Born Wicked - Jessica Spotswood

So today we're here to cover a book I loaned from work last week. I've never heard of the author or the series, and I honestly didn't even bother reading the jacket before I took it home. Sometimes this 'blind run' really works for me, and other times it completely backfires (I'm looking at you, Above).

This is historical (though alternate-universe historical) fiction about witches. The novel revolves around three sisters, the Cahills, whose mother has passed away, leaving the oldest daughter in charge of keeping her sisters safe. Having been raised without the presence of an older motherly figure in their lives, they are not as ladylike and refined as society would like. In this time period this would already be a problem, but the Cahills have it worse: in their world, society lives in fear of witches, who are known to be evil creatures who will trick you and can even turn your own mind against you. This fear is instilled by the Brotherhood, a group of men who essentially run the show. Their female counterparts are the Sisters, a group of secretive unmarried women who are always searching for new young women to recruit. If one is found to be a witch, they are sent away to institutions from which they will never return. While everyone in this world lives in fear, the Cahills have more to lose than most - all three of the sisters are witches, as was their mother.

As usual, we'll begin with the characters. Cate, the main character, was well written in my opinion. Her motives were always clear, though her actions did not always reflect that. As an older sister myself, I can understand being protective of younger siblings. In fact, whenever Cate even began to think of her own life and happiness she would dismiss it because it wouldn't benefit her sisters in anyway. Sure, she was controlling of them, and sure, she overreacted about some things that were way less of a big deal than she made them to be. But hey, she's thinking of her family here. And I'm totally cool with that. Something to mention is that there was a bit of a love triangle happening here, though it was slightly less in-your-face than it has been in other books. For one of the first times ever, I wasn't really rooting for one character or another, either. Both boys had their merits and shortcomings and would be equally good for our main character.

Now, something I have to complain about a little. This paragraph will contain MINOR SPOILERS so if you really don't want to know anything about this book before reading it, please continue on to the next spoiler free paragraph and pretend you never saw this. Go on. Are you still reading? Do you WANT to be still reading? Cool. Anyways, so something I really have to mention is this whole "mind magic is so rare, but everyone I know seems to have it!" thing. Even the characters themselves comment on how many people seem to be able to do this supposedly rare form of magic. I won't do a count of how many people can do it, as I don't want to give away too many spoilers here, but it's more than a few. Maybe they'll address this in the next book, but it just seemed strange to spend so much time talking about how nobody can ever do this kind of magic (though the Brothers seem to think that it's everywhere, but that's mostly to scare people) and then it starts popping up in all these characters like it's just some garden-variety power. Again, maybe this was intentional, but it definitely bugged me.

Much of this book felt like setup for the next novels, which made it slow at times, but I think that in the end it works to this book's advantage. You don't see too much of the magic that the characters can do, and we're not given all the facts right off the bat. It was a refreshing departure from many of the books who jump into the action right away and rush the endings. While this might not work for every reader, I think that this book (which until the last third can almost be seen as a prologue to the actual story) does a great job of setting the scene and introducing the world and the concepts.

If you're into romance and good storytelling and magic, this book is for you. If you're looking for action and excitement you'd probably be better off looking elsewhere, but I urge you to give this book a chance. I look forward to reading Ms. Spotswood's other books.

SCORE: 7.4/10
IF YOU LIKE: Grave Mercy (Robin LaFevers), Masque Of The Red Death (Bethany Griffin)

A Sweet Disorder - Jacqueline Kolosov

A Sweet Disorder is another one of those books I picked up for cheap simply because the cover looked pretty. I've always wanted to get into historical fiction, but every time I try to pick one up I find myself not being able to get into the setting or the style of writing. Movies are a completely different thing for me - I love movies like The Other Boleyn Girl. The books, however, I struggle with, and this one was no exception.

Once I got into the book (which took a few tries, let me tell you!) I found an enjoyable story about a teenager, Miranda, whose father dies suddenly. Because of this, her and her family are left in relative poverty with no dowry and no prospective suitors for Miranda. The man she was promised to, Henry, is forced by his family to pull out of their arranged marriage. With nowhere else to go, Miranda gets sent off to live with some distant family relations who prepare her for her final destination: the Court of Queen Elizabeth. Though she is going to court, the Countess of Turbury (her distant relation) is planning on marrying her off to a rich old man. This marriage will benefit both the Countess and Miranda's family, as the man is very wealthy and will be able to support them.

At court, Miranda is singled out for her sewing talents (How do I keep reading all these books about sewing and fashion?) and quickly becomes a favourite. This angers many of the other girls there, who would also like to be the favourites of the Queen and the court. Miranda realizes that this sewing talent may be her only way out of the marriage the Countess has arranged for her, and attempts to become a royal seamstress.

During this, Henry shows up at court. All the other girls would love to marry him, and many are very catty about it, willing to do anything to beat the competition and become his wife. Miranda, however, is still in love with Henry and (though she tries to hide it) finds herself drawn to him.

The main gripe I have with this book is the characters. Aside from Miranda, many of the ones that we were supposed to care about seemed like stock characters. For example, there was a small amount of character development on Henry, but for the most part he just played the 'gorgeous unattainable guy' stereotype and was very wooden. One of the antagonists in the book, a girl who wants to marry Henry, seems to have little to no motivation aside from wanting to marry Henry. Other characters showed promise, such as Chidiock Kyd. However, after a great introduction and development, Kyd only showed up again near the end of the book.

The dialogue didn't always feel real, especially for a historical book. I imagine it must be very difficult to write using language and sentence structure that isn't what we're used to today, but sometimes the lines coming from the character's mouths didn't seem consistent with the setting and events. I found that Miranda's thinking was sometimes a little ahead of her time as well. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I definitely would have changed the ending (which was predictable) and given other characters like Kyd and Elizabeth I their time to shine.

SCORE: 6.8/10
IF YOU LIKE: The Red Queen's Daughter (Jacqueline Kolosov), The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)