Book Reviews

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“In 1911, Hiram Bingham III climbed into the Andes Mountains of Peru and “discovered” Machu Picchu. While history has recast Bingham as a villain who stole both priceless artifacts and credit for finding the great archeological site, Mark Adams set out to retrace the explorer’s perilous path in search of the truth—except he’d written about adventure far more than he’d actually lived it. In fact, he’d never even slept in a tent.

Turn Right at Machu Picchu is Adams’ fascinating and funny account of his journey through some of the world’s most majestic, historic, and remote landscapes guided only by a hard-as-nails Australian survivalist and one nagging question: Just what was Machu Picchu?”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I absolutely devoured this book to be honest with you. Once I sat down and really started to get into it I read it within a day or so! I was wholeheartedly captured by the story, the images and the history that was put across in this book.

This is the type of book that really takes you away to what the author is writing about. It is non-fiction and historical, so it does jump a little bit between the history of Bingham and then the author, Mark, and his adventures.  However, because of the kind of story I had to keep reminding myself that it was non-fiction. I was continually impressed at the levels of efforts that Mark went to to get to Machu Picchu, the more difficult route that he took and how he managed to survive it. It really made me realize that while I am adventurous, I am not an adventurer because some of the stuff he went through seemed so incredibly daunting! But was impressed, thoroughly.

I was really drawn into the local Peruvians and the impressiveness of the guides. I have always loved watching traveling shows and seeing guides at places where, to be frank, the white man shows up and just to see stuff and has no idea how difficult it is. Like you see those guides in Nepal carry all that stuff, this was a similar mood! The locals make these treks look so easy, they risk their lives and are just awe-inspiring with what they do. And what their lives are like. So I loved how they had a decently large spot in this book.

Honestly, I can’t really say too much about the book without spoiling bits of it as each page and section was an experience – from the deciding to go on this trip by Mark to the conclusion, it was such a wonderful ride. I loved every moment of it, I really learnt way more about Machu Picchu than I ever thought I would, and this is a book that I am so glad I got to read. Clearly I need to read some more books of this nature as I continually enjoy them.

Also who knew that Hiram Bingham III inspired Indiana Jones?? You learn something new every day!

I would give this book a solid 4/5!

Happy Reading!

Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews by

 

 

Summary

“Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls – a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place – Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artifacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the “Saturday Night Ghost Club.” But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

I absolutely picked up this book from impulse while wandering around my library. Initially I thought it was going to be a completely different kind of book, based on the title. The title indicated it would be more ghosty and so I thought it was going to be a spooky-ish read, but while it had some vibes of that, that was really not the message of the book. But wow, was it good.

The story essentially followed these children and their Uncle through ghost stories and visiting all these strange ‘haunted’ locations in the town. It was about halfway through, closer to three quarters, that I started to realize there was more here than I realized. Some things that the Uncle was saying, and how the author described his reactions, indicated there was something more. I’m not going to spoil it at all, but I was not ready for the ultimate message.

The ultimate message was that some ghosts are kind of good and fears as a child are absolutely not the same as fears as an adult. The ending absolutely had me in tears. Big time.

Because it is one of those books that you have to read it to get it, I can’t really spoil much about the story itself. However, the writing was simple. It was just over 200 pages and I sat down and read it in about 2.5 hours one afternoon sitting outside. It was a wonderful little atmospheric read, giving Stranger Things vibes to the town, the main characters and the time period. While the writing style, and character development, wasn’t massive or anything to write home about, the story is what had the book be really entertaining. It was kind of a curveball at the end I didn’t entirely see coming and it was incredibly emotional, at least to me.

This would be a great beach read or a palette cleanser book – something short, easy to digest and get through in a timely manner.

I would give this a solid 5/5 for the message and maybe a 4/5 for the writing style and such. But I do recommend it!

Happy Reading!

North Queen by Nicola Tyche [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“The Return of a Lost Heir …
The kingdom of Mercia has been at war with the Shadow King and his dark army for ten years. To escape the seer’s vision of her capture, Mercia’s heir to the throne, Princess Norah Andell, is secreted away by her father to keep her safe. But when he dies in battle, so too dies the knowledge of where she’s hidden. She’s lost to the world—until three years later, when she’s found with no memory of who she is or the kingdom that now rests on her shoulders.

A Conflicted Duty …
Loyal and fearless commander of the Mercian army, Alexander Rhemus, has protected the realm against the threat of the Shadow King, awaiting Norah’s return. Not only does she hold the fate of the kingdom, but also his heart. However, when she’s found, he discovers she has no memory of him, or what was once between them. With war still looming, Norah is expected to wed and secure an alliance—one Mercia desperately needs to stand against the Shadow King. Now, with Mercia’s future at stake, Alexander finds himself torn between his duty and his heart.

A Twisted Fate …
Norah is thrust into a world she doesn’t know, in a role she’s unprepared for, to save a kingdom she doesn’t remember. Under the hardship of winter and a dark enemy against them, Mercia is on the verge of breaking. As things start to unravel, the Shadow King draws Norah down a path of twisted fate—and it could cost her everything.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

So I happened to stumble upon these series because @tata.lifepages posted a reel about it. Wow, wow, wow! I was not ready for this book at all. This is the second time I’ve been incredibly surprised by a recommendation on bookstagram. The last one was when @triologyofromance shared about the book The Predator by Runyx. Now about this book, was it ever a page turner! I literally devoured it in one day and was reading it on my e-reader while  my family watched television.

You want enemy to lover? This got you!

This was the perfect enemy to lover book. It was kind of a slow burn for the first few hundred pages or so that I didn’t really know how it was going to ultimately go. I wasn’t sure who Norah would end up with, what would happen or if it was actually going to turn into romance in book 1. This is a series with at least 3 books (not sure if there will be any more as I am not reading up on the series until I’m done!). So you got lots of books to read through to see how the story progresses.

A loveable and hate-able enemy.

Ugh, the Shadow King! I sometimes wanted to smack him (thank you for helping me out Norah) and then was very much in love with him. He was a good character that I felt had a nice duality of being the firm bad guy to the lover that you started to fall in love with. I was certainly interested to see how Norah and his relationship would progress and until the last page you were guessing. Guess that’s why there’s a whole series because their relationship is certainly not a clean one!

A strong FMC!

You know me, I need a strong FMC. I don’t love when women are written as demure and gentle. I like when they have fire, will fight for themselves and will give other characters (especially men) a run for their money. Norah definitely did fit that bill. I enjoyed to see her relationship progress, her personality change and the internal struggle that she was having with the situation she was thrust into.

Parts of the story felt a little unfinished?

Maybe it’s because I have not finished the whole series yet but it did feel that there are parts of the story that were a little unfinished or maybe rushed. When Norah was attacked (no spoilers!) I felt that was just out of left field and wasn’t fully expecting it. I also felt the whole memory loss thing went from being a big part of the story to suddenly not being anymore but hauled back out at the very end. It was a little confusing but I don’t think it detracted from the story. I am sure the later books will begin to unravel it so as I complete them I will update this review accordingly.

Overall this was a highly enjoyable read. I just kept wanting to read it. It was a simple story but the characters drew you in, I did feel decently transported into that universe and certainly did enjoy the book. I read this as an ebook but depending on how the series goes, I may get myself a physical copy too! Definitely recommend.

I give this a solid 4/5 stars!

Happy Reading!

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

This is the next book being read for the book club I’m in and I’m not sure if I would have stumbled across this book without them. I absolutely devoured this book in about 2 days, and it only took that long because I was busy and I needed some time to digest what I was reading. This story was utterly unique in my opinion and was filled with some interesting lessons about what could be a very complicated subject, but ultimately boiled it down to something simple. While this book did address themes of suicide and death, I would say that it was so gentle and eloquently done no trigger warnings would be needed, however, if that is a theme you do not like do be aware of that.

A world between worlds – The Midnight Library!

The Midnight Library was essentially like purgatory in a way. A place between heaven and hell when you die that allows you to try other lives to possibly not die. The library is filled with an infinite number of books which represent all the lives out there across all the universes. Some of these lives are parallel and some are perpendicular. Someone who is crossing over could experience other lives and, if the universe deemed it so, would allow them to live in that life and carry on if they fit. If no life was chosen, the root life (or the life of the person dying who arrived in the library ) would cease to exist. This honestly was such a beautiful way to describe this kind of in-between.

A journey to find what is wanted in life, or what isn’t. Nothing is perfect.

This book followed Nora to travel through hundreds and thousands of different lives to find a meaning to live. In the beginning of the book (not a spoiler) she ultimately committed suicide because she felt completely and utterly alone. She felt that she was pretty much a waste of space because everything was going wrong in her life – or that is what she perceived. Arriving in the library, she got to try all these various lives based on what she thought would be the perfect life and make her happy. She was wealthy, she lived abroad, she had a career she wanted and every other permeation. And in almost all of them she wasn’t what she would describe as happy. In all those lives there was something that she didn’t like – a worse relationship with her brother, being with someone that she couldn’t stand or just the general life style. Nora seemed to be searching for this textbook perfect life.

When she did find one she did like – a life that was honestly very beautiful – she wanted to stay but couldn’t. The narrator librarian, Mrs. Elm, seemed to express that she couldn’t find one because she wanted to live in her own root life and the universe couldn’t let her take over another life when she wanted to live. She ultimately fell back into her root life and from all the lives she lived, took those experiences and was able to make something positive in her new one.

A story of healing and self-awareness.

The story really showed how insularly we sometimes view our lives and that every small thing that happens is because of us. Through this book, Nora got to see how potentially fortunate she was  and also become aware of some poor choices. She also was able to erase some of her regrets which seemed to weigh her down. As she was able to experience regrets in other lives she was able to see that she wasn’t missing out on anything. This removed a weight from her and allowed her to see the world in a new light.

Was just a little confused a few times.

The story itself is simple but there were moments that I was maybe slightly confused or felt maybe it was a little like…huh? The idea that a person can slide into another persons life felt a bit creepy to me to be honest. That you could juts slide into someone else’s consciousness and not only live through them for a bit but take over. That did feel like the root life was the most important life which kind of diminished the other lives in my opinion. I know this is super small but that just bothered me deep down. Just thinking about it from big picture but in a weird way, it also pulled at the idea mentioned in the beginning by Nora. Essentially that having a choice in life (depending on what you believe) can be an illusion. So this is a weird point to bring up. But I just kept feeling that as she’d slide into lives and take over the consciousness of someone else.

An absolutely beautiful story of challenges and gaining new perspectives.

This book was honestly beautiful! I absolutely loved it from the first page until the last one. It had so many good lessons, so many interesting things to share and just the idea of presenting it this way was creative. I felt Haig crafted a beautiful story that will stick with you and a beautiful library to journey through the story.

I will absolutely be reading this again over the years because it does feel like a story that you will take different things from it depending on where you are in your life. That is just the nature of this kind of story.

I give this a 5 out of 5 stars! An absolutely wonderful read and one I would recommend to others!

There’s some interesting other reviews on it like over at NPR and The New York Times.

Happy Reading!

 

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

So this review is honestly going to be a bit of a hot take. I’ll be up front and say that I really didn’t enjoy this book. With all the hype around it and then all the positive things I had seen about it, I had high expectations. I even got this for myself as a birthday gift and honestly….I regret it. Please keep in mind these are my personal opinions.

 

More than half the book didn’t really go anywhere.

Honestly I felt like a lot of the book didn’t really go anywhere. It was just about Violet training and having this weird verbal sparring match with Xaden and this odd sexual tension that was constantly a will they/won’t they feeling. I was waiting for something to actually happen and then that was thrown at you at the very end like…what? I mean I don’t mind books set in academies or something, but I just felt this kept rehashing the same thing over and over again in the book.

I felt the story could have progressed at a much faster pace and cut down on some of the pages. There was plenty in this book, in my opinion, that I felt did not add to the story at all. It was just there to read.

 

Um…dragons….where you at?

Considering the academy had dragons, I didn’t really feel you got to connect with the dragons. They are a big part of the academy where Violet was and I just didn’t feel that they were a major part of the story. I didn’t get to really imagine the dragons or connect with them. A lot of the dragon interactions, for the most part, was through their mental communications so you kind of had this weird disconnect so I wasn’t able to imagine them or really realize they were dragons. Kind of a let down as I love dragons.

via GIPHY

What spice are you even talking about?

Now I know that this is technically a YA book so spice can only be so much (although that is a whole other conversation right there), I felt all the spice in this book was pretty lame. Admittedly I have read a lot of spice books so this didn’t feel like spice. For a new spice reader, this would have possibly been a decent bit. But for what people were saying with “Oh Xaden *bats eye lashes*” I honestly didn’t see it. Xaden annoyed the heck out of me for the most part and he wouldn’t really be ranked in like my top 50 of bookish boyfriends. I’d give this like a 2/5 on the spice scale.

 

Violet – weakling or dragoness in disguise??

If you’ve been here for a hot second you know I love a strong MC, especially when they’re a female. But Violet just wasn’t it. Sure she progressed from this little weak girl but I just felt there was a lot of babying her and even through her little journey to find herself she didn’t come as far as I would have though. I just didn’t connect with her at all, her character progression was a little lacking and I just felt that with the story and the world, what she became just wasn’t it. Admittedly she is against Xaden who is this arrogant thing with a pretty large ego, but I just still wasn’t feeling it.

 

A little inconsistent and some holes in the story.

I did feel the story was missing things. Like things touches on and missed, things suddenly happening with little explanation, bits of the story being very rushed. It felt some areas that didn’t need as much got more focus than others that needed more attention given.

 

However, ultimately, an enjoyable single read.

With all that criticism above, it is still worth a peek if you have time maybe. This is the kind of the book that I would say is a book to put on the back burner and maybe read when you are in a reading slump or don’t have anything else. I doubt I will be reading it again which kind of says a lot to me. I regret buying it but I don’t fully regret reading it. It had so much potential with the story and the idea and that is why I was interested. But I just felt, sadly, it underdelivered with all the hype.

 

I’d give this a 2.75/5 star rating.

What are your thoughts on this book? Do you agree? Do you feel that it was slightly overhyped?

Happy Reading!