Adeline
Updated a reading goal:
Read 50 books by December 30, 2025
Progress so far: 75 / 50 150%
Mystery told through transcripts of email, phone messages and various documents, follows the tenants of a newly renovated pub in the English countryside where their weekly quiz event disrupted by the arrival of a new mysterious team and by a tragic accident.
Since I’m on holiday I’ll keep my review short and spoiler-free.
Janice Hallett always delivers cozy clever mysteries in a fun, fast paced format, and I’ve got to say I liked this sixth book of hers.
I really liked the pub setting and the quizz themed story.
The twists were satisfying especially those right at the end!
I liked how the characters aren’t perfect but compelling though the cast were a bit too numerous and some didn’t add anything substantial to the plot.
Some parts involving flashbacks I wasn’t super into it and found them a bit tedious. I feel the story dragged a bit towards the second half of the book even if the twists at the end made it up.
Overall, though not my favourite in her rooster, this was another good and fun novel by Janice Hallett.
Mystery told through transcripts of email, phone messages and various documents, follows the tenants of a newly renovated pub in the English countryside where their weekly quiz event disrupted by the arrival of a new mysterious team and by a tragic accident.
Since I’m on holiday I’ll keep my review short and spoiler-free.
Janice Hallett always delivers cozy clever mysteries in a fun, fast paced format, and I’ve got to say I liked this sixth book of hers.
I really liked the pub setting and the quizz themed story.
The twists were satisfying especially those right at the end!
I liked how the characters aren’t perfect but compelling though the cast were a bit too numerous and some didn’t add anything substantial to the plot.
Some parts involving flashbacks I wasn’t super into it and found them a bit tedious. I feel the story dragged a bit towards the second half of the book even if the twists at the end made it up.
Overall, though not my favourite in her rooster, this was another good and fun novel by Janice Hallett.
Dark fiction collection translated from Argentine Spanish, the author portrays Argentine society throughout twelve different stories, with shades of gothic horror and magical realism. This was my first Mariana Enriquez book, and overall a very interesting collection. I liked how she showed Argentine with its haunted past, the dark underbelly of its society, how women are at the center of her stories, how complex and real these characters were, flawed yet still compelling. She explored various themes like violence against women, corruption and gaslighting, using it as a social critique. All the stories were dark and bleak in tone, some veering into supernatural horror but always based on a real world showing the worst of humanity, the victims of social and historical negligence. The stories were all quite short and most had abrupt ending, while it worked for some, it didn’t for others. As it’s the case in that format of literature, my personal enjoyment differed from story to story. - The dirty kid 4.25 - The inn 3.75 - The intoxicated years 4 - Adela’s House 4.5 - An invocation of the big-eared runt 4 - Spiderweb 4 - End of term 3.75 - No flesh over Our Bones 3.5 - The Neighbor’s Courtyard 4.5 - Under the Black Water 4.5 - Green Red Orange 3.5 - Things We Lost in the Fire 4.25
I really liked the translator’s note that added another layer of comprehension and context to these stories. I’ll definitely check out her other short story collections !
Dark fiction collection translated from Argentine Spanish, the author portrays Argentine society throughout twelve different stories, with shades of gothic horror and magical realism. This was my first Mariana Enriquez book, and overall a very interesting collection. I liked how she showed Argentine with its haunted past, the dark underbelly of its society, how women are at the center of her stories, how complex and real these characters were, flawed yet still compelling. She explored various themes like violence against women, corruption and gaslighting, using it as a social critique. All the stories were dark and bleak in tone, some veering into supernatural horror but always based on a real world showing the worst of humanity, the victims of social and historical negligence. The stories were all quite short and most had abrupt ending, while it worked for some, it didn’t for others. As it’s the case in that format of literature, my personal enjoyment differed from story to story. - The dirty kid 4.25 - The inn 3.75 - The intoxicated years 4 - Adela’s House 4.5 - An invocation of the big-eared runt 4 - Spiderweb 4 - End of term 3.75 - No flesh over Our Bones 3.5 - The Neighbor’s Courtyard 4.5 - Under the Black Water 4.5 - Green Red Orange 3.5 - Things We Lost in the Fire 4.25
I really liked the translator’s note that added another layer of comprehension and context to these stories. I’ll definitely check out her other short story collections !
3.25 stars
Speculative mystery following Anisa, a Pakistani living as a subtitle translator in London who is invited by her boyfriend to a mysterious program that guarantees complete fluency in any language in just ten days.
So the positive aspects of this book first. I liked what the author had to say on racism, colonialism in society/relationships/culture, translation, language, cultural appropriation, privilege, memory, migration, patriarchy, misogyny etc. I won’t comment on the Muslim/Pakistani representation since I’m neither, so I’ll say to check out reviewers who can speak on that. I liked how the character looses herself more and more, both hating and loving the power giving to her yet still unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
I liked the open ending and how some things don’t have perfect answers like in real life. I liked how for most part we don’t know how the process works, so that ignorance and makes the atmosphere more sinister, augmenting the dread creeping in, making it a page turner in a frantic attempt to find the truth.
I’m not sure I found the main character compelling enough even as her faults/qualities were balanced, she sometimes grated me with her reactions and her flip flop emotions, which I don’t usually get with characters deemed unlikeable but I guess this was exacerbated by the other negative aspects of the book.
I felt sometimes her thematics wasn’t integrated well enough, like the character was more a mouthpiece for the author’s reflections than a character in her own right.
The writing was uneven, some passages felt a bit clunky, the dialogue stilted, immature, awkward. The pacing was also imperfect, time compressed for some interesting parts and too descriptive with superfluous details. I wished we had more scenes about the Center in the location itself and more gore/horror elements, but also about the act of translating/learning a language, both thematics were my favourites and I liked those parts of the books. I found other plots elements much less interesting (regarding various relationships) and sometimes baffling (like the inclusion of an ex-IOF soldier as a founder…*spoilers I get that the founders aren’t seen as positive figures but the main character reaction to that particular founder felt weird).
Overall this ended up being an underwhelming reading experience for me, great ideas with lacklustre execution.
3.25 stars
Speculative mystery following Anisa, a Pakistani living as a subtitle translator in London who is invited by her boyfriend to a mysterious program that guarantees complete fluency in any language in just ten days.
So the positive aspects of this book first. I liked what the author had to say on racism, colonialism in society/relationships/culture, translation, language, cultural appropriation, privilege, memory, migration, patriarchy, misogyny etc. I won’t comment on the Muslim/Pakistani representation since I’m neither, so I’ll say to check out reviewers who can speak on that. I liked how the character looses herself more and more, both hating and loving the power giving to her yet still unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
I liked the open ending and how some things don’t have perfect answers like in real life. I liked how for most part we don’t know how the process works, so that ignorance and makes the atmosphere more sinister, augmenting the dread creeping in, making it a page turner in a frantic attempt to find the truth.
I’m not sure I found the main character compelling enough even as her faults/qualities were balanced, she sometimes grated me with her reactions and her flip flop emotions, which I don’t usually get with characters deemed unlikeable but I guess this was exacerbated by the other negative aspects of the book.
I felt sometimes her thematics wasn’t integrated well enough, like the character was more a mouthpiece for the author’s reflections than a character in her own right.
The writing was uneven, some passages felt a bit clunky, the dialogue stilted, immature, awkward. The pacing was also imperfect, time compressed for some interesting parts and too descriptive with superfluous details. I wished we had more scenes about the Center in the location itself and more gore/horror elements, but also about the act of translating/learning a language, both thematics were my favourites and I liked those parts of the books. I found other plots elements much less interesting (regarding various relationships) and sometimes baffling (like the inclusion of an ex-IOF soldier as a founder…*spoilers I get that the founders aren’t seen as positive figures but the main character reaction to that particular founder felt weird).
Overall this ended up being an underwhelming reading experience for me, great ideas with lacklustre execution.
3.25
3.25 stars
Speculative mystery following Anisa, a Pakistani living as a subtitle translator in London who is invited by her boyfriend to a mysterious program that guarantees complete fluency in any language in just ten days.
So the positive aspects of this book first. I liked what the author had to say on racism, colonialism in society/relationships/culture, translation, language, cultural appropriation, privilege, memory, migration, patriarchy, misogyny etc. I felt sometimes her thematics wasn’t integrated well enough, like the character was more a mouthpiece for the author’s reflections than a character in her own right. I won’t comment on the Muslim/Pakistani representation since I’m neither, so I’ll say to check out reviewers who can speak on that. I liked how the character looses herself more and more, both hating and loving the power giving to her yet still unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
I liked the open ending and how some things don’t have perfect answers like in real life. I liked how for most part we don’t know how the process works, so that ignorance and makes the atmosphere more sinister, augmenting the dread and sinister atmosphere, making it a page turner in a frantic attempt to find the truth.
I’m not sure I found the main character compelling enough even as her faults/qualities were balanced, she sometimes grated me with her reactions and her flip flop emotions, which I don’t usually get with characters deemed unlikeable but I guess this was exacerbated by the other negative aspects of the book. The writing was uneven, some passages felt a bit clunky, the dialogue stilted, immature, awkward. The pacing was also imperfect, time compressed for some interesting parts and too descriptive with superfluous details. I wished we had more scenes about the Center in the location itself and more gore/horror elements, but also about the act of translating/learning a language, both thematics were my favourites and I liked those parts of the books. I found other plots elements much less interesting (regarding various relationships) and sometimes baffling (like the inclusion of an ex-IOF soldier as a founder…*spoilers I get that the founders aren’t seen as positive figures but the main character reaction to that particular founder felt weird).
Overall this ended up being an underwhelming reading experience for me, great ideas with lacklustre execution.
3.25
3.25 stars
Speculative mystery following Anisa, a Pakistani living as a subtitle translator in London who is invited by her boyfriend to a mysterious program that guarantees complete fluency in any language in just ten days.
So the positive aspects of this book first. I liked what the author had to say on racism, colonialism in society/relationships/culture, translation, language, cultural appropriation, privilege, memory, migration, patriarchy, misogyny etc. I felt sometimes her thematics wasn’t integrated well enough, like the character was more a mouthpiece for the author’s reflections than a character in her own right. I won’t comment on the Muslim/Pakistani representation since I’m neither, so I’ll say to check out reviewers who can speak on that. I liked how the character looses herself more and more, both hating and loving the power giving to her yet still unsatisfied and unfulfilled.
I liked the open ending and how some things don’t have perfect answers like in real life. I liked how for most part we don’t know how the process works, so that ignorance and makes the atmosphere more sinister, augmenting the dread and sinister atmosphere, making it a page turner in a frantic attempt to find the truth.
I’m not sure I found the main character compelling enough even as her faults/qualities were balanced, she sometimes grated me with her reactions and her flip flop emotions, which I don’t usually get with characters deemed unlikeable but I guess this was exacerbated by the other negative aspects of the book. The writing was uneven, some passages felt a bit clunky, the dialogue stilted, immature, awkward. The pacing was also imperfect, time compressed for some interesting parts and too descriptive with superfluous details. I wished we had more scenes about the Center in the location itself and more gore/horror elements, but also about the act of translating/learning a language, both thematics were my favourites and I liked those parts of the books. I found other plots elements much less interesting (regarding various relationships) and sometimes baffling (like the inclusion of an ex-IOF soldier as a founder…*spoilers I get that the founders aren’t seen as positive figures but the main character reaction to that particular founder felt weird).
Overall this ended up being an underwhelming reading experience for me, great ideas with lacklustre execution.
Historical gothic horror taking place in 18th century Mexico where Alba, a young wealthy woman flees the plague and accompanies Carlos, her fiancée, to his silver mine in a remote mountain village, in order to save the fate of their upcoming marriage from her doubtful parent. She meets Elías, Carlos’ estranged cousin, a mysterious man of Spanish Arab descent, who arrived from Spain to pay his father’s debt as a refiner of silver and mercury. As Alba and Elias gravitate more and more towards each other, Alba starts to experience strange things beyond her usual sleepwalking ….
Oh this was an incredible banger of a book and definitely Isabel Cañas’ best work yet. Like her previous books, she delivered here an intense and engaging story with compelling characters and a stunning lush writing style.
Overall this was such a delicious and dark read, filled with a tense, creepy atmosphere thick with dread and paranoia, with some perfectly gory moments and horror tinted religious imagery that added so much depth to it. I loved how the author incorporated themes of independence, pro choice, body autonomy, patriarchy, freedom, religious zealotry/bigotry, colonialism/imperialism and greed. I wasn’t particularly surprised by most of the twists but the pacing was perfect and the tension was really well executed throughout the whole book. The last 100 pages were incredibly heart pounding to read and the ending was absolutely satisfying. The yearning, angst and tension between Alba and Elías was perfect and I loved reading both their points of view, as they were both complex characters, not total perfect angels but each with their own “flaws” and darkness. Even the couple of elements I liked less didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the story. This was such an incredible read and Isabel Cañas definitely became an auto buy author for me.
Historical gothic horror taking place in 18th century Mexico where Alba, a young wealthy woman flees the plague and accompanies Carlos, her fiancée, to his silver mine in a remote mountain village, in order to save the fate of their upcoming marriage from her doubtful parent. She meets Elías, Carlos’ estranged cousin, a mysterious man of Spanish Arab descent, who arrived from Spain to pay his father’s debt as a refiner of silver and mercury. As Alba and Elias gravitate more and more towards each other, Alba starts to experience strange things beyond her usual sleepwalking ….
Oh this was an incredible banger of a book and definitely Isabel Cañas’ best work yet. Like her previous books, she delivered here an intense and engaging story with compelling characters and a stunning lush writing style.
Overall this was such a delicious and dark read, filled with a tense, creepy atmosphere thick with dread and paranoia, with some perfectly gory moments and horror tinted religious imagery that added so much depth to it. I loved how the author incorporated themes of independence, pro choice, body autonomy, patriarchy, freedom, religious zealotry/bigotry, colonialism/imperialism and greed. I wasn’t particularly surprised by most of the twists but the pacing was perfect and the tension was really well executed throughout the whole book. The last 100 pages were incredibly heart pounding to read and the ending was absolutely satisfying. The yearning, angst and tension between Alba and Elías was perfect and I loved reading both their points of view, as they were both complex characters, not total perfect angels but each with their own “flaws” and darkness. Even the couple of elements I liked less didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the story. This was such an incredible read and Isabel Cañas definitely became an auto buy author for me.
Historical gothic horror taking place in 18th century Mexico where Alba, a young wealthy woman flees the plague and accompanies Carlos, her fiancée, to his silver mine in a remote mountain village, in order to save the fate of their upcoming marriage from her doubtful parent. She meets Elías, Carlos’ estranged cousin, a mysterious man of Spanish Arab descent, who arrived from Spain to pay his father’s debt as a refiner of silver and mercury. As Alba and Elias gravitate more and more towards each other, Alba starts to experience strange things beyond her usual sleepwalking ….
Oh this was an incredible banger of a book and definitely Isabel Cañas’ best work yet. Like her previous books, she delivered here an intense and engaging story with compelling characters and a stunning lush writing style.
Overall this was such a delicious and dark read, filled with a tense, creepy atmosphere thick with dread and paranoia, with some perfectly gory moments and horror tinted religious imagery that added so much depth to it. I loved how the author incorporated themes of independence, freedom, religious zealotry/bigotry, colonialism/imperialism and greed. I wasn’t particularly surprised by most of the twists but the pacing was perfect and the tension was really well executed throughout the whole book. The last 100 pages were incredibly heart pounding to read and the ending was absolutely satisfying. The yearning, angst and tension between Alba and Elías was perfect and I loved reading both their points of view, as they were both complex characters, not total perfect angels but each with their own “flaws” and darkness. Even the couple of elements I liked less didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the story. This was such an incredible read and Isabel Cañas definitely became an auto buy author for me.
Historical gothic horror taking place in 18th century Mexico where Alba, a young wealthy woman flees the plague and accompanies Carlos, her fiancée, to his silver mine in a remote mountain village, in order to save the fate of their upcoming marriage from her doubtful parent. She meets Elías, Carlos’ estranged cousin, a mysterious man of Spanish Arab descent, who arrived from Spain to pay his father’s debt as a refiner of silver and mercury. As Alba and Elias gravitate more and more towards each other, Alba starts to experience strange things beyond her usual sleepwalking ….
Oh this was an incredible banger of a book and definitely Isabel Cañas’ best work yet. Like her previous books, she delivered here an intense and engaging story with compelling characters and a stunning lush writing style.
Overall this was such a delicious and dark read, filled with a tense, creepy atmosphere thick with dread and paranoia, with some perfectly gory moments and horror tinted religious imagery that added so much depth to it. I loved how the author incorporated themes of independence, freedom, religious zealotry/bigotry, colonialism/imperialism and greed. I wasn’t particularly surprised by most of the twists but the pacing was perfect and the tension was really well executed throughout the whole book. The last 100 pages were incredibly heart pounding to read and the ending was absolutely satisfying. The yearning, angst and tension between Alba and Elías was perfect and I loved reading both their points of view, as they were both complex characters, not total perfect angels but each with their own “flaws” and darkness. Even the couple of elements I liked less didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the story. This was such an incredible read and Isabel Cañas definitely became an auto buy author for me.
4.25 stars
Psychological mystery thriller following Margo a former nurse who works at a library after a series of accidents happened at her old workplace and Patricia, a newly hired employee who begins to suspect Margo isn’t what she claims to be.
This was such a page turning little book, a quick read that could be done in one sitting.
I liked how unhinged both characters were, fascinating to read them as compelling train wrecks, obsessed and blinded by their own selfish desires, ultimately psychotic characters playing a cat and mouse game of their own.
I liked reading both points of view where each character gave their version of the events, twisted by their own psychosis, aided by a good prose.
Pacing wise, this was a quick and tense read and I actually really liked the idea behind the ending though I felt a bit too rushed and underwhelming.
The side characters weren’t particularly essential to the plot and one literal reference was discussed but I wished it was explored more. I wished we had seen more of the main character’s past, and build more of relationship between Patricia and Margo.
Overall a short and fun popcorn of a story, perfect if you like unhinged and unlikeable characters moving inextricably towards a crash.
4.25 stars
Psychological mystery thriller following Margo a former nurse who works at a library after a series of accidents happened at her old workplace and Patricia, a newly hired employee who begins to suspect Margo isn’t what she claims to be.
This was such a page turning little book, a quick read that could be done in one sitting.
I liked how unhinged both characters were, fascinating to read them as compelling train wrecks, obsessed and blinded by their own selfish desires, ultimately psychotic characters playing a cat and mouse game of their own.
I liked reading both points of view where each character gave their version of the events, twisted by their own psychosis, aided by a good prose.
Pacing wise, this was a quick and tense read and I actually really liked the idea behind the ending though I felt a bit too rushed and underwhelming.
The side characters weren’t particularly essential to the plot and one literal reference was discussed but I wished it was explored more. I wished we had seen more of the main character’s past, and build more of relationship between Patricia and Margo.
Overall a short and fun popcorn of a story, perfect if you like unhinged and unlikeable characters moving inextricably towards a crash.
4.75 stars
Third and final book in the space opera series The Waystations trilogy, the different characters, old enemies and new allies, brace themselves for the final confrontation with the horrific curators that threaten to take over the universe.
What an incredible finale this was !!!
As with the previous book, the author did an incredible job with constructing an intense and page turning story filled with compelling characters and interesting world building. This was a non stop action adventure, though I won’t delve into explaining more to avoid spoilers.
There were a couple of elements I thought were a bit too rushed or not explored enough so I knocked off a few points but overall the final chapter in this story had such a great ending, the characters arcs and their relationships were perfectly completed.
A great space opera trilogy that I sincerely enjoyed and recommend to anyone looking for a new series to read.
4.75 stars
Third and final book in the space opera series The Waystations trilogy, the different characters, old enemies and new allies, brace themselves for the final confrontation with the horrific curators that threaten to take over the universe.
What an incredible finale this was !!!
As with the previous book, the author did an incredible job with constructing an intense and page turning story filled with compelling characters and interesting world building. This was a non stop action adventure, though I won’t delve into explaining more to avoid spoilers.
There were a couple of elements I thought were a bit too rushed or not explored enough so I knocked off a few points but overall the final chapter in this story had such a great ending, the characters arcs and their relationships were perfectly completed.
A great space opera trilogy that I sincerely enjoyed and recommend to anyone looking for a new series to read.
3.75 stars
Mystery thriller following Anna a newsreader who has to cover a murder in her childhood village and Jack, her ex-husband and detective in charge of investigating the case, who is suspicious of Anna and might be actually involved himself.
A mixed reading experience for my third book by this author.
The writing was good and I liked the different point of views.
The characters were enough compelling to read in a train wreck and unlikeable sort of way.
I wasn’t totally surprised by the final reveal as I suspected it earlier in the book but I did like it.
Unfortunately half of the red herrings presented didn’t landed successfully for me, and sometimes were even annoying. Also pacing wise I felt the story was loosing its steam after the middle of the book so I did like how in the final part the action picks up but all of it left me a bit underwhelmed.
Even if I wasn’t totally convinced by this story, I’ll probably check out Alice Feeney other works in the future and the upcoming adaptation of this particular book.
3.75 stars
Mystery thriller following Anna a newsreader who has to cover a murder in her childhood village and Jack, her ex-husband and detective in charge of investigating the case, who is suspicious of Anna and might be actually involved himself.
A mixed reading experience for my third book by this author.
The writing was good and I liked the different point of views.
The characters were enough compelling to read in a train wreck and unlikeable sort of way.
I wasn’t totally surprised by the final reveal as I suspected it earlier in the book but I did like it.
Unfortunately half of the red herrings presented didn’t landed successfully for me, and sometimes were even annoying. Also pacing wise I felt the story was loosing its steam after the middle of the book so I did like how in the final part the action picks up but all of it left me a bit underwhelmed.
Even if I wasn’t totally convinced by this story, I’ll probably check out Alice Feeney other works in the future and the upcoming adaptation of this particular book.
Historical fiction reimagining the life of the daughter of the iconic British warrior Boudicca who rebelled against the Roman Empire during Nero’s reign.
I don’t know what Elodie Harper puts into this particular book that made me devour all 472 pages in 24 hours.
Like her previous books, The Wolf Den trilogy, one of my favourite series of all time, she has such an incredible voice that makes History feel so vivid and emotional to read about.
Her characters are all so compelling, complex and real and I loved Solina whose is at the heart of this story, her resilience and strength were truly inspiring to read about. I also loved the other points of view which gave a more rounded and interesting perspective on the historical events.
Because this was a single volume, events were sometimes too compressed and I wished the story would have been lengthened into two volumes, still emotionally it still made me feel so many things.
Overall an incredible read that I absolutely inhaled, forgive me for this is a quick review, I just had to get it off my chest. I can’t wait to see what other stories will Elodie Harper tell in the future.
Historical fiction reimagining the life of the daughter of the iconic British warrior Boudicca who rebelled against the Roman Empire during Nero’s reign.
I don’t know what Elodie Harper puts into this particular book that made me devour all 472 pages in 24 hours.
Like her previous books, The Wolf Den trilogy, one of my favourite series of all time, she has such an incredible voice that makes History feel so vivid and emotional to read about.
Her characters are all so compelling, complex and real and I loved Solina whose is at the heart of this story, her resilience and strength were truly inspiring to read about. I also loved the other points of view which gave a more rounded and interesting perspective on the historical events.
Because this was a single volume, events were sometimes too compressed and I wished the story would have been lengthened into two volumes, still emotionally it still made me feel so many things.
Overall an incredible read that I absolutely inhaled, forgive me for this is a quick review, I just had to get it off my chest. I can’t wait to see what other stories will Elodie Harper tell in the future.
Literary historical novel told as a museum exhibit, it follows the life of Kitty, an American woman from her birth at the beginning of the 20th century to her death just before the other millennium.
This was such a quirky little book ! I read it in one sitting and it quite a page turning fast paced biographical story.
This explores not only the life of a woman in the early 20th century woman’s life but also how she was viewed by her entourage, exploring themes of social expectations, patriarchy, beauty standards, family, objectification of women, etc with a nuanced and tender portrayal of the main character that came across as quirky but not without depth.
The plot being light and straightforward, the main attraction of this book for me as an ex-student of art history was the narrative style made of essentially museum explanation cards (with a few passages written like a traditional novel).
The author did such a great job infusing artistic and academic vocabulary and writing into a biographical story.
I also liked the surrealist atmosphere of the story that was exacerbated by that particular narrative style.
While there was no illustrations (maybe because of copyright laws?), I would have liked to see some, as to make the reading experience even more like a museum catalogue.
Overall a quick and quirky book, a traditional story told throughout a very creative narrative style.
Literary historical novel told as a museum exhibit, it follows the life of Kitty, an American woman from her birth at the beginning of the 20th century to her death just before the other millennium.
This was such a quirky little book ! I read it in one sitting and it quite a page turning fast paced biographical story.
This explores not only the life of a woman in the early 20th century woman’s life but also how she was viewed by her entourage, exploring themes of social expectations, patriarchy, beauty standards, family, objectification of women, etc with a nuanced and tender portrayal of the main character that came across as quirky but not without depth.
The plot being light and straightforward, the main attraction of this book for me as an ex-student of art history was the narrative style made of essentially museum explanation cards (with a few passages written like a traditional novel).
The author did such a great job infusing artistic and academic vocabulary and writing into a biographical story.
I also liked the surrealist atmosphere of the story that was exacerbated by that particular narrative style.
While there was no illustrations (maybe because of copyright laws?), I would have liked to see some, as to make the reading experience even more like a museum catalogue.
Overall a quick and quirky book, a traditional story told throughout a very creative narrative style.
4 stars * slight spoilers
Fourth book in the Saint of Steel quadrilogy, a Romantic high fantasy mystery, it follows Shane another Paladin that accompanies as a bodyguard to Marguerite a spy fleeing from her former employer and trying to find an artificier whose invention might bring an economic revolution.
So this book in the quadrilogy was quite good though not exceptional and not my favourite from this series.
As always T. Kingfisher created exceptional world building, compelling characters with an gaging prose that made this a page turner of a book.
The plot in this book involved spying and cult which as a premise really interested me.
I actually liked the first part of the book but the second part was a bit underwhelming for me. Subplots and side characters that I was interested in during that first part didn’t really come to play in the second. Also the subplots (the cult and the demon) from the second part felt too rushed, and while interesting overall the story lacked tension and I wished the atmosphere was a bit more horror like. I also wished we had seen more really spying in action.
The romance was also a bit underwhelming in its development, especially in that second part was also rushed.
I feel the author wanted to tackle a lot of aspects but it didn’t feel fully formed. Maybe adding more pages or shaving off subplots might have made this more impactful.
I really liked the epilogue and the fate of a certain side character but I wished we had seen more of them throughout the story so that it would have impacted me more. That being said I would love to see another book about that character or even others in that world following what happened after book three of the series.
Overall an imperfect yet entertaining fourth book, but the series was definitely worth reading and I enjoyed it as a whole. I’m looking forward to reading more works by T. Kingfisher.
4 stars * slight spoilers
Fourth book in the Saint of Steel quadrilogy, a Romantic high fantasy mystery, it follows Shane another Paladin that accompanies as a bodyguard to Marguerite a spy fleeing from her former employer and trying to find an artificier whose invention might bring an economic revolution.
So this book in the quadrilogy was quite good though not exceptional and not my favourite from this series.
As always T. Kingfisher created exceptional world building, compelling characters with an gaging prose that made this a page turner of a book.
The plot in this book involved spying and cult which as a premise really interested me.
I actually liked the first part of the book but the second part was a bit underwhelming for me. Subplots and side characters that I was interested in during that first part didn’t really come to play in the second. Also the subplots (the cult and the demon) from the second part felt too rushed, and while interesting overall the story lacked tension and I wished the atmosphere was a bit more horror like. I also wished we had seen more really spying in action.
The romance was also a bit underwhelming in its development, especially in that second part was also rushed.
I feel the author wanted to tackle a lot of aspects but it didn’t feel fully formed. Maybe adding more pages or shaving off subplots might have made this more impactful.
I really liked the epilogue and the fate of a certain side character but I wished we had seen more of them throughout the story so that it would have impacted me more. That being said I would love to see another book about that character or even others in that world following what happened after book three of the series.
Overall an imperfect yet entertaining fourth book, but the series was definitely worth reading and I enjoyed it as a whole. I’m looking forward to reading more works by T. Kingfisher.