Archives

design

BOOK COUPLES COUNTDOWN | Day 6: Agnieszka & Sarkan

February 12, 2018 , Mon | Book Couples Countdown | 0 or add you thoughts!

Day 6 of Book Couples Countdown has arrived, and my chosen pair for today are new, but absolute, favorites. If you haven’t read Uprooted by Naomi Novik, I recommend it with my whole heart! Seriously I love this book so much that I could start raving about all its beautiful themes and dynamic characters and stunning prose, but I’ve already written a full review on it, and today, we’re talking about the main couple within it: Agnieszka and Sarkan!

Art by Gabriela Aguilar Ortega.

A characteristic I think distinguishes this from most book romances is how slowly, and believably, the love builds. I don’t know if you can tell from the fact that I’m writing a weeklong series dedicated to the topic, but I live for a good love story. So naturally, I’m always on the lookout for a budding romance. I’d also heard that this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, so I was fully expecting an epic love story. What I got was better than what I expected. After they spent some time together, it really seemed to me that Sarkan and Agnieszka wouldn’t end up together. I adored them each as individual characters and enjoyed the unspoken connection they were building through magic. Then—oh wait—that is the romance. The magic. Novik begins to tell the love story through their magic wielding. It’s subtle and exquisite, and I’m obsessed with it. read more

Continue Reading
design

REVIEW | Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang

January 29, 2018 , Mon | Reviews | 0 or add you thoughts!

“I’ve been called magic, but I wouldn’t use that term exactly. I like to think of myself as always being in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. Very rarely am I simply in an acceptable place at a generally convenient time. That said, I find those rare occasions very pleasant, mostly because they give me time to work on my crosswords.”

Themes:

  • Family dynamics
  • Nature’s raw power
  • Finding your purpose

When I read the synopsis for this book, I became immediately convinced that I’d love it. Once I had the book in my hands, I began with apprehension, because my expectations were high! I can happily say, those expectations were exceeded. This book is MAGICAL.

Brimming with whimsy and wildlife, quirky personalities and human complexity, Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance was a joy to read.

Throughout the book, our protagonist, Weylyn, finds himself within a few different family dynamics. It inspires thoughtfulness on the reader’s part, and is an element of the story that captured my attention early on and entertained throughout. It created a sort of examination of human life through Weylyn’s observations. His wildness lent him a fascinating and believable naïveté through which the reader explores average things through a new lens. read more

Continue Reading
design