Crown Duel and Court Duel <small> by Sherwood Smith </small></small>

This series came recommended by a number of my YA lovin' friends. My own reaction was mixed. I liked the first book, but was annoyed by the second.

Crown Duel, the first book, introduces us to two teens; a boy named Branaric, and his slightly younger sister, Meliara. They live in what is left of the family castle, scrounging to pay the rents due the king. They don't have a particular longing to become involved in politics, but as their father lies dying, he forswears them to rebel and overthrow the king.

As Branaric and Mel don't have any money this is almost an impossible task. But true to their vows, they gather what villagers they can and make a valiant effort.

Talking Points:::
Crown Duel has a plot and tone that should ring-a-bell with those familiar with the Romance Genre. It combines star-crossed lovers with a bit of fantasy.

Despite being fairly predictable, I thought Crown Duel was a fun read. Sherwood Smith's writing brings the story vividly to life and he manages to bring matters to as much of a conclusion as one can expect, given that there is a follow up book.

Though listed as YA (young adult) literature, there's nothing in this story that I found that was inappropriate for Middle-Schoolers.

Pam
Somewhere in the X-burbs

*arrgh* I wanted to like this book. I wanted to follow our feisty heroine Mel to see what happened after the war. But alas, I was disappointed.

To put it bluntly, Mel was annoying. While she was apparently intelligent enough to learn a great deal of history and court manners in short order, she was frustratingly incapable of learning who to trust and who to avoid. As all of the drama in Court Duel relied on this lapse I found the book impossible.

Talking Points:::
Court Duel didn't do it for me. In my opinion, Mel was too dense to be believable. And once it became apparent that she was going to persistently and stubbornly insist on 'doubting' the Marquis, who she was obviously destined to fall in love with, my reading ground to a halt. It just became too painful to watch her fail to learn from her past errors.

Others --certainly younger readers-- might be more tolerant of this plot device, but I just found it painful.

To be fair, if you look at the reviews at Amazon.com for this second book, you will see that the people who loved the first book, tended to adore this follow-up volume.

Pam
Somewhere in the X-burbs

Crown Duel