Rose Recs, Reads and Draws

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

Evangeline Fox makes a deal with the Prince of Hearts to prevent the man she loves marrying her step-sister. But she should know that making deals with a Fate will have unintentional consequences, and in return for this favour the Prince extracts a promise of three kisses, to be collected at a time of his choosing...

There are some interesting ideas at work in this novel. I love the idea of a temple district full of beautiful churches and vanishing doors, and whimsical curiosity shops with sentient doorbells that try to ring to warn the heroine of the arrival of basic dudes who'll ruin her day. The idea of a wild Magnificent North where magic still infuses everything and tiny dragons sit barbecuing street food.

Sadly, not much time is spent with the charming whimsy as the story rushes ahead into a more standard YA-heroine-meets-a-series-of-extremely-attractive-boys plot.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced reader copy!

Book cover by M. S. Corley

There's a whole lot going on in this novel that it will be hard to describe!

This is a retelling of the Goose Girl fairytale, from the point of view of the wicked servant who overthrows the beautiful, kind princess and steals her life while the princess toils like a commoner. This little thief also happens to be the goddaughter of Fortune and Death, two of the low-gods that reside in this world. She has also been cursed by a third low-god for her greed, and is in a race against time to break her curse before it takes her life, while simultaneously outmaneuvering the prefect that is now investigating her thefts, and avoid the princess' terrible fiancé who has finally returned.

Vanja is a very refreshing take on the YA heroine. She's flawed but likeable, and it's hard to take against someone who loves robbing drippingly rich, privileged aristocrats blind. The love interest is a good match - extremely straight laced and law abiding, and too easily ruffled by the thief he's tasked to track down.

Owen is a great writer who can move between evocative prose and irreverent humour. But sometimes the swing between two falls hard, so I had to knock a start off because occasionally I noticed dialogue that was a bit too modern and meme-ish for the setting.

The romance is sweet, touching and the importance of consent is a recurring theme. A good book for fans of YA, cat and mouse romantic tension and fairytale retellings. I would happily read more books set in this world!

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and Netgalley for the ARC.

UK cover art by: Afterblossom

In a retelling of the 'The Six Swans' fairytale, Shiori lives in the fictional kingdom of Kiata. With six older brothers, she's the kind of princess you might have seen before, chomping at the bit, resenting her heavy, rich clothes and arranged marriages, and wanting to romp around with her brothers instead. After her step-mother turns her brothers into cranes and Shiori is rendered unable to speak, she must use all her powers and talents to break the curse and save her kingdom.

It's wonderful to have more asian fantasy in YA. And while retellings of old fairytales isn't new to the genre, I think it endures because it's a great way to reach new or reluctant readers: offering something a little familiar to help them into the story. The Six Swans fairytale may not be as familiar as Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella, probably because it wasn't turned into a Disney Movie, but I have actually read another adaptation of this fairytale in the last year: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. That one played the story a little more straight with an Irish twist and was much darker in places. Crimson Swans is lighter with more subversions, spunky little sidekicks and a heroine who, facing indignity after indignity, never loses her sharp edge. The best thing about the story is the step-mother who is revealed to have far more layers and nuance than initially assumed.

I'll admit I found the ending quite chaotic. A foreshadowed villain suddenly appears, the characters are dragged to new locations, and the explanation for the curse is hand-waved as error. The way is also left wide open for a sequel. I'm not sure what the next story holds for these characters, but perhaps it will be based on a different fairytale?

Not a bad story, and certainly one I think fans of YA and fairytales will love. I would happily promote this to our students.

Watercolour sketches from the last week or so!

I have some art prints that I need to shift asap!

If you’re in the mood to feed a starving artist, please consider visiting my store envy page:

rosyprints.storenvy.com

Sometimes it’s helpful to dissect the .psd file, so I’ll repost the one I used for the above piece. 

Here it is on dropbox!

You can see how many textures I’ve used, some that have come from photo stock, others have been made with a brush, but my favourites tend to be canvas textures since they give artwork a slightly more traditional look. You can see in the .psd file that I’ve basically dropped those textures over the top of the image, or parts of the image, set the layer mode to ‘overlay’ and tweaked the layer opacity sometimes to give more subtle effects.

The thing about the tarot cards is that they’re quite forgiving of art style because several different artists worked on them and some are just modified bits of concept art. Maybe look at some Gustav Klimt paintings, since I’m pretty sure the DAI artists took some of their inspiration from his work. Chalky brushes with a lot of texture work well, but you don’t need anything special. I think the primary thing to think about is the composition (lots of relatively simple profile and head-on views of characters) coupled with slightly abstract backgrounds with geometric shapes and straight lines. A lot of repeating motifs I’ve noticed are gold detailing, circles, triangles, dots and actual tarot symbols like cups and wands. 

Sick beats from DJ Sloth.