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BOOK COUPLES COUNTDOWN | Day 4: Rachel & Gabriel

February 10, 2018 , Sat | Book Couples Countdown | 0 or add you thoughts!

Today is Day 4 of Book Couples Countdown, and I’ll be writing about one of my newer favorite couples: Rachel and Gabriel from Archangel by Sharon Shinn! Really I could have talked about all of the couples from this series. Equal parts romance, science fiction, and fantasy, Shinn’s Samaria is fantastic! So far I’ve also read Angelica, and I’m currently reading Jovah’s Angel. While existing in the same universe, they skip around in time and each book can stand on its own. Each one also includes a central romance, and on that note, let’s get back to my favorite of them!

Art by Weelcheetza on DeviantArt.

A key element in the evolution of Rachel and Gabriel’s relationship is their conflicting natures. They want different things, and they possess colliding perspectives and opinions. Yet there’s an undeniable attraction, and factors outside of their control have made their union nonnegotiable. They engage in wonderfully biting banter, and their love grows slowly, which I tend to love. And Shinn is skilled at striking the right level of drama, so we get all of this angst with none of the overdone feel romance novels often succumb to! read more

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Holly Black Author Event for The Cruel Prince’s Release

January 5, 2018 , Fri | Events | 0 or add you thoughts!

On Wednesday, I attended an author event for Holly Black! Hosted by Little Shop of Stories, this event was a part of Black’s tour for The Cruel Prince. It was also located at Decatur Library, which is one branch I’d yet to visit. It’s gorgeous! The event was such a wonderful time full of fascinating discussions and cool moments, as bookish events will be! I think I’ve said this before, but I’m so grateful to now live near a shop that does so many of these. Where I lived in Florida, we had an independent bookshop, but it was over an hour away from me and rarely held author events. Little Shop of Stories is so on top of this! I feel like every time a new book is coming out, they’ve got the author in house.

Anyway, my love for Holly Black is actually just becoming! When I saw she was going to be here, I definitely wanted to go, because I love the books in The Spiderwick Chronicles and Magisterium. However, I’ve never read any of her solo works, nor am I familiar with any of them. So, it was news to me that many, The Cruel Prince included, are in the same universe. This has left me somewhat conflicted, because it makes me feel like I should go in publishing order, but I read two chapters of The Cruel Prince while in line at the event and, you guys, IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I’m so enthralled already, and I really want to start it as soon as I finish up reading some of the things I’ve been in the middle of this week. I’ve decided I think I will just let myself do that, because I’m on a book-buying ban (books from events and BOTM not included) this month, so it’s not like I can get any of her other stuff yet anyway. Since they are just in the same universe, not the same series, I thiiiiink I’m chill with doing this? read more

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REVIEW | Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire

December 29, 2017 , Fri | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“Drosselmeier’s more delicate and individualized figures were reserved as gifts for Klara. A Russian princess in a painted wooden cloak. A Cleopatra in Egyptian blue. A charming family of pigs in graduated heights that stood on hind legs and wore nothing but pince-nezs, all of them, except the very smallest, who with a potbelly and a sour expression stood looking down and sucking her cloven hoof.”

Themes:

  • Creation, in so many forms
  • The influence dreams can have on real life
  • What we lose and/or forget the further we get from childhood

This “tale of the once and future nutcracker” is fantastic! Much darker than I expected, Hiddensee actually focuses on the life of Drosselmeier, not the nutcracker. However, I loved this. Exploring the story of the legendary toymaker, known throughout this novel as simply Dirk, was a joy for this lifelong nutcracker fan.

I’ve never read something by Maguire before, so his style of writing—quite formal, somewhat blunt—took me a few chapters to get used to. I’ll admit that as I started this, I wasn’t sure if it would live up to my hopes and expectations. Once I grew accustomed to the voice, I found myself immersed in the world Maguire so masterfully builds and enjoying the language. read more

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REVIEW | Uprooted by Naomi Novik

September 29, 2017 , Fri | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“I hated her; I wanted her to burn, the way so many of the corrupted had burned, because she’d put her hold on them. But wanting cruelty felt like another wrong answer in an endless chain. The people of the tower had walled her up, then she’d struck them all down. She’d raised up the wood to devour us; now we’d give her to the fire-heart, and choke all this shining clear water with ash. None of that seemed right.”

Themes:

  • Cyclical violence
  • Female empowerment
  • Humanity’s destruction of the natural world

Oh my goodness, how I adore this book. It is already on my favorites list!

Uprooted gives the reader that old-timey fantasy feel. It reminded me almost immediately of The Charwoman’s Shadow by Lord Dunsany, but it also makes me think of Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. So if you enjoy elements of those, this is a book you should give a try. If you have never read those or don’t enjoy them, you should still give this one a try.

I love the way magic works in this story and how Novik allows the reader to slowly discover it. Sarkan and Agnieszka’s magic operates so differently, yet creates beautiful results when worked together. It is a fascinating element of the story and inspires growth in Sarkan and Agnieszka’s relationship. read more

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