Beauty by Robin McKinley

When the family business collapses, Beauty and her two sisters are forced to leave the city and begin a new life in the countryside. However, when their father accepts hospitality from the elusive and magical Beast, he is forced to make a terrible promise - to send one daughter to the Beast's castle, with no guarantee that she will be seen again. Beauty accepts the challenge, and there begins an extraordinary story of magic and love that overcomes all boundaries.

A classic love story. Where you learn once again that love is more then lust and magic and that it usually takes time for love to grow and in some cases fester. I hate shallow love stories and this is sort of shallow. Although it can be taken in a couple of ways. It's the same reason I hate Shrek. A princess can't be in love with an ugly Ogre. The only way they can be together is if she's just as ugly and horrid as he is.

Well, here McKinley has made Beauty plain in appearance. Which in any other story would be okay, but I sort of felt the point is that she is beautiful (hence Beauty and the Beast) and isn't expected to fall in love with a beast. Which is suppose to be a double lesson of the story good looking prince gets bewitched for being an ass and good looking girl figuring out that sometimes there is more then meets the eye (transformers!) So, both characters figure out they aren't as shallow after all.

In this version, after months of spending time in an enchanted castle, she becomes beautiful. Now here is where I'm not sure about stuff, because was she always beautiful just in denial? or Was she was beautiful in the eyes of the Beast therefore beautiful to the reader? or Was she physically transformed like the ugly duckling? The latter would really annoy me. So, if anyone has read or now wants to read this please let me know what you thought!

Okay now that I have that out of my system over all I really did enjoy this book. Because really deep down this story is about falling in love with a person's soul? personality? core? whatever you call it it's about falling in love with your best friend and that's where it gets a spot on my shelf as a keeper!

So, I recommend it to anyone who likes a good classic fantastical love story!

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. But the lake had been quiet for years...She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires. They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion - within easy reach of her fellow prisoner. She knows he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet when dawn breaks, she is still alive. And now he needs her to help him survive the day...

Robin McKinley is an American writer who has won many awards in the US, including the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown, a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword and the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature for Sunshine.She lives in Hampshire with her husband, author Peter Dickinson, two hellhounds, an 1897 Steinway upright, increasing numbers of rose bushes, and a stone's throw from her change-ringing bell tower. Her blog and her website are full of lots more information!

Okay Okay I know I've said over and over again that I am sick of vampire novels, but I have always liked them and a series I won't mention coughtwilightcoughcough has sorta ruined it for me. I have read lots of vampire books when I was but a young person. So, why should I let one series that I did not mentioned above ruin it for me? Plus Amazon was shoving this book down my throat every time I signed on! I think because I have recently bought a couple Neil Gaiman books and he is quoted on the cover saying 'Astonishing...a perfect work of magical literature.' And I assume that it's what brought it up as I hadn't seen it before....beside the point really. My point being that this is a great book. I really enjoyed it and had a hard time wanting to put it down. It was so different from anything I read before. It's not like those other vampire novels. It stays true to vampires with out making them glittery and veggie. Sunshine seems more marketed to the female(s) but there are parts that I could see males enjoying too. Especially at some parts I was thinking to myself (I do think out loud sometimes much to the annoyance of my husband who gets flustered when I just come out with something) how awesome would that be as a video game!
If you follow the links above to her website/blog she's made it very clear that there is no sequel in the making and I have to assume that means no prequels or video games either and hopefully for the sake of my sanity no movie either! Maybe I shouldn't assume as it makes an ass out of u and me; I don't know the author personally and shouldn't assume I do. I think that's the only problem having a personal blog as people read it and assume they know you.

Back to the point...the book I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy, scify, adventure novels. Not sure where it fits in genres but that's why I think I like it. There were so many things in this novel that I would love to know more about. Yet I'm not sure I want the author to tell me. I love the world Sunshine lives although a little scary. Sunshine is her nickname but also so much more. A lovely heroine who I would love to be friends with! I didn't find myself personally relating to her, but I rarely do as I usually see myself in the sidekick characters. I don't want to give anything away which is why this is a long post that basically says nothing!  Please if you see this book out and about give it a chance and don't judge it by the hype surrounding vampire stories. 

This is the cover I have as I live in the UK and get different book covers then most of you who read this! I love book covers!! :0)