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A review by sbbarnes
Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey
4.0
I enjoyed this one much much more than I thought I would. Puss in Boots is definitely not one of my favorite fairy tales, especially because it's a story about a liar scamming people, and that just stresses me out. So I was really pleasantly surprised. The story follows Ninette Dupond, a ballet dancer in the Paris opera. After being kicked out of the company for being too attractive to the star's gentleman friend, she almost starves and then her cat starts talking and brings her to Blackpool to impersonate a Russian ballerina no one has heard of.
This goes off without a hitch because the people running the theater in Blackpool are Elemental masters and can hear the cat, a point which is mentioned at least three times as a reason for choosing Blackpool. They bring in a fire master, Jonathon, who works as an illusionist. But the real Russian ballerina was eaten by a troll a long time ago and the troll is mad about identity theft, so starts doing a lot of evil stuff.
There are many shenanigans, including Ninette learning to shoot from her Scottish maid Ailse, Jonathon and a random Water master they got from somewhere sleuthing around, a fake shipwreck that occupies everyone even though they know it's fake, etc. It's fun. There are a few too many minor characters to keep track of - I feel like it would have been easier to just make Nigel a water master rather than bring in a romantic false lead that immediately gets forgotten with Alan.
I did enjoy the somewhat combative love story with Ninette and Jonathon, especially how at the end she chooses to encourage him in her way. Ninette did have a touch of the Mary-Sues in that she was well-loved by everyone for very little reason. But it does seem likely that she was tired of being looked down on by the Etoiles and would therefor treat others better, and it also matches her magic gift thingy. All in all a cute book. I liked the ballet stuff.
This goes off without a hitch because the people running the theater in Blackpool are Elemental masters and can hear the cat, a point which is mentioned at least three times as a reason for choosing Blackpool. They bring in a fire master, Jonathon, who works as an illusionist. But the real Russian ballerina was eaten by a troll a long time ago and the troll is mad about identity theft, so starts doing a lot of evil stuff.
There are many shenanigans, including Ninette learning to shoot from her Scottish maid Ailse, Jonathon and a random Water master they got from somewhere sleuthing around, a fake shipwreck that occupies everyone even though they know it's fake, etc. It's fun. There are a few too many minor characters to keep track of - I feel like it would have been easier to just make Nigel a water master rather than bring in a romantic false lead that immediately gets forgotten with Alan.
I did enjoy the somewhat combative love story with Ninette and Jonathon, especially how at the end she chooses to encourage him in her way. Ninette did have a touch of the Mary-Sues in that she was well-loved by everyone for very little reason. But it does seem likely that she was tired of being looked down on by the Etoiles and would therefor treat others better, and it also matches her magic gift thingy. All in all a cute book. I liked the ballet stuff.