Review: The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

Review: The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas
Goodreads 
Release date: September 17th, 2013
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Series: #1 in the Elemental Trilogy
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: We went from a hot mess of a beginning to an inventive, magical tale with EPIC romance.



Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.


I spent all of my Across a Star-Swept Sea review talking about my favorite tropes, and I sort of wish I'd saved that discussion for this book. Because The Burning Sky employed two of my utter favorite tropes brilliantly, so brilliantly that they overcame what I thought was a kind of horrendous beginning: Girl-Disguised-as-a-Boy and I-Hate-You-I-Love-You.

I started this book with ALL THE EXCITEMENT because PRETTY COVER and MAGICAL MAYHEM AWAITED ME! The tiny little prologue really worked for me. It set the whole book up brilliantly and mentioned Eton School, which is a famous public (which means private in England, because Brits are strange) school for boys. So I kind of assumed this book would take place in England, since the prologue most assuredly did.

Nope. We start out in a tiny old-timey village in the realm of... somewhere, where a girl named Iolanthe Seabourne is having some fun with her elemental mage powers. She can control water, fire, and earth, and she's pretty bad-ass at all three of them. Her crabby, drug-addicted mentor/guardian, Haymitch Haywood, comes stumping up at her, shrieking to stop showing off and to not not not go to the wedding that she'd been planning to go to tonight. Iolanthe has been employed to mix the light elixir, which is apparently only something an elemental mage can do. Haywood forbids her to go for REASONS and ruins her elixir. Iolanthe, understandably upset and too stupid to understand there's a dangerous reason she shouldn't go, wrangles a lightning bolt and zaps the elixir, which magically fixes it. It also draws quite a bit of attention.

"The elements are fire, air, water, and earth. Lightning is none of them."
"One could say lightning is the marriage of fire and air."
"One could say mud is the marriage of water and earth," he said dismissively.

Now, that sounds semi straightforward, but believe me, it was not. I had absolutely no freaking clue what was happening, you guys. People kept mentioning Atlantis, but in like a bad, evil way, but it has nothing to do with the famous city under the sea, but seems to have people in it, and then they mention the year is 1021 but just a second ago we were in Eaton in 1888, but wait we are talking about Rumpelstiltskin like he's real, and wait who on earth is this prince guy in a castle in the clouds who can apparently Apparate from place to place SO CONFUSED SO CONFUSED WHAT ON EARTH IS ATLANTIS PLEASE TELL ME



We're not given any time to figure anything about the world-building out. We're flung from place to place and situation to situation at a dizzying, blinding speed, and terms are whizzing by, and we're meant to grasp them. But I just had a frustration headache. And the writing was oddly formal and stilted (which never really changed, but I got used to it).

I only really started to get a handle on things once Titus, aforementioned princely fellow, takes Iolanthe to Victorian England. Apparently, there are different realms, and they're connected. Titus and Iolanthe and their silly names are from a mage realm. Their country, of which Titus is puppet prince, is under the control of Atlantis, which I still don't fully understand. Is it a society? Is it another country? Either way, it's creepy and evil as heck, and is headed by the Bane, baddest, most Voldemort-y mage of all time, and the Inquisitor, a woman who can burrow into your brain and shatter your sanity and collect your thoughts.

The Bane wants Iolanthe for REASONS. For other REASONS I won't tell you, Titus has decided to hide Iolanthe to keep her safe. So he disguises her as a boy and takes her with him to school--to Eton, where no one will look for her.

Ahhhh. That was the sound of me letting out a huge sigh of relief as the book finally starts to make of a modicum of sense. And not jsut sense... but awesome. Because once Tight-ass (hee, hee) and Iolanthe come together, that's when the real magic starts. And by magic I obviously mean



The romance is perfect. I wouldn't change a thing about the way Titus' adorably serious personality plays against Iolanthe's natural charm and bravado. I loved every swoony second of their arc--from admiration, to all-out loathing (Iolanthe's), to the beginnings of feelings they both try to fight against, to... well, I'm to going to tell you! Also, I don't think you can understand how much I love when girls disguise themselves as boys in fiction. I blame Alanna and Mulan and a million other favorite heroines for this. So Iolanthe disguised as Archer Fairfax, confident, cricket-playing Etonion was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Are Titus and Iolanthe a little too good at everything? Probably But I enjoyed the inventiveness of some of the magic spells, and the Crucible in particular, even though I don't like the use of our realm's fairy tales. It felt like too much. A bit of a hodge podge, really. But I loved Titus and Iolanthe's personalities and chemistry, and that they weren't above deceiving each other.They've got an excellent bantery I-loathe-you-but-obviously-I'll-love-you thing going on. And this book is FUNNY. I love books with senses of humor. They have a dirty conversation about "wands" that is truly delightful, and the breast binding is scene is wonderfully, awkwardly hilarious.

"For... resizing your person," he said as he rehemmed the sheet with another spell. 


Oh Titus, you adorable princeling. Let me love you.

So. Was the beginning a tangle of nonsense? Yes. Could the world-building use a bit of tightening? Definitely. Did I shriek and squeal and hug myself while carving Titus + Iolanthe into a tree? HELL YEAH. This ship, it is a good, strong ship, and I am its proud captain. Come sail with me.

"Oh, I am destiny's darling."

*huggles the poor Titus* I would like the sequel sometime now-ish, please. Even sooner, if it's possible.

Book Haul Vlog, or the One with Bookish Presents From Bookish People

Presents from Christina at A Reader of Fictions:
The Year of Shadows by Claire Legrand
Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley
How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler
Starglass by Phoebe North (thanks, ARCycling!)

Won from Judith at Paperiot:
If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch 

Purchased:
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

For review:
Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell (thanks, Amulet!)

Baking the Books: Now That's A Cupcake of a Different Color!

 Welcome to Baking the Books, where I bake things inspired by my favorite novels! Since I do a lot of reading and a lot of baking, it was only a matter of time before the two things overlapped. It's just part of my evil plot to get books involved in every single aspect of my life.

Previously on Baking the Books: Shadow and Bone Appetit!

Today's culinary adventure will take us all the way over the rainbow and into the wonderful land of Oz! Well, not entirely over the rainbow. Instead, we'll be eating the rainbow.Trust me, it tastes good. These cupcakes could be used for a lot of other reasons--for, say, St. Patrick's Day, or in celebration of Two Boys Kissing, or something. But today, it's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum, a book that influenced nearly all of our childhoods, either directly or through the classic movie adaptation and it's classic song, "Somewhere over the Rainbow". To bastardize Janis Ian, "Everybody in the English-speaking world knows that song."




Ingredients (makes about 25 cupcakes; I halved it):

1 1//4 cups vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking poweder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups full fat sour cream OR yogurt OR Greek yogurt
1 packet of food coloring. If you can find one with green and/or purple, your life will be easier. Mine had green, but no purple.

 OR:

Cheat and use a white cake box mix. I WON'T TELL IF YOU DON'T.

For decoration: 

I box of marzipan

Assembly:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put your oven rack in the bottom third of the oven, so your cupcakes don't get too brown. Prepare your muffin tin and liners, then set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, add the1 1/4 cups oil and 1 3/4 cups white sugar. Beat together for about two minutes, until they're well mixed and the sugar dissolves. Add 4 eggs and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes, until its smooth and creamy-looking.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together 2 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt. Add these dry ingredients to your wet ingredient mix on low, then medium, speed until it's incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the 1 1/2 cups sour cream/yogurt/Greek yogurt and beat on medium low speed until all incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for about thirty more seconds.

Now we make some RAINBOWS!

Separate your batter into five different bowls. Using the food coloring, dye each bowl of batter a different color: one red, one yellow, one green, one blue, and one purple.



(Refresher course for those with only primary-colored food dye: Yellow + Blue = green, Red + Blue = Purple). And yes, if you are mixing your purple by hand, it WILL be unsightly. Purple is just about the hardest color in the whole world to mix. You'll just have to accept that no one will want to eat the bottoms of your cupcake. Go overboard with dyeing the red bowl. I didn't put enough red in mine, and it came out slightly pinkish.

And now comes the part that takes forever and makes you cry: layering the batters!

First, put a dollop of that unsightly purple on the bottom of your cupcake liners. No, that's not silly putty, that's actually the purple. Don't worry, it bakes up prettier.

Use a knife or off-set spatula or the back of a spoon to spread the batter smooth. Then put a dollop of the blue batter, and spread that too. Repeat with the green, then the yellow, then the red. This will take a hundred years.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, but keep a careful eye on them, since every oven is different. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack.

Decoration time!

Take out your marzipan. Set aside a small portion of it and dye it yellow by putting a few drops of yellow food coloring on it and mixing it into the dough by kneading and rolling.

This will make it TREMENDOUSLY sticky. You might want to stick it in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up again before you roll it out flat and thin. Cut rectangles in the yellow marzipan. Score them with a brick pattern. I also died some marzipan red for ruby slippers, but it turns out slippers are REALLY HARD TO MAKE. I managed, somehow, but oh boy.

There are so many other decorations I wish I'd had time to make: a witch's hat, Toto, a lion's face, a silver heart, poppies. Use your imagination to make whatever Oz-themed cupcake toppers you want!

Once the cupcakes are cool, put a dollop of whipped cream on top, then top that with a marzipan decoration. And then your cupcakes are ready for business.

Glinda the Good Cupcake

An Ode to Hermione Granger (And a Magical Giveaway)

 

Today, September 19, is Hermione Granger's birthday. (It is also the day I hit 100,000 pageviews, but we should focus on Hermione). Most kids who grew up reading Harry Potter, like I did, wanted to be Hermione. I was a lot like her when I was younger. I really loved books and reading, and sometimes I was a huge know-it-all. All those things are still true today. Also true today? Hermione is still completely, totally awesome.

17 reasons why I love Hermione Granger and want to be her when I grow up:

 1. She doesn't let twitchy little ferrets like Malfoy walk all over her.

 

 2. She's the voice of the compassion in the series, and is the only one willing to voice things that other wizards wouldn't dare (S.P.E.W.!)

 

3. She has no patience for the idiocy of mankind.



4. She always willing to teach those with less brain power a lesson. Which is everybody.

 

5. She's a bit close-minded and didactic at times, but she learns to change her mind.



6. She gives epic bitchface.



7. She can swoon with the best of us.

 

 8. She gives absolutely withering insults.

 

9. She's absolutely brilliant, and works hard to define herself by her brain.

 

10. She totally stresses out about school.

 

11. She finds boys just as confusing as I do (though she gives great relationship advice).



12. She will take you down a peg or twelve if need be.



13. She's a deeply loyal friend.

 

14. Despite the fact that she's brilliant, she's also insecure.

 

15. She saves the day, like, every day.



16. She's willing to sacrifice anything for her friends.



17. Because they're stronger together than they are apart.



I just love how real of a character Hermione is, so strong and so vulnerable at the same time. She care immensely what people think of her, and yet, despite that fear of being rejected, she continues to be herself-- even when herself is irritating, swotty, and meddlesome. Plus, she's semi-based on young J.K. Rowling herself. So. Obviously she's the best.

In celebration of Hermione's birthday, and my own blogoversary month, I'm giving away ONE HARRY POTTER SPECIAL EDITION PAPERBACK. Not once boxed set, mind you. Just one book. But you can choose ANY BOOK YOU LIKE! This giveaway is international.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Once We Were by Kat Zhang

Review: Once We Were by Kat Zhang
Goodreads 
Release date: September 17th, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: #2 in the Hybrid Chronicles
Source: ARC from BEA
Rating: A slow beginning and somewhat "meh" characters are overcome by an AWESOME ending and world-building that makes me think.



"I'm lucky just to be alive."

Eva was never supposed to have survived this long. As the recessive soul, she should have faded away years ago. Instead, she lingers in the body she shares with her sister soul, Addie. When the government discovered the truth, they tried to “cure” the girls, but Eva and Addie escaped before the doctors could strip Eva’s soul away.

Now fugitives, Eva and Addie find shelter with a group of hybrids who run an underground resistance. Surrounded by others like them, the girls learn how to temporarily disappear to give each soul some much-needed privacy. Eva is thrilled at the chance to be alone with Ryan, the boy she’s falling for, but troubled by the growing chasm between her and Addie. Despite clashes over their shared body, both girls are eager to join the rebellion.

Yet as they are drawn deeper into the escalating violence, they start to wonder: How far are they willing to go to fight for hybrid freedom? Faced with uncertainty and incredible danger, their answers may tear them apart forever.

My review of What's Left of Me

*spoilers for book one below*

The cover: I love these covers. They are so unique and seem the capture the spirit of these novels: two girls struggling to find out who they are when they're so tangled up in someone else, when they are someone else.

The story: I'm not really sure how to organize my thoughts for this book. On the one hand, Zhang sets up some truly moving and deep philosophical questions (the whole two souls, one body thing is pretty complicated), and her writing is exquisite. On the other hand, the pacing for Once We Were was almost turgid at times, and I failed to connect until the latter half of the novel. But oh, what a latter half it is. It almost makes up for the many, many talking scenes we get.

Perhaps I've been spoiled by the action-packed, quick-moving books I've read lately. Maybe I'm lazy and impatient and our culture is dangerously addicted to instant-gratifications and we can't handle. Whatever the reason, the beginning of Once We Were was a bit of a struggle for me. Addie and Eva, twin souls, have escaped from Nornand, the hospital in which they were imprisoned, along with Devon/Ryan (Ryan is the soul that Eva liiiikes) and his sister Hally/Lissa. They are safely hidden in a city with other hybrids who are working underground to rescue as many children as they can.

Maybe I struggled so much because I really couldn't remember that much from What's Left of Me, and none of these characters have ever really popped for me. They don't pop much in Once We Were, either, and it's especially difficult when nearly every character is two for the price of one. I felt a lack of emotional connection, which is usually a dealbreaker for me, except that I was invested in one thing: Eva and Addie's relationship.

In Once We Were, this relationship is tested pretty strenuously. These girls are more than sisters; they are quite literally soul mates. But Addie and Eva don't always want the same things. Eva, dormant for so long, is now eager to take action to help the underground cause. Addie feels ignored by Eva and like her separate desires are being pushed to the background. A new wrench is thrown into the mix when Eva and Addie learn that for small amounts of time, one of the souls is able to "disappear", leaving one girl completely in charge while the other vanishes into a dreamlike state. While this is good for Eva and Ryan's romance (can you IMAGINE making out with someone who has another person in their brain that you DON'T want to make out with while YOU have another person in your brain who doesn't want to make out with either of them??? ARGH), it also sets up new and troubling situations for Eva and Addie. Namely, that they can know completely keep secrets from one another.

Addie and Eva do a lot of internal arguing in Once We Were.

I loved reading about the conflicts between Eva and Addie, because the complexities of their dynamic (and all the other hybrids) are the most fascinating part of the book. I don't completely buy all of Zhang's other world-building, but when it comes to the mindsets, feelings, and conflicts of the hybrids, I feel like she nailed it. So much of What's Left of Me was about Eva fighting for her right to be alive and independent. Once We Were shifts the focus to both Addie and Eva as they try to determine who they are separately and together, and what they want to do in the world. Whether they want to fight or run. And if they choose to fight, just how far they're willing to go.

The other hybrids are all a bit faceless to me, to be honest. I remember really loving Hally/Lissa in the first book, but their personalities seemed quite indistinct in this one Devon, on the other hand, is probably my new favorite. And while parts of What's Left of Me truly broke my heart, I never got those levels of feels from Once We Were.

Once the action begins, in the last third or so of the book, things get really exciting. Obviously, I can't say anything about it, but you should know that your patience through the slow and thoughtful beginning is worth it. Zhang's prose is also stunning. Her descriptions are not as lush as they were in What's Left of Me, but every now and then I'd be bowled over by a specific phrase or word choice. The dreamlike moments, where Eva has disappeared to give Addie some privacy, are written in poetry form, and they're truly beautiful. There's definitely a soft-ish cliffhanger at the end, but that just serves to leave me excited for book three, where I hope the action revs up fully and the scale of the plot gets bigger. But overall, Once We Were was a positive read for me, even if it didn't blow me away.

Top Ten Books On My Fall 2013 TBR List

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

As usual, I've gone over ten, but do you know how HARD it is to only list ten? How do other people DO it? Ten is so SMALL. To keep myself at least close to ten, I focused only on the books I do not own or have ARCs of but that are coming out in September, October, or November (which means I can't scream NEW TAMORA PIERCE BOOK NEW TAMORA PIERCE BOOK or THESE BROKEN STARS I CANNOT WAIT TO DIVE IN except oh look I just did). Just for reasons. Basically, these are the books at the top of my "to buy" list.

1. Red by Alison Cherry

 

I've always wanted to be a redhead, and this book may be the thing that finally convinces me to do or dye trying (BADUM BUM).

2. Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano



Pretty cover. Pretty premise. I wants.

3. Premeditated by Josin L. McQuein



I've wanted this book ever since I read its prospective query on Query Shark a million years ago. AND NOW IT'S COMING.

4. Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan

 

Which of my ships will sail? (None, if I know Sarah. Or all. I can't decide). Who will die and destroy my soul? (Everyone, if I know Sarah).

5. Goodbye, Rebel Blue by Shelley Coriell



I've hear nothing but good things about Coriell's first novel, and this one just looks and sounds amazing. Also: cover. LOOK AT IT.

6. Palace of Spies by Sarah Zettel



British history + mystery = Gillian's happy place.

7. The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney

 

 The Dark Knight meets Cinder. While the fact that it's packaged by Alloy Entertainment makes me nervous, I'm willing to give this a shot for its AWESOME premise.

8. This Wicked Game by Michelle Zink

 

One word: voodoo.

9. Shadows by Robin McKinley



I've loved many Robin McKinley books, and considering this is set in "a compelling and inventive novel set in a world where science and magic are at odds"... I NEED IT.

10. Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities 2) by Shannon Messenger

 

I had mixed feelings about the first book in this series, but ultimately I was charmed by it. I'm excited to get to book two and find out if Sophie a) kisses one of her many boyfriends, or b) gains a new superpower. Since, you know, a million isn't enough for one thirteen-year-old elf.

11. Allegiant by Veronica Roth

 

Well, duh. Big final installment to big, highly-hyped series.

12. Champion by Marie Lu



Ditto above.