Gemma
The Winternight trilogy packs a very hearty punch as you reach the climax of the story. I obviously won't go into spoilers for this review but if you have been reading the earlier books wondering if the slow pace and story building will pay off, I would say they definitely do.
The first book gives a rich, layered understanding of the world and Vasya's place in it. It is filled with the most magic of the series. And in the second book we discover more about Vasya's place in her family. The third book brings those two halves of Vasya's life slamming together.
I really enjoyed Tara Westover's writing and the style of how she told her story. The story was always building to her final conclusions and the additional footnotes adding more insight or other perspectives made the experience feel so genuine.
I know there has been a few critiques of how she managed higher education are too vague, glossed over or exaggerated. For anyone to tell their life story, especially with how much Tara packs into this short book, it is understandable that the details would get skipped over in favour of more relevant portions.
I'm going to be honest, I really did not enjoy the first book in this series. This was mostly due to the romance aspect as I did not enjoy the dynamic between the couple. I also felt like the romance had been set up with more care and attention than the world or magic system, which I would prioritise over romance. However, this second book upped the stakes with the romance and therefore the wider world stakes.
I won'ts spoil the story, but there was an aspect of the romance plot line in this book that was so bizarre and unexpected that it kept me reading as fast as I could. Aside from that, the Pentadrians are developed further and given their own point of view in this story, which I enjoyed.
I feel quite betrayed by this final volume, and almost wish I hadn???t read it. It goes spot show how deeply I came to care for characters that their fate has properly upset me.
I might have reduced the star rating in revenge, but it was as enjoyable as all the previous books aside from where I disagree with the plot.
This was a fantastic start into reading more nonfiction. How will anything else compare?
Tim Marshall gives a solid overview of how various countries foreign policy, borders and difficulties were defined by their geography. While the scope of this book wasn't incredibly detailed, I learnt a lot and found myself with more areas of interest to read more about.
I would also like to highly recommend the audiobook for this one, I found it to be a great asset when trying to stare at maps and read at the same time.
This young adult mystery novel about teens living in a boarding school had not been on my radar at all. It was recommended to me, and without that recommendation I might not have ever picked up this surprising book.
Stevie wants to solve mysteries like Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, so she applies to attend Ellingham Academy. At this school she can finally flourish and focus on becoming the detective she has always wanted to be. So when things start getting dangerous at her new school, and clues tie into the original murder mystery from the opening of the school, who better to figure it all out?
A mostly enjoyable book with a surprise at the end. I didn't predict anything, but the writing and characters didn't grip me at all.
Castle Coeurlieu by Naomi Novik
The Red-Rimmed Eyes of T??u M?? by Aidan Moher
The Hedgewitch by Sarah Beth Durst
The only story I truly loved was the one by Novik, but I enjoyed the other two to a degree. I branched out of my usual wheelhouse to read a short story collection and I don't really feel like I liked the experience. I own a couple other Unfettered and Unbound books, which I will try.
The Cruel Prince ???????????????The Wicked King ???????????????The Queen of Nothing ???????????????
I won't go into specific plot points in this book, but I will talk about what I liked and disliked briefly.
I really enjoyed Cardan and Jude's relationship for the most part. It was complicated, there were issues and it just really worked for me. The whole faerie world and its lore also was really enjoyable. I haven't read a series about fae before and I loved the setting a lot, especially the cruelty the fae loved to inflict on others. I also enjoyed how many different aspects there were to the plot, and how you could easily forget about one aspect only to be surprised with it later on.
Otherwise, I felt like this book should have been double its length. A lot of essential plot points happened off screen, or in the time between books two and three. This made the experience a lot less immersive and feel a bit cheap.
Another solid entry into the Mortal Engines Quartet.
By the third book in the series, sixteen years have passed. Hester and Tom are in their thirties, and we focus on their daughter, Wren. I found Wren to be a really enjoyable character who combined some of the most enjoyable qualities of both her parents. The book remained a consistent pace to the previous one, and in terms of quality I felt it was equally as good.
Other reviews have touched upon it, so I will be brief, but Hester does not remain as lovable as she was as a child. In the earlier books, Hester was an understandable asshole who had redeemable qualities. She felt strongly for Tom, and that motivated her to make (mostly) good decisions. In this book, she is bizarrely jealous of her own daughter. It really screams of those stories of monster-in-laws who hate their daughter-in-law they are ‘loosing' their son to. It really didn't seem how I thought Hester would become, but hopefully book four may salvage her character.
The Emperor's Blades ???????????????The Providence of Fire ???????????????
Brian Staveley was a brand new author to me when I originally picked up The Emperor's Blades in 2018. With his first book, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Ever since that first book, I've been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to read the next book.
The second book focuses more on Adare than the first, and gives her the space to establish herself more in the story. In the first book, Adare was still in the capital playing a political game with the ministers surrounding her. In the second book, she has to leave the capital and finds herself trying to establish of her own. A lot of reviews are not impressed with Adare as she is frustrating, and makes stupid decisions. I don't really feel like this is a fair assessment of her arc in this book, she is operating with almost no information; of which probably a small amount is current. The reader knows more than Adare for a good chunk of the book! I feel like Adare made decisions as best she could with her lack of information, and made the best of a shitty situation.
I still thoroughly enjoyed the second book in this series, and would highly reccomend this series to anyone who reads. The complex, well paced plot that I adored in the first book slows down slightly in the second half of this book. The book never felt boring and I really enjoyed every second of it. I cannot wait to pick up the third book.
When it comes to this series so far, I adore the books while I'm reading them and have no interest in picking them up otherwise. For me this makes a difficult book to rate.
The writing is more like poetry than any other book that I have read. It is this quality that gives the book such a vivid atmosphere and strong characterisation. The audiobook was a fantastic addition to my reading experience as it added to the atmosphere that the book built and kept me immersed in the story.
While I found the first book to be a little slow, the pace of the second book kept increasing until the finale kept me on the edge of my seat.
I would really recommend this series.
This was a re-read from childhood, but my memory of the book was very poor. The series had been a quick read that I had enjoyed and found hilarious due to the footnotes.
This time around I struggled with the footnotes in the ebook copy of the book as they would flip you to the end of the book without a button to out you back at your original page. I read majority without the footnotes and still enjoyed the book a lot. I found the style of humour to be right up my alley; quite sarcastic British humor.
The plot was involved, detailed and well paced. I found the first book in this series to be a really enjoyable read.
I hate to say it, but I am becoming more and more disheartened with every Canavan book I read.
The Age of Five focuses on Auraya, who in the beginning of the book becomes one of the White. The White is an order of five prophets who can communicate with their gods and preform miracles using the gods' power to protect their citizens. Auraya also has a complicated relationship with the Dreamweaver who saved her mother's life years ago, as the gods have always opposed the Dreamweavers. Using the Dreamweaver powers of healing on a non-Dreamweaver person is against the gods' will, and heavily penalised. Her new connection with the gods puts her love for Dreamweavers at risk of becoming the best weapon against the Dreamweavers.
Spoilers Ahead
This book sets up a strong plot concerning the White trying to establish strong allies in the countries surrounding them. They want to build a strong system of allies so they can take on hostile southern countries who believe in different gods. To do this, they need to reach out to remote races of flying humans and building the first positive relation they have with land-walkers.
However, as part of this plot the White suddenly decide to build bridges with the Dreamweavers partially due to Auraya's connection with Dreamweavers. This section of the plot quickly takes over and becomes a romantic story between Auraya and the Dreamweaver who healed her mother all those years ago. I barely knew Auraya at the point where this began, and therefore didn't care at all about her new forbidden relationship. It was boring to me, developed too intensely and completely put me off the whole story.
A marked improvement on book one, more time and care is taken to write full scenes rather than one line summaries. The side characters are further fleshed out over the course of this book (and one in particular that I remember fondly is introduced). The plot begins to weave more complex patterns.
This is the last book I completed when I originally read the series, so it will be interesting to see how the story finishes.
This one was recommended by my book club, and I knew absolutely nothing about it. It turned out to be a phenomenal surprise.
The book is set in Scotland, and it really felt like it was written by someone who had either spent a lot of time here or was Scottish. This is the first time I've read accurate Scottish speech on the page and I felt so seen. The audio book is also top notch in terms of accents.
At the beginning of the story, Eleanor is absolutely, determinedly F-I-N-E with her life, her complete lack of friends and the limited contact she has with others. Eleanor's story pulls no punches, and we get an intimate look into her life as she begins to branch out and connect with the people she works with.
Little Women ????????????Good Wives ????????????
This is the second part of the story from Little Women, published sometimes in two volumes and sometimes published together in one. As I read the series originally thinking they were separate books I will continue on this way, and I do find each part is a full bodied story with its own arc.
In Good Wives, Meg has married and established a home of her own. She struggles with her love of material things and becoming a new mother. Beth has been ill for a long time, and feels as though her condition will keep her weak forever. Amy discovers life abroad, and Jo discovers her independence.
A couple of my favourite characters are introduced in this volume, and we are well set up for the next few books. It is those books that I remember being particularly special.
I am re-reading the series of four Little Women books before the new movie comes out in December (even if the trailer actively annoyed me). I had my Mum's editions of the books and I am pretty sure I've read theses stories multiple times over the years. They hold a special place in my heart.
Little Women follows Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy as they begin the arduous process of growing up quickly as their father is away fighting in the American Civil War. I feel as close to these girls as I did when I was reading the books growing up, almost like no time has passed. I still relate to Jo and her tom-boyish ways.
I found the story to be charming and endearing, but a slight too heavy handed with moral lessons for my liking. I think for the most part the story still feels relevant and relatable, and the characters create a strong impression on your mind. I really love this series, and I can't wait to complete my re-read.
