The Autumn Palace (Ondine, 2)
The Autumn Palace (Ondine, #2)by Ebony McKenna
One boy, one girl, one plot to be foiled! Hamish the gorgeous man (and part time ferret) has a new job with the Duke as a spy in his Autumn Palace. So Ondine goes with him. She imagines a hugely romantic escapade together that involves lots of kissing. What she hadn't imagined was having to do endless laundry, go to school and keep Hamish the man a secret. All the while trying to find out who is plotting to kill the Duke. And if that weren't bad enough, it seems that Hamish is more interested in getting the Duke's attention than hers. Plus he's always in ferret form. Things can't go on like this! Can Ondine foil the would-be assassin, save the Duke and get her man back in gorgeous human form? It's going to take a little bit of magic, a lot of stolen kisses and some ferreting around... (goodreads.com)
The love I felt for the first Ondine book just grew and grew with the sequel. There was laughter and reading aloud to my husband from the hilarious footnotes and just a general sense of contentment as I journeyed with Ondine, Hamish/Shambles and her aunt, Old Col to the Duke's Autumn palace.I blame the author herself for my inability to picture Hamish as anyone other than this YouTuber. Since she linked to him one day on Twitter and said "THIS is Hamish!" Of course I have to agree with her and now I have a channel subscription to a young fellow that I am just waiting to see turn into a ferret during one of his vlogs (hasn't happened yet, for the record).But I digress... There is just something so refreshing and carefree about the Ondine novels. Again I am wondering how they should be categorized. They are written a little young for pure YA but there is plenty o' kissing and stolen kisses and thoughts about doing nothing but kissing that would make this a little older for MG. There needs to be a middle young grade adult or something. The kissing and hints at kissing are not graphic or inappropriate at all, but Ondine is a 16-year old girl and well, her mind reacts as one. I will say she's awfully innocent though and it comes through in the story. There's nothing overly R rated, even PG13 would be stretching it. She reminds me of myself at that age (only I had way less kissing experiences. As in, none. I had my first boyfriend at 19.)There is once again this glorious mixture of present day and fantasy world among the pages. The country of Brugel seems like a far odd land, but it's just somewhere on our very own map. It's just a little behind the times and, well, odd. Whatever it is that it has, it WORKS.I am secretly hoping that with titles like The Summer of Shambles and The Autumn Palace that Ebony McKenna plans to grace the world with two more seasonally-titled stories in Brugel. I will gladly read about Ondine and Hamish's escapades in both the Winter and Spring. If my wish comes true I shall be ever so delighted!Lest you think that this book is merely about stolen kisses, let me assure you that there are also delicious plots to kill the Duke. The poor man certainly has his fare share of enemies. The mystery and hijinks that make up the story are so much fun to read about. The characters we meet along the way are entertaining and often suspicious. I will say that I sort of guessed the outcome of this particular mystery pretty early on, but I think it's just because I am innately a suspicious person and trust no one in books where something is amiss. I was rather tickled when I discovered what I thought might be going on was actually going on. I gave myself a mental gold star and a real, delicious cookie for my accomplishment!The Ondine books are a complete delight to read! I assure you that they are worth the handful of hours you'll spend reading them and will make you laugh out loud more than once!PS - Woohoo! This is my 140th book for 2011! Go, me!Ondine