Several factors affect Christie’s efforts to abort the expedition, most notably the appearance of Darling and Oggy, a starling and a dog who can think and talk, and whom Maggie has sent to be companions for the journey. Having lived with his older, seemingly mentally impaired foster brother, Danny, long enough to feel protective, Christie tags along when Danny suddenly sets out to join Maggie, his mysterious birth mother, in Scotland. Thompson launches a new series that explores the boundaries between human and animal. With plenty of strange creatures, growing relationships, well done battle scenes and set pieces both terrifying and triumphant, this above average epic has something to please high fantasy fans of every stripe. Hill brings Thirrin closer to readers with occasional modern touches (she calls her father “Dad,” for instance), and throws her up against genuinely knotty challenges to her wit, courage and spirit. Then, she has the Polypontian second wave, numbering several hundred thousand and led by wily, never-defeated General Scipio Bellorum, to face. Aided by Oskan, a quarrelsome young warlock, and other unlikely advisors, she sets out to create alliances with both old friends, old enemies-the latter including both the long-persecuted Werewolves, and the bored, dissolute, undead Vampires-and with such creatures from legend as huge snow leopards and forest elementals. When her beloved, larger-than-life royal father falls while repelling the first army sent by the sprawling Polypontus Empire, Thirrin quickly discovers that effective rule requires more than an abiding delight in feats of arms. 11-14)Īlong with a marvelous and multi-species cast, this debut doorstopper features a teenaged warrior queen, naïve but a quick study, desperately seeking allies against the invading armies of a mighty empire. There is nothing fresh about this reinterpretation. All too easily they buff away each other’s sharp edges, though their lack of chemistry makes their inevitable declarations of love forced and awkward. She seems petulant and pampered but turns out to be kind and adaptable he’s supposedly a slacker, but he’s really brimming with motivation. The narration shifts between Talia and Jack, but the device sheds little light into their characters both are too broadly drawn to engage readers. Both wishing to flee the clutches of the king, they escape together to Jack’s home in Miami, where the girls are either vapid sluts or nerdy brains and the boys are mostly just clueless. Modern teen Jack, on the lam from a guided bus tour of Europe, discovers the slumbering kingdom and wakes the princess in a decidedly creepy date-rape–like scenario.

When Princess Talia pricks her finger on a spindle on her 16th birthday, she fulfills a curse that puts the entire kingdom of Euphrasia to sleep for centuries. Sleeping Beauty wakes up in the 21st century clichés ensue.

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn