Realms Review: "The Coldest Girl in Coldtown"

If you're in love with vampires and novels by Holly Black, you'll love her novel The Coldest Girl in Coldtown. Set in the present day U.S., The Coldest Girl in Coldtown explores the reaction of the world to an outbreak of vampires. Vampires are not new, but, for the past ten years, they've been public. Coldtowns are quarantined areas where outbreaks took place. The story follows Tana, a teenage girl who awoke after a massacre, only narrowly escaping the clutches of the vampires who attacked.

Black weaves a chilling tale, bringing us back to the classic horror stories of vampires. They are creatures that are beautiful and abhorrent. The characters are intriguing, well-written, and believable, traits that every reader loves. With witty dialogue and page-turning, edge-of-your-seat action scenes, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a book you just can't put down. In Coldtown, no one is safe, and you, the reader, will feel its power dripping off the pages.

We give this book 5 out of 5 stars for its originality, lovely prose, exquisite setting and characters, and boldness in redefining the modern vampire tale. If you loved this book, check out Black's upcoming novel, The Darkest Part of the Forest, an urban fantasy tale about faeries, releasing Jan. 13, 2015!

Realms Review

Realms Review: "City of Heavenly Fire"

Realms is a few months behind on this one, but as fans of Cassandra Clare’s popular series, The Mortal Instruments, we simply could not resist reviewing City of Heavenly Fire. Now I think we can all agree that Shadowhunters kick ass, especially Clary and Jace, and the series has a fairly solid plot and amazing characters. This is the sixth and last book in this series, and we want to give you our rating of the wrap-up.

Overall, we would give the series 5 out of 5 stars. The first three books were spectacular. The fourth book was okay, but the last two books really made up for it. In City of Heavenly Fire, the Shadowhunters fight off Sebastian and save the world from his waiting demon army. The book is pretty hefty, being 700+ pages, but the more the merrier! Sacrifices were made that gave an edge to the book and added a sense of finality to it, while also setting up the beginning to her new series. We see what you did there!

As a final book, it served its purpose, and we will give it 4 out of 5 stars for its solid plot and strong characters. The pages are filled with danger at every turn of the page. It’s nearly impossible to put down! The reason we give it a 4 instead of a 5 is because the beginning was a little slow in getting to the final showdown, which is what everyone was anticipating. However, the writing, as usual, was utterly captivating, which makes up for the slow start. There was also a bit much going on between Clare’s ending of this series and inserting another storyline that was basically a setup for the new Shadowhunter series.

If you’re a fan of The Mortal Instruments, you’ll be satisfied with the closing book, and itching for the next series.

Realms Review

Originally posted on the Realms website on 11/01/2014

YA Fantasy Matters

This is such a simple title for something so near and dear to my heart. It’s not enough to say it saved me or that it brought me the truest happiness I’ve known. Many think reading YA Fantasy is an escape and, in a way, it is, but it became an integral part of my life. YA Fantasy books taught me about strength, adventure, love, and how to see the magic and fantastic aspects of our world. I found my calling, my future in the pages of those books.

My experience is not unique. Millions of people, teenagers and adults alike, have fallen in love with YA Fantasy. Countless fandoms and intense conversations have followed in the wake of magical and supernatural tales. Despite the vast number of books in this genre, I found that there was a lack of published short stories, poetry, etc. in this genre.

I wrote short stories. I wrote poems. I submitted them to countless literary magazines, and found this was simply not what they were looking for. If I submitted to fiction magazines, they didn’t like the fantasy, and if I submitted to fantasy magazines, they didn’t want the YA audience. For a while I was frustrated. I searched for a YA Fantasy literary magazine that I could submit to, and didn’t find one. So I thought, maybe I should create my own.

That was two years ago, and after my initial annoyance died down, I really began to dwell on that idea. Why not create a magazine? I had the resources, and the YA Fantasy audience is huge. More importantly, I wanted to do something special with the genre that hadn’t been done before. I wanted to do something that would not only be meaningful to me, but to thousands of others.

YA Fantasy is more than an escape and more than a connection to the characters. There’s a certain sense of wonder and awe that awakens the imaginative side of everyone who loves it. Even though it’s fiction, it reminds all of us that there’s more to life than what lies on the surface, and delving into those worlds is like pushing a restart button. The passion with which these stories are written have evoked more emotion from me, and others, than regular local news stories in our world.

Realms was created to expand the world of YA Fantasy beyond the limitation of novel-writing. So explore the website, submit your stories, and prepare yourself for a fantastic issue in May 2015.

By: Daphne Tuccitto

Originally posted on the Realms website on 11/01/2014