C. Bailey Sims

Candlewax; C Bailey Sims

Netgalley ARC, fantasy, cats, YA romance

I only sort of liked this book. Ms. Sims needs to work on her storytelling. There was a lot of ‘telling’ about the action not showing. Keeping up with the quantity of characters was confusing at times. I felt like we met so many people that were very similar, it was hard to keep them apart. The bad guys all ran together, with very little differentiation. The landscape is even a character, in a manner of speaking; there are three very different countries and a fourth mentioned. Each of those landscapes plays an important role in the sweeping plot. I understand world building, but this could have been handled smoother, or maybe if I had cared about Catherine, some time spent learning about her. We first meet her as she is running away rather than talking to her father about her issue. She is supposed to be close to him—why wouldn’t he listen to her. A lot of problems could have been avoided and the book shorter, which I wanted. I almost put it in the DNF pile.

This feels like a first effort it had potential but needs more editing and polishing. It reminded me of [a:Kristin Cashore|1373880|Kristin Cashore|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1273894652p2/1373880.jpg] [b:Graceling|7014945|Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1)|Kristin Cashore|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1332014657s/7014945.jpg|3270810] -– but not as well written.… (meer)

This is a book I received from NetGalley upon request.

I really liked the story, because the idea was original. I loved the concept of the ferrier cats and the power of the Onyxes; the speaking aloud vs. speaking in thoughts only. I also liked how Catherine (the lead female) compared her studies at the castle with the much more helpful hands-on experience she got in the world outside. It meant that she was learning and growing, and that is important to see in a character.

However, the writing style really put me off. It felt like it was written in partitions. Some chapters sounded really good, really interesting, with depth to plunge in. While others felt like they needed more substance.

Another thing that wasn't quite to my taste was that the entire book was written in the manner of a fairy tale, i.e. with language quality more appealing to younger audiences (10-15), while the story itself seemed to have an older target audience (16-20).

Some scenes (like the longbow shooting) felt forced to me. As if the characters wanted to do something else, but the author forced them to just go along with her wishes. It felt unnatural and unrealistic. Made me feel sympathetic toward the characters.

In addition to all that, I'm quite sorry to say that not even one of the characters made me really love them. Catherine was brave and all, but she was too trusting and naive. Besides, she was a 16-year old pampered princess, who upon her running away from the castle is suddenly perfectly capable of taking care of herself. I am not sure how this transition happened. Also, there were scenes that should've scared her - if she was true to her character - but she simply dismissed them.
Cyril wasn't really the strong male I had expected him to be. He was more like a boy at the age of 22, than the grown king he should have been. I know that young readers can't realize this, but a king at 22 cannot allow himself to think like a boy where his kingdom and people are concerned. I'm afraid that Cyril wasn't really all that concerned.
Spelopokos, the ferrier cat, kind of made an impression in the first couple of chapters, then he faded in the background of it all.
The only strong feeling I got was for the villain - Kallik. He was ruthless, ambitious and ready to obliterate the entire realm just so he can rule it afterwards. When he was described, the images I got were grotesque and mind-shuddering. Perhaps, he was the only real, deep character in this book.

And just a final side note: I hope that the published version of this book has the characters' thoughts marked in Italic, because otherwise it gets confusing as to who is saying/thinking what.

I would recommend this book to readers 12-15, although there was some violence that isn't quite
appropriate for that age group.… (meer)

I knew I was going to have trouble with Candlewax early on.

The book opens with the heroine, Catherine, running away from home to avoid an arranged marriage. Her medieval world doesn’t seem to discriminate strongly against women and she’s a sixteen year old princess who’s well-educated and close to her parents. Shouldn’t she already know a few basic facts about the King of Candlewax, who rules a country that shares borders with her own? As a princess, wouldn’t she have sense of duty enough to at least meet the guy before running away? The scene is exciting, but it either makes no sense or paints the heroine in a very poor light.

The plot has a number of different threads: the Trodliks menace Lackanay from without, the evil king Kallick threatens it from within, and the last farrier cats are living in an icy wasteland. All of these elements converge in a truly epic battle at the end, which is packed with action and political scheming and sorcery. It’s pretty wild.

Unfortunately, despite all the intricate storytelling CANDLEWAX is a book that doesn’t involve any hard choices. For example, remember how at the beginning Catherine is running away from her arranged marriage? Well, she soon meets and falls in love with the King of Candlewax, Cyril – exactly the guy she’d been arranged to marry! She gets to have the true love she wants and the political alliance her father wants. Everyone wins. This would be great in real life, but is boring in a book.

The writing is fine. Not bad, but not that good, either. The characters are bland. Catherine and Cyril are generically perfect. I found them both dull.

Young readers might like a book with an epic scope where the hero and heroine easily master all the challenges they face. They might like the generic hero and heroine, or enjoy how Catherine’s desire to do the right thing instantly translates into knowledge of how to go about it. But adults, even teenagers, probably won’t.… (meer)

As a lover of high fantasy, I was intrigued when I saw this book listed on NetGalley, but I was a bit nervous going in because high fantasy can be really tough to get just right, and since this was an author I was not familiar with I didn't really know what to expect, but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the story. The characters were well developed and the fantasy aspects of the book were unique and well written. I can't remember reading any books about farrier cats but the descriptions in this book were written so that I could easily picture what they looked like and how they behaved.

The story begins with Princess Catherine running away from home to escape an arranged marriage to the King of Candlewax. Catherine doesn't get far before she has an encounter with a farrier cat, Spelopokos, who informs her that she is the only one who can help him fulfill a prophecy, one that will save the lands of Lackanay. Spelopokos is the last of the farrier cats in Lackanay, and without them, the land will be overrun with creepy little creatures that eat anything that gets in their way, including crops, forests, and yes, people! To ensure this doesn't happen, Catherine and Spelopokos must cross the borders into a dangerous land and find more farrier cats to bring back with them. Along the way Catherine meets Bessie, who I absolutely loved because of her courage and never give up attitude. They also meet up with Cyril, the King of Candlewax, who, much to Catherine's delight, isn't the old man she was expecting him to be! Instead he's handsome and courageous, and promises her that he will help her fulfill the prophecy and save the land, and in doing so they will have the chance to get to know each other better before deciding whether they will end up betrothed or not. The thing I really liked about this book was that there was no instalove here, more like insta-annoy! Cyril and Catherine took their time getting to know each other and their attraction was able to grow naturally. There were also lots of bad guys to fight, with treachery and treason and back stabbing to keep things interesting!

The prose was a bit forced at times, but not enough to detract from the story. I have to mention the amazing world building in this book! You can tell that the author has a very active imagination, much to my delight! I was easily able to picture both the scenes and the people that Catherine and her friends came across, and this allowed me to enjoy the book even more.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit slow at first, but there was a lot of background needed to fully understand the story, and once that was done the pace picked up a lot. I liked the ending and since it appears to be a set up to a sequel (fingers crossed), I look forward to reading more about this land and its people :D… (meer)