Review: Firespell by Chloe Neill
From Goodreads: As the new girl at the elite St. Sophia’s boarding school, Lily Parker thinks her classmates are the most monstrous things she’ll have to face…
When Lily’s guardians decided to send her away to a fancy boarding school in Chicago, she was shocked. So was St. Sophia’s. Lily’s ultra-rich brat pack classmates think Lily should be the punchline to every joke, and on top of that, she’s hearing strange noises and seeing bizarre things in the shadows of the creepy building.
The only thing keeping her sane is her roommate, Scout, but even Scout’s a little weird—she keeps disappearing late at night and won’t tell Lily where she’s been. But when a prank leaves Lily trapped in the catacombs beneath the school, Lily finds Scout running from a real monster.
Scout’s a member of a splinter group of rebel teens with unique magical talents, who’ve sworn to protect the city against demons, vampires, and Reapers, magic users who’ve been corrupted by their power. And when Lily finds herself in the line of a firespell, Scout tells her the truth about her secret life, even though Lily has no powers of her own—at least none that she’s discovered yet…
Buy Firespell from Kepler’s and support an indie! (This is not an affiliate link, I make no profit.)
I won this book in a contest from Truth, Beauty and Books. The author sent me the book with a post it on to p saying congrats, the book was signed and some bookmarks and an awesome sticker.
I have to say I was looking forward to this book because I was in the mood for witches. However I didn’t get exactly what I bargained for, I got way more. Lily is a very fun character who is easy to like and follow. Her penchant for mischief is hilarious and the slow going but fast paced way she has her revaluations about her new found friends are brilliantly written.
The side characters are well fleshed out and laugh out loud funny. The boarding school theme which can sometimes overwhelm the book itself was just right.
If you like Hex Hall and Once a Witch you will adore Firespell. Here is a video of me reading an excerpt from the book.
Interview: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl Authors of Beautiful Creatures
Photo by: Alex Hoerner
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Bookalicio.us: I have to say you have Southern people described to the letter. Are either of you Southern or have family that lives in the South? As I was reading I was fascinated with how much your book took me home to my teen years in Saltville Virginia (The Salt Capitol of the Confederacy).
Kami: My family is originally from a small town in North Carolina, so I grew up with three generations of women (two Southern) living under one roof. I have a deep affection for the eccentricities of the South, and still go to see my mom in North Carolina every summer. Margie’s family is originally from a tiny town, though not in the South, and I think our shared stories from casserole counties are what made us want to set our story in Gatlin, SC. Even if it isn’t the Salt Capitol of the Confederacy!
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Bookalicio.us: I often wondered through out the book why you chose Ethan as opposed to Lena as the main character. The more I read the more I was confused about that, but the more I read the more I loved the fact you did so. It was a breath of fresh air in the paranormal YA assortment.
Margie: You have to remember, we originally wrote this story on a dare from seven teenagers, who read our pages nightly and weekly as we wrote them. So we weren’t really thinking about anything other than what they would want to read. They were powerful, strong, individualistic teenage girls – except for our one Caster Boy! – and we wanted to give them a story where the girl was the powerful, mysterious supernatural, and the boy had to unravel her mystery, find his way to her. Also, I think we also wanted to give them something they hadn’t read before.
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Bookalicio.us: The Character of Lena’s Uncle was an amazingly thought out addition to the story. I can’t go into too much detail of how you as the authors used his character for some plot twists without giving spoilers, I wanted to ask how you fleshed him out the way you did.
Kami: Lena’s Uncle Macon is one of our favorite characters, and an important counterpoint to some of the smaller-minded folks in town. He’s brilliant and sophisticated and worldly and unique, and he’s been living in Gatlin as long as the town folks who loathe him. He’s also a wonderfully loyal father figure to Lena. We love how he loves her.
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Bookalicio.us:I like the different kinds of paranormal in the book and the way you handled the naming of things and persons with even a little Southern Voodoo thrown in for charm. How did you mesh so many different supernatural elements into one piece without making it over the top?
Margie: We named our Casters from day one. It was important to us to create our own unique rule set for our own magical universe. We didn’t want to be generic, and we wanted to give our readers a kind of magic that was deeply regional, and tied to the Caster County our book lives in.
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Bookalicio.us: What is your favorite place to write?
Kami: In my comfy chair, in complete silence, with a Diet Coke. Extra ice.
Margie: In the library or in my own comfy chair, also with a Diet Coke and my earphones blasting my mix of the day!
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Bookalicio.us: Pen and paper? Mac or PC? Why?
Kami: We’re both Mac girls, though we use more white boards with more complex color-coding that you could possibly imagine.
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Bookalicio.us: Beautiful Creatures is a book that made it on my short list of favorites for 2009, it almost didn’t make it on there because I hadn’t heard about the book. Usually I get recommendations from literary blogs, and Amazon is always throwing stuff to me I devour. It is kind of hard for me to miss a young adult novel, and I am so glad I didn’t miss this one. How hard has it been marketing a YA book in a sea of others? Teens are statistically
reading more now and there is so much to choose from. Publishers expect you to be able to market yourself effectively from the beginning now as well.Margie: Little, Brown has been incredibly supportive of our book from day one. Our editors, Jen Hunt and Julie Scheina, have always made us feel like a priority, and our publicist Jessica Kaufman is amazing. And the day Amazon picked us for their Top Ten of 2009 and their number one Teen Pick, we were thrown into a bit more of the spotlight than we had ever anticipated. The Warner Brothers movie announcement hitting the day before our book came out was another spotlight, and things just sort of kept rolling from there.
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Bookalicio.us: How do you feel about book trailers? Have you ever watched one that made you want to buy a book?
Kami: We love good book trailers. Vania Stoyanova, the photographer who made one of our BC trailers, is so talented that she makes you want to buy any title she makes a trailer for. That’s why we were so happy she made one for us! You can watch her trailer on the homepage of our site, under the reviews. www.BeautifulCreaturestheBook.com
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Bookalicio.us: What has been the best part of reader reaction for you?
Margie: It’s amazing to hear people talking about the characters, the town, the story – all of these things that only existed in our heads for so long. We also love love love our librarian readers, so the Morris Debut Award nomination from the YALSA was a special kind of “reader reaction” that we will never forget!
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Bookalicio.us: Are you going to be a book tour? Release dates in other countries or movie deals (really it should be a movie)?
Kami: Beautiful Creatures is being published in 25 countries, which is really wonderful. We are going to be on our Southern US book tour from January 18th until the 29th, and then on a more limited northern states book tour from February 20th until the 27th. The movie is going forward in development at Warner Brothers, and we couldn’t be happier about that. For more information on all of the above, be sure to check back at www.BeautifulCreaturestheBook.com – we will be updating the site the whole time we are touring, so you can see the latest BC happenings!
Review: Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia
The towns are so boring and you can only dream of getting out. Ethan marked his days down until she showed up in town. Long black hair, weird slightly gothic style. She completely knocked the wind out of our Ethan and in a good way. Over time we learn more about the girl. Her name is Lena, she lives with Macon Ravenwood the town shut in. Was Lena crazy too?
Seriously strange things start to happen to Ethan, he is dreaming about Lena in a way that seems so real he even awakes with dirt and grime in his bed. Songs start showing up on his iPod with varying lyrics and messages. When he learns the truth about Lena and her family he realizes he has to race against time and break every southern social rule in order to save Lena from her fate.
The character development in this book is amazing. From Ethan, to Lena, Macon to Amma, Link to Ridley. I was laughing out loud, visibly annoyed with some, and smirking at the sarcasm. This book was short listed here on Bookalicio.us as one of my favorite reads in 2009 and short listed way more important places like you know Amazon! Absolutely this volume deserves its best selling status!
A movie is in development, I cannot wait to hear more news on that.
If you haven’t read Beautiful Creatures you need to. If you have let me know what you thought or share your star rating below. If you are like me in mentality and think it has been hyped too much to possibly be good. Then you are wrong. Pick it up, read it, and if I am wrong I will give you a cookie. Not any generic cookie, the good ones. Milano’s from Pepperidge Farm.
I was also lucky enough to conduct an interview with our lovely authors. Check it out: Interview with Beautiful Creatures Authors.
Review: Enchanted Inc Series by Shanna Swendson
I won all four of these books from a contest at I Heart Monster, a great book blog I frequently read for recommendations on what to read next. I started with the set immediately and in order and I was fascinated by the story line. I being a southerner myself instantly connected with the main character Katie Chandler, and the small town girl in the big intimidating city story line. I have hopes that Swendson’s publisher will pick up at least one more book for a nice finish to the story, there are a lot of unanswered question about other characters and the general plot. I struggled between giving these books 3 or 4 stars. In the end my decision was based on the fact I believe the characters could have been a bit more fleshed out. Through the books you receive the same information about the same people, when I feel there was chances to enhance the perception and personality. I also thought at times the books took a long time to get going and all the excitement was pushed into the final chapters. That being said I gobbled all four books down in a week and was hungry for more. The books are a simple read, very fun, and I loved the mix of craziness. My favorite character from the series was the A.D.D. bad guy. Idris while not a mastermind criminal was a pretty nasty fellow, however easily distractable by something shiny.
Book One: Enchanted Inc
From Publishers Weekly
In her first mainstream novel, romance writer Swendson puts a Harry Potter–inspired twist on the standard tale of a smalltown girl in the big city, with lively if saccharine sweet results. Fish-out-of-water Katie Chandler suffers in her thankless job as assistant to marketing manager “Evil Mimi,” worrying that maybe she just can’t hack it in New York City. Will her colleagues ever consider her anything but a hick? For a girl from Texas, the Big Apple is stranger than a foreign country, but she discovers that the weird things she notices are signs of real magic afoot. Her “small-town honesty and common sense” soon land her a new job at Magic, Spells, and Illusion Inc., which traffics in benevolent sorcery. “You… are of the rare breed who can neither do magic nor be influenced by magic. You see the world as it is,” an MSI executive explains. With her clear-sightedness—plus business acumen gained working for her family’s feed-and-seed store—Katie will play a pivotal role in MSI’s magical battle against a malevolent competitor. From sanitized descriptions of New York City life to hunky wizards and fairies on the subway, this book is pure and innocent fantasy, suitable for preteens or readers hungry for a cotton candy read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Two: Once Upon Stilettos
From Booklist
The winning follow-up to Enchanted, Inc. (2005) finds Katie Chandler, a young woman immune to magic, working at the epicenter of New York City’s magic community as Merlin’s personal assistant. When Owen Palmer, the sexy wizard Katie’s been secretly swooning over, reports that a spy has been in his office, Merlin puts Katie on the case to discover the identity of the traitor. It’s no small task, and Katie is distracted by the arrival of her parents, who have flown up from Texas to see how their daughter is faring in the big city. Katie is upset to learn that her mother is also immune to magic, and can see all the strange goings-on in the Big Apple. To make matters worse, Katie is shocked to find that she’s losing her own magical immunity, which she fears will jeopardize her position and hamper her ability to identify the spy. Swendson’s smart, snappy novel will delight fans that loved the first installment, and win over new readers, too.
Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Three: Damsel Under Stress:
From Booklist
The third entry in Swendson’s charming series, which began with Enchanted, Inc. (2005), finds Kate Chandler, whose immunity to magic makes her a valuable employee at the magic company where she works as Merlin’s assistant, finally about to go on a date with her crush, handsome but bashful wizard Owen Palmer. While Kate waits for Owen to join her at a coffee shop, she encounters Ethelinda, a sloppy fairy claiming to be her fairy godmother, who unfortunately proves to be more hindrance than help. Matters become further complicated when Kate learns that Ari, a fairy who betrayed the company by helping their biggest rival, the wizard Idris, has escaped custody. Swendson blends chick lit and magic effortlessly, making the reader equally invested in the magical skulduggery and Kate’s burgeoning romance with Owen, which includes a trip home to meet his icy foster parents. The novel culminates in an exciting ending guaranteed to leave readers thirsting for another chapter in this whimsical, clever series.
Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Four: Don’t Hex With Texas
From Booklist
As Swendson continues her exciting Enchanted Inc. series, magic-immune Katie Chandler is back in her hometown of Cobb, Texas. Katie has left New York City and her beloved job at Magic, Spells, and Illusions Inc. to protect Owen Palmer, the handsome wizard she is crazy about. Working with her hapless siblings at her parents’ store doesn’t exactly make up for the excitement she is missing out on in New York until strange goings-on start happening in Cobb, leading Katie to wonder if the magic has followed her home. When she discovers her old nemesis, Phelan Idris, has concocted a plan to train wizards over the Internet in the hopes of building an army, Katie contacts MSI. She is surprised when Owen himself shows up, and is relieved to find the chemistry between them is hot and heavy. But when the pair learns Idris is in town and planning a deadly endgame, they fear their enemy may prevail this time around. Another page-turning installment in one of the best romantic-fantasy series being written today.
Kristine Huntley
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