Crazy Rich Asians

Author: Kevin Kwan
First Published: May 2014
Publisher: Anchor
Series: Crazy Rich Asians #1
527 pages (paperback)

Rachel Chu is an ordinary Chinese-American 30-something woman, a professor of economics at a New York University. For the past two years, she has been dating Nicholas Young, a fellow professor at her university. Their relationship has been fantastic. Now, Nick has invited her to attend the wedding of his best friend Colin in Singapore. Rachel is a tad hesitant at first, because traveling to Singapore certainly means meeting all of Nick's family as well -- but hey, maybe it's about time she did. And anyway, what could possibly happen, really?

Instead of an ordinary vacation, Rachel is wholly unprepared for the world of crazy rich Asian people. Turns out Nick comes from an extremely wealthy, multi-billionaire family. They are very old money and can trace their family tree back generations. Nick doesn't think it's a big deal, but Rachel is stunned. The wedding they're going to? The biggest, fanciest wedding in the Asian world, covered by magazines and newspapers! To make matters difficult, Nick's entire family, excluding a select few, are incredibly snobby towards Rachel. Rachel isn't rich and "doesn't come from a good family". The family plots to break up Nick and Rachel, while at the same time, Nick falls deeper in love with his girlfriend and plans to propose soon.

As an Asian person myself, it was so fun reading this book. I did not think any of it was offensive. Actually, it's clear the author really understands what very traditional Asian elders are like! This is not a book about "regular" rich Asian people. This is a book about the extremely, extremely wealthy, the kind who are just bordering on royalty; the old money types who look down on the nouveau riche. It's a crazy, humorous take on the super elite of the Asian world, with a culture that prizes sons and family names. If you've ever watched an Asian TV drama, this is sort of like that, with a lot of stinking rich people and brand names thrown around.

Though I found the story very entertaining, I did have a few qualms with the book. Now, I didn't expect any deep and profound characters or anything like that, especially since this book is classified as humor (?), but I really didn't feel much between Rachel and Nick. They're happy and in love, I am told, but I didn't feel like they were. Everybody else, I don't care, but since they are the main characters this story was revolving around, I did expect their love to feel more ... genuine? This may have something to do with the fact that for a lot of the story, the characters are not actually with one another (physically, not emotionally).

The thing I disliked the most was the ending. What kind of ending was that?! Absolutely nothing was resolved; in fact, there were several cliffhanger-type endings. It was all rather abrupt and left me very unsatisfied.

Regardless, I quite enjoyed this book and am glad that there is a sequel. Actually, that's probably why the ending was so sudden -- it'll all be continued in the next book, I bet.

My Rating: 4/5

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms

Author: George R. R. Martin
First Published: October 2015
Publisher: Bantam Books
Series: A Song of Ice & Fire
355 pages (hardcover)

I'm a huge Song of Ice & Fire/Game of Thrones fan, but I never read the novellas that went along with this series because they were originally published separately in various anthologies and I wasn't going to go hunt down/buy three anthology books just to read one story from each. But! At last! The Dunk & Egg novellas are bundled together for the first time, complete with gorgeous illustrations!

The three stories in this book follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, who, through a series of events, ends up having the child Prince Aegon as his squire. All these stories take place about 90 years before the events of A Game of Thrones. You don't have to have read the Song of Ice & Fire series to read this book, though I personally think it makes A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms more interesting if you have.

The first story, The Hedge Knight, is about how Dunk became a hedge knight and how he met Egg/Aegon. He competes in the Ashford Meadow tournament where unfortunately, Dunk is accused of unjustly harming Prince Aerion. Dunk must battle in a trial-by-combat to prove that he was in the right.

In the second story, The Sworn Sword, Dunk is taken into the service of Ser Eustace Osgrey, an old knight. Dunk tries to stand up for Ser Eustace against his neighbour, Lady Rohanne, who has built a dam on her lands preventing the flow of a river into Ser Eustace's land. Dunk's loyalty is put to the test when he realizes Ser Eustace has not been completely honest with him.

In the third story, The Mystery Knight, Dunk and Egg attend a Butterwell-Frey wedding where he decides to join the tourney as a mystery knight named The Gallows Knight. To their surprise, they realize the entire wedding/tourney is actually a part of a treasonous plot against the King.

I loved all the stories in this book. I'm so glad these stories were finally bundled together, because I could read them back to back and enjoy the continuity. While you could read them separately as well, the three stories flow together very well so I think reading them all at once is the best. Plus, they were great stories that really illustrated what it meant to be chivalrous and loyal.

And of course, since I am such a big fan of A Song of Ice & Fire, it was great having new reading material come out of Westeros, even if it wasn't directly related to the present Game of Thrones time period. It was really neat to read about Westeros during the reign of Targaryen rule.

Lastly the illustrations were fantastic and made me wish all novels are accompanied by drawings!

I heard Mr. Martin plans to write several more Dunk & Egg novellas in the future and I am so excited for them. Though naturally, I want him to finish The Winds of Winter first .... !

My Rating: 5/5

Why Not Me?

Author: Mindy Kaling
First Published: September 2015
Publisher: Crown Archetype
240 pages (hardcover)

I don't normally read memoirs or biography type books. In fact, I don't really read non-fiction at all. I don't dislike non-fiction, but it's just that when I read, I tend to drift towards the fantasy and sci-fi and those are usually made up stories.

I decided to pick up this book because I really like Mindy Kaling. Loved her character in The Office TV show, and also really love her show The Mindy Project. So, why not?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel. I read this book during my breaks at work, which it was perfect for, because work is super stressful at times and this book was so light and easy to read. And of course, it had a humor element to it, which definitely was great in helping me de-stress during break times.

Reading this book is not really your typical reading experience. What I liked about this book was that it felt like Mindy was talking to you. We were engaged in a conversation, despite me not actually talking to her (and the fact she doesn't actually know me, of course, haha). And it felt like real talk, like dealing with haters and work stress, etc. as well as real stories from her life, such as having someone who she thought was her BFF suddenly abandon her because the friend felt Mindy didn't fit in her life anymore. Who would do that to Mindy? I don't know, their loss!

Since it's Mindy, there are, of course, several chapters that are just full on, fictional humor pieces. It was fun to have a few silly stories thrown in as well. Such as, Mindy's life in an alternate world where she is a school teacher.

By the end of this book, I loved Mindy even more. She just seems like such a fun person to be around! You know, I should really pick up her first book too, and hopefully she'll write more in the future!

My Rating: 4/5

Dark Places

Author: Gillian Flynn
First Published: May 2009
Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
349 pages (hardcover)

I read Gillian Flynn's other novel, Gone Girl, a year or two ago and I loved it. Loved the movie too. So I was pretty excited to start Dark Places as well, though I kept my expectations low because I never heard anything about this one before. Luckily, this novel is just as dark, creepy and amazing as Gone Girl.
Dark Places stars a 32 year old woman named Libby Day. When she was a child, her mother and two sisters were violently murdered in what was later known as the Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas. Libby was the sole survivor and her brother, Ben, was sent to jail as the killer. Libby testified against him.

25 years later, Libby's running out of money. She's never really held a job, instead, just living off of donations people gave her for being the poor, sweet girl with no family now. The thing is, she is no longer a poor innocent sweet girl. She's grown to be self-centered, uncaring and a bit of a kleptomaniac. Of course, now that she's 32, the murders are no longer on the forefront of anybody's mind anymore, and nobody's donated money to her for a long time now.

Looking for a source of money, Libby encounters The Kill Club, a group of people who are obsessed with real life crime mysteries (like serial killers and stuff). They are ecstatic to meet Libby (for a price, of course) and want to buy "memorabilia" off of her related to the murders. Motivated by money, Libby agrees to revisit some people in her past and see if she can dig up any new information about the night of the murders. As Libby half heartedly investigates, Libby begins to feel that perhaps her brother Ben isn't the murderer after all ... and that the murderer is still out there.

The best thing about this novel are the raw, damaged characters. Nobody is perfect in this book; in fact, most of the characters are downright unlikable -- on paper, anyway. Let's take the main character Libby for example. Sure, she's the victim of a heinous crime, but it's hard to feel much sympathy for her as an adult. She's rather dysfunctional as an adult, not knowing how to fit in society, stealing, taking advantage of people, etc. She just flits from one source of money to the next. And you know exactly why she's all messed up (troubled childhood, hello?) And yet, you are rooting for Libby to solve the mystery. You are rooting for her to come out of this victorious. Maybe reunited with her brother. I have to give kudos to the author for creating a character that on the outside seems so shallow but still manages to draw the reader into her world and make us care about whether or not she accomplishes her goals.

As for the actual mystery, I was definitely surprised at the end of the novel to discover 'whodunnit'. I was also a little let down because it was kind of an anticlimactic discovery, but maybe that's just me.

I am a big fan of Gone Girl and now, Dark Places as well. Safe to say I'll probably read anything by Gillian Flynn, haha. If you like mystery/crime/thriller types of stories with characters that are genuine and raw, read her books!

My Rating: 4/5

Meta: New site! New name!

Welcome to the new home of the book blog previously known as Skyink.net If you try to visit Skyink.net, you'll notice it's a dead site. Yeah, I decided I didn't want to pay for domain and hosting anymore so I moved to Blogspot.

Took me a few days to move all my posts from my old site over here. I had to do it all manually because that was the only way, unfortunately. But now, it's done! Back to reading!

Jahanara: Princess of Princesses, India, 1627

This post first published July 16, 2012.

Author: Kathryn Lasky
First Published: September 2002
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: The Royal Diaries
186 pages (hardcover)
 
In comparison to the rest of the Royal Diaries series, it’s less exciting, however, I still find Jahanara to be an excellent book, especially as a starting point to get kids interested in Indian culture. I read this book for the first time in late elementary/early middle school and I remember it was this book that got me interested in the culture. For those who do not know who Jahanara is, she was the oldest daughter of the Indian emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal.

In this book, Jahanara starts off living with her exiled family, but later on, are returned to their proper places. Her father becomes emperor and Jahanara is granted the title “Princess of Princesses”. As a royal female living in India, Jahanara and other ladies are always kept behind screens and are not allowed any contact (even eye contact!) with men, other than family members and eunachs. Still, Jahanara proves to be a valuable member of the family as she tries to keep harmony between her scheming brother, “evil” step-grandmother, and the rest of the family.

Much of the book revolves around Jahanara finding things out about her family and her relationships with her family. The events that do occur, like her father being crowned emperor, are exciting but happen rather infrequently. Much of the book seems to introduce pieces of Indian culture to the reader. I didn’t really mind that since it still flowed with the story and never did I feel like I was reading a textbook or anything. It did get me very interested in Indian culture, in the end! Story-wise, this one was a tad slow moving, but I still liked it quite a bit. I’m pretty excited to start reading more historical fiction about Jahanara because she was so well respected in her time, and from what I read online, is still well-known in India today.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Mockingjay

This post first published May 15, 2011.

Author: Suzanne Collins
Published: August 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Series: The Hunger Games #3
390 pages (hardcover)
 
As the final book of the series, I don’t think Mockingjay does The Hunger Games justice. I think this book bombed. If you are planning to read this series, I’d suggest stopping after book two, but with that cliffhanger, I suppose you’d feel compelled to read book three anyway. I wanted to like this book, I tried to like this book, but I found it hard to pretend. And I’m going to apologize ahead of time that half of this post contains spoilers (which are marked).

In Catching Fire, we were left off with the most aggravating-in-a-good-way cliffhanger: “There is no District 12.” In this book, we find out District 12 has been destroyed by the Capitol after Katniss escaped from the Hunger Games arena, and less than 10% of District 12’s population has fled to the once thought to be non-existing District 13, who takes them in. Katniss and Peeta somehow get flung into opposite ends of the war: Katniss is wanted by the rebels to become their Mockingjay — the face of the rebellion, their symbol of hope. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol and is being used as the spokesperson for their own cause — a call for a ceasefire.

I’ll try not to be a negative Nancy by talking about the few things I did like first. Though I didn’t really have any characters I particularly liked or cared about in the first two books, I did in this one: Finnick! A secondary character, I know, but his background story is expanded in this novel and … I don’t know. I think I liked him because he’s the only one who doesn’t seem so bland. I also liked the concept of President Snow’s character. The whole blood and roses thing was pretty awesome, and really gave me an idea of what kind of villain we are dealing with. Seriously, two thumbs up for a great villain concept.

I can’t really think of anything more I liked … As for what I didn’t like … Well, I will start off with the general plot of the story. I didn’t find it engaging or interesting because so many of the things that should be engaging and interesting happen off camera or were seriously downplayed. (Contains Spoilers!) Example 1 – When Gale & Co. go rescue Peeta from the Capitol, Katniss just stays behind in District 13. Next page, bam! Hey Peeta’s back! I don’t know about you, but getting Peeta back seems important enough to me to happen on stage. Example 2 – Finnick’s death was brushed off like it was nothing. I know, he’s a secondary character, but surely his relationship with Katniss warranted more than just a, “Oh no! Finnick died! … Moving on now …” Example 3 – Pretty much the entire ending of the war happened off-screen. President Snow’s capture? Off screen. Katniss’ trial after she killed Coin? Off screen. I felt seriously robbed. These feel like HUGE moments, but instead all I got was Katniss locked up somewhere, and a few pages of reading about Katniss contemplating suicide later, a messenger arrives with, “Oh hey, uh, we decided you’re free in a trial that you didn’t even have to attend.” I mean, really?

Oh, and I must mention how I feel the message of the series got totally destroyed by the ending. This is what I thought the take-home message was: killing destroys people, it ruins them. It doesn’t fix anything, and you can’t rule through fear. Yet at the end, when Coin proposes a final Hunger Games for the children of Capitol citizens, Katniss agrees. Seriously?! I felt like that went against everything the books were telling me … evidently, I’ve been misinterpreting the entire series the entire time. It’s all good as long as it’s for justice?

Lastly, the love triangle thing was NOT resolved, in my opinion. Katniss ends up with Peeta … because Gale gets a job working in District 2 and doesn’t see her anymore. Really? Katniss ends up with Peeta because he’s the one who is physically closest to her? And Gale doesn’t even attempt to do anything about reaching out to Katniss, he just gives up? So much for being sooo in love with her. This all happens in one sentence: “Peeta and I grow back together.” Small paragraph explaining why Peeta and not Gale. The end. The love triangle thing has never felt like it fit in this series, but I mean, since it’s in the story now, I expected a better resolution. (End Spoilers)

My final thoughts are that Mockingjay is a letdown, and a disappointing end to a good series. For a book about life and death, friendship, trust and vengeance, it was utterly void of emotions due to the monotonous voice Collins employs to write her novels, and lack of inclusion of what I believe to be key scenes. I feel that Collins had a strong idea for The Hunger Games, but no strong direction as to what should occur in the series’ subsequent novels, and it really shows in Mockingjay. This was a frustrating read for me, I’m sad to say.

I considered giving just one star, but you know what? I still think overall, the series is good, and Mockingjay had its small, rare moments.

My Rating: 1.5/5

Paper Towns

Author: John Green
First Published: September 22, 2009
Publisher: Speak
305 pages (paperback)

This is my first John Green book. I picked it up at the airport when I was going to Maui, thinking I could enjoy it on my flight over there. I had seen the trailers for the movie but never watched it. I ended up finishing it really quick because I was pretty engrossed in it. The last half of my plane ride was pretty boring because I had nothing left to do (no TVs on the plane, boo).

Paper Towns is about a boy named Q (Quentin) who has liked this girl named Margo (who also happens to be his neighbour) for a long time now. Margo is (to Q) a super interesting, mysterious girl. She's one of the popular girls but doesn't act like it. They haven't talked since they were little kids though.

Then one random night, Margo asks Q to join him in her revenge spree around town (she found out her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend). Q is hesitant, but goes along anyway. It turns out to be an amazing night with her. The next day, however, she's gone. Her parents report her missing, but they don't really seem to worry too much since she's been a bit of a problem child for them. None of her friends seem to care that much either. Only Q tries to look for her.

Overall, it was a pretty interesting read. Q seemed like a good guy and I liked his relationships with his friends. I enjoyed reading about the revenge spree and then the subsequent search for Margo. What made the book a little less interesting was the fact that I did not quite understand why Margo was so mysterious/attractive/interesting. She didn't seem like a particularly unique person, and she hadn't spoken to Q for years before the events of this novel. I figured Q just had a big crush on her, but to be honest I did not understand what made her special.

Not that that deterred me from enjoying the novel, but it did kind of hinder me from feeling as attached to the quest of finding Margo as Q did. Like, I didn't particularly care what happened to Margo, I was just curious where she went.

Lastly, the reason I gave this book three stars despite enjoying it a fair bit was because the ending was abrupt and I just did not like it. I don't want to spoil the ending, but basically I said, "Huh? That's it?" at the end.

My Rating: 3/5

The Storyteller

This post first published March 17, 2015.

Author: Jodi Picoult
First Published: February 2013
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books/Atria
460 pages (hardcover)
 
Another Jodi Picoult book for me, this time it’s The Storyteller. The dust jacket summary of the novel didn’t really say much about what this book is about. I thought it was a book about euthanasia at first. Turns out it’s something completely different. It’s actually a World War II related story. I have sort of mixed feelings about the novel, now that I’m finished. Some parts were extraordinarily excellent; other parts were quite dull and cliche.

The Storyteller starts with Sage Singer, a young woman who is a baker. She’s a loner who has taken to working/baking through the night and sleeping through the day. Her only friend is Mary, who is also her boss. She dates Adam, a married man, because if he ever left, well, she could say she didn’t lose someone she never truly had. She has been harboring a lot of guilt ever since her mother died, for which she blames herself for. She attends a grief therapy group, where she doesn’t participate all that much to be honest, but still finds herself frequently going.

It is at the grief group she meets Josef Weber, an elderly 95 year old man, who is beloved by the small town. They strike up a friendship of some sort and it is then that Josef confesses something incredible to Sage: he is actually a former SS Nazi officer. He then proceeds to ask Sage for a huge favor — to end his life. Sage is Jewish, you see, and Josef hopes to gain forgiveness from what he has done during the war and to be put out of his misery, so to speak.

With this book, it feels like all the good parts are in the middle. The beginning and the end were really quite lackluster, in my opinion. I feel like Sage’s ex-nun of a boss and co-worker, the whole ‘Jesus bread loaf’ subplot, etc. that was present in the beginning was made intentionally quirky to try to make the beginning more interesting. Which didn’t really work for me, it just seemed kind of strange. Also, Sage and Josef’s relationship wasn’t really explored too much in depth. Like, he meets her a couple times then drops this HUGE bomb on her, “Oh and by the way, could you please kill me because I really want to die.” And then Sage kept entertaining the idea! What the heck?!

The middle of the book was a different story though — literally. We have two ‘biographies’, one from Josef’s time as an SS Nazi officer, and one from Sage’s grandmother as a concentration camp survivor. Hands down, this part of the book was the best. It was super interesting read about World War II from two vastly different perspectives. Lots of emotion combined with wonderful prose led to a very late night where I could not put the book down. Now, I’ve read a few things around the Internet where people were saying small parts of Picoult’s story aren’t historically accurate but I think I’ll give her a pass on it because she’s not normally a historical fiction writer. Might even be her first try, as far as I know. Anyway, from what I’ve read, it’s really small, minor details, so I’m not going to be super nitpicky about stuff like that.

Threaded throughout the entire novel, is another story that is written by Sage’s grandmother. Without mincing with words, it’s essentially a vampire love story, that she wrote during her time in the concentration camp. There’s supposed to be some allegory comparing the Nazis to vampires or something, I think, but I didn’t really get it. It wasn’t really a good story, to be honest. Every time I encountered another small section of the book dedicated to continuing this vampire story, I was tempted to just skip it over. I probably could have, but I also didn’t want to miss anything.

After the fantastic middle portion of the book (which is the bulk of the novel), we come back to the present day where Sage has enlisted Nazi hunter (a federal agent), Leo. Okay, here’s where the story went all wonky again and just felt too Hollywood for my liking, if you kind of know where I’m going with this. Sage and Leo fall completely in love with one another. Sage ends up doing Josef the favor and helps ends his life. Which I think was moronic; after all the trouble she went through trying to get him to confess to certain crimes and stuff so that Leo could arrest him or whatever, Sage just does her own thing and kills him anyway. And how was she planning to get away with this murder?! Because like it or not, it’s still murder and it’s not like Sage is a mastermind criminal. Someone is definitely going to figure out that Sage did it.

Anyway, I have gripes with this book, if you can’t tell. However, I cannot stress enough how wonderful and emotional the historical portions of this book were. It did feel like it was two/three separate stories wrapped in one book. I don’t feel like this is one of Jodi Picoult’s best novels but it was okay. If are a Jodi Picoult fan, I am sure you would read this anyway. If you are looking for a WWII novel, there are better ones out there, I would think, but this one is pretty good if you ignore the present-day parts.

My Rating: 3/5

Lone Wolf

This post first published March 10, 2015.

Author: Jodi Picoult
First Published: October 2012
Publisher: Emily Bestler Books/Atria
421 pages (hardcover)
 
First of all, bloggity-life-update stuff: It’s been an incredibly long time since I read a book and posted a review here! Hello, hello, I’ve returned! It’s been an embarrassing 6 or 7 months since I read a book (to completion — I have a few unfinished books lying around that I just didn’t get around to finishing). My previous post was about how busy I was settling into a new job/career, which I think I’ve most settled into now. Not to mention also preparing to move (first time homeowners, hooray!) So it’s been a crazy year all around, and I must confess, besides time constraints, I was also kind of getting a little bored of reading. I know, what a terrible thing to admit to on a book blog! I was exploring some new hobbies (fishkeeping) and also rekindling my passion for old ones (video games), so reading just kind of … dropped off the radar for a long time. I was also reading a lot of one genre, mainly fantasy and historical fiction on royalty, so I was feeling quite burned out. All the books I picked up started to feel a tad too similar to one another. Guess you gotta branch out sometimes. Even though I love fantasy and historical fiction (or fantasy historical fiction, haha), I’ve realized it’s important to read other stuff too. Anyway, moving on to the review …

I need to catch up on Jodi Picoult books! This one is called Lone Wolf and it came out about 2-3 years ago. Like all of Picoult’s books, the dust cover summaries always sound kind of boring but I’ll try to make it a bit more interesting. Luke Warren is a renowned wolf expert who literally lived with wolves for two years in order to fully understand and study them. His extreme passion for wolves has, unfortunately, been a heated topic with his family, who feel he may love the animals more than them. He had divorced from his wife Georgie several years ago, at the same time his then-18 year old son Edward left home to become the estranged son. He lives in a trailer near his wolf conservation park (theme park thing?) with his daughter Cara (6 years younger than Edward) and his wife Georgie has since remarried lawyer Joe Ng and had twins. Presently, in the book, Cara is 17 (and 3/4 she will tell you!) and Edward is 23.

That’s the background. The story starts with a terrible accident in which Luke is driving his drunk daughter Cara home from a party she wasn’t supposed to be at when the truck smashes into a tree. Cara makes it out fairly alright, with a broken arm, bruised ribs and a concussion. Luke, on the other hand, is in a vegetative state, kept alive by a ventilator and a feeding tube.  The whole family gather together immediately, daughter, ex-wife and estranged son, at his bedside but days pass and the prognosis is extremely grim. As his next-of-kin, Edward finds himself in a position to make medical decisions for his father, but his choice of whether to keep Luke alive via ventilator and tube feedings clash directly with Cara, who wants to keep him alive as long as possible. The family comes under extreme pressure as Cara is sure Edward is just looking for an excuse to kill their father, while Edward is sure Cara is too blinded by survivor’s guilt to grasp the reality of the situation.

What is it with Jodi Picoult’s books?! You start reading one and all of a sudden, you find yourself 100 pages in and it feels like only 5 minutes have passed. Her books always suck me in quickly, and Lone Wolf is no exception. In particular, dealing with the ethical and legal stuff that has to do with keeping patients alive through mechanical means is really interesting to me as a nurse (even though I’m aware this is all fictional). Maybe that’s why I liked the story so much. Also, because Jodi Picoult books always have to have some sort of legal battle going on, I love hearing both sides of the argument.

The downside is that in this book — for me, in any case — it was really clear which side had better arguments and I think this came down to the characters. Cara was extremely immature and I have no idea why anyone would entertain anything she says, especially as she was caught lying multiple times in the story. She was also bordering delusional with her great hope that her father would come back alive, and just didn’t seem to be able to grasp the consequences of her actions. For goodness’ sake, she tried to get her brother thrown in jail and when confronted, all she could say was that she wouldn’t have let anyone actually put him in jail, she’d just recant what she said if it got to that point. Seriously?! And here she is trying to prove to everyone she is mature enough to be appointed her father’s decision maker. Why anyone would even begin to think that’s a good idea is beyond me.

I ended up rooting for Edward to “win” just because I couldn’t stand the idea of Cara “winning’. Edward wasn’t a spectacularly built character either, but he was alright. Even though he was gone from the family for the last few years with extremely minimal contact, I didn’t believe he was trying to pull the plug on his father as an act of revenge, as Cara tries to tell everyone. Even though I think his reasons for running away from home in the first place are kind of overly dramatic for what it was, he played a good ‘tortured soul’ character in this novel and I ended up sympathizing a lot more with him than Cara.

Towards the end of the novel, I was beginning to become worried about what the result of the legal battle was going to be. Okay, so here’s the thing — every time I read a Jodi Picoult novel (or almost every time … every time I can remember, anyway), the ending has always been utter crap. I’d become angry and think, “Are you serious?!” because the legal battle(s) will usually end in such a way that I just cannot believe it. So I was thinking that the whole time and just bracing for some shitty ending like Luke magically regaining consciousness despite ALL the medical staff saying it’s pretty darn impossible due to damage to a very vital part of your brain. I really did not think a positive, “miracle” ending suited this story. I guess this is a spoiler, but I am glad the book ended the way I thought it should end, on a more realistic note.

My Rating: 5/5

The Boleyn King

This post first published August 2, 2014.

Author: Laura Andersen
First Published: May 2014
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Series: The Boleyn Trilogy #1
368 pages (eBook)
 
Many people know about the tragic story of Anne Boleyn. King Henry VIII was hopelessly infatuated by her, and gave up his wife, his daughter and his religion to marry her and make her his queen. But the infatuation slowly waned when Anne couldn’t give Henry his much needed heir to the throne, a son. After Anne miscarried a fetus that was confirmed to be male, Henry began setting his eyes on other women, and not too long after, she was beheaded when Henry found someone he felt was more suitable. That was the end of Anne Boleyn.
But what if Anne never miscarried during her second pregnancy? What if she gave birth to a healthy young boy? Then she wouldn’t have been beheaded and her son would have been king one day. That’s what this book is all about.

When I discovered this book and what it was about, I just knew I had to read it. I love the Tudor time period, and this “what if?” question is definitely an interesting one, one that I have wondered at myself.  This book turned out to be different from my expectations — that is, I thought it was going to have a lot more Anne Boleyn in it, as I would have loved to read about her feelings and emotions — but it was overall it was still an okay read.

This book takes place when Henry and Anne’s son, William, is 17, nearing 18. Henry died when William was 10, and ever since then, the kingdom has been ran by William’s regent, Lord Rochford (also known as Anne Boleyn’s brother, George Boleyn). When William turns 18, he will be a king in his own right and he is eager to prove to everyone that he will make a great king. With the battles going on with the French, the Catholics still trying to rally around Mary Tudor, and a conspiracy brewing, William has his hands full already.

Standing by William are his three closest friends: Dominic, Minuette and William’s sister, Elizabeth. The four are near inseparable and they know everything about William. However, their relationships are about to become a lot more tangled, when William and Dominic both begin to realize they have fallen in love with Minuette. As for Minuette, she has fallen in love with Dominic, but hasn’t the heart to tell William …

As I stated earlier, I went into this expecting Anne Boleyn to have a larger role in the story. To my dismay, she was a very minor character. Her brother, Lord Rochford, was actually a major character, as regent to the king. Yeah, I don’t know … it was kind of disappointing. I would have loved a fiery Anne to be more involved with her son’s regency, than her brother. But hey, I do realize having my expectations dashed is no one’s fault but my own. Still, it did dampen my enthusiasm for the book a bit, once a realized that, no, Anne wasn’t going to be a major character. I just feel like, if you’re going to write a “what if” book like this, how can you not include Anne more? Otherwise, it’s just her last name attached to a random fictional character ….

Next is the quartet of William, Dominic, Minuette and Elizabeth. They are all young teenagers by modern standards, and they definitely had a youthful camaraderie going on that brought a smile to my face. I am also a fan of love triangle stories (pathetic? Probably), so I loved that aspect of their relationship as well. However, I didn’t really like each individual character. I know, I know, it’s hard to understand how one can love a relationship but not the individuals. I didn’t hate them. They were just … kind of boring. Dominic always seemed depressed. Minuette was your standard goody-goody who everyone loves for some reason you can’t figure out. Elizabeth is nowhere as fiery as her historical self, and spent a lot of time pining over Robert Dudley. And William, the main character of this book, was kind of like a toned down version of his father. Individually, the characters were dull and uninspiring. Put together, they made a ‘cute’ team and their friendship with one another was charming.

As to the actual story, I felt the rest of the plot was too much, all over the place. We have William trying to suppress the French and the Catholics. There’s a conspiracy going on where some people want to overthrow William as they believe he’s not Henry’s trueborn son. Minuette has her own subplot of trying to find out what really happened with her friend Alyce’s death. Elizabeth has to deal with her increasing affectionate feelings towards the married Robert Dudley. And then there’s the love triangle. While I enjoyed the book overall, I do feel the book spread itself a bit thin. There were a few times where I thought, “I don’t really see the point of this” towards a particular subplot or two. And while in the end, I felt the relationship between the four is the main focal point, sometimes, I wasn’t sure.

So, yes, I do have several complaints about this book, but in the end, it was an alright read. Perhaps I went into it too focused on expecting certain things of the characters, but I do feel some of my complaints are legitimate. However, this book is, for all intents and purposes, very creative, and I know no matter how the author (or any author) tackles an alternate history book, there will always be complaints that it isn’t as “true” to history as a fake history could be … if that even makes sense. As of right now, I am not sure if I will continue with this series, but never say never :)

My Rating: 3/5

Half a King

This post first published July 15, 2014.

Author: Joe Abercrombie
First Published: July 2014
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Series: Shattered Sea #1
400 pages (eBook)
 
Anyone who knows me, knows I am a sucker for all those books that have a review blurb by George R. R. Martin on the cover (I am easily persuaded to read a book that way). This book has one of those review blurbs, so … well, that’s how I came to read Half A King. Also, there isn’t a whole lot of epic/high fantasy that’s written for the YA crowd, so I was interested in checking this out for that reason. I have to admit, the beginning chapter or two didn’t really draw me in at all, but I’m glad I decided to keep going with it, because it ended up being an amazing read.

Half A King is a coming of age story set in a fantasy world. Our main character is Prince Yarvi, the second son of the king of Gettland. As he is the second son, he had been training to become a minister for his whole life (a minister is a sort of priest/healing guy … like maesters from ASOIAF, if that helps). Since he has one crippled hand, he can’t win glory on the battlefield, so this is the best choice for him. His whole life changes when his father, and his older brother, are killed. Suddenly, Yarvi finds himself king, a role he was never prepared for. It seems others would agree; his uncle attempts to kill Yarvi, which would make him king instead. Yarvi manages to escape the assassination attempt, but is captured and turned into a slave for a “merchant ship”. Though Yarvi never wanted the throne, he vows that he will avenge his father and brother, and claim his birthright.

Definitely a great read! The world was built wonderfully on so many levels. First, the characters: Yarvi and his people are very reminiscent of the Vikings, which I loved. Yarvi’s journey from a low confidence weakling, to a cunning young man, driven by revenge, was not rushed and felt real. And like the best coming of age stories, you realize the character had the strength within himself all along, he only had to discover it. Lastly, of course, it was just a good story. I liked how Yarvi had to start from the bottom as a slave, and work his way back up to try to become king (cue: ~started from the bottom, now we’re here~ … I’ll see myself out).

There’s also the history of the world and the culture. There is very little magic in this story (practically none, as I can’t remember any off the top of my head). The characters often talk about the elves who constructed many buildings and landmarks that are currently ruins right now, so we know there used to be some magical-esque folk around at some time, but they are no more. I used to love, love, love fantasy with tons of magic in it, but ever since George R. R. Martin’s ASOIAF series, I have come to love low fantasy level novels as well. I think Half A King did a marvelous job of incorporating just enough fantastical elements to give the world a mystical feel.

Lastly, it’s just a good story. Hey, even if you have the best writing in the world, being technical isn’t going to help you with the creative part of writing. This book had both.

My Rating: 4/5

The Silkworm

This post first published July 12, 2014.

Author: Robert Galbraith (J. K. Rowling)
First Published: June 2014
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Series: Cormoran Strike #2
455 pages (hardcover)
 
This is book two of Robert Galbraith’s (pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, in case you have been living under a rock for the past year or two) mystery series about private detective Cormoran Strike. I hardly ever read mystery/crime novels, and I maintain, still, that they aren’t my preferred genre of books; however, after reading the first book in this series, The Cuckoo’s Calling, I’ve become a big fan of Galbraith’s/Rowling’s crime books. Probably because there’s just something “vintage” about the novels. Kind of reminds me of an old school private eye novel or movie, especially since this series takes place in London as well, and I really like that. With that in mind, there isn’t anything earth-shatteringly innovative about this book, but then again, I never expected it to be. Do be warned, however, that this second book has a lot more sexual/violent stuff in it than the first (due the nature of the way the victim was murdered, poor fellow).

In The Silkworm, Strike’s private detective business has picked up ever since he solved the Lula Landry case from book one. He’s got loads of clients now, and is almost out of debt. The unfortunate thing is, even though he has so many clients, they all mostly want the same thing: rich men and women hiring Strike to trail their spouses to see if they’re cheating on them, with whom, that sort of thing. Hey, but a paycheque is a paycheque right?

Then Leonora Quine comes into his office one day, asking Strike to please find her husband, who has disappeared. Her husband, Owen Quine, is an author of small fame but thinks he’s a bigshot. He’s just finished a manuscript for his latest novel, in which he includes many people that he knows in real life as unflattering and downright offensive characters. He’s full of drama and loves to disappear every once in a while to cause everyone to panic. However, Mrs. Quine says it’s been an awfully long time since he’s gone away this time, and she’d really like it if he could come back now. She can’t pay him, but she’s sure his agent will foot the bill for his services — Strike isn’t too sure about that, but agrees to take the case, since it’s something different from his usual tailing of cheating spouses, and surely this case wouldn’t take too much time to solve.

However, as Strike investigates Mr. Quine’s disappearance, he comes upon a startling discovery — the gutted corpse of the author. What’s worse, Leonora, Quine’s wife, is dragged away on suspicion of being the murderer, despite her denial. Strike is sure that Mrs. Quine is innocent though. Suddenly, this little side case isn’t so small anymore.

Like I said earlier, the traditional private eye tale that this novel undertakes is refreshingly familiar yet at the same time, exciting. I guess that’s the thing with mysteries — even if you’re using the same formula, your reader can be so driven by a strong desire to know the truth of the mystery that sometimes that’s all it needs to be engaging. Of course, I understand not everyone is going to feel the same way about that, but I found the novel charming and sort of like a throwback to classic private eye novels.

The book does employ the same general structure as the first one in its series — strings of interviews to various witnesses and persons of interests, back to back, followed by a grand reveal at the end by Strike to the cornered murderer. And like before, I enjoyed the interviews, but wished Strike did a little more sleuthing than simply talking to people. I am glad that that did, in fact, happen in this novel. There was a little more digging around to find clues, rather than rely solely on piecing together everyone’s statements. I was especially happy that Strike’s adorable assistant, Robin, got more of a role in his detective work this time around; she even participated in some of the risky things required to solve the case.

Speaking of Robin, I loved the budding relationship (or maybe, should I say, lack of one) between her, Strike and Robin’s fiance Matthew. Also, between Strike and his ex-fiancee Charlotte (again, should I say, lack of a relationship). Even though this is a detective novel and solving the crime is the main focus, I liked how Rowling fleshed out her characters so that they are more than “the detective” or “the secretary”. I’ve always thought Rowling does a great job with characterizations, and all the backstories, personal beliefs and dilemmas, and so on, that she’s given her characters really reinforces my belief.

I really love this series and I can’t wait to read the next book. I am doubtless that the third will also keep me up way too late at night.

My Rating: 5/5

The White Princess

This post first published July 11, 2014.

Author: Philippa Gregory
First Published: July 2013
Publisher: Touchstone
Series: The Cousins’ War #5
528 pages (hardcover)
 
I bought this book right when it was released, but didn’t get around to reading it till now. Well, I did try once but I think I was getting a bit burnt out with so many Tudors-related novels, so I had to take a break. I took a very long break … Anyway, I finished this book over the course of two days. While I normally love Philippa Gregory’s books, this one just seemed kind of “meh” to me.

The White Princess is about Elizabeth of York, Henry VII’s queen. The story begins right when Henry VII has claimed the throne of England by conquest. The previous king, Richard, who is also Elizabeth’s lover (and also her uncle) was cut down in battle and thrown into some unmarked grave. Elizabeth is not only distraught over the death of her beloved, but very unhappy that she is to marry her lover’s killer, Henry Tudor.

Henry initially tries to delay marrying Elizabeth, as she is from his rival family, but eventually is forced to by his mother and by Parliament. It is necessary that they wed so that the families can be united and hopefully no more wars will come about. Elizabeth and Henry hate one another at first, but as they begin their family together, slowly come to love one another.

Despite marrying Elizabeth, Henry is not safe on his throne. Elizabeth’s cousin, Edward Warwick, has, what some might say, a better claim to the throne to Henry. And there is a great pretender to the throne claiming to be Elizabeth’s long lost brother, Prince Richard, who has the greatest claim of all. As this pretender befriends the great monarchs of Europe and rallies to his side many, many supporters (many more than Henry has), Henry becomes increasingly paranoid and suspicious of everyone. As for Elizabeth, she wonders if this pretender could really be her brother? And if he is, how should she react to him trying to reclaim his throne from her husband, and her sons?

I have read every book in this series of The Cousins’ War so far. I think the problem is, the entire series is telling the exact same story, but through the perspectives of different characters. I think that is why I did not find the story in The White Princess very interesting. I mean, history is interesting, but there is so much overlap in the books’ stories that I feel like I have read the exact same story four times before already. I don’t think it helps that her female characters all have a very similar voice. Elizabeth narrates very similarly to her mother Elizabeth from The White Queen, Jacquetta from Lady Of The Rivers, to Anne Warwick in The Kingmaker’s Daughter, etc.

Elizabeth, in fact, is a completely unmemorable character in this book. Her character has absolutely no agency, she passively watches events unfold around her, and all she ever seems to say to anyone is, “I don’t know, I don’t know” when asked what she thinks is happening. Her character was rather disappointing.

The second half of the novel is much better, at least, because the stuff with the pretender to the throne, the boy pretending to be Prince Richard, is all new stuff that was not presented in any of the previous novels. It made me very interested in this pretender, and I actually went to look up more information about him after I finished this book. I knew very little about this pretender business during Henry VII’s reign, so I liked reading the fictionalized version of it in this book.

Overall, it was a decent read but nothing to write home about. The next, and final, book in The Cousins’ War series is going to be about Margaret Pole, Elizabeth’s cousin. Since Margaret spent much of her life with Elizabeth, I am predicting a considerable amount of story overlap again, but I will still give the book a chance when it is released.

My Rating: 3/5

The Cuckoo's Calling

This post first published July 8, 2014.

Author: Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
First Published: April 2013
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Series: Cormoran Strike #1
455 pages (hardcover)
 
I finally got around to it; I finally read J.K. Rowling’s (using pseudonym Robert Galbraith) new series, The Cuckoo’s Calling. I didn’t really know what to expect because on the one hand, I love the Harry Potter series, but on the other hand, her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy wasn’t exactly stellar. Well, I always thought she did the “mysteries” in the Harry Potter universe pretty well, so I guess I should really say, I had some cautious optimism for this book. I just finished this book about 15 minutes ago, and I have to say, I really, really enjoyed this. Oh, it’s not without its flaws, but it did a pretty good job keeping me up late at night.

The book is about a struggling private detective named Cormoran Strike, whose life isn’t going so well. He lost a leg during the war in Afghanistan, his fiancee and him just broke up, he’s homeless and living in his office for now; oh and his business isn’t so well, so he’s up to his ears in debt. He can barely afford his temporary secretary, Robin, even though she’s very good at what she does.

One day, in walks into his office John Bristow, a lawyer. He needs Strike to investigate his sister’s supposed suicide, because he believes she didn’t kill herself, but rather, was murdered. To make the case more interesting, John’s sister just so happens to be the incredibly famous supermodel, Lula Landry. Strike is skeptical at first that this is actually a murder. He chalks it up to a bereaved brother who can’t handle the idea of his beloved sister killing herself. However, after John offers Strike a hefty amount of money for him to take on the case, Strike accepts. As he investigates the case, he comes to the realization that John’s right: someone did kill Lula.

Let’s start with the thing I didn’t like about this book first and get that out of the way. The entire structure of this novel is Strike interviews person after person after person, and near the end, obviously, fits the pieces together, confronts the murderer by monologue-ing to the murderer exactly how the murderer committed the crime, and voila, mystery solved. I did think it was rather boring of a structure, to just have Strike basically interview people for the entire book. I guess I was hoping for some sleuthing of some sort, where he would find himself searching for clues in places he shouldn’t be. Anyway, so there’s that, but luckily, I found all the interviews to be very interesting to read. I really do like the conversations Strike has with people. To sum up, I liked the content but not really how it was delivered.

What I really loved about this book was the characters. I have always thought J. K. Rowling has a wonderful way with characterization and I’m glad she continues this in this novel. The characters really came alive to me, they each had a memorable personality, and personal problems that really added to how the character felt and thought about things. My favourite was Robin, Strike’s secretary; I just picture this super keener whose desperate to please, she’s so funny sometimes. And of course, there’s Strike, who comes with so many personal problems that are left unsolved in this novel, I’m sure they will carry over into the next book (don’t worry, his personal problems are rather secondary to the main plot).

The best part was that this book successfully kept me wondering the “whodunnit” aspect of the mystery the entire time. I just had to keep reading to see who was the murderer! I figured it was probably going to the be the last person I’d suspect — and then I toyed with the idea that maybe it’s actually someone really obvious — regardless, I was surprised at the end at who the true culprit was. I enjoyed the tease and the mystery of trying to figure out who the murderer was (even though I do not think, as a reader, you could figure out the mystery on your own), but I have to say I’m actually kind of disappointed with who it is. I don’t want to spoil things, so I’ll just leave it at that …

All in all, a great book that I enjoyed reading. It’s a very classic kind of mystery, and I don’t read mysteries all too often. I look forward to reading the second book in this series!

My Rating: 5/5

Elisabeth: The Princess Bride, Austria-Hungary, 1853

This post first published July 5, 2014.

Author: Barry Deneberg
First Published: 2003
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: The Royal Diaries
151 pages (hardcover)
 
For my next Royal Diaries book, I decided to read about Empress Elisabeth of Austria. I don’t really know anything about her, so I didn’t have any preconceived expectations or anything like that.

I’ve read a fair number of Royal Diaries books (including this one on Elisabeth, I have read 12 of the 20 books in this series), so from my experience so far, I think this book is the most put-together one. Some of the other diaries were just, well, diaries, where the princesses talked about their day to day activities and barely any plot happens. This series is meant to educate kids about not only these historical figures, but also about what life was like back in their respective time periods, so I understand why some of the books were written that way. I was very pleased to find, when reading this book, that it managed to fit in an actual story as well, instead of just talking about what Elisabeth did every day.

This book on Elisabeth begins with herself, her mother and her sister being summoned to meet the Emperor of Austria and his mother, Princess Sophie. The reality of the meeting is that the mothers have paired up the 23 year old emperor with Elisabeth’s 18 year old sister. However, when everyone met, the Emperor found himself smitten with Elisabeth instead. He asks for her hand in marriage, which shocks Elisabeth. She had not expected this at all, and what’s worse, she’s afraid her sister will hate her for this. However, she, too, really likes this handsome young emperor  so she accepts — well, also because her mother really wants Elisabeth to accept so at least ONE of her daughters can become Empress of Austria.

Even though Elisabeth is happy to be marrying the Emperor, she is absolutely intimidated by her future duties as an Empress. As the day of the royal wedding approaches closer and closer, Elisabeth finds herself more and more uncomfortable with imperial life. Yet, she must endure …

Like I said, it was great that this book actually had a story and I enjoyed reading it. It’s extremely short, only about 100 pages — the rest of the book is the epilogue, historical notes, family tree and pictures, which is roughly 50 pages on its own! While the story presented in this book is interesting, Elisabeth’s life after she was married would have made an even more fascinating story, I think! In a tragic sort of way. Of course, the Royal Diaries series focuses on the princess’ and queens’ childhoods since it is a series aimed at children.

Anyway, I digress. This is definitely one of the better Royal Diaries books of the series, short and sweet!

My Rating: 5/5

The Poisoned Crown

This post first published July 5, 2014.

Author: Maurice Druon
First Published: 1956 (2014 in English)
Publisher: Harper
Series: The Accursed Kings #3
294 pages (paperback)
 
Book number three of The Accursed Kings series. Last we left off, Louis X was still on the throne, his wife had just conveniently left the picture for him, and he was setting his eyes on Princess Clemence of Hungary. Louis had already shown himself to be a bumbling idiot of a king who cannot handle being wrong on anything, so let’s see how he continues to ruin his father’s legacy in this book.

In The Poisoned Crown, Louis successfully becomes betrothed and then, married to Princess Clemence of Hungary. Clemence thinks she is a pretty lucky lady, given that she is already 22 (an old age to be married at in those times, for a noble) and had thought she would end up going to a convent. However, she soon realizes being Queen of France doesn’t make her very happy and her husband isn’t as charming as he seems. Louis, continuing his streak of bad decisions, decides to go to war against Flanders, which ends disastrously.

In the meantime, Robert of Artois and Mahaut, Countess of Artois, are still arguing and bickering over lands like they have been since book one. This time, however, they have involved King Louis into the matter. Louis wants to resolve their differences peacefully, but is forced to pick sides when they refuse to relent in their accusations against one another. Mahaut is outraged at the conclusion and plots the downfall of King Louis.

I definitely liked this book better than the last one. The last one was centered on the rivalry between the Charles, the Count of Valois the Rector-General of the kingdom, Enguerrand Marigny, and was very political in nature, which is sometimes hard for a non-political person like me to understand, even though I did overall enjoy that book. This one is more about family ambitions, which is more up my alley. If you want pure family drama, this book is it.

Clemence is a new character introduced in this book. Even though she’s a solid goody-goody kind of girl, I liked her because she seemed to have an uncanny ability to bring out the best in others around her. And she is so innocent and sweet, no one would try to harm her. Of course, sometimes it was frustrating that she cannot see, or refuse to see, the ‘evil’ that is in the hearts of others. In such cases, it was a little frustrating having a character that’s so solidly in the “Good People” camp. However, I do hope that she and her baby will make it out of this story alright, considering what usually happens to the royal family in this series!

The most infuriating (and I say that in the best way possible) part of this novel is Mahaut, the Countess of Artois. I was like, “God damn it, just give your nephew [Robert of Artois] back some parts of his lands!!” And it’s not like I particularly like Robert that much either, but I do feel really bad that his inheritance got stolen by his greedy aunt. In the previous two books, she was merely an annoying old lady (to me, anyway), but in this book, she has definitely become more selfish. Her daughter was imprisoned a couple books ago, and instead of simply wishing for her safe return like any loving, caring mother would, she thinks about if her daughter is released, and is Louis dies with no heirs, her daughter could get a shot at being Queen of France (since she is married to Louis’ brother). What a strange way of thinking about things like this! Ugh, I hate Mahaut, I hope she meets her end soon (but I don’t want to Wikipedia her actual historical self to spoil things for myself, haha).
Definitely looking forward to the next one.

My Rating: 4/5

India Black

This post first published June 28, 2014.

Author: Carol K. Carr
First Published: November 2010
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Series: Madam of Espionage Mysteries #1
296 pages (paperback)
 
I discovered this series via Goodreads’ “Readers Also Enjoyed …” recommendation section. The combination of a promise of exciting espionage by a femme fatale kind of character and the gorgeous cover had me persuaded to give the book a try. Also, I love the time period this book takes place in, during Queen Victoria’s reign.

Bizarrely enough, despite the word “mystery” being used to describe this book (it’s right on the cover!), it’s not a mystery novel at all. At least, I don’t think so … The story is about a woman named India Black who is a madam that runs a whore house in London, called the Lotus House. She becomes pulled into an international crisis of some sort when one of the clients of her establishment dies inside Lotus House. Said client is a pretty high ranking government official, who was supposed to be carrying a briefcase with top secret military documents that could be very detrimental to Britain should they fall into the wrong hands — such as Russian hands. India is forced/blackmailed by the Prime Minister of Britain and a government spy agent nicknamed French (real name is confidential) to help them in retrieving this briefcase that was stolen from the Lotus House. India becomes engaged in a cat-and-mouse chase with Russian spy agents as they both race to be the first to retrieve these documents.

If any part of it is a mystery, I suppose it’s when India was just trying to figure out who the gentleman was that died in her brothel, but that was solved very early on. I really don’t think this is a mystery at all. It’s certainly a thriller kind of novel though, and action oriented. Another thing about this novel that might throw you off is that the plot summary and even the cover of this book look “serious” and “cool”– however, it’s actually humorous. I read some reviews where people said the characters were kind of ‘idiotic’ and certain plot points is nonsensical or bizarre, in a “why the heck would they do that?” kind of way. I really think it is all intentional, as my impression of the novel is that it’s all meant to be sort of comedic. No, I don’t buy the reason why the British government would recruit a brothel madame to help them retrieve top secret documents and various other events in the book, but I never, for once, felt this was a serious, realistic espionage novel. So I was able to easily suspend my belief and enjoy the ride.

With all that being said, I actually found myself quite enjoying the story. Mainly because I found it funny. The plot is kind of predictable, but India’s wittiness, sarcasm and humor held my interest. And you know what, it was just a plain ol’ fun novel to read. It didn’t take itself seriously, and it was so easy to slip into the story.

I think the main shortcomings of this novel is that it was packaged all wrong (not really a mystery, looks too serious on the outside); as well, the official book premise includes a promise of India starting to develop feelings for the British spy agent French … but that never happened in the book!! To be fair, I did get a vibe that India and French were to be an item in the future, however, this vibe came from my own ‘intuition’, if you will, about how characters in such novels usually end up. I don’t think I could find much contextual evidence to support this vibe I have. I think there was only one scene where the two of them had a slightly meaningful conversation, but 99% of the time, they were just bickering at one another.

So, all in all, initial expectations from the book’s premise and book cover could be potentially disappointing, especially if you thought you were getting a certain story but really wasn’t. However, overall, a very fun book and a series that I would love to continue reading.

My Rating: 3/5

Victoria: May Blossom of Britannia, England, 1829

This post first published June 25, 2014.

Author: Anna Kirwan
First Published: November 2001
Publisher: Scholastic
Series: The Royal Diaries
219 pages (hardcover)
 
This time around in my reading of The Royal Diaries series (one of my absolute favourite childhood series, though I never managed to read ALL of them when I was a kid), the focus is on Queen Victoria from England. I am really interested in Queen Victoria, but it’s hard to find historical fiction on her (I only know of two novels that are about Queen Victoria, including this one). There are lots of books that take place in the Victorian Era, but very few where Queen Victoria is the main character … sad!

This book is about Victoria when she was 9 to 10 years old. The book centers around her childhood and her relationships to the various people in her lives. In particular, she is fond of the king of her time, George IV, who she calls Uncle King. She doesn’t have the strongest relationship with her mother, but does love her; unfortunately she is under the influence of John Conroy, her mother’s comptroller, who also is hoping to rule over Victoria (through her mother). For unbeknownst to Victoria, Uncle King’s heir (his brother) is most likely unable to have children with his wife, making Victoria, their niece, very likely to become Queen of England one day.

One thing that stood out to me in this Royal Diaries installment is that the writing actually feels more authentic to its time period than others. I mean, I understand some of the Royal Diaries are going to have a difficult time making the writing seem authentic to the time period when the princess writing it isn’t even supposed to know English. But some of the other Royal Diaries do take place in European countries and none of them had writing that felt as “real” as this one.

Like most of the other Royal Diaries books, this book is also mainly concerned with the day to day life of little Victoria in 1800’s England. Maybe that would be more interesting to a child reading this book (which I realize is its intended age group); I thought it was just okay. I wouldn’t say I’m really knowledgeable in what life was like in 1800’s England, but I probably know more than a child reading this book, so probably the educational portion of this novel would be much more fascinating to a kid. This book has not much action, I’m afraid. Towards the end, it gets a little more exciting (though I use that word in the relative sense) when Victoria begins to piece together how the inheritance of the throne of England is going … and her shock when she realizes it could be her, though she tries to brush it off at first.

All in all, it was a solid read with both pros and cons. I’m just glad to read something on Queen Victoria, there should be more his-fics on her life!

My Rating: 3/5

Reached

This post first published June 23, 2014.

Author: Ally Condie
First Published: November 2012
Publisher: Dutton
Series: Matched #3
512 pages (hardcover)
 
If you’ve read my reviews for the first two books of this series, you might be wondering why I bothered reading book three, Reached, at all, since I didn’t really like the first two books that much. Well, my line of thinking was something like, “I’ve come this far, it’s the last book.” I didn’t really care about how the story was going to end, but I did want some sort of closure with the series. Well, I got to the end and it’s pretty much the same as the first two books, though somehow this one managed to be even more boring.

So, the Rising (the rebellion) is supposed to be up and fighting the Society in this final book.During all this, there is a Plague going around and our main characters are trying very hard to find the Cure for. Even worse, the Plague mutates, so that their previous Cure no longer works and they have to find a new one. And of course, during all these events, it is expected (as the third and final book in the series and all), that Cassia is going to finally make a proper decision between Xander and Ky, the two boys who are in love with her.

It all sounds very exciting, but it wasn’t. I thought book two was going to be the most boring book in the series, but I was wrong: book three is! The first 300-ish pages of this book, it honestly felt like nothing was happening. There is nothing that happens that sticks out in my mind. There was just so much “fluff” writing. It felt like the author wanted to be “deep” and thoughtful in her writing, but none of it was convincing. And while I normally like poetry, I don’t buy what this book (or rather, this series) has done with poems. They become almost like a form of currency, people trading bits of poems to get what they want. Why would a bunch of rebels who can’t even write decide that poetry was worth anything? I hardly think their Society mandated education would help them learn how to appreciate poetry, especially poetry that was written decades or even centuries ago. Maybe modern poetry … Anyway, I digress …

I kept expecting the Rising to finally do something against the Society. But there was no fighting, no nothing! I don’t NEED there to be actual fighting to be interesting, but I did expect something exciting to go down. Instead, I got this super anti-climatic realization from Cassia that the Rising and the Society are one, that the Society engineered the Rising to make people think there’s change and be satisfied. The reveal was not very exciting and the events that followed this realization were pretty boring!

The love story between Cassia, Xander and Ky ended very predictably too. I did not expect the “leftover” boy to find love too, but he did. That didn’t make me feel happy though. I feel that having the “leftover” boy find true love suddenly just undermines the “leftover” boy’s feelings for Cassia during the entire series. If he can love another girl so soon after Cassia makes up her mind about who she wants to be with, then he never truly loved Cassia at all, you know?

I don’t feel satisfied after reading this final book, but I can’t really say I’m disappointed either. I just feel nothing, like none of it mattered.

My Rating: 2/5

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

This post first published June 22, 2014.

Author: Neil Gaiman
First Published: June 2013
Publisher: William Morrow Books
181 pages (hardcover)
 
For whatever reason, I have been coming across Neil Gaiman’s name a lot lately (probably read it in some articles dealing with Hachette and Amazon or whatever). When I saw this book at the bookstore, I recognized his name. It sounded like a fantasy-esque novel and I’m a big fan of fantasy … so that’s how I ended up reading this book.

As someone who has never read a Neil Gaiman book in my life, let me just say this wasn’t fantasy — well, not really. Definitely magical though. It’s kind of hard to describe the story. Okay, I admit, it’s sort of fantasy, but not it is also definitely not your usual flavor of fantasy. The story reminds me a lot of something that Studio Ghibli would create (Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio that created such classics as My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle). If you’ve ever watched a Studio Ghibli film, then you’ll probably understand what I mean when I say the fantasy in this novel is a lot like a childhood story that is “darker” somehow, and very dream like, like you’re not sure where the line between real and not-real is.

The story centers around a nameless seven year old boy. The time is the 1970’s (I think). The boy lives with his mom, his dad and his sister, in a large house that is sometimes rented out to passersby and other miscellaneous people. The boy has no real friends and spends much of his time engrossed reading books. One day, he makes friends with an 11 year old girl named Lettie Hempstock who lives at the farmhouse at the end of the lane. She says she’s 11 but shies away from answering the boy’s question of how long she has been 11. Lettie also insists the pond at their farmhouse is an ocean, and that she and her mother and grandmother sailed across this ocean from the old country to where they are now a long, long time ago. So, some things are already not what they seem to be.

Some strange things and dreams have been happening to the boy and Lettie lets him know she knows what is happening. She takes him across the farm to what seems to be a completely different world. There, they encounter (in the boy’s opinion) some frightening things. During their trip, the boy lets go of Lettie’s hand, which she explicitly told him not to do. When the boy returns home, back in his own world, his mother introduces him to the new babysitter/nanny, and the boy knows that there is something terribly off about this woman, something scary and demon-like about her. The rest of the story primarily dealt with banishing this babysitter/nanny, back to where she came from.

I know I just made it seem like the plot is crystal clear, but believe me when I say the story isn’t that clear-cut and there aren’t straight forward motives. I admit, sometimes I got confused with what was going on, especially since there is such a dream-like quality with this story. However, I found myself rather enjoying this book despite that, staying up till the wee hours of the day to read just one more chapter. I think what I liked about this book is one of the messages of the story, which was packaged together nicely in a quote that I can’t find right now, but basically, that there is really no difference between adults and children. Adults may act like they are in control all the time and know what they’re doing, but inside, they are the same as they always have been, the same as when they were children. And it made me miss being a child.

Another great quote I fell in love with was, “Did I pass?” …. “You don’t pass or fail at being a person, dear.” Like every person on the planet, we have all had our own difficulties and challenges to embrace while growing up, transitioning from child to ‘adult’, and this quote made me feel … relieved. Like, despite it all, no one can truly judge you and decide your worthiness as a person.

My only ‘complaint’ about this novel was that it was so short, and yet the hardcover price is ridiculously high. I mean, I know hardcover books are expensive but come on, this book doesn’t even break 200 pages and yet costs just as much as my hardcover books that are 300-400 pages.  (No, this is not the reason why I am giving this 4/5 stars). Anyway, I’m interested in reading more of Neil Gaiman’s books in the future. I didn’t realize he wrote Stardust and Coraline (which are movies, I believe?) so maybe I will start with those, who knows?

My Rating: 4/5

The Longest Ride

This post first published May 17, 2014.

Author: Nicholas Sparks
First Published: September 2013
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
398 pages (hardcover)
 
Ahh, so this is actually my very first Nicholas Sparks novel. I’ve never read any of his books before this, never even seen any of the movies his books got turned into (yes, I know, this means I never watched The Notebook before …!)  The reason I picked this novel up was because I won a contest at Chapters a long time ago (maybe last year?) The prize was a bag full of merchandise, so I got tea, a mug, candles, a throw blanket … and this one hardcover book, which was a signed copy of The Longest Ride. I was pretty excited that it was autographed, even though I never read his books before, haha.

Anyway, The Longest Ride actually consists of two stories that will overlap at the end of the novel. The first story is about 91 year old Ira Levinson, a war veteran whose wife, Ruth, died 9 years ago. He ends up driving his car into a ditch and is stuck there for several days. Until rescue arrives, he hallucinates seeing his beloved wife, Ruth, in the seat next to him. The vision of Ruth reminisces about their life together, in order to help keep Ira awake and alert.

The second story is about Sophia and Luke, two young 20-somethings in a small town. Sophia is a college student studying art history, who recently broke things off with her three-time cheating boyfriend Brian. Luke is a professional bull rider and helps run and maintains his family ranch nearby. The two meet by chance at a country-themed party, and begin to fall in love with one another.

This was a sweet story and I enjoyed reading this book. I found Ira and Ruth’s love story more romantic than Sophia and Luke’s, but maybe that’s just because there’s something charming about finding love in the 1930’s, compared to the present day story of Sophia and Luke. When it comes to the two couples, I found it easier to immerse myself and believe that Ira and Ruth were very much in love. The hardships they experienced like getting permission from each other’s parents to date, the world wars, infertility, etc. all made their relationship seem so romantic. With Sophia and Luke, I had a slightly harder time, maybe because of stereotypes or something. You know, beautiful college girl meets drop-dead-gorgeous cowboy at a raving party and they fall in love … I guess it just didn’t start off very romantic, at least to me.

Funny enough, even though I think Ira and Ruth’s relationship was the more genuine of the two, I like Sophia and Luke’s story better, for some reason. It was the story that took up more parts of the novel, for one. Sometimes, I wished this novel focused solely on Sophia and Luke instead of bouncing back and forth between the two narratives. Sophia and Luke’s relationship may have some stereotypical stuff happening in it that kind of made me groan (the vengeful ex-boyfriend, the perky best friend sidekick, Sophia never really fitting in at her school, you know, things like that), but it was actually a sweet relationship. Romantic? That’s a strong word for them, and one I’d reserve for Ira and Ruth, but sweet? It definitely was.

My only major complaint is the tie bringing the two stories together was kind of weak and didn’t happen until the very end of the novel. This is another reason why I would have liked it if the book just focused on Sophia and Luke.

The novel, overall, was charming pleasant to read. It was no roller-coaster ride, but it was like taking a nice drive around the countryside. Relaxing and satisfying at the end.

My Rating: 3/5

The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden

This post first published May 13, 2014.

Author: Jonas Jonasson
First Published: September 2013
In English: April 2014
Publisher: Harper Collins
384 pages (paperback)
 
I’ve been seeing this book in a lot of shops lately and decided to pick it up as it piqued my interest (what with my never ending fascination with royalty and all — and look, the word king is right in the title!). I didn’t know much when I dove in. What I did know about this book: I knew the author also wrote The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared, though I have not read that book yet; I knew the book was originally published in Swedish; and I knew the book had a South African girl as the main character. Oh, and based on the title, that said girl was probably going to somehow save the King of Sweden.

This book is a comedy that is mainly about the life of one young girl named Nombeko and how she becomes mixed up with international politics despite being of very low birth. She starts off with not much in the beginning of her life, having been born to a poor family in a shack in South Africa, during the apartheid time period. Nombeko works at the sanitization department for the City of Johannesburg, basically dealing with people’s shit, literally. Cleverly, Nombeko manages to become the boss of said department at the mere age of 14, as well as secretly obtain a fortune in diamonds. Unfortunately, she gets hit by a car, gets sued and winds up working as a cleaning lady for an incredibly lazy and stupid engineer.

From there, Nombeko’s life takes all sorts of twists and turns that I won’t delve too much into because that will just spoil the fun of the story, and she eventually winds up stuck with an atomic bomb in Sweden. Now she, and her new friends (though ‘friends’ is a term being used loosely here, haha) are desperately trying to contact either the Prime Minister of Sweden or the King of Sweden to let them know that, uh, hey, your nuclear-weapon-free country isn’t so nuclear-weapon-free, actually.
When I started this book, I really loved it. I didn’t know it was a humorous book, and it was actually a pleasant surprise after reading so many serious stories. The entire story is kind of like watching an old school cartoon show on television. A lot of improbable events and situations happen, some are downright silly, and the characters are one dimensional as well — which I think is absolutely fine in a comical story such as this. They were memorable and hilarious characters.

I went along for a fast paced and ridiculously fun ride, and before I was even at the halfway point of the book, I was already recommending this novel to my sisters to read. Sadly, around the halfway point was where my feelings towards the book started to change a little bit.

The fast paced plot slowed down — a lot. There were several years in the story’s timeline where Nombeko basically did nothing. She settled down for a while, so to speak, and the story really felt like it was paused or put on hold. As I kept reading, the plot just seemed to drag on and on. I found myself wondering when Nombeko is actually going to do something about that damn atomic bomb to move the story forward.

And you know the whole thing about the girl saving the king of Sweden? That was such a small, tiny part of the story. And I feel as if the title should have been The Girl Who Saved The King and Prime Minister of Sweden, really. Actually, the original Swedish title makes more sense to me — The Illiterate Who Could Count (or translated to something along those lines). Because this book is really about Nombeko’s life, and less so about that small part where she meets the Swedish king.

I still think this book is hilarious till the end, even though the plot kind of got lost or something after a while. Overall, I had a good time reading it and it’s a memorable, farfetched, silly, fun story. I would still recommend it, despite my lack of enthusiasm for the pacing of the latter half of the novel, and I think I have become very interested in this author’s works.

My Rating: 3.5/5