Weekly Wrap Up : 16th February 2020
And there was another week, over in the blink of an eye. I’ve had a good week, I’m still trying to catch up with lots of things but slowly but surely I’m getting a bit more organised. I’ve read one book this week and really enjoyed it and I’m currently reading The Guest List by Lucy Foley and loving that too – I suspect I will finish this this evening so I’ll add it to my weekly reads. Seriously, you couldn’t read two books that are further removed from each other in story and style and both really good. I was also hoping to finish listening to Starsight but every time I started doing something that would be perfect to listen to my audio book I simply forgot! Anyway, here is my week in books:
- The Wolf of Oren- Yaro by K. S. Villoso
- The Guest List by Lucy Foley
What I’m reading next week:
- Crownbreaker by Sebastien deCastell
- Starsight by Brandon Sanderson (audio)
- The Wolf’s Call by Anthony Ryan
Upcoming Reviews:
- King of the Road by RS Belcher
- Queenlayer by Sebastien DeCastell
- The Absinthe Earl by Sharon Lynn Fisher
- King of Assassins by RJ Barker
- The Wolf of Oren- Yaro by K. S. Villoso
- The Guest List by Lucy Foley
I’d love to know what you’re reading this week.
Friday Face Off : “thus with a kiss I die”
14 February 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, Leife Shallcross, Romantic, The Beast's Heart
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book (this doesn’t have to be a book that you’ve read), compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout. This week’s theme:
Romantic – “thus with a kiss I die”
A lot of the new themes are open to interpretation which might make choosing the covers and seeing other’s choices very interesting. I can’t stress enough that this is all about your own interpretation and hopefully this new open feel to the meme will bring a larger selection of books and covers. It’s not supposed to be hard work, there are no rules, just enjoy yourself.
Well, I thought this was going to be easy – but it wasn’t. Drat. Anyway, I’ve gone for an old love story and a fairytale retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This week my book is
The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross and here are the covers – looking at these now I was hopeful that one of the roses would be heart shaped, alas, they are not – but red roses for Valentine’s Day – it works doesn’t it? Again, as I’m using a fairly recent read there aren’t lots of covers again this week:
My favourite
Which is your favourite?
I’ll be updating the list in order to include forthcoming events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share then let me know in the comments). As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment – or if you’d like to host a week then simply let me know 😀
Next week – Meringue – the puffy dress?
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ or one of your favourite covers) (I’ve added some new themes – some of these are slightly different, in order to avoid too much repetition I’m trying to make the themes more of a suggestion that everyone can interpret how they like.
2019
21st February – meringue – the puffy dress? – Lots of covers with ‘big’ dresses
28th February – Leap Year – One Ring to rule them all – A cover with a ring
6th March – Skeleton – them bones, them bones, them dry bones…
13th March – Exotic – ‘That which yields, is not always weak”– anything that represents something from distant lands.
20th March – Brown – a cover or covers that are brown
27th March – Freebie – choose one of your favourite covers
3rd April Fools – a trick of the eye – a cover that is more than meets the eye.
10th April – Moody – a cover that is atmospheric,
17th April – out of focus – double vision or all a blur
24th April – Armour – ‘“Pretty armour doesn’t make a warrior.”
1st May – Canine – “And then there were cats, thought Dog.:
8th May – graphic novel cover – “Love belongs to Desire, and Desire is always cruel”
15th May – pink – as pink as cotton candy – any cover that is pink
22nd May – Sorrow – a cover that makes you feel sad
29th May – Silhouette – an island, a person, anything you like
5th June – Flight – any type of flight – to flee, to fly
12th June – The bodice ripper – exactly as it seems
19th June – Time – time waits for no one
26th June – Windows – windows to the soul?
The Sisters Grimm by Menna van Praag
The Sisters Grimm is a difficult book for me to review. There are aspects to this story that are so good and coupled with the excellent writing and bringing together of fairytale characters I really did expect this to blow me away, and yet I’ve come away from this with mixed feelings.
This is a story of four young women, told in alternating pov chapters and with each chapter ominously counting down the days. The four of them share many similarities – they’re all struggling to stay afloat financially and need to make tough decisions, they all have something magical within them that they know little about and they’ve all met before, in a sort of dream landscape called Everwhere – a place where they honed their magic and became friends, There is also a fifth character, a soldier named Leo.
The premise of the book centres around the original dark fairy tales and the content is quite shockingly blunt in places. The four girls are Bea (Beauty), Goldie, Scarlet and Liyana. When they were much younger they met in Everwhere but after reaching the age of 13 they were no longer able to enter this dreamscape. When their 18th birthday takes place they will once again be admitted through the gates to Everwhere where they will make a tough decision that could cost them quite dearly. All the girls share the same birthday and the same father. Grimm, is a demon who is intent on causing chaos in the world and he gives all his daughters the chance to join him. If they fail to make the choice to turn to evil then they will be killed by his army of soldiers.
What I really liked about this was the writing. I really enjoyed reading the four different storylines and finding out more about the girl’s and their pasts as the novel progressed and in fact these stories were beautifully told. I also really liked the way magic was easily worked into the girl’s everyday lives. They all have different capabilities and sometimes can make strange things occur. There were also extra little touches such as the girls quite often almost meeting or being on a very close course with their lives almost intertwining without their knowledge.
Goldie was probably my least favourite character, I’m not sure why but I found myself not enjoying either her or Leo’s story. Scarlet’s chapters were very intriguing and in fact I found myself wishing for more and similarly with Liyana. Bea is the odd one out of the bunch, she is quite abrasive and aggressive. All of them have suffered through different childhood experiences and this speaks to their behaviour here.
In terms of criticisms. Well, I’m finding it difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is that didn’t quite work for me here. There is a definite feeling of bloating to parts of the story and a bit of repetition – but not enough to irritate me. I found myself very perplexed about the underlying story of Grimm and his daughters and soldiers, I also didn’t really understand why the girls were forbidden entry to Everwhere when they reached the age of 13 – it seemed contrived somehow. I think I would have preferred them to simply forget the place as they grew older. I think my main issue is that for the most part this has a contemporary feel with everyday modern issues, and, I enjoyed that part of the story very much I just found it difficult to accept the Everwher chapters. They didn’t sit right for me somehow. Plus the ending was definitely a little rushed and in some respects disappointing – but I don’t want to give away spoilers.
To be fair, I can see that the author obviously wanted to write a book about sisterhood, about sticking together and helping each other when in need and I do think she succeeded in that respect, but, I just didn’t feel like the two different elements of the story sat well together, and I had far too many questions that remain unanswered.
I would also mention a quick trigger warning here, sexual abuse and self harming spring immediately to mind for example.
On the whole this wasn’t a bad read and I don’t want to appear overly negative or to put others off picking it up. It just didn’t quite work as well as I’d hoped.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 3 out of 5 stars
Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Graves of Whitechapel by Claire Evans
12 February 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Claire Evans, The Graves of Whitechapel, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is : The Graves of Whitechapel by Claire Evans. Why – because, murder mystery, Victorian London and Whitechapel have piqued my curiosity – a lot.
Victorian London, 1882. Five years ago, crusading lawyer Cage Lackmann successfully defended Moses Pickering against a charge of murder. Now, a body is found bearing all the disturbing hallmarks of that victim – and Pickering is missing. Did Cage free a brutal murderer?
Cage’s reputation is in tatters, and worse, he is implicated in this new murder by the bitter detective who led the first failed case. Left with no other alternative, Cage must find Pickering to prove his innocence.
His increasingly desperate search takes him back to the past, to a woman he never thought to see again, and down into a warren of lies and betrayals concealed beneath Holland Park mansions and the mean streets of Whitechapel – where a murderer, heartbreak and revenge lie in wait.
Expected publication June 2020
Top Ten Tuesday : 10 Shades of Love
11 February 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Romance, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic, probably in light of the fact that this Friday is Valentine’s Day, is:
Love – a freebie, any topic you choose
Well, I do tend to bang on about not reading love stories or romances but then when I look at my own shelves I do read more of it than I think, or at least books that aren’t all just about love but do have a romantic theme at their heart. Here are 10 books that immediately spring to mind, I will warn you upfront that not all of these were favourites. Some definite ‘Yeses’ and some positive ‘Nos’:
- Maybe not the most popular starter but given the title I had to go their – The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Well, I confess, I loved this series and I know it’s become one of those things that people now seem to deny liking but what can I say – I loved this series – okay, maybe not the fourth book – but the first three, yeah, I couldn’t get enough of them. I might not feel the same if I reread these now but at the time I totally swept up by the whole thing.
- The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare – this is another series that I simply inhaled at the time. Looking at this in the cold light of day, I don’t think this would be a series that I would pick up today – I don’t tend to read as much YA and I have become very tired of love triangles – but at the time this was very entertaining – although I never got on board with all the other spin off series.
- The Poison Study series by Maria V Snyder. I finished the final instalment in this series not that long ago and thought it concluded on a really good note. This is a series that just worked very well for me.
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Bloody hell I loved this series, although, I don’t think I ever concluded the full set. I got as far as No.6, a Breath of Snow and Ashes and I could have sworn that was the conclusion of the series (at the time) and yet it now appears there is a book 9 in the offing – who knew! Did I mention that I live under a rock. I’m not sure that I would continue reading these, I did love Jamie but at the same time I quite like the ending from No.6 and if I picked up the following books and didn’t enjoy them, well, it would probably taint the whole series for me. Ostrich? Who me ?? I have completist issues.
- The All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches) by Deborah Harkness. I’m going to go with the unpopular opinion on this one. This series didn’t work for me. I found the first one okay, I quite liked it in some respects in fact, or at least it started well but then seemed to keep spiralling down, but Matthew got on my last nerve and so although I read the second book it didn’t work out for me at all. Matthew was too controlling and he came across as one of those characters who everyone seems to wax lyrical about being so fearsome but when push comes to shove he’s about as much use as a chocolate teacup. He’s one of those chaps who seems to do a lot of growling with the overall notion of ‘hold me back’ or ‘there’ll be hell to pay’ but his bark seems worse than his bite (pun not intended). Sorry, it’s just me, but I wanted to flick him on the nose.
- Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey. I love this series so much. Phedre and Joscelin are the most amazing couple, the world building is fantastic, the storylines are thrilling. I. Love. It. The end, goodbye.
- The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I read all of these, ngl – I was a bit disappointed with the ending – but, overall an entertaining series that maybe just exceeded it’s welcome a little. Good fun though.
- The Princess Bride by Williams Goldman – more a silly adventure than romance but I do feel this should make the list. And, it’s one of the rare occasions that I love both the book and the film.
- The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross. A fairytale retelling of one of my favourite stories – Beauty and the Beast – told from the beast’s perspective. I really enjoyed this one and should give it a reread at some point.
- In conclusion – I had to go there, given the title, Twilight and the fact it’s fanfic – 50 Shades of Grey by EL James. Yes, I got caught up in all the hype and the fact that everyone seemed to be reading this, plus fanfic for Twilight so I wanted to check out what all the furore was about. Seriously, this book was not for me. If you loved this, I’m not having a go, it’s all personal choice at the end of the day, but this is a book that I would have liked to throw across the room. Nope, no sirree.
