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Description on Amazon:

It’s been twenty years since that fateful winter night in the Colorado asylum and the Donnelly twins are all grown up. Elizabeth is a bit of a bounder with a taste for adventure and Renee… Well, Renee just wants to be normal.

Like that’s ever going to happen.

When tragedy strikes the Donnelly family and everything goes haywire, Renee finds herself scrambling alone in a race against time to solve the riddle of a lifetime, fix what’s broken and figure out how it all went so horribly wrong to begin with.

Review:

First let me place my disclaimer and state that this is my wife's book and I agreed to review it on my own. I remove one star as she is my wife. This seems to be fair.

Point of View: In this installment you are taken into the mind of Raine's daughter Renee. You know, one of the twins from the first book (Birthright). Be ready for an impressive ride inside the mind of a person who has more power than she can fathom.

Voice: I have always found RJ Palmer's work to have a bit of introspection in them and see her as trying to convey to look in oneself before casting your judgments. She follows this same voice into her third published novel.

Character Development: You can tell that Birthright was written by a young woman trying to find herself in a big wide world. Sins of the Father showed massive growth both personally and professionally. Inheritance steps that learning up a notch and the writer is coalescing with the author and the woman. In other words, outright beautiful character development. I hurt for each of them, cried for their pain and felt the ache of despair. I wanted to jump into the novel and save all of them, even those that may have deserved worse fates.

Plot: Most people are afraid to jump so far into the future (20 years) to start the second novel but this author does it so well you do not miss a beat.

Dialogue: All "good" novels have the "unwritten character". I mean any book worth reading makes the dialogue wrap the reader into the story and causes them to be a part of the story. RJ Palmer does this with expert precision. Be ready to cry, yell and scream for the entirety of this book.

Pacing: Be ready to be exhausted by the end but aching for more.

Setting: RJ Palmer has found the sweat spot when it comes to detailing a setting. Enough to show us her mind, but leaving enough room for our imaginations to take flight.

Continuity: Again, 20 years seems like a long time but the author does well to keep it in line with the first book and does well throughout the story spinning her web.

Where to Find:
Amazon

In Seville, Spain a vibrant and active 85-year-old duchess, who owns way more stuff than any human needs to, defied her six children and married a 60-year-old man. She had to sign over part of her vast estate to her little darlings to shut them up.

On the surface, inheritances are a source of moral repugnance. When we think of inheritances, we tend to think of families like the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts whose great fortunes were passed from one generation to the next. We also tend to think of “trust fund babies” – those rare individuals who have received enough money in inheritances or gifts (often in the form of a trust fund) so that they have no need to work over the course of their lifetime.

The post Are inheritances really that bad? appeared first on OUPblog.

It’s been twenty years since that fateful winter night in the Colorado asylum and the Donnelly twins are all grown up. Elizabeth is a bit of a bounder with a taste for adventure and Renee… Well, Renee just wants to be normal. Like that’s ever going to happen. When tragedy strikes the Donnelly family and everything goes haywire, Renee finds herself scrambling alone in a race against time to solve the riddle of a lifetime, fix what’s broken and figure out how it all went so horribly wrong to begin with.

They were midflight when the trouble started. Raine had tried not to think about the deep disquiet that had settled in the pit of his gut when he and Sierra had boarded the plane. He had tried to concentrate instead on them simply taking their seats and had pushed the horrifying notion that something was going to go terribly wrong to the side of his consciousness. Clairvoyance was not among his many talents. For all that it was he was capable of, he could not see the future.

Sierra was all too happy to chatter somewhat aimlessly about cakes, food and decorations. She didn’t even care that Raine was only really listening with half an ear. She was completely involved in planning a graduation party for Renee and had successfully blocked out most everything else.

Elizabeth was supposed to be there, too. She had planned on taking time off of work to come and see her sister graduate from college. Elizabeth had chosen differently than her sister in life. While Renee had furthered her education, seeking a degree in neuroscience of all things, Elizabeth had thrown herself full tilt into the adult world immediately upon graduating high school. Sierra could not be any more proud of either of her daughters and she wasted no time bragging about them both to anyone who would listen.

Raine had seen the various consequences of his choice to keep moving the kids around after that fateful night at the mental institution all those years ago. After about six years of them moving around all the time and never staying in one place for more than a year, he and a “Higher Authority” as he liked to call them had reached a tentative agreement. He would not wreak havoc where ever he went, and they would leave his family alone to live and grow as was their right. They really had no other choice, he reflected bitterly. The girls and Sierra had grown tired of moving around from state to state to try to “keep under the radar” and he was ready to settle and live in the same place for awhile, as well. They needed stability in their lives and he knew the “Higher Authority” could keep them running forever. The “Higher Authority” knew that all Raine had to do was think it and they would be cleaning up frightful, massive messes that would have been all that would be left of a few good men. Tentative truce, indeed.

The years of moving around had taken their toll on the girls anyway. Elizabeth never stayed in one place for very long and Renee placed too much importance on staying in one place. Both girls had taken it too far to extremes. Elizabeth refused to even sign a lease on a place of her own, preferring instead to rent rooms where she could simply move in and out at will. She never dated any one man for very long and always spent most of her extra money running from party to party. She called it “the fun life” while Raine thought of it more as wandering aimlessly.

Renee had worked tirelessly during her college years and now had most of the money she needed to buy a home of her own. She had even gone so far as to state that she would never move again once she had the house she liked. Raine had asked her about it once being a worried father and she had said that she just wanted to wake in the same bedroom every morning for the rest of her life. It wasn’t that he could blame her, for he understood all too well. It was simply that he saw in her an uncompromising nature that could well make her life lonely and solitary and even though she had always been the introverted type, she would regret it later in life.

Raine thought about all this while he listened to Sierra talk about different foods for a graduation party and whether or not she might have it catered. He also began to see the flight attendants begin to urge passengers back to their seats. Their outward calm was unshakable, but the tension around their eyes was unmistakable. Their voices as they talked to one another were low and tense and here and there, some of them had darting gazes. Raine knew something was going on, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

Then a voice came over the intercom, filled with forced calm and cheer and Raine felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. The voice stated that they were flying through some turbulence and the next few minutes would be a bit of a bumpy ride but that everyone could rest assured that they would be free of it very quickly and the rest of the flight would be smooth as silk. Flight attendants worked to secure passengers and then themselves. No one seemed to notice the slight temperature change in the air or the fact that the lights burned brighter for a moment.

Raine worked to try to control himself. He knew better than anyone else just how disastrous a loss of his self-control could be. More than once, he’d left people nearly dead when he lost his ever tenuous hold on his instinctive power. Sometimes, he simply couldn’t control it and the effects were devastating. Houses leveled, buildings crumbled and people driven utterly insane by the intruding presence in their heads. He’d rather just try to hold onto his errant talents and leave others safe.

He took deep breaths while the plane began to shimmy. Sierra stopped talking and looked at him with a vaguely alarmed expression and said, “It’s getting warmer in here, Raine.”

He tried to manage a small smile for her sake which probably looked more like a pained grimace and continued to breathe deeply. The plane dropped by several feet and then leveled again and some of the passengers stifled cries of alarm.

The lights flickered and temperature in the air rose by several degrees. No one but Sierra and Raine paid any attention to the flickering lights. No one thought anything of it. They were the only ones who knew what was going on and Raine fought with everything he was to try to stem the tide of power. Sierra began to kick him in the shin to try to shock him out of it. Sometimes it helped and others it didn’t. Sometimes it stopped him cold and sometimes, Sierra just earned an angry husband and a bruised foot for her trouble. There really was no telling what would happen.

Find it on Amazon at Inheritance (The Evolution Chronicles Book 2)

Christopher Paolini is likely to turn his hand to science fiction for his next work, as the final book in his epic Inheritance Cycle series is published this week.

The series has sold 4.5m in export and UK sales, including 1.2m in the UK (TCM sales), since the first book Eragon was published in 2004.

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Random House has announced that book 3 of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle will be called Brisingr! It will be released on September 20, 2008. The cover features a picture of the gold dragon Glaedr.

From the press release:

“BRISINGR is one of the first words I thought of for this title, and it’s always felt right to me,” said Christopher Paolini. “As the first ancient-language word that Eragon learns, it has held particular significance for his legacy as a Dragon Rider. In this new book, it will be revealed to be even more meaningful than even Eragon could have known.”

Read the press release here.

Brisingr is the sequel to the popular books Eragon and Eldest. Fans have speculated that the title of the third book would begin with an 'E' also, like the first two books. Empire was a popular guess for the book 3 title. I think the actual title will catch a lot of people by surprise.

The Random House AuthorTracker email provides more clues to the title and cover: "Both elements of the cover, the gold dragon Glaedr and the title, touch on Eragon’s inheritance. With his painting, John Jude Palencar has captured the dignity and wisdom of Glaedr, and Random House has again designed an awesome book cover."

This review contains spoilers.

Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness trilogy reached its conclusion this spring with the March publication of Magic's Child. I've long been a fan of Justine's blog, so when the opportunity to interview her as part of Colleen Mondor's June Blog Tour Blast came up, I took it and picked up the trilogy in preparation. And, boy, am I glad I did--this is one smart trilogy for the teen (and adult) reader.

The trilogy opens with Magic or Madness, when 15-year-old Reason ends ups in Sydney with the very grandmother--Esmeralda--she'd been hiding from her entire life. Esmeralda, Reason's mother Sarafina claims, is a witch, who sacrifices small animals, eats babies, and conquers men in an attempt to maintain her powers. Sarafina describes a house of horrors, with no electricity, but with bones, teeth and other magical objects littering the place. Sarafina has also taught her daughter to be on her guard--to not trust Esmeralda and to run if she's ever caught by her grandmother.

Imagine Reason's surprise when she ends up at her grandmother's house (after Sarafina suffers a mental breakdown) and it's a virtual palace--light, clean, airy, and huge. Esmeralda herself seems perfectly normal, even kind. Reason has her own bedroom and bathroom and she's found no evidence of witchcraft. Esmeralda allows Reason to visit her mother in the mental institution, and Reason even makes a first friend--a sweet boy named Tom who lives next door, is a whiz at fashion, and who teaches Reason to explore their neighborhood without touching the ground. Life, Reason finds, is not what she expected at Esmeralda's.

Then, one day, Reason decides to follow her grandmother out the back door and she finds herself in a mysterious cold gray world complete with snow. (This desolate place turns out to be New York City.) A girl happens upon Reason shivering in her Sydney clothes and takes her home. Turns out this girl, Jay-Tee, was waiting for her. And so is Jay-Tee's benefactor, one Jason Blake--Reason's grandfather. In working against Jason Blake, Reason and Jay-Tee become friends and Reason learns the whole truth--that magic does exist, that she herself is magic as are Jay-Tee, Tom, Esmeralda, and Jason Blake, and that magic has huge costs. Namely, each time you use magic you shorten your life. But, paradoxically, if you are magic and don't it at all, you will go mad, as Reason's mother has. Finally, magic can be stolen by other magical folk--as Jason has taken, or drunk, from Jay-Tee.

When Reason learns the truth about herself and her family, she fights back. With the help of Esmeralda and Tom, who track her through the streets of New York, Reason and Jay-Tee make it back to Sydney in once piece, but with many questions.

Magic or Madness is a thought-provoking fantasy novel on many levels. First, Larbalestier's characterizations are particularly strong. Reason arrives from the Australian outback and knows very little about modern life and absolutely nothing about magic. Esmeralda remains an ambiguous character from start to finish. Jason Blake is evil, but his motivations are clear and understandable--he uses others so he can live. Second, Larbalestier's focus on the costs of magic makes this trilogy interesting from a philosophical point of view.

Magic Lessons, the second in the Magic or Madness trilogy, finds Reason at home in Sydney with Esmeralda, Jay-Tee, and Tom. The teens have a million questions for Esmeralda and she agrees to instruct them all in the basics of magic. At the same time, Reason's powers of magic are growing as she begins to recognize them: always a math genius, Reason finds she's able to read the internal structure of the other magical people in her life and she finds Jay-Tee and Esmeralda have very little time left. Also, the door between Sydney and New York begins to act up--banging, and rippling, and wreaking havoc in the kitchen. Eventually a sticky yellowish substance streams under the door and enters Esmeralda, Jay-Tee, and Reason. Jay-Tee almost dies, but Esmeralda and Reason gain incredible strength and more magical power. Reason heads through the door to New York to find out why.

There she finds a creature--an old man--who at first terrifies her with his awful smell and appearance. But, she realizes he's a Cansino, one of her own family, and she begins to track him in order to discover what he wants and why he's still living past the lifespan of the average magician (20-40). In the meantime, she lives with Jay-Tee's brother, Danny, and finds herself falling in love with him.

Magic Lessons explores Reason's growing strength as a magician (manifested often synesthetically) and the world of magic as a whole. Reason begins to see magic as a disease, one that can be cured--an idea supported by Jay-Tee, who tells her that Jason Blake dreamed that Reason would be the one to solve magic's downsides.

At the end of Magic Lessons, old man Cansino returns to his final resting place in Sydney, but not before imbuing Reason with incredible powers. Jay-Tee, Tom, and Esmeralda also learn that that Reason is pregnant and that Esmeralda's magic boost from old man Cansino is gone.


In the final volume of Larbalestier's trilogy, Reason's powers have grown so much that, to magical people, she hardly appears human. She can reshape DNA--her own and others'--and can move herself through space. Jason Blake sets up a final showdown in an attempt to steal Reason's powers and live forever. And, he uses Sarafina in a bid to outmaneuver Reason.

Reason, Esmeralda, Tom and Jay-Tee track Sarafina in an attempt to save her. Jay-Tee nearly dies in the chase, but Reason saves her by rearranging and fixing her DNA. Jay-Tee lives, but her magic is gone. Jay-Tee, both saddened and exhilarated by her new status as a non-magical person, finds a nearly analogous magic, however, in a new romance with Tom.

In the end, Reason does save herself and others. But not by making magic safe to use over the course of a lifetime. She disables the magic in her mother, her grandmother, and in herself. She tries to save Tom as well, but he refuses--afraid he will no longer be able to make beautiful clothing without his magic. The book closes with a magical moment, but one I won't spoil for readers.

Ethical issues play an important role in the Magic trilogy. The fact that people with magic must steal it from others to stay alive means choices are difficult. Esmeralda stole magic from Tom without telling him, while Tom gave some freely to Jay-Tee when she nearly died. Esmeralda, despite her lapse, tries her best not to take from others, but Reason sees her eyes light up with greed when she sees Reason's unlimited power in Magic's Child. Sarafina chose madness over magic altogether and willingly gives up her power when Reason offers. And Reason herself must decide between a normal life and one consisting of beautiful patterns, numbers, and, most importantly, no pain.

Structurally, the Magic books are fascinating as well, with chapters told in first person by Reason, Jay-Tee, and Tom. Over the course of the trilogy we learn to know each of these characters well and understand the choices they face. Overall, the Magic trilogy gives the reader much to consider, while providing hours of entertainment.

Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness trilogy includes some (not overly graphic) sexuality in volumes two and three and is best suited for readers ages twelve and up.
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Michele: If you haven't read these, you really should! I think you'll like them.