The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine

The Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine Hardback: 241 pages Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books First Released: 2001

Source: Library

Back Cover Blurb:

Brave and adventureous, Princess Meryl dreams of fighting dragons and protecting the kingdom of Bamarre. Shy and fearful, Princess Addie is content to stay within the safety of the castle walls. The one thing that the sisters share is their unwavering love for each other.

The tables are turned, however, when the Gray Death leaves Meryl fatally ill. To save her sister, meek Princess Addie must find the courage to set out on a dangerous quest filled with dragons, unknown magic, and death itself. Time is running out, and the sisters' lives—and the future of the kingdom of Bamarre—hang in the balance.

Review:
This is a "fairy tale re-telling." The pacing is good, and the characters change realistically throughout the book. The relationship between the sisters and between the sisters and their friends is well written. However, the reason Addie falls in love with one of those friends is not very clear or convincing in my opinion.

I did like how Addie manages to defeat a series of monsters without suddenly gaining expert swordsmanship skill without any training (well, at least not until the very, very end).

There are a few kisses, but no sex. There is magic in this story, generally in the form of magical objects known from other fairy tales. Overall, I'd recommend this as "a good, clean fun" novel.

Excerpt: Chapter One

Out of a land laid waste
To a land untamed,
Monster ridden,
The lad Drualt led
A ruined, ragtag band.
In his arms, tenderly,
He carried Bruce,
The child king,
First ruler of Bamarre.

So begins Drualt, the epic poem of Bamarre's greatest hero, our kingdom's ideal. Drualt fought Bamarre's monsters--the ogres, gryphons, specters, and dragons that still plague us--and he helped his sovereign found our kingdom.

Today Bamarre needed a hero more than ever. The monsters were slaughtering hundreds of Bamarrians every year, and the Gray Death carried away even more.

I was no hero. The dearest wishes of my heart were for safety and tranquility. The world was a perilous place, wrong for the likes of me.

Once, when I was four years old and playing in the castle courtyard, a shadow passed over me. I shrieked, certain it was a gryphon or a dragon. My sister, Meryl, ran to me and held me, her arms barely long enough to go around me.

"It's gone, Addie," she whispered. "It's far away by now." And then she crooned a stanza from Drualt.

"Step follows step.
Hope follows courage.
Set your face toward danger.
Set your heart on victory."

I quieted, soothed by Meryl's voice and her warm breath on my ear.

Meryl was my protector, as necessary to me as air and food. Our mother, Queen Daria, had succumbed to the Gray Death when I was two and Meryl was three. Father rarely visited the nursery. Bella, our governess, loved us in her way, but her way was to moralize and to scold.

Meryl understood me, although we were as different as could be. She was fair, and I was dark complexioned. She was small and compact, a concentration of focused energy. I was always tall for my age, and loose-limbed, and my energy was nervous and fluttery. Meryl was brave, and I was afraid of almost everything--from monsters to strangers to spiders.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale Hardback: 306 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA First Released: 2007

Source: Library

Back Cover Blurb:
When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years because of Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment.

As food runs low and the days go from boiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. With the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors--one welcome, the other decidedly less so--the girls are confronted with both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows.

This little-known classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes.

Review:
This is a "fairy tale re-telling" based on a Grimm's fairy tale. The story is written in a "diary entry" format, which I usually find distracting (you're never really "there as it happens" and boring minutia is often added which slows the pacing).

Since this story covers almost four years, the diary-entry style actually works fairly well. It allowed the author to give us a sense of their lives in the tower, then focus only on the exciting parts. The entries were never boring and were always written from the point of view of "as it happened" rather than "what I think about what happened," which kept the excitement and suspense up.

The world-building in this book is good and the characters act and change realistically throughout the book. The romance in the story develops slowly. There are a few kisses, but no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this as "a good, clean fun" novel.

Excerpt: Chapter One
Day 1
My lady and I are being shut up in a tower for seven years. Lady Saren is sitting on the floor, staring at the wall, and hasn't moved even to scratch for an hour or more. Poor thing. It's a shame I don't have fresh yak dung or anything strong-smelling to scare the misery out of her.

The men are bricking up the door, and I hear them muttering and scraping cement. Only a small square of unbricked sky and light still gape at me. I smile back at its mean grin to show I'm not scared. Isn't it something, all the trouble they're going to for us? I feel like a jewel in a treasure box, though my lady is the--



My lady suddenly awoke from her stupor and sprang at the door, clawing at the brick, trying to shove her way out. How she screamed! Like an angry piglet.

"Stay in!" we heard her honored father say. He must have been standing near the opening. "Stay until your heart softens like long-boiled potatoes. And if you try to break your way out, I've told the guards to kill you on sight. You have seven years to think about disobedience. Until you are meek with regret, your face turns my stomach."

I nearly warned him that such words would bring him bad luck and canker his own heart. Thank the Ancestors that my lady's fit stopped me from speaking out of turn. When I pulled her back, her hands were red from beating at the bricks and streaked with wet cement. This isn't exactly a happy-celebration morning, but I don't see what good it does to thrash about.

"Easy, my lady," I said, the way I'd speak to a feisty ram. It wasn't too hard to hold my lady back, even squirming as she was. I'm fifteen years, and though skinny as a skinned hare, I'm strong as a yak, or so my mama used to say. I sang the calming song, the one that goes, "Oh, moth on a wind, oh, leaf on a stream," and invited the hearer into dreaming. I feared my lady was so angry she wouldn't heed the song. But she must've been eager to sleep, because now she's snoring on my lap. Happily the brush and ink are at hand so I can keep writing. When you can't move, there isn't much to do but think, and I don't much want to think right now.

Dragon Wing by Weis & Hickman

Dragon Wing (The Death Gate Cycle, Vol. 1) by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman Mass Market Paperback: 430 pages Publisher: Bantam Sepctra First Released: 1990

Source: Bought from Half.com

Back Cover Blurb:
Ages ago, sorcerers of unmatched power sundered a world into four realms--sky, stone, fire, and water--then vanished. Over time, magicians learned to work spells only in their own realms and forgot the others. Now only the few who have survived the Labyrinth and crossed the Death Gate know of the presence of all four realms--and even they have yet to unravel the mysteries of their severed world...

In Arianus, Realm of Sky, humans, elves, and dwarves battle for control of precious water--traversing a world of airborne islands on currents of elven magic and the backs of mammoth dragons. But soon great magical forces will begin to rend the fabric of this delicate land. An assassin will be hired to kill a royal prince--by the king himself. A dwarf will challenge the beliefs of his people--and lead them in rebellion. And a sinister wizard will enact his plan to rule Arianus--a plan that may be felt far beyond the Realm of Sky and into the Death Gate itself.

Review:
This is a "mystery fantasy" where the main characters perceive their world in a certain way, but the more they learn, the more they realize they haven't understood the truth about their world. The world-building in this book is excellent, and the worlds are very intriguing. The pacing is good, and the main characters change realistically throughout the book. The magic is of the traditional fantasy type. The really isn't any romance in the story, and I don't recall any modern curse words being used. Overall, I'd recommend this as "a good, clean fun" novel.

(Note: The other six books in this series also qualify as "good, clean fun.")

Excerpt: Chapter One
The crudely built cart lurched and bounced over the rough coralite terrain, its iron wheels hitting every bump and pit in what passed for a road. The cart was being pulled by a tier, its breath snorting puffs in the chill air. It took one man to lead the stubborn and unpredictable bird while four more, stationed on either side of the vehicle, pushed and shoved the cart along. A small crowd, garnered from the outlying farms, had gathered in front of Yreni Prison, planning to escort the cart and its shameful burden to the city walls of Ke'lith. There, a much larger crowd awaited the cart's arrival.

Dayside was ending. The glitter of the firmament began to fade as the Lords of Night slowly drew the shadow of their cloaks over the afternoon stars. Night's gloom was fitting for the procession.

The country folk--for the most part--kept their distance from the cart. They did this not out of fear of the teir--although those huge birds had been known to suddenly turn and take a vicious snap at anyone approaching them from their blind side--but out of fear of the cart's occupant.

The prisoner was bound around the wrists by taunt leather thongs attached to the sides of the cart, and his feet were manacled with heavy chains. Several sharp-eyed bowmen marched beside the cart, their feathered shafts nocked and ready to be let loose straight at the felon's heart if he so much as twitched the wrong way. But such precautions did not appear to offer the cart's followers much comfort. They kept their gaze--dark and watchful--fixed on the man inside as they trudged along behind at a respectful distance that markedly increased when the man turned his head. If they'd had a demon from Hereka chained up in that cart, the local farmers could not have gazed on it with any greater fear or awe.

The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland

The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland Trade Paperback: 378 pages Publisher: Berkley Sensation First Released: 2008

Source: Bought from Amazon

Back Cover Blurb:
Darkness in the kingdom...
Neroche is under assault by a mysterious magic that has stripped its king of his powers and unleashed nightmarish creatures as weapons in a war of evil. Morgan of Melksham is fighting against that menace as well as for her life. Struggling to regain her strength after a near-fatal attack, Morgan realizes that she must decide between two fates: that of being a simple shieldmaiden or accepting her heritage as an elven princess. If only she could forget that she was the daughter of the perilous black mage of Ceangail...

Magic in the blood...
Duty bound to aid his king, Miach of Neroche is torn between what his responsibilities demand and what his heart desires. He is willing to risk his life to rescue Morgan from the darkness that haunts her, but he must do so at the peril of his realm. Forced to choose between love and the burden of his mantle, Miach sets out on his most deadly quest ever.

Review:
This book is a "fantasy romance" according to the back cover. However, it's focus is almost purely on the romance. Very little forward momentum happens on the action/fantasy side of things.

Morgan was poisoned at the end of the last book and spends most of this book recovering her strength. Scene after scene in this book is Morgan learning shocking things about her past or people she knows, then she bursts into tears and Miach comforts her (thus winning her love). By the end, Miach finally figures out what's been causing the damage to his spells (which would have been obvious to him sooner if he hadn't been so distracted with Morgan). The end is left as a cliff-hanger, with the big battles just ahead. Only the relationship between Morgan and Miach resolved.

The well-developed characters from the first book are almost completely abandoned (including the king and all of Morgan's fighting buddies). A lot of new characters are introduced, but little time was spent on developing those characters or the world they lived in. For example, the races of the world are humans, dwarves, and elves. Dwarves seem to be short humans, and elves seem to be extremely beautiful humans (they don't even have pointy ears). The new characters seem to have been added solely so that the main characters have someone to interact with, either to briefly aid them or stand in their way (though they're no serious threat). These new characters have so little depth they can be simply identified: noble rival; pitiful enemy; dangerous enemy; protective granddad; understanding grandma; cruel rival; and so on.

There was enough cursing in this book that I noticed it. As previously noted, the pacing was slow and some scenes felt very repetitive. There is kissing, but no sex. The magic is of the typical fantasy sort. I'd rate this as "fairly clean fun."

Excerpt: Chapter One

Tor Neroche was under siege.

Miach of Meroche stood at his window and stared down into the courtyard below, contemplating the truth of that. It had been a brutal, unrelenting assault on the front gates for the previous fortnight. Now, though, it was only the latecomers who were rushing into the courtyard, come in their finery to witness the nuptials of Adhemar, king of Neroche, to the lovely and very demanding Adaira of Penrhyn.

The inside of the palace showed just how thorough the onslaught had been. There was hardly a scrap of floor within that was not covered by some sort of servant, pile of luggage, or minor noble wishing he had either come sooner or with more money to bribe the Mistress of the Wardrobe into giving him a decent place to sleep. Miach had found himself grateful for a change that he was Adhemar's brother; at least he had a bed.

Unfortunately, even with his ties to the throne, he didn't completely escape Mistress Wardrobe's forbidding frowns or her charms of ward made against him when she thought he couldn't see her.

The Code of Love by Cheryl Sawyer

No Cover Available

The Code of Love by Cheryl Sawyer Trade Paperback: 376 pages Publisher: Signet Eclipse First Released: 2006

Source: Bought from library sale

Back Cover Blurb:
To Sir Gideon Landor, an English prisoner in the French colony [on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius], Delphine Dalgleish, a Parisian trifle who would think nothing of turning him over to the French legion, is as pretty--and as useless--as a porcelain doll. To Delphine Dalgleish, Sir Gideon is an ice-cold double agent she despises for his treachery.

But these two are about to discover how wrong first impressions can be. In the midst of the Peninsular War, Sir Gideon has orders to crack the Grand Paris Cypher, a complex code created for Napoleon. Meanwhile the emperor himself sends Delphine to London on a delicate espionage mission. When Gideon and Delphine confront each other, they manage to defend their dangerous secrets, but not their hearts. As passion takes hold, they must decipher their own complex code of love...

And still war draws them inexorably to the Peninsula, threatening their lives and testing an alliance that may prove stronger than two empires...

Review:
The book is a historical romance set in the early 1800's. The historical side of the story is well-developed, and the problems in the story come from the events happening at the time.

The characters are well developed and act in realistic ways. The pacing is good, and every scene serves a purpose. There is a fun "Pride and Prejudice" type proposal scene near the middle of the story. There are no explicit sex scenes, but the main characters do have sex after they're married. I'd rate this as "good, clean fun."

Excerpt: Chapter One

"Escaped prisoner!" On a hot night in July 1810, the news sped around the capital of Mauritius and sent a frisson through the veins of its inhabitants. Captain General Decaen might well run the island as though it were the tightest ship in the Indian Ocean, but this was a time of war, and the English fleets hovering over the horizon created a powerful sense of menace around the remote Bonapartist stronghold. Rodriguez was already occupied by the British, Bourbon had fallen only a week before, and it was to one of these islands that the prisoner must have been aiming, for having silenced two sentries he reached the port unseen and swam out to snatch one of the French navy pinnacles in the harbor.

Delphine Dalgleish, at her family plantation of Saint-Amour, received a hasty note from a neighbor about the escape, and read it with consternation. The prisoner was English, and enemy, so she should not care--but she did. It was too close to home. The soldiers of the legion had been just in time to retake him, he had been mauled by four men-at-arms and he was already in solitary confinement by the time society rose and took its chocolate and sweet rolls in the warm light of the next morning, but the shock of it stayed in the mind. With one dramatic gesture, this young British officer had shown how different he was from the other prisoners of war, most of whom lived amongst the French colonists in a spirit of understanding. He had acted with a violence and speed that ran counter to the ordered island ways, which was why his treatment by the legion had been so vicious.

It was three days before he was brought back to the Maison Despeaux, the Garden Prison from which he had broken out. He was scarcely able to walk. He had not spoken a word under interrogation, nor a syllable since. Only Delphine Dalgleish knew who had betrayed him to the legion, and she told just one other person, so no one else knew what to think. Which made a visit to the Garden Prison de rigueur at the earliest opportunity.

Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland

Star of the Morning by Lynn Kurland Trade Paperback: 324 pages Publisher: Berkley Sensation First Released: 2006

Source: Bought from Amazon

Back Cover Blurb:
Darkness covers the north, since the black mage has begun his assault on the kingdom of Neroche. Legend has it that only the two magical swords held by Neroche's king can defeat the mage. Now the fate of the Nine Kingdoms rests in the hands of a woman destined to wield one of those blades...

In this land of dragons and mages, warrior maids and magical swords, nothing is as it seems. And Morgan will find that the magic in her blood brings her troubles she cannot face with a sword-and a love more powerful than she has ever imagined.

Review:
This is a "romance fantasy," where the book has a strong romance in a fantasy setting. The world-building is fairly good, and the characters are engaging. The pacing is good, and every scene serves a purpose. There are no explicit sex scenes, but the hero and heroine do kiss. The magic is of the typical fantasy sort, allowing a man to shape-change or be "invisible" or such. I'd rate this as "good, clean fun."

Personal note: As primarily a fantasy reader, I've always been disappointed that romance authors who try their hand at writing fantasy inevitably assume that "fantasy" means "doesn't have to be realistic." Yet the non-fantastical parts of a fantasy novel have to be solidly realistic in order to sell the reader on the fantastical parts. Lynn Kurland does a good job at keeping the realistic parts realistic and building an interesting fantasy world. (The one glaring example of where she flubs on realism is when she has Morgan, who's never been close to a horse before, able to ride, groom, tack, etc., a horse with expert skill the moment she comes in contact with it and without an lessons.)

Excerpt: Chapter One
Morgan of Melksham walked along the road, cursing both autumn's chill and her journey that caused her to be traipsing out in that chill instead of hunkering down next to a warm fire. This was not what she had planned. Her life had been proceeding quite nicely until she's received the missive in the middle of a particularly muddy campaign in which she'd been trying to pry one of Melksham's nobles from a keep that did not belong to him. The message from Lord Nicholas had been brief and pointed.

Come soon; time is short.

Morgan didn't want to speculate on what that might mean, but she couldn't help herself. Was the man suffering from life-threatening wounds? Was his home under siege from nobles he had exacted donations from once too often? Had he had a bountiful harvest and needed an extra pair of hands to bring that harvest to the cellar?

Was he dying?

She quickened her pace, forcing her thoughts away. She would know soon enough, and then that uncomfortable, unwholesome pounding in her chest would cease and she actually might be able to eat again.

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale Trade Paperback: 383 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury USA First Released: 2003

Source: Bought from Amazon

Back Cover Blurb:
Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, spends the first years of her life listening to her aunt’s stories and learning the language of the birds, especially the swans. As she grows up Ani develops the skills of animal speech, but is never comfortable speaking with people, so when her silver-tongued lady in waiting leads a mutiny during Ani’s journey to be married in a foreign land, Ani is helpless and cannot persuade anyone to help her. She becomes a goose girl and must use her own special, nearly magical powers to find her way to her true destiny.

Review:
This is a "fairy tale re-telling" based on a Grimm's fairy tale. The world-building in this book is good as is the pacing. The characters act and change realistically throughout the book. The romance in the story develops slowly. There are a few kisses, but no sex. I don't recall any curse words being used. Overall, I'd recommend this as "a good, clean fun" novel.

Excerpt: Chapter One
She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she did not open her eyes for three days.

The pacing queen directed ministers and physicians to the crib. They listened to her breathing and her hummingbird heart, felt her fierce grip and her tiny fingers soft as salamander skin. Al was sound. But her eyes did not open.

For three days the grave-faced attendants came and went. They prodded her, lifted her lids, slipped thick yellow syrups down her throat

“You are a princess,” the queen whispered to her ear. “Open your eyes.”

The baby cooed in her sleep.

When the third day had worn away to the lake blue of evening, a hand parted the nursery curtains. All was still for the night. The queen dozed on the bed. The baby in her crib dreamed of milk, her round, perfect lips nursing in sleep. A woman in a fern green robe pulled aside the curtains and tiptoed across the carpets. She slid her callused hands under the infant’s back and head, held her up, and grinned.

“Did you call me out of my house to come and tell you stories?” she said. “I will, my fat one, if you will listen.”

The queen awoke to the sounds of the rocking chair creaking and a voice singing about magpies and pigeons. She stood up, ready to call the guards, then saw that it was her own sister who sang to the baby, and that the baby was looking back at her aunt with wide eyes.

It was the aunt who shortened the crown princess’s name to Ani.

On clear days she took Ani to the north edge of the palace grounds where no wall had been built. That far out, the garden was allowed to stray out of its ordered beds and rows and merge with the occasional copse of ash and pine. The aunt felt easier there, and she held her niece’s small hand and named all she saw.

“You see the bird on the tallest branch there, the one with a yellow breast?” she’s migrating farther north now that the weather is warmer. The bluewing there is looking for twigs and says he has a found a picky mate.”

Ani began to speak sentences at one year. The aunt knew too well how Kildenreans disliked anything outside the common, and she tried to keep Ani’s progress hidden. But the household staff noted it, and rumours began that perhaps the queer green-clad nurse-mary possessed unnatural methods of awakening a child’s words.