Blog Tour: All That Glows by Ryan Graudin
Today I am delighted to be a part of The Fantastic Flying Book Club tour for Ryan Graudin's novel All That Glows. Check out this fun new novel and be sure and enter the fabulous giveaway.
All That Glows
by Ryan Graudin
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: February 11th 2014
Summary:
Emrys—a fiery, red-headed Fae—always embraced her life in the Highlands, far from the city’s draining technology, until she’s sent to London to rejoin the Faery Guard. But this isn’t any normal assignment—she’s sent to guard Prince Richard: Britain’s notorious, partying bad boy and soon-to-be King. The prince’s careless ways and royal blood make him the irresistible for the dark spirits that feed on mortals. Sweet, disheveled, and alive with adventure—Richard is one charge who will put Emrys’s magic and heart to the test.
When an ancient force begins preying on the monarchy, Emrys must hunt through the London’s magical underworld, facing down Banshees, Black Dogs and Green Women to find the one who threatens Richard’s life. In this chaos of dark magic, palace murders and paparazzi, Emrys finds herself facing an impossible choice. For despite all her powers, Emrys has discovered a force that burns brighter than magic: loveAmazon | B & N | Kindle | The Book Depository | Goodreads | iTunes
REVIEW
All That Glows by author Ryan Graudin is a fun romantic read with a great mix of contemporary British royal setting and faery magic and lore.
Emrys is a fiery, redheaded Fae who has always called the Highlands her home where she attends Queen Mab’s Faery Court. As one of Mab’s personal scouts she is in charge of searching for signs of wild, errant magic- spirits that seek to break the barrier between the realms of magic and mortal. But Queen Mab needs Emrys to once again join the Faery Guard and enter into the city of London, where only young and powerful Fae like Emrys can endure the draining human technology that surrounds it. Her assignment: to protecting a charming but reckless human, namely the royal prince Richard, next in line for the British throne. His bad-boy ways and careless behavior puts his life in danger. But Emrys finds herself battling to protect Richard from more than just his bad behavior, as ancient spirits descend upon London. Dark spirits known as soul feeders, who find prince Richard’s royal blood irresistible for it’s power. Now Emrys must use all her magic to keep Richard safe, while she fears she may be losing her heart to a mortal prince.
A fun part of the story is it’s odd mix of contemporary royal British setting and the royal court of the Fae. One moment the reader is Kensington with it’s royal family and the next in Queen Mab’s Faery Court. I really like how the author kept me on my toes, throwing in things like the paparazzi and bar hopping, with the magic and mystery of the faery court and it’s magic that surrounds the land.
All That Glows is filled with terrific faery lore and magic that kept me fascinated. There’s lots of faery lore and some nice explanation in regards to how Queen Mab’s Court and the Fae become tied to the royal bloodline of British monarchy which I found interesting and helped explain why the Fae are present in Richard’s life. I was fascinated by the magical / supernatural creatures that make an appearance in All That Glows and cause such havoc and danger to Richard, and generate some great battle-magic scenes involving Emrys. Don’t be surprised to read about Banshee’s, Green Women, and Soul Feeders to name a few. The magic and Fae lore are really what kept me interested in the story.
The characters in All That Glows had both positive and negative traits that gave me mixed feelings. Emrys is this beautiful, powerful redheaded Fae the commands great magic and respect of her Queen. As a Frithemaeg she honors her oath to protect Richard and it is easy to see her loyalty to both. She is fearless as she battles supernatural creatures straight out of faery lore. Her fiery spirit and wild magic were some of my favorite elements of the novel. Unfortunately, the romance seemed to weaken her strength of character for me. Her magic and her heritage were fascinating, but her weakness over a human prince and willingness to give up so much for him did not sit well with me.
Richard, the prince next in line to the throne was a combination of bad- boy and sweet adventurer. He’s charming, cute and a bit rowdy. I liked him well enough, but his indecisiveness often frustrated me. With the weight of the monarchy on his shoulders he has a lot to deal with, but he escaped responsibility too many times to be really appealing to me.
Although the attraction and romance happened early on in the book, there was a unique effect the Fae have on mortals that kept Richard and Emrys at kissing distance that kept me intrigued. It was able to look past the fast romance and attraction due to the fact Emrys is so inexperienced with human emotions. I was however disappointed and felt that it weakened her character when she was ready to give up so much for the sake of Richard.
Bottom line: Fantastic Fae magic and faery lore, great battle scenes involving supernatural characters make for a good read, but insta-love and weakness in characters dimmed the brightness of the story. This is one of those stories where the magic and lore was enough to be a great read and the romance weakened an otherwise awesome, kick-butt heroine.
My Rating: 3.5 Stars. I liked it.
PLEASE NOTE: A courtesy review copy of this book was provided by HarperTeen via Edelweiss in exchange for my fair review. Thank you HarperTeen for the review opportunity!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
My name is Ryan and I've been writing ever since I grabbed one of my dad's old tax ledgers and created this masterpiece: see image.
My writing has since improved, though my obsession with wolves has remained relatively the same (I even own a wolf-hybrid pup.) My childhood was a happy, sunny thing. I grew up on a steady diet of fairytales, salt-marshes, music and brothers who would re-enact Redwall battles with me in the back yard. I went to an artsy sort of high-school that allowed cello recitals in the hallways and impromptu poetry slams in the cafeteria. It was there I decided that writing was what I wanted to do more than anything.
I'm officially a grownup now (I suppose one must admit that once they turn 26). My diet still includes fairytales, salt-marshes and art, but there are a few new loves thrown in. A big one is travel. Pieces of my heart are scattered like breadcrumbs all over the globe--I've bartered them off for writing inspiration, so I suppose it's a fair trade.
When I'm not cramming my earthly belongings into a backpack and waiting in airport security lines, I'm doing one of the following: Writing YA novels, Photographing weddings with my husband, Making our little white cottage more homey, Playing with my wolf pup, Trying out Korean récipes, Haunting local coffee shops with my friends.
- Giveaway -
Win (1) of (2) signed copies of All That Glows + one large tin of All That Glow custom blend Tea
The giveaway is US/CAN Only.
Link Here
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The Fantastic Flying Book Club
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