Posted July 20, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments
The Phantom of the Opera by
Gaston Leroux Publisher: Blackstone Audio (1909)
Audiobook {7 hours and 35 minutes} (264 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
First published in French as a serial in 1909, “The Phantom of the Opera” is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine’s childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous ‘ghost’ of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster. Leroux’s work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik’s past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted July 15, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
The Ring and the Crown by
Melissa de la Cruz Series: The Ring and the Crown #1 Publisher: Disney Hyperion (2014)
Audiobook {10 hours and 23 minutes} (284 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Also by this author: The Isle of the Lost Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Princess Marie-Victoria, heir to the Lily Throne, and Aelwyn Myrddn, bastard daughter of the Mage of England, grew up together. But who will rule, and who will serve?
Quiet and gentle, Marie has never lived up to the ambitions of her mother, Queen Eleanor the Second, Supreme Ruler of the Franco-British Empire. With the help of her Head Merlin, Emrys, Eleanor has maintained her stranglehold on the world’s only source of magic. She rules the most powerful empire the world has ever seen.
But even with the aid of Emrys’ magic, Eleanor’s extended lifespan is nearing its end. The princess must marry and produce an heir or the Empire will be vulnerable to its greatest enemy, Prussia. The two kingdoms must unite to end the war, and the only solution is a match between Marie and Prince Leopold VII, heir to the Prussian throne. But Marie has always loved Gill, her childhood friend and soldier of the Queen’s Guard.
Together, Marie and Aelwyn, a powerful magician in her own right, come up with a plan. Aelwyn will take on Marie’s face, allowing the princess to escape with Gill and live the quiet life she’s always wanted. And Aelwyn will get what she’s always dreamed of–the chance to rule. But the court intrigue and hunger for power in Lenoran England run deeper than anyone could imagine. In the end, there is only rule that matters in Eleanor’s court: trust no one.
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Tagged as 4 star, Library, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted July 13, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
The Winner's Crime by
Marie Rutkoski Series: The Winner's Trilogy #1 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (2015)
Hardcover (402 pages)
Rating: Also by this author: The Winner's Curse,
The Winner's Kiss Also in this series: The Winner's Curse,
The Winner's Kiss Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Book two of the dazzling Winner’s Trilogy is a fight to the death as Kestrel risks betrayal of country for love.
The engagement of Lady Kestrel to Valoria’s crown prince means one celebration after another. But to Kestrel it means living in a cage of her own making. As the wedding approaches, she aches to tell Arin the truth about her engagement…if she could only trust him. Yet can she even trust herself? For—unknown to Arin—Kestrel is becoming a skilled practitioner of deceit: an anonymous spy passing information to Herran, and close to uncovering a shocking secret.
As Arin enlists dangerous allies in the struggle to keep his country’s freedom, he can’t fight the suspicion that Kestrel knows more than she shows. In the end, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth. And when that happens, Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them.
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Tagged as 5 star, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted July 8, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Rebel Mechanics by
Shanna Swendson Series: Rebel Mechanics #1 Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux (2015)
eARC (320 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
A sixteen-year-old governess becomes a spy in this alternative U.S. history where the British control with magic and the colonists rebel by inventing.
It’s 1888, and sixteen-year-old Verity Newton lands a job in New York as a governess to a wealthy leading family—but she quickly learns that the family has big secrets. Magisters have always ruled the colonies, but now an underground society of mechanics and engineers are developing non-magical sources of power via steam engines that they hope will help them gain freedom from British rule. The family Verity works for is magister—but it seems like the children’s young guardian uncle is sympathetic to the rebel cause. As Verity falls for a charming rebel inventor and agrees to become a spy, she also becomes more and more enmeshed in the magister family’s life. She soon realizes she’s uniquely positioned to advance the cause—but to do so, she’ll have to reveal her own dangerous secret.
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Tagged as 4 star, Catholic, Catholic Connections, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted July 6, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Blue Lily, Lily Blue by
Maggie Stiefvater Series: The Raven Cycle #3 Publisher: Scholastic (2014)
Hardcover (391 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Also by this author: Shiver,
The Scorpio Races,
The Raven Boys Also in this series: The Raven Boys,
The Dream Thieves,
The Raven King Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.
The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.
Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.
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Tagged as 5 star, Library, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
