Once Upon a Time Challenge Wrap Up

The Once Upon a Time Challenge ends June 20th and I am very happy that I managed to finidh it on time. It was my first time joining this challenge and I was a bit worried about completing it because I don't read that much fantasy. Fortunately I really enjoyed most of the books I've read and I think I will definitely be reading more fantasy in the future.

Books read:

Irish Magic - Anthology - (magic)

The Sharing Knife, Legacy - Lois McMaster Bujold - (fantasy)

King of Sword and Sky - C L Wilson (fantasy)

The Ghost and Mrs McClure - Alice Kimberly - (ghost story)

Moon Called - Patricia Briggs - (urban fantasy)

I was looking at Carl's website to post my reviews but there seems to be a problem with Mr Linky at the moment so I'll try later. Looking at the main post again made me realise that there's no mention of ghost stories in the rules, I sure hope they count too or else I'm disqualified. ;-)

Moon Called - Patricia Briggs

Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they'll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I'm not human. I know them when I ' meet them, and they know me, too. Mercy Thompson's sexy next-door neighbor is a werewolf. She's tinkering with a VW bus at her mechanic shop that happens to belong to a vampire. But then, Mercy Thompson is not exactly normal herself...and her connection to the world of things that go bump in the night is about to get her into a whole lot of trouble.

After reading the two stories in the Alpha and Omega series by Patricia Briggs that I absolutely loved, I decided I should try this one too.

Mercy Thompson, the heroine who gives her name to the series, is an auto mechanic and a walker. That means she can turn into a coyote. Mercy’s world is a succession of fantastic creatures, there are the fae, the werewolves, and the vampires and then there are the humans. Mercy lives in the Tri-Cities in the backyard of the local werewolf Alpha, Adam. She was raised among werewolves, in the Marrock’s pack, and she feels quite at home among them, in fact she feels there may be a special connection between her and Adam.

When the story opens Mercy gives work to young man that appears on her doorstep, she can smell that he is a wolf but he doesn’t talk about that much. In the subsequent day, Mercy kills two werewolves, the young man is murdered, Adam, the Alpha werewolf is attacked, and his daughter kidnapped. Unable to decide who’s to blame Mercy takes a badly wounded Adam to see the Marrock, the leader of the wolves in North America.

While Adam is being taken care of Mercy meets Samuel again, the Marrock’s eldest son who she was in love with once and with whom she almost run away to marry. It is quite apparent that there’s something still between them. Samuel is now a doctor and the Marrock sends him back with Mercy and Adam to discover what happened and where is Adam’s daughter Jesse.

While it may sound a love triangle is in the works the main focus of the story is very much the action, the mystery behind the attack and Mercy herself. The story is full of suspense and very fast paced and I was completely immersed in it. Besides the werewolves, also the vampires play an important role in the story as Mercy has befriended the vampire Stefan and through him they try to find id they have any clues about what happened.

I think one of the best things about Briggs’s books is how well she creates the fantastic world where the characters live. Despite there being innumerous characters and species, you never feel confused about who is what and it’s easy to understand who is who in the wolf’s hierarchy. Like in the Alpha and Omega series, I really enjoyed knowing about who has the power, how the laws are enforced, etc…

And then the other this I really liked was Mercy herself, she is confident but knows her weaknesses, she is determined and courageous but not reckless and she is intelligent and actually a nice person to the ones who surround her.

I can’t wait to read the next one and see what happens next with Mercy, Adam and Samuel and what adventures they will get involved in.´

Grade: 5/5

The Ghost and Mrs McClure - Alice Kimberly

This spirit is willing--to catch a killer. Young widow Penelope
Thornton-McClure and her old Aunt Sadie are making ends meet by managing a mystery bookshop--a quaint Rhode Island landmark rumored to be haunted. Pen may not believe in ghosts, but she does believe in good publicity--like nabbing Timothy Brennan for a book signing. But soon after the bestselling thriller writer reveals a secret about the store's link to a 1940s murder, he keels over dead--and right in the middle of the store's new Community Events space. Who gives Mrs. McClure the first clue that it was murder? The bookstore's full-time ghost--a PI murdered on the very spot more than fifty years ago. Is he a figment of Pen's overactive imagination? Or is the oddly likable fedora-wearing specter the only hope Pen has to solve the crime? You can bet your everlasting life on it .. .

As the title indicates this is a ghost story with the particularity of being a cosy mystery too. Young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure has moved in with her aunt Sadie to a small town intending to raise her son as she sees fit while helping her aunt running an old bookstore.

They renovate the shop and Penelope has great plans for it so she decides to start having autograph sessions with famous authors. The first one is crime writer Timothy Brennan, author of the Jack Shields’ mysteries.

However, just when Brennan is speaking about his books and their connection to a murder in the 40s and Penelope’s bookstore he falls dead. And Penelope starts hearing voices in her head. The voice belongs to Jack Shepard, now a ghost, but also the man who was murdered in the 40s and in which Brennan based his famous character.

Brennan wasn’t exactly an easy person to live with and family and friends seem mostly relieved that his dead. And when the police starts investigating his death and the clues seem to point towards murder Penelope and Jack, the ghost, join forces to find out who did it.

While I do like Cosy mysteries I had some trouble getting into this one. Penelope just didn’t seem all that interesting and while Jack was very interesting - I kept imagining someone like Humphrey Bogart - that just wasn’t enough to keep me entertained. I wanted to know more about what had happened to Jack and less about Brennan.

While it’s not bad, in the end it seemed a very light and forgettable story and it didn’t interest me enough to continue the series.

Grade: 3.5/5

King of Sword and Sky - CL Wilson

ONLY ONE ENEMY COULD DESTROY THEM.
ONLY ONE LOVE COULD UNITE THEM.
ONLY ONE POWER COULD LEAD THEIR PEOPLE TO VICTORY...
TAIREN SOUL

The magical tairen were dying, and none but the Fey King's bride could save them. Rain had defied the nobles of Celieria to claim her, battled demons and Elden mages to wed her. Now, with magic, steel, and scorching flame he would risk everything to protect his kingdom, help his truemate embrace her magic and forge the unbreakable bond that alone could save her soul.

King of Sword and Sky continues the story of Ellie and Rain as they travel to the Fading Lands. Ellie’s path is not an easy one, she is still grieving for her mother, she has to leave her sister and her father behind and it is clear from the beginning that she has many challenges to face in the Fading Lands. Not only she has to cross the Mists, which only let the worthy one enter but there are many people doubting Rain’s wisdom in bringing with him a true mate with two Mage marks and an ex- dahlreisen like Gaelen.

Ellie immediately gains allies when she heals the older warriors who are close to turning dahlreisen or seek death. But others still distrust her, especially after a vision seems to show her destroying them all. While Ellie becomes more confident than in the previous books, she still has doubts about who she is and how to control her magic. Besides wanting to learn as much as she can she is also looking for a way to save the Tairen kitlings, the reason that the Eye sent Rain looking for her. But to do that she will have to break Fading Lands’ laws and risk everything.

I really liked Ellie and Rain’s relationship in this book; I felt it was more balanced than in the previous stories. They are both powerful and respect each other; they decide what to do together. I think Wilson is particularly gifted in showing their feelings for each other and I really love their scenes together, she makes us see the magic and the love between them.

Regarding the High Mage, he truly is a bad guy, a real villain. In this story we find out exactly what he is doing and why and what really happened to make Ellie be what she is.

I cannot wait to see how the story unfolds in book 4.

Grade: 4.5/5

The Sharing Knife: Legacy - Lois McMaster Bujold

Fawn Bluefield, the clever young farmer girl, and Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned Lakewalker soldier-sorcerer, have been married all of two hours when they depart her family's farm for Dag's home at Hickory Lake Camp. Having gained a hesitant acceptance from Fawn's family for their unlikely marriage, the couple hopes to find a similar reception among Dag's Lakewalker kin. But their arrival is met with prejudice and suspicion, setting many in the camp against them, including Dag's own mother and brother. A faction of Hickory Lake Camp, denying the literal bond between Dag and Fawn, woven in blood in the Lakewalker magical way, even goes so far as to threaten permanent exile for Dag. Before their fate as a couple is decided, however, Dag is called away by an unexpected—and viciously magical—malice attack on a neighboring hinterland threatening Lakewalkers and farmers both. What his patrol discovers there will not only change Dag and his new bride, but will call into question the uneasy relationship between their peoples—and may even offer a glimmer of hope for a less divided future.

At the end of volume one Dag and Fawn leave Fawn’s family farm to travel to Lakewalkers lands. They are unsure of their welcome but they hope to, eventually, win them over as they did with the farmers.

Unfortunately no all goes as they want. In fact, the first rift comes with Dag’s family. They refuse to accept Fawn and his marriage to her, forcing them to take shelter with Dag’s aunt, Mairi, and her family. And there are a lot of other Lakewalkers less than thrilled with Dag’s wedding to a farmer girl.

A lot of questions are addressed in this book – the age difference between Dag and Fawn, their different backgrounds and all her faults in terms of the Lakewalker world, the most important of which is her lack of a ground sense. Dag tries to explain that she is special in many ways, that she has a powerful intuition that leads her to do the right thing – what he calls a fluke. However, there seems to be a war against them and, since his family wants his marriage dissolved, the camp council will be called upon to decide.

In the middle of it though, Dag is summoned to fight a big malice. Despite the fact that his attitude and choices are being called into question he is still one of their most important patrollers. The malice in one of the biggest they have come across and his strong magic almost kills Dag and a few of his patrollers. It will take another of Fawn’s flukes to save them, but not even that is enough to guarantee them acceptance.

I did like what Bujold shows us of the Lakewalker world, in fact I’m sorry that we won’t be spending more time there, it seemed very complex. I’m however looking forward to know where she is taking us next. In a way I think she wants to show us that Dag has lived so much and been through so many challenging things that he is ready to start over. To start over with Fawn and in a new place with a new way of life. Fawn is still very much a young girl trying to find her way in an unknown world. Her love for Dag is her guiding light and her “flukes”, as he calls them, show him she is the right one. Because of her, but also because of what he has seen while out on the world, Dag believes that the right path is to cooperate with the Farmers, not despise them or antagonize them.

Bujold has made known to us both Fawn and Dag’s world. I think we are now ready to see what changes they are going to bring to both worlds.

Grade: 4.5/5

Irish Magic - Anthology

Galway Bay - Morgan Llywelyn
A modern American woman journeys to the magical land of her ancestors ... and meets a man who is not of any world she knows.
The Harper's Daughter - Barbara Samuel
En route to a royal court, Deirdre meets a stranger whose coat is scarlet, whose hair is raven-black ... and whose passion is magnificent and wild.
Trysting Hour - Susan Wiggs
In ancient Tara, the betrothed Princess Aideen awakens from a fevered vision ... only to behold her dream lover.
Rarer Than a White Crow - Roberta Gellis
A beautiful warrior named Caer finds a lover to cherish--and to fear--when
she meets Prince Angus Og.

Finally, my first review for the Once Upon a Time III Challenge. I’ve chosen this anthology because Gellis is one of my favourite authors and I’ve long wanted to read Morgan Llywelyn, who is perhaps better known for her historical fiction titles. I wasn’t equally impressed with the stories but as a whole, it was a pleasant read.

Galway Bay – Morgan Llywelyn

A contemporary story about an American looking for what’s missing in her life. She travels to Ireland and learns more about Irish folklore and traditions. She is particularly drawn to the story of the Ron, while in the bay someone is waiting for the right time to act. While I found it enjoyable I also thought that the story was very one sided. I would have liked to know a lot more about the Ron and Irish folklore. Grade: 3.5/5

The Harper’s Daughter – Barbara Samuel

This one was more in the style of a traditional romance with some fantasy elements. A beautiful woman, promised to a king, finds she loves another but fears her love will bring about an old prophecy of blood and violence. The star-crossed lovers will be helped by a powerful warrior woman in trying to avoid the blood bath. Grade: 3.5/5

The Trysting Hour – Susan Wiggs

Again another fantasy story. A powerful spell has separated two immortal lovers in the past. To save his beloved the hero turned into a mortal with the hope that one day they may meet again and she will remember him and her love. Unfortunately she is being promised to a king and can’t seem to remember who she was. While I liked the characters, I felt the ending was a bit too neatly wrapped up. Grade: 3.5/5

Rarer Than a White Crow – Roberta Gellis

My favourite story, with fleshed out characters and an interesting plot. Angus is put under a spell to look for a woman he will love for the rest of his days. Said woman has to fulfill a promise made by her mother to the same witch to have a daughter from a certain man. When Angus and Caer, the warrior woman, meet he is determined to woo and win her and she, after knowing him better, is determined to send him away because she believes the witch wants to harm him. Not only we are kept interested in Angus plan but Gellis even manages to end with hints to a sequel. I wonder if there is one. Grade: 5/5

Anthology grade: 4/5