Tag: biblioshelf musings

Biblioshelf Musings – Good Omens

The Biblioshelf2 Comments

Yoohoo Bibliofriends,

After reading Atomic Habits by James Clear [review here] and deciding that I needed to try and listen to Audiobooks more, part of my new, determined habit-goals-self decided to listen to them each morning as I was getting ready to go to work. One of the first ones I started with was Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

I have been a long-time fan of Neil Gaiman and read a majority of his works but Terry Pratchett is totally new to me. As a massive fantasy fan, I know I should be trying to read more of his works as he is a large part of the genre. After listening to Good Omens, I’m definitely going to be investing more of my interest into his writing! It was so much fun!

Book: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (Audiobook) / Martin Jarvis (Narrator)
Genre: Fantasy
Publication Date: (First Published) May 1st 1990
Publisher: Harper Audio
Duration: 12 hours 33 minutes (approx.)
Rating: 📚📚📚📚📖

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world’s only completely accurate book of prophecies written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

My Musings

Wow, wasn’t this one go the greatest audiobooks to get me back into the habit of listening to them?! First up, Martin Jarvis is an exceptional narrator. He gets so into the characters and his accents and voices were on-point! I definitely could have rated his part as 5 stars!

The in-jokes and humour that poured out of every chapter were hilarious. There were some really witty one-liners about politics or pop-culture and also some long-running jokes throughout the whole story – the Queen mix-tape and all of their equivalents was one of my favourites! In fact, I was so intrigued about all of the Queen references in the book that I did my own digging and found a new appreciation for it based on this article on Cinemablend (book spoilers if you click the link!).

I didn’t think I would really appreciate the humour in a fantasy-style book as there aren’t many books that I actually do find funny – perhaps I’m just not reading the right ones or perhaps it was the joys of this as an audiobook that made some of those jokes and quips stand out a lot more. It was definitely an interesting mix to have fantasy and comedy but I couldn’t think of two better authors who are well-equipped to bring that off.

The characters were well thought-out and created. For me Crowley and Aziraphale really steal he show as they bring the most action and quirkiness to the dialogue. Anathema Device also had a brilliant role to play in communicating the the prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, to the reader – I’m officially adding that book to my TBR by the way! 😉

Favourite Quotes:

Just a selection as there are waaaaayyyy too many!

“DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING,” said Death. “JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Aziraphale collected books. If he were totally honest with himself he would have to have admitted that his bookshop was simply somewhere to store them. He was not unusual in this. In order to maintain his cover as a typical second-hand book seller, he used every means short of actual physical violence to prevent customers from making a purchase. Unpleasant damp smells, glowering looks, erratic opening hours – he was incredibly good at it.

Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

“It’s like you said the other day,” said Adam. “You grow up readin’ about pirates and cowboys and spacemen and stuff, and jus’ when you think the world’s full of amazin’ things, they tell you it’s really all dead whales and chopped-down forests and nucular waste hangin’ about for millions of years. ‘Snot worth growin’ up for, if you ask my opinion.” 

Why Should I Read This?

For the witty characters and their quips.
For a fresh uplift on the classic fantasy tale of angels, demons and the antichrist.
For the excellent audio skills of superb narrator, Martin Jarvis.

Have you read Good Omens? What is your favourite Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett book? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – Esme’s Wish

The Biblioshelf4 Comments

Hi Bibliofriends,

One of my bookish blogging goals this year was to try and get started on taking author/publisher requests and also start investing some time into improving my NetGalley feedback score.

It was such a thrill when Elizabeth Foster contacted me after reading one of my reviews for Odyssey Books and asked me if I would also be interested in reading her novel Esme’s Wish in exchange for an honest review. I’m so pleased that I did, this was a wonderful fantasy series starter to lose myself in during the last few weeks of what was a really crazy school year! Huge thanks to Elizabeth for getting in touch and sending me her e-book.

Book: Esme’s Wish by Elizabeth Foster
Genre: Middle Grade/YA Fantasy
Publication Date: October 30th 2017
Publisher: Odyssey Books
Pages: 252
Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

When fifteen-year-old Esme Silver objects at her father’s wedding, her protest is dismissed as the action of a stubborn, selfish teenager. Everyone else has accepted the loss of Esme’s mother, Ariane – so why can’t she?
But Esme is suspicious. She is sure that others are covering up the real reason for her mother’s disappearance – that ‘lost at sea’ is code for something more terrible, something she has a right to know.
After Esme is accidentally swept into the enchanted world of Aeolia, the truth begins to unfold. With her newfound friends, Daniel and Lillian, Esme retraces her mother’s steps in the glittering canal city of Esperance, untangling the threads of Ariane’s double life. But the more Esme discovers about her mother, the more she questions whether she really knew her at all. 
Winner of a Purple Dragonfly Book Award for best fantasy.
“A fresh new fantasy of an enchanting world.” – Wendy Orr, New York Times best selling author of Nim’s Island.

My Musings

Esperance is such a beautifully crafted world to lose my bookish mind in. The waterways and canals winding through the city instantly made me reminisce about one of my favourite holidays spent in Venice, Italy. I’m also a huge fan of any worlds where water is a feature (seriously, I think I must have been a fish in a former life!). The frequent references to fountains, sea portals, caves, sirens and sea hawks made me put this world firmly on my fictional travels bucket list.

Esme is quite a young character and her emotions are clearly laid out for the reader to see. You witness her turmoil over the loss of her mother and also her anger at her father for remarrying and beginning a new life. As the story progresses, Esme’s determination and resilience grow alongside the plot and it was nice to see those rites of passage elements in the story as Esme branches off on her mission to discover what happened to her mother. I enjoyed the way her friendships and personality grew throughout the story as she left her world and travelled into the magical world of Esperance.

Mythology and magic run strongly throughout the whole story and I loved picking out those mythology-inspired references which were woven throughout. The book features brilliant creatures such as sirens, stygians and (woohoo!) dragons! I really enjoyed the character Augustine who is a keeper of magic – he added a quirky wizard-like dimension to the story with a diviner rod named Willow which reminded me of Dr. Strange’s Cape in some crazy way that the keeper and his diviner are pretty much a team but the objects are sentient and have a mind of their own.

The story itself is pretty much a quest which is based on a number of clues leading from one to the next, gradually unravelling the story. Whilst in my adult head I was expecting and predicting that some of these would happen, my teacher head was thinking about how perfect this book would be for some of my more reluctant readers and students. Descriptions and vocabulary are on point in this. Vocabulary is such a buzz-word in the teaching world now as children are exposed to fewer words and this has a massive impact upon their reading and writing progress. Esme’s Wish is such a brilliant book to try and inspire this love of words as it is littered with so many wonderful ones and as a logophile myself, this was one of my favourite aspects of the writing. 

Favourite Quotes:

‘The pool settled back into peaceful somnolence, winking at her in the sunlight.’

‘Life is such a fragile thing. Like butterfly wings.’

‘Water has a memory of its own. It stores within itself the history of all it sees.’

‘She was the thread that ran through all things, unravelling the world at will. She could create, or destroy, at her whim. Time had no meaning here. Death was merely an abstraction.’

Why Should I Read This?

For the vocabulary and the writing.
For the sirens, waterways and dragons.
For the amazing world of Esperance.

Esme’s Wish is perfect for the Middle Grade age range and those who are starting out to explore the fantasy genre. Equally, if you’re an adult who loves your mythological references or fantasy islands filled with fountains, seas, magical portals and dragons then this could also be the perfect book for you to escape into a light yet welcoming fantasy world.

Find out more about this book here:

Amazon | Odyssey Books | Waterstones | Elizabeth Foster on Twitter

Biblioshelf Musings: These Divided Shores

The Biblioshelf2 Comments

Hello Bibliofriends!

This week’s Biblioshelf Musing is ‘These Divided Shores’ by Sara Raasch which is the sequel to ‘These Rebel Waves’. I first read TRW when it arrived in the August 2018 Mutinous Pirates Fairyloot box. At first, the series wasn’t quite what I was expecting as the pirates were more riverboat looters (Stream Raiders) than the swashbuckling kind (which I guess speaks more about my stereotyping of what I consider pirates to be…). Given the motivational push of lockdown and my birthday, I finally took the plunge and ordered the sequel to tick the sequel off my TBR list.
[🚨Although there are no spoilers ahead for These Divided Shores, this review may naturally feature some spoilers for the first book in the series These Rebel Waves.]

Book: These Divided Shores by Sara Raasch
Genre: Fantasy / YA
Publication Date: 27th August 2019
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 560
Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

The thrilling sequel to These Rebel Waves—full of deadly magic, double crosses, and a revolution—from Sara Raasch, the bestselling author of the Snow Like Ashes series.

As a child, she committed unforgivable acts to free Grace Loray from King Elazar of Argrid. Now Elazar’s plan to retake the island has surpassed Lu’s darkest fears: he’s holding her and his son, Ben, captive in an endlessly shifting prison, forcing them to make a weapon that will guarantee Elazar’s success. Escape is impossible—unless Lu becomes the ruthless soldier she hoped never to be again.

Vex failed to save Lu and Ben—and that torments him as much as his Shaking Sickness. With the disease worsening, Vex throws himself into the rebellion against Argrid. The remaining free armies are allied with the stream raider syndicates—and getting them to cooperate will take a strength Vex thought burned on a pyre six years ago.

Imprisoned, betrayed, and heartbroken, Ben is determined to end his father’s rampage. Watching Elazar sway the minds of Grace Loray as he did those of Argrid, Ben knows he has to play his father’s game of devotion to win this war. But how can a heretic prince defeat the Pious God?

As armies clash and magic rises, Lu, Vex, and Ben will confront their pasts . . . or lose their futures forever.

Botanical Magic

For me, the botanical magic elements are my favourite part of the series. Both books have a few page inserts between different phases of the story which contains a drawing of a magical plant and it’s various attributes and uses. This type of magical system felt so fresh compared to the wand-waving, elemental ‘magic-from-within’ types. I was really interested in the parts of the plot which discussed the accessibility and uses of these plants by both Grace Loray and Argrid. If you like plants and potions then you’ll probably enjoy reading about this magical system!

Grace Loray

The setting of These Divided Shores really compliments the botanical magic system in the novels. Places such as the Backswamp and the numerous streams and rivers which dominate the island all added to the jungle feeling and, even though I’m not from the US, it gave me a bayou feeling from somewhere like Louisiana or Florida mixed with a little bit of Amazon. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a sucker for any types of ‘water’ features in books or settings so Grace Loray was right up my street and the waterfall episode in the first book was one of my standout parts of the whole series.

Vex, Ben and Character Diversity

I really enjoyed how we got to explore the relationship between cousins Vex and Ben. It brought a fresh dynamic to the story rather than focusing on just the romantic relationships between other characters. I also enjoyed the way in which same-sex relationships were portrayed in the book. One of my pet hates is when same-sex couples feel forced into novels just for the sake of whereas in the Stream Raiders series they were included strongly but subtly at the same time, reinforcing them as normal parts of everyday Grace Loray lifestyles. Gunnar is a particular favourite character and it was nice to see a strong, masculine character also addressing his emotions and feelings openly.

Mini Battle, Mini Battle, Big Battle, End

For me, the pace and plot in These Divided Shores was a little on the slow side to get me through to the end of all 560 pages. In short, the aim of the book is to try and stop Argrid from making permanent magic and enforcing everyone to their rules. The Stream Raiders, having their own cultures and beliefs want to keep Grace Loray as part of a haven for all those who don’t want to surrender to the Pious God. To me, I don’t think I needed all of those pages, and what felt like battle after battle, for all of that to be resolved in the way it was. It always seems that post-battle resolutions get thrown in very quickly at the end even though quite often many nations and lives end up needing to be rebuilt. The ending of These Divided Shores felt slightly rushed compared to all that had happened before the final chapter. Thankfully, I enjoyed the setting, magic and characters enough to finish it all off but at times I did find it rather slow-going for me.

 

The Stream Raiders series is definitely different to other fantasy books I’ve read and I’m glad that I actually bought the sequel to finish it off and see what happened to the characters and magical island which I had enjoyed reading about the first time round. If you enjoy stories about uprisings and the tactics behind different revolts then you’d probably enjoy it. Equally, if you’re after a different style of fantasy setting to the typical medieval castle types then you might just enjoy a little trip along the streams, rivers and botanical magic of Grace Loray!

Have you read These Divided Shores? What is your favourite type of fantasy setting? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings: Shadow and Flame

The Biblioshelf1 Comment

Howdy Bibliofriends!

This week’s Biblioshelf Musing is Shadow and Flame which is the sequel to Onyx and Ivory by Mindee Arnett. If you follow my other posts you’ll know that I’m not that great at keeping up with sequels. That being said, in my new little world of trying to maintain good ‘atomic habits’, the motivational need to clear some series space on my shelves prompted me to add Shadow and Flame to my birthday book haul.
🚨 There may be some spoilers ahead for the first book in the series but if you want to read one of my very early reviews then you can find my thoughts on Onyx and Ivory here.

Book: Shadow and Flame by Mindee Arnett
Genre: Fantasy / YA
Publication Date: 4th June 2019
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Pages: 482
Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

From acclaimed author Mindee Arnett comes the thrilling conclusion of the stunningly epic, action-packed, and romantic fantasy adventure about a powerful girl possessed of strange magic, the outcast prince she loves, and the kingdom that has torn them apart.

Kate and Corwin are on the run, desperate for allies in a new world of war among the kingdoms of Rime. As the book opens, Kate suffers a massive loss, one that will shape the struggle for freedom of all wilders and magic folk—that is, if Kate can learn to control her own power.

The World of Rime

Wow, it felt so good to be back in Rime. I have to say that in a bookish world swamped with lots of medieval-style fantasy settings, the Kingdom of Rime felt really homely and not overdone. To be honest I think the setting may be one of my favourite parts of the whole novel. In Shadow and Flame we get to do a little more exploration of Seva and the Mistfold which is where the story kicks off. I can’t quite describe why I like it so much but the references to everweeps and the mysterious statues all just add to it being a nice place to spend some reading time in my head. Finding out the source of the Wilders’ magic and it’s link to the kingdom was one of those niche little things that I enjoyed whilst reading. I’m really hoping that we can come back to this world someday just to explore the places on the map that we didn’t really see.

Signe and the Esh Islands

One of those places is the Esh Islands where Signe is from. Signe is such a mysterious character and she has a really unusual appearance with ruby-like gems surrounding her mouth. As part of the Furen Mag, we find out much more about Signe’s identity throughout the book, however the ending left me feeling like there was a little more to this character and her heritage that I wanted to know an awful lot more about. We finally discover the secret of the mystical Black Powder, but it all just leaves me wanting a spin-off series about Signe and the Furen Mag.

Paragon and Uror

The Paragon and the Uror are central devices used to carry out the plot and battle between good and evil in the Rime Chronicles. It’s quite hard to talk about them without giving away major spoilers but as far as ‘roles for heroes’ go, these were pretty effective and I liked the symbolism of the black/white themes that accompanied their descriptions.  They were both fairly predictable within the story but I really did enjoy the storytelling around the way they were represented – who doesn’t love a magical horse right?!

To Sway or not to Sway

Kate’s wilder ability is to control people’s minds with Sway. The book goes into great detail about how the ability to invade someone’s mind or force them to do things against their will comes with a heavy burden and a price to pay. This is part of a major conscience battle for Kate and I like the way the author explores the way her use of her wilder ability affects some of her closest friendships – it’s not often that we get to see the psychological ramifications of something like this taking a key focal part in a fantasy tale.

All in all, The Rime Chronicles were a nice, fun read. The characters were nice, the plot was nice, the magic system was nice – nice, nice, nice. I occasionally read parts of the story and had a deja-vu moment as if I had heard of that ‘blackened, poisoned hand’ somewhere before… but on the whole, it was an enjoyable story which I’m definitely glad to have picked up and completed. Predictable in places, slightly rushed at the end after the final battle and although I feel like I’m ready to say goodbye to the world of Corwin and Kate, I’m definitely not quite ready to part with the whole of the Kingdom of Rime and would look forward to more books from this quaint little fantasy-fictional world.

Have you read the Rime Chronicles? Would you rather be a Wilder and pull your magic from the Earth around you, or a Magist who creates magic through making magical orbs and portals? I think I’m definitely more on the Wilder side. As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

#BiblioshelfMusings – The Space Between Worlds

The Biblioshelf3 Comments

Hi Bibliofriends,

Hope you have been having a good week. This week’s review post is from my first-ever approved NetGalley title! I had so much fun reading The Space Between Worlds and couldn’t believe in when Hodder & Stoughton approved me for this book so big thanks to them, Netgalley and Micaiah Johnson for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

How would you feel if there were 382 versions of Earth out there in the multiverse each with a doppelganger of ‘you’ on it? How would you then react if you could travel to 375 of those Earths because ‘you’ no longer existed on them? Would you get Imposter Syndrome? Or would you be thrilled at the opportunities that living countless new lives could bring?

The Space Between Worlds is an insightful yet gritty Sci-fi novel which seeks to answer these questions whilst at the same time contemplating what it means to be ‘you’ in a multiverse where multiple versions of you could possibly exist.

Below:
Book Details
Mini-Musings (Review in brief)
Book Synopsis
Detailed Musings (Spoiler-free review)

Book: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
Genre: Science Fiction
Publication Date: Expected on 4th August 2020
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 336
Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Mini-Musings (review in brief)

I don’t tend to read much Sci-fi and usually stick to the more fantasy side of the wider genre but the blurb for The Space Between Worlds intrigued me so much that I had to read it. The world felt really dystopian and the balance between the shiny, rich Wiley City compared to the rural wastelands was reminiscent of the divided world in The Hunger Games. It took me a little while to get into it as I felt the need to concentrate on what was happening, especially with so much talk of multiple versions of one person flying around, but the further I traversed into the story, the clearer I understood how this multiverse worked. There are so many dimensions and levels that each chapter was like peeling back another layer of the onion. The Space Between Worlds has plenty to offer both those looking for a sci-fi mind-bender of multiple earths, as well as those looking for the morality and human elements behind the storyline. It was a truly captivating read and I’m so glad and thankful that I was given the opportunity to read it.

Synopsis (From Goodreads)

Reasons Cara has died:

– The emperor of the wasteland wanted to make an example of her mother and started with her
– One of her mother’s boyfriends wanted to cover up what he did to her
– She was born addicted and her lungs didn’t develop
– She was left alone, and a stranger came along
– The runners came for a neighbour and she was in the way
– The runners came for her mother and she was in the way
– The runners came for her boyfriend and she was in the way
– The runners came for no one, serving nothing but chaos and fear, and she was what they found
– Her mother left her alone in a shed while she worked or got high and she fell asleep alone and hungry and forever

Reasons Cara has lived:

– She doesn’t know but there are 8.

The multiverse business is booming, but there’s just one catch: no one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive.

Enter Cara. Of the 382 realities that have been unlocked, Cara is dead in all but eight

But on this earth, she survived. Born in the wastelands where if a basic lack of resources didn’t kill you, violence would, Cara is happy to reap the benefits of a job and a safe place in the city to call home.

But when one of her eight remaining doppelgangers dies under mysterious circumstances, Cara is plunged into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and future in ways she never could have imagined – and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.

Just like the multiverse itself, the mixture of characters, world-building and themes gave The Space Between Worlds many layers which I felt neatly came together at the end. There was action, adventure, deception, angst and romance as well as overarching themes which complemented to a bigger, more philosophical picture. I came to increasingly like the main character ‘Cara’ and understand her viewpoint on life the further into the story I got. Seeing it through her eyes allowed me to empathise with her character and my connection to her grew more and more as parts of her past and history were revealed.

At the start, I admit it took me a little while to understand how the multiverse and traversers’ abilities to walk between worlds actually happened. This is not time travelling, there are no rockets or spaceships involved, it’s more a sense of transportation from one Earth to another. The ‘science’ behind this is explained more as the novel develops but I loved that it wasn’t reliant on my knowledge of astro-/quantum physics just to keep up – it’s the story that is the main focus here. The presence of Nyame, who is almost like the God protecting the spaces between, helped to balance the scientific with spirituality which added a thought-provoking dimension to the narrative and transformed it from some of the more traditional space-travel novels out there. This balance is neatly woven throughout the story.

The many versions of Earth helped to highlight different real-life elements which pose as barriers in today’s society. The rich and elite live in Wiley City where they thrive with protection, wealth and opportunity; Ashtown showcases the hard-graft and poverty that comes with surviving in a rural wasteland. The idea of the Eldridge Institute (where Cara works) monopolising interstellar travel hints at corporationalism and the sense that totalitarian control and data-tracking are steadily becoming major parts of our everyday human existence. The Space Between Worlds also seems to throw the usual rules of altering the past/future or meeting your doppelganger out of the window. In-fact the whole plot ends up being central to the reliance of this breaking of the rules adding an interesting aspect to the whole narrative.

The novel tackles many key issues relating to mental-health such as loneliness, identity and grief. Feeling lonely on one Earth can be painful enough, but loneliness in a multiverse of 382 of them? Perhaps there’s no word for that. This feeling was made poignantly clear through Cara’s perspective. Her deep-rooted desire to find a people and place where she truly belongs runs through the heart of the entire novel. It is her exploration and experience of these ideals which enables the reader to begin to relate to her character and see her as more than just a one dimensional world-walker.

With each chapter, a new jigsaw piece was put into place to help me understand the story. There was enough action and explanation to keep me in a state of curiosity as to where the plot was going and how it could possibly end. I felt that the finale wasn’t as high-stakes and action-packed as I was expecting, especially given a previous scene in the novel, however reflecting on this I now see that it didn’t need to be. All of my questions were answered yet still leaving me some room to have my own reader speculations about where the characters’ lives could go next – in a way, that’s one of my favourite types of endings.

If you’re just starting out into the sci-fi genre, or you prefer your sci-fi novels with a little less spaceship and a bit more character development, then you would probably would find an awful lot to enjoy in The Space Between Worlds. This novel has so much to offer a reader and the constant references into what lies in the spaces between things – be it worlds, people, places, identities, emotions… completely encapsulates and resonates in the entirety of this book. There were so many quotations and phrases I highlighted which I found to be powerful and moving. For me that’s a sure sign that I thoroughly enjoyed everything The Spaces Between Worlds gave me.

You can find The Space Between Worlds and get your Doppelganger-fix here:
Goodreads
Amazon
Waterstones
Book Depository

Thanks for reading! Happy Wednesday everyone!

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – The Shadows Between Us

The Biblioshelf3 Comments

Howdy Bibliofriends!

This was my first time reading anything by Tricia Levenseller and if it’s anything to go by then it definitely won’t be the last time I read anything by her!

I received The Shadows Between Us in the Feb 2020 FairyLoot Rulebreakers box and can definitely see how this book fitted into the brief. Neither Alessandra or the Shadow King play by the rules or conform to convention. Billed as a Slytherin Romance I was expecting lots of sneaking, cunning and trickery throughout this book – let’s just say, it did not disappoint!

Book: The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller
Genre: Fantasy, Romance (YA)
Publication Date: 25th Feb 2020
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends [FairyLoot Exclusive]
Pages: 326
Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power:
1) Woo the Shadow King.
2) Marry him.
3) Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.
No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.
But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen—all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?

“They’ve never found the body of the first and only boy who broke my heart.
And they never will.
I buried Hektor Galanis in a hole so deep, even the devils of the earth couldn’t reach him.”

When your protagonist introduces the book with these lines, you know you’re going to be dealing with someone who oozes sass and feistiness. Alessandra absolutely delivered on this – imagine Downton Abbey’s Lady Mary mixed in with dash of Bellatrix Estrange and a hint of Anne Boleyn… that’s your girl!

Her determination to reach her goal was relentless and nobody was about to foil her plans no matter how powerful or what role they had at court; ‘hell hath no fury’ and all that…!

I enjoyed the change in Alessandra’s character as parts of her plan had to evolve and things didn’t necessarily go her way. She had to undergo a transformation of getting over past hurts and learning the art of compromise and teamwork. Although Alessandra’s personality comes across to the reader through narration and interactions with other characters, it also comes through in the way that she dresses.

Clothing in particular plays a huge role in this story. I love the way Levenseller picked one element of her world to focus on as the main source of description throughout. Rather than write huge chunks describing, castles, towns and kingdoms, Levenseller shows the reader the vibrancy and attitude of the Shadow King’s court through fashion. In a way, this was a brilliant move. I am a massive fan of world building and would happily read a book with an extra 150 pages just so I can get a clearer picture in my mind of the way the author wants us to view their creative universe – but to see the way in which changes at court or in people’s emotions/feelings were reflected through what they were wearing added a decadent feeling to the whole narrative. This also echoes the importance of fashion and clothing throughout history. Think back to Tudor times when certain colours and materials were only available to those with the right money for dyes and textiles; then fast-forward to the present day and think of how haute-couture is only available to those who can afford the price-tag or garner the right publicity and influence.

The plot-line was a relatively simple one to follow and with most of the narrative being dialogue, it really helped to speed up the pace of the novel and digest what was going on. In true Slytherin style, the amount of deceptions and variety of motivations from different characters helped to keep me guessing who was actually trustworthy right until the very end – but even then I didn’t think the ending would necessarily be as simple as it was.

If you like your romances with a hint of black magic, then The Shadows Between Us would probably be right up your street. This was a wickedly dark, entrancing read which had me gripped right from the first page. It is filled with secrets, court politics and a romance developed from deception. I enjoyed the way that Alessandra was a woman championing her equal rights and standing up for herself and what she believed in. She came across as a woman with ambition who was willing to work her ass off to get there, rather than stomp around pouting with a sense of entitlement. The romance between her and the Shadow King is one of my new favourite relationships from the fictional world – they are so well-suited to each other and I’m a little gutted that there isn’t a sequel just so I can see what happens next.

Have you read The Shadows Between Us? Would you recommend any other Tricia Levenseller books? What other Hogwarts House romance are you craving in your bookish lives? As always, drop me a comment to chat! 🙂

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – The Flatshare

The Biblioshelf7 Comments

Hi Bibliofriends,

I recently read The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary. I kept hearing about this book across the blogging and social media world so when I came across it for 99p on iBooks, I decided to take a punt on it.

Synopsis [from Goodreads]
Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met…
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window…

Book: The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
Publication Date: 10th April 2019
Publisher: Quercus
Pages: 400
Rating: 📚📚📚

This read was the perfectly relaxing, light-hearted novel I needed. I really like the uniqueness of Tiffy’s and Leon’s situation – even though they share the flat (and the bed) there is a strict no-meeting clause in their arrangements as they work and use the flat at alternating times. The little notes they leave behind for each other, even though they have never met, allows the reader to discover more about each character as their stories unfold. The dual narrative also compliments this perfectly – Leon has his own way of speaking by omitting some pronouns or determiners; it really does resemble the thought processes of (some) men and their actions/reactions to events happening around them. I like how Tiffy wasn’t the standard tall, thin, beautiful heroine yet also not a token of an overweight person trying to break the mould of literature. She was real, normal and so relatable (apart from her height, she’d definitely tower over me!). Her beauty came from both inside and out, and she wasn’t afraid to show off her passion for home-altered clothing and fashion.

Beneath the heart-warming tale of two people finding each other amongst their distinctive living arrangements is the story of both the dark and light sides of love. Proving that love traverses time and generations, Leon looks after an elderly gentleman called Mr. Prior and helps him to try and track down the long-lost love of his life and fellow war comrade Johnny White. This is paralleled against Tiffy’s past relationship with ex-boyfriend Justin and the traumas that she was faced with after her perception of their relationship drastically changed and she realises what Justin was truly like.  Then there is Richie, Leon’s brother who is facing an appeal for being wrongly arrested and incriminated – he adds a humorous element to the novel and allows for the theme of justice to thread throughout the tale. Not forgetting Gerty, Mo and Rachel who all contribute and add their own fun dynamics.

Beth O’Leary created such a wonderful mix of characters which I grew to be fond of and enjoyed spending literary time with. The Flatshare brought me humour, joy and a sense that even the most painful and vulnerable memories can be overcome with the right people around you to help. It also gave me my new, perfect dieting excuse… upper arm “cake weight”, which has inspired me to also come up with forearm gin weight, upper thigh chocolate weight, lower calf Doritos weight and ankle pizza weight – albeit perhaps not the healthiest influence I’ve ever taken from a novel!

Have you read The Flatshare? Do you have the perfect dieting excuse like Tiffy’s? As always, drop me a comment to chat!

T xx

Biblioshelf Musings – The Carpet Cipher

The Biblioshelf1 Comment

Hey Biblioshelf Friends!

Ever since I started reading more books in Lockdown and getting involved with BookTwitter, that little need to start requesting books on Netgalley resurfaced again! Being approved for a more popular arc still seems like a distant dream, however after scrolling through the Read Now section I came across The Carpet Cipher by Jane Thornley which sang out to my inner historical-mystery soul. Big thanks to Netgalley and the publishers BooksGoSocial / Riverflow Press for my free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Book: The Carpet Cipher by Jane Thornley
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Publication Date: 12th March 2020
Publisher: BooksGoSocial / Riverflow Press
Pages: 258 (from paperback edition)
Rating: 📚📚

Synopsis

Can a painting hold a secret safe in plain sight across seven centuries? The murder of the last member of an old Venetian family peels back the rug on a shocking truth that draws art historian and textile expert Phoebe McCabe into the fray. 

What she sees in the missing Renaissance symbology will shake the foundations of religious and cultural assumptions across two continents and point the way to a priceless hoard. It’s a secret potent enough to pitch rival factions against Phoebe and her team while destroying history as collateral damage along the way.

By the time Phoebe tracks down the truth to its final destination, she’ll need to face her greatest enemy armed with nothing but wry wit, an indomitable spirit, and what’s left of a broken heart. But nothing will stop this warrior of the ancient lost and found.

From the dark misty canals of Venice to the vivid souks of Marrakech, Phoebe and her friends are pitched against the desperate and the entitled. Who owns a treasure buried on foreign soil? Can the poor ever win against the rich? And most importantly, can love conquer religious persecution and even time itself?

If you love twisty, action-packed mysteries driven by engaging characters set in vividly drawn locales rich in historical detail, then you’ll love this first book in the Ancient Lost and Found series. Think Robert Langdon meets Lara Croft with a side of textiles.

Why Did I Want To Read This Book?

First tick: Anything set in Italy, especially with reference to the Renaissance immediately grabs my attention and makes me read the blurb.
Second tick: Symbology, secrets, mysteries, histories and my little nerdish senses get really tingly.
Third tick: “Think Robert Langdon meets Lara Croft with a side of textiles.” Are you kidding me? To me, this would be one of the greatest pairings since Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers sang Islands in the Stream! This is the bit that made me hit that ‘read now’ button! I was expecting BIG things from this pairing/strapline and reader… I was fooled.

Am I Missing Something…?

To start with, there’s the usual murder in the prologue. This I can cope with – it happens. Except here, we get told exactly what time and place the murder happens, then all of a sudden in chapter one, we are left wondering whether we are still in the same time and place of the aforementioned murder. Turns out…we weren’t – cue: head scratching.

We are also rapidly introduced to a whole bank of characters (including the protagonist Phoebe McCabe) and what feels like an entire spider web of backstories and events at how all of these people seem to know each other. For what is supposedly the first book in this new Agency of the Ancient Lost and Found Series, I feel like I’ve stumbled in halfway through. As it turns out, I actually did – cue: more head scratching.

Going back to do a quick Goodreads search and it turns out that Phoebe McCabe & Co. have been in 5-book series before which is why I felt like there was a bit of reliance on my prior knowledge of these characters’ escapades and a lot of info-dumping in the first few chapters. Whilst this awareness of the characters’ histories is not essential to the plot of The Carpet Cipher, the continuous references to past events from a different time/series made my reading experience feel a little disjointed, as if I couldn’t fully invest myself in all of the characters.

Phoebe McCabe & Co.

Phoebe herself, has a remarkable passion for textiles which bounces off the page. The references to carpets and clothing throughout the book is well-researched and clearly evident of the writer’s enthusiasm for this subject.

When I was still trying to work out what nationality Phoebe is (she works at a gallery in the UK), some of the vocabulary she used only sought to make me think she was American. Phrases like, “stuck in my craw”, “Crud, Phoebe, stop it.” and talk of ‘phyllo’ instead of filo didn’t marry up with what I would expect a British person to be saying, so is she British or is she American? Cue: even more head scratching.

She also has an over-reliance on calling the bad-guys ‘bastards’ which did grate on me towards the end. This very male-bashing attitude that radiates through her narration felt quite passive aggressive as if she has a chip on her shoulder and I found it difficult to warm to her as a character overall [from further text deduction, previous boyfriend from previous series ‘Noel’ definitely has something to do with this].

There are a whole host of other characters who feature in this story (Max, Evan, Serena, Noel, Nicolina, Seraphina, Zara, Agent Walker, Foxy, the ‘bastards’, June & Joe) but a special mention must go to Peaches. Her comedic quips and zesty attitude breathed some much-needed humour into the dialogue towards the end of the novel. I loved her Jamaicanese speech and all-around eccentricity. “Muscle Man’s coming here with Hottie on the roof?” was one of her defining moments.

The History Behind the Mystery

The plot behind this story is based around two real-life pieces of artwork; the main piece by Bartolo becoming a painting for the purposes of this story, rather than the fresco that it really is. Having looked into the real representations of these pieces of art, the author admits to taking artistic liberties with some of the elements and symbology within the pictures. The passionate historian in me was left slightly longing. Nevertheless, the conspiracy and mystery at the heart of The Carpet Cipher and the puzzle which needed to be unlocked was engaging enough to just about keep my attention span going to the end.

Notes Whilst Reading

Lastly, my e-book notes are crammed with 39(!) highlights containing grammatical/spelling errors, alongside my own utterances of questions, queries and all of the head-scratching moments that made me shout ‘huh?’ or ‘why would you do that?’ so often that I had to check whether there was a bald-patch forming on the back of my head. Here are some of my favourites:

  • “That alone was enough to induce conniptions.” – I had to use a dictionary for the word conniptions.
  • At 37% of the book it’s finally carpet time!
  • “I changed into my only non-jeans pants – leather,” – Why does everyone wear leather ‘pant-suits’ in this book?
  • “Let’s assume that everybody is innocent until proven guilty and discuss what we know together.” – Phoebe McCabe channels her inner Poirot.
  • “Seemed like a bad time to mention my mold allergy so I just coughed for effect.” – Are you kidding me, someone who works with mouldy old textiles is allergic to mould?!

And my personal favourite:

IMG_1603

Final Thoughts

Overall, it is abundantly clear through the writing that The Carpet Cipher is a work of fiction. References to real historical facts and attitudes are minimally skimmed across the surface of the text. If you’re looking for a thrill-ride full of the common tropes found in historical mystery/thrillers then this could very well be the book for you; however, if you’re looking for a narrative that is so deeply entrenched with historical accuracy that you could genuinely believe that the conspiracy is real, then perhaps this may not quite capture your imagination for long enough.

Are you a fan of historical mysteries and thrillers or a carpet addict à la Phoebe McCabe? Feel free to recommend me a conspiracy novel that is so damned good I’ll believe it’s real!  

T xx