Sword fighting, shopping and a silly young Samurai

Asai, Carrie ~Samurai Girl: The Book of the Sword

When I selected this book I thought
The young adult fiction of the library has never felt my footsteps (even when I was young and the library was located elsewhere – perhaps it didn’t have a young adult section 20-and-a-*cough*-few years ago and I was already stealing my mum’s Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon novels).

50-word description
Heaven is famous in Japan after surviving a plane crash at the age of two. Orphaned, she is adopted by a wealthy family and her pampered upbringing ends at 19 when her adopted father forces her to marry for mercantile reasons. On her wedding day, Heaven’s beloved brother is murdered and she flees the scene and her family in a search for justice.

150-word review
The first book of the six-novel Samurai Girl series contains all the ingredients of a successful franchise: love, murder, money, shopping, opportunity, revenge, burgeoning sexuality, a kick-arse heroine and a crush-worthy teacher skilled in the arts of the Samurai. The narrative device of Heaven’s perspective interwoven with notes by other characters works nicely.

Heaven’s mixed priorities, such as believing she’s an assassin’s target yet goes shopping for clothes, are frustrating but almost tolerable. She’s likeable when she starts training with Hiro, her only confidante after her brother’s murder, and starts evolving from sheltered teen to stand-alone young woman on a mission to exact revenge against trained ninjas.

However, plots gape with holes and leave the ending with more questions than answers – the book was weighted too heavily towards storylines for the next book in the series rather than satisfying resolution. I did try to borrow the second book for some answers to assuage my curiosity, however, the school holiday crowd had swooped on the entire series and the shelf was bare. It’s the quick and the dead at the library at the moment.

I hope they like the series more than this young reviewer:

Anonymous Anonymous said…
12:03 PM, November 20, 2006

I have read all the Samurai books and I have to say that my opinion of the book changed drasticly when I read the sixth book. My whole prospective on Heaven is that she’a a dirty whore. I ould never ecommend this book to my worst enemies and believe me i have many. The author had the story going great, but ruinned it. I have never hated anyone more than I hate Carrie Asai. Carrie is the first author to stir up ill these ill feelings. Samurai girl was the first book I read in my new school in 10th grade. It has been a year since that dark day I chose to read that horrendous book. I hate you Carrie and I will never ever read a book you publish. Sincerely An angry ex-fan.

Source: http://www.tcpl.org/teen/imoblog/2006/07/samurai-girl-1-book-of-sword-submitted.html

Let me know if you bump into Anonymous Anonymous because I’d like her to do some guest reviews here.

carrie asai ~ samurai girl

Found in
Young Adult A

Read
Jan 09

Links
It’s not much, but here’s the author’s page at Simon and Schuster
Frankston Library catalogue link

Rating
Passable

This is book 16 of the project.