Once Upon a Bookshelf

Prince of the Blood is a book set in the Riftwar universe. Years have passed since the Riftwar, and Prince Arutha’s twin sons, Borric and Erland, are at their point in life where they’ve got to get serious about who they are. Arutha’s brother is King of the Isles, and according to doctors is not going to have any children - this means that Arutha’s eldest son will become heir to the throne of the kingdom. One of the first tasks the twins have to do is go to a neighbouring kingdom to celebrate the birthday of the Empress of that kingdom.

Unfortunately, on the way there, the group is ambushed. Borric is thought to be dead, but is really captured to be sold into slavery - part of a plot to create an all-out war between the neighbouring countries. The rest of the group suspects this, but must continue heading towards the Empress’ jubilee in order to prevent this possible war, all the time with Erland thinking that his brother is dead and he has to be the new heir to the kingdom.

Let me start with a little bit about the way I think of the last two books in the Anne of Green Gables series. I love those books because they are about Anne and Gil’s kids, and I would love those kids just for the sake they are Anne and Gil’s kids. Even if I didn’t like the kids at all, I would love these books for that reason. I think that’s how I started out with Prince of the Blood. In the Riftwar books, Arutha was always my favourite character, and when I heard that this book was about his kids, I couldn’t be happier. Because obviously, if they are kids of Arutha’s, and they have a whole book written about them, then they’ve got to be just as lovable as Arutha is. Really. (And that logic makes sense in my mind.)

I was by no means disappointed by the book. It was exciting, and didn’t feel predictable - even though I knew how it had to end, I didn’t know how it was going to get to the ending, which was all good by me.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s some rule that I don’t know about that states that all red-headed twins must be mischievous, because really. You’ve got Fred and George from the Harry Potter books, there’s Borric and Erland from this book, and there’s also the Hitachiin twins from Ouran High School Host Club.

Sookie is not only a waitress in a bar in a small town in the States, she’s also a telepath. Vampires have come “out of the coffin,” and she would really like to meet one. Then, a vampire by the name of Bill walks into the bar one night out of the blue. Of course, as both are somewhat outcasts in society, it’s only expected that they hit it off. Only problem is that there’s been a number of murders in town, and people are suspecting Bill.

I can understand why everyone seems to like these books. With that said, however, I have to say that I’ve read other vampire books that I’ve enjoyed much more. In the first part of the book, I felt that plot and character development were sacrificed in order to put as much of the physical side of Sookie and Bill’s relationship into the book as possible. The second half got better, but I still feel it suffered from the lack of development in the first half.

It’s doubtful that I’ll be reading any of the other books in this series.

Hum, what’s this? They’re making Libba Bray’s trilogy into a movie?

I really think the title says it all when it comes to this book. Anthony Rapp was one of the Original Broadway cast members of RENT. The memoir starts with Rapp’s first audition for the workshop of the show through the beginning of the filming of the movie, and while the book does cover a lot about the musical, a lot of the focus of the book is also on his famly and personal life.

The book was very well written, very bittersweet, brought tears to my eyes at all the right moments, and made me actually feel that I was there witnessing some of the events. It’s made me wish so much more that I had a chance to go to see the show on Broadway when it first got big, and I know that the next time the show comes anywhere near here, I’ll definitely make a point of going to see it.

Oh, and by the bye, I really ought to stop getting books from the library that are going to make me cry, because then you can’t really enjoy the fact that the book is bringing tears to your eyes as you’re too busy worrying that you might get tears on the pages, therefore making the pages all wrinkly. It’s not as much fun that way.

The lovely Hornblower is number 9.