My Very Favorite book!

Hey Everyone, Welcome back! So, before I begin my first review I want give you an idea of how I'll be rating the books I review. It's nothing too fancy, just your basic 1-5 scale. I briefly entertained the idea of making it something really crazy, like "possum-frog" (because I really dislike Possums, and frogs are my very favorite animal. I do detest spiders above any other thing on this planet, and I might actually use that when reviewing a terrible, terrible book, but we'll just have to see.) but really, that's just confusing and and unnecessary distraction that would detract from the reviewing process.

I could use stars I suppose, but then what if I said something was 4 and 1/2 stars? Wouldn't you wonder which half? Left half? Right half? Top Half, bottom? So better to just stick the the plain old numerical scale, and call it a day. Now, you may ask, why only 1-5, why not 1-10? or 10-100, by tens? Well because I lean toward the dramatic, and with such large numbers in hand (I know 10 is not a large number...)I might get carried away. So 1-5 it is! Now I was trying to decide what book I should jump off with, when it came to me; this is MY blog, why not begin with MY favorite book. It's a book called Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. And while I haven't read every book on the planet, yet, I think it's the BEST BOOK EVER!!! It's actually two books, called Crown Duel, and Court Duel but most of the time when you find it in stores now, it's sold as one book. I have read Crown duel, Five or Six times. It's one of those books that I turn to when I want to revisit old "friends." When I want a book I know is good! When I just need a short escape from reality. The story is told from the first person perspective of Meliara, a young, poor-ish undereducated countess, who along with her brother Branaric lead the charge against the tyrant king, Galdran. I love the character Meliara. She is a super heroic, and slightly head strong character. She does everything with her whole heart. She believes in absolute right and wrong, and always sticks her ground. She is brave, and smart, and funny without meaning to be. Meliara's tenacity is matched only by her captor, The mysterious Marquis of Shevraeth. A tall, blond man with a quiet presence that unnerves and frustrates Meliara. I really don't want to give away much about his character because he's another one of my favorite. Sherwood Smith actually wrote a book about his past called A stranger to command which I actually haven't read yet. (It's on that long, long beautiful list of 'someday' reads.) The setting of this story is a country called Remalna, which I just found out recently is on a different planet. This is NOT a SiFi book however, it is categorized as fantasy. Even though it's fantasy, Smith gives such titillating hints of a deeper, fuller history, that it seem more like it could be historical fiction. She really has a gift for description, and character development. There are very poetic depictions of the experiences and surroundings that it's very easy to see the world as Meliara sees it. Yet, Smith never over does it with wordiness or pointless speeches. And like I said, the character development is OUT OF THIS WORLD! (haha. puns.) You get to know the characters almost as soon as you begin the book. Get to know them, like old friends. Or enemies. They have depth, and heart, and feelings that are extremely easy to relate to. There are secrets, and traits about each character, that you learn along the way, just the way you do with "real" friends. I'm such a bookie (not of the betting persuasion) that if I'm in to a really good book, I find myself thinking "what is *insert character name here* doing at that moment?" (But that's just between you and me.) The only faults I really find with this book are that there isn't more historical background given. Now, I am a historian, in that I majored in history in College, so I crave history in EVERYTHING! So this fault may really be a personal bias. The other problem that I have is that with all her talent for description, Sherwood Smith does tend to reuse several phrases over and over. This to me is very annoying, but it is not so great a trial that it distracts from the story. So over all, the book gets a five!(a frog on my animal scale) Crown Duel is an exciting page turner with soul that will transport you to a different place and time. I recommend it for anyone aged 13+, and really recommend it to EVERYONE! Again, thanks for stopping by, and if you have requests or recommendations of your own, please leave me a note!