288

Chapters: 25

PoV: (mostly) 3^rd person

Tense: (mostly) past tense

Story: After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret—and the wings that come with. 

A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything, including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys’ powers, as well as her role in a scientist’s dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.

(from Goodreads)

Thoughts and impressions: Before I start, please note that I read an ARC of this book and some of the issues may have been resolved prior to the book going to print.

Now, I usually address the author’s style in a separate part of the review, but as I have so much to say about the style in Halflings, I’m going to address it in my main review instead.

First things first, this book has a serious case of purple prose-ism. This is not necessarily a bad thing most of the time. I can appreciate the lengths that authors go to in order to come up with some of these metaphors and similes. Sometimes it’s even nice to delve into a flowery style. And then there are times when the flowery goes a bit too far and it becomes sickly sweet rather than just sweet.

Here’s an example:

“Stands of hair pressed against her head where her [motorbike] helmet held them in place, trapped like butterflies under glass.”

Personally, when I have helmet hair, it’s an absolute mess of sticky sweaty strands. Granted, my helmet hair usually comes from a horse riding helmet and the way I ride makes you work up a sweat that you wouldn’t necessarily get from riding a motorbike. That said, whenever I go out on the motorbike, my hair is a far cry from such imagery when I free it from the confines of the helmet.

Here’s another example:

“Two high cheek-bones rested above a mouth that looked capable of pleasing any girl’s lips, but also able to draw into a tight line of defence when necessary.”

I get what the author’s trying to do with that imagery, but it just really doesn’t work for me. A tight line of defence? With his lips?

One last example:

“Krissy rolled her contact lenses.”

I’m sorry, what now? When I read that I actually had to blink and read it again. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is it just me or does that sentence sound really wrong? I get an image of Krissy rolling her contact lenses but not her eyes. Believe you me, that image is scary.

Moving on, much of the story is written in the first person but occasionally it slips into the first person. Usually this is associated with sliding into the current PoV character’s thoughts (this is almost exclusively Nikki, Mace or Raven) but occasionally it didn’t work properly. These are mostly towards the start of the story and unfortunately I don’t have any written down to quote.

The story is narrated in the past tense, but occasionally the PoV character will intervene with something in the present tense. This doesn’t always work, though. There was one particular sentence that came before I had my notebook with me (so probably in the first chapter) where Nikki starts her thought in the past tense but completes it in the present tense. This didn’t work for me.

There were also sentences like this one: “She nodded, and the tips of her hair danced over his skin. She’s making it momentarily difficult to concentrate.” which seem to be caught between the last two points. Is the second part of the sentence supposed to be general 3^rd person commentary on events, or Mace’s 1^st person thoughts? I’m tempted to say the former because if it had been Mace’s thoughts I don’t think he’d have used the adverb ‘momentarily’. Whatever the case, though, things like this jarred me from my reading zone.

Finally, in the very last chapter (no spoilers, promise) there’s one bit that must have just been overlooked during the editing process but it made me laugh aloud so I thought I’d share it. Nikki is looking out at her family home and she describes it as being “off in the distance on a faraway hill”. She decides she wants to visit her house but doesn’t have a car so she’ll walk there, and this is what follows: “it wasn’t far, maybe four streets away.”  For me, four streets away is not a “faraway” hill. This could be because where I grew up a “faraway hill” could be as much as two départements away or in another country (Switzerland or Italy).

I’ve spent quite a bit of time pointing out these issues with the narrative, but I want to reassure everyone that though these problems are there, they are few and far between and only crop up occasionally.

Another thing that didn’t quite work for me was events surrounding the dog. I don’t want to delve into them because that would be going full speed into spoiler territory, but I was impacted by what happened because the dog had not received enough attention prior to this.

Before I get to the good stuff, I have one last negative comment and that is that in the first half of the book I didn’t have a good grasp on how much time was passing between events. There was one point where Nikki’s parents say they’re going away to a convention, and I hadn’t realised the day had even changed when they ring up to find out if she’s ok home alone. Again, this is a minor thing but it meant that I had to keep reassessing what I knew of the story thus far.

Now, onto the good stuff!

The mythology behind this story completely drew me in. Obviously, with it being angels, there’s a huge link with Christianity and sometimes the messages got a little heavy for me as a non-Christian reader, but for the most part I really enjoyed this take on angelic offspring. We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg so far and I expect we’ll find out a lot more in the sequels. I’m especially interested in why the male halflings in the book are blonde-haired and blue-eyed but the females we met were all brunettes with ‘gold- coloured’ eyes. Why this particular difference? I don’t know but I’d sure like to find out!

It’s interesting to note that Nikki is a brunette with amber eyes, which makes me wonder… but then there are other secrets behind her identity which have to be revealed. I’m not entirely sure just what she is yet. There’s certainly something about her, but just what is a tantalising secret that I hope will be addressed more in the next book.

This particular book is mostly devoted to setting up the relationships between the characters. When it opens, the reader is plunged straight into the action with a hellhound chase. There are various other action scenes throughout the story but the majority of time is spent on building Nikki’s relationship with Mace and Raven. This means that things can be on the slow side in places but I was never bored.

We have the typical YA love triangle here with the good guy and the bad boy. In this particular case, right now I prefer Raven because he has more depth to him than Mace. Mace is a bit too good… a bit too much the safe option. Raven is more balanced and he has both good and bad sides (well, his “bad” is mostly just shallow, but that’s not the point). I particularly enjoyed Raven’s interactions with Nikki in the second half of the book. There’s a whole play on Nikki being both a redeemer and the means of the boys’ destruction, which adds a very different side to the YA love triangle. Usually the two boys pull away from the girl because they feel they’d be bad for her, but in this case they have to resist her because she could potentially lead to their downfall. I’m not sure how this will be got around in future books (though I have a fair idea) but I’m certainly looking forward to finding out.

The story, though rounded, is essentially a very long prologue to the second book. I hope that there will be more life-or-death situations in that one and that some plot points will start to be resolved. The intrigue raised in this book is certainly just that, intriguing, but it’s not a book that could hold its own as a standalone. This is not necessarily a bad thing as Kelley Armstrong’s YA books are much the same and they’re some of my favourite YA paranormals.

With all that said, I will definitely be reading the sequel to find out what will happen next.

Style: See first half of thoughts and impressions.

Final verdict: I don’t do half stars, but if I did, I’d give this one three and a half. It’s good and I have no doubts that it will appeal to the YA market but it did have a few problems as well. I’m feeling nice today so I’m going to round up. 4 stars

Extra notes: I didn’t notice any bad language but, admittedly, I wasn’t really keeping an eye out for it. No sex.

Added extra: there is a prequel short story available as an ebook from Amazon. This is supposedly a free ebook but I would have to pay 4 dollars of tax on it, which makes it a bit too expensive for a short story. Good for American readers, though!