H. G. Parry Archives - Novel Notions

Book Review: The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry

January 26, 2023 Celeste Comments 1 comment

The Magician’s Daughter by H.G. Parry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an advance digital copy of this novel from the publisher, Orbit/Redhook, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Magician’s Daughter is a book that excited me as soon as I saw the announcement. I love H.G. Parry. Her debut, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, is one of my favorite standalones of all time. It is a love letter to book lovers, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I have yet to finish reading her Shadow Histories, her incredibly well-researched (but dense) duology, but I was thrilled at the prospect of having another standalone from her. I didn’t love it quite as much as I hoped I would, as there was something about the plot and pacing that didn’t quite compel me to burn my way through the story, but The Magician’s Daughter was an absolute delight to read. …

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TS’s Top 20 Books Read in 2020

December 31, 2020 TS Chan Comments 3 comments

The featured image above was specifically designed by Felix Ortiz for Novel Notions. We are ever so grateful for the opportunity to showcase his talent on our blogsite.

2020 has been such a strange, stressful and complicated year. I took a one-year sabbatical leave from work from mid-2019 and managed to do quite a bit of travelling for about six months before the world got completely turned upside down. I’ve read/listen over 120 books this year, 73 of which was completed during the first half when I wasn’t working and the entire world was on lockdown. Getting back to work during the second half in the midst of a global pandemic and a new challenging role did affect my ability to read and also write reviews on a regular basis.

Despite 2020 being such a watershed/dumpster year, it’s been an incredible one for my reading as I’ve completed a lot books ranging from great to masterpieces. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve added so many books onto my favourites shelf (many of which were from the same series). If you’re curious/interested, you also can see my year in books for 2020 right here.

Similar to my previous list, I do not limit this to only books released this year. There are simply too many great books that have been published prior and that I’ve yet to read, so there will always be older books included. Below are the parameters that I’ve set for the list.

Rereads don’t count
One book per author
Not limited to books which are released this year.

None of these are ranked except for the top five. The rest, I’ve listed them in the chronological order of when I’ve read them this year. Almost all of these have been reviewed by me on Novel Notions and Goodreads, albeit some are quite brief.

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Book Review: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry

July 14, 2020 Celeste Comments 2 comments

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H.G. Parry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an eARC of this book from the publisher (Orbit/Redhook) and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians is a truly brilliant example of alternative history. Parry managed to stay completely faithful to the persons and events that make up the true history of this time period while deftly adding in the existence of magic and exemplifying how that existence might have impacted the French Revolution and the British fight to abolish the slave trade. Historical figures like William Pitt, William Wilberforce, Toussaint Bréda L’Ouverture, and Maximilien Robespierre are all exquisitely portrayed both as individuals that really existed and fictional characters whose minds were are invited to explore. Parry balanced this contrast beautifully. She could have rewritten history in a way that made it somehow less. She could have stayed so true to history that the narrative felt more like a nonfiction text than a novel. But she did neither of those things. She was able to bridge that divide in a way that both informs and inspires, that encourages both historical curiosity and fantastical imaginings. I’m truly in awe of what she was able to do with this novel.
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TS’s Top 11 Books Read in 2020 So Far (1st Jan to 30th June)

July 6, 2020 TS Chan Comments 6 comments

The featured image above was specifically designed by Felix Ortiz for Novel Notions. We are ever so grateful for the opportunity to showcase his talent on our blogsite.

2020 has so far been a truly strange, stressful and complicated year, but reading wise it has been pretty incredible for me. I’ve read/listen to 73 books during this first six months of the year and quite a sizeable chunk of these garnered 4-stars and above. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve added so many books onto my favourites shelf in the same period of time. If you’re interested, you can see my year in books for 2020 right here.

Rereads don’t count
One book per author
Not limited to books which are released this year.

None of these are ranked except for the top three, of which two are tied for first place. The rest, I’ve listed them in the chronological order of when I’ve read them this year. All of these have been reviewed by me on Novel Notions and Goodreads.

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Book Review: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry

January 11, 2020 TS Chan Comments 0 Comment

A review copy received from the publisher, Orbit UK, in exchange for an honest review.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars.

Series: Stand-alone

Genre: Fantasy, mystery

First published: 23rd July 2019 by Redhook (US) and Orbit (UK)

How many of us readers have experienced the kind of immersion and connection to a story, its setting or its characters, which made us wish that it could be real? I’d gander a guess that it covers pretty much all of us. H.G. Parry’s marvellous debut novel, The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, perfectly illustrates the magic of stories and words on a page.

“That’s how the story works, the way the sentence and metaphor and reference feeds into the other to illuminate something important. That explosion of discovery, of understanding, is the most intoxicating moment there is. Emotional, intellectual, aesthetic. Just for a moment, a perfect moment, a small piece of the world makes perfect sense. And it’s beautiful. It’s a moment of pure joy, the kind that brings pleasure like pain.”

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Celeste’s Top 20 Books of the Year (2019)

December 26, 2019 Celeste Comments 10 comments

The featured image above was specifically designed by Felix Ortiz for Novel Notions’ Top 20 Lists.

If you’d like to see more stats about my reading year, click here.

The literary world was kind to me this year. In 2019, I read over 115 books, and a ton of those have been 4 or 5 star reads. It was incredibly difficult to narrow my list down to my top 20 books, but I finally managed it. There will be a handful of honorable mentions at the end of this post, for those I just couldn’t bare to not include. I’m taking a page from Petrik and following three rules for my list:

1. Only one book per author.
2. Rereads don’t count.
3. The books were new to me, but didn’t have to be published this year.

For the first time, I’m ranking my reads for the entire year. That being said, every single book on this list was a 4.5 or 5 star read and I highly recommend them all. You can view my full review of each book (including the honorable mentions) by clicking the link in each title. And now, without further ado, here are my favorite books of 2019. …

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Book Review: The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep

August 22, 2019 Celeste Comments 1 comment

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Orbit US/Redhook) in exchange for an honest review.

It’s.
Not.
Fair.
I know that life isn’t.
But stories are. Or if they’re not fair, they’re not fair with purpose.
I wish I could tell better where stories end and life begins.

Sometimes you just need to escape into a good book. But if you’re Charles Sutherland, sometimes you inadvertently facilitate the escape of fictional characters into the real world. Imagine being able to read out your favorite character from a story and have an actual conversation with them. That sounds like a dream come true for most bookworms, but it’s been a nightmare that Rob, Charley’s big brother and our first person perspective character, has spent his life trying to avoid. He’s had to clean up Charley’s fictional messes a multitude of times throughout his life, but the current fictional mess they find themselves in is the zaniest and more far reaching, and frankly the most dangerous, that the Sutherland family has ever faced. Their world is going to be changed forever if they can’t figure out a way to thwart what’s coming. …

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