The Shadow Queen - by C.J. Redwine

My rating: 

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen.
In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart. (Goodreads).

I was so excited to get an eARC of this book because I absolutely love fairy tale retellings, but The Shadow Queen just didn't live up to my expectations. This was actually kind of surprising because on the surface this novel has a lot of things going for it. There's a strong, female protagonist, betrayal, romance, magic, dragons, and nonstop action. I'll admit that I did enjoy the dragons and it gave a unique twist to the original Snow White story. In The Shadow Queen, the huntsman isn't just a dangerous hunter, he is the prince of a kingdom where everyone has two hearts - a human heart and a dragon heart. When they give control over to their dragon nature, they actually shapeshift into dragons. For the most part, though, I think Redwine tried to pack too much into one book.

Even though the dragons are awesome and the magic seemed interesting, we just don't get enough worldbuilding. There's not much information about the different races or the kingdoms so all these fantastical elements end up seeming like cheap additions to make this telling of Snow White seem special. If this book were several hundred pages longer I might have liked it better. As it is, I just couldn't get interested in an underdeveloped fantasy world.

The plot and characters felt pretty mediocre, which didn't help my enjoyment of the book. Kol was the only character who showed any growth at all. That is unless you want to count Lorelai going from totally lacking in self-confidence one minute to realizing she can do anything she wants the next. And while the plot has plenty of action, it feels like there's no suspense or point to it. All through the magical battles, earth-shattering magic (literally!), telekinesis, fires, and explosions, I was just kind of reading to get through the book. The romance and ending as a whole were totally predictable, so even when I did manage to finish the book it wasn't that exciting.

The Snow Queen certainly isn't a bad book, but it could have been so much better. I'd say it's still worth a look, though, if you like fairy tales and want a quick and easy read.

Lock & Mori - by Heather W. Petty

My rating: 

I'm a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories and love the BBC show, so I'm always interested in a new take on the character. Lock & Mori is a young adult novel with a couple of variations from the original. First of all, it's set in modern-day London and Sherlock and Moriarty are both in high school. The biggest change though is that in Petty's story Moriarty, or Mori as she's known, is a girl.

I thought this was a solid first novel, and I was totally on board with the developing romance between Sherlock and Mori. Petty did a good job of not only bringing these characters into the modern day but also imagining what they would be like as teenagers. Both the main characters are, fittingly, pretty brilliant, but definitely still in the awkward teenage phase and it totally works. I especially loved Mori's character because in this novel she is a well-developed, nuanced character with some really dark stuff going on her life. To start out, her mother recently died and now her father has become an alcoholic who beats her younger brothers and verbally abuses Mori when she tries to stand up for them. And that's just the beginning. While she's still extremely intelligent, Mori in this novel is much less predictable than Sherlock. With so many personal issues going on, she makes a lot of questionable decisions without stopping to logically think through how things will turn out. For me, this made her character a bit easier to relate to and sympathize with because there are times when she acts purely on emotion.

Now, onto the plot. As you would expect from a Sherlock retelling, the plot centers around a murder mystery. Sherlock and Mori team up to see if they can solve the case on their own, but Mori ends up keeping some secrets along the way. Petty's writing was really compelling and made me want to finish this book as quickly as possible. For me, this made up for the fact that parts of the mystery were a bit predictable. Also, like I mentioned, there's some romance to this story that you don't see in many Sherlock retellings. The romance between the two main characters developed quickly, but still felt natural to me. I also liked that, while this a decent amount of romance throughout, it doesn't take away from the murders as the main focus of the story.

Lock & Mori is the first book in what will eventually be a series, with two more books planned. From Petty's website it looks like we can expect about a year between each, with the next books planned for fall 2016 and fall 2017. Unlike most series I read, I actually went into this one knowing that it's not yet finished. I was somewhat hesitant, but Lock & Mori was definitely worth it. I also felt like the ending had just enough of cliffhanger to make me want more, but not so much that I was outraged about not being able to read the second book.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy - by Margot Livesey

My rating:

I stumbled onto The Flight of Gemma Hardy at the library where they were offering mystery books. These books were in brown paper bags with just a brief description to let you know a little about the genre. Even once I checked out this book, I didn't initially realize that it was a retelling of Jane Eyre, which I will admit I have never read.

The book begins with Gemma's childhood, not long after her uncle has died. Gemma was orphaned as a young child and it is her uncle who steps up to care for her. He brings Gemma from Iceland to live with family in Scotland where Gemma is quite content. After her uncle's death, however, Gemma is stuck with a resentful aunt and cousins who don't care for her. When she is offered a chance to take the entrance exams for the Claypoole boarding school, Gemma sees her chance to escape and her aunt is happy to see her go.

If Livesey painted a bleak picture of Gemma's life at home, it is nothing compared to what she finds at Claypoole. Although she is very independent and even stubborn, Gemma is also a bright a fairly studious girl. Instead of finding a place where she can shine as a star student, Gemma is relegated to the status of a working girl. She has to earn her tuition by providing the labor necessary to run a boarding school and her studies often suffer because of her workload. When the school closes down, Gemma is hopeful and happily accepts a job as an au pair on the Orkney Islands.

Gemma arrives at the distant Blackbird with her hope intact and soon finds herself feeling like she has found somewhere she belongs. Even after all her hardships, though, this is really just the beginning of Gemma's journey. As she matures and finds herself drawn to the wealthy master of Blackbird Hall, Hugh Sinclair, Gemma's life will lead her down an entirely unexpected path.  Livesey tells a compelling story of a girl, and a later a woman, who bravely deals with the twists and turns she encounters in life. I found Gemma's character especially intriguing because, even when it seems like her life can't get any worse, some spark of her stubborn personality shines through. Even though I have never read Jane Eyre, I very much enjoyed Livesey's novel and highly recommend it.

The Flight of Gemma Hardy will be my sixth book for the summer reading program at summerreadingonline.blogspot.com. I'm also going to cheat, just a little, and count this for the classic challenge. I admittedly don't read many classics and as a retelling of Jane Eyre, I think this book should count just in case I don't read anything else that would fit the challenge.