Eyes Like Stars
Eyes Like Stars: Théâtre Illuminata, Act Iby Lisa Mantchev
All her world’s a stage. Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater. She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents. She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own. That is, until now. Enter Stage Right NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie. COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARD SEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE’S sidekicks. ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie’s weakness. The symbol of impending doom. BERTIE. Our heroine. Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book-an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family-and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.
I almost got out of bed right after I finished reading this to come downstairs and turn on the laptop and write my review then and there. Sadly, I was falling over, half asleep when I was done and couldn't manage to do much more than reach over and turn off the light. Then I had to work during the day and it prohibited me from writing up a review the very next day. I think having this bit of time between the end of the book and the blog post saved me from writing only:
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!! THIS WAS ZOMGWTFBBQ!!!!111!!!!!!!!1 OMG!OMG!!!!!!
Because, really, that's all I was thinking when I turned that final page in this book. There were the fleeting intelligent thoughts once the book was closed as well. Thoughts like, "Wow, that was really good!" and "Argh! When does the next book come out?!?!?" But to be honest, the main brain process was all fangrrlish and chatspeak.And while I am being honest, I have to say I was terrified that I wasn't going to like this book when I started it. First impressions when I cracked open the cover and got the whiff of Perfect Book Smell were, "I am so going to enjoy this". However, I had a killer migraine and it wasn't exactly the right time to be starting a new book. One that I had no knowledge of world nor characters nor plot line. And I will agree with the few other reviews I have seen out there that mentioned a sort of confusion upon reading the first chapters or so. I was confused, not because the story was confusing, but there was so much action and so many players that my little migraine having head was finding the whole thing WAY TOO LOUD!I put the book down for a bit, wanting to go back as soon as I could and as soon as my right eye would let me without causing me to vomit from pain and sensitivity (migraines so do not equal fun, in case you were curious). And I did go back and by the end of chapter 3 I was in love with those four little faeries that flitted about Bertie. They made me laugh so much. And I simply ADORED Ophelia! I wanted to snatch her from the pages of the book and just hug and hug and hug her. She was, I think, my most favoured character out of the entire book. (Personally, I think that Juliet Landau, who played Drusilla in Buffy/Angel should play her in the movie version of the book!)Last year I fell in love with Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, I think this year's heart-giving goes to Eyes Like Stars. I actually had a smile on my face when I closed this book.This book was enchanting and so very funny. As others have said, once you get used to how things work at the Théâtre you flow right through the story until the end. (Although I was having a hard time following the book page thing with Ariel near the end.) Once you get to the end you don't want to leave the friends you've made on the page. I certainly hope that Lisa Mantchev cranks out that second book in record time! I need it I think. Almost as much as I need my dogs and cake!Acts of the Théâtre Illuminata