Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris

Well, I am finally getting to what I promised initially-- reviewing the complete (so far) Theodosia Throckmorton series.  And it had better not be done, Robin Lorraine LaFevers, so help me.

Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris
by R. L. LaFevers

Things have settled down somewhat for Theodosia since her last escapade.  However, her father makes her start cataloging the artifacts down in the basement, which is worrisome to Theo because of the potential curses she feels coming from these objects.  Theo begins her usual methods of checking for dark magic, but in the midst of her working, a jackal statue seems to come to life.

Following some other strange happenings, all the mummies from all the museums and the like disappear, only to begin turning up in the hallway of Theo's father's museum.  There is definitely magic afoot here, but is it the work of the Serpents of Chaos group or something else entirely?

Meanwhile, Theo's grandmother, who seems to have an admirer in an Admiral, brings new loathsome governesses to educate Theo, but our clever girl needs none of that deportment stuff.  Nor does she need to be doing lessons all day when she has to protect the British empire from all these curses!

Sticky Will, the pickpocket turned messenger for the Brotherhood is not as helpful or open as he once was, and Theo feels more alone than ever.  Her father is on the verge of arrest for stealing the mummies that appear in his locked museum every morning, and something is amiss with some of the artifacts down in the basement.  What can Theo do to prevent the arrest, stop the mummies from wandering, defeat the Serpents again, and get back her friendship with Will?


This book continues from where the last one left off after Theo and her mother get back from her unscheduled trip to Egypt.  I love how LaFevers continues to show the steps to defeat the curses.  As I said before, some might find these parts slow moving, but I think it just further envelops the reader in Theodosia's world, making it seem more real.  There is still plenty of excitement, though the first part of the book is not as full of action as the second.  The idea of mummies walking on their own might scare younger readers in the suggested range, but if they read the first book, there isn't anything much scarier than what happened within.  The book is very engaging once more, though it does suffer a little for being a second book in a series.  But not too much.

I give this 8 out of 10 sonic screwdrivers.

Meeting authors

I must say that meeting the authors of favorite books can be a great time.  I met several awesome people last year--Meg Cabot, Deborah Harkness, Laurie R. King, and several others at Bouchercon.  Cabot and King were the coolest, because I got to eat a meal with them (at separate times; together it would be an odd combination, since their writing styles are quite different).  And sitting in that big circle in the Renaissance Hotel lobby with all my FOL new friends was awesome too.

However, there are other times where you put your foot in your mouth and feel like a complete dolt, and someone like Daniel Handler totally takes advantage of that and even immortalizes your gaffe in your signing.  That's the other kind of meeting authors that isn't so great.  After a half hour or so presentation, the rest of the time of the Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen author/illustrator visit was taken by book signing.  I was basically almost the end of the line, and since I was getting both to sign The Dark, I had to wait in 2 lines.  Klassen was nice and cute, and drew a picture of a car with his John Hancock.  By the time I finished with him, it was after 10 (program started at 7).

I did get to chat with a nice girl who was right behind me in line, and we liked a lot of the same things.  I wish I had got some contact info, cause we we both into Doctor Who, Veronica Mars, Joss Whedon, and other cool stuff.  Still, I was exhausted by the time I got to Handler, the official author representative for Snicket ;).  I tried to express my enjoyment for Mr. Snicket's books but it came out rather botched.  I completely embarrassed myself in front of all the people left.  And got it immortalized in my copy of The Dark, which is rather unfortunate.  Ha!

Mr. Handler's inscription reads: To Jessica, who ought to know better.

So that is my condensed version of what happened meeting Daniel Handler.  If you want to know the whole story, well, you are just going to have to ask me.

Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies

So, another Goodreads review since I haven't been blogging at all recently.  Much apologies to Mary Michelle and whoever else is out there.  I liked this one, but as a librarian type I wasn't sure of the intended audience.  The protagonist was younger than most people who might have developed an intense archaeology interest, and the writing style was also geared towards the earlier middle grades.

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Samantha Sutton and the Labyrinth of Lies
by Jordan Jacobs

I really wanted to love this, because it combines so many things I adore--mystery, children's lit, archaeology, and adventure. However, I have been waffling between 3 and 4 stars because though I enjoyed the book, I feel like its audience is limited. I suppose this is a good thing, it means I am thinking like a librarian. Samantha is a character I can relate to, but I sort of felt there was some spark of personality missing from her, or that I didn't quite connect with her. And while the descriptive archaeology terms were great, I felt like it might detract some younger readers from the story. So while it is a story that I would love to love, I can't quite get there. The mystery is well formed, however, and though I had my suspicions I didn't quite get the answer before the reveal. I love the pieces of Samantha's notebook between chapters. So after looking over what I have written, a 3 star review seems to correspond. Maybe the next book in the series will have more characterization. I will probably stick with it to see what happens, but it won't be at the top of my TBR list.

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So, I suppose it is 6 out of 10 sonic screwdrivers.