Review: Perchance to Dream by Lisa Mantchev (Book 2 Théâtre Illuminata)

Act Two, Scene One 
Growing up in the enchanted Thèâtre Illuminata, Beatrice Shakespeare Smith learned everything about every play ever written. She knew the Players and their parts, but she didn't know that she, too, had magic. Now, she is the Mistress of Revels, the Teller of Tales, and is determined to follow her stars. She is ready for the outside world.

Enter BERTIE AND COMPANY 
But the outside world soon proves more topsy-turvy than any stage production. Bertie can make things happen by writing them, but outside the protective walls of the Thèâtre, nothing goes as planned. And her magic cannot help her make a decision between - 

NATE: Her suave and swashbuckling pirate, now in mortal peril.

ARIEL: A brooding, yet seductive, air spirit whose true motives remain unclear.

When Nate is kidnapped and taken prisoner by the Sea Goddess, only Bertie can free him. Bertie's dreams are haunted by Nate, whose love for Bertie is keeping him alive, but in the daytime, it's Ariel who is tantalizingly close, and the one she is falling for. Who does Bertie love the most? And will her magic be powerful enough to save her once she enters the Sea Goddess's lair?

Originality: 10.  This is a YA book in it's own genre, so imaginative and unique.  Even in Book 2 of the series, I loved the originality.

Absurdity: 9.  The originality is also a bit bonkers... but what can you do.  There are gods, creatures, and fantasy abound, all wrapped around some teen romance.  Absurd but also just great.

Level of Paranormal Romance: 10.  This is the whole point of the book, Bertie's love for Nate and Ariel.  TEAM ARIEL over here.  I couldn't remember enough of Nate from book 1, but Ariel steals the show with his devotion:

“A blind man could see that man would die for you, but that doesn't mean you won't die alongside him.” 

Level of Harry Potterness: 7. While a totally different type of the story, the writing is lyrical and at times beautiful. There were some sentences that stopped me in my tracks.  So nice to read a book where you can tell the author spent time crafting paragraphs to make the most of the words, even if many of them are about how hungry the fairies are!

"There should be more to love," said the earth, "than 'it did not kill me.' More than 'I survived it.” 

“There is a Beatrice who exists beyond the obligations of a daughter, outside the object of man's affections.” 

Waiting on Wednesday: Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger

A broken past and a divided future can’t stop the electric connection of two teens in this “charged and romantic” lush novel. Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston has no idea how he survived the category five tornado that killed his parents. And he has no idea if the beautiful, dark-haired girl who’s swept through his dreams every night since the storm is real. But he hopes she is.

Seventeen-year-old Audra is a sylph, an air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its alluring songs, and can even coax it into a weapon with a simple string of commands. She’s also a guardian—Vane’s guardian—and has sworn an oath to protect Vane at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life.

When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra’s forced to help Vane remember who he is. He has a power to claim—the secret language of the West Wind, which only he can understand. But unlocking his heritage will also unlock the memory Audra needs him to forget. And their greatest danger is not the warriors coming to destroy them—but the forbidden romance that’s grown between them (GoodReads).

Reasons I am "Waiting on" Let the Sky Fall by Shannon Messenger:

1. The cover is pretty.

2. I liked the movie Twister. This is about tornadoes, and so it makes me think about a movie I liked.

3. I am into the new Carrie Underwood song 'Blown Away'. It is perfect for this book.

4. Forbidden romance.

5. I loved Ariel, the air elemental in the Théâtre Illuminata series by Lisa Mantchev. I find it hard to scoff at paranormal things created by Shakespeare!

A cheers of our whiskey sours to Jill at Breaking the Spine for hosting Waiting on Wednesday, a weekly event that highlights books we cannot wait to read. Let the Sky Fall comes out in March 2013.

Top Ten Tuesday: A Whole New World...

Today's TTT is dedicated to the top ten most vivid worlds/settings in books. This prompt meant that we had to explain to Goosie Mama what world building is. CLEARLY she did not read enough sci-fi as a young adult herself (cough cough, Crazy Camper and Grad Student certainly did, please see the epic-ness that is Ann McCaffery below).


1. Lani Taylor's alternate universe/portals with human/beasts in Daughter of Smoke and Bone

2. Diana Peterfreund's Luddite-explorer future in For Darkness Shows the Stars.

3 & 4. Anne McCaffery's singer/rock miner in space in The Crystal Singer AND the dragon-filled future world (which people got to on spaceships) of Pern where Thread falls from the sky like a terrible acid rain. There is also time travel. Whhaaatttttt. But it is all soooo intricate you can't help believe.

5. Rosemary Clement-Moore's Texas Gothic, a "world where good intentioned family magic over a long period of time builds a protective sphere around your house -- something about generations of family magic protection I love!" -Crazy Camper (review coming soon).

6. Ali Condi's dystopian world of Matched and Crossed. Not a world you would want to live in, BUT the whole 100 songs, 100 stories, 100 paintings culture control is a well thought-out dystopian.

7. Lisa Mantchev's Théâtre Illuminata  from her series by the same name. A theater where every character ever  written for the stage exists! A book that, when you write in it, shapes the world around you! The details really make this world, like when Ophelia always shows up in water sets (as we know, she drowns herself in Hamlet)

A big thanks to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting this weekly meme. Share your TTT below! 

GET A LOAD OF THE CRYSTAL
 SINGER, FOLKS!

Top Ten Tuesday: "Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters In Books"

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is entitled "Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters In Books." Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish TTT is a weekly feature dedicated to book-list-mania.  I found this top ten hard to do--recent characters I read and liked, but had not necessarily upgraded to love status, crowded for attention. Sheesh (made-up) people, get in line! Not to mention I tend to love supporting characters best. I didn't realize it until I made this list! Without further ado, characters we love fall into these categories:

Ridiculousness Incarnate 

1. Peasebottom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed from the Theatre Illuminate series by Lisa Mantchev. I dare you to resist them! For example, this is such a funny play on famous first lines (as the first lines of Perchance to Dream, the second book in the series).  Ridiculous AND smart at once!

 “It is a truth universally acknowledged,” Mustardseed said, flying in lazy loops like an intoxicated bumblebee, “that a fairy in possession of a good appetite must be in want of a pie.” “Yes, indeed,” Cobweb said over the rattle of the caravan, “though I awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, I found myself transformed in my bed into a gigantic pie.” “It was the best of pie, it was the worst of pie,” was Moth’s contribution."

Exuberant characters!! Exclamation point!!

2. Eldric from Chime by Franny Billingsley. McDREAMY with an excellent vocabulary and a vivid imagination. (my review!)

3. Augustus Waters from The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

“When surprised and excited and innocent Gus emerged from Grand Gesture Metaphorically Inclined Augustus, I literally could not resist.” --ME EITHER. Augustus loves life and I love him. He is my new favorite (made-up) person.

4. Joe Fontaine from The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. (my review!)

 “The guy is life drunk, I think, makes Candide look like a sourpuss.”

Spunky Heroines 
5. Alanna of Trebond from the Song of the Lioness books by Tamora Pierce. We talk about these books a lot. Alanna is the original gusty heroine in the reading lives of Crazy Camper and Grad Student. When my roommate ran in (last month) and said “did you ever read those books about the girl with purple eyes?” I KNEW EXACTLY what she meant. We love her still.

6. Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling's HP. Smart and Sassy. What is not to like? Points to Crazy Camper for adding to the list.

7. Puck from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. She loves being terrible! But is really awesome. (my review!)

8. Sookie Stackhouse from the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. Sassy and southern. YES. This was Crazy Camper's second excellent addition. I think it says something that 12 books in we still get a kick out of Sookie.

Waiting on Wednesday: Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

"Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn't a lot of time for introspection. And while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all. Nothing is as it seems and every clue leads to more questions as Taylor tries to work out the connection between her mother dumping her, Hannah finding her then and her sudden departure now, a mysterious stranger who once whispered something in her ear, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived on Jellicoe Road eighteen years ago, and the maddening and magnetic Jonah Griggs, who knows her better than she thinks he does. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future." (Good Reads)

I am sooooo late on this one. I don't know why, but I kept seeing Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta and was all, nahhhh not for me. There was no reasoning behind this. Maybe the font? Maybe the because there was no promise of sassy fairy sidekicks (here's to you, Eyes Like Stars!)? Who knows!? But I can no longer resist.

So really, this Waiting on Wednesday hosted by Breaking the Spine is more Jellicoe Road waiting on me to stop being a fool and get involved.  (spurred on by the total dedication to "Jonah Effing Griggs" at The Grown-Up YA and YA Crush). Sold.

And I mean, this comes up when you Google it. Hey girl.

Cruisin' Through a Series: Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

In lieu of a book recap, today my post is another“cruising through a series” nod. This feature speaks to a series that has been consumed in one gulp (but while avoiding any mental images of a boa constrictor). Today a special shout to an only-somewhat-satisfying series,The Wondrous Strange Trilogy by Lesley Livingston: Wondrous Strange, Darklight,and Tempestuous.

Here is the deal, in brief: 17-year-old actress Kelley Winslow has moved to NYC to act on Broadway in a Shakespearean company and in the process finds out that faeries (oh no, warning, “ae” spelling ahead )are real and the gate between the faerie Otherworld and everyday 21^stcentury is...Central Park! The Janus guards, including Sonny Flannery, the love interest here, are having problems with bad guys slipping through the gate and there is lots of faerie-court intrigue for the three books. People sprout magical powers,wings, and almost everyone is related to everyone else or has been in love with them (Spoiler--even the young couple-the person who raised Kelley as her “aunt” is really Sonny’s mom from 19^th century Ireland…I find this creepyish). These books are fine but having just read the perfectness that is the Theatre Illuminati series by Lisa Mantchev, the Shakespeare references fell flat for me. AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED on instalove here. I mean, a boy who stalks you is NOT A POTENTIAL LOVE INTEREST. Period. That’s how Law and Order SUV episodes start.

But a window into the ridiculousness that kept me coming back. Darklight opens with a 1903 murder of a man who is in fact the Green Man, an ancient Irish Faerie who built the gates between the two worlds…who in this telling is Andrew Haswell Green, an early city planner and one of the leading figures behind Central Park. GASP! Get out of here! GASP! This is a rough summary of my reaction.

Now you may or may not know that in November I dragged fellow Whiskey Sourer Goosie Mama to a public lecture on Andy Green IN Central Park BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN RESEARCHING HIM FOR MY DISSERTATION. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this creative license. I wanted to share, but that would mean admitting to myadvisor what I had been reading. We can all use our imaginations about that awkwardness. Luckily, Goosie Mama could share in the utter shock/horror/bellylaugh/eye roll of this retelling of Central Park.

The moral of this “Cruising Through a Series:” if one day you find yourself in real need, maybe you will read this. But be warned. And apparently stay out of Central Park (I don’t have time to get into the evil leprechauns who look like druggies, but seriously….)

Top Ten Tuesdays: Books That Broke Your Heart (a little)

A Valentine's Day Whiskey Sour to all!
Today, in honor of St. Valentine, the patron saint of YA true love stories the world over (possibly not true, don't right that in a paper for school/ mention it in front of your boss) we here at YA fiction and Whiskey Sours are participating in The Broke and the Bookish's weekly meme/group blog event Top Ten Tuesday. Each week offers a different theme.

The claim is that this is an anti-Valentines theme, but love is a bit about heartbreak, non? (imagine a french person saying that, it acquires a certain gravitas).

So books that induced whiskey drinking, errrrrr, broke some hearts over here:
1. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

2. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
As Sweet Tea points out, these are two classic weepers

3. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Grad Student)
Alright, so this is fiction about the battle of Gettysburg. But it is literally my favorite book of all time. If it doesn't make you cry I am concerned for the status of your soul.



4. So Silver Bright by Lisa Mantchev (Grad Student)
This one caught my by surprise, usually love triangles are underwhelming, but oh boy, what a revisiting of Shakespeare's the Tempest.


5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (Grad Student et all)
GAAALLLLLEEEEEEEEEEE, PRRRRRIIIIMMMMMMMMM, NOOOOOOOOOOOO. Sweet Tea, Crazy Camper, and I literally all had to stalk each other via telephone to talk this one out.

6. Bridges of Madison County (Crazy Camper) by Robert James Waller
Nothing like lost love remembered to stir those heartstrings.

7. Tuck Everlasting (Crazy Camper) by Natalie Babbitt
Living forever is not as easy as it seems.

8. The Rowan (Crazy Camper) by Anne McCaffery
When anyone dies, I cry. Every time. Set in outer space in a telepatheic society, this is a book for the ages. I mistakenly lent this to a boyfriend in college as a joke, but he never gave it back. Maybe I should look into it again...

The moral of the story here is we don't read a lot of sad books. Not our style. So we are offering a condensed version of this list. Its really an ode to sneaky sad books that creep up on you. (Minus the Sparks, cause that's the goal of all those books). We do watch sad movies. In fact we tend to spring them on each other when people feel low. Ask Crazy Camper about the time a good mutual friend showed her Legends of the Fall after a breakup. That's what I am talking about. Cue the tears!

In case you are thinking of sending any Valentine sentiments of your own, Gentle Reader, I leave you to consider this as the ideal Valentine:

Guilty as Charged

 Ugh, I did it again. I skipped to the end to know what happened in another book. WHY, WHY!?!?  It seems like a brilliant idea at the time. But it leaves me feeling disappointed in the long run (I have the same relationship with late-night Hawaiian pizza). Its time to find some self control STAT. So here is an apology to both Lisa Mantchev's So Silver Bright and Julie Kagawa's The Iron Knight, who I abused in such a manner this week already. Sorry for being a flaky reader, I will try not to let the next YA series down.......(you might ask yourself, gentle reader/Sweet Tea/Goose/Crazy Camper, why the heck I have had time to be reading two books at once rather than dissertating....its because I managed to lock myself out of my apartment yesterday without any homework BUT in possession of my library card. So to the library I went....and it was raining......and my stretch pants may or may not have been on inside out. SIGH.)