Thursday Quotables: Reflections (Indexing, #2)… two weeks in a row!

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

A little programming note: While I’m mostly back to weekly postings, I find I’m not at 100% yet! I’ll continue to post Thursday Quotables most weeks. If I happen to skip a week when you have a post to share, feel free to link up to whichever TQ post here is most recent. Many thanks!

Onward with this week’s Thursday Quotable:

Indexing: Reflections by Seanan McGuire
(published 2016)

Because I’m “reading” this series via audiobook, it’s taking me quite a while. So, for the second week in a row, I just have to share a few passages from Reflections, which has been keeping me riveted (and occasionally snorting with laughter) on my morning commutes. First, an ominous passage:

The air was cold, and the wind tasted of apples, and something was very, very wrong.

Ooh. Chills, right?

And a moment that made me laugh, courtesy of my favorite character Sloane, who is tough as nails and talks like a Valley Girl:

I produced my badge from my pocket and held it up for the camera to see. “Agent Sloane Winters, ATI Management Bureau. We’re with the United States Government; we’re allowed to punch people if we want to.”

“Please tell me that’s not going to be our new motto,” said Demi.

And finally:

I glared at her for a moment before I started striding toward the entrance to the maze. “I hate you,” I said.

“I know,” said Ciara, following me.

“I’m going to play jump rope with your intestines.”

“Won’t that be fun for both of us.”

“Don’t make fun of me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

If you’d like to participate in Thursday Quotables, it’s really simple:

Write a Thursday Quotables post on your blog. Try to pick something from whatever you’re reading now. And please be sure to include a link back to Bookshelf Fantasies in your post (http://www.bookshelffantasies.com), if you’d be so kind!
Add your Thursday Quotables post link in the comments section below… and I’d love it if you’d leave a comment about my quote for this week too.
Be sure to visit other linked blogs to view their Thursday Quotables, and have fun!

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28Oct2017

Audiobook Review: Indexing by Seanan McGuire

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

“Never underestimate the power of a good story.”

Good advice…especially when a story can kill you.

For most people, the story of their lives is just that: the accumulation of time, encounters, and actions into a cohesive whole. But for an unfortunate few, that day-to-day existence is affected—perhaps infected is a better word—by memetic incursion: where fairy tale narratives become reality, often with disastrous results.

That’s where the ATI Management Bureau steps in, an organization tasked with protecting the world from fairy tales, even while most of their agents are struggling to keep their own fantastic archetypes from taking over their lives. When you’re dealing with storybook narratives in the real world, it doesn’t matter if you’re Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or the Wicked Queen: no one gets a happily ever after.

Indexing is New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire’s new urban fantasy where everything you thought you knew about fairy tales gets turned on its head.

Indexing is a fun take on a dangerous situation — memetic incursions, in which fairy tale narratives intrude into the real world, activating people into playing out their pre-programmed stories with potentially disastrous results. A Sleeping Beauty stumbles into a metropolitan hospital, and suddenly everyone in the facility is plunged into a deep sleep. Snow Whites have a hard time avoiding poison, and a wise Snow White will never, ever eat an apple. A Pied Piper with a flute in her hands can wreak havoc simply by playing the right song.

It’s up to the field team at the ATI Management Bureau to head off these incursions and keep the world safe (and happily ignorant) from the narrative’s dangerous intrusions. The main character is Henrietta Marchen, better known as Henry, who is a not-yet-activated Snow White — and yes, that means that she has skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood, which in real life makes her look pretty scary as opposed to Disney-princess adorable. Henry’s team includes Sloane, a decades-old evil stepsister who seems to forever be a petulant teen, Jeff, the team archivist who’s also a part of the shoemaker and the elves narrative, and PR dude Andy, who isn’t touched by the narrative at all (although he does have a close encounter with a Frog Prince).

The plot takes the team through a variety of emergencies, where they rush in to save the world from the weirdly dangerous fairy tales that pop up with increasing frequency. It’s up to the team to figure out why the incursions are happening at an unusually high rate. Someone is messing with the narrative itself, and if they can’t find and stop the perpetrator, reality itself is doomed.

Indexing is quite an enjoyable read. Despite the fairy tale subject, it’s a gritty urban fantasy, with bloody deaths and salty language. (My favorite is when Sloane, abrasive and obnoxious but loyal in her own caustic way, refers to Henry as “Snow Bitch”.) The memetic incursions are always surprising, as the author takes classic fairy tales and makes it plain just how deadly their effect could be if transposed to the modern world and set loose.

Narrator Mary Robinette Kowal does a great job of capturing the personalities of the main characters such as Henry, Sloane, and newbie Demi, although she struggles to do convincing male voices. You know how some audiobook narrators can convey both genders in such a way that you absolutely forget that you’re listening to a woman doing a male character or vice versa? That doesn’t happen here. I found it a bit distracting whenever the narrator would lower her voice for the portrayals of Jeff and especially Andy — they sounded artificial, and it consistently took me out of the story.

That said, the narrator’s version of Henry was excellent, especially when Henry’s inner Snow White takes the lead. Just by the voice, you can absolutely tell which part of Henry’s personality is dominant at the moment. And I loved her nasty Valley Girl voice for Sloane — so offensive and pissed off, really pretty perfect.

The plot of Indexing does take some puzzling through, as the concept of the narrative isn’t always entirely clear. The explanations of various occurrences and their resolutions are occasionally overly convoluted, and I felt the world-building could have used just a smidge more fleshing out.

All in all, though, Indexing is really a fun experience, and listening to the audiobook kept me engaged and entertained for all the hours I spent with it. I’m looking forward to starting the sequel!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Indexing
Author: Seanan McGuire
Narrator: Mary Robinette Kowal
Publisher: 47North
Publication date: May 21, 2013
Length (print): 420 pages
Length (audiobook): 12 hours, 5 minutes
Genre: Urban fantasy
Source: Purchased

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18Aug2015

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: The Beast’s Garden

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

There’s nothing like a Wednesday for thinking about the books we want to read! My Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday post is linking up with two fabulous book memes, Wishlist Wednesday (hosted by Pen to Paper) and Waiting on Wednesday (hosted by Breaking the Spine).

My most wished-for book this week is:

The Beast’s Garden by Kate Forsyth
(Published in Australia on August 3, 2015 – US publication date ???)

Synopsis via Goodreads:

A retelling of The Beauty and The Beast set in Nazi Germany

The Grimm Brothers published a beautiful version of the Beauty & the Beast tale called ‘The Singing, Springing Lark’ in 1819. It combines the well-known story of a daughter who marries a beast in order to save her father with another key fairy tale motif, the search for the lost bridegroom. In ‘The Singing, Springing Lark,’ the daughter grows to love her beast but unwittingly betrays him and he is turned into a dove. She follows the trail of blood and white feathers he leaves behind him for seven years, and, when she loses the trail, seeks help from the sun, the moon, and the four winds. Eventually she battles an evil enchantress and saves her husband, breaking the enchantment and turning him back into a man.

Kate Forsyth retells this German fairy tale as an historical novel set in Germany during the Nazi regime. A young woman marries a Nazi officer in order to save her father, but hates and fears her new husband. Gradually she comes to realise that he is a good man at heart, and part of an underground resistance movement in Berlin called the Red Orchestra. However, her realisation comes too late. She has unwittingly betrayed him, and must find some way to rescue him and smuggle him out of the country before he is killed.

The Red Orchestra was a real-life organisation in Berlin, made up of artists, writers, diplomats and journalists, who passed on intelligence to the American embassy, distributed leaflets encouraging opposition to Hitler, and helped people in danger from the Nazis to escape the country. They were betrayed in 1942, and many of their number were executed.

The Beast’s Garden is a compelling and beautiful love story, filled with drama and intrigue and heartbreak, taking place between 1938 and 1943, in Berlin, Germany.

Ever since reading a review of this book on the Book’d Out blog, I’ve been dying to track down a copy. So far, I haven’t been able to find out when this book will be published in the US, but I really hope it’s soon!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I host a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

3Aug2015

Top Ten Tuesday: My favorite fairy tale retellings

Posted in Top Ten Tuesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is about fairy tale retellings — either ones we’ve read or ones we want to read. I’m doing a bit of both.

I’ll start with the fairy tale retellings that I’ve read and loved:

1) Deerskin by Robin McKinley: An incredibly moving and disturbing, yet oddly beautiful, retelling of the somewhat obscure fairy tale Donkeyskin.

2) Robin McKinley writes such amazing reimaginings of fairy tales, that I’m going to include another three as one item: Beauty, Rose Daughter (both retellings of Beauty and the Beast), and Spindle’s End (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty).

3) Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale: I’ll admit to being confused by the tower for a while and assuming this was a retelling of Rapunzel, which it is not. According to the author’s website, it’s a retelling of a lesser known Grimm tale called Maid Maleen. But in any case, no matter which tale it’s based on, I really enjoyed it!

4) The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine: I think the concept of this book is just so clever — The Twelve Dancing Princesses retold as a tale of harshly confined sisters in Jazz Age New York. (review)

5) Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce: I really liked this retelling of Red Riding Hood (who seems here to be mixed with heaping spoonfuls of Buffy).

6) The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: I have a sneaking suspicion that these books will be everywhere for this week’s TTT topic! I’ve absolutely loved the books in this series so far, and can’t wait for the final one to be released this fall. (And then the series will be over… sob.) (review)

7) My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer: This collection of rewritten fairy tales includes some really weird and wonderful new versions of classic tales. You can read the collection straight through or pick it up and read stories at random. Either way, very entertaining. Plus, you just can’t beat the title.

8) Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman: Another collection of rewritten tales, in this case classic Grimm stories rewritten by the masterful Philip Pullman. Includes both tried-and-true favorites and well as more bizarre or obscure tales — quite fun to read. (review)

9) Fables by Bill Willingham: The Fables series is simply one of my very favorite things ever. Take just about every fairy tale character you can think of, put them into modern day New York, create incredibly complex world-building, and write 150 comic books in the series. The series is available as a series of paperback volumes, and the final volume, #22, was just released last week. I can’t quite bring myself to read it — I just don’t want it to be over! (tribute)

10) Finally, two from my shelves which I haven’t read yet, although I’d like to:

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth, a retelling of Rapunzel
Bound by Donna Jo Napoli, a retelling of Cinderella

Fairy tale retellings are such fun to read. Which ones do you love?

Share your link, and I’ll come check out your top 10!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider following Bookshelf Fantasies! And don’t forget to check out my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. Happy reading!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

28Feb2015

Take A Peek Book Review: Fairest: Levana’s Story by Marissa Meyer

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

“Take a Peek” book reviews are short and (possibly) sweet, keeping the commentary brief and providing a little peek at what the book’s about and what I thought. This week’s “take a peek” book:

Synopsis:

(via Goodreads)

In this stunning bridge book between Cress and Winter in the bestselling Lunar Chronicles, Queen Levana’s story is finally told.

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the fairest of them all?

Fans of the Lunar Chronicles know Queen Levana as a ruler who uses her “glamour” to gain power. But long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress, Levana lived a very different story – a story that has never been told . . . until now.

My Thoughts:

This slim novel is sure to please fans of the Lunar Chronicles books, finally giving us the backstory of just how Queen Levana ended up so crazy evil. Of course, it will also frustrate fans of the Lunar Chronicles, being so short and including a tease for the next (and final) novel in the series, Winter, due out in November.

In Fairest, we learn about Levana’s horrific childhood with her cruel and deranged sister Channary, and see how Levana, to a certain extent, never stood a chance of being a decent, well-adjusted person. The Lunar ability to create glamours and hide one’s true face is put to full use, as Levana uses a series of mind-tricks in her desperate search for love and happiness. But love that is coerced isn’t love, and Levana’s path from her teen years until the point when her story meshes with the Cinder timeline can be seen as one long, twisted, downward spiral.

There are places where I felt pity for Levana, perhaps even understanding. How could someone raised as she was be expected to turn out with any hint of a moral compass? Still, the sympathy is pretty quickly destroyed as Levana’s mad quest leads her to greater and greater acts of horrifying cruelty and devastation.

The hardcover edition of Fairest includes the first three chapters of Winter, which I decided not to read. I’d rather wait until I have the entire book in my hands!

Fairest answers a lot of questions about Levana’s past and the history of Lunar-Earthen politics and war. If you’ve read the first three books in the series, you’ll absolutely want to read Fairest as well. And for anyone who hasn’t given this series a try yet… jump on board! I was very late to the party, thinking that all the hype around the series couldn’t really hold up, but I was — happily — proven wrong. I really love this series, and can’t wait to read the conclusion… despite hating the idea of getting to the end!

Want to know more? Read my posts on Cinder and my Lunar Chronicles series binge.

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Fairest: Levana’s Story
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication date: January 27, 2015
Length: 222 pages
Genre: Young adult/science fiction
Source: Library

26Dec2014

Series Binge: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Curse you, Marissa Meyer! (Okay, not really).

This is why I hold back. This is why I don’t let myself start new series. Because THIS happens. I read one book. Do I stop? No. I keep going. And before I know it, I’ve read three novels, three short stories, and I’m pulling my hair out over the fact that THERE ARE NO MORE BOOKS. For now.

Last week, I wrote a review of Cinder. And since then, I gobbled up Scarlet and Cress, plus the stories Glitches, The Little Android, and The Queen’s Army.

For those who aren’t familiar with the series, here’s the general idea: In a world set at some point far into the future, over a hundred years since the end of World War Four, planet Earth is divided into large commonwealths who live at peace with one another — but the Earthen peace is threatened by hostilities from Luna. The moon was settled and colonized generations earlier, and over the generations, the Lunar population has developed its own characteristics, most notably the ability to control bioelectricity — basically, the ability to control actions, perceptions, and emotions of others. This makes Lunars very dangerous and very scary to “normal” Earthens.

The Lunar Chronicles books take classic fairy tales and plunk them down in this futuristic landscape, creating a mash-up that’s surprisingly original — and which surprised me by how good it really is.

Cinder herself (think Cinderella) is our #1 heroine, a lowly cyborg mechanic who’s discovered to have a secret connection to the Lunar world. When she catches the eye of Prince Kai, heir to the throne of the Eastern Commonwealth, a chain of events is set into motion that makes Cinder the planet’s most-wanted fugitive.

By the 2nd book, Cinder is joined in her struggle by Scarlet (Red Riding Hood), the farm girl whose grandmother was involved in a royal deception many years earlier. Scarlet is tracked by bioengineered super-soldier Wolf — but she can’t quite tell if he’s the man of her dreams, or the most dangerous thing she’s ever encountered.

In book 3, Cress (Rapunzel) enters Cinder’s world. Cress has been trapped on a satellite in Earth orbit for seven years, completely alone (and with no sharp objects, hence no haircuts). Cress is a master hacker under the control of the Lunar high command, but her true sympathies lie with Cinder and her ragtag band… and the daring, wise-ass space captain Carswell Thorne who comes along to rescue Cress.

And now? Two more books are scheduled for release in 2015: Fairest, focusing on Luna’s evil Queen Levana, comes out in January, and Winter will be released in November. Both relate to the Snow White story — the queen’s version and then the princess’s.

Why do I love these books? Many reasons, but for starters:

In many fairy tale retellings, the fairy tale structure is too obvious. Sure, maybe the story is set in a different time, but the overall story is preserved and presented more or less intact. In The Lunar Chronicles, the fairy tale framework is a supporting structure, but doesn’t dominate or force the story into a shape that restricts the characters or action in any way. So yes, in Cinder, there’s an unloved stepsister, a ball, and a handsome prince — but beyond that, there’s a plague, the second-class citizen status of cyborgs, and geopolitical maneuvering that goes way beyond a rags-to-riches love story.

Likewise, in Scarlet, we have a girl in a red hoodie seeking her grandmother and menaced by a wolf — but also a secret army, mind control, a Big Brother-ish tracking system, and desperate fugitives. In Cress, there’s a girl with long hair locked away, and a dashing hero who is blinded in the rescue attempt — but also space chases, gun battles, kidnappings, and royal subterfuge. The through-stories are never obscured by the fairy tale structure, so Cinder remains the key person of interest throughout the following books, even though the titles would indicate that they’re not about her.

What maybe doesn’t work for me quite as much is the over-emphasis on romance and coupledom. Clearly, with fairy tales as their base, the romance will not be ignored. Still, is it truly necessary for each book to match up its main character with her soulmate? This, I think, is where the fairy tale retelling maybe gets in the way a bit. With so much action, with the intrigue of this sci-fi world — full of new mechanical wonders, genetic mutations and manipulations, and political danger and strategy — we don’t necessarily need so many supercouples. By the end of Cress, there are three clearly defined couples — all of whom seem to have achieved instant soulmate status — and the love story of Winter has been more than hinted at as well.

There is some amazing fan art out there. This one is from http://lostie815.deviantart.com/art/Lunar-Chronicles-Characters-421566528 — check it out, there’s lots more!

The super-coupledom is really a minor issue, though. I’d call it a gnat-sized irritant in the midst of an absolute smorgasbord of sci-fi, futuristic, female-powered adventure. I love the ultra-imaginative world-building in this series, the distinctive voices of the characters, and the way that the shifting narrative viewpoints add on top of one another to keep expanding our knowledge of this world and all its hidden nooks and crannies.

If you’re a curmudgeonly old hold-out (like I was until about a week ago), resisting the hype and refusing to give in to yet another YA series craze… well, come on! If I can do it, so can you! Sure, I’m a little bent out of shape about having to wait for more, but *sigh* I’m sure I can find other books to read in the meantime.

And hey, if I need a dose of more of the Lunar Chronicles, I’m sure there are a thousand or so Pinterest boards to lose a few hours to.

Final note: The three short stories are all available free online, and are definitely worth checking out. Of the three, The Little Android actually broke my heart just a little. It’s a stand-alone, in that it does not include any characters from the main novels, but it is set in the same world. And it just happens to be a retelling of The Little Mermaid — the non-Disney version, which is one of the saddest fairy tales ever.

Don’t say I never did anything for you. Here are the links to the stories:
Glitches
The Little Android
The Queen’s Army

And now, back to my resolution not to start any more series!

Until the next irresistible one comes along…

20Dec2014

Take A Peek Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Posted in Book Reviews by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Synopsis:

(via Goodreads)

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Thoughts:

Ever since this book came out in 2012, I’ve seen all of my blogger peeps raving about it and drooling over the sequels. I hadn’t gotten on the bandwagon, and thought that this was one YA series that I could sit out.

Color me silly. I was wrong.

I finally picked up Cinder when I was looking for a new audiobook to keep me company during my daily drives, and thought this would be a low commitment choice. And I quickly found myself completely hooked.

The idea of a Cinderella retelling didn’t really appeal to me. Most Cinderella stories I’ve read ended up feeling kind of sappy to me, and the idea of a poor girl saved from an awful life by fancy party clothes and a handsome prince doesn’t typically sit well with my inner feminist. Cinder manages to stick to the basic themes of the Cinderella story, but with a heroine who’s strong, empowered, and more likely to to be the rescuer than the one in need of rescue.

Cinder is a cyborg, which in this society means an outcast, less than human. Her wicked stepmother and stepsister are exactly as you’d expect, although the younger stepsister, Peony, is adorable and lovable. Cinder is a talented mechanic with a dry, take-no-bull-from-anyone demeanor. She wears heavy workgloves to cover up her mechanical hand, is often seen with oil stains all over her face and clothes, and dreams of freedom and escape, not of balls and princes.

Prince Kai falls for Cinder as herself, oil stains and all. He’s not just a pretty face either; as the heir to the imperial throne, it’s up to Kai to continue negotiating a peace treaty with the fearsome Lunar queen, Levana. Kai is smart and keenly aware of his responsibilities — and knows that his own personal desires must take second place to the welfare of his people and all of Earth.

The action is quick and the story is quite compelling. I found myself frustrated by the slower pace demanded by listening to the audiobook, so after listening to quite a bit of it at 1.25x speed (not recommended!), I finally switched over to a hard copy so I could devour the rest. The audiobook narrator, Rebecca Soler, is fabulous, by the way. She captures the personalities and intonations of each character and makes them all distinct. I loved the ironic humor in Cinder’s voice, Peony’s girlish good nature, and the android Iko, among others. Just to be clear that my switch to printed format was not at all caused by dissatisfaction with the audiobook — it was more about how I read and the fact that I have a hard time with audiobooks unless I’m driving or working out… and in this case, I wasn’t doing either often enough to let me advance through Cinder as quickly as I wanted to.

Summing it all up: Cinder is pretty terrific! The story is inspired by the classic fairy tale, but with generous amounts of originality shaping it into something new and different. The climactic ball scene and the aftermath caught me completely by surprise, as the author takes the familiar elements of the story and turns them on their head. If I’d read Cinder when it first came out, I might have been frustrated by the cliffhanger ending, but at this point, I know there are two more books available to me before I join the crowd of avid fans dying for the next release.

Excuse me, please, while I run to the library. Scarlet and Cress are calling my name!

_________________________________________

The details:

Title: Cinder
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Publication date: 2012
Length: 390 pages
Genre: Young adult/science fiction
Source: Library

24Sep2014

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Beastkeeper

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My most wished-for book this week is:

Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen
(to be released February 3, 2015)

Sarah has always been on the move. Her mother hates the cold, so every few months her parents pack their bags and drag her off after the sun. She’s grown up lonely and longing for magic. She doesn’t know that it’s magic her parents are running from.

When Sarah’s mother walks out on their family, all the strange old magic they have tried to hide from comes rising into their mundane world. Her father begins to change into something wild and beastly, but before his transformation is complete, he takes Sarah to her grandparents—people she has never met, didn’t even know were still alive.

Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family bloodlines, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.

I haven’t picked a YA book or a fairy tale retelling for a while… so I guess it’s time! I like the sound of this one quite a bit, and that amazing cover is what grabbed me in the first place.

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays? Come join me for my regular weekly feature, Thursday Quotables. You can find out more here — come play!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Do you host a book blog meme? Do you participate in a meme that you really, really love? I’m building a Book Blog Meme Directory, and need your help! If you know of a great meme to include — or if you host one yourself — please drop me a note on my Contact page and I’ll be sure to add your info!

15Jul2014

Wishing & Waiting on Wednesday: Bitter Greens

Posted in Wishlist Wednesday by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

My most wished-for book this week is:

Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth
(to be released September 23, 2014)

Synopsis via Goodreads:

The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love

French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Soeur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens…

After Margherita’s father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition.

Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. One day, a young man does.

Award-winning author Kate Forsyth braids together the stories of Margherita, Selena, and Charlotte-Rose, the woman who penned Rapunzel as we now know it, to create what is a sumptuous historical novel, an enchanting fairy tale retelling, and a loving tribute to the imagination of one remarkable woman.

Historical fiction plus Rapunzel plus Venice? Yes, please!

What are you wishing for this Wednesday?

Looking for some bookish fun on Thursdays and Fridays? Come join me for my regular weekly features, Thursday Quotables and Flashback Friday! You can find out more here — come share the book love!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

22May2014

Thursday Quotables: The Girls at the Kingfisher Club

Posted in Thursday Quotables by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies

Welcome back to Thursday Quotables! This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week. Whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written, Thursday Quotables is where my favorite lines of the week will be, and you’re invited to join in!

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine
(to be released June 3, 2014)

A magical beginning:

By 1927 there were twelve girls who danced all night and never gave names, but by then the men had given up asking and called them all Princess.

“Hey, Princess, dust off your shoes? It’s the Charleston!”

The men would have called them anything they wanted to be called, Dollface or Queenie or Beloved, just to get one girl on the dance floor for a song. But in that flurry of short dresses and spangles and ribbon-tied shoes, Princess was the name that suited; it seemed magical enough, like maybe it was true.

What’s it all about?

Controlling father. Twelve daughters hidden away… who find freedom in nightly escapes to dance halls. Worn out shoes. Sound familiar? Don’t miss this Jazz Age retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale! And if you’d like to know more, check out my review, here.

What lines made you laugh, cry, or gasp this week? Do tell!

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