Can’t Wait Wednesday : The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black
30 May 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Holly Black, The Wicked King, 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 Wicked King (The Folk of the Air #2) by Holly Black. I’m so excited about this one. Due for publication January 8th 2019
The enchanting and bloodthirsty sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Cruel Prince.
You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.
To infinity and beyond…
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 is :
Bookish Worlds I’d Want to/Never Want to Live In
I’ve decided to give both the good and the bad examples – for this one. So I’m going to choose a place I’d like to live in and one I wouldn’t like to live in, from the same book:
- Love: The Shire. Everybody has surely heard of the Shire. A beautiful countryside, spotted with hobbit holes and a patchwork quilt of gardens and farmland. Flowers abound, It’s basically the quintessential picture perfect rural place to live (and, if you’re really keen to visit you could always check out the hobbit holes in New Zealand).
- Not Love: Mordor. From the same book as the Shire. The absolute polar opposite. Dark, in fact Boromir says it perfectly in the Lord of the Rings Adaptation ‘One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep; the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly!’
- Love: Narnia – how good would it be to have tea and crumpets (or was it toasted teacakes) with Mr Tumnus?
- Not Love: The White Witche’s castle – because nobody wants to be turned into a statue after all.
- Love: Hogsmeade from Harry Potter – because it just looks so quaint and full of charm and – butterbeer!
- Not Love: Azkaban. Nasty, guarded by Dementors – who are, like many of JKRowlings characters, very appropriately named.
- Love: Terre D’Ange, created by Jacqueline Carey, the world in which Phèdre nó Delaunay lives. It is described so beautifully, the clothes, the food and the way of life are just wonderful.
- Not Love: Darsanga – a hideous hell on earth. A place visited by Phèdre in Kushiel’s Avatar – not a place you want to visit, trust me on this. Few remain to tell the tale.
- I will leave 9 and 10 for your suggested Love/Not Love places to visit.
- …..
Friday Face Off : Trip trap, trip trap, trip trap
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, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – 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. This week’s theme:
Trip trap, trip trap, trip trap – a cover featuring footsteps
Wow this week was a struggle. I did eventually manage to find a couple of books but I finally decided upon Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe because it’s covers are perfect for this week’s theme:
Being a classic there were of course plenty of covers but I’ve kept to a reasonable number. I think my choice this week is between these two:
And, simply because I find the white banner along the bottom a little annoying my favourite this week is:
Next week – a cover featuring creeping vines
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
1st June – clinging and invasive – a cover featuring creeping vines
8th June – Raining Cats and Dogs – a cover featuring a stormy sky
15th June – Live in the saddle. Die on the hog – a cover featuring riders
22nd June -‘Murder most foul, as in the best it is’ – a cover featuring a murder scene
29th June – ‘Lips as red as the rose’ – a cover that is predominantly red
6th July – ‘The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow, ‘ – a cover that is windswept
13th July –‘There’s more of gravy than of grave about you’ – a cover featuring a ghost or spectre
20th July -‘In winter with warm tears I’ll melt the snow’ – A cover featuring icicles or snow
27th July – “I saw huge buildings rise up faint and fair, and pass like dreams.” – a cover that is steampunk
3rd August – “Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.” – a cover featuring a starry sky
10th August – ‘…Christine, who have torn off my mask and who therefore can never leave me again! – A cover with a mask
17th August – ‘Knock, knock… ‘who’s there?’ – A cover featuring a door ajar or closed
24th August – ‘To be a legend, you’ve either got to be dead, or excessively old!’ – A cover with a title featuring the word ‘legend’
31st August – ‘“Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy’ – A cover featuring a goblin or dwarves
7th September – ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall – A cover featuring a queen
14th September – “He had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law of club and fang.” – A cover featuring a wolf or wolves
21st September – ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ – a cover featuring clouds
28th September – Eyes wide shut – a cover featuring eyes
5th October – “He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn’t owe too much money.” – A cover that is ‘noir’
12th October – “The impossible could not have happened, therefore the impossible must be possible in spite of appearances.” – A cover for a mystery novel
19th October -“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear!” – A horror cover
26th October – Trick or treat – A halloween inspired cover
2nd November – ‘Remember, remember the fifth of November,’ – A cover inspired by Bonfire Night
9th November – ‘All right! They’re spiders from Mars! You happy?’ – A cover feturing a critter of the eight legged variety
16th November – There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.’ – A scary cover
23rd November – ‘The child is in love with a human. And not just any human. A prince!’ – A cover featuring a mermaid/man
30th November – “..the children of the night. What music they make!” – a cover with a vampire
7th December – ‘I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.’ – A cover featuring a hero
14th December -“Heavy is the head that wears the crown” – A cover featuring a crown
21st December – ‘ho, ho, ho’ – A seasonal cover
28th December – A freebie – choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
2019
4th January – A cover that is fresh – New beginnings for a New Year
11th January – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king’ – A cover that depicts a novel set in the Tudor period
18th January – A cover featuring an Amulet – either in the cover or title
25th January – ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’ – A cover featuring a monk/priest/person of the cloth
1st February – A comedy cover
8th February – ‘Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.’ – A cover with snakes
15th February – A heart – for Valentine’s day past
22nd February – “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – A cover with abandoned building/s
1st March – ‘who will buy this wonderful morning’ – A cover featuring a shop or market
8th March – ‘Two little fishes and a momma fishy too’ – A cover featuring a fish/fishes or other sea creatures
15th March – ‘Beware the moon, lads.’ – A cover with a shapeshifter
22nd March – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ – A cover featuring a king
29th March – “I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.” – A cover featuring a unicorn
5th April – ‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th april – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
Can’t Wait Wednesday : An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris
23 May 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: An Easy Death, Can't wait Wednesday, Charlaine Harris, 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 : An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris. I haven’t read Charlaine Harris since the Sookie series and this is a new series so I thought why the heck not!
The first thriller in a new trilogy that presents a chilling alternate history of the United States where everyone believes in magic—but no one is sure whether they can trust it.
Gunnie Lizbeth Rose has been hired by a pair of Russian sorcerers as both their local guide and muscle through the small towns of East Texas as they search for a distant relative of an infamous sorcerer whose bloodline can help save their emperor-in-exile as an ever increasing number of assassins tries to stop them.
After the assassination of FDR in the 1930s, the US collapses and is picked off by the UK, Canada, Mexico, and Russia. We find ourselves in the southwestern states now known as Texoma. It is here that the gunnie Lizbeth Rose tries to piece out a life, running security on runs from Texoma, across the border to Mexico where work and prospects are stronger. When two Russian magicians come looking for a man named Alex Karkarov, they hire Lizbeth to find him or his family, but there are problems: The man they’re looking for is dead, but he has a daughter they now need to find, as an ever-growing set of sorcerers and gunnies do not want them to succeed. It’s a good thing Lizbeth is a deadly gunfighter; too bad she hates sorcerers, even the ones she has to learn to rely on.
Due for publication October 2018
What’s in a name??
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 is :
Best Character Names
This week I’ve chosen character names that have become household names:
Bilbo Baggins – Tolkien had such great names but I’m sure everybody has heard of Bilbo and his adventures. This name has a quaint, homely feel to it somehow much like Merry and Pippin.
Sherlock Holmes – this is an unusual name that fits the character perfectly somehow. It’s become synonymous with detecting.
Bellatrix Lestrange – the beauty of this name is it almost sounds like a character description doesn’t it – she was certainly a bit (or a lot) strange or maybe just totally insane.
Han Solo – there’s something about this name. He’s a memorable character and so many people have had a crush on him – Han could almost be short for handsome and Solo – says something about his roguish bachelor status until he fell for the Princess.
Frankenstein – a name very much associated with monsters.
Count Dracula – similar to the above – you can’t think of this name without thinking of vampires.
Hannibal Lecter – it sounds like a creepy name, although I realise that’s probably just because of the book and the film – but ‘Hannibal the Cannibal’ does sort of stick in your brain!
Bigwig from Watership Down – I had to choose him. I loved the fact that in the animation he looked like he was actually wearing a hairpiece.
Dorothy Gale from the Wizard of Oz – you have to love that her last name is Gale – meaning a strong wind, and of course she is carried off to a fictional fantasy land by a tornado.
So, are there any names here that you’re not familiar with…. curious minds, etc, etc.
And, you may have noticed my list has nine names – which leaves a slot for you to tell me your favourite character name.
