Heir To Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

In this book we return to the world Marillier created with her Sevenwaters Trilogy, an ancient Celtic world where we see heroines undergo some sort of quest involving supernatural beings, otherwise known as faeries. The heroines come from within the same family and in the actual trilogy itself a generation separates each story. Heir to Sevenwaters takes place within the same generation as the last book in the trilogy and the heroine of this novel is the cousin of the heroine in the last book. I really enjoyed the trilogy, and while I do not think this book is as good as the first book, it still brings forth the author's talented story telling.

Clodagh is the third of six daughters born to Sean and Aisling, the current residents of a household buried deep within the forests of Ireland. She has a twin who she can communicate with telepathically (as all twins could in the original trilogy). Clodagh is the practical sister, the 'boring' sister. Of all of her sisters, Clodagh would be the most likely to stay at home and look after household affairs, and she does exactly this when her elderly mother becomes pregnant with a seventh child. This child is very important to the family because he will become the heir to Sevenwaters, a boy who will be able to take his father's place and inherit the land. The child is finally born and many people come to celebrate the birth. Characters from previous novels, such as Conner and Johnny make an appearance at this time, along with some new characters like Cathal, one of Johnny's men. All seems to be going smoothly until one night when the baby is stolen away in the night, when Clodagh is with him of course, and in its place dirt, leaves and twigs are left. The pile acts just as a human baby would, it cries and eats, but only Clodagh can hear it and see it move. She feels guilt for being there when her brother was taken, and her family seems to be blaming her for it. Also, her twin sister is getting married to a foreigner and is cutting herself off from Clodagh, leaving her feeling more alone than she's ever been. Clodagh believes that the child is a changeling and her brother was taken away by the good people. Fearing that her own family will kill the faery baby and fearing that her brother is already far beyond her reach, Clodagh takes the changeling child and takes it upon herself to find her brother's kidnappers and bring him back on her own.

Clodagh, like all of heroines in this series, is reserved and practical. She's surrounded by whimsy and fantasy but she herself is always firmly planted on the ground. Despite this she shows courage and bravery and undergoes her quest with perseverance. Well written, as one will come to expect with this author, and a fast paced plot.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I picked up this book because I've read other books by this author, the Sevenwaters trilogy and Wolfskin and Foxmask, and I enjoyed both the author's writing style and subject matter in those books, so decided to give this a chance. And it was good. It's set in a medieval (ish) Romania and is a retelling of the fairy tale the Twelve Dancing Princesses (and possibly another but to say which would kind of spoil it). Five sisters are given the privilege of being able to go to the fairy realm every full moon for a night of dancing with faeries and dwarves and trolls, and the like.
 
Near the beginning of the story, the girls' merchant father goes away on business, and he has poor health which causes the girls to worry throughout the novel about their future. When he goes he leaves the financial situation of the household to the second daughter, and narrator, Jena, and this is somewhat uncommon behaviour as women were not usually doing business at that time in Romania. Over the course of the book her male cousin forcibly takes more and more of her responsibility away from her and patronizes her and her sisters. That's basically the set up, and I think to go more into the plot might ruin it a bit, so read the book to find out what happens I guess.
 
Jena had a very practical and down to earth grasp on the world, and while I appreciated this quality in her, more towards the end of the novel it frustrated me a bit that she was so stuck in her practicality. Not frustrated in a bad way really, but a frustrated that makes you just want to shake her for her obtuseness. I was only this affected at one point in the novel though, for the most part I liked her.
 
One thing I kind of didn't like about the novel... the close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears and yell lalalala because you like the rest of the book part of the novel was at the endish of the book, Jena's older sister Tati's relationship with the guy she liked. She fell in love with one of the night people, which would be similar to a vampire I guess. And I have nothing against who she chose or how they interacted with each other, but with the way she reacted at the end of the novel because she of their uncertain future. It was very 'romantic' and not so much practical... but this was a minor annoyance and I didn't have to focus on it too much because there were other things going on, and the writing was well done.
 
I enjoy books by this author because she writes well, as I've stated, so the words flow nicely, almost to the point of having an air of sophistication around them, but it's an easy read. Also, the author knows what she's talking about subject matter wise. She seems to be well read mythologically, and retells the story knowledgeably. It's a believable rendition of a classic fairy tale, and it's done by a really good author. I say give this one a go