Song of the Six Realms by Judy I Lin

 

“Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. The young man is strangely kind and awkward for nobility, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms.” - taken from Goodreads.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book and where the story was headed. By the end of the book, I was confused by all of the Chinese mythology that had been thrown in. I couldn’t keep up with where the story was going. I felt like the ending was a bit rushed. Overall, I will probably give the author another try.

Visit Judy I Lin’s website.

Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Ever since her younger brother's death, Andi and her parents have been swallowed by grief. Her father, a Nobel winning DNA scientist, is as consumed with his work as ever and has moved on with a new girlfriend. Her mother, an artist, paints portriats of Turman all day and night, commenting that she can never get the color of his eyes right. Andi is a senior at a prestigious Brooklyn prep school. She is gifted both academically and as a guitartist, but is failing out of school over her guilt in Truman's death. When her father finds out from the school that Andi hasn't started her senior thesis, he encounters a house filled with grief. He checks her mother into a mental hospital for treatment and takes Andi with him to Paris where he is going to be working on a project and she can begin her thesis outline.

Andi and her father go to stay with his college roommate, G, who is a world famous expert on the French Rvolution. G is looking for the financial backing to start a museum on the Revolution and has brought in Andi's famous father to help him on a gentic experiment. G wishes to do DNA testing on what is believed to be the heart of Louis-Charles, the son of King Louis XVI and Marie Antionette. When Andi sees pictures of the heart encased in its glass urn and a portriat of the ten year old heir, she immediately thinks of Truman. The resembalance is uncanny. G allows her to play an expensive antique guitar that he illegally purchased from someone who found it in the catacombs beneath Paris. Andi is thrilled to be playing such a fine guitar. In looking at it's case, she realizes that the lock is broken and begins to work on opening it. In a last ditch effort to free the lock, the key Andi keeps around her neck falls from her shirt. The key belonged to Truman and Andi has worn it since his death. She tries it in the lock and it works. When the bottom opens, Andi thinks she has broken the case but soon realizes that it has a false bottom. In it she finds a miniature portriat of Louis-Charles and a diary written during the Revolution.

Soon Andi is drawn into the diary of a young girl named Alex who was the companion for Louis-Charles. The diary is her way to get his story to the public but was lost for the past 200 years. Between working on her thesis outline and reading the diary, Andi meets a handsome young taxi driver who is an aspiring musician. She soon finds herself falling in love with Virgil but is terrified by becoming close to someone after walling herself and her emotions off from the rest of the world.

Will Andi be able to pick up the pieces of her life and resolve her feelings of guilt over Truman's death? Can she repair her broken relationship with her father and manage to write her thesis? Is Andi capable of revealing herself not only to Virgil but herself? And what will happen to Alex in the diary and the mysterious Louis-Charle? Does the story end well for either girl?

Visit Jennifer Donnelly's website.

Books of Faerie series by Maggie Stiefvater

Lament: the faerie queen's deception

Deidre Monaghan is extremely nervous about competing at the Eastern Virginia Arts Festival. Her "fear of public humilation" causes her to run into the bathroom where Luke Dillon comes to her rescue. Luke is the mysterious boy from her dream the night before. After regaining her nerves, Deirdre heads outside with Luke to practice her harp. He goads her into playing "The Faerie Girl's Lament" and joins her with his flute. In the end, Luke pushes Deirdre into making the piece her own and they play a duet for the competition. As strangely and mysteriously as he appears, Luke slips off but promises to return for the awards reception.

After leaving the tent at the reception, Deirdre goes off to look for Luke. When she comes across the pugent smell of herbs, Dee looks and sees that she is standing in a patch of four-leaf clovers. Upon standing up, she sees a ginger-haired young man with an abundance of freckles studying her. He tells Deirdre how well she played all the while circling her. She is a bit uneasy until Luke arrives and he is adamant that no one is there. He knocks a four-leaf clover from her hand. Arriving back at the tent, they run into a beautiful acquaintance of Luke's who remarks that They were all amazed at how beautifully Deirdre played and that she will be watching. Luke is quite annoyed. They go to join Deirdre's mother and aunt Delia when they notice a burly man talking to them about their performance. He leaves a business card stating "Thornking-Ash" and says they are looking for performers. Soon it is announced that Deirdre and Luke are the grand prize winners.

The next day, Luke and Deirdre go for ice cream and she notices that Luke has a ring full of keys. He gives her one and says that secrets are tied to the number of keys you carry. The secret he tells her, "I have no business being fascinated by you." They soon return to Deirdre's home where her Granna has arrived for Dee's belated birthday dinner. Granna frowns when she sees Luke and points to a dull, silver-colored ring on her hand. Then she asks him if he knows what she got Deirdre for her birthday and what is he doing here again. Granna tells him not to think of it and to go back to Them. Luke tells Granna he is not one of Them and her is here for just a litle while. Luke leaves and Granna gives Deirdre the dull ring from her finger. She tells Dee it's a family heirloom and that she needs it now. Her best friend James soon arrives for dinner. James is in love with Deirdre, unbeknowst to her.

Even though Deirdre knows nothing about Luke and strange things continue to happen around her, she and Luke are soon head over heels in love. Shortly Deirdre is sought by the Faeries (Them) who wish to kill her for her musical and other abilities, Deirdre is a cloverhand; one who can call faeries, and it seems that Luke is her protector. Or is he as Deirdre finds out that for over one thousand years Luke has been in the service of the Faerie Queen as her personal assassin. Soon everyone Deirdre loves is in danger and not everyone is who they seem. Dark secrets abound as Deirdre rushes to save those she loves. But is she in time?

Stiefvater has done a tremondous job in weaving Celtic faerie lore into her story and this is an excellent read for those who especially enjoyed her "Wolves of Mercy Falls" series or Holly Black's "Modern Faeire" series.

Check out Maggie Stiefvater's website. She also frequently posts in her blog.

Ballad: a gathering of faerie
SPOILER ALERT: The companion to Lament: the faerie queen's deception.

Two months have passed since the end of Lament. Deirdre and James have deicded to continue their high school and musical career at Thornking-Ash. Where Lament is told from Deirdre's point of view, Ballad is told in alternating points of view between James and Nuala. Nuala is a leanan sidhe, the lowest of the low solitary fey. Nuala is nearly human. She is reborn from ash every sixteen years and needs the creativity of preferably handsome young men to live. Nuala feeds off their energy until death. Nuala's next mark is James but with his previous faerie experience, he is not buying what Nuala is selling. James is still hung up on Deirdre. As things get weirdier at Thornking-Ash school, can James and Deirdre survive another run-in with the faeries?