Once Upon a Bookshelf

Mansfield Park was the last of Austen’s books that I had left to read, and had been meaning to for a long time but had not been able to get my hands on a copy. I knew I would love this book, simply for the fact that it was written by Jane Austen. Austen is one of those writers whose books I enjoy reading just for the language that she used – I have a tendency to start talking like her characters whilst reading her books – as well as the characters that one meets through her books. Yes, they are predictable. You always know that the girl ends up with the guy, and yes, the stories are all very similar, but they’re wonderful at the same time.

So, let’s face it. Even though I knew Crawford was going to turn out to be the Wickham/Willoughby for this novel, I still was rooting for him the whole time. (Perhaps that’s because Edmund is her cousin. I mean, yeah, sure, it was acceptable back then, but now it’s just slightly squicky.) At the same, it’s not like Wickham or Willoughby; both of whom I cannot stand now when I go back to the storeis – I’m still going to completely love Crawford the next time I pull out this book. I mean, yes, he’s not very nice at the beginning or the ending, but the way he treats Fanny through the middle of the book totally makes up for it.

But oh, the best thing about book was the fact that Fanny’s brother is a midshipman-turned-lieutenant! In the happy little world of my imagination, he is of the same crew as Hornblower, Bush or Pellew. Oh yes. In my happy little imagination.

I love finding authors with blogs or online journals. When I found Wood’s LiveJournal, I decided that I simply had to read her book.

The story starts on Earth, where Willow is a typical 14-year-old high school student. When her grandmother passes away, she finds herself in a brand new world – Mistolear – where the inhabitants of two kingdoms are stuck in the middle of a war that has been brought on by the scheming of an evil elf. Willow soon discovers that all the stories her grandmother had told her as a child are actually real.

I hate to admit it, but at first I had a hard time getting into The Princess Pawn; however once I got over that initial feeling, I absolutely loved it. Parts of the story come across as completely original. I’ve read other books where board games are a large plot piece, and finishing or winning the game is intigral to geting on with the next part of the story, but I had yet to read a book where the characters were actually living out a game of chess.

The main character, Willow, reminds me a lot of the heroine of Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries series. She has the same sense of herself – that she is a very awkward girl – yet through that still manages to conquer herself and her circumstances. I can honestly say that I am very much looking forward to Wood’s next book.

Rebel Angels is the second book in this series. I hate to admit it, but as much as I was looking forward to this book being released, I didn’t find it as good as A Great & Terrible Beauty. While I found this particular one a good book, I could actually put this book down while I was reading it and pick it up at a later time. (The previous I could not put down in the couple of days that I had read it.)

What I liked most about this book was how characters were not quite what they seemed to be at all – there are many levels to each character, and those who you trust and those who you don’t trust aren’t always who you originally think they are. I do, however, wish there had been more time with certain characters who intrigued me (Kartik, Miss Moore, Miss McCleethy, Nell; but then that could very well be my fascination with secondary characters.)

Bray wrote in a way that made me remember what it was like to feel as if I was 16 again – the high school politics, family drama, excitement over boys. As well, the writing didn’t feel like a young adult’s book; I found it very mature and with a lot of depth to it, yet it still managed to be quite thrilling through most of the book.