Fantasy Fiction for Teen Girls

Ai Ling is a little different than most girls her age. She doesn’t want to get married to a man she doesn’t love. She doesn’t want to conform to the rules of a married wife which would make her subservient to her husband. However, if she does not marry she will bring shame to her family.

She doesn’t have much time to think about her martial status because she must rescue her father. Not only that but she has to fight demons along the way and vanquish a deadly foe that could destroy the entire Kingdom of Xia. While she is trying to save her kingdom from impending doom she meets Chen Young. She feels as a connection with him, but is unsure of what to do about it.

Silver Phoenix is a nice change from your typical fantasy books. The main character is female, and she is strong. She might not always be confident in every choice she makes, but I enjoyed that flaw. Ai Ling isn’t some angry, moody girl running around with a sword out to destroy everyone in her path. She is very human with a lot of emotion.

There is a lot of action in the book too. I’ve heard it said that female authors tend to write more romance than fight sequences when they write fantasy. This is not the case with Silver Phoenix. There is a ton of action sprinkled with a little romance.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel and I think students who enjoy fantasy will like Silver Phoenix. It has action, adventure and romance. Everything is covered in this novel. I look forward to reading Ms. Pon’s future novels.

Don't forget I have an upcoming interview with Ms. Pon which I will publish this Saturday.

What's your Grace?

Katsa is a young lady with an interesting Grace. She has the ability to kill people. This makes her a skilled assassin and an important person in her uncle, King Randa’s court. Throughout the story Katsa starts to question her life and if she is doing the right thing. Enter Po, a mysterious Prince from another kingdom who trains with Katsa and also questions her path in life. He finally convinces her to rebel against her uncle and together the two go on a rescue mission.

The premise of the story sounds a lot better than what I actually read. The idea of Graces was very interesting. For instance the Grace could be killing or it could be as lame as talking backwards. But the whole adventure fell flat to me. It wasn’t very exciting. I just didn’t care, and the author seemed to focus more on the lame relationship between Po and Katsa. The characters were decent enough, although I was hoping that Katsa would embrace her darkside instead of whimping out. The ending may also have some readers a little annoyed.

Don't get me wrong, some teens may find this book interesting, but I just couldn't enjoy it. I like fantasy novels with strong female characters but not this one. I'm pleased that the author wrote about a young, strong female. There needs to be more fantasy novels for women, in my opinion.

The author has another book coming out entitled Fire, which is a prequel to Graceling. It comes out in October. I may give this one a go.

I'm not sure if this is the offical cover or not..but take a look...