Tag Archives: The Prince

Review: The Prince (The Florentine 0.5) by Sylvain Reynard

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Title: The Prince
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Publisher/Year: Penguin Group USA 1/20/15
Length: 79
Series: The Florentine 0.5

Overview

The unveiling of a set of priceless illustrations of Dante’s Divine Comedy at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence exposes Professor Gabriel Emerson and his beloved wife, Julianne, to a mysterious enemy.
Gabriel may have acquired the illustrations only a few years ago, but unbeknownst to him, they were stolen a century earlier from the ruler of Florence’s underworld.
Now one of the most dangerous beings in the city is determined to reclaim his prize and exact his revenge on the Emersons—but not before he uncovers something disturbing about Julianne…

My Thoughts

I love Gabriel and Julianne together – so getting anything else about them or tied to them is GREAT.  The Prince is an interesting introduction to a side series that takes us to the darker underworld side of things – among vampires i’m guessing who rule Italy and who are in search of the paintings that Gabriel has…and looking to kill him for them.

Although the tone of this series is quite different than that of Gabriel’s Inferno, i think that the style that our lovely author ingrained into us in the former series really carries through here.  You’re left wondering what exactly is going on and always looking over your shoulder.  In the first series, it was more about whether or not this couple could make a go at it and who would rat them out and here, it’s a mix of whether Gabriel knows who’s after him, who’s going to die, and who’s the rat in the Prince’s regime.

The other side bit too is that we learn that there’s something going on with Julianne – and that she’s sick – The Prince senses it, but we don’t know what, and it’s semi clear that she doesn’t even know it yet.  It’s only during a night of passion that there’s a tease that they may wonder, but again, nothing tangible…until maybe they flee back to the US early.

I’m kind of happy that it’s taken me about a month to read this first intro to the series since i believe that the Raven comes out very soon so i’ll be able to get the continuation quite soon.  I’m really interested to see how Sylvain Reynard will intertwine the series even further, or at least show the parallel paths while The Prince tries to get his revenge.  We saw a tease of the passion between the happy couple in this first installment, and i hope that we’ll get to see more of it.  I think that we’ll learn that The Prince has a heart – even if it’s been buried for hundreds of years.  so…on that note – enjoy!

Review: The Elite (The Selection #2) by Kiera Cass

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Title: The Elite 
Author: Kiera Cass
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins 4/23/13
Length: 323 pages
Series: The Selection #2

I had been waiting far too long for this 2nd installment to come out and finally – yesterday came and i was a happy camper.  I really wanted to take time away from work to read but of course that never happens.  So, finally when i got home around 8p i was able to pick up the book, and read it straight through to the end.

The Plot:  We pick up the story coming out of the ending of The Selection where Prince Maxon has decided that because of the rebel attacks, he was going to skip some of the individual eliminations and go straight to narrowing down the group to The Elite 6.  Because America wasn’t fully sure where she stood with Maxon and her feelings towards Aspen, she didn’t know if she was for certain staying, however we all know that Maxon has significant feelings for her and she was the final girl chosen to remain.  So this is where the story starts off.

The girls, Celeste, Elise, Natalie, Marlee, Kriss and America are the remaining girls.  Instead of such casual activities, the girls are asked to take on more and more in preparation for one to be the princess.  They are given ‘projects’ to show if they are able to handle and understand the responsibilities that they will undertake as well as allow the royals to see which girl the country feels best about.  (since we know it’s not all about how maxon feels, it’s really about the puppet-master his father).

As the story progresses, we see that Maxon continues to be completely ‘in love’ with America and gives her far more attention than he does anyone else.  America is completely confused about what she wants since she’s decided that she’s going to see where her relationship with Maxon goes, but she’s still connected to Aspen since he’s not willing to give up.  It’s really hard and we see some of the 17 yr old angst come out with America.  In this story much more than in The Selection, she tends to be a bit wishy washy and i actually wanted to smack her a bit.

Going back to the girls for a second, we know that Celeste is vying for the crown more than Maxon which is fine, Elise realizes (some what) that she’s there for her ties to New Asia, Natalie and Kriss are there because they are ‘nice’ and America is there for ‘passion’   If you remember back to the Selection, Marlee and America had some tension and the reason behind it comes out more in The Elite.  you get real clarity on what’s going on there and it makes for a great story and tense scene.

So as this story progresses, we see relationships really changing.  We see that Maxon really wants things to work with America but she keeps going back and forth, because she’s jealous, because Aspen is in her head about things (good and bad) and she’s really uncertain of herself (which is totally fair).

Where this story leaves us off is a cliff hanger of sorts.  personally, i’m rooting for The One (book 3) to go a certain way however i’m not sure what’s going to happen. i kind of hope that it’s a REALLY LONG final book of the trilogy since there’s a lot that needs to be resolved.

So back to the format that i had in some earlier reviews, here are my questions:

1) Who does maxon choose?  America, Celeste and Kriss seem to be front runners

2) Who does America choose?  Maxon or Aspen

3) Do we think that Maxon is playing games with everyone? or is he true to what we see?

4) is Maxon’s father the king like Gergory Illea?  Is that somethign to worry about?

5) what are the rebels searching for?  why do they keep attacking and will everyone be safe?

6) Will America use the phone number that she got from the Italians for anything and how will that help since Italy isn’t quite an ally yet?

so many questions  – and we have to wait until 2014 i think for answers.  happy reading!

Review; The Prince (A selection Novella #1.5) by Kiera Cass

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Title: The Prince (a Selection Novella)
Author: Kiera Cass
Publisher/Year: Harper Collins 2013
Length: 64 pages
Series: The Selection #1.5

True to the very helpful form of YA books lately, we’re given a glimpse (albeit a brief one) into The Selection via Maxon’s POV.  It’s nice to see it for a change, and it gives you a better sense of who he is.

Since you’re all probably pretty familiar with Maxon, America and the other girls in the group, what we get here that’s not so familiar is a little bit of the back story on Maxon and where his apprehensions come from.

The story opens up on Maxon’s 19th birthday, when he’s deemed old enough to select a wife, and there’s a party being thrown in his honor.  If that wasn’t pressure enough, he has to engage in a bit of small talk with his father who truly believes that Maxon is incapable of doing anything that’s worthy of recognition and takes every opportunity that he can to belittle him.  Through this conversation, Maxon actually learns that the lottery that the Selection is based off of isn’t that at all, and to his dismay, the girls are all selected by his father for what the women can do for Illea.  (all except 3 girls who are 5s because their provinces didn’t have anyone of higher caste worth including, and this adds to the diversity of the competition – or so his father the king says).  This is an interesting fact because where we were under the impression in The Selection that it wasn’t 100% a fair lottery (given that there were photos included and all that) but there was no chance of randomness at all.  America’s inclusion was partly intentional, yet not as fully intended as the other girls.

So, this story takes us through the days leading up to the arrival of the girls and then through that first day when Maxon meets all 35 and learns of the trade that America is willing to make.

I can’t wait for a few more days to see whether he continues his plight with America or if we see what he felt with Celeste grow, especially since we know that he was so willing to stick up for her against America’s argument in The Selection.

On to Tuesday – we’ll know more then!