Hi everyone
June has flown by. Summer vacation has started for the children, my husband and I are still working but in a couple of weeks we'll be going on holiday and we're all looking forward to that.
Here's the list with links to the books I read in June.
- Rachel Joyce: Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North
- Stephen Aryan: Of Gods and Men
- Jonathan French: The True Bastards
- Trudi Canavan: Thief's Magic
Did you read anything you'd like to recommend?
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
Witch King is the first book in The Rising World series by Martha Wells.
I've read quite a few of her works now and sadly; the only ones I truly enjoyed were The Murderbot Diaries.
I read this on my e-reader.
""I didn't know you were a... demon."
"You idiot. I'm the demon."
Kai's having a long day in Martha Wells' WITCH KING....
After
being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of
time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a
lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That
was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the
first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And
why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.
He’s not going to like the answers."
This was mediocre. The characters were very forgettable and rather interchangeable; it was hard to keep them apart or to give them a distinct voice in my head. Not one person stood out, not one captured my attention.
The plot was nothing special, the writing felt very YA, the tone of the conversations felt wrong for the time and the setting of the story. It felt off, like the characters talked too modern for the setting.
So I won't be continuing this series.
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
Thief's Magic is the first book in the latest series by Trudi Canavan; Millennium's Rule.
I got my copy from Bol.com.
"Forget what you know about the nature of magic.
In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen's world faces.
Elsewhere, in an land ruled by the priests, Rielle the dyer's daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels. Yet she knows she has a talent for it, and that there is a corrupter in the city willing to teach her how to use it -- should she dare to risk the Angels' wrath.
But not everything is as Tyen and Rielle have been raised to believe. Not the nature of magic, nor the laws of their lands. . . and not even the people they trust."
It's sad. I really enjoyed Trudi Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy and I loved
her The Age of the Five trilogy (I want to reread those) so I was
expecting to enjoy this series too. But this was not as good as I had hoped. Far from.
I thought this was really boring, very slow and just uninteresting. The characters were dull, naieve and stupidly simple. There's too many info-dumps. The story is very YA and too romantic for my tastes.
I won't be continuing the series.
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
The True Bastards is the second book in The Lot Lands series, written by Jonathan French.
I got my book from Bol.com.
"Fetching was once the only female rider in the Lot Lands. Now she is the leader of her own hoof, a band of loyal half orcs sworn to her command. But in the year since she took power, the True Bastards have struggled to survive. Tested to the breaking point by the burdens of leadership, Fetching battles desperately to stave off famine, desertion, and the scorn of the other half-orc chieftains, even as orcs and humans alike threaten the Lots' very existence. Then an old enemy finds a way to strike at her from beyond the grave--and suddenly only one, faint hope for salvation remains."
This was brutal. I liked it a lot but it was really brutal. Brutal and grim as in good people dying, torture and backstabbing.
The story is slower than the first book, a lot happens, it's never truly slow, but there were parts the plot dragged. And some events, decisions or plotparts were a bit unnecessary.
I love that Jonathan French chose Fetch as the maincharacter and I love her arc as the hoofchief. She's awesome! Honestly, I love all the characters in The True Bastards hoof. These characters are addictive.
I'm excited to read the third book in the series because it promises to be just as good as this one.
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
Revenge is a collection of Yoko Ogawa's shortstories, they are interconnected and centered around revenge (obviously). I read this on my e-reader.
"Sinister forces draw together a cast of desperate characters in this eerie and absorbing novel from Yoko Ogawa.
An
aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her
landlady has murdered her husband. Years later, the writer’s stepson
reflects upon his stepmother and the strange stories she used to tell
him. Meanwhile, a surgeon’s lover vows to kill him if he does not leave
his wife. Before she can follow-through on her crime of passion, though,
the surgeon will cross paths with another remarkable woman, a cabaret
singer whose heart beats delicately outside of her body. But when the
surgeon promises to repair her condition, he sparks the jealousy of
another man who would like to preserve the heart in a custom tailored
bag. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent
bystanders—their fates converge in a darkly beautiful web that they are
each powerless to escape."
I thought this to be really mediocre. Nothing stood out, most stories were forgettable and left no impression on me.
The little moments you see a connection between the stories are a little boost in how I felt about the book.
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North is the third book in the Harold Fry series by Rachel Joyce. It's not a series where you need to read the books in order though I would recommend doing so just to know the backstory.
I got my book from Bol.
"Ten years ago, Harold Fry set off on his epic journey on foot to save a friend. But the story doesn't end there.
Now his wife, Maureen, has her own pilgrimage to make.
Maureen
Fry has settled into the quiet life she now shares with her husband
Harold after his iconic walk across England. Now, ten years later, an
unexpected message from the North disturbs her equilibrium again, and
this time it is Maureen's turn to make her own journey.
But
Maureen is not like Harold. She struggles to bond with strangers, and
the landscape she crosses has changed radically. She has little sense of
what she'll find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she must
get there."
I really enjoyed this.
Maureen is not my favourite character in the series, she's angry, she's spitfull, impolite and disrespectful.
But because you know what she went through, you excuse this behaviour a bit more, you sympathize with her. I am glad she changes though. She lightens up, she can see other's perspectives better, she's open to people and experiences.
The writing is easy to read, the story flows nicely and is never overly dramatic.
Happy reading!
Helena
Hi everyone
May was a great reading month. Because I didn't really enjoy Parker-Chan's He Who Drowned the World; I read four children's book at the same time and I really enjoyed this combination.
Here's what I read:
- Terry Practhett & Stephen Baxter: The Long Mars
- Jim Butcher: Furies of Calderon
- The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
- Harriet Muncaster: Isabella Maan gaat naar de kermis
- Harriet Muncaster: Mirabelle heeft een slechte dag
- Paul van Loon: Birthday Surprise
- Shelley Parker-Chan: He Who Drowned the World
How was you month?
Happy reading!
Helena
