#Review: The Fault in Our Stars by @realjohngreen

     Title: The Fault in Our Stars
     Author: John Green
     Publisher: Dutton Books
     Published: January 1, 2012
     Number of Pages: 313
     Genre(s): YA, Realistic Fiction
     Date Read: February 9, 2014
     Acquired: Waterloo Public Library

Summary: 
Hazel Grace Lancaster is dying. This is not a secret. This is not new. Hazel has been dying since she was born, as have we all been. Because dying is a side effect of living. But if you really want to get technical, Hazel is actively dying whereas the rest of us are passively dying, and she has been actively dying since they found the cancer in her body. Her cancer has always been terminal, she's never had an X chance of surviving, there's never been a surgery to take the cancer out, because it's not that kind of cancer. She has accepted all of this with a grace befitting a girl whose middle name is Grace, she has accepted that she will cease to be sooner rather than later, and she just wants to get out with as little bit of a mess as possible. She doesn't want to be a grenade in the lives of the people who she loves and who love her.

She thinks she has a choice. Right up until the moment that Augustus Waters walks into her life, she is right. But Gus changes everything. They suddenly find themselves together on a whirlwind journey that only leads to one inevitable ending. Absolute and complete heartbreak.

Review:
Oh. My. Gods. John Green what have you done to me!? Oh but does this book ever live up to all of the hype about it. Mr. Green you are as spectacular an author as you are an entertainer sir, and you are an exceptional entertainer in my eyes so draw your conclusions on how I feel about your writing from that statement.

I had seen John Green's book in the Library, while shelving them, but I had never bothered to pick one up and read the dust jacket. And then I came across the YouTube Mental_Floss list show. Well that show is right up my alley, educational and entertaining, and hosted by John Green. As I worked my way through the playlist I said to myself, before he ever mentioned his books in the videos, "Gee I wonder if this is the same John Green who wrote those YA novels everyone is talking about." Well of course he's the same John Green. Still didn't make me pick up his books, but it did drive me to his other videos (CrashCourse is AMAZING and I watched all of the humanities videos in under a month, omg.). It was as I was working my way through CrashCourse US history, with all the hype building for the TFiOS movie, that I decided that I should check out his books. So I put The Fault in Our Stars on hold at the WPL, and while I was waiting I went out and bought Looking for Alaska (which is now on the to-be-read shelf of course, because my hold came in).

TFiOS arrived this past Thursday at the library, and obviously, since I am now writing this review I have finished reading it. I started it Friday night and I devoured it in three dedicated sittings in between bouts of watching Olympic Slopestyle (YES THAT IS ONE WORD, AND A REAL WORD GOOGLE, NO I WILL NOT HYPHENATE IT!) Snowboarding and Luge; and working on job applications, with a little smattering of John Green on the side because the last video for Crash Course US History was posted. I knew a little of what I was getting myself into having been watching John Green videos lately and having watched the trailer for the movie, and being brutally honest, I didn't think I was going to like it, like at all. I am not usually a Realistic Fiction fan. I am all about the escapism of literature, but at the same time, one of my favourite things about literature is well written, intelligent, sharp witted, and insightful characters. This book is chock full of those types of characters. Hazel and Augustus, even the names, especially his, conjure to mind images of old scholars in tweed jackets with leather patches on the elbows. They are not that image, they are young and they are funny, and they are dying. They are fully aware of the tragedy of their circumstances and they both have a deliciously black sense of humour. Which I can fully appreciate. My own family, myself included, is known for our wickedly dark sense of humour. 

This is not a happy book, there is no happy ending, there is tragedy and there is death, but as I said throughout it all there is humour. I think it is a truly special thing when a book that is essentially all about dying, death and the tragedy of lost love can still have a current of humour running from cover to cover. More than once I found myself moved to near tears (that is not to say your book could not induce tears in someone else Mr. Green, but I am one of those silly over emotional people that has an easier time crying over tiny things rather than big things, and your book is a very big thing indeed Sir.), but for every one of those moments there were two where I was laughing loudly, smiling, or snorting to keep myself from laughing at something that was probably meant to be serious.

This book resonated with me, I am not a cancer kid, but I have been affected by cancer many times over. We lost my father directly after a cancer operation four days before Christmas in 2002. Before that there was my Grandmother, before that my Uncle Jim, and even before that there was my Mother's sister, for whom I am named, but who I have never met, because she was a cancer kid, she died when she was 9. Since I am being honest, all of that was why I didn't want to read this book initially, because I didn't want to read about a young girl who had to face the awfulness that is cancer. But that is in the end what makes this book so good, Hazel handles the awfulness with a complete and devastating honesty. And I am emotionally devastated having finished this book. Because every page makes you think, and every page makes you thankful for the people and the things in your life that you love and that love you. 

So maybe it's the combination of the sheer emotionality of this book, combined with the feeling I always get about the Olympics, but I am sitting here bereft feeling both simultaneously like an insignificant speck upon the Universe, but also a complete and utter triumph because I am here, and I am living, and I am able to sit here and contemplate the way a fictional book has impacted my worldview, and that's not something that everyone can do. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that in order to remember that some of the things we take for granted every day are actually a BFD.

What am I trying to get at then? GO AND READ THIS BOOK. That is what I am trying to get at. It is just so well written, and moving, and powerful. And you need to read it. Now. Or you know not, really in the end it's up to you, but I think you should read it and I think everyone should read it. It should become required reading in high schools.

Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to try and decide what book to read next, and watch some more Luge! Well after I write the summary anyway, because I wrote the review first...

--Ren

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

     Title: Bitten (The Women of the Otherworld, #1)
     Author: Kelley Armstrong
     Publisher: Vintage Canada
     Published: October 1, 2001
     Number of Pages: 422
     Genre(s): Fantasy, Romance
     Date Read: January 2011 (and also last night...)
     Acquired: Christmas gift from my Aunt!


Summary: 
Elena has  been living and working in Toronto for a year now, leading the normal life she has always dreamed of, including a stable job as a journalist, a nice apartment with a lake view (if you stand at just the right angle at the right time of day), and a wonderful, caring boyfriend who sends her flowers and cooks for her...and doesn't question the fact that she likes to go out for "walks" at 2 in the morning. Those secret midnight prowls are her way of protecting her secret, you see she's the lone female werewolf in existence. She hates it. 

She's heading back to Stonehaven though, the Pack needs her expertise; when she was with them she used her position as long female wolf to help control the renegade lone wolves. Now some of those renegades have formed an alliance and they are hell bent on exposing and annihilating the Pack. And although Elena is obliged to rejoin her "family," she vows not to be swept up in Pack life again, no matter how natural and comfortable it might feel. She has made her choice. Trouble is, she's increasingly uncertain if it's the right one. Especially the more time she spends with Clayton.
Her crisis deepens when it turns out that the renegades plans for destroying the Pack specifically revolve around her. They want her, bad. Jeremy and the Pack, especially Clayton, will do anything and everything it takes to keep Elena safe and stop the renegades, but things get out of control fast. In the end  it comes down to Elena, can she do what needs to be done? Can she save herself and the Pack? Can she choose which life she wants more?


Just last year ago she was living a very different life, not one she had chosen, but one that was chosen for her by someone she loved (still loves if she were capable of being honest with herself). After being changed several years earlier she was adopted by the Pack, living with them in Stonehaven NY.  She had spent a long struggling with her resentment at having her life stolen away. Finally, torn between two worlds, and overwhelmed by the new passions coursing through her body, her only option for control was to deny her awakening needs and escape. That was how she'd ended up in Toronto.

Review:
My aunt gave me the first three books in this series (Bitten, Stolen, Dime Store Magic) for Christmas because my Mum had mentioned to her that I'd bought the 4th, 5th and 6th books of the series when I saw them on sale a few weeks before Christmas. Being a fan of the series herself she wanted me to start right from the beginning, which I always think is a good plan with series. I remember the first time I read Patricia C. Wrede's The Enchanted Forest ChroniclesI accidentally read the last book in the series first...didn't make them any less enjoyable though. But back to the point, so she bought them for me and I started Bitten at some point in January (it was the 6th book I'd read that month I can't remember when exactly I read it) and I really loved it. I am a big fan of Supernatural Fantasy, I enjoy seeing different authors interpretations of the different species. For awhile I contemplated getting a graduate degree in English and focussing on the evolution of Supernatural Fantasy, now it's just a hobby.


Female werewolves don't pop up all that often in the genre in my experience, so having not only a major character, but the narrator of the book be not just A female werewolf but the ONLY female werewolf sparked my interest right off the bat. It's not what one usually expects and I enjoy unusual. Elena is a strong female voice. Fiercely independent, sharp, intelligent, but also deeply flawed. She's definitely not the perfect heroine that romance readers are used to and that's another thing I find that makes this novel so enjoyable. And it's not just Elena's characterisation, Kelley Armstrong is an AMAZING characterisation writer, all of her characters are really well thought out and developed I feel. Take Clayton for instance, on the surface he comes across as a possessive, violent, selfish jerk. But when you stop and look at everything he does through the lens of his motivations, beliefs and past, it's understandable why he appears that way but appearances can be deceiving. He's actually a very moral and traditional character who cares intensely about his pack, especially their Alpha, Jeremy, and Elena of course. She's also a little too good at portraying the sleazy characters of Victor and LeBlanc, they give me the creeps.

I like the mix of plots, it's not strictly romance, although the romance element is important of course because Elena is struggling to choose between two lovers; but it's not just the lovers she has to choose from, it's the lifestyles and the realities they represent. Plus while she's dealing with her identity crisis she's also got to help the Pack deal with a group of rogues who want to alternately kidnap her and use her as a brood mare, or kill her, depending on which Mutt you ask. So there's lots of good fighting action going on as well.

Overall it's a fantastic first glimpse into the Otherworld, my only complaint would be that because of the insular nature of the Pack there's no mention of the other species, but that more than gets rectified in the next book so I'm not complaining too loudly.
--Ren

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

     Title: Outlander (Outlander #1)
     Author: Diana Gabaldon
     Publisher: Seal Books
     Published: January 1, 1991
     Number of Pages: 870
     Genre(s): Science Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction
     Date Read: February 2006 (The 1st time...)
     Acquired: Chapters

Summary: 
The year is 1945, the Second World War has just ended and combat nurse Claire is finally reunited with her husband, historian and amateur genealogist (and former Army Officer) Frank Randall. They seek bliss and rest in the highlands of Inverness, Scotland so that Frank can do some family research on a descendant who was an Officer in the area back in the 1740s, before the start of his tenure as a History Professor at Oxford. Young and innocent they think they have the entire future together ahead of them, until curious Claire, unversed in the mysterious mythology of the standing stones of Scotland, goes exploring alone and disappears. 

Claire suddenly finds herself transported back through time, about 200 years back, because that's how all the legends go, to 1743, a dangerous time to be a British lady in the Scottish wilds where the border clans are at war with each other and with the British. As dangerous a place to be as the war she just finished surviving in 1945. She's confused, she's lost, she's alone...at least until she's picked up by a band of MacKenzie warriors on the run from the local British army regiment who save her from the Captain of said regiment, one Jack Randall... They take her in, believing her to be a British spy, and bring her to their laird for judgement. When he decides she's not an immediate threat they offer her protection, protection in the form of an arranged marriage to the young outlaw nephew of the laird, one Jamie Fraser, who Claire hasn't been able to keep her eyes off of since the moment she met him. She doesn't love him, she doesn't want to but she needs him. 

They begin their life together with Claire torn between her new reality and the reality she left behind, and a desire to return there. Things are going along as peacefully as one would expect from a war torn Scottish nation in the 1740s, until Captain Jack comes back into the picture. He seems to have a grudge against both Claire and Jamie, something that seems very personal. Can Claire learn to love Jamie? Can they come together enough to survive Black Jack? Or will she flee from Jamie the first chance she gets to try and get back to Frank?

Review:
I would like to start this review by saying, I like to consider this book as a stand-alone book and I would have been perfectly content to never have found out it was a series. I tried reading the second book and I just got very turned off by the willy-nilly back and forth of the characters travelling through times to multiple periods multiple times. I am very critical of time travel because it is really really hard to get right in a way that does not create glaring plot holes. I can pick out plot holes anywhere but present me with a time travel plot and I will find even a pin head sized plot hole that I then use to unravel the entire story, I've done it on several occasions thoroughly annoying people who genuinely enjoyed the story and never questioned the integrity of the plot. Just wanted to clear that up and let you all know why this review will make no reference to the rest of the series.

Back in 2006 I never would have willingly picked up a romance novel, not even if you paid me, and yet I actually paid hundreds of dollars for the privilege of reading this book, because I had to read it for an undergraduate English class. I will not lie, I have gotten out of required course readings I didn't think I would enjoy through various means in the past; like the time I didn't even crack the spine on The Tempest I just  based all my answers about the play on a combination of the very, very strange 3 man production of it I saw at The Globe, and Spark Notes. I was sorely tempted to do that with this book given the reading load I was faced with that particular semester and my distaste for romance novels. That was before I actually read the summary on the back, the minute I read the summary I had two thoughts, "Oh dear god time travel I am going to hate this even more than I would have if it was just a normal romance novel!" and "Ooooh 1700s Scottish Highlands! Swords and red heads, okay I'm done this book is getting read." Yup you tell me there will be sword play and I will read it, you tell me there will be sword play AND red heads (I have a thing for red heads in a big way, it has been known to lead to me embarrassing myself horribly...) and there's no way I won't read the book. It was actually about this time in 2006 that I read it because I spent my entire reading week glued to it, so that makes this week the 7th anniversary of me reading it for the first time, and since then I've read it about 10-12 more times, so that right there should tell you just how much I liked it.

I not only liked it, I loved it. With the exception of the first 39 pages. I was okay with those first 39 pages the first time I read it, but after finishing it the first time I'm not a big fan of Frank and just really don't want to read the part that he's in, so on most of the times I've re-read it I've started on the second half of page 39 and read from there.Did anyone else who has read it feel that way? Am I the only one here? For me the book really gets started in chapter 3, that's where Claire finds herself transported back to the 1700s and the fish out of water story really gets started. I'm so glad Diana gave Claire the characterisation that she did, because Claire's stoicism, strength, stubbornness and adaptability are what drive this story for me. If Claire had been the stereotypical romance heroine that I dreaded she would be when I heard I was going to have to read a romance novel I would have been crushed, but watching Claire grow into the role of a 1700s Scottish lady was nothing short of magical, by the end of the book I at least felt like Claire really belonged exactly where she was and I actually couldn't picture how she would fit into the WWII era world she had come from. 

Obviously I have to talk about her relationship with Jamie, the Hero of the novel, who numbers among my favourite literary red heads, can't really leave discussion of that relationship out. Diana's writing in this book is exquisite in my opinion, but I especially enjoyed her portrayal of the central romance in this couple, it was very realistically done. You have a heroine who is a "modern" woman coming back to the 1740s so of course there are going to be culture clashes, especially in the area of romance, and the clashes between Claire and Jamie are SPECTACULAR. Seemingly horrific, for obvious reasons, as Claire points out corporeal punishment is barbaric now a days (and even in 1945), but it was normal to Jamie, and honestly the way Diana handled the writing of it it comes across as more hilarious than horrific. For every moment of them blowing up at one another there are as many or more moment where you can just watch them slowly realise how much they love one another and that they really are quite well matched to one another in both personality and nature. Jamie is an impulsive, injury prone warrior and Claire is a responsible (usually), calm former combat nurse; which means that in the eyes of the Scots of the 1740s she's the best surgeon/doctor in existence. That becomes a bit of a running gag between the two. 

There are sex scenes, of course, it's a romance novel that's a given, but you don't read this novel for the sex scenes, or even just for the romance. There is an actual discernible and complex plot in this novel and it's just as important if not more important than Jamie and Claire's relationship, if only because of how intertwined the villain is to both Claire and Jamie as individuals and as a couple.

Since I'm being honest, I feel completely comfortable saying that in my opinion, this is one of the best and most well thought out and written books that I have ever read. And I have no doubt that I'll probably read it another 10-12 times in the next 7 years. Ask me again in 7 years and we'll see!

--Ren

First Read Friday: The Taker by Alma Katsu

                                                                        

     Title: The Taker (Book One of The Taker Trilogy) 
     Author: Alma Katsu
     Publisher: Gallery Books
     Published: September 6, 2011
     Number of Pages: 464 
     Genre(s): Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, Historical Romance
     Date Read: February 1, 2012
     Acquired: Wal-Mart

Summary: 
Luke is working what starts off as a quiet night shift in the ER of a small town Hospital in rural Maine. That quiet relaxing shift ends when the Deputy shows up with a murderess; an ethereal waif with a mass of blonde curls, slight, beautiful, and covered in blood. Luke is immediately and inexplicable intrigued by this girl, but not because she is a murderer, he can't pinpoint why, and then she starts to tell him her story. The story starts with an admission that, yes, she did kill her companion, but it wasn't murder, he had asked her to do it. He being Jonathan St. Andrew, Luke doesn't believe that it is a coincidence that the man shared his name with the town they are in.

Lanny, that's the name of the beautiful killer, convinces Luke to help her escape the hospital by beguiling him with her sordid tale. With her story she takes him back over 200 years, to her birth and early life with Jonathan as the children of the founding generation of St. Andrew, Maine. How she loved him all of her life, and he never loved her back; the multitude of ways they hurt each other until she was sent to Boston. In Boston Lanny finds herself ensnared by a hedonistic group led by a charming, sado-masochistic, madman who falls in lust with Lanny's beauty and capacity for "perfect love". As they run for the Maine-Quebec border crossing Lanny's story changes to Lanny's story about this man, Adair's story, and from then on the three tales are interwoven. Lanny is trapped with Adair, forced to entrap Jonathan; has she trapped Luke the same way 200 years later after killing Jonathan?

Review:
What drew me to this book first was the striking cover; every time I went into the store it sat there on the shelf calling to me. Finally I caved and picked it up to read the summary on the back. My first thought was "Oh another vampire novel, sounds interesting enough." and with that it was promptly put into the cart and brought home. Where it then sat on the pile for a month or so calling to me as I read other books. I was in the process of trying to read The Thirteen Hallows, but I was having trouble keeping engaged, and I realised the reason was that I REALLY wanted to be reading The Taker, so I gave in and put the Hallows on hold to take it up.

To be honest I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it as I started reading it, and that uncertainty stayed with me for most of the books. Be warned that this is actually a very dark book, with quite a few morbid parts. It markets itself as a romance, a love story, but I really don't like those labels for this. None of the love in this book is healthy in any way, shape or form. You've got Lanny's obsessive love for a self-centred, arrogant golden boy who takes her for granted and strings her along for her entire life; KNOWS that he is doing it BUT STILL CONTINUES to do because she's his only friend. Then you've got Jonathan, the aforementioned golden boy who claims to love Lanny, but not enough to actually rectify the way he treats her. Adair claims to love Lanny, but I feel like he is completely amoral and incapable of love, he feels covetous of her beauty and her capacity to love, he doesn't love her but he desires her and wants to posses her. She in turn sort of falls for him for a time in what screams to me a clear cut case of Stockholm Syndrome until she rationalises herself out of it. And then there's Luke, who toward the end of the novel fancies himself in love with Lanny, even though he's only known her for a few months and most of the things he knows about her tell her that she's not exactly the delicate damsel in distress she appears to be.She needs him, and he needs her, but again I can't see anything healthy in their relationship and I definitely can't see the type of love that warrants giving this novel the label of romance. The interplay in these relationships is complex and intriguing, definitely keeps you thinking, I just really dislike it when a book tries to present itself as something it is so clearly not.

That all being said it did deliver as promised by the advanced review on the back, even if it couldn't be honest with itself, you can always count on a reviewer to point out the truth, it's a showcase of the dark side of romantic love; that is a statement I can agree with. I don't have any personal experience with the dark side of love, thankfully, but I feel safe in saying that Katsu's relationships in this novel definitely have crossed the boundary into that realm. 

I think it's a bit of a breath of fresh air in that regard. Yes it's dark and twisty (like Meredith Grey always claimed to be!) and I frequently found myself highly disturbed by the fact that I was enjoying the book. Because of the content of the book I keep finding myself saying out loud, "I'm not entirely sure if it's all right to find this interesting or not..." and then I'd have to set the book down and walk away from it for awhile and work through what I'd just read in my head. With the exception of Luke none of the main characters deserve sympathy from the reader, Lanny comes close because of the circumstances and context surrounding her behaviour, but for the most part it's really hard to give her sympathy. What Katsu did amazingly well here was to create characters so utterly undeserving of sympathy that you can't actually help but feel sorry for at certain times and then that leaves you shouting "ACK NO S/HE'S AN ARSE I SHOULD NOT BE FEELING SORRY FOR THEM!!" and banging your head against the desk...or maybe that's just me, I have a tendency to get REALLY into whatever I'm reading...

How do you feel when you find yourself feeling sympathy for a character who you know doesn't deserve it?

--Ren

The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter

                                                                        

     Title: The Goddess Test (Goddess Test #1)
     Author: Aimée Carter
     Publisher: Harlequin Teen
     Published: April 19, 2011
     Number of Pages: 293 
     Genre(s): Mythological Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
     Date Read: January 23, 2012
     Acquired: Wal-Mart

Summary: 
Kate Winters and her mum have been on their own for as long as Kate can remember; she has no memories of her father and her mother never even goes near the topic and Kate is fine with that because her mum is her best friend. Things are about to change though, Kate's mum is dying and soon Kate will be even more alone. Her mother's dying wish is to move back to her home town in the middle of nowhere in  northern Michigan. Kate agrees even though it means senior year in a new school, surrounded by new people who have known each other their whole lives. 

For a girl who grew up in New York she thought she was used to weird. But the people at her school are weirder than she's used to but she can't pinpoint why at first; they seem more like a dysfunctional family than school mates, but maybe that's just a symptom of being in the same class with the same people from kindergarten on up? It doesn't take long before the weirdness comes to a head when her new friend takes her to a mysterious estate and that's when everything gets crazy. Ava ends up dead and the owner of the house, a handsome, brooding, dark young man (who we actually met in the prologue talking about his drowned girlfriend..and the other 11 girls who have died being with him in the last 84 years...) claiming to be Hades, god of the Underworld. He tells Kate that he can give her what she wants most, her mother's life, and all she has to do is pass seven tests. To prove to the doubting Kate that he means business, he brings Ava  back from the dead.

Kate, overcome with optimism dives headlong into the tests, and the mysteries of Eden Manor and the surrounding town of Eden. The deeper she goes the more questions she has and the more her life begins to unravel. Has everything she's ever known been a lie? What is the truth? Who is she? And just what is her destiny? Most important of all though, can she survive long enough to learn the answers?

Review:
I love Greek Mythology; I know I've mentioned that more than once, but I'm reviewing another book in the mythological fiction sub-genre so I feel it needs to be reiterated. The story of Hades and Persephone (no Google Chrome spell checker I do NOT want to change that to "Phonephone"!?!) has always been one of my absolute favourites in the Greek canon. I've long since been fascinated by the intricacies in the relationship between Hades and Persephone, and each of their relationships with Demeter (huh spell checker has no suggestions for that one go figure!). I'm intrigued by complex relationships in fiction (and in life) and I think that's all thanks to this story. It never fails to pull me in. As a big fan of the story, I feel comfortable saying that Aimée's re-visioning definitely does it justice; in fact it's got more of the complicated interwoven relationships that I love from the original story!

Putting the Greek Pantheon and the Classic stories into modern day settings is obviously a huge trend right now, especially in the YA field. It seems to be one of several supernatural trends, including zombies, faeries, and werewolves, vying to take over the top spot of vampire romances. I for one hope that this trend wins because I think the stories are rich and vibrant and by bringing them to today's teens in recognisable settings they become a gateway to the original tales; tales which today's teens might not actually be inclined to read, which to me is sad because I started getting Greek Mythology from about the age of 6, so that's my bias.

Obviously it's not perfect, nothing ever is, and if it was it would be boring and uninteresting  because perfect is no fun. One of the major problems I have with this story, but also the whole series, is the characterisation of James/Hermes. Being a fan of the Classic tales I find the behaviour of James/Hermes perplexing. In the myths, Hermes was a cheeky little bugger, he tricked Hera into suckling him by disguising himself as Ares, he stole Apollo's cattle as a newborn and then invented the lyre to apologise; he was a chronic giver and enjoyed his supporting duties as herald and soul conductor. In Goddess Test he's a mopey, emo, mean guy. He comes off as very unsympathetic to me, but I think Aimée meant for us to feel for him, I just don't. I'm also not a big fan of the characterisation of Calliope/Hera, but I can't get too much into what bothers me about that characterisation without spoiling the plot and I hate doing that, so I'll issue a warning instead. If you're a mythology fan and you actually know a bit of information about Hera, try and pretend you don't okay?

Oh and I'm still not sure I'm entirely sold on teenaged versions of the Greek Gods, I just feel like they should at least be portrayed as in their 30s, but given that this story is for the YA market, that's an understandable and forgiveable style choice. 

What are your thoughts on the current trend of taking the Greek myths out of ancient Greece and plunking them down in the modern day? What about the de-aging of the gods in this series?

--Ren

Dragon Actually by G.A. Aiken

It was my birthday this past Wednesday so a relative has come to visit for the weekend. So I am pre-empting tonight's First Read Friday (pushing it to Monday) and sharing a book review I wrote this past summer for my Genre Fiction & Readers' Advisory class.

obligatory romance novel pecs!

     Title: Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin book #1)
     Author: G.A Aiken
     Publisher: Zebra Books (Kensington Publishing Corp.)
     Published: September 1, 2008 
     Number of Pages: 342
     Genre(s): Fantasy, Romance
     Date Read: June 2012
     Acquired: Amazon.ca

Summary: 
Dragon Actually actually contains two distinct stories, the novel length titular tale, Dragon Actually and a novella length companion tale titled Chains & Flames that have been combined into a single volume, the first in what is currently a series of six (with more on the way) called TheDragon Kin series.

Dragon Actually is the story of the relationship between an antisocial dragon called Fearghus the Destroyer, in a case of "Our Dragons are Different", he has a human self and his human self saves known a human female as Annwyl the Bloody (contextually iffy nickname wouldn't you say?), a Warrior-Princess on the run from the half-brother, the King of the land, who wants her dead. Fearghus takes on the role of protector (in his dragon form) and teacher (in his human form) to help prepare Annwyl for the fight against her brother King Lorcan so she will be capable of taking his head and his throne; that was supposed to be their arrangement, but neither one was counting on falling in love. 

Throughout Dragon Actually we're introduced to a small number of the multitude of members of Fearghus’s family, who will populate the rest of the series of course, including both of his parents, Queen Rhiannon and Bercelak the Great, her Consort and just a few of his siblings. Chains & Flames is the story of how Rhiannon and Bercelak came to be the strong, untied, mated pair with the large brood introduced in Dragon Actually. It chronicles the lowest point of then Princess Rhiannon’s lifelong battle with her mother Queen Addiena and how together with Bercelak and the love and support of his family, experiences she had previously never had, she was able to triumph over her mother to become Queen (the fact that she finally has someone to dominate her helps; she doesn't want to be in charge in every respect after all).


Review:
You know right off that since this is a romance novel (albeit a paranormal fantasy romance novel), the main focus of these stories is going to be on the main characters falling in love with one another and getting it on, and Aiken makes good on that expectation. The reader gets very invested in the outcomes of these romances because Aiken’s characters are fantastically developed. They are people (or dragons in people form if you want to get nuanced) that you want to know. They are very real and every single one of them is flawed and vulnerable; there are no perfect characters here. Aiken’s characters all for one reason or another have either chosen to or been unable to find, as Rhiannon says in Chains & Flames their ‘one true mate’ up until the time of the action in the stories. Sometimes to me the relationships in romances can feel very contrived and forced because the whole purpose is that the main characters are perfect for each other and will therefore end up together. Aiken’s relationships don’t feel forced, the circumstances don't feel contrived for one very important reason, the context of the world she has created.

The world in which Dragon Actually and Chains & Flames  takes place to me seems very reminiscent of medieval Europe, if you continue reading the series you'll encounter a region and people none to dissimilar from the vikings. There are multiple different regions and political systems in play and in conjunction with her romance plots Aiken focuses a great deal on the various political intrigues and interplays. The inciting action in both tales involves a fight between family members over the throne of a particular kingdom; the whole thing would not be out of place in an HBO series. It is this setting, when the characters are placed in it in their specific roles; the scenarios do not appear contrived and forced. Overall these books are honest about what they are; they don’t try and pretend to be something else to draw you in. It is very clear from the cover that you are getting a romance novel, but once you read the jacket descriptions and get into the books, you realise you’re getting not just romance but also complex fantasy for a very multi-layered story.

If you can’t tell yet, I absolutely adored the book, to the point that I went out and bought all six and I’m going to read every single one (still working on it, I've read the first 3, the rest are in the pile). My favourite part of the story shouldn't surprise you; it is the interaction between the characters, they are sarcastic and there is so much biting humour that it’s impossible not to laugh; it's like a full cast of dead pan snarkers. In the past when I’ve tried reading romance novels I was always turned off by the cheese factor of them, but that didn’t happen here, the fantasy setting and storylines caught my interest and held me, but the characters and their dysfunctionality and humour are what made me fall in love with the story.

Do you usually go for romance novels? If not have you ever been drawn into one? What drew you in?


--Ren