Jennifer Allis Provost

well...I'm fairly certain many things will bite them in the arse shortly...



COPPER RAVENS, which picks up pretty much directly after [b:Copper Girl|16193519|Copper Girl (Copper Legacy, #1)|Jennifer Allis Provost|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1354383069l/16193519._SX50_.jpg|22119794]COPPER GIRL, is the continuation of how Sara handling her relationship with Micah and changing family dynamics.

There's Max - her older brother, once missing but rescued in COPPER GIRL by Sara and Micah and now seems hell bent on being the most delinquent guy ever. Her sister - the new Inheritor of Copper who really doesn't want to have any part in the world. Micah who doesn't quite seem to understand how it must feel for Sara to navigate the weird, ridiculous landscape of being his consort. Her mother who alternates between being useful and being useless (and has to be kept sequestered away anyhow since oh yeah she's a big deal Queen who's supposed to be dead). Enemies who are supposed to allies, allies who are supposed to be enemies, being cursed, being charmed, going into debt to a witch I'd swear was Baba Yaga's sister...

Its a far cry from the normal life Sara wanted to live.

Any who read my review for COPPER GIRL know that I had some issues with the narrative flow. I'm pleased to report that Provost has a much tighter control over the story so this was a much easier book to jump in to. In some ways a new reader could even, in theory, pick up this book and read it perfectly well without having read COPPER GIRL since Provost provides plenty of contextual explanation. I wouldn't recommend that, since Micah and Sara's romantic development is a large part of why I enjoy this series so much, but if by chance it were to happen, the new reader wouldn't feel overly adrift.

Micah is adorably obtuse in this book when it comes to Sara's integration problems. He's so certain that A, B and C will all happen that he doesn't stop to wonder if Sara is on board with A, B and C. Not that she communicates her hesitation very well, choosing instead to change the subject or focus on the dire circumstances they continually find themselves in. The troubles the two have are ordinary really, the same troubles they'd have if they weren't running around magically inclined. They only just met each other, large upheavals in their lives couples with very little time to get to know each other has led to a lot of assuming on both sides. They work through a lot of the problems, but...well...the Baba Yaga sister I mention earlier is definitely going to cause issues.

I was, even after Max gave up the ghost about what he was about the entire book, ready to throttle that guy until he saw sanity. It makes sense, in a way, that he would go at it his own way--he was locked away how many years? With no one but himself to really count on--but the self-destruction got to be annoying. And no one is fooled by your disinterest in certain people's possible marriage. Well except his family.

In all I would say this is a good solid sequel to COPPER GIRL. It read stylistically much smoother and assured, though I felt at times it dragged some plot points on too long (the sister's reluctance? The Gold Queen's insanity...), but really that's minor quibbles. The ending hook was a little heavy-handed, and rather heavily foreshadowed as a result, but how it plays out is what will interest me the most in the third book. Sara's mother has promised retribution and well she's not really a woman to mess with you know?… (mehr)

Prelim Review: This was, for the most part, very enjoyable. It took a little while for me to get past the beginning narrative though. I couldn't tell at first if Provost was just info-dumping REALLY BAD or if it was meant to be outside of the narrative sort of. How I finally decided to take it was like this: Sara was telling a story to us (its in first person so this makes sense) and like most people during stories they tend to get sidetracked or digress into an explanation of something, these were the parts that were italicized and often 'info dumps'. And some of them were really unneeded because Provost had Sara explain them later on (like about Max disappearing or Sadie being serious-minded or the War Against Magic), so passages became redundant.

I did however like Provost's "metal" Elementals. That was fascinating as was some of the politics of the Otherworld. Micah came off as too good to be true (even when he was angry) and he's given a broad stroke in terms of his backstory (this is part of a series though, so that may be explored later on).

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First things first, the copper raven up there is in the wrong spot--Sara describes it as a tramp stamp so that's a bit high (and for anyone who has the paperback version, the picture of Micah on the back cover has his silver tattoos pretty much on point I think). As for the book itself...the narrative took some getting used to. The best way I can describe it is like this: Sara is telling the story to someone (its in first person POV). Just like in any story being told, the teller will digress or add in tidbits to help the listener understand why this or that piece of the story is important, while in the middle of telling the story. Provost did this a lot.

It made reading awkward at times because Sara would get into the middle of the 'present' action and suddenly it would divert into the first time her older brother Max tried to teach her (and their younger sister Sadie) magic. It felt like info-dumps and read like info-dumps. Sometimes interesting information, but a good percentage would than be organically built into the story later on. Her father's disappearance, Max's disappearance, Sadie's studious nature--Sara would explain this all to us, but a couple chapters later we would read about it again in a much more genuine manner.

What I did like was that Sara wasn't quite the pushover she begins the story as. Once you untangle the narrative to figure out the history of the world, it becomes quickly apparent that Sara plays the peon to avoid bringing the consequences down on what's left of her family. She's quick to decisions, which is both a strength and a weakness. And once I learned why she was so tetchy about trusting Micah, it made a lot more sense why she reacted as she did.

Let me talk about Micah for a second. This guy. Other than the aggravating use of 'My Sara' constantly, he's pretty awesome. The one time he is at all jerky he has every right to be. Sara basically threw him under the bus by not giving him all the necessary information, which in turn hurt her position as well. I'm uncertain why that scene with the Iron Queen had to occur since the solution Sara comes upon could have just as easily been something Micah could have mentioned.

This is the beginning of the series, but the end felt a bit more hurried than it should have. The end result of the stand off comes not because of cleverness on Sara or Micah's part, but because of a whimsy of another character who took a shine to Sara. Its difficult to imagine that if this character hadn't shown up, things would have turned out so well.

I'm intrigued by the world and Maeve (Sara's mother) certainly proved herself more interesting than her first impression. There's a couple mysteries left to solve, as well as a promise Micah makes that had me grinning (I'm not sure Sara found it quite as amusing), so the next book should be interesting as a follow up. In all worth reading and checking out.… (mehr)

Sara has a boring office job and lives as mundane a life as she can manage, but her innate magical ability will not stay tamped down. One fateful nap under a tree attracts the attention of a hot elf, and soon she's embroiled in the dangerous magical world she tried to leave behind.

Boring main character in a not well thought out world. I got about halfway through and realized I didn't care about anyone or believe in the story, so I dropped it. If I had more patience for romance tropes and lower expectations for fantasy I might have liked this more.… (mehr)