December 24, 2018

All I Want for Christmas 2018 Is... (6)


It's that time of the year... time for my All I Want for Christmas feature to get dusted off and used again! For any new followers to my blog, this is when I share the books that have made it onto my Christmas wishlist. I'll probably share one or two a week until Christmas. Feel free to link up your own book picks in the comments!


Gullstruck Island by Frances Hardinge

7064529

I read A Face like Glass in 2017 and thought it was a bizarre but exceptionally well-crafted story. I'm interested to check out another Frances Hardinge book, and I know this one has gotten a lot of praise!

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart





36546635

Sisters fighting to save each other? A traitor in the palace? A dystopian-esque society? This has my name written all over it!

What books are you hoping to find under the tree?

December 19, 2018

All I Want for Christmas 2018 Is... (5)


It's that time of the year... time for my All I Want for Christmas feature to get dusted off and used again! For any new followers to my blog, this is when I share the books that have made it onto my Christmas wishlist. I'll probably share one or two a week until Christmas. Feel free to link up your own book picks in the comments!

Speak Easy, Speak Love by McKelle George


30640834

Much Ado About Nothing is by far my favourite Shakespeare play. I love the dynamic between Beatrice and Benedick, and so I'm always on the lookout for retellings of this story! This one takes place in the 1920s...

What books are you hoping to unwrap this holiday season?

December 15, 2018

All I Want for Christmas 2018 Is... (4)


It's that time of the year... time for my All I Want for Christmas feature to get dusted off and used again! For any new followers to my blog, this is when I share the books that have made it onto my Christmas wishlist. I'll probably share one or two a week until Christmas. Feel free to link up your own book picks in the comments!

Rosemarked by Livia Blackburne


29346927


This sounds like just the sort of YA fantasy I enjoy. I'm always drawn to stories with healing magic, and then throw in a soldier dealing with the effects of trauma? Sign me up!

What books are you hoping to find under the tree?


December 11, 2018

All I Want for Christmas 2018 Is... (3)


It's that time of the year... time for my All I Want for Christmas feature to get dusted off and used again! For any new followers to my blog, this is when I share the books that have made it onto my Christmas wishlist. I'll probably share one or two a week until Christmas. Feel free to link up your own book picks in the comments!

Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman

10002296

I read and enjoyed Freeman's book Ember Island this year, so I'm looking forward to checking out more of her historical novels! (Although she writes fantasy novels too, under the name Kim Wilkins, and now I'm even more interested to try reading those too.)





Plus, I love the combination of colours in the Wildflower Hill cover.

What books are you hoping Santa brings?


December 1, 2018

All I Want for Christmas 2018 Is... (2)


It's that time of the year... time for my All I Want for Christmas feature to get dusted off and used again! For any new followers to my blog, this is when I share the books that have made it onto my Christmas wishlist. I'll probably share one or two a week until Christmas. Feel free to link up your own book picks in the comments!



The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly


396266






This series has flown under the radar online, but I was very pleasantly surprised by the first book, The Tea Rose, and I'm interested to see how things unfold in the next book, The Winter Rose.

What books are you hoping to find under the tree?


November 25, 2018

All I Want for Christmas 2018 Is... (1)


It's nearing December, which means that it's that time of the year...for my All I Want for Christmas feature to get dusted off and used again! For any new followers to my blog, this is when I share the books that have made it onto my Christmas wishlist. I'll probably share one or two a week until Christmas. Feel free to link up your own book picks in the comments!

The first pick for this year is:

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

36896898

I really enjoyed Uprooted and so I've been anticipating this one for a while now! The covers for this companion series are so gorgeous, too. I believe this is a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, which is not my favourite fairy tale, but I'm hoping I'll like Novik's spin on it (pardon the unintentional pun) more than the original.

What books are on your Christmas wishlist?

November 24, 2018

The Book Lode (28)

I am back with another (much belated) book haul video, covering the books I got from March until October of this year.


Books purchased:

The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik
The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons
Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu
The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury
Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell
Nantucket Summer by Leila Howland
The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty
Roar by Cora Carmack
The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly
The House of Tides by Hannah Richell
Child of the River by Irma Joubert
The Beguiled by Thomas Cullinan
Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn
Unspeakable by Caroline Pignat
Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine
The Skylighter by Becky Wallace
The White Rose by Amy Ewing
Dirty Little Secret by Jennifer Echols
Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot
No Place to Fall by Jaye Robin Brown
Roses & Rot by Kat Howard
The Fever by Megan Abbott
The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood
Sisters of Heart and Snow by Margaret Dilloway
Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery
Be True to Me by Adele Griffin
The Only Thing Worse than Me is You by Lily Anderson
Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt
Dating You Hating You by Christina Lauren
Impostors by Scott Westerfeld
Dreaming Death by J. Kathleen Cheney
The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle
In Falling Snow by Mary-Rose MacColl
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn


Books gifted:

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
Danya: A Woman of Ancient Galilee by Anne McGivern
The Woman Who Heard Color by Kelly Jones
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase


October 10, 2018

Short & Sweet: The Storyspinner and Eleanor & Park

The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace

I actually ended up polishing this off in a day and finding it highly entertaining! Which surprises me, given that it is rife with cliches of the genre and you can tell from the writing (some awkward phrasing and metaphors) that this is a debut novel. Nevertheless, it was an inviting story with a couple main characters I liked (some of the side characters never felt really fleshed out, unfortunately) and a world with glimpses of an interesting history between various factions. The storytelling style worked pretty well to keep the momentum of the plot going, although I admit that certain characters' POVs felt a bit boring/unnecessary to me (spoiler, highlight to read: I didn't really care for the Pira and Leao POVs) and I always wanted to be back with the Johanna-Rafi side of things.

3.5 stars.


Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I know this book has a lot of fans, but I'm afraid I found it very bleak and depressing. The problems that Eleanor faced at home overshadowed the lighter storyline of Eleanor and Park's relationship. I had to push myself to keep going, and Eleanor just kept dealing with more and more of the same awful stuff. That's not to say that it wasn't a realistic portrayal; the thoughts and emotions that Eleanor goes through felt authentic. And the writing was solid (as I have come to expect from a Rainbow Rowell novel), although I felt like it sometimes slid into melodrama. But I feel like I wasn't in the right frame of mind for reading about these sorts of serious, heavy issues, so perhaps it was at least partly a case of book-at-the-wrong-time for me.


3 stars.
 

October 9, 2018

Tarnished City: A Rambling Review

Tarnished City by Vic James

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first, which may partly be due to the fact that the first book had the novelty of learning about this world and meeting the characters, but is also because I felt like a large chunk of this one in the middle moved quite slowly and was repetitive. There were lots of conversations talking about plans and schemes and then re-hashing what happened, and so many characters that it was really hard to keep track of who had done what where. (Seriously, a cast of characters list is MUCH NEEDED for this series! Also a map would be nice.) Interspersed between all these dialogue scenes were a few dramatic scenes, but they didn't usually build momentum for the plot; it felt like nothing had really changed from before the dramatic scene, and people just carried on having their secretive conversations where they plotted things.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the beginning and ending sections of the story. Abi and Luke are both still pretty bland characters, but we get to see the story unfold from a number of POVs (in third-person voice) – a technique that I think serves the story well and keeps things interesting. Certain characters don't know about secrets that other characters have, so it's kind of like the reader is "in on it" because we get to see everything -- and yet, because of the oblique nature of the way certain POVs or scenes are written, we really don't know everything. "Good guys," "bad guys," and those in-between (*cough*Silyen*cough*) -- we get glimpses into a variety of perspectives (although Silyen's still remains cloaked in mystery and ambiguity).

Some plot twists I saw coming (spoiler, highlight to read: I guessed partway through that Coira was Crovan's child), others I did not (spoiler: Jenner's betrayal came totally out of left field, although since I never really "shipped" the romance with Abi, I wasn't upset about it. Still, hopefully in the third book we'll get his perspective on that, because right now the reader has no idea why he flipped sides. Is it as simple as the reason he gave to Abi?). There was also some interesting character development (or perhaps just further character revelation?) with Gavar, which was good to see.

And as I commented in one of my updates as I was reading, this dystopian series feels very realistic in how it presents the obstacles to the rebels. The governing class is Skilled and the rebels are not, and their continued failure reflects their poor odds of winning this fight. Time and time again they are beaten by the Jardines and their allies. It's dark, there's no doubt about it -- this book is full of death (so many characters died in this one!), torture (mental and physical), and at times a sense of hopelessness pervading the rebel cause. But they keep on fighting, at times acquiring curious and unexpected allies. While Abi and Luke are, as I've said, quite boring as characters, it's easy to root for them to win against Whittam Jardine and his crew. I also found myself rooting for certain characters to join the "good guys", even when it seemed like it was a fruitless hope (*cough*Silyen*cough*).

I was also struck by echoes of socio-political issues we are facing in our current political climate – for example, references to controlling the narrative through the media and the truth being, not facts, but what people are persuaded to believe... sound familiar? A couple of quotes sum it up nicely:

"Abi had dared imagine that the Equals' version of history could be fought with the truth, but how could you do that when they were making it up as they went along, and shouting it over and over and over through the media? They had everything at their disposal: power, money, connections. They hardly even needed Skill."

And then several pages later:

"'Stupid girl,' he said. 'Truth isn't what happened, it's what people will believe happened.'"

I have to wonder how heavily the author was influenced by recent political events in the US... the themes seemed too clear at times to be coincidence.

Anyway, pick this series up if you are looking for a dark, thought-provoking dystopian fantasy series, but be prepared for this book in particular to be slow-moving in the middle, heavy in dialogue scenes, and chock full of political manoeuvring.


3.5 stars.



Short & Sweet: The Alice Network (Adult)

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

A very solid read. Excellent writing that was both accessible and yet still evoked the historical time period, fully fleshed-out main characters who stirred reader sympathy without being unrealistically perfect, and dual storylines that both held my interest (although the Eve storyline was arguably more gripping). The one niggling complaint I have is that stereotypes of groups as either "good" or "evil" were employed in a rather black-and-white way (without discussion). It would have been more realistic to have some examples of exceptions to the stereotypes introduced -- not all Germans were "evil," just as not all British or Americans were "good" during the wars. Human behaviour is far more complicated than a simple label like that, in any case. 


4 stars. 


September 2, 2018

The Book Lode (27)

Okay, so this is a book haul video for January to March of this year, which means it's long overdue to be up on the blog. But nevertheless, here it is (and in the meantime I have accumulated many more books, so I will need to do another video soon!):


Books bought:

Two-Way Street by Lauren Barnholdt
Deafening by Frances Itani
The Furies by Natalie Haynes
The Two of Us by Andy Jones
Doctor Death by Lene Kabberbol
Read Bottom Up by Neal Shah and Skye Chatham
Father of the Bride by Edward Streeter
Bell Weather by Dennis Mahoney
My Name is Resolute by Nancy E. Turner
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Being Friends With Boys by Terra Elan McVoy
The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A. Flynn
Oblivion by Kelly Creagh 
Charisma by Jeanne Ryan
The Storyspinner by Becky Wallace
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty
The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst
Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff
Amy Snow by Tracy Rees
The Promise of Stardust by Priscille Sibley
Compulsion by Martina Boone
Beatrice and Benedick by Marina Fiorato
Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass
The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley

September 1, 2018

Ember Island: A Rambling Review (Adult)

Ember Island by Kimberley Freeman

Really enjoyed this one. The characters felt true to life, the description of the setting vibrant, and the story unpredictable and compelling. The way the author leads the reader to care about the characters and their struggles reminded me of Kate Morton's writing. Indeed, this is definitely one I'd recommend if you're looking for a Kate Morton read-alike!

I did find the contemporary storyline a lot weaker and less compelling than the historical one, although it too involved a twist that I didn't see coming. As well, the ending didn't quite hold up for me compared to what had come before it -- it seemed like it wrapped up too quickly and easily, and without the sorts of consequences I would expect there to have been had the story happened in real life.

Overall, though, a very enjoyable read -- quite possibly the best so far of my 2018 reading year!

ETA: Some of the themes and elements in this book reminded me of Jane Eyre, in particular, the struggle between passion and rationality. In fact, there is even a mention of Jane Eyre at one point -- perhaps a shout-out by the author to one of her sources of inspiration? 




 

July 8, 2018

Book Unhaul Challenge

This is a tag started by BooksandLala (you can see her video here) that was floating around BookTube a few months ago. These days I basically always need to un-haul books (seeing as I keep buying new ones from Book Outlet!) so I thought I'd use this fun tag as an opportunity to get some more shelf space in my room.



Books un-hauled:

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
Read Bottom Up by Neel Shah and Skye Chatham
Shut Out by Kody Keplinger
The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke
Chataine's Guardian by Robin Hardy
Heist Society & Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter
The Bailey Game by Celia Rees
Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori
Chenxi and the Foreigner by Sally Rippin
Oblivion by Kelly Creagh
Death by Denim & Death by Latte by Linda Gerber
The Drackenberg Adventure & The Philadelphia Adventure by Lloyd Alexander
Places I Never Meant to Be edited by Judy Blume
A Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt
Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman (illustrated by Cathy Brigg)
Midnight Magic by Avi
Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
The Wicked and the Just by J. Anderson Coats
Scent of Darkness by Margot Berwin

Related Posts with Thumbnails