On her 17th birthday Victoria receives a music box and an amulet that belonged to her grandmother. In the music box is a journal of her ancestor Brigid. Brigid was a witch and her blood contained powerful magic, magic which has been passed down to Tori. With the magic comes a familiar, Leto the cat, who helps teach her magic. Tori is drawn to a mysterious boy she sees on her high school campus. Christian is cultured and beautiful and surrounded by mystery. Turns out he is a vampire. Tori and Christian soon find themselves falling into forbidden love. But there love cannot be. There is an ancient prophecy about La Sang Noir, which seems to be about Tori and her magic blood. Christian’s twin brother Lucian discovers Tori’s existence and wants her magic and her blood.
This is so obviously a Twilight ripoff. Innocent girl with a vampire lusting after her. Her blood smells so sweet it is hard to resist. At least Tori has powers and isn’t the limp dishrag Bella was. But there is still the love you/can’t have/must have you/can’t live without back and forth between Tori and Christian that gets old really quickly. There is also a lot shoved into this book. It is like Howard took everything paranormal she could think of and threw it into the book. We have witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, fairies, seerers, a prophecy, a vampire council, and a magic talking cat. Seriously, I don’t think she left anything out except zombies. Not all of these things are fully explored or necessary. I think the story would have been better off with a tighter plot and less extra stuff. Not that it isn’t entertaining. There is a lot of action and adventure. They travel from New York to Paris and back. The magic is fun and exciting, although I think Tori became proficient way faster than possible. At times it seemed like she just always knew how to do the spells. Of course there is a love triangle which turns deadly (how could there not be). Overall, not a bad read but definitely not original or new.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com.
Juliet Moreau has been working as a maid and living rather humbly after the scandal that rocked her family’s world. Her father, the infamous Henri Moreau, managed to escape London rather than facing jail time and left Juliet and her mother destitute. After her mother died, Juliet was left to fend for herself. After intruding on a late-night vivisection, Juliet finds a diagram being used by the medical students that was drawn by her own father. A bit of investigation and the desire to see if her father was indeed still alive leads her to an apartment where she runs into her father’s former servant, Montgomery and a hairy, malformed man called Balthazar. Montgomery and Balthazar are in England to pick up supplies for Juliet’s father and agree to take her with them to the isolated island off the coast of Australia. They set sail on a rather sketchy vessel and pick up a castaway named Edward along the way. Edward is full of secrets and refuses to discuss any of the details of his former life. Montgomery grudgingly agrees to allow Edward to join the small group.
This series never fails to impress and delight. In this volume, Mayor Hundred goes to Rome for a chat with the Pope but forces are at work to turn his visit into an assassination. Can the Great Machine actually be hacked?
Marcus “M1k3y” Yallow’s story continues two years after the events in Little Brother. We catch up to him at Burning Man where he is attempting to show off his 3d printer with the aid of his girlfriend, Ange. Regrettably, the playa dust is causing some technical difficulties, so Marcus and Ange have given up and moved on to enjoy the Burning Man scene. Imagine Marcus’s surprise when he encounters a face from his not-too-distant past: Masha. Masha has tracked Marcus down to deliver a USB drive with thousands of incendiary documents from various government and corporate entities. He is told to release him if he hears about Masha being captured.
Mac and her family have just moved into the Coronado, an aging LA hotel-turned-apartment building. Mac is not particularly thrilled about it. The move was precipitated by the death of her little brother and Mac’s not ready to let him go yet. This unwillingness to let him go is beginning to severely interfere with her secret job as a Keeper for the Archive. The Archive isn’t an ordinary repository; it is a place where the lives of the dead are stored. These are called Histories. Each History has his or her own coffin-shaped shelf. Each History is physically similar to its former living state. Trained by her late grandfather, Mac was the youngest Keeper in history. Most Histories are calm and remain in the Archives, but a few “wake up” and escape into a sort-of-purgatory called the Narrows. It is here that Mac must apprehend these escaped Histories, who typically become increasingly distressed and violent the longer they are “awake”, and return them to the Archive. Mac’s pretty good at her job, but things start going awry shortly after her arrival at the Coronado. For one thing, there’s another Keeper on the premises. And Mac might have a tiny crush on him. This, however, becomes eclipsed by the volume of work skyrocketing to unprecedented levels. It’s normal for a few Histories to wake up now and then, but multiple instances every day? And then there’s the strange boy lurking in the Narrows whose presence makes no sense. And the mysteries of the hotel itself….Mac’s got her plate pretty full. Assuming she survives her work.
Nalia has spent the better part of her 16 years preparing to become the Queen of her country. Shortly after her 16th birthday, she is informed that, due to an ominous prophecy, she was switched at birth and is, in fact, a false princess. The real princess has been living in a convent and is equally clueless as to her own identity. The prophecy only indicated death for the princess prior to her turning sixteen, so now that the deadline has passed, the real princess can be crowned. Nalia, now called Sinda, is sent to her aunt’s cottage in a country village. After failing at the wool dyeing trade and accidentally discovering that she possesses magic, Sinda decided to head back to the capitol. An attempt to join the Wizardry school fails on account of her “common” ancestry and Sinda finds herself being taken under the wing of an eccentric witch who offers to teach her control in exchange for scribe work. In the capitol, Sinda uncovers evidence that may suggest there is more to the official royal story than anyone suspects, even the royal family. In order to figure out her place in the world, Sinda feels compelled to set everything straight in spite of the danger it may cause her.
How much do I love Terry Pratchett? I can’t even think of the correct quantitative word to answer that question. Dodger might just be his best yet. Dodger is an orphan who has spent most of his life on London’s streets. He makes ends meet by toshing (collecting coins, etc. from the sewers) and is notorious among those that inhabit the workhouses, sewers and streets. He’s most emphatically not a thief (but, if something is just lying around, well then…); he’s the Dodger. Here one moment and gone the next. Things might have continued on like that if it weren’t for Dodger’s admirable sense of chivalry. He hears a scream and finds himself rescuing a girl from two very nasty thugs. Shortly after, he comes across another well-known London-ite with good intentions, a Mr. Charlie Dickens. Dickens finds a safe place for the strange woman (who has yet to tell anyone about herself or her provenance). With the young lady, dubbed “Simplicity” by her caretakers, safety in hiding, Dodger becomes determined to see those guilty for Simplicity’s beating held responsible for their actions. Dodger’s mystery takes him all over London, meeting some very historically important personages and finding a bit out about himself as he goes along. In spite of his lack of education, Dodger proves himself to be, at all times, completely capable of handling any situation he finds himself in.