Book Reviews

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!

A Passage to India by E.M. Foster [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

A classic historical book rich with Anglo British and Indian tension, a story of unlikely relationships and historical challenges.picture of the book a passage to india by e.m. forster n a bookshelf with two small Indian statues on either side of it.

Summary

“Among the greatest novels of the twentieth century, E. M. Forster’s sweeping tale of prejudice and racial tension is set in colonial India at the turn of the century. As the Indian independence movement is gaining momentum but while the country is still under the rule of the British Raj, Dr. Aziz, a young Indian Muslim physician, befriends several English tourists in spite of expressions of caution from his Indian friends. What begins as an unexceptional but well-meaning sightseeing outing to a famous cave erupts into a misunderstanding with devastating consequences.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

To say this book was a wild ride of emotions was an understatement. I was constantly confused how I should be feeling with everything happening both within the context of the story and in the context of history. It was just…a lot.

A historical look at British and Indian tension with all the racial issues.

While reading this book, it is important to remember that it is set in the 1920’s. Some reviews available on sites out there are negative towards the book, commenting negatively against the British and some of the racism going on treatment of the Indians. Through a modern lens and with a more progressive mentality, that is accurate absolutely! However, I would say that if you read this book with that view you may not enjoy it as much. With some of the themes, it will make you uncomfortable and that is okay. But while reading I recommend trying to put yourself in the shoes of someone reading it when it was published. It is not easy to do at all, but it helps to provide an understanding and context of the story and what exactly is going on

That being said, looking at this book from a modern perspective with what we know now is really interesting and enlightening. To see the British savior complex and perceived supremacy, the massive disparities between income and what may be rich in one country and rich in another, and the clear divide between the races in such a stark presentation is very interesting.

Racial tensions, gender tension and lies all around!

A Passage to India has a lot going on. You have the theme of racial tensions between the Indians and British, the tension between men and women in respective cultures and the tension between opposite genders in both cultures. Tension all around! It’s quite painful to read from both a modern perspective, as well as that as what I would classify as a good human to see the treatment of other humans as lesser and unequal.

Even within the Indian culture when this book was set (I am by no means an expert on India, their culture and their history!) it was fascinating to see the general divide between individuals from regions and societal classes. The fact that the main Indian character, Dr. Aziz, who was by no means wealthy, had servants working for him was shocking and eye opening. To think that someone that “poor” had someone even poorer working for them just continued to fascinate me from a historical and cultural perspective. The whole local the book was set, the disparities between classes and income, and then between both cultures and money was something to behold and wrap your head around.

And then you have the main female British character, Ms. Quested, and her false accusations which was a whole other wrinkle! I won’t get too far into it to avoid spoilers, but boy did it make my blood boil. Then seeing how Mr. Fielding (another of the British main characters) became integral for Ms. Quested and Dr. Aziz and bridging the gap in a slight way certainly had my feelings confused.

A book with so much beauty and so much pain – the story having you dance on the edge of what to feel.

I have always had a draw to India in books and movies in all of it’s forms. A Passage to India, while it did bring up some of the beauty of the country, the people and India in general, there was the constant underlying tension and relationship with the British. However, it was a wonderful read. I learnt so much, was able to really feel for so many of the characters on all sides, and got an insight into more localized life for Indians under the British rule.

Sometimes in movies and history it can be glamorized when looked through certain lenses. However, if you know anything of history, you know that is not the case. The book managed to get at some of the darker areas without it being too dark of a story overall.

It is a book that will take me time to fully digest and I will have to read it again in a few years. I would say that this is a book for slightly older readers, not only because of the writing style, but because the story just has so much going on that a younger reader may not understand without the guidance of those older.

HOWEVER, with book banning going on and the censoring of books due to ‘uncomfortable’ issues, I think this is a great book to be read to get an understanding of some of the ‘ugliness’ in history without the book being too extreme in nature. I certainly highly recommend this classic and it’s one I am glad to have read. There’s a reason it’s won so many awards.

Have you read A Passage to India? What did you think?

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre has dazzled generations of readers with its depiction of a woman’s quest for freedom. Having grown up an orphan in the home of her cruel aunt and at a harsh charity school, Jane Eyre becomes an independent and spirited survivor-qualities that serve her well as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him whatever the consequences or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving her beloved?”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Jane Eyre is such a wonderful classic, and one that had been on my list for so long to read. Finally, I got to it and I am very glad that I did. It’s a wonderful story of an independent woman who makes her way on her own from nothing, to finding a family and about love in it’s various forms. It was certainly a book that had me smiling, wanting to throw it, and really overall trying to guess what would have happened next (and being so sure) and consistently being surprised.

Reading through a modern lens will not have you enjoy it.

This is a classic piece of literature and so any time you read such a book, you need to try and put yourself in the shoes of that time period to fully understand what is going on. Jane Eyre is set in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s, so you have to go into it with the mindset of society at that point. Women did not have rights like they do now, men have all the power, and education and independence was drastically different.

I will say I am guilty of going into books, like I was with this one, with a modern mindset and getting my feathers ruffled because of how the story goes. But, that being said, after a discussion and some further contemplation on the book, it really grew on me and will be a classic that will stick with me.

Trailblazing themes during patriarchal time period.

Understanding how the times are different really helps you understand how Jane was quite progressive and independent for her time. She managed to pull her life around, push away from a man after he treated her poorly, and was willing to remain alone instead of wanting to marry someone. It also showed a dedicated woman, albeit in my opinion a little foolish in the ending (although, once again that is a bit of my modern perspective coming in), something which was pretty new for the times and would have shaken up the status quo.

Jane began as a woman with nothing and through that, when she finally was presented with a life and a future, she was still incredibly generous and, as she had spent a lot of her life alone and ostracized, was comfortable with her way in life. It was so wonderful to read and follow her development and journey from a younger girl to a young woman through her challenges and how her life drastically changed.

But the story itself would have been quite shocking during when it was published (1847) and may have not been as wonderfully received as it was pushing against the patriarchy. While now one may say that the themes were subtle, during the mid 19th century, some of the bits of this book may have been borderline shocking.

It is romance with a lower case “r”.

While Jane Eyre does have “romance” in it, it is not a romance book like a lot of modern readers would classify it. First off, there is no explicit romance scenes of any kind, which is expected because of when the book is written. But the romance is all glances, and feelings, and acknowledgements. It’s small case romance, not capitalized Romance. As JSTOR Daily put it,

“Readers have always picked up on the tension between the book’s revolutionary subtexts and its uneasy relationship with love.”

Romance in this book wasn’t cute, perfect, having a happily-ever-after theme, which most likely echoed Brontë’s life (definitely recommend reading the JSTOR Daily post). It was messy, full of disasters, made you angry and have a whole host of other emotions.

It felt a lot more raw and real as to what the true idea of love is where it isn’t a fairy tale. There are challenges in love and sometimes it is more than just being head over heels. Jane seemed to really want love, but was struggling to really find what it was, which came from a mix of her background and then with Mr. Rochester due to her societal status compared to him.

But through that, you really felt the themes of romance – not just for romantic interests but that Jane kind of had towards herself and others that she came across.

Mr. Rochester – a jerk or more real than we like to admit? St. John a little too demanding?

The main “love interest” in the book, Mr. Rochester, isn’t someone that you are supposed to particularly like. His love for Jane is fleeting and appears to be based in the moment. Is it love or is it a man infatuated with a young woman because other things in his life (no spoilers here) don’t go according to plan?

You never entirely get an answer about that but as a reader I am sure you can come to your own personal assumptions. But Mr. Rochester, for his societal station acted exactly how a man of his time would have. The outcome of Jane and Mr. Rochester was not exactly what I thought it was going to be, and in the moment I was frustrated, but after mulling it over it makes sense. Once again, especially for a book of this nature.

Then there is St. John, the pretty, overly zealous cousin of Jane. He wants to become a missionary to make something of his life for God and wants Jane to go along with him but the only way that would happen is to marry. Over and over Jane was adamant in her position, and over and over St. John would push. But Jane, being strong willed and knowing what she wanted, even with the slight temptation, stood firm.

 

Overall, it was certainly an enjoyable read and one that I can see myself reading again in the future as it is a book that you can so easily miss bits and pieces going on. There are a few movie versions out there, the 1996 version with Anna Paquin and William Hurt, and the 2011 version with Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikwoska, among other adaptations. I will certainly be checking them out soon as I can get my hands on them!

Have you read Jane Eyre? What were your thoughts on the book and story?

Happy Reading!