Heartless review!

 
 
Title: Heartless
Author: Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Series: Tales of Goldstone Wood
Pages: 368
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Genre: Fantasy
My rating: Five stars.

"Beyond the final water falling,
The Song of Spheres recalling,
When the sun descends behind the twilit sky,
Won't you follow me?"

Clara sung this lovely verse (albeit more than this) so gorgeously. I kid you not, I have listened to her video countless times. I just love it. You might like it. Anne Elisabeth did! Listen here!
     

Summary/Description:

Princess Una of Parumvir has come of age and will soon be married. She dreams of a handsome and charming prince, but when the first suitor arrives, she finds him stodgy and boring. Prince Aethelbald from the mysterious land of Farthestshore has traveled far to prove his love--and also to bring hushed warnings of danger. A dragon is rumored to be approaching Parumvir.

Una, smitten instead with a more dashing prince, refuses Aethelbald's offer--and ignores his warnings. Soon the Dragon King himself is in Parumvir, and Una, in giving her heart away unwisely, finds herself in grave danger. Only those courageous enough to risk everything have a hope of fighting off this advancing evil.

My thoughts:

 Miss Anne Elisabeth is one of my favorite authors; you know I have many favorite books, but I have only around five favorite authors, and Anne Elisabeth is one of them.

About the BOOK now before I start wandering off....
     Una and Aethelbald are my favorites, of course! Una's a girl who likes to do things on her own, leading to some messes...Aethelbald is...well, hard to describe. He's a calm, loving person who everyone likes (or at least I hope everyone likes him!).
     Anne Elisabeth is a Christian author, and the book is written with hints toward the Bible. I hadn't really realized this *blushes and dies of embarrassment* (thanks to Hannah W. for supplying me with that appropriate sentence a while ago...) until my sister Rachel pointed it out, and then I read it again and I saw it all over the place. It made me smile when I recognized something out of a few favorite bits of the Bible.
      Which means, also, that of course everything in there is good. :)
The Dragon, the Death-In-Life....one of the best. villains. ever.  Of course, there's some more villains in the other books, and aren't they just so good.


Una looks just like this:
 
This is Clara! One of my dearest friends, I'm very happy to say. Anne Elisabeth (and lots of others like me agree) said that Clara looks just like the Princess Una of Parumvir.

     I'd have to say, although I've never personally met her, Anne Elisabeth is one of the sweetest people I know. Clara met her a bit ago and confirmed it. But I know she's sweet, and I know because it's partly the fault of her fantabulous blog which just has the greatest fun!

     Anne Elisabeth is going to hold a fan-fiction contest (I have mentioned this) and Hannah just gave me the most brilliant idea for it. Hee hee it's awesome. I can't wait to see what Hannah and Clara and Beka and Meredith and just everyone come up with! (yup we have lots of fun. I have mentioned this.)

     Heartless is all around just really good. My favorite out of the series (so far) is Starflower; I adore Imraldera and Eanrin. so much. a lot a much. a ton a much.

Review and pictures coming later...

-Me

P.S. oh yeah speaking of pictures the post below is full of those suckers---Dragon's teeth, please excuse my language! ;)

The Two Princesses of Bamarre review

 Firstly, I wanted to reply to y'all's comments on the last review! :)

Hannah: It's a good book! I grabbed it at the last second at the library because the cover caught my eye, then I read the description when I got home, and I was lost...

Lydia: Ooooh hai Lydie! (can I call you that?) It's been a while, twin! ;) Although, we probably don't look so much alike anymore...
 Yeah, Entwined is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, which is also why I liked it so much. I thought there wasn't another good one other than Jessica Day George's retelling, but this one is pretty well done; both different writing styles.


 Now, to the review...





Title: The Two Princesses of Bamarre
Author: Gail Carson Levine
Series: None
Pages: 241
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Genre: Fantasy
My rating: 5/5 stars, I think. I love Gail Carson Levine.

Summary/Description:

 Twelve-year-old Addie admires her older sister Meryl, who aspires to rid the kingdom of Bamarre of gryphons, specters, and ogres. Addie, on the other hand, is fearful even of spiders and depends on Meryl for courage and protection. Waving her sword Bloodbiter, the older girl declaims in the garden from the heroic epic of Drualt to a thrilled audience of Addie, their governess, and the young sorcerer Rhys.

But when Meryl falls ill with the dreaded Gray Death, Addie must gather her courage and set off alone on a quest to find the cure and save her beloved sister. Addie takes the seven-league boots and magic spyglass left to her by her mother and the enchanted tablecloth and cloak given to her by Rhys—, along with a shy declaration of his love. She prevails in encounters with tricky specters (spiders too) and outwits a wickedly personable dragon in adventures touched with romance and a bittersweet ending.


My thoughts:
    I adore this book; then again, I love a heaping ton of books. Anywho, I've read this book twice.Which means it's good; if I like a book, I read it more than once.

 Well done; it's my type of book, which means it includes sarcasm; I like sarcasm, but there's not very much in this book, but hey--this book had me resisting the urge to flip the page and see what happens before I finished reading the part I was at. There's a dash of romance, which is okay; I don't like a lot of romance at all, but it's good to have a little bit, I think.
  There's adventure, of course or I wouldn't like this book at all, I don't think.
okay, I'm really just blabbering. This book is wonderful. Read it.
  Nothing inappropriate, or I'd point that out right away. It's a thrilling book. Read it.

This book is told from a first person. Just though I'd let you know. 

Next up for review....Heartless by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. You can visit her blog by clicking on this sentence. Heartless will probably be a better review than this one; I don't know, the one I just did was a little difficult for me to review, who knows why. It was an excellent book.

  I'll review anything else by request, if y'all would so wish, as long as it's appealing to me. Example: I will not read anything I think is inappropriate. My book moods vary; sometimes I like this type of historical fiction and sometimes I abhor another type. 

Cheerio, y'all, and hope to hear from my long-time-no-see-Lydia girl again! :)
Molly


  

Entwined review

Title: Entwined
Author: Heather Dixon
Series: None
Pages: 472
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Genre: Fantasy
My rating: 4/5

Summary/Description:

Come and mend your broken hearts here.

Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing—it’s taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He’s trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. 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.

My thoughts:

Why did I rate this four stars?
It was an excellent book, really, and I loved it, but sometimes at some parts, it was not well written; I felt as Clara did, that at some parts it was written like it was Heather Dixon's first draft.
  Other than some parts needing a little work, it was good. Humerous, a bit of romance (but just the right amount so I didn't put the book down. Ha. Like I would.) and the Keeper. Ah! He was splendid. and a certain Mr. Bradford was, too.....
  As I often do when holding a book I'm enjoying, I was tensing throughout some parts, waiting to turn the page and see what happens...well done.

Cheerio, y'all, have a Happy Easter this weekend.

I'll be posting a review of 'The Two Princess of Bamarre' by Gail Carson Levine soon, so (heh heh) keep posted!

Molly

Michal review

I promised a review, and here you have it!


       

Title: Michal
Author: Jill Eileen Smith
Series: The Wives of King David
Pages: 384
Publisher: Fleming H. Revell Company
Genre: Christian historical fiction
My rating: 5/5 stars. This book was incredible.

 Summary/description:
As the daughter of King Saul, Michal lives a life of privilege--but one that is haunted by her father's unpredictable moods and by competition from her beautiful older sister. When Michal falls for young David, the harpist who plays to calm her father, she has no idea what romance, adventures, and heartache await her.
As readers enter the colorful and unpredictable worlds of King Saul and King David, they will be swept up in this exciting and romantic story. Against the backdrop of opulent palace life, raging war, and desert escapes, Jill Eileen Smith takes her readers on an emotional roller-coaster ride as Michal deals with love, loss, and personal transformation as one of the wives of David. A sweeping tale of passion and drama, readers will love this amazing story

 My Thoughts:

Seven letters. A.W.E.S.O.M.E.
     I had never expected the book to start the way it did, but it captivated me from the very first page. It had more romance than I had expected, but I gave it 5 stars because aside from the romance (which I didn't mind too much), it was just SO good. I am looking forward to reading more of Miss Jill's books.

Cheerio,
Molly

P.S. Feel free to ask me any questions.