review: nightspell by Leah Cypress

pub date: May 31, 2011
publisher: Greenwillow
pages: 336
source: ALA Midwinter 2011
appeals: ghosts, fantasy, court intrigue, family,
content: clean

thoughts:
This book took me eight days to finish. Which for someone who reads most books in 1-3 days, says a few things:
1) It wasn't a book that enthralled me, one that I couldn't put down. I didn't have to know what was going to happen next.
2) It was interesting enough to finish. If I'm bored with a book, I don't finish it.

I enjoyed Cyress' first book, Mistwood, more than Nightspell. She is an amazing world builder, as apparent in both her books. I also find her ideas very original. There are a lot of ghost books out right now where the main character falls in love with a ghost. I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say, that isn't this book. Cypress creates original worlds and characters and problems. I like that.

However, I thought the plot was a little slow. That it took along time for things to happen. It was more fact gathering than action.

One of the reasons I wasn't enthralled with the story was the lack of romance. I like romance in my books. It doesn't have to be a large part of the plot or even have to do with the main character. I just like it to be somewhere. It was nowhere in Ghostland. I missed it. Lovelessness made it not so enjoyable for me.

The ending was very exciting. I was wanting to know what was going to happen. All that information gathering was coming to an exciting conclusion. Then...the last ten pages. ARG! I wanted it to end differently. I was a little disappointed.

Anyway, solid world building and interesting characters. Great for fantasy lovers who don't care if there are actual lovers in the novel.

summary:
A stand-alone companion novel to the much-acclaimed MISTWOOD. When Darri rides into Ghostland, a country where the living walk with the dead, she has only one goal: to rescue her younger sister Callie, who was sent to Ghostland as a hostage four years ago. But Callie has changed in those four years, and now has secrets of her own. In her quest to save her sister from herself, Darri will be forced to outmaneuver a handsome ghost prince, an ancient sorcerer, and a manipulative tribal warrior (who happens to be her brother). When Darri discovers the source of the spell that has kept the dead in Ghostland chained to this earth, she faces a decision that will force her to reexamine beliefs she has never before questioned - and lead her into the heart of a conspiracy that threatens the very balance of power between the living and the dead.