This is a tag created by Aentee at It Read At Midnight and as soon as I saw it I knew I had yo do it. I wasn’t tagged but I tagged myself anyway. I mean, it didn’t even need to be a Pokémon Go tag, I would have just done it if it was Pokémon but everyone and their mom seems to be playing Pokémon Go at the moment so taking part in the tag seemed appropriate.
Shall we begin?
I don’t know that one single book started my love for reading. I distinctly remember reading as a child at my nan’s house and being jealous that my nan and brother could sit there and read in their head whilst I was still reading aloud. The sense of achievement I felt when I achieved this feat was astounding.
What that little story tells you is that reading has always been something I’ve pursued and loved and I couldn’t pin point one book which made me love reading. I was raised into reading, really. I remember my nan getting me to read the Milly-Molly-Mandy books and making me want to live in a thatched cottage. I remember reading When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and crying and being convinced studying for language tests the night before was the only way to go. Basically I was always reading and my nan and my mom are to blame.
The obvious choice would be Harry Potter (that’s definitely a modern classic by now, right?) but the stereotypical classic I would choose would be Pride and Prejudice. It’s the first ‘proper’ classic I read and really enjoyed and I will always love it. It’s a book my nan introduced me to (well, the internet first introduced me to it along with Bridget Jones and then my nan bought it for me and borrowed the BBC adaptation from the library for us to watch one summer). I will never got bored of Pride and Prejudice. Ever!
I think this one may be the Throne of Glass series. I loved the first two books then after the third book was released I was late in thinking about reading it and then I saw all the spoilers online and just couldn’t bring myself to read it (I love you Chaol) and then the fourth book came out and it got no better and I was too annoyed and utterly fed up so screw you Thrones of Glass. I’m done.
I really enjoyed A Thousand Nights, a book which was out around the same time as The Wrath & The Dawn. They are both retellings of A Thousand and One Nights but that is where the similarities end. They are both fantastic books for different reasons and I’ve reviewed both explaining why I loved them. I loved A Thousand Nights because it was one of those beautifully written books that has a much more sedate story but enchants you with it’s pretty writing and subtlety instead. It’s not one for everyone but I loved it.
Erm… I started A Song of Ice and Fire and got to book 3 but haven’t been able to face continuing. I haven’t continued on with the Outlander series after book 1 because every book is a tome! Those are the two biggies for me. I am a reader who can face reading the first book and then makes excuses not to continue, even when I love the first book. I never claimed not to be weird.
I feel it should be a creepy book to fit the ghost-type Pokémon of Gengar but I can’t think of any. The last book which kept me up reading until late because I just had to finish it was These Shallow Graves. I absolutely needed to know what was going to happen and so I stayed up way too late to find out. I’d guessed a lot of things before the end but I needed to have it all confirmed and I wanted to know all and I loved every second of it. Seriously, read it!
I have to have just one OTP? That seems cruel for many a reason. I mean, I think the pairing that I love best is that in a romance book I continually return to is Bet Me and the couple in that, Min and Cal, are one that I adore. I don’t care that I know what happens every time I will be cheering them on.
Also I really love all the couples in Rainbow Rowell’s books. They are very shippable. I adore Eleanor and Park, Levi and Cath, Simon and Baz, Georgie and Neil and Beth and Lincoln. She just writes very shippable couples.
I am a fast reader so what makes a fast-paced read? I think my latest fast-paced read which was action-packed and I didn’t want to put down was False Hearts. I mean, that book was a sci-fi marvel for me and I’m so glad I impulse bought from Waterstones for the pretty, pretty cover. It’s a book which I bought for the conjoined twins, cult aspect but I loved it for so many other reasons. The author put so much effort into researching all and I seriously recommend it.
I know it doesn’t have a lot of spin-offs, as such. But I mean it’s just this entire world and I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of going back and reading things to do with it. I love the books that were released that are tie ins, such as Quidditch Through The Ages, because they just expand upon a universe which already feels real to me. I will always be excited (and very nervous) to see something new in this world, be it good or bad.
I mean, I am continually surprised by books and series. The one I’ve been surprised by recently? I think I’m going to have to say The Body Electric. I read this and didn’t have a clue what to expect. I didn’t expect to fall in love with it and just adore it. This is most definitely a book I could read again and again. It was just fantastic. It didn’t even matter that it was so very similar to False Hearts in some ways, I still adored it.
I mean… I don’t know? I suppose the one which springs to mind with hyped series is obviously Maggie Stiefvater and her Raven Cycle series. Everyone seems to adore it and I’ve not even started the first book. I know I will inevitably read it but I am fully aware there is a hella lotta hype about it which could be good or bad for me.
I really, really wish I owned the Deluxe Illustrated Edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone because it is stunning. It also costs like £150 and I cannot justify that on a book which is probably basically the same as the normal illustrated edition. It sure is pretty, though. No one can deny that fact.
This one is easy, I’ve currently got an ARC sat on my Kindle of it. My most anticipated debut is Iron Cast by Destiny Soria and I cannot wait to start reading (I think it’s the next ARC on my list but I’d have to check).
Too many to list… but I will anyway:
- Sarah Dessen
- Laini Taylor
- Cecelia Ahern
- Sarah MacLean
- Tessa Dare
- Mhairi McFarlane
- Jill Shalvis
- Morgan Matson
- Colleen Hoover
- Rainbow Rowell
- Gayle Forman
- And that is just to name a few…
Strange the Dreamer…. I thought it was out next month and it’s been pushed back until next year! I love Laini Taylor and was thrilled to see she had a new book coming out. It’s disappointing to have to wait a bit longer but I know the wait will be worth it. I’m even putting off reading the book sampler that cam in my Illumicrate until it’s closer to me having that book in my hands.
***
Please, join me in the Pokémon Go tag. I tag everyone because I can. I want to hear your reading story and I want to see the books you love.
17 August 2016
Borrowed Books // The One With Lots Of Books From All Walks Of Life (Or Genres To The Layman)
Borrowed Books is a feature where I review and recommend those books I’ve borrowed from the library. I have not been a frequent visitor of the library in a while so it’s exciting to visit again. I have found, much like with food, my eyes are too big for my stomach, or in the case of books I want to read everything and then don’t get around to it. This feature holds me accountable slightly for trying to read as many of my library books as possible. Let’s look at my last haul then, shall we?
I got quite a few books out this time and I didn’t find a new favourite as I did last time. I did read a lot of enjoyable books I may never have read otherwise, though.
Armada – Ernest Cline
Published: 11th February 2016
Source: Library
Genre: Sci-fi, Young Adult
My Rating:
THE NEW NOVEL FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF READY PLAYER ONE
It’s just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He's daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom—if he can make it that long without getting suspended again.
Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer.
At first, Zack thinks he’s going crazy.
A minute later, he’s sure of it. Because the UFO he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada—in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.
But what Zack’s seeing is all too real. And his skills—as well as those of millions of gamers across the world—are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.
Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can’t help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching, and wonder: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little too… familiar?
Armada is at once a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien-invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before—one whose every page is infused with author Ernest Cline’s trademark pop-culture savvy.
This was a book I picked up simply because I want to read Cline’s other book, Ready Player One. They didn’t have that at the library but I picked this up on impulse and then dithered around about reading it.
Sci-fi is not really my genre anyway, but this was made even stranger by the fact it was set a few years ahead of us and is about a kid who plays video games a tad obsessively and discovers he’s been secretly trained to defend the Earth. It’s a bit of a strange premise. A very cool premise, and the conspiracy theory in it was quite cool as well. Unfortunately, a lot of the references were beyond me. Now, I thought I was a bit of a geek but this book just proved that I’m really not in comparison to many. It’s okay, though, I think a lot of it was meant for more serious sci-fi fans as fun references they will fully get.
I found myself laughing and enjoying this book from the very start. I love the mix of contradictions of our main character. He’s a geek and a massive gamer but then he has a reputation at school as ‘Zack Attack’ and has a temper and a need to defend others? Not exactly your typical geek gamer. He was an interesting character who obviously had some daddy issues and knew it and who was determined to do the right thing.
Zach was definitely the most well-developed character. There were others there who were fun, but everyone else came across a bit flat in comparison as they simply didn’t get enough page time. A lot of things happened to various characters which I felt like I just didn’t care about because they didn’t feel like real people to me that was the most frustrating part of the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. A lot of the references went over my head because of my lack of knowledge about sci-fi but that was OK. I got about 50% of the references and that was enough. I liked the characters, Zach was an interesting one and I loved his interaction with his family and friends. I just wish we could have seen more of other characters. It may have been Zach’s story, but those around him came across a bit flat in comparison to him and that was annoying. It was an enjoyable read, though, and I’m glad I checked it out.
Published: 3rd September 2015
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Feminism
My Rating:
FROM THE WINNER OF THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR AWARD.It's the beginning of the summer in a small town in Ireland. Emma O'Donovan is eighteen years old, beautiful, happy, confident. One night, there's a party. Everyone is there. All eyes are on Emma. The next morning, she wakes on the front porch of her house. She can't remember what happened, she doesn't know how she got there. She doesn't know why she's in pain. But everyone else does. Photographs taken at the party show, in explicit detail, what happened to Emma that night. But sometimes people don't want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town's heroes...
This is not an easy book to review. Everyone has heard about Louise O’Neill’s latest book by now, haven't you? It deals with a big issue which isn’t exactly easy to discuss. I mean, any book about rape is going to be an uncomfortable read and this one definitely is. It’s powerful, though. What it says about society today and current attitudes to rape is shocking.
I don’t want to spoil the book and there is no way to do that so instead I am going to say I fully support the message it sends.
The entire concept of this book is that a girl, a popular girl who likes the attention of boys, is raped by boys she knows and who are well known in her small town. It very much highlights the problem of victim blaming. She led them on with what she was wearing, she got drunk and out of control, she flirted with them which implies consent, she didn’t say no. All of it demonstrates the big issue in society. She is blamed when she is the victim. She is the pariah and she is expected to act in a certain way to demonstrate that she is the victim. Her small town turns against her because she doesn’t act as they think she should but the boys she accuses can live their lives as normal. It’s ridiculous.
I hated so many things about the book (in a good way) because it was such an uncomfortable reflection of reality. Some people will have experienced rape, others will know someone who has, it’s something that women are continually told to be concerned about. We are told to act a certain way, to be aware, to not be alone, and to not lead people on. It’s ridiculous because society should be teaching men that rape is wrong, not what women should do to avoid it. It just made me so angry.
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian, Fantasy
My Rating:
Disguised as a boy, Jin Ling searches for her missing sister, Mei Yee, who was sold into the brothels of the Walled City. It's a cut-throat world of gangs, drug-dealers and warlords and every day is a struggle to survive. Jin Ling relies on her speed and cunning but how long will her luck hold? When a mysterious boy, Dai, requests her help with a dangerous mission Jin Ling's inclined to say no - this is a world where no one can be trusted - but the mission offers her a vital chance to see inside the brothel where her sister may be being held.Jin Ling and Dai join forces, but will either of them survive the mission? Is Mei Yee still alive? And how will any of them ever escape the stifling city walls?
With a fantasy setting inspired by Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, Ryan's novel has a rich authenticity and an intense atmosphere, and its pace will enthral the reader from the very first page.
This was a fascinating read made all the more interesting by the fact that it was based an actual real place. Kowloon City was a real place in Hong Kong and was the inspiration behind Graudin’s book. That alone made me want to read this book. It also led me down a blackhole of reading about Kowloon City and it was some very interesting reading. I love things which are inspired by real life things. I liked that although it was inspired by a real place Graudin chose to create her own fictional equivalent. I prefer authors doing things like this rather than trying to write accurately about a real place they may not have fully been able to research. For some reason I like the places I read about to either be fake or to be reasonably accurately portrayed and given the real life counterpart no longer exists it makes it difficult.
On to the story, though. This is about three separate characters whose stories are surprisingly intertwined. I really liked that each story was linked and as the reader you were aware of the connection and you were just waiting for the characters to realise it too. It made the story better as even though you don’t connect with all the characters you will like at least one and their loose connection with the other characters will lead you to be interested in all of the stories. At least, that’s how it worked for me.
This was a really nice read and I would recommend it. Not as much as I would recommend Graudin’s book Wolf By Wolf, but it was still an interesting debut.
Published: 26th September 2013
Source: Library
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk, Historical, Young Adult
My Rating:
One girl's nightmare is this girl's faery tale
She's a stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty.
She's a liar.
But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she's leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense thesìthÃchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.
She's a murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.
She's a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother's murder—but she'll have to save the world first.
The first volume of a trilogy from an exciting new voice in young adult fantasy, this electrifying thriller combines romance and action, steampunk technology and Scottish lore in a deliciously addictive read.
This is a book which I never fully fell in love with. I wasn’t in the right mood for reading it when I began and I think that really affected me opinion of the book, which is annoying. It’s an original story and I enjoyed it but there was something missing for me. That being said, I did really want to read the next book in the series upon finishing so it isn’t as if I hated it.
I think my biggest issue beginning this book is I wasn’t fully sure what it was about in the first place and I wasn’t excited to start reading it. I’d grabbed from the shelf at the library on impulse as I’d seen decent reviews for it in the past. I think I would have been more excited about it if I’d been aware of the steampunk elements when beginning. It’s a genre I’ve not read much of and so would have been excited to explore some more.
This was a very much a book where it was ruined by false expectations on my part because I never bothered to read the blurb properly. I was expecting a different kind of fantasy novel and I was misled by the title of The Falconer because there were no birds. I expected my main character to be way more badass and knowledgeable about the fairies she was hunting as well. That isn’t to say she wasn’t bad ass, I loved the fact she invented things and had her own mechanical creations, but she wasn’t what I expected.
I had a certain disconnect with the book and the characters which meant i just didn’t care enough what happened to them. I was interested and cared to a degree, but not as much as I have about many other characters in books I enjoyed far less. I hope it’s something that will change when it comes to reading the second book but I will not hold my breath.
It was a good read but it was missing something which meant I didn’t love it.
Source: Library
Genre: Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Fairy Tale, Retelling
My Rating:
A thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddell – weaving together a sort-of Snow White and an almost Sleeping Beauty with a thread of dark magic, which will hold readers spellbound from start to finish.
On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar and the new, this perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its creators at the peak of their talents.
Lavishly produced, packed with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations enhanced with metallic ink, this is a spectacular and magical gift.
This was a book which I enjoyed and would never have bought for myself. I loved the artwork and the story and I just loved the message in this book. It was the fairytale I wish I’d read when I was younger because it had a far better message to it than any fairytale I read as a child.
This is a story with a strong feminist message. There is no handsome prince to the rescue, it is a queen who is set to get married and delays it to go investigate a kingdom where the princess has fallen into a cursed sleep and whose sleeping sickness is spreading across the kingdoms. Our main character goes where others failed to go and goes to the rescue. It’s all about women fighting for themselves and finding their own adventures. I especially loved the ending.
There is little I can say without revealing everything but you should seriously read it. Read it to your children. Read it to your cats. Read it to everyone. Just please read it.
***
Sorry, there was an awful lot of reviews here but I want to keep reviewing my library books and there was a certain amount of pressure here.
Have you read any of these books? Did you enjoy them or do you plan on reading them? Tell me all below.
Published: 19th July 2016
Source: Bought
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, New Adult
My Rating:
Torn between duty and survival, nothing can be the same.
Everything Ivy Morgan thought she knew has been turned on its head. After being betrayed and then nearly killed by the Prince of the Fae, she’s left bruised and devastated—and with an earth-shattering secret that she must keep at all costs. And if the Order finds out her secret, they’ll kill her.
Then there’s Ren Owens, the sexy, tattooed Elite member of the Order who has been sharing Ivy’s bed and claiming her heart. Their chemistry is smoking hot, but Ivy knows that Ren has always valued his duty to the Order above all else—he could never touch her if he knew the truth. That is, if he let her live at all. Yet how can she live with herself if she lies to him?
But as the Fae Prince begins to close in, intent on permanently opening the gates to the Otherworld, Ivy is running out of options. If she doesn’t figure out who she can trust—and fast—it’s not only her heart that will be torn apart, but civilization itself.
I want to begin this review by clarifying a few things. I would like to say I could blame this book all on Danya for proposing the buddy read to me and Kaja but that’s not true. I would have read this book regardless because Jennifer Armentrout is an author I love and hate in equal measure. Her books are always enjoyable regardless of how much they aggravate me with ridiculous storylines and character stupidity. As such, I don’t want you to think that just because I rated this book two stars I hated it because I enjoyed myself reading and I enjoyed complaining about it at regular intervals with Danya and Kaja. It’s easy to forget the things which you dislike about Armentrout’s writing when she writes an enjoyable mostly harmless read.
I want you to remember I said this when I start my review because my rants may put you off a bit.
Let Me Start With The Things I Enjoyed.
As I said, this wasn’t all hate, dislike, hate. I really did enjoy myself reading, why else would I keep coming back to Armentrout’s books?
I still love the New Orleans setting, although we saw a lot less of it than we did in the first book. I will forever always read a book set in New Orleans because I loved the city. Sure, I was another tourist clogging up the streets but it is such a beautiful city (and, seriously, it is no jokes about the heat in that place. Choose the month you go carefully) and Armentrout does write to do the place justice.
I really enjoyed the progression of the story surrounding the fae. In the first book they are portrayed as evil manipulative creatures which are just out to be able to find another meal in the world in the form of a willing (or unwilling) human. You learn little of them beyond their glamour and tricks and the fact they are out to free their prince. In this book the fae become a lot more fleshed out rather than two-dimensional bad guys who are just out to do evil as that’s what they are programmed to do. Much like you have Tink, who is a good brownie (as all brownies are good really) you discover their are more fae in the world than first appeared and they aren’t all out for evil. Some just want to live and be left alone and I really liked that ridiculous concept of all were evil was banished (although, why they should live by human moral standards is a whole other issue. Not all creatures have the same moral code as us).
The Things I Didn’t Enjoy… There Are A Few.
There are a long list of things which bothered me about this book when I was reading and I want to tell them all to you but then I don’t want a bunch of spoilers here, so I will talk in roundabouts and try not to get too specific or offer too many examples.
One of the big things which annoyed me was the character of Ivy. I mean, she was quippy and filled with pop-culture references in the first book and it was fun, but it got a bit exhausting in this one. I wanted her (and Tink) to tone it down with their references which will inevitably date this book in a few years time. That wasn’t a major issue for me, what was is that Ivy seemed to have misplaced her brain and her confidence in this book. At the end of Wicked she discovered she was the dreaded halfling everyone had been searching for and so it was inevitable she would have a bit of an identity crisis, I cannot fault her for that one. What I can fault her for is the fact she seemed to think being a halfling means she would have a different personality from who she was before she knew. I mean, that was idiotic but it’s the more the fact it continued for the entire book about how she was torn up about what she knew and who to trust and how to act and I was pretty sure this was a moral dilemma which could have been resolved in a few chapters, not an entire book.
Then there was the stupidity issue. I mean, this girl struggled to see beyond the end of her nose. At one point she was being deceived into thinking someone was someone they were not and it was so obvious. Like, I noticed within the first couple of sentences. It took Ivy about three chapters to figure it out! And considering they were acting so out of character it was jarring i don’t know how it took her so long to register. It was explained in the book, but the explanation was so weak and flimsy that I just couldn’t accept it. No one is in that much denial that they accept way OOC actions from a person. And what was even more annoying is she went back even after they had done something unforgivable! Where I would have been making excuses and been busy every time they called, she dropped what she was doing and went running. I mean, she gets all judgmental over the terrible actions of the fae but when someone she cares about does something unforgivable she goes running without a second thought. Where are her morals there?
And then there was the entire treatment of Ivy at the hands of the fae. The reason Ivy being the halfling is such a big deal is because there is a prophecy that says if a halfling willingly bears the child of the prince of the fae it will open the gates of the fae world to the human one so the fae can enslave and feast upon the human race. So, since the prince gained his freedom at the end of the first book you would think the fae would be doing everything they could to woo Ivy into falling in love with the Prince so she could bear the apocalypse baby, right? Oh hells no, there is deception, dubious consent and straight up brainwashing involved. And do we need to talk about the neck collar and chain Ivy wears at one point? The entire treatment of Ivy is degrading and pretty damn offensive. And it was completely illogical considering they want her to have some hybrid child thing! It felt like Armentrout wanted to give Ivy the worst treatment and degrade her for no logical reason apart from to put her in a weak position which isolates her from those which care about her! It was bad enough Ivy’s closest friend, Val, turned on her. And that when she revealed her halfling status to her boyfriend, Ren, he ran even though she said she loved him, she then had to be chained up and forced to do things against her will? There was no logical reason any of that happened. It just frustrated me the whole concept of consent went out the window even though Ivy needed to be willing to ever be able to bear any kind of child.
And the final thing which frustrated me? Te fat the more interesting storyline of the book was like a sidenote which is inevitably going to be explored in the third book and instead everything got overshadowed by Ivy loving Ren and her halfling identity crisis.
Basically, I Hated A Lot Of Things But I’ll Still Be Buying The Next Book
Look, I may have just written several ranty paragraphs which justify my low rating of this book, but the fact of the matter is I’ll be going back for more. I am Ivy in this situation, I am being stupid and going back for another book will inevitable annoy me even though I know I should be making excuses not to. Who am I to judge when I keep doing this to myself? Don’t let my complaints fool you, this would have been a 2.5 star book if for the readability factor alone if I hadn’t had so much to complain about.
Do you have that author you keep going back for from even though you complain about it more than you enjoy it? Do you reckon it’s because you really enjoy complaining about it? And have you read this or any of Armentrout’s books? What were your thoughts? Also, don’t forget to go see Kaja and Danya’s thoughts on this because they have some interesting things to say.
Welcome to another Sunday. Have we all had a pleasant week? Mine has been a bit all over the place, it’s been good but I honestly don’t know where my time has gone.
Where do I start with my week? I suppose we begin with the Olympics. Has everyone been watching? I have been completely caught up on the Olympics this time around. I love to watch the Gymnastics on TV because when I was younger I liked the idea of being a gymnast. As my mom says, I had half a dozen lessons and got bored. I have always been a bit adverse to hard work. Anyway, I have been watching a lot of Olympic gymnastics. At work we’ve been joking about how we’re watching for the excellent routines (which we are, sort of) but we know it’s also because we like watching the muscles on those men as they do their routines (honestly, it’s beautiful). So, yeah, I really love gymnastics it seems.
I have also been catching up on the DC movie-verse and have now watched Batman v Superman (it was not as bad as reviews made it out to be) and I went to the cinema to see Suicide Squad (I am fully in love with Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn) and I’ve been enjoying it. I will never love DC as much as Marvel but they’re doing some good films and I will obviously keep watching them as they come out.
There was some drama at work this week. We went in as usual Thursday and by the time I left I, along with everyone else with a key, had had their keys changed as the locks on all the offices were replaced. Supposedly someone went into the office at near enough midnight and some basic things had gone missing. No one seems to know exactly what happened but a change in keys was necessary.
I have also had some bookish drama this week as well. My Illumicrate arrived on Monday as did a book pre-order. I had pre-ordered the Waterstones exclusive copy of Nevernight and a copy of Nevernight also came in my little book box so I made the decision to return my fancy edition back to Waterstones. You would think that would be simple but I knew I couldn’t get to Waterstones until Saturday and I couldn’t get to posting it either, as I had to work, so I simply didn’t have the time. My mom works near Waterstones in Wolverhampton and she offered to take it after work. It should have been simple but they had a trainee on when she went to try and return it. Rather than saying to her they can send back to the warehouse or refund then if she had the card I paid on they just took the book and were insanely unhelpful and ended up taking my mom’s details in case they needed to speak to her about anything. She then got a phone call on the way home explaining the options (on a Friday when she wouldn’t be back in Wolverhampton until Monday) and a whole drama ensued about getting a refund sorted and whether I could get it returned but thankfully we resolved this Saturday and my money should be going back on my card (hopefully). Honestly, it’s enough to put you off pre-ordering books.
Shall we move on to the bookish portion of the post?
What I’ve Been Reading
It has been a slow reading week as I have allowed the Olympics to control my evenings but what I have been reading I’ve loved. I finished The House In Quill Court and have a review coming up on it. I then braved it and read This Savage Song and just can’t believe how much I adored it! How does Victoria Schwab do it? That woman has magic writing skills and I love her for it. I was so nervous about reading because I simply couldn’t face being disappointed by it. I then decided to reread my illustrated copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as I’ve been wanting to ever since I finished The Cursed Child and I can feel a need to read a vast amount of fanfiction brewing. I also began reading The Two Pearls of Wisdom (also known as Eon) and it's a lot to take in right now. There are so many things to know but I am learning.
New To Me
There is a very good explanation for this large number of books. Half were purchased and half are library reads. I got Nevernight and The Graces in my Illumicrate box, Reliquary was a Kindle daily deal I had to buy because I was very intrigued by this book a couple of months back. And The Potion Diaries was an impulse buy at WHSmith as it was on offer for £3.99 for the pretty Zoella copy, who can say no?
Then I took a trip to the library for some of my reservations. I’d reserved Trailer Park Fae (a book I was shocked they had) as well as Visions and Underwater. I was then browsing around as I have a long library wish list when I stumbled across The Two Pearls of Wisdom which is the adult edition of Eon by Alison Goodman. This book is literally nowhere on my local libraries system. When I went to scan it to borrow the book it wasn’t recognised and so I had to take it to the desk. They kindly let me borrow it but I have to take it back to the desk when returning so they can input it into the library database!
That is my week, how has yours been? Anyone had any strange moments at the library with books appearing out of nowhere (it almost feels like that Deborah Harkness book!)? And have you been enjoying the Olympics or do you avoid it all costs?
Truthwitch was one of the most hyped books of 2016, for me. I mean, I think the build up for this book began near enough a year before it was released and gradually it became more and more talked about. You literally could not avoid this book even if you wanted to. Eventually, it got to the point where I wasn’t even going to read the book. I wasn’t certain I was going to like it anymore. It had been talked about so much and raved about so often that there was no possible hope of this book ever living up to my expectations. I didn’t want to do that to the book. End up being disappointed when it was no fault of the book and every fault of the marketing campaign for it.
I received a copy of this book in the second Illumicrate I received in February, even then I waited until April to read it. I just couldn’t be certain what to expect from it. I’d already witnessed other bloggers have differing opinions on it, possibly due to the hype. After, finally, reading it in April, though, I had to question why I waited so long. It was a really enjoyable read.
Source: Illumicrate
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
My Rating:
In a continent on the edge of war, two witches hold its fate in their hands.
Young witches Safiya and Iseult have a habit of finding trouble. After clashing with a powerful Guildmaster and his ruthless Bloodwitch bodyguard, the friends are forced to flee their home.
Safi must avoid capture at all costs as she's a rare Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies. Many would kill for her magic, so Safi must keep it hidden - lest she be used in the struggle between empires. And Iseult's true powers are hidden even from herself.
In a chance encounter at Court, Safi meets Prince Merik and makes him a reluctant ally. However, his help may not slow down the Bloodwitch now hot on the girls' heels. All Safi and Iseult want is their freedom, but danger lies ahead. With war coming, treaties breaking and a magical contagion sweeping the land, the friends will have to fight emperors and mercenaries alike. For some will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch.
So why should you overlook the hype around this book and get reading?
This book is all about the friendship
Seriously, there are friendship goals in this book. This entire book is about two girls, Safiya and Iseult, and the bond they forged in their years together. The friendship is solid, they make each other better and always work together, even if they don’t always agree on things. They make each other better. I mean, they are opposites in so many ways, they shouldn't be friends, but they are and it’s amazing.
Everything which happens in this book happens because they are both trying to protect each other and because they care for each other. It’s great reading a book where it’s not a romance being the driving force, but instead a friendship.
There are so many fantastic characters and shades of grey
It’s been a little while since I’ve read a book where my feelings towards characters flip-flopped so much. I liked them, I disliked them, I was rolling my eyes and wanting to hug them. I just couldn’t make my mind up of what to think. Take Iseult, I say I love her friendship with Safiya, but at times I found her so boring. Then sometimes I loved how in control and restrained she was, but that’s what bored me about her a chapter previously. Safiya I adored half the time and half the time thought she was an impulsive brat who doesn’t consider anything or anyone else before she acts.
Aeduan is the bloodwitch tracking the two witches and he’s the villain and I love him. I want so much more story in the next book for him. He acts for very selfish, self-serving reasons but he is just perfect. He isn’t written as this evil character but instead well written so he has the potential to be more in the story. I can’t wait for more from him, even though I frequently wanted to punch him in the face.
The magic system is unique (I think)
I haven’t read a magic system like the one in the book before. It’s sort of like a people with powers thing, but not. There are various witches who fall into different strands of witchery and then there are divisions over the abilities they possess within that strand. It’s actually quite interesting how different witches get defined and the different preconceptions people have. I mean, in general, the world building in this book is really good. It surprised me in a lot of ways.
One thing I will say to temper your expectations, though, is that I didn’t love this book. I enjoyed it, but I was continually filled with doubts throughout my reading. Dennard did a very effective job of banishing the things I disliked. When I disliked flaws in a character's personality she helped the character grow to overcome that flaw. When I was upset with the pacing she got the story moving so fast your head was spinning. The writing and world building in this book is good and I can see the potential for more. I don’t want people to write this book off too soon. Is the hype justified? Maybe. Ask me again after I’ve read the second book.
The politics in this book is insane and very realistic
The politics. I love books where the politics and scheming feel genuine. Does it suck that we don’t get more of it and it’s more in depth? Yes. But what we do get is still pretty aces. I mean, everyone’s got their own angle in this and it’s insane. You’ve got the crazy kind overtaxing everyone and then the rich fire nation and they join forces and this poor small nation is essentially destroyed without them actually fighting one another.
I really felt for Merrick’s struggle. His people lost their land and their food sources and no one is willing to trade with them, there is essentially an embargo on them as their rivals hope to starve them out and weaken them so they have no other option. Instead, this small nation struggles and fights. Some turn bitter and want to take sneaky underhand methods, and he wants to do it the peaceful way. It was amazing. I also loved the reiteration of the fact that history is written by the victors so no-one even knows of the struggles of his nation as it’s been glossed over in the history books.
You don’t know who to trust or what to believe
My favourite thing about this book (apart from the friendship bit, that’s my favourite) is the fact that you never know who should be trusted. I mean, you really don’t. Safiya’s uncle is he a cruel drunk and a genius mastermind? Is the bloodwitch good or bad? What about these firewitches? Who do we trust? What’s going on?
I just didn’t know what to think when reading and I loved being surprised. I think it’s the only way to truly enjoy this book is to go in blind and see how it goes. I was shocked at the twists and turns the story took. They aren’t the most shocking ones I’ve ever read but it was still an enjoyable read.
Look, don’t let the hype stop you from reading. For me, this was a book where the hype was there for good reason. It’s an enjoyable read and it deserves the attention.
Have you read Truthwitch, what were your thoughts? Can it feel like the hype is stopping from reading books?
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