Huntress by Malinda Lo

Huntress by Malinda Lo
This is a prequel to Lo's debut Ash. I enjoyed Ash, loved Huntress. Kaede and Taisin are students at the same Academy. Though both 17 yr old and started at the same time, they don't share any classes. Taisin is a very advanced sage in training, skilled at seeing into the future. Kaede is the daughter of the King's Advisor, a talented fighter but not a great student.

The two are suddenly brought together after Taisin has a vision. In it Kaede's life is at risk and the Taisin in the future is in love with her. These feelings disturb the Taisin of now because a sage must take a vow of celibacy. Taisin wants to avoid Kaede but it can't be done.

The Kingdom is in trouble, crops are dying and people are going hungry because of the unchanging weather. The King has been sent a very rare invitation by the Fairy Queen. Everyone believe the Fairy Queen can explain what's going on with the weather.

The King can't go and sends his son Con in his place. Taisin and Kaede must go as well. The kingdom is in turbulence, the three must travel with guards for their saftey.

Kaede and Taisin's characters were very well drawn. Their personalities shine through and I like that they come from different backgrounds. Kaede and Taisin could be romance is at the core of this story but the author never forgets the adventure.

Huntress has a great balance of action, danger and love. I absolutely loved Lo's writing. Sometimes author's drag out an inevitable relationship, and as a reader I am screaming just get together already. That was not the case with Huntress. The author's transitions from the potential relationship to the mission were clinic good. In doing so Lo kept me very much interested in both aspects of the story. Taisin and Kaede's first kiss was worth the wait.

Huntress is one of my favorite books of the year, inside and out (gorgeous cover)

Read an excerpt

Sunday - A Little of Everything

On Monday, I nominated four titles for Nerds Heart YA including three I mentioned in a previous post. The other book I nominated was What Momma Left Me by Renee Watson. You until March 7th to nominate books for Nerds Heart YA

Congratulations to author Shaun Tan for winning an Oscar for best animated flim for The Lost Thing. If you've never read Tan your missing out, his work is ridiculosuly good.


Author Neesha Meminger stopped by The Book Smugglers this week.

My biggest inspirations and influences were feminist writers. But wait – let me go back a bit. When I was younger, I really loved the tikki-tikki-tembo story. It’s the first story I remember really loving. I heard it in the library when I was, maybe, in third grade. The librarian read it aloud to the class and I was absolutely immersed. Could be because the story was about a boy with a name no one could pronounce, a name that was long and weird and foreign (like mine), but I completely related to that boy in the story.

If you plan on buying Jazz in Love please don't buy a used copy. The author doesn't get any credit for that resale. Self publishing is hard enough without authors having to contend with people selling a book for a profit. Jazz in love is only $11.00 new. Yet some people are selling their copies for more then that.

Don't forget to stop by Kidlit Celebrates Women's History Month , to read the daily post by authors and bloggers.

So far my favorite post was by Colleen,

Since then I have read about many women involved in aviation; one of the most obscure (and interesting) was early 20th century parachutist Elizabeth Shepherd. "Dolly" was a waitress at the Alexandra Palace in London when she met balloonist Auguste Gaudron who was looking for a girl parachutist for his act. In 1904 being a parachutist meant rising in the balloon basket to at least 2,000 feet then dropping down over the side and hanging from a trapeze bar to which she was attached with a safety strap. When she was ready to let go (and Dolly liked to go quite high) she would let go of the bar, releasing the strap. At that point all of her weight would be placed on the ropes attaching her to the parachute which hung limp from the balloon. If all was right, the parachute would open and Dolly would fall slowly back down to the ground.

There's a recent article at the School Library Journal called The Civil War: Beyond the Battlefield. Several titles are recommend. I was very disappointed that A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott wasn't one of them. Even more so when I noticed there was a section called Looking Backward: History, Crafts, and Time Travel . In A Wish After Midnight, 15 yr old Genna loves to make wishes, one wish transports are back to civil war era Brooklyn.

I know its an irrational thought but I couldn't help but wonder if only I did a little more for A Wish After Midnight, the right person would've heard about it and it would've been included.

I recently finished and loved Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry. I picked it up because of the cover by the second chapter, I wanted to hug the book. It was my kind of mystery. I even left a fan gush comment on the author's blog. Something I don't do often. read an excerpt

One YA novel I am really looking forward to reviewing when it gets closer to the release date is Huntress by Malinda Lo. It was so good. I loved it. For once a story lives up to its beautiful. cover.

Cindy Pon's Arc Contest- Fury of the Phoenix

Author Cindy Pon's YA debut Silver Phoenix was released in 2009. I really enjoyed it. It was nice reading a good story that wasn't more of the same. Looking back on it now, I took Silver Phoenix for granted. YA fantasy is so popular right now and there's a lot coming out . I assumed quality original YA would be published. Now that I know that I was wrong, I have a greater appreciation for Silver Phoenix. My review

The sequel, Fury of the Phoenix is scheduled to be released at the end of March. I am really looking forward to reading it. Pon's having an arc contest at her blog. Usually I don't mention author contest because the chances of winning are very slim. Though I am making an exception here

Because
Silver Phoenix was very good. It would make a great gifts. If you go to a bookstore, you'll probably have to order it. But its worth it trust me. Or don't take my word for it, go read the excerpt

A Fury of the Phoenix contest, is one thing I wouldn't mind seeing everywhere.

A wonderful series that's not more of the same and is diverse should be hyped up.

The contest is open until Dec. 1. - So if you are a Silver Phoneix fan, go enter and talk it up.

Also, Check out Diversity in YA Fiction - Pon is one of the co-founders.

Diversity in YA Fiction is a website and book tour founded by two young adult authors, Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon, to celebrate diverse stories in YA.

DIYA is a positive, friendly gathering of readers and writers who want to see diversity in their fiction. We come from all walks of life and backgrounds, and we hope that you do, too. We encourage an attitude of openness and curiosity, and we welcome questions and discussion. Most of all, we can’t wait to have fun sharing some great books with you.

It's nice to see two authors with the same goal working together. Especially when the book market is set up in such a way that authors releasing Asian inspired YA fantasy around the same time could easily be pitted aganist each other. So much kudos to Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo. Lo's next YA novel Huntress is scheduled to come out in April