Such a disappointment. Cybele's Secret had none of the magic and strong female character Wildwood Dancing presented. Paula's attempts to look smart are laughable at best. I managed to read 300 freaking pages and it got painfully obvious how this will going to end. When I realized the lack of enjoyment those 300 page brought me I decided there's no use to read the remaining 130.Long review will follow._________________________________________Edit: here it isBeing book smart and street smart are 2 different things. Our heroine, Paula, is a scholar and is striving to apply her knowledge in the man world of the merchants. Her loving, indulgent father takes her on a trip to Istambul where they hope to be able to buy a rare artifact called Cybele's Secret.First thing I didn't like about this book: Why did her father wanted to acquire the artifact? To re-sell it or just for his merchant's pride? Romania was a deeply religious country. A pagan artifact would do nothing besides terrifying the population. So yes, the intrigue of this book was weak and never explained.Second thing I didn't like about this book: the description. It's long and useless. We never get a solid description of the amazing city, it's people, the cult, anything... All the important characters in this book are not turks. Why set this story in Istambul to begin with? She could have easily set it in one of the Romanian ports since she seem to have more knowledge about that country.Third thing I didn't like about this book: Paula. OMG, this girl has no self preservation instinct. Her father is beaten to a pulp and she just goes after the person she thinks is responsible in order to confront him. You would say that's courageous. It's not if you're going to go and confront your vicious, ruthless opponent without your bodyguard and with only and indignant "how dare you?" in your arsenal. That's just stupid. Really, that's her battle strategy? For a person who read so many book you would think she would know better. Forth thing I didn't like about this book: the cryptic message the fey world was trying to send Paula. It didn't had a solid construction. Fey ask you to start a challenge after you requested something. What did Paula request? Also, if this journey had the purpose of helping her mature, it didn't do a good job. After finishing 3/4 of this book Paula is still the same wise-ass, nagging, infuriating chick she was at the beginning.Fifth thing I didn't like about this book: the forced love triangle. Really, the second guy was put there only to confuse you to no end. She never actually interacts with him or has any chemistry with him. You can see from the first meeting the guy she's going to end up with. And really, the second one didn't even show that much interest in her. Telling a girl that she's pretty does not equal you want to marry her.Sixth thing I didn't like about this book: the 2 dimensional bad characters. Really, the only thing missing from them was the evil laugh every time they almost got the main character but they didn't get her because they decided to have a chat first. *rolls eyes*Combine all the six elements above and add to them a dose of useless boring description and a lot of pages where nothing happens and you can pretty much guess my experience with this book.So, yes, a very disappointing book and I think the main problem here was that I kept comparing it to Wildwood Dancing. That one was an amazing book and really deserves your attention. this one? Not so much.
KaPWING! New Review shot over from the Maelstrom. Natural habitat, as always, is viewable by LINKAGE:I wasn't planning on fixing up a review for this particular book, because it was a sequel/companion story. But it really does deserve a place of its own. I loved Wildwood Dancing the second time through, but adored Cybele's Secret from the first experience of readage.Recalling the Jena/Tati conflict of the previous book, it was refreshing to focus on Paula, everyone's favorite scholarly sister. Due to her knowledge of languages and persistence, Paula is permitted to accompany her merchant father to Istanbul, a city full of secrets and danger. The prize is Cybele's Secret- a cult idol for an ancient earth goddess. But there is more to the simple figurine than meets the eye.Upon arriving in the city, they discover that the previous owner has been brutally murdered. Paula is immediately put under the care of a bodyguard. But even he cannot protect her from pirates, ancient mysteries, and the darkness of the Other Kingdom. She must use her love of knowledge and growing knowledge of love to survive the cult of Cybele.Okay. Shevraeth moment. As in, I completely and utterly fell in love with the male characters of this book. Stoyan, the bodyguard, was that excellent and almost familiar stoic type while Paula's other interest, a piratey (word?) rogue was fawesome as well. Le swoon. Okay. Recovered.I loved the progression of the mystery. There were so many elements that I never guessed at and the twists were extremely... uhhh... twisty. And there were alot of them. You'd get settled into the rhythm and then BAM something crazy and unexpected occurred and threw you for one huge fictional loop. Also, the character development was great. Everything fit together. I may have even enjoyed Cybele's Secret more than it's predecessor. All the same, Juliet Marillier's writing is stunning!6.7 out of 7 evil priestesses! Highly recommended! Plus, there are all sorts of little things in the cover art that correspond to the story. Look for them as you read through.Hoping for a 3rd Wilwood Dancing story,Aella Siofra
What do You think about Cybele's Secret (2008)?
It was an interesting read. I was compelled to get through it but I wouldn't say it was great. The whole thing with Stoyan... why?! The book felt so contradictory, on the one hand you had the scholar Paula who is this forward thinking, brainy, almost feminist woman, who travels all the way to Istanbul and ends up acting as her fathers assistant in a society where there are huge inequality issues with women, and then as the book progressed she seemed to become less like this and more like No man
—Alana
Can I just say how much I love the Kinuko Craft covers? Because seriously, when I grow up, I would love to have a Kinuko Craft cover. Look at how gorgeous that is! And is that Stoyan in the corner? *swoons*I'm giving this one 4 stars instead of 5 because while the characters were amazing and the storyline fun and detailed and the romance as wonderful and sweet as I expected, I struggled with the setting a little. I set this book down about a year or so ago at the 20% mark because it was slooooow and I picked it up again a few days ago just to see if it was as slow. Nope! So I finished it, and I'm happy I did. There's a lot of back and forth in the beginning, and the plot builds slowly for a while, but then it turns into a breakneck sort of pace with an Indiana-Jones-esque sequence as they return the statue which made my nerdy heart pitter-patter.Also...Stoyan. <3<3<3 Gotta love yourself a strong, stoic, silent hero.If you want a book JUST like Wildwood Dancing (and I kinda did, I admit it), this ain't it. Which is a little sadmaking, since it's clearly Wildwood #2 (even says so in the header). But if you look at it as a standalone story on its own, it's fun and adventurous. I don't know that I'll read it again like the Sevenwaters books, but it captured my attention and imagination, so I'm happy.
—Jill Myles
After reading (and loving) Wildwood Dancing I was afraid Cybele's Secret would fall flat for me. However, while different in many ways from its predecessor, it was still a fantastic read. I've come to realize that I love reading books that feature an out-of-the-ordinary setting, and Wildwood Dancing and Cybele's Secret both deliver in this area. I felt Cybele's Secret delved a bit more into the background and culture of Istanbul than Wildwood Dancing did with its setting of Transylvania, but I think the setting of Cybele's Secret was more important to the plot, too. I loved learning about Istanbul and felt like I was getting a bit of a history lesson in addition to a great fantasy read.I also loved the differences in the storylines of the two books. While Wildwood Dancing felt more like a fairy tale fantasy, Cybele's Secret read more like of a combination of fantasy and Indiana Jones. I also enjoyed the characters in both novels. Both Jena and Paula were strong characters that had to face important and often difficult decisions and ultimately learn something from those decisions. A great read and highly recommended!
—Megan
