Judith O'Brien

I wish I could give this book two and half stars instead of three. Although the descriptions of the Tudor kingdom was a bit heavy handed and the language of the main character felt a little stilted, Timeless Love was afun,engaging and quick read. It was on its way to get three stars from me as I raced to the end of the book.(For such a light plot, it was taking an awfully long time to wrap up.) The absolute ending killed an other wise decent, fun, YA historical fiction novel. It felt tacked on. It arrived where the book should have naturally ended, and caused me to almost throw it across the bus.… (más)

A woman is tossed back in time to Arthurian times and because the prisoner/guest of the mythical Lancelot. It started out nicely but lost my interest very quickly. The only interesting thing is the dynamic between the heroine Lancelot, Arthur and Gwen and the tension between them. Just when things start to heat up suddenly the two main characters are thrust forward to modern time. Why on earth would you change the setting when that alone was making people want to read a time travel about Camelot? It makes no sense.… (más)

Even though Gwen Stacy preceded Mary Jane Watson in the original Spider-Man comics, it seems to be a law of Spider-Man adaptations that Gwen only shows up once Mary Jane and Peter Parker are ready to get together, as that's how it happens here, in the Sam Raimi films, and in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. Of course, Gwen's arrival makes our already insecure Mary Jane even more insecure, one of many subplots struggling for dominance in this unfocused novel. Unfortunately, the most prominent plotline is also the most contrived, with the narrative dumping on MJ unbelievably hard-- and then resolving that problem unbelievably easily. I liked the first book okay, but struggled to enjoy this one. (Even the pictures aren't as good; clearly no one told Mike Mayhew that 1) Peter's not wearing his glasses anymore and 2) the book takes place during the winter.)

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A friend of mine who studies children's and YA literature mentioned the term "teen issue novel" the other day (while bemoaning them), which is an apt description for this book. We see the very beginning of the Spider-Man saga through Mary Jane's eyes-- while Mary Jane also deals with anorexia, an absent father, and a semi-abusive mother's boyfriend. All that plus she's starting a new school and Harry Osborn is coming onto her and she's been reunited with Peter Parker, who was her lab partner in fourth grade, long ago. It's too much, and it doesn't fit together tonally all the time: a subplot about evil energy drinks just jars with the more serious material. Plus, the serious material isn't always handled well: Mary Jane's descent into anorexia feels plausible to me, but the way it stops definitely isn't. There's definitely some stuff to like in this book, especially the depiction of Peter and MJ meeting as kids, and again as high schoolers, but this conceit was executed much better in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane than it is here. (Mike Mayhew's pictures are gorgeous, though.)

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