Book Review: Crane (Book #1, Legends Saga) by Stacey Rourke

Crane (The Legends Saga #1)

by Stacey Rourke
May 26th 2014
Paperback, 298 pages
The Horseman is unending, his presence shan’t lessen. If you break the curse, you become the legend.

Washington Irving and Rip Van Winkle had no choice but to cover up the deadly truth behind Ichabod Crane’s disappearance. Centuries later, a Crane returns to Sleepy Hollow awakening macabre secrets once believed to be buried deep.

What if the monster that spawned the legend lived within you?

Now, Ireland Crane, reeling from a break-up and seeking a fresh start, must rely on the newly awakened Rip Van Winkle to discover the key to channeling the darkness swirling within her. Bodies are piling high and Ireland is the only one that can save Sleepy Hollow by embracing her own damning curse.

But is anyone truly safe when the Horseman rides?

Following a nasty breakup, Ireland Crane has relocated from the big city to small-town Sleepy Hollow to take a position as guidance counsellor at the local high school. Although aware of the fable surrounding the town, Crane gives little thought to her famous last name or the validity of the legend. But when macabre happenings coincide with Ireland’s arrival, she has little choice but to investigate the town’s notorious villain, the Headless Horseman, and their unavoidable connection.

only $.99 

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I’ve always enjoyed the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and I'm regularly drawn to any re-imagining of my favourite tales. Deliciously dark and mysterious, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is perfect fodder for speculation and imagination. But taking on a beloved tale is always a tenuous task; purists may be reluctant to enjoy something that alters our view.

Rourke does a commendable job weaving a tale of past and present. Her ideas are creative and complex. Ireland is an admirable character, but she’s not perfect and perhaps her humanity makes her all the more compelling. As a story teller Rourke doesn’t shy away from violence and creates a world where no one is safe. Just when you’re sure where this is all leading, the story careens in a new direction generating interest and suspense.

I would’ve liked more development surrounding Ireland and Noah’s relationship. It’s been well-documented that I like my reading material more on the steamy side and I felt a little let down in that area. Also, the plot at times is incredibly complicated and the conspiracies a little difficult to track. Some of the connections seem tenuous to me and I wasn’t always sure of certain characters’ motivation. Very little is wrapped up at the end of this book; many threads remain unraveled. While this leads nicely to book two, Raven, it leaves the reader a little unsatisfied.

I recently met the lovely Ms. Rourke at her event Once Upon a Book in Frankenmuth, Michigan. I picked up a copy of Raven, book two of Legends Saga, and very much look forward to seeing where Rourke has taken Ireland. Book three, Steam, is also currently available.

Four Sheep

Bianca Greenwood

About the Author:

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RONE Award Winner for Best YA Paranormal Work of 2012 for Embrace, a Gryphon Series Novel Young Adult and Teen Reader voted Author of the Year 2012 Turning Pages Magazine Winner for Best YA book of 2013 & Best Teen Book of 2013. Stacey Rourke is the author of the award winning YA Gryphon Series as well as the chillingly suspenseful Legends Saga.

She lives in Michigan with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and two giant dogs. She loves to travel, has an unhealthy shoe addiction, and considers herself blessed to make a career out of talking to the imaginary people that live in her head.

Two Sheep Review: Sleepy Hollow, Season 2 mid-season Review

As two of the Sheep are big fans of the television show Sleepy Hollow, we thought a breakdown of all the awesome goodness to share with all would be a fun treat! If you don't know this show yet, go watch it. If you've been keeping up, leave comments and let us know your thoughts. Adria and myself have some feedback and things we'd love to see happen below. 

Katie's crazy mind hashes out some thoughts! 

Sleepy Hollow has continued to deliver an exciting and entertaining television experience. Season Two is mixed with legends and myths, some of which seem like the could or should be true, our lead pair are once again out to stop the apocalypse. Go team! Leading the way is Detective Abby Mills, a straight-forward cop who's been thrust into a world of darkness and evil unknown to mankind. She's partnered up with the colonial-hottie-with -the-English-body Ichabod Crane. *le sigh* 

Intermixed with action and adventure are enjoyable moments the show throws in for that fun comedy relief to lighten and humanize the characters. Ichabods reactions to modern-day technology are laugh out loud funny. His comments about cars and motor bikes never get old. The show writers do an excellent job of adding that balance of humor with the darkness while giving the audience what it wants. 

My one big complaint with the show are the wigs. They are pretty awful actually. Aside from that, the wardrobe is pretty dead on to what I might expect to see in the eras of old. I can only hope that the wig disaster either gets better or they just cut off the characters locks and have them work with a modern buzz cut. But I still want to see Ichabod in his sexy coat! 

[Look ma, no wig!]

Hair pieces aside, this show continues to impress and dazzle my soft and gushy insides. I'm eagerly awaiting to see what happens after the mid-season break! Lot's is left on hold and will the long lost son ever come home to the family that loves him?! We just don't know. But we want to! 

Adria digs deeper and shows us why she's the bomb! 

Legends, myths and folklore seem to be working well for Fox’s Sleepy Hollow. The series started in 2013 and to the surprise of many, became one of the breakout TV shows of the year. The modern take on the short story by Washington Irving has placed Ichabod Crane in the small town of Sleepy Hollow 230 years after he was killed in battle by the Headless Horseman (Later revealed to be Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). Together with Police Lieutenant Abbie Mills, they must stop the coming apocalypse when they realize that not only are they dealing with the Headless Horseman, but with demons, witches and, in Ichabod’s case, modern technology and idioms. It’s the ultimate battle between Team Good and Team Evil!

The season two opener caused a bit of anxiety for me. I was a little underwhelmed with the premiere and how it seemed to lack the magic and suspense of season one. However, with the second episode of season two, my faith (and nerves) were back to normal. It also saw the introduction of a new villain: The Horseman of War, aka Henry Parrish, aka Ichabod and Katrina’s son. 

Unlike Katie, the wigs don’t bother me too much, probably because I’ve seen worse. I don’t want Ichabod to get too “modern” however because for me, part of his appeal is that he is a man out of time in every way. His hair, his clothes, his speech, his ideas and his morals all scream “I’m not from around here!” and provide snarky bantering between him and Abbie that a lot of times breaks up a tense scene and gives viewers something light hearted to laugh about. I certainly wouldn’t want to see Ichabod dressed in modern clothes or see him lose his long locks, bad wig or no (Maybe actor Tom Mison could grow out his hair instead?). I wouldn’t want Ichabod to lose what makes him, well, him. It’s a huge part of his appeal to me. It would be like asking Abbie to become more like the women Ichabod knew back in his time.

Each episode this season has so far been better than the last, but for me the two stand out episodes were Heartless and Mama.

Heartless saw Ichabod’s wife Katrina briefly joining the dynamic duo in their quest to stop the end of days. This episode was revealing in the fact that since season one there has been no end of Ichabod/Abbie shippers, some of whom want a romance between the two characters. Yet, I have been firmly in the Ichabod-has-a-WIFE camp. Then in this episode I got my wish: Katrina was part of the group, only it didn’t work for me and it obviously didn’t work for Abbie either. Katrina’s presence distracted Ichabod, and she butted heads with Abbie over how Henry should be dealt with but most importantly, Katrina completely dampened the chemistry between the Ichabod and Abbie which is one of my favorite things about this show. I quickly realized that no matter what, Katrina was never going to see Henry as anything other than her son and she would always stand in the way of what Team Good had to do. So, she had to go and thankfully she ended up reassigning herself to a secret mission. Bottom line is: I love Katrina Crane, she’s a powerful character and I love that she’s a good guy, I just don’t think she’s a good fit for Ichabod and Abbie’s group of merry misfits. So while I’m never going to ship an Ichabod/Abbie romance, that doesn’t mean that I want Mr. & Mrs. Crane working in the same group.

In the episode titled Mama, fans got a more personal look into Abbie and her sister Jennifer’s tumultuous childhood with their mentally unstable mother. Ichabod is noticeably absent for most of the episode but that just gave Abbie and her sister Jenny the spotlight and allowed viewers to see their more vulnerable/weak side. It was a heartbreaking episode as well as both women find out the devastating truth about their mother who committed suicide while she was a patient at the asylum. Actresses Nicole Beharie and Lyndie Greenwood who play Abbie and Jennifer Mills respectively did an amazing job of showing their characters’ more emotional sides. I’m not ashamed to say that I shed a few tears with that episode.

The addition of Matt Barr as the unpredictable mercenary Nick Hawley throws a delightful wrench into Ichabod and Abbie’s relationship as well. He’s the wild card in the show, no one knows what he’ll do to collect a relic to sell to the highest bidder… I like him!

Sleepy Hollow has been a surprise for everyone, myself included. Here we finally have a television series that attracts and satisfies fans of the original tale while giving them something fresh to mull over every Monday night. The assurance of victory for Ichabod and Abbie is never certain, and as much as they win some, they also lose a great deal as evidenced by the mid season finale The Akeda. The uncertainty of what will happen next is what keeps me tuning in every week and what has me weeping right now that the series is on hiatus until 2015. Darn those holidays!