I’m super-excited for today’s GCC tour of Shanna Swendson and her new release, Once Upon Stilettos. Not only is Shanna a buddy of mine, but I’ve been waiting for this book, the second installment in her Enchanted Inc. series. I read the first when it came out last year. Since I’m now working on a sequel in the series myself, I couldn’t wait to see how Shanna handled the challenge.
And I’m pleased to relate that OUS had everything a good sequel should — deepening and developing relationships, more of the characters we know and love, more info about the “big bad,” and a few monkey wrenches thrown into the rules we only thought we knew.
This installment tests Katie’s mettle when her magical immunity, the kind of anti-superpower superpower upon which Swendson’s series is based, begins to falter. Since Katie’s job at Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc. is based upon her uniquely non-magical properties (she’s so unmagical that magic spells won’t even work on her, so she’s the only one who can tell if people are using illegal magic), it’s a tough situation. While reading, I found myself wondering what I would do in Katie’s position. There are definitely some sticky ethical issues going on if you have a job that requires a certain skill and you don’t have it, especially when it’s an issue of life or death. Because Katie’s defining character trait has always been her supreme practicality, I would have thought she’d tell someone straight away. I know I would have. It’s definitely a testament to how much it meant to her to be working at MSI, that our heroine would undertake such a risky proposition in order to stay there. There were a few times that I just wanted to grab her and shake her! Had she lost her famous no-nonsense ‘tude along with her magical immunity? Of course, once she does open up, things catch fire and I wound up loving the last part of the book. The payoff is worth the wait!
But it makes me wonder: would I have had the patience to root for Katie through what was arguable a pretty unheroic act if I hadn’t seen how much MSI had meant to her in the first book? Or, if I hadn’t read the first book, would I have found Katie’s secret-keeping a little easier to believe, since I hadn’t seen how practical she had always been before? I discussed the book with another reader who hadn’t read the first one; she didn’t think at all that it was odd that Katie would keep her secret — after all, have you seen the rent in Manhattan? Girl needs a paycheck, qualifications or no. (Talk about practical!) Another reader who had read the first said she thought the same thing. that Katie was being as practical as ever, what with the tough job market and all.
But it’s an interesting debate nonetheless. Are you able to make riskier choices with series characters because the reader is more likely to have “known” them and loved them longer? Or are you even more constrained by series characters becuase people who think they “know” them have definite ideas about how your character should act, even if it’s not your idea? After all, after your character is out in the world, it only marginally belongs to you. Everyone else gets a take on him or her as well.
Anyhoo, pick up a copy of Once Upon Stilettos (and, while you’re at it, Enchanted, Inc.) and decide for yourself. Or, just pick up a copy because Owen is very very very very hot.
Very hot. And has a killer apartment. That’s all I’m going to say. What with spoiler warnings, and all.
(H.O.T.)
