Week in Review: January 28

This week on the blog you can check out:

• Nemesis: A Review
• Like a River Glorious: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review
• This Month at The Hub: Books with Bakers, Chefs, and Other Food Enthusiasts

I am still getting over this horrible cold and now my mom is also sick so a lot of this week was dragging myself around just trying to get through. Hopefully next week will be better and I can make up for my lost birthday weekend. Blah.

I am feeling like I can get back to doing work things that aren’t just sitting at my desk soon though! And maybe even writing reviews again! Progress!

Here’s my latest from Instagram:

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If you you want to see how my month in reading is shaking out be sure to check out my January Reading Tracker.

How was your week? What are you reading? Let’s talk in the comments.

Like a River Glorious: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

*Like a River Glorious is the second book in Carson’s Gold Seer trilogy. This review contains spoilers for book one. If you’re new to the series start with book one Walk On Earth a Stranger*

“I thought my magic would save us all. But it turns out, all the magic in the world is rubbish compared to good people who take care of their own.”

October 1849: Leah “Lee” Westfall has made it to California along with her new family of misfits, outcasts, and unlikely friends that she met along the trail. But even with her best friend Jefferson and her family by her side, the path to gold and prosperity is not easy–even for a witchy girl like Lee who can sense gold.

Hiram, Lee’s uncle, is still desperate to use her powers for her own gain. Lee was helpless to stop Hiram from killing her parents, she’s determined that he won’t hurt anyone else she cares about.

Lee’s plan to best Hiram backfire leaving Lee vulnerable as her uncle’s captive. Separated from her friends, Lee will need every ounce of her witchy powers, her resilience, and the help of new allies if she wants to free herself from Hiram’s grasp once and for all in Like a River Glorious (2016) by Rae Carson.

Find it on Bookshop.

Like a River Glorious is the second book in Carson’s Gold Seer trilogy. This review contains spoilers for book one. If you’re new to the series start with book one Walk On Earth a Stranger.

Like a River Glorious picks up shortly after the conclusion of book one (which ends right when Lee and her group arrive in California). Lee has found them a gold-rich area to claim and their settlement is well on its way to becoming a town called Glory. Then Uncle Hiram shows up, takes Lee captive, and everything goes to hell.

In order to read this book, it’s important to acknowledge that westerns are inherently problematic. As a genre the western often centers the experience of white characters while ignoring or diminish native experiences. Older westerns (and bad modern ones) romanticize expansion, systemic genocide, and white savior tropes while exoticizing, stereotyping or dehumanizing American Indians. If you want to see critiques of books through a Native lens, definitely check out Debbie Reese’s blog, especially her review of the first book in this series.

Reading Like a River Glorious with the above in mind, there are still some problems inherent to the genre. But in this second installment, Carson does the work on the page to constantly check Leah’s privilege as well as that of the other characters (male privilege for instance). This book also thoughtfully engages with a lot of the racism/biases/stereotypes that Lee encounters.

The scope of this book is much smaller, Lee spends a lot of the story held captive by her uncle. Her world narrows to securing survival and safety for herself and those she cares about. She see the atrocities her uncle is perpetrating in his mad search for gold and she feels helpless in the face of it. Understandably, that makes Like a River Glorious quite bleak but also very important as, through Lee’s first person narration, the novel the problems of westward expansion along with the wonder that pioneers felt as they sought opportunities at the expense of the indigenous populations.

Carson uses this shift in tone to create a more character driven story focused particularly on Lee and Jefferson as the two friends try to reconcile their lifelong friendship with what comes next when Jefferson wants more and Lee wants to maintain her autonomy.

Lee grows up a lot in this installment as she realizes she cannot (and should not) always be the hero. Jefferson remains a perfect counterpoint to Lee as male lead and an excellent character in his own right. Like a River Glorious is a well-researched work of historical fiction with a slow burn a slow burn romance and inclusive cast and a touch of fantasy. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman, A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce, Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel, The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund, The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye, Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White, Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede

Nemesis: A Review

Princess Sepora of Serubel is the last Forger in the Five kingdoms. She is the only person alive who can create spectorium, a powerful element coveted for its energy and powerful properties.

When Sepora’s father weaponizes spectorium, Sepora chooses to leave her kingdom in secret and disappear rather than help him start a war. Across the border in Theoria, Sepora plans to live a quiet and anonymous life while hiding her Forging from prying eyes. Until she is captured and forced into service for Theoria’s king.

Tarik is young to be king and feels unready for the responsibilities that come with the title, especially as he has to deal with a mysterious plague sweeping through Theoria’s people with alarming speed. His efforts to track down a cure are complicated by a distracting new servant.

When Sepora and Tarik meet they form an immediate bond and an unlikely friendship could lead to much more. Sepora’s Forging could save Tarik’s kingdom but if her father finds her, it could also lead to war across the Five Kingdoms in Nemesis (2016) by Anna Banks.

Nemesis is the first book in Banks’ new duology which will conclude with Ally.

Nemesis introduces an interesting world filled with unique cultures that nod to ancient civilizations (Theoria places their dead in giant pyramids waiting for the day their scientists learn to conquer death) and science that comes close to magic. Unfortunately most of these elements are introduced through dense informational passages that make the opening of this novel feel clunky. And even worse, a lot of the world building in this book is just plain problematic.

The novel alternates between Sepora’s first person narration in a stilted style that rarely uses contractions and Tarik’s third person narrative. The transition from first to third person does little to differentiate between Sepora and Tarik’s narrative voices and instead creates a jarring transition between chapters.

Sepora is a thoughtful protagonist. She struggles with the choice to leave her home and what it will mean for her kingdom and beyond as spectorium disappears. Her moral dilemmas are portrayed throughout the book with careful thought and her growth throughout the novel is handled quite well.

Unfortunately some remarks about other kingdoms lack that same forethought. Throughout Nemesis the Wachuk kingdom is described as primitive because the people their have chosen to eschew verbal language because actions, as it were, speak louder. The Wachuks use sign language and some sounds described alternately as clicks, growls and grunts. The commonality for every descriptor is that they are described as primitive. Readers never see what Wachuk life actually looks like. The idea that being non-verbal makes the Wachuk’s primitive is never challenged or even explored in any meaningful way on the page. None of the characters have a teachable moment about it. Lingots, Theorians who are able to discern lies from truths and interpret languages, can understand the Wachuk but again that never leads to any deeper revelations.

This bias where different is equated with primitive/inferior is compounded with the portrayal of the Parani. In Serubel, parents tell their children about the Parani as a cautionary tale to keep them out of the dangerous water nearby. The Parani live underwater and are rumored to be able to kill a person in moments. They have tough skin, webbed fingers, and sharp teeth. Sepora also learns firsthand that they are humanoid in appearance and capable of comprehension, reasoning, and language (in the form of high pitched sounds that again do not resemble “typical” words and therefore must be “primitive”). Everyone else in the five kingdoms views the Parani as animals to be avoided or, if encountered, killed before they can attack. Or eaten. Again meaningful realizations that the Parani are people become sidelined by the Lingots’ magical ability to understand them despite the Parani being crucial to the story.

There is a lot in Nemesis that works well. Sepora is an engaging if sometimes misguided heroine and Tarik is an entertaining foil/love interest. The premise of the story is intriguing if not the most highly developed. Unfortunately the combination of stock secondary characters, poorly integrated world building details, and badly handled misconceptions about “primitive” or “other” characters take this potentially fun story and make it incredibly problematic and often painful.

Readers looking for a story with star-crossed lovers and/or nuanced fantasy would be better served elsewhere.

Possible Pairings: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson, The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine, Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton, The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier, The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, And I Darken by Kiersten White

*An advance copy of this title was provided by the publisher for review consideration*

Week in Review: January 21

This week on the blog you can check out:

• Blog Book Giveaway: The Lost Sun, The Strange Maid, The Apple Throne by Tessa Gratton
• The Apple Throne: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review
• Author Interview #3: Tessa Gratton on The Apple Throne

I decided to dedicate my birthday week on here to one of my favorite book series. There’s still time to enter to win the full series in my giveaway. 

Unfortunately I was sick for most of my mini staycation for my birthday. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery. 

If you you want to see how my month in reading is shaking out be sure to check out my January Reading Tracker.
How was your week? What are you reading?  Let’s talk in the comments.

Author Interview #3: Tessa Gratton on The Apple Throne

Tessa Gratton’s Songs of New Asgard is one of my favorite series and one I wish more people could find. The series concluded in 2015 with The Apple Throne. Tessa is here today to talk about this final installment in the series.

Miss Print (MP): What was the inspiration for The Apple Throne?

Tessa Gratton (TG): The first draft of THE LOST SUN was from Astrid’s point of view. About a third of the way in I realized I was telling Soren’s story and that the part of Astrid’s I was most interested in begins at the very end of that book. So really, the inspiration for TAT was part of my original inspiration for the entire series: Astrid was the very first character I created to live in the United States of Asgard. I wanted to explore religion and politics in an America founded by Vikings and their gods, so I needed a character involved in both. That was Astrid, because she has faith in a religion that seems faithless, and is very invested in making her country stronger and better. As a prophet, she has the power to do that, just like her mother did. She was, in essence, born for both religion and politics in the US of Asgard.

When I got to actually developing the Apple Throne, my core inspiration was the question: how does a human girl exist when she’s been made into a goddess, but is still just herself, with her same desires and loves and fears?

MP: You chose to self-publish The Apple Throne when the series was cancelled by its original publisher. What has it been like handling the publishing side of things on your own?

TG: Terrible. LOL. I was not made, personality-wise, for self-publishing. I am a writer, and that’s all I’m interested in, not the important tasks of marketing and choosing design and hiring copy editors and figuring out formatting and all the ins and outs of Kindle/Createspace/iBooks, etc etc etc. I just want to tell my stories and argue on Twitter.

MP: As part of that shift to self-publishing, you also reissued the entire series with new covers. Can you talk a bit about the redesign? Do you have a favorite new cover or an element you were excited to add to any of the new covers?

TG: YES! The covers were the only fun part of self-publishing. I worked with Saundra Mitchell who is wonderful. She was tireless in her quest to find exactly what I was looking for—or in a few cases, exactly what I didn’t even know I needed!

I have never been a fan of the original hardcover design for The Lost Sun. My publisher and I went around and around and finally it was time to just settle or move the publication date. (There was a lot going on at the time, including the Penguin-Random House merger that led to a shake-up in all the people I was working with.) However, I talked with my agent and the agency’s digital marketing person, and we decided it would be best to not deviate TOO far from the original hardcovers, so that The Apple Throne matched them in essence, though we hoped to eventually redesign the whole series (which we did!).

My favorite is probably The Lost Sun, though I think The Apple Throne is the most beautiful. But I never got to see Soren on the cover, despite the face originally on the hardback. Saundra and I spent hours and hours looking for images of young men who could be Soren that I could afford to buy the rights to. So although he’s not perfect (the model is not of Samoan descent like Soren), he is so close in looks and haunted berserker attitude it gives me a feeling of triumph to look at that cover.

MP: I loved Astrid’s growth over the course of this novel. In The Lost Sun Astrid is a very confident character. She understands her place in the world as a prophet and she knows how to work within that role to accomplish what she needs and wants to accomplish. In The Apple Throne a lot of that is lost to Astrid as she is no longer a prophet but Idun of the Apples. How did you go about channeling that change in her character and giving voice to this new aspect of Astrid’s life?

TG: I think this kind of change is something many people deal with—I have myself. It’s that thing where you think you get what you wanted, and it turns out to change everything. The goal you’ve worked toward and the choices you make add up to something amazing, but so far beyond and different from what you expected it feels like the world is upside down. With Astrid, that’s very literal: she’s lost herself *literally* except in the memories of a very few people. Her name and purpose have been changed, and she chose that, but there are unforeseen consequences. I thought through the layers of emotional and physical ramifications as I worked, developing her trajectory alongside developing the metaphor and character arcs I wanted to play with. I wanted her to rediscover herself, and take the parts of herself she knew and the parts that were new to her and merge them. This was about Astrid staying true to herself and her choices, while at the same time meeting new challenges to continue making the world better—which was always her goal. So in a lot of ways it was a post-teen story, a story about becoming an adult.

Plus, like you said, Astrid has always been confident, so really all I had to do was take that confidence away and help her find it again. That’s what we frequently ask ourselves as writers: what is the worst thing I can take away from this character? And that becomes the challenge/conflict.

MP: Is there any scene that you are particularly excited for readers to discover in this novel?

TG: Oh, wow. Any of the scenes when Astrid’s world and Signy’s collide. They’re both so powerful, I loved having them together so I could watch and create sparks, and try to find ways for their power to complement each other and also challenge each other. Soren is great, a wonderful cinnamon roll, but really he’s a vehicle for exploring a lot of powerful women in this series.

MP: The Apple Throne strikes a great balance between new characters and familiar favorites from the other books in the series. Which character are you excited for readers to meet in this book? Favorite character from the series?

TG: Thank you! In this book I think I’m most interested in people meeting Sune Rask, and Amon along with him. I love writing their dialogue and exploring their very long, fraught relationship.

Glory is probably my favorite in the whole series. The Fenris Wolf, destined to devour the sun and end the world as teenaged girl? MY HEART. Her novella Glory’s Teeth was a dream to write. Falling into her world and voice and desires was like my desert after all the difficulties of writing Signy’s story. (I love Signy, but our relationship is even more fraught than Sune and Amon’s.)

MP: Can you tell us anything about your next project?

TG: YES! I have two new books coming in 2018: THE QUEENS OF INNIS LEAR from Tor. It’s my adult fantasy debut, a retelling of King Lear full of sisters, betrayal, magic, murder, feminism, and love. The other is SLAUGHTER MOON, a standalone YA from McElderry, about toxic masculinity, a magical forest, sacrifice, and witches.

–

Thanks again to Tessa for another great interview and always being up to chat with me on the blog. You can also read my review of The Apple Throne here on the blog and visit Tessa Gratton’s website for more info about her and her books.

You can also enter my giveaway to win ebooks of this trilogy!

The Apple Throne: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

“It is by touching gods and godlings, elves and trolls and men and women, by starting a new story for ourselves and our names, that we reach into the future.

“That is how we thrive.”

Astrid Glynn traded her life as a talented prophet and seethkona to save the person she loves. Soren Bearstar struck a bargain in turn so that he would remember Astrid even as the rest of the world forgot her.

It has been two years since Astrid gave up her name, her prophetic dreams, and her life to become Idun the Young–the not-quite goddess who guards and distributes the apples of immortality. In those two years Soren’s bargain has allowed him to visit her every three months. Until he doesn’t come.

Certain that something terrible is keeping Soren away, Astrid goes against the gods to escape her hidden orchard and search for him. With unexpected help from one of Thor’s bastard sons, Astrid travels across New Asgard to find Soren and save him.

Astrid is no longer the seer she once was nor is she exactly a goddess. She will have to bridge the gap between her old life and new if she wants to save the people she loves and protect the world as they know it in The Apple Throne (2015) by Tessa Gratton.

Find it on Amazon (not available on Bookshop).

The Apple Throne is the conclusion to Gratton’s Songs of New Asgard (United States of Asgard) series. It is preceded by The Lost Sun and The Strange Maid. All of the books function very well as stand-alone titles however, because of timeline and character overlap, The Apple Throne does include spoilers for the earlier books. These titles have all been reissued by the author through CreateSpace as paperbacks and eBooks.

The Apple Throne is a fantastic conclusion to one of my favorite fantasy series. This story starts soon after the conclusion of Soren’s story and references the events of Signy’s ascension to her title as Valkryie. Although Astrid’s story is removed from that of the other protagonists in this series, her arc culminates in a finish that neatly ties all three books together.

Astrid accepts her current role as Idun, a quasi-goddess, gladly. But the loss of her identity as young prophet Astrid Glynn and her separation from Soren still sting. More importantly, Astrid isn’t sure who she is without a place in the world and her dream visions to guide her. Throughout the story Astrid has to reconcile who she used to be with who she has become as she tries to correct past mistakes and protect the people she holds dear.

A feminist story literally about a young woman carving a place for herself in the world, The Apple Throne is another thoughtful fantasy filled with the intricate world building that Gratton’s fans will expect. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst, The Curiosities by Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater and Brenna Yovanoff, Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers, Freya by Matthew Laurence, The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley, Soundless by Richelle Mead, Clariel by Garth Nix, Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell, The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab, Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Be sure to watch for my interview with Tessa about this book tomorrow!

You can also enter my giveaway to win ebooks of this trilogy!

Blog Book Giveaway: The Lost Sun, The Strange Maid, The Apple Throne by Tessa Gratton

This year I finally worked up the nerve to read the conclusion to one of my favorite trilogies: The Apple Throne by Tessa Gratton. I’m happy to say it was excellent.

So much so that I want to share the series with all of you in this giveaway for the entire USAsgard series.

I’m giving away Kindle eBooks of The Lost Sun, The Strange Maid, and The Apple Throne to one reader.

Giveaway is open to any readers over the age of 13. US only.

Giveaway will run from midnight January 16 through January 22.

Winner will be notified January 23 and win 3 a copy of each of the titles mentioned above.

If I don’t hear back from any winner by January 24 I will pick a new winner from the entry pool.

ENTER HERE

I’m running the giveaway through a Rafflecopter giveaway. Details on how to enter can be found by clicking “enter” above or clicking the photos!

Week in Review: January 14

This week on the blog you can check out:

• The Smoke Hunter: A Review
• The Sun is Also a Star: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

Mock Printz has come and gone. It went really well! Everything at work broke this week but when I left for my four day weekend it seemed like everything was fixed. Except the refrigerator.

I also took a lot of time to opt out of any people search sites I could find. If you are worried about things like that, I’d suggest checking if your info appears on FamilyTreeNow.com. You can also check out the sites listed here: https://www.safeshepherd.com/handbook/privacy-basics The site also has instructions for opting out of any of the sites listed.

Here’s my latest from Instagram:

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If you you want to see how my month in reading is shaking out be sure to check out my January Reading Tracker.

How was your week? What are you reading? How is 2017 going so far? Let’s talk in the comments.

The Sun is Also a Star: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

“Because everything looks like chaos up close. Daniel thinks it’s a matter of scale. If you pull back far enough and wait for long enough, then order emerges.”

…

“Maybe their universe is just taking longer to form.”

Natasha believes in science and facts. Her life doesn’t have room for fate or destiny. Which is why it’s so hard to hope for a miracle on her last day in New York City. Natasha’s family is going to be deported to Jamaica in twelve hours. Natasha doesn’t believe in long shots but it’s the only shot she has left to try and stay in the city that’s been her home since she was a child. She doesn’t have time to waste meeting a cute boy and maybe falling in love with him. Not when she is so busy trying to balance her practical nature with her hopes for some last-minute magic.

Daniel is used to being a good son. Not the best son because that’s always been his older brother. But solidly second best. Except now his brother screwed up big time and Daniel’s parents are pinning their hopes for having a Successful-Ivy-League-Graduate-Doctor in the family on Daniel. The problem is that Daniel wants to be a poet–something his Korean immigrant parents can’t understand. At. All. Daniel believes in poetry and fate which is why he knows the moment he sees Natasha on the street in Times Square that their lives are about the change forever.

It feels like the universe or fate or something Big is conspiring to bring Natasha and Daniel into each others’ lives. But over the course of a day filled with possibility, neither Natasha nor Daniel is sure if that will be enough to keep them together in The Sun is Also a Star (2016) by Nicola Yoon.

Find it on Bookshop.

The Sun is Also a Star is Yoon’s second novel. It was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and has received six starred reviews. (UPDATE:) The Sun is Also a Star also received an honor for the 2017 Printz Award.

All of that is impressive on its own but it’s also important to remember that we often hold contemporary romances like this one up to a higher standard when considering them for awards based on literary merit which makes this book stand out even more as both an exemplar of contemporary romance at its best and also as a generally excellent book.

The Sun is Also a Star is set over the course of one day but the plot is more far-reaching with interconnecting narratives and characters related to each other by six (or even fewer) degrees of separation.

The majority of the novel alternates between Natasha and Daniel’s first person narrations with their distinct voices and world views. Other chapters follow characters who are key to bringing Daniel and Natasha together including a depressed security guard, a subway conductor who has found god, and even Natasha and Daniel’s parents–all chronicled as brief histories. This shifting story maintains a consistent and deliberate voice thanks to the omniscient narrator whose sections contrast well with Natasha’s pragmatic nature and Daniel’s classic dreamer outlook in their respective narrations.

This thoughtful story also nicely subverts some of the traditional gender roles found in contemporary romances. Natasha is an unapologetically smart girl who works hard and knows that life isn’t fair. She is jaded and ambitious. Daniel, meanwhile, is a genuinely nice and optimistic boy who believes in the power of fate even while learning how to make his own choices and stand by them.

Everything in The Sun is Also a Star refers back–sometimes subtly and sometimes not–to the idea of love being a driving force in the universe. All of the tangential characters whose actions work to bring Natasha and Daniel together through happenstance or fate are working on some basis of love–the train conductor who has found god and loves life, the security guard who is lonely and mired in her own lack of love both from others and for herself, the attorney and his paralegal. It’s all love in one form or another. Even Natasha’s father and his actions are driven by his conflict between his love for his family and his love of performing.

Yoon does so many things in The Sun is Also a Star and she does them all well, while making it seem effortless with a combination of literary prose and a deceptively sleek plot. This book juggles multiple characters, narratives, and plot threads to create a coherent story about the many factors bringing Natasha and Daniel together as well as those which are conspiring to keep them apart. It evokes an authentic New York City setting not just a shiny tourist one but the dingy parts too. The Sun is Also a Star does all of that while offering an intellectually stimulating story that still manages to be upbeat and romantic. Highly recommended.

Possible Pairings: The Beauty of the Moment by Tanaz Bhatena, The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert, In a Perfect World by Trish Doller, Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo, The Careful Undressing of Love by Corey Ann Haydu, The Truth Commission by Susan Juby, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram, Love and Other Train Wrecks by Leah Konen, The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder, The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord, I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick, Summer in the Invisible City by Juliana Romano, Birthday by Meredith Russo, Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith, Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood, Cloudwish by Fiona Wood, Frankly in Love by David Yoon, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin

*An advance copy of this title was acquired from the publisher for review consideration at BEA 2016*

The Smoke Hunter: A Review

Ellie Mallory has few regrets when she loses her position as a government archivist after her arrest at a suffragist rally. Her exit ends with a neat bit of rebellion when Ellie grabs an unassuming Psalter that has been mis-catalogued.

Inside the book Ellie finds a mysterious stone with odd carvings along with a map to a hidden city that shouldn’t exist. The map claims to lead the way to a Mayan city deep in the jungle that was flourishing long after the civilization’s collapse. Finding the city could make Ellie’s career and open doors for her that have long been barred because of her gender.

When pursuers threaten to take Ellie’s prize out from under her, she embarks on a journey on her own to Belize City where she plans to mount her own expedition and find the city first. Ellie reluctantly hires on Adam Bates, a local surveyor and experienced explorer, to help her reach the hidden location.

As Ellie and Adam approach their destination there realize there is more at stake than credit for an unprecedented discovery. Dark forces are at work and Ellie and Adam are being drawn to their source in The Smoke Hunter (2016) by Jacquelyn Benson.

The Smoke Hunter is Benson’s debut novel.

The Smoke Hunter unfortunately has a slow start. A prologue dating from 1632 sets the scene but also delays drawing readers into the story. Despite the breakneck pacing and constant action, Ellie’s journey is slow to start with substantial setup as she discovers the map and also as she works to begin her exhibition.

Stilted dialogue and overlaps in the narrative from chapters that alternate close third-person point of view work to create an uneasy distance between readers and what should be a plot filled with urgency and immediacy.

Ellie and Adam are unlikely allies and a powerful force as they learn to trust each other and work together over the course of The Smoke Hunter. Readers willing to put in time with the setup in the beginning will be rewarded with a story filled with light adventure and high action.

Possible Pairings: Heart of Fire by Linda Howard, The Secret Sister by Elizabeth Lowell, Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel, Sandstorm by James Rollins, Indiana Jones, Romancing the Stone