Death Sworn (Review) by Leah Cypress

Ileni was trained since birth to be a sorcerous, she was suppose to be the best, strongest, most powerful person on Earth. But Ileni started to lose her magic, she felt it leaving her long before her teachers and friends new, simple spells took to much effort and left her drained. She was becoming of no use to her people, so they sent her away. 

They sent her into the mountains, to teach the assassins with what little was left of her magic. For centuries the assassins left those with magic alone, and helped protect them from the Empire who wished to kill them and take their power. All they asked in return was a teacher to enter the caves and teach it's students basic magic. 

The Elders send Ileni for one purpose, to find out what had happened to the previous two teachers. Both had died under mysterious circumstances, and only two months apart. She could still be of use to her people, using what magic she had left she could find out why all the teachers of the Assassins were dying. Ileni was ready for her mission, the worst thing that could happen to her was that she would die, and death was something she not only could accept, but yearned for in the absence of magic. 

Things are difficult in the mountain, everyone around her could kill her as easily as look at her, she has no friends, and Ileni realized that the previous teachers had been involved in dealings and practices that didn't uphold with the values of their people. Secret meetings, private magic lessons, murder and plans more than twenty years in the making are coming to light as Ileni continues to run out her magic trying to find out what's really going on in the Assassin's Mountain, and nothing she finds is good. 

I thought this book was great. It was a afar and simple read. Leah Cypress wove a beautiful tale with a whole separate world with a rich history. The characters have depth and emotional levels, the descriptions of the different places in the book created a picture that I could see in my head, and scenes that fluidly moved te story forward seamlessly. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a fun fantasy adventure series. 

Cress (Lunar Chronicles #3) by Marissa Meyer

Cress was locked away in a satellite orbiting Earth, she could hardly remember a time when she wasn’t there. She was a Lunar shell, but rather than have her killed Queen Levana and her trusted advisor Sybil put her away in a satellite orbiting Earth, the planet they hoped to one day soon over take. Cress was in charge of watching the Earthen newsfeeds for information, watching the leaders of the world for weaknesses, for making the Lunar spaceships around the Earth undetectable to any other satellites. It was Cress’ job to spy on Earth, keep the Lunar ship movements undetectable, and report any and all findings to her Queen. Unfortunately for Levana, Cress started to betray her.

Alone, with no one to talk to and with the knowledge that her queen almost killed her, not to mention knowing everything evil that Levana was doing Cress started to rebel. She did her duties aboard the satellite, but when Cinder (the true queen of Luna) was being hunted by all of Luna, and by Earth under threat of annihilation, Cress hid her the way she had been hiding Lunar spaceships for years.

When Cinder and her friends learn of this, they contact Cress and plan on rescuing her from her satellite prison, but they are to slow. Sybil intercepts the message and is waiting for them aboard Cress’ satellite. Just like the evil witch in Rapunzel. Sybil captures Scarlet and heads back to Luna, hoping to use lunar methods of torcher to get the information on Cinder and her plan to over throw the current crown. Before she leaves for Luna though, Sybil blinds the hero Carswell Thorne who was the one on the podship sent to retrieve Cress. The two are left in the satellite as Sybil sets its coordinates to fall out of the sky and toward Earth.

Cinder, the true hero and main character of this story is at a loss. Everyone she had been counting on to help her is hurt, wounded, dead, or captured. She too has barely escaped with her life, and the only person with her is a mortally hurt Wolf. The only thing she can think to do is head to Africa, where the crazy Luna doctor lives in secret. A doctor who has helped Cinder many times in her life, and the man who reveled her true identity and saved her as a baby.

Would you believe that this isn’t even the first half of the novel? That is how amazing this third installment of the Lunar Chronicles is. I love the characters, the way each book introduces different characters and themes of popular fairytales, without over doing it or forcing the story to follow the original fairytale. I loved this book, and couldn’t put it down. The 550 pages seemed to fly by as I read it. Cannot wait for the next novel to come out next year!

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

I think this book had great potential. It’s a futuristic dystopian novel, set in a time when water is scarce, population laws in cities are harsh and those that live outside the city are left to fend for themselves. It’s realistic, at least in that sense. There are also water witches, woman who can sense where water is and if there are under water streams and lakes. That’s the strain of the book that made me shake my head in annoyance, and made what could have been a great book hardly mediocre.

            Lynn knows no life but the one by her pond. Her mother taught her two things, keep the water safe and don’t trust anyone. Shoot first, don’t ask any question, protect the water because nothing else matters. Lynn has life figured out, its hard and solitary survival is of the upmost importance, and never go anywhere without at least one rifle and a knife.

            There have never been to many people, coyotes usually pose more of a threat than the random starving wanderer, but then Lynn starts to notice things in the distance. Smoke, and a weird eerie light during the twilight and evening hours, and its not the passing smoke of a wanderer. Strangers are in her area, ones who aren’t passing through. They are staying, they are strong, and they are powerful.

            For the first time in her life Lynn knows that she can’t take care of this problem herself, she needs people to help her. Despite the mistrust, Lynn teams up with an old friends of her mother from across the woods, and a young boy and his niece who were left alone after all their family was killing for violating population laws back in the city. Not much, but it’s all that Lynn has, and she would rather go out fighting than give up her pond and become a sexual slave to the strangers.

            Like I said, this book could have been good. Had the water witch thing not entered the story, I know I would have enjoyed it more. It would be a 4/5 star novel if not for the water witch thing, which brings it down to a 2.5 rating. What makes that detail the most annoying, is that the water witch thing isn’t actually a very big deal in this first book of the series, but it will be which is why it gets brought up. Annoying, I wanted a realistic dystopian future novel, not a semi-magical one.

The Wide Awake Princess (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty)

            While fairy tale retellings written by people like Gregory Maguire and GThe Wide Awake Princess.

ail Carson Levine are written for adults, or at least a slightly more mature audience, there is something amazingly wonderful and almost Disney like about most of the retellings. Often written at the middle grade level, they are quick and easy one sit reads, and sometimes that is exactly what I want. Such was the case when I read

            I got this book on my kindle coming off of my Alice in Wonderland retelling high, in fact I think I bought some ten new books, all retellings after reading Death of the Mad Hatter. This is a twist on the Sleeping Beauty tale, only the main character isn’t Sleeping Beauty, or anyone from the classis tale, but rather her younger sister Gwen. After the magical bestowing on Annie (Sleeping Beauty), the King and Queen were worried that their new daughter would have a similar fate of sleep and death put upon her. Hearing their worry, the Blue Fairy gave Gwen the one and only magical gift she could ever have, the curse/blessing of being impervious to magic.

            Gwen grew up normal, with normal qualities. She did not have charm, beauty or grace granted upon her, but more than that, when ever someone who had been given a magical blessing (or curse) was around Gwen their charms would start to fade. This made Gwen an outcast in the royal court, but handy around the guards, cooks, and their children who never had gifts. Gwen was able to stop evil witches and sorceresses who attempted to attack the castle, and with the prophesy of Gwen’s 16^th birthday sleep near, Gwen made numerous rounds with the palace guards.

Of course, no matter how much time Gwen spent with the guards and away from her family (because no one wanted their beauty, age, charm, etc to fade) no one can change destiny. When the castle falls under the spell of sleep, Gwen sets out to find the one true prince to kiss her sister and awaken the kingdom. But who will it be? As Gwen travels with one of the palace guards who was making rounds in the village when the spell went into effect, they collect an interesting string of princes all hoping to deliver the perfect kiss of true love. Will it be Digby, the self-centered neighboring prince who Gwen had a childhood crush on? Andreas who loves to play games and make people (especially proper princesses and noble) uncomfortable, the bear who claims to be a prince under a spell, or maybe someone living in secrets and lies of his own making.

Gwen not only is on a mission to save her sister and the kingdom, but find herself along the way. Although, she is so focused on her mission she misses the hints and clues the seemingly simple guard keeps dropping. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a quick read, an adventure staring a strong minded female character, Sleeping Beauty, magic, and of course retellings of classic tales.

Petals on the Wind

This is another book that I read a while ago, actually it was before New Years. I was just to Flowers in the Attic) is her most popular, and while most people know the first book, Petals on the Wind its first sequel is not nearly as popular.

busy to write about it, and then sort of forgot about it until I found the novel when I was cleaning out my car. I was a huge VC Andrews fan in my youth. I read nearly everything of hers I could get my hands on, and in the days before eBooks and the popularity and ease of Amazon, getting multiple series with four plus books each meant I spend a lot of time in all sorts of book stores and yard sales. The Dollanganger series (

The story of Cathy, Chris and Carrie continues right where the horror of Flowers in the Attic leaves off. The three children are no longer just children, Chris in nearly an adult, Cathy should be in high school, and while Carrie looks and acts like a five year old she is much older. The three end up living with a widowed doctor, and in the grand tradition of VC Andrews and romance novels, the guardian ends up falling in love and having an affair with his under aged ward Cathy. Big sighs all around, along with a few “ewwws” and “gross.”

However, Cathy isn’t satisfied with the older doctor Paul and leaves him for the young dancer Julian without even breaking off her engagement to the doctor. After touring the world, and both Cathy and Julian having numerous affairs, Julian is killed in a motor vehicle accident leaving Cathy with mountains of debt, pregnant and alone.

After Julian’s death, Cathy becomes obsessed with destroying her mother, blaming her again for all the problems that she has encountered in her life. (Really, she made her own mistakes as an adult, but lets never move on from childhood trauma). She then moves with her baby and younger sister to the town her mother resides in. Only, her sister commits suicide by swallowing rat poisoning so that she can be with her twin brother who died over a decade before. Spends months seducing her mother’s new husband and then tells her mother all the sorted details of the affair in public. Her mother and lover are then burned to death in a fire that tears apart the entire building leaving ashes of the house the children were once held captive in.

Feeling like she finally got revenge on her mother and grandmother, Cathy moves back in with doctor Paul. The two marry and have a son, although Paul soon dies from heart problems (so, basically everyone that Cathy sleeps with dies at a very young age). After Paul’s death, she decides to marry her brother Chris, as the two have had an interesting sexual and loving past. They move out to California so that no one will know they were actually brother and sister, and then raise Cathy’s two children as their own.

Weird, yes. A typical VC Andrews romance novel, also Yes. These kind of novels tend to be a little addicting to read, and if you can get past the uggg and ewwww factor they can be great beach and sun bathing books.