Review - The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff

The Enchantment Emporium by Tanya Huff
Released: 2009
Rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 368
Sexual Content: Minimal, mostly off screen.
Source: Purchased

GoodReads Summary:

The Gale family can change the world with the charms they cast, and they like to keep this in the family. Alysha Gale is tired of having all her aunts try to run her life, both personally and magically. So when the letter from her Gran arrives willing her a "junk" shop in Calgary, Alysha jumps at the chance. It isn't until she gets there that she realizes her customers are fey. And no one told her there's trouble brewing in Calgary-trouble so big that even calling in the family may not save the day...

My Thoughts:

If you've ever read anything by Tanya Huff, you'll be familar with her style. It's very unique and I have not read another author that comes close. You're very much thrown right into the action pretty much with little explination. It's like watching Star Wars for the first time, but you didn't get the words explaining whats going on floating through space first. You eventually catch on and figure out whats going on with this book, but I always finish reading them feeling like I've missed something. Don't get me wrong though I'm a big Huff fan, but I feel like I've got to be in the right mood before I pick one of her books up.

The Enchanted Emporium is no different, you're kind of thrown into the Gale family life, for a while I had trouble figuring out their family dynamic. There are like 50 aunts, maybe more..they are all loosly related, but the title Aunt is more about your level of power than having a sister or brother that has kids. Those in the Gale family that are called Aunts have the most power. Alysha is not an Aunt yet, but she has plenty of power and when her Gran dies she is sent to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to investagate. (I do so love that most of Huff's books take place in Canada). She runs her Grans store that was willed to her, which is mostly a junk shop, but also carries unique magically items as well as clientel. With the help of some unusal characters they begin to unravel the mystery and what's going on in Calgary.

I do so love all the female character's in Huff's book. They are always strong females that don't let any man walk all over them, Alysha is no different, she can diffently hold her own. Overall I enjoyed this book and I will be picking up the next in the series.

Gale Women Series

Book #1 - The Enchanted Emporium
Book #2 - The Wild Ways

Review - Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Released: Jan 2011

Rating: 3 out of 5

Genre: YA PNR

Pages: 435

Sexual Content: Some Kissing

Source: Amazon

GoodReads Summary:

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees . . . .

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.

Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.

As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make—between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?

Unearthly is a moving tale of love and fate, and the struggle between following the rules and following your heart.

My Thoughts:

Clara's part angel, all angel-bloods have a purpose. Clara's purpose is sent to her in the form of a vision. Starting slowly at first then giving more details the closer it comes to when the purpose should be fullfilled. Clara gets the vision many times in the book and it's kind of played on repeat. It didn't annoy me until I read the end which kind of made the purpose moot.

Clara's visions take her family to Jackon Hole where the vision is supposed to occur, she soon meets the boy, Christian, she sees in her vision at her new school, she spends time trying to get close to him so she can figure out what her purpose is. She's making progress when Christian leaves for the summer. Clara then falls in love when another boy, Tucker, at her school. I liked Tucker, he was sweet and funny. There romance was by far my favorite part of the story, them falling in love.

Clara's vision is to save Christian from a forest fire, when it comes time to it, she hears that Tucker is also trapped in the fire and Clara has to choose.

Now I would have been fine if that was it to the story, but its seems to me these days that having a girl who's an angel with a divine purpose plus a love triangle isn't enough..they have to go in and add Black Wings. "Evil" angels that want to kill the White Wings, the "good" angels. I find this whole part of the story superfluous. It didn't do anything for me as far as story went and I think the book would have been completely enjoyable without it. I'm assuming there will be more about this in the next one, but I don't think I was drawn in enought to want to pick it up.

I thought overall this was a cute light read, the writing was good, the characters were fine, but I had a few issues with the story line. There was nothing really wrong with this book, it just wasn't for me but I think many out there will enjoy it, especially those fans of the Fallen series

Unearthly Series

Book #1 Unearthly

Book #2 Hallowed

Book #3 TBA (2013)