Firebirds

The Baby in the Night Deposite Box by Nancy Whalen Turner

This is a story about baby Penny, who one night is dropped into a bank's night deposite box. When the bank manager/owner comes into work the next morning he finds the baby in with the rest of the deposites and decided that it is the banks responsibility to raise her. In this short story we watch as Penny grows from a young baby to a young adult. It didn't have much fantasy in it until the very end. For me it ended right when it was getting good, again I felt this was a great set-up for a full-length novel, but it was an enjoyable story.

Beauty by Sherwood Smith

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this story takes place in the same world of Crown Duel. It follows the daughter of Mel and Danric, who I loved, in the earlier books. Elestra is far from beautiful and is upset one evening and runs to the thrown room to get away, as soon as she enters the evil Flauvic (who had been imprisioned in a tree) takes her captive so he can make his escape. The curse that was placed on Flauvic in Court Duel has been lifted and although twenty years have passed he has hardly aged. All his family, friends and connections are long gone and he is all alone. As they travel toward the border a friendship grows between Elestra and Flauvic and before anything can really happen between them the story ends. I have mixed feelings about this one. Flauvic was such a "bad guy" in the Court Duel book it was hard for me to see him as a good guy in this one. I suppose living twenty years in a tree, losing everyone you know, and knowing that no one cared to rescue you is a pretty good punishment. Maybe he has learned a lesson and will strive to live a better life. The story ended a bit too quickly and I'm left wondering more about him then I ever was with the original story. It was fun revisiting and finding out how Mel and Danric are doing, although it didn't have the same magic from the other stories, it was still a fun read.

Magyk by Angie Sage

*The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a newborn girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this mysterious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

Whenever I read fantasy books, especially ones about young wizards I really try not to compare them to Harry Potter. In this case I just couldn’t help myself, throughout the book I just kind of wished I was reading HP instead. I think this had a lot of good potential, it had a fun story idea, interesting characters and the writing was well done. The problem I had with it was that there were so many different narrators. It switched around from character to character which made it hard to keep track of who was talking and what was going on, and it also made it hard to really get attached to any of the characters. There was also a lot of different stories going on, and thought it could have been edited down a bit. Maybe that’s a personal taste and someone else might really enjoy the story, I however, became pretty bored with it and just wanted to hurry and finish it.

Reviewed by: Kathy
*Description from book cover