The Summer War

I was really excited to see a new Naomi Novik novella was out! I hadn't heard anything about it, and was really happy to see that it was more of the fantasy-style like Uprooted and Spinning Silver (it really reminded me of the world of Spinning Silver, so I was rather surprised that the two aren't connected, even by being in the same world).  

In The Summer War, when Celia is 12 years old, she discovers that she is a sorceress when she curses her brother to never find love again. Desperate to try to undo the curse, she has only a little time to find him before she is wed to the crown prince of the realm. But when the prince and the king pull a double cross, she finds herself at the whims of the mortal's ancient enemy, the immortal summerlings.

I really enjoyed The Summer War. It was a fast read (I read it in a day because it's fairly short). I liked the characters, especially how Celia learned and grew as a person as she grew up. The dynamics between her and her brothers were interesting as well 

I also liked the summerlings and how they thought so differently from the mortals in the story. For immortals, they were very much willing to die in glory so their names could live on in story. Their revenge plan was also kind of funny in that they expected a mortal to do something the way they expected, and were so surprised and angry when they didn't. It was a neat touch that they could only do things in the mortal realm during summetime, and would go running back to their world when the autumn winds hit.

All in all, this was a super fast and enjoyable read (especially after my last few reads). 

The Enchanted Hacienda

I found a review on Goodreads that sums up J.C. Cervantes' book The Enchanted Hacienda quite nicely: "like encanto but boring." The main character, Harlow, is from a magical family, only she alone doesn't have magic. She tried to move to New York and be an editor. But when she's let go, she finds her way back to her family's hacienda to try to figure out her next steps. There she encounters Ben, an intriguing guy who is trying to stay away from his journalist ex-girlfriend by hiding at Harlow's table in the local cafe. Circumstance after circumstance keeps throwing them together and they get caught up in a whirlwind romance until Harlow starts to question whether what they have is real or not.

The Enchanted Hacienda has a really good the beginning.  I was swept away with the Hacienda and learning how all the magic worked, as well as the bond between all of the women in Harlow's family. But then the story became a straight up romance, and it really started to lose me. Harlow and Ben had this amazing connection. He said he wasn't romantic, then did a lot of really romantic gestures. They kept almost having sex, but something made them stop. I found it really boring and almost stopped reading (but I was already so far into the book that I decided to just finish it and be done).

But then, something happened that made the whole romance part make sense, plot-wise. I was still bored reading it, but at least I appreciated it from that point on.

I also found there were some weird inconsistencies. For one thing, for someone who was unemployed, Harlow seemed to be blowing a lot of money (new clothes after her wardrobe had already caught up with her, flying to New York, etc). For another thing, I found it really difficult to tell how much time was passing through most of the book. Did Harlow go to Quebec City immediately after the events with the bouquet, or did some time pass? What time of year was any of this even happening? The book also didn't really explain why certain things happened (William's dream of Harlow, as one big example). And it glossed over other things (what happened with the journalist, even sometimes an event would happen, a chapter ends on a cliffhanger, then the next chapter is a day or two later and has glossed over what happened during the cliffhanger).

While in the end, I didn't mind the story of The Enchanted Hacienda, I definitely wasn't in love with it. I don't think I'll be reading any further in the Estrada family saga.

The Honey Witch

I picked up Sydney J. Shields' The Honey Witch earlier this summer. It sounded like an interesting, more cozy fantasy, which was appealing: I haven't been interested in grand quests and fate of the world scenarios lately. 

The Honey Witch follows Marigold, in a Regency-era/style story. Marigold is different from everyone else and doesn't feel like she fits in. Rather than dress up and attend balls, she wants to be running around in the woods and visiting spirits that no one else can see. But when her grandmother unexpectedly visits and tells her that Marigold, like all the first-born daughters of their family, is a honey witch, Marigold accompanies her grandmother back to the isle of Innisfree. She takes to her new life immediately, having no interest in a husband at all (Marigold even disdains other women who choose such a life for themselves, though her grandmother immediately disproves of her thoughts when she shares them out loud). But after her grandmother's passing, Marigold slowly grows lonelier and lonelier until an old friend of hers comes for a visit with his friend, Lottie Burke. Marigold finds Lottie impossible yet incredibly attractive. But her family was cursed by an ash witch to not know any love. Yet she finds herself thinking of and longing for Lottie all the more. 

While I thought the premise of The Honey Witch was intriguing enough, I found the book to be rather predicable and often boring. I predicted most of what happened (from fairly early on), including Lottie's heritage and who August's soulmate would be. About the only thing I think I got wrong was that the weird fortune teller at one point in the book wasn't actually the main antagonist of the book, but was in fact a random weird fortune teller who had no further bearing on the book (and honestly, in hindsight the fortune teller's inclusion seems rather weird since Marigold was constantly seeing omens in the world around her - why would she need her fortune read?) Marigold and Lottie's relationship was slow and boring in very stereotypical ways ("she can't possibly love me because of the curse!" and "I must keep her away because this is harming her!" kind of ways). The world building was confusing at times (I'm not 100% sure what a honey witch can do vs what an ash witch can do because honey witches could heal but ash witches can raise the dead somehow? Also ash is apparently the opposite of honey? That never really made sense to me). Oh and the curse itself seemed weird - Lottie seemed quite capable of loving Marigold, she just got hurt in doing so, but I thought the curse was that the honey witches couldn't be loved? In the end it seemed like they weren't capable of having a soul mate, but that's not really what the curse was supposed to be at the beginning of the book.

I'm sad that The Honey Witch didn't live up to my expectations. :( 

Never Too Late

So after trying my first ever Nora Roberts book, I decided to give a Danielle Steel book a chance too. I chose Never Too Late, one of three Danielle Steel books I recently picked up from some relatives. It tells the story of Kezia, a widowed woman who decides to start fresh in New York City. But after a tragedy strikes the city, she befriends her new neighbour, a well known movie star names Sam who is also recovering from the death of his spouse. And as the two start spending more time together, they start to wonder if they might have a second chance at love.

Never Too Late also features their adult children navigating their own relationships. Kezia's youngest daughter Felicity is a supermodel who is proposed to by her much older boyfriend. When she accepts, and starts planning her wedding, it makes her older half-sister Kate jealous. Kate, and aspiring writer, has been with her boyfriend for four years. After going to meet her father in Africa (and discovering he doesn't live up to the fantasies she had of him), she decides she wants more out of life. She gets engaged to her boyfriend, but he refuses to set a date or even talk about the wedding. Meanwhile, Sam's son has been up front with his current girlfriend that he doesn't want to get married (and doesn't even want her moving in). But she has her sights set on marriage with him anyway! 

I'm not going to lie, the ending and how these relationships turn out was fairly predictable from the point the book let's you know that Sam has a son who is Kate's age. But that part of the story was still probably the most fun of the book. I honestly felt like Kate was the most interesting character with the most growth. Everyone else was fairly flat and stagnant.

Never Too Late is also not very well written. The book tells you almost everything without showing you much, and is extremely repetitive (a thought will be repeated not only a few times on the same page, but multiple times in the book). I started wondering if Steel has an editor because the book reads very much like an early draft. :(

Needless to say, Steel's books do not seem to be for me, so I will not be reading the other two I got. :(

The Witness

I've never read a Nora Roberts book before. But after asking my partner's mother what she was reading, her explaining The Witness to me, and then offering it to me after she finished, I decided to give it a shot. 

The Witness is the story of a young girl, Liz, who, during her one act of rebellion against her controlling mother, witnesses a double murder. Liz and her friend accidentally got involved with a couple of mobsters, one of whom was ratting the mob out to the police. So the mob retaliated, killing her friend at the same time. When they realized that Liz had witnessed everything and gotten away, they came after her, even when she was in a witness protection program. And so she had to run again, relying on no one but herself to stay safe.

Fast forward about a decade, and Liz, under a new name, finds herself in a small town in the Ozarks. There she attracts the attention of Brooks, the chief of police, whose curiosity is piqued by the beautiful girl who keeps to herself and goes everywhere with a concealed weapon. As much as Liz tries to keep him at arms distance, Brooks manages to worm his way into her heart. But can she risk being with him when she knows the mob is still after her (and will kill everyone she loves if they need to to get to her?)

I honestly quite enjoyed The Witness. I loved both Liz and Brooks, and how their relationship blossomed. Liz doesn't really know how to behave in social situations due to her upbringing, so she's very blunt in an endearing way (she often catches herself after she says something to make amends and try to better understand the situation). Brooks is an upstanding man who wants to do right by everyone, even if that means he doesn't exactly follow the law to the letter. While it gets him into some trouble, you know he has everyone's best interests at heart. 

I did find the end of the book was a bit abrupt though. I expected some sort of showdown with the mob, especially after there was a random part of a chapter from one of the mobster's perspectives about halfway through the book (then the book never went back to their perspective). There was also a sex scene that was a little steamier than I normally like to read (as I told my partner, I am perfectly okay with them "fading to black" so to speak). But otherwise, I found this a very enjoyable read. The plot was interesting, the characters were great, and I enjoyed how their relationship grew. I'll have to give more Nora Roberts a try one day. :)