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 Shortly after her mother’s death, Yeine is summoned to the capital, Sky, by her royal grandfather. Formerly ruler of a small nation, Yeine has never been acknowledged by her mother’s family because they never approved of her parents’ marriage, but her death changes everything. Yeine is declared an heir to the throne and must compete with her two cousins, both of whom were raised in Sky, or her life will end. Quickly, her struggle takes on bigger dimensions as she finds herself caught in a war between gods, questioning whether she can save those who have been imprisoned to serve humans or must bow down the god who now rules over all.
It’s been a long time since I read a new-to-me epic fantasy as engrossing as this one. I’ve seen this book over and over again, but mainly dismissed it from my thoughts. Then, it got chosen for a book club pick, and though I was forced to miss the meeting, I still bought and read the book in time. I’m so happy about that – I would have missed out on an amazing book more or less because the cover didn’t appeal to me and I thought it would be another 1000+ page chunkster. How wrong I was. This was a stand-out book with a gorgeously realized world, beautifully drawn characters, and a strong emotional heart.
One of the many reasons I read fantasy is down to world-building. I can get lost in a well-written fantasy world, happily exploring the corners of it for page after page. Though this is only the first book in a trilogy, I am well and truly intrigued. In this world, the struggle between the gods has defined the way the people live. The original war left one god supreme, one god killed, and the third major god imprisoned, along with the rest of the lesser gods, forced to obey humans. Naturally, they’re not particularly fond of this, and will do anything to get out of it, hence one of the core plotlines of the book that becomes clear as we go along.
Probably the only part that I struggled with at the beginning is the writing style and the inadequacy of Yeine herself. The book is told through Yeine’s reflections and her memory is muddled. She goes back in time and talks to herself, for reasons that also become clear as the book continues, but which lead to a confused reader at the start. But when everything came together at the end I was left wondering how well the foreshadowing would stick together on a second read, which means I do plan on reading it again at some point.
To top it all off, there is a romance involved, which when done well almost always makes a book better for me. I loved this one. Though as mentioned earlier Yeine is frustratingly powerless, obviously a pawn in others’ hands at times, there was certainly something about this pairing that pulled on my heartstrings and had me crossing my fingers for them. I think it would have been a lesser book without that emotional anchor.
I am very glad that I read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of number two in the series! Expect a review of that one soon too – I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to wait. In the meantime, I highly recommend this to other fantasy readers. There is a reason it’s been nominated for a Nebula.
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 After her husband leaves her for a professional woman that can have his children, Leonora Manin decides to seek her heritage in Venice. Her mother fell in love with a Venetian, but wound up raising Leonora alone in London, separating her from an essential part of her heritage. Leonora arrives in Venice to learn about Corradino, one of her ancestors, and to find herself again in the city of her birth. Her story is interwoven with that of Corradino, her famous ancestor who was at the time the most skilled glassblower in the world.
I remember a lot of other bloggers reviewing this book when it came out a good while ago. It seemed to be good, but not spectacular – that was enough for me to acquire it on my Kindle when it was on offer for just £1. I hoped to find something a little more than others did, but in the end I felt the same, just liking the story rather than really getting into it.
The first thing that turned me off from the book was the style of the writing. It was okay, but I often felt like it was trying just a bit too hard to inject the prose with beauty. It felt flat and stilted instead, with descriptions of Venice dragging on, and I really disliked the way the perspective was sometimes taken away from the main characters and written from an observer’s point of view. The book also switched around haphazardly between characters, sometimes having one new perspective for a single chapter and nowhere else in the book, which threw me off when it felt like the first half of the book was simply Leonora and Corradino. Why introduce other narrators when it’s already hard enough to connect with the two established?
The romance also happened much too quickly. They’d hardly met by the time Leonora decided she was permanently in love, and to be honest I never really connected with either of them. I did enjoy Leonora’s perspective, especially in the beginning, and felt for her, but just could not understand her attraction nor her reckless disregard for certain consequences. And I say this as a happy reader of romance novels, because I adore a good love story – unfortunately, this isn’t one. Everything was written to be a big deal, with lots of excitement and feeling and drama, but I couldn’t believe in it at all.
To top that all off, I didn’t even really like the historical parts, usually my favorites. Corradino was too cocky for my tastes, much too sure of himself, and I didn’t like what happened with the plot in that section. It just didn’t tie together as well as I would have liked; moreover, I never really “got” why Leonora felt more of a connection to Corradino than her own father, who also blew glass. Was it just because he was more famous?
I sound very critical here, but I don’t mean to be – I did actually enjoy reading The Glassblower of Murano. It passed the time well and I found it good for a casual read. But if you’re looking for a proper, in depth work of historical fiction (or even a fun switch between history and the present) I’d recommend you look elsewhere.
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 At eighteen years old, Lady Calpurnia Hartwell knows she is a failure during her own first season. Not helped by her old-fashioned name and the fact that she is forced to wear hideous gowns that don’t flatter her curvy figure, Callie has resorted to hiding in gardens and taking refuge amongst spinsters, avoiding the embarrassment and the fortune hunters who are the only men seeking her attentions. During one of her stints in a garden, Callie runs into Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston, who actually pays attention to her – Callie – and calls her an empress. Almost immediately afterwards, Callie sees Ralston in the arms of another woman, cementing his rakish ways and diminishing his compliments to her.
Ten years later, Callie’s little sister Mariana has just made the match of the year, while Callie has cemented her position in “spinster seating”. After hearing herself described as passive by the little sister she adores, Callie is driven to cast off the propriety which has ruled her life and seize opportunities not traditionally open to women. Her first task is to kiss someone – passionately – and who else should she choose but the Marquess she has adored from afar for ten years? He obviously know what he’s doing. But for a lady who longs for a love match, getting closer to Ralston is almost guaranteed to break Callie’s heart.
There is a reason that stereotypes in romance are so prevalent throughout the genre, and that’s because done correctly, they work, and they work very very well. Sarah MacLean’s adult romantic debut is the perfect demonstration of this. There is nothing particularly original about this book, nothing that hasn’t been done to death somewhere else. Callie is an aging (for her time) spinster, 28 years old, who has ceaselessly crushed on a true rake for ten years. She’s a wallflower, someone vast hordes of shy women can connect with on sight, and someone who is relentlessly ignored by dozens of men because she doesn’t conform to the stereotypes. She is a fantastic heroine, easy to love, easy to root for, and very clever for a woman who decides to make a list of nine things she’s not supposed to do.
Ralston is a man afraid of love because of his mother, like so many romance heroes before him. Having seen his father devastated by his mother’s departure, Ralston has determined never to love any woman, but instead to enjoy them. He doesn’t treat them badly – he spoils his mistresses rotten – but he makes a point of staying away from women who would love him or invite his love in return. Having been immune to every young lady’s charms, buried in the most gorgeous of women’s embraces for years, Ralston then finds himself peculiarly enamored with a woman completely unlike his others, even though he still resists love.
Having said all that, these familiar storylines work incredibly well in this novel. It’s fun, it’s witty, and it’s absolutely, indescribably romantic. It never falls into the trap of lust turning into love (though there is plenty of lust). Instead, it’s believable, even when the characters behave stupidly and deny themselves what they actually want. Their emotions leap off the page and into the reader’s heart, too – I can tell you I fell in love with this book. I stayed away for a good long while because of all the hype; I have read some books in this genre that simply don’t live up to expectations. This one did.
Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake is an amazing read, a must for historical romance fans. Highly, highly recommended – I am now going to proceed to devour MacLean’s next books!
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 Popular high schooler Sam Kingston dies one night after attending a party at an old friend’s house. But she wakes up the next morning, only to find that she’s living that same Friday over again. And then it happens again. By the time she gets the hang of it, Sam starts to wonder why she’s being forced to live the exact same day over and over again. But as she does, she also begins to consider her actions more closely, to think about her friends more deeply, and to think about the small – and big – things that she does which can change the course of not only her life but those of everyone around her.
When I read Delirium a couple of months ago, I loved it, but many other bloggers said it was good but didn’t quite live up to this. I can completely see that now – this was a five star book for me, not necessarily from the first page, but as Sam went on living Cupid Day, I fell more and more in love with it.
It’s easy to see why, for me, as well, because this book has everything that I love about fantastic character development simply inherent in it. The premise of going back and living the same day over and over again gives us a whole different spectrum of ways to view Sam. She realizes that her actions have no consequences at one point, because she’ll just repeat the day over again, and so acts outrageously. But then she’s still stuck with the memory of what she did and how unhappy it made her, even if it impacts no one else. People do all sorts of small acts that simply pass by, without thinking of what they’ve done to others, but Sam can change this one day for everyone.
The book itself is truly breathtaking; I could not put it down as I was reading it. I’d intended to cycle through this and two non-fiction books I was reading, but they fell to the wayside because I absolutely had to finish this one. Despite the fact that Sam’s living the same day over – a plot which I thought would get repetitive – it genuinely doesn’t because each day is different. Each day brings new discoveries. I loved the way Sam could start to work out how everyone around her ticked because of the way she asked different questions and acted differently depending on what she’d discovered. It worked and spotlighted so many different aspects of any teen’s life at the same time – friends, family, boyfriends, sex, teacher crushes, drugs, even popularity itself. It sounds like a lot, but it fits perfectly.
Oh, and the end? That’s perfect as well. I was wary of reading anything else afterwards – even my non-fiction – because I didn’t want to spoil the way my mind kept going over the book. It keeps popping up in my head, too, like the characters have never left.
I wholeheartedly recommend Before I Fall, an absolutely fantastic YA read that will keep you turning the pages until you’ve finally closed the book.
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 At long last, Mercy Thompson and Adam Hauptman get married, the human counterpart to the fact that they’ve been mated for a while. The marriage is refreshingly normal, given the fact that werewolves and fae are in attendance, and Mercy and Adam head off on their honeymoon to a park in a deluxe trailer. Unfortunately for what they were planning, a fae sent them there for this purpose, and the fae rarely do anything out of the goodness of their hearts. Finding a man with his leg nearly sliced off, his sister missing, and several European otters in the nearby river is only the beginning.
Patricia Briggs has never let me down with this series, and maintains the great character and relationships that have been the hallmark of this series since the start in this latest installment. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is happy to see Mercy and Adam finally married. Their relationship is so sweet and perfectly suited to both of their characters. It’s hard not to like it.
As for the rest of the book, we encounter a few tidbits from Mercy’s past as the newlyweds find themselves encountering quite a few Native Americans, including Coyote, who Mercy met in her coming of age vision years ago, only sensible because she shifts into a coyote. The plot is good and solid and certainly kept me turning the pages, so no complaints here.
It’s always difficult to review a book like this, late in a series, so I think I’ll leave it here; River Marked is a book well worth reading and the entire series comes highly recommended by me for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy.
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 This week, I finally managed to finish the first in my attempt at a Wheel of Time re-read before the last of the series comes out. The Eye of the World has a lot to live up to, for me; it was my first ever epic fantasy read, after all, and the book that launched my interest in all things fantasy way back in my first year of high school.
A friend recommended it to me and I can still remember that first time I went into the bookstore and held it in my hands. I opened it up and started reading, just to make sure I was interested before I invested my $7, but as soon as I’d read a paragraph I knew I was ready to buy. Fantasy worlds were so new to me, and so appealing, that I inhaled the book when I read it, and then went on to read the rest of the series, up to book 9, in relatively short order. Then, disappointed by book 10 and waiting for what felt like an eternity for book 11, I stopped, and now I’m trying to pick up the pieces.
So, how did my original foray into fantasy hold up, more than ten years later?
Surprisingly, it held up very well. It took me what felt like forever to read (more than a week, which is a long time for me), and I had an unfortunate habit of falling asleep while reading, but it was still a very absorbing and interesting read – I can see exactly what appealed to my fourteen year old self. I was shocked by how little I remembered the story, even though bits and pieces popped up as I read. Mostly I remembered the Trollocs invading Rand’s home, to be honest, and the beginning with Lews Therin Telamon. There were parts of other sections, particularly as I read, but beforehand there was very little in my head from the first time I’d read the book.
What I think struck me the most this time was how very typical a fantasy it is. It so obviously draws from Tolkien and a lot of other fantasy I’ve read draws from it, so it was simultaneously comforting and odd to put together the pieces. I hadn’t read anywhere near enough to pick that up the first time, but here – it’s that farmboy on a journey yet again, that farmboy with a fantastic destiny, who is forced to leave home and who must then go on to save the world. Obviously, it has plenty of its own twists to it, and there is no question in my mind at least that it fills the stereotypes quite well, but it was familiar not only because I’d read it before in this book, but because I’d read it before in others.
Much of the book defies the stereotypes as well, though. Even though it is Rand who is slated to save the world, he is far from the most powerful character at this point, and often reads like a lost puppy who has no idea what to do with himself. There is Lan, who is the most powerful human male we come across, but even he is ruled by the Aes Sedai he serves: Moiraine. Their strengths work together more than they work separately. And that’s what I liked about this book, this time, possibly the most; that the women are the powerful ones. Knowing what comes after does dim that a bit, but I loved that the women are regarded as the ones to keep the party safe, by not only Moiraine but by the people they meet on their journey as well. Yes, the three farmboys are ta’veren, the ones who change fate, not the women, but women hold the men’s destinies in their hands regardless.
You could say as well that the fact that the Aes Sedai are regarded as unnatural, terrifying witches in the country is yet another take on the very real practice of pulling powerful women down – the constant desire to explain away powerful women by turning them into evil is a theme that’s repeated not only here but in the real world as well. For me, this aspect made the book even more interesting, but didn’t really lessen the fact that it genuinely is the women who can protect the men. There are a lot of complex dynamics going on here and I’m looking forward to exploring them as I continue with the series.
The other thing I noticed was that the book is very clearly a first book. There are many little flaws in it that annoyed me; people keep doing the same actions over and over again. Nynaeve chews her braid, for example, while others are always chewing their lips, people blush more often than they ever would in real life, the characters are always throwing their heads back and laughing, and the descriptions of clothes never really flowed properly. It is a great story, and immediately absorbing, but it is not the world’s best written book.
All of that said, of course, I could so easily see what pulled me and so many others into this story. I doubt this is the last time I’ll read this book. My husband decided to read it first and immediately tried to get me to read it because there was so much to discuss, then he immediately moved on to the next book (which he is still reading now). Obviously, The Eye of the World is still very appealing, more than 20 years after its first publication date. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series, now.
 The fourth in the Lady Emily Ashton series starts with Colin and Emily married, at long last. They’re off on their honeymoon to Constantinople, intent on spending a lot of time together and only a little bit of time exploring the town. But fate doesn’t leave them alone, as a mystery falls literally into their laps on the train with a man, Sir Richard, falling unconscious at dinner. The plot thickens on arrival in Constantinople as a young English girl, Ceyden, is murdered in the harem, who turns out to be Sir Richard’s daughter. Colin and Emily are immediately off to solve the mystery and figure out who is behind the murder.
I knew I couldn’t wait long to read this after finishing A Fatal Waltz and I was glad to immerse myself in Colin and Emily’s world once again. It’s such a thrill to see that they’re finally married; rather than prolonging the suspense, Alexander has just tied the knot and shown that, for once, novels aren’t always dependent on romantic tension. And I was glad the characters could finally release their proper Victorian strongholds – though this novel fades to black, it’s obvious that they enjoy being married a considerable amount!
Other than that, however, I found I wasn’t as interested in this particular mystery as I had been previously. Though the atmosphere is very interesting and well done, the plot itself wasn’t what drew me along. It didn’t help that Colin was actually away for what felt like half the book, leaving Emily to solve things on her own. In some ways, I felt this dragged the story on a bit longer than it would have otherwise. There also isn’t the continuing tension that sprinkled through the last installment, with the bullets left everywhere, which meant that the plot moved a little less quickly. Until the end, that is, when everything gets very exciting.
What did work, however, was the emotional intensity of the novel. As a Victorian lady, Emily is forced to deal with the reality of marriage and its consequences. She hardly knew her first husband and had very little time with him, so the risk of pregnancy was not particularly high. Here, though, it’s obvious that marital relations result in pregnancies and Emily is terrified. Her friend Ivy is pregnant and very delicate back in England, which is a huge weight on her mind, and it doesn’t help that she too could wind up pregnant at almost any time. I felt like this was an incredible insight into the mind of a true Victorian woman; so often books are still written as though babies are always wonderful miracles, particularly in more romantic genres, because that’s the reality of today, when the vast majority of women and babies in western countries survive. What’s so often ignored is that children were far more likely to lead to death a hundred years ago, both for their mothers and themselves. This book presents Emily’s fear in a very realistic way that was easy to relate to.
Tears of Pearl was another excellent addition to the Lady Emily Ashton series. Possibly not enough to persuade those who weren’t enamored with the first or second to continue, but it worked very well for this fan of the series. It won’t be long until I continue with the next!
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 Laura Grey is a plant in Andre Jaouen’s household, acting as a governess to his children but sent by the Pink Carnation to find out more about his allegiances. Laura, originally a Frenchwoman, does have the experience to teach the children at the same time, since she’s spent half her 32 years as a governess. The surprise is that Jaouen has much more in common with Laura’s side than anyone initially thought, and the challenge will be to keep everyone safe as certain members of the French government begin to suspect him. In the modern world, Eloise and Colin head to Paris to meet his mother, but her husband (who is actually of Colin’s generation) has some nasty plans in store to prove his position as the new head of the family.
After the light-hearted fun that was The Mischief of the Mistletoe, we’re right back in the thick of Napoleonic France with The Orchid Affair. Things are not easy or delightful for Laura and Andre. The dark side of the series and the espionage factor have come back in force, as Laura is immediately aware of the danger around her when she presents herself as a governess, right at the start of the book. Things simply escalate as the story continues. The modern day story doesn’t lighten things up here either; instead, Colin and Eloise are hit with some unpleasant bombshells of their own of varying severity. Willig’s writing is still as witty and polished as ever, but we’re much more aware that things can and sometimes do go wrong.
Regardless, it was nice to be transported back to the feel the books had at the beginning of the series, to be reminded that these books are about spies and that post-Revolutionary France was still a ridiculously dangerous place to be. Certainly some of the last few have run the risk of letting us slip into a delightful idyll of romance, but this book isn’t like that. Even the inevitable relationship between Laura and Andre, when it comes, isn’t like that. Instead, it’s a meeting of minds and a love borne almost out of necessity. They’re attracted from the start, but I got the feeling that neither of them would have acted on it without some external pushes. I can’t say I’m as fond of this couple as I have been of previous couples, but overall the storyline works very well and flows completely naturally – I was able to speed right through this book.
The Pink Carnation series is still an auto-buy for me; I continue to enjoy each and every installment of the series. I would definitely recommend them to anyone looking for delightful, romantic, and sometimes suspenseful reads centered around spies in Napoleonic France and eighteenth century England.
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 I know I meant myself to space out my rereads over the course of each month, but I honestly just couldn’t wait to read the next in the Anne series! I was very tempted to start Anne of Avonlea immediately after finishing Anne of Green Gables a couple of weeks ago, but I managed to make myself wait until the 2nd of March. I’m not sure I’ll make it until April before I read Anne of the Island but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing either!
Anyway, in this installment, Anne and Marilla set about their relatively peaceful life in Avonlea. Anne has become the teacher at the school, which poses its own unique challenges. She wants her students to love her, but at times it seems as though Anthony Pye will never oblige. Meanwhile, Marilla’s third cousin finds himself with two twins that he can no longer take care of, and so the two ladies find themselves with Davy and Dora. Dora is a perfect princess, but Davy is mischievous and a ridiculously lovable handful.
As Anne gets a little older, she starts to enter the world of womanhood. As a result, this book focuses a lot more on romance. It’s hard to believe a seventeen year old young woman would completely fail to have any interest in the men around her, but somehow for Anne it works – she’s still busy being imaginative even as her friends start to fall in love. She recognizes that this stage in her life is very much the next one, but instead of developing crushes herself reflects on the fact that her childhood is really over.
It’s a funny juxtaposition because she’s now treated as an adult by everyone around her – she’s the teacher at the Avonlea school, responsible for instilling education and virtue in the minds of a classroom full of young people. She’s very much in charge of Davy and Dora at times as she and Marilla share responsibility for them. Her bringing up is clearly over because she’s automatically entrusted with bringing up the next generation of young kids, even at sixteen and seventeen.
Like the last one, this book is divided into a series of episodes in Anne’s life. She has a variety of adventures, but they aren’t quite as fun as they were when she was a child; instead, the incidents are more adult in nature. She works to gain the affection of the children in the school; Davy nearly loses Dora and she has to find her; and she plays a part in befriending an older, single woman and trying to reunite her with her long-lost love. Because Anne is mostly done growing up, the book holds together a little less cohesively around these incidents, but it’s still a delightful and overall comforting read.
I had half-forgotten a lot of this book, with my memory fixated on bits and pieces throughout rather than specific episodes, like in the last. I do think I liked it better than I did as a child, though, mainly because I have a much greater appreciation for more adult activities. At 12, I didn’t really care about Anne’s society or the efforts she undertook to teach children. It’s more interesting to me now, especially because I can appreciate the book in more ways. As with the first, finishing this book made me want to pick up the next in the series right away, which is always an encouraging sign when you do intend to read an entire series!
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 Now engaged to Colin Hargreaves, Lady Emily Ashton finds herself with fiance in tow at a house party given by the mentor of her best friend Ivy’s husband Robert. Emily isn’t fond of Lord Fortescue but knows she needs to support her friend. Unfortunately, she discovers a new nemesis at the party in the form of Kristiana von Lange, an Austrian countess who clearly has previously been enamored with Emily’s fiance. Even worse, the host of the party is murdered, and Ivy’s husband is arrested for the crime. In a quest to rescue her newly pregnant friend’s husband, Emily finds herself travelling to Vienna in search of a murderer.
It had been too long since I read the last Emily Ashton mystery when I picked this one up, and as a result the details in my head were a bit foggy. I couldn’t really remember what happened in the last one, A Poisoned Season. Lucky for me, these mysteries each stand fairly well on their own two feet, and I found myself slipping into the story effortlessly as I became reacquainted with Emily’s world.
Emily remains something of an unconventional heroine at this point in the series. She may be engaged to a respectable man, but she’s still more inclined to drink port and get herself involved in her society and solving its crimes than a respectable lady of her time might, as Emily’s mother often notes. As a result, she remains somewhat anachronistic, at least to this reader, but her character is so delightful and believes so deeply in the way women should be treated – as equals – that it’s impossible for a modern girl not to appreciate and like her. Her romance with Colin is still breathtaking despite their engagement; in this at least, the author stays true to Victorian mores as Emily behaves properly for once and completely resists even touching Colin in the presence of others. They do exchange kisses, but that’s as far as it goes, and this creates a really nice and unusual sense of both restraint and excitement. We can feel how eager they are to be married and the waiting makes it almost better – especially when Emily gets jealous of Kristiana. She starts to feel very human in this one.
The plot itself didn’t honestly do all that much to capture my attention, especially at the start. I was more enjoying the atmosphere and character development. I wasn’t racing through to get to the end, but as the book is 300 pages long and I read it on a Saturday, I finished it in one sitting. I loved the part of the novel that was set in Vienna. I do love England, but it’s just wonderful to have a change of scene, and this brooding, snow-covered city suited the mood of the book perfectly. Emily’s investigations frequently led to a few twists and turns with the mystery itself, with some tense scenes particularly towards the end. I have two more of these books, so I knew nothing was really going to happen to Emily, but there were no guarantees about anyone else.
A Fatal Waltz served its purpose well; it is a diverting, very romantic historical mystery that has plenty for modern readers to get involved in. I actually really enjoyed it and cracked open the next Emily Ashton book just a week later. I don’t think I’ll be letting the rest of the series sit as long as I left this one!
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