TBR Bookshelf Tour #1 (Top Shelf)

While many people have done bookshelf tours, I took a less conventional approach. I decided to go shelf by shelf on my TBR shelf then I hope to go over my normal bookshelf soon. This shelf is the one I film in front of and it is the most accessible. Let me know what you think of any of these books or which ones I should put at the front of the list.

Review - Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

 

Series: Sevenwaters #1

Genre: Fantasy

Age Group: Classed as YA (I would put it between YA and adult)

Source: Purchased Used

Hardcover - 455

Tor Books - 1999

Add it // Buy it 

Rating: 3.5/5

Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha is the light in their lives, they are determined that she know only contentment. 

But Sorcha's joy is shattered when her father is bewitched by his new wife, an evil enchantress who binds her brothers with a terrible spell, a spell which only Sorcha can lift-by staying silent. If she speaks before she completes the quest set to her by the Fair Folk and their queen, the Lady of the Forest, she will lose her brothers forever. 

When Sorcha is kidnapped by the enemies of Sevenwaters and taken to a foreign land, she is torn between the desire to save her beloved brothers, and a love that comes only once. Sorcha despairs at ever being able to complete her task, but the magic of the Fair Folk knows no boundaries, and love is the strongest magic of them all...

Right off the bat I want to mention that there are several trigger warnings for this book. Number one being an explicit and violent rape scene. Also there are several instances where a depressed character contemplates and attempts suicide. Both of these scenes are early on in the story..

There are a lot of elements of this story I did enjoy. The setting is beautiful. I loved Sorcha's character and her strong bond with her brothers. There is a nice slow burn romance involved which is very well done. Overall I enjoyed the story and the characters and this retelling of the Celtic swan myth/fairytale is beautiful. I really enjoyed the crossover of the swan myth and the fae elements. Sorcha's pain comes across in a very real way and I felt her anxiety saving her brothers very strongly. 

However, the very beginning of this book is like molasses. The plot is very slow to start and there is a lot of info dumping about the world and characters. I had a really hard time making my way through it. While I thought the writing was beautiful, it is very repetitive and drawn out at times. The end of the story completes Sorcha's story, but leaves several other plot lines open. 

I was also a little disturbed the rape scene was so explicit and descriptive while depictions of consensual sex were glossed over and practically excluded from the story. This bothered me a lot and I have a hard time reflecting on the book without wondering why this was the case. 

Reasons to Decrease My TBR

Over the course of 2017 I am diligently working to reduce my TBR. I am trying to buy fewer books, be more conscious of the books I choose to buy and weeding out books on my TBR shelf I am no longer interested in. Check out a few reasons why I'm trying to do this.

Top Ten Books On My Spring TBR

Honestly I never accomplish these lists. I make them and try to read everything on them, but I always fail. Broke and the Bookish keep tempting me with this topic though! However, I did just make a list of some books I want to read by June 30th. So I'm going to pick ten from that list to focus on this spring. Cross your fingers for me!

 

 

 

 My Last Top Ten Tuesday---> Top Ten Ships and Couples

Review - The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

 

Series: Star-Touched Queen Companion Series #1

Genre: Fantasy

Age Group: Young adult

Source: Purchased

Hardcover - 342 pgs

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Rating - 3/5

Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of death and destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom. Content to follow more scholarly pursuits, her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar. Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds something else entirely: Compassion. Protection. Desire…

But Akaran has its own secrets—thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger. Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most…including herself. 

Overall, I think this book suffered from too much hype. The story was good, the characters were good and the writing was good, but nothing stood out as exceptional. I found the Indian culture interesting and enjoyed the vivid world the author created. I also really enjoyed the Hades/Persephone parallels throughout the book. 

However, I was frustrated Maya spent most of the book wandering (or being ordered) from room to room in a giant palace. While I enjoyed the descriptive writing, it slowed down the plot and made the book drag especially when there were long gaps between the action-y parts. 

These long pauses and the wandering around the castle made it hard for me to connect to Maya. Throughout the book I felt distant from her and had a hard time following the logic of her decisions. Though I ended up enjoying the romance in this story it felt a little too contrived and was insta-love (even though it makes sense in this book). It worked in the end, but it took me a while to get over how quickly that happened. His one liners are gold though.

Overall it felt a lot like A Court of Thorns and Roses (especially at the end) and Cruel Beauty (third party) to me. There are different elements and the characters are different, but in essentials it boils down to a very similar story.

PS: I loved Kamala to bits. I hope we see her again.

#FridayReads (March 10, 2016)

Yesterday was a beautiful morning so I filmed a quick update while my puppy ran around and enjoyed the warm weather.

Review - Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund

 

Series: For Darkness Shows the Stars (Final)

Genre: Sci-Fi Dystopian

Age Group - Young Adult

Source - Purchased

Balze+Bray - 2013

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Rating -  4/5

Centuries after wars nearly destroyed civilization, the two islands of New Pacifica stand alone, a terraformed paradise where even the Reduction—the devastating brain disorder that sparked the wars—is a distant memory. Yet on the isle of Galatea, an uprising against the ruling aristocrats has turned deadly. The revolutionaries’ weapon is a drug that damages their enemies’ brains, and the only hope is rescue by a mysterious spy known as the Wild Poppy.

On the neighboring island of Albion, no one suspects that the Wild Poppy is actually famously frivolous aristocrat Persis Blake. The teenager uses her shallow, socialite trappings to hide her true purpose: her gossipy flutternotes are encrypted plans, her pampered sea mink is genetically engineered for spying, and her well-publicized new romance with handsome Galatean medic Justen Helo… is her most dangerous mission ever.

Though Persis is falling for Justen, she can’t risk showing him her true self, especially once she learns he’s hiding far more than simply his disenchantment with his country’s revolution and his undeniable attraction to the silly socialite he’s pretending to love. His darkest secret could plunge both islands into a new dark age, and Persis realizes that when it comes to Justen Helo, she’s not only risking her heart, she’s risking the world she’s sworn to protect.

There is going to be a lot of fangirl in this review. I adore For Darkness Shows the Stars. As a futuristic space retelling of Persuasion, which never gets the spotlight, I had high expectations and it surpassed them. Now, several years later, I read the companion. It surpasses all my hopes and dreams and might even beat out the first book. 

The writing is absolutely brilliant once again. Peterfreund really improved her explanation of the Reduction in this book and built a completely different culture from the same roots as Darkness. The essentials were similar to book one but this world was vibrant, colorful, and futuristic. It was a huge contrast to Darkness and showed me how skilled Peterfreund is at world building.

Now I must talk about the characters. I loved watching Persis analyze and pick apart important details while she pretended to be silly and ignorant. This was brilliantly done and Perefreund introduced a complex and strong-willed female main character. The romance between Persis and Justen was built and cultivated throughout this book. It worked really well and I only wish there was more story to read about these two. 

I have another Scarlet Pimpernel retelling on my shelf and I am now anxious to read it. 

My Last Review ---> The Girl Who Drank the Moon

T5W -Top Science-Fiction and Fantasy #BooktubeSFF Babbles

This week Top Five Wednesday and the Booktube SFF Awards are crossing over for a topic no one can resist. Top Five Favorite Science-Fiction and Fantasy Titles!! Yay and also Noooooo! This topic was super difficult to narrow down. Check out my video to see which ones I chose.

Review - The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill

Series: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy

Source: Purchased

Age Group: Middle Grade (Recommended for everyone)

Ebook- 368

Add it // Buy it

Rating: 5/5

Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. They hope this sacrifice will keep her from terrorizing their town. But the witch in the forest, Xan, is kind and gentle. She shares her home with a wise Swamp Monster named Glerk and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon, Fyrian. Xan rescues the abandoned children and deliver them to welcoming families on the other side of the forest, nourishing the babies with starlight on the journey. 

One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic. Xan decides she must raise this enmagicked girl, whom she calls Luna, as her own. To keep young Luna safe from her own unwieldy power, Xan locks her magic deep inside her. When Luna approaches her thirteenth birthday, her magic begins to emerge on schedule--but Xan is far away. Meanwhile, a young man from the Protectorate is determined to free his people by killing the witch. Soon, it is up to Luna to protect those who have protected her--even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.

This story was absolutely delightful. After hearing this book won the Newberry Award Medal, it was on my radar, but I picked it up without knowing much more about it.

The writing was beautiful and brilliant. The pacing is fast but manageable. I was hooked from the beginning and quickly breezed through the first half of the book without putting it down. Barnhill created a solid fantasy for kids without writing down for kids or oversimplifying the story. The story touches on mental health, grief, politics, corruption, adoption as well as truth and memory. Luna's story is right on the cusp between a children's story and middle-grade, but it was delightful to read as an adult too. It is touching and I enjoyed the story very very much

From the first chapter this story was a surprise. The character are morally grey. No one is totally good or evil. Each character has redeeming qualities and pitfalls to grapple with. I loved how Barnhill set up the story and how each perspective had something essential to add. Not only are the characters morally grey, so is the magic and how people view it. I really enjoyed how people and events were examined from many different points of view.

While the book was for kids, it wasn't written down to young audiences. The author didn't avoid complex subjects and included tough subjects that I've seen others skip over. This was excellent.

February Wrap Up (Part 2)

Yesterday I posted Part One of this wrap up. It has been a busy reading month! Hopefully I will keep a nice steady pace for this year and keep up with my reading goal. This month put me six books ahead of schedule!

Books Mentioned:
The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski (My Review)
Fruits Basket Collector's Edition Vol. 5 by Natsuki Takaya 
Wolf Children by  Mamoru Hosoda
Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews
Spider-Gwen, Vol. 0: Most Wanted? by Jason Latour

February Wrap Up (Part 1)

Books Mentioned:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi
Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger  (My Review)
Saga Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Saga Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh
Across The Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund