Book Review: The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay

The Virgin Cure

by Ami McKay

Source: I picked this book up at a used book sale, having recognized the author (I read The Birth House several years ago and remembered really liking it).

A little history: the idea of the virgin cure was started in 16th century Europe, and it was the belief that "deflowering" a virgin would cure a man of the mysterious diseases of the day (most likely all manner of sexually transmitted diseases).

**WARNING: spoilers ahead**

The setting is Manhattan in 1871. It follows the story of Moth - a young gypsy girl. She remembers her father as a smiling face who one day just walked away and never returned. Her mother, a gypsy fortune-teller, spends the next several years waiting for him to return and barely scraping by. Moth spends her days roaming the streets and dreaming about getting out of her poor neighborhood.

When Moth turns twelve, her mother starts talking about the ads in the paper, of rich ladies looking for young girls as companions, and wouldn't that be a nice way to make a living? Not long after, she sells Moth to a rich lady called Mrs. Wentworth. Her mother wakes Moth up in the middle of the night, throws some things into a pillowcase for her, and hands her off to the rich lady without a second glance.

Moth is taken into the service of Mrs. Wentworth's household. Her life there is strange and abusive. Her duty is to be the lady's companion and servant - to keep her company, entertain her, dress her, and stay with her (reading, singing, etc) until she falls asleep. One of the other servants takes a shine to Moth and wants to help her escape, to go back home. They eventually succeed, but when she goes back to find her mother, her mother has left their apartment, leaving no forwarding address. Moth stays around for a while with a neighbor, but then decides to set off on her own.

She is "discovered" by a well-dressed young lady, who befriends her and tells her about the grand lady she lives with who takes care of young girls. She then takes Moth back with her to Miss Everett's house, to live there with four other girls. This is where she meets Dr. Sadie, a kind female physician who works with Miss Everett to ensure the health and safety of the girls she takes in. Dr. Sadie also feels compelled to save Moth and tries to convince her to leave Miss Everett and come live with her, but Moth has her own plans.

Miss Everett's house is essentially a high-class brothel specializing in clean, young virgins. The girls are given fancy dresses and a lovely home in exchange for entertaining Miss Everett's guests. They undress for the men, and if one decides he fancies one of the girls, he may then proceed to court her - taking her to the opera or theater, giving her expensive gifts, etc, and should he wish to "seal the deal," he will essentially buy the young lady from Miss Everett. Moth spots Mrs. Wentworth's husband among the prospective suitors, and when he shows an interest in her, she decides to use him to take out revenge on  his wife, while also taking advantage of him. Once her end of the deal is taken care of, Moth takes what is owed her and what she has earned (she kept a tally of everything that Miss Everett gave to her and their worth), and finally leaves Miss Everett's house for good.

***

I really liked Moth. She's a unique girl who feels like a little sister to me. I felt angry when she was repeatedly mistreated, pleased at her little pleasures, and happy when she finally found her freedom, even if it meant compromising herself. That was the only part of the book that made me really sad and the part I didn't like. I wished that Moth would have just gone with Dr. Sadie and avoided the whole sex situation. There's also a hint in the end that, while her mother was most likely not a real fortune-teller, Moth herself might actually possess some magic, which will be followed-up in the sequel Witches of New York, which was released last November. I'm really anxious to get my hands on that book now!

Book Review: Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

I'm not sure how I let this one slip by un-reviewed, seeing as it was one of my more recent reads, and I was sure I had written one...

Anyway, since I didn't, here I am. But since it has also been a while since I read it, things are not as clear in my mind and I may make some erroneous remarks about plot/characters.

Ok, so I received this book in the October "Once Upon a Dream" OwlCrate box. Overall, this was a pretty dark book. I kind of liked it, but I know a lot of people who didn't and who were completely turned off by the weirdness, to the point of not finishing the book, and I can totally understand that. Here's the synopsis:

In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood.

In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling away again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission.

But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg's help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch's curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won't be playing fair...

The story is the retelling of Russian folklore about Vassilisa (which would be strange enough), and takes place in modern-day Brooklyn, but with weird, magical twists. It almost felt like a Cinderella retelling in the beginning, as Vassa lives with her stepmother and two stepsisters (one nice, one mean). But then the weird things start. To begin with, the nights in Brooklyn seem to last forever and keep getting longer. People can't explain it, but one hour of night seems like 2 or 3, so people don't really sleep because it's too long.

Most of the story and it's action takes place inside Brooklyn's BY store, which is a magical convenience store on dancing chicken legs. Yes, you read that right, dancing chicken legs. Honestly, that's only the beginning of the weirdness.

Nobody really shops at BY's: everyone is afraid of the store because (if you actually manage to get inside) shoplifters are beheaded, and their heads posted on stakes around the perimeter of the parking lot. Oh yes, we're talking gruesome. And the thing is, barely anybody makes it out alive because nearly everyone is accused of shoplifting. How is that possible, you may ask? Well that would be thanks to Babs' henchmen, two animated severed hands called Sinister and Dexter. They don't talk, obviously, because that would be too weird (yes, that was sarcasm). They do, however, communicate with Babs and with one another, and they work together to plant incriminating evidence on unsuspecting shoppers.

Vassa was encouraged by her mean stepsister to go to BY's to get lightbulbs because all of the lightbulbs in the apartment are missing/burned out. Knowing it is basically a death sentence, Vassa goes to BY's. She is caught supposedly shoplifting, but makes a deal with Babs to work at the store for three nights to work off her debt. Thus ensues the story and adventure to save her friends.

There's a lot of metaphors and hidden meanings that I'm sure I didn't even catch. There is a "motorcyclist" being held captive by Babs, who represents Night, one of the friends that Vassa tries to save, along with her doll Erg. But in order to save her human friend, Vassa has to learn some difficult truths and make a sacrifice to lose one of her other friends.

As I said, it's been a while, so I probably messed some of that up, but that's the overall gist of the story. I don't think that I would recommend the book to others, unless they were specifically looking for a weird, dark read.

Book Reviews: Harry Potter - Part 2

Continuing with my review of the books I read in 2016 (I promise I will try to wrap these up soon and do better with 2017's reads!!), here is part 2 of the Harry Potter series (read my Part 1 review here), covering the last 4 books. Be warned that there may be spoilers! (The images below are borrowed from Google Images, and these are the versions which I own and read. Someday I hope I'll be able to complete the series with the new covers!)

***

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire

In this book we experience the first death in the series. Not a beloved character we've known from the beginning (thankfully), but a shocking (and perhaps unnecessary?) death all the same. Now in their 4th year at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that Hogwarts will be hosting the Tri-Wizard Tournament (this after attending a Quidditch championship game over the summer), which had not taken place in some 200+ years because there had been too many deaths. It is a contest between the 3 main European wizarding schools: Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons (so we are introduced to these 2 other schools and their headmasters), and is composed of three tasks, each more dangerous than the one before. In an effort to keep it safer, Dumbledore ruled that only those aged 17+ could enter their name into the Goblet of Fire, which chooses one candidate from each school. Harry's name is mysteriously entered into the cup and he is chosen as a 4th candidate, despite being underage and there already being a Hogwarts contestant, Cedric Diggory. Unfortunately, once the Goblet chooses a name, the contestant must compete, so there is nothing that anyone can do about it. Harry is scorned by the whole school (even Ron) as they all assume he somehow managed to enter his own name into the Goblet. After succeeding in every task, while facing near-death, Harry becomes a hero among his peers once more. In the final task, a maze with the Triwizard Cup in the centre (the first contestant to touch it being the winner). Cedric and Harry both touch the cup at the same time, with unexpected and tragic results.

I was terribly disappointed with this movie. There was just so much missing or changed from the book. Perhaps I watched it too soon (literally a day or 2) after finishing the book, but I felt totally cheated.

***

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

I found this book pretty long. I enjoyed the read, and it wasn't lacking in adventure or excitement. But I found Harry's attitude and mood-swings (while understandable and justifiable in the end) to be extremely annoying. Professor Umbridge is vile and I hated her! I especially hate that she gives fuzzy pink clothes, doilies, and kittens a bad reputation! This book also features an emotional death.

So in this 5th book of the series, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn about The Order of the Phoenix which is an underground group of wizards who fought Voldemort's Death Eaters the first time, and who are now preparing for Voldemort's return, and protecting Harry. When the trio return to Hogwarts, they meet their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to be a Ministry employee called Dolores Umbridge. She's a very unimposing-looking woman, dressed in pink, but she is the Ministry's poster-woman, and the very essence of evil. By having a woman on the inside, the Ministry now has "control" of Hogwarts, and Defense Against the Dark Arts becomes "no defense" as the Ministry only wants the students to be taught theory, "No wands!" Professor Umbridge imposes hundreds of rules to try to keep the students under control, but Harry and his friends form their own underground group. They meet in the Room of Requirement, call themselves Dumbledore's Army, and Harry is their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. A portion of Dumbledore's Army find themselves eventually find themselves sneaking in to the Ministry of Magic on a mission to save Sirius Black, and Harry finds a prophesy about him and Voldemort.

Again, this movie was missing so much from the book, it just felt like I was being cheated. I will have to watch it again someday, maybe when the books aren't so fresh in my mind, the movies will be better...

***

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince

I could barely even handle the major murder at the end of this book (Dumbledore by Snape). I was shocked and angry and could not for the life of me figure out why J.K. Rowling would do such a thing!

The biggest plot point in this book is that, now in their 6th year at Hogwarts, Harry comes into possession of an old copy of their Potions book, completely scribbled through with spells and potions, and inscribed as belonging to the "Half-Blood Prince." Harry also has private lessons with Dumbledore, during which Dumbledore shares with Harry about Voldemort's past: who his parents were, how Dumbledore met him, and how he became the vile creature he is at present. Harry also learns about Horcruxes (a thing which possesses a part of a person's soul), and that Dumbledore believes Voldemort has 7, and 2 have already been destroyed, but they don't know what the rest may be, nor where they may be located. Dumbledore promises Harry that when he learns of the location of another Horcrux, he will bring Harry with him to find and destroy it. They do find one, but at a terrible price, and in the end, it is a fake. Dumbledore leaves Harry, Ron, and Hermione with the mission of finding & destroying the remaining Horcruxes. At the end of the book, Harry resolves to not return to Hogwarts the next year as he has a mission to fulfill.

Strike three with the movies. I think this one was marginally better than the previous two, but there were just annoying little changes, and always with the missing parts, and I just... *sigh*

***

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

Wow. That's pretty much all I can say to sum up this book, and the series as a whole. I'm so sad that it's over, and yet so much has happened, that I'm kind of happy to just let the characters be - they've been through so much! I thought my heart had broken at the end of The Half-Blood Prince, but as awful as that was, it was nothing in comparison to all the losses and deaths and revelations in this final book.

So, as we knew from the ending of The Half-Blood Prince, Harry, Ron, and Hermione do not return to Hogwarts for their 7th year, instead setting off to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes, which Dumbledore entrusted them with. The Order tries to help and protect them, but Harry and his friends insist that Dumbledore left them with the mission, and no-one else is to know about it. Right away in the first few chapters there are more deaths, one in particular that really made me mad, and injuries. It is at this point that Harry, Ron, and Hermione set off on their own on their secret mission. The wizarding world is in an uproar as Voldemort and his Death Eaters are in control of the Ministry and have infiltrated Hogwarts, so they have to take great measures to hide from everyone. They do find and destroy Horcruxes, and along the way also learn about the Hallows: 3 magical items that, when possessed by one person, make that person the strongest wizard and conqueror of death. Our friends get separated, caught, tortured, etc., escape again... The story climaxes when they return to Hogwarts to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters in an epic battle of good vs. evil.

I haven't watched these movies yet. I thought I owned all of the movies, so I was really excited to have a little marathon last weekend after I finished the last book. But, come to find out, I only have The Deathly Hallows: Part 2. So, I am on the lookout for Part 1 for cheap, but if it takes too much longer I may have to break down and rent it and wait for someone to give it to me for birthday/Christmas. :)

***

So... that's the end of it, then. As I said in Part 1 of my reviews, I wouldn't have appreciated or enjoyed them at all as a kid when these books first came out, so I'm really glad I finally got around the reading these books because I've really enjoyed the journey. And I would highly recommend them to older children or teenagers who like fantasy, magic, and bravery. I am so excited that my younger nephew also started reading the books this year. I'm hoping that once he gets a little older and a little further into the series he'll want to geek out with me. :)

Book Review: The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

Hello again reader(s). It's been a long time coming, but finally, another book review for you (and me)! :) Today I will be reviewing The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick. I bought this book from Indigo-Chapters this past year. I picked it out because it sounded a lot like The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which I really enjoyed. I kind of get a kick out of stories about older people discovering themselves late in life, taking adventures, having fun. It inspires me and gives me hope for my future. ;)



An eccentric yet absolutely lovable widower embarks on a life-changing journey to undercover the secrets his wife left behind, in this poignant and curiously charming novel.
Sixty-nine-year-old Arthur Pepper lives a simple life. He gets out of bed at precisely 7:30 a.m., just as he did when his wife, Miriam, was alive. He dresses in the same gray slacks and mustard sweater vest, waters his fern, Frederica, and heads out to his garden.

But on the one-year anniversary of Miriam’s death, something changes. Sorting through Miriam’s possessions, Arthur finds an exquisite gold charm bracelet he’s never seen before. What follows is a surprising and unforgettable odyssey that takes Arthur from London to Paris and as far as India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife’s secret life before they met—a journey that leads him to find hope, healing and self-discovery in the most unexpected places.

Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters with big hearts and irresistible flaws, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is a joyous celebration of life’s infinite possibilities.

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is a fun and adventurous read. It's about self discovery and learning to enjoy life. Arthur lives for routine. He has had the same daily routine for years, with only a few slight alterations over the last year since his wife, Miriam, passed away. On the anniversary of her death, he decides to do a little tidying up and get rid of some of Miriam's things which he wasn't ready to part with previously. In rummaging through her closet he discovers a box with a charm bracelet inside. It doesn't look like anything Miriam would have worn, the charms mean nothing to him, and yet who else could it have belonged to? Thus begins Arthur's journey.

One of the charms is an elephant with an emerald on it's back, with an international phone number engraved on the back. Curiosity gets the better of Arthur and he decides to call the number, regardless of what it might cost, to see if he might find some answers to this unfamiliar piece of jewelry. The number belongs to a home in India, and he speaks to a gentleman who did, indeed, know Miriam in the past, before she met and married Arthur. They have a very interesting conversation and the man extends an invitation to Arthur to come visit any time. Arthur, still in shock to have discovered that Miriam had a secret former life, now begins to look into the other charms and what they could mean.

Miriam and her charms lead him on a journey around the world, making new friends, breaking his routines and habits, learning new things, and discovering a whole new world. In the process, he learns things about Miriam he wishes he hadn't known and probably the reason she hid her past from him. He also mends his relationships with his children and neighbours, and becomes a completely different person.

It's a really heart-warming and inspiring story. I hope to lead the kind of life that Miriam led in her youth which will inspire someone else to change their way of life and discover a new world. Not the secrecy and "bad" things, but just the adventures, of course. :)

Book Review: After You - Jojo Moyes

**SPOILER ALERT**

Do not read if you have not yet read Me Before You!

 

 

Earlier this year I read Me Before You, the prequel to this book, about our main character, Louisa Clark, who becomes the caregiver for a quadriplegic man, Will Traynor, and their tragic love story. I enjoyed that story. Tears were shed, frustrations abounded, twists appeared to add a bit of hope to an otherwise depressingly predictable ending... And now comes After You, a continuation of Lou's story, one year later.

 

The book starts off dramatically enough, with Lou being terribly depressed after the events of the last year, stuck in a horrible dead-end job, and then she falls off the roof of her apartment building. Of course, one's immediate reaction would be to wonder if Lou will also end up a quadriplegic, like Will, and history will repeat itself. Amazingly, she survives the fall with minimal injuries. After spending some weeks/months back at home with her family while she recovers, she goes back to her London flat, promising her father that she will attend grief counseling.

 

The story at that point slows down and tends to drag on a bit. A new character comes into the picture, a 16 year old girl called Lily Houghton-Miller, who claims to be Will's estranged daughter. Louisa takes it upon herself to take the girl in, helping her meet & be accepted by her new family, etc. Lily brings a lot of stress and upset to Louisa's life, to the point where Louisa can take no more, which leads to more drama and a somewhat intense search.

 

There is, of course, a new love interest for Louisa, and near the end of the book, trauma strikes again, adding more action & intensity, and did cause some tears to be shed.

 

The last few chapters I personally found to be a bit choppy and confusing. Honestly, that was probably the point, but it felt a bit unnatural compared to the rest of the story.

 

The book could most certainly be read as a stand-alone novel. There is enough of the previous book mentioned to know what has happened and not necessarily need to have read it first. I enjoyed how certain issues were resolved in this book that were left "hanging" in Me Before You, such as Lou's relationship with her family.

 

As seems to be Jojo Moyes writing style, there were several small twists thrown in, which were just enough to make you think that the somewhat predictable ending will be different than you thought... but turns out to be exactly what you thought. However, she always manages to make you feel hopeful and satisfied in the end.

I enjoyed this book a lot, possibly more than the first (not quite so sad), and would definitely recommend it.

Book Review: Dark Places

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

So I had written a couple of quick reviews when I first finished this book, but I'd like to expand a bit.

I was introduced to Gillian Flynn's writing a couple years ago when I read Gone Girl. I found it extremely captivating and the very essence of a thriller, so I had pretty high expectations for this book, and I was not disappointed.

To summarize, the story is about Libby Day, a woman whose family (mother & two older sisters) was murdered when she was 6 years old, and her brother was accused and convicted of the crime. She's grown up in the limelight of that crime, hating & fearing her brother, and living off the settlement money and donations sent to "little baby Day" by the public. But 25 years later, the money's run out, and it's time for Libby to grow up, face her fears, and learn what really happened that fateful night.

The story flips back and forth between the present and the days leading up to the murders. In the present, it's always from Libby's point of view, but the flashbacks are told from various points of view: the mother, the brother, etc. That makes is a bit hard to follow, but also adds interest as you try to piece together what happened.

Libby was my favourite. She is bratty and annoying from the start, make no mistake. I wanted to shake her and say, "Get over yourself and just do something!" a lot of the time, but I guess that's sort of the point, because as the story unfolds, she engages more and more and begins to come to life. I also pitied her her lot in life, and was rooting for her the whole time as she made new discoveries and ventured outside of her (many and irrational) comfort zones.

From the first page, I was absolutely gripped by the story. I read it over the course of a weekend, which is pretty fast for me. I think Gillian does an excellent job of keeping just the right amount of creepy thrills without it being overwhelming, scary, or horrifying. Not to say that the murders depicted weren't horrific, and I did get a bit squeamish with some of the descriptions, but it wasn't enough to turn me off of the story.

The ending was really not what I was expecting, at all. I had my ideas from the beginning of who the killer might have been and why Libby was spared, but I didn't suspect the outcome. Once it was presented, of course everything made sense, and I remembered all the little clues we'd been given throughout the book.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of thrillers, mysteries, crime fiction, etc! Gillian is a master at these, and I'm very much looking forward to reading her other titles.

Let me know if you've read Dark Places and what your thoughts were!

Book Reviews: The Mermaid Chair & The Vanishing Season

Continuing to review the books I've read over the course of this past year, here we have The Mermaid Chair and The Vanishing Season. Enjoy!

from Indigo.ca

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

The Mermaid Chair was an intriguing title and a fun cover that I happened upon at a yard sale. I recognized the author, so I thought I would give it a shot. It was not as good as I had hoped, but I was still pretty hooked. Really interesting characters, and a lovely chemistry between them. But I find that sometimes titles can be misleading. There was indeed a mermaid chair in the book, but I didn't feel it had as much significance to the story as the title implies...

Jessie  is suffering from empty-nest syndrome and realizing that she's not sure whether she still loves her husband or not. Then she gets a call asking her to come home, to help take care of her eccentric mother who has been making questionable decisions. Jessie grasps the chance to get away from her own life. While she tries to help her mom sort through the reasons behind her strange behaviour, Jessie also tries to sort out her own feelings. But then she meets Brother Thomas, and her life suddenly becomes very complicated.

It was a good read, - a sort of self-discovery and love story - but took me longer than anticipated to read because it wasn't as interesting as I thought it might be. I don't think I would recommend it, just because I didn't love it. But it was good.

 

from Indigo.ca

The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson

 

**SPOILER WARNING: I tried not to, but I think I may have inadvertently spilled some figurative beans with this one.**

I found this book at Chapters, marked down to $5. The cover and title appealed to me. It sounded like a pretty interesting concept:

Girls started vanishing in the fall, and now winter's come to lay a white sheet over the horror. Door County, it seems, is swallowing the young, right into its very dirt. From beneath the house on Water Street, I've watched the danger swell.

The residents know me as the noises in the house at night, the creaking on the stairs. I'm the reflection behind them in the glass, the feeling of fear in the cellar. I'm tied—it seems—to this house, this street, this town.

I'm tied to Maggie and Pauline, though I don't know why. I think it's because death is coming for one of them, or both.

All I know is that the present and the past are piling up, and I am here to dig. I am looking for the things that are buried.

From bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson comes a friendship story bound in snow and starlight, a haunting mystery of love, betrayal, redemption, and the moments that we leave behind.

It's more or less a ghost story, told by the ghost. That is to say, it's narrated in the first person, from the point of view of the ghost or spirit (we're not quite sure which). It's about three teenagers in a small town: the brainiac new girl, Maggie; her neighbour, the eccentric rich girl, Pauline; and Pauline's best friend, Liam. It's a story of first love, of backstabbing friends, of broken hearts... but it's also a story of bravery & nobility & doing the right thing, and of moving on...

 

The ending is strange. It's simultaneously satisfying and dissatisfying. For good measure, at the climax we're sure that two of our main characters are going to die. Someone does die, but not who we're expecting. In the end we finally find out what/who is telling the story, but it's rather disappointing.

 

We're given the impression that there's a serial killer on the loose and so one of the girls might surely become a victim and die in that way. Then there is Pauline's carefree lifestyle, being sure that she will die young because her father did, which makes us think she will most likely be the casualty. There are also hints that maybe the ghostly narrator is someone who lived in Maggie's house hundreds of years ago, which was my preferred idea. But none of these were true, which was disappointing for me...

 

I liked the book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes Young Adult and creepy reads.

Book Reviews: The Buckshaw Chronicles #2 & Little Bee

from Indigo.ca

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is the second book in the series by Canadian author Alan Bradley (sometimes known as The Buckshaw Chronicles). The stories, set in the 1950's, are about a young girl detective, Flavia de Luce, who has a passion for chemistry and, when she's not terrorizing her older sisters, solving mysteries (especially murders). She also gets herself into all sorts of mischief along the way. I happened upon the series when I was given The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (book #1, which I adored!) in a box of books. Since then I found books #2 and #3 in second-hand book sales, so I continue to keep an eye out for the rest of the books!
I recently learned that Alan Bradley has co-written an intriguing book called Ms. Holmes of Baker Street: The Truth About Sherlock, and just released a new Flavia de Luce mystery (September 21, 2016), which means there are now eight books in the series. I love the cover art of these books, and the poetic titles - combinations that are sure to catch my attention! The fact that the main character is a strong-willed young girl makes them even better; and add to that a Canadian author = hopeless case for me!

In The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, a TV puppeteer, Rupert & his assistant, Nialla, come to town. Rupert appears to have old ties to the Ingleby's - the strange couple whose son died five years earlier in an apparent, but suspicious, suicide. As the oddities begin to pile up, Flavia befriends Nialla, and investigates the Ingleby's son's death, as well as the shocking death of the puppeteer in front of the whole town. True to form, she also gets herself into a few tight spots. Ultimately, however, Flavia is instrumental in solving both cases.

Loved the book, and would definitely recommend it. :)

from Amazon.com

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

The number of books in my room, and all around the house, which make up my To Be Read "pile" is enormous... but, as true book nerds know, that doesn't mean you stop buying & collecting books. I went into my local new & used bookstore a few weeks ago (it's right beside where I work - a very dangerous work hazard!) and Little Bee was being featured at the front of the store, as a promotion for lesser-known books. The cover art and back cover blurb are what drew me in, and when I went to check out with it, the clerk told me she had also been intrigued by it and hoped I would let her know if it's good.

We don't want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this: It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterward that is most important. Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

I mean, who wouldn't be intrigued be that, right?!

Well... it certainly was an interesting read. There's this unspeakable shared past that keeps being referred to throughout the book, which you think must be just terrible... but it's really not as bad as they make it out to be, in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's disturbing and unpleasant, but not the great horror I was expecting... The last, probably, 1/2 to 1/3 of the book was rather weak and not very interesting. It has a relatively happy ending, but it doesn't feel like it ended well. It was in no way "extremely funny," although I enjoyed Little Bee's dialogues and found her view of the world to be beautiful and amusing. It was a book that I couldn't put down at times, had me crying at times, had me chuckling to myself at times... but I really didn't love it, and would not recommend it.

Book Reviews: Harry Potter - Part 1

So my plan to review the books I read before reviving my blog before reviewing the books I've read since... it's not working out. But here goes a continuation...

I believe I've mentioned it already, but I started reading the Harry Potter series this year, for the first time. It's magical and beautiful and exciting, and I love it. I sort of regret not reading them as a kid and getting into it from the start... But had I tried to read them, I know I wouldn't have liked them - I just wasn't really into that kind of story at that point in my life.

Anyway, because I'm running behind on the reviews, I've decided to review the books together in a two-part post. I haven't finished the series yet, so I won't be posting part two for a while.

Also, I'll try not to give too much away, but seeing as I'm reviewing the whole series, there may be spoilers - fair warning!

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Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone
This is where the magic begins. Harry Potter, a mistreated, orphaned boy, discovers on his 11th birthday that he is a wizard and gets swept off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets his best friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Rubeus Hagrid, and learns all about this hidden world he's never known anything about. He also learns about his past, and Voldemort, the dark wizard who was responsible for the deaths of his parents, as well as the lightning bolt scar on his forehead. In this first adventure, Harry single-handedly saves the Philosopher's Stone (which has the capacity to grant the owner/user immortality) from Voldemort.

I had seen the movie years ago and thought it was cute. I recently acquired my own copy, which I watched again after reading the book, and it was even better than I had remembered. It is a really great interpretation of the book.

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Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets
In this second adventure, Harry and Ron are astonished to discover they've somehow missed the Hogwarts Train, and so they steal Mr. Weasley's charmed Ford Anglia, which they end up crashing into the Whomping Willow. Strange things continue to happen... mysterious, cryptic words begin appearing on walls of the school (messages about the "Heir of Slytherin" and the "Chamber of ecrets"), and people are being found "petrified." There is, of course, suspicion that Harry might be the Heir when it is discovered that he is a parsel-tongue (one who is able to communicate with snakes), and there is fear that the school may have to be closed for the safety of the students. Harry and his friends investigate the attacks, which leads to Harry finding the Chamber of Secrets in order to save Ginny Weasley (Ron's younger sister) from a basilisk.

I waited to watch this movie until after I had read the book. As with the first movie, I found it entertaining and to be another fairly good interpretation of the book.

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Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
At the beginning of Harry's third year at Hogwarts, we find out that the wizard Sirius Black (believed to be one of Voldemort's followers, a mass-murderer, and responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents) has escaped from the high security magical prison called Azkaban, and everyone believes he is coming after Harry Potter. Dementors (the dark creatures who guard Azkaban) follow the Hogwarts Express and surround the school, terrifying students in their search for Black. But no-one is more affected by the Dementors than Harry, causing the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (Remus Lupin) to help him learn how to defend himself against them by mastering a very advanced charm. Black does find Harry, but he's not what Harry was expecting.

This movie was also pretty great. I found that it remained pretty true to the book.

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You can find Part 2 here, where I review the last 4 books of the series. Thanks for reading!

Book Reviews: Brand New Friend & Wedding Night

I have been trying to review the books I previously read this year, before starting up the blog again, so this is a continuation of that. I decided to review these two books together as they were both quick, romantic, fluff reads.

When Rob's girlfriend asks him to leave London and live with her in Manchester not only will it mean moving cities, it'll also mean leaving behind his best mate in the entire world. Believing that love conquers all and convinced of his ability to make new friends, Rob takes the plunge.

Six months in, and yet to find so much as a regular drinking buddy, Rob realises that sometimes making friends in your thirties can be the hardest thing to do. With drastic action needed, his girlfriend puts an ad in the classifieds for him. Three excruciatingly embarrassing "bloke dates" later, Rob begins to truly despair. Until his luck changes . . .

There's just one problem. Apart from knowing less than nothing about music trivia, football, and the vital statistics of supermodels, Rob's new friend has one huge flaw . . .

She's a girl.

Brand New Friend is one of those stories that, if made into a movie, would be your typical rom-com, along the same lines as Made of Honor and Just Friends. It's a fun little adventure that explores the relationships between men and women, and asks us the question, Can men and women truly just be friends? The triangle between Rob & Jo & Rob's girlfriend is as cringe-worthy as one would expect. Because he thinks she would overreact, Rob lies-by-omission to mislead his girlfriend into thinking that his new friend Jo is a man. He also misleads Jo into thinking that his girlfriend knows all about her and is totally fine with the situation. Awkward humour follows...

I enjoyed this book, it was a fun sort of fluff read. It's a bit longer, I think, than a typical girly book, but not too long. The story progressed at a fairly comfortable rate. It was funny and awkward and sweet. I give it 3.5/5.

Lottie just knows that her boyfriend is going to propose, but then his big question involves a trip abroad—not a trip down the aisle. Completely crushed, Lottie reconnects with an old flame, and they decide to take drastic action. No dates, no moving in together, they’ll just get married... right now. Her sister, Fliss, thinks Lottie is making a terrible mistake, and will do anything to stop her. But Lottie is determined to say “I do,” for better, or for worse.

I went through a phase several years ago where I read a whole bunch of Shopaholic books, and then collected as many other books by Sophie Kinsella (as well as Madeleine Wickham) as I could get my hands on. But nowadays I can only read Sophie Kinsella's books in small doses, and I really must be in the right frame of mind. Wedding Night was an amusing fluff read, but there's just something about her characters that annoy me. That being said, I did like the book and all the silly shenanigans the characters get up to.

Fliss is the responsible sister. With a career and raising a young son on her own, she also manages to find time to look out for (and clean up after) her younger sister Lottie. Lottie is the carefree, flighty, happy-go-lucky sister. They didn't have an easy childhood, but Fliss always made sure that Lottie was happy and cared for. And Fliss feels like she can predict Lottie's next moves, because she always does the same things. So when Lottie's boyfriend doesn't propose when she's just sure he is, Fliss is completely prepared for the meltdown and the rebound hunt. What she isn't prepared for is for Lottie to make a promise of celibacy and accept a marriage proposal from a near stranger! Hilarity ensues as Fliss tries to stop her sister's wedding, and above all, prevent its consummation!

As I mentioned, there's something about Sophie Kinsella's characters that annoys me; maybe it's how completely air-headed they are, or the fact they're not very believable. But they are almost always amusing, and make for a quick, funny read. I give this one 3.5/5 as well.

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

Paper Towns
I'm one of those people. Those people who have to read the book before they can watch the movie. I mean, maybe not every time. There are certainly movies I watched before reading the book, for one reason or another; either I wasn't aware that there was a book, or the opportunity to watch the movie came first, or I frankly, didn't care. This was one of those books that I read because I wanted to watch the movie, and already had (but had not yet read) the book. It's a YA fiction by John Green, a huge player in the YA world right now, after the wildly successful movie adaptation of his book The Fault in Our Stars (which I loved, both the book and the movie).

Paper Towns is a story about two teenage neighbours, Quentin and Margo. They were friends in childhood, but then life happened. She became one of the cool kids, and he didn't, but he's been keeping an eye on her and crushing hard all this time. Then one night, Margo knocks on his window needing help. They spend an amusing and adventurous night getting into trouble, exacting revenge on her enemies, and he is happy to think that she suddenly wants to be friends again. She, however, disappears the very next day. Everyone else just chocks it up to her acting out again. "She'll be back in a few days," they say. But Q is worried about her and does everything in his power to decrypt and put together the clues she left behind in order to find her.

I found that the plot was slow to develop in several areas. There were some suspenseful parts where you began to wonder what was really happening and whether Margo was really ok or not... But the ending was rather disappointing and unsatisfying. It's an OK read, I didn't hate it. As for the movie... just don't even waste your time with that one, in my opinion!

Book Reviews: OwlCrate Reads

I haven't mentioned it here before, but for the past year or so I have been subscribing to OwlCrate, which is a super cool book-related monthly subscription box. Each month is a new theme, and each box contains one book related to the theme, as well as several book-related items, such as: candles, jewelry, socks, stickers, magnets, lip glosses, notebooks, etc! It's a bit expensive with the shipping, but it is so fun to get that little box of happy in the mail!!

Soundless
I began my subscription in November 2015, and have ended up ordering 8 of the 10 boxes since then. The first box's theme was Myths & Legends and the book included in the box was Soundless by Richelle Mead. I had heard nothing of this book before, had never read any of Richelle's books (Vampire Academy & Bloodlines series) so when I got it I really didn't know what to think of it, and wasn't all that interested in it. I just added it to the ever-growing TBR pile in my room and forgot all about it. But in April, while looking for a new book to read, I happened upon it again and decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised! This is a standalone YA science fiction/fantasy novel based on Chinese folklore. Fei lives in a silent world. Everyone she knows in her mountaintop village is deaf, and have always been deaf, for generations. They have learned to adapt, but things are getting worrisome when people start losing their sight as well, and their food source dwindles. And then suddenly, Fei can hear! Navigating through the world with new and overwhelming sense is an emotional ride for Fei, as she journeys off the mountaintop to the valley below in an effort to find answers. Answers to where their food source comes from and why it's stopping, and answers to why her village has no hearing and are now losing their sight. It was a really good read and I'm so glad I gave it a shot. I would definitely recommend it!

World of Ink and Shadow
*Spoiler Alert* The theme for Owl Crate's January box was Magic, which of course I couldn't resist! That was one of my favourite boxes because it included a Funko Pop vinyl figurine of a Harry Potter character, and I got Harry Potter, himself! The book in that box was Worlds of Ink and Shadows by Canadian author Lena Coakley. The cover art of this YA fantasy novel, as well as the whole premise of being a story about the Bronte siblings, had me intrigued from the start. It's the story of the 4 youngest Bronte siblings, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. Charlotte and Branwell write stories for their younger sisters, and at some point made a deal with the devil to allow them all to transport into their fantasy world. But when the stories & characters take over their lives, they no longer share their make-believe world with their sisters. This is fine for Anne, the sensible sister, but Emily (who fancies herself to be in love with one of the villains) craves that fantasy world. She convinces her older siblings to take them back, one last time. However, in the meantime, Emily has made her own deal with the devil, created her own fantasy world with her villain, and takes over her siblings' story. It's a bit strange and convoluted. The author tries to speculate on various true-to-life facts about the Brontes, which makes it kind of interesting from a historical point of view. I can't exactly explain why, but I didn't like the book as much as I thought I would. I would recommend it because there's no particular reason why I didn't like it, but it wasn't a favourite.

Are you an OwlCrate subscriber? Have you been reading the books, or are you like me, and just adding them to your TBR pile? Have you heard of read either of these books, and what's your take?

There are a few more OwlCrate books in my TBR pile that I'm hoping to get to before the end of the year, so hopefully you'll hear more about them soon!