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A review by the_cover_contessa
Copper Girl by Jennifer Allis Provost
4.0
I want to thank Spencer Hill Press for providing me with an ARC of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way influenced my opinion or review.
Blurb from Goodreads:
Sara had always been careful.
She never spoke of magic, never associated with those suspected of handling magic, never thought of magic, and never, ever, let anyone see her mark. After all, the last thing she wanted was to end up missing, like her father and brother.
Then, a silver elf pushed his way into Sara's dream, and her life became anything but ordinary.
First I have to comment on this BEAUTIFUL cover. I am in love with it. Not surprisingly it was created by the most awesome Lisa Amowitz. If you have ever seen Lisa's work, you know that she is an incredibly talented artist. This book cover is no exception. It completely captured my eye when I first was introduced to it. And it also thoroughly captures the overall theme of this story. So BRAVO to Ms. Amowitz for really going above and beyond with this representation of Copper Girl.
Sara is an interesting character. She's certainly strong in her own way but is also very naive. Her innocence is a detriment to her in some situations and in others really does help to save her. She does have a weakness, tho, she knows that her kind are hunted and letting anyone know her true self would be her undoing. So she lays low. She lives in a small apartment, dresses in a not so outlandish way, and works at a boring company to keep up her appearance of being a Mundane. But things are not what they seem in any part of her life and when she meets Michah in her dream state, everything changes. She quickly begins to take chances to see him and spend time with him. And just as quickly falls for him. Their connection is instant which in most cases would bother me, I am not a fan of insta-love. BUT this particular relationship works for the story, as it is about finding that one true person to love and spend the rest of your life with. One thing that had me confused was for the longest time I could not figure out how old Sara was. Was she a teen? Was she a young adult? Was she a seasoned woman? She was living on her own, but that doesn't mean anything in a dystopian setting. I had a hard time telling and it wasn't until she told the story of her family that I did the math in my head. I place her to be around 23, although I could be wrong.
Michah is a silver elf who immediately captures Sara's heart. He is extremely confident, almost to an annoying fault. He knows what he wants and quickly goes to capture it and make it his. It's almost over powering how he inserts himself into Sara's life. At first I was a bit annoyed about it. Then I just accepted that perhaps this is how an elf is meant to act. I haven't had too much experience with elf books or characters, but thinking back on what I have read, their kind have always seemed very taken with themselves to the point of over-confidence. I honestly could not connect with Michah. And, while Sara thought he was absolutely the most attractive man she had ever met, I just could not see it (silver hair? just doesn't seem like I would find that attractive, but maybe if I were magical...?).
The secondary characters really aren't developed. We meet Julliana (Sara's best friend), Sara's mother, her sister, the Iron Queen and eventually Sara's brother. But we never get much information about them. A snippet here, a description there, but I don't know them and would really have liked a bit more information about them.
When I began reading this book, I have to say that I was annoyed with the italicized areas. They came so randomly and really made no sense to me. I figured they were Sara speaking internally, but at many points she is just giving background information so I could not figure out the reason for the use of this font. There were quite a few moments where the italicized parts happened and completely took me out of the story. I lost my train of thought as to what was going on. The info-dump was overwhelming and I found myself having to turn back pages to remember what action was going on before the internal dialogue. I really could have done without this. However, this seems to slow down if not stop almost all together after the first few chapters of the book. I really think the book could do without the change in font, and the character could have slowly dispersed the information throughout the story. I did enjoy Sara's quips later on in the story, she has a true sense of humor and I did feel a connection with her once I got into the crux of the story.
Once I got past these parts, however, I was pretty enthralled with the story. I loved the dystopian theme entangled with a bit of paranormal. You really don't see much of this out there right now, so it was a surprising change to what I have been reading lately. It did take me some time to realize that Provost had created a dystopian world, it wasn't clearly presented at first. I loved the theme of a war between mundanes and the magical beings and how this lead to the world being overly run by government officials, almost to the 1984 extent. A bit creepy but certainly plausible with drones flying about to monitor people and their daily activities, and implanted tracking devices to keep tips on people, as well.
I like that Provost does not leave us with a huge cliff hanger at the end of this book. So, despite knowing this is the first book of a series, I am not itching to have the second one at my door step because I was left wondering what will happen. Honestly, I am very happy about this. I enjoy when authors wrap up their books but still leave room to go on to another story that would branch off from the first one.
I did find some redundant parts in this book. I think a better read through could have tightened these passages and weeded out things that were unneeded. Sara dumps a lot of information on the page for us. I think this same information could have been woven into places throughout the book instead of laid out in long passages at the beginning. This makes me waiver between a 3 and a 4 for this book. Initially, I was worried I would not want to finish it. I was surprised to really feel it pick up about half way through the book and at that point I was invested and really needed to know the conclusion. I have to say the more I read this book, the more I liked it and this is what makes me give it a 4.
I will definitely read on to find out more about the story of Sara and Micah and Sara's family.
Blurb from Goodreads:
Sara had always been careful.
She never spoke of magic, never associated with those suspected of handling magic, never thought of magic, and never, ever, let anyone see her mark. After all, the last thing she wanted was to end up missing, like her father and brother.
Then, a silver elf pushed his way into Sara's dream, and her life became anything but ordinary.
First I have to comment on this BEAUTIFUL cover. I am in love with it. Not surprisingly it was created by the most awesome Lisa Amowitz. If you have ever seen Lisa's work, you know that she is an incredibly talented artist. This book cover is no exception. It completely captured my eye when I first was introduced to it. And it also thoroughly captures the overall theme of this story. So BRAVO to Ms. Amowitz for really going above and beyond with this representation of Copper Girl.
Sara is an interesting character. She's certainly strong in her own way but is also very naive. Her innocence is a detriment to her in some situations and in others really does help to save her. She does have a weakness, tho, she knows that her kind are hunted and letting anyone know her true self would be her undoing. So she lays low. She lives in a small apartment, dresses in a not so outlandish way, and works at a boring company to keep up her appearance of being a Mundane. But things are not what they seem in any part of her life and when she meets Michah in her dream state, everything changes. She quickly begins to take chances to see him and spend time with him. And just as quickly falls for him. Their connection is instant which in most cases would bother me, I am not a fan of insta-love. BUT this particular relationship works for the story, as it is about finding that one true person to love and spend the rest of your life with. One thing that had me confused was for the longest time I could not figure out how old Sara was. Was she a teen? Was she a young adult? Was she a seasoned woman? She was living on her own, but that doesn't mean anything in a dystopian setting. I had a hard time telling and it wasn't until she told the story of her family that I did the math in my head. I place her to be around 23, although I could be wrong.
Michah is a silver elf who immediately captures Sara's heart. He is extremely confident, almost to an annoying fault. He knows what he wants and quickly goes to capture it and make it his. It's almost over powering how he inserts himself into Sara's life. At first I was a bit annoyed about it. Then I just accepted that perhaps this is how an elf is meant to act. I haven't had too much experience with elf books or characters, but thinking back on what I have read, their kind have always seemed very taken with themselves to the point of over-confidence. I honestly could not connect with Michah. And, while Sara thought he was absolutely the most attractive man she had ever met, I just could not see it (silver hair? just doesn't seem like I would find that attractive, but maybe if I were magical...?).
The secondary characters really aren't developed. We meet Julliana (Sara's best friend), Sara's mother, her sister, the Iron Queen and eventually Sara's brother. But we never get much information about them. A snippet here, a description there, but I don't know them and would really have liked a bit more information about them.
When I began reading this book, I have to say that I was annoyed with the italicized areas. They came so randomly and really made no sense to me. I figured they were Sara speaking internally, but at many points she is just giving background information so I could not figure out the reason for the use of this font. There were quite a few moments where the italicized parts happened and completely took me out of the story. I lost my train of thought as to what was going on. The info-dump was overwhelming and I found myself having to turn back pages to remember what action was going on before the internal dialogue. I really could have done without this. However, this seems to slow down if not stop almost all together after the first few chapters of the book. I really think the book could do without the change in font, and the character could have slowly dispersed the information throughout the story. I did enjoy Sara's quips later on in the story, she has a true sense of humor and I did feel a connection with her once I got into the crux of the story.
Once I got past these parts, however, I was pretty enthralled with the story. I loved the dystopian theme entangled with a bit of paranormal. You really don't see much of this out there right now, so it was a surprising change to what I have been reading lately. It did take me some time to realize that Provost had created a dystopian world, it wasn't clearly presented at first. I loved the theme of a war between mundanes and the magical beings and how this lead to the world being overly run by government officials, almost to the 1984 extent. A bit creepy but certainly plausible with drones flying about to monitor people and their daily activities, and implanted tracking devices to keep tips on people, as well.
I like that Provost does not leave us with a huge cliff hanger at the end of this book. So, despite knowing this is the first book of a series, I am not itching to have the second one at my door step because I was left wondering what will happen. Honestly, I am very happy about this. I enjoy when authors wrap up their books but still leave room to go on to another story that would branch off from the first one.
I did find some redundant parts in this book. I think a better read through could have tightened these passages and weeded out things that were unneeded. Sara dumps a lot of information on the page for us. I think this same information could have been woven into places throughout the book instead of laid out in long passages at the beginning. This makes me waiver between a 3 and a 4 for this book. Initially, I was worried I would not want to finish it. I was surprised to really feel it pick up about half way through the book and at that point I was invested and really needed to know the conclusion. I have to say the more I read this book, the more I liked it and this is what makes me give it a 4.
I will definitely read on to find out more about the story of Sara and Micah and Sara's family.