Review - QUEEN OF ATTOLIA

The Queen of Attolia (Queen's Thief, #2) - Megan Whalen Turner

Genre: YA Fantasy (in a somewhat historical setting)

Publisher: Harper Collins
# of pages: 362 (pb)
Recommended for: EVERYONE

When Eugenides (yoo-JEN-ə-deez), the Thief of Eddis, stole Hamiathes's Gift, the Queen of Attolia lost more than a mythical relic. She lost face. Everyone knew that Eugenides had outwitted and escaped her. To restore her reputation and reassert her power, the Queen of Attolia will go to any length and accept any help that is offered...she will risk her country to execute the perfect revenge.
...but
Eugenides can steal anything. And he taunts the Queen of Attolia, moving through her strongholds seemingly at will. So Attolia waits, secure in the knowledge that the Thief will slip, that he will haunt her palace one too many times.
...at what price?
When Eugenides finds his small mountain country at war with Attolia, he must steal a man, he must steal a queen, he must steal peace. But his greatest triumph, and his greatest loss, comes in capturing something that the Queen of Attolia thought she had sacrificed long ago...

----

Sometimes it happens. Sometimes I read a series out of order. Sometimes, like in the case of the Twilight series (where, for reasons that are still unknown, I dove into Breaking Dawn first and got to about page 100 before admitting that I was as confused and lost as Admiral Stockdale in that VP debate). Thankfully, no such confusion occurred due to opting out of reading The Thief, the first book in the series, first.

The gist of the story is easy to figure out. Eugenides is an infamous thief wanted in three separate countries. Luckily for him, his status as a cousin to the Queen has been enough to keep him safe, until a botched mission early in the novel results in a shocking and devastating punishment. The rest of the story, in large part, deals with Eugenides picking up the pieces of his life and attempting to recover from that event. Against the strong character-driven emotionality if the story is an elaborate backdrop of political intrigue, treacherous double-crossers, and war.
Megan Whalen Turner's fantasy geography is stunning and equally intricate. She creates a world reminiscent of Greek city-states (the fictional kingdoms of Sounis, Attolia, and Eddis supposedly based on the geography of ancient Greece), with a more Byzantine-era style, and featuring such early-modern technology as gunpowder, clockwork objects, and printed books.

I have to admit that some of Turner's storylines didn't make a whole lot of sense.

Most of the events in the novel revolve around this three-party war, which started out easy to understand, but soon seemed to delve into murky political motives with a lot of loose ends.

I love military tactics, perhaps more than the average reader, but I was thoroughly confused by a lot of the goings-on. And I think that all the attention given to the politics of the countries detracted from the most enjoyable part of the story, the characters.

Honestly, I think the thief Eugenides is now one of my all-time favorite characters. This is what I consider a successful, lovable, cheer-worthy character: someone who is both highly intelligent and extremely witty, physically capable (without being the brawniest dude in the room), and someone who undergoes some sort of emotional maturity over the course of the story. I definitely noticed a different character at the novel's end than at the beginning, and I like that. And I liked that Eugenides had to pull himself out of a depressing and practically insurmountable ordeal. It's okay for characters to get into a funk, but they need to be able to pull themselves out of it. :) The two rival queens of Eddis and Attolia are the other characters of great importance, and I liked how Turner portrayed the familial interactions between Eugenides and his cousin, Eddis. But since the Queen of Attolia is also the title character, I expected her to be a little more rounded and to play a bigger role in the story. But we don't see her except occasionally, until the last 100 or so pages. In that time, I didn't buy into the character transformation that Turner says she went through.

And really, the main reason this book is 4 stars instead of 5 is because of Megan's writing style. On one hand, I love her creativity and I love how brilliant she obviously is. She had a seemless ability to make three fictional countries come alive with extensive histories and geographic elements. But I feel like most of the book was told to me, not shown. Her characters are obviously meant to be highly rounded and with a lot of depth, but because of the fact that her narrative was more of a "telling narrative," I didn't feel much of a connection to what was going on. Even a 3rd person narrative can have some emotional exploration and insight, and I found that lacking here. I wish she would have just kept the 1st person narrative that she started in The Thief...

But I'm saying all this as a 20something reader. I have no doubt that kids/teens will be fascinated by the detail of this series and the literal nonstop action (I'm serious. This is one of those books that is just flat EXCITING to read). And it's definitely a series that I wholeheartedly recommend, especially to young readers and boys.

Final Rating

My Mailbox [13]

Traded
Don't Expect Magic - Kathy McCullough
Thank you to the Flashlight Reader!

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

Ordered
The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature - Jeff VanderMeer, et al

&
Special Edition 2 Disc of Aladdin!
Heck yeah! For $10 you bet I ordered this! Pooh on Disney and their whole 'Disney vault' thing!
When I was a kid, I had the hugest collection of animated movies, but curse it, they were all video, and with the rise of DVDs, well, you know. I don't even think we have a VCR anymore (sad day, I loved those big ol' videos and the big boxes they came in, *sigh*)

Very productive couple of weeks! What did everybody else get?
& do you find yourself watching the occasional animated movie or two every once in awhile? Because if you ask me, they just can't lose their value.

inspirational pictures - BOOKS

haha :)

Review Me Giveaway #1!

It's time for another GIVEAWAY!

I brought back a lot of books from BEA a few months ago, and mostly due to time constraints, I won't be able to read and review each one before they are released...this makes me feel a wee bit guilty. Also, when you're at BEA, a lot of times people offer you books and you say, 'Yes please, thank you' without always knowing if they will be your cup of tea or something you would have picked up on your own.
And why should they sit on my shelves when they could be enjoyed by you guys?

So here's my BEA Review Me Giveaway #1 (yes, that means there will be more!)
There's really only 1 criteria for entering: you must have either a blog or a Goodreads page, as the purpose of this giveaway is for the book to get some exposure.

And what's up for grabs?


I have an ARC of Circle 9 by Anne Heltzel, published by Candlewick

Synopsis via Goodreads:

She knows only Sam, a mysterious teenage boy. He is her sole companion; her whole life. She was born, already a teenager, lying outside a burning building in soot-stained clothes, remembering nothing, not even her name. He showed her the necklace she had on, the one that named her: Abby. Sam brought her to live in his cave-palace, where he gives her everything she needs. He loves her. He protects her from the world outside, from everyone who wants to hurt them, like the denizens of Circle Nine, Dante’s deepest circle of hell. But even in a charmed, brand-new life like Abby’s, change will come. Sam falls ill. A new girl comes to stay, and Abby begins to question Sam’s devotion. With doubt comes emotional turmoil, changes in perception, and glimpses of her past identity. In this courageous psychological thriller, Abby tells the story of living her new life and discovering her old one, while grappling with an ever-changing reality.

Please note: Despite what the synopsis says, this book has nothing to do with Dante or the Inferno...
The giveaway will run until Sunday, August 7th.

Review - ONCE EVERY NEVER

Once Every Never - Lesley Livingston
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin
Recommended for: Everyone
Buy @ AmazonThis was one of the relatively few books that, upon its release, I was absolutely desperate to have.
I loved Lesley Livingston's Wondrous Strange trilogy about modern day faeries, so I knew I would love this one too.
And I did.
Lesley is like a literary version of King Midas, only instead of turning stuff into gold, she turns her ideas (any idea) into a successful story with a winning combination of characters, strong plot, quality writing, and that little glimmer of magic that - I believe - is unique to the Young Adult genre.
Plus, this is just my kind of book. The main character has an aunt who works for the British Museum, has access to artifacts in said museum, and literally has the ability to make history come to life. And what period in history? Roman Britain, first century AD.
Excuse this part of the review, as the geektastic Amelia is about to take over. So, it is extremely hard to write about this period in British history, pretty much because as far as primary sources go, you have the Romans (biased) and...little else. Even though we're in the Anno Domini years, this part of Britain is still considered 'pre-history' due to the lack of written documents.
How in the world, then, is an author to write about a time period with little source material? Those druids? Technically, there's no hard evidence that they even existed. The daily life of the Iceni and other Celtic tribes? Not a lot of information.

Too many historical liberties, though, and the book will lose its believability. This is where Livingston really scored a touchdown in my eyes - she took a really mysterious part of history and turned it into something believable. If Once Every Never even had anachronisms, I certainly didn't catch them. The book read like the author did her research, and for a history major like me, that is a gargantuan plus.

The story begins with two girls spending the summer in London. The main character, Clare, is intelligent, but she kind of slacks off and is easily distracted, so she comes across as just a wee bit shallow. She is pretty grounded, but as soon as she sees one or two cute guys, she turns into a googly-eyed goof. Clare actually struck me as a calamity Jane kind of character - she's not a troublemaker, but trouble seems to find her anyway.
Here's a passage that really gave me a feel for her personality:

"In her ordinary life, surrounded by extraordinary people, Clare had never really taken much of a chance with anything important. Everyone she knew - everyone in her family, Al, Al's family, Maggie - they were all so...so effortlessly competent and accomplished. So she'd learned at a young age not to risk doing anything too complicated. She could handle failing. She just couldn't handle failing spectacularly." (24)

I identified way more with her best friend Alice, who pretty much lives on the far right side of the Bell Curve. In all honesty, it took me awhile to warm up to Clare, but that's only because a full-access pass to the most famous museum in the world, and being within touching distance of some of the oldest, coolest artifacts (like the Snettisham Torc and the Bog Men!) would be my idea of paradise on earth, because you see, I'm completely geeky for history like that, and Clare...well, she was bored out of her mind. I'm serious, Clare's life had me salivating like one of Pavlov's dogs.
She can't stay bored for long, though, because she absentmindedly becomes a catalyst for some kind of time-traveling centuries-old "curse," and she finds herself smack in the middle of occupied Britain, coming face to face with the formidable Boudicca, and finding herself in the midst of a bloody war. Boudicca, queen of the Iceni, was definitely the most energetic character, and I like the way Lesley chose to portray her: not as a wounded, martyring queen, but as a bloodthirsty, prideful warrior who may or may not be one scout short of a posse (which apparently is a cool euphemism for 'crazy'). Whoa, this gal was ferocious! I mean, she'd have the White Witch sniveling into her inhaler gasping 'omg ur so meanz!'
Also, Boudicca's story, at least historically, is pretty tragic/graphic, and I do appreciate how Lesley didn't draw attention to certain aspects of it. The only reason I'm mentioning it is because it makes Once Every Never a book I could give to my students, too (with just a little comment on the language)

Just like in the Wondrous Strange series, Lesley populates her novel with a wide variety of well-crafted characters, and I won't spoil them for you by going into big detail, but everyone brought something to the story, and I liked that. There was a teeny weenie bit of a love triangle here, but it wasn't very pronounced. Still, I wouldn't have minded if Clare was maybe a little less boy-centric. She kind of switched affections from one guy (a Druid warrior...in this case, they're not freaky-weird, but actually sensitive and handsome) to another (a buffed up nerd...still waiting for one of those to pop up in real life!), and I wouldn't have minded a little less of that, but still...it wasn't an integral part of the story.
The only other character I *must* talk about is the villainy guy, another character who may or may not be one scout short of a posse - vain, eccentric historian (and white collar crime extraordinare), Dr. Morholt. This guy totally reminded me of a cross between Sherlock Holmes' Moriarty and real-life historian personality Simon Schama (the guy is like Beauty and the Beast's Cogsworth and Gaston rolled into one). I absolutely loved this guy. He was so entertaining :)
I think I've spazzed enough for one review. Excellent characters (Lesley did what I thought was impossible - she made a slacker into a lovable character for me!), a brilliant story (loaded with historical awesome juice, and quality writing.

Books for sale/trade

I try and do posts like these every few months, just because there's such a high turnover.
As of right now, I cannot ship internationally.

I will accept Amazon giftcards in exchange, OR I've listed some of the titles I'm looking for at the bottom...

If you see something you're interested in, please email me at
imaginefocusedreviews@gmail.com
& we'll talk!

These are the current books I have -

• Candor - Pam Bachorz (HB)
  
• Pastworld - Ian Beck (HB)
  
• Pretties (Uglies, #2) - Scott Westerfeld (PB)
  
• Beastly - Alex Flinn (PB)
  
• Timeriders - Alex Scarrow (HB)
• Secondhand Charm - Julie Berry (HB)
• The Darlings are Forever - Melissa Kantor (HB)
• Viola - Adriana Trigiani (HB)
• Awaken - Katie Kacvinsky (HB) - 2 copies
• Lock and Key - Sarah Dessen (PB)
• Impossible - Nancy Werlin (PB)
• Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta (PB) - slightly worn
• Need - Carrie Jones (HB)
• The Cinderella Society - Kay Cassidy (HB)
• Life as We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer (PB)
• The Secret History of the Pink Carnation - Lauren Willig (PB) - adult
• The Masque of the Blak Tulip - Lauren Willig (PB) - adult

Some of the titles I'm looking for:
What Happened to Goodbye - Sarah Dessen
Between the Sea and Sky - Jaclyn Dolamore
The Forgotten Locket - Lisa Mangum

700+ giveaway WINNER!

Thank you to everyone who entered!
I ended up with an extra ARC of Legend at BEA (I picked one up one day and then ended up in the author's signing line the next day), so that's the only reason I came home with two!
The winner of Legend is...
Danielle! (@ With a Book)

Please email me at imaginefocusedreviews@gmail.com in the next 48 hours!
I'll be doing another 'Review Me' giveaway later this month, so keep checking back!

Review - FOREVER

Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3) - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: YA Paranormal
# of pages:
Recommended for: HS & Beyond
Source: ARC from BEA

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater

In Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER, Grace and Sam found each other. In LINGER, they fought to be together. Now, in FOREVER, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Before I wrote this review, I wanted to give myself time to really think about my reading experiences. Kind of like Mockingjay, I had to sit around and let my thoughts congeal a bit. Since the book's been out for a few days now and several diverse reviews are up and about, I figured it's time to weigh in. First and foremost, "thrilling" is not a word that I would use to describe the fist 250 pages...

Basically, I did not like this installment. More often than not it, was either a bore and a chore to get through. And I hate typing that! Shiver is still one of my favorite novels ever, and I did enjoy Linger, though not quite as much. This whole series and its progression really got me wondering at why it is that nearly EVERY non-contemp YA book is being turned into a trilogy/series, because with each book I felt a little less magic. A little less pizazz.

Why specifically did Forever not work for me? Well, first of all, it seemed overly dramatic in a way that - I thought - Shiver and Linger were not. If you are someone who thought that any of the first two books were slow or prone to melodrama (as I know that others have said), then in my opinion, you may find Forever challenging. Unlike most finale books in a series, it is not more fast-paced. In my opinion, it actually seemed slower. There were several periods throughout most of the chapters when the characters - especially Sam - would have these really long, drawn out personal reflections. Flashbacks would occur randomly, and I'd say for about the first 200 pages, the plot just kind of meandered along. Characters would drift in and out of contact, and oh the angst. Yeah, the series has always been dramatic, emotional too, but I never thought the angst was overdone until now. Sam - whom I absolutely adored in Shiver - just kind of moped around and really didn't do much of anything but feel sorry for himself. Cole sat around thinking about how his life used to be. Grace kept shifting and bolting. One or two times and it's dramatic, but four times? Then it just gets downright annoying, I'm sorry to say. In my playbook, that's repetition, not suspense or excitement.

For me, though, I could have forgotten the slow start and the aggravating parts but for the ending. Guys, when you hear the word "forever," what do you think of? Maybe if you're like me, you hear Squints from The Sandlot pulling out the word like "foooooorrreeeevvveeeerrrr" over and over (haha). But you think of something that has closure, right? Maybe? For me, it's a little close to false advertising when you've got the final book in a series titled something permanent sounding like Forever, and the said ending doesn't have a whole lot of closure. I get it, really I do. I get that it's bad to give teen characters any kind of "permanent closure," because after all, they're only 18, right? For me, though, it does not work to feed me a story, a fictional story (that really is not in the least bit obligated to reflect, endorse, or champion "reality") in which characters have this serious, mature, real-deal love...and then turn around and leave the ending open-ended. Did I expect the kind of ending that was found in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows? Well, maybe. And really, who knows better how to end a [modern] YA series than JK Rowing?
I also kind of took issue with the last chapter in general, really. Grace, to me, made a decision that seemed extremely out-of-character for her, given her relationship and previous history with Sam. All I'm wanting is for a series ending to accurately reflect the series as a whole, and here, it was my perception that the author pulled back a little and went with a more "realistic" ending. And that just didn't work for me in a series like this.

I realize that was a really long, lengthy (and highly opinionated) explanation, but I do feel like I need to explain what it was that left me disappointed.

As always, though, I enjoyed reading Maggie's beautiful, stylistic prose. Being a storyteller doesn't automatically mean being gifted with words, per see, but Maggie is definitely talented in both departments. I wish Forever had turned out differently, but I still regard Shiver as one of my favorite Young Adult novels. And I absolutely refuse to give this rating any lower than 3 1/2 because of the high quality of writing. It is still my belief that the content (specifically brief strong language and sexual content) in this series, as well as the overall maturity and age level of the main characters, makes The Wolves of Mercy Falls ideal for high school and beyond readers.

Final Rating

more than one kind of "love"?

This post is about luuurrrvve.
(Love)

Forgive me for the spazzy post because this has way more to do with writing than with reading, and for the past few days I've been wrestling some reading-to-writing feelings and whether or not I should even express them.

Basically, what happened is a friend of mine read this book - the whole purpose of the book is to be a love story - and we were talking about it the other day. Specifically, she and I had kind of a problem with the love presented in the book. A little bit of context may be necessary, so pretty much, it's one of those books where two kids meet, and you know that it's like a 'true love from childhood' thing, like they're destined to be together and whatnot. But they go their separate ways, and...here's where it got hard for my pal to go along with the story...supposedly the guy's still in love with the childhood crush, always has been, and yet he still manages to get a new girlfriend to crush on (and etc.) in the process. For us, love...as in fictional story, can't-quite-cut-it-in-real-life-so-that's-why-we-read- "true love"...is pretty exclusive. Can't quite get on board with the character's declarations if he's gettin with someone else.
*shrug*

The point is, lately I've really been wondering how much of what I take in, as a reader, influences what I create as a writer. I've read some pretty amazing stories in the last couple years, but for every genuinely magical story, every sweet, endearing, my-definition-of-romantic love story, there have been at least 2 or 3 that were not so endearing. Believe me, I totally understand that every writer feels drawn and inspired in their own way, and I'm counting on that. But what's a little unsettling to me, from a writing point of view, is how I'm starting to second-guess my own ability as a storyteller because my love stories don't match up with the "usual treatment."
Almost every author I've read in the last 2 years has written a love story (considering that it's even a part of the plot in the first place) that's different - somehow - from my own. And that's fine for them, because those are their stories, not mine, and if they have the freedom to write what they want, so should I, theoretically. But then I was talking with my friend about this latest book of hers, and it made me wonder,
If everybody's doing it differently...maybe I am the one who's wrong. If my picture of "love" is obviously so different from most authors out there, that means that I've got it wrong, right?
But is there even a "right" and a "wrong" when it comes to creating a love story?
Can there be more than one kind of 'love' (and just to clarify, I'm not talking about sibling love, parental love, platonic love...I'm talking about, like, romantic and beyond kind).

Whoever says there's power in books knows what they're talking about. But for me, sometimes that power is unsettling, because it only reminds me how different my stories are and how counter-cultural my characters' personalities are. And lately that's made me really wonder...

Though this post is just meant to throw my thoughts out into the void, I want to also appeal to both the writers and the avid readers out there and ask if you've ever come up against this same issue before, or if you have any thoughts on what is, in all likelihood, a very abstract-leaning and rambling post :)

my mailbox! 12]

Got two books this week that I'm really excited about, and one more is still in transit.

Trade
Ashes, Ashes - Jo Treggiari
^^thank you Briana @ The Book Pixie!

Bought
The Queen of Attolia (Queen's Thief, #2) - Megan Whalen Turner

Waiting on...
The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner

--
Okay, for some odd reason, it's taken me THIS LONG to read Megan's uber-popular series. I've heard about them for awhile now, and I know people both in this community and in real life who absolutely swear by them.
Question, though: I'm already diving into Queen of Attolia, even though I haven't read book one yet, then I was planning on going back and reading it as a sort of 'prequel' read. And do I need to continue on with The King of Attolia? Some of my friends say that Megan changes her POV style in every book and that the perspective is a little weird in King...but I don't know.
Has anybody read any of these who can comment?

And in the spirit of random jollity:
It's honey badger time!
In case you haven't seen this yet, this is only the best "documentary" on the web!

(except for the language, geez!)

hurray for [YA!] ILLUSTRATORS, pt. 1

Illustrators aren't just for children's picture-books, yall.
More and more, I'm seeing bona fide young adult novels (especially series on the younger, preteen end of the spectrum) featuring some pretty legit art, both on the cover and within the books themselves.

One of the best examples of beautiful, amazing literary art is the work of illustrator David Frankland.

Frankland's illustrative credits are immense, but some of his most well-known work are the illustrations he made for Joseph Delaney's The Wardstone Chronicles series, as well as Marie Rutkoski's Kronos Chronicles. Falkland's art is also featured on the cover of Dianna Wynne Jones' Spellbound, as well as a new edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

What initially made me notice Frankland's work is the strong resemblance to character art in some Disney films, particularly Hercules (1997). What also seems to make Falkland's art unique is his immense talent for complexly detailed silhouetted figures.

Gallery







Art from the Wardstone series


Art from the Kronos Chronicles


Index of David Frankland's work
& here

Next time I'll feature another illustrator!

Review - ENTWINED

Entwined - Heather Dixon
Genre: YA Fantasy/Fairytale Retelling
Publisher: Greenwillow
Recommended for: MS & Beyond

Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.

The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost.

The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

Entwined is an adaptation of the "Twelve Dancing Princess" fairytale, and as such it really reminded me of both Wildwood Dancing, and especially Princess of the Midnight Ball, two other books that are adapted from the same story. In fact, if you've read Jessica Day George's Princess of the Midnight Ball, you will almost certainly enjoy this novel as well. They're both incredibly similar in format and in the execution of the story.
For me at least, it's essential for a book to have a likable main character in order for there to be a good reading experience. I think that Azalea was a fleshed-out, well-written character. She's certainly easy to like - incredibly responsible, for one thing. Like in the original tale, there are 12 sisters in all, and I have to commend Heather Dixon for creating so many distinct personalities. This was one aspect that I thought Entwined handled better than POTMB.

First and foremost, though, this novel is about family. I actually got way more of a Sound of Music vibe than anything else. The way the girls relate to their cold, distant father is like a spot-on rendition of the von Trapps. In all honesty, I wasn't expecting the novel to focus so heavily on Azalea's family dynamics. There's nothing wrong with it, except that I was expecting more of a paranormal read, just because of the nature of the original tale.
I will say that the "supernatural elements" (for lack of a better phrase) were a bit lackluster. Contrary to what Aprilynne Pike blurbed, this book hardly has any magical elements at all, and I do feel just the tiniest bit misled about this story's premise because of it. The above synopsis, in my opinion, sounds way more sinister than the book actually is.
Also, this book is just so long, clocking in at over 400 pages, and I'd say that less than 100 pages dealt with any magic, mayhem, or mischief. Compare this with Wildwood Dancing, where the supernatural elements were rather pronounced.

In terms of the romance...it was practically nonexistent. For some of you, that's going to sound pretty promising. For others, not so much. Hey, I actually prefer it when romance isn't the main factor in a novel, BUT I do want something! There is a love interest, but even I (with my tendency to love 'nice guy' characters) will admit that he was pretty lukewarm.
The other movie that Entwined eventually reminded me of was Labyrinth, mainly due to the interactions between Azalea and the Keeper. 'Kay, here's where I ended up being really surprised by the direction the story took. I guess the synopsis had me anticipating the Keeper to be some dark, tortured soul who's ultimately the victim of circumstances...but no, he's just a downright creepy dude. His revelation was also lackluster, in addition to disappointing. When I realized the full extent of his characterization, I was bummed, to say the least. Is that a spoiler? Well, I don't particularly think so. I'm not giving away any specifics or anything.

Entwined is a decent, clean read that I think is certainly worth your time, if you like fairytale adaptations, period settings, or if you're looking for a light summer read. I do want to say that the author's extensive details about various world dances is what made the book for me. I had youtube popped up the whole time I was reading, and any time she'd mention a dance, I'd type it in to see what it looked like. I was definitely fascinated by that.

Final Grade