Review: City of a Thousand Dolls

City of a Thousand Dolls
by Miriam Forster
The Bhinian Empire, book one

Book Description:
Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a little girl. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. She makes her way as Matron's errand girl, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city's handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die.

Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls' deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but also her life.

Review: 

I really enjoyed this book. Forster introduces a new world where the eastern influences of our Asian cultures are highly evident but the fact that the world is also completely cut off from anywhere else gives it its own unique presence. There also used to be magic in this world, though it has now disappeared...

Nisha is an interesting main character. While there were moments that I grew somewhat frustrated because she could not see what was happening when I had already figured things out, I have to give her credit for her reactions once she did. This is not a girl to take things lying down. She refuses to let others decide her life. She is gutsy, bold, independent, and her stubbornness and loyalty take her a long way. She also has a strict sense of right and wrong that I highly admire. I cannot wait to see where the second book in the series will take her.

Review: The Girl is Murder

The Girl is Murder

by Kathryn Miller Haines

 

Book Description:

Iris Anderson is only fifteen, but she's quickly mastering the art of deception.

 

It's the Fall of 1942 and Iris's world is rapidly changing. Her Pop is back from the war with a missing leg, limiting his ability to do the physically grueling part of his detective work. Iris is dying to help, especially when she discovers that one of Pop's cases involves a boy at her school. Now, instead of sitting at home watching Deanna Durbin movies, Iris is sneaking out of the house, double crossing her friends, and dancing at the Savoy till all hours of the night. There's certainly never a dull moment in the private eye business.

 

Review:

Love mystery? Love historical fiction?  Then...you should check out this book.

 

Set in the 1940's, this book's atmosphere was exceedingly well done. The clothes, the slang, the political unrest... I felt like I'd dropped straight into the forties and I wanted to dance the night away with the Rainbows! The best part was that even with the slang and the differences in our culture between then and today, Iris still felt like an average teenager. I didn't have that horrible disconnect that you can sometimes get when historical fiction feels too foreign. 

 

Iris was a great character through which to view the forties. She's Jewish, so considered an outsider, and she's just been exiled from the richest section of New York City down to a much lower socially acceptable area because of scandal and economic misfortune... Iris decides she needs to help her Private Investigator father to close his cases because their family desperately needs the money and because she can go places he can't. 

 

Which leads to a new life built on secrets and lies. Soon Iris is double-crossing "friends" at school and misleading her father... how long can she keep that up? The answer...not too long. The real question, though, is will she be able to solve a potential murder before it all blows up in her face??

 

A rollickingly good ride...and I'm looking forward to the sequel, The Girl is Trouble.



Review: Cinder

Cinder

by Marissa Meyer

Lunar Chronicles, book one

Book Description:



Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Review:
I loved this futuristic sci-fi version of the Cinderella story. It was *this* close to being a gold star review, except it ended with a HUGE cliffhanger and the next book doesn't come out until NEXT YEAR. Ugh.

I loved Cinder's character. The fact that she is a cyborg was really cool, especially since this doesn't verge so far into sci-fi that I had trouble understanding things. There was no confusion about medical/scientific stuff. YAY! I loved the fact that not only was Cinder's body both hard and soft, but that it reflected her personality so well...

I loved the descriptions of New Beijing. It was a fascinating dichotomy of the traditional and the futuristic. The fact that the Eastern Commonwealth was at the head of the Earthen Union also felt very possible in humanity's future...and can I mention that the whole Lunar thing was super intriguing? I want to learn more about their history and culture. I'm hoping the next book in the series gives us a more inside perspective there.

All in all, this was book was so close to what my perfect reinvisioning of a fairytale could be it was sort of eerie. I wish that we knew a little more of Cinder's story at the end, but I am SO absolutely looking forward to reading more of her journey in the following books. I cannot wait for Scarlet to get here!!