Review: Beware the Night by Jessica Fleck

Beware the Night by Jessika Fleck
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

TL;DR: Predictable, didn't like the main character, but still want to see where it goes. 2.5/5 stars, it was OK.

Beware the Night is utterly predictable, down to the impetuous actions of our heroine, Veda. She is constantly told by everyone around her to wait, and listen, and go with her gut, because she's brand new to this whole thing and everyone else has been planning stuff for a long time. In the end, she listens to the first thing her brain ever tells her and reacts without actually thinking. As she says at the end of the book, she accuses everyone else of only thinking of themselves without realizing she's done the exact same thing.

And what's with the hourglass thing? I realize that hourglasses are a legitimate way to keep time, and that they were used for a long time (and still are in some instances), but the society as it's described doesn't seem to mesh with using hourglasses instead of clocks or some other time-keeping device. They have electricity and technology. There should be some way of making a clock that doesn't rely on everyone having a perfectly-synced hourglass around their neck. (And how does one use it for a timer when it's apparently supposed to be actually keeping time? Do they have multiple hourglasses they carry around? How does this make any sense??)

The love triangle is very strained. The constant mentions of butterflies in Veda's stomach is so overwrought. She's very obviously a love-sick teenager who's thrust into a role she has never wanted. She's confused, angry, being pulled on both sides, and doesn't know what to do. So what does she do? She acts out, completely disregarding the plans people have been making for years, and ruining everything. I couldn't stand her.

BUT BUT BUT (and there's always a 'but' if I'm not going to completely pan a book), I adored both Nico and Dorian. Yes, Nico is a bit wishy-washy, but I feel like he does what he feels is right for everyone, despite feeling powerless. Dorian's a bit of a puppy, but it's pretty clear he's loyal and passionate about what he believes in. Both of them have interesting perspectives, both have compelling arguments for their actions. If it weren't for the whole love triangle thing, I'd have enjoyed their characters so much more.

Anyway, I see that so far there's no mention of a sequel, but it's obviously set up for one because we get a clear cliffhanger at the end. It would be nice if there were a Goodreads placemarker so that I could be notified when it's out, because, if nothing else, I'd at least like to see who Veda picks (if anyone) and how this whole revolution fiasco pans out.

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Review: The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a review copy of this book from Bookish First.

This one came up on Bookish First a few weeks ago, and I hadn't been planning on entering the drawing, but after reading the first couple of chapters I was hooked. It was an exciting day when I found out I'd been picked, and even more exciting when it showed up in my mailbox. One thing I don't normally comment on is cover art and printing style, but both are things I really appreciated with this book. The cover is bright, font is clean, it's eye-catching and intriguing, and it represents the book perfectly. Inside, the beginning page of each chapter sits inside what looks to be a birdcage, and every page after has a border on the side with the page number (instead of the numbers being at the bottom, they are to the right or left of the text). Every part has a dark divider page with a title. When you look at the closed book from the side, you can see every divider page. I liked the stylistic details of the printing, and having something like this in my hands was extremely satisfying.

Now that we're done with that, let's talk about the story. There is a lot going on in this book - murder, intrigue, plotting, magic, love, and betrayal. All of these can add up to a drab boring cliched tropey story, but here they all worked in sync. Teodora is a strega, she has magic - but she doesn't know much about it. She knows she can transform people into objects, but doesn't know how it works or how to do anything else. She meets a mysterious stranger, Cielo, who can change their gender at will, and longs to know more. When it becomes necessary for her to become a man - not just dress like one, but BE one - she asks Cielo to teach her. Learning how to use her magic is one of the integral plot points, because as she continues on her journey she is constantly having to adjust how she uses it. I don't want to give really any spoilers, since this was so good, so I'll just say that she gains many new abilities, and not in the best ways either.

The intrigue and mystery comes in when Teo gets to the capital city, after her father is almost murdered. She finds out that the heads of the four other Families (who each "rule" an area of the country) were also poisoned like her father, only they all died. Everyone presumes her own father is dead, and that she is her brother, Luca. Teo needs to keep pretending to be Luca in her new boyish body, while uncovering the secrets of the other sons (now heads), and figuring out a way to kill the Capo, who united and now rules the country, and who murdered the heads of four of the Five Families. She also needs to keep learning how to use her magic, and also falls in love with Cielo. She finds that the capital city isn't what it seems, especially when it comes to magic. Cielo's own search for their mother complicates matters even further. Teo is strong, smart, and cunning, but can also be foolish. There is also a traitor in their midst, and she needs to ferret out who it is while still going forward with her plan.

I loved the writing style, the plot twists that got me - I've had a hard time lately with books that have so many twists that they are either ridiculous or completely obvious, and these were pretty solid ones that I didn't always see coming. The characters grow and change and learn. Teo herself goes through a huge transformation, and not just from male to female. And I also loved how she and Cielo loved each other no matter whether they were both women, both men, or one of each. I'm not genderfluid and don't proclaim to truly understand what genderfluid people experience, but I thought it was an interesting perspective to read about people loving each other for who they are and not their gender. There are definitely some interesting gender concepts explored in this book.

Highly recommended to anyone who loves fantasy, especially gender-bending fantasy. I don't see that this is the first in a series, although I can't say that I'm disappointed for a stand-alone. I'm too depressed lately by having to wait and wait for a story to truly *end*. While I loved the world, and wanted to read more of it, especially about the strega, and Teo and Cielo's journey, I am perfectly satisfied by the ending and think it was done very well.

Looking forward to reading more books by this author in the future!

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Review: Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

Once Upon a River: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.

Admittedly, I didn't think I was a fan of Diane Setterfield. I'd read The Thirteenth Tale, and while I didn't dislike it, I didn't really love it either. The only impression it left on me was that it was written well, but the story itself was lacking. I honestly don't remember much of it (okay, I remember next to nothing about it, even going back and reading reviews nothing is jumping out at me), so it obviously wasn't a stunner for me. In fact, I read it as part of a book club with my cousins and a couple other ladies, and it was *my* pick because I was so excited to read it, and seriously, no one in the group liked it and picked on me for months for choosing it. So there's that, too.

But anyway, back to Once Upon a River, because that is what this review is supposed to be all about. Having had that experience with The Thirteenth Tale, I admit I was a bit wary about requesting this one. But the cover was so pretty (honestly, I'm a sucker for a good cover, especially if it has a good blurb to go with it), and the blurb sounded interesting and just fantastical enough to pique my interest. So I requested, I got approved, and here I am.

And I loved it.

There are a lot of characters here, and a lot of story threads to unwind. I absolutely loved the writing style - I felt like I was reading a period piece, it flowed so beautifully. And I enjoyed the magical aspect of it all, especially since we aren't sure if it's actually supernatural or if these people are so freaking traumatized that they all convince themselves that they see things that aren't really there. Lily White is certainly a victim of that, and her story is pretty damn tragic.

In essence, this is the story of three four-year-old girls - Amelia, Alice, and Ann. As the river twists and winds through the story, so their stories twist and wind together. The little girl pulled dead from the river on the equinox, and then lived again, has everyone in an uproar. The reaction she stirs in everyone is nothing short of remarkable, considering just about everyone wants to take her home. The Vaughns claim her as their own lost Amelia, kidnapped from her bedroom two years prior and never found. Robin Armstrong can't decide if she's his Alice, who he hasn't seen for more than a year, and presumed drowned by her mother. And Lily is absolutely convinced that she is her sister Ann. It takes the entire book to reveal who she really is, and throughout the reader is never quite sure what happened to the missing girls.

This is also the story of a photographer, a nurse, the owner of the Swan (the inn where it all starts) and her family, and the river itself. The figure of Quietly, the mysterious boatman, hovers over all. And everything becomes a story if enough are around to hear it.

I have three minor gripes about the book:

1. I pretty quickly figured out who the unidentified child was, and while the book's twists and turns always kept me guessing, I was not surprised to find out I had guessed right. I do wish it had been more of a surprise. But the road we took to get there was packed with emotion and mystery, and I didn't mind it so much.

2. There is a very long monologue by an unsavory character at the end of the book, outlining literally everything that we were still wondering about and tying up loose ends, connecting people that hadn't been connected previously. I liked having the information, but I wish it hadn't been such an info-dump in the style of the villain who has the hero at their mercy and reveals their entire plot so that the hero can escape and foil it all.

3. I *hate* being addressed at the end in the manner of "And now this story is done, dear reader, so you better get back to your own story." Oooooooh that really made me twitch. But it was the last line of a fantastic book, so I'm not deducting points.

If you aren't sure you like Diane Setterfield, I encourage you to give her another shot with this book. To me it was more masterful than The Thirteenth Tale, and I think it will stay with me for a long time. My heart broke, rejoiced, and rose and fell with the hearts of the characters. They were real people, fully fleshed out, and wonderfully made. I enjoyed this so much more than I expected, and highly recommend it.

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Review: The Book of Kells by R.A. MacAvoy

The Book of Kells by R.A. MacAvoy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Too much talk about naughty bits and jerking off. All of it seemed incredibly irrelevant to the story. It was like the author was obsessed with pubes. The characters were all pretty much unlikeable (except maybe Ailesh and Snorri). And I hated the ending. The Book of Kells itself doesn't even feature into the story very much, only for a couple of scenes, that have absolutely no bearing on the actual events in the story. It felt like a bunch of irrelevancies muddled up in a semi-interesting plot. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, but I probably won't read it again.

Two stars, but giving an extra one because I really liked Snorri and wish there was more of him in it.

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Review: Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer

Creatures of Will and Temper by Molly Tanzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

A lot of blurbs and reviews touted this as reminiscent of Jeff VanderMeer. Originally, that really put me off requesting it on NG, because I am not a fan. City of Saints and Madmen was an interesting book, but not my reading preference. I thought it was confusing and a little gross for my taste. I never picked up another one of his books because I didn't like his writing style.

But then I read a review by an author I have been following for a while. I feel that we often like the same books, and dislike the same books. So when she said that it really wasn't anything like VanderMeer's work, and that it was really quite good, I figured what the heck. A little apprehensive, I began.

What started out as a normal classical Victorian family story with a little adventure thrown in, quickly devolved into demons and blood. Now I'm always one for a classic, so reading this was like being back in familiar territory. But when things went south, and boy do they go south, holy cow what a ride.

Admittedly, it was predictable. I called several of the major "twists" before they were explained, because the foreshadowing was a bit obvious. Nonetheless, the ride was enjoyable and the writing was fantastic. Even when blood comes, it's graphic but not chainsaw-massacre-horror-movie-style graphic. I could manage it, and I'm not one for gore. So to any typical fantasy reader, I don't think it would be too horrible. I've read a lot worse.

The statement that it's based on The Picture of Dorian Gray was pretty obvious. For someone who has degrees in English Literature, I'm not exactly the most well-read in the "big names." I preferred a lot of lesser-knowns. So I have never read Dorian Gray, but after reading this it may show up on my to-read list. Who knows, maybe eventually I'll get around to it. I know the basic idea of the story but not how it unfolds, and not exactly how the painting works. I think that even not knowing that, you can still make the connection with this book. The way the painting was used in this one was quite interesting, and I'm curious to see how it aligns with the original.

For not being in my normal wheelhouse, this book was great. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. The only reason I gave four stars is for the predictability, although to be fair, I don't really know how the author could have been more subtle.

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Review: The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

The Girl in the Tower: A Novel by Katherine Arden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.]

Much like The Bear and the Nightingale, this book was masterfully written, full of atmosphere, and absolutely enchanting. Once the story gets on its feet, it moves along at such a rapid pace I hardly realized how quickly I was blazing right through it.

Vasya has left her home after the deaths of her father and stepmother, and gone off into the wilderness in the dead of winter. Morozko is always nearby, although not necessarily to help her (even though he does provide help in several ways throughout the story). Sometimes he felt almost too present, there at her greatest need, although I imagine he would be anyway. Vasya is off on an adventure, and unexpectedly, her path crosses with her brother Sasha's, who had left in the first book to become a monk. He is now an advisor to the Grand Prince Dmitrii, a warrior monk, and is forced to lie to everyone about his sister Vasya, who has been pretending to be a man.

While I was immediately drawn back into the world of Rus', I admit I did not get fully absorbed into the book until part two, where we really get into the meat of how Vasya came to be in the same place as Sasha at the same time. She has rescued three girls, who had been stolen by raiders, and brought them to sanctuary. Sasha and Dmitrii have been out hunting these raiders, and Vasya, riding in as a man, is the only one who knows where they were hiding. Fooling just about everyone as to her gender, she manages to get into the prince's good graces, and leads the party where they want to go. I won't spoil from here, but it is pretty much non-stop action, plot and fantastic storytelling from here on out.

There are new characters, who must have a careful eye kept on them lest they surprise you (admittedly I wasn't sure about one character, but I was not completely taken aback when my initial instinct was proved right). And there is also the return of my most despised character from the last book, Konstantin. That damnable priest is up to no good, and while I wasn't surprised by his arc, I was admittedly still feeling those same feelings of disgust I got the last time around.

If you loved book 1, you will love book 2. I am now going to eagerly camp myself out on this author's page and wait for book 3...

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Review: The Dream Lover

The Dream Lover: A Novel of George Sand by Elizabeth Berg
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

I'm afraid I don't have anything good to say about this book. I was bored through almost the entire story. The frequent back-and-forth in time was disruptive, where it could have been a bit more natural. When the two timelines met around 80%, the book started skipping forward vast amounts of time. Some authors make this work (one of my favorite series is told by skipping around in time). With this book, it did not work. It would have been much better in linear format.

I was bored by the story, and by the persona of George Sand herself. I felt it was bordering on the ridiculous, even if it were completely historically accurate, that she fell in love with essentially every man she ever met, and slept with him too. Now I'm not criticizing her for that, a woman is welcome to do whomever she pleases in my book; rather, I disliked the character that was given to her - petulant, irksome, unlikable, and yet every man she met threw himself at her. It made absolutely no sense to me. She was also incredibly inconsistent. I really tried to put this down as an historical rendering of someone who was truly like this, but in the afterword the author mentions that there are so many conflicting accounts of who she really was and what she was really like, that I have to take the character as someone almost entirely fictionalized, picked and chosen from the various accounts and with whom the author did what she would. In that respect, she was not believable at all to me as a character.

Others have said similar things, and I find myself in agreement with many of the one- and two-star reviewers on Goodreads. One person said it felt like more of a daily journal, and in that respect it certainly was. "That day I went there, and had an argument with this person, and then we made love, and then we went out to eat. The next day he left me and I decided to move back to Nohant. And then I was bored at Nohant and decided I didn't like anyone anymore and moved back to Paris to beg him to come back." It was, again, ridiculous.

I have heard only good things about Elizabeth Berg in the past, and was very excited to read this. Some reviewers have said that her other works are much better, however after reading this I am very hesitant to give one of her others a shot. I do not recommend this book.

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Review: The Witch of Napoli

The Witch of Napoli by Michael Schmicker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

There was a lot that bothered me about this book. I didn't enjoy the POV the author chose. Tomaso came across callous, unfeeling, and more like a pulp fiction private eye character than a newspaper photographer/reporter recalling events from 1899. The book is told from his POV, 20 years after the events he recounts, so he's speaking from somewhere around 1919. He was 16 at the start of 1899, so he's only ~36 by the end of the book. He sounds like a mid-40s American private eye lounging in his office waiting for a pretty dame to come to him with her problems. It was grating.

Throughout the book, Tomaso offers up articles from various papers that tell part of the story of what was happening. But in the first few chapters, he introduces them by saying "Here, I'll read it to you." He also periodically addresses the reader throughout the book, which I found irritating. I understand that the perspective of the novel was intended to be a sort of conversation between Tomaso and the reader, but it was not effective.

There was also quite a bit of juxtaposition of crass words like "piss" and "shit," appearing in the same sentence as polite terms such as "water closet." I think one of the sentences went something like, "I needed to take a piss, so I went in search of the water closet." I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but that's how a lot of this book went. I felt it was awkward.

There was also frequent reference in the first half of the book to how Tomaso used to be poor but now he's rich and edits a newspaper. A reference or two would not have been amiss, but seeing it throughout a large portion of the book felt repetitive and overdone.

Some of the pacing was also awkward. For example, Nigel Huxley is mentioned in the last sentence of Chapter 19. Chapter 20 begins with a two-paragraph vague explanation, and then we don't see his name until the end of Chapter 20, nearly 3% later (that was a lot of pages, if you're wondering). Why bring him up at the end of Chapter 19 if you weren't going to actually talk about him for another ~30 (Kindle) pages? I spent the entire chapter confused, wondering what the big deal was. At first I thought he was actually on the train with them, which confused me even more.

Lastly, my frustration with Tomaso as a character was partly founded on the fact that he declared several times he was in love with Alessandra, but then didn't act like it at all. He spent a lot of time berating her, a little time comforting her, but most of his time acting like a selfish brat who only went along on the tour so that he could see the sights. His devotion to her was not nearly as deep as I would have expected considering how adamant he was that he loved and supported her.

For all the reasons above and some I did not feel like discussing, I did not particularly enjoy reading this book, and would not recommend it to my friends, although it appears I am in the minority. I spent a lot of time being bored with the writing and the content, and not enough being engaged. I didn't care for any of the characters, not even Alessandra. I pitied her, mostly. But that was about it.

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Review: The Witch of Painted Sorrows

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley.]

I don't even know where to start. This book was far from perfect, but I enjoyed it a lot. I tend to give bad reviews to books that have some holes in them, but this one made up for it in the story. I was completely surprised by the ending, which probably makes me a dunce because looking back it seems like it would be obvious.

There was a lot going on in this book, and I didn't quite understand all of it. The whole side story with Dujols and his occult friends seems almost meaningless by the time the end came around. I still don't know who was willing to help Sandrine, and who only wanted to use her.

The sex scenes were completely unbelievable, but boy were they great even so. They weren't typical romance-novel frequent, but there were enough of them to get the point across. I'm glad this was more of a fantasy-occult-mystery than a romance, even though love was at the center of the story.

I do think there were parts where the story was trying too hard to be something it wasn't, but I can forgive it for the fact that it was simply very entertaining.

//ETA//

I realized reading another review I meant to mention the "sleep rape" scene towards the mid-end of the book. That reviewer is not the only one who noticed it, and the fact that people would defend it as not rape is pretty bad. If the author intended it to be a positive thing, I must seriously question her idea of rape. If Sandrine had actually woken Julien up, and he consented, then cool. But he wasn't awake, not completely, and arousal does not equal consent. End of rant.

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Review: Juliet's Nurse

Juliet's Nurse by Lois Leveen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway.]

In Juliet's Nurse, Lois Leveen takes on the story of the nurse from Romeo & Juliet. The first half of the book is devoted to the bonding between Angelica, the nurse, and Juliet as a newborn through three-year-old. And if you're going to talk about a wet nurse, there's going to be a lot of talk about breastfeeding. But Angelica is also a bit randy (to put it mildly) and her husband can't get his fill of her often enough, so of course there's a lot of sex and sex talk, too. The story also involves Tybalt and his attachment to the nurse and to Juliet, and even to Angelica's husband Pietro and his bees.

For me, by about 30% of the way through the book I'd had enough of the narration of Juliet's breastfeeding, talking about how Angelica lost her virginity to her much older husband at the ripe age of 12, sex jokes, and finding ways to sneak sex with her husband. And the sheer number of times she mentioned her six boys lost to the plague was staggering. Almost every time she mentioned one of their names, it was followed up with something like, "but the plague took them and everything I loved." I feel like there wasn't enough to this nurse to make her into a full character or story. It relied too much on the fact that she was a wet nurse, that she loved Juliet and Tybalt, that she loved her husband, and she missed her sons.

That's not to say it wasn't well-written, and by the time we got to part two things started moving a bit more quickly. It is around the 75% mark where we start getting into the story that Shakespeare wrote, with a few lines from the play thrown in, and the dialogue changing actually quite noticeably to more Shakespearean language. It was not nearly as obvious in the first half of the book as it was when we flash forward to Juliet's 13th year. This part was interesting, although I really had to make myself "get over" how close Juliet and Angelica were since, in this century, it would seem odd (and a bit uncomfortable for me) for a nurse to clean her charge's teeth and sleep cuddled up with her every night (at 13 years old!). There is a lot more to the story of why this happens, and I don't claim to be an historian so I don't know if it would have been normal back then, but even so it made me feel uncomfortable, a bit leery.

The copy I received was an advanced reader, so there were many many typos and wrong words and missing letters and such. Hopefully they have all been fixed in the final release.

It was a good book, but I didn't love it, only liked it. It had an interesting perspective to present, and a strange back story to develop. Nice speculative fiction based on previous fiction. Just not something I really loved.

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Review: The Abominable

The Abominable by Dan Simmons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was certainly not at all what I had expected. I admit to hoping, perhaps naively, for more of the on-the-edge-of-your-seat reading that was present in The Terror but was a bit underwhelmed by the suspense of this story. Almost half the book was spent in preparation for the group's trip to Everest, and they didn't get there until about 47% of the way in. By that point I was somewhere around 300 pages in, and felt the story hadn't even started yet. I was exhausted! He's usually much better at moving the plot forward, but this story lagged.

If you're going into The Abominable expecting a monster book or a horror book or even something science-fiction-y, you're going to be disappointed. It was none of those, really. And that's not a bad thing, but it certainly cut back a bit on my enjoyment.

Overall, this is a great novel. It's not my favorite, nor is it his best, but I'm not going to knock it for what it is. The only reason it's getting three instead of four stars is because I personally didn't find it as thrilling as other books of his that I've read.

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Review: Three Souls

Three Souls: A Novel by Janie Chang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

[Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.]

I don't even know where to start with my review. This book was downright fantastic, hands-down the single best First Reads win I've ever received. There are 496 pages in the book and I read almost 400 of them in one day. I never do that!

I adored the main character, through all her faults and inability to understand she was dealing with things that were much too adult for her. Her character in death was beautifully contemplative and I loved how she was able to see, along with the reader, the impulse of youth contrasted with the reflection of consequences. We all forget, as teenagers, that our actions have repercussions. Even in our adult life it's hard to picture what will happen if we make this decision or that one. In death we are able to see exactly how everything Leiyin did in her youth contributed to the events around her, even without her knowledge or comprehension.

I did not imagine Hanchin to be the character he ended up as. It was an interesting turn to experience the realization of his true character alongside the woman who loved him.

The only thing I didn't fully connect with was the idea of three souls. It certainly was a great thing to have the commentary of each different personality throughout the book, encouraging Leiyin, reproaching her, understanding and commiserating with her, and telling her flat-out she was wrong. I loved having them around, but it was difficult (for me personally) to tell the souls apart, and I often found myself reading them as pretty much a single character. I also did not quite follow with the tastes and smells that they projected onto her, as I don't know what most of them meant. Maybe this is something that would be better understood by someone with Chinese heritage.

The writing style was exceptional, the language was poetic and flowed so easily that it was difficult to stop reading once I'd started. You might think that a book that's almost 500 pages long might be wordy, and it was, but in a way completely necessary to tell the story. Chinese culture and traditions were explained so well they felt familiar to me. I could picture the landscapes and gardens and houses (I'm sure I got them wrong but the point is I could see them in my head), the parties and offices and even the most downright heartbreaking things. I felt along with Leiyin, and experienced her emotions and mourned with her when things went badly. I never felt like a word was out of place. (Also, thumbs up to whoever edited this proof copy - I only caught ONE typo!)

If you liked Snow Flower and the Secret Fan or any other Lisa See novel, this one is a must-read and something you will not regret picking up. What a beautifully told story. This is going to stay with me, I can tell.

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Review: The Boleyn King

The Boleyn King by Laura Andersen
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

[DISCLAIMER: I RECEIVED AN ADVANCED READER'S EDITION OF THIS BOOK FROM THE GOODREADS GIVEAWAY]

There were some parts of the ARC that I received that I hope have been fixed in the final edition of the book. For example, halfway through the book extra "u"s started showing up in words like "for" and "more" and "tomorrow." If the author was going for authenticity, the "u"s were completely out of place because (a) there wouldn't have been a "u" in "for" or "more" or "tomorrow", and (b) "tomorrow" back then used to be written as "to-morrow" not "tomourrow." There were also some glaring typos towards the end, not so many in the beginning. It was a distraction which I hope has been taken care of since the book was published formally on 6/4/2013.

Anyway, to the story.

I was expecting an historical fiction novel but this was more of a romance/mystery. The way the book was set up was that there would be breaks in the text when it was switching POVs from one character to another, but this could have been better accomplished by telling one person's story first, then in another chapter moving to another character. I've found several authors are doing this now, and it becomes confusing and muddles the story.

There are also sections of the story written as a diary, but they aren't signed. Sometimes the author finishes the diary entries and says something like "Minuette closed her diary," which tells us they were Minuette's entries, but again, this would have been better accomplished with a header saying something to the effect of "Entries from Minuette's diary." There was one section where Dominic is writing dispatches to William, and there is a header on those. Some consistency would have been nice.

The book read too much like a mystery novel to me, sort of a "whodunnit" that bothered me since that's not what I signed up to read. There is a plot afoot to discredit William as Henry VIII's son and most of the book is spent trying to figure out who it was, as well as who killed Alyce de Clare, a young woman who supposedly throws herself down a flight of stairs because she's pregnant. None of this is resolved by the end of the book, and no one seems to wonder or care. The reader gets closure in the Interlude at the end of the novel, and it's pretty much what I had expected.

The romance was also strange and forced. I knew Minuette and Dominic would be in love right from the start, because that made the most sense. But the other men who fall in love with her don't seem to work right. Especially the one at the end. That one is too quick happening, and the end leaves it unresolved and pretty much ridiculously laid-out. I didn't enjoy it at all.

Overall, I'm giving it two stars because I did end up finishing it, but it wasn't a great book and wasn't at all like what the description made me think it was. I didn't really enjoy it, especially as a "what-if" type book. It just didn't read as a sincere re-imagining of what the world would have been like had Henry VIII fathered a living son.

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Review: The White Hawk

The White Hawk by David Pilling
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I guess you could say this book was good, if you like gory descriptions and lots of battle with little plot in between. I am not that person.

I was mostly bored, kind of grossed out, and confused by all the different names. I took a few days off from reading and had forgotten who all the characters were. The copy I read was a proof, so obviously there were errors, but at points there were wrong names which confused me even more.

Not a very enjoyable read, and while I realize it's rooted in history, I wish there had been more story and less description of battles.

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Review: Pearls in the Ashes

Pearls in the Ashes by Shelagh Meagher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fantastic foray into the history of the persecution of Buddhists and the rise of Communism in Mongolia from the 1930s until the 1990s. Pearls in the Ashes was not on my to-read list, but for some reason I downloaded it anyway. This book was so beautifully written, simple in style and plot but so rich and complex with details. Dash, the main character, is not always likable and not always pitiable. But when he finally gets the chance to redeem himself, I felt powerfully exactly who he was meant to be.

It's a quick read, even though it's a couple hundred pages long (the e-book edition I read was 138 but the description says it's more than 200). The flow is easy and the terminology is also relatively easy to understand. There is a glossary at the back in case you forget what something means.

Beautifully written, and I recommend it to anyone interested in Buddhism, Mongolian history, religious persecution, and stories of hope.

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