Overall I enjoyed most of what I read this month, but I did end up with two books where my review is likely to disagree with the majority of reviews. Check out the books below and happy reading!
Title: The Last NamsaraAuthor: Kristen Ciccarelli
Page Count: 432
Rating: B+
Format Read: Kindle
Genre: YA Fantasy
Keywords: Dragons, Arranged marriage, folklore
Kid Appropriate: Teen
Synopsis from Goodreads:
In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death-bringer.
These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up learning in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.
Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.
My Review:
I read this over the course of two flights and a vacation. While this wasn't my favorite book I have read all year it was able to keep my attention through people talking loudly on their cell phones and small children screaming at the top of their lungs for several hours straight.
As I have been reading less YA fantasy lately this was a nice return to the genre and left me feeling nostalgic for the books of my teen years. The story did not drag at any point and there was a good balance of politics, insta-love, and action to keep things interesting.
Asha is at times a frustrating character with how stubbornly she approaches various situations and I found myself annoyed with her more than once. On the upside her loyalty to family and sense of honor were strong throughout the story, making her strong in her own character rather than the wishy washy characters that can sometimes overpopulate YA novels.
If you hate insta-love this might not be the book for your but I rather enjoyed it, especially as the story progresses and you begin to learn more about their bond and history the two actually share.
If you enjoy dragons, fierce female protagonists, and a quick paced fantasy I would recommend checking this one out.
As of 9/3 the Kindle edition of this book is only $1.99! Check it out here.
Title: The Mists of Avalon
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Page Count: 912
Rating: B
Format Read: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
Keywords: King Arthur, Women, Magic
Kid Appropriate: NO
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Here is the magical legend of King Arthur, vividly retold through the eyes and lives of the women who wielded power from behind the throne. A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come....
My Review:
I listened to this audiobook over the course of a couple of months and quickly developed a love hate relationship with it.
First, Davina Porter did an amazing job narrating this. I love her narration and it was the only way I was able to make it through this 50 hour and 53 minute behemoth.
I am a fan of the King Arthur tale and enjoy reading the various interpretations people have of it and was intrigued when I stumbled across this fantasy classic telling the tale from the perspective of all the women populating the tale of Camelot rather than the men. In this respect it was a success at giving a new and interesting insight into the world.
The book does not shy away from any facet of life and I overall appreciated the unflinching way in which Marion Zimmer Bradley writes about the realities these women and women of the time would have had to face. It is not always politically correct by today's standards but I appreciated that far more than if the entirety had been sugar coated the way things are often glazed over in books in regards to women. There was one instance where I felt the author deviated from this trend and I discuss that below.
If you need a fast paced book where things are happening consistently, or are not heavily into the fantasy genre, or have a shorter attention span I would highly recommend not reading this book. Also, if sexual content or incest bother you then you shouldn't pick this one up. Another grievance I had was how unrealistically rape was handled in this story. It felt like that scene was written with little thought or interest in psychological reality.
There is a massive cast of characters and you are following the story through several generations with a great deal of political intrigue and small life moments making up the majority of this tale.
Every character is shown in the fullest way possible which results in there not being any characters that are clearly "good" or "bad". This means there are times where one character can be your favorite and the next day you will dread coming to their chapters.
If you are committed and want to dissect this beast of a tale, it is worth it in the end. If you are just looking to read for casual enjoyment, run the other way.
Title: Wife by WednesdayAuthor: Catherine Bybee
Page Count: 221
Rating: C+
Format Read: Kindle/Audiobook
Genre: Romance
Keywords: Business, Jealousy, Love
Kid Appropriate: No
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Blake Harrison:
Rich, titled, and charming…and in need of a wife by Wednesday. Blake turns to Sam Elliot, who isn’t the businessman he expected. Instead, Blake is faced with Samantha Elliot, beautiful and feisty with a voice men call 1-900 numbers to hear.
Samantha Elliot:
Owner of matchmaking firm Alliance and not on the marital menu…that is, until Blake offers her ten million dollars for a one-year contract. And there’s nothing indecent about this proposal. The money will really help with her family’s medical bills. All Samantha will need to do is keep her attraction to her new husband to herself and avoid his bed.
But Blake’s toe-curling kisses and sexy charm prove too difficult for Sam to resist. It was a marriage contract that planned for everything…except falling in love.
My Review:
I picked this one up as one of my free reads with Amazon Prime and switched back and forth between reading it on my Kindle and listening to the audiobook. From the cover I was expecting a more tame romance novel that focused on the relationship and was cutesy. Instead it was definitely full of smut.
This is not one of the more realistic romances I have read and was definitely rushed. If you want a story that dives right in with little waiting then this would be a good romance for you to pick up. The sex scenes were steamy and I don't remember them being overly cheesy with the dialogue or descriptors. As far as the romance goes this is like a Hallmark movie with the amount of sex you would expect from a Lifetime movie. Overall, I recommend it for romance lovers.
Title: For the Sake of Elena
Author: Elizabeth GeorgePage Count: 388
Rating: B
Format Read: Hardcover
Genre: Mystery
Keywords: Rumors, Murder, University
Kid Appropriate: No
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Elena Weaver was a surprise to anyone meeting her for the first time. In her clingy dresses and dangling earrings she exuded a sexuality at odds with the innocence projected by the unicorn posters on her walls. While her embittered mother fretted about her welfare from her home in London, in Cambridge—where Elena was a student at St. Stephen's College—her father and his second wife each had their own very different image of the girl. As for Elena, she lived a life of casual and intense physical and emotional relationships, with scores to settle and goals to achieve--until someone, lying in wait along the route she ran every morning, bludgeoned her to death.
Unwilling to turn the killing over to the local police, the university calls in New Scotland Yard. Thus, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his partner, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, enter the rarefied world of Cambridge University, where academic gowns often hide murderous intentions.
For both officers, the true identity of Elena Weaver proves elusive. Each relationship the girl left behind casts new light both on Elena and on those people who appeared to know her best—from an unsavory Swedish-born Shakespearean professor to the brooding head of the Deaf Students Union.
What's more, Elena's father, a Cambridge professor under consideration for a prestigious post, is a man with his own dark secrets. While his past sins make him neurotically dedicated to Elena and blind to her blacker side, present demons drive him toward betrayal.
My Review:
I definitely liked this fifth book in the Inspector Lynley more so than the fourth prequel novel as it was a bit reminiscent of Well Schooled in Murder with the school setting explored once again. This time instead of a young teenage boy we have a young woman attending the fictional St. Stephen's College in Cambridge.
One thing I will point out is that the promiscuity of Elena stated in the synopsis of the novel is much more pronounced in that synopsis than it actually was in the novel, not to say that the character was not sexual. It just played a smaller role in the overall investigation than I was initially expecting going into the story.
A bigger focus is Elena's tumultuous relationship with her father and the issues caused by her being deaf and interacting with that community. At times it was uncomfortable to read her parents' view of what her being deaf truly meant and the way their negativity impacted her own acceptance of her disability. Rather than accepting the efforts of DeaStu, the deaf student association, she seemed to push them away aggressively. When her father reveals his true feelings about her being deaf it is a bit heartbreaking.
Lynley and Helen are still where they were at the end of the third book, playing a game of tug of war over whether or not they are meant to be. This continued state of limbo with their relationship was a bit tedious at times. Barbara Havers' dilemma she was facing with her family throughout this novel was extremely realistic and had me crying on multiple occasions. Her character growth since book one has been fantastic.
As for the murder, I felt like about 80 pages could have been cut and it would have been a more satisfying approach to figuring it all out. It dragged quite heavily in the middle section and ended very strangely.
If you enjoyed the beginning of this series and wish to continue I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Author: J. K. RowlingPage Count: 435
Rating: A
Format Read: Audiobook
Genre: Children's Fantasy
Keywords: Magic, Maps, School
Kid Appropriate: Yes
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Harry Potter's third year at Hogwarts is full of new dangers. A convicted murderer, Sirius Black, has broken out of Azkaban prison, and it seems he's after Harry. Now Hogwarts is being patrolled by the dementors, the Azkaban guards who are hunting Sirius. But Harry can't imagine that Sirius or, for that matter, the evil Lord Voldemort could be more frightening than the dementors themselves, who have the terrible power to fill anyone they come across with aching loneliness and despair. Meanwhile, life continues as usual at Hogwarts. A top-of-the-line broom takes Harry's success at Quidditch, the sport of the Wizarding world, to new heights. A cute fourth-year student catches his eye. And he becomes close with the new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, who was a childhood friend of his father. Yet despite the relative safety of life at Hogwarts and the best efforts of the dementors, the threat of Sirius Black grows ever closer. But if Harry has learned anything from his education in wizardry, it is that things are often not what they seem. Tragic revelations, heartwarming surprises, and high-stakes magical adventures await the boy wizard in this funny and poignant third installment of the beloved series.
My Review:
This was a reread. Of course I loved it.
Title: The Last Time I Lied
Author: Riley Sager
Page Count: 370
Rating: A
Format Read: BOTM Hardcover
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Keywords: Camp, Mean girls, Murder
Kid Appropriate: No
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.
Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.
Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present.
And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.
My Review:
I have been interested in reading Riley Sager's Final Girls for a while now so when Book of the Month offered up his newest book I had to give it a try.
Be warned that I did not have an easy time getting into this book. For the first 50 pages it dragged so slowly and I genuinely hated our MC Emma so much that I nearly quit reading multiple times. It was a combination of the unclear narration and jumping between present day and fifteen years previously as well as Emma's own unstable mental state that had me frustrated. But if you persevere past the start the book does slowly begin to even out and you have a clearer grasp of what happened before. This makes it easier to pick up the information from the flashbacks as well as focus on the current mystery.
What I really loved about this book was that I genuinely could not figure out what on earth was going on. Usually when I am reading a mystery or thriller I get a pretty clear indication of where the story is heading and can at least guess what the mystery was. Not with this book. I can remember at least three times where I literally was dancing in my chair because I thought I had figured out what happened only to be proven completely wrong twenty pages later.
The action of this novel also really begins to pick up to a fast pace and develops into this frenzied reading experience where I literally could not put the book down for the last 150 pages.
If you're looking for a book to creep you out, keep you guessing, and mess with your head then I definitely recommend giving this one a chance.
Title: Godsgrave
Author: Jay KristoffPage Count: 419
Rating: A-
Format Read: Hardcover
Genre: Fantasy
Keywords: Assassins, Revenge, Gladiators
Kid Appropriate: No
Synopsis from Goodreads:
A ruthless young assassin continues her journey for revenge in this new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Jay Kristoff.
Assassin Mia Corvere has found her place among the Blades of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, but many in the Red Church ministry think she’s far from earned it. Plying her bloody trade in a backwater of the Republic, she’s no closer to ending Consul Scaeva and Cardinal Duomo, or avenging her familia. And after a deadly confrontation with an old enemy, Mia begins to suspect the motives of the Red Church itself.
When it’s announced that Scaeva and Duomo will be making a rare public appearance at the conclusion of the grand games in Godsgrave, Mia defies the Church and sells herself to a gladiatorial collegium for a chance to finally end them. Upon the sands of the arena, Mia finds new allies, bitter rivals, and more questions about her strange affinity for the shadows. But as conspiracies unfold within the collegium walls, and the body count rises, Mia will be forced to choose between loyalty and revenge, and uncover a secret that could change the very face of her world.
Set in the world of Nevernight, which Publishers Weekly called “absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness,” Godsgrave will continue to thrill and satisfy fantasy fans everywhere.
My Review:
Time for my first unpopular opinion in this wrap-up. I absolutely loved Nevernight when I read it last year and could not wait to move on to the sequel (click here for that review). I thought I had to finish it by this fall but if you have been on Twitter lately you'll know that the release of Darkdawn was pushed back to next year. So I ended up putting it off a little further and picked it up to finish in August. It took three or four tries of starting and restarting this book to force myself through it.
This does not mean it was a bad book! I genuinely had missed Mister Kindly and Mia and loved reading about them in this book but there were extended periods of time where I found myself not caring about the story line and bored with the gladiator training. I largely feel like I was distancing myself from this book because unlike most people I just could not get into the Ash and Mia romance. She literally killed Tric! How is this turning into a romance?! I don't understand! Ash and Eclipse have yet to grow on me.
Despite this I enjoyed the parts where Mia actually acted like an assassin as well as the intrigue and mystery elements of the book. Seeing a more emotional side of Mister Kindly in brief little moments was also enjoyable.
I think I might give this one some time away and try rereading it closer to the Darkdawn release and see if I like it better the second time around.
Also, I feel like my visual of a topknot does not match Jay Kristoff's in any way.
Title: Sweet Little Lies
Author: Caz Frear
Page Count: 352
Rating: B
Format Read: BOTM Hardcover
Genre: Mystery
Keywords: London, Detectives, Family
Kid Appropriate: No
Synopsis from Goodreads:
WINNER OF THE RICHARD AND JUDY SEARCH FOR A BESTSELLER COMPETITION.
WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW
In 1998, Maryanne Doyle disappeared and Dad knew something about it?
Maryanne Doyle was never seen again.
WHAT I ACTUALLY KNOW
In 1998, Dad lied about knowing Maryanne Doyle.
Alice Lapaine has been found strangled near Dad's pub.
Dad was in the local area for both Maryanne Doyle's disappearance and Alice Lapaine's murder - FACT
Connection?
Trust cuts both ways . . . what do you do when it's gone?
FOR FANS OF ERIN KELLY AND BELINDA BAUER, GET READY FOR THE SUSPENSE NOVEL OF THE YEAR.
My Review:
This one was another slow to start book that I ended up enjoying. Cat is our main character and she is a 26 year old detective with the Metropolitan Police Force in London. She is troubled by memories from when she was a young girl visiting her family in Ireland and has believed since then that her father murdered a local teenage girl. This has clearly caused them to have a strained relationship.
While this was an interesting start to a mystery there were plenty of times I had a hard time believing that Cat was actually older than me and not a bit of a petulant child. Her personality is a bit childish and can grate on your nerves from time to time. Despite this she does improve throughout the novel and I did grow to eventually like her.
The mystery itself was fairly well done in that it took a different turn from what I was expecting or could have guessed from the onset. Based off of this I would probably be willing to pick up the second book in the series that is due sometime next year but I would not necessarily call this the "suspense novel of the year".
Title: Assassin's Apprentice
Author: Robin HobbPage Count: 448
Rating: D-
Format Read: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Keywords: Royalty, Bastards, Assassins
Kid Appropriate: No
Synopsis from Goodreads:
In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma.
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.
So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.
My Review:
And time for my second unpopular opinion of the month. I absolutely hated this book and it took me four months to read.
My first impression of this book was that the cover was like a weird ripoff of The Hobbit and that was about the height of my enthusiasm for this story. It is slow, uneventful, features blatant animal abuse and killing, and nothing happens. I will admit that there were times that the writing was quite good and the middle part was a bit pleasant to read. However, I was bored to frustration for the entirety of this book and quite simply began skimming after the event of the second dog death.
If you can stomach the animal abuse and are looking for an origin story heavy in politics but from the perspective of a young boy then go ahead and give it a try. I will not be continuing with this series.
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