The Selection by Kiera Cass is about a young woman named America who ends up involved in a sort of Bachelor competition to win the heart and hand of the crown prince. I hadn’t actually intended to read it. I had tried the sample and didn’t get into it enough to want to buy it. Then I watched PolandBananasBooks’ YouTube review and when I saw that the audiobook was available at my local library I decided to give it another shot. After I got through the first few chapters I found the story sucked me in and I finished it in almost the one sitting. What I liked The concept. I hadn’t expected to enjoy a teen princess version of The Bachelor but the main character was so engaging I found I really enjoyed it. It helped that America’s motives for entering the competition were laid out pretty clearly – she has no illusions about marrying the prince and living a life of luxury. She knows that the longer she stays in the Selection the longer her struggling family receives financial support from the state, and that is one of her main motivations. The America/Maxon relationship. I really liked that their relationship…
The Selection by Kiera Cass is about a young woman named America who ends up involved in a sort of Bachelor competition to win the heart and hand of the crown prince. I hadn’t actually intended to read it. I had tried the sample and didn’t get into it enough to want to buy it. Then I watched PolandBananasBooks’ YouTube review and when I saw that the audiobook was available at my local library I decided to give it another shot. After I got through the first few chapters I found the story sucked me in and I finished it in almost the one sitting. What I liked The concept. I hadn’t expected to enjoy a teen princess version of The Bachelor but the main character was so engaging I found I really enjoyed it. It helped that America’s motives for entering the competition were laid out pretty clearly – she has no illusions about marrying the prince and living a life of luxury. She knows that the longer she stays in the Selection the longer her struggling family receives financial support from the state, and that is one of her main motivations. The America/Maxon relationship. I really liked that their relationship…
I had a pleasant surprise on Audible this morning. I had checked to see if the pre-order for Emerald Green was available, and not only is it available, it’s available NOW, a week earlier than the book. You can find it here The narrator of this audiobook, Marisa Calin is wonderful and really brings our heroine to life. Here’s a sample. For those of you uncertain about audiobooks, this is a wonderful place to start, and of course with an an Audible subscription you can cancel any time if it’s not for you. Of course, the free audiobook can be Emerald Green!
I had a pleasant surprise on Audible this morning. I had checked to see if the pre-order for Emerald Green was available, and not only is it available, it’s available NOW, a week earlier than the book. You can find it here The narrator of this audiobook, Marisa Calin is wonderful and really brings our heroine to life. Here’s a sample. For those of you uncertain about audiobooks, this is a wonderful place to start, and of course with an an Audible subscription you can cancel any time if it’s not for you. Of course, the free audiobook can be Emerald Green!
I received a copy of The Godborn by Paul S Kemp free to review via Netgalley. I should preface my thoughts by noting that I am not very familiar with Kemp’s The Twilight War trilogy and when reading this book I often felt as if I were a new reader to the Wheel of Time who had picked the series up at book four. I had the impression that a lot of assumptions of previous knowledge about the world have been made and I often found it difficult to keep up. I suspect that if you are already up to speed, you will have quite a different experience reading this book than mine. This is reflected in the low rating I gave this book. The Godborn tells of Vasen Cale’s quest to reunite the shards of Mask’s divinity which had been split among three people and to prevent Shar’s reincarnation which would lead to world destruction. At least that’s what I think it was about. I wasn’t very clear. What I liked The premise. I felt the idea of pieces of divinity having to be collected and reassembled interesting and well done. What I disliked Lack of focus. The Godborn…
I received a copy of The Godborn by Paul S Kemp free to review via Netgalley. I should preface my thoughts by noting that I am not very familiar with Kemp’s The Twilight War trilogy and when reading this book I often felt as if I were a new reader to the Wheel of Time who had picked the series up at book four. I had the impression that a lot of assumptions of previous knowledge about the world have been made and I often found it difficult to keep up. I suspect that if you are already up to speed, you will have quite a different experience reading this book than mine. This is reflected in the low rating I gave this book. The Godborn tells of Vasen Cale’s quest to reunite the shards of Mask’s divinity which had been split among three people and to prevent Shar’s reincarnation which would lead to world destruction. At least that’s what I think it was about. I wasn’t very clear. What I liked The premise. I felt the idea of pieces of divinity having to be collected and reassembled interesting and well done. What I disliked Lack of focus. The Godborn…
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor tells the story of Karou, a young woman with a double life. By day she is a student in modern day Prague, but at night she runs errands for her chimaera foster father, usually involving collecting teeth. It also tells of her love for an angel, Akiva, and of the war between angels and chimaera. What I liked Romeo and Juliet. Daughter of Smoke and Bone borrows a lot from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We have the star-crossed lovers on either side of opposing factions, betrayal, discovery, faked death and its fallout. Hey, I don’t mind – there’s a reason why Shakespeare and his themes have lasted so long – the idea of star-crossed lovers torn apart by war and death still resonates. Multiple threads woven together. We see the story from multiple points of view. At first, I found this confusing – who is Madrigal and why am I hearing from her when I want to hear from Karou? However as the book went on, these multiple points of view came together beautifully to create a wonderful story. The humour. Karou and her friend Zuzanna are just so funny together…
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor tells the story of Karou, a young woman with a double life. By day she is a student in modern day Prague, but at night she runs errands for her chimaera foster father, usually involving collecting teeth. It also tells of her love for an angel, Akiva, and of the war between angels and chimaera. What I liked Romeo and Juliet. Daughter of Smoke and Bone borrows a lot from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We have the star-crossed lovers on either side of opposing factions, betrayal, discovery, faked death and its fallout. Hey, I don’t mind – there’s a reason why Shakespeare and his themes have lasted so long – the idea of star-crossed lovers torn apart by war and death still resonates. Multiple threads woven together. We see the story from multiple points of view. At first, I found this confusing – who is Madrigal and why am I hearing from her when I want to hear from Karou? However as the book went on, these multiple points of view came together beautifully to create a wonderful story. The humour. Karou and her friend Zuzanna are just so funny together…
The Bone Season is Samantha Shannon’s debut dystopian novel and tells the story of clairvoyant Paige and her experiences as a prisoner of the alien Rephaim. I actually found this review quite difficult to write. It has been rescheduled time and time again. This is because, although I have read The Bone Season I’m still not entirely certain how I feel about it. It probably didn’t help that the hype machine was in full flow for this novel claiming that Shannon was the next J.K. Rowling. That set an impossibly high bar for the novel. What I liked The unique world building. The world of The Bone Season feels fresh and unique. There are layers within layers. The novel starts in a dystopian future version of London in which clairvoyance is illegal. This society is nicely described, but then we get another layer of the world of the Rephaim and Emim. The relationship between Paige and Warden. It was pretty clear that Shannon was setting up a romantic relationship between Paige and her keeper, Warden. Initially I was very resistant to that; it seemed such an imbalanced relationship with Warden’s having the power of life and death over Paige. Shannon…
The Bone Season is Samantha Shannon’s debut dystopian novel and tells the story of clairvoyant Paige and her experiences as a prisoner of the alien Rephaim. I actually found this review quite difficult to write. It has been rescheduled time and time again. This is because, although I have read The Bone Season I’m still not entirely certain how I feel about it. It probably didn’t help that the hype machine was in full flow for this novel claiming that Shannon was the next J.K. Rowling. That set an impossibly high bar for the novel. What I liked The unique world building. The world of The Bone Season feels fresh and unique. There are layers within layers. The novel starts in a dystopian future version of London in which clairvoyance is illegal. This society is nicely described, but then we get another layer of the world of the Rephaim and Emim. The relationship between Paige and Warden. It was pretty clear that Shannon was setting up a romantic relationship between Paige and her keeper, Warden. Initially I was very resistant to that; it seemed such an imbalanced relationship with Warden’s having the power of life and death over Paige. Shannon…