When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed Donna Underwood’s father and drove her mother mad. Her own nearly fatal injuries were fixed by alchemy – the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. Now seventeen, Donna feels like a freak, doomed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. Only her relationship with her best friend, Navin, is keeping her sane.

But when vicious wood elves abduct Navin, Donna is forced to accept her role in the centuries-old war between human alchemists and these darkest outcast of Faerie. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous guy with faery blood running through his veins and secrets of his own, Donna races to save Navin – even if it means betraying everything her parents fought to the death to protect.

Donna Underwood wears long, velvet gloves everyday to hide what her classmates think are skin graphs. But really, Donna is hiding the swirling silver tattoos that reach from her fingertips almost to her elbows. These tattoos saved her life when she was attacked as a child, but her mother and father weren’t so lucky. No seventeen, Donna has trust issues and she feels like she can’t even confide in her best and only friend, Navin. That is, until she meets Xan.

The Iron Witch, Karen Mahoney’s debut novel, is a blend of the faerie and alchemical worlds. The beginning of the book is a bit slow, but provides back story and introduces the fascinating world of alchemy. Donna belongs to an ancient alchemical order, the Order of the Dragon, and hearing about her world is intriguing, but also realistic. Sometimes I feel like the faerie world is overdone, but The Iron Witch offers a new slant on the fey and doesn’t go overboard. Mahoney does a great job of balancing the real world with a magical one.

I found Donna to be a very likable protagonist. She’s never mopey. Anytime she starts feeling bad for herself, she catches herself and realizes that instead of sitting around sulking, she can actually do something. She is a girl of action. Even though she knows she’s not invincible, she’s also not afraid to take chances. I also enjoyed reading about her budding relationship with Xan. She’s taken care of herself for so long that it’s hard for her to open up to others. When she finds herself reaching for Xan’s hand when she’s scared, she realizes that although she might not need him to protect her, it’s okay to let herself be comforted by others. This realization struck me as very honest and mature.

Navin and Xan are very interesting characters. Navin sounds like the best friend anyone could ask for. The popular crowd at school accepts him, yet he always sticks up and looks out for Donna. Mahoney might be setting the groundwork for a love triangle, but in The Iron Witch Navin doesn’t come across as anything more than a friend. Xan is also pretty incredible, but also much more secretive than Navin. He’s gorgeous, of course, and his chance meeting with Donna at his own party is almost too much of a coincidence to buy, but I’ll let it slide because I like him so much. Donna’s feelings for him seem believable and I like that she repeatedly acknowledges that she’s only known him for a few days, so we know she’s not one of those idiotic girls who fall in love with the first green-eyed, golden-skinned boy they meet. Donna feels the way I’m sure any girl in her situation would feel and she has a lot in common with Xan, enough to build a solid relationship on. I believe Mahoney does an excellent job with character development in her debut novel.

The only things I don’t like about this book is that the entire story takes place in the span of about three or four days and the dialogue sometimes comes across as unrealistic. The characters sometimes speak in an elegant or forced manner that doesn’t fit with their personalities or the time period. Also, all of the action happens in the last sixty pages and is resolved fairly quickly. But one huge question remains unanswered, a question proposed by the Wood Queen, and I’m interested to see where the author takes this story. Now that Mahoney has established Donna’s world, I think her next book will be exciting and even better than the first. I’ll be looking out for it.

Pages: 289
Publication Date: February 2011
Publisher: Flux
Challenge: Debut Author
Rating :

Teaser Quote: “There was something about Alexander Grayson that was both strong and vulnerable. Like he had the best reasons anyone could want if they were going to wallow in self-pity, but he refused to do that. He wore his sadness with dignity.”

“To twin siblings Izzie and Poe McGarity, big brother Rossa is not just the eldest of three children. He is a hero, a leader, a king. Or rather…he was a king. Before his mistake. Before he died.

Sometimes when you start reading a book you have a fair idea of what it’ll entail. You can either tell from the blurb, from what other people have said or from reading reviews. With this book however, I was completely unprepared.

The McGarity family has just suffered a devastating loss. Their son, their brother, their star, Rossa, died in an unfortunate accident, leaving behind a gaping hole of grief in the McGarity household. When news reaches old family friends, the Eriksson, they extend an invitation to the family to join them in Sweden for the winter where they are currently supervising the construction of The Ice Hotel.

They soon begin to pack and travel away from California and the house where the reminder of Rossa’s loss is found in every corner yet his presence is felt in every room.

The Ice Hotel however is housing more than just tourists and sculptors this year. As a huge storm builds over the Arctic Circle, forces greater than anything seen in over 50 years will cause more than just mass blackouts, and the Hunters are moving in closer just for the event.

The first sign of how unprepared I was for this book hit me on the first page – much of the writing is structured like a poem. Since I’d never read anything like that at first I thought, oh no, how am I supposed to read this? But very quickly I caught on and soon found my eyes easily tumbling down the page as the story travelled along centering on Rossa’s younger twin siblings, Izzie and Poe.

Through the twins we see just how heartbreaking Rossa’s death has been. From their parents who became shadows of their former selves, to their own pain as their grief made them sometimes at odds with each other.

M.C. Foley’s writing is both heartfelt and lyrical, illustrating the beautiful setting of the Swedish Ice Hotel (which is a real place), the spectacular Northern Lights, as well as the way death and grief is dealt with. Some scenes really hit close to the heart and at times will have you in tears. I especially liked the passage about hope and the way ice and snow was used to represent death and letting go. It was interesting to see a fantasy/supernatural aspect combined with such a heavy topic but it was used quite well. The story sometimes switched back in time, to different characters but was weaved into the main storyline effortlessly adding depth to the characters mentioned.

I was glad to discover that there will be a sequel to The Ice Hotel because though the ending was beautiful and heartbreaking (you’ll need a box of tissues), it also left a lot up in the air. Im hoping we hear more about the men in the observatory, the Sami and the Hunters, in particular Alexander, since their role in this book was quite minor and almost felt unnecessary to the plot. Alexander was definitely interesting and at times added some drama, but in this book he could’ve just as easily not been in it.

The Ice Hotel was a completely unique experience with an utterly heartbreaking story. I said that I was unprepared for what was to come, but each aspect was a pleasant surprise to discover. If you’re after a story that’s out of the norm then this one’s for you.

Pages: 364
Publication Date: February 2010
Publisher: CreateSpace/Self Published
Challenge: n/a
Rating::

Teaser Quote: “…anything?,” Ahnna chocked. Behind her, Poe chocked too.
“Yes. God, yes,” Del responded. “Anything.”
“Then bring him back.”

“Countless teenage girls have been brutally murdered…and Scarlett and Rosie March know how they died – torn apart by werewolves. For Scarlett, the memories of a similar attack have left not just emotional scars, but physical ones. The sisters fight side by side to save others from the same fate.

But Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves. She finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax and Scarlett’s only friend – but does loving him mean betraying her sister and all that they’ve worked for?”

When we were young we were told the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

She went into the forest to visit her grandmother. Poor granny had already met a wolf though and was eaten right up – whole. When Red encounters the wolf at her grandmother’s house pretending to be human, wearing her clothes, Red is moments away from sharing the same fate as her granny. Luckily, a woodsman swoops in and saves Red and her grandmother….

… but what if he didn’t come in time?

It’s from this thought that Jackson Pearce’s Sisters Red is born.

After a brutal attack by a Fenris (a soulless werewolf) when the March sisters – Scarlett and Rosie, were only young, their lives were truly devastated. The attack claimed the life of their beloved Grandmother and left Scarlett heavily scarred and missing her right eye after she took on the monster to protect her younger sister.

Now that they know the truth about what the Fenris are the sisters have dedicated their lives to training, fighting and killing as many of them as they can find.

The hunt has consumed Scarlett ever since the attack, giving each monster a taste of what they did to her and her grandmother. Rosie is a skilled fighter also but craves for something more than blood and revenge. When their childhood friend Silas comes back to town, Rosie feels an undeniable pull, and maybe, just maybe, Silas feels it too.

I was initially looking forward to reading this book but unfortunately I was left a bit underwhelmed. Maybe I would’ve felt differently about the book if it wasn’t for the fact that I haaaaaated Scarlett.

To be fair, Pearce crafted the characters quite skillfully and I truly understood where each of them where coming from, but it doesn’t mean I liked it.

To Scarlett’s credit, she was a fierce fighter who cared deeply for her sister. It just seemed like she probably needed to go into therapy after her attack because in the years after, her scars (Scar-lett, get it?) left her with terrible insecurities as well as a major case of neediness and fear of abandonment by the people still in her life.

Now those definitely aren’t reasons to dislike a character, it was more Scarlett’s never ending need to hunt, and then guilting her sister into doing the same, which made her come off as selfish despite the hunt being for the greater good. I have a feeling Scarlett’s brain would be something like this -

Hunt hunt hunt hunt ROSIE hunt hunt hunt hunt FOOD hunt hunt HATE FENRIS hunt hunt hunt hunt hunt hunt hunt hunt hunt.

It was all she ever wanted, all she ever did, all she ever talked about and heaven forbid you wanted to do anything else.

Since Scarlett saved her life, younger sister Rosie has felt that joining in the hunt alongside Scarlett is her way of paying her back, despite the fact that she struggles to share her sister’s bloodlust. As her feelings for Silas grow (who I liked but his reasoning for liking Rosie in the first place was kind of….strange) , she slowly breaks away and finds that there’s more to life than just hunting, and when it’s something as beautiful as love, it can only be denied for so long.

The blurb on the back of the book gives way too much away (this review includes a non spoiler blurb) which made the plotline predictable at times and kind of drag in between. There’s plenty of bone crunching, blood splashing action during the hunt scenes, particularly in the dramatic ending, but it also felt like it was hunt scene, after hunt scene, after hunt scene.

It would’ve been nice if the Fenris were better explained – why are they a secret? Scarlett and Rosie don’t exactly benefit from no one else knowing about them. Also, why are they only after the pretty, sparkly “dragonfly” type of girls as their meal choices? Do they taste better? It’s kind of an odd message to send – if you’re not super attractive you wont be “eaten” by the big bad wolves.

Ultimately, Sisters Red is a dark and interesting take on a classic fairytale. Though I wasn’t crazy about it, I know there are plenty out there who loved it, for some it’ll be a hit, others, a miss.

Pages: 344
Publication Date: June 2010
Publisher:  Hodder
Challenge: n/a
Rating: :

Teaser Quote: “I swiftly grab my hatchet off the ground.

The girls scream. They clutch each other. Their eyes are wide and terrified, streaming with tears.

“It’s gone,” I say. I see them scan my body, look at the scars that cover me and the hatchet in my hand. I don’t know what else to tell them. Their friend is dead.”