Hi everyone
I got two new books!
Last July I read the first book in Joe Abercrombie's The Age of Madness series; A Little Hatred. I really enjoyed it so I decided to get the second and third book in the series as well. I ordered them from Bol.com the day before yesterday and I received them today.
- Joe Abercrombie: The Trouble with Peace
- Joe Abercrombie: The Wisdom of Crowds
What books would you recommend buying or loaning?
Happy reading
Helena
Hi everyone
Last month, October 2024 I read and finished 6 books.
Here's a list in chronological order with a link to the review I wrote about each book:
- Shelby Van Pelt: Remarkably Bright Creatures
- Gretchen Rubin: Better Than Before
- Alice Hoffman: The Museum of Extraordinary Things
- Travis Baldree: Bookshops & Bonedust
- Devin Madson: We Ride the Storm
- Christian White: The Wife and the Widow
And sadly there's one book I could not finish:
What did you read this month? Anything you want to recommend?
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
This is my review of The Wife and the Widow by Christian White. It's his second book but the first one I read. I read it on my e-reader.
"Set against the backdrop of an eerie island town in the dead of winter, The Wife and The Widow is an unsettling thriller told from two perspectives: Kate, a widow whose grief is compounded by what she learns about her dead husband’s secret life; and Abby, an island local whose world is turned upside when she’s forced to confront the evidence of her husband’s guilt. But nothing on this island is quite as it seems, and only when these women come together can they discover the whole story about the men in their lives."
I really enjoyed this.
The writing is easy and it has a nice flow. The story is not too slow nor too fast to follow. I really wanted to find out how it all happened. Once you realize the whole story there's quite a bit of the book left and that was a bummer. But the twist was great and I didn't see it coming. A few plotholes and questions about the efficinecy of the police.
All in all a quick, enjoyable murder mystery that sucked me in but don't think too hard about the plot.
Happy reading.
Helena
Hi everyone
This is my review for Devin Madson's We Ride the Storm, this is book one in The Reborn Empire series.
I got my book from Bol.com, it has a nice cover and an interesting blurb on the back.
" War built the Kisian Empire and war will tear it down.
Fifteen
years after rebels stormed the streets, Kisia is still divided. Only
the firm hand of the god-emperor holds the kingdom together. But when a
shocking betrayal destroys a tense alliance with neighbouring Chiltae,
all that has been won comes crashing down.
In Kisia, Princess Miko
T'sai is a prisoner in her own castle. She dreams of claiming her
empire, but the path to power could rip it, and her family, asunder.
In
Chiltae, assassin Cassandra Marius is plagued by the voices of the
dead. Desperate, she accepts a contract that promises to reward her with
a cure if she helps an empire fall.
And on the border between nations, Captain Rah e'Torin and his warriors are exiles forced to fight in a foreign war or die."
I didn't really enjoy this one. The characters were very one-dimensional, some were there only to further the story. Characterization is really important to me and the lack thereof made me not care for them and thus I lost interest only halfway through.
The story was predictable and very cliché and the worldbuilding was quite non-existent.
The story had me sighing and rolling my eyes over the stupidity of the characters, the things they say and do.
Also, completely unnecessary rape never sits well with me and he lost a star then and there for that.
At least the writing was good.
Happy reading.
Helena
Hi everyone
I finished Travis Baldrees Bookshops & Bonedust. This is the prequel to Legends & Lattes (the first book in the Legends & Lattes series).
"First loves. Second-hand books. Epic adventures.
Viv’s
career with the renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going
as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s
packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of
Murk – so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to
return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending
her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed
proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted. Even though it
may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn’t far away. A
suspicious traveller in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a
summer fling and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more
eventful than Viv could have ever expected.
Sometimes, right things
happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek.
And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together.
Set
twenty years before the events of Legends & Lattes , Bookshops
& Bonedust is a standalone cosy fantasy by BookTok sensation Travis
Baldree about the power of good bookshops, great friends and the
unexpected choices along the way."
I honestly really enjoyed this. Because I've read Legends & Lattes; I knew what to expect and it is indeed the exact same thing.
A cozy, wholesome, cute story about people bonding, working together, friendship, baked goods and books. Light and slow story, not much worldbuilding or great depth to the characters. But it is a nice, easy, warming and comforting escape.
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
I finished reading Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things. It was my first book by Alice Hoffman and I'm not sure I'll try anything else.
The book has a gorgeous cover and that totally sucked me in. I read it on my e-reader.
"Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River. The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie."
This was a 'meh' book. It didn't stay with me. I could care less for the story and the characters.
The characters were very one-dimensional and dull. And ugly! So many ugly things happen in this book. The lovestory didn't add anything interesting to the story, the romantic connection they had was weak or really non-existent. I couldn't detect anything strong or rebellious in the two maincharacters even though they talk about it a lot.
Hoffman's writing was uninspired, repetitive. A boring, tragic, ugly story in which she tried to show how much she knows of New York's history just because she can, not because it fits the story.
Sad that this beautiful cover holds such a mediocre story.
Happy reading.
Helena
Hi everyone
There will be no real review about this one because I did not finish it.
It was a struggle to get through. Too much drama, constant repetition of the same sentiments, boring story.
So about 300 pages in I decided to quit.
"1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?"
Do you finish every book you start?
Happy reading
Helena
