#artitupwithfriends: Surprise
For the month of May I am going to try and take part in a daily drawing challenge organised by @pabkins and @badaliceshop. These will only be sketches but if you check out the #artitupwithfriends hashtag you’ll see some really excellent pieces of art! Each day the aim is to sketch or draw using the word for the day. Today is ‘Surprise’. This is a sinister and sweet themed month. Tomorrow’s prompt is ‘Villain’.
Waiting on Wednesday: Nevernight by Jay Kristof
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday we get to highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week I’m highlighting: Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle #1) by Jay Kristoff. This books sounds amazing!
In a land where three suns almost never set, a fledgling killer joins a school of assassins, seeking vengeance against the powers who destroyed her family.
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.
Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.
Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?
I love you, I love you not!
24 May 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Broke and Bookish, Ten books I feel differently about, Top Ten Tuesday
Every Tuesday over at the The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. The topic this week is:
Ten Books I Feel Differently About After Time Has Passed
I think this is a tough one and required a lot of thought. Of course ‘feeling differently’ I suddenly realised doesn’t have to be a negative! Anyway, for differing reasons here are my books – some that I think I would like more and some maybe not so much.
- The Hobbit by JRRTolkien – this was a school book and so I never really had good associations with it – until I reread it later on in life and was able to take in the detail and enjoy it more.
- The Lord of the Rings by JRRTolkien – this is a book that I read years ago and really enjoyed it, I then reread it years later, after all three films, and loved it even more!
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This is a book that I read after my own personal discovery of Neil Gaiman and before I really had a proper appreciation for Terry Pratchett. As it is I feel I could probably reread this as at the time I didn’t really give it proper attention.
- The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe – I read this when I was in my ‘romantic’ years. I’m not sure I would enjoy this now, I did at the time because it had this gothic feel – I think I would probably find it a bit tedious now.
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – not my favourite Bronte novel to be honest as the two main protagonists are so selfish. I sometimes wonder if I should give it another go though – just purely because I think my view on this was coloured by the film which isn’t quite as bleak.
- Moon Called by Patricia Briggs – this is the first of the Mercedes Thompson stories – and to be honest, though I love this series now – I didn’t enjoy the first book and in fact only kept reading because I bought all three at the same time and so was determined to finish. I think it could be interesting to revisit this and see how I feel about it now given that I know Mercy a little better.
- The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine – I read this entire series out of sheer ‘I will not be beaten’ syndrome. Would I particularly recommend them – not really. That being said there’s nothing wrong with the series and I did have fun with it but these are very much YA books.
- The Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks – I love this book, except the ending, which felt almost tacked on. I quite often feel like I should go back and revisit it – maybe I just raced to the end in my eagerness to find out how things would conclude.
- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier – I’ve read this book a few times and I always love it – in fact I think each reading just makes me like it more. I can’t pin down why it’s just one of my ‘go to’ books.
- The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer- this is a series that seems to take a lot of ‘beating’ nowadays. In fairness, I read all the books and at the time I enjoyed them. I can’t and won’t try to deny it and I was certainly swept up like a lot of others! However, on reflection, would I still read them. No. Probably not. I think I would be annoyed with both main characters if I was to read this series now. I can’t be sure of course but I don’t feel inclined to try.
#artitupwithfriends : Broken Soul
23 May 2016
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #artitupwithfriends, 'Broken Soul', @badaliceshop, @pabkins
For the month of May I am going to try and take part in a daily drawing challenge organised by @pabkins and @badaliceshop. These will only be sketches but if you check out the #artitupwithfriends hashtag you’ll see some really excellent pieces of art! Each day the aim is to sketch or draw using the word for the day. Today is ‘Broken Soul’ – this was a toughie, I had nothing and so I’ve gone with a sad little vampire. This is a sinister and sweet themed month. Tomorrow’s prompt is ‘Time’.
Between Two Thorns Split Worlds #1) by Emma Newman readalong week 3
Today is week one of our readalong of Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman. The schedule is below and Today is week three of our readalong of Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman. The schedule is below and a link to the Goodread’s page here. Feel free to jump on board and if you haven’t read the book please be aware of spoilers below.
Part 1 – Monday 9th May: Chapters 1-9, hosted by Over The Effing Rainbow
Part 2 – Monday 16th May: Chapters 10-18, hosted by On Starships and Dragonwings
Part 3 – Monday 23rd May: Chapters 19-25, hosted by x + 1
Part 4 – Monday 30th May: Chapters 26-End, hosted by Lynn’s Books
1. Sam is our fish out of water – any sympathy for his predicament?
Sam was just purely a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time and so yes I do have sympathy for him. He doesn’t seem like a bad type of guy on the face of it. He seems to be in a job that’s a bit ‘meh’ and in a relationship that’s definitely not going to any good places from where I’m standing. At the moment he reads a little bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights. He certainly doesn’t stand up for himself and he’s just getting pulled and pushed about.
2. Horatio Gallica-Rosa is claiming property to try to weasel his way into Aquae Sulis; and the Alba-Rosas are trying to weasel their way into Will’s good graces to stop him. Given what we know about Lady Rose, do we believe in the inter-Rosa feud, or is this all part of a plan? (if so, what do you think it is?)
Difficult to say too much here. However, my first impressions of all of this is that one is as bad as the other. I certainly don’t trust either to be honest. There’s an awful lot of political manoeuvring in this book and it’s all about position.
3. We get to see a lot more of Will this week. What do you make of him now we’ve got to know him better? Do you think Cathy should give him a chance?
My first impressions of Will were not particularly good. He does come across as a bit of a philanderer and it seemed like he used his ‘tour’ as an opportunity to be a bit wild. I don’t really appreciate that to be honest. That being said I did feel like he redeemed himself slightly at the Ball with Cathy. To be honest, I still have mixed feelings, he seemed to want to almost rescue Cathy when he realised she was being beaten by her father, even requesting that the marriage be brought forward. Of course that could be for some other self serving need but it did come across at the time that he was a bit outraged. Then, in the next few chapters he acts like a giddy fool being all swept off his feet by a pretty woman batting her eyelashes at him. Which isn’t good for a number of reasons. Okay, he doesn’t love Cathy but is he really just going to openly flirt with any good looking woman that comes along? Plus, he comes across as a bit too easily to manipulate – in spite of thinking of himself as terribly clever!
4. No sooner has Cathy survived Society – after a fashion – than she’s back in deep water with the Sorcerer and sent to Exilium. How well do you think she handled Lord Poppy?
I thought Cathy did remarkably well, in fact she almost came across as though she couldn’t be bothered even being scared. A little like she already has enough on her plate so just get it all over and done with. Of course, she managed to flatter Lord Poppy and also steer Sam along through it all but she seemed a lot less timid that she did in the first meeting.
Books and travelling with Lynn 