*** This review may contain Spoilers ***
I confess, I’m not all that familiar with the store of Swan Lake so I can’t say if this is a good retelling or not. What I can say it was just meh. I wanted really into it but I also wasn’t bored with it either. Evelayn is the crown Princess of the light side of the Kingdom. Long time ago, a curse fell on the Kingdom years ago and took away their immortality and separated them into two Kingdoms of Light and Dark. For centuries the two sides lived in peace and keeping balance of the magic until 10 years before when the King of the Dark magic started a war to grasp both sides. Evelayn is thrust into the conflict when her Mother is killed by the King making her Queen. Now Evelayn is a fine character. She’s smart and brave and willing to do anything for country. She does what she needs to be done. She’s a fast learner. She is just coming into her powers and is able to master all of them except for the power to transform into her Swan. Only those with royal blood can transfigure. Her love interest is Tanvir is kind of bland. Several times there are hints of him not being worthy, that he has a secret, or that there is something is past that could come back to haunt him. I was starting to think that he was a spy for the Dark Kingdom and he was forced to be a spy to save his sister who isn’t dead just being held captive by the King. That would have made him more interesting at least but no. The Dark Prince, Lorcan is far more interesting to me then either Evelayn and Tanvir and I sort of started rooting for him. I know he’s technically the real big bad of the story but I was left for interested in what he was going to do then the others. I also felt how Evelayn reacted at the end was a little out of character. She never sought out violence before. She had to do what she had to do for the safety of her Kingdom and keeping balance so for her to threaten the Dark Queen like she did seemed a strange move. True she is young and obviously scared and desperate but this wasn’t the first time she felt that way and handled things better. So yeah, it was meh but I’m going to read the second book because I do want to see what Lorcan does next.
This was a fun book to read if a little uneven. The sequel to Riders, Seekers picks up a week after the first book ended. Daryn has returned from Georgia after watching Marcus, Jode and Gideon reunite but too scared to face them. She’s still blaming herself for abandoning Bas to the other realm with Samrael, the leader of the Kindred. Gideon is still conflicted because he’s mad at Daryn for her role in Bas’ situation plus losing his hand but he’s also madly in love with her. The trials of teenage love. It’s been eight months and time is running out get Bas back so Daryn, Gideon and the other Riders of the Apocalypse must reunite to go into the Rift, face their demons and save Bas. Now I say it was fun because mixed with all the teenage angst were some funny moments. I truly appreciate Gideon’s snarkiness and sarcasm. A little uneven because it didn’t feel the momentum of the first part of the book didn’t stay to the last part. The book spends half of the book trying to find Bas and then we find him and find out that he was just the bait. Samrael was only using him to get Daryn and the real conflict begins. I sort felt that all the trials that happened before were kinda meaningless now. It seemed like a long way to go to get to the payoff and we did it wasn’t as satisfying and felt rushed. I wish we had spent less time on the Bas search and more on the Samrael/Daryn debate of forgiveness and who deserves it. Other then that, it was a good book.
Phew! I did it. I only had about 48 hours to read my DRC and I just barely made it under the deadline. It helped that those last two days fell on my days off from work. I’m very glad that I got a chance to read it. Believe Me was a touching and honest memoir of man who struggled by persevered not just in his career but in his life. Eddie Izzard is mostly known for his stand up but he is also an actor and transgender. He talks openly about his sexuality and trying to identify who he is when there really wasn’t a word for it, the loss of his mother when he was six and breaking into the entertainment industry when you have no idea on how to find the door. He goes step by step throughout his life that lead him to where he is now and those who are familiar with his stand up will notice how many of his chapters are written like his shows. With a topic and then a short digression into a topic that’s related but not really related before coming back to the original thread. It’s filled with humor and grief. Hard times but good times too. He didn’t have an easy road but it wasn’t all tragedy either. He owns up to his privilege of growing up in a middle class household. How the hard work of his father not only inspired him but allowed him to be able to follow his dreams and when he wasn’t able to pay the bills, his father was there to support him. He talks about the fear of coming out and knowing that it could be the end of his career but how he had to do it. I don’t think I have ever read a more clear and detailed experience of someone’s coming out. I think most people see it as it as a one time thing. You Say I’m Gay! and that’s it but really it’s like multiple coming outs. Once to themselves, then close friends and family and then coworkers and so forth. To my LGBTQ+ friends, I hope that I have been supportive you and know that I believe that you are all brave for being you. It’s also a good demonstration that if want something you have to be willing to work for it. Eddie’s path to success had a lot of failures and a lot of unexpected detours but he used everyone of them to learn and grow and kept at it. He’s still looking for new challenges like performing his stand up in different languages to connect more with people from different cultures. Fans of Eddie will love it but I think people looking for inspiration will get a lot out of it too.
