Tag: book review

Review: Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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Goodreads | Blackwell’s

First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince.
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?

What I’m slowly realising about myself as a reader is that I am definitely becoming more fussy when it comes to contemporary books. I had very high expectations of this book, especially because it felt like the most talked about contemporary of 2019 in the book community/on bookstagram. Maybe it just didn’t quite reach the high expectations I had for it, but I sadly didn’t quite feel the connection I was craving when it came to this book.

That being said, I can see why this book was so well loved. For a start, it’s just so refreshing to see an alternative history of the American presidents. Trump just doesn’t exist in this world, and that itself was such a joy to read about. Instead, we have a female president and a bisexual Latin FSOTUS, which felt like a breath of fresh air. Enter Henry, the Prince of England, and Alex’s (FSOTUS) enemy.

Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. 

Both Alex and Henry are struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, and end up falling in love with each other. There is a lot of coming-out and coming-of-age discussions in this book, that also centre around being in the royal/presidential family. Although I can’t account for how realistic any of the handling or discussions around the sexuality of either of the characters, I did find them it all very entertaining to read about. It also really made me step back and think ‘wow, would it really be such an issue having a gay prince/bi FSOTUS? Huh, yeah, I guess it would‘. Reading this (completely unintentionally) around the same time as Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah also pushed this to the forefront of my mind.

I liked the characters in this book a lot, but I also felt slightly disconnected from them. I often had to double check which character was Henry and which was Alex, which may say more about how much I was paying attention to the story than about the book itself. Although I liked the wider cast of characters, I also felt disconnected from them sometimes. It was at times like these where I realised the book was written in 3rd person, and it did cross my mind that this book could have gained something from maybe being 1st person with alternate points of view. I also want to point out I felt like the enemies-to-lovers plot was a little rushed in my opinion, but I did enjoy reading about Alex and Henry’s relationship. There is a lot of smut in this book, but I don’t feel like it was overdone.

I kinda wish people still wrote like that. History, huh? Bet we could make some.

This book had some amazing quotes, and I really loved the writing. However, it felt a little long at times and it could have been more of a page turner with shorter chapters, in my opinion. I definitely did have goosebumps reading the end of this book, and I liked a lot about it. I just didn’t love it as much as I was maybe hoping to.

NB/CW: It is definitely worth noting this book is New Adult and contains somewhat detailed M/M sex scenes. Also contains alcohol use, mentions drug use, discussion of death of a parent.

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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Review: Serious Moonlight by Jenn Bennett

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review6 Comments
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Goodreads | Waterstones

Raised in isolation and home-schooled by her strict grandparents, the only experience Birdie has had of the outside world is through her favourite crime books.
But everything changes when she takes a summer job working the night shift at a historic Seattle hotel. There she meets Daniel Aoki, the hotel’s charismatic driver, and together they stumble upon a real-life mystery: a famous reclusive writer—never before seen in public—is secretly meeting someone at the hotel.
To uncover the writer’s puzzling identity, Birdie must come out of her shell, and in doing so, realize that the most confounding mystery of all may just be her growing feelings for Daniel.

I don’t read as much contemporary as I used to, but Jenn Bennett is an auto-buy author for me. I’ve loved all of her books so far and I only have Starry Eyes left to pick up now. She has a great knack of writing compelling contemporary books with very real characters and always with an interesting, mysterious twist, and Serious Moonlight was no different!

Although Alex, Approximately remains my favourite Jenn Bennett book, this one might be a close second. The characters in this book felt so real and alive. They are dynamic and make a lot of mistakes, but not without reason and I actually quite enjoyed how layered the characters felt because of it. I think one of my favourite small things about the way these characters were written is it’s all in the detail. It’s in the way Birdie wears a flower in her hair and had a sheltered childhood. It’s in the way Daniel likes magic tricks and David Bowie. All of the tiny details made every character feel vibrant and beautiful and I fell in love with each of them a tiny bit. The side characters were diverse and amazing in every way.

Judging other people unfairly doesn’t define them; it defines you.

I also loved the plot of this book. I never expect to have so many twists and turns and I definitely didn’t guess what was going to happen along the way! The plot is interwoven mystery and romance, with one sometimes coming to the forefront of the story. Although a little far fetched sometimes, I was so invested in the story and I couldn’t stop reading at the end because I just needed to know what was going to happen to Birdie and Daniel.

There was so many tiny things I loved about this book. I find Jenn Bennett’s writing always brings the location to life and I find I always want to visit the settings afterwards. I also loved the food in this book (no surprise there!), which seemed to have constant talk of pie, and a great sushi scene. The characters were really sex positive and talked a lot about sex, which was not only brilliant but also made for some very humorous scenes!

And in the end everyone will be disappointed.

This book was so quirky, cute and just an all around amazing. It was also really diverse, with a compelling plot and beautiful cast of characters. I will definitely continue to read all of Jenn Bennett’s books!

★★★★★
4.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephanie Meyer

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review7 Comments
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Goodreads | Waterstones

You know Bella and Edward, now get to know Beau and Edythe.
When Beaufort Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets the mysterious, alluring Edythe Cullen, his life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With her porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edythe is both irresistible and enigmatic.
What Beau doesn’t realize is the closer he gets to her, the more he is putting himself and those around him at risk. And, it might be too late to turn back….
With a foreword and afterword by Stephenie Meyer, this compelling reimagining of the iconic love story is a must-read for Twilight fans everywhere.

Oh, look, I managed to find the worst book I’ve ever read.

We all know and love (well, maybe that’s pushing it) Twilight. I read it probably around 5 years ago, and although I could acknowledge at the time that the writing wasn’t the best, teenage me did at least enjoy it. Life and Death, however, takes any bad writing and problems that arose in Twilight and amplify them by 100 times. I would argue this is the most pointless, unnecessary book that has ever written. I had countless gripes with the book, other than the writing being so all over the place it was actually laughable in places (quote included will show an hilarious example of this). I have recorded a long, rant-y video to explain some of the problems I found with the book, and I will be publishing that on my blog when I edit it and get it up on YouTube.

The biggest problem with this book was the whole gender swap itself. Instead of doing something revolutionary, it brought up more problems than I could ever expect. Instead of feeling fresh and interesting, it fell flat and also fell into gender stereotypes of the opposite gender. Covered a little in this article with comparisons of Twilight and Life and Death, instead of defying gender roles, small comments in this book feed into them. For example, where Bella would cry in Twilight, Beau would repress his emotions in Life and Death. Where Bella will comment briefly about how attractive a man is, Beau will ramble and sexualise any attractive woman he sees.

There was also countless problematic comments, including about taking drugs to help you sleep, use of the word ‘spastically’ and describing a 14/15 year old girl as very pretty and sexualising her. There was also a scene describing the female body (I think Edythe’s, but I can’t remember) as ‘perfect’ when you could see her ribs, and describing Beau as ‘OCD’ and the use of ‘OCD’ as an adjective in general.

On top of this, I found Beau and Edythe’s relationship incredibly unhealthy and problematic. Much like Bella and Edward in Twilight, they fall in love almost instantly and without knowing much about each other at all. From there on in, they cannot bear to be apart for more than a few hours and never let each other out of sight. The whole portrayal of their relationship felt fake and made me generally uncomfortable. As in Twilight, Edythe also breaks into Beau’s house and watches him sleep, which he didn’t care about at all when he found out, and in fact, found it romantic. It is not romantic. It is stalker-ish, uncomfortable, and downright illegal. They are not in a relationship when this occurs and barely know each other at all, which is what made me so aggravated by the concept.

I didn’t feel the need to rub it in to every cheeseburger I conquered.

As I mentioned before, the writing is terrible, but also the plot is so damn holey. It’s almost as if Stephanie ignores the way the plot would really go with how the vampire’s powers work, and instead of factoring them into the end scenes, pretend they don’t exist. On top of this, the book is not diverse at all, and is full of heterosexual relationships. It’s like there is no other option for any of the characters, and was most prominent for me when Charlie was talking to Beau about possible relationships, and immediately presumed he would be with a girl and that was the only option for him.

Even if we attempt to overlook all of the problems that arose within this story, it is very difficult to ignore the fact it is not Twilight, reimagined. It is Twilight, run through a thesaurus. I was very aware from the first part of this book that it felt incredibly similar to Twilight, and the scenes played out in the exact same order I remembered them. But it took me most of the book to actually open my copy of Twilight and compare a passage (below). Not only was most of the dialogue the same word for word, the scenes played out in the exact same way every time. The only part of the book that was any different was the last 2-3 chapters.

Twilight
I shivered.
“It’s not pleasant, you see.”
“Edward said that it was very hard to do…I don’t quite understand,” I said.
“We’re also like sharks in a way. Once we taste the blood, or even smell it for that matter, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding. Sometimes impossible. So you see, to actually bite someone, to taste the blood, it would begin the frenzy. It’s difficult on both sides–the bloodlust on one hand, the awful pain on the other.”

Life and Death
I shuddered.
“It’s not pleasant, no.”
“Edythe said it was very hard to do…but that sounds simple enough.”
“We’re also like sharks in a way. Once we taste blood, or even smell it for that matter, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding. Impossible, even. So you see, to actually bite someone, to taste the blood, it would begin the frenzy. It’s difficult on both sides–the bloodlust on the one hand, the awful pain on the other.”

This whole book was such an utter and complete disappointment. There was a chance here that this book would change, evolve, become better and more modern. More diverse. Actually making an effort to defy gender boundaries. But the best word I can find to describe this book is lazy. It is the laziest, most unnecessary piece of writing I’ve ever known to exist. And the whole thing fills me with aggravation at what an exploitation of readers this is. I will definitely not be reading Midnight Sun, or anything else by Stephanie Meyer.

I am not one to rate books as low as I rated this one. I’m also not one to usually post such a hateful review, but I’m sorry, this was utter bullsh*t.

★
1 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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Review: The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review1 Comment
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Goodreads | Waterstones

Dive into the epic world of international bestselling author Leigh Bardugo with this beautifully illustrated replica of The Lives of Saints, the Istorii Sankt’ya, featuring tales of saints drawn from the beloved novels and beyond. Out of the pages of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, from the hands of Alina Starkov to yours, the Istorii Sankt’ya is a magical keepsake from the Grishaverse.
These tales include miracles and martyrdoms from familiar saints like Sankta Lizabeta of the Roses and Sankt Ilya in Chains, to the strange and obscure stories of Sankta Ursula, Sankta Maradi, and the Starless Saint.
This beautiful collection includes stunning full-color illustrations of each story. 

As you can probably tell, I will happily buy and read anything Leigh Barudgo writes. She is such a talented writer, and I adore her stories. I was so hesitant about going into The Language of Thorns, yet I adored it. So when I realised this was going to be a similar style of short story collection, I knew I wanted to read it. I also happened to only pick up the Grisha trilogy last year, only a few months before this book was released. The Lives of Saints is referenced a lot in the Grisha trilogy, as a kind of bible, a book that is given to children as they grow up and learn about the saints they worship. In a way, this book reminded me a lot of Aesop’s fables, as they are only incredibly short and all have some kind of moral.

I feel like in a way, Bardugo really has a knack for short story/fairytale type writing. She has a beautiful, poetic way of writing that just fits and works so well with these kinds of books. I saw a review that mentioned these are similar to the kind of writings you get with tarot cards, and I can definitely see where they are coming from. These stories are super short, usually between half a page and no more than 5 pages. This book is already very short, only 120 pages, and with the stories themselves being short too, this went by very quickly and I read it within a couple of hours.

You can choose faith or you can choose fear. 

Most, if not all of these stories are quite sad and tragic, because of the nature of the saints having to die to become, well, saints. However, that doesn’t make all of them depressing or harrowing, and I found quite a lot of them poignant, yet uplifting. The illustrations alongside were absolutely beautiful, and this book as a whole is a gorgeous thing to own. I would like to point out that the ugly blue band on the photo is removable! There is gold foiling underneath and a red clothbound cover.

My main disappointment from this book was the fact I know I will forget these stories so quickly, purely because they are so short. It’s an easy, quick read and a great thing to pick up and read one or two from, but very forgettable. With stories this short, there is just no room for character development, and that was the main factor that made me compare this to The Language of Thorns, which has much longer and fewer fairytales, and I can vaguely remember them, even after a few years.

But only one will bring what you long for.

Overall, this was a sweet idea and I love the concept of it. It’s an absolutely beautiful book and the stories are lyrical and beautiful in their own right, but also a little disappointing as they are so short and I felt a bit disconnected from them.

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Horrid by Katrina Leno

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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Goodreads | Waterstones

Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiralling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all — it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more… horrid?

I’m not usually one for horror books, but this one caught my eye and I really wanted to give it a go. When Blue offered to sell me their Owlcrate edition, I decided to try it. I have to say, this one didn’t disappoint and I’m really glad I picked it up. I did want to save this for Halloween season, but I picked this out of my TBR jar and I thought, why not?

This book was utterly enthralling and I struggled to put it down. It is written in large (25-100ish pages each, averaging at about 50 at a guess) sections rather than chapters, which I was originally apprehensive about but it really worked. I flew through this because I just couldn’t stop reading and I really wanted to know what was going to happen.

Jane had recently lost her father, which meant a big move for her and her mother from California to small town Maine where her mother grew up in a spooky old manor house. I absolutely adored the atmosphere, it really encapsulated the feeling of this book. The whole town has a creepy, isolated feel but especially the manor. I was utterly gripped by this book, especially the spooky scenes. It terrified me, but I loved it, because it was so cleverly done.

I think the important thing to realize, to try and remember, is that grief doesn’t have a rule book. 

Throughout the book, the mystery surrounding the house is slowly revealed to Jane, and she realises she does have reason to be scared of the big old house, which is shrouded in darkness. If this book was one thing, it was super dark. It demonstrates the darkest parts of the human mind, and felt so harrowing for it. I really enjoyed the way the mystery was revealed, although the ending did let me down slightly. I just expected it to be a little clearer, and I was left with a lot of questions. It was left very open, which lets the reader decide for themselves how the book really ends, but this just didn’t quite appeal to me personally and did make this not quite 5 stars.

Grief, mental illness and pica (a disorder when people eat things that have no nutritional value) are at the forefront of this book. I thought the depiction of grief was very well done, and I really sympathised with Jane. The quote I’ve included in this review really pinpoints the tone this book took with grief. Mental illness, especially anger issues, were prominent and I really appreciated the way Horrid talked about mental illness passing down between family members.

You’re allowed to feel every emotion under the sun. You’re even allowed to invent new ones. I think I’ve done that a few times

Overall, this was definitely a bit of a pleasant surprise considering I don’t usually drift towards horror. The writing really stood out, and was beautiful yet jarring. I also loved that Jane worked at a bookshop and was a reader herself. I actually really sympathised with her which shows how clever the writing was. The plot was enthralling and thrilling, with some absolutely spine chilling scenes. If you do enjoy a good scare, that has some poignant writing about family, mental illness and grief, I couldn’t recommend this enough.

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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Mark’s Review: In Case You Missed It by Lindsey Kelk

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review, Mark's postsLeave a comment

Hello all, a little note before we begin to present you with a second review from Mark – my partner in crime, and sometimes, in reading. We occasionally will read a little together before going to sleep, read a few pages of our favourite books to one another, or even read together on a lovely summertime picnic, like pictured below. We always both have a book (or several!) on the go, and I’m here today to give you Mark’s review of one of the books he’s recently read, In Case You Missed It by Lindsey Kelk.

Lindsey Kelk, In Case You Missed It (2020)

Goodreads | Waterstones

When Ros comes home after three years away, she’s ready to pick up with life exactly where she left it. But her friends have moved on, her parents have rekindled their romance, and her bedroom is now a garden shed. All of a sudden, she’s swept up in nostalgia for the way things were.
Then her phone begins to ping, with messages from her old life. Including one number she thought she’d erased for good – the man who broke her heart. Is this her second chance at one big love? Sometimes we all want to see what we’ve been missing…

It’s best to start by admitting, at this point, I am unashamedly a fan of Lindsey Kelk. So feel free to call this a review, but definitely a biased one. Though know that I hope to convey a sample of my enjoyment in the hope you might find something similar in this, or another, of Kelk’s books.

The first time I read anything by Kelk it was unintentional and, I must shyly admit, in jest. At some point around 7 years ago in the kitchen of a shared house, I did a dramatic reading of a section of What A Girl Wants. A week later, after wondering what happened in the story after (and before) my performance piece I found myself ordering a copy of that book and the one that came before it. The Tess Brookes trilogy ended up helping me get through a very busy and incredibly stressful multi work contract year and ever since then Kelk’s novels have serendipitously arrived as the perfect…indulgence? Distraction? I am not sure what to call it… It’s honestly like a holiday with old friends when you didn’t realise you needed one.

As my interruptions in Beth’s blog will retrospectively prove, I’m not a massive reader of fiction and, even then, often not particularly contemporary fiction. So Kelk’s work is something of a rarity to me and I am probably a rarity in her traditional audience. Kelk is someone who’s books I will now blindly pick up and have, looking back, had with me during significant times over the last few years. One was in my kit bag shooting the last short film. Another I scoured late night supermarkets for to take with me for my first international marathon. And so we get to 2020 and In Case You Missed It. As the first lockdown in England was ending and, from the 10-15 hours of news I was still watching per day, I knew the rollercoaster ride was far from over, Beth messaged me one morning – simply “New Lindsey Kelk book!”.

As ever, Kelk writes a warm story, but one that will occasionally challenge you, yet always make you feel part of the gang. The story is the perfection of formula. Proof that something done well doesn’t have to be revolutionary to be fresh and work elegantly. You could call the outcome early on if you were given to, but if you did you would be missing the point. As with the best stories, the joy is not where it’s going but how you get there. Going on the ride and engaging with what it makes both you and the characters feel. This is neatly also a wider theme in the book, one that I was surprised to find oddly profound at points. Discovering that your life and your loved ones aren’t quite who you thought they were. Just as Ros raced back to London, I wonder how many of us will want to race back to some idealised old life when we call the pandemic officially over? And what we will later realise we missed along the way.

‘It has been a while, what if he’s changed?’
‘He could have been turned into a unicorn that’s tasked with protecting the Holy Grail and I still wouldn’t think it was a good idea to text him,’  she said, bluntly as ever ‘You were together six months and it’s taken you three years to get over him. Don’t do this to yourself.’
‘it was nine months,’ I corrected. ‘Almost ten.’

The book weaves a way through a range of memorably awkward locales in a convincingly homely London, a converted garden shed, a dark disco, a suburban tennis club, all on a collision course with both a video games convention and Ros’ Parents renewal of vows (which, thinking about it, my parents also did last year!). I have probably been reading this book since that day Beth brought me back a copy. Picking it up and putting it down, reading it through 2 more lockdowns. Never quite wanting it to end, but always finding it comfortable to come back to after say, the chaos of my return to work or whatever rude word you want to use to describe last Christmas. In Case You Missed It is like a hug from an old friend, right before they call you an embarrassing schoolyard nickname, on a night spent talking about the past and the future. It’s a friendly book about where we’re going in life, having nostalgic feelings but dealing with the reality of now.

‘We tend to assume we’re entitled to the things we have, we rewrite history to make life easier for ourselves. It’s not the case, Ros.’
‘I know, mum’ I said quietly.

From a lakeside read on a summer picnic (pictured above) to finishing it in the bath mere hours ago, I was once again happy to have been on a Lindsey Kelk adventure, with a set of new but invitingly familiar characters, during another weirdly intense period in time. With another book due next year, I find myself wondering…. what possible journey we’ll all go on next?

______________

It’s a random end note that, as a lifelong fan of pro wrestling, I always spotted occasional references in Kelk’s work that seemed too specific to be accidental. Later I would realise she is also a fan and now go looking for these nods, again this book didn’t disappoint. So this time, to bring my own, I used a WCW Arn Anderson trading card as a bookmark. No one needs to know this and the book itself will never appreciate it, but I had to tell someone to make it less odd.

-Mark

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker by Lauren James

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review1 Comment
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Goodreads | Waterstones

What if death is only the beginning?
When Harriet Stoker dies after falling from a balcony in a long-abandoned building, she discovers a group of ghosts, each with a special power.
Felix, Kasper, Rima and Leah welcome Harriet into their world, eager to make friends with the new arrival after decades alone. Yet Harriet is more interested in unleashing her own power, even if it means destroying everyone around her. But when all of eternity is at stake, the afterlife can be a dangerous place to make an enemy.

Lauren James never fails to blow my mind with her books. She has written some of the most original, unique stories I’ve ever read. Every time I read something new by her, I am astounded by her creativity and imagination. I always forget how amazing the twists and turns are, and how the endings absolutely hook you. I was left shocked in places with all of the plot twists, most of which I didn’t see coming! Whereas Lauren James usually writes science fiction, this book is very much paranormal.

This book starts with Harriet Stoker, a uni student who goes into an abandoned building in the grounds of her university to take photos, and falls to her death. She then becomes a ghost who is stuck in the building alongside every other ghost who has died on the grounds over the years. Harriet becomes frightened and in a panic, tries desperately to return to her grandmother. This makes her try everything and anything, making deals with the darker souls of the building and taking things from others.

Those early humans weren’t interested in entertainment. It hadn’t been invented yet. 

I found Harriet a very unlikable character for most of this story, which made me struggle to sympathise with her. I always struggle to truly enjoy a book where I dislike the main character, which is sadly what I found for most of this novel. Although she does have a redemption arc, and she isn’t the only one with a POV, it just felt like a large chunk of the book was not as enjoyable for me because of it.

We do learn more about why Harriet acts the way she does, which I very much appreciated and could sympathise with her more. She is also part of an amazing group of ghosts, centered around a particular friendship group, most of whom passed away in 1994 as residents of the building when it was student accommodation. This friendship group had such a lovely ‘found family’ feel to it which I loved, and the characters were really diverse. This was probably the best part of the book for me, alongside the amazing ending!

There were no happy endings or romance or heroes. The stories nearly always ended in death. 

I did find quite a lot of this book quite slow, and I did really notice the fact it was all set in one place. The ending almost makes up for it in terms of pace, as it is quite a payoff, but I still had mixed feelings about the pacing,

Overall, this was an incredibly creative read with some really well developed, interesting characters and amazing plot twists. Not everything was perfect, but it had such a great atmosphere and was such an easy, engaging read to fly through!

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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Review: Hero at the Fall (#3) by Alwyn Hamilton

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review1 Comment
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Goodreads | Waterstones

Once, in the desert country of Miraji, there was a Sultan without an heir.
The heir had been killed by his own brother, the treacherous Rebel Prince, who was consumed by jealousy and sought the throne for himself.
Or so it was said by some. There were others who said that the Rebel Prince was not a traitor but a hero…
In the final battle for the throne, Amani must fight for everything she believes in, but with the rebellion in pieces, and the Sultan’s armies advancing across the desert plains, who will lead, who will triumph, who will live and who will die?

My first thought after finishing this series is it is so underrated. I found them on a table in a bookshop years ago, and have heard little about them since, especially online. I enjoyed this more than some of the biggest YA fantasy/dystopian series and they should definitely have more hype! First of all, this series has been so unique and I loved the fact it was set in a desert. The worldbuilding in this series has been excellent and I could picture the desert and palace so clearly.

One of my favourite parts of this series was the friendship group, which had a real found family aspect to it. Although in this particular book I felt there was a little lack of character development and some of the side characters were a little interchangeable, the main few I really liked. Their banter and discussions felt natural and even made me chuckle in places. The end of the book was absolute roller-coaster and I had tears in my eyes in places. I really liked Amani and Jin’s relationship and the connection they had was beautifully written.

But even if the desert forgot a thousand and one of our stories, it was enough that they would tell of us at all. 

This last book was definitely the most action filled, which made it a very quick read. But unfortunately for me, I didn’t like it quite as much as the second, which I think was my favourite. I tend to prefer character focused books that I can feel a real connection to, rather than action packed books that leave me feeling a little disconnected from the characters. That’s how I felt about this book, just a little too disconnected from the characters to enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. The last part of this book almost made up for the parts I didn’t find quite so clear, but not quite. The ending reminded me of the end of Throne of Glass or A Court of Thorns and Roses when you just don’t know what is going to happen to the characters, or whether they will be okay.

Amani was an amazing, strong, brave female main character throughout this whole series, and she was one of my favourite things about it. She was such a great role model and I love how Jin complemented her but it was always clear she could be just fine on her own. It is subtle and in the background of the books until they are together and they burn so brightly, I loved seeing them together.

That long after our deaths, men and women sitting around a fire would hear that once, long ago, before we were all just stories, we lived.

Overall, I really liked this series. It was such a unique twist on YA fantasy and I haven’t read anything else quite like it. Also, it’s worth mentioning the covers are drop dead gorgeous!

★★★★
3.5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Persuasion by Jane Austen

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments
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Goodreads | Waterstones

What does persuasion mean – a firm belief, or the action of persuading someone to think something else? Anne Elliot is one of Austen’s quietest heroines, but also one of the strongest and the most open to change. She lives at the time of the Napoleonic wars, a time of accident, adventure, the making of new fortunes and alliances.

Yay for my first Jane Austen book, second classic of the year and first one of my Wordsworth set that I am actually reading this copy of! This is a book Mark recommended to me, and I knew I wanted it to be the first one I read in this set. If a cold Autumn day is the best time to read a Jane Austen book, maybe a snowy winter one can be second. I felt so cosy settling down with this book in the evenings with my fairylights on, it was just perfect.

Like many classics, I did find this a little dense. I’m not much of a classics reader usually (I’m really trying to get into them this year a little more!). I always find it takes me a while to settle into a classic and get used to the writing. I also have to get used to it taking me around double the amount of time it takes me to read YA fantasy and contemporary which I’m reading for most of the time! I definitely think a reread would be beneficial.

I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures.

Something that really surprised me about this book was how humorous I found it. The writing is so poetic and beautiful, but also funny. Austen can be sassy and brutal and I loved it, it made me chuckle to myself in parts. I loved the writing in every sense, other than it being naturally a little difficult to read due to just not being used to the time period. It was lyrical and I wanted to savour it, and I definitely made sure to take my time with it and really appreciate the writing.

Anne made for a very likable main character and her discussions of love, friendship, women in society and family were so interesting and well done. I loved the subtle romance between her and Captain Wentworth, which was pining but not overwhelming to the story. The letter everyone talks about when it comes to this book is so beautiful and such a high point for this book. I love how we spend the whole book with Anne, to see the letter in return. What a beautiful scene.

None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.

Overall, this was a beautifully told tale full of romance, lust and persistence. I felt very involved in the story, I loved the setting and the writing, and I can’t wait to read more from Jane Austen!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Traitor to the Throne (#2) by Alwyn Hamilton

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review1 Comment
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Goodreads | Waterstones

Nearly a year has passed since Amani and the rebels won their epic battle at Fahali. Amani has come into both her powers and her reputation as the Blue-Eyed Bandit, and the Rebel Prince’s message has spread across the desert – and some might say out of control. But when a surprise encounter turns into a brutal kidnapping, Amani finds herself betrayed in the cruellest manner possible.
Stripped of her powers and her identity, and torn from the man she loves, Amani must return to her desert-girl’s instinct for survival. For the Sultan’s palace is a dangerous one, and the harem is a viper’s nest of suspicion, fear and intrigue. Just the right place for a spy to thrive… But spying is a dangerous game, and when ghosts from Amani’s past emerge to haunt her, she begins to wonder if she can trust her own treacherous heart.

I’m reading this series with Alex and we’re really enjoying it! I liked Rebel of the Sands a lot but I wasn’t sure where this story would go. However, I actually enjoyed this more than the first book. It was even more of an emotional rollercoaster with so many twists and turns, me and Alex were messaging each other every day with our reactions and there were a lot of ‘did you get to this bit yet?’ messages too. Having read the first book, I felt a lot less daunted by this one and enjoyed it a lot more than going into the first one with no background to the characters and their story.

Again, I loved Amani as a main character. She is such a strong female lead, and the romance takes a backseat but I still really like the relationship Amani and Jin have. It feels like Amani is complemented by Jin rather than being supported by him, which I really liked. I also loved the supporting cast of characters yet again, and Sam was a great addition to the story. I feel like having a new character introduced into the second book in the series really helps boost the story and Sam made me laugh so much.

But then, this was what the desert did to us. 

I really liked the setting of this book. Rather than being the wider desert, it’s set in a palace which I loved. I felt like I could picture the palace so clearly and having the majority of the book being set in the palace helped a lot. I definitely preferred it being set around the palace than the wider desert! Looking back, I feel like this book should have been a slow burner. But although it’s hard to tell with this being a buddy read and reading a set amount of pages a day, I feel like this was actually quite a quick read. I just wanted to keep reading as this book just had so much tension.

Once again in this book, I really liked the found family element of this story. Even though Amani is on her own in the palace throughout this, she is surrounded from a distance by her supportive friends. I couldn’t help but feel a little emotional in places but genuinely chuckle to myself in others. These books kind of have it all!

It made us dreamers with weapons.

I’m very glad to say this book definitely didn’t have second book syndrome, and I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see what the last book has to give!

★★★★
4 out of 5 stars

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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