Posted October 5, 2015 in Reading, Review / 4 Comments
Daughter of the Forest by
Juliet Marillier Series: Sevenwaters #1 Publisher: Tor (1999)
Hardcover (400 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Fairytale Retelling,
2015 Re-Reading,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Juliet Marillier is a rare talent, a writer who can imbue her characters and her story with such warmth, such heart, that no reader can come away from her work untouched. Daughter of the Forest is a testimony to that talent, a first novel and the beginning of a trilogy like no other: a mixture of history and fantasy, myth and magic, legend and love.
Lord Colum of Sevenwaters is blessed with six sons: Liam, a natural leader; Diarmid, with his passion for adventure; twins Cormack and Conor, each with a different calling; rebellious Finbar, grown old before his time by his gift of the Sight; and the young, compassionate Padriac.
But it is Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, who alone is destined to defend her family and protect her land from the Britons and the clan known as Northwoods. For her father has been bewitched, and her brothers bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift.
To reclaim the lives of her brothers, Sorcha leaves the only safe place she has ever known, and embarks on a journey filled with pain, loss, and terror.
When she is kidnapped by enemy forces and taken to a foreign land, it seems that there will be no way for her to break the spell that condemns all that she loves. But magic knows no boundaries, and Sorcha will have to choose between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once.
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Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Fairy Tales, Fairytale Retelling Challenge, Library, Read 2015, Rereading Challenge, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted October 1, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
A Thousand Nights by
E K Johnston Publisher: Disney Hyperion (2015)
eARC (336 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Fairytale Retelling,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.
And so she is taken in her sister’s place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin’s court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.
Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.
Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.
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Tagged as 3 star, Fairy Tales, Fairytale Retelling Challenge, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 29, 2015 in Faith, Reading / 6 Comments
Tagged as Catholic, Fairytale Retelling Challenge, Monthly Wrap-Up, Polish, Pope Francis, Read 2015, Religious Education, Rereading Challenge, School, Sister, Swap, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 28, 2015 in Reading, Review / 4 Comments
Becoming Darkness by
Lindsay Francis Brambles Publisher: Switch Press (2015)
eARC (485 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Like everyone else living in Haven, seventeen-year-old Sophie Harkness is an Immune–a carrier of the genetic mutation that protects her from the virus Hitler unleashed upon the world more than half a century ago. A virus that wiped out most of humanity and turned two-hundred million people into vamps. But after her best friend is brutally murdered and several attempts are made on her own life, Sophie becomes determined to find answers to what seems to be a conspiracy running generations deep. And when she questions the peace treaty that keeps her small community protected, Sophie begins to discover terrible truths about herself and what it means to be human in a world ruled by darkness.
Lindsay Brambles’ debut young adult novel is a story of an alternate universe: Hitler won the war, our modern technologies never evolved, and the Nazis’ terrifying reign still continues. This fast-paced novel will appeal to readers who guzzle up genre mashups and are looking for a fresh hybrid to sweep them away.
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Tagged as 4 star, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted September 24, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Code Name Verity by
Elizabeth Wein Series: Code Name Verity #1 Publisher: Disney Hyperion (2012)
Hardcover (332 pages)
Via: Library Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2015 Synopsis
Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it’s barely begun.
When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.
As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?
A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called “a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel” in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.
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Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Library, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
