Earlier this year, Taylor Jenkins Reid published Daisy Jones & The Six, which has generally been very well received critically and keeps popping up onEarlier this year, Taylor Jenkins Reid published Daisy Jones & The Six, which has generally been very well received critically and keeps popping up on "Must read" lists. In several review of that book, I saw this, Jenkins Reid's previous release, from 2017, highly recommended. Several people who were so-so on Daisy Jones and the Six claimed to prefer The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and as movie stars seemed more intriguing to me than rock stars, I decided to give it a try.
There are multiple narratives in this book.There's the framing story of magazine journalist Monique Grant who is pretty much hand selected by legendary movie star Evelyn Hugo to come interview her and write her life's story, despite not having written much of worth previously. Neither Monique nor her editor understands entirely why Ms. Hugo is so adamant she will only speak to Monique. Then there's obviously the long and intricate story of Evelyn's life, broken up occasionally by glimpses into Monique's life outside of the interviews.
Living alone and heartbroken, after her husband left her to move to another city, Monique doesn't really feel that she's living her best life. Acclaimed and aging movie star Evelyn Hugo is donating some of her most famous gowns to a cancer charity, and the magazine Monique works for would like an interview and an accompanying photo shoot. Ms. Hugo refuses to speak to anyone but Monique (for reasons no one, least of all Monique herself can understand). It also turns out that she has no intention of posing for pictures or being portrayed in an interview. She wants to give Monique the exclusive rights to her life's story, to be sold to the highest bidder with Monique enjoying the subsequent profits. The catch - Monique can't publish the book until Ms Hugo is dead, and if she refuses the job, then Evelyn's long and juicy life's story will remain untold.
Monique realises that she may end up fired if she takes the job, and it could be years before she's allowed to publish the book, yet she doesn't feel she can say no either. So she keeps making excuses to her editor and comes daily to listen to Evelyn recount her biography.
While currently widowed, Evelyn Hugo famously had seven husbands during her long life, and both she and Monique knows that this is one of the many things the reading public will want to know about. Who exactly was the love of Evelyn's life? How did she go from being a poor young girl in Hell's Kitchen to becoming an award winning and critically acclaimed international movie star, with a career spanning about half a century.
Evelyn is clearly a fascinating and deeply driven individual, who has used every resource available to her to achieve stardom. More than once, she trades sexual favours for advancement. She plays on her stunning looks and bombshell body, yet clearly possesses a razor sharp mind and frequently uses the preconceptions people and the movie industry have about her to become a star and further her career. Some of her marriages were made from genuine affection, others were highly practical affairs. Some lasted years, some mere days. Yet her winding narrative contains several secrets that ensure that the book that Monique has the potential to write will be an instant bestseller.
The mystery at the heart of the book, which isn't answered until the very last part of the book, is exactly what the connection between Evelyn Hugo and Monique Grant is, and why Evelyn was adamant that she would only tell her story to this particular younger woman. By the time it was revealed, I wasn't all that surprised, or that I cared all that much about the answer.
While I liked this book quite a lot more than Daisy Jones & The Six (films and the movie industry was always going to be more my wheelhouse than the music business), there is no denying that the sections of the book with Monique were a lot less interesting to me than the sections about Evelyn and I kept speeding up the audio book to get through them faster. I simply didn't care why she broke up with her husband or whether they'd get back together, nor was I particularly worried about her career. Evelyn, while not necessarily "nice", had a long, complicated and fascinating life and was infinitely more enjoyable to me.
Judging a book by its cover: There are two covers for this novel, both featuring what I'm assuming is Evelyn in her signature green. I much prefer this version of the cover, with Evelyn lying down, only her lips and a tiny bit of her hair showing. The one where she stands up is more traditional and not as evocative, in my opinion. This cover is sexier, and for a book that involves so many details about a star's love life, that seems appropriate....more
4.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Science! One of the protagonists is a scientist and his scientific experiments plays an important part throughout the story.
Geo4.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Science! One of the protagonists is a scientist and his scientific experiments plays an important part throughout the story.
Georgie Turner is the younger brother of Jack Turner from The Soldier's Scoundrel. He needs to get out of London in a hurry, as his underworld employer is none too pleased that he grew a conscience and refused to swindle the little old lady that was his mark. Jack's partner Oliver has recently received a letter from a concerned acquaintance, the vicar in the village near where the Earl of Radnor lives. There are concerns about the Earl's mental state, and the vicar would like it proven that the Earl is in fact not insane, like his father and brother were rumoured to be. The Earl has already scared away several secretaries and most of his household staff, so thanks to Jack and Oliver, Georgie knows there's a place in the Cornish countryside where he can hide out. As he arrives at the Earl's manor, which seems to have been left to fall into total ruin, he notes that he can always steal a number of valuables if he suddenly has to leave in a hurry.
Lawrence Browne, the current Earl of Radnor, just wants to be left in peace. He currently has only one maid and a housekeeper, and have them trained to leave his simple food on a tray outside his door. He knows he's likely to fall victim to the family madness sooner or later, but would prefer it if he manages to complete his latest invention before he goes stark raving mad. When his most recent secretary arrives, a very pretty man who doesn't behave anything like any of Lawrence's former secretaries, he's pretty sure he can scare the man off quickly enough with his wild temper, the state of the house and the sheer impossibility of getting his papers and affairs in order.
Of course, Georgie can't leave, unless he risk life and limb, so a temperamental nobleman is easy enough to deal with. While he may not have the education or qualifications a gentleman would have, he is intelligent, fastidious and very organised and simply cannot stand the mess that his new employer surrounds himself with. Besides, if he sorts through all the paperwork and tidies up the place, he might be able to ignore the obvious attraction between them.
Lawrence is not mad, but he does suffer from pretty crippling anxiety. Georgie figures this out pretty quickly and helps him find ways of coping. Working as a con man for most of his adult life has taught Georgie a little bit about a good many things, and it doesn't take him long to realise that the Earl of Radnor not only isn't insane, but he's really quite the unappreciated genius, who could be making a fortune of his brilliant inventions. Why Radnor has scared nearly all the serving staff and is letting his house literally crumble to pieces around him is more of a mystery.
Much of the book focuses on the interaction between Georgie and Lawrence, but there are a few other supporting characters who make the story more interesting as well. While there is instant attraction between the two men, they are also wary of each other and Lawrence has come to believe that his forbidden attraction to his own sex is one of the signs of his impending madness. It takes a while for him to get over his fears and what society has taught him about the evils of homosexuality, but in the meantime, he and Georgie can get to know each other better in other ways.
I think I liked this book even more than I did The Soldier's Scoundrel and I can see why Cat Sebastian has become so popular in romance reading circles so quickly. From what I can see, two of the supporting characters from this book will be the romantic pairing in the third novel, and I can't wait to see how that works out, as they seem about as unlikely a pairing as any I've seen.
Judging a book by its cover: While it's always nice to see two dudes on a historical romance cover (not something that happened until recently), the two guys on this cover look absolutely nothing like what either of our heroes within the pages of the book are described. At least this is a better cover than the one for The Soldier's Scoundrel. These two men at least look comfortable in each other's presence....more
Last year, for Cannonball Bingo, I chose one of the books that had been on my TBR for several years, Becky Chambers' T#CBR11 Bingo: Cannonballer Says
Last year, for Cannonball Bingo, I chose one of the books that had been on my TBR for several years, Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. When trying to decide on my book for the "Cannonballer Says" square for this year's Bingo, it seemed fitting to read the second book in the Wayfarer series. This book isn't so much a sequel, as it is a companion novel set in the same universe, sort of involving one of the characters we met in that book.
Lovelace, who was the near-sentient A.I (artificial intelligence) on board the Wayfarer, finds herself housed no longer on board a space ship, but in an artificial body, made to look and sound completely human. Due to a series of unfortunate events, leading to a complete systems reboot, Lovelace no longer remembers being the consciousness who wanted a physical body, and instead finds herself confused and unmoored, helped away from the spaceship that was once her home by Pepper, an engineer and mechanic who promises to help her.
Lovelace renames herself Sidra and is brought to the home that Pepper shares with Blue, her artist partner (I think he's her boyfriend, but they may just be platonic life mates - the story really doesn't focus on that aspect of their relationship). A.I.s are not considered sentient individuals with rights and feelings, and it's highly illegal to do what the techs aboard the Wayfarer did, in trying to put Lovelace in a body. So if anyone finds out the truth about Sidra, Pepper and Blue could face serious trouble, and Sidra would probably just find herself shut down permanently.
Sidra struggles with the limitations of her new body and in trying to figure out who she is, and what she wants from her life. She gradually gets more outgoing and adventurous, makes at least one friend who isn't Pepper or Blue and starts to come to terms with her new "humanity".
In alternating chapters to Sidra's story, we follow Pepper's life in flashback from she was a young clone, enslaved on a backwater planet, who escapes the life of servitude and ignorance she was born into, befriending and in effect being raised by an A.I, and the struggle she has to educate herself, find enough scrap material on the industrial waste planet she finds herself on, fix up the space shuttle containing her A.I. parent to a degree where they can actually leave and make a better life for themselves somewhere else in the universe.
I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting from this book, but it was very different indeed from The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. This book was a lot more introspective, and a lot of the plot is concerned with forging new identities and struggling to make a place for oneself in the world, rather than with an exciting space journey. The first third or so of the book felt a bit slow, and I wasn't all that interested in the early chapters about tiny Pepper (who was one of many Janes back then), but in the second half of the book, I was hooked enough that I didn't want to stop reading, be it the chapters about Sidra or Jane/Pepper.
I can see why Becky Chambers' books are so very popular. I'm glad I still have one more in her Wayfarers series to read before I'm caught up with her back catalogue.
Judging a book by its cover: The books in this series all come with two different cover versions. One has a big, clunky, ugly font that takes up much of the front page of the book and completely ruins the effect (although really does get across what the title of the books are, I guess). The other covers are these stunning skyscapes with a couple of individuals in silhouette and the most amazing star and light shows dominating the images. My e-book versions all have the covers I prefer, and I genuinely can't understand why there is such a massive difference in tone and design. Who would want the big, ugly font covers when they could have such beauty and simple elegance?...more
4.5 stars Because tradition dictates it, each year on a certain day, the council of elders in the Protectorate take an infant and leave it in the woods4.5 stars Because tradition dictates it, each year on a certain day, the council of elders in the Protectorate take an infant and leave it in the woods as a sacrifice to the witch. Bad things will happen to the settlement if they don't (although no one is really clear what dire consequences there will be, because there has never been a time when they didn't place a child in the woods). Normally, the grieving family whose child has been selected meekly go along with the council's edict, but one year, the infant's mother rages, screams and tries to fight back (can't say I blame her). She's locked away in a tower, run by sinister nuns. Antain is a young apprentice elder, and he is deeply discomfited by the whole thing. Eventually, he quits the council and becomes a carpenter instead.
Xan, the witch in the woods, travels to the same spot in the woods each year, to pick up the poor, abandoned child left there. She feeds the babies starlight and finds them good homes in the cities on the other side of the forest, far away from the Protectorate. These star children are always deeply cherished and go on to lead especially successful lives. This one year, she's a bit late, and flustered, she feeds the baby moonlight instead of starlight. Moonlight gives the recipient magical power, and before Xan has a chance to rectify it, little Luna (as she names the girl) is clearly brimming with magical potential. Because of the accident, Xan can't give Luna up to another family and takes it upon herself to raise the girl herself. Aided by Glerk, a pessimistic, yet very poetic bog monster and Fyrian, a tiny, hyperactive dragon, she does her best to teach Luna, while hoping that she can prepare her properly for her magical gifts, that are likely to come bursting forth around puberty.
As Luna happily grows older in Xan's care, her mother sits locked up in a tower in the Protectorate, making elaborate birds from paper she seems to conjure out of nothing, longing for her lost child. Antain, horribly scarred after a meeting with the madwoman, becomes a very successful carpenter, marries and gets his own child. However, the Protectorate tradition has marked his unborn baby the next to be left in the woods. Antain decides he has to track down the witch and stop her once and for all.
This book has already been reviewed a bunch of times by other Cannonballers, and as far as I can tell, they all really loved it. That's because this is an absolutely wonderful middle grade book, which I would have adored if it had been available to me growing up. It's a different kind of fairy tale, and subverts the reader's expectations several times throughout the story. I loved the way magic seems to work in the story, and the way the story slowly unfolded, giving little glimpses of important back story portioned out along the way, so it took quite some time to understand the whole picture.
I loved the found family of Xan, who end up raising Luna, despite being really rather unprepared for the task of bringing up a very magically gifted child. I felt immense sympathy for poor Luna's mother and think I may also have been driven utterly mad had someone stolen my child away from me. I was very glad when they were eventually reunited, even as I ached for all the years they had lost.
I saw a Goodreads review that complained that while there are a number of interesting and powerful women in this story, all the male characters are utter buffoons. I'm not entirely sure what book that person has read, because that is not my experience here at all. Yes, there are some male characters that are stupid, but others who are very heroic and capable, if misinformed for parts of the story.
This book won the Newberry Medal in 2017, as well as several others, plus it was nominated for a bunch it didn't win. It's a lovely story, which while sad at times, has a proper and satisfying resolution. I can't wait for my son to be old enough to read it for himself.
Judging a book by its cover:Such a sweet book, such a lovely cover. I love everything about it, from the glowing paper birds, to the tiny dragon, to the giant moon with the dynamic little girl in front of it. If I recall correctly, the cover is one of the reasons I wanted to pick up this book in the first place. ...more
Ox' father is an alcoholic and a complete waste of space, who leaves his wife and son and manages to leave his son with some serious emotional scars tOx' father is an alcoholic and a complete waste of space, who leaves his wife and son and manages to leave his son with some serious emotional scars that take him a very long time to heal from. Luckily, his mother is amazing, supportive, hard-working and kind and does her very best to counteract her husband's poison. Also helping to build Ox up and make him feel loved and valued, is Gordo, the owner of the garage where Ox starts helping out and later working part-time, to help his mother with the bills. Gordo, as well as the three other guys who work there pretty much become Ox' found family.
When Ox is sixteen, his life changes as the big house next door to the little cottage where he and his mother live suddenly have residents again. The large Bennett family, husband, wife, uncle, three sons, including the extremely energetic, talkative and exuberant Joe, the baby of the family. Joe pretty much idolises Ox from the very first moment he sees him, and Ox is shocked to discover that while the kid simply wouldn't shut up when they first met, that was the first time he spoke in two years. Having been abducted and tortured by a very sadistic and cruel man, trying to influence Joe's parents, the child is traumatised in a number of ways, and habitually plagued with nightmares. Meeting Ox seems to start bringing him out of his shell, and from their first meeting, there's a special connection between the sixteen- and the eleven-year-old.
As a result of the connection between Joe and Ox, the Bennetts pretty much adopt Ox as one of their own. The two older brothers go to high school with him, and Ox finds he is no longer the sad loner, but part of a tight knit group, suddenly getting positive female attention because he keeps company with the handsome Bennett boys. Gordo knows the Bennetts from before (they used to live in the big house, but moved away) and keeps warning Ox to stay away. He, however, refuses to listen.
When he turns seventeen, Ox discovers why Gordo is so hostile to the Bennetts. They are all werewolves, while Gordo is a witch, whose family used to have ties to the family, until his father betrayed Joe's grandfather, and went off with the psycho werewolf who eventually kidnapped and tortured Joe. Gordo and Mark, the Bennett boys' uncle, have a romantic past that they're now both studiously ignoring.
As Ox grows older and more confident, he comes to realise that he's most likely bisexual. No matter who he seems to flirt with, Joe gets furiously jealous. When Ox turns 23, and Joe is close to 18, Ox is shocked to discover that the person he really fancies is the kid who used to follow him around like a puppy. He's extremely uncomfortable, while the entire Bennett pack, who have seen it coming for years, are highly amused that it's taken him so long to catch on. Joe is going to be the next alpha of the pack, and while it's unusual that an alpha have a human, non-shifter mate, the entire family love Ox and already accept him as part of the family.
Sadly, before Ox and Joe have a chance to really explore their changed, much more sexually charged relationship, tragedy strikes, and Ox is left behind to grieve and try to pick up the pieces of the Bennett pack when Joe takes his brothers and Gordo and runs off to get revenge on the psycho who has haunted him for most of his life.
It takes three years for Joe and his revenge posse to return, and in that time, Ox has taken on responsibilities he never thought he'd have to face, mainly because he had no choice. Impossible though it should be, Ox is now an alpha in his own right, even though he is still human. His pack includes both wolves and other humans, who all support each other and defend their little town from any rogue shifters who try to come to challenge them. Can Joe and Ox heal the bond they had, which was torn apart by grief, pain and anger? Will they be able to protect their pack and their town from the dangers following close on Joe's heels, or are they doomed?
I wanted to like the romance between Joe and Ox, but felt a bit uncomfortable because a) Joe is a child and Ox is a teenager when they first meet, and b) the whole fated mate aspect is one I've never been a huge an of. Also c), Joe does the whole "I have to leave you to keep you safe" and runs off and abandons Ox for more than THREE years, right after Ox has already suffered two absolutely crushing losses and is reeling from grief. I get that the kid wants revenge, but it's still a super shitty thing to do. Ox is amazing and a big cinnamon bun and I honestly think he deserves better than Joe, even after he comes back, all tough and manly and eventually apologises. He does not grovel enough, is all I'm saying. I might have been more forgiving of Joe if the entire book hadn't been from Ox' POV. If I had more insight into Joe's actual thoughts and emotions, I may have taken his side a bit more.
What I did like was the different take on werewolves that this book presented, and also the bond between wolf packs and witches (can be both genders). Not all of that was as fully explored in this book as I would have liked, and I'm hoping to find out more in Gordo's book (one of the sequels).
While I thought the villain was far too moustache-twirly and psychotically evil, without really any good nuance, the supporting characters were all absolutely amazing and I loved each and every one of them. They are a large reason why I will absolutely be reading the follow-up novels to this, as I want to spend more time with all of them.
Judging a book by its cover: I kind of like the simplicity of this cover. The black background with the pale paw prints as a contrast. It's not fancy or elaborate, but it doesn't need to be. The orange of the title draws the eye in....more
Liesl dreams of becoming a famous composer, but is left to write compositions for her talented younger brother to play instead. Her beautiful3.5 stars
Liesl dreams of becoming a famous composer, but is left to write compositions for her talented younger brother to play instead. Her beautiful younger sister is set to be married to the most eligible young man in the village, while Liesl helps her long-suffering mother and bitter father run their inn, their days of musical success and glory behind them. Jealous of her sister's beauty and brother's opportunities, Liesl becomes careless and suddenly, it seems her sister has been enchanted by the goblins, and taken away by the Goblin King. Even worse, no one seems to even remember that her sister has ever existed. Liesl has until the next full moon to figure out a way to retrieve her sister.
Once Liesl joins the kingdom of the goblins underground, she begins to remember more of her past, and her previous encounters with the Goblin King. As a little girl, she used to roam the woods, and play her music for a strange, pale boy, always slightly older than her. He kept asking him to marry her, and she would refuse. Growing up and being burdened with more responsibilities, becoming a supporting character in the lives of her more vivacious siblings, Liesl forgot all about the Goblin King. Tradition demands that he take a bride, however, and if Liesl won't come to him willingly, he will lure her there by threatening to take her sister instead. The Goblin King requires a mortal bride. Will it be Liesl, or her beautiful younger sister? And if she does decide to give in to the Goblin King, will Liesl really be fine with never seeing her family or the human world ever again?
This book, which is apparently Ms Jae-Jones' debut novel, was very favourably reviewed on several of the review sites I follow regularly, like Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and Forever Young Adult. This book isn't a retelling of just one story, but a bit of a mish mash of several familiar tales. As the Smart Bitches review points out, you can find elements of the Hades and Persephone myth in here, some Beauty and the Beast, some Phantom of the Opera and the Goblin King, or Erlkönig, is clearly visually modelled on David Bowie in Labyrinth. Even his eyes are two different colours.
The story is set in a historical Bavaria, around the 19th Century, where there are clearly faeries or goblins (complete with changelings and the like), who like to play mischief with humans. Over the course of the story, we discover that there have been a series of Goblin Kings, and that he has to have a mortal bride, or the seasons will stop turning. Liesl's childhood playmate is the last in a long line of Erlkönigs, and she is the last in a long line of mortal brides who have given up their humanity and entered into a marriage sure to end tragically.
Liesl's parents were both talented musicians in their youth, but time has taken its toll and her father's drinking has made it so that they have had to retire to a small village, running an inn and hoping their talented young son will be the next person to carry on the family legacy. That Liesl is clearly a talented composer seems to be entirely ignored. Always finding herself falling short in comparison to her brother's musical talents or her sister's beauty and charm, Liesl is quite the abrasive, jealous and bitter young woman. While she loves her family, and especially her siblings, she's also deeply envious of them and sick of having to sacrifice herself and her dreams in order to take care of them. She goes underground to retrieve her ensorcelled sister, but also to experience adventure and while she has to sacrifice a lot to become the Goblin King's bride, she also gets to be selfish. He clearly wants her, and she wants him back. She isn't choosing to stay with him out of selflessness, but rather to finally put herself first.
Liesl and her Goblin King don't exactly settle down into harmonious and happy domesticity, but Liesl does get the chance to truly devote herself to her music, and there is certainly passion between her and her supernatural spouse. I don't know entirely what I was expecting from this book, but the story took turns I was not expecting and the romance was a lot more thorny and challenging than I was hoping for. I liked the book, but I didn't love it and I'm not sure I'm in any urgent rush to read the sequel, for all that this one ends on quite the cliffhanger. It was a good book, but not quite the magical fairy tale I was hoping for. Maybe I was still working through my book hangover from The Winter of the Witch?
Judging a book by its cover: The cover is lovely, with the delicate rose preserved inside a snow globe. Not entirely sure what the cover is supposed to represent, as there are no snow globes of any kind in the actual novel, but it's a very arresting and inviting cover nonetheless....more
I'm deducting half a star because while the actual Ms. Marvel issues of this were top-notch and really excellent, there is also a not-very-interestingI'm deducting half a star because while the actual Ms. Marvel issues of this were top-notch and really excellent, there is also a not-very-interesting Spider-man crossover included, which just feels entirely out of place after the fairly serious emotional stuff we've read just before.
A big alien planet has appeared in the sky and things are getting very chaotic. Kamala gets to team up with her biggest hero, Captain Marvel (it's just as adorable and heart-warming as you can imagine). As of yet, Ms. Marvel is not really one of the heavy hitters of the Marvel Universe, and therefore sticks to trying to keep her own little part of New Jersey safe (this feels much more realistic than if she'd been off with a full Avengers team or something).
The impending doom of the situation also makes it necessary for her to take stock of what really matters to her and she has some very emotional scenes with both friends and family. There's an especially moving scene involving her mother (I may have cried a bit) and it just emphasised exactly why I love this comic so much and keep reading it. G. Willow Wilson balances the big, action-packed sequences with less spectacular quiet moments, which nevertheless pack serious emotional punches so well. I'm very excited to see where the comic goes next. ...more
While the first two trades explained how Kamala got her superpowers and figured out her costume, and how to hide her secret identity (from nearly everWhile the first two trades explained how Kamala got her superpowers and figured out her costume, and how to hide her secret identity (from nearly everyone), this trade deals more with the fact that Kamala is a teenage girl, who frequently crush on cute boys. The boy in question is the son of family friends, who Kamala is initially none too excited to meet (who wants someone your parents heartily approve of), but he turns out to have grown up hot, and Kamala is smitten. Then she discovers that there is more that meets the eye about him as well, but alas, a happy romance isn't in the cards for our heroine. Her crush is more of a supervillain in training than a fellow superhero, which isn't exactly a good thing.
There is also a minor subplot with Bruno, Kamala's best friend, with his unrequited crush on Kamala, being told that whether Kamala returns his feelings or no, her family are never going to accept him as a proper suitor for her. They are from different cultures and religions, and while Kamala is a teenage girl growing up in New Jersey, she's also a devout Muslim girl. Her parents would not want her to date a non-Muslim boy. Of course, they don't know that their suitable candidate is a villainous douchebag, but that's a different issue altogether.
We also get to see the current comics incarnation of Loki in the first issue of this trade. He's rather different from the movie version, played by the lovely Tom Hiddleston, but ever the naughty trickster god nonetheless. I also liked the little hints we got about the current power structures in Asgard, no Allfather in charge there. There was a also a pretty throwaway issue crossing over with the Agents o S.H.I.E.L.D, which might have made more of an impact on me if I a) had watched so much as an episode of the TV show (I have not) or b) read more Marvel universe comics (I have not). ...more
One of the many reading challenges I'm doing this year is the Monthly Motif Challenge, and for October, the challenge was "Read a book set in a theateOne of the many reading challenges I'm doing this year is the Monthly Motif Challenge, and for October, the challenge was "Read a book set in a theater, an amusement park, a circus, or a book involving magic, illusions, or characters with special powers." This was pretty much the only TBR book I had involving a circus. It features a lot of things I usually like, librarians, old books, intricate family histories, folklore, mysterious curses and a romantic subplot, yet it failed to really wow me.
Simon spends pretty much all his time not working in a library desperately trying to keep his childhood home from falling apart. After his mother committed suicide in the water nearby, his father just refused to do any work on it, and now it's getting so bad Simon's no longer sure he can save it. Nevertheless, he keeps trying, as he doesn't want to lose the connection to his past, and he wants his younger sister Enola to have something to come back to when she's ready for it.
He's sent a mysterious old book by an antiquarian who claims that it is relevant to his family history. While he initially dismisses the claim, he gets more and more caught up in the tales told in the book's pages, and as he keeps digging, he discovers that his mother is just the last in a long line of women in his family who, despite being absolutely amazing swimmers, able to hold their breaths for unprecedented amounts of time, they have all died by drowning, on the exact same date. As Enola suddenly returns after several years' absence, and the fateful date is approaching fast, Simon becomes terrified that the curse will strike her as well, unless he finds a way to stop it.
I liked the historical bits of the novel, the ones exploring how the curse came to start in the first place, to be the most interesting, but even those sections failed to entirely hold my attention. I also found some aspects of the story to just be too difficult to suspend my disbelief about, and I genuinely couldn't understand why Simon would spend so much time, money and effort to try to save a crumbling old house, especially considering his memories concerning it were more negative than happy.
It's a definite downside when I fail to entirely connect with the protagonist of a novel. Here, I just didn't care all that much about Simon. I liked Enola a lot better, as well as his fellow librarian/childhood friend (although I think she could do way better romance wise). Still, a lot of the Eastern folklore bits in the historical sections of the book, as well as the depictions of the travelling circus were good.
I don't regret getting this book in a sale, or the time I spent reading it, but I doubt I'll ever feel the need to re-read it, either.
Judging a book by its cover: I'm wondering the publisher made a conscious choice to have a woman holding a stack of old books on the cover is because this book is clearly aimed more at a female than a male audience, and it was assumed that this would be more appealing? We basically see the story through the eyes of several men, our protagonist himself being a librarian. It seems a bit odd to me to have the pile of books being carried by a woman (even though, yes, there are lady librarians in the book, as well)....more
Another long time TBR book that I finally got round to reading, and it turned out to be a lot cuter than I was expecting. Annie's father never really Another long time TBR book that I finally got round to reading, and it turned out to be a lot cuter than I was expecting. Annie's father never really got a chance at a proper baseball career, because he lost his leg, but now he has a chance at a really great job as a pitching coach, but it means taking his daughter and elderly mother in law (Annie's mum is not good people or interested in taking care of her teenage daughter or ailing elderly mother) and moving across the country. Annie is nervous, but all for it, as long as he doesn't tell her Mum where they're actually going.
Of course, settling in a new place is never going to be easy. Annie's dad is a provisional hire, and a lot of the more established players are reluctant to be coached by him. The team's owner would love nothing more than to send him packing, so neither he nor Annie can make any mistakes that would jeopardise the position. Which means Annie's crush on two year older, new star recruit Jason Brody is doomed to go nowhere. Not that Jason seems interested in treating her like anything but a younger sister anyway. He seems much more interested in high profile dates with beautiful models and actresses everywhere the team travel to play games.
This would be a pretty short and boring book if it was just about a high schooler mooning over a slightly older, handsome bad boy. Of course Jason is crazy about Annie, and the dates are just to boost his publicity and make him attractive to a certain demographic of baseball fan. He also deeply respects Annie's father, however, and since Jason really hasn't had a stable father figure in his own life, he's not going to mess up and lose the respect of the surrogate he's found by making the moves on that man's teenage daughter, no matter how much chemistry they have together.
So there's an element of the forbidden romance here, but I thought Julie Cross managed to spin the story out really well. There's definitely a slow burn element to the romance, although it gets pretty hot once Annie and Jason decide to actually give in to their feelings for one another. What makes the book so good, though, are the other relationships Annie has in her life. Her closeness with her father, who despite his disability has pretty much raised her single-handedly after her mother flaked on them time and time again. Her love for her dementia-suffering grandmother. Her friendship with Lenny London, who as the daughter of a major league baseball player on the surface has a lot more in her life than Annie, but would kill to have her parents care even a little bit about anything but her father's career and their media profiles. I liked that Annie has a life very much outside of any potential relationship, and we get a proper understanding of the people she and Jason could be letting down by giving into their feelings and starting to secretly date.
It's always nice when you discover when a book you bought for very little in an e-book sale and then forgot about surprises you and turns out to be a lot more enjoyable than you were expecting. I didn't have particularly high expectations for the book, based on the pretty generic cover and the plot description, but am absolutely going to check out more Julie Cross books in future, because if this is an accurate representation of her writing, then there are a lot of fun reading experiences in my future.
Judging a book by its cover: Yeah, this cover and it's fake kissing isn't really doing it for me. To be fair, I've mentioned before that I really don't like couples actually full on kissing on my romance covers, but if they are doing it, they might as well look like they're actually enjoying themselves, rather than being forced to smooch on a dare. Seriously, this doesn't look passionate or affectionate, it just looks forced and awkward....more
Spoiler warning! While I'm going to try very hard not to spoil THIS book in my review, this is the second book in a duology, and it will be impossibleSpoiler warning! While I'm going to try very hard not to spoil THIS book in my review, this is the second book in a duology, and it will be impossible for me to write about the book without spoiling events and plot for book 1, Strange the Dreamer. Both books are absolutely wonderful, so you should absolutely check them out, if you haven't already.
But seriously, there will be plot spoilers for book one in the coming paragraphs, so go away if you're not caught up:
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.
Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice--save the woman he loves, or everyone else?--while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.
As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?
Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.
Strange the Dreamer was one of my favourite books of 2017, and the mind of Laini Taylor is like no other when it comes to conjuring up fantastical and unbelievable new worlds and ideas. The first book ended on a hell of a cliffhanger, and after we'd come to root for the tender romance between Lazlo and Sarai, it seemed their happy ending would be ruined forever, just as Lazlo also discovered that everything he had believed about himself was a lie.
I genuinely had no idea where the story was going to go in this book, and really don't want to go into details, as the experience of having the story gradually revealed to you is so much better. While I read the first book on my e-reader, I chose to get the audio version of Muse of Nightmares once I discovered that it's narrated by Steve West, whose voice work I really enjoy. He's also excellent with various accents, which helps a lot.
We discover that a lot of the established truths revealed in the first book are in fact something completely different. In what some might consider a mild spoiler, I can say that what seemed like a straight fantasy story in the first book, is revealed to have distinct science fiction elements in this second part. I'll say no more than that.
While there is a lot of darkness, pain and sadness in this second part, there is also hope, friendship, love, the chance at forgiveness and chances of a better future, at least for the characters who make it until the end of the narrative.
I don't know what Laini Taylor is working on next, but based on these two books, I'll be pre-ordering her next book as soon as there's a release date.
Judging a book by its cover: In much the same design style as the previous cover, this has a primary colour and a beautiful image (which is significant for the contents of the story) traced over it. The red is almost angry, and could play into the various feelings of anger, fear, grief and rage that different characters feel over the course of the story. I liked the previous, peaceful blue cover better, but they make a nice matched set. ...more
This book was basically described as The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor & Park, but it suffers in comparisons to both of those novels, which several years after being published are still among the best of YA novels out there. Neither of the teens in this book battle a terrifying and terminal disease (#Fuck cancer!), nor do either of them have as fraught and depressing a home life as Eleanor in Eleanor & Park. Finch has genuine and very difficult struggles with depression, however, and Violet is trying to process a very deep and genuine grief, missing her vibrant and inspiring older sister, while also battling survivor's guilt (her sister was driving Violet home when they had a car accident. Violet survived, her sister got killed).
Violet isn't really suicidal, Finch occasionally very much is. He keeps researching different ways to kill himself, because when his anxiety and depression really take over, he loses months to the illness and he is finding it harder and harder to find reasons to continue living. No one in school knows the truth about Violet and Finch's meeting at the ledge of the school bell tower. The official story is that Violet persuaded Finch not to jump, no one knows that she was in fact there first, and it was Finch who talked her down (when he arrived to possibly do the same thing she was contemplating). When they are paired up for a school project (Violet has usually been able to get out of any course work in the past year, because of her "special circumstances") and Finch refuses to let Violet get away with half-assing it, they eventually build an unlikely friendship that begins to blossom into something more.
Violet stops counting the days until she graduates and can get away to college. Finch finds he has things to look forward to, and the friendship/romance with Violet keeps the darkness at bay for at least a while. I guess the reason this book has been compared with The Fault in Our Stars is that depression is a ticking time bomb for Finch, the way cancer was for Hazel and Augustus. A lot of people can manage anxiety and depression with the aid of family members, good therapists and medication. Sadly, Finch doesn't really seem to engage much with therapy, has a mother who is entirely unable to handle her son's serious malady and seems deeply sceptical and reluctant to medication. All of that spells danger on the horizon. Without wanting to spoil anything, don't go expecting a happily ever after for the young teens of this book.
This is another of those books that had been on my TBR list for years and years, and it could have fitted on several of the squares of the Book Bingo card. It's not a bad book, but while I felt like the reader got a pretty good insight into what Finch is going through, Violet remained rather bland and anonymous throughout. I get that she was pretty much utterly consumed with grief to begin with, but even as the book develops, it was difficult to see what her interests were or what she really cared about. She stayed too anonymous for me throughout, and therefore I couldn't really seem to care about her or what happened to her.
While this was a good book, it was neither great nor particularly memorable. As I said, I don't think it benefits from being compared to two of the most well-written and emotionally wrenching young adult books in the last decade, because it doesn't hold a candle to either of them. Nevertheless, it's good to see depression and grief dealt with as topics in YA literature - these things need to be destigmatised and seeing them in literature and film makes them less scary concepts.
Judging a Book by its Cover: While this cover might seem a bit generic YA (there was a lot of books with similar covers for a while), the blue background colour and the various post-it notes are actually really on point and relevant to the story...more
There was a lot of potential here, and some very clever playing with traditional fairy tale tropes. Unfortunately, there was also quite a lot of thingThere was a lot of potential here, and some very clever playing with traditional fairy tale tropes. Unfortunately, there was also quite a lot of things that didn't work for me - the chief one being Sophie, one of our two protagonists. I'm all for female characters getting to be as complex and potentially anti-heroic as male ones, but I don't think the author manages what he sets out to do with Sophie. She just comes across as a controlling, manipulative, prejudiced and narrow-minded b*tch for most of the book. She doesn't seem to care about anyone but herself and her own ambitions, completely unfazed by whom she hurts or takes advantage of to achieve her goals. She seemed like a very natural fit for the School of Evil.
On the flip side, Agatha, who is supposed to be the more palatable protagonist, is a little bit too timid and her lack of confidence grated on me after a while. Maya Angelou said "If someone shows you who they are, believe them" - well, Sophie time and time again shows herself to be an utterly awful "friend", a self-centred egomaniac with no real affection for Agatha. Our little emo Goth should have told Sophie to sod off, instead of spending most of the book risking herself to help her.
There's also a very contrived love triangle in this book, with Prince Whatshisface (I can't bother to look up his name - he's the son of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere - now that's a fun legacy) initially falling for Sophie based entirely on her looks, but unwillingly finding himself drawn towards Agatha again and again (he's a shallow jock, you can do way better, girl!).
Nevertheless, I liked the idea that famous fairy tale characters need to be trained for their jobs, be they the heroes and heroines or the villains and villainesses. That the ones that don't excel in their classes become henchpeople, helpers or even transformed into enchanted animals who help move the tales along. I liked a lot of the supporting characters, especially in the School of Evil (being able to summon chocolate at will is a cool magical power!), and the various classes and quests that the children had to participate in.
I wasn't really sure if these books were meant to be aimed at a YA or middle grade audience. Having now looked it up, these books appear to be marketed as middle grade, which I think is a bit strange considering some of the rather dark subject matter (Sophie straight up kills someone and apart from stabs of a guilty conscience, she never actually gets caught from this), Sophie's obsession with getting the attention of her prince and the way her outfits are described (let's just say that if these are meant to be characters under the age of 16-17, the suggestive nature of a lot of what Sophie fashions for herself is squicky AF). I really don't believe in controlling what teens read (please just read something, kids!), but I think some of the themes of this book are too mature for a middle grade audience.
There are also sections where the story rather drags and I kept putting the book down and forgetting about it. I know that there's a ton of books in this series, but at the moment, I'm not sure I'll keep reading. There are so many other shiny books out there competing for my attention.
Judging a book by its cover: The very cartoonish manga inspired covers for this series made me think they were meant for a much younger audience. As I mentioned above, it really wasn't made very clear what age the characters are supposed to be, and a lot of the themes read as if these were older teens, getting towards adulthood. I also thought that the dark-haired character on the cover was a boy, when it's supposed to be Agatha, one of our two protagonists....more
I'm going to be honest with you, people. I read the synopsis for this book and had a hard time remembering even reading the book. I literally had to gI'm going to be honest with you, people. I read the synopsis for this book and had a hard time remembering even reading the book. I literally had to glance at two or three reviews already on Goodreads to remind myself of the finer details of the plot, because my mind was a complete and utter blank. Now, it's been a bit over two months since I finished the book, but I shouldn't need to question whether I in fact read the book in the first place. It really doesn't speak too well for the plot that it's quite so forgettable.
When I had refreshed my memory, I also remembered one of my biggest problem with this romance. Benedict, the hero, has an absolute monster of a father. His entire family was held hostage to the man's cruel treatment, and while Benedict's sisters and mother weren't necessarily physically abused (Benedict was not so lucky), they were deeply emotionally scarred. Penelope keeps being hurt because her husband doesn't want to introduce her to his parents, and even after she meets his father and can tell that there's something really rather wrong with him, she still doesn't really believe Benedict's warning and out of weird politeness puts herself into a situation where not only she, but her husband, nearly ends up dead.
I get that it can be difficult to understand a dysfunctional family situation if you've grown up in a loving, supportive home, but Penelope seems to think that Benedict is overreacting or exaggerating when he is reluctant to admit the true awfulness of his former home life, and she seems bemused even after one of Benedict's sisters (now happily married and away from her father's evil presence) confirms just how bad things were. Like, why would someone make something like that up?
That's the thought that now remains with me - it's genuinely like someone took an eraser and smudged out the actual romance part of this story. Benedict starts the novel courting someone else, but because Penelope believes him to be untrustworthy, she warns the young woman away. Trying to help a family friend in a tense situation, she is then put in a deeply uncomfortable, near sexual assault situation that Benedict conveniently rescues her from. Penelope's dress is torn (I think) and some gossip or other walks in on them, cue scandal and pretty much having to marry to save Penelope's reputation. She claims she doesn't like him because he was once her sister's suitor (who in an earlier book in the series ended up with someone else), but it's clear that deep down, she was jealous of her sister and liked Benedict a bit too much.
I honestly don't know if it's because I've had a LOT to do and my mind has been busy with other things that makes it so impossible for me to remember the plot, or if the book is in fact completely forgettable. I didn't like the domestic abuse subplot with Benedict's family, not sure it's the strongest recommendation that that's the bit that sticks most in my mind.
Judging a book by its cover: Oh mercy, how I hate these romance covers with the people on the cover so awkwardly positioned that you just twist your brain trying to figure out the anatomy. How is the majority of the skirt spread out like a sail when he also has it bunched up so much you can pretty much see all of her legs? Why is her upper body facing one way and her legs the other? It's not great, guys. ...more
I'm not sure it would come as a surprise to anyone reading my reviews that I am an introvert, and even before I had a child, who now requires3.5 stars
I'm not sure it would come as a surprise to anyone reading my reviews that I am an introvert, and even before I had a child, who now requires me to spend a lot of time at home, I would tend to prefer curling up on the sofa, either binge watching something or reading. While I work as a teacher (which works fine, because I know and am comfortable with my colleagues, and I am in control of the interactions in my classroom), I also suffer from social anxiety and find going out and meeting new people faintly terrifying. Frankly, going out and spending close friends requires a lot of mental preparation, trying to interact with strangers can be quite the ordeal for me.
Nevertheless, most of my real life friends are either very busy raising their own little humans, so we don't get to hang out much, or they live far away in other countries, sometimes on other continents, and that can lead to me feeling lonely on occasion. So my father in law, who is also an introvert with even worse social anxiety than me, set me a challenge and gave me "homework" the last time he and my mother in law visited us. I was to socialise with someone I hadn't really spent much time with before, and I needed to go out and join something new, without the support of my husband or an existing friend.
Step one, I managed by going to dinner with my new work team, where most of my colleagues are either new to the school entirely or ones I've never worked closely with before. It was lovely, even though I was nervous before going. My second, and scarier step, was joining something new. The fantasy/sci-fi/comics/nerd stuff shop in Oslo has a monthly book club, which has been running for years now. I've followed their Facebook page on and off, occasionally considering joining, but have always found excuses as to why I couldn't do it. Now, needing to find a new thing that didn't terrify me too much, I determined to finally go to a meeting. After all, hanging out with nerds who like books, even if all of them are strangers, couldn't be too horrible, right? The book of the month for September was this one, The Goblin Emperor, which had been on my TBR list for years. It was pretty much a sign from the universe.
Of course, by the time the book club met, I had, thank to a series of complicating factors in my life, only read the first twenty percent of the book or so. I forced myself to go anyway, and had a great time, discovering that I wasn't even the only new person there and that the veteran members were really happy about new recruits. Everyone was very welcoming and according to them, this was the first book in as long as anyone could remember they actually spent the whole hour discussing, without fairly rapidly digressing into other nerd topics, like comics, TV shows and movies.
Now, having sat in on a discussion of the book before I was even halfway through it, probably didn't exactly help motivate me to then pick the book back up and keep reading. I already knew the major beats of the plot and as several people in the book group pointed out, there's a lot of complicated court stuff going on, with the reader not really getting all the information they might want, since we only get the point of view of Maia, our young and deeply inexperienced protagonist, who has lived most of his life exiled to a small rural estate, only accompanied by an alcoholic, abusive, bullying cousin. Neither Maia, nor anyone else, ever expected him to become emperor, and he is wholly unprepared and has never received any of the training or education required. In one way, it's a good way of explaining to the reader, we know as little as Maia. But it is also inappropriate for him to have in depth conversations with his new servants, bodyguards and subjects, we are restricted in our knowledge about everyone else in the plot.
There is also a huge cast of characters in the book, who are difficult to tell apart because they are frequently referred to by different nicknames or titles in different scenes, making it really confusing and sometimes frustrating to keep track. There is a comprehensive guide to characters and a pronunciation guide at the start of the book, but as everyone is listed by full name, not necessarily title or nickname, it's not as helpful as it could have been.
I had a lot going on both at work and at home while reading this book, and a rather slow and intricate description of court life, spanning hundreds of pages with long stretches of not much happening (except descriptions of ceremonial garb, jewelry, courtly etiquette etc) failed to hold my attention. Seriously, every so often, there will be something very exciting happening, like a kidnapping, or an attempted coup, or an assassination attempt, but for the majority of this book, this is an exploration of a young man trying to learn to be a good ruler, in a very complicated and tradition bound society.
I suspect that if I read this at another time, my rating of it would be higher. Maybe I'll give it a re-read in a while to see. The principal characters were all very enjoyable and the world building is fascinating, so I'll be very excited to see what Katherine Addison does next.
Judging a book by its cover: I really like this cover, where the elaborate palace is also the crown on the goblin's head (possibly hinting at just how heavy the weight of responsibilities is for our young and inexperienced new ruler). The airship to the right hints at the sort of steampunky elements of the story. I think this whole design works....more
I like a historical mystery. I've read so many of them, but most, unless you include the Hercule Poirot books, are about#CBR11 Bingo: And So It Begins
I like a historical mystery. I've read so many of them, but most, unless you include the Hercule Poirot books, are about lady sleuths. Amelia Peabody, Lady Julia Grey, Lady Emily, Veronica Speedwell and most recently, the Lady Sherlock books. I've known about the Sebastian St. Cyr books for ages, and kept wondering about them, but never got round to starting the series. I'm really making an effort this year to read TBR books that I actually own, though, and since this had been on my digital bookshelves since 2015(!) and fit into several of my reading challenges, it felt like it was time to give a male detective a chance. That it then also fitted into the Cannonball Read Bingo card was an added bonus.
Of course, the main problem of me reviewing this nearly three months after finishing it, is that I no longer very clearly recall what I thought while I was reading it (I need to get much better about taking notes to help me with my reviews) and a lot of the finer plot details also now escape me. I do remember that the book starts with the grisly murder (post death sexual assault, because murder clearly wouldn't be horrible enough) of a beautiful actress who is blackmailing someone. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is believed to be the killer and is immediately wanted by the authorities.
Obviously, St. Cyr is very invested in clearing his name, and fairly quickly comes to believe that someone in his family is the likely culprit instead. Could it be his father? His wastrel nephew? His supercilious brother in law? Or someone who just wants to get St. Cyr out of the way? As the investigation continues (with St. Cyr on the run), there are other women who turn up dead. While trying to solve the case and clear his name, St. Cyr ends up more or less adopting a young and resourceful street urchin who helps him, and reconnects with a former lover, the beautiful actress Kat Boleyn.
While I don't remember all too much about the finer details now, I did enjoy the story while I was reading, and will absolutely be checking out more books in the series. One of the benefits of starting a series late in the game, is that there are a lot of books to look forward to. As far as I can see, there are currently 14 books so far about the dashing Viscount (I certainly hope he isn't the main suspect in each book), so I have a lot of catching up to do.
Judging a book by its cover: It's not a great cover. A scowling man in period gear against a blurry, possibly foggy background. I'm not sure if the cover model is supposed to be our hero, I certainly imagined Sebastian more handsome and less sullen than this. I think historical mysteries with lady detectives have better cover art, generally. ...more
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