Review: The Fault in Our Stars (19/04/20)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If anyone is unfamiliar with this book, where have you been for decade? I admit I had not read this book. But I did understand the basic story line. The story follows Hazel as she navigates later stages of terminal cancer. She goes about her days muddling through as best she can. Her mum who worries about her mental state encourages her to go to group therapy session once a week. It is there she meets Augustus. They form a friendship full of witty banter and love of reading.

No more summary as its basically all tears from there…

It’s hard to say what I liked about this book. All of it? None of it? How can I like a book that so completely broke my emotional well-being? But I did.

The characters were brilliant. They were funny, so funny. Which was needed in a book that was dealing with the issue of childhood cancer. It was written beautifully and having never read a book by John Green before. I did not know what I was missing. I am ready (almost) to take on any of his other books if they are even half as good as this.

There was nothing I didn’t like about this book honestly. Except all of it. But not really. I guess you only understand if you have read it.

A solid 4 stars. If you want to weep like a baby and are ready to be emotionally distraught. This is the book for you.


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Review: Married to the Rake (20/04/20)

Married to the Rake by Samantha Holt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So on a whim I downloaded this as an eBook to my kindle as part of my unlimited subscription.
As the name and picture imply this is a historical romance. Which follows a very typical enemies to lovers’ format. The main character Chole Larkin is a typical bookish type of heroine. She lives with her family in a typical regency estate happily gallivanting away her days with books and meeting her two close friends. Enter the ‘rake’. Mr Brook Waverly. The son of a neighbouring family, of which the Larkins are sworn enemies. The families share a boundary line which for generations the two families are argued over about 20ft of land, constantly moving the line back and forth.
Can you see where this story is heading?
Chloe and Brook team up to try and stop the constant argument about the line once and for all, so that their aging fathers can finally rest. Obviously, a budding romance begin from this otherwise it would be an extremely poor romance.

I liked the characters. Nothing was too cheesy, as these types of books can sometimes get. It was a quick easy, sweet kind of book. I genuinely want to know about the characters and the sub plot. Her friends were also interesting, and it seems the other 2 books in this series focus on their love lives.

I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t as ‘steamy’ as I would have liked. That was the only thing that for me, would have bumped up the rating. It kind of left me feeling a little bit short changed, but I think that is just my personal taste for these types of books. If you like your romance on the cleaner side, this would probably be right up your street.

Overall a nice, sweet, easy read. A solid 3 stars.

Will this book win awards, no sorry it won’t. But, did I enjoy it? Yes. Will I read the other two in the series? Yes, definitely!


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Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (18/04/20)

So this book started off really slow to begin with. I felt like I really struggled to get to the 25% mark. and took me much longer to read than I anticipated. Maybe I just wasn't quite feeling it to begin with. Who knows?

Luckily it got much more interesting with the introduction of Matthais and Nina's characters. I loved the back and forth with their characters. I also liked them much more than Kaz's initial chapters, he took me a long time to warm too. I liked Inej almost straight away as well, her character is so complex yet seems to readily give herself to the reader. I really couldn't work out Kaz Brekker, but I don't think I was meant to. Jesper and Wylan make up the last two characters in the group and they were fun to read and rounded the team off nicely.

The basic plot is the six characters led by Kaz are attempting to break into the Ice Palace to kidnap/recuse/commandeer a prisoner who knows about a drug being used to make Grisha crazy strong and unpredictable. This 'jurda parem' seems to be very dangerous and could threaten the safety of many people. However, this isn't a selfless, heroic kind of adventure. These character are for the most part ruthless and most have questionable morals. The story covers their journey together and the changing relationships within the group, whilst they try to get in, get out and most impotently get their money..

It took me a long time to get used to the swapping between points of view. I was at times, early on, very confused.

Mostly because of the amount of characters there was. I definitely enjoyed reading from some characters view points more than others.

I enjoyed the original Grishaverse trilogy and got through them really quickly so was expecting the same here but this is very different. I don't think I've ever read a true 'heist' style story and I couldn't decided early on if I like it or not. Overall by the end I was hooked. This isn't a book you can put down and then come back to a few days later, you need to keep everything fresh in your head. All the charcaters rounded out and the ending was brilliant. It's been a few days now since finishing and I keep thinking about the characters. I will definietly be continuing the series fairly soon!

I give this book a solid 4*'s. I think if I hadn't found it so confusing in the beginning I would have given it more.

Wicked As You Wish by Rin Chupeco (05/04/2020)

So I received this book as an ARC in my December Fairyloot book subscription box.

As the release date wasn't until March 2020, I hadn't really seen or heard anything about this book to know if I wanted to read it or not. After reading the summary, I was pleasently optimistic. It was put across as a kind of Snow Queen re-telling.

This made me very interested!



 I'm not sure anyone I have ever met has seen the cartoon I had on video as a child, but it was 'The Snow Queen' and I loved it so much. It was really dark and absure, likely made from one of those cheap animation studios, but none the less I loved the story of Gerda venturing off on a perilous journey to save her childhood friend Kay.

After a bit of digging on google it turns out the version I loved was the 1957 version of the story.... animated in Soviet Russia....

I'm not overly surprised. As I was primarily raised by my grandparents so tended to end up watching random old films.


 Anyway, this film gave me a good understadning of the orginal story, so long story short, I had high hope for this book.

I like the orginal story, I have liked many other re-tellings, and this book seems to have lots of other fairytales woven into it.

So far so good.

And don't get me wrong, I ended up in the long run enjoying this story. BUT....

The beginning was so confusing and I didn't really see the point in the main character having Philippine heritage. I know, I know... it's likely to be an unpopular opinion but I found it made the world building really confusing. The world was like the 'real' world. Some countries the same and not much changed about them other than the addition of a magic system... But then there was random 'mythical' countries all over the place. The book didn't have map which made it really hard to place things, I ended up spending a lot on time confused about where the hell everything was in connection to countries I knew.

The other confusing bit was there were so many characters introduced so early, that didn't really have actual parts. But they kept talking. I had to re-read so many pages because I just had no idea who was saying what, or who they were talking to. It was very slow starting book which I actually started reading way back in February. I could not get past the first hundred pages easily. A couple of times I was close to DNFing it.

However, I pushed through it and really knuckled down to get it done this month and I am glad I did. I'm not saying it was the best fantasy re-telling, by a long shot. It is such a shame the last 50% of the book was actually paced well and had interesting character development. I particularity likes the 'Banders', the group selected by the Cheshire Cat (yes from Alice in Wonderland) to assist getting the Lost Prince of Avalon, our heroines best friend, Alex, back to his sealed off Kingdom of Avalon. I liked those characters much more initially than I did Tala and Alex the 'main characters'.

There was a tiny element of romance, but it seemed thrown in and not a main plot point in this book. This is the start of a series. Will I continue?

I would have liked to give the ending of this book a better rating but the slow start really pulled it down. It was nearly a 2* book, had the ending and character development not picked up.

Heir of Fire (09/09/18)

So this is the third installment in the Throne of Glass series, following straight on from Crown of Midnight, we pick straight back up with Celeana and how she is still devastated from the loss of her close friend.

This review will have spoilers in, its impossible to talk about a 3^rd series book without them!

So I’ll start with what I thought I wouldn’t like. Rowan. And Celeana.

When I started this book I was completed all about Chaol and Celeana… I probably still am deep down. But I can see something beautiful and different blossoming with Rowan. I feel like Chaol saved Celena in ToG but in HoF it is Celeana/Aelin who saves Rowan. And I think after all that happens in HoF Celeana/Aelin needs to not feel like she has been saved. She needs to be the hero of her own story.

But yes for a good third of the book I could kind of see Chaol being pushed aside and I was not happy about it.

Dorian’s love life filled me with such hope…. Then utterly shattered me. I actually applaud the author for that. To often in these types of books you can see the love interests playing out in a very samey samey kind of way. Not with this one. I am still raw and broken from it. I had to put the book on my lap for a few mins to really absorb what was happening.

I loved the flash backs to Aelin’s past and hope we get to see more of these in future books. I feel the story is becoming very intricate now and has really found its way. I know a lot wont like it because of the changes in direction but realistically for Aelin to get done what is needed, big changes needed to happen and the changes in her in this book to me, seem realistic and purposeful.

I also really enjoyed the character shift to Manon, the Blackbeak Witch. Hers in a very interesting storyline and I look forward to seeing it develop and how it links to Aelin’s story overall. For me this was a good solid read which once I got over the whole Chaol issue, I found I enjoyed immensely and look forward the book number 4!

Crown of Midnight (12/08/18)

So the book picks up a little while after the end of the first book. Celaena assassin, Chaol is still training with Celaena everyday when she is at the castle and not off on business for the king and Dorian is trying to get over Celaena. Lots of action, which is incredibly well written. Lots of intrigue and plot twists and the level of fantasy world building is on point.

I must say I am proper fan-girling over Chaol.  I am so invested in this coupling that I can barely focus on anything else. I like that he is far from perfect. His flaws make him more real, more believable and a lot more interesting. This internal fight he has with himself to realise what it is he really wants.

Honestly this book did me in. I’ve not been able to start the next one properly as I am too devastated by the sheer amazingness of it. It’s everything the first book should have been. The difference in complexity of the story and how well the characters have been development is phenomenal. I have not enjoyed a book this much in a long time.

I wouldn’t change this book. I wouldn’t add anything. Just well done, Sarah J. Maas, new fan here, and that means you will have me for life. Totally invested in all the characters and this new world that has been created. Just so enjoyable.

If you read the first book and weren’t too impressed…. This book is a whole other level! Please give this book a chance, otherwise you will miss out on something truly special.

Throne of Glass (08/08/18)

This book in many ways is a standard love triangle young adult novel. If you found twilight, hunger games or house of night style books tedious. Then don’t bother here. If, however, you are like me, then open up this book for a whole new world of blooming brilliance.
Simple, if interesting concept of a young assassin roped into a be all competition to become the tyrannical kings personal Champion assassin.

I found all the main characters interesting and well rounded. I want to know more about them. Luckily there are more books in this series and I can already tell there are going to be some interesting developments with some characters. The main character Celaena, I liked, a small criticism being we maybe didn’t need telling how beautiful she was every other page. This did become less apparent as the book neared its end. Love interest wise, I surprisingly liked both possibilities. Both Chaol and Dorian were likeable and swoon worthy. Without giving away anything, I have surprised myself at which one I am routing for. I would be lying however if I didn’t admit this changes every now and again.

The character of Nehemia added some depth to Celaena that I feel helped both characters become more interesting and added some nice non love interest drama to the story. Nehemia seems fierce to me and I could see her being such a strong female force in this fantasy world.

There was plenty about this book that should have made it just a YA guilty pleasure. But I feel there are some foundations for this being a blindingly fabulous series and I am just so happy to have started it. I get very into these types of books, I love a good series, but I always worry starting one. Whether it will hold up against all the other books I have read before. And luckily for me this one did. I can already feel myself getting all fan-girly about it. I could also see this being a fabulously epic tv series.

The main criticisms about this book are that the beginning does seem very predictable and a bit slow on any action happening. This young girl is meant to be this fierce, sly and amazing assassin that needs guards at all time. Yet it takes time ¾ of the way through the book for her to have a real fight scene. Plenty of people would have lost interest before that point. Luckily, I didn’t. by the end I had a good feel for what the next books will become. I could feel the writing evolving as it went on. So if your giving this book ago and feel like it’s a bit, meh, please give it till the end to judge it. It may surprise you.

The Vorrh (05/08/18)

 

This was a story unlike many others I have read. It seemed to be based around a alternative world to this one. Nothing to out of the ordinary for the most part, except for the Vorrh. The endless forest that is believe to house the garden of Eden at its centre. The book had elements of greatness. A really unique point of view, but I felt sometimes just lacked something that would make me not want to put down. Instead I spent most of the book being carried along whilst think about what I may read afterwards.

The story was initially quite hard to follow. The jump in characters seemed clumsy and at times I was not sure who was who at all. Only a couple of characters really stood out. Ishmael was the character I most looked forward to returning to and I feel that’s where the real interesting story was based.

Other characters like Mutter, Sidras and Edward Muggeridge and even Tsungali, to some extent, began to bleed into each other and until one of them spoke to someone else or someone spoke to them I didn’t really know which character the story had turned to.

Most of the characters seemed credible if lacking a bit of depth. Other than Ishmael and Gertrude I didn’t really feel attached to any of the characters. I didn’t really care what happened to them. And for me that makes a book drag. I have had a bit of a reading slump, and whilst this isn’t the worst book I have ever read by far, I feel like I should have liked it more.

I didn’t really feel like any of the story was relatable, but I also don’t believe it was meant to.

I didn’t hate the book. But it is unlikely to be one I recommend or re read at any point. There are 2 more books that follow this one and honestly at this point I am unlikely to read those as this felt like much too much hard work. When you work full time and have a small child reading needs to be easy and gratifying. Which this book on the whole, was not.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter (14/01/15)

This is the first book in the Dexter series by Jeff Lindsey. It could roughly be classed in the genre of crime. However unlike other crime novels this is told from the murders perspective. It isn’t often I start a book and consider the fact that I am going to be on the killer side. I have watched most of the TV show which I thoroughly enjoyed, the book is different enough that you don’t feel like you have been through it before.

The book starts with Dexter and his ‘Dark Passenger’ the voice inside him that drives his need to kill. Dealing with a killer worse than him by far. We follow him and his strange thoughts through his day to day life. He repeatedly mentions that he is not human and does feel the way he should towards others. His closest relationship is with is foster sister Deborah who is following in her father’s footsteps and aims to move up from the normal police to the homicide team. Dexter is a blood spatter analyst and manages to keep his extra curricula activities hidden from all the police officers and detective around him. However Dexter starts to question himself and his grasp on sanity when it starts to look like he is involved with a string of vicious murders on hookers grips Miami.

This book was so easy and fun to read. At no point did anything Lindsey wrote feel like a chore to get through. I started to forget about the show and just go with his utter brilliance that shone through every single page. It is such a good book I can’t think of any other way to explain it. The book won’t make you think too deeply but it is fun and different and happily part of a larger series of books.

My lasting impression of this book is liking a character that should be likeable. Hoping he stays out of the clutches of the law which will always try and stop him. Also I can tell there is more to Dexter than meets the eye and I can’t wait to read the rest and delve into his sick and twisted mind again.