Mundie Moms

Friday, November 23, 2012

City of Heavenly Fire Teaser: Jace is Right

Cassie treated fans to a City of Heavenly Fire snippet today! It's one I'm sure Jace would be proud of. 



“We shouldn’t,” protested Isabelle. “The Clave has a plan.”

“The Clave has the collective intelligence of a pineapple,” said Jace.

Alec blinked up at them. “Jace is right.”

Isabelle turned on her brother. “What do you know? You weren’t even paying attention.”

“I was,” Alec said, injured. “I said Jace was right.”

“Yeah, but there’s like a 90% chance of me being right most of the time, so that’s not proof you were listening,” said Jace. “That’s just a good guess.”

Don't miss catching up on the rest of the CoHF teasers here.

Book Review: Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson


Published by: Harper Teen
Released on: July 3rd, 2012
Source: arc from publisher at ALA
Stars: 3.5 Stars- I Liked It
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up. -quoted from Goodreads

I am a huge sucker for fairy tale re-tellings, and I feel like there's been some surprisingly great retellings released this year. When I found out one of my beloved childhood favorite stories was being retold, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. I love the story of Peter Pan, and I couldn't wait to read about Tiger Lily. She's a character I've always been fascinated with, and yet she's one we know so little about. Jodi Lynn Anderson's Tiger Lily wasn't the fairy tale retelling I had excepted, but I liked the darker turn and the twists that made this story stand on it's own.

For starters, I was fascinated by the narration of this story, because it's from Tink's point of view. I liked getting to get to know Tink in a different way. I felt it was fitting to know only when Tink fell for Peter Pan herself, but how she got to know Tiger Lily and her own role in this story. Despite the fact that Tink is mute, and unable to actually talk in the story, she is a very perceptive character, and understands a lot that's going around her, and is able to communicate in her own way.  One of my complaints with the story lies with the narration. It was a little hard to keep up with the story line when it kept switching from Tink's point of a view to third person. I would have liked the story if it had just stayed in Tink's point of view the entire time. It got a little confusing at times, and that took away from the flow of the book for me. 

Peter Pan is a character I have always loved, but for someone reason I didn't completely buy into him in this story. I got the innocence that comes with being in Neverland, and it would have made more sense to me personally that he was that innocent of a boy if they didn't grow up in Neverland. The growing up is one of just a few of the things that sets this story apart from the classic storyline. Instead I felt like something was missing from his character for me to really love him like I wanted to. Tiger Lily is a complex character and someone I at times felt bad for. She's at those cross hairs where it's not okay for her to be this free roaming spirit in her tribe any more, and she's forced to try and tame her wildness and settle down. The thing I admire most about Tiger Lily is that wild part of her can't be tame. I loved that she wasn't willing to give the up for anyone. I appreciated her trying to figure out what she really wanted, knowing that the person who she's now to marry isn't person who she loves. 

The romance in this story was good. I loved the way this love story plays out, because it's not necessarily perfect, but instead fitting. Tiger Lily and Peter Pan fall in love, but it's a love that may not be destined to last forever. I liked how Jodi created other love interests who could love both Tiger Lily and Peter Pan in different ways, and accept them for who they are. Flawed, in love, broken, and for who they really are. To me, that's almost as good as that sweep you off your feet, perfect love story ending. This type of love mirrors that of real life. There's not always these knights in shining armor who come dashing in on a white horse to ride off with you into the sunset. For Tiger Lily and Peter Pan, their surprising love interests come in the form of Pine Sab and Wendy, who love them for who they are. They support them and give them things they didn't realize they couldn't give each other. I love it when an author surprises me like that. These new love interests are the ones who at first you don't think much of them, and in the end they're the ones that surprise you when they finally sweep the characters off their feet in a completely unpredictable way. 

Over all this was a good read. There were things I really enjoyed about the book, and some other things I wanted to like more than I did. I think this a book fans of Peter Pan, and fairytale re-tellings will like. It's definitely not Disney's version of Peter Pan, but it's one that offers a different side to the relationship that grew between Peter Pan, and Tiger Lily. 

Labels