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beckyroe's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
cherylrainfield's review
5.0
The Glass Swallow
Julia Golding
Marshall Cavendish (October 2011) (pre-order)
ISBN-10: 0761459790
ISBN-13: 978-0761459798
My review: 5/5 stars
I have found another YA fantasy author who has quickly become a favorite of mine–Julia Golding. (You can bet I’m going to run out and find all of her other books now.)
The Glass Swallow is a wonderful read–it has a strong girl character; suspense and danger; romance; and the strong girl pulling together everything to make things work out.
In The Glass Swallow, Rain designs stained glass windows in secret; in her land, it is forbidden for women to do so. But her designs are beautiful, and capture the attention of a neighboring kingdom. She pretends it is her cousin who designs them, and they make a temporary proposal of marriage. Her cousin is asked to design their neighboring kingdom’s summer palace, and Rain goes along. Once she arrives, her entire party is killed, and Rain is left to fend for herself in a strange land that devalues people who work in the trades, especially those with birds and animals. Rain works her way into the hearts of others, finds true love, and once the kingdom collapses, is key in recreating it to become a better, happier land.
This is one of those books that I didn’t want to end. I quickly came to care about Rain immensely, and Peri (the love interest) as well, rooting for them every step of the way. I loved Rain’s inner strength, her fiestiness and courage, and her insight and talent, and Peri’s goodness and courage. It helped that there were loving, full-rounded characters, such as Rain’s dad and the bondsman Rain became friends with, to offset the slimy or ugly characters; the mix worked beautifully. There was only one very small thing that I didn’t believe, and that was Ret’s movement from a spoiled young man to a mature, aware one–but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the story. I was with Rain and Peri every page, believing in their characters, their desires and motivations, their dreams. Julia Golding created a wonderful world that kept me enthralled.
Highly recommended! If you like fantasy, pre-order yourself a copy! Fans of Tamora Pierce will gobble this one up.
source: ARC obtained at ALA in New Orleans
Julia Golding
Marshall Cavendish (October 2011) (pre-order)
ISBN-10: 0761459790
ISBN-13: 978-0761459798
My review: 5/5 stars
I have found another YA fantasy author who has quickly become a favorite of mine–Julia Golding. (You can bet I’m going to run out and find all of her other books now.)
The Glass Swallow is a wonderful read–it has a strong girl character; suspense and danger; romance; and the strong girl pulling together everything to make things work out.
In The Glass Swallow, Rain designs stained glass windows in secret; in her land, it is forbidden for women to do so. But her designs are beautiful, and capture the attention of a neighboring kingdom. She pretends it is her cousin who designs them, and they make a temporary proposal of marriage. Her cousin is asked to design their neighboring kingdom’s summer palace, and Rain goes along. Once she arrives, her entire party is killed, and Rain is left to fend for herself in a strange land that devalues people who work in the trades, especially those with birds and animals. Rain works her way into the hearts of others, finds true love, and once the kingdom collapses, is key in recreating it to become a better, happier land.
This is one of those books that I didn’t want to end. I quickly came to care about Rain immensely, and Peri (the love interest) as well, rooting for them every step of the way. I loved Rain’s inner strength, her fiestiness and courage, and her insight and talent, and Peri’s goodness and courage. It helped that there were loving, full-rounded characters, such as Rain’s dad and the bondsman Rain became friends with, to offset the slimy or ugly characters; the mix worked beautifully. There was only one very small thing that I didn’t believe, and that was Ret’s movement from a spoiled young man to a mature, aware one–but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the story. I was with Rain and Peri every page, believing in their characters, their desires and motivations, their dreams. Julia Golding created a wonderful world that kept me enthralled.
Highly recommended! If you like fantasy, pre-order yourself a copy! Fans of Tamora Pierce will gobble this one up.
source: ARC obtained at ALA in New Orleans
ceilisbookshelf's review
2.0
I only read this book because I enjoyed Golding's other fantasy novel, "Dragonfly". however, compared to that book, "The Glass Swallow" was very disappointing. The romance was bland, and I really disliked Peri, the falconer who becomes Rain's love interest. He treated her like a child who couldn't do anything for herself. He limited her with his overprotectiveness, shut down every idea she had as "too dangerous", and acted as though he knew better than her, like he thought he was her dad or something. I couldn't shake my discomfort with this behavior, and it kind of ruined my reading experience. Rain deserved someone who regarded her as an equal, not as a fragile little doll that needed protecting. Two stars.
maidmarianlib's review
4.0
Interesting political/historical fantasy. Fun characters although some change to quickly and few questions go unanswered.
elevetha's review
4.0
3 1\2 stars. I enjoyed reading this and will probably end up re reading at some point but it was lacking in some respects. I liked characters over all; loved Mikal and Ret. Their father\daughter(Mikal and Rain) and brother\sister (Ret and Rain) relationships were well done and very nice to read. Rain was good. Peri was too annoying and over protective at times and I just felt like hitting him on the head, yelling,"You don't even know her!You can't tell her what to do. Lay off." And Rain, stubborn and rash, going off to do what she feels is right or that she realizes needs to get done and if no one else, *sniff* in this entire place will do it, she will. I liked her. The plot could have been a little more exciting and there. I liked reading it the whole way through. I was just never thinking,*in Medea's voice* "Oh my Lord, I was so scared..." And I like that sometimes. This could have used some of that. I actually liked that the bandits were just people. Cold and ruthless sometimes, but they were people who wanted a better life. The feminism was just a titch strong in the epilogue. Could have done without that. Another thing, I've noticed that [a:Julia Golding|1332|Julia Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1297294297p2/1332.jpg]'s book that I have read: The Cat Royal series mainly along with this one. The main girls, Cat and Rain, are loved, both romantically by one or possibly two or three(looking at you, Cat) and as platonic friends as well by all the male characters in their books. No one is that likable. I felt it worked better in this than the Cat Royal series. Yay for that! But back to the point, [b:The Glass Swallow|10564967|The Glass Swallow|Julia Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327932789s/10564967.jpg|7362199] is a nice followup companion book to [b:Dragonfly|6449920|Dragonfly|Julia Golding|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266702890s/6449920.jpg|6640036]. Recommended to fans of Julia Golding.
nextboldmove's review
2.0
This book started out SO well, it pains me to give it the rating I did. I even, before I finished it, recommended it to some of my bookish friends. But around the halfway point, at a critical point of rising action, the book jumps the tracks in a way that felt completely unbelievable and lacking in the groundwork that might have made a disbelief-damaging plot twist a little more okay.
But no.
The reader is offered very little context that would make this character shift palatable. This irks me SO much, because I found the characters likable, mostly, and the writing is terrific. It's just this plot twist/characterization fail that ruined what had been a really good, 4 or 5-star book for me.
I can't recommend it...but I DID go pick up [b:Dragonfly|6449920|Dragonfly|Julia Golding|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1355031018s/6449920.jpg|6640036] and started it right away, so do with that what you will.
green_bone's review
3.0
What a huge disappointment. I thought the romance & character development would be similar to Dragonfly. Both Rain & Peri were a bit annoying at times and their love interest in each other popped out of nowhere! Blah. Peri kept being a sexist and nothing interesting happened in the plot...her cousins wanting to marry her to sustain the business...ew. Everyone kept being charmed by Rain just because she was a foreigner & thought to be a fey. Meh. She was all right as a protagonist.
ggcube1012's review
4.0
I loved this books. It reads so easily and I thought the charactoers and story were much better than Dragonfly.Rain and Krital are now officially on my list of best book charactoers. I wish there was another to read!
crystalisreading's review
4.0
This was a delightful little book. It went down easily--I found myself tearing through it, and eager to pick it back up and see what happened to the characters. I found the characters, especially Peri (second book I've read recently with a Peri/Peregrine as the hero. trend?), very likable. Rain was likable too, even if she was a bit of a strong personality for my taste. The romance was sweet, gradual, and believable. The world and cultures Golding created were fun and interesting, and a clever way to address various socio-economic issues. The only characters I didn't care for were the ones that were written that way--Peri's mom, the jettans and jettanas, Shadow and Timber, etc.
This book went by quickly. I'm sorry I don't have any more stories set in this world to read. I liked this even better than Dragonfly.
This book went by quickly. I'm sorry I don't have any more stories set in this world to read. I liked this even better than Dragonfly.