Really, really glad I suggested this one for my IRL book club. I’d heard great things, and wasn’t disappointed. It’s historical fiction, and it plays with some weighty themes, but it never stops being a fun read. It’s this great mix of serious historical fiction (with a focus that feels totally fresh) and trashy beach read. I say “trashy” not because the book itself is trashy, but its subject matter–Old Hollywood–can’t help but evoke that gossipy, tell-all feeling. Especially since the premise of the book […]
Read this for the awesome heroine.
I have mixed feelings about this one. It’s looking like Alyssa Cole is going to be a hit or miss author for me. I didn’t fully enjoy An Extraordinary Union for the same reasons I didn’t fully enjoy this one, I think, but I loved A Hope Divided. So I will keep reading her stuff and just know that going in the chemistry between her leads doesn’t always work for me. Really, I didn’t NOT like this book, it just didn’t work the way it was […]
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
I really liked this book, in the way that I always enjoy thoughtful science fiction. Every once in a while, I enjoy a book designed solely to make you grapple with a question, and think, “what if?” The focus here isn’t on Asimov’s characters (though it DOES have actual characters in it, unlike the work of some 1950s sf authors). It’s actually impossible for this to be a character-centric book due the premise. Instead, the arc is on the Foundation itself, on tracing the decline […]
Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.
First, a confession. I have drunk the Wheel of Time Kool-Aid. I know this because when I started reading this book, I began thinking of an eventual re-read of the whole series. To say I was surprised by this desire is a bit of an understatement. Halfway through my Wheel of Time journey, if you would have asked me about the possibility of re-reading this series sometime in the future, my reply would have been along the lines of, “Um, whyyyyyy.” But now it’s, “Maybe?” And […]
Didn’t like as much as Part One.
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first, but I think that’s on me this time. The art is still the same beautiful quality, the writing is still true to the characters, the worldbuilding is still impeccable. It’s just, this volume happens to feature two things that I personally really dislike in stories. And on top of that there’s a cliffhanger! Number one thing that I don’t enjoy in stories almost 100% of the time: stories about gangs and organized crime. I just, […]
faintingviolet gave me this book right before Carrie Fisher died, and I’m only now not too sad to read it.
I’ve really been trying to make an effort in 2018 to read books I already own. Currently the amount of books I own but haven’t read, including in audio and e-book, numbers around 221. faintingviolet gave me this book in the CBR book exchange in December 2016, two weeks before Carrie Fisher died. Even though I was beyond excited to finally have it in my possession, since it had been on my TBR for years and I’d never gotten around to it, I just couldn’t make myself read […]