Fic: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained (Sanctuary)

AN: Written for femgenficathon. For posterity, this was also the first fic I wrote with GoogleDocs.

Spoilers: Awakenings

Disclaimer: Not mine, donate to S4K.

Rating: Teen

Character/Pairing: Helen Magnus, Kate Freelander

Summary: After "Awakenings", Helen and Kate have a talk about what it means to be the best at what they do.

( Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained )

Gravity_Not_Included, June 2011

Book #25 - Forever, by m_stiefvater

The first thing you need to know about FOREVER is that it has one of the best teasers ever written in a book. It's so good, in fact, that when Maggie posted a clip of herself reading it for Valentine's Day, I flipped out at the second word ("Shelby", for the record).

So I was pretty excited for this book. ;)

As far as trilogies go, The Shiver Trilogy is not the most action packed. There's action, of course, and what action there is is deftly woven into the rest of the story, but the predominant part of the book is devoted to Grace, Isabel, Sam, Cole and their feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings. Fortunately, the girls are so wonderfully levelheaded that it evens out the aaaaaangsting of the boys. ;) Also, there's mad science, which I adore, and communication, which I like even more.

( Spoilers! )

The red text didn't bother me as much as I was afraid it might (and I may have also convinced my seatmate on the plane to buy the book, based on the fact that the text was coloured!), and even the POV shifts didn't addle my fragmented attention span.

As always, the strength of Maggie's style is in her construction. This book was just so beautifully built, that each POV shift was perfect. You can really tell that every word, every reference, every punctuation mark is carefully placed to make the story better. You read books that make pictures all the time. This book is a picture, and it's stunning.

9/10 for Grace being awesome, Shelby being scary, Sam growing up, Isabel being a valkyrie, and Cole almost making me like him. ;) And, of course, for the words! (And for the ending, which I loved.)