Quick Review: A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Bethlylou

I’ll admit that I had a little trouble getting into this one. I get the feeling that V.E. didn’t plan on this being a trilogy originally because while there were a few loose ends it was wrapped up pretty nicely and could have ended where it did. That meant that she sort of had to start all over again setting up the world and the characters. Lila had left Red London to seek adventures and find herself on a privateer’s boat. Kell and Rhy are left dealing with the new bond between them and the knowledge that their lives are tied to each other. If one dies so does the other. All three are restless in their new realities so of course it’s a good time to put on an international tournament of magic. The Essen Tasch, a competition with neighboring nations Faron and Vesk. A good way to expand the universe but it also meant it took a lot of pages building up the games that by the time we finally do and we get all of characters in one place again, the book is more then two thirds over and you blink and the games are over. I just felt it needed a little less setup and more action. Especially since the real story was going on in White London and we only get a glimpse of. The one saving grace is it has one hell of cliffhanger, with not just one or two but at least three characters lives in peril at the final page. It’s a good thing, I went ahead and bought the last book because I have to know what happens next.

Quick Review: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Posted on December 22, 2017 by Bethlylou

I knew from the description of this book it would be one I would love. I don’t know why I waited so long to pick it up. Kell is an Antari, or a person who has special magic that allows him to go between different worlds. He travels from Red London to Grey London to White London and back. He is the official ambassador between the different Monarchs of the different but he also has a side business of fencing items between back and forth which is strictly forbidden after what happened to Black London. Black London was overrun by magic that it devoured itself. Red London shut it’s doors to the other London’s leaving White London to deal with Black London and Grey London without magic at all. Delilah (Lila) Bard is a thief in Grey London, stealing to get by. She has big dreams of being a pirate and leaving London behind. When one of Kell’s transactions goes bad he is forced to team up with Lila to save all the Londons. It’s a fun read that is full of twists and turns and has some great characters. Kell seemingly has nothing to be upset about being he is treated like a prince and is like family to the Royal family of Red London but he knows he is just one of their possessions. He may live with them and treated as a soon but he wouldn’t be if he wasn’t useful to them. Lila is a orphan who only has herself to rely on. Together they make one of a hell of team. Lila is one smart cookie. On more than one occasion it’s her wits and fast thinking that gets them out of trouble. Kell is not so bad himself. When he figures out what is going on, he knows whatever he has to do and it means sacrificing himself to save others. I can’t wait to read what happens next for Kell and Lila.

Review: Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Bethlylou

** Spoilers **

So I was all in this novel until the ending. I feel like it left things too wide open and was a bit rushed. The story is told in reverse chronological order as we piece together what happened with Jule and Imogen. Jule is a strong smart girl with the big ambitions and the ability to blend in anywhere. Imogen is a runaway heiress with the need to live life to the fullest. They form a close friendship but like things that burn to bright they tend to fade out too quickly too. When we meet Jule, she is clearly hiding out in Mexico from something or someone from Mexico, we go to London, San Francisco, Puerto Rico, Martha’s Vineyard to New York. As the story unfolds, one can not help but be impressed with how Jule was able to insinuate herself in this world of wealth and privilege with such ease. They don’t even question her story and just assume that she is exactly who she is until late in the game and even then, they never accuse her of being an outright fraud but something a little less genuine. She is able to pull off the greatest con with very little resistance. Jule is able to convince Imogen that she was childhood friends thanks to their connection as orphans. Jule reinvents herself with a superhero background that makes her more heroic then she actually is. Imogen is spoiled and see herself as a free spirit looking to live her life to the fullest. Renting a house in Martha’s Vineyard and sharing it with her boyfriend and friends. She is the kind of person that makes you feel like you are special, until she loses interest and moves on to the next person. She and Jule have an instant connection that borders on obsessive and can only end in one way. It becomes pretty clear what happened between Imogen and Jule that it doesn’t seem all that shocking when it finally happens. To me again it was the ease of how Jule is able to get in her good graces in the first place. When the novel finally circles back to where we began the story that’s where things get confusing. Again real big spoilers after the cut. Continue reading →

Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Bethlylou

**Spoilers**

This was a credibly well written and crafted novel. I was really taken in by this family and their struggles and triumphs. Pachinko follows one Korean family from 1910-1989 from their home in south of Korea to Japan. When Yangjin’s daughter sixteen year old daughter, Sunja gets pregnant and the father can’t marry her. a boarder at her boarding house agrees to Marry her and take her to Japan with him to spare her and her family any shame. Being a Korean living in Imperial Japan at the time was not easy. They were often discriminated against and limited in their movements thanks to racist policies. As the family tries to find ways to survive through poverty, war time and other personal tragedy it tears them apart and brings them together. If there is one thing that I got out of this novel is that no matter where women live, what their station in life is or what religion they practice. Their choices are pretty shit. Sunja finds herself pregnant from a secret affair with a wealthy businessman. When she finds out that he can’t marry her because he already has a wife and three daughters back in Japan she walks away. His offer of being his Korean wife and him buying her house and taken care of her is not enough. She will never be his true wife but also being an unwed mother will bring shame on her and her family. When a young pastor falls ill in her family’s boardinghouse, she and her mother help him get better. Isek is convinced he was sent to them on purpose to help them as they helped him so he agrees to marry her and take her with her to Osaka. This will spare the family of the shame. At 16, Sunja choices are to be destitute and shunned from society or marry a complete stranger and move to another country. Isek is a kind man and takes good care of her and their sons. He raises Noa as his own flesh and blood and does what he can to provide for his family and his brother and sister in law. They do grow to have mutual understanding and good marriage. It’s a shame that Isek dies early in the book due to unfairly imprisoned for political reasons but I wanted to know more about him. Their children Noa and Mozasu are two very different children. They both struggle to find their identity as Koreans born in Japan and lived their whole lives but still looked at as foreigners. I’m sure this is something many children of immigrants can relate too. Noa and Mozasu both represent the “good Korean” and the “bad Korean”. Noa was always the good student who believed that if was good, if he studied hard and was the best in his class who would be able to overcome prejudices and be accepted only to ultimately discover that years of hate is not easily overcome, particularly when the hate comes from within. Mozasu on the other hand understood early that you can’t change people’s mind. If people wanted to label him the “bad Korean” he would comply and ultimately was able to succeed.

I’ll admit I know very little about Korean history or their relationship to Japan. Considering we could be at war with North Korea very soon this seems like a big oversight on our parts. The Koreans were overtaken by Japan and forced in to be second class citizens in their own country. When they moved to Japan things were not better. They were limited on what jobs they could get. They had to live in a ghetto. Even their chosen professions were looked down upon. Pachinko, a kind of gambling was seen as criminal activity and often thought of us gangsters. After World War Two when Japan lost their war their situation became even more precarious. They were not anymore welcomed in Japan then before but with uncertainty at home they couldn’t go back to Korea. If they did, do they go back to North or South Korea. In a way they became homeless, which seems even sadder since for characters like Noa, Mozasu, Yumi and Solomon who were all born and raised in Japan. This is the only home they ever knew and yet they never treated like they belonged. There is a pretty powerful scene of Solomon, the son of Mozasu so 2nd generation Korean Japanese, having to go to the home department and register so he can stay in the country he was born in. I would say that would be crazy but then I remember what’s going on in our country and it doesn’t seem so crazy that a country would do that to it’s people. There is also discussions on women’s role. Sunja from the very beginning is a hard worker and finds it hard to stay stagnant. When Isek is imprisoned and the family is desperate for money, she steps up and starts selling kimchi by the train station despite warnings from his brother in law that women must work. She is industries and does what she needs to do to keep her family fed and sheltered. It is her strength that keeps the family going. At one point, Koh Hansu, who got her pregnant at the beginning of the story, shows up and sends them to a farm out of the city to save them from the end of the war. I was angry that after what he did and could just show up and play hero. Like how dare he? Sunja rejects him over and over again but he always comes back. So infuriating.

I’m glad that we are doing our Diverse Stacks, Diverse Lives challenge because I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have this book otherwise and I would have missed out on a wonderful story.

Review: Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Kate

I listened to this book while commuting to work with my car pool buddy. In it, Kelly Flynn returns to her hometown in Colorado following the murder of her aunt. This is the mystery that is solved in the novel. Who killed Aunt Helen? Why? Along the way, she meets her aunt’s knitting friends, who teach her to knit, and she uncovers secrets from her aunt’s past that may be the key to solving the murder.

This was a fun book. I particularly enjoyed that knitting was portrayed realistically and there weren’t any unrealistic buy-ins (like a single mother who supports herself and her child in a city where you knows no one by selling custom hand knits.) Kelly was believable. The yarn shop owner was believable. The other customers were believable. Since a lack of believability drives me crazy, these were all positives for me.

There were some moments where I wanted to know less about what people were feeling, but I’m also impatient and I wanted to know if I guessed the villain.

I would recommend this.

Review: The Silver Mask by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

Posted on November 29, 2017 by Bethlylou

So what do you do when you have the soul of the enemy of death even though you have no memory of his past life and now everyone else knows it and blames you for the death of your best friend but your innocent? For Call it means you get thrown in jail, broken out and then kidnapped by the very people who’ve been trying to avoid the last three years. Call’s luck is almost none existent. Call is also full of self doubt and guilt. He wasn’t the one to kill Aaron, that was Alex but he still feels responsible for it. If Tamara had chosen to save Aaron instead of Call it would have been Call who died and not Aaron. Does Tamara regret that choice? Call had always assume that Tamara liked Aaron more than him and like most people tolerated him because Aaron did. Now that Tamara, Jasper and Call are kidnapped by Master Joseph and his crew things get a little hazy. Call is not Constantine despite having his soul but he’s been having trouble convincing others of this. He may not be him but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t share some of his ambitions. Without Aaron, Call feels a little lost and maybe all would be forgiven and go back to what they were if Aaron was alive again. Master Joseph gives him the chance. Raise Aaron back from the dead and you can decide whether you want to stay or not. The Enemy of Death was called that because his obsession with defeating death. I’m not sure I buy that if Call is able to bring Aaron back that all would be forgiven and that all of a sudden there would be so much support for his cause but we need to find the conflict. Of course Call is able to bring back Aaron by doing the one thing that Constantine was never willing to do, give apart of himself to do so but you can never go back. Aaron is not as he was because he was dead and should be dead. Call’s plan to bring Aaron back and things go back the way they were goes sideways immediately and battle ensues. If I didn’t know that there is one more book left in the series, I would almost think that this was finale because there was a lot of loose ends tied up. I’m not sure where they go from here but there is still one bad guy still out there.

This is part of my Diverse Narrator challenge. Call is disabled with a bad leg from when he was an infant. While his lifelong injury played more of a roll in previous books it is still a big part of who the character is. His bad leg has always made him think that he was less capable then those with two good legs and he’s felt this way because of most of his life that’s what people have told him. Throughout the series, Call has persevered despite being slow to run or walk. He’s been able to use his other skills and wit to get in and out of trouble and prove he is just as capable. May that be a lesson for us all.

Quick Review: The Speaker by Traci Chee

Posted on November 28, 2017 by Bethlylou

I didn’t find The Speaker to be as good as The Reader but it was no less enjoyable. Sefia and Archer have escaped the Guard and back on the run. They soon run into more impressors and just like what Sefia did for Archer, they rescue the kidnapped boys. Soon they embark on a campaign to track down the other impressors and free their kidnapped boys using their fighting skills and Sefia’s book. Things start out well but it becomes apparent that the violence starts to take over and everyone starts to wonder if Archer is the one the Guard has been looking for. Also Sefia is dealing with the knowledge of the involvement of her parents with the Guard and the red war. Just like in the The Reader, we get side story that is related. In the first book it was the apprentice librarian and assassin that ended up being Sefia’s parents in their youth. This one is the apprentice politician who is tasked with murdering his king so the next phase of the red war can commence. Unlike the subplot that was evident from the beginning as important, this seemed to be more of a distraction from the narrative. I’m still not sure why it took so much real estate in this book except it started to mirror Sefia and Archer’s story of trying to change their destiny for the people they love. I guess only time will tell how it will play out in upcoming books. I just wished we got to spend more time with Captain Reed and crew then this other story line. I still loved this book. It wasn’t as good as the original but it was damn entertaining and I’m even more invested in Sefia and Archer’s story.

Quick Review: The Becoming of Noah Shaw by Michelle Hodkin

Posted on November 11, 2017 by Bethlylou

This is the first book in the Shaw Confessions Trilogy, a companion trilogy to the Mara Dyer Trilogy. I would recommend going back to read the original trilogy before starting this one and if you haven’t read the Mara Dyer Trilogy then read it first because this book will not make sense if not. I did not re-read the last series and I found myself hitting up google looking for synopsis to remind myself what happened. The Retribution of Mara Dyer came out in 2014 and so much has happened in the last three years it’s easy to forget who Stella is and what happened between her and Mara. What I remember about the original series was how kind of creepy it was. Is Mara really seeing hallucination or can she really kill people with her mind? The first book was a mind trip. This was a little bit more straight forward mystery. It’s a few months after the ending of the last book and other carriers or gifted teens like Noah, Mara, Jaime and Stella are disappearing and then committing suicide. The problem is that they don’t want to and what do these disappearances and suicides have to do with Noah, Mara and what has done to them? Well we don’t get a lot of answers but then again we do still have two more books to go. What we do get is more incite into Noah. The complicated but loyal boyfriend Noah. He is a kid who has every privilege in the world but doesn’t see the point in living until he meets Mara. What happens when he doesn’t have that anymore? Also the question used to be is Mara crazy? Now it’s is Mara a psychotic killer? I’m really going to have to back and read the first trilogy again.

Review: Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Bethlylou

I was lucky to receive an ARC of this back in September and I’m glad that I did. This is a fun book to read. It was fast paced and had a lot of action. It’s a mixture of traditional Superheroes lure and the X-Men. Over 20 years ago, a Anarchist named Ace Anarachy started a rebellion and took down the government of Gatlon City in hopes of making Prodigies, those with powers, would be free to live without fear of being found out. In the wake of no real authority, street gangs made up of prodigies and non-prodigies took over and crime rampaged. To combat it another group of Prodigies, calling themselves the Renegades, took on Ace and his Anarchists and won. Now the Renegades are the new form of government. They are trying to rebuild Gatlon into a better society. Nova has many reasons to hate the Renegades. For one, they were supposed to protect her family but they didn’t. She has been working with the remaining Anarchists to bring down the Renegades. This leaves her to joining the Renegades to spy on their organization and find weaknesses. The more Nova begins to the learn about the Renegades the more she seems to be confused by them. Especially after meeting Adrian, another prodigy and the son of the original Renegades. Adrian is a good person who believes in their mission to make the world a safer place but Adrian has his own secrets too. It’s a cat and mouse game between the two of them. They are both looking for each other without even knowing it. It’s also an interesting question about personal freedoms versus government control and who and what is better for society. Nova believes that the Anarchist were unfairly blamed for the chaos that happened after Ace’s rebellion. It wasn’t them that committed all the crimes. It was a lot of non-prodigies who took advantage of the lawless society. Ace’s failure was not being able to participate how people would react once their was no authority, no governing body, no police force to keep people in check. The Renegades are that now but this has in Nova’s opinion has made people weak because instead of helping themselves, they are just waiting for the Renegades to do it for them. Adrian wonders, why would non-prodigies do anything when their are more powerful prodigies there? Lot’s a questions to ask your book group on this one. Nova and Adrian and both very likable characters. You can see what motivates them and how earnest they both are in their causes. I do hope that we get to know more about the other prodigies in the next book. Marissa Meyer has done a great job with this one and proves she doesn’t need fairy tales to tell a good story. She can do it with superpowers too.

2 Women, So Many Books

Our "to read" stacks way exceed our life expectancy

Tag Archives: Review