Review: Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

Wildwood Dancing (Wildwood #1)
By Juliet Marillier
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library

To Sum It Up: Jena and her four sisters look forward to every Full Moon, when they’re able to cross over into the Other Kingdom, where they dance among fairies and other magical creatures. The sisters may not be able to journey to the Other Kingdom for much longer, however, when their sick father must leave them to regain his health elsewhere, and their cousin, who blames the inhabitants of the wildwood for a childhood tragedy, starts curtailing the girls’ freedom. It’s up to Jena to find a way to stop her cousin from controlling her and her sisters’ lives, as well as from destroying the wildwood.

Review: I first borrowed Juliet Marillier’s Wildwood Dancing from the library over a year ago but sadly did not have time to read it before it was due back. It’s taken me this long to pick it up again, and this is yet another case of Why Didn’t I Read This Book Sooner?!

Sometimes you just have to take a moment or two to admire how pretty a novel’s prose is, and there were several such moments while reading Wildwood Dancing. Almost immediately, you’re whisked away into a realm of fairies and other magical folk. The characters from Dancing Glade, and even Dancing Glade itself, brim with so much life. It’s easy to understand why the protagonist, Jena, and her four sisters love their trips to the Other Kingdom at every Full Moon. With the novel set in Romania, Marillier also incorporates vampires into the story. They’re called Night People here, and they’re as chill-inducing and dangerous as they are alluring.

Jena is a great main character, fiercely protective of her sisters and the core of the quintet. Each sister has a distinct personality, but it’s Jena they look to as “the sensible one.” And how could you not be intrigued by a protagonist with a pet frog whom only she can hear talk? Jena and Gogu’s bond was a highlight of the book for me, not to mention Gogu’s snarky side, which might have gotten him into a tad of trouble if everyone were able to hear him.

My only slight issue with Wildwood Dancing was the pacing. A few times I felt like I’d made considerable progress reading for the night, but in reality, I hadn’t read as many pages as I’d thought. I never lost interest or found myself skimming, but a confrontation or two less between Jena and her bully of a cousin, Cezar (it’s been a while since I met a character so desperately deserving of a punch to the face) would have been fine.

More often than not, fairytale romances miss their mark with me, but I absolutely fell for this one. It suited this story perfectly, and I unabashedly loved it. There’s quite a bit to love about Wildwood Dancing in addition to the romance, and I will definitely be reading more of Juliet Marillier’s novels.

All in All: I really do regret not reading this sooner. The fantasy aspect is so well done—it’s as though you’re there with Jena, Tati, Paula, Iulia, and Stela in the Other Kingdom. This is very much recommended if you enjoy reading fairytale-type fantasy.

Harry Potter Moment of the Week (63): Favorite Magical Pet

Harry Potter Moment of the Week is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts. The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/films/J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! A list of upcoming topics can be found here.

This week's topic is:
Favorite Magical Pet

Although I find all of the creatures in the Harry Potter series adorable, my favorite pet would most definitely be Buckbeak! He is the cutest hippogriff out there! I thought it was so sweet that he and Sirius became best buddies at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, and I would love to have a camaraderie like that. If Buckbeak was my pet, I would spoil him rotten. I would be giving him treats all of the time and I would let him come indoors, lol. It would be pretty awesome being able to fly on Buckbeak, too.

Review: In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken

In the Afterlight (The Darkest Minds #3)
By Alexandra Bracken
Publisher: Hyperion
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Ruby’s world has been rocked by tragedy, but she can’t give in to her grief because she and her friends are still trapped in Los Angeles, surrounded by government forces who’ll show no mercy to any kid with psionic abilities. After a risky escape from the city, Ruby and her companions plan their next move: to free the kids still imprisoned in horrific “rehabilitation” camps. Ruby and her powers are at the center of the operation, one that will force her to confront her worst fears and possibly require her to make the biggest sacrifice of her life.

Review: I’ve said goodbye to several incredible series this year, and The Darkest Minds is one of them. Parting with characters whom you’ve grown to love like they were real instead of fictional, particularly this group that’s been to hell and back more times than you can count, is so bittersweet. On the one hand, the ending of Never Fade left me desperate for In the Afterlight, but once I started reading the latter, it was all, “No, no, NO! I can’t bear for this story to end!”

I’ll cut straight to the single thing that I felt held In the Afterlight back a little: not enough Liam, Chubs, and Vida, especially not enough Liam. Let me explain myself. You can rest easy that these three are, indeed, in the book. I think my nitpick is a matter of personal preference, and I just wanted to see these characters make more appearances. I’m so used to Ruby going out on ops and witnessing the action firsthand, but in In the Afterlight, she sees more time at the makeshift headquarters. Liam, Chubs, and Vida go off on different missions and then return, with the action taking place off-page. After everything that this group, including Ruby, has endured together, I just would have liked to have seen an additional bonding moment or two.

I’ve had the good fortune to read about some amazing, kickass heroines in 2014 (Heir of Fire’s Celaena Sardothien, Blue Lily, Lily Blue’s Blue Sargent), and Ruby easily falls into this category as well. What she’s been through—it breaks your heart when you sum up all of it. But she’s also survived; she’s demonstrated her strength time and time again, even when it seems like she should have nothing left to give. I mentioned before that Ruby isn’t a part of every op in the novel, but that’s not to say that she’s lolling around HQ. She’s grown into quite the leader, often discussing strategy with Cole, another Children’s League agent—and Liam’s older brother. Ruby also goes tête-à-tête with the reprehensible Clancy Gray, now the League’s prisoner, in the hopes of gleaning a clue to the whereabouts of his mother. Dr. Lillian Gray may not only know the cause of IANN, the disease that gave some children powers while killing others, but she may know how to cure it. Clancy won’t volunteer anything, of course, and a tense battle of the minds between him and Ruby plays out over the course of the book.

I was absolutely riveted to the final third of In the Afterlight. I power read even through sleepy eyes because I could not go to sleep for the night without some small sense of resolution until the next time I could pick up the book again. The biggest op of Ruby’s life took a few years off of mine because my heart pounded in fear on her behalf. Everything that has happened in the previous two books has led up to this—and the moment is delivered brilliantly.

I can’t tell you how many feels this series has given me, ranging from gut-twisting heartbreak to a severe case of melt-y heart every time Liam said “Darlin’.” This may be the end of the trilogy, but I’m not ready to let Liam, Ruby, Chubs, and Vida go. Nope, not ready at all.

All in All: I feel a twinge of guilt for giving the series ender 4.5 stars instead of 5, but so much of the series for me has been about the chemistry between Ruby and her friends, and I just felt that it wasn’t as much at the forefront like it had been in the previous books. In the Afterlight was still a super good read, though, and obviously not to be missed if you’ve read The Darkest Minds and Never Fade.

November 2014 Recap

November has been a total blur—it's been crazy busy at work, which has translated into me falling asleep most weeknights while attempting to read. I've been in a bit of a reading/blogging slump lately, too. :/ I'd like to finish out the year strong, though, so I'm going to give reading my all next month, even amidst all the bustle of the holidays!

Reviews Posted:

• Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
• Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan
• Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
• Of Metal and Wishes by Sarah Fine

Featured Posts:

• Anything Sunday
• Bookish Stuff I'd Like to Accomplish Before 2014 Ends

Harry Potter Moment of the Week (62): The HP Film Cast

Harry Potter Moment of the Week is a meme hosted by Uncorked Thoughts. The aim of this meme is to share with fellow bloggers a character, spell, chapter, object or quote from the books/films/J. K. Rowling herself or anything Potter related! A list of upcoming topics can be found here.

This week's topic is:
How do you feel about the HP film cast? Any that don't fit with the image you had?

I thought all of the HP movies were extremely well cast. The only thing I can really think of for this week's topic is the Dumbledore recasting. I really loved Richard Harris in the role, not that I didn't think Michael Gambon did a great job, too. But, I don't know, it took a little while to warm up to the latter, and I always wondered if Richard Harris's Dumbledore would have practically football tackled Harry after his name flew out of the Goblet of Fire. Also, in Order of the Phoenix, I know there was a reason why Dumbledore was avoiding Harry, but I thought he came off rather frosty in the movie, like Harry had the plague or something, lol. Like I said, though, I did warm up to Gambon's Dumbledore; he was brilliant dueling Voldemort at the Ministry of Magic in OotP and utterly spectacular in Half-Blood Prince in the cave when he made all. The. Fire.