It's Wednesday! Time for another chance to link up our eGalley reviews! The linky stays open all week, and the only requirement is that your review(s) must be of eGalleys (Galley Grab, NetGalley, etc.)
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I've been going crazy with getting some of my eGalleys read before they expire (which explains the huge amount of books read in my recent What Are You Reading posts), so to get caught up a bit on reviews, there will be three features this week AND next week!
Next week will feature The Descent of Man, The Summer Before Boys, and Long Drive Home (OMG, LOVED this book!)
This week: The Mermaid Garden by Santa Montefiore, The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham and Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders by Gyles Brandreth (isn't that such a totally appropriate and proper "English" name for an author of a Sherlockian type of mystery?):
Author: Santa Montefiore
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: May 3, 2011
Hardcover, 432 pages / ISBN 10: 1451624301 / ISBN 13: 9781451624304
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Isn't that cover beautiful? The Mermaid Garden flows from past to present and back almost effortlessly.
The past: A young girl named Floriana in Tuscany, whose mother is believed to have run off with a man and left her with her drunken father. She has unlimited freedom to explore, and as she is looking over the wall of a villa that she likes to visit, she meets a boy named Dante, whose family owns the villa. He invites her in to explore the garden, and they become friends. She even falls in love with him a little bit, despite the fact that she is only 10 and he is a teenager going off to school at the end of the summer. We follow her and her friend Costanza, whose mother only allows her to play with Floriana because there are no "children of quality" for her to play with, through the following summers as they both become frequent visitors to the villa.
The present: Marina and Grey Turner run the Polzanze Hotel. One of Marina's sorrows is that she has no children of her own, and her stepchildren, especially Grey's 23-year-old daughter Clementine, don't treat her as a mother, even though she has been in their lives since they were very small children. In fact, Clementine is bitter, resentful, and selfish, lamenting the fact that she is no longer free to travel and "find herself", because she now has to work and make her own living.
When Marina decides to bring in an "artist-in-residence" to help the failing fortunes of the hotel, both past and present will come together.
I loved the writing style of this novel. The prose was very descriptive and the emotions and character-development were spot on. As usual for me, I liked the story set in the past a bit better :). There were, however, a few things that didn't ring true for me, and they are the reason this is not a five-star rating. Clementine - well, there's no way that you can go from being a spoiled, selfish, grown-up brat overnight to an understanding and loving person the next day. It just doesn't happen like that. Her romance also wasn't fully-formed and fleshed-out; it came up lacking in my view. BUT, those were the only sticking points for me, as the book kept me interested from start to finish. I was able to figure out early on what the mystery/secret would be, but that didn't keep me from wanting to know how it would all come out in the end. A gorgeous read.
QUOTE (from a galley; may be different in final copy):
Marina's good mood evaporated as Clementine sucked the air out of the room, replacing it with her dark presence. She glanced at her husband and felt nothing but contempt for her stepdaughter, who constantly rebuffed him.
Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Author: Daniel Abraham
Publisher: Orbit Books, an imprint of the Hachette Group
Released: April 7, 2011
Paperback, 529 pages / ISBN 13: 9780316080682 / ISBN 10: 0316080683
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A wonderful high fantasy book, the first in a series of four that I'd like to see more of. Unlike many series books, this one has a properly tied-together ending, which leaves you wanting to know the next steps, but doesn't leave you feeling as though you were cheated of a full story.
There are way too many characters to introduce, but the chapters do a first-rate job of introducing characters as they come along and, unlike many multiple POV narratives, the flow is smooth like buttah.
We are introduced to a world where the Dragon Empire fell to the Spider Goddess many years ago, with 13 races of humanity remaining. The world-building here is good, but I hope to see many of the holes filled in the next book(s) - more information on the various races and all of their functions, for one. I did find myself confused by some of the political intrigues, the players, and their reasoning at times as well. As in real life, it seems that sometimes people do bad things for good reasons, or have seemingly good intentions but go about executing them in a bad fashion.
The central characters are:
Marcus Wester, a former captain who evades being conscripted into the king's army by taking on guardianship of a merchant caravan. When his crew is arrested by the kingdom, he enlists a theater troupe to "play" the part of the caravan crew.
Geder Palliako - a soldier for King Simeon. Chubby, weak-willed and the butt of jokes, he somehow manages through outside political machinations to find himself in a position of power, respected through no virtues of his own.
The Apostate - a former priest who escaped from the temple of the Spider Goddess - he appears in the prologue and also later in the story in a bit of a twist
Cithrin - half Cinnae, half Firstblood - she is an orphan who has been raised as a ward of the bank. Her ward, Magister Imaniel, manages to foresee the upcoming battle in their city and sends her out in disguise dressed as a tanner with a wagon load of the bank's treasure.
If you like high fantasy and don't mind taking a bit to get familiar with a new world, this is definitely the start to a great series.
QUOTE (from a galley; may be different in final copy):
"We killed children," Jorey said. "We killed women, old men who had nothing more to do with the campaign than to live in Vanai. And we killed them. We took away the water and lit them on fire. When they tried to come over the walls, we cut them down."
Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Author: Gyles Brandreth
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date: May 3, 2011
Hardcover, 368 pages / ISBN 10: 1439153698 / ISBN 13: 9781439153697
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This novel is "Drawn from previously unpublished memoirs of Robert Sherard, Oscar Wilde's friend and biographer".
Call me a sucker for Sherlockian mysteries, but I really enjoyed this book. We get to meet not only Oscar Wilde and his friend Robert Sherard; there's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker, as well as a cameo appearance by Dvorak as well!
With inserts of letters from Doyle and Stoker to their wives, notebook and journal entries from Doyle, Sherard and Oscar's new friend Rex, who says that he is a vampire, we go with Wilde, Sherard and Doyle on their journey to find out the mystery of the "Vampire Murders", after the Duchess of Albermarle (said to be one of HRH favorites) is found murdered in her telephone room, with bloody marks on her neck that on Doyle's inspection seemed to be deep enough to reach her jugular vein. All Doyle really wants to do is go home to his wife, but how do you say no to solving a case when the Prince summons you to investigate?
The writing is solid, the character development for most of the characters is solid as well. I enjoyed the wit and humor being included too.
QUOTE (from a galley; may be different in final copy):
To win back my youth there is nothing I wouldn't do - except take exercise, get up early, or be a useful member of the community.
Book Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
That's all for this week. As always, you can click the Amazon or Goodreads links to find other reviews.
Link up!
Disclosure: I received complimentary eGalleys of these titles through the publishers to facilitate my reviews. No other compensation was received and I was not required to post positive reviews.
These books are listed as titles for my 2011 ARC Reading Challenge
