Blog Tour Book Review: The Secret Language of Stones (The Daughters of La Lune #2) + GIVEAWAY!

Release Date: July 19, 2016
Author: M. J. Rose
Publisher: Atria Books
Length: 320 pages
Source: eGalley from NetGalley

As World War I rages and the Romanov dynasty reaches its sudden, brutal end, a young jewelry maker discovers love, passion, and her own healing powers in this rich and romantic ghost story, the perfect follow-up to M.J. Rose’s “brilliantly crafted” (Providence Journal) novel The Witch of Painted Sorrows.

Nestled within Paris’s historic Palais Royal is a jewelry store unlike any other. La Fantasie Russie is owned by Pavel Orloff, protégé to the famous Faberge, and is known by the city’s fashion elite as the place to find the rarest of gemstones and the most unique designs. But war has transformed Paris from a city of style and romance to a place of fear and mourning. In the summer of 1918, places where lovers used to walk, widows now wander alone.

So it is from La Fantasie Russie’s workshop that young, ambitious Opaline Duplessi now spends her time making trench watches for soldiers at the front, as well as mourning jewelry for the mothers, wives, and lovers of those who have fallen. People say that Opaline’s creations are magical. But magic is a word Opaline would rather not use. The concept is too closely associated with her mother Sandrine, who practices the dark arts passed down from their ancestor La Lune, one of sixteenth century Paris’s most famous courtesans.

But Opaline does have a rare gift even she can’t deny, a form of lithomancy that allows her to translate the energy emanating from stones. Certain gemstones, combined with a personal item, such as a lock of hair, enable her to receive messages from beyond the grave. In her mind, she is no mystic, but merely a messenger, giving voice to soldiers who died before they were able to properly express themselves to loved ones. Until one day, one of these fallen soldiers communicates a message—directly to her.

So begins a dangerous journey that will take Opaline into the darkest corners of wartime Paris and across the English Channel, where the exiled Romanov dowager empress is waiting to discover the fate of her family. Full of romance, seduction, and a love so powerful it reaches beyond the grave, The Secret Language of Stones is yet another “spellbindingly haunting” (Suspense magazine), “entrancing read that will long be savored” (Library Journal, starred review).

    

Review:

Protagonist: Opaline has a special talent. She can use stones and personal items to deliver a final message from beyond the grave, usually to a grieving widow, mother, sister, or child. She's never done more than deliver a message before, until one day while working on a charm for a new client, the client's son begins to speak to her directly. Is she really hearing the voice of this fallen soldier or has her "gift" driven her mad? Unlike her mother it was much easier for me to get attached to Opaline, since also unlike her mother her story doesn't have to do with her personality being influenced by a spirit, or at least not to the same scale. Opaline does have her mother's trait for skepticism even when presented with a crap ton of proof, though comes to accept things a bit faster. I really liked Opaline, she's a strong and compelling character. She has a deep sense of morality and does whatever she believes is right.

Romance: To say this romance is complicated is a HUGE understatement, I mean falling in love with the spirit of a fallen soldier just screams doomed relationship. At first I wasn't too into the romance, it felt like it started too quickly, but soon enough I forgave that a really started to root for this couple headed for nothing but sorrow, but there was a silver lining to their romance. It's related to that whole proverb of; "It's better to have loved and lost..." I'm really trying to find other words to say to explain this romance, it's intense, fast paced, gentle, furtive, and at the end of the day these characters' feelings for each other go beyond just the emotional and physical.

World Building: While I liked the feel of Paris in the first novel, in this one it has much more of a historic backdrop, World War I, known as the Great War here, is still raging and because of that many things have changed since the first book, both culturally and economically. Before I go too much into this, while this book can be read on it's own as a stand alone companion, if you have read the first book there are some answers to the lingering questions and that almost unfulfilling ending, though they are still left kind of vague, you get a better understanding of what exactly happened. Now, this book not only has a deep presence with WWI in Paris, but since Opaline's employers are Russian expatriates there is a lot to do with the death of Nicholas Romanov and the disappearance and possible death of his wife and children. The pacing for this book is kind of weird since for most of the book there's only been mention of these expatriates and their love for the Romanovs and Tsarist Russia, it isn't until towards the end that that particular world-building element is explored further, with exciting results.

Predictability: Looking over this book I have to say that for the most part it's pretty predictable. Once again the author left some things that under more YA circumstances would be foreshadowing and let them drop, though they felt far less important or were much easier to piece together than in the first book. There was one twist though, in the book, that was pretty huge, something I didn't really see coming, no real foreshadowing for it, though it made much more sense when revealed, and when it was it was quite shocking in the best possible way.

Ending: Going into the ending of this book I expected it to be like the first book and have a sort of rushed ending, but while the ending was fast paced it didn't end with the urgency that the first one did. The ending to this book, or the final climax was very well executed full of intensity as everything comes to a head and then cools down. The cool down period for this book was not only longer than book one but made much more sense and ends without any lingering questions on my mind. The ending of the romance itself is a very emotional one, if  you haven't' already surmised. I wasn't expecting it to be as emotional as it was and I may have shed a tear or two but I'm not confirming anything.

Rating:

Other than a few weird pacing issues I had, which weren't all that annoying, I could find no fault in this book. It was exciting, entertaining, and full of mystery, suspense, and thrill, here's hoping the author has at least one more La Lune book in her!

About the Author:

New York Times Bestseller, M.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of Central Park and reading her mother's favorite books before she was allowed. She believes mystery and magic are all around us but we are too often too busy to notice... books that exaggerate mystery and magic draw attention to it and remind us to look for it and revel in it.

Rose's work has appeared in many magazines including Oprah Magazine and she has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, WSJ, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com

The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Reincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and currently serves, with Lee Child, as the organization's co-president.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

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Giveaway!

Daughter of La Lune Pendant


We're celebrating the release of THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF STONES by giving away a beautiful Daughter of La Lune pendant. Designed by Cadsawan Jewelry, the silver pendant contains a labradorite, a magical stone excellent for awakening one's own awareness of inner spirit, intuition, and psychic abilities.

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Book Review: The Witch of Painted Sorrows (The Daughters of La Lune #1)

Release Date: March 17, 2015
Author: M.J. Rose
Publisher: Atria Books
Length: 384 pages
Source: eGalley from NetGalley

Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.

    

Review:

Protagonist: Sandrine is on the run from her husband. After witnessing events that put her in danger and the secrets revealed in her father's suicide note, he now knows with certainty that she can no longer stay with him and flees to her grandmother's mansion in Paris. Once there she begins to see changes within herself as she discovers a passion for painting and for the young architect she has recently met. But darker forces are at work Sandrine's grandmother begins to fear for Sandrine's soul as the ever curious Sandrine becomes more and more ensconced with her history and the legend of their ancestor La Lune with an obsessive appetite. It's hard to say how much of our main character is Sandrine, sure a lot of her is, but her changes in personality happen almost immediately and are no secret that they aren't quite who Snadrine is, however apart from some rather disturbing things Sandrine does that are more or less explained away, I really enjoyed the strong character Sandrine becomes in this book, her passion for art, history, and mythology resonate well with me. Since some of her changes are credited to a certain magical plot device it makes it really hard to discuss how realistic the changes are and the like, but like I said, for the most part she's a really compelling main character and narrator.

Romance: This isn't my first adult novel, but this is my first in a while and my first that has this level of eroticism to it. The romance itself, between Sandrine and Julien, was done very well, it's the first time I've ever seen a character admit their love upon meeting a character that I didn't immediately dismiss the couple and yawn though all the attempts at sexual tension and romantic chemistry. This is because of how it's done, the love isn't immediate, it just seems that way in the narrator's recollection of that moment, the romance takes a while, though not too long after that moment to get started off. Now there are quite a few extremely sexual scenes in this book, the author does a spectacular job of writing scenes that are erotic, but not cringe-worthy. That's most likely due to her beautiful writing style, and how she handles the scenes, there are some specific details, but for the most part everything is described, but there isn't an uncomfortable attention to detail allowing the imagination to do it's job without feeling like it's interrupting something extremely intimate.

World-Building: Can I just say how much I love this author's use of historical fiction, magickal elements, and mythology? I mean seriously it's one of the most engrossing things about this story. The central theme of this book is passion and it weaves it's way through every element of this story masterfully. One of this things I love most about this book is how most of it feels like a realistic historical fiction novel with a theme of eroticism, but then there are these fantastical magickal moments that breathe a different life into the story. The history of the character La Lune, her past and her heartbreak, and who she became, is so compelling. There's a relatively large chunk of the book that details who she was and her history. At first it felt a bit info-dumpy but as the story went on I didn't care. The setting of 1890s Paris comes to life as Sandrine travels through it, learns are, discovers her passions, and tries to figure out her life and who she truly is.

Predictability: See this is why I normally read YA books. With YA books the twists themselves aren't completely predictable, but the way they're revealed is and it's become something I actually rely on pretty heavily. With Adult books, or well more specifically this one, not every secret and action is super important, something that will come back later to blow up in the main character's face. Sometimes there are things that go unanswered and we're supposed to be okay with that. From the twists that there are, most of them were either pretty shocking or terribly predictable, however there is on towards the end that has me more stumped that shocked.

Ending: This book wrapped up way too quickly. I mean there was barely thirty pages left and the final climax hadn't even started, in fact I'm not sure quite when it happens, but I'm fairly certain it's between ten and twenty pages left which made me very nervous. The final climax, or really climaxes (not a euphemism) were really well done, except the very last one left me more confused than satisfied, but there was one more chapter left. Only that didn't quite answer my questions, in some ways it did, but it posed way more questions than it answered, and while this is technically the first in a series it's meant to be a companion novel series where each book can be read a stand alone, so here's hoping in the next book we'll get at least some semblance of the answers to the questions this novel leaves us with by the end.

Rating:

For the most part I really enjoyed this book, it was a breath of fresh air from the typical YA books I love and usually read. I did have a few problems with the pacing and how things wrapped up too quickly. I know some authors like to leave a lot of things open to interpretation, but I'm definitely not one of those people that enjoys that sort of thing, I crave definitive answers.

Book Review: Vicious (Vicious #1)

Release Date: September 24, 2013
Author: V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Length: 364 pages
Source: Purchased Book

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

    

Review:

Characters: Normally this is the part of the review where I take a good look at the protagonist, or protagonists of the story, talk about if I liked them as characters, if they felt realistic and just my overall feelings about the central character. However, even though there is a central character, one that I'd even go so far as to say is the protagonist, there is a whole cast of characters in this book and they don't all fit into "hero" and "villain" roles. There is one character who I feel like wholly encompasses a hero or "good guy/girl" role, but the rest are sort of anti-heroes and anti-villains. They look from the outside like the opposite of what they are, but knowing these characters, their true personalities come to light. I loved the complexities of these characters. It wasn't because they were multi-layered and realistic, which they were, but more that as I said before they don't fall into typical character stereotypes, everyone in this book is flawed in some way and some more than others and it's just fascinating to read.

World-Building: This book is full of flashbacks and time jumps that while I was fine reading it, it could, especially if you speed read, get a bit confusing. With that out of the way, let's talk superpowers. The main feature of this book is the idea that some people, through a certain series of events, can be granted ExtraOrdinary powers. What I really enjoyed about this world is that the whole idea of powers and the like springs forth out of science. There's a perfectly rational explanation for the distribution of these powers and why and how certain powers are given to certain people. Then there were the bits of exposition that tie this story together. For the first part of this story there is very little emphasis put on the present day chapters, they're short and while they can still be entertaining, they sometimes felt more like something to string the backstory chapters together and act as a bit of a drum roll for the second half of the book. The second half of the book mostly takes place over one day, with chapters here and there explaining the backstory of certain characters and filling in holes in the story in a smooth and entertaining way.

Predictability: I don't normally read adult books, and because of that I'm not at all attuned to the different formulas and styles of writing adult fiction. With this book, there weren't really any big twists or "gotcha" moments where something intense or chocking is revealed. Instead this story just sort of chugs along, the various climactic moments just sort of happening without the big reveals I'm used to. Even when things were revealed in this book, it was done without ceremony and just sort of felt dampened and like there was no need for excitement or shock over that last revelation.

Ending: Going into this book I had expected it to be a standalone. However, as I was getting ever closer to that final climax I went to the GoodReads page and noticed that there is a sequel planned for sometime in the future, now that sort of changed perspective on how I viewed the ending. First off, the final climax, which for all intents and purposes felt like the climax of a standalone, had an air of something unfinished added to it. Then there's the actual ending. Now, the ending to this book sort of has a dual purpose feel to it. On the one hand this book wraps up very well and there's no real need to dive into this world again if you don't feel inclined to, but depending on how you look at it, the ending is also a cliffhanger that, if you let it, can grind agonizingly on you until the release of the sequel, so tread lightly.

Rating:

Okay, so this book was very hard to rate. Not only is it an Adult book, which I don't read all that often, but it has got its own unique intricacies that made it very hard to rate. In the end I went with five stars because I really loved this book, its world, and its characters and I won't waste any time picking up the sequel as soon as it's released!