Jacket Delights: Shadow of Night

I have read Deborah Harkness’s book The Discovery of Witches three times. This doesnt sound like a big deal but it’s a wapping 720 pages long. Plus I always really read it, so I go back and reread bits as there’s so much information to take in.

One of my favourite books in the year it was published, I finally have set my sights on the sequel – SHADOW OF NIGHT which I have pre-ordered and will eagerly await it’s delivery on 10th July (perfect holiday reading!)

Here’s the cover, I loved TDOW cover so what to think of this one… the text isn’t as olde worlde as the first one which was one of the things I loved about it, but it will look good next to the first one and I love the colours. The UK cover is on the left, the US on the right, I know which I prefer but what do you think?

PRE- ORDER ME: Shadow of Night (All Souls Trilogy 2)

Book Review: The Summer of Living Dangerously

The Summer of Living Dangerously by Julie Cohen

The blurb: A gorgeously warm, funny and heartbreaking story about facing up to your past and finding out what – and who – you really want…

Alice Woodstock has her life under control. She’s successful and she’s happy – as long as she continues to ignore the hurt from her past. But when said past walks back into her life in the shape of Leo – the man who broke her heart – Alice is desperate for an escape route. She finds the perfect thing – a new job as a tour guide in a Regency stately home. But as she immerses herself in acting out the stories of the house, Alice begins to see parallels with her own life, forcing her to confront her feelings about what she wants and, finally, live in the real world.

My review: Julie Cohen is fast becoming one of my favourite women’s fiction authors. She has a fantastic way of really bringing her characters to life, their entire lives with a great supporting cast!

The premise of this book is every ‘Jane Austen reading’ girls dream, I can’t think of anything better than to spend a summer as a re-enactor in a stately home, playing out the summer of 1814. So not only did I learn lots about the period from reading this book but it was the perfect escapism for book lovers!

Cohen has a brilliant way of playing with her reader’s emotions. Half way through I could’ve told you the ending and how much I raged against it, I didnt want it to play out like that, I was unhappy with the relationship choices. But by the final page, I had made a complete 180, I loved the ending, it was as I had predicted (with all the little twists that keep it interesting) but I didn’t mind one bit.

There were a few odd bits that didn’t jibe for me but I don’t want to mention them as I believe they were personal taste things rather than things that need mentioning in a review. So whilst Getting Away With It is still my favourite in the Cohen list, this was a very worthy, skilled edition.

6.5 out of 10 stars ******.5!

One Book, Two Book, Three Book, Four… and Five! (2)

In November last year I posted an article here that was a meme from  Stuck in a Book, I loved thinking about the books I wanted to read and having a mix of titles in a blog post so thought I would do it again! So here it is!

1.) The Book I’m Currently Reading:

The Summer of Living Dangeously by Julie Cohen. I’m about 150 pages in and am loving it, all those years of reading Jane Austen makes the heroine completely relatable to me!

2.) The Last Book I Finished:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. If I could give this book a fifteen out of ten I would, or a twenty it was just so fantastically well thought out. As soon as I finished the last page I went straight online and bought the next one – Catching Fire.

3.) The Next Book I Want To Read:

I could say Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins as there’s no way I’m waiting to read this, but to mix it up a bit I’m also looking forward to reading 666 Park Avenue by Gabriella Pierce, has an interesting synopsis!

 

4.) The Last Book I Bought:

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Arrived this morning, looks brilliant, can’t get enough of Katniss Everdeen.

5.) The Last Book I Was Given:

The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall sent over from the lovely publicists at Headline. Is top of my TBR pile!

Book Review: The Snow Child

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The blurb: A bewitching tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska.

Jack and Mabel have staked everything on making a fresh start for themselves in a homestead ‘at the world’s edge’ in the raw Alaskan wilderness. But as the days grow shorter, Jack is losing his battle to clear the land, and Mabel can no longer contain her grief for the baby she lost many years before.

The evening the first snow falls, their mood unaccountably changes. In a moment of tenderness, the pair are surprised to find themselves building a snowman – or rather a snow girl – together. The next morning, all trace of her has disappeared, and Jack can’t quite shake the notion that he glimpsed a small figure – a child? – running through the spruce trees in the dawn light. And how to explain the little but very human tracks Mabel finds at the edge of their property?

Written with the clarity and vividness of the Russian fairytale from which it takes its inspiration, The Snow Child is an instant classic – the story of a couple who take a child into their hearts, all the while knowing they can never truly call her their own.

My review: The Snow Child is a lovely and magical book, a debut from Eowyn Ivey set in the remote and sometimes lonely landscape of Alaska.

It tells the tale of a middle aged couple who  relocate to a farmstead in Alaska to try and cope with their grief of losing a child some years before. Jack and Mabel are lost, unable to communicate with each other and the bleak snowy landscape seems to reflect the chill in their hearts. Until one night they make a snow child which slowly brings them back to life and like the thaw in the Spring creates warmth and light.(I am trying not to give too much away!)

Alaska is as much a part of this book as the characters and can be both beautiful and destructive. Ivey is adept at bringing all of this to life, I feel almost as though I have been there and witnessed the silence, the sense you are being watched, the magic of wishing fervently for something and the danger of wishful thinking.

Raw emotions, loneliness, hope, joy they resound with the reader and make this a book that will haunt your thoughts at random moments in the day.

8 out of 10 stars! ********

Book Review: The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight

The Statistical Probability Of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

The blurb: Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?

Imagine if she hadn’t forgotten the book. Or if there hadn’t been traffic on the expressway. Or if she hadn’t fumbled the coins for the toll. What if she’d run just that little bit faster and caught the flight she was supposed to be on. Would it have been something else – the weather over the Atlantic or a fault with the plane?

Hadley isn’t sure if she believes in destiny or fate but, on what is potentially the worst day of each of their lives, it’s the quirks of timing and chance events that mean Hadley meets Oliver…

Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it.

My review: Utterly charming. Smith’s novel is a heart-warming young adult novel, set over a 24 hour period. It tells the tale of two teenagers who, through the power of fate, end up sitting next to each over on a transatlantic flight to London from JFK. Both vulnerable, both charming, they are the antidote to each other’s suffering. This is a beautiful reminder of that mystical thing we call destiny, pick it up this Valentine’s Day and warm the cockles of your heart. This is such a lovely  novel it can’t help but brighten up your day.

8 out of 10 ********

I Can’t Wait to Read… #SPoLaFS

There has been talk about a book coming in 2012 that’s a bit of a must read. It’s called The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith.

I love the cover, it’s sweet and cute and that title is amazing!

I think this sounds like the perfect post-Christmas blues book and it’s going on my to be reviewed list!

Of Bees And Mist

Of Bees And Mist by Erik Setiawan

The blurb: Up in the house that sits on the hill, a strange spell is brewing…

 To Meridia, growing up with her father Gabriel, who vanishes daily in clouds of mist, and her bewitching mother Ravenna, the outside world is a refuge. So when as a young woman her true love Daniel offers her marriage, it seems an escape to a more straightforward existence.

Yet behind the welcoming façade of her new home lies a life of drudgery and a story even stranger than that she left behind. Aged retainers lurk in the background; swarms of bees appear at will, and of course, there’s her indomitable mother-in-law, Eva, hiding secrets that it will take Meridia years to unravel. Surrounded by seemingly unfathomable mysteries, can Meridia unlock the intrigues of the past, and thus protect her own family’s future?

My review: Of Bees And Mist is an intriguing book, I couldn’t tell it if was one giant allegory/fable/metaphor or an ordinary book – although there’s nothing ordinary about it. Erik Setiawan has a very unique style, an almost graceful way with words which makes this book a real joy to read. (Plus it’s beautiful to look at!)

Of Bees And Mist is the story of Meridia and the troublesome nature of relationships in the hands of certain people! There’s power plays, confusion, betrayal, pride, rejection, love – you name it and every complex emotional tie you can have with another person is represented in this book! The true mastery lies in how they are handled and described in such beautiful terms.

I did really like this book but personally I feel it could’ve done with being 200 pages shorter. It has a cyclical nature, the two main female characters are in a constant war and it feels like it’s one small battle after another and by the end I was exhausted by the whole thing. Too many fights, too many tears, I wanted it to be less repetative. So because of this I’ve marked it down but it is a magical book and well worth a read.

6.5 out of 10 stars! ******.5

Cuckoo

Cuckoo by Julia Crouch

The blurb:  A dark, juicy, deliciously unsettling, read-it-in-one-sitting psychological drama.

Rose has it all – the gorgeous children, the husband, the beautiful home. But then her best friend Polly comes to stay. Very soon, Rose’s cosy world starts to fall apart at the seams – her baby falls dangerously ill, her husband is distracted – is Polly behind it all? It appears that once you invite Polly into your home, it’s very difficult to get her out again…

My review: This book made me feel really uncomfortable and I can’t imagine what it would do to a wife and mother!

Julia Crouch has blended suspense with just enough chilling foresight to create a fantastic psychological thriller, like the blurb states, I couldn’t put it down. Initially I didnt think Cuckoo would be for me, Rose was a little too perfect, a little too submissive of her artistic husbands temperament. But as you learn more about Rose, you realise there’s a whole other world beneath the surface.

The idea that troubled me the most is how quickly you can be usurped. Crouch handles this wonderfully, how one minute a man or a woman, be it at work or in their family life, can feel irreplaceable and within a few short days find someone else being you, better that you! This is a truly disturbing line of thought!

I really didnt like the character of Polly, but for all the right narrative reasons, I wasn’t supposed to like Polly. The only reason this book hasn’t scored a bit higher is the ending. After all the manipulations, scheming, adultery, theft and downright threatening behaviour, the guilty party remains unscathed. I feel justice should have been done. But I’m a traditionalist. Read this book, it’ll make you question your relationships and keep you up at night but you won’t be able to put it down!

8 out of 10 stars ********!

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The blurb: When historian Diana Bishop opens an alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, it’s an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordered life. Though Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the violent death of her parents while she was still a child convinced her that human fear is more potent than any witchcraft. Now Diana has unwittingly exposed herself to a world she’s kept at bay for years; one of powerful witches, creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires.

Sensing the significance of Diana’s discovery, the creatures gather in Oxford, among them the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire genticist. Diana is inexplicably drawn to Matthew and, in a shadowy world of half-truths and old enmities, ties herself to him without fully understanding the ancient line they are crossing. As they begin to unlock the secrets of the manuscript and their feelings for each other deepen, so the fragile balance of peace unravels…

My review: Deborah Harkness is a creative genius. She has taken a genre that is saturated with vampires, witches and daemons and has created something unique, with its own rich history and mythology, that draws you into her world with captivating storytelling.

A Discovery of Witches is the first in the All Souls Trilogy and thank heavens for that. The date the next book hits the shelves will be firmly circled in my reading calendar. I have been left wanting more! This book has the perfect blend of magic and history to make it unputdownable. There is a credibility in Harkness’s characters, they are fully rounded and three dimensional, with back stories and intricate past relationships that made me want to know more about them and see where there actions would take them. Thanks to the warmth of tone in Harkness’s storytelling I found the characters easy to like and the mystery one I wanted to solve.

Hands down the best book I have read in a very long time. I wanted more of it, and its just shy of 600 pages so there’s lots to read! I dont want to spoil any of it for future readers so all I will say is you need to read this book! One of the few…

10 out of 10 stars! **********

The Brutal Telling

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny

The blurb: In the heart of the forest, two men sit at midnight, haunted by fear of discovery. In a few hours’ time, one of them will be dead, his secrets following him to the grave… When C. I. Gamache is called to investigate a murder in the picturesque Three Pines, he finds a village in chaos. A man has been found, bludgeoned to death, and there is no sign of a weapon, a motive or even the dead man’s name.

Gamache and his colleagues, Inspector Beauvoir and Agent Isabelle Lacoste, start to dig under the skin of this peaceful haven for clues. They slowly uncover a trail of stolen treasure, mysterious codes and a shameful history that begins to shed light on the victim’s identity – and point to a terrifying killer…

My Review: What a wonderfully written book. I am by no means a connoisseur of the crime genre but this is the kind of book that will make me reach for another and another! Its tricky to review crime without giving too much away and this is a book that doubles back on itself so many times that I was left wondering if the ending was actually the ending! It is beautifully composed and plotted – the finger of guilt wavers over everyone’s head!

Chief Inspector Gamache is a brilliant creation, a man who is imminently likeable and seems to have limitless patience. The impression given is that you wouldn’t want this man as an adversary as his dogged determination and intuition for human nature would keep him going until every last stone was turned. His hand picked homicide team are a mixture of characters that compliment each other well and there is a nice element of quirkiness that is not overdone.

Penny’s plot really draws you in, she takes the time to set the scene so that by the end of the book it feels like you know every character on a personal level.

Each character begins with a clean slate and Penny has the uncanny ability to draw out their flaws and their talents in a subtle way that makes them seem extremely real. If three pines was a real place I’d want to go there – even if the body count keeps rising!

7 out of 10 stars *******