Ella Enchanted

 Another retelling of Cinderella. 

Ella was "blessed," more like cursed, when she was a baby by a fairy named Lucinda to be Obedient, therefore she must do everything someone, anyone, tells her to do. She tries to fight against the curse going at it slowly or obnoxiously, but eventually she has to give in to whatever someone says. After her beloved mother dies, she is forced to go to finishing school with two nasty girls (who'd eventually become her step sister). On her way there, Hattie figures out that Ella has to be obedient and starts making her life miserable. She runs away, trying to find Lucinda to take the curse away (with the help of her own fairly godmother) but things don't go as planned. 

A simple, very fanciful retelling of the traditional story, it "fixes" a few of the things that modern audiences have problems with. Why didn't Cinderella leave? Why does she have to do what she's told? Why would the Prince marry her at the end without even knowing her? Historically, those questions wouldn't have mattered. Arranged marriages happened all the time and not being able to leave your home or position was obvious. But it gives our modern eyes reasons and explanations. 

I enjoy Ella and Char as a characters. I like the way their relationship is friendly and develops over the course of the story. Often we don't get that in a Cinderella story (which is why I think it is retold so much and why we get so many versions of it, the romance is open ended). I think their relationship is what makes this story. Yes, Ella goes on an adventure, but them together or their letters to each other is what really draws us through the story. 

Sapphire Blue

 The continuation of Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier happens two seconds after the conclusion of the first one. 

Gwen and Gideon get themselves and their fancy clothes back to the House of the Guardians, but Gwen's head is still spinning because he kissed her! and there is a new gargoyle hanging around who won't leave her alone. Maybe he can be of some use, though, when he's not making fun of her. Things are becoming more chaotic and confusing as her world shifts and sways with the new information Gwen keeps getting. Lucy and Paul are trying to get in contact with her, but she's constantly being told that they are dangerous, but are they or are the Guardians or the Count hiding things they don't want her to understand? Then there is Gideon who keeping flip flopping on if he's going to kiss her or scorn her and look the other way. Gwen is only 16, how is she supposed to deal with all of this? 

I enjoyed this one more than the first. Probably because we were more into the story and got a few more answers. I also enjoyed meeting Gwen's grandpa--makes me miss mine. 

I'm intrigued by the bad guy of the series. His motives are understandable and he seems cunning enough to almost get it done. Obviously he won't succeed, at least for long, but I want to know more about this ingenious, charismatic, narsisistic man. 

I can also understand why some people in their reviews give this series a bad time. Gwen, being sixteen, doesn't know what she's feeling and does get led on. She's not the "eat my dust," "all boys suck," "I can do everything myself" kinda girl which is getting shoved down everyone's throat. The "girl power" here is lacking and I think that makes it more believable. I remember being sixteen and seventeen and how windswept you can feel when you find out a boy loves you and kisses you. I remember needing "blowy-upy movies" for a bit after the first break up. It's hard and it's confusing and I think it's portrayed realistically here.

One reviewer in particular hated how Gwen forgave so easily and how she still fauns over Gideon, but didn't we all back then? We want that first love to be real so much that we do stupid things? The fact that everyone keeps commenting that they can see her affection for Gideon so boldly on her face is proof that she doesn't quite know what she's doing, because she has no idea how to hide it! I do believe *SPOILER* Gideon is being manipulative at the start, but I think this is more the romantic troupe of "it started out that way, but then I actually fell in love with you and it's real" like in How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days or other ones like that *end of spoiler.* 

I can't give this one a perfect 5 stars because it's ending was so abrupt again. I think it would have worked better as a single volume instead of three separate books. It would flow better I think. 

Ruby Red

 Originally published in Germany, Ruby Red is a book about modern time travelers, which is something I wouldn't have expected coming from this front cover. 

Gwen lives in a family of time travelers. Not everyone can do it and everyone is waiting for Charlotte, Gwen's cousin, to pop out of time at any moment. What's not expected is when Gwen suddenly finds herself on her own street corner in the early 1900's instead of the early 2000s she pops back to her own time quickly, but it's not supposed to be her that's the time traveler. Charlotte is the one who did all the studying on curtsies and dates of fires and earthquakes, not Gwen. Charlotte is the one who everyone says is perfect for this job, not Gwen. Charlotte is the one everyone is expecting, not Gwen. And everyone lets her know that. Now Gwen is in the middle of a very old, secretive society who still believe that girls are good for nothing except in the kitchen and making babies, as if they don't have a head on their shoulders and brains between their ears. And an 18 Century duke is most interested in Gwen and whatever magic she possesses for his own uses. 

Time travel isn't what I was expected from this book at all. Fellow librarians had suggested I read it ages ago, and it's only now gotten high up enough on the "To Be Read" pile that I was actually able to look at it, or hear it at any rate. I do appreciate the boundaries that are put in place fairly early on when it comes to time travel. I think that if there aren't some form of boundaries, stories get a little too wishy-washy and there are more loopholes than should be "allowed." 

I also think Kerstin Gier did a good job at giving us the information we as readers needed without info-dumping too much on us. "Show don't tell" was well done, for the most part. There are many facets to this story that could make it extremely complicated, what with ghosts and time travel and secret societies, but it's done clearly over all that we don't get too bogged down and are lost. 

The characters are thought out well. There are a bunch of them who seem a little unneeded (particularly kids from school) at this point, though I'm unsure if they will be "needed" farther on into the story. Gwen and Leslie, Charlotte and Gideon, the Count and Mr. George, and Gwen's grandmother and aunt, and even some of the side-side characters were well developed and seem to be their own people. I think the people are what carry this story along the most as they seem naturally like real people. Obviously time traveling and figuring out secrets pushes the plot along, but the story is pushed by the people in it. 

The only thing I have a problem with is the climax. The ending didn't even seem like an ending to me. I was expecting the audiobook to go on much longer and have more at steak than it did--maybe I'm to use to "Sander-lanches" where the endings are grand and have such high steaks that this one fell flat for me. 

EDIT: After reading the other books, I think if they had been one big story instead of being split into three it would have worked better story-wise. Though for marketing purposes and the fact that they are YA books might have meant that they needed to be a trilogy instead of just a larger volume, which would have been more fitting. 

The Scarlet Letter (Manga)

I've never read this classic and when scanning through the comic section of my library, I came across it and finished it in a day. 

1642, Hester Prynne is married to a man in England whom she doesn't love and has a baby with another man. She won't say who this man is and lets the blame fall completely on herself. She is given a scarlet letter to put on her chest so that everyone in town knows of her sin and will treat her with the distain she deserves. Her husband makes arrives in town but tells her now to reveal who he is and they can go about their business, an ever present demon as he seeks to find who is the baby's father and take his vengeance on the man's soul. Hester raises her daughter, Pearl, on her own and tries to do her best to receive redemption for the sin she committed. As the years go by and by her good works in her community, the letter on her chest starts to represent her "ability" to do good as opposed to the "adultery" she is convicted of and she creates a good name for herself although her sin is never far from people's minds. 

This was a very interesting book. My friends were forced to read it in school and many didn't like it (who does when it's mandatory reading?). So I didn't know what I was really getting into. The fact that it's a manga and the pictures helped illustrate what the metaphors in the story were trying to convey what was going on much better than I think I would have gotten the first time through on a normal book read. My brain is kinda like that. Roger Chillingworth becoming more demonic as time goes on and the amount of guilt that radiates from poor sickly Arthur Dimmesdale is very well portrayed, along with how the town slowly changes their opinion of Hester as she proves that one mistakes is what makes her up as a person. 

The overarching theme of how guilt can impact people is extremely interesting and probably why it is a classic. The fact that because Hester's sin is in front of everyone and that her guilt is boldly on her chest for everyone to see, as opposed to Arthur, who is looked up to greatly by all of the community, hides it and becomes sick because of the gnawing guilt of it all; and the way it compares the two, their reactions and that of the community, and how freeing it can be to... forgive themselves...? Is that what it is? To let the guilt be lifted and how freeing that can be. 

The artwork in here was extremely well done, as was the "summary" of the story. Obviously it's not all of it. I'm sure many of the conversations and sermons were shortened or no in there at all which is fine. From the other "Manga Classics" that I've read, they do a very good job at portraying the most important things of the story without missing as much as you thing. 

Key's to the Demon Prison

 Slow in reviews it seems... 

My son and I finished this back in the beginning of April. As the final book in the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull, we enjoyed the somewhat ribbon tied ending. 

Kendra and Seth go to another hidden sanctuary in hopes of getting the last artifact to stop the Sphinx's schemes of opening the demon prison. The get there and find that The Evening Star is already there and are ready to bite their heals. Finding the last artifact and getting out prove extremely difficult. Seth and others get captured with Kendra and very few actually escaping. Seth, while in prison, makes new acquaintances and makes a deal with the Sphinx, while Kendra and others make a plans for a jail break. But when Seth gets out and the others become captured, thing get more complicated when Seth makes another deal with a demon and finds just how poorly those can end. Now with more demons on the loose, with new allies yet still in prison, and the list of true keys to the demon prison dying Seth, Kendra, and their comrades need to find means of stopping armies of demons from taking over the world. 

There was so much going on with this book. In looking back, there was so much jumping around from place to place that it if you weren't paying enough attention you could get lost. But I think, because it was the culmination of everything it was fitting. I do find it interesting how many final books (in series) end with a treasure hunt. Where people have to run around like crazy in order to stop the big bad because they don't have all the things they need yet. It ends up becoming a treasure hunt more than anything else--I'm looking at you HP. I while it works gathering up these odds and ends, it does get a little crazy. Also then to have the big bad finished off "fairly easily" and by two kids is kinda odd -- I get it's young YA and they went through a lot to get there, but still. 

I enjoyed the character progression over all for Kendra and Seth, though Seth had much more than Kendra did--hers I felt was lacking. I liked at the end of the book how there were questions from the author about how different Seth was in the beginning (opening windows during a solstice) to now (still getting bamboozled by a demon). He still makes mistakes, but owns up to them; and how these mistakes and his reasoning behind them changed over the course of the series. I do think it would have been nice to have Kendra need to abruptly learn new things and change for the better, but I honestly can't think of a when she did. She seems to stay the same throughout the whole series. 

I liked being able to see the different sanctuaries and fairy shrines and other important places that we get to travel. Brandon Mull has an interesting imagination to come up with some of the crazy traps and strange situations that he's able to create in the story. From Australia to Turkey to Norway. Teleportation helps a lot in order to do that. 

My son was happy with the ending and letting the world of Fablehaven chill for a bit. It was a long time reading these books. Now we're off to other worlds and adventures, but we'll probably not be too far away from Mull's other works in the future. 

Revenge of the Witch

I read this years ago and couldn't remember anything about it. Originally I gave it four stars and I hold to that with a reread. 

Tom Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son, therefore making him the special. He doesn't know how, but his mother believes he is someone who will help him fight the coming darkness. Now that he is older and his eldest brother is running the farm with his pregnant wife (along with their aging father and mother), Tom is sent to start and apprenticeship with the Spook. Spook, or Mr. Gregory, is the Country's Spook. He's the one who takes care of those things that go bump in the night. Tom's apprenticeships is hard and full of scary moments. His first trial as a Spook is to stay the night in a haunted house, don't open the door for anyone, at midnight go into the cellar, and don't let the candle go out. Bravery and facing his fears will be key to any and everything he does as an apprentice Spook. After meeting a girl with pointy shoes, things go from faint bumps in the night to revenge and kidnapped children very quickly. 

I'm not much of a horror person. Thriller to an extent, but I don't do horror. There were two times in the book where I actually got a little jittery. Well written parts. I had to remind myself that it was just a story, and a young adult story at that. Though for it being young adult, it was kinda pushing the envelope for me. Like a baby died (and eaten) here and normally that is something writers touch--not anything graphic on that account, but still...

I liked all three of our main characters. Spook is awesome. I'd love to see him in action because we didn't really get to see him do anything besides teach this time around. Tom resembles a real person in that he has faults in judgement but sometimes his judgement is right on. Alice is also someone I'm excited to see how she progresses. There are thirteen books in this series (ah, the unlucky number) and the second to last one is called I Am Alice with her rather gloriously standing on the front cover, which makes me think she's come into some witchy power, for good or bad we don't know yet, but I'm intrigued. EDIT: I'm not continuing on with the series. I don't need the bad juju in my life. 

It is a very quick read. If I was able to just sit down and read (without a dog or other persons or jobs interrupting me) I could have finished it easily in two days. Possibly one if I started early. Sometimes it's rather "telling" instead of showing, but it is supposed to be something like Tom's journal and they aren't normally as descriptive as "normal books" so it can be forgiven somewhat. The prose is probably what dropped the star, those two very suspenseful moments (though at the beginning for me) were why I wanted to give it a 4.5 but.... Still a good beginning to a series. 

As I said, I'm not sure about horror, if it gets to be too.... ick for me, I'm going to put the series down. But we'll see how far we go. 

I also remember seeing the movie that they made of the book; it was called The Seventh Son and while it does have some of the happenings, I guess, but it is extremely different from the book. Like it's hard to figure that it's the same story. Though it does have Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian or General Kirigan) play Tom, but the age different of the character and actor is rather ridiculous--kinda like what they did for Percy Jackson's movie. What is up with them slaughtering the stories... They could have had a good long series for The Last Apprentice, but lost it and did a horrible movie. Don't watch it. Save yourself the few hours and find something else.  

In Another World With My Smartphone (Part 1)

 One of the few Isekai ("different world")  manga I've read. 

Touya Mochizuki finds himself talking with God. Apparently he wasn't supposed to die, so in order to make amends God gives him a chance to go to another world. Touya asks if he can take his smartphone with him and God says yes, and that he'll also have magical powers in this world as well. Excited to start his new life, he hitches a ride with a clothes merchant (who wants his clothes and pays top dollar for the fine pieces) and makes his way to the nearest city. He runs into twin girls who help him find the Adventurer's Guild so he can make some money and stay at the inn. The girls help and they split bounties. Touya finds that not only is his smartphone super helpful, but he has the ability to use all magics in this world. Being a helpful person he makes many friends especially among the nobles which helps him move up in society to where he eventually gets his own kingdom. But not all is as easy as it seems. Crystalline beasts are awakening and nothing, not magic or brute force, seems to be able to stop them. 

The plot of the crystalline creatures and Ende (who I think is a bad guy, though we don't know yet) has a lot going for it. The fact that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is going to help defeat them is pretty awesome, though I personally could do without the mechtechs--but that's just me. I think it has a lot of promise. 

Touya, though, is a MarySue or Gary-Stu if you like, which would normally make me grade it a bit harder, but I still gave it a 4 Star because as the story goes on he finds challenges that are really difficult to overcome. I do think there are still problems with Touya as a character besides his Gary-Stu-ness--which I guess they give a bit of an explanation for but that isn't until later in the series. He doesn't really change throughout the course of the 12 volumes that are out at present. He's completely awesome (Gary-Stu) and girls flock to him (it is a harem after all) but he doesn't change. There are no faults to over come so there is nothing too change. 

I could also do without the perv-y moments that are sprinkled throughout the series. Because Touya is the only boy who isn't a dad or king of a country, all the perv-y people are robot girls or their female creator who's gross. I end up skimming or skipping through parts whenever they are around. Ugh. It' gets tiresome. 

But over all the characters are fun and the plot is creative. I even find that I enjoyed the "building a kingdom" part of the story where much of it was just trying to straighten things out. It's well illustrated and has a good story. We just need to have the main character not be so powerful at the beginning (give him some training sores) and less "panty shots" or plain sex talk. 

The series isn't complete yet, so when another huge bunch comes out, my hubby will probably have me check it out.