Magic of Blood and Sea / Cassandra Rose Clarke

Magic of Blood and Sea

by Cassandra Rose Clarke

young adult, fantasy

copyright 2012/13

read in March 2017

rated 7/10: well worth reading

This is young adult, for women. I'm currently reading a young adult fantasy for men. The differences are interesting...

Men, apparently, like their heroes to be large and muscular, their heroines to be busty and beautiful. Women, apparently, like their heroes to be older, athletic, strong yet slender. And their heroines to be slender, athletic and feisty. With at least one friend who is a super capable fighter and, preferably, soft and cuddly.

Both men and women like -- if these books are an accurate reflection -- like their young heroes and heroines to be somewhat flawed. Not in the in crowd. Less than perfect -- in their own eyes.

The heroine of Magic is slender, athletic and feisty. She considers herself to be less than attractive. (And she never takes off her glasses to be suddenly and unexpectedly beautiful.) The hero is physically scarred and embarrassed by the most visible scar. Yet the two fall in love (no spoiler there!) and each considers the other to be beautiful.

There is no Cinderealla transformation. The man is handsome but scarred, the woman is more average than beautiful. They fall in love with the person behind the scar, the person who is more than on-the-surface beautiful.

I like it.

And the word that sums up the entire book is, Delightful.

Okay, the first major task is obvious in its solution. The third major task is solved via deus ex machina. Still delightful, though. The story jumps from lucky coincidence to lucky coincidence. So what ?! I enjoyed it all :-)

I also enjoyed the world, its characters and its magic. A wild mix of magical styles. Including the "metallurgy" magic which appears to make war machines. The author plays fast and loose with magical tropes. This is not "hard" fantasy, this is fun.

On the downside, however: This book "contains" two stories. They are really one novel. The first story ends satisfactorily -- but only because the second story is immediately available. Three tasks and the first story completes only one. I would be annoyed if I only had the first story.

But I read both stories in the one book. Enjoyed the entire novel.

It is delightful :-)

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Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"Come on… a little hard work must have killed someone!" … per Ginger Meggs