While the Eragon fans settle in to read the fourth and final installment, I have two suggestions for the rest of you.
The first is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. I feel certain that this book is going to be the next huge word-of-mouth hit. Taylor presents two breathtaking worlds: modern day Prague and a magical world mired in conflict between angels and chimera. The action is epic, the mysteries deep and the characters intriguing and sympathetic. The chemistry between the two main characters makes Edward and Bella seem like distant acquaintances. Here's a synopsis:
Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
I just finished reading the second novel, The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater. She is the best-selling author of Shiver, Linger and Forever. The action in the standalone novel is set on the small island of Thisby, where every fall the ocean tide brings large, powerful and vicious water horses to the shore. For generations, young men have caught and tried to tame these beautiful monsters in order to ride in the Scorpio Races, a competition that crowns one champion a year, but leaves many mangled bodies on the sand.
Two of the competitors are the protagonists of the story. Sean Kendrick, a skilled horse-whisperer, has raced and won many times on the back of his beloved red water horse, Corr. This year he races in order to win the life of his dreams or lose everything. Puck is the first girl to enter the race and she does so on her ordinary island pony, Dove. Even though no one believes she has a chance to win, and that in all likelihood she will lose her life in the race, she competes in order to keep her family together in the home she has always known.
Gradually , Sean Kendrick and Puck are drawn together in their quest. Their developing relationship seems a fragile thing in the midst of the dark magic enveloping the island.
You will be drawn in by the authenticity of the characters and the often explosive action in this story.
Read it!
