Review: Witchstruck (The Tudor Witch Trilogy) by Victoria Lamb

Pub. Date: September 24^th, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Paperback

320 pages

I’m a huge Historical Fiction lover, which makes me very aware of how easy it is to be disappointed in the historical side of Historical Fiction. Thankfully, Witchstruck doesn’t disappoint.

Not every sixteen-year old has figured out that thing that makes them special. But, not every sixteen-year old is a descendant from a long line of witches. In Tudor England, there is an inherent distrust in anything different. Being a maid to the supernaturally interested Princess Elizabeth, offers Meg a small amount of protection, but trying to stay faithful to her families’ history, while trying to stay alive, is a constant juggle. When the stakes start getting too high for Meg to handle everything on her own, she has to figure out if she can trust anyone but Elizabeth with her secret, but risks fatal consequences if she puts her trust in the wrong place. 

My favorite part of the novel is the dynamic between polar opposites Meg and Alejandro – a Catholic Priest in training sent to convert Elizabeth by her sister Queen Mary. Both characters are unique, 

Review: A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchison

Pub. Date: September 1^st, 2013

Publisher: Lerner Publishing Group/ Carolrhoda Lab

320 pages

Hardcover

With sweeping lyricism and expertly woven beauty amongst its tragedy, as a modern retelling from Ophelia’s perspective, A Wounded Name more than does justice to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Since her mother’s death, Ophelia has been considered mildly crazy. With the ability to see ghosts and hear the music of the bean sidhe, even the pills that her father all but forces down her throat, can’t make Ophelia ‘normal’. When Elsinore Academy’s Headmaster dies, everyone is shaken, but no one so much as his son, Dane Hamlet. Dane - devastated by the loss, and furious with the rest of his family - begins to possessively depend and lean on Ophelia. Left with meeting Dane’s needs, her father’s standards, and keeping a promise to her dead mother, Ophelia becomes impervious to her own needs, and suffers greatly for it. When Hamlet starts to act more and more deranged, no one is safe from his wrath, especially not Ophelia.

Though A Wounded Name modernizes Hamlet’s world, the play’s original flow and lyricism is expertly maintained. If a reader were unfamiliar with the play, the creatively interwoven original passages would seem like Hutchison’s words, but for those who know, they are little treats dropped in every once in a while. I was personally not a big fan of Hamlet being reduced from Prince, to son of a school Headmaster, but the majority of the other modernizations worked very well, and I believe they made the story much more accessible and relatable for readers.

Review: Indelible (The Twixt, #1) by Dawn Metcalf

Pub. Date: July 30^th, 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

384 pages

Paperback

Joy Malone is blissfully unaware that the paranormal world of The Twixt exists simultaneously to ours, until a night out leaves her with a sliced cornea, and weird-beings approaching her with nonsensical messages. Indelible Ink, a Scribe from The Twixt, is responsible for receiving messages from other beings of his world, marking humans with an invisible to the human eye signature of ownership. When Joy can see him, instead of blinding her, eliminating her ‘sight’, he mistakenly marks her as his property. Joy and Ink must convince Ink’s world that he intentionally claimed her, or risk their lives. Their relationship, real or fake, is constantly tested, and through these tests they discover that something seriously deceptive is going on within The Twixt.

The characters and their relationships, for me, was the best part of the novel. Joy and Ink’s relationship has just the right mix of love, hate, understanding and misunderstanding, to keep things interesting. In keeping up appearances, Ink and Joy have to act like they are romantically together, something that is completely unnaturally to Ink. He is not human, he does not feel as humans do, and through their relationship Ink experiences many firsts. From holding hands, to feeling jealous, to fearing for someone else’s safety, Joy enlightens Ink to what caring about someone else feels like. I really appreciated the twist of the guy experiencing the firsts, because it is not something we see often. Their relationship was very natural, with the ups and downs that normal relationships have, which I felt made the entire novel realistic, and that much more compelling.

Review: Earthbound (Earthbound #1) by Aprilynne Pike

Pub. Date: July 30^th, 2013

Publisher: Razorbill

352 pgs

Hardcover

Before I review Earthbound, let me just say that I absolutely adored Aprilynne Pike’s Wings series, and I’m always afraid I’m not going to like the new, when I loved the old. Wings was something that I picked up a few years ago expecting a cute, fun, light read, and I found myself surprised by its complexity and world building. My feelings for Earthbound were thankfully the same. I’m not sure how Pike is able to seamlessly create an entire paranormal world with a complex mythology, while keeping the story straightforward, understandable and simple in its delivery. She amazes me, this book amazed me, and you should read it.

Tavia Michaels shouldn’t be alive. She was the only survivor of a plane crash that killed hundreds, including her parents. Now living far away from everything she ever knew, and trying desperately to recover physically and mentally from the damage done in the crash, Tavia questions just how damaged she is when she starts seeing things. Buildings appear and disappear, symbols start popping up everywhere, and Quinn, a guy she swears she has never met, yet feels she has known forever, keeps