10 Feb 2018

Some books I've read, loved, but do not own a physical copy of yet


I'm sure each and every one of us has some books on our wishlist that we have already read but never owned a copy of. I'd like to share three of such books with you, that I can't wait to have in my library at home.

by Diane Setterfield


Synopsis:

Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long.

Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author’s tale of gothic strangeness — featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

I read the e-book version of this curious tale, and soon after I made my mum read it too. We both loved it. It's a family story; very gothic, very gripping and there is a mystery in it with a hard-to-guess solution that blew me away.

I'd really like to know if I liked this novel for the second time around as much as I did for the first time and I'm determined to get a physical copy and give it a re-read to find out.


(The Empress of Rome #2)
by Kate Quinn


Synposis:

This sweeping, powerful epic tells the story of one of the bloodiest years in Rome's history through the eyes of two remarkable women fighting for survival

A.D. 69. The Roman Empire is up for the taking. The Year of the Four Emperors will change everything - especially the lives of two sisters with a very personal stake in the outcome. Elegant and ambitious, Cornelia embodies the essence of the perfect Roman wife. She lives to one day see her loyal husband as Emperor. Her sister Marcella is more aloof, content to witness history rather than make it. But when a bloody coup turns their world upside down, both women must manoeuvre carefully just to stay alive. As Cornelia tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered dreams, Marcella discovers a hidden talent for influencing the most powerful men in Rome. In the end, though, there can only be one Emperor...and one Empress.

Daughters of Rome is the second book in a series and yet I read it first, interestingly. I found it in the library while I lived in London and realised it'd been a long time since I read anything set in ancient Rome. It seemed to be able to work as a standalone and it did, giving me so much pleasure and sleepless hours; I was extremely pleased with this book. Later I purchased the first instalment, Mistress of Rome, that was just as good, and so I really would like to own the whole series. One day...


by Zora Neale Hurston


Synopsis:

At the age of 16, Janie is caught kissing the shiftless Johnny Taylor, so her grandmother quickly marries her off to an old man with 60 acres. Refusing to compromise in spite of society's expectations, Janie endures two stifling marriages before meeting the man of her dreams.

 The language in this book is truly enchanting. I borrowed it from the library too, but it wasn't a chance find, I heard about Zora Neale Hurston's novel at uni while completing my American Studies. It is a coming of age story: a girl matures into an incerdibly strong woman through adventure, love and calamity. A must read for everyone and a must-put-my-hands-on-again for me.


So these are some of the books I've read but do not own yet.

Have you read anything that you don't have a physical copy of, even though you want to? Tell me in a comment below which novels you'd put in a post like this!
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9 Feb 2018

Book Beginnings on Friday and the Friday 56 #3


Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56 are weekly memes hosted by Rose City Reader and Freda's Voice.

Rules:

Book Beginnings: Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. 

The Friday 56: Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% in you eReader. Find any sentence (not spoilery) and reflect on it if you want.

Today the book on display is:
by Peter V. Brett 


Synopsis:

The sun is setting on humanity. The night now belongs to voracious demons that prey upon a dwindling population forced to cower behind half-forgotten symbols of power.

Legends tell of a Deliverer: a general who once bound all mankind into a single force that defeated the demons. But is the return of the Deliverer just another myth? Perhaps not.

Out of the desert rides Ahmann Jardir, who has forged the desert tribes into a demon-killing army. He has proclaimed himself Shar'Dama Ka, the Deliverer, and he carries ancient weapons--a spear and a crown--that give credence to his claim.

But the Northerners claim their own Deliverer: the Warded Man, a dark, forbidding figure.

Once, the Shar'Dama Ka and the Warded Man were friends. Now they are fierce adversaries. Yet as old allegiances are tested and fresh alliances forged, all are unaware of the appearance of a new breed of demon, more intelligent—and deadly—than any that have come before. 

Book beginning:

It was the night before new moon, during the darkest hours when even that bare silver had set.

Now this is a very unoriginal, generic beginning that the author can get away with only because this is the second book in the series. Partly it is forgivable, because he's already put something down on the table, but it still strikes me as lazy, not to try to hook the reader all over again with something more striking in the first line.

The Friday 56:

Neither boy had ever been so close to a demon, and while the sight filled Abban with obvious terror, Jardir felt only rage.

I like this line, because it reflects the oh so obvious differences between these two. Their story is one of the most interesting plotlines in this novel.
Read my review of the first book in the series, The Painted Man, by clicking on the image below!


Did you like these excerpts? What are you reading at the moment?  Please leave your comments and links below.
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26 Nov 2017

Review - Seduction en Pointe by Gemma Snow

Title: Seduction en Pointe

Author: Gemma Snow

Rating: 3.5/5 

 Synopsis:

When successful TV star of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, Nicco Castillo, finds his boyfriend in bed with another man, he goes full-on Hollywood trainwreck that lands him in ER. Next thing he knows, the producers are shipping him off to Paris to shape up and learn to dance for the next season’s story arc. But his incredibly tempting Parisian ballet instructor, Isabelle La Croix, makes that all too difficult, especially when he learns about her decadent desires--desires Nicco is all too pleased to indulge in. Against the ballet barre, the balcon railing, and wherever and for however long Isabelle is willing to have him.   
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

My Thoughts:

Seduction en Pointe almost lost me as a reader after its very first line. Even in the romance/erotica genre I like when the action is neatly prepared… I need the metaphorical foreplay in a story as much as it is needed in sex. The in medias res beginning kinda felt as if the author wanted to assure me that there are tons of sex scenes in the book, therefore I won’t be bored. 

Perhaps I’m a strange one, but I’ve always felt erotica doesn’t work without the well-developed extras in the story – and here I mean everything that is not sex. If the plot, the characters, the relationships don’t please me, the passionate love-making won’t move me for sure.

The funny thing is, Seduction en Pointe wasn’t a bad read at all and I’m glad I brought myself to continue after my personal displeasure in the first line. It is altogether a very nice ’rich hollywood playboy meets French ballerina’ story with good character developement and well-thought-out pacing. It was a believable contemporary romance, a treat really, that I enjoyed in big chunks when I had the time to sit down to read.

I liked that the drama in it wasn’t too much, and that – despite what the first line suggested – there wasn’t a sex scene on every other page. I like when I can tingle with anticipation. 

Plus points for Miss Snow for giving me a bisexual male for main character, that was really refreshing after the bunch of heterosexual romance books I've read lately.

Neither Nicco nor Isabelle were pushy or annoying in any way (which is worth to point out as protagonists in romance/erotica book tend to irritate me). They were people who reflected on their own life and previous relationships and were able to learn from lessons that life gave them.

There was one thing that bugged me in the plot though. Nicco, who played a pirate in a tv show, Queen Ann’s Revenge, was sent to Paris to learn ballet, but it was never actually mentioned why the dance he did had to be ballet. Ball room dancing I would have understood for a pirate, but ballet… Anyway, this is just a small detail that I kept wondering about and was never explained.

I’d never read a book about dancing before, I guess I had to start somewhere and this novel was a good choice.

I would recommend this book to everyone who likes light, insightful romance and who is into voyeurism *wink wink, nudge nudge*.
 
Goodreads | Amazon
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15 Nov 2017

Review - The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

Title: The Passion

Author: Jeanette Winterson

Rating: 5/5 

 Synopsis:

Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice’s compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meet their singular destiny. 



My Thoughts:

„Somewhere between God and the Devil passion is and the way there is sudden and the way back is worse.”

The Passion by Jeanette Winterson is magical realism at its best. I came across the book at the book fair under Waterloo Bridge and when I read the blurb I knew I had to own it. It was the cover that caught my eyes first of course – my edition has the most ridiculous cover ever; cocks… seriously?? – but it was the back that sold me the novel eventually and also the fact that I remembered I had another book by this author on my to-read list (Sexing the Cherry).

This short little masterpiece, which is definitely a new favourite of mine, makes a stable attempt – and succeeds – in describing passion and its different forms. One of our protagonists, Henri, the French peasant boy, looks up to Napoleon so much he is ready to dedicate his whole life to Him and his cause. With a stroke of luck(?) he becomes Bonaparte’s chicken chef and later a soldier in his army. We see him grow up throughout the novel and as he does he starts to contemplate his past decisions. At the end of his journey he is a changed man altogether.

We have a heroine too, Villanelle, the daughter of a Venetian boatman, who was born with webbed feet. She is a bit of a tomboy and she has a special relationship with her city. I especially enjoyed the parts of the novel that set in Venice; the author did a very good job bringing the city of masks and water to life on the pages. Take a look at these couple of passages for example:

***

„This is the city of mazes. You may set off from the same place to the same place every day and never go by the same route. If you do so, it will be by mistake. Your bloodhound nose will not serve you here. Your course in compass reading will fail you. Your confident instructions to passers-by will send them to squares they have never heard of, over canals not listed in the notes.

Although wherever you are going is always in front of you, there is no such thing as straight ahead. No as the crow flies short cut will help you to reach the café just over the water. The short cuts are where the cats go, through the impossible gaps, round corners that seem to take you the opposite way. But here, in this mercurial city, it is required you do awake your faith. With faith, all things are possible.”

***

Love as a topic is visited frequently too – how could it be abandoned in a book called The Passion? – and other than heterosexual affairs, it contains a lesbian romance too, along with some cross-dressing which is one of my favourite tropes ever…

Beside the linear plot, the story is littered with several curious and fantastical tales, some of which feature side characters (Henri’s one friend, Patrick has magical eye-sight and his other friend, Domino the midget, got hired by Napoleon to tame and tend to his tallest horse). There are a lot of genuinely funny lines, but there is also drama in there.

I found the whole concept of the novel incredibly human, rich and personal. I found myself in between the lines and I’m grateful for that.

I will never stop loving magical realism, because it allows a writer to use an undending set of unusual supplies to describe usual feelings and happenings. Jeanette Winterson has created magic and I am now richer for reading her lines. 

If you want to experience a completely unique journey too, hop on this train and enjoy the ride.
 
Goodreads | Amazon
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