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Ranking Girlhood Journeys
Now this series may be more popular in the doll collectors circle, but I’ve always been more into books than dolls and read each trillogy assigned to each doll that tells a little about what it is like for ten year olds back in their respective time periods.
- Shannon: This trilogy follows a young Irish girl, Shannon and her family after they travel to San Francisco to meet with her father and pursue the 1850s American dream complete with a real house that has a balcony and everything. This one gets to the number one spot because it has a little more substance than the others as she deals with xenaphobia and anti-Irish prejudice. She also fights against anti-Chinese prejudice on behalf of her friend who she saved from indentured servitude.
- Kai: Kai is part of the Igbo tribe who spends her days spying on her tribes sculptors. But it’s mens work or so she thinks when she’s sent to another tribe for help with the harvest and learns about women artists. I put this one second partially due to nostalgia as being the first I read and partly because I found it educational and interesting since their kingdoms are so unlike any others usually studied in Europe.
- Juliet: Taken place in the medieval era, Juliet shows the creepy superstitions, power plays and romantic revels of the era as she helps her older friend begin her life in court. It gets third because while it has some interesting plots like Juliet helping what she perceives to be a friendship rival get her father out of the prison of a corrupt sherrif. But it is also pulled back from the interesting plots to a more mundane fixing her mistake when she accidentally lets loose a prized falcon. So potential but feels like it focused on more typical plots.
- Marie: This one comes in last because it feels like it has the least content within it. It’s simply slice of life and even though it takes place in 1775, this is long before the French Revolution so readers don’t even get the excitment of brewing political ideals just hints of it. It’s more general stuff like fitting in ballet class, finding money and appreciating annoying baby sisters. Things one can find in any early reader just with a historical setting.
There’s also a 13th book about a Peruvian girl named Isabel but there’s only one instead of a trilogy so who knows why it’s shorter than the others.
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The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Review
Alright, I lied in the previous review when I said I was done with the series. There’s one more piece of the larger Twilight universe. A non essential piece technically as it has no bearing on Bella’s story in the big picture but provides an interesting glimpse into the life of newborns.
The novella follows Bree Tanner who is memorablly killed in Eclipse as the sole newborn to surrender, having potential to join the Cullens, almost human. . . But that life is cut short.
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Quarentine Princess Diaries
Ah yes, the long awaited return of Mia Thermopolis of Genovia. Or maybe not so much long awaited but a fun surprise! Much like Royal Wedding, Mia’s story ended nicely with her tenth diary but it is such a delight to see the familiar cast of characters and how they’ve grown especially in the most trying of times. The COVID-19 pandemic.
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Jeannie Chin Interview
Jeannie Chin is the author of the small town romance, Blue Cedar Falls, delivering a diverse small town romance readers can feel at home in. She generously shared her time to discuss her writing, the small town romance genre and more.
1. What role has writing been in your life?
I’ve been writing for as long as I remember. As a child and as a teen, I wrote for fun all the time. I drifted away from it as a hobby during early adulthood, then discovered it again at a difficult time in my life. It became a hugely important creative outlet that I’ve been so happy and proud to expand into a professional endeavor.
2. How did you manage the switch from high school science teacher to writer?
My time as a teacher is the difficult period in my life I alluded to above! While I enjoyed teaching, I found it massively stressful and draining, and I was working in an under resourced school with more than its fair share of challenges. I got very burned out and lost while I was there.Tapping into my creative writer brain helped me reconnect with myself, and before I knew it, the writing bug took over my life. While it doesn’t seem like a natural career change, I think my skills explaining things to people and analyzing problems logically has been a huge help as I’ve honed my craft as a story teller.
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Ranking The Chronicles of Prydian
No, not the Disney movie, the Disney movie butchered the books if that’s what you’re thinking of when it comes to The Black Cauldron.
But you wouldn’t be reading this if you were into the Disney movie, would you? I’ve noticed I have made my rankings longer than necessary by describing the plot which I realized was redundant as I’m assuming one wouldn’t be reading my rankings unless they have already some idea of these book series. So I’ll be keeping it short.
- The Black Cauldron: Okay I’m biased with this one. Even though the movie wasn’t good, it did make me look into finding out that it was based on Alexander’s series so I tracked down the novel. Although it’s the second book, I think it does a great job in showing Taren the difficulties and sacrifices that are required for being a hero, an interesting foil, and of course, the rest of the gang backing him up with Ffluer and Eliwonly at their best. So very enjoyable.
- The Castle of Llyr: This comes second for its magnificent quest-like adventure in combination with revealing more of Eliwonly’s origins and her magic. Also I’m just a sucker for the Taren-Eliwonly romance
- The High King: Just epic! Epic, epic! I mean it’s a freaking war over the fate of Prydian with a ephemeral ending that emphasizes the high fantasy setting of the books that is remiscent of the old adventure tales where everyone lives happily ever after. It comes in third though because with the epic nature of everything, the smaller moments get a bit lost in my opinion. Even though everyone has their chance to show which is always great.
- The Book of Three: This is where it all began, and thus while it is wonderful for setting up the story, it is predictable. I do admire how Alexander began this so optimistically in keeping with the original Welsh retellings of legends before adding more mature and darker themes.
- Taren the Wanderer: While this is a great book for Taren himself as it really makes him grow as a hero and as a person, learning more about himself, breaking past misconceptions of his hero’s journey and what it means to be a leader, a wonderful character exploration. . . I just miss his friends. A big draw of the series is its ragtag band of heros who work with Taren and grow to reach their destiny, it just feels like its missing something without them.
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Pop’s Chock’lit Shop of Horrors Review
Here comes another anaology horror series from Archie Horror!
Die and Dash is the story that brings readers to the Chocklit Shop that has turned from cheerful 50s nostaglia to something far more sinister as when Nick and Sherry get caught trying to dine and dash.
First off, I loved the choice to have Nick St. Clair and Sherry, both characters that have been one shot ones. So I was surprised to see them and then even more surprised to see them as a couple but hey, it’s cool. One of the fun things in the Archieverse are the endless couple permutations one can do.
So as they try to dine and dash, Pop catches them and enlists their services as his last employee couldn’t cut it in the work enviroment. In fact, he may be the dead one on the floor. It was quite abrupt and suddenly ends there. . . At least I thought so but Sherry and Nick’s story continues in between the other stories culminating in a killer ending that emphasizes the message–No one can escape Pop.
I mean the Terminator-esque red eyes was a big clue to that but just adds to the surreal landscape of this piece.
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The Cult of That Wilkin Boy Review
Everyone knows how obssesive fans can get about their favorite band or singer, you know cult favorites. . . but in this case, Wilkin’s fans are an actual cult thanks to Bingo’s deal with the devil.
Spoilers ahead.
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What is with the page length in YAs?
Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but what is this new trend in YA fantasy books to make them over 500 pages?
For example, I love Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles. Dark Artifices is the trilogy where she really amps the page length into the 800s. Queen of Air and Darkness was nearly a 1,000 if you include the bonus story in the end. But I understood it since it was a big game changer with consequences in the universe. But now her Last Hours trilogy is also in the 700 length?
Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse started off with the standard 400 pages then 500 in Six of Crows but her latest duology goes to almost 700. See this steady progression of adding more and more.
Honestly, I understand why writers may do this. They feel that it needs to be longer to fit everything, it helps set up the greater tone, include a large cast of characters.
But to me, it’s just overwhelming to see this 700 page mammoth. 400 is enough for me, 500 if we’re stretching it.
I also feel that they did such a sufficient job introducing the world in those 350-400 page novel, why can’t they do that here?
I mean with that page count, you could just split it into two and make your trilogy a quartet and rake in the dough. I feel that sometimes the longer it is, it drags on. So much description, so much internal monologue, so much romantic angst often gets repetitive even if it’s shown with varied view points. It could be squashed in a succinct few paragraphs rather than pages.
Also I’m just generally suspicious of 700 page novels. It may be a creative free for all but I also suspect the author is getting paid by word or something. I mean Queen of Air and Darkness is longer than Anna Karenina, think about it.
So what do you think of the progressive longer page lengths in YA? Big fan or no? Write down your comments
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Rick Riordan Presents
I’ll admit I’m one of the few people who hasn’t read the Percy Jackson series. I did read The Kane Chronicles though. And when I heard the news of this new imprint taking on mythologies from all over the world, I finally found time to read the first book of each one. Now I know I didn’t get to every series on the imprint but these were the ones that were available at the library.
While I don’t know if I have time or the want to read the rest of the series since some of them were out of my age of interest, I do think they were all well-done delivering exciting adventure that highlight the breadth of mythology anf their importance in sharing universal lessons that make readers want to retell them again and again.
So below are story summaries from Amazon and my quick thoughts on each. Hopefully, it’ll intrigue you enough to take a look at these epic adventures yourselves.
(more…)#africanamericanmythology, #africandiasphora, #anathology, #arushahandtheendoftime, #carloshernandez, #cityoftheplaguegod, #dinemythology, #disneyhyperion, #gaelicmythology, #gracikim, #hindumythology, #hmongmythology, #j.c.cervantes, #koreanmythology, #kwamembalia, #lorim.lee, #magicalrealism, #mayanmythology, #mesotopianmythology, #mexicanmythology, #middlegrade, #navajomythology, #pahuaandthesoulstealer, #paolasantiagoandtheriveroftears, #racetothesun, #rachelreads&reviews, #rebeccaroanhorse, #rickriordan, #rickriordanpresents, #roshanichokshi, #salandgabibreaktheuniverse, #sarwatchadda, #tehlorkaymejia, #thecursedcarnivalandothercalamities, #thelastfallenstar, #thestormrunner, #tristanstrongpunchesaholeinthesky, #westafriacanmythology, #worldmythology -
Author Highlight: Jeannie Chin
I’ll admit as appealing as the covers of small town romances look to me, whenever I try to read them, I always end up stopping at book 2. They just bleed into one another for me and even dramatic plots feel predictable. Historical and regency romance are more bag than the small Midwestern towns where everyone knows everyone else that is supposed to feel cozy but I feel like its clustraphobic and incestuous.
Not Jeannie Chin’s Blue Ceder Falls, NC.
Yes, it’s another small town where everyone knows your name but it feels more real to me somehow. It doesn’t feel disconnected from the rest of the world. Probably thanks to its diversity.
Chin injects some of her experiences of being Asian-American in a town filled with the usual cast of white characters with the Wu sisters. Even so, it makes it more real. Blue Ceder Falls is idyllic but can also be unwelcoming to strangers like Clay, the marine veteran wandering in the first book to open a bar in honor of his friend. Small towns can be territorial in that sense and Chin acknowledges that by tying it in with her themes of feeling like an outsider.
She also tackles the Asian-American experience in her subsequent books, breaking against the model minority myth with the flighty sister, Elizabeth and the sometimes assumption that the two Asian kids are bound together in the case of May and Han. I mean they do, they love each other but it was kinda annoying when they were insecure high schoolers.
This allows Chin to establish that while this is a wholesome, cozy series, it will also bring up tough issues with depth, balancing the lightness of romance, small town festivals, gallary openings, and family with real life issues like June’s friend coming out to her parents, PTSD, Elizabeth’s friend’s fears with motherhood, financial burden of running inns, and health issues.
The romances are distinct, sweet and charming, combined with the real life issues they face, and internal issues of miscommunication and misaligned ambitions for life, make it layered and heartwarming as everyone finds their HEA.
If you’re looking for a 21st century take on a small town with flawed characters, engaging romances and the importance of community and family over all, you’ll want to visit Blue Ceder Falls real soon.
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