Book Haul

First book haul of November.

My first and possibly last book haul of November, since Christmas is right around the corner. But whether this is the last haul of the month or not, I'm quite pleased with my selections from this past weekend's purchase. Book buyer satisfaction aside, I'm also more than happy to say that there are a series of similar running themes throughout each of these books. In light of the U.S. presidential election, the awful fallout, the amount of hate and ignorance that is still rooted within the country, and the saddening realization that there are many who are unwilling to use their voice to speak out against the ingrained hate and conditioned ignorance, I decided that I needed to turn to the comfort of the written word, as I usually do as a means to calm my nerves. Which is where my recurring theme stems from: characters who aren't afraid to challenge the conventional, government, religion, racism, prejudice, sexism, hate, and ignorance. I wanted authors and novels that addressed despair and greeted "the dark days" like an old friend, all while keeping hope propped up on their shoulders. I believe that hope and divine timing are just as indispensable in a novel as they are in life. Fiction is more than fiction; it's a parallel to reality, a means through which to come to terms with reality and to come to understand and plan for a way to create a better future. To grow in the face of adversity. Without further ado, a few novels to put life, compassion, humanity, humility, courage, and empathy into perspective. (Click on the titles for direct links to the books. The summaries that are below are the summaries provided from Goodreads).

• The Betrothed ~ Alessandro Manzoni

          Set in Lombardy during the Spanish occupation of the late 1620s, The Betrothed tells the story of two young lovers, Renzo and Lucia, prevented from marrying by the petty tyrant Don Rodrigo, who desires Lucia for himself. Forced to flee, they are then cruelly separated, and must face many dangers including plague, famine and imprisonment, and confront a variety of strange characters - the mysterious Nun of Monza, the fiery Father Cristoforo and the sinister 'Unnamed' - in their struggle to be reunited. A vigorous portrayal of enduring passion, The Betrothed's exploration of love, power and faith presents a whirling panorama of seventeenth-century Italian life and is one of the greatest European historical novels.

• The Crucible - Arthur Miller

         (Reread for me).

         Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing, "Political opposition... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

          In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence.

• The Stranger - Albert Camus

        Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in English in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.

• Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho

        Twenty-four-year-old Veronika seems to have everything she could wish for: youth and beauty, plenty of attractive boyfriends, a fulfilling job, and a loving family. Yet something is lacking in her life. Inside her is a void so deep that nothing could possibly ever fill it. So, on the morning of November 11, 1997, Veronika decides to die. She takes a handful of sleeping pills expecting never to wake up.       
         Naturally Veronika is stunned when she does wake up at Villete, a local mental hospital, where the staff informs her that she has, in fact, partially succeeded in achieving her goal. While the overdose didn't kill Veronika immediately, the medication has damaged her heart so severely that she has only days to live.

         The story follows Veronika through the intense week of self-discovery that ensues. To her surprise, Veronika finds herself drawn to the confinement of Villete and its patients, who, each in his or her individual way, reflect the heart of human experience. In the heightened state of life's final moments, Veronika discovers things she has never really allowed herself to feel before: hatred, fear, curiosity, love, and sexual awakening. She finds that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying, and at the eleventh hour emerges more open to life than ever before.
In Veronika Decides to Die, Paulo Coelho takes the reader on a distinctly modern quest to find meaning in a culture overshadowed by angst, soulless routine, and pervasive conformity

• Dawn - Elie Wiesel

         Elisha is a young Jewish man, a Holocaust survivor, and an Israeli freedom fighter in British-controlled Palestine; John Dawson is the captured English officer he will murder at dawn in retribution for the British execution of a fellow freedom fighter. The night-long wait for morning and death provides Dawn, Elie Wiesel's ever more timely novel, with its harrowingly taut, hour-by-hour narrative. Caught between the manifold horrors of the past and the troubling dilemmas of the present, Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and ultimately God as he waits for the appointed hour and his act of assassination. Dawn is an eloquent meditation on the compromises, justifications, and sacrifices that human beings make when they murder other human beings.

• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

          The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

          Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

• The Relic Master - Christopher Buckley

         The year is 1517. Dismas is a relic hunter: one who procures “authentic” religious relics for wealthy and influential clients. His two most important patrons are Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony and soon-to-be Cardinal Albrecht of Mainz. While Frederick is drawn to the recent writing of Martin Luther, Albrecht pursues the financial and political benefits of religion and seeks to buy a cardinalship through the selling of indulgences. When Albrecht’s ambitions increase his demands for grander and more marketable relics, Dismas and his artist friend Dürer conspire to manufacture a shroud to sell to the unsuspecting noble. Unfortunately Dürer’s reckless pride exposes Albrecht’s newly acquired shroud as a fake, so Albrecht puts Dismas and Dürer in the custody of four loutish mercenaries and sends them all to steal Christ’s burial cloth (the Shroud of Chambéry), Europe’s most celebrated relic.

         On their journey to Savoy where the Shroud will be displayed, they battle a lustful count and are joined by a beautiful female apothecary. It is only when they reach their destination that they realize they are not alone in their intentions to acquire a relic of dubious legitimacy. Filled with fascinating details about art, religion, politics and science; Vatican intrigue; and Buckley’s signature wit, The Relic Master is a delightfully rich and intelligent comic adventure.

Until next time! Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded!

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- Anisa

Book Haul

New month, new books.

From old adventures, loved characters, hated characters, and well known plots to classics and new adventures, this October book haul has it all. Some are very well known titles while others are somewhat less renowned. I'm sure that by now the majority of the world is at the very least aware of both Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, however whether the majority views GoT or HP in a positive or negative light is completely subjective. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy both series and am quite happy to remain ensnared in the universes that both George R.R. Martin and J.K. Rowling have created. It's high time that I give the Harry Potter series the reread it deserves, and it's about time that I finally dive into the Game of Thrones books and have a proper comparison for the TV series. So I'm incredibly excited for HP and GoT. (Click on the links below for summaries of each book, provided by Goodreads.)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter #1)
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire #1)

As far as Sherlock Holmes goes, I've had a heavy interest in checking out Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's claim to fame for quite a while now but I've just always felt so overwhelmed by how expansive his collection of tales is, to settle on a starting point. But, I finally bit the bullet and decided to become acquainted with Sherlock Holmes through Signet Classics' The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries; a mass market paperback that features twenty-two of Holmes' tales. I'm incredibly excited to dive into one of the series that paved the way for the mystery and crime genres.

The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)

Haunted Castles and Ray Russell are a novel and an author, respectively, that I had had  zero previous knowledge of before stumbling across the novel and author while I was roaming the aisles at my local Barnes and Noble, a week ago. Quite the exciting find and perfect timing, since October is the month for everything and anything horror, thriller, and grotesque. I'm very interested to see what Russell has to bring to the table and Gothic literature.

Haunted Castles - Ray Russell

Jeffrey Eugenides is an author who has been on my To Be Read (TBR) list for quite some time, but I've just never gotten around to reading one of his novels. His other novel, Middlesex has been sitting on my shelves at home, waiting to be read, where it will most likely continue to sit until it gets boxed up along with any of the other books that I decide to ship off to the library, the place that is home to all of the books I've grown tired of or disliked, and decided to give away. Middlesex just doesn't grab my attention. But, I'm hoping that Eugenides' novel, The Marriage Plot will be the answer to my unanswered prayer. My greatest struggle with the modern day romance genre is that I'm unable to part with the upstanding tones and standards that the romantic classics and Romantic Movement instituted. They don't make them like Heathcliff or Mr. Darcy, anymore and that to me is such a disappointment and disservice to modern day romance. But, hopefully The Marriage Plot will be a breath of fresh air.

The Marriage Plot - Jeffrey Eugenides

Of course, it just wouldn't be October if I hadn't splurged on an absolutely beautiful edition of the Grimm brothers' tales. I've always loved the traditional fairytales, especially the tales with a darker twist or darker origins, so it only made sense to finally commit to a copy of these tales. This particular edition is volume one of the brothers' collection, so I'm assuming that a volume two will be in the works, shortly. Hopefully. The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm was translated by Jack D. Zipes and illustrated by Andrea Dezso. Cheers to Jacob Grimm and Wilhem Grimm for remaining relevant even after two hundred and four years of  being in print!

The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm - Jacob Grimm, Wilhem Grimm, Jack D. Zipes, Andrea Dezso

If you've read any of these, let me know what your thoughts are, good and bad. I hope that this book haul post gave you some ideas for future buys, until the next post!

Until next time! Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded!

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- Anisa

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman Review

Pages: 286
Goodreads Rating: 4.10/ 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Horror, Paranormal


"It's always easier to die gently, to wake in due time in the place you were buried, to come to terms with your death and to get acquainted with the other inhabitants."


Neil Gaiman, is an author who will forever have a home on my shelves. From his deep, pensive thoughts to his love for magical realism, Gaiman is an author who is undoubtedly true to both himself and his creativity. The uniqueness and the energy that Gaiman manages to breathe into his works are out of this world. Seemingly, effortlessly he brings his characters and his settings to life, and no matter how bizarre his characters and settings are, they never fail to feel familiar and relatable.

This was my second time experiencing The Graveyard Book and all of its uncanny characters and heavy meaning. I must say that there are definitely novels out there that require a second read in order to fully comprehend the message and the author's intentions. TGB is a somewhat loose retelling of The Jungle Book, with a very unique twist - a graveyard and all of its inhabitants.

"The graveyard kept its secrets."

Indeed, the graveyard did keep its secrets until the night that a family of four was murdered in their home. Except, not all four family members were killed. The fourth and final member of the family, a baby boy tottered his way out of and away from the home and up the hill that led to the graveyard that would become his home. Thus, leading us to the life and tale of Nobody Owens; a boy named "Nobody" because he looked like nobody but himself.

"It must be good," said Silas, "to have somewhere that you belong. Somewhere that's home."

Nobody Owens, Bod for short, was never meant to live an ordinary life.

Once, all of the inhabitants of the graveyard rallied together to protect Bod from his then unnamed pursuer and The Lady on the Grey gave her consent for Bod to receive Freedom of the Graveyard - the ability to walk amongst and exist amongst the dead even though said individual is very much so alive - Nobody Owens was named and claimed by the Owenses. Master and Mistress Owens were named his parents and the ever mysterious Silas was named Bod's guardian, since Silas was able to come and go as needed from both the graveyard and other planes of existence. It is never explicitly stated what Silas is but it would be a fairly good guess to say that Silas is a vampire. Regardless of what Silas is or isn't, his position within the Honor Guard and his dogged pursuit for justice are aspects of his character that lead to Bod's unwavering respect and idolization of Silas. Silas is a dark, mysterious, profound figure who fits in with neither the living or the dead. His existence is a lonely one, but one that is hell bent on redemption. Silas is without a doubt my favorite character from TGB.

"The dead should have charity."

And charitable they were. The inhabitants of the graveyard quickly became Bod's family, mentors, and friends. They taught him how to embrace the graveyard and his identity. The past is important and meant to be learned from and the future should be looked to eagerly and with a hint of skepticism, but it is the present that we should give our all to and immerse ourselves in wholeheartedly."The treasures of ten thousand years ago were not the treasures of today."

"You are ignorant, boy" said Lupescu. "This is bad. And you are content to be ignorant, which is worse."

While the inhabitants of the graveyard did an excellent job of instilling values, a passion for knowledge, and a love for books in Bod, Silas knew that it wasn't enough. That there was a world that was far bigger and much more diverse waiting for Bod outside of the gates of the graveyard. Silas knew that in order for Bod to be able to escape the impending danger, he would need furthered knowledge and experience. Enter, Miss Lupescu. Lupescu is another mysterious character. We come to know that she is from the Old Country and acts as a tutor (and protector) for those in need. Later on in the novel we come to know that Lupescu is a Hound of God, what we would refer to as a werewolf/lycanthrope. Lupescu's identity is revealed after she rescues Bod from the ghouls who ventured to coerce him out of the graveyard and onto the road to Ghulheim; the Gates of Hell. "It was a city that had been built just to be abandoned, in which all the fears and madnesses and revulsions of the creatures who built it were made into stone. The ghoul-folk had found it and delighted in it and called it home."

S: Silas walked across the path without disturbing a fallen leaf, and sat down on the bench beside Bod. "There are those," he said, in his silken voice, "who believe that all land is sacred. That it is sacred before we come to it, and sacred after. But here, in your land, they blessed the churches and the ground they set aside to bury people in, to make it holy. But they left land unconsecrated beside the sacred ground, Potter's Fields to bury the criminals and the suicides or those who were not of the faith."

B: "So the people buried in the ground on the other side of the fence are bad people?"

S: Silas raised one perfect eyebrow. "Mm? Oh, not at all."

This quote is a part of one of my favorite passages from this novel. Silas explains to Bod that not everything is as it seems to be and that we cannot be so quick to judge others. People come with pasts and secrets that we know absolutely nothing about. People lie about other people's character and deeds. Good and bad are nowhere near as clear cut as we would like them to be. And the world, both living and dead, is not black and white. There is so much gray; so much uncertainty.

S: "And there are always people who find their lives have become so unsupportable they believe the best thing they could do would be to hasten their transition to another plane of existence."

B: "They kill themselves, you mean?" said Bod.

"Indeed."

"Does it work? Are they happier dead?"

"Sometimes. Mostly, no. It's like the people who believe they'll be happy if they go and live somewhere else, but who learn it doesn't work that way. Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. If you see what I mean."

This quote is incredibly important, in my opinion. We all find ourselves feeling lost and unfulfilled at different points in our lives, some of us more than others, but the important thing to note is that this despair isn't a result of our surrounds or who is surrounding us. It comes from within; a deep, turbulent sadness that is as much ourselves as our souls are. We carry these emotions with us and it is up to us to decide if we will shoulder the pain or if we will allow the pain to become an anchor that weighs us down and forces us to remain stagnant and trapped in a sea of loneliness. Loneliness in the sense of being unfamiliar with yourself and afraid of the potential that we possess.

The following quote is the one of the first of many interactions that Bod will have with Liza Hempstock, a young girl who was labeled a witch and drowned and burned under false accusations. She is buried under the unconsecrated ground of the graveyard without a headstone to mark her presence. Aside from becoming one of Bod's closest companions, Liza will come to Bod's aid countless times and save him from quite a few sticky situations. Liza will also be somewhat of a first crush for Bod in his later years.

B:"What's your name?" he asked.

L: "Got no headstone," she said, turning down the corners of her mouth. "Might be anybody. Mightn't I?"

B: "But you must have a name."

L: "Liza Hempstock,  if you please," she said tartly. Then she said, "It's not too much to ask, is it? Something to mark my grave. I'm just down there, see? With nothing but nettles to show where I rest." And she looked so sad, just for a moment, that Bod wanted to hug her.

"That's the difference between the living and the dead, ennit?" said the voice. It was Liza Hempstock talking, Bod knew, although the witch-girl was nowhere to be seen. "The dead dun't disappoint you. They've had their life, done what they've done. We dun't change. The living, they always disappoint you, dun't they?"

Yes, Liza, we humans are impossibly fickle and unappreciative of our ability to live in the moment. We overlook the little details and take far too much for granted. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. Liza was often the push that Bod needed to remember to embrace life and while he may have been brought up in a graveyard, he was still very much so alive.

"Truly, life is wasted on the living, Nobody Owens. For one of us is too foolish to live, and it is not I."

A few of Liza's parting words to Bod. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest not spent making preparations for death.

B: The the smile stopped and he looked grave once again. He said, "But you'll always be here, Silas, won't you? And I won't ever have to leave, if I don't want to?

S: "Everything in its season," said Silas.

Bod may have been living amongst the dead, those who never change, but that didn't stop Bod from growing and changing. And with each new year of life, Bod became more and more aware of these changes. Primarily the fact that he had difficulty seeing and hearing some of the inhabitants in the graveyard. Their lives had stopped and his had only just begun.

The Dance with Death, Dance the Macabray, comes around when the winter blossoms bloom. The dance is a sign of unity between the living and the dead, and is supposed to bring comfort to those who have lost loved ones. However, the dance is to be kept quiet so while the living and the dead do come together for a night every few years, the living aren't permitted to retain any memory of the dance. Bod included, much to his frustration. While at the dance, Bod meets The Lady on the Grey; who is heavily implied to be the personification of death itself.

B: "Hello," he said, as he danced with her. "I don't know your name"

LG: "Names aren't really important."

B: "I love your horse. He's so big! I never knew horses could be that big."

LG: "He is gentle enough to bear the mightiest of you away on his broad back, and strong enough for the smallest of you as well."

B: "Can I ride him?" asked Bod.

LG: "One day," she told him, and her cobweb skirts shimmered. "One day. Everybody does."

B: "Promise?"

LG: "I promise."

Quite the morbid interaction, which Bod still having a fair amount of childhood innocence was very much so unaware that he was actually inquiring about riding Death's steed from the plane of the living to the plane of death.

The danger that Bod had always been in due to the man who had murdered Bod's birth family was beginning to become more and more threatening. But one cannot live their live within the perimeters that fear constructs. So, in the face of danger, Bod ventured off to school in the living world for a "human" education and socialization with other living children. And of course Silas had a few wise words for this new development in Bod's life. "You're alive, Bod. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you can change the world, the world will change. Potential. Once you're dead, it's gone. Over. You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name. You may be buried here, you may even walk. But that potential is finished."

The adventure of school lost its glamour when Bod put two bullies in their place and the interaction between the dead and the living became far too muddied.

Enter, the mysterious murderer. A man named Jack Frost, who is associated with an organization called The Jacks of All Trades. This is the organization that Silas and the rest of the Honor Guard have been fighting for years. But the demise of the Jacks comes at the hands of our very own, Nobody Owens - along with some help from his friends of the graveyard, of course. I won't describe the Jacks downfall, some things are better left for the reader to experience first hand. However, I will mention that their fall can be primarily chalked up to greed and fear. "Fear is contagious. You can catch it. Sometimes all it takes is for someone to say that they're scared for the fear the become real."

And now Nobody Owen's life within the graveyard has begun to come to a close. But his life amongst the living has only just begun.

"He would go somewhere no one knew him, and he would sit in a library all day and read books and listen to people breathing."

Me too, Bod. Me too...

"But there is only one perfectly safe place for your kind and you will not reach it until all your adventures are over and none of them matter any longer."

Before Silas, I never thought of death as being a safe haven from life...

"If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained."

"People want to forget the impossible. It makes their world safer."

"You're always you, and that don't change, and you're always changing, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"If I come back, it will be a place, but it won't be home any longer."

Home isn't a place. It's where the heart it is, Bod.

And last but not least, our parting words with The Graveyard Book: "Face your life, its pain, its pleasures, leave no path untaken."

Ah, Gaiman, you incredible author, you! How you manage to break my heart, speak to my soul, and restore my hope is beyond me. But, I'm hooked.

Excellent, excellent writing and characterization. A wonderful, playful pace. TGB is easily a five star rating for me. My Goodreads Rating: 5/5 stars.  

Until next time! Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded!

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Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte Review

Summary: Jane Eyre, a penniless orphan, is engaged as governess at Thornfield Hall by the mysterious Mr. Rochester. Her integrity and independence are tested to the limit as their love for each other grows, and the secrets of Mr. Rochester's past are revealed.

Pages: 488

Goodreads Rating: 4.09/ 5 stars

Genre: Classics, Fiction, Romance

"I thought that a fairer era of life was beginning for me, - one that was to have its flowers and pleasures, as well as its thorns and toils."

From the very beginning Jane Eyre was on a journey; a journey to find herself, her purpose, and well Mr. Rochester - her soulmate. I was first introduced to Eyre my senior year of high school in British Literature Honors, which to this day is still one my favorite classes that I have ever taken. I immediately fell hard for Charlotte Bronte's writing. Such flowery detail and prose. The depth to the characters, the dialogue, the settings, and the plot was phenomenal. And the way that Bronte had Eyre address the reader was incredibly personal and aided in allowing the reader to become fully absorbed in this Victorian drama.

"You never felt jealously, did you, Miss Eyre? Of course not: I need not ask you; because you never felt love. You have both sentiments yet to experience; your soul sleeps: the shock is yet to be given which shall waken it."

I enjoyed the entirety of this novel, but I must say that I lost interest in Eyre's stay at Lowood without Helen's presence. Helen was quite the anchor for Jane and a wonderful symbolic character for faith, virtue, and courage. She was the first individual to impart pieces of wisdom on Jane, as well as a sense of duty towards goodness, kindness, and tolerance. Goodness, kindness, and tolerance become running themes throughout the novel for Eyre, and while some may regard those elements as "meekness", they are what allowed Jane to grow into her independence and strength. There is much strength to be had in allowing yourself to be humbled by life and to remain tolerant, kind, and good throughout your voyage through life.

"I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extricate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me."

Oh the romance! Let's just say that classic literature romance is my favorite type of romance to read. It was a whirlwind affair, a turmoil of emotion, and as blissful as a beautiful summer day; it was the stuff of pure imagination, but at the same time it felt incredibly realistic. It was an attainable romance. Come age gap, differing castes, or varying degrees of life experience, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester will forever be meant for one another.

The gothic elements and hints of mystery/horror were executed well and wrapped up quite nicely as well. I won't go into too much detail in regards to this aspect of the tale, seeing as though I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who is unfamiliar with this novel. But, I will leave it as Mr. Rochester has quite a few secrets and skeletons in his closet, that are revealed in due time.

I think that the feature of this novel that I enjoyed the most aside from the romance and our favorite Byronic hero, was the fact that Eyre and Rochester fell in love with each other's souls, minds, and personalities, which led to an enhanced appreciation for each other's physical features and a non-shallow basis for their relationship. Their love was honest and pure and passionate. It's the kind of love that we should all aspire to be able to partake in. To be loved and to love in return is all that anyone really wants, and Eyre and Rochester finally found that love in one another.

A timeless read, that I will never stop recommending. My Goodreads Rating: 5/ 5 stars.  

"I have for the first time found what I can truly love - I have found you. You are my sympathy - my better self - my good angel - I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you - and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one."

Until next time! Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded!

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Mini Review: Ashes to Ashes - Tami Hoag (Kovac and Liska #1) Review

Summary: He performs his profane ceremony in a wooded Minneapolis park, anointing his victims, then setting the bodies ablaze. He has already claimed three lives, and he won’t stop there. Only this time there is a witness. But she isn’t talking.

Enter Kate Conlan, former FBI agent turned victim/witness advocate. Not even she can tell if the reluctant witness is a potential victim or something more troubling still. Her superiors are interested only because the latest victim may be the daughter of Peter Bondurant, an enigmatic billionaire. When Peter pulls strings, Special Agent John Quinn gets assigned to the case. But the FBI’s ace profiler of serial killers is the last person Kate wants to work with, not with their troubled history. Now she faces the most difficult role of her career—and her life. For she’s the only woman who has what it takes to stop the killer . . . and the one woman he wants next. 

Pages: 576

Goodreads Rating: 4.02/ 5 stars

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Fiction, Crime Fiction, Adult Lit, Romance
                                                                                              Series: Kovac and Liska #1

The writing is fantastically addictive and the characters are so diverse and real, to the point that they feel like individuals you know, love, and hate. Brimming with a wonderful sense of familiarity! Fast paced but thorough and filled with fantastic detail. The flow was easy enough to fall into step with and the story, itself, is beyond easy to lose yourself in. It's always a treat to come across a book that is impossible to put down. I went to bed with question after question, I woke up with questions, I read on with questions burning holes through my mind.

The characters felt wonderfully real as well as all of the situations. The actuality of how real and possible all of those situations felt made the thriller aspect of this novel all the more engrossing and nerve wracking. For each answer that Hoag gifted you with she fired three more loaded questions or speculations your way. In one sentence you  felt convinced that you knew who the killer was, and in the next breath you were back to not knowing. I found myself second guessing every character's motives to the point of paranoia and just when I was convinced I knew who the killer was, Hoag hit me with a whammy of all whammies; multiple revelations within a short span of time that made me take a step back and view all of the players on the chess board in a new light.

The romantic interest on the side was done very well and in its own way became intricate to the story line. The romance was suspenseful, hot then cold then hot again, it was lacking in faith, it was brutally honest, it was love. But most importantly it was real. It felt tangible; it read like an actual romantic relationship, that real human beings are capable of experiencing. What I loved the most was that the concluding page didn't bring a happy ending to (the case or )the romance, but rather a happy beginning. A beginning of wonderful things to come.

I highly recommend checking out this book and I, myself, cannot wait to get my hands on more of Hoag's work. My Goodreads Rating: 5/ 5 stars.

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- Anisa

Mini Review: The Queen of the Tearling - Erika Johansen (The Queen of the Tearling #1)

Summary: Kelsea Glynn is the sole heir to the throne of Tearling but has been raised in secret by foster parents after her mother – Queen Elyssa, as vain as she was stupid – was murdered for ruining her kingdom. For 18 years, the Tearling has been ruled by Kelsea’s uncle in the role of Regent however he is but the debauched puppet of the Red Queen, the sorceress-tyrant of neighbouring realm of Mortmesme. On Kelsea’s 19th birthday, the tattered remnants of her mother’s guard - each pledged to defend the queen to the death - arrive to bring this most un-regal young woman out of hiding...

And so begins her journey back to her kingdom’s heart, to claim the throne, earn the loyalty of her people, overturn her mother’s legacy and redeem the Tearling from the forces of corruption and dark magic that are threatening to destroy it. But Kelsea's story is not just about her learning the true nature of her inheritance - it's about a heroine who must learn to acknowledge and live with the realities of coming of age in all its insecurities and attractions, alongside the ethical dilemmas of ruling justly and fairly while simply trying to stay alive...

Pages: 512

Goodreads Rating: 4.01/ 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy, Adult Lit, YA, dystopian

Series: The Queen of the Tearling #1

DNF.

It takes me about 60 pages or so to figure out if a book is interesting or worthwhile. This book only took reading the first 20 pages for me to realize that I was bored out of mind, I was disgusted with the poor self-imagery that the author had equipped the protagonist with and the endless judgement that our narrator continuously doled out, and did I mention that I was bored out of my mind?

The plot was going nowhere, that I wanted to be, fast. I felt zero sympathy for our protagonist losing all that she had known and being forced into the frightening reality of being royalty in a time of endless assassinations and uprisings. Quite frankly I didn't give a damn to read one more word. A pathetic protagonist/ body shaming female lead is the quickest way to end up on my book shit list.




The dialogue was choppy and unemotional, at best. About ninety percent of the descriptions and observations are irrelevant and make it even more challenging to muster up some interest for a book that is both uninteresting and listless when it comes to sticking with one train of thought. The flow of the writing is just about nonexistent. There's nothing more frustrating than attempting to read a book with zero flow or rhythm. The list of inconsistencies is ongoing. On one page our future queen is despairing over the fact that she has never come into contact with or known anyone aside from her two guardians, but on another page she has somehow come into possession of an all encompassing intellect and speaks as though from experience, even though she has literally spent all nineteen years of life in a small cottage. Mind blown.

Plain. Boring. Miserably ignorant in regards to self-image. Shelved as both YA and Adult. No real originality or groundbreaking concepts. Woe was me, Mary Sue complex. Placed in a post-apocalyptic world 300 years after the end of this world, but the real kicker is that after the apocalypse we somehow managed to revert to a Medieval society with modern day science. I think that this book is a bad case of attempting to tackle too much in one series. No, fantasy isn't meant to be realistic, but at the same time it has to be realistic enough in some form for the reader to be able to believe it and insert themselves into the world building.


My Goodreads Rating: 1/ 5 stars.


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Romeo and Juliet ~ William Shakespeare Review!

Summary: In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a world of violence and generational conflict in which two young people fall in love and die because of that love. The story is rather extraordinary in that the normal problems faced by young lovers are here so very large. It is not simply that the families of Romeo and Juliet disapprove of the lover's affection for each other; rather, the Montagues and the Capulets are on opposite sides in a blood feud and are trying to kill each other on the streets of Verona. Every time a member of one of the two families dies in the fight, his relatives demand the blood of his killer. Because of the feud, if Romeo is discovered with Juliet by her family, he will be killed. Once Romeo is banished, the only way that Juliet can avoid being married to someone else is to take a potion that apparently kills her, so that she is burried with the bodies of her slain relatives. In this violent, death-filled world, the movement of the story from love at first sight to the union of the lovers in death seems almost inevitable.

Pages: 376

Goodreads Rating: 3.73/ 5 stars

Genre: Classics, Drama, Fiction, Literature, Plays, Poetry, Romance, Shakespeare,

"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough,

Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn."

~ Romeo

It's been quite a while since I've read Shakespeare, and boy oh boy am I glad that I remedied that situation. Shakespeare's writing is so beautiful: flows wonderfully, detailed and flowery language, and the sense of humor. Oh, the humor. Sex jokes all around, done tastefully and not so tastefully but nevertheless are always laughable and enjoyable.

"These violent delights have violent ends

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,

Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey

Is loathsome in his own deliciousness

And, in the taste, confounds the appetite.

Therefore love moderately. Long love doth so;

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."

~ Friar Laurence

Going into reading Romeo and Juliet I wasn't expecting to be floored, or to come away with so many new favorite quotes, or to even have picked up a few tidbits of wisdom, but I did. I'm still caught up in the beauty of Shakespeare's wording. The flowery descriptions, the dialogue, the tension, the heated comedy, it all flowed so well. And aside from the silly dramatics, much of the characters' personalities and situations felt incredibly real. I felt as though I was there, watching it all unfold. I was drawn in and ate it up! It was difficult to put down and I almost somewhat upset at how quickly I devoured the tale, because I'm already itching for a reread.

"If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark."

~ Mercutio

Shakespeare has me convinced that it's high time to finally be open to the fact that one should opt to fall in love and to not go in search for love. Let love knock you down and leave you breathless. Allow love to come as a surprise. Open your heart, your mind, and your soul to the possibility of soul mates. There's something quite magical about Shakespeare's writing. Magical, beautifully written, comedic, and excellent word play. I highly recommend this for all of my fellow language lovers, comedy, well done/thorough romance. If you're looking for something to whisk you away and to leave you wanting romance, bawdy humor, and more Middle English in your life, I recommend giving Romeo and Juliet a try. My Goodreads rating: 4.5/ 5 stars.

Until next time! Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded!

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- Anisa

Crown of Midnight ~ Sarah J. Maas ( Throne of Glass #2) Review!!!

Summary: From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.

Pages: 418

Goodreads Rating: 4.52/ 5 stars

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Magic, High Fantasy

Series: #2 in Throne of Glass

Wow, okay, so you know how we leave reviews for books we've read and secretly hope that the writer will take into account our constructive criticism and concerns? Yeah, well, I feel as though Maas must have done some lurking through the comment section underneath Throne of Glass because her writing has improved immensely! A hundred times over! Ever critique that I had listed was addressed or improved upon, in some way. And, I know for a fact that I am not the only reviewer that feels this way. It's always amazing when an author's writing undergoes a vast and necessary improvement.

And, while the romance was large and somewhat in charge throughout the book, it wasn't irritating or weak. It was steady, fluid, and above all, believable. However, I could have very easily done without the relationship drama towards the end. But, I'm assuming that the messy and awkward "breakup" was Maas' way of separating Celaena and Chaol, so that the two of them could go their separate ways for a bit to find and better understand their individual journeys and purposes.

I wouldn't really go so far as to say that any of the characters have had major character growth, yet. It would seem as though Dorian will be the first character that will be undergoing a large personal change and growth, with Celaena and Chaol not too far behind with their own journeys. So perhaps Heir of Fire, will be the book that presents us with more of a developed depth for both the characters and the plot, itself.

The descriptiveness and the scenarios were easy enough to bring to life in your mind, as well as believe. CoM was beyond enjoyable, which isn't something that I say often when discussing YA books.

My only frustration with this book was the amount of avoidance.

- Ignore and avoid the potential rebel movement forming right beneath your nose.

- Ignore and avoid the dead queen, with the wise advice.

- Ignore and avoid your undeniable love for the captain of the guard.

- Ignore and avoid your past (and true name).

- Ignore and avoid your heritage and inheritance.

 

Celaena Sardothien is not only a master assassin, but also a master in the art of avoidance. Slightly annoying, but not enough so as to detract from the whole of the book. Overall it was great! My Goodreads Rating: 4.5/ 5 stars.

Thank you for stopping by! And if you have yet to do so, follow me here on my blog via email subscription to be able to stay informed on when new posts are uploaded! - Anisa