Girls Can't Be Knights by Lee French

It's been a while since I had the time to post a review. Today's review, Girls Can't Be Knights, by Lee French, is a wonderful rainy afternoon read, one I stumbled on while looking for a book for my granddaughters. It is an action adventure, the tale of a girl who is stronger than she thinks. It's also a tale of friendship and courage.

But First, THE BLURB:

Everybody knows girls can't be knights...

…Nobody told Claire.

Can she survive proving them wrong?

After 6 difficult years in Portland's foster care system, sixteen-year-old Claire has given up all her dreams. Hope and trust? What are those?

But she'll need both.

Portland has a ghost problem, and it doesn't care about her issues.

Armed with a magical locket, the only thing she has left of her family, will Claire find the strength to accept the help offered by a would-be mentor?

You'll love this heartwarming young adult urban fantasy because finding family is best done in strange places.

Get it now.

MY REVIEW:

Claire is an immediately relatable character. She is angry, and rightfully so—she is bullied at school and no one takes her side. She warehoused in yet another uncaring foster home. 

Starting over once again in a new school, Claire is afraid, feeling cast adrift. One of her few friends in the system is Drew, a smart boy with whom she has formed a friendship.

Worse than being bullied, she sees things, weird things no one else does. One of those strange things is a knight on a white horse. Justin is dressed exactly like her father often did, in armor, complete with a sword.

The horse, Tariel, looks at Claire, makes a choice, and her life changes forever.

This is the story of a girl discovering her strengths and learning to trust again. In the process she learns that she can make good decisions and be a good friend. Claire’s personal journey and her discoveries about the paranormal side of Portland is epic, filled with fantastic action and adventure.

I highly recommend this novel to adults of all ages.

Sinners of Magic, by Lynette Creswell

Periodically I like to check out the Young Adult and Teen books available out on the indie market, as I have grandchildren and like to be able to recommend a good read for them. Sinners of Magic, by Lynette Creswell is a YA fantasy book, suitable for readers age 12 and up. 

The Blurb:

Crystal is no ordinary sixteen year old girl. Ever since she was a small child she's been able to sense things, feel when danger approaches and now she's gone one step further and saved a boy’s life by summoning a supernatural being.

Little does she know it but her natural parents are powerful immortals. Secret lovers in a magical land where procreation outside of their own realms is forbidden, the Elders punish Amella and Bridgemear by banishing their new born child to the world of mere mortals.

Years have passed and dark times have descended upon the Elf Realm. Crystal is visited by a shape-changer and tricked into believing if she returns to the Kingdom of Nine Winters, she will find the answers regarding her newly revealed birth right.

Soon she is caught up in dangers greater than anything she could have ever imagined while those who fight at her side, battle to protect her from a wicked sorcerer gone insane and one who is willing to take her to the very edge of destruction...

MY REVIEW:

This is an excellent novel for teens. The characters are compelling, and the storyline is a good play on the traditional switched-at-birth theme. If at times the dialogue is a little stilted, over all this book was an enjoyable read. Crystal is a kind, rather cocky and headstrong girl. She is somewhat confrontational, but it seems to be her nature.  Matt, whom she meets on Earth and whose life she saved is also a well-drawn, three-dimensional character.

Bridgemear is hard to like, but he is Crystal’s birth-father and a powerful magician, and Amella is a strong, usually likeable character. I like the way their relationship was handled.

Tremlon, the shape-changer  and King's envoy, has a major role in this tale, and his burden of guilt and responsibility is handled well.  At the end, I was left wondering about Amadeus, a strong, loyal and brave elf warrior who struggles with many issues. I’m definitely curious to see where that thread leads in the next book.

I did find the wood sprite, Bracken, to be quite hilarious, and I enjoyed Nekton, the innkeeper of Fortune's End, who longs for a real adventure. There is great atmosphere in this tale, and great adventure.

As in all good tales, bad things happen to good people, and worse things happen to the bad people. I liked the way the evil King Forusian, who kidnaps Crystal with lustful intentions, was dealt with.

I’d gladly recommend this book to any young teen, and give it four full stars for inventiveness and a good, immersive story. The narrative may be a little too young for some adults, but I found it to be an excellent afternoon of reading.

The Flight of the Griffin, C. M. Gray

The Flight of the Griffin by author C. M. Gray is a wonderful adventure for young teens but I enjoyed it a great deal, and think it is a great tale for readers of all ages.


The Blurb:

The Kingdom is dying…

The Darkness is coming… the balance between Order and Chaos is rapidly shifting and the world is falling towards evil and horror, and all the misery that Chaos will bring.

But there is hope…

Pardigan’s had enough, he’s only 12, but he’s breaking into the home of one of Freya's richest merchants... and he’s doing it tonight…

A burglary that will change their lives forever sets four friends upon a quest, a race against time, to locate three magical objects and complete an ancient and desperate spell.

Sailing their boat The Griffin, the crew are quickly pursued by The Hawk, an evil bounty hunter and master of dark sorcery, and Belial, King of Demons and champion of Chaos who seeks to rule the world of man… yet first he must capture the crew of The Griffin and end their quest…

My Review:

It is the end times for the world, and the tale opens when Pardigan, the boy- thief, steals a knife and a book from a merchant’s locked cabinet and sets the events into motion. Quint, the leader of his group of friends is the strongest and is a fighter. Loras is the boy-magician whose master died before Loras could learn what he needed to know and who’s magic never works right. Tarent is a dreamer, a storyteller and he keeps the other boys’ spirits up when times are hard.  Orphans all, they live on the abandoned boat, The Griffin.

Along with the knife and other loot from the merchant’s house, Pardigan has also gained a strange, magical talking cat named Mahra.  This cat who changes back and forth from a girl, to an owl, to a cat, depending on her mood, knows how to unlock the secrets of the magical knife and book. They do as they are told to and become the Magician, Thief, Priest and Fighter, four heroes with a task to right the balance of the world which must have equal amounts of Order and Chaos.  They have been chosen to be the Soldiers for Order and to oppose Chaos in a quest that pits them against magic, demons and ‘The Hawk,’ an evil hunter of men.

The four boys are real – they are written as boys are, unfinished and not quite men yet, but the promise of their adulthood is there in each of them.  Mahra is an old soul (literally hundreds of years old) and is written as such, but she is also young in many ways.

The travels and adventures the boys and Mahra have are well written and completely engrossing.  The scenery and the backgrounds against which the tale takes place are rich and yet not overdone.  It is the first book of a fantasy series, but it is a stand-alone book, and I would recommend this book to anyone who simply loves a good adventure.

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Update Mar 17, 2017: Our friends at http://www.creativia.org/  tell us that Flight of the Griffin can now be found at

http://www.arcticwolffantasy.com/chaos-order-ancient-spells-flight-griffin.html. 

It has a new cover and we wish author C.M. Gray  and Flight of the Griffin well at their new home!

Land of Nod, The Artifact by Gary Hoover

‘Land of Nod, The Artifact’  by +Gary Hoover is one of those genre-bending tales that sucks you in and soon you are hooked. It is a little bit sci-fi and a lot fantasy. I first read this book in 2011 and recently re-read it while visiting grandchildren. I think it's well worth a second look!



The Blurb:
Jeff Browning has been haunted by terrifying dreams since the mysterious disappearance of his father (a renowned physicist). But when he finds a portal in his father’s office, he must overcome his fears in an attempt to find him.
The portal takes him to another dimension – one populated by fantastic and dangerous creatures and also an advanced society of humans.

As Jeff looks for clues regarding what may have happened to his father, he is accused by some of being a spy while thought by others to be a prophesized figure . . . who may be the key to victory in a developing war.


My Review:
The plot details the adventures of Jeff Browning, a fourteen year old boy who is struggling with the loss of his father. Jeff has dreams that frighten him and he tries to avoid sleep as much as he can. One day he decides to search his late father's locked office, and while he is in there he finds a strange machine with a hole in the center that leads to somewhere else. He climbs into it and embarks on a strange series of adventures, finding that his father may not be dead but may actually be there too, somewhere.

Jeff has mysterious powers that aren't fully explained in this book but they are hinted at, rather strongly, as being more fully explained at a later date. Fortunately, Jeff is taken in by a family, and they help him.  As he begins searching for his father, he is accused by some of being a spy, and is thought by others to be a prophesied figure, 'The Raja' a savior who may be the key to victory in a war that is looming on the horizon.  This is because of the locket which he wears that his father gave him years before.

This world is populated by fantastic and dangerous creatures and also an advanced society of humans. That society, while very different from those on earth, parallels Jeff's earth in many ways. 

Hoover blends science and technology with mysticism and prophecy to create a world that is both familiar and strange.  There are many different issues keeping Jeff from finding his father, from useless politicians whose self-interest outweighs the greater good to a war that he eventually finds himself in the middle of.

The characters are well drawn, and the strange world is also well crafted and visually real. The beasts that Jeff must fight are quite frightening and the battles are very realistic. While this is a great stand-alone tale, Hoover sets you up for the sequel, Land of Nod, The Prophet, quite neatly. This is another good adventure book for readers of all ages. I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it!

My grandson and I will be reading Land of Nod, The Prophet over the summer, and I confess, I've been cheating--I've already begun reading it! What a great series!

An Alien Collective by Roxanne Barbour

 

Today we enter the realm of indie YA science fiction. An AlienCollective by Canadian author Roxanne Barbour begins with the protagonist, Cyn-Tia Silverthorne and 7 other humans,4 females and 4 males, waking up in a strange world in a compound surrounded by 3 other compounds holding similar groups of aliens. They are all at the same stage of life as she is – young adulthood. The captives are a mix of four species from worlds which, like earth, are at the stage of making the leap to the rest of the galaxy.  All have universal translators around their necks, and each species is unique and clearly drawn.  Cyn seems to be quite a fan of Star Trek type shows and is unphased by this turn of events, accepting it and going along with the wishes of her abductors for the time being. 

At first they are separated by a barrier they can communicate through, with a strange box acting as the nexus in the center corner connecting the four compounds.  She meets Stire, a male of the world of Temma. When Cyn and Stire touch the box, they realize that the four groups will have to cooperate to open the box.  Reluctantly the others, Jana from Irandis and Frakis from Reanon comply, and box opens into each compound to reveal cryptic instructions for each group. They are not told why they are there, they are to live in integrated communities and the four individuals who opened the box are the leaders of the individual groups, and cannot be changed as their DNA is required to open the box. 

As their time goes on, they make friends and form alliances, learn many skills they need to survive, and embark on discovering the why of their kidnapping and become adults. In true Gene Roddenberry tradition, a tentative interspecies romance develops, which is both touching and believable.

I enjoyed the way Barbour creates the aliens, and gives them unique characteristics which are specific to their species, and also gives them similarities which might be common in diverse species who’ve reached our level in technology.  I must admit, Cyn is portrayed as being far more mature than an average seventeen year old, as is Stire; but her interactions with the others are interesting and believable. Several times during the tale I found myself backtracking, but overall it was an enjoyable reading experience, and is one which should appeal to teenagers and young readers from age twelve on up.  I give it four solid stars and will be buying it for my young family members who are discovering science-fiction.

Roxanne Barbour is also the author of the YA scifi murder mystery  A Way, About and can be found blogging at  http://roxannebarbour.wordpress.com/. You can follow her on Twitter at @RoxanneBarbour.

 

 

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