I Didn’t Steal Your Mermaid – R. Stim

With that intriguing title (and the fact it was a free e-book), I just had to download and read it. I had no idea what I was getting into since I didn’t bother to read the summary. I did not have high hopes for this one but what I found was an engaging little murder mystery narrated by a 12 year girl.

Frankie Jackson was spending the summer with her mom’s best friend to avoid house arrest. She has a weird dream about meeting a mermaid on an early morning walk. With the disappearance of a wealthy socialite and her million dollar necklace, the town is up in arms. Frankie and her friends witness a seaplane crash; they find the body and the necklace while helping search for survivors. When the necklace turns out to be a fake, Frankie is accused of knowing more than she has told police. A strange man starts following her and threatening her; he even tries to run her and a friend over during the Fourth of July parade. With her friends acting strangely and someone trying to hurt or kill her, can Frankie figure out what the mermaid that keeps appearing in her dreams is trying to tell her?

This book surprised me by how quickly it drew me it. Even though it was written like a 12 year old would talk, it was surprisingly engaging and kept me turning pages. Unlike many mysteries, this one was well put together and I didn’t expect the ending. Granted that may just be saying something about me. I really enjoyed it and the incorporation of the few fantasy elements. I was not aware that this was a second book in a series but they introduced everyone and the story did not pick up like the other book existed. I am going to be on the look out for the first one now. I definitely recommend this book if you want to spend a lazy weekend reading. 

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Warning: there are spoilers. Sorry, couldn’t help it.

  This book is set in 19^th century China. It’s about the life of two girls who become “old sames” a relationship that is supposed to be closer than marriage. As well as this relationship, it focuses on “nu shu,” a supposedly hidden language so Chinese woman can communicate without their men finding out, and foot binding. Sadly, I couldn’t contain my curiosity and researched foot binding just so I could understand better what the author was talking about. While it helped me understand the motives a little better, the process was described in the book in great and gory detail. It did not make for easy reading. This book involves not just the women’s daily lives but a few of the more harrowing moments of their lives.

  The narrator, Lily, begins by telling us about her last few days of freedom before her foot binding and introducing us to the rest of the cast of characters. Lily was from what could be considered a middle class family, while Snow Flower was at first portrayed to be from a slightly better family. While Lily marries into the upper class, it comes out that Snow Flower’s family is very poor because her father is an opium addict and Lily was the only person who was unaware of that fact. Snow Flower (because of her status) is forced to marry a butcher (an “unclean” class). This leads to all the problems with Snow Flower and the eventual estrangement of the two women.

  Lily gets a husband who learns to love her, healthy strong children, plenty to eat and a mother-in-law who at least respects her. While she is leading what is essentially a charmed life, Snow Flower is stuck with an abusive husband, a mother in law who hates her, and either miscarries or has sickly children. At first Lily is not aware of the problems but when she does learn of them, most of the advice she offers is along the lines of “figure out what are you doing wrong to make them do these things.” It’s the typical advice of someone who has never experienced abuse or having things go wrong for no reason. When Snow Flower finds some ladies in her own village who understand, she sends a badly worded letter to Lily. Lily reads it literally as Snow Flower doesn’t want to be “old sames” any more. That plus the lies about Snow Flower’s heritage, her breaking divine laws about sex, and not being able to deal with not being able to help her friend, lead Lily to publicly denounce her friend as someone unclean and never to be associated with. After that, the book skips ahead a few years to the consequences of Lily’s and Snow Flower’s actions. It does not end well for most of the people involved.

  Despite all the times I wanted to shake the characters for being idiots, I enjoyed this book. It reminded me a lot of Memoirs of a Geisha, in that it’s fiction but the characters and writing are so vivid even in the terrible parts that it feels like it actually happened. 

Assassins of Tamurin

     Assassins of Tamurin is about an orphaned girl named Lale. She was found floating on the river by a poor village. Despite being unwanted, the villagers feared the bad luck that would come from either ignoring or killing the girl so they took her in and raised her. Sadly, nothing Lale did was ever right for the villagers. Shortly after she turned eleven, she finally screwed up one time too many which led to the village shunning her. Shunning involved giving her just enough food to live but otherwise not acknowledging her in anyway except for removing her when she entered a home or tried to take something. After a few days and sick of being ignored, she made a deal with the villagers, give her enough food to walk to the next village and she would leave forever. Lale is soon found by Makina Seval, the Despotana (i.e. ruler) of a small country with a penchant for taking in orphaned girls and educating them until they are old enough to learn a trade or marry so she can increase her political reach. 

     This is when the story slows down for a few chapters as side characters are introduced in the form of Lale’s classmates and teachers, bonds formed, and growing up happens. It’s mostly certain events that shape Lale’s personality and her desires of what she wants her adulthood to be like. Eventually, it skips to what amounts to a graduation ceremony. She is given the choice of apprenticing to the teacher of her least enjoyable subject or join the a select group of women in worshiping the Goddess at a special shrine the Despotana runs.  Lale chooses the lesser of two evils and joins the church. Soon she learns that the shrine is just a cover for a school to train spies and assassins. The story gets deeper as Lale is sent out into the world to spy for the Despotana and is drawn into a huge web of sorcery, deceit, and intrigue. It becomes pretty much everything you want in a fantasy novel.

     For a novel that was written as a one shot, the world is well thought out and mapped in such a way that it is hard to believe that there weren’t any sequels. The characters are so believable and realistic that it’s easy to feel sympathy for their plights. While there are parts that are a bit slow, it is never enough to completely bore a person to tears and they never last long. Truthfully, most of the slow bits are necessary to explain the political background. If you like books with loads of intrigue and a strong female lead, this is a good choice. 

Bardic Voices Series

Bardic Voices Series

Mercedes Lackey

So I started this series and then discovered I’m missing a book. Sadly, I can’t find it anywhere so I’m just going to skip that one today.

     The Lark and the Wren: This one is my favorite of the series. The main character is girl named Rune who wants nothing more than to be a musician but circumstances seem to be conspiring against her. It would be a very short book if she hadn’t run away on a dare to play for the murderous Skull Hill ghost and then impressed him with her skills. She then takes her reward to buy lessons and instruments and gets a chance to audition for the Bardic Guild. That’s the basics of the first half of the novel. I haven’t even mentioned the friendships she develops, the non-human races that are introduced or the politics of the world this book is set in. Mercedes Lackey has an ability to write rich and varied worlds for her stories and always does well in putting just enough background not to bore the reader or leave them utterly confused. By the second half of the book, Rune is old enough for romance and adventure. I don’t want to go into what exactly happens but it involves elves, evil kings, dispossessed princes, and gypsies. The second half of the book is fast paced with lots of intrigue and the awaking of “bardic magic.” Magic that most common folks refuse to admit exists and the ones who believe in it aren’t particularly fond of it. Every time I pick this book up, I can’t put it down until I’ve finished the whole thing.

     The Robin and the Kestrel: It takes place immediately after The Lark and the Wren. I should probably mention that while Rune is referred to she never actually shows up as a character again. This book is pretty good. It introduces and expands on more non-human races and politics of the Church. Gypsy Robin and her husband Kestrel find themselves up against a corrupt priest who wants to rid his city-state of any one who isn’t human, male, and devout. Sadly, this book contains a bunch of angst-y nonsense between husband and wife that didn’t really need to be written and in my opinion adds nothing to the story. Despite the husband/wife dynamic, the intrigue in this book makes it hard to put down.

     Cast of Corbies: This book was the third book written and chronologically is the third book but for some reason, on every list I’ve seen it is not included as part of this series. Some times it gets a sub-heading of it’s own. Some times it’s just left out and I haven’t any clue why. This book is actually better than the Robin and the Kestrel. It takes place the summer after The Robin and the Kestrel. Gypsy Raven is put in charge of finding out why non-guild musicians are being forced out of their jobs and to find a way around the rules that are stifling the common people. Despite what it sounds like there is not as much time spent concentrating on the intrigue and politics in this installment. It’s more character driven than the second book and while there are quite a few love stories running in the background of this book, it’s not nearly as contrived.

The Eagle and the Nightingales: This book reintroduces a few characters from the previous books. Several people are sent by the Non-human nations to figure out why the High King of the Twenty Human Kingdoms is neglecting his duties. Sadly, I think this book was the worst of the lot. Mercedes Lackey took too much time between writing the books in this series and forgot her own time line. The events in this book start the summer after Cast of Corbies ends but keeps referring to the events of the Robin and the Kestrel as “just last fall” despite the fact it would be almost 2 years later. The characters are written horribly and she contradicts herself at every turn. She leaves loose ends that are never answered and puts in throw away characters. They show up with no intro, no back story, no explanation, play a major part in the story (such as save the main characters ass) and are never mentioned again. If you want to finish the series, it’s readable but my pet peeves always get the best of me and I have to keep putting it down before I start yelling at the book.

     Four and Twenty Blackbirds: This is the one I’m missing and can’t find anywhere. After the Eagle and the Nightingale, I’m almost afraid that it will be as bad as that one.