The main character Cecile plans to move to her mother's place in the city and become a singer. The day before leaving, she is kidnapped and brought to the city of trolls. The trolls have been cursed for centuries - they can't leave their city and believe that Cecile will break the curse. She has to marry the troll prince Tristan and live among trolls. The girl thinks about escaping, but with time her feelings change.
I loved the world building. The trolls were amazing, creepy, and scary. They couldn't lie but twisted the truth and manipulated people. They were also very strong, clever, had magic and their city blew my mind. I actually liked some troll characters and really hated the others. 
The book was long but at times I felt that the story had gaps which needed filling. One moment Cecile hated trolls and the other moment she already had friends and was ready to take risks to help them. The romance felt a bit rushed and I wanted more about Tristan's point of view.
Still, I liked how Cecile, who had all these big plans at the beginning of the story, started to discover who she really was and the things she was capable at the end of the story were astonishing. Also I liked the last sentence so much I want to read the second book soon.

Tasks 1, 2, and 4 completed. Points = 3

 

Task 1:  Share a picture of your favorite light display. ~ I might be reaching here, but no man-made display has ever captivated me as much as the night sky (though lantern festivals come close).

 

 

Task 2:  Cleaning is a big part of this holiday; choose one of your shelves, real or virtual, and tidy / organise it.  Give us the before and after photos.  OR Tidy up 5 of the books on your BookLikes shelves by adding the CORRECT cover, and/or any other missing information. (If in doubt, see here: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/1782687/state-of-the-database-booklikes-database-halloween-bingo-and-a-mini-rant-with-pictures). 

 

I literally just rearranged my shelves and have no before pictures, so digital it is. I'm not sure how to track this, so I'll just list the titles I tried to tidy up. (Kindle editions only. Hope I didn't screw up any book data. Y'all might've opened Pandora's box with this task.)

 

1. Call of Poseidon by CP Bialois (Added cover and description, corrected ASIN and erroneous crediting of editors as authors)

2. Illegal Magic by Arlene Blakely (Added cover etc., corrected ASIN)

3. The Savage Blood by Tamara Rose Blodgett (Reported duplicate book entry with incorrect ASIN)

4. Stolen Peace: The Untold Story of the Spanish Conquest by Gloria Bond (Added cover and other book data, corrected ASIN)

5. Maggie Come Lately by Michelle Buckman (Added cover and book data, corrected ASIN)

 

Task 3: Eating sweets is also a big part of Diwali. Either select a recipe for a traditional sweet, or make a family favorite and share a picture with us.

 

I'll come back to this one.

 

Task 4: During Diwali, people pray to the goddess Lakhshmi, who is typically depicted as a beautiful young woman holding a lotus flower. Find 5 books on your shelves (either physical or virtual) whose covers show a young woman holding a flower and share their cover images.

 

See books at top of post. This was a struggle. Thank goodness for my small Heyer collection! I might be stretching it with a couple, but I'm reasonably sure I see flowers in that basket on The Grand Sophy's cover, and I think those are flowers in her hand on Sprig Muslin.

 

Book: Read a book with candles on the cover or the word “candle” or “light” in the title; OR a book that is the latest in a series; OR set in India; OR any non-fiction book that is ‘illuminating’ (Diwali is Sanskrit for light/knowledge and row, line or series)

An age old curse from a human witch, trapping Trolls under a mountain. Stories told to human children. Not just stories after all.

When Cecile is kidnapped and taken under the mountain to be sold to the Trolls and wed to their prince, the stories become reality. 

This was a fun and FUNNY book! The intelligent banter, the witty snark and the adventure itself all contribute to what was a total page turner. 

Starting book 2 NOW!

I'm pretty choosy when it comes to YA novels and this book reminds me why. The two stars is for the world building but other than that there is little I liked about this book.
The h, was a bit of a mess, weak, strong, reckless, cautious, basically all over the place. I never got why she fell in love with the Prince, they spend little time together, he's always with holding the truth, clearly doesn't trust her but for some bizarre reason our h decides she loves him.
And why did the Prince need to be beautiful? Why couldn't he have been flawed and interesting?
The trolls are too bad, too dangerous yet our h keeps insisting upon only seeing the good in them, despite hearing/witnessing a lot of the atrocities they have inflicted.
I skim read the last third, just to see if there was any point to the story - there wasn't.
Unbelievable romance and childish/immature h just turned me off this one.

I'm grouping Doon by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon together with Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen because they both had something similar in the books that greatly irritated me. 

 

Starting with Doon

 

 (I actually really like the cover of this) 

 

This story follows Veronica and Mackenna, two best friends, who travel to Scotland for summer vacation. There they stay in Mackenna's aunt's little cottage and discover the world of Doon. There they get wrapped up with Doon's princes all the while being accused of being witches with a majority of Doon's citizens disliking them. Things in ensue that basically puts Doon's fate in their hands. 

 

I don't want to give away too much of the story because of spoilers. 

 

This book was okay. It definitely got a lot better towards the end, though I felt the ending sequence could have been paced a bit more. That whole scene that happens as the end was just meh and too fast paced. 

 

I didn't really like the "main" characters either. I say main because even though the story is told in the dual perspective between Veronica and Mackenna, Veronica's p.o.v is predominant. Veronica was very annoying. It was basically all about her and everything she was doing and I was so over it. She also kept saying how much she loved Jamie and just no.

 

I disliked Jamie (Veronica's love interest) even more. He was just so rude and mean and yet Veronica still "loved" him. He was so wish washy too. One moment he likes Veronica, the next he's ignoring her. 

 

I did like Mackenna for the most part though. She didn't necessarily have an instalove relationship, even though she kind of did. She wasn't annoying like her best friend though. And was not about to give up everything for some boy she hardly knows. 

 

The instalove was ridiculous. I tried justifying it because that's what I do, but I couldn't. Her and Jamie barely knew each other, yet the minute Veronica finally lays her eyes on Jamie, she was in love with him. The amount of eye rolling I did in this was ridiculous.

 

The romance and the characters reminded me a lot of Black City but not as annoying.

 

 

 

Moving on to Stolen Songbird. 

 

(this cover is gorgeous as well.)

 

Despite one small thing, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I never read anything with trolls before and the world and the magic in this was amazing. 

 

On the day before Cecile is to leave to live with her mom in the big city, she is kidnapped and sold to the wife of Tristan, the troll prince. Cecile had grown up thinking that the trolls living in the mountain were a myth. What a shock is was to learn the stories she grew up hearing were actually true. And on top of that, a rebellion is brewing and she somehow ends up in the middle of it.

 

Cecile is the type of character I like reading about. Instead of moping about the crappy situation she was forced in, she gets up every day and does what she can. She learns about the trolls, about magic, about her place in the rebellion.

 

But over time she falls in love with her husband.

 

Now the reason why I grouped these two books together. I honestly could not stand either love interest. Now Tristan wasn't as bad as Jamie, but he was still annoying. Literally they're first night together, he locks Cecile in a closet. I couldn't believe it. I was done with him then and that was just the beginning of the book. He got better as the book progressed but was still very arrogant. And every time they fought, if Cecile was mad at him, Tristan always flipped the conversation onto Cecile and got angry at her and made her feel bad about something completely irrelevant. It was okay for him to be mean to her but not okay for the other way around. That annoyed me.

 

 

Just once I'd like a book where the female is part of the noble family and her love interest grovels at her feet. A story where she's mean at first yet her lover is okay with that and blah blah blah. 

 

I will be continuing Doon and will sit and wait patiently for Stolen Songbird's sequel because the ending was a horrible cliffhanger and I need to know what happens. 

 

Just once I would like something different in YA. I do recommend these books for the most part if you enjoy fantasy as much as I do and aren't as nit picky as me.