Book Review: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Book Review: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett


Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bel Canto is a beautiful novel. I’ve never read Ann Patchett before, but I quickly became infatuated with her storytelling over the course of this novel. To be completely honest, this was a 5 star read until the last ten pages. I shouldn’t have been so blindsided by the climactic events. The story does, after all, revolve around opera. But I was indeed blindsided. I feel slightly scarred. It was still a great book, and one that I might even read again someday, but the list of people to whom I would recommend it shrunk significantly in those last pages.

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Book Review: Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6) by Jim Butcher

Book Review: Blood Rites (The Dresden Files, #6) by Jim Butcher

Blood Rites by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Dresden Files (Book #6 of 25)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 372 pages (US Kindle edition)

Published: 4th March 2010 by Orbit (UK) & 3rd August 2004 by Roc (US)


“The building was on fire, and it wasn’t my fault.”

As if anyone would believe that, Harry.

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Book Review: The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #3) by Carol Ruiz Zafon

Book Review: The Prisoner of Heaven (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #3) by Carol Ruiz Zafon

The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Cemetery of Forgotten Books (Book #3 of 4)

Genre: Historical fiction, Mystery

Pages: 293 pages (US Kindle edition)

Translated Edition Published: 2012 by Weidenfield & Nicholson, Orion Books (UK) & by Harper (US)


Both Daniel Sempere and David Martin already have their respective background told, now it’s time for Fermin Romero de Torres’s past to be revealed.

“One mustn’t dream of one’s future; one must earn it.”

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Book Review: Fid’s Crusade (The Chronicles of Fid, #1) by David H. Reiss

Book Review: Fid’s Crusade (The Chronicles of Fid, #1) by David H. Reiss

Review copy received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Fid’s Crusade by David H. Reiss

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Series: The Chronicles of Fid (Book 1 of 3)

Genre: Superhero, science fiction

Published: 23rd March 2018 (self-published); Re-release with new cover: 1st January 2020 (Atian Press)


I can’t say that I’ve read many superhero/villain stories.  But for what it’s worth, I’d say that Fid’s Crusade was a great read; an engaging anti-hero story that balanced fascinating character work with clever plotting and cool action scenes.

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Book Review: The Iliad by Homer

Book Review: The Iliad by Homer


The Iliad by Homer
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Hallelujah. It’s over. Well, at least The Iliad is, though the story continues in The Odyssey. I had forgotten how much the beginning of this epic sounds like a giant group of toddlers fighting over toys. These toddlers just happen to command warships and armies, and the toys happen to be women they view as war prizes. Frankly, it’s disgusting. If these idiotic “heroes” would just view women as actual people who can make their own decisions instead of pretty toys over which to wage war, every single event in this story could have been avoided. Had they just asked Helen who she wanted to be with and respected that decision, hundreds of lives would have been saved. The amount of bloodshed over the “taking” of this woman is just insanely wasteful, even if it’s fictional.

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Book Review: The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Book Review: The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

ARC provided by the publisher—Tor UK—in exchange for an honest review.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone

Genre: Sci-fi

Pages: 608 pages

Published: 4th August 2020 by Tor (UK) & Orbit (US)


Children of Time has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2016, and Children of Ruin won the “best novel of the year” in The British Science Fiction Association Award a few days ago. Tchaikovsky’s newest work, The Doors of Eden, will definitely continue to win him more prestigious SFF awards in the future.

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Book Review: Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)

Book Review: Toll the Hounds (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #8)

Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Series: Malazan Book of the Fallen (Book 8 of 10)

Genre: Epic fantasy, grimdark fantasy

First published:  2008 by Bantam (UK) and Tor (US)


In a series replete with epic endings, Toll the Hounds offered, to date, the most epic one of all. It is with much joy that upon rereading I could upgrade this book as one of my favourites.

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Book Review: The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison

Book Review: The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison


The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Tor) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Angel of the Crows is basically Sherlock fan-fiction. I can’t even say it’s thinly veiled, because it isn’t veiled at all. And I am completely okay with that.

“I may be on the side of the angels, but don’t think for a second that I am one of them.”
– BBC’s Sherlock

There were a couple of pretty big twists here and there, but for the most part this book is a collection of faithful retellings of some of Doyle’s original Sherlock Holmes stories. A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Sign of Four, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, and more are covered in this collection. The still unsolved case of Jack the Ripper, which has been included or alluded to in many secondary works about Holmes written by other authors, is the thread which ties all of these separate cases into one cohesive narrative. But what sets this book apart from other Sherlockian stories outside of Doyle’s original canon is the author’s truly fascinating addition of the supernatural. This is not mere whiffs of supernatural in and around certain cases. Addison created a world in which the supernatural runs rampant and is accepted as reality but civilization at large.

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Book Review: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

Book Review: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson


Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nothing to See Here is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time. The tone is just hilarious. Lillian, the perspective character, is absolutely bonkers and I adore her. She’s tough and kooky and always afraid that she’s going to mess things up, and I just want to be her friend more than anything. This book is short and breezy without being shallow, and it completely transported me into this beyond weird circumstance in the midst of normalcy.

“I wasn’t destined for greatness; I knew this. But I was figuring out how to steal it from someone stupid enough to relax their grip on it.”

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