The Faraway Inn

Continuing my quest for cozy fantasy novels, I came across Sarah Beth Durst's The Faraway Inn. I didn't realize it was a young adult book, so I was originally a bit surprised to find the main character, Calisa, was still in high-school. After a bad breakup with her boyfriend, Calisa decides, at the encouragement of her moms, to go and spend the summer helping her great aunt, Auntie Zee, at her bed and breakfast. But Zee isnt interested in her help, originally telling Calisa to go home, but then relenting and letting her stay for a few days. So Calisa takes it upon herself, with the help of Zee's absent landlord's son, Jack, to start cleaning and fixing up the place, hoping to get into Zee's good graces and be allowed to stay for the rest of the summer. 

Of course, not all is at it first seems. The guests are odd, and there's magic afoot. But with Zee's two rules (don't ask questions, and don't open any doors without permission), how will Calisa figure out what's going on?

...Quite easily, actually. She'll just break the rules every chance she gets. This was my biggest pet peeve of the story. I hoped Calisa might be able to figure out what was going on through some other means. Maybe she would start piecing things together as she was cleaning, or discover things in the library (with the help of the very-helpful library ladder). But nope. She just kept asking questions every chance she got (mostly of Jack), and opening doors (and even stealing her aunt's master key to get into some of the guest rooms) to figure out what was happening.

My other peeve of the story was how over the top Calisa was whenever she so much as glanced at Jack. Yes, he's very handsome. I get it. I don't need to be reminded of it with like every thought you have when you're speaking with him. Thankfully this calmed down a bit by about the midpoint of the book. 

That's also when the book started to get a little more interesting. Auntie Zee disappears while going to get supplies, and after trying to hold the fort, so to speak, for a bit, Calisa and Jack start looking for her. Their adventures take them into some pretty interesting places and they meet some really interesting people. Plus they end up getting to know the few guests at the inn a bit better and helping them out.

Most of the characters were quite good, too. I really liked Jack, and how earnest he was. He was so good-natured and dependable, even though he was obviously struggling trying to maintain everything with his father missing that you just couldn't help but like him. Mulligan was a rather odd guest, but I quite liked him because he was so different (and like Calisa, I had fun trying to figure out if he was something like a vampire or not). The mirror was pretty funny. And I really liked Melidor, the dryad, and her story of taking the time she needed to decide what she wanted for herself, rather than just giving in to the demands of her family.  

Also: Steve, the obviously-he's-a-dragon lizard that Calisa finds in a linen closet. He's very much like a cat, hanging out with Calisa and wanting to be involved in whatever she's doing. I enjoyed him just hanging out and tagging along with her and Jack wherever they went.

 While I had some issues with this book (and Calisa in particular), overall I did enjoy reading The Faraway Inn. :)

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves

I can't remember why I wanted to read The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves. But when I first started reading it, a friend of mine saw me with it and said it was good. So I had really high hopes for it....and almost stopped reading it because I found it rather boring in the beginning. 

In The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves, one hundred years ago, the emperor of a country (I think? I'm going to call it a country) disappeared. No one is entirely sure what happened, but the Sea God, who was like a brother to the emperor, forsook the people and disappeared beneath the waves, bringing dangerous storms to their shores. In a desperate attempt to stop the storms, the people started sacrificing women, known as Sea Brides, to the god. And the storms would abate for a year, at which point they would need to sacrifice another girl to the god. This year, everyone knows Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village, is going to be the Sea Bride. But when the time comes for the sacrifice, Mina, the younger sister of the man who loves Shim Cheong, sacrifices herself instead, wanting her brother to be happy and her family to be safe. But when she enters the Spirit Realm, home of the Sea God, everything is not as it seems: the Sea God has been cursed and asleep all this time. And Mina learns that she has just one month to break the curse before she becomes a spirit herself!

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Waves starts out as a kind of typical teen romantasy - a girl and a guy (Mina and Shin, in this case) who want nothing to do with each other end up thrown together and slowly start to respect and then love one another. Also, Shin just happens to be the immortal being who has been protecting the Sea God all this time (made me think of Twilight, honestly because Mina happens to be 16 - gave me some Edward/Bella vibes in terms of the relationship). Mina also is a typical headstrong female lead character - charging around and doing stuff even when people ask her politely not to. So that was all pretty annoying.

But then somewhere along the way, the narrative seemed to shift. Mina promised Shin she wouldn't leave his House without him....and actually listened. Shin always honored whatever he said he was going to do, and willingly took her to places to help her on her quest. Mina also got to know his guardians/friends/brothers (Namgi and Kirin) well, and everyone started to respect one another, even if they didn't 100% get along all the time. It was...refreshing.

I also really liked all of the main characters. Besides Mina and Shin, I liked the contrast between Namgi and Kirin. Not just the differences between their personalities, but also how they weren't what you would expect (Namgi in particular in this regard - he was a creature that even Kirin didn't really trust at the beginning of the story, but they became brothers in truth by the end of the narrative). 

While some of it was a tad predictable (I had strong suspicions pretty early on about the Sea God, though I will admit I started doubting them a bit as the narrative continued), I overall really enjoyed The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea in the end. It is a really good story about not just love but loyalty and family as well. I liked the world, I liked the characters, I liked the plot; I would be interested in reading more by Axie Oh one day! :)