Review: The Awakening of Miss Prim

The Awakening of Miss Prim: A Novel by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.]

3.5/5 stars (Oh how I wish Goodreads did half stars!)

"I'm cold. Would you mind taking me home now?"
"Mind? I'm always happy to take you home, Prudencia."

Prudencia Prim shows up in an isolated town, to apply for the position of librarian. It turns out to be in a man's home, which also functions as a school of sorts, and this man (never named, other than as "The Man in the Wing Chair") is the perfect person to infuriate, frustrate, and turn Miss Prim into an emotional pretzel. She prides herself on her civility, her delicacy, her own good manners and intelligence, and frequently turns her nose up (quite literally, to a somewhat comedic effect) at other people's faults. But she learns that her way is not the only way, that there are other people who live different lives, more peaceful and happy lives, and maybe her prudish and stuck-up ways aren't exactly making her the best person she can be.

I'm afraid I may have missed the point of this book. Rather than laughing at Prudencia as I think the author might have intended, I found her insufferable and a bit stupid. I'm amazed, with all of her haughtiness, that she managed to make an entire village full of friends. She overreacts easily to just about everything, and only towards the end does she allow herself to feel anything short of indignation that someone would speak to her plainly and without "delicacy." Although the last couple of chapters sort of redeem her, I'm not sure I followed where the author was going with the "idea" of Miss Prim.

And yet, for all of my inability to feel comfortable with my own understanding of the work, I thought it was well-written and funny, an interesting story, and I'm happy to have read it. I'm giving it the full four stars rather than knocking it down to three because of that, and because I quite enjoyed hating the main character. Not to mention the bluntness of the children, who are relatively minor characters but give the book much of its charm. Also, I really want to move to San Ireneo de Arnois.

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Do you want to read this book?  If so, keep an eye on this blog in the next week or so because you'll have a chance to win it!

Review: Fractured Dream

Fractured Dream by K.M. Randall
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free ebook from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.]

*sigh*

I really wanted to like this one, but what sounded like an interesting fairy tale-inspired fantasy turned out to be a melodramatic, overwrought teen romance drama.

Story Sparks (yes, that is her name, and it drove me nuts) is abducted, along with her two best friends, by a water goddess (Sandeen) who tells her that she used to be a goddess herself and needs to dispatch an evil overlord who is trying to destroy her world and the fairy tale world. Seriously, this actually sounded interesting. Not so much. Her uncle was abducted by the same water goddess before Story was born, and her mother has been a bit batshit about the lake ever since. So when Story goes missing, of course her mom (Edie) completely falls apart. After that we don't hear from Edie for pretty much the rest of the book.

So Story ends up going off on her magical quest to save the world, but doesn't have all the information she needs because Sandeen and pretty much everyone else in her life feels the need to keep secrets and not tell her anything, but still expect her to save them all. Okay, right.

There is a lot of sexual tension between Story and her best (straight) friend Adam (I say straight because her other best friend, Elliott, is gay, so no sexual tension there except between him and every single male fairy tale character he meets, because apparently he's a giant ho). The sexual tension between Story and Adam is weird, because apparently they aren't actually interested in each other, even though they each get jealous whenever the other shows any interest in anyone else. But eventually Story falls in love with someone, and Adam is all "Woe is me" until he meets someone else, and then it's like there was never anything between them from the start. What?

The secrets and lies and convoluted story line were way too much for me to handle. And the "origin story" that Story gets several times throughout the book changes so drastically, because everyone has a different version. Whose is right? Apparently only the last one you get in the last few pages of the book.

The writing was juvenile and sweeping. There was definite obvious use of a thesaurus. Every single character was beautiful no matter who they were. An old crone? Oh she was beautiful even with all the wrinkles on her face. The most normal guy on the planet? He's gorgeous and Elliott is drooling all over himself. No room for ugly people here! And the overbearing romantic style of the writing was too much. I felt like I was reading a book that was being put on as a play with some really bad actors who would get down on one knee and soliloquize to an inanimate object. Story's heart broke every time Nicholas looked away from her or frowned at her. It was trying way too hard to be a great book, and didn't try to be a good book.

I really don't understand how this book has almost completely five star reviews on Goodreads. It was not good. Story was a giant pain in the ass, and none of the other characters were even close to like-able. And the writing was just plain teen.

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Review: Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More like 3.5/5 Stars, but I did really enjoy it despite its shortcomings, so that's why I gave it the full 4.

I have skimmed a few other reviews, and one thing I noticed is that people didn't appreciate the attempt at Russian culture. I know pretty much next to nothing about Russia, I wasn't born there, didn't grow up there, barely studied it in school, and while some of my friends were learning Russian in high school I was busy with Spanish. I couldn't even begin to comment on the Russian elements in this book because I would inevitably be wrong. So all I will say is that I hated (and I mean HATED) having random "Russian" words thrown in in italics for effect. If you're going to throw around terminology like that, at least give us more than a sentence to absorb what it actually means, because I pretty much skipped every single one of them after I learned what a kefta was.

Secondly, a lot of people have said that the first person teen girl narrative (so incredibly overdone today) is distracting, and she reads more as a damsel in distress than a strong female character. This is pretty much accurate and I agree. I thought Alina was pretty ridiculous at times, especially when she randomly *squees* with Genya over clothes and hair and girly things. From the first couple of chapters, Alina didn't seem girly at all. AT ALL. And I don't care if she's girly or not, but at least let her character be consistent. Too often I was taken out of the story by Alina's change in personality, and it became very distracting.

Thirdly, what is it with books where people in authority grab the main character by the wrist and lead her (almost always a "her") somewhere she doesn't want to go?

But despite the book's shortcomings, and that ending that was completely out of character for Alina, I had a good time reading it. And that's mostly what matters to me when reading. I have problems when the flaws outweigh the good, but in this, even though I minded, and even though I didn't like Alina as a character, the read was enjoyable. It was pretty fast-paced and exciting, even though nothing is really explained (like HOW exactly Alina "trains" her talent, and why she trusts one specific person over anyone else ever ever ever), and even with its flaws. A shaky but interesting fantasy. I look forward to seeing what else this author can do.

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