Book Challenge Day 13: Favorite Writer

Juliet Marillier

http://crystallizedheart.blogspot.com/2013/09/book-challenge-day-13-favorite-writer.html

Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier

It's amazing how a book can make you think and learn. When I first read this book, I only thought of it as a sequel to Wildwood Dancing, but it is more than that. While Wildwood Dancing was Jenica's story, Cybele's Secret is Paula's story. Paula is a thinker, worrier and an explorer. She is constantly curious about different cultures, languages and folklore. This book is told through her point of view as she travels to Istanbul to help her father obtain the mysterious artifact of Cybele for a highly interested buyer. Once they arrive, they discover that danger is lurking around every corner and hire Stoyan as a body guard to keep them safe. Paula focuses on the task at hand, but soon becomes involved in something she never could have imagined. Their competitors have been threatened, and rumor has it the pirate Duarte could be behind the viscous attacks, but his interest in Paula is noticed by many. With her sister Tatiana's warning, Paula must complete a quest of her own. The challenges that await her are less complicated than she makes them. As a debt to Draguta, the witch who helped both Jenica and Tatiana become who they are, Paula must find a way to protect Cybele and learn what her task in Istanbul actually is. As she learns to trust and rely on others, Paula takes a step of self discovery on her own and embarks on a journey that will teach her strength, courage and love.
I highly recommend this book, as a nice sequel to Wildwood Dancing and an amazing story that has lessons of its own.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I bought this book after reading the back, and started a tradition of buying a book on random, due to this book's discovery. It's a beautifully written tale about a family of sisters who must find a way to deal with the adversity that threatens to tear their lives apart. It starts when their father is sick, and needs to leave their home, the castle of Piscul Dracului, to receive medical attention. Jena, the second oldest in the family must take on the responsibility to balance two worlds, but she isn't alone. Her best friend and adviser Gogu, a frog she found when she was young,  has always been there for her, and only she can hear his voice. The family harbors a secret of their own. Every full moon, the five sisters and Gogu go to the Bright Between and dance with the other kingdom, made of magic, fairies, dwarves, elves and many other magical beings. Once Tatiana, the oldest sister falls in love with one of the night people, Jena must become the caretaker for her family, and guard them against her former friend Cezar's obsession with power.
I read this book once a year, after I discovered it in middle school. It's many fairy tales woven into one, and it has it's own story that takes place in the mysterious land of Transylvania. If I were to write a fairytale, I would want it to balance and have an amazing narrator like this story does. I recommend this book to anyone who loves fairy tales, magic, adventure and the coming of age story. Beautifully done.