Book Review: Pegasus by Robin McKilney

This cover looks even prettier
in person...

Goodreads description

A gorgeously written fantasy about the friendship between a princess and her Pegasus.

Because of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pagasi, Princess Sylviianel is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday. The two species coexist peacefully, despite the language barriers separating them. Humans and pegasi both rely on specially-trained Speaker magicians as the only means of real communication.

But its different for Sylvi and Ebon. They can understand each other. They quickly grow close-so close that their bond becomes a threat to the status quo-and possibly to the future safety of their two nations.

New York Times bestselling Robin McKinley weaves an unforgettable tale of unbreakable friendship, mythical creatures and courtly drama destined to become a classic.

 

My review

 

Apart from the absolutely stunning cover, what made me want to read Pegasus was the fairy tale like fantasy plot of it because these kind of worlds are so fun to read about. It turned out that this was one of the aspects of the book I enjoyed the most because the kingdom that the protagonist Princess Sylvi lives in  is so original and creative. I love the idea of the races of humans and Pegasi being bonded together and the special but complicated relationship that has stretched out through history starting with the Alliance from over 1,000 years ago. My favourite part of the fantasy side was the descriptions and imaginings of the pegasi who are neither horses nor unicorns because there civilisation and home land was unique and unlike anything I've ever read before. The world and concept held such premise but whilst the concept really appealed to me, the thing that didn't work well was the slow pace and the lack of action. I found this especially in the first chapter because it was mainly a long description of the history of the land and the Alliance between the humans and pegasi, which made me skim over some sections.

 I've never read any Robin MKilney books before but I was impressed with the way the setting was built up with rich and gorgeous descriptions so that the fantasy world became more vivid to me throughout the book. The intricate detail included because of the word building is amazing but I found it was a case of too much of a good thing. Whilst the descriptions were a treat to read at first, too much became boring and tedious at times so that I wasn't able to lose myself in the story as much. Another reason for this was the diversions in the plot that revert to earlier memories that don't move the plot forward and left me feeling confused.

Princess Sylvi was very easy to like and sympathise with because although she's a Princess she's not proud or spoiled but shy and kind. She knows her duty to the Kingdom's people as the fourth daughter of the King and has a cute sense of humour. Oh, and did I mention she goes flying? Her relationship with Ebon was one of the things that kept me reading because their friendship was so sweet as they bought the best out in each other and were prepared to take risks for each other despite what it might mean for their kingdoms. Ebon made such humorous remarks in their conversation too and Sylvie's banter back was fun to read and bought some light hearted comic humour to the book.

The other secondary characters had well drawn personalities such as her mother, the fighting Queen; her father, the dependable King, and the family of Ebon. As there were so many Pegasi characters introduced in a short time frame, only a sketch of themselves could be presented and I struggled to keep track of all their names but I'm interested in finding out more about them in the next book.

One thing I must mention is that this book is one of two parts instead of the first book in a series so unfortunately it's left on a major cliffhanger that stopped right in the middle of the action. I was thinking finally something crucial happens when I realised I'd come to the end. I suppose it's a good thing to enjoy reading a book enough to want to know what happens next but it would have been nice to have a note at the beginning to explain it's part one of a two part book.

Speed Read/Verdict: I liked Pegasus overall because the world spun around the bond between the Pegasi and the humans was really imaginative, the flowery descriptions were vibrant and the loyal friendship between Sylvi and Ebon was lovely to see develop. However it didn't work well as a whole for me and I couldn't become engrossed in it because of the disjointed narrative and overly long descriptions. I would reccommend it to fantasy and fairy tale lovers who are patient in their reading because hiding under the surface is a beauitful tale.

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to Puffin UK for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Flawless by Lara Chapman

Thank you to Bloomsbury for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Goodreads description

Sarah Burke is just about perfect. She's got killer blue eyes, gorgeous blond hair, and impeccable grades. There's just one tiny-all right, enormous-flaw: her nose. But even that's not so bad. Sarah's got the best best friend and big goals for print journalism fame.

On the first day of senior year, Rock Conway walks into her journalism class and, well, rocks her world. Problem is, her best friend, Kristen, falls for him too. And when Rock and Kristen stand together, it's like Barbie and Ken come to life. So when Kristen begs Sarah to help her nab Rock, Sarah does the only thing a best friend can do-she agrees. For someone so smart, what was she thinking?

This hip retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac is filled with hilariously misguided matchmaking, sweet romance, and a gentle reminder that we should all embrace our flaws.
 
My review
 
Sarah Burke is a new high school senior with long blond hair, blue eyes and gets top grades. While that description might make her seem flawless, Sarah sees herself as anything but because of her enormous nose that seems to attract the wrong kind of attention wherever she goes. She has learnt to accept it as part of herself and can't quite bring herself to have a nose job like her mum did to fix the same affliction. When a new boy arrives at her school, it changes everything....

Without a doubt, what I loved most about this book was the characters because I often find that contemporaries set in high school (out of the few I've read) often feature cliched characters such as the popular mean girl or the dumb blond. In Flawless, each of the main characters Sarah, Kristen and Rock were really well developed with believable flaws  so I was able to relate to each one of them and I couldn't help but grow to love them. The protagonist Sarah is witty, smart and exceptionally well organised but has many insecurities about herself because of her abnormally large nose that often holds her back. I was able to understand her feelings about this perfectly because every teenage girl feels insecure sometimes and this has been a big topic in the media over the past few years. I loved the close friendship that she shared with her best friend Kristen who she agrees to help get the attention of Rock despite having strong feelings about him herself. This showed what a loyal friend Sarah was because she would do anything for Kristen's happiness and puts their friendship before guys.

Although blind to Sarah's feelings for Rock, it was clear that Kristen was a fantastic friend too who was always there for Sarah. I really liked how she would stick up for Sarah when people made fun of her nose and was protective of her. She was the party girl of the two with model like looks and a fabulous fashion sense but just as lovable in her own way!

Rock was absolutely gorgeous and I'm not surprised that both girls in the book were after him! He was smart, witty, handsome and best of all he loved literature and reading. Some guys in YA books can be quite shallow and there characters are under developed but this wasn't the case with Rock. I loved his banter and some of the things he said- totally cute! Also the dates that he thought of were so romantic. Although I do have to point out that he wasn't an unrealistic perfect character and did have character flaws.

I think that the issues of being learning to be happy and comfortable about yourself and your body, loyalty and boyfriend problems were handled really well because they were a subtle theme throughout the book that left me with a message that acted as food for thought but it was never pushed onto me or became preachy. I like this because it makes the reader realise it and work it out for themselves. A nice little addition to this was the famous quotes to do with how beauty isn't perfection and other topics like that at the beginning of each chapter. I'm going to copy some of them into my new quote book because I like them so much. Here's an example of one of my favourite quotes in the book:

'The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.' Havecock Ellis

I hadn't heard of the story of Cyrano de Bergerac before I read this retelling and I looked it up after finishing the book and I think it's been adapted really well for the twenty-first century.

Lara Chapman's writing was fabulous and there are many hilarious one liners in the book that seem very natural and not forced. This is her debut and she writes like she's already an experienced bestselling author so I can't wait to see what she writes next!

Verdict/Quick read:  Flawless lives up to its name with well developed characters, witty one liners and of course a gorgeous guy- the perfect combination for a high school set story! Every contemporary fan should have this debut at the top of their reading list and even if you're not usually a contemporary fan (like me!) then I still recommend it.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Review: Chime by Franny Billingsley

Goodreads description

Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.

Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.

My thoughts and review

The story focuses on Briony (the narrator) and her twin sister Rose and is loosely set in early 19th century England. Briony is plagued by the fact that she is a witch and she believes herself responsible for her sister's terrible accident and her stepmother's death. She is a character that deeply despises herself for what she believes she has inflicted on other people and believes she deserves to be punished severely for what she has done.

Chime is a book that I have very mixed feelings about and I had to work hard to finish it. The premise sounded unusual and something different from what I would usually pick so I was really hoping that I would love it. For the beginning part of the book, I found it  hard to understand what was going on because of the writing style, which I found quite confusing. It took me a long while before I completely understood where the story was heading and the relationships between the characters.
On the other hand, I have to say that the writing style was very original and different at times but I found it was more cumbersome than entertaining. For example, the narrator and main character Briony would suddenly break into verse with no relation to the sentence before and whilst I can see the effect that the author was trying to achieve by some of the techniques used, they unfortunately didn't work for me because it spoiled the natural flow of the story and made it too disjointed. Also, I found it distanced me from the characters too much so I felt disconnected from them. Having said that, some of the descriptions and imagery used was beautiful and made me pause to appreciate it.

Briony is an interesting narrator because we only get to know what she thinks is happening or is true and in that sense she is an unreliable narrator. This also means secrets are slowly revealed throughout the book and there's a mystery which the reader is left to solve from clues that are dropped into the text. She is a very odd character who is complicated and flawed with a very negative image of herself but I loved how protective she was of Rose even though she thinks it's impossible for witches to 'love'. Her relationship with Eldric was one of my favourite parts of the book and it was one of the things that kept me reading the book. I thought some of their interactions were amusing such as their made up language Real Latin with words such as 'stupidibus.' I also liked the way that their romance sprung from friendship and their relationship developed slowly because istant love is particularly common in YA paranormal romance and fantasy. However, I would have liked to have seen more romance and for it to have picked up slightly earlier without being insta- love (as their friendship period was for about 3/4 of the book.)

I liked the author's unique take on the paranormal side of the story because there's no sign of the generic werewolf or vampire but instead new creations and lesser touch creatures such as Mucky Face and Boggy Mon,that live in the swamp near Briony's home and Brownies. The paranormal genre is saturated and it's nice to see something new and fresh that can add to the genre.

Final words: Unfortunately, Chime wasn't the book for me because of the writing that left me feeling disconnected but there were some aspects that I liked (which is why I gave it an extra half star.) It is a refreshing take on the paranormal historical,  and there were some beautiful descriptions in parts. There have been some gushing 5 star reviews from other readers and bloggers for Chime, so if your interest has been aroused from the synopsis, then I suggest you decide what to make of it for yourself!

Rating: 2.5 stars

Thank you to Bloomsbury UK for providing me with this review copy.

I've seen lots of very mixed reviews for Chime. If you've read it, what did you think of it? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comment section!