Geekerella: A Fangirl Fairy Tale by Ashley Poston

This book was everything I hoped it would be. It was a very tongue in cheek look at nerdlife and fandom, while staying true to the Cinderella retelling plot without making it feel forced. Starfield, the made up show in the story, is well introduced and so well explained I wish it was a real show, or a book (hint hint wink wink). I could easily see the author pulling a Rainbow Rowell and bringing the made-up fandom to life in another book.

Main character Danielle, Elle for short, is our Cinderella. She is a hardcore Starfield fan thanks to her father who basically invented the yearly con, ExcelsiCon, for Starfield. Unfortunately he father died leaving her with her wicked stepmother Catherine and the twins, her "ugly" step-sisters, Chloe who is shallow and selfish and the archetype of a mean girl; and Calliope or Cal, who is quite and just goes along with everything. Elle works on a vegan food truck called the Magic Pumpkin in Charleston, South Carolina with her co-worker Sage, who becomes Elle's best friend/fairy godmother.

Now for the prince. Actor Darien Freeman, and closet nerd has been cast as Federation Prince Carmindor in the Starfield reboot movie. Darien is your typical actor in a reboot in the sense the fandom is heckling him, thinking he won't do it justice. Darien fears that himself as a huge fan of the original Starfield. He tries to contact the founder of Excelsicon to cancel his appearance there and accidentally reaches Elle. They begin texting and form a friendship over the span of months that Darien is filming the Starfield movie and Elle is learning to be herself, and that she hasn't lost everything we she lost her Dad.

I really enjoyed this book, it brought joy to my nerd loving heart. I loved all the references to other fandoms, and quotes. It was everything a fangirl could want. I like the fairy tale aspect of it, I mean how often have fans dreamed of meeting the actor (or actress) behind their favorite character and imagined falling in love? By tumblr's calculations, hella many times. This book brought all the warm fuzzy feelings I had when I read Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, and my love of fairy tales together. I actually pre-ordered this book so I can shelve it next to Fangirl and coyly look at them and relive our adventures together.

I would highly recommend this book!

Marco Polo (2014)

Everything I love gets cancelled. Firefly, Dollhouse, Terminator Sarah Conner Chronicles, Star-Crossed, and now Netflix's incredible and visually stunning show Marco Polo.

Marco Polo tells the tale of the titular character's journey to the Mongolian Empire and subsequent service to Kublai Khan. In the beginning Marco is a young man living in Venice after the death of his mother several years prior. His father Niccolỏ Polo returns to Venice to find his wife dead and a son he never knew about. Marco wants to travel with his father but Niccolỏ and Marco's uncle, Maffeo, refuse, causing Marco to stow aboard their ship and join them anyway. Through a montage we see the rigors of traveling across the world to the Mongolian Empire.

When Marco and his family makes it to the court of Kublai Khan, Marco is mystified by the grandeur of the Mongolian Empire. Niccolỏ and Maffeo are desperate to travel and trade along the legendary silk road, and Niccolỏ, despite displeasing the Khan for not bringing priests to Kublai, offers his son's service to the Khan in order to acquire the necessary requirements to travel the Silk Road. Marco must now navigate the dangers of Kublai's court as a Latin foreigner, unused to the customs of the Mongolian people. Marco will make friends and enemies as world's collide.

Marco Polo was an amazing show. I am a huge lover of historical shows like Vikings and now The Medici, but Marco Polo was in a different class than those aforementioned shows. Marco Polo is the explorer every kid learns about in school, he's who inspired Christopher Columbus to set sail in 1492. How many summers have countless children spent in the pool shouting "Marco" and waiting with baited breath for the return call of "Polo"? This show takes the legend and strips it down to show us the man. Marco is a scared child in the beginning, but he finds the Khan to be the father figure he has always craved and he works hard to please the Khan and make a place for himself in this strange world. This show takes you past the bloodthirsty reputation of Kublai Khan that proceeds him and shows us the cunning politician, and caring leader underneath his ruthless veneer. Other lesser know historical characters are also brought to life, The Blue Princess, Kokachin, Prince Jingham, Khutulan, and Jia Sidao to name a few.

I am extremely disappointed with Netflix's decision to cancel Marco Polo, but I am too bitter familiar with this process to believe that another network would ever pick up this show. Thankfully CW has announced that Legend's of Tomorrow is being picked up for another season so I have something to cling to whilst I cry bitter tears of resentment because the ending of Marco Polo season two left me with more questions than answers.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

This book is one of those stories that changes you after you read it.

The book starts out with a young girl names Liesl who is friends with the Goblin King and as she grows up she forgets about him and her promise to marry him one day. Flash forward to 19 years later and Liesl is a dutiful daughter who has put her dreams aside for her family. She composes music only for her talented younger brother to play, and she dedicates her life to watching over her sister who is devastatingly beautiful and all the things she is not. Now yes there are obviously echos of the plot from Jim Henson's Labyrinth, which only makes me love it all the more.

Like the movie Labyrinth Liesl's sister gets taken by the goblins and she must journey to the Underground to save her, but unlike Sarah, Liesl did not wish her sister away. Käthe instead tastes the forbidden goblin fruit (in a beautiful reference to the poem The Goblin Market) and is trapped in the Underground.

Liesl does save her sister but instead she must remain with the Goblin King as his wife in order to save the world above from eternal winter. The longer she stays with the Goblin King she has come to love, the more of her spirit and life is taken from her. Liesl finds herself slowly wasting away and she must decide what is more important, love or her life.

Over all this novel was fascinating and I would definitely recommend it to all my fellow fantasy lovers. As I said after I finished this book I felt as if it had changed something within me. Similar to when I read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I related to the character Liesl so well (as I did with Cath from Fangirl) that it opened old emotional wounds. But that is the great thing about books, you learn and grow from the characters that are so close to you that their stories hurt. I loved this book and desperately hope for a sequel.

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

This book had a very interesting system of magic, but that's about all I found interesting. Sure the book is an easy read. The description says it's a cross between Pride and Prejudice and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and that is very accurate. However I felt as if I was simply reading Pride and Prejudice fanfiction; which is not to say that it was bad. No I enjoyed the plot and the characters, but overall it felt stiff. Like the author was trying to hard to color inside the lines. I'm curious about how the sequels are since the book ends with the characters being old and gray.

Shades of Milk and Honey is the story of Jane and her sister Melody. Jane is well, a Plain Jane and Melody is lovelier than all the world's beauties apparently. So Jane is the elder sister and is clearly supposed to be Elizabeth Bennett and Melody is supposed to be Mary mixed with Lydia. Basically the two sisters are jealous of each other while trying to navigate the social niceties of the regency period. They both are introduced to a revolving door of handsome suitors, some who turn out well, and others who reveal themselves to be rouges.

Despite my snarkniess I really did enjoy this book. I just have been so set in finding fantasy read a likes to Howl's Moving Castle that this one just struck me as only "okay". I think the problem is that the story was too grounded in reality where as I seem to like the more fantastical and whimsy of magic. As I said earlier I am curious about the sequels, and maybe someday I will read them but as for now I'm closing the book on this story and moving on to the next.

Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White

“There you are, darling. So sorry I'm late.”

I'm having a flashback to Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle film. Which is good, that has been my prerequisite for books lately. Kiersten White wow's us with a fantastic YA Fantasy book about a stubborn girl named Jessa. Jessa is from the island country of Melei (in my mind I think it's like Hawaii or the Caribbean Islands) but she is half-Albion. Thanks to that she has received the opportunity to study in Albion at a prestigious school her father teaches at. Though he is a huge jerk and refuses to acknowledge his illegitimate child.

On her way home from school she meets Finn, and enigma within an enigma. He is a mysterious lord who rescued her from the unwanted advances of another gentleman, things get more confusing with each meeting she has with Finn. Sometimes he's flirty and funny, other times he seems to ignore her very presence or wants nothing to do with her. One night she receives a mysterious package from him, in it is a beautiful dress and an invite to a ball, an because of this she is drawn into a world she does not fully understand. One of long standing grudges and magic. Can Jessa save everybody and find romance in the process?

I love, love, love this book. I'm literary going to be rushing to the bookstore next payday to buy a paperback of this book because I adore it so much. It has romance, wit, well rounded and relatable characters. Thinly veiled allusions to British and American colonialism and the effects it has on the natives (i.e. not good). This book deals slightly with prejudice and racism, but those issues take more of a back seat to the main plot point. I would have like to maybe have this dealt with a little more in depth, but alas I cannot always have what I want. The book is a nicely paced fantasy adventure with a heroine who actually is worth caring about. They only thing I did not like was how rushed the ending felt. This book could have easily ended in a cliffhanger and spurred a sequel, but instead the resolutions were all crammed into the last few chapters. Despite this I would still like to see a sequel. I feel like there is a lot more that can be told about this world, and it doesn't necessarily have to be about Jessa and Finn (à la Castle In The Air).

Overall this was a solid read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Howl's Moving Castle or The Paper Magician series.

The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Ceony is fast on her way to completing her apprenticeship as a Folder to her mentor/boyfriend Emery Thane. Due to their student/teacher relationship they have decided to keep there romance a secret until Ceony graduates, not that people don't suspect they are a bit too close because they do. To combat the gossip that Ceony had an unfair advantage in passing her exams to complete her apprenticeship, Emery sends her to study with another Folder temporarily. Only this Folder hates Emery and dislikes Ceony even more. Ceony finds herself losing focus on studying for her final exam when Excisioner Saraj Prendi escapes from prison to once again go after Ceony and the secrets she learned last year from former Gaffer turned Excisioner Grath Cobalt. Ceony can bond and unbond to materials at will, a magical art long forgotten.

Ceony is ordered by the Cabinet and Criminal Affairs to stay out of the investigation to find Saraj, but Ceony cannot help it. She goes after him, again and again. Each time finding that Saraj is making his way closer and closer to London, and not out of the country as Criminal Affairs believes. On top of this Ceony must navigate her way with Magician Bailey, her temporary mentor, and with the sudden silence from Emery Thane. Has he lost interest in her?

All in all this book was amazing! Seriously this series is one of the best things to happen to me ever. My only complaint is that it was too short! I wanted more happy endings at the end. I was happy Emery and Ceony are engaged at the end, kind of. A little epilogue with them happily married is all I'm asking for seriously! Well I suppose I shall just have to scour the internet for fanfiction to satisfy my curiosity.

The Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

The adventure continues in The Glass Magician! Ceony Twill is an apprentice Folder to Magician Emery Thane who is struggling to keep her feelings for her mentor hidden. Ever since she trekked through Emery Thane's heart and rescued him from his ex-wife and Excisioner Lira, Ceony has found herself falling in love with her teacher. But she hasn't broached the subject with Emery even after reading his fortune with a Fortuity Box confirmed that she and Emery were destined to be together.

Soon Ceony finds herself in the middle of a cat and mouse game with the other Excisioners from Lira's group. Wanting to know what she did to defeat Lira three months ago, and how to reverse it. Ceony must find a way to stop the Excisioners and continue her studies in Folding, but it's hard to do when her mind is so focused on her feelings for Emery, and examining the possible feelings he might hold for her.

This book was amazing! I could have finished it in one sitting if I didn't have this pesky thing called life interrupting me. The slow burn romance between Ceony and Emery was perfect. It wasn't rushed and it didn't feel like it came out of no where like in some books. There was beautiful romantic tension à la Numair and Daine from Tamora Pierce's Immortals Quartet. I look forward to reading the next in the series.