Reading on a Theme: The Scarlet Pimpernel

Sharon Cameron's new novel, Rook, published in April, inspired us to bring The Scarlet Pimpernel together with the retellings, reimaginings, and homages to that classic text.

The Red Rook:
Sophia Bellamy is The Red Rook, a vigilante who rescues those condemned to the Razor in the Sunken City across the sea. Sharon Cameron's gender-swapped retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in a distant future where our current technology has failed and the development of new technology is forbidden. What I enjoyed most about this book were the interactions between Sophia and Rene. Rene is smart and dashing and always one step ahead of Sophia. Sophia, on the other hand, is brave and often brash. The two could make a good team; if only Sophia would recognize it. LeBlanc is creepy and utterly insane, which is always a good recipe for a villain. Rook was out April 2015. Review copy from Edelweiss.

The Flower Spies:
In this first book of the Pink Carnation Series Eloise travels to England to do research for her dissertation on English spies (specifically the flower spies: the Scarlet Pimpernel, Purple Gentian, and Pink Carnation) during the wars with France. Eloise gets a lucky break, access to the Purple Gentians papers, which propels the reader back in time. Amy de Balcourt and her cousin Jane leave England for France determined to join the League of the Purple Gentian, the heir of the Scarlet Pimpernel. What follows is the duel story of the spies in France and Eloise's research in England. Lauren Willig has created an incredibly fun story full of daring and romance. I love the idea that more flower spies followed in the Scarlet Pimpernel's footsteps.

The Scarlet Pimpernel:
The French Revolution is at its bloody height. French aristocrats fear for their lives, revolutionary leaders are furious that a mysterious man is spiriting away the traitors, and all of England is enamored of the Pimpernel including Lady Blakeney. As she gets pulled into the role of spy, she discovers the Pimpernel's secrets are closer than she imagined. I already knew the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel before I picked up the book, but I was surprised to find that the Pimpernel's identity remained a mystery through the majority of the book and that it was a love story. I really liked that Baroness Orczy tells the story mainly from Lady Blakeney's perspective and that we are along for her ride as she uncovers the Pimpernel's identity.

The Wild Poppy:
Across a Star-Swept Sea is a gender-swapped retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Persis Blake is the Wild Poppy. For months she has been secretly traveling to Galatea from Albion to rescue the Galatea aristos and regs from the Galatean revolution's reign of terror. Like Persis herself, Diana Peterfreund deftly juggles a whole lot of issues--class structure, politics, human rights, lies and secrets, feminism, science and morality. And the story is great too. Peterfreund is a master at world-building. Her worlds are so intricate, interesting, and well-described. Her characters are smart and incredibly complex. If you find yourself disillusioned by all mildly mediocre dystopias/ post-apocalyptic novels give Across a Star-Swept Sea and For Darkness Shows the Stars a try. 

 

The Red Flower:
On his first day in his new school, Jeff meets Kimberlee Schaffer and discovers he is the only one who can see her. Kimberlee needs Jeff's help to return the things she stole during her life so she can have a peaceful death. Jeff helps her return things, even recruiting some unlikely helpers, but they both discover that Kimberlee must help herself. This retelling of The Scarlet Pimpernel was unexpected. It took me a little while to see how the two stories were connected. I felt Aprilynne Pike did an excellent job of using elements from the original to create a completely new story in Life After Theft. It was a fun, light read, that nevertheless, made me think.


Rook, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, and Across a Star-Swept Sea reviewed by JoLee.
The Scarlet Pimpernel and Life After Theft reviewed by Paige.

Highly Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2015

The year is more than halfway over, but there are so many great books coming out in the second half of the year. Here are fifteen that we are excited about:

Beastly Bones by William Ritter:

I'm so excited for the sequel to the fabulous Jackaby.

Time's Divide by Rysa Walker: 

Time's Edge was crazy amazing. I'm itching to get my hands on the sequel.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow: 

I've loved everything that Erin Bow has written.

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle: 

The synopsis and cover are very intriguing.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon: 

 I've heard this book is absolutely lovely.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas: 

By September 1st, I'll be all caught up and ready to read book four in the Throne of Glass series.

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson: 

The alternate wild west, gold rush setting has me hooked.

Ten Thousand Skies Above You by Claudia Gray: 

How did they manage to make this cover even more beautiful than the first in the series?

Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins: 

You know I love time travel books.

Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin: 

I'm really curious about this alternate history where Hitler won.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell:

Rainbow Rowell. Simon and Baz. Enough said.

The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud: 

I'll be pulling out this ghost story come Halloween.

Winter by Marissa Meyer: 

The conclusion of the Lunar Chronicles!

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas: 

It's the conclusion of the Elemental Trilogy!

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan: 

I was just thinking about how I'm ready to listen to another of Rick Riordan's tales.

Most Read Authors: Tamora Pierce

This week's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Authors I've Read The Most Books From," and, while we are really excited to see other people's top ten authors there is no way that we were about to spill the beans on all of our most read authors in one fell swoop. We do, after all, have a blog series over here called Most Read Authors.

Instead, we decided that we would do a post on our number one most read author: Tamora Pierce. She sits at the number one spot for both myself and for Paige. Paige has read 17 of her books, and I've read a staggering 29!

I (JoLee) didn't grow up reading Tamora Pierce. The first Alanna book, The First Adventure, was published in 1983, but I never crossed paths with it or any of Tammy's other books when I was a kid. (Truly a tragedy.) It wasn't until I was getting really into Goodreads and book blogs that I started seeing all sorts of references to Alanna. Angie at Angieville, for instance, is a huge fan and hers is really the first book blog I read regularly. This was about the time that Terrier came out, and I was hearing all sort of goods things about it, so that's where I started.

I distinctly remembering listening to Terrier while I cleaned my empty apartment after we moved all of our stuff into our new house. So, it was just me, Terrier, and the boom box I had had since high school (now no longer with us, RIP) in that empty apartment. At first, I was really confused. I didn't know who George Cooper was, and the prologue was completely lost on me, but as the book went on I got totally hooked. I loved the merging of the fantasy and detective genres. Beka Cooper is tough; she has great trainers, and the ghost pigeons are pretty darn creepy. But really, the big thing that sold me on the series was the language. Even now, when I think about this series, I get all nostalgic for Beka's distinctive voice.

Beka Cooper launched this four-year long relationship with Tammy's books. I may have mentioned a time or two how much I like listening to audio books, and how I like to listen to audio books at night when I go to bed. Well, Tamora Pierce's books became my nighttime listening. I listened to every single one on audio. (That wasn't exactly as easy as it sounds. Several of the audiobooks I had to check out through Interlibrary Loan.) I started with the Beka Cooper series in December of 2009, and I finished with Melting Stones in August 2013.

Tamora Pierce's books will forever remind me of my children's babyhood. I began Terrier just a few weeks before my oldest was born. My youngest was about 18-months old when I finished Melting Stones. Those books got me through the long nights of multiple feedings and the exhaustion of pregnancy and toddlerhood.
 
While I was in the midst of this four-year binge, and pregnant with my second baby, Tamora Pierce came to Baltimore. Clearly, I had to go to the signing.

It was the most intimate, lovely little book event I have ever been to. The crowd was small, so everyone had more than enough time to talk with Tammy. Also, although none of us knew each other, there was a great feel of camaraderie as we shared our stories of reading Tammy's novels. Of course, I had her sign Terrier because that is the book that started it all. (You may be noticing that I also have a book signed by Diana Peterfreund in the picture, but that, my friends, is another story.)

You may have noticed that my (Paige's) number of read Tamora Pierce books is significantly lower than JoLee's, this is because I have only read the Tortall books. My journey through Tortall began on the coattails of JoLee's, as happens with many of my favorite books. She told me about Terrier as she listened to it, specifically mentioning the slang used by Beka, and I knew I had to read it. The setting of story is vastly important to me as a reader and I knew if the book had it's own slang, the setting must be something special (I didn't know at the time that Tamora Pierce had already written four other series in the world of Tortall). I fell in love with Beka's voice, her tenacity, and her strong sense of right and wrong.

I decided to continue working my way through the books of Tortall, but I did so at the mercy of my library. I believe I ended up reading the series in this order-- the Trickster books, the Immortals Quartet, the Song of the Lioness Quartet, and the Protector of the Small quartet. It was really interesting to read the books in such a random order, but I enjoyed them immensely.

It's hard to choose just one favorite book from Tortall, but here's a few that really captured my interest. In no particular order, (1) Trickster's Choice and Trickster's Queen. I love these two books because I love Aly's spy skills and the history of the Copper Isles, and the Trickster god himself. (2) Emperor Mage is one of the few books I've read that allows you to get to know the villain along with the main character. We know Ozorn well by the end of the book. (3) Terrier is still my favorite of the Beka Cooper series. I love the Lower City as seen through the eyes of a resident instead of a noble, and Beka has such keen eyes.

Unlike JoLee, I did not listen to all the books. I listened to all the Beka Cooper books, the Trickster books, and the Immortals Quartet. I especially enjoyed listening to the Full Cast Audio versions of the Immortals Quartet, partially because Tamora Pierce narrated. It was fun to hear her voice and the interview she did at the end of the series. I often relisten to these books when I am in between audiobooks. The land of Tortall has become an old friend.





Where we've featured Tamora Pierce's Books:
Reading on a Theme: Girls Disguised as Boys (Alanna)
Reading on a Theme: Girl Warriors (Kel)
Reading on a Theme: Girl Spies (Aly)
Reading on a Theme: Fire Magic (Daja)
Audiobooks We Love (Beka)

Connections: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

                                                                                                                                      Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Publisher/Year: Del Ray - May 2015
Genres: Fantasy

 Source: My local library
Amazon • Goodreads

This week is all about fairy tales here at Intellectual Recreation.

I read quite a few glowing reviews of Naomi Novik's Uprooted. Angie at Angieville, for instance, rarely steers me wrong, so I knew I had to get my hands on a copy. I got in line over at the library, and pretty soon I was downloading the digital audiobook. (I love Overdrive.)

Agnieszka loves her quiet village, but it is threatened by the corrupted Wood on the border. The people of her valley rely on the wizard known as the Dragon to protect them from the malevolent Wood. In payment, the Dragon selects a village girl to take to his tower every ten years. Agnieszka never thought he would pick her.

Uprooted is a gorgeous original fairy tale that contains many common fairy tale motifs. I'm impressed with how Novik is able to make the story feel so familiar and yet utterly new at the same time. The setting, for instance, is very Russian or Slavic in feel. Names, like Agnieszka and Kasia are just one of the tip offs to this inspiration. (It didn't hurt that the reader of the audiobook has a Russian accent, either.) A threatening, wild, dangerous forest is certainly a familiar element in fairy tales, and Novik creates a Woods that is worthy of the capital W and really is a character in its own right. I love how moody and evocative the forays into the Wood's domain are. Plus, the Woods are scary. It becomes a villain on par with any fairy tale villain, and yet, it's both scarier due to its intangibility and more easily disregarded because they are just trees, after all.


Here are some of the other connections I noticed:

Beauty and Uprooted: I've seen lots of comparisons between Robin Mckinley's work and Uprooted. I've also seen Uprooted described as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It's a very loose retelling, but the wizard is known as the Dragon, after all. Also, the rose!

Howl's Moving Castle and Uprooted: Both books feature a notoriously reclusive and cantankerous wizard in a secluded castle/ tower.

Crimson Bound and Uprooted: Ever encroaching, malevolent, terrifying woods and a main character who is determine to beat them back.

The Paper Magician and Uprooted: A reluctant magician in training falls in love with her teacher.

Enchantment and Uprooted: Both books have ties to Slavic fairy tales. Baba Yaga is a presence in each.

The False Princess and Uprooted: A member of the royal family has been missing for over a decade. When she is found the plot thickens.


For me, the setting really made the story, but I also loved the characters. Agnieszka just does not take no for an answer. She's headstrong and feisty and willing to try new things. She's a breath of fresh air among all the stodgy ancient wizards. I also liked that her magic was different than the other wizards, less stiff and scholarly and more tied to intuition and an almost forgotten ancient tradition. I liked the Dragon too. He's frightening and misunderstood. Honestly, I wish there were more a him in the story. Although I appreciated how Agnieszka's time in the capital city helped her come into her own, I missed the Dragon. The magic those two can do together is truly astounding.


The book's finale really took my breath away. The climax and conclusion brings story full circle and yet was also so unexpected.

Ten Fairy Tale Retellings by Ten Authors

This week's Top Ten Tuesday hosted by The Broke and the Bookish is right up our alley. We love fairy tales of all kinds over here at Intellectual Recreation.

There are so many good books to pick from for this week's post, so I decided to pick ten different fairy tale retellings by ten different authors.

 

Cinderella

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine: You can't talk about fairy tale retellings without mentioning this classic. The book is especially dear to my heart because Paige read it aloud to me during one of our college road trips. She is especially good at Olive's voice.

Snow White

Mirrored by Alex Flinn: Look for this new book (out in September) in an upcoming Reading on a Theme dedicated to Snow White retellings.

Red Riding Hood

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge: I can't stop mentioning this book. It's officially my favorite Red Riding Hood retelling. (featured here)

Rapunzel

Cress by Marissa Meyer: There's no way that we could do this post without mentioning Marissa Meyer's insanely awesome Lunar Chronicles. Putting Rapunzel in a satellite was pure genius.

Rumpelstiltskin

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce: I love the setting in this retelling. I really could visualize the mill and its surroundings hovering right on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution where the past and the future collide. (featured here)

 

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George: Jessica Day George is a master at fairy tale retellings. This is one of many she's recrafted.

The Six Swans

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier: Here's another masterful fairy tale teller. In Marillier's capable hands this Grimm fairy tale is absolutely divine.

The Goose Girl

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale: Huge Shannon Hale fans here! We love how she creates a world and character motivations for one of the Grimm's shorter tales.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses 

Entwined by Heather Dixon: This lovely cover contains a cute story full of sisterly affection, sneaky magic, a little fairy-tale-style romance, and, of course, dancing. (featured here)

Sleeping Beauty

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay: I love this story about Sleeping Beauty's daughter. It's a fairytale, an epic fantasy, a love story, and an adventure. (featured here)