3.5 stars Archives - Page 6 of 10

Book Review: The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water

June 15, 2020 Eon Comments 2 comments

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

Genre: Fantasy

Published: 23 June 2020 by Tor.com Publishing

Zen Cho is an author whose previous work I have enjoyed a lot, but in all honesty, what first drew my attention to this book was not the author or the title, but the beautiful, captivating illustration done by Sija Hong for the cover. Add in that blurb teasing a found family, wuxia fantasy story involving a nun joining up with a group of bandits in order to protect a sacred object but finding herself in a situation far more complicated than she expected and yes, my tbr mountain found itself one book higher.

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Book Review: Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

June 10, 2020 Celeste Comments 0 Comment

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

We all have our insecurities, reasons we sell ourselves short and chicken out on following our dreams. Reasons we don’t think we deserve those dreams. And we’re all wrong. We all, every single one of us, deserve those dreams. And we need to respect ourselves enough to get out of our own way and to at least try. The worst that can happen is that we fail, right? And how is that worse than never trying at all?

Big Summer is a breezy, very current murder mystery. The perspective character, Daphne, is a plus-sized Instagram influencer who is about to be part of the biggest wedding to ever hit social media. But when someone winds up dead, Daphne finds herself trying to track down the murderer instead.
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Book Review: The Girl and the Stars (Book of the Ice, #1)

May 30, 2020 Celeste Comments 2 comments

The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

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

“Many babies have killed, but it is very rare that the victim is not their mother.”

So begins Mark Lawrence’s newest novel, The Girl and the Stars. As always, Lawrence knows how to captivate an audience and set the tone for the book all within the first sentence. We know immediately that Yaz of the Ictha, our perspective character, is an uncommon child. On the Ice, difference can be a death sentence. And not just because those differences often render their bearer vulnerable, but because children who are too different, broken in the eyes of their elders, end up being tossed into the Pit. And that is the end that Yaz envisions for herself with a hard clarity. But when the time comes for her to face the push that will send her into the abyss, things go differently that she had always imagined. What she fully expected to be the end of her story turned out to be its true beginning.
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Book Review: Or What You Will, by Jo Walton

May 7, 2020 Celeste Comments 0 Comment

Or What You Will by Jo Walton
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

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

“I have been a word on the tongue. I have been a word on the page. And I hope I will be again.”

Or What You Will blew me away from the very first page. The last time I got this excited over the first paragraphs of a book was when I read The Ten Thousand Doors of January, which ended up being my favorite book of 2019. My pulse actually sped up as I read, and I had to stop and go back and reread those first few paragraphs because they were just so gorgeous. I had read passages to my husband and frantically text my fellow Novel Notions besties about how excited I was before I even finished that first chapter. And I continued to deeply appreciate the writing all the way through, and highlighted and annotated an incredible number of passages. But after such a wonderful beginning, things went from beautiful literary fiction to an unexpected accounting of the art scene of Renaissance Florence. I mean, I have no problem at all with the topic but that shift came out of nowhere. I would say it was jarring if the air of the novel wasn’t so meandering. And then there were a ton of Shakespearean characters added into the mix, which was surprising. But the book never really came back to what I loved so much in those first few pages, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was incredibly disappointed by that decision on Walton’s part. …

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Book Review: Ascendant’s Rite (The Moontide Quartet, #4) by David Hair

April 27, 2020 Petrik Leo Comments 0 Comment

Ascendant’s Rite by David Hair

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Moontide Quartet (Book #4 of 4)

Genre: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy

Pages: 848 pages (UK paperback edition)

Published: 5th November 2015 by Jo Fletcher

Against all odds, Ascendant’s Rite was a tension-fused and satisfying conclusion for The Moontide Quartet.

“Life is a series of transactions. We all give to receive.”

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Book Review: The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)

April 15, 2020 Celeste Comments 4 comments

The Gunslinger by Stephen King
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

So begins what Stephen King considers his magnum opus, The Dark Tower. The line above is among the most well known opening lines in modern literature, and it perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the short novel. This first installment, The Gunslinger, is the only book in the series I’ve read before, and I knew I needed a refresher before I dove any deeper into The Dark Tower. While The Gunslinger isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, with areas that drag and a last quarter that goes too hazily ephemeral to maintain an emotional connection, it’s a fun and very original introduction into what I’ve heard is an incredibly powerful and unique series. …

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Book Review: Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, #3) by Jim Butcher

April 15, 2020 Petrik Leo Comments 0 Comment

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Dresden Files (Book #3 of 25)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 465 pages (US Kindle edition)

Published: 4^th March 2010 by Orbit (UK) & 1st September 2001 by Roc (US)

This book showed the first signs of The Dresden Files getting better in quality. …

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Book Review: The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)

March 28, 2020 Celeste Comments 0 Comment

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This entire series has my name written all over it. A plucky, intelligent heroine. Literary references galore. Dry, sharp British humor. An alternate history where every single British citizen is obsessed with the written word to the point of religious zeal. Tongue-in-cheek character names that fit their eponymous charges perfectly. The essential involvement of one of my very favorite classics, Jane Eyre. And yet, for some reason, The Eyre Affair fell a bit flat for me. I still enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped. However, my hope is that my reading mood will have shifted by the time I continue with the series, and that Thursday’s series will become one of my favorites. It deserves to be.

“Take no heed of her…. She reads a lot of books.”

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Book Review: Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1) by Jim Butcher

March 25, 2020 Petrik Leo Comments 10 comments

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: The Dresden Files (Book #1 of 25)

Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 332 pages (UK paperback edition)

Published: 4^th March 2010 by Orbit (UK) & 1st April 2000 by Roc (US)

Storm Front is an introductory and page-turning installment to a beloved urban fantasy series.

I am not much of an expert on urban fantasy sub-genre, I certainly haven’t read as much urban fantasy compared to high fantasy, and almost all of the majority of urban fantasy series I’ve thoroughly loved has been UF series that took place in a fictional world rather than ours; The Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee and The Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett are a great example of this. Many trusted readers and friends of mine who understands my reading taste, however, have convinced me that if there’s one urban fantasy series—with a contemporary setting—that I would end up loving, it’s The Dresden Files by Jim Bucher. Well, here I am, I’m officially starting my journey with this series.

“There is no truer gauge of a man’s character than the way in which he employs his strength, his power.”

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Book Review: The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu

March 10, 2020 Petrik Leo Comments 0 Comment

ARC provided by the publisher—Saga Press—in exchange for an honest review.

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Series: Standalone

Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Dystopia

Pages: 432 pages

Published: 25th February 2020 by Head of Zeus (UK) & 25th February 2020 by Saga Press (US)

Ken Liu is incredibly good at writing short stories.

I’ve been waiting for The Dandelion Dynasty to be completed for years now so I can binge read the epic fantasy series. During my waiting time, I have read The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and also some books Liu has translated: The Three-Body Problem and Death’s End by Cixin Liu. I loved them all; The Paper Menagerie, in particular, is one of the two best short stories I’ve ever read so far. The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is the second collection of short stories published by Ken Liu, and as expected, it’s another wonderful collection of stories. I think of this as something wondrous because I’m not even a fan of short stories; I avoid this format more than I avoid novellas. However, this is Ken Liu, and this collection goes to show how good he is at writing short stories. Just try reading the beautifully written two-page long preface; I highly doubt you’ll be able to resist reading this collection after reading this.

“As the author, I construct an artifact out of words, but the words are meaningless until they’re animated by the consciousness of the reader. The story is co-told by the author and the reader, and every story is incomplete until a reader comes a long and interprets it.”

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