Sheyenne started reading Jade City (The Green Bone Saga, #1)

"You get what you paid for, is what I can say about this book. You ask for a cutesy little book about a sorceress coming to call, you get a sorceress coming to call.


Cordelia realized years ago there's something unnatural about her mother and her horse. The townspeople don't say anything about it explicitly, but it's been ages since Cordelia has interacted with anyone other than her mother and the occasional ride with her neighbor Ellen. Suddenly when Cordelia's mother is rejected by her benefactor and quickly finds another potential wealthy suitor by the coast, she expects Cordelia to be the most graceful and charmed of young debutantes to establish herself in society.

On the other side of the coin, shelved spinster Hester Chatham wakes up in cold dread in the middle of the night. Something terrible is coming, and she can feel it in her bones.


Fairly predictable, no unexpected corners anywhere. I had a suspicion that maybe the enchanted horse Falada (view spoiler)[was actually Cordelia's bewitched father whom her mother clearly isn't completely over and whose rejection has colored her mother's perception of wealthy men over the years (hide spoiler)] but alas it's just another run-of-the-mill magical beastie (view spoiler)[spelled for obedience and horse-shape, when internally it's a mischievous chained demon ready to kill on command (hide spoiler)].

Cordelia and Hester are victims of domestic abuse. Hester was lucky enough to escape (view spoiler)[though there are NO details surrounding her trauma, how she escaped, or what happened at all (hide spoiler)] and the book does a very weak job of trying to establish Hester's motivation to help Cordelia as surrogate-mother-like or recognizing herself if she was younger. Cordelia's an abused child living with a narcissistic mother, and we don't need any extra motivation to figure out what Cordelia's going to try to do for the rest of the book.

There's not a good establishment of sorcery or magic, just whatever the characters are able to scrounge up with fairy tales, so in that respect it's almost kind of like a classic monster hunter vibe, where a party of heroes are holed up somewhere researching various folklore to find any sort of clue to do...well...anything.

Was this book aiming for Gothic vibe, with a lonely bachelor and a spinster? Because it failed. Gothic things should be cold and ominous and a little scary. Instead, for poor Cordelia, it's the nicest place she's ever been. Also, how short-sighted and narcissistic is the mother to not realize that without any frame of reference for this high society she wants to join, (view spoiler)[Cordelia is completely giving the ruse away. How dumb does she think the average woman is? It looks like all her experience with men is easy because of magic and manipulation but she's really, REALLY underestimating women's intelligence (hide spoiler)]. All in all, feels kind of insulting.

It's a short easy book to get through and I no matter how lukewarm and indifferent I am to it, I can at least admit there aren't that many glaring potholes that don't stem from lack of magic structure establishment."

"reheating evelyn hugo's nachos"