'Naomi's Wish' Cypress Hollow Yarn #3 by Rachael Herron

From the BLURB:

It had always been Dr Naomi Fontaine's dream to practice small-town medicine - an ambition that has brought her to the quirky, tight-knit community of Cypress Hollow. But no matter how hard she tries, the locals still treat her with suspicion.

Then ruggedly handsome Rig Keller walks into town and Naomi's heart stops for all the wrong reasons.

For a few months back Rig was a rip-roaring, throw-caution-to-the wind one night stand. Now he's her partner at the practice - and keen to play doctors once more...

Will the instantly popular new medic wreck her dreams? Or be the one to help make her wish come true...?

Dr Naomi Fontaine might have made a huge mistake in moving to Cypress Hollow. The townsfolk are wary of her and even after months of being the only doctor in town and eating at the same diner every morning, nobody has really warmed up to her. Not that she can blame them . . .  Naomi knows that while she’s a great doctor, her bedside manner leaves a little something to be desired. She can’t do chit-chat or idle small-talk; she’s painfully shy and in the past that aloofness has come across as stuck-up.

Naomi could have helped herself if she’d just explained the reason she moved to Cypress Hollow in the first place – Eliza Carpenter. The famed knitter and writer was Naomi’s patient, and eventually a very dear friend . . .  until she died of cancer. But in the months that they’d had to grow close to one another, Eliza spoke constantly of Cypress Hollow – and instilled a great wish in Naomi to move to the little town and call it home. Naomi started out with high-hopes for the Hollow – and even opened a free clinic, in honour of her deceased father; a doctor who Naomi loved dearly, so much so that she followed in his footsteps.

But everything is falling apart, and maybe it’s all Naomi’s fault. . .  so maybe that’s why she had a hot, intense fling at an out-of-town conference with the handsomest man she had ever seen.

Just when Naomi is at her lowest, a stranger comes to Cypress Hollow – a stranger who Naomi sort of knows, after their one night together.

Hank ‘Rig’ Keller has returned from his lonely job as doctor on the oil-rigs to stay with his widowed brother, little nephew Milo and elderly father, Frank. He is even thinking of buying into the local practice, currently manned by one doctor . . .  who, surprise-surprise! happens to be the one-night stand he can’t stop thinking about.

Rig Keller didn’t expect to trip over Doc Fontaine ever again, but now that he has he can’t seem to get her out of his system. Not even with the complication of them working together (or the technicality that Naomi is his boss). Rig can’t even help his attraction when Naomi’s little sister, by all accounts a reckless wanderer, turns up on her doorstep seven months pregnant, sending Naomi’s carefully organized life spiralling into orbit. . .

‘Naomi’s Wish’ (called ‘Wishes and Stitches’ in the US) is the third book in Rachael Herron’s lovely-addictive contemporary romance series, ‘Cypress Hollow Yarn’.

I have really enjoyed this series. I read first book, ‘Eliza’s Gift’ last year, followed by ‘Lucy’s Kiss’ and was absolutely bowled over by how much I enjoyed the sweet little romances – set in the country town of Cypress Hollow, and loosely tangled around a renowned knitter called Eliza Carpenter. To be more precise, the stories are about the people who find themselves at loose ends after Eliza dies of cancer – but her friendships, plotting and patterns are still felt in the Hollow.

In the case of ‘Naomi’s Wish’, Dr Naomi Fontaine was Eliza’s doctor who, in the wake of Eliza’s sad passing, decides to pack her city life up and move to the Hollow. When the book begins, Naomi has been living in Cypress Hollow for quite a few months – but you’d never know it. The townspeople barely register her presence, and Naomi is too shy to initiate friendships or even acquaintances. It’s rather painful to read how shy Naomi is, and how misjudged by the town for her aloofness. So it’s rather a surprise when big, handsome Rig Keller walks through the door of the local diner, and Naomi is horrified to discover it’s the man she had a one-night stand with a few weeks ago. Seems that Naomi enjoyed letting her hair down outside of Cypress Hollow, but in a twist of fate that one moment of recklessness is coming to bite her in the behind. . .

Rig is actually in town for a few reasons. His brother, Jake, is a widower whose wife died three years ago. Jake and Megan had a big love, and her loss nearly crippled him. It’s something Rig has seen before – in their father, Frank. When Jake and Rig’s mum died, Frank stayed in bed for six months and it was only with coaxing and tough-love that Jake and Rig were able to save him from himself. Rig has come to Cypress Hollow and intends to stay; to help his brother and father any way he can, and watch his beloved nephew, Milo grow up. Jake is doing okay – he’s just a little over-protective and over-cautious, and he refuses to move or change anything that Megan touched.

When he sees Doc Naomi Fontaine, Rig is counting his lucky stars that he decided to leave the oil-rig life behind and move to the Hollow. Memories of her have been plaguing him for weeks, and he can’t believe his luck that the small town he has decided to move to comes complete with the woman of his dreams. But he’s a little surprised to discover that the Naomi from his day-dreams is a little more cold-shouldered in real life, less self-assured and painfully shy.

One of my favourite things in this book was the Keller family. Jake, Rig, Milo and Frank were wonderfully sweet, and offered some hilarious moments;

“So,” said Jake, and Rig could see the effort he was putting into cheering up. “How did your first day go as a new citizen?”
“I’m going to have to work with the hottest one-night stand I ever had.”
Jake said, “Rig!”
Milo bounced once, hard, and said, “My nightstand is next to my bed. Where’s yours?”

I found it really interesting that both Jake and Frank are wounded men – missing the loves of their lives. For Rig, his dad and brother’s heartbreak offers a warning not to lose your heart – but I thought it was really interesting to read about these men who have had to pick up the pieces of their lives after great loss.

I liked Naomi’s family a little less – mainly, her sister. Anna is Naomi’s half-sister, they share the same mother, but Anna’s father is their mother’s second husband, whom she is still married to. Naomi has always felt that Anna was their mother’s favourite – despite her recklessness. Anna ran away from home and has had a number of dubious jobs and relationships, and she is known to call up in the middle of the night and beg for money to be wired. When Anna winds up on Naomi’s front-porch, seven months pregnant and refusing to speak of the father, Naomi is upset but not all that surprised. There was so much friction and a history of hurt between Naomi and Anna, and I felt like we needed more page-time with the sisters. I also thought it was odd when Jake and Anna grew close . . . I thought that Anna was just using Jake at her convenience; she can’t hold down a job, has a baby on the way, so she sees leaching on to widower as the easy way out. Maybe Naomi loves her sister too much to think that critically of her, but I was really not keen on the Anna/Jake pairing and I wished someone would have pointed out the imbalance in the relationship.

I also thought that a lot of revelations happened to Naomi towards the end of the book. . .  and I wished that they had been more evenly distributed. Because they were such BIG revelations, I wanted Naomi (and the reader) to spend more time dissecting them – instead it felt like we were led to a galloping conclusion without the in-depth emotional examination I would have liked.

But those are my only small complaints about this book. Everything else worked for me. I loved Naomi and Rig – he was such a charming man’s man, while she was an awkward wallflower and it was adorable to read how those clashing personalities actually complemented one another. I also had quite a swoony moment, when Rig nursed Naomi through a bout of food-poisoning. I think everyone, at some stage, has wondered what their loved one’s gross-out limits are. Childbirth is probably a pretty good indicator; but food-poisoning has got to be up there because it ain’t pretty. And if my partner reacted the way that Rig did, they’d have my eternal devotion;

And even pale as she was, face shiny with dried sweat, her curls tangled as if they’d been in a blender, Rig’s heart twisted when he looked at her. He pressed kiss after kiss into her temple, her forehead, her cheek, and when he did, she snuggled closer to him, her arms wrapping around his neck or his arm, whatever was closest to her. He wasn’t sure if it was just because she was sick, but he hoped not. He loved it.

As with all the ‘Cypress Hollow Yarn’ books, I loved the custodial wisdom of Eliza Carpenter’s knitted words of wisdom. They’re lovely, interspersed throughout the chapters and surprisingly easy to apply to real-life;

Grace is knowing when to bind off.
-    E.C.

‘Naomi’s Wish’ was another beautiful romance by Rachael Herron. Reading one of these books is the equivalent to throwing a lovely knitted shawl over your shoulders and snuggling into the warmth. Lovely, lovely, lovely – and I do so hope it’s not the last time we visit Cypress Hollow, because I already want to return!

5/5

'Black Heart' Curse Workers #3 by Holly Black

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

The stunning conclusion to the Curseworkers series finds Cassel in the most dangerous con of all and with this life on the line he may be forced to make his biggest gamble yet...
Cassel Sharpe knows he's been used as an assassin, but he's trying to put all that behind him. He's trying to be good, even though he grew up in a family of con artists and cheating comes as easily as breathing to him. He's trying to do the right thing, even though the girl he loves is inextricably connected with crime. And he's trying to convince himself that working for the Feds is smart, even though he's been raised to believe the government is the enemy.

But with a mother on the lam, the girl he loves about to take her place in the Mob and new secrets coming to light, the line between what's right and what's wrong becomes increasingly blurred. When the Feds ask Cassel to do the one thing he said he would never do again, he needs to sort out what's a con and what's truth. In a dangerous game and with his life on the line, Cassel may have to make his biggest gamble yet - this time on love.

WARNING: This review contains spoilers of all previous 'Curse Workers' books

Cassel Sharpe has made a lot of mistakes in his life. Turning his childhood best friend, and mobster princess, into a white cat to save her life was one of the worst. Ever trusting the members of his con-artist family comes a close second … but by far the worst, most stupid thing he has ever done was to get involved with the Feds. But that’s exactly where Cassel finds himself, between a rock and a hard place. Caught between the love he has for a crime boss’ daughter and the deal he has struck with the Feds, to wipe his record clean and keep his paroled mother out of prison.


Cassel knows that in this world you can’t trust anybody – least of all the ‘good guys’, who often have the most to lose. Furthermore, Cassel grew up in a family of con-artist curse-workers with tentative ties to the Zacharov worker crime family – he, of all people, has the most to lose if he jumps the fence and aligns himself with the straight and narrow. The stakes are especially high in the current political climate – with Governor Patton crusading for segregation between workers and humans, fuelled by his hatred for Cassel’s mother, who used her emotion magick against him. But Patton isn’t just a problem for workers – his extremist views could potentially ruin the worker squad the FBI has initiated, and recruited Cassel for. The feds need Patton gone, and Cassel is just the transformation worker to make him disappear. . .


Meanwhile, Lila Zacharov is being pulled deeper and deeper into her role as mobster protégé, and Cassel doesn’t know how she’ll react if she ever finds out about his budding FBI ties. Not to mention she’s still angry with Cassel for the love spell his mother set on her. . . things become even more complicated when Lila’s father kidnaps Cassel’s mother, having discovered that she stole the immortalizing Resurrection Diamond from him years ago.


And then there’s the drama at Cassel’s haven of normality, Wallingford Prep. His days as student bookie may be over, but the revelations about certain students being workers are still reverberating around the school and causing problems – and Cassel’s best friends, Sam and Daneca, are still torn apart by the findings. Not to mention the strange occurrence of a beautiful classmate approaching Cassel with a plot of blackmail that stinks to high heaven. . .


‘Black Heart’ is the third and final book in Holly Black’s paranormal young adult series, ‘Curse Workers’.


I have loved this series from the start – and I went into ‘Black Heart’ with a heavy heart, knowing that this was likely to be the last time I'd be reading about Cassel & Co.


For so many years Cassel thought he was the only dead-end in a family of talented, if ruthless, con-artist curse-workers. His mother was a great seductress, and together with Cassel’s father they worked many a ‘sweetheart scam’ with the help of her manipulative emotion magick. Brothers Barron and Cassel were always embattled in rivalry, for their father’s praise and later for the hand of childhood friend, Lila Zacharov… over the years Barron has done some awful things with his memory work – the ability to alter people’s memories and replace them with new ones (at a blowback cost to his own memory) but the worst thing he ever did was on the command of their mother. Barron took Cassel’s memories of his magical ability – the rarest worker ability of them all; transformation. Cassel has the ability to transform objects, people and himself – and his family used his remarkable skills to assassinate people, for a price and unbeknownst to Cassel, thanks to Barron’s memory work. Barron even wiped the memory of the night that Cassel turned Lila into a white cat, to save her life – replacing it with the thought that Cassel had murdered her . . . .


Throughout ‘White Cat’ and most of ‘Red Glove’, Cassel really didn’t know the extent of his power. He spent so much of his childhood regretting the fact that he was the magical void in his family; made to feel like the black sheep in his family of luck, emotion, memory and death workers that when he discovered he possessed the rarest of worker talents, he was in no way prepared for the onslaught of magick. The ‘Curse Workers’ series has really been about Cassel rediscovering his entire childhood, becoming acquainted with a power he never knew he always possessed. In ‘Black Heart’, Cassel’s discovery is ramped up a notch or two – when the Feds, Zacharov and a mystery classmate all have need of Cassel’s special transformation, and conning talents.


If you want to put it into perspective – ‘White Cat’ was about Cassel ‘remembering’ the truth of what he can do. ‘Red Glove’ was about figuring out the extent of his power, and ‘Black Heart’ feels like him appreciating the gravitas of his abilities; 

Now I know why people are afraid of transformation workers. Now I knew why they want to control me. Now I get it.
I can walk into someone's house, kiss their wife, sit down at their table, and eat their dinner. I can lift a passport at an airport, and in twenty minutes it will seem like it's mine. I can be a blackbird staring in the window. I can be a cat creeping along a ledge. I can go anywhere I want and do the worst things I can imagine, with nothing to ever connect me to those crimes. Today I might look like me, but tomorrow I could look like you. I could be you.
Hell, I'm scared of myself right now.

Holly Black’s series has always had a paranormal-noir feel to it. Despite the magic and YA aspect, ‘Curse Workers’ has read like homage to Hitchcock, Chandler and Hammett, never more than in ‘Black Heart’. For a start, there are lots of twisting, curving, red herring sub-plots ticking away in the background – acting as diversions and side-tracks in a literal conning of the reader (look over here, while Holly Black writes the crux of the plot over there). But it’s also Black’s writing that has been consistently, deliciously noir – her prose is rich and reads like a Bogart voice-over;

A girl like that, Grandad said, perfumes herself with ozone and metal filings. She wears trouble like a crown. If she ever falls in love, she'll fall like a comet, burning the sky as she goes.

Knowing that this was the potential last instalment in ‘Curse Workers’, I did have high expectations of this consistently brilliant series ending on a high note. For the most part, I was beyond satisfied. I loved the twisting, curving and multiple plots. Cassel was again, a supremely brilliant narrator walking the knife-edge between good guy and villain . . .  but some aspects of ‘Black Heart’ were a little flat.


I thought that the story about Cassel searching for Zacharov’s missing Resurrection Diamond would lead to a bigger reveals. ‘Black Heart’ is also the book when Cassel lays his feelings for Lila on the line – and I was hoping that would mean Holly Black would write more page-time for Lila. I've never warmed to Lila, I've always found her spoilt and just plain mean; and I get that she’s a mobster’s daughter, never going to be an angel. But I also had problems with Lila having dated Cassel’s brother, Barron, and the fact that he never really questioned that (even though I’m sure it has been eating at him). I just wanted to spend more time with Lila on the page, in the hopes that I'd warm to her. More than anything, I found myself warming to Cassel all over again – he’s so darn dashing and romantic when it comes to professing his feelings for Lila, and I just swooned for him all over again – and questioned, all over again, what a guy like him ever saw in a stone-cold killer like her (beyond looks?).


More than anything, finishing ‘Black Heart’ made me hope and pray that Holly Black isn’t finished with the ‘Curse Workers’ series. I was half-way through this book and loving ever word, and I just couldn’t fathom not reading more about this remarkable, political and magical universe Holly Black has created. I really, truly hope that only Cassel Sharpe’s story is (somewhat) wrapped up in ‘Black Heart’. I have my fingers firmly crossed for another book in the ‘Curse Workers’ world, this time following Barron Sharpe, because I love, love, loved the Sam/Daneca subplot in this book and I think Barron has such potential and his reformation (if it’s possible) would be fascinating to read. I absolutely, unabashedly loved this finale – even though I hope it’s not the last time we visit the ‘Curse Workers’ universe.


5/5

'Storm' Elementals #1 by Brigid Kemmerer

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

When Becca Chandler saves Chris Merrick from being beaten up in the school parking lot, she has no idea how dramatically this one action will change her life. Because Chris Merrick is no ordinary guy and neither are his three older brothers. The Merrick boys are Elementals. Hot. Powerful. Dangerous. Marked for death. And now that she knows the truth, so is Becca.

With her life at stake, she doesn't know who to trust or whose secrets she should keep. Hunter, the mysterious new kid with a talent for being in the wrong place at the right time, might be the one boy Becca can put her faith in. But with two boys vying for her affections, and pressure rising all around her, will she find out in time who's hiding the most dangerous truth of all?

Earth, Fire, Air, Water - the storm is coming...

Becca Chandler was in the wrong place at the right time. Or the right place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it.

Staying behind after school for a late night defence class, Becca stumbles across a violent scene in the parking lot. Her classmate, Chris Merrick, is being beaten up by some well-known school thugs, and Becca knows she has to save him before the beating goes too far. So she uses her car as a weapon and bundles Chris to safety . . . but he’s reluctant to go to the hospital. Chris just wants to be taken home, to his brothers, and he talks cryptically about wanting rain.

When Becca reluctantly does as Chris asks and takes him to the Merrick household she is shocked to discover his brother’s violent but unsurprised reaction toward Chris’s beating. They don’t seem the least bit surprised to learn who Chris’s attackers were, and they quickly plan retribution. But the brothers also turn a suspicious eye towards Becca, wondering if she is somehow linked to Chris’s attack . . .

Becca learns all about the Merrick brothers, their sad history and uncertain future. Their parents died a few years ago, under mysterious circumstances, and the boys have been under the guardianship of oldest brother Michael ever since. Michael runs the family’s landscaping business; he has the weight of the family on his shoulders and is in a constant battle with his younger brothers, who rally against his attempts at parenting. Michael also has a tarnished reputation in the town, linked to the tragic and (supposedly) accidental death of a girl he once knew. Then there are the twins, Gabriel and Nick, who pretend to be each other so Gabriel can play more school sports and avoid the wrath of the many girls he has ditched. Gabriel fights the most with Michael, in a never-ending battle of wills and old hurts. Chris is the youngest Merrick brother; losing his parents at such a young age continues to impact on him, and bearing witness to his brothers’ many battles is slowly turning him hard and distant.

Chris’s attackers soon have Becca in their crosshairs, thinking her to be in cahoots with the Merrick brothers. Meanwhile, the brothers are still suspicious of her right-place-wrong-time involvement in Chris’s attack. And when a new boy called Hunter takes an interest in Becca, she also finds herself caught between two unlikely love rivals. It all leads to Becca becoming embroiled in the Merrick brothers’ town war, and their most devastating secrets.

‘Storm’ is the debut young adult paranormal novel from Brigid Kemmerer, the first in a new series called ‘Elemental’.

As Becca slowly learns the secrets and scandals of the Merrick brothers, she also discovers their biggest secret of all . . . that they are all tied to the four elements – earth, wind, fire and water. She also discovers that there are those who would do anything to make certain the Merrick’s never use their powers ever again. ‘Storm’ centres on youngest Merrick Chris, who has the power of water. Gabriel is the most hot-headed of the brothers, and has the power of fire. Nick, the slightly more subdued brother, is wind while Michael has links to the earth.

He saw nothing.
Lightning hit closer, about eight feet to their left.
He swore, yanking her with him as he backpedalled across the field.
‘Do something!’ she cried. ‘Can’t you build a wall of ice, or –’
‘Are you kidding?’ he said. ‘I’m not an X-Man! This is –’
Crack. Lightning bolt, right where they’d been standing. Becca screamed.

There is quite a lot happening in this first book that sets up the trajectory for the whole series. As well as meeting Chris Merrick and becoming entwined with his brothers’ woes, Becca is also dealing with the romantic interest from a new boy at school called Hunter, who has a charming smile, cheeky dog and a strange affinity for power crystals. Add on to that the reappearance of Becca’s father, who walked out on the family supposedly to concentrate on his job as wildlife conservationist, and the Merrick brothers’ town war which has Becca in its crosshairs. Phew! If you think that sounds like a lot of balls being juggled, you’d be right. I can’t say that Kemmerer does a good job at keeping them all in the air – but she certainly kept me hooked for the whole book and keen to read the second instalment.

This book focuses on Becca, and while I thought it would be all about her potential love for Chris Merrick, I was surprised at how much conflict and page-time is devoted to Becca’s interest in new boy Hunter. It’s an interesting love triangle, particularly because it’s not as clean-cut as many other will-they-or-won’t-they trifecta romances. I genuinely didn’t know who would get the girl, and I was pleasantly surprised by the book’s conclusion that ends slightly messy and complicated, rather than tied with a nice neat bow. The messy romantic entanglements are indicative of the whole book, which prefers more messy-real to a lot of other slightly squeakier-cleaner YA paranormal’s. For instance, Becca is battling a nasty rumour at school that has her sleeping with half the boys on the soccer team. The rumour has basis in a horrifying ordeal Becca had with the school’s star soccer player. This was a hair-raising side-story, and I appreciated the fact that Kemmerer treated Becca’s trauma with the necessary gravity and horror it deserved. Becca doesn’t necessarily respond to the situation in the way we would hope a young woman would . . . but, again, Kemmerer isn’t writing textbook scenarios or proper emotional ‘procedurals’. She’s writing messy complications. It was a very gritty detour in the story, but a well-handled one, in my opinion.

Likewise, Kemmerer has written the Merrick brothers with a reputation. Chris mentions ‘jail bait’ walking through their house frequently, and Gabriel definitely has a way with the ladies. I liked that Kemmerer didn’t really shy away from the boy’s reputation with the ladies, and this will definitely make for some interesting storylines when each of the brothers gets their own book.

Kemmerer does tip her hat to the other paranormal YA’s who have come before her. I get the impression that she is a true fan of this genre, and it hasn’t escaped her notice that there are certain staples in ‘Storm’ that appear in a few other YA paranormal novels. She has fun with it, and I loved that. Like this line that hints at Adam & Eve by way of the famous apple front cover and moment in Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’:

‘Here.’ He held out his apple. ‘I can’t eat while you’re just watching me.’
Quinn snorted. ‘The symbolism here might just kill me.’

I do wish that there had been a bigger and more authentic focus on Becca’s relationship with her father. He abandoned the family when she was just a little girl, supposedly for his demanding work as a wildlife conservationist. It’s mentioned a few times that the job which initially forced him away from his family had to do with endangered crabs (or something?). I found it odd, and then somewhat absurd, that when Becca’s father reappears after so long away (his idea of parenting being two phone calls a year) that she doesn’t call him out on the bogus reason for his abandoning the family in the first place. However, I did get the impression that Becca’s complicated relationship with her father will be explored in future books (and was perhaps too complex to fit into the first instalment).

The big draw-card of this series is the family focus. Kemmerer whets readers’ appetites by introducing us to each of the brothers, and setting up their storylines. Gabriel was my favourite; he’s a bad-boy with a fiery streak, a Lothario reputation and an ongoing family feud with his oldest brother. Second favourite is Michael, the eldest brother who has the weight of his family on his shoulders. . . he has a tragic back-story, and while I know Kemmerer has written a short novella prequel which tells Michael’s story (set before ‘Storm’) I do hope he gets his own full-length book too.

Brigid Kemmerer has written a winning combination in this new paranormal series. Mix a family of hot, orphaned brothers with an old town mystery and kooky superpowers . . . and, voilà – addictive reading!

4/5

'Bunheads' by Sophie Flack

 Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

In a crowd of beautiful and talented dancers, how can one girl stand out? An irresistible debut novel about life at one of the world's best ballet companies.

On-stage beauty. Backstage drama.

As a dancer with the ultra-prestigious Manhattan Ballet Company, nineteen-year-old Hannah Ward juggles intense rehearsals, dazzling performances and complicated backstage relationships.

Up until now, Hannah has happily devoted her entire life to ballet. But when she meets a handsome musician named Jacob, Hannah's universe begins to change and she must decide if she wants to compete against the other 'bunheads' in the company for a star soloist spot or strike out on her own in the real world.

Does she dare give up the gilded confines of the ballet for the freedoms of everyday life?

When she was eight-years-old, Hannah’s dance instructor told her young students to “Dance each step as if it were your last.” Hannah didn’t know what she meant then, but now that she is nineteen-years-old and apart of the corps de ballet of the Manhattan Ballet Company, she is starting to understand the truth behind those words.

The corps de ballet dancers are not ‘real’ ballerinas – they are the dancers behind the true stars, the real prima ballerinas who dance solos and are the rock-stars of the company. Hannah, along with her friends, all dance in the background in the hopes of being promoted to soloists. And the person to impress at the Manhattan Ballet Company, to rise in the ranks and stand out from the corps, is Otto Klein – retired dancer, now choreographer extraordinaire.

A dancer’s life is a short one. Injury looms, as does cut-throat backstage backstabbing – not to mention old age and human frailties. Hannah knew she wanted to be a ballet dancer when she was ten. She has been studying and dancing in Manhattan since she was fourteen. Now she is nineteen and desperate for all her hard-working dreams to pay off. But her time is running out, her dreams have an expiry date and she doesn’t know if it will ever be her time to shine. . .

So, when Hannah meets Jacob, a struggling musician and perpetual college student, she doesn’t know if he’s a beautiful distraction or potential disaster. He’s beautiful and kind, funny and sincere, and the first boy Hannah has ever fallen for . . .

But pretty soon, all signs point to disaster.

Otto takes an interest in Hannah, and there are whispers in the company that she might just get her first solo. That means dedicating hours to yoga for muscle strengthening, and bikram yoga for weight loss. She has to practice as much as she can, and that means less and less time for beautiful boy Jacob.

Now Hannah has a decision to make – between the life she always thought she wanted and the one she has tasted, with Jacob.

‘Bunheads’ is the debut young adult novel from Sophie Flack.

Ms Flack began dancing at the age of seven, and when she was fourteen was awarded a full scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet. She danced with the New York City Ballet from 2000 until 2009. None of this surprises me – because ‘Bunheads’ is an exquisitely detailed journey into the life of a dancer – the ups and downs, highs and lows, sacrifices and devastation's that make up a life dedicated to one of the most grueling art forms.

Hannah shares a dressing room with her close friends – Bea, Daisy, Leni and Zoe. Leni is the oldest of them, and knows she will never be more than corps. But for the rest of her friends, the epitome of success is becoming a soloist. Hannah’s biggest competition for promotion is Zoe; a New York socialite of willowy form and many admirers. Zoe and Hannah are well-matched in their techniques, and are forever being played off one another and made to compete for parts. But when Otto Klein casts them both as understudies in his new dance, they know that the tides are turning for one of them . . . Never mind that Hannah and Zoe are also best friends – when it comes to the Company, they both know that only one of them can come out on top.

Flack has written a fantastically complex rivalry between Hannah and Zoe – ‘frenemy’ is an understatement. Zoe uses psychological warfare without remorse; she throws temper tantrums and spits verbal barbs, yet all of her ‘friends’ take it on the chin. They know that ballet can bring out the worst in dancers – and that when it comes to getting ahead in the Company, there is no such thing as playing nice. As a reader, we can understand that Hannah’s friendship with Zoe is very close to a toxic one – but she simply accepts Zoe’s dubious role in her life as friend, bordering on rival. It’s just one of the many ways that Hannah’s dancing life is distorted from the real world – where lines blur between friend and enemy, and she can’t really trust anyone to be completely sincere or without malice.

One of Hannah’s far and few ‘true’ friends at the Company is gruff stagehand, Harry, and his daughter Mattie who dreams of being a ballerina like Hannah. In Mattie, Hannah remembers what it was to think of dancing and ballet in a dreamy way; before the backstabbing, long hours and poor castings;

I look down at this smiling little girl in her pigtails and dirty tutu. Her face shines with delight. The theatre must seem like a magical world to her – I know it did to me. When I first became an apprentice, I wanted to sleep on the stage, under the rows of lights that glittered like far-off planets. Sometimes when no one was around, I'd sit on the edge with my legs dangling into the orchestra pit and look out in awe at the vast, empty house with its carved, gilded ceiling and crystal chandeliers.

But the sheen is wearing off for Hannah. She is nineteen now, has been dancing in the corps de ballet for a few years, but is desperate to be more. I thought Flack’s insight into the nuts and bolts of ballet life was phenomenal. Flack does a fantastic job of bringing this ethereal profession down into reality – she writes about the injuries and long hours, and the unglamorous behind-the-scenes of beloved productions. For instance, Hannah and most in the corps hate dancing The Nutcracker (even though it’s the annual production that sells out every night). One of the many reasons for their hatred is dancing the back-up roles of ‘snow’, especially when the fake snow that falls from the ceiling is recycled every night, and along with the fake white flakes falls dust and debris collected from the stage. But that’s nothing compared to the grueling schedule;

And it’s always like this. For the corps de ballet, dancing The Nutcracker becomes like a tag team as dancers get injured: The uninjured girls have to double up their parts until they, too, become injured, and then those girls are replaced by others who have to double up, until everyone is doing two or three times the number of parts they were meant to do. If you’re not injured, you’re exhausted, sick, or plain burned out. Jonathan and Luke call it The Nutfucker, which I think is totally appropriate.

It’s little wonder then, that when Jacob catches Hannah’s eye she is more than a little tempted. In trying to properly woo Hannah, Jacob keeps hitting roadblocks with her busy schedule and training regime – and for the first time in her life, Hannah realizes that ballet is her life. She has nothing else. She devotes everything to a profession that seems determined to overlook her hard work;

“I love being onstage. But it’s so painful feeling invisible,” I tell her.
“I see you, Ballettӓnzerin,” she says softly. “You are not invisible.”
But I must be – how else can I explain the way I was overlooked?

I will say that the romance between Hanna and Jacob wasn’t as interesting as Flack’s behind-the-scenes of ballet life. To be fair, Hannah struggling to find time for Jacob is crucial to her story – but I did wish for more romance between them, at least to justify Jacob’s incredible persistence in wooing a girl who hardly gives him the time of day.

Comparisons to movies like ‘Centre Stage’ and ‘Black Swan’ are inevitable. But I feel like those films are about the exception, and Flack is writing the rule. In ‘Centre Stage’ and ‘Black Swan’, audiences come in at the high-point in the dancer’s life – when they’re plucked from the class to dance in the rogue choreographer’s new, contemporary production, or the shy girl is given a chance to be the star of a classic production (if she can tap into her own sexuality). ‘Bunheads’ feels like the far truer story – about the struggling dancer, forever in the shadows. Hannah has dedicated her life to dance – she moved out of home at fourteen to board at dance school in New York. She hasn’t had the high school experience of other kids her age – Jacob is the first boy she has ever liked, for crying out loud! She is not your typical nineteen-year-old, thanks to ballet. ‘Centre Stage’ and ‘Black Swan’ are about that trigger moment when a dancer goes from corps to ballerina – but ‘Bunheads’ is far more interesting for following a dancer who is toiling in the background, trying to claw her way into the spotlight, but also wondering if it’s all worth it?

‘Bunheads’ is a fantastic read. To ‘pedestrian’ outsiders, ballet is such an otherworldly profession – the dancers are the finest of physical specimens, forever graceful and beautiful. Flack ‘lifts the tutu’, if you will, on the world of ballet. Through Hannah she explores how dancing sometimes isn’t enough – some sacrifices are too great, and a life-time dedication shouldn’t feel like a life-sentence. Flack’s prose is also beautiful – Hannah’s voice is so strong and her articulation of what dancing means to her, of the dreams she had, just gorgeous (“the rows of lights that glittered like far-off planets”). Part of the strength of ‘Bunheads’ is that Flack knows this world – she is revealing something about it to the reader, the unknown nitty-gritty and behind-the-scenes truth . . .  that being said, Flack’s writing is so good and captivating, beyond just the subject matter. I’m eager to read whatever she writes next, ballet or no, because I think her voice is one to listen out for in the young adult genre.

4.5/5

'Sacrificial Magic' Downside #4 by Stacia Kane

From the BLURB:


When Chess Putnam is ordered by an infamous crime boss—who also happens to be her drug dealer—to use her powers as a witch to solve a grisly murder involving dark magic, she knows she must rise to the challenge. Adding to the intensity: Chess’s boyfriend, Terrible, doesn’t trust her, and Lex, the son of a rival crime lord, is trying to reignite the sparks between him and Chess.

Plus there’s the little matter of Chess’s real job as a ghost hunter for the Church of Real Truth, investigating reports of a haunting at a school in the heart of Downside. Someone seems to be taking a crash course in summoning the dead—and if Chess doesn’t watch her back, she may soon be joining their ranks.

As Chess is drawn into a shadowy world of twisted secrets and dark violence, it soon becomes clear that she’s not going to emerge from its depths without making the ultimate sacrifice.

** This review contains SPOILERS for previous ‘Downside’ books **

For a little while there, Cesaria ‘Chess’ Putnam thought she had it all. After hurting him with the worst kind of betrayal, Chess and Downside thug, Terrible, are together and happier than ever. And despite their awkward break-up, Chess and Slobag’s son, Lex, are remaining friends (without the benefits). Her work for the church has just bought Chess a new couch, and for the first time in a long time she feels fulfilled in nearly all aspects of her life.
So it comes as no surprise to Chess that fate chooses this moment to start unraveling her existence.


First, a burned and sacrificed body turns up on Bump’s side of town. Chess and Terrible are trying to keep their relationship on the hush, but that doesn’t mean she can turn Bump down when he tells her to be a good witch and jump into investigating this murder . . . not to mention, Chess is still reliant on Bump for her pills and hits.


At the same time as Chess is ordered by Bump to investigate a suspicious Downside murder, a Church employee goes missing while on a job and Elder Griffin gives the left-overs to Chess. Elder Griffin also drops a bombshell that he’s hoping to be advanced in the Church; effectively leaving Chess behind.


But when Chess arrives at the scene of a haunting, Mercy Lewis Second School, she is confronted by antagonistic staff and silent students. Even more, Mercy Lewis is on Lex’s side of town . . .  and he insists on ‘popping round’ to keep an eye on his old Tulip.
Suddenly Chess’s perfect world starts unraveling and colliding; sacrificed bodies start mounting and old doubts creep into Chess’s mind. . .


‘Sacrificial Magic’ is the fourth book in Stacia Kane’s phenomenal ‘Downside’ urban fantasy series.


It has been far too long since fans last traveled to ‘Downside’. Third book, ‘City of Ghosts’, came out in 2010, and it has been a looooooong wait for this much-anticipated fourth book. However, Kane did leave Chess on a high-note in ‘City of Ghosts’, when she cemented her relationship with Terrible after the hurdle of having slept with Lex.


‘Sacrificial Magic’ picks up pretty much where ‘City’ left off, give or take a few months. Chess and Terrible appear to still be in the ‘honeymoon’ period of their courtship – spending nights at each other’s apartments, sneaking kisses on the street (to keep their romance on the down-low) and, for Chess at least, basking in the fact that they managed to overcome so much distrust and dishonesty (and near-death!) to be together;

Seeing him was like being hit in the chest. Like something exploding inside her, a quick ravenous fire that made her shiver. So bright and so hot it still amazed her that no one else seemed to notice it, that every eye in the place didn’t turn to her while she went incandescent.

So, of course lady fate chooses this moment for things to start going horribly wrong in Chess’s world.


In quick succession she finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery with Bump – when a member of his crew is found to have been burnt and sacrificed in a warehouse fire (suspected to have been started by Lex’s father and rival Downside king, Slobag). Soon after, Chess is put on a Church-sanctioned case, tying up the loose ends of a case in which the Church investigator went missing (and hasn’t been heard from since). This case takes Chess to a secondary school on Lex’s side of town, and throws the two of them together again. . .  much to Terrible’s chagrin.


As Chess starts investigating the ghost of a girl who killed herself on the Mercy Lewis school grounds years ago (the outcome of a tragic love affair between a student and teacher) Chess finds herself ducking near-misses as this vengeful ghost gains power.


I had my heart in my throat throughout a lot of this book. I am a huge Chess fangirl, even while knowing that she is the quintessential anti-hero. I know Chess is screwed up, and a product of her own self-sabotage. She’s an addict with no wish to kick her habits – but I love her anyway. I have written about this at length. . .  and because I know that Chess is her own worst enemy, I felt very on-edge during the beginning of this book. I knew that, as deceptively sweet as Chess and Terrible’s lovey-dovey relationship was, it had to come crashing down at some point. And it does. . . hard.


It’s not just that Lex happens to be thrown back into Chess’s path, creating tension between her and Terrible. It was more the fact that in this book, Chess starts to really pay attention to the imbalance in her relationship with Terrible. Chess may be a junkie, but she’s a smart woman regardless . . .  and she knows that a relationship in which she’s the addict, and Terrible is her supplier’s lackey, there is going to be an imbalance.


On the plus side, Chess recognizing the power Terrible potentially has over her and her addiction is really the first instance of Chess hating her habit. I know that Chess’s path to recovery and getting clean (if it ever happens) will be a long, rocky one. But her realizing that imbalance and resenting it, is really the first step in the right direction.


With Terrible, it’s once again Chess’s self-hatred and self-sabotage that makes the biggest dent in their relationship. I actually really liked reading all of Chess’s self-doubting narration, because it managed to reveal the roots of her terror . . .  at one point, Chess remembers all those foster ‘daddies’ who used and abused her, and a foster brother who beat her – so badly that sometimes her foster mother would give her drugs for the pain. This is one of the biggest “aha!” moments in Kane unravelling Chess’s horrible history, and it’s a doozey of a revelation. All these little teasing ties and hints are wonderful storytelling on Kane’s behalf, as readers slowly piece together Chess’s history leading to this point in time. Aptly-named, Chess is a puzzle of a protagonist, and I’m enjoying putting her pieces together.

But the words in her head were a reminder, one she didn’t need. A reminder that she was failing, that she was fucking up, that it wasn’t a question of when she would spoil everything but of how long he would put up with the way she was spoiling everything. They made her feel as if she was standing on a railing above the city, balancing there with nothing to hold on to, and if she lost her balance she’d fall off.
And she’d never stop falling.

The murder-mystery in ‘Sacrificial Magic’ is another cat and mouse whodunit, peppered with enough red herrings and curveballs to keep the reader guessing. An interesting addition to the cast in this book is a part-time worker at the Mercy Lewis School, a woman called Beulah who takes an instant dislike to Chess (and for good reason). I won’t give anything away about this character’s presence, but I get the impression she’s going to play a big part in Chess’s world from here on in, and I look forward to it.


‘Sacrificial Magic’ was absolutely worth the year-long wait. Stacia Kane delivers on all fronts – in Chess and Terrible goodness, new players on the Downside scene, revelations about Chess’s past and towards the end she delivers a game-change that is off the Richter scale! I was so pleased to learn that the fifth ‘Downside’ book won’t be as long a wait – with a tentative June 2012 release date. It was bloody good to revisit Downside and Chess again, with this fourth book Ms Kane is definitely cementing herself as an urban fantasy tour-de-force.


5/5

'Deadlocked' Sookie Stackhouse #12 by Charlaine Harris

From the BLURB:


Sookie has a murder investigation on her hands. A young girl has died at a vampire party - and it looks as though her lover, Eric, might be responsible. Eric swears he didn't do it, the police don't believe him, and even Sookie isn't so sure. Nor is she inclined to take his word for it, not having caught him enjoying the victim's blood minutes before she was killed. But something strange is going on. Why had Sookie been asked to come to the fateful party a few minutes early - just to catch Eric in the act? And why had the victim spiked her blood before approaching Eric? Was it simply because she wanted to be irresistible, or was it something more sinister? Sookie will have to find out . . . but it's the worst moment to investigate, as her Fae family are having troubles of their own and Sookie is, inevitably, drawn in. And there is one last complication. The cluviel dor her grandmother left her. It will grant her one wish, which could fulfil Sookie's heart's desire. The only problem is, she still doesn't know what - or who - her heart truly desires . . .

** Warning - this review contains spoilers of all previous 'Sookie Stackhouse' books, especially 'Dead Reckoning' ** 

Wherever Sookie Stackhouse is, trouble is sure to follow. And that old adage is still holding true. . .


Felipe de Castro, Vampire King of Louisiana, is in town investigating the disappearance of his second-in-command, Victor. Little does he know that Sookie, Eric, Pam and Bill are all too well aware that Victor is dead, by their own hands, and they could all face a harsh rebuke for their actions.


Still, Eric must put on a cordial face and expects his wife and various employees to do the same. Things are doubly complicated since Eric’s arranged marriage to Vampire Queen, Freyda, is still on the cards and in Felipe’s hands. But while Eric is entertaining Felipe and some out-of-town vampires, Sookie walks in on him giving special entertainment to a half and half werewolf girl who stinks of fae and has a mind full of money. Suspecting foul play, Sookie rallies her emotions, but is doubly-shocked when the same girl is found dead and the police are called.


Meanwhile, Sookie’s great-grandfather Niall has returned and is curious as to why Sookie’s  cousin Claude and great-uncle Dermot are living under her roof. Something is happening in faery, and Niall takes Claude to the realm to investigate. . . leaving Sookie with a mess of problems at home, one of which is the ‘gift’ of a cluviel dor, a present from Fintan that will grant Sookie one wish.


‘Deadlocked’ is the twelfth book in Charlaine Harris’s best-selling ‘Sookie Stackhouse: Southern Vampire’ paranormal mystery series.


I’m pretty patient with the ‘Sookie Stackhouse’ series. I first started reading it in 2007 and since then I have really enjoyed Harris’s supernatural rollercoaster. In that time, I have also read Harris’s (completed) series; ‘Aurora Teagarden’, ‘Lily Bard’ and ‘Harper Connelly’ – gaining great reading satisfaction from those serial books that all came to conclusion. But I've got to admit, twelve books into Sookie’s story and Harris’s longest running series is starting to show some wear and tear . . .  none more so than ‘Deadlocked’.


I’m reading ‘Sookie Stackhouse’ with Harris’s other books in mind. ‘Aurora Teagarden’, ‘Lily Bard’ and ‘Harper Connelly’ all had definite time lines and conclusions, and are all finished now. So I have some idea, based on the trajectory of those series’s and their endings, how Harris wraps things up (nothing conclusive, of course, just a general writer theme, I suppose). And in all those books, the heroine’s love predicament has been a focus – though none have had such a rollercoaster ride as Ms Stackhouse (between Bill Compton, Alcide Herveaux, Quinn the blink-and-you’ll-miss-his-disappearance-tiger to the once beloved Eric Northman). Sookie has definitely been through the emotional ringer. So much so, I think, that it’s getting to the point where fans want to see her settled and with a sliver of contentment in her romantic life. Fans may have rejoiced when she finally took the big, blonde Viking for her own, but then Charlaine Harris went and threw Freyda into the works . . . 


Quite a lot happened in the eleventh instalment, ‘Dead Reckoning’ – and the biggest revelation of that book was that Eric Northman’s maker, Appius Livius Ocella, was in the process of negotiating Eric as consort to a Vampire Queen called Freyda before he died . . .  an arrangement which is still ‘in the works’, despite Appius’s demise. Curious then, that when ‘Deadlocked’ begins it takes a good, long time for anyone to really mention where Eric stands on the marriage front (and even longer for Freyda to make an appearance). There are hints, when Sookie constantly laments her neither here nor there relationship status with Eric (who still calls her “his wife”, but hasn’t been around lately).


I feel like the stakes (har-har) concerning Eric and Sookie were meant to be high in this book – a real will-he-or-won’t-he? Will Eric go against his very vampiric, scheming, power-hungry nature and choose plain old human Sookie over the all-powerful Vampire Queen, Freyda? Or will Eric pull the old ‘frog and the scorpion’ and claim it’s just “in his nature” and choose the path of consort? Once upon a time, I think fans would have been dutifully invested and nail-bitten about that very conundrum – back when there was still a heady sense of destiny and sexiness surrounding Sookie and Eric. Now? Not so much.


It’s safe to say that Eric and Sookie getting together was built up more in fan’s minds than what has come across on the page. There was far more satisfaction in the chase, and once Sookie declared her love for Eric (and Eric kept up his stoic, robotic “I love you”) I think a lot of fans flagged. Gone was the snarky repertoire and Eric’s lascivious pursuing of the young Ms Stackhouse . . . in its place is a strange vampire marriage of no real consequence and in the case of ‘Deadlocked’ absolutely no happy-nudey-shenanigans (that’s right folks, it’s just like a real marriage! – Eric and Sookie don’t have sex in ‘Deadlocked’. At all. Zilch. Nada. Nothing). Sookie thinks a lot about whether or not Eric will choose Freyda – but isn’t really all that sad, it seems. She’s actually kind of resolute that Eric will most likely choose the path of more power. And if her mind ever veers towards a ‘woe is me, Eric won’t choose me’ thinking, she quickly squashes the thought. And for that reason, fans aren’t made to be terribly sad at the prospect of no more Sookie and Eric. Actually, while reading ‘Deadlocked’ I was kind of hoping that Charlaine would just put a bullet in them and end the protracted misery.


I remember in one of the Sookie books, at a rare point when Sookie was unattached, hadn’t yet met Quinn but still felt the sting of Bill’s betrayal; she just sunk down onto her kitchen floor one day and cried. And I thought that was the *best* scene Charlaine could have written. Because it was *exactly* what I was vicariously feeling – I just thought ‘if it were me, I'd have a bit of a cry’ and then Sookie did exactly that and I applauded her that moment of weakness. In ‘Deadlocked’, Sookie is kind of on emotional autopilot about the whole Eric situation . . .  and as a result, Sookie’s disconnection to the situation anesthetises readers too. I just didn’t care that much, to be honest.


And that pretty much sums up the entirety of ‘Deadlocked’ for me. It was very much a book going through the motions, to the point where there’s even a tongue-in-cheek scene depicting what everyone’s thinking;

“We came to wish you a happy day,” Eric said. “And I suppose, as usual, Bill will want to express his undying love that surpasses my love, as he’ll tell you – Pam will want to say something sarcastic and nearly painful, while reminding you that she loves you, too.”

Pretty much.


It’s not even that Sookie doesn’t seem to care so much about where she and Eric are heading. It’s also that Eric is . . . not what he used to be. All fans know that Eric was set up as the ultimate anti-hero. He’s the bad boy, with flashes of sincerity and honesty and glimmers of reform. In ‘Deadlocked’, he’s just kind of a douche. And I honestly can’t figure out of it’s a deliberate character assassination on Harris’s part, trying to bring Northman down a peg or two in fan’s minds? Aside from the fact that there are no sexy times (often in these scenes Eric would reveal his softer side, and they provided some of the most memorable Team Eric moments) but it was general demeanour throughout ‘Deadlocked’. At one stage Sookie shows her jealous side, and Eric is astonished, proclaiming “I have never fucked another woman since I took you to wife” – to which Sookie rightfully wonders what little sexual indiscretions that glosses over? At another point Sookie has just gone through another near-miss scare, only to come home and find Bill and Eric waiting for her. She tells them both to leave so she can have a moment to herself, and Eric replies, with a pout; “I want to stay with you and make love to you at length.” I really have a sneaking suspicion that Harris is trying to wean fans off the Eric bandwagon, to counteract fans previous expectations of him with this more flawed (and far less sexy) transformation.


And then there’s a scene, line or exchange of dialogue that lets me know it’s not so much Charlaine Harris who is weakening as writer, but the ‘Sookie Stackhouse’ series that is losing its lustre. Sometimes Harris’s writing just bowls me over, and I remember that ‘oh, yeah, this is why I read everything she writes!’ Like this juicy morsel; an exchange between police officer, Kenya, about her sister India, who works at Merlotte’s with Sookie;

“Half sister. Yeah, our mother would get out the map when we were born,” Kenya said, kind of daring me to find that amusing. “She named us after places she wanted to go. My big brother’s name is Spain. I got a younger one named Cairo.”
“She didn’t stick to countries.”
“No, she threw in a few cities for good measure. She thought the word ‘Egypt’ was ‘too chewy.’ That’s a direct quote.”

An exchange like that has me hungering for Ms Harris to deviate from Sookie Stackhouse – to start a brand new series, preferably a non-supernatural one (‘Lily Bard’ is still her best, in my opinion).


Don’t even get me started on the fairy storyline . . .  just when I thought Naill & Co were dead and gone, Harris insists on resurrecting them. Again. It’s like she keeps writing the fairy storyline hoping for better, more interesting results – but it ain’t gonna happen. The fae in the ‘Sookie Stackhoue’ world are dull, dull, dull. Nobody likes them (they even suck in ‘True Blood’! Not even Alan Ball could make them cool!). Here’s hoping that ‘Deadlocked’ is their once-and-for-all death.


I was really happy back in 2009 when Charlaine Harris announced that she was contracted for three more ‘Sookie’ books, taking the series to 13. I don’t know if this contract still stands – since Harris’s website now has a fairly cryptic response regarding how many books she is contracted for (“I am not finished with the series. I don’t know how many more books I will write about Sookie.”) I'd hate to think that Harris would just keep writing so long as the cheques keep coming – because ‘Deadlocked’, for me, clearly highlights that this series has to be on its last legs. Fans cannot keep being strung along Sookie’s tumultuous, never-ending, no-happiness-in-sight love life. Sookie turns 28 in this book, and I can’t fathom fans holding on to reading about Sookie dating vampires when she starts creeping closer and closer to her ticking biological clock . . .  which leads to another annoyance in ‘Deadlocked’.


Everyone in this book, and I mean EVERYONE (secondary characters you can’t even remember from previous books!) is having babies and getting married in ‘Deadlocked’. Everyone, except Sookie. Way to hit fans over the head with an anvil, Ms Harris. And this, again, makes Sookie’s situation with Eric that little bit less heartfelt. Because Sookie (and fans, courtesy Harris’s anvil of subtlety) knows that Sookie is starting to notice all the things she won’t be able to have if she keeps dating vampires. So, is the idea of her and Eric breaking up really so bad when she’s noticing the babies she’s not having, not to mention a life devoid of violence? Sookie says it herself;

I was tired of crises, tired of deceit, tired of life-or-death situations. I felt like a stone skipped across a pond, longing only to sink to the anonymous bottom.

Yet another hint, I think, that Eric and Sookie are not meant to be and Harris is (slowly, painfully, dully) writing their wrap-up. Of course, that leaves the big question of who is Sookie’s HEA (happily ever after). After ‘Deadlocked’, I’m even wondering if Harris is going to go all girl-power and not give Sookie a HEA in the form of a man. That’d be okay, I guess, if Harris did it well . . .  but I'd still want some sort of resolution about Sookie’s yearning for a family of her own. I have, for the last few books now, suspected Sam Merlotte would be who Sookie ends up with. But after reading them in ‘Deadlocked’, I’m edging towards the theory that if they do end up together, it would be for convenience rather than romance. And that would just be plain sad for Ms Stackhouse.


As this series starts winding up, I find myself hoping for a new character to enter Sookie’s life. I actually wouldn’t mind having a curveball HEA come in and shake things up. Either way, I just want this series to have an end in sight now. Not because I don’t love it, but because I love it so much that I don’t want to start resenting the long, drawn out, lack-lustre limping along that so many other writers insists on (I’m looking at you, Laurell K Hamilton!). ‘Deadlocked’ highlighted for me how far we’ve come with Sookie, but also that the end needs to be in sight if everything that has come before is to have any kind of meaning or substance.


2/5

'Ruby Moonlight' by Ali Cobby Eckermann

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

In the mid-north of South Australia, on Ngadjuri land, a young Aboriginal woman survives the massacre of her entire family. Alone and grieving, her fear of discovery is overcome by the need for human contact. . .

Told through a series of interconnected poems, ‘Ruby Moonlight’ elegantly weaves a story that captures the essence of the natural world, colonialism in late nineteenth century Australia and the emotional turmoil borne out of love and human desire.

A few weeks ago I read a fantastic modern poetry collection, and vowed to seek out more prose in my reading life. Lo and behold, Ali Cobby Eckermann’s latest book, ‘Ruby Moonlight’, landed in my hands, and continues to feed my craving for beautifully sorrowful lyricism. . .

‘Ruby Moonlight’ has power from the dedication to the very end. Eckermann has dedicated her book thus;

for my Kami
who disappeared in 1976

and

for all our mob who died
innocent

brave

in true

spirit

When the dedication alone was so commanding, I just knew that what was to come would be something special . . .  and in the case of ‘Ruby Moonlight’, I wasn’t wrong.

A young Aboriginal woman named Ruby survives a massacre – a morning ambush, “the clan slaughtered” and only Ruby is left. She wanders the South Australian landscape, on Ngadjuri land – “she staggers to follow bird song” and trusts in nature to guide her to safety. Ruby is “of the Shadow tribe”, a tribe that is now lost. She is alone.

Eventually, Ruby meets an Irishman trapper called Jack. She finds solace in human contact with this seemingly kind man who offers her food and fire . . . and, for a little while at least, Ruby knows some semblance of peace;

Oasis

it is the oasis of isolation
that tolerates this union

neither know
the other’s language

they never speak
during the day

only at night
where no-one can hear

he whispers his endearment
ruby moonlight

she is a gem glistening
in a night’s blackness

I have never had quite so much satisfaction in reading a complete poetry book, as I did with ‘Ruby Moonlight’. Although filled with pretty/painful prose and cascading words, ‘Ruby Moonlight’ is also telling a sad story. We follow Ruby from massacre to Jack’s embrace, to a world unlike any she has ever known, and a man “with no music in his heart”. This is Ruby’s story; in all its tragedy. Unfortunately, it’s also the story of many Aboriginals who bore the brutality of colonisation in the 1800’s, and the continued ramifications.

Ali Cobby Eckermann’s ‘Ruby Moonlight’ is heart-wrenchingly beautiful. It is a book of death and violence, loneliness and isolation. But, it’s also a book that glories in nature and, and carries a young woman’s strength while telling of Australia’s dark and brutal past. Equal parts fanciful and factual; ‘Ruby Moonlight’ was powerful from dedication to final line. 

5/5