Bookanistas: Gushing Over BLOOD & FLOWERS

mood: hee hee
pandora/ipod: "kiss with a fist" by florence + the machine

This is my FIRST Bookanistas post and I'm SO FREAKING EXCITED. I love the idea of giving props to the YA books we love. And so without further adieu...

BLOOD AND FLOWERS by Penny Blubaugh

Three years ago, Persia ran away from her drug-addict parents and found a home with the Outlaws, an underground theater troupe. With time, this motley band of mortals and fey, puppeteers and actors, becomes the loving family Persia never had, and soon Persia not only discovers a passion for theater but also falls in love with one of the other Outlaws. Life could not be more perfect.

Until an enemy makes an unfair accusation against the group and forces them to flee their world and hide in the neighboring realm of Faerie. But in Faerie, all is not flowers and rainbows. With bloodthirsty trolls, a hostile monarchy, and a dangerous code of magic, the fey world is far from the safe haven the Outlaws had hoped for....

Following up her critically acclaimed Serendipity Market, Penny Blubaugh has created a beautiful and mysterious world where anything can happen—especially what you least expect.

Harper Teen - March 1, 2011

It's only appropriate that my first Bookanistas review would be a book (a) about the theater and (b) edited by my own beloved editor Kristin Daly Rens. As if that wasn't enough, Penny Blubaugh has created a dark, tantalizing world where fey and human keep a tenuous cohabitation in the mortal world, and magic - and it's drug-laced after effects - have built a wall of suspicion and mistrust between the two worlds.

Enter the Outlaw Puppet Theater, a group of faeries and humans creating fly-by-night productions using questionably legal fey magic. As a theater chick myself, I loved the Outlaws - Tonio and Max, the couple who founded the troupe, Nicholas the aspiring lawyer, Floss whose faerie magic makes the troupe something truly unique, Lucia the wounded spirit and Persia, our main character who has finally found a home with the Outlaws. A home she's going to cling to til her dying breath. I loved this family, this motley crew, this collection from the Island of Misfit toys. They act like a family, with petty squabbles and fierce loyalty, and I found myself completely drawn into their world.

And just when things are starting to go well for the Outlaws - a successful show, press, fame, money - it all comes crashing down. In the face of arrest and prison time, the Outlaws flee to the one place they think they'll be safe: Faerie.

Yeah, not so much.

There are a lot of Fey-Human stories on the market right now, but one of the things that attracted me to BLOOD & FLOWERS was Penny Blubaugh's vision of this world. Her Faerie is a strange place. Dark and wondrous, eccentric and wild, familiar yet completely original. There's a luscious quality to her characterization of that alternate world and the pace of the story really starts to roll once the Outlaws jump into their new world. I literally couldn't put the book down.

BLOOD & FLOWERS also give you a great love story: the wounded Persia with all her baggage and fears of love and rejection, and the boy-next-door Nicholas. Watching them take almost painfully slow baby steps towards each other gave me that tantalizing sexual tension I love so much!

Don't want to give too much away, but come March 1, I hope you all check out BLOOD & FLOWERS!

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Who else is reviewing this week? Check out the rest of the Bookanista reviews!

LiLa Roecker hosts a sunny tour stop for POSSUM SUMMER
Christine Fonseca shares her Guestanista Post: The Lost Hero
Shannon Messenger spotlights the cover of SO SILVER BRIGHT
Scott Tracey is inspired by ANGELFIRE
Michelle Hodkin toasts DEMONGLASS
Beth Revis finds amazing MAGIC UNDER GLASS
Carolina Valdez Miller uncovers WORDS IN THE DUST
Megan Miranda leaps and shouts for THE LIAR SOCIETY
Bethany Wiggins glows for RUBY RED
Shana Silver gets psyched about WITHER
Jen Hayley raves about RAISED BY WOLVES
Rosemary Clement-Moore revisits HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
Sarah Frances Hardy is nuts for THE NINTH WARD
Corrine Jackson delights in DIVERGENT
Stasia Ward Kehoe celebrates THE LIAR SOCIETY