Tag Archives: Laure Eve

YA Book Prize display

The Graces by Laure Eve has been reviewed twice on this blog earlier in the year, both positively and negatively – read those reviews here and here. I enjoyed the twist at the end, and the little niggles of uncertainty when it all started to go horribly wrong…

Everyone said the Graces were witches. I was going to make them mine.

Just like everybody else in her small town, River is obsessed with the Graces.

And just like everybody else, she’s been seduced by their wealth, their exclusivity, their beauty and their glamour. Perhaps even their magic.

But unlike everybody else, River knows exactly what she’s doing.

Doesn’t she?

Read The Graces, and see what you think.

The Graces By Laure Eve – an anti-review

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I can see how The Graces could be appealing for some readers. The patient kind, who can get past a ridiculous, unbelievable plot and flat characters for the sake of a twist. I am not that reader. I believe that there’s such a thing as too little, too late, too bad. Also, I totally saw it coming.

1.5 stars

River moves to a small coastal town where she learns a family of super hot teens are rumoured to be witches. There’s a boy everyone is in love with (who has an arrogant & lazy smile and smells “like a thicker, manlier kind of vanilla”), his gorgeous twin sister, and then their younger sister who befriends River. This super-wealthy Grace family has two parents who aren’t really parents and blah blah (tacky). The Graces have a superstition that if one of them has a relationship with someone “normal,” then something bad will happen.

Main things to know about River: she gave herself the “secret name” of River and is completely in love with Fenrin ( the male Grace). She comes off as pretty immature, not very smart, and just… unrealistic? I don’t even know how to explain but it was really irritating to see the world through her eyes. Like everything she says or does is calculated to get the attention of Fenrin and it’s just weird and not worth reading.

A good portion of the dialogue in this story is utterly cringe-worthy and super odd. Almost all of it feels very unrealistic and forced… like everyone seems more like a caricature than an actual person. And they’re ALL super, super annoying. Their flirty banter and “deep” conversations were actually painful to get through as they were so bad. At first I was cracking up at how bad the story was but it quickly lost all comedic factor and just became impossible to sit through.

I don’t even understand what’s so great about the Graces that River is obsessed with them. And of course she has this huge crush on Fenrin whose a womaniser but is actually in love with the GUY arranged to marry his twin sister.

And a plot? sorry but it failed to have one at least until the end where everything come to light including things that hadn’t even been hinted to in the book yet suddenly dictated the entire twist at the end which was completely absurd and predictable due to the story being so bad.

Sorry to those who like this book but i would not recommend it .

The Illusionists by Laure Eve – Review by ND

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I was so excited when we got the copy of this book that I ‘dibs’ed it so that I would finally know what happens. Let me tell you, after months of waiting, I was not disappointed. I’ll admit that the book got off to a bit of a slow start, much like Fearsome Dreamer, but I was hooked before I knew it. I was dragged along completely willingly – I even got told off by teachers for reading in class when I was supposed to be paying attention. It was amazing, although I got kind of lost towards the end, which kind of let me down. It wasn’t the happy ending I was expecting, but I’m kind of glad about that. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: what good is a book that gives you what you want? I definitely recommend this book, but I advise that you reread Fearsome Dreamer beforehand, as some subplots become really important. This book is going on my shelf!

Click here to read ND’s review of Fearsome Dreamer.

Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve, Review by ND

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‘Fearsome Dreamer’ is the heartwrenching story of Rue and White, who live in very different countries that they long to escape: techno-crazy World and rural Angle Tar. There would be no problem in this, if it wasn’t extremely illegal and they weren’t being constantly watched by the ‘police’. However, Rue and White aren’t as ordinary as they appear, as they have strange and fascinating powers that allow them to follow their dreams…and then all hell breaks loose. ‘Fearsome Dreamer’ is one of the best books I have ever read, and also one of the most frustrating (which is always a good thing – who wants a book that just says what they want to hear when they want to hear it?). Eve writes characters that reach out of the book and pull me in with them, and never before have I waited so eagerly for the next instalment of a series! Although I hope it has a much less infuriating ending. Damn you, silver eyes. More like silver tongue. Damn you.

Thursday 13th March – New books in the library

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You know that feeling when you pick up a book because the cover is gorgeous (or perhaps that’s just me) and then you get lost in it because the book itself is perfect? Fearsome Dreamer, by Laure Eve does have a lovely cover, and inside it has an absolutely believable and riveting alternative history story, with a huge virtual State called World and a small unmechanised and independent nation called Angle Tar.

The blurb says:

There is a world where gods you’ve never heard of have wound themselves into hearts, and choice has led its history down a different path. Here a fiercely independent country called Angle Tar holds its own against the mass of technologically advanced nations that is World.

Apprentice hedgewitch Vela Rue has had strange dreams all her life; vivid and mysterious and incredibly real. Now she knows that her dreams mean something more, that she has a talent – and that her government will do anything to train her in it.

White is a teenage boy whose unbelievable gifts force him to flee from the fiercely unforgiving World to Angle Tar. There he is taken under the wing of Frith, a government spy who sees him as a prodigy; perhaps even the ultimate weapon they have been waiting for.

But Frith has his own secret motives; and when Rue and White meet, their electric attraction may spell disaster… or change everything.

I loved the language in this book – all the mangled French derivations of places and titles, and all the intricate details of how people lived their day-to-day lives. But I also loved the gradually building feeling of threat, and Castle and its avatars and secret meetings, and Rue and White and even Wren. I want to know what happens next desperately…

I am however a bit upset that The Illusionists (which also has a gorgeous cover) is not published until July.