NEF
Book 3 and part of Book 4 are where the personalities of the main characters really shine, I think, and each of them show they have their own motivations and ways of thinking and speaking.
Plot was alright until the end - it felt anti-climactic. Definitely more sophisticated a story than I expected.
A decently involved plot with oddly stilted writing. Aside from how jarring the writing sometimes was - there was a lot of explicit description that explained exactly why someone was looking at someone in a certain way, thoughts in italics, and clunky phrasing - it turned out to be a pretty decent story.
4.5 stars for you, you genius, Ender!
Ender is a child genius who is a candidate for the position of General, the only one who can defeat the buggers (aliens who seek to destroy humanity! oh no!) and save humanity. He is taken from his family, from his madly sadistic brother Peter who enjoys tormenting him, and his loving, knowing sister Valentine whom she adores, and who loves him too, and is thrown into an unfamiliar world of strict discipline, training and strategy, all at the tender, tender age of six.
I read an edition that had a letter from the author at the beginning. It made me love Ender before I even met him. Ender was so human, so choldlike yet so adult, I was drawn to him. Obstacle after obstacle cropped up, and he kept meeting them head on and winning, and winning, until he could no more, and gave up for a little while.
That, I think, things like that, is what will forever keep Ender a special place in my heart.
Watching him grow and learn and strategise (and learning a few interesting battle strategies in the process), and overcoming mental blocks (I loved the psychological aspects of the book) was an experience I won't forget. So cliché a phrase it pains me to say that, but it's true.
Gosh, I love this book. It's Apple pie and so much more - Apple pie with ice cream and a nice, cold glass of water partaken of in a cool garden surrounded by lemon trees.
This deserves the horror tag, and that's what I'm giving it, because when I put the book down to go to sleep at night, I kept eyeing my window and wondered if something called a Guardian was going to attempt to come through it.
This is more a paranormal mystery than romance, though the romance is certainly a satisfying part of the series overall. It's a very well-written read, because the action is fluid, the mystery is magical and horrifying, the emotions are valid, and the hurdles entirely Widdershins.
Def worth a read!
I hate Kay. Thank god someone decided to punch him in the face. Utter spoilt brat.
This was definitely more fairytale than novel. It was written like that - very low on the descriptive, very high on the fairytale-action. It felt magical and unreal, and I think I really like that.
This is the dark but warm tale of Gerta, who fell in love with the cold boy next door. He was stolen one night - by stolen, I mean HE DECIDED TO GO WITH THE SNOW QUEEN - and Gerta decides that she needs to save him from the Snow Queen herself. Kay must be cold. Kay must be lonely. Kay must be sad.
Gerta, need I point it out, is overflowing with compassion.
This was a fun, light read that felt like a happy tragedy. Janna, Gerta's helpful adventurer, I wish we'd spent more time with before she joined Gerta. I wish we'd got more Mousebones after Janna joined us. Neverthelesss, I enjoyed this book and would recommend, especially if you're a Kingfisher fan like I am.
Aaaaaaaa I wasn't expecting this. I wasn't expecting this at all.
Nevermind that I found it extremely odd for Iona to be in the situation she finds herself, with a household of servants, allowing for some of them to be sympathetic - surely they aren't all blind and terrified or evil and parents who rule one of the stronger nations in the world. Nevermind that I found it odd her cousin - Aaron? Adrial? A-something? - had a seemingly endless amount of free time at his disposal despite being the son of a Duke not to mention his position as the apparent head of a revolution? Also, did he act alone? He appeared to? For someone as young as he is - and he is certainly capable - I expected him to have more top-level help than just himself, which is all we see of the revolution throughout the book. Nevermind that it is extreeeeemely lucky that Jaoven's College posse survived the war, are useful in their current positions, and turned up in Wessett as his entourage (which was a bunch of young adults with one older advisor).
I loved this even through all the bits that didn't make sense!
Iona reveals hidden depths throughout the book. You, along with the Capria party, peel back all her layers, bit by bit, and discover that quiet, weak, Art-student wallflower Iona actually has a backbone of steel and a razor-sharp mind. She's just understandably anxious, grief-stricken, and very, very scared of her sister. Wouldn't anyone, when they had Lisenn kicking you in the ribs and destroying the things you love because you wore her favourite colour to a ball?
It is very worth a read. I loved the interactions between the Capria party, as well as their observations about Iona. I loved how Iona has a few staunch supporters, and how she eventually pokes her head out of her hole and starts to take notice of the world. I love how Lisenn is not merely some cliched jealous older sister, and is a really demented monster of a person.
Would totally recommend. I want more - the ending felt rather squashed; I wanted more Iona interactions with Jaoven and Capria. There were so many questions I had, but I suppose it is a rather open-ended, obvious happy ending, which I don't really mind - I just wanted more! <3
This was a very good start to Farrendel and Essie's story. It reminds me of [b:Radiance 24473763 Radiance (Wraith Kings, #1) Grace Draven https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1422721500l/24473763.SX50.jpg 40780371] in how two very different races (species?) have to interact and learn each other's edges and quirks and flaws and qualities. While this particular book is primarily a romance, the overall series includes more than just a relationship between tortured Farrendel and bubbly Essie. It involves what is supposedly the royal family of a sizable kingdom going camping in the middle of the woods without guards (book 3), the Queen herself cutting hair (book 3), Essie repeating multiple times that she always expected she would have to marry for politics and not minding the adventure of living amongst a people they were at war at 15 years ago (book 1), Essie chatting and shopping with vendors herself (book 2)... The series doesn't really hold to ceremony where the royal humans are concerned. I expected, too, more hostility, more Essie learning elf culture and magic, more world-building, more actual politicking - what I got instead was a surprisingly warm story of a very wary elf finding a very chatty human willing to work with him, instead of against him. “Why did you agree to this marriage alliance?” Essie studied his face, trying to read his reaction. “Better me than my sisters.” Farrendel's shoulders slumped a fraction, his head ducked so she couldn't see his expression. “I see.” Perhaps some of her hurt came through in her voice. Farrendel met her gaze. “But not only that.”He gestured to her. “Your smile. No one else was smiling. They were looking at each other as enemies. But you smiled, as if we were people you were happy to meet.”One very wrung-out, wary, and angry elf, and one chatty, protective, and fierce princess. Pour in a healthy dose of pink-icing-and-cake Addams-family royals, a few trolls, a three-sided war, and painful torture, and you've got this series in a nutshell.
Elodie is a good witch. She's so good a witch, I'd be tempted to call her a goody two-shoes if she wasn't also good at finding herself with people and in places that want to kill her. Thankfully, Aleida is there to extract them both; and while Elodie is as green as the forest they live in (Aleida probably says those very same words at least twice), she's capable enough of witchcraft to save the day on her own, too.
I liked this book a little less than the first one simply because Elodie spent most of her time attempting to be Aleida's conscience. Aleida protested, of course, because while she knows what a conscience is, Gyssha's evil expelled whatever tatters of one her childhood left behind. Elodie doesn't give up except when Aleida slams her with common sense - then she switches to looking for another way to accomplish what she feels is right.
Elodie's moonlighting as Aleida's Conscience in addition to her day job as apprentice is what makes this book slower in pace than the first. There's a tad more official explaining of things, since Elodie is learning witchcraft, which includes sigils, potions, spells, glamours, soul-reading, etc. There's also a lot of animals, including a drunk horse, a bear who's made bad choices, a snake that tries to eat Elodie, a girl with a sword - and a whole host of sprites, spirits, and otherworldly demented beings trying to destroy the world.
There's plenty of promise here for a third book, which I am very much looking forward to. There are questions unanswered, plot points to resolve, Aleida things to attack, and Elodie things to learn. I enjoyed the experience of Daughter of Lies and Ruin just as much as the first, and I hope there is more in store for this series!
This book read a little bit like Agatha Christie crossed with Jane Austen, but clearly written for a modern reader. It's a romp of a tale, where we follow Miss Elinor Avely, a young lady of the ton in disgrace after a scandal involving her ability to sense jewels and the Earl of Beresford, and Miss Aldreda Zooth, a dignified, proper lady of the French vampiri with an aversion to sunlight and a lack of clothes after transforming from a bat into a palm-sized human.
The rest of the cast include jars of plum jam, several insidious smugglers, the not-terribly-handsome and entirely too overbearing Earl of Beresford (and his mother), Peregrine Avely, and a handsome selkie called Jim. Or was it Jon? Ah, it was Jaq Delquon.
As far as a romp goes, this fits the bill. It's fast-paced, a quick read, interesting and uncommon in premise, and the characters are truly fun to laugh at. I enjoyed it very much, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction with a bit of romance and magical abilities and tiny vampiri in it.
But.
The entire story takes place in that vague time frame when ladies wore long gowns and there were London Seasons and Marriage Hunts, carriages were still in use, and a lady's honour was forfeit if she so much as stepped into a room alone with anyone not in her family. I'm fine with that - in fact, I love it.
The narration is slightly at odds with how the characters speak. They speak posh-like, very rich-London-folk typical of this kind of book, if you know what I mean. But it is obvious that the book was written for modern readers, because it reads like an imitation of narration from that kind of time. It is not jarring enough to be a deterrent, but it did jolt me from time to time.
Something much worse is how many times Elinor decides to walk out on her own - in the middle of the night. The Earl of Beresford finds her multiple times, and so do other people, but she does it again and again, no matter how many times she's found out. There's fuss about being found unaccompanied and oh no her honour but aside from the perfunctory exclamations, not much else is done about this. Nevermind that at one point, several people witness her in her shift! A wet shift! Historical accuracy, where are you?!
That aside, I enjoyed this fun story quite a bit. One can never go wrong with plum jam!
Oh, this was a beautiful story. It is slow, it is whimsical, it is magical and sweet and heart-warming.
I really did love it.
Euphemia Reeves is an over-worked maid in Benedict Ashbrooke's sister-in-law's household. She falls in love with Benedict, but who has ever heard of a gentleman marrying the help?
Lord Blackthorn, faery Lord of Blackthorn, chosen by the land itself, has decided that he will make it possible. He volunteers himself as Effie's fairy godfather, in return for her embroidering his jacket with as many stitches as the hours she spends a lady before a little more than 100 days are over - by which time she must make Mr Ashbrooke marry her, or she will be doomed to ignominy and housework forever.
I loved this! It was a slow start, and I really could not get into the book at all. But then I got to the third chapter, when things start to pick up and the most hilarious things begin to happen, and I was sold.
Lord Blackthorn appeared once in the previous book in this series, but it is not necessary to read it before this. This story takes place a short time after the events of book 1. He is on a mission to understand English virtue, and Effie appears to be one of the most virtuous people he has ever met! Effie knows better than to strike a deal with the fae, but her mistress is so infuriating and she is so overworked and Lydia her friend and colleague encourages her...
Except Lord Blackthorn's idea of help doesn't include consequences, or, indeed, conventional thinking. What else can one really expect of the fae?
The ending is marvellous. The story is great. The characters are brilliant. I totally recommend it. This is a faery tale of the best sort <3
I might be tempted to raise this review from two stars to three, but that would only be because of Ginny. Nevermind that Jonas is the stereotypical super-fast love-crossed-vampire who's a hundred years older and super powerful, terribly handsome, and also an over-protective, superb lover who loves to manhandle his love interest by throwing her over his shoulder and putting her under house arrest - sorry, keeping her inside for her own good, I mean.
You know what I mean, yes? That's Jonas.
Ginny, though. Ginny almost saves the book. She of her lovely dresses and her air-headed, ditzy calm. She of her love of morgues and respect for her father's business and dead bodies and people. She of the love of old movies and vintage things and clever ideas.
Too bad everyone else pales in comparison.
I did not finish this. I'm terribly sorry, because Ginny does come off as an actual character - but she is one of the only ones who does, where the rest are a collection of stereotypes and tags. I could not get over the way Jonas was overbearing, and protective, and how he treated her, even if he did admit she was strong in her own right. It was a case of “You, my love, are strong, and thus I will keep you away from the world so that you never need show it!”
Also - and this is where I stopped reading - every so often, the text trips itself up. At one point, Jonas' hands are tied up. In the next sentence, his hands are in Ginny's hair. On the next page, Ginny grabs a key and releases him. I- I could not by that point.
I would probably not recommend this. It was fun until about halfway, but after that it got too cliche for me.
Everything about this book is amazing. Melina Marchetta is now one of my absolutely favourite authors, even if only because of the way she writes.
The story begins a while after the last book, Finnikin of the Rock, and Froi is now a few years older and wiser, too. He's a good fighter, having trained hard with Perri and the Captain, and lives with Lord Autumn and his family (I hope I got that name right). And then one day a Charyn refugee down in the Valley attacks one of the women of Lumatere and so begins the story.
Charyn is cursed, fifteen years long, to be barren and childless. The Princess (whose mother cursed the land) is mad, and only lastborn children (those who were born just before the curse) can create the first. This situation fits right in with what Lumatere's Queen wants to do : find the people (or person) who hurt and destroyed her country and people during the curse in the first book. Froi happens to be the perfect lastborn age, and so he's given this most important mission : to kill the man who gave the order to invade Lumatere, Charyn's King.
That's how the story starts off. This book - in fact, all three books! - read like train wrecks you can't tear your eyes away from, so gritty and angst you and full of emotion as they are. I recommend this, but not in chunks. Read the whole thing through in one go. That's the way to read Melina Marchetta, I think.
This book just wasn't for me.
The characters are interesting enough, I suppose. Pestilence looks like a Greek god ready to woo half the world and acts like a wary stray with its first toy. Sara is a young adult with a liking for wine and an attraction to a deadly pest with an old soul and infection in his very presence, who can't decide whether it's a good idea to torture her or not.
I just didn't like it. There was too much physical attraction, and the emotional attraction was due to the conflict they felt in the way they treated each other, which I dislike in my characters. The writing of the story isn't bad; it kept me reading, but eventually I just decided I had to call it quits.
This AI calls himself Murderbot: a part-organic, part-robot security unit who managed to essentially root himself. He could have gone on a massive xenocidal human-extinction spree; after all, he does have How To Kill modules downloaded.
Instead he's consumed 35,000 hours of movies, books, serials, plays and music to date.
All he wants is to sit in standby and watch Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, but his current employers (group of scientists surveying a new planet) are also a group of friends who actually treat him like he's human. The horror of this! They actually want to talk to him! It's costing him in efficiency!
“The idea of talking about my feelings with the human was so horrifying that I dropped to 97% efficiency.”
feelings
This book really deserves four stars, but I can only give it three, for reasons I will explain shortly.
Here's the thing: the writing is clunky and quite flowery at times, and then at others, it tightens up and unexpectedly slaps you with everything that's right. The book see-saws between these two states, which is one reason why it took me two weeks (TWO WEEKS) to finish it, when I could have finished it in a day.
Another reason I took so long with it is because I shouldn't have any time to read: and yet, I found time, because Much Needed Rain, beneath all the flowers and twisty sentences and dubious character action, is good.
Look at that blurb. It's really attractive, and the book does deliver on the whole “lie hunter” thing. I was surprised that the author kept up the body language analyses, but he did, and I quite enjoyed that. It reminded me of Lie To Me.
The main thing I didn't like about the book - the reason it gets three stars, when I wanted to give it four - is the writing. As I said before, it is clunky. It felt like even the most normal things were a bit overdone. For example, in Chapter 1, there is a scene where Lewelyn is in a coffee shop, and he encounters a loud group of students:
“Remember his face?!” a haughty joyous voice blared.A group of high-school students in varsity sports jackets laughed at the memory they all shared. Inhabiting a booth opposite the centred counter, the four of them went on with their loud freedom of speech. Lewelyn had chosen a squared booth right at one end to ward off any disturbing entities. The lighting was poor in comparison to the counter's mass festoon of lights. Lewelyn deliberated on whether they were out, ready for Christmas (which was six months away).
liked
The open doorway revealed countless shapes - some with distinctive similarities to parts of a human body, a number of places offering hidden refuge. Staying withing the confines of the doorway as if it somehow protected her, she watched for any motion from the objects concealed in the darkness. They all knew her and she knew them: tables, chairs, drawers, shelves; so many potential hiding places.
against
The Kestrel keeps up with the first of the series, Westmark. It's just as good, maybe better. The story of Theo has become grittier, bloodier, and with a lot more war than the first book. Also, Theo disappears a lot.
As usual, Florian is incomprehensible powerful, Justin a wild chieftain in a military setting, Mickle a most unusually risky queen, and Las Bombas a sweet talking, money-loving scammer.
Theo, on the other hand, is no longer the good, conscience-stricken boy he was in Westmark. Rage and war don't treat him well, and these combined with Stock's death turn him into Colonel Kestrel, a bloodthirsty madman, as Las Bombas calls him. I'm not sure how I feel about this.
I certainly liked the book. It was a good read. But The Kestrel and Westmark are so different from each other, and yet still the same. I think I'll go read the third and see what that's like.
Oooh, this book was good.
The story begins with Theo, who' so printer's “devil”, someone who helps with the various tasks and jobs that the printer needs assistance with. Then gets a job from a suspiciously upbeat dwarf named Musket, to print a lot of copies of a pamphlet that appears to be most suspicious. They accepts, though - the profit was great, after all - but when the job begins, things take a turn for the worse, because unknowingly they're printing treasonous material.
Things happens, Anton dies, and Theo runs away. And so the story begins.
I liked the book. The prose was excellent! I loved the way the author wrote! The quotes are simply awesome.
Also, Theo possesses a conscience. For a teen sucked into a world where murder and war are synonymous and are said to be for the better good, and where he's forced to go along with a scam artist because it's the only way to be safe, Theo is surprisingly guilty about it all. He questions the righteousness of every wrong thing he does, something very rare in books these days.
It's a good read. Nothing amazing, and the characters keep their distance from the reader, but the book is a good time passer. I like it.
And on to the sequel!
Like a lot of good books, this book stayed on my shelf for over a month (or two, I don't remember) before I actually took it down, dusted it off and started devouring it (.figuratively speaking, because I read it in digital format). And I really liked it.
Essie was quite a rounded character, even if a little too perfect a heroine. It sounded like she was trying too hard to seem imperfect, and while I wish she'd made more mistakes, her voice was in my head throughout the book, which equals a good story.
Dane, on the other hand, was not that typical a good-looking hero. He decided to go all villainy halfway through the book, but that ended pretty quick - I'm sure you can guess why. ;) At any rate, I rather liked him, especially because he felt 3D.
Oh, and what I loved the best was the Drone Crew, as I call them. Whirligig, Clank and Clunk, Ticktock, Zippy, and my favourites, Cusser and Dimwit (who, even though he isn't human, is my FAVOURITE character!).
I like this book. I think it's one I'll be reading again.
I'm not sure what to think. I dived in expecting a murder mystery investigation, and what I got was mainly a dissection of the lives of the various people involved in the investigation. Of course there was the mystery, and it was eventually solved, but... how do I explain it?
Shoving aside my expectations, this book was extravagantly interesting. It read like the translation it is, but I feel that added to its charm. The characters were all interesting, rather complicated, very human and most sinful. There was this atmosphere about the story, where it takes you from a slummy tavern full of criminals to the highest class of policing, two sides of the coin, and all the Latin and international ties... Ai, it was a lot to take in. I'm glad I bought the book, though.
It's worth a read, especially if you like a book that politely keeps its distance, for fear it'll pull you in and bury you in its bog of a plot.
This was a good book. I was a little hesitant the whole time I was reading, because for one thing, the main character cuts herself, and I hate pain of any kind, even fictional pain (which is sometimes the worst, because authors are sadistic creatures who like to put their poor characters through the grinder for the sake of a good story). For another thing, it's so easy for this kind of book to be good one page and take a dive off a cliff and into the Sea of Horrendous the next.
That didn't happen with this book. The standard of the writing was up throughout the story (minus a few boring passages, of course). The pace was a little slow, and not a lot happened (compared to other books) but the story is good. I liked it. I'll probably read it again.
Oooh, this was a goodie. I like the author's writing, even though it's a little simple and straightforward. This is the third book in the series, and as usual, I loved it.
The writing was good (as always). The plot was historically accurate (as far as I know), and the story she's weaved from the facts she had is gripping, fast paced, and original. I devoured this book in three hours flat.
I can't write a proper review right now, because off I go to the fourth book. I'll try and write a proper one later (meaning never, possibly, or most likely in ten years).
I didn't expect Fly by Night to attack me, clobber me on the head and leave me as stunned as it did. I mean, I even wrote an email to Frances Hardinge, the author! I don't usually do that!
Fly By Night's prose is what really caught me in its web. Things are described so vividly with such lovely, wonderful words they make the story sound like a song. For a person who loves words and the sounds they make as much as I do, this book was as good as drugs.
Mosca is, in short, the most amusing character I have ever met - while Eponymous Clent is a man after my own heart, which makes me a little biased. And Saracen - man, I LOVE that demonic goose to pieces! (If he'd let me touch him, of course).
I love everything about this book. The prose is enchanting, Mosca is amusing, Mr Clent is enchanting, Saracen is fatally funny, the plot is twisting, the adventure exciting, the people and places and time and world and imagination - gaaaah, I just love the book!
And Twilight Robbery, the sequel, as well.
And A Face Like Glass, which, along with Fly By Night, I searched for and bought. And read often. Just to savour the story. Like a particularly wonderfully tasty piece of pastry on my tongue.
I can't wait for Fly By Night 3!