House in the Cerulean Sea
When I was first recommended this book, I was apprehensive because people kept saying “you have to read this,” or “you’re going to love it”. It’s always disappointing when a book doesn’t live up to the good recommendations my friends give me. Despite my apprehensions, I ended up reading the book (obviously, since I’m writing this review!) and was initially unimpressed. The first 100 or so pages were a bit slow. I was waiting for the thing that would make me love the book as much as everyone else.
The main character, Linus Baker, works for a government organization that handles orphanages for magical children. These children are not magic in the way of Harry Potter – they come in all species, such as gnomes, wyverns, blobs, and many others. Linus is your average caseworker – he does his job perfectly, and he even keeps his (very thick) copy of rules and regulations on hand in case he needs some good reading. Because of his exemplary work and sticking to the books, he is given a secret assignment by Extremely Upper Management. He is assigned to look into an orphanage on a remote island where the town’s inhabitants get paid to keep quiet – that can’t be good. As Linus spends more and more time on the island with certain characters ….oops can’t go any further, or I’ll spoil the book! Sorry to leave you hanging there. The book turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. I will happily add my voice to those who say this book is great!
Little Thieves
The first thing you notice when you look at the cover of Little Thieves is the silhouette of a human and the red ruby teardrop on their face.
That teardrop is the bane of Vanja’s existence. It wasn’t her fault – she was stealing for a good cause. It wasn’t her fault – how could she have known that the enchanted ring she had stolen was gifted to the duchess by the lower god of the forest, the same forest she had just been cursed in moments before? Now, Vanja had two goals: get enough money to leave the country and escape her godmothers, Death and Fortune. She also has to break this curse before she dies. Ugh. And then there’s that Junior Prefect Emeric hot on the tail of the Red Penny thief – which was also her. It was a mess, one she couldn’t fix without reuniting with some old acquaintances (few of which would be happy to see her, all of which probably wanted to kill her) and the help of a few unlikely allies. With Fortune on her side, or maybe not, how could she go wrong?
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