Review: Red Glove
Title: Red Glove
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: April 5, 2011
Format: Galley via S&S Galley Grab
Y’all. Holly Black is awesome. I loooved White Cat, the first book in the Curse Workers series, and couldn’t wait to get my hands on Red Glove. When it came up on Simon & Schuster Galley Grab I squealed and hit download so quickly Superman would have been impressed.
Red Glove launches the reader back in to the gritty, slick, double-crossing world of New Jersey, where Cassel is helping his mom run cons. He’s disgusted with the whole set up, and particularly with his mom, who, at the end of White Cat, cursed Lila Zacharov (aka the girl he’s desperately in love with, who happens to be the daughter of a worker mob boss) to love him. Unfortunately, Cassel doesn’t want forced, fake, blind love. He wants the real thing. But that worry takes a back seat to the rest of his problems when his brother Phillip is murdered by a mysterious lady wearing red gloves.
Shortly after the funeral, both the Feds and the elder Zacharov start courting Cassel, who is the rarest form of worker–a transformation worker, to work for them. Then, just for funsies, his middle brother, a memory worker, proposes that the two of them go into business with a different worker mob. Instead, Cassel decides to outsmart them all, and solve Phillip’s murder, just to spite them.
That all sounds like a whole bunch, right? Right. But while reading, it’s obvious that Cassel, like most high school seniors, is struggling with two BIG decisions. 1) What to do about Lila, whom he desperately wants to be with, and 2) What to do with his future–does he go to college? Join the FBI? Join a mob? Although most seniors aren’t juggling the last two, Black writes it in a way that is reminiscent of the future-decision-making-process everyone has to face. Sure, the decision Cassel is grappling with is grittier, but, in truth, it’s really no different than the issues any other high school senior is facing. That quality helps keep the book feeling real instead of paranormal or fantastic (in the fantasy genre sense of the word.)
So, now let’s talk about Lila. I think Lila is awesome and compelling and great. Even under a freakin’ love spell, she tries her best to remain her own person, she tests boundaries, and she pushes buttons. You just can’t help but love a girl like that. And though through the entire book I wanted to bonk Cassel on the head with something heavy and tell him to stop being mean to Lila and give them a chance, because–who knows?!–maybe after the curse wears off, she’ll still love you (Yep, I’m definitely a romantic. Not really sure when that happened, but there it is.) and you can live happily ever after, running a worker mob, [THIS IS ABOUT TO GET A LITTLE SPOILERY] I liked what happened after the curse wore off even better. If Lila and Cassel can’t be together, then they should be nemeses. Yeeeessssssssss.
Stylistically, I find it fascinating that Black writes the Curse Workers books in a way where the plot escalates and thickens and twists, without the reader realizing exactly how escalating and thick and twisty the plot really is. It wasn’t until I was trying to explain the plot to my mom that I figured out “Hey. This book is freakin’ complicated.” Normally I can feel the pacing or the action accelerate, but in this series, I just read along and then all of a sudden I’d find that I had been holding my breath or turning pages (well, pressing the turn page button on my eReader) so rapidly that I had cruised through 50 pages in less than that many minutes. I don’t know how she does it, but I looooove that she does.
Overall, Red Glove is a fantastic sequel. It moves the series along in the direction I thought it would go, but in an unexpected way, and the character development is phenomenal. When I reached the last page, I thought “It’s gonna be a long, loooong year waiting for the next book.”
Random Observations
1. I looooove that Black adds in nods to her fellow authors in her books. In this series, there is a very minor character named Jace and a major character whose last name is Wasserman.
2. I own a pair of red gloves. While reading, every time the gloves were mentioned, I could only envision my gloves. ‘Twas creepy.
3. There’s a character who goes to ARKANSAS in this book!!! I’m from Arkansas! *hugs self in glee*
4. There’s a character named BETHENNY in this book!!! My name is Bethany! Different spelling, but still!!!! *jumps up and down*
For the past week I’ve been in Orlando, visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and other theme parks). To celebrate that joyous event (as well as my birthday), my plan was to have a week of Harry Potter-ness on this here blog, but that plan was THWARTED by the evil, evil hotel I was staying at because they DID NOT HAVE WIFI. It was weird. I was confused. But I could not change it.
Review: Falling in Love with English Boys
Title: Falling in Love with English Boys
Author: Melissa Jensen
Publisher: Speak (Penguin Group)
Pages: 272
Pub Date: December 23, 2010
Format: ARC (pilfered from ARC shelf at work…shhhh!)
Sixteen-year-old Catherine Vernon has been stranded in London for the summer—no friends, no ex-boyfriend Adam the Scum (good riddance!), and absolutely nothing to do but blog about her misery to her friends back home. Desperate for something—anything—to do in London while her (s)mother’s off researching boring historical things, Cat starts reading the 1815 diary of Katherine Percival her mom gives her—and finds the similarities between their lives to be oddly close. But where Katherine has the whirls of the society, the parties and the gossip over who is engaged to who, Cat’s only got some really excellent English chocolate. Then she meets William Percival—the uber-hot descendant of Katherine—and things start looking up . . .–Goodreads
When I picked this book up, I figured it’d be a mindless, formulaic, chick-lit read. You know, one where girl goes somewhere new, girl meets charming boy, charming boy likes her, they have some sort of fight, and then at the end things are hunky-dory by some bit of fateful magic that doesn’t really exist. In some ways, that’s what Falling in Love with English Boys is. But I don’t want to trivialize it, because it’s better than that.
What saves this book from being just another teen chick-lit is debut author Jensen’s humor, wit, and command of two very different writing styles. Although the story is primarily about Catherine Vernon, it is also the story of Katherine Percival, an 18-year-old girl living in 1815, and believe you me, the girls have WAY more in common than just their first name.
My favorite aspect of this book is that it is told in diary form throughout. Jensen writes as both Catherine in present day and Katherine in 1815, and she handles the stylistic transitions brilliantly. She also does a fantastic job of bringing a girl from the oh-so Romantic-seeming era of the early-1800s, where everyone is supposedly demure and charming and Elizabeth Bennett-y, and made Katherine Percival seem like a real person who gets mad and is insecure and a little more boy-crazy than she probably should be. It was really refreshing, actually, and made me feel like less of a basket-case. (Ha!)
Now it’s time to talk about the boy: William Percival. Will is British. Will is smart. Will is funny. Will is caring. Will will inherit a title. (!!!!!!) Will is sort of perfect. Okay, I’ll stop with the short sentences. Overall, Will did the job as the leading man just fine. And though he had all the requisite characteristics and charms, I wanted more . . . I don’t know, edge or passion or a motorcycle. Hell, I would have settled for a drum set. I like my boys a little rough around the edges, and I think Will could have used just a dash of that “you-know-I’m-bad-for-you-but-you-just-can’t-say-no” salt.
Anyway, the book is bouncy and light for the most part, but Jensen also throws in some plot curveballs that remind us just how random and unfair life can sometimes be–this is esepcially showcased in Catherine’s friendship with Elizabeth, a gorgeous and politically-minded girl from a Muslim family and in Katherine’s brother, Charles, who is among the troops who fought the Battle of Waterloo. Although both are minor characters, you learn to love them, and their stories bring a sense of reality and weight to the otherwise plucky story.
Overall, Falling in Love with English Boys is surprisingly fun and extremely charming. It’s a little reminiscent of Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series, which I am still mourning the finale of, and made me laugh a lot. It’s a quick, light, but worthwhile read if you’re in the mood for a little British romance, both modern and Austen-ish. And let’s be honest, girls (and boys!) like us are almost always in the mood for a little British romance.
Waiting on Wednesday: Beauty Queens
Title: Beauty Queens
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 400
Pub Date: May 24, 2011
From bestselling, Printz Award-winning author Libba Bray, the story of a plane of beauty pageant contestants that crashes on a desert island.
Teen beauty queens. A “Lost”-like island. Mysteries and dangers. No access to email. And the spirit of fierce, feral competition that lives underground in girls, a savage brutality that can only be revealed by a journey into the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Oh, the horror, the horror! Only funnier. With evening gowns. And a body count.–Goodreads
Just . . . read the description. I know you skipped over it.
*waits*
Ready?
HOLY COW THIS SOUNDS GOOD!! And that cover?! I am SO IN.
Bonus for y’all: I may have done one or two pageants back in the day. Here is a photo. Yes, I am holding a trophy. (I won a trophy!)
I was never normal. Even back in high school when I was still pretending to be.
Aaaaanyway. So there’s my pick for this last Wednesday of my 23rd year. Treacherous islands and bitchy girls. Mwahahahaha.
Open Call for Harry Potter Lovin’ Guest Bloggers!
Howdy!
Next week I’m heading down to sunny, lovely, amazing Orlando, FL with ma mere to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
This means that I will be gallivanting and pretending to do magic instead of blogging.
But since there are so many of us who lovelovelove Harry Potter, I thought it might be fun to have a Harry Potter-themed week next week on this here blog and to have some lovely and talented guest bloggers blog about HP. Which means!. . .
I need some guest bloggers. Four to be exact.
So! If you would like to be one of them, leave me a comment or give me a shout on Twitter by replying to @bethanyelarson.
Bethany Larson 