I enjoyed this book while I read it. I thought it was engaging and well written, and Samantha "Sammie" McCoy is a very well-rounded protagonist. She'sI enjoyed this book while I read it. I thought it was engaging and well written, and Samantha "Sammie" McCoy is a very well-rounded protagonist. She's clever and ambitious and also very stubborn. She's certainly not perfect, and her decision to keep the truth about her illness from her probably only female friend and debate partner backfires rather spectacularly. It's understandable that Sammie is reluctant to admit weakness and that she tries to hide her growing deterioration from those who don't have to know, but if someone I considered a friend kept something that big from me, I would be hurt too.
I'm pretty sure I'm not spoiling anything for anyone who's read a single book before when I say that of the two guys mentioned in the book blurb, Stuart, the accomplished and sophisticated writer she has a crush on and initially dates, is not the one she ends up with. Anyone looking for an emotional teen romance should probably look elsewhere, though, as it's Sammie's illness and her learning to come to terms with it which is the main focus throughout the book.
As far as I can tell, the disease that Sammie is diagnosed with is absolutely real, and it sounds utterly terrifying to have to go through, both for Sammie herself and her family and friends. To not only have to face up to the fact that you have a disease that will kill you while you're still young, but have to live through losing control of your rational thought and bodily functions before this happens - a complete nightmare. As I mentioned above, Sammie is smart and driven, on track to winning a prestigious debate championship after years of preparation, she's likely to be her school's valedictorian and she has a scholarship to NYU. Her doctors and her parents keep telling her that she will need to adjust and that her plans as they are will not be achievable, but she stubbornly refuses to listen, trying her hardest to experience as much as possible in the time she has left.
Obviously, this book does NOT have a happy ending. You get really attached to Sammie and those around her throughout the book and I full on ugly cried towards the end. So you may want to take that into consideration if you were going to read the last third or so of the book anywhere public. I haven't read anything else by Lara Avery, but based on this, I would absolutely be interested in checking out more of her books.
Judging a book by its cover: This book cover screams "generic YA" to me, and it seems like the publishers haven't really tried to do anything to make the book distinctive in any way. There is nothing to attract the reader or give any hints of the content, and the lack of colour makes the whole book look very forgettable.
Merged review:
I enjoyed this book while I read it. I thought it was engaging and well written, and Samantha "Sammie" McCoy is a very well-rounded protagonist. She's clever and ambitious and also very stubborn. She's certainly not perfect, and her decision to keep the truth about her illness from her probably only female friend and debate partner backfires rather spectacularly. It's understandable that Sammie is reluctant to admit weakness and that she tries to hide her growing deterioration from those who don't have to know, but if someone I considered a friend kept something that big from me, I would be hurt too.
I'm pretty sure I'm not spoiling anything for anyone who's read a single book before when I say that of the two guys mentioned in the book blurb, Stuart, the accomplished and sophisticated writer she has a crush on and initially dates, is not the one she ends up with. Anyone looking for an emotional teen romance should probably look elsewhere, though, as it's Sammie's illness and her learning to come to terms with it which is the main focus throughout the book.
As far as I can tell, the disease that Sammie is diagnosed with is absolutely real, and it sounds utterly terrifying to have to go through, both for Sammie herself and her family and friends. To not only have to face up to the fact that you have a disease that will kill you while you're still young, but have to live through losing control of your rational thought and bodily functions before this happens - a complete nightmare. As I mentioned above, Sammie is smart and driven, on track to winning a prestigious debate championship after years of preparation, she's likely to be her school's valedictorian and she has a scholarship to NYU. Her doctors and her parents keep telling her that she will need to adjust and that her plans as they are will not be achievable, but she stubbornly refuses to listen, trying her hardest to experience as much as possible in the time she has left.
Obviously, this book does NOT have a happy ending. You get really attached to Sammie and those around her throughout the book and I full on ugly cried towards the end. So you may want to take that into consideration if you were going to read the last third or so of the book anywhere public. I haven't read anything else by Lara Avery, but based on this, I would absolutely be interested in checking out more of her books.
Judging a book by its cover: This book cover screams "generic YA" to me, and it seems like the publishers haven't really tried to do anything to make the book distinctive in any way. There is nothing to attract the reader or give any hints of the content, and the lack of colour makes the whole book look very forgettable....more
An author goes to a remote mountain cabin to write a book and ruminates on the craft of writing while doing so. There are a lot of thoughts about how An author goes to a remote mountain cabin to write a book and ruminates on the craft of writing while doing so. There are a lot of thoughts about how writers create and why, and also a lot of ponderings about Mary Shelley and her creation of Frankenstein back in 1816. The longer the author stays by his lonesome, the weirder and creepier things get. Where do monsters come from, really? Why is the human mind so in need of monsters to represent something to us?
I don't think I would ever have picked this book up if it wasn't the January pick for my fantasy/sci-fi book club. In the plus column, it was short and a very quick read. I was able to get through it, even when my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool and my sinuses were aching, fighting the cold I caught just before Christmas. As I have mentioned before, horror isn't my preferred genre. There are definitely mostly horror elements to this. There isn't all that much that I think qualifies it as fantasy, unless you count the unnamed author's actual conversations with Mary Shelley (but they could just as easily just be a sign of the madness descending on the author). I read and reviewed this just after submitting my choices for best and worst novels of the year. It would absolutely be a contender for worst book, but the author was at least trying to do something interesting with this little novella, I just don't think it worked for me. I'm therefore going to rank it as my second worst read of the year, and will be very interested in what the rest of the members of my book club think of it.
Judging a book by its cover: It's a creepy book, it's got a creepy cover. I read an e-book version, where the cover is black on a white background. I think I prefer the paperback cover, which has the exact same image and design, but the background is black, with a white silhouette.
Merged review:
An author goes to a remote mountain cabin to write a book and ruminates on the craft of writing while doing so. There are a lot of thoughts about how writers create and why, and also a lot of ponderings about Mary Shelley and her creation of Frankenstein back in 1816. The longer the author stays by his lonesome, the weirder and creepier things get. Where do monsters come from, really? Why is the human mind so in need of monsters to represent something to us?
I don't think I would ever have picked this book up if it wasn't the January pick for my fantasy/sci-fi book club. In the plus column, it was short and a very quick read. I was able to get through it, even when my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool and my sinuses were aching, fighting the cold I caught just before Christmas. As I have mentioned before, horror isn't my preferred genre. There are definitely mostly horror elements to this. There isn't all that much that I think qualifies it as fantasy, unless you count the unnamed author's actual conversations with Mary Shelley (but they could just as easily just be a sign of the madness descending on the author). I read and reviewed this just after submitting my choices for best and worst novels of the year. It would absolutely be a contender for worst book, but the author was at least trying to do something interesting with this little novella, I just don't think it worked for me. I'm therefore going to rank it as my second worst read of the year, and will be very interested in what the rest of the members of my book club think of it.
Judging a book by its cover: It's a creepy book, it's got a creepy cover. I read an e-book version, where the cover is black on a white background. I think I prefer the paperback cover, which has the exact same image and design, but the background is black, with a white silhouette....more
Seeing the way his grandfather treats him and talks to him when he comes back to the family resort, I'm not all that surprised that doctor Sean preferSeeing the way his grandfather treats him and talks to him when he comes back to the family resort, I'm not all that surprised that doctor Sean prefers to stay in Boston, being a sought after playboy surgeon. When his grandfather has a heart attack, however, he obviously does the right thing and comes rushing home to help out. He discovers that his brother has done a pretty good job of turning business at the Snow Crystal Resort around and that while customers aren't flocking to the place, they're not about to have to file for bankruptcy either. Now his brother's beautiful French chef is in a tizzy because the wooden deck around her lakeside cafe won't be finished in time for the grand opening, and the resort and the O'Neil family could suffer financially as a result.
Élise feels like she owes everything she has to the O'Neil family and is eternally grateful that Jackson O'Neil hired her when she was at her lowest point, and that his family have welcomed her with open arms and treats her as one of their own. She's willing to do absolutely everything for them, and the new cafe was going to be the money spinner that would attact even more guests to the Snow Crystal Resort. That the grand opening might have to be cancelled or even postponed is unthinkable to her, even if she has to accept the help of handsome doctor Sean in order to get the deck ready on time. She and Sean shared a passionate night together a year ago, but Élise has a bad track record with romance, and does not intend to ever be in a relationship again. Thankfully, Sean doesn't seem like the long term commitment kind.
Except, once he's forced to stay around in Vermont while his grandfather recuperates and keeps seeking out Élise, as the sparks flying between them are just as hot as the previous summer, Sean begins to think that maybe he has been a bit hasty in his choice to stay in Boston all the time. That Élise just wants something casual makes him all the more determined to win her over and convince her that she may want to give love and romance a second chance.
For those who would like a heads up about such things, I should warn that there is a history of physical and emotional abuse in Élise's past, which is why she's so incredibly determined never to make herself vulnerable to a man ever again. I think it's dealt with pretty well, and Sean recovers pretty well after being a bit of a clueless idiot about his lady love, not to mention the bullheadedness of his grandfather initially.
This was neither a bad, nor a particularly memorable book. I enjoyed it while I read it, but am not sure I have a desperate need to seek out any of the two other books in the series to find out how the romantic prospects of the other two O'Neil brothers work out. To be fair, this is the middle book, so I already know who Jackson ends up with (but I'm not sure I care the exact hows or whys of why they got together). Of the Sarah Morgan books I've read in the past, I enjoyed her New York-set From Manhattan with Love series more.
Judging a book by its cover: This is a pretty generic contemporary romance cover, in my opinion. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, and the cover models more or less fit the description of the protagonists, but there's nothing super appealing about it either. ...more
Poetry is just one of those genres I don't really read, at all. So when the Diversify Your Reading Challenge asked me to read one or more collections Poetry is just one of those genres I don't really read, at all. So when the Diversify Your Reading Challenge asked me to read one or more collections of poetry in November, I was initially a bit stumped. However, one of my keywords in my Monthly Keyword Challenge (so many reading challenges, you guys!) for November was food, and this poetry collection, which is very highly rated on Goodreads, by a woman of colour I had actually heard of even before I picked up the book, fit perfectly.
Obviously, this was a very quick read. I have to be honest, and say that in the first section, which deals with sexual abuse and trauma, I mostly skimmed the poems to get through quickly, because I do not have the mental head space to deal with that right now. The other sections were nowhere near as traumatic, and some of the poems are absolutely lovely.
I can see on Goodreads that while some people have found the contents of the book rather trite and cliched and simple, a whopping 49% have rated the collection a full 5 stars. I would not quite go that far with effusive praise, but as I said, poetry just really isn't a genre that tends to do much for me. I'm glad this reading challenge made me open up to something new, but I still don't see myself reading a lot of verse in the years to come.
Judging a book by its cover: It's not exactly the most exciting of covers, but the bees make you think of honey, which is, after all, highly relevant to the title. The illustrations on the cover are in the same simple style as the ones throughout the volume, accompanying the poetry. ...more
I really have read a LOT of Charlaine Harris' books. For my sins, I managed to force myself through the entirety of her Sookie Stackhouse series, justI really have read a LOT of Charlaine Harris' books. For my sins, I managed to force myself through the entirety of her Sookie Stackhouse series, just to see how it would end, long after I derived any enjoyment from them anymore. I've read her Lily Bard books, where apparently the character Bobo Whinthrop originates (I don't remember him, or much of the plot of the books at all). I have also read all of her Harper Connolly books, where Manfred Bernardo first appears (I vaguely remember him, but nothing of consequence). Generally, I find Harris' books perfectly entertaining while I'm reading them (except some of the later Sookie books, that pretty much just annoyed me), but shortly after reading them, I remember little to nothing of the plots.
Midnight Crossroad, which was adapted into the TV series Midnight, Texas on NBC (cancelled after two seasons) features a bunch of peculiar individuals living in the little town of Midnight in, you guessed it, Texas. Manfred Bernardo, a genuine psychic who makes his living telling fortunes over the phone and internet, moves there after the death of his grandmother. His new landlord is Bobo Winthrop, owner of the local pawnshop. One of Bobo's other tenants is a vampire, who lives with a gorgeous, but apparently very dangerous woman who travels a lot. There's Fiji Kavanaugh, who is a very powerful witch, but hides her actual powers by running a magic shop full of nick knacks. She has a talking cat. There's a nice gay couple, the rather strange reverend who gives non-denominational services at the local chapel (and conducts a lot of pet funerals), and Manfred falls pretty hard for Creek Lovell, the beautiful young woman whose overprotective father runs the gas station.
Harris' books always have a mystery element to them, as well. In this book, there's a group of neo nazis trying to harass Bobo, because they believe he knows the location of his crazy grandfather's legendary weapons arsenal. There's also a dead body found about a third of the way through the story, which turns out to belong to Bobo's ex-girlfriend, who he believed got sick of him and just up and left him one day. No one really believes that Bobo is guilty of murdering her, but it still takes quite a lot of time to figure out the guilty party.
As well as having been on my TBR list for years and years, this book fit into my Monthly Keyword Challenge in October. I listened to it on audiobook and it was perfectly fine, but really nothing more than that. Now, a month and a half later, I am hard pressed to remember any particular details - although I really did like Fiji's cat a lot - and the lisping way the narrator voiced him. My records show that over the years, I've acquired the entire series in various e-book sales, so I will most likely read the second two books eventually, as well, but I'm in no particular hurry to do so.
Judging a book by its cover: As with a lot of books, this one comes with several different versions of cover art. I think I like this one, with it's weird, crooked bird's eye view (which gives me a headache if I look at it for too long) of parts of the little town is my least favourite. Still, I own it in e-book, so it's not like I'll actually look at the cover a lot. I suspect Harris could sell books no matter what the cover art actually looks like....more
Having now read all three of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers novels, I think I can confidently say that the first one, The Long Way to a Small, Angry PlanetHaving now read all three of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers novels, I think I can confidently say that the first one, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is still my favourite one. This third novel is the one it took me the longest to really get into, and I kept putting it down and getting distracted by other things because it's a lot slower than her other two books. For a while, I wasn't really "feeling" it, and was wondering if I was just in the wrong head space for the story. Concerning itself with the different points of view of a number of individuals living on an aging space station, populated by Exodans (the descendants of the humans who first left Earth to live on ships among the stars), and also the observations of an alien scientist there to study their way of life. With a lot of the characters, I didn't really see why I should care about them, and it took me quite a while to see how all the point of view characters' stories fit together.
Once the book entered its final act, so to speak, and it all became clear to me, this book had me in tears and I suddenly understood exactly why Chambers had chosen to tell the story the way she had. The emotional payoff simply would not have been as powerful if I hadn't stuck with the story and gotten the various back stories, eventually woven together to a beautiful conclusion. To anyone reading this review, who may be doubting whether they should keep going with the book, even through the slow start - stick with it, it's very worth it in the end.
Judging a book by its cover: This may be the first of these books where, while I think the cover is pretty, I don't necessarily think it really fits with the book. The silhouette looks like a person sitting on the ground looking up at the stars, someone clearly planet-bound. Yet all of the people in this book are on space stations, born and raised, it's an important part of the story. I think another image might have suited the book better....more
Tom is a brooding loner with a past, who gave up the corporate life and now works as a bike mechanic. He's estranged from most of #CBR11 Bingo: Travel
Tom is a brooding loner with a past, who gave up the corporate life and now works as a bike mechanic. He's estranged from most of his family, with the exception of his sister. Determined to cycle the Trans-America trail, from Oregon to Virginia, he's annoyed when he discovers said sister has been e-mailing someone (as him) to arrange for a riding partner. When he finds out that the "Alex" his sister has been e-mailing is, in fact, a Lexie, he is even more frustrated. He doesn't want company, but he also feels bad about leaving Lexie without any sort of protection on the journey. They agree to cycle together until Tom can find someone else for Lexie to ride safely with.
Lexie's parents met on the Trans-Am trail during the seventies, and she and her brother had always planned on doing the ride together. Then her brother went and married a woman with no interest in cycling, and Lexie has to decide whether she wants to do the ride by herself. Since no one answers her initial ad for a companion when it's obvious that she's a woman, she places a new one that seems more ambiguous. She figures that once all the details are ironed out, whomever agreed to ride with her could be persuaded to go along with the plan. She's not really expecting to meet a really hot, but taciturn and angry guy, with what seems to be very sexist views of female cyclists. Because he seems to take it as read that she'll be attracted to him, Lexie makes up a fictional husband to make sure the arrogant man is put in his place.
While both are incredibly annoyed by the other, they eventually grow to like one another and become friends over the course of their journey. Tom manages to get Lexie to relax more and rely a lot less on fixed plans, maps and her bike computer. Lexie gets Tom to open up more and gradually begin to interact with the people around him. Of course, the more time they spend together, the more the attraction between them grows, as well, and that fictional husband of Lexie's becomes quite the obstacle. Tom was cheated on by his now ex-wife and is determined never to be a part of any form of adultery. Having cycled thousands of miles together perpetuating the lie, Lexie is worried about how Tom will actually react if she tells him the truth.
As far as I can recall, this is the first romance novel I've ever read focused on cycling. It's a road trip romance, but the mode of transportation is bicycles, rather than a car, and these people are pretty serious about their hobby. On the other hand, as cycling cross country is a time consuming process, there is really not a smidge of the insta-love here. Tom and Lexie's journey takes many months and they have a lot of time to initially annoy each other, before the sparks fly, the truth comes out and they begin to get on (and get it on) passionately. During the first half of the book, the conflict is Tom and Lexie's differing views of how the journey should be conducted and them being seeming opposites. Once they start steaming up the tent every night (not to mention apparently having as much amorous time al fresco as possible), they are both in agreement that neither is looking for long term commitment, and their affair will end as soon as they reach Virginia. They seem to have very different plans for the future, and initially it seems impossible that they could continue a relationship after completing their long journey.
I've read a fair few Ruthie Knox novels in previous years, but she's not as prolific as a lot of other contemporary writers out there, and so I have a tendency to forget about her, only to rediscover her again every so often. Each time I pick up one of her books, I'm surprised by how witty and enjoyable it is to read, with great chemistry between the leads, clever dialogue and some really steamy smexy times. I still have a few of her older books on my TBR list, and should probably do myself the favour of reading them before I completely forget how much I tend to like her books.
Judging a book by its cover: See, it's not just hockey romances that have prominent man-titty on the cover. A book about cycling can too, even though the hero is described as wearing t-shirts for most of the scenes that aren't *insert funky bass line here*. Also, since the hero is described as having several prominent tattoos, it would have been nice to have that reflected in the cover image. ...more
Spoiler Warning! There WILL be mild spoilers for the plot of this story (which is from 1887, so you know, if you wa3.5 stars #CBR11 Book Club: Classics
Spoiler Warning! There WILL be mild spoilers for the plot of this story (which is from 1887, so you know, if you wanted to know the details, you've had enough time to look them up or just read the damn story). This is also the Book Club selection for August, so I'm going to assume that most people who are interested in participating will read the book before then. If, however, you have NOT read the book yet, maybe skip this review until you have done the required reading. Proceed at your own risk.
So, for those, who like me, have never actually read A Study in Scarlet (I know I'm not the only one), a brief summary of the plot: Doctor John Watson is injured on service in Afghanistan and honourably discharged with a pension. Because he doesn't have a ton of money to live on, he requires someone to share a lodging with. A friend introduces him to the rather peculiar Sherlock Holmes, who for all his strange interests seems to be a perfectly fine living companion.
It turns out that Mr Holmes is a consulting detective, and will solve cases for people using the method of deduction. He usually only needs to hear the particulars of a case from the people who come to see him to solve their little problems, and this is how he supports himself. He is very proud of his intellect and proves to Watson that his methods are sound. Watson accompanies Holmes when he is approached by the police in a strange murder case.
A man has been found in an abandoned building. There is blood on the floor, but none of it is from the victim. The victim has not been robbed, he has all his money and valuables and there is even a woman's wedding band by the corpse. There are no signs of a struggle, but in a different room of the house from where the corpse was found, someone has scrawled "Rache" on the wall in blood. The two detectives on the case each have different theories. Holmes is smugly certain that he will solve the mystery easily for them, yet the two policemen will get all the credit from the authorities and public.
Within three days of first visiting the scene of the crime, Holmes has proven to Watson that his methods work brilliantly, and the murderer is in police custody (after having been lured to Watson and Holmes' lodgings). Watson, furious that his friend will not get proper credit, decides to write down and publish their adventure.
When we voted for book club this time, I voted for Jane Eyre. It came second, and this won out instead. I have never actually read any of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and I don't even entirely know why. I love Victorian-set novels featuring lady sleuths, I tend to very much enjoy the modern TV and movie adaptations about one of the most famous literary detectives of all time, and I have even read a number of modern YA retellings. Yet, I seem to have convinced myself that the original source material would be dull and probably rather objectionable, owing to the sexism, racism, the belief in the superiority of the British Empire and so forth.
As it turns out, I was both correct and incorrect in my assumptions. For much of this story, I was a lot more entertained than I was expecting to be. While I have not seen the first episode of the BBC Sherlock series, A Study in Pink, for many years (the one starring Cumberbatch and Freeman), I have seen it enough times that I remembered the major plot beats. It was fun to see what the modern adaptation had chosen to keep from the source material, and which things were entirely different.
I will say that I actually thought the motive of the murderer was WAY better in A Study in Scarlet than in Moffatt's modernised TV adaptation. Can't really say that I was super happy about the fridging of a young lady (I am never going to be), but you have to respect the drive, tenacity and determination of a guy who is so sworn to vengeance and retribution that he spends the next twenty years of his life, and chases the guilty over quite a lot of two continents, refusing to give up, even when his own health is at risk. The method and elaborate staging of the crime scene, especially of the first murder, is also very well done.
What I didn't like so much was the incredibly clunky change of pace in the second half of the novel, when our intrepid investigators have in fact caught their man, and the novel decides to take the reader on an extended, slow and not all that interesting flash back to America, containing a rather ludicrous and false portrayal of Mormonism. It seems that Conan Doyle later in life admitted that he had been misled about the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, and he may also have issued an apology, but to a modern reader, it still smacks of poor research and unfortunate sensationalism (which is exactly the sort of thing I was worried about when reading something written by a man in the late 19th Century - their views were certainly not progressive or open-minded).
I don't think the structure of the book benefits from having an extended and drawn-out flashback for five out of the book's fourteen chapters, just as the story is getting really exciting. Especially when so much of what is relayed in those chapter is just patently false misinformation about a religious faith not that many of the readers in the United Kingdom necessarily knew all that much about at the time of the book's publication. Having a bit of the murderer's back story explored helps to understand his motive, but we didn't need a full third of the book devoted to this, one chapter would have been more than enough.
In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by this reading experience. It also doesn't hurt that the winning book for book club ended up being about a quarter of the length of the book I voted for. While it would have been nice to have an excuse to re-read Jane Eyre again, I'm not at all sorry I was finally pushed out of my comfort zone to read this - and I may in fact seek out some of the shorter (and hopefully slightly better structured Sherlock Holmes stories) in the future.
After reading this, it's was also amusing to discover that while neither of the Guy Ritchie movies (with Robert Downey Jr as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson) are based directly on the Conan Doyle stories, Downey Jr's portrayal of the detective may be the closest to what Holmes is like in the source material. Both he and Cumberbatch's characters spend a fair amount of time deducing, something Johnny Lee Miller's Holmes from what the husband and I have dubbed The Adventures of Mr. Elementary and Joan (because it really is more of a mystery of the week procedural with private detectives rather than a plausible adaptation of Sherlock Holmes - no one spends any time deducing, and they just do a lot of actual investigating). Reading this did make me want to catch up on the recent seasons that we're behind on, which isn't a bad thing, in itself.
Judging a book by its cover: Since it was originally published in the late 19th Century, this book has had a wide variety of covers over the years. This is from one of the Penguin editions, and features magnifying glasses and measuring tapes, both of which Sherlock Holmes frequently employs during his thorough searches of crime scenes....more
#CBR11 Bingo: Listicle (appeared on a bunch of 'Best of 2018' lists)
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of Jewish moneylenders, but her father is#CBR11 Bingo: Listicle (appeared on a bunch of 'Best of 2018' lists)
Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of Jewish moneylenders, but her father is a dreadful one, who doesn't have the heart to actually claim back the debts that the villagers owe, even when his daughter is starving and the long, cold winters are making his wife sicker and sicker. Miryem refuses to see her mother die due to her father's weakness, hardens her heart and takes over her father's duties. Unlike him, she refuses to listen to excuses and starts forcing people to pay back some of what they owe. If they can't contribute coin, she'll take goods.
Wanda is the daughter and eldest child of a violent, drunken farmer who borrowed money from the moneylender when his wife was sick, but drank most of the money away, so she died. Now he abuses Wanda and her two brothers, who barely have enough to survive on, since what the tax collectors don't take away, their father spends on drink. When Miryem comes calling to collect on the debt, she decides Wanda will come work in her parents house as a servant, a maid of all work, and will gradually pay off the debt that way. Neither Mireym, nor Wanda's father realise how happy Wanda is about this change in her circumstances. Wanda is away from her father's violent presence for much of the day, she gets more to eat (even if she sometimes has to steal bread meant for the chickens), her father can't marry her off to anyone (as then no one will be paying off the debt) and gradually, she steps in as an assistant to Miryem, and slowly learns the intricacies of the numbers in her ledger.
Because Miryem is ruthlessly efficient, she manages to start reclaiming her mother's dowry. A savvy businesswoman, she sells everything her family can't directly use, making a profit, so that soon her family has gone from abject poverty to modest wealth again. Her grandfather is immensely proud of her, and lends her silver for more loans, which she is able to return to him as gold. Getting a reputation as someone who can start with silver and end up with gold is dangerous, though. Miryem finds herself challenged by the Staryk, the cold creatures who haunt the woods and terrorise people in the winter. The first time he brings her a small pouch of six silver coins to be returned as gold. If Miryem succeeds, she will be rewarded, if she fails, she will be turned to ice. Miryem takes the coins to a young jeweller in the city where her grandfather lives. He turns the magic silver into a ring, which they sell to the local duke, and not only do they manage to get the six gold coins the Staryk demands, but they both make a profit.
The second time, the Staryk lord comes, he demands sixty silver coins transformed and claims it is the second of three tests. Miryem is bold enough to ask what her reward will be if she actually succeeds, and is shocked to discover that should that come to pass, the Staryk lord making the demands will take her as his wife. She doesn't really want that (he's terrifying), but neither does she want to die. She goes back to the jeweller, who makes a beautiful necklace, which he also presents to the duke. The duke, who has never really thought he'd be able to make an especially good match for his plain daughter Irina, discovers that with the Staryk silver ring and necklace, she may not be beautiful, but she's striking and mesmerising in a way he can clearly capitalise on. He demands a silver crown from the jeweller, and since the third time the Staryk lord arrives, he wants 600 silver coins turned to gold, Miryem has no problem providing enough metal. As soon as she has presented the gold the Staryk lord (who turns out to be the king of his people), she is whisked away to his kingdom, and her family in the human world are left with only vague memories of her.
The jeweller makes a crown fit for a queen which the duke gifts to Irina, and when the tsar comes to visit, it is decided that he will take Irina as his bride. Sadly, Irina discovers that the reason the tsar was so ready and willing to agree to marry a minor duke's unremarkable daughter has nothing to do with her magical silver jewelry, but rather her distant Staryk ancestry. The tsar is possessed by a demon, who craves the Staryk cold within her. He intends to murder Irina and eat her life force. Luckily for Irina, she discovers that wearing her silver, she can slip through mirrors into the cold, snow covered Staryk kingdom, hiding away from the demon when he comes every night. In the daytime, her husband is human, and she puts up a very credible show of them being wildly infatuated, while trying desperately to figure out a way she can tempt the demon with something else, so she, or those she loves, don't become victims of the demon instead.
Irina is not the only one who ends up with an undesirable husband. Miryem is taken to the centre of the Staryk lands, and it turns out that while she could metaphorically turn silver into gold in the 'sunlit lands' because she was a clever negotiator and drove a good bargain, in the Staryk kingdom, she can literally turn silver into gold with a touch. This makes her an important asset to the Staryk king, who clearly resents the fact that she succeeded with his three impossible tasks in the first place, and ended up as his wife. They barely interact, except every evening, when Miryem gets to ask him three questions.
As the story progresses, Irina, Miryem and Wanda's stories become even more intertwined than in the beginning. Miryem needs to stop the Staryk king from covering the human world in pretty much eternal winter, and try to find a way to get back to her parents. Wanda and her brothers end up orphaned after a truly horrible accident and need to find a way to survive. Irina needs to figure out how to save her spoiled, indifferent husband and the kingdom she now feels responsible for from the ravages of the demon.
This is the follow-up to Naomi Novik's UprootedUprooted, which while it felt like it should be, wasn't actually a retelling of any fairy tale. In Spinning Silver, however, Novik takes on the fairy tale of Rumplestiltskin, but mainly by using many different elements of the old tale in a completely new way in this novel. It's not straw being turned into gold, but silver. In the story, the desperate young woman forced by the king to spin the straw, pays the little imp first with a necklace and then with a ring, and finally, she's forced to bargain her firstborn child to succeed in her impossible tasks. The Staryk silver that Miryem is asked to transform as her initial tests, are turned into a ring, a necklace and a stately crown. She is later set an even bigger, seemingly impossible task, involving her new-found magical powers, but succeeds through her own cleverness. There are marriages (to an otherworldly king and a tsar) because of magical interference, and I was surprised and delighted that there was even callbacks to the promise of a firstborn child as the story progressed. The danger of revealing your true name to someone, and how it can grant others terrible power over you is a factor, as it is in so many faerie stories. There are also some elements of the Hades and Persephone myth (always a good one) in the second half of the book.
I found it interesting, that while female friendship is so central to the story in Uprooted, this book, which can be said to have three different female protagonists have all three struggling alone, without much support from others of their sex at all. Miryem loves her mother, but has no female friends. Wanda lost her mother to childbirth, and while she is given a job by Miryem, they never become close - it is entirely an employer/employee relationship. Irina also lost a mother to childbirth, and is only really close to the nurse who raised her, Magreta. The three women's stories weave into each other more tightly as the story progresses, but even towards the end, they each seem to stand alone, just helping each other a bit to achieve the same end goals.
While I liked this book a lot, and think it's probably structured better than Uprooted, overall (there were no sections that felt like they dragged unnecessarily, like I remember from the previous book), there was one thing that was annoying, and rather distracting, throughout the book. The point of view changes suddenly from one character to the other, without any warning for the reader. It can take a while to realise who you are reading about when you get to a new section. I listened to the book in audio, but because all of these women have vaguely Eastern European accents, there wasn't a lot of differentiation there either. This book, which in total has six different points of view (Miryem, Wanda, Irina, Wanda's younger brother, Irina's nurse Magreta and, only once, the tsar), may have been better served by multiple narrators, so it would be clear when the voices changed which character's section you were moving into.
I also thought that the ending was a bit rushed, and would not have complained if there was a bit more romance throughout the story. Being married off to a supercilious winter king who seems to loathe you for your humanity because of a strange magical bargain seems like the ultimate enemies to lovers story, doesn't it? I never got beyond the first of Novik's Temeraire books, despite my general fondness for dragons. Now, I hope Novik keeps writing fairy tellings or her own original folklore interpretations for many years to come.
Judging a book by its cover: The cover design is in the same style as Uprooted, but with much cooler colours (since so much of this is set in winter) and because silver plays such an important part in the story. The central image is clearly Miryem, using her magical powers to turn silver into gold. There's also one of the Staryk pouches of coins, the haughty face of the Staryk king and a rain of gold coins, all central elements of the book. ...more
Fellow Cannonballer, kissing book enthusiast and long-time internet friend Emmalita has reviewed several Jackie Lau3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Summer Read
Fellow Cannonballer, kissing book enthusiast and long-time internet friend Emmalita has reviewed several Jackie Lau books this year, which is what made me really take note of the name. During the discussion of the very super depressing anti-abortion legislation being passed not that long ago, Jackie Lau put this book up for sale for $0.99, because of its pro-choice message. I bought it, and since it also fit into my Keyword Challenge this month, it didn't end up forgotten on my TBR list like so many other sale books do.
So yeah, minor spoiler, the heroine of this book has had an abortion. If that's a deal breaker for you, this is probably a book to avoid. In so much of romance, coupling with a man and having a baby seems to be the goal. The pregnancy epilogue is a popular trope for a reason (especially in historical romance). When I was struggling with fertility problems myself, even contemporary romance novels seemed to be bursting with insultingly fertile couples - women getting knocked up from one-night stands (while using protection and/or on contraception). When you've spent time, money and tremendous amounts on emotions on unsuccessful fertility attempts, that just seems extra hurtful.
We are constantly bombarded with proof that the world is going to hell in a hand basket, and much faster than we previously believed or predicted. So many people are choosing not to have children, and now that I do have a child, I'm constantly wracked with guilt about bringing him into this world when we're clearly all going to die, and possibly before he sees adulthood. I'm so sorry, Gabriel. I know many women who don't want children (and who didn't want children even before it became clear that we live in a dystopian nightmare). So if reading romance is difficult for women with fertility issues, I can't imagine how rarely voluntarily childless women find themselves represented.
Natalie is one such woman. She's a climate scientist, so it's no wonder that she doesn't want to bring children into this world, but even before she started researching all the ways in which our planet seems to be doomed, she'd made up her mind. Her mother suffered post-partum depression after having her younger sister, and her father just didn't seem to care about the baby at all, so Natalie took responsibility and pretty much raised her sister for the first year. Even after her parents seemed to step in and do their job, Natalie always felt extra responsible for the girl, and while she likes children and doesn't in any way resent her friends who chose to have them, she never wanted any of her own. Which is why she had an abortion when she accidentally got pregnant, which also resulted in the relationship breaking up.
Now Natalie is worried that she'll never find someone to spend her life with. All the guys she's been dating seem to want kids and a family, that's a total deal breaker for her. She takes her best friend Connor (they've known each other for more than a decade) with her as a date to her sister's wedding, and keeps explaining to well-meaning friends and family that they're "just friends". But after a drunken aunt blurts out a big secret, Natalie is shocked and rattled, and finds comfort in Connor's arms. After a pretty steamy night together, their long friendship seems to be evolving into something more. But Natalie's convinced that Connor must want kids, and her faith in long term relationships having a chance have been further shattered by the drunken wedding revelations.
While I fully respect Natalie's wishes not to have children, and absolutely in no way judge her for having an abortion (you go, girl!), she still annoyed me with her judgemental attitude towards her sister, who clearly wanted different things from her, and her persistent beliefs that she was fundamentally unlovable and would never find (or deserve) lasting love. Even after it becomes clear that Connor can't father and doesn't want children of his own (relationship hurdle avoided), she keeps insisting they won't work out - and it just got on my nerves. I get that she had issues she needed to work though, but to me, it dragged out a bit too long.
There are a few more Jackie Lau books on my TBR list, after I've picked them up cheaply in e-book sales. One of them is the sequel to this one, with Natalie's cousin Iris as the heroine. I liked this book well enough, and keep trying to read more diversely, so will absolutely be checking out more from the author in the future.
Judging a book by its cover: I don't really have a lot to say about this cover. It's cute, it shows you that the heroine is of Asian descent (which, to be fair, might be an important selling point for some). While I'm not a fan of full on smooches on a romance cover, this pose is sweet, intimate and romantic without being too intrusive, I think....more
#CBR11 Bingo: Rainbow Flag (author is a lesbian, as is the main character)
One of my goals for Pride month was to read more diversely from my TBR shelf#CBR11 Bingo: Rainbow Flag (author is a lesbian, as is the main character)
One of my goals for Pride month was to read more diversely from my TBR shelf. So I wanted to read at least one book with gay protagonists (The Lawrence Browne Affair), one with a trans character (If I Was Your Girl) and this is my book about lesbians. This is another one of those books that has been on my TBR shelf for years and years. I bought it in an e-book sale because it had decent reviews and sounded cute, and then I forgot about it. Sorry, book, you deserved to be read.
Leila struggles to fit in at the fancy prep school where she's a student. She doesn't feel like she fits in, and while she knows her father wants her to get good grades in science, so she can become a doctor (her father is a doctor, her older sister is a med student), she really just cannot muster any enthusiasm for the subject. Then there's the fact that she's gay. There's pretty much only one openly gay kid, Tomas, in her school and Leila finds him rather insufferable. There's also the fact that Leila's family are Muslim, her parents are from Iran and the one family in their friend group whose son came out as gay now no longer speaks about him. It's not even like he died, it's as if the guy never existed in the first place. Leila is terrified that something similar will happen to her if her family discover she's a lesbian.
But then Saskia transfers into Leila's school, and everything changes. Because of Saskia, Leila finds herself doing school theatre (she accidentally farts loudly during her audition, so becomes an understudy) and finds that she really enjoys being a stage technician. She gets to know Tomas better, as he's the other stage director, and maybe he's not so bad, after all? The strange and often hostile female tech crew (who it's rumoured are all lesbians) welcome Leila with open arms (spoiler - not a single one of them are gay - they just don't care to conform to the usual high school standards). Saskia also takes Leila shopping and invites her to big, unsupervised parties, where Leila, to be honest, is quite uncomfortable.
As time passes, it becomes clear that Saskia may be a bit too much of a cool girl for Leila to handle. She seems to send very mixed signals, has a very mercurial temper and eventually ends up seducing one of Leila's close friends. This upsets both Leila, who thought Saskia genuinely liked her, and her best friend, who had been unhappily pining about said guy for ages. It becomes pretty obvious that while she's beautiful and alluring, Saskia is a Regina George. Leila is far better off with her other friends.
There was so much I liked about this book. While Leila constantly worries about her parents' approval, they really did seem very loving and supportive throughout. I was not at all surprised that her seemingly perfect sister had struggles of her own, and might not be quite as goody goody as she seemed at first, and she always had Leila's back, even when she was doing things they both knew their parents would be unhappy about.
For all that Leila feels rather alone at school, she has some very good friends, and when she starts working with the drama crew, she makes a bunch more of them. She's dazzled by Saskia at first, but comes to see just how toxic she is and how important it is to have people who really care about you (even if they might seem a bit boring in day to day interactions).
Sara Farizan has written several more books and short stories about queer teens, and I'm going to be on the lookout for more of her stuff. This book ticks a lot of diversity boxes (heroine and author of colour, culture clash between Muslim family and American high school life, LGBTQIA etc), but was also just an entertaining and good read.
Judging a book by its cover: I'm going to be entirely honest and say that the rather boring cover is probably one of the reasons why this book languished so long on my TBR shelf. All that pastel pink, with barely a hint of some faces at the top and bottom - it's not the most exciting or inviting of covers, is it? ...more
3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Own Voices (the book is about a trans girl, written by a trans woman)
Amanda is going to live with her father and trying to star3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Own Voices (the book is about a trans girl, written by a trans woman)
Amanda is going to live with her father and trying to start fresh, after having been beaten up in her former home town. She misses her mother a lot and as she starts to make friends feels guilty that she cannot share the big secret of who she is, and used to be.
Amanda was born Andrew, but from an early age knew that she was trans. Amanda tried to commit suicide, but was lucky enough to receive help and counselling and eventually, transition treatment and surgery. The only way anyone is going to know that she was born a boy is if they see her original birth certificate, or if she tells them her secret.
Making close friends and falling in love when you cannot be entirely honest about who you are and where you came from must be very difficult, as this book explores. As Meredith Russo points out in her afterwards, the trans experience she writes about in this book is far from the reality for a lot of teens and older people out there. Amanda knows from an early age, she has no doubts about her identity. Her parents are, after some difficulties coping, very supportive. She can "pass for female" and has the expensive surgery to make her transition complete. This is not the case with many trans people out there.
I am a nearly forty year old cis-gendered straight woman. I know very little about the trans experience, for all that I now know several trans people. I do know that for all that Norway is incredibly progressive and accepting of lesbian and gay rights, it's fairly deplorable when it comes to the rights and treatment of trans people. While being trans is no longer classified as a mental illness (no, really), I know for a fact that there is a lot of fear and discrimination, and that our glorious universal health care system isn't all that easy to manoeuvre for trans individuals. It makes me deeply sad.
For Pride Month, I wanted to make an effort to read diversely on the LGBTQIA spectrum. I cannot say that I've read a lot of books with trans characters before (Courtney Milan's Hold Me being a notable and excellent exception), but I'm trying to continue to grow and explore more. This book was good, but for all that I'm glad Amanda's experience was largely positive and she was met with love and support, the book's conflict seemed to resolve a bit too easily (and I'm not sure that quite so many people in rural America are that progressive and open-minded).
Judging a book by its cover: I think this cover is simple, striking and lovely, and from what I gather from the author's acknowledgements, the model used for this photograph is also trans, which seems only right and fitting. ...more
This book is described as Knitting in the City 1.5 and cannot be read as a standalone, according to the author. It's a di#CBR11 Bingo: Reading the TBR
This book is described as Knitting in the City 1.5 and cannot be read as a standalone, according to the author. It's a direct continuation of Neanderthal Seeks Human. In this book, we occasionally get the POV of Quinn, which gives us more insight into his way of thinking, and made me like him a lot more. The plot is also structured somewhat better, with fewer of the things I was unhappy about in the first book.
Quinn proposes to Janie after they've been together for five months and wants a short engagement. She argues that it's impossible for them to know whether they are going to be able to survive long term if their relationship hasn't gone through some of the stressful situations that people with longer engagements have. She agrees to a three month engagement on the condition that they have a massive wedding, where they put their relationship truly to the test with all manner of stressful wedding planning and family events, so they can be sure that they really ARE ready for "the better and worse" when they get to their wedding day.
As someone who had been with my now husband for eight years (engaged for a year and a half) before we finally got married, I cannot argue with Janie here. I'm sure there are people who find lasting love at more or less first sight, and who successfully stay together despite having a short courtship period. But knowing more about the person you've decided to live with and share your life with is a good idea.
Meeting the families comes with their own set of problems. Janie's not really in touch with either of her sisters (the youngest one is a hardened criminal who tried to blackmail Quinn in the final third of the first book), her mother is dead and her father seems entirely indifferent to her. Quinn is very close to his rather peculiar sister, but is entirely estranged with his parents after they blamed him for the death of his older brother back in the day. For all that she struggles in a lot of social situations, Janie manages to charm Quinn's parents and mend the rift between them rather well over the course of the story - that was possibly my favourite bit of the entire book.
I saw some people complain that the love scenes in the first book are fade to black. That is certainly not the case in the second book. Let's just say, I hope Quinn pays the staff of his private air plane a LOT for what they have to put up with.
Based on these two first books (that I have as a box set) and some of the reviews from trusted fellow romance readers, I will probably check out at least some of Reid's other romances. One of the benefits of being late in discovering a writer a lot of reviews have been written about already, is that I can be more picky in which books I choose to give my time and money to.
Judging the book by its cover: This book claims to be "smart" romance. I genuinely don't know what supposedly makes this in any way smarter than other contemporary romances out there. By now, I see from Ms Reid's website that the books have gone through at least one cover redesign, but I kind of like the original covers, with the couple (who seem to be kissing) blocked off with a big heart. It's just the right amount of cute and quirky, and made them stand out to me in a positive way. ...more
3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Reading the TBR (The book has been on my shelf since early 2015)
This box set has been on my shelf since early 2015. Since then,3.5 stars #CBR11 Bingo: Reading the TBR (The book has been on my shelf since early 2015)
This box set has been on my shelf since early 2015. Since then, Penny Reid has published at least sixteen additional stories (I want to say novels, but think some of them may be novella length), so she's clearly rather prolific. I know that several of the kissing book set among the Cannonballers have read and reviewed several of her books, among them Mrs. Julien and Emmalita, but this is my first foray into Ms. Reid's writing.
As far as I can tell, this is Penny Reid's first book and I suspect some of the flaws in the writing can be chalked up to this. There's a lot to like about the book, but also quite a few things that annoyed me, both as I was reading the book, and have kept bugging me in the weeks since I finished the books.
I liked that Janie, for all that she was painfully socially awkward (not kidding, I full body cringed on occasion when reading about her), was extremely intelligent and very good at her job. I do like a good bit of competence porn, and the fact that she is so very skilled at her chosen profession helped alleviate some of the things that bugged the shit out of me about her.
I also really liked the heavy focus on friendship in the book, like the close and supportive community of the knitting group. Janie doesn't even do any kind of yarn crafts, be they knitting or crochet, but just hanging out with an awesome group of supportive ladies, talking about guys and other problems and drinking a lot of wine - they were all great. I also did like that while Janie doesn't do any crafting, Penny Reid's references to needles and various types of yarns suggest that she does. While the members of Janie's knitting group are important supporting characters, her most important support is obviously her BFF, Elizabeth, who lets Janie move in when she catches her boyfriend cheating on her AND loses her job, all on the same day. I probably liked Elizabeth more than I did Janie, overall.
Janie's pretty immediate and close friendship with her new colleague Steven was great, as well.
In the first book, I think there was more I disliked than actually liked. Janie's continued belief that she was some sort of hideous troll, despite all evidence to the contrary and all of her friends assuring her that this is not the case. I hate heroines who are clearly gorgeous, but refuse to believe it. That Janie would believe herself to be impossible to date because of her tendency to spout weird trivia at all times, and that she frequently also puts her foot in her mouth, figuratively speaking - that I could have believed. But thinking that she's some sort of uggo - just no! Generally, Janie spends far too much of the book being mean to herself. The "neanderthal" in the title of both books is how she refers to herself. You're never going to find lasting love until you learn to at least like yourself, lady.
Quinn is a little bit too much of an alphahole for me to really like him in this book. That he's impressed with Janie's intelligence speaks in his favour (but we've also already covered that she's a redheaded, hourglass-shaped bombshell, so he probably doesn't just like her for her brains), but some of the secrets he kept from her and the way he dealt with them when they came to light were not great.
Janie's judgement of Quinn's bachelor ways and the heavily implied slut-shaming of the women he used to hook up with also pissed me off. Sorry, "slamps", because apparently Janie needs to make up her own words when she's judgy of other women and their lifestyle choices. I got more annoyed every time that term was used. Janie's attitude is somewhat redeemed in the second book, when she not only has a conversation with one of Quinn's former lovers, but ends up helping this woman (and in the end, being helped in return), but in the first book, it was pretty dire. Women should be helping and building up each other up, not tearing one another down.
The plot in the first novel also goes all over the place. Why did we need the subplot with the Boston gangsters and Janie's sociopath sister? How is THAT the romance complication you present before getting the couple firmly together? I did like how the knitting group banded together to deal with the thugs, but it would have been a better and more realistic group without that interlude altogether.
Judging the book by its cover: This book claims to be "smart" romance. I genuinely don't know what supposedly makes this in any way smarter than other contemporary romances out there. By now, I see from Ms Reid's website that the books have gone through at least one cover redesign, but I kind of like the original covers, with the heroine's face blocked off with a big heart. It's just the right amount of cute and quirky, and made them stand out to me in a positive way....more
This is recommended for fans of Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park and Jenny Han 's To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I can sort of understand the firstThis is recommended for fans of Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park and Jenny Han 's To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I can sort of understand the first comparison, as with Rowell's book, this is told in alternating chapter from Penny and Sam's points of view. The book also has a similar feel to some of Rowell's books, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay an author. I'm guessing the comparison to Jenny Han is because both are written by young women of Asian descent and there are young women of Asian descent in the books? As I wasn't exactly a massive fan of Han's admittedly very popular YA novel (I much prefer the film adaptation), I think it's nice if anyone who liked it picks up this book based on the comparison, because they'll get to read what I consider a much more entertaining book.
While both Sam and Penny are fun characters to figuratively hang out with, I must admit that both of them also annoyed me quite a lot at times, and I do not agree with the way they treated certain members of their families (close or extended - I don't want to go into detail because that would spoil the story). Penny really is far too quick to judge and pigeon hole those around her, and probably gets on so well with Sam via text message precisely because they get to know one another without spending actual time together. If they did, it seems as if Penny would have harshly judged him too quickly as well, and there would never have been any friendship, then romance, to get excited about.
Did the fact that Penny and Sam annoyed me in any way ruin or cause problems for my reading experience? No. In fact, because they felt complicated and multi-faceted and flawed, with the potential and need to develop and grow, just like actual young college age people do, I think I enjoyed the book more. This was apparently Choi's debut novel, and I will be excited to see what she writes next.
Judging a book by its cover: I think this cover is absolutely lovely and the characters are so well represented. The rose background and the gold font also fit, considering Penny uses a rose gold phone to communicate with Sam....more
#CBR11 Bingo: Far and Away (book set in fantasy version of historical China)
This is an utterly lovely middle grade fantasy book, inspired by a lot of #CBR11 Bingo: Far and Away (book set in fantasy version of historical China)
This is an utterly lovely middle grade fantasy book, inspired by a lot of the Chinese folklore tales that Grace Lin herself read while growing up. The main story is about young Minli who leaves the only home she's ever known to try to find a way to ensure a better, richer life for her hard working and desperately poor parents. There are also countless stories within the story, that all link up in clever ways as the main story progresses. Minli's father tells her stories, people and creatures she encounter along her journey tell her stories - there are so many various tales that make up the whole of this delightful book.
As well as follow Minli on her quest to find the Old Man on the Moon, we see how her worried parents fare and think about her while she's gone. While Minli goes on a long and occasionally hazardous journey by herself, her mother is forced to go on an emotional journey of sorts, to figure out what role she may have played in her daughter's sudden disappearance (initially she wholeheartedly blames her husband and his "filling the girl's head with silliness and dreams"). It's not often we see those left behind while our hero or heroine goes off on their quest narrative, and as a parent myself now, I appreciated seeing how the parents kept trying to cope at home.
Minli has a difficult and often dangerous trip ahead of her, and meets many individuals along the way. There are dragons, mischievous monkeys, kind villagers, scrappy orphans, a king, a vengeful tiger spirit, just to name a few. As with Western fairy tales, being kind, polite, helpful and courteous will usually lead to good things for our protagonist, and one of the things I just really love about folklore are the similarities, for all that a lot of the finer details are different.
I very much enjoyed this book and as far as I can tell, Grace Lin has written a number of other books, both for young and middle grade readers. I can't wait to check out more of her stuff.
Judging a book by its cover:Grace Lin isn't just a very talented middle grade author, she's also an illustrator who makes the beautiful pictures that accompanies her writing throughout the story. On the cover of the book, we see our heroine, Minli, riding on the back of her loyal dragon friend. I also love the intricate top and bottom border of the cover, with a number of other little details from the story. ...more
I knew virtually nothing about Josephine Bonaparte before I read this book. I had no idea she was born in the Caribbean. I did#CBR11 Bingo: True Story
I knew virtually nothing about Josephine Bonaparte before I read this book. I had no idea she was born in the Caribbean. I didn't know that she had been married and had a son and a daughter before she ever married Napoleon. I didn't know how unhappy her first marriage was, or how she had to keep adapting and changing everything about herself to survive the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
The woman who became known for her style and wit throughout Europe started out as illiterate, provincial and clumsy, but abandoned by her first husband, spent a lot of the time on her hands educating herself and learning how to be entertaining and pleasing, to both men and women. Once her husband died, the only way she was going to be able to support herself and her children was by acquiring a wealthy protector and she made sure she was a desirable mistress for increasingly more powerful men.
Napoleon Bonaparte was not a particularly impressive general by the time he first met the woman he would call Josephine, but unlike most women, who seemed utterly repulsed by him, she actually seemed interested in him when they conversed and listened intently and treated him well, so he became utterly obsessed with her. Did you know that before he became a successful general, Napoleon wanted to write romantic novels? Yup, Napoleon Bonaparte, the man who conquered most of Europe and took multiple battles to fully defeat - his early career was spent writing romance. I certainly had not expected to learn that.
Josephine clearly did not have an easy life, either before or after she shackled herself to Napoleon. I'm sure no one would be surprised to hear that he was a tyrant not just to his military troops, but also at home. In their early life together, he adored and was utterly obsessed with Josephine, much to the dismay of his utterly horrendous family (who were all greedy, scheming, odious, power hungry ingrates). Then it was proven conclusively that she'd had a lover when he was off conquering somewhere, and his rose-tinted view of his wife appears to have altered somewhat. He still wanted and needed her, but started taking mistresses of his own, while Josephine had to put up with it and coped with her sorrows by spending truly mind-boggling amounts of money.
Despite their rather tumultuous relationship, the couple seem to have genuinely loved one another. Sadly, due to the starvation and hardships Josephine went through during the Terror, she was incapable of having more children. She spent much of her time travelling to various spa resorts around Europe, trying all manner of treatments to conceive a child. Eventually, Napoleon's scheming relatives and his advisers managed to convince him that he had to divorce Josephine and marry another, so he could provide an heir to his empire.
Historical biographies can be rather dry and boring, but once I got past the rather slow section of Josephine's early life, I was pretty much hooked and kept picking up the book every chance I got. I got through this book in just under a week, which I hadn't expected. Again, it didn't surprise me that Napoleon was a horrible person whose views on consent were utterly non-existent, but it was fascinating to read about the woman he chose to spend much of his adult life with.
A lot of the time, I listen to historical biographies in audio, but this I read as an e-book. The Napoleonic era is a very popular setting for historical romance novels, but it was fascinating to discover more about one of the most famous actual romances of the period. I can happily recommend this book.
Judging a book by its cover: Josephine Bonaparte was not considered one of the beauties of her time, rather she was described as striking and handsome, and apparently had great charisma. Of course, when you are the empress of France, you have the opportunity to influence fashion trends to they flatter you as much as possible. If the portrait they've used for the cover is at all accurate, then I agree that Josephine wasn't exactly a stunning woman, but it's not like she was some hideous troll either....more
Lincoln Mathis is the best man at his friend Alex's wedding. The bride, Emma, specifically asks Lincoln, who has a reputation as a bit of a m3.5 stars
Lincoln Mathis is the best man at his friend Alex's wedding. The bride, Emma, specifically asks Lincoln, who has a reputation as a bit of a man ho to stay away from the maid of honour, Emma's twin sister Daisy. Daisy finds it amusing that she's being told to stay away from Lincoln, so of course the two of them end up running away from the reception and getting drunk together. When Daisy wakes up in Lincoln's bed the next day, she puzzles over his Lothario reputation, as during their whole evening together, he talked to a number of women, but was never once anything but respectful, and nothing about his apartment suggests that he has frequent female visitors. In fact, he seems to be covering for something.
Because of the connection they seem to have formed over drinks, Lincoln reveals something to Daisy that he hasn't told anyone else about, the reason why he makes everyone around him think that he sleeps with pretty much any woman who crosses his path. Unlike Bruce Wayne, billionaire philanthropist, who does much the same, it's not because Lincoln is Batman - it's because he needs to stay completely unattached, as he's not exactly free to be in a relationship. I don't really want to spoil the full details of Lincoln's complicated secrets, though.
Daisy has secrets of her own and is trying to recover from both a difficult divorce and the reasons for why the marriage fell apart in the first place. While she certainly finds Lincoln attractive, she appreciates the honesty and vulnerability he shows her, that he's clearly not ready to share with any of his New York friends. The two build a friendship through texting and soon get very close, but since Daisy knows Lincoln's secret, she also knows not to get too attached.
Yet again, it feels like I'm just churning out generalities about a book I can only partially remember. At least I've caught up enough in my reviews to be reviewing books I read "only" TWO months ago, rather than three. Here we come to another romance that was perfectly fine at the time of me reading it, which I can only fuzzily remember details about now. This book is also the third book in a series, Oxford, about the men who work for a New York based men's magazine, in itself a spin-off of Lauren Layne's four-book Stiletto series, about the writers of Oxford's "sister" magazine. From the Goodreads reviews, I gather there are cameos from pretty much all of the previous couples in the books that have gone before, making the pages of this book rather crowded with characters who aren't all that necessary for the central story.
From what I can gather from other reviews on Goodreads, this was an anticipated book, and Lincoln has been a scene stealing supporting characters earlier in the series. Obviously, having no foreknowledge of the books that came before, I don't know if the secrets revealed about him come as a satisfying reveal or if it seems a bit forced. I liked his relationship with Daisy, and that they became friends before they fell in love. This book deals with different kinds of grief and trauma as well, and if I remember correctly, it was all sensitively handled.
I should probably read some other books in Layne's Stiletto and Oxford series, then this book may feel more meaningful to me.
Judging a book by its cover: Ah, a contemporary romance cover focusing on the chiseled face of a male model, heavily channeling Ben Stiller's Zoolander. Look at that face, so sensitive, so earnest. See his hidden man pain. I like to make my own mental images of the characters, so this cover does very little for me. The teal in the background is nice, though....more
#CBR11 Bingo: Banned/Challenged (has been on the list among the most banned/challenged books for about two decades now)
Eleven-year-old Margaret moves #CBR11 Bingo: Banned/Challenged (has been on the list among the most banned/challenged books for about two decades now)
Eleven-year-old Margaret moves to the New Jersey suburbs with her parents and is very worried about fitting in. She misses her colourful grandmother and the things she's used to in New York City. Nevertheless, she seems to make friends quickly enough, but is slightly worried when asked about what church she goes to. Margaret's parents don't believe in God. Her paternal grandmother is Jewish, her maternal grandparents (who the family is estranged from) are Christian, but Margaret's parents don't seem to hold with any religion, and it makes Margaret confused and questioning. She keeps talking to God, pretty much using her one-sided conversations like a sort of journal, and asking questions, not really sure if he's up there somewhere or not.
Margaret and three of her new friends form a secret club, where they are mostly concerned with talking about boys, chanting mantras to get their chests to grow and worry a lot about menstruation and what it will be like when one of them gets it. They have a lot of rules (like you can't wear socks with shoes - that way blisters lie) and gossip about other girls in their year (often very unfairly). It all seems pretty standard pre-teen stuff, especially in how much they talk about things they really know very little about.
Margaret spends much of the book questioning a lot of things and desperately wanting to start puberty. As someone who developed fairly early, I would probably have been more like some of the girls Margaret and her friends gossipped about (if I hadn't been so very nerdy and completely unnoticed by any boys). I do remember being super curious about having your period, and both wanting and dreading its arrival. It's really quite sad how much time and energy young women over the years seem to have expended on wishing for something that is a literal and figurative pain, when they should instead be thanking their lucky stars for as long as they can remain free of it.
This book is older than I am, and seems to have been controversial for a long time. It's appeared on the list of banned and challenged books for decades (I'm assuming both for its questions about religion, and its frank depiction of menstruation and how to deal with it) and I suspect that if I'd read it when I was closer to Margaret's age, rather than nearly forty years old, it would have made a lot more of an impact on me. As it was, I kept waiting for Margaret to get a clue about her judgy so-called friends an realise what a good thing she had with her supportive parents and cool paternal grandmother. I should probably read more Judy Blume, but I fear I'm far from the target audience anymore.
Judging a book by its cover: This isn't a particularly exciting cover, and it has very little to do with anything the book is actually about. Yes, Margaret is searching for answers and questioning things, but this isn't a romance, where she's risking her heart, so I'm not sure why the cover model is holding a paper one. A bit too generically YA here, and not great....more
This is the third and final book in the Cedar Ridge series. I have reviewed the first two books in the series, Second Chance Summer and My Kind of WonThis is the third and final book in the Cedar Ridge series. I have reviewed the first two books in the series, Second Chance Summer and My Kind of Wonderful for previous Cannonballs. You don't have to have read these to get the book to make sense, but it has more emotional resonance if you've at least read book 2 (which is about this hero's twin brother).
Jacob and Hudson Kincaid's mother started getting dementia at an early age, and it became very difficult for the twins to manage the household with an absent father and a sick mother. As it turns out, they were not their father's only family, and Jacob and Hudson were pretty much adopted by the matriarch of the Kincaids at Cedar Ridge. She takes them, and their mother, in and the boys help out with the family business. Nevertheless, Jacob can't wait to get out of town when he's old enough, something his twin can't understand. They have a truly epic argument when they turn eighteen, and Jacob goes off to join the army, believing his brother (and extended family) want nothing to do with him ever again.
Jacob has not been completely off the grid, however. Unbeknownst to Hudson, and the rest of his family, he has been calling his mother once a week, visiting her in secret at her care home when he had leave, and has also been sending as much money as he can to help with her treatment and hospital stays. So while he hasn't seen any family members except his mum for the last decade or so, Cedar Ridge is the natural place for him to go when his partner is killed in a horrible accident and he's placed on extended bereavement leave.
Sophie fell in love with and married a rich and handsome man that her parents didn't approve of. She moved to Cedar Ridge with him and did everything she could to please him, only to discover that he became more and more consumed with his status and career, and less and less happy with Sophie. When she discovers that he's been using his precious boat to have affairs with not one, but several women, she is furious. In the divorce proceedings, she refuses to accept anything but her husband's precious boat, knowing that's the only thing that will really hurt him. Unfortunately, because her husband is very powerful, she's suddenly left without a job and a bad reputation in town, forced to live on a boat she hates, when she suffers from seasickness. Spite is all well and good, but it doesn't really pay the bills. She doesn't really have the money for docking fees, so keeps sailing the boat around and sneakily parking it where she thinks no one will catch her - like at the dock by the empty rental cottage - that turns out to be rented by Jacob Kincaid.
Jacob needs to grieve his best friend and try to reconnect with his family after far too many years away. Sophie needs to find a job, a permanent home and regain trust in men and relationships, after her ex-husband did a number on her. They are very attracted to each other, and quickly decide to act on their pants feelings, both assuring the other that it can't be anything but a fling, as they are incapable of feeling real love. I'm sure you can guess where the story goes from there.
This is an entertaining and fun read, and it finished off the story of the extended Kincaid clan (there is also a secondary romance in the book involving the wild Kincaid sister, which was very sweet). As I mentioned before, you can read the book as a stand alone, but the bigger story threads that are finished off, will be better if you've read the first two books as well.
Judging a book by its cover: The only thing I can say in favour of this cover is that it's still better than the twee pastel illustrated thing that they've chosen for the UK cover of this series. This just smacks of excessive photoshopping, and the cover designer throwing something together at the last minute. Um, we need some mountains and idyllic landscape in the background, a lake would be good too. Does it matter if the scenery looks like it's from three different pictures? Nah, I'm sure no one notice. Then just find some rugged dude to paste in front. Bonus if he has dog tags around his neck, since the hero of this book is in the armed forces. No, you don't need to make sure it's neat or seamless - it's perfectly adequate and that'll have to do....more
Loading...
