Thoroughly researched historical details and bright if naïve protagonists conjure a winning period adventure.
Turn-of-the-last-century socialites discover the bloody secrets of their Old World family in this lush historical fantasy.
Cousins Dacia Vreeholt and Louisa Neulander, raised in Gilded Age New York, are sent in 1897 to Romania to reconnect with their mothers' aristocratic clan. Once in Bucharest, Lou and Dacia (who arrives marked by a minor scandal involving a London playboy) quickly realize their reclusive relations, the Florescus, socialize only with the Dracula family—descendants of the infamous Vlad the Impaler. Meanwhile, the cousins' intimidating grandmother keeps wondering aloud if each is a "Wing," "Claw," or "Smoke" and pushing Dacia to accept invitations from Dracula scion Prince Mihai. As Mihai begins to pursue Dacia, her London and American suitors arrive in Romania to warn the cousins about the Florescus' supernatural connection to the Draculas, who seek to reclaim the Romanian throne. In absorbing alternating journal entries and letters, Dacia grows ever more frightened and cautious while Lou’s interest in her family's fascinating secrets deepens. George captures the exquisite beauty of 1890s Romania—city town houses and sprawling country estates, opera halls, artisanal shops, folk dresses, and the stunning "forested slopes of the Carpathians"—while also creating an increasingly foreboding atmosphere for Dacia’s and Lou's life-changing revelations.
Thoroughly researched historical details and bright if naïve protagonists conjure a winning period adventure. (author's note) (Historical fiction/paranormal fantasy. 12-17)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61963-431-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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