Book review!
It looks like it has been nearly a year since I shared what I’ve been reading, let’s play catch up!:
1. All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
“I used to be fine when I was alone. But now that I have you, I’m lonely when I’m alone.”
Synopsis:
“Quinn and Graham’s perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.
All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?”
I like Colleen Hoover, but I think the reason I gave this book 3 stars is because so many of Quinn and Graham’s issues could have been resolved by a good old fashioned conversation. Quinn was feeling frustrated and hurt by years of infertility and she shut down to grieve internally. By shutting her husband out so many unnecessary issues and hurt feelings were dredged up. She seemed to change so much of after they were married, I just didn’t like her character anymore.
My Rating: 3 Stars
2. Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
“He tapped the sun over his heart. “I came here for you. You’re my flag. You’re my nation.”
Synopsis:
“Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.”
My Rating: 3 Stars
3. Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
“Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what’s inside you? That’s steel. It’s brave and unbreakable. And it doesn’t need fixing.”
Synopsis:
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
I liked this series by Leigh Bardugo a lot! I can’t remember why I gave book 2 three stars, but it looks like I liked the way it ended.
My Rating: 5 Stars
4. Caraval by Stephanie Garber
“Hope is a powerful thing. Some say it’s a different breed of magic altogether. Elusive, difficult to hold on to. But not much is needed.”
Synopsis:
“Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.
But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.
Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic.”
I think I gave this book a higher rating because I liked that it kept me guessing, but it threw me for such a loop that I think I’ll be avoiding the two sequels that have been published since this one.
My Rating: 4 Stars
5. Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas
“Every step. Every curve into darkness. Every moment of despair and rage and pain. It had led him to precisely where he needed to be. Where he wanted to be.”
Synopsis:
“In this sweeping parallel novel to the New York Times bestselling Empire of Storms, Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience if they wish to save their friends. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, deep in the shadows of mighty mountains where warriors soar on legendary ruks, long-awaited answers slumber. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival—or doom them all…”
I’m a huge fan of the Throne of Glass series and this was a necessary read before the finale. I loved it!
My Rating: 4 Stars
6. Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
“I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower’s stem.”
Synopsis:
“For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland’s majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones …about a love that transcends the boundaries of time …and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ….
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire’s spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart …in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising …and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves.”
I finally picked up this second book in the Outlander trilogy. The first book contained such graphic torture scenes that I swore I could never read another, but I’m glad I did. I could tell this book was laying a lot of groundwork for the remaining books in the series so it was slow going, but I still liked it. In all fairness, I listened to it on Audible so it didn’t feel AS slow as it probably would have if I were reading it.
My Rating: 3 Stars
7. War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
“Change can be quick, or it can be slow. But the movement should always be forward.” –
Synopsis:
“Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal’s betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart—and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her—Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all… starting with the crown on Maven’s head.
But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal’s powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolishing everything—and everyone—in his path.
War is coming, and all Mare has fought for hangs in the balance. Will victory be enough to topple the Silver kingdoms? Or will the little lightning girl be forever silenced?
In the epic conclusion to Victoria Aveyard’s stunning series, Mare must embrace her fate and summon all her power… for all will be tested, but not all will survive.”
This was the final book in the Red Queen series and I’m glad I read the series, but it was a bit slow going and meh.
My Rating: 3 Stars
8. And I Darken by Kiersten White
She plucked a rose and held it to her face. She hated the way roses smelled, their sweetness too fragile. She wanted a garden of evergreens. A garden of stones. A garden of swords.”
Synopsis:
“No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.
Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.
But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.”
I love that this book is historical fiction and was excited to learn a little more about the Ottoman Empire. In the book the main character Lada is a girl, but in reality this story is based off Vlad the Impaler who was a (male) ruler known for cruelty. I think changing the sex of the main character is an interesting spin, but it definitely made me second guess everything else in the book.
My Rating: 4 Stars
9. The Last Tudor by Philippa Gregory
“Learn you to die!” Means consider how your death is meaningful, as your life is meaningful.”
Synopsis:
“The latest novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory features one of the most famous girls in history, Lady Jane Grey, and her two sisters, each of whom dared to defy her queen.
Jane Grey was queen of England for nine days. Her father and his allies crowned her instead of the dead king’s half sister Mary Tudor, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her throne, and locked Jane in the Tower of London. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block, where Jane transformed her father’s greedy power grab into tragic martyrdom.
“Learn you to die,” was the advice Jane wrote to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and fall in love. But she is heir to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and then to her half sister, Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a Tudor son. When Katherine’s pregnancy betrays her secret marriage, she faces imprisonment in the Tower, only yards from her sister’s scaffold.
“Farewell, my sister,” writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary keeps family secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After seeing her sisters defy their queens, Mary is acutely aware of her own danger but determined to command her own life. What will happen when the last Tudor defies her ruthless and unforgiving Queen Elizabeth?”
I used to faithfully read every one of Philippa Gregory’s book after reading a loving The Other Boleyn Girl. This is another piece of historical fiction that I found interesting, but I think I’ve read so many of them that I just needed something a little faster moving and less repetitive.
My Rating: 3 Stars
Do you have a book you recommend? What have you read recently?
Now it’s your turn!
Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back to add your name to the link list below. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!
The Prompts:
1. Throwback Thursday: Choose a photo from a previous June and write a poem or a blog post.
2. Book review!
3. Your summer vs. Your kids summer
4. Tell us about the last concert you attended.
5. Take us somewhere local spot in your city and show us what we’re missing…you’ll be saving us thousands of dollars now that we won’t need to take that trip!
6. Describe an island you have visited.
7. Tell us about the last time you were on a boat.
Jennice says
And I Darken and The Last Tudor seem kike books I would read. I was a huge fan of The Tudors tv series starrkng Jonathan Rhys- Meyer as King Henry VIII. I just started getting books from Net Galley and I have too many to read. Right now Im reading Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage, Before We Were Wicked by Eric Jerome Dickey, and The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman.
John Holton says
Do you like reading on your phone? Mary’s given up on the Fire tablet and now reads on her phone and iPad. She really seems to like it better.
I think I need to read more, although my tastes are totally different (nonfiction is more my thing). My current reading is a three-book set on programming in Python (just for giggles, I’m retired), and I didn’t think that would make for good reading.