The Lost Queen

I was really excited to read this book and I think I must have misunderstood what it was about. I thought it was a fantasy book that was going to be like an Arthurian legend type. It was actually historical fiction which I also like but at the same time I read it when I was in the mood for a particular type of book and it was not that.

That being said. I had not thought much about this part of history and it is actually interesting to think about the Christianization of Britan. However, the author has this story taking a very negative view of Christianity which is the author's prerogative and I don't actually mind reading critiques of Christianity but I don't particularly enjoy reading antiChristian content that is more focused on bashing. But again this could be a personal bias.

I just don't know if I enjoyed this book or not. I felt like it dragged on a bit and I also wanted to know what was happening. I didn't feel a strong connection to the main character and the story frustrated me at times as well. I also felt like relationships lacked depth which made the love triangle very hard to believe.

I haven't yet decided if I want to read the next book. If I do I think I will do it on audio book from the library if I can. It was a lot of energy to read the physical book and I would rather spend it on a book physical book that I really want to read the physical copy of.

The Waking Forest

I read The Waking Forest over the summer and I am not sure what to make of it. I checked it out because I had heard of it and it had popped up in my Instagram. I had no idea what the book was about and had no expectations. I will admit that the expectations I had were very low. I am pretty sure I wanted to read it because I liked the cover so much.

I was a bit confused by the beginning of this book and eventually figured out the plot. The book seemed very flowy and loose and also very much like a fairy tale. I am not sure it was quite my cup of tea. I prefer more structure and more character development.

The romance that was also in this book felt super insta-love. They met in a dream and then he appeared in the attic later and then they were suddenly in love. I just struggled with the whole premise and how we jumped into the story and I wanted more development. The relationships also didn't feel quite genuine. Everyone was close and loved each other dearly but it felt like there was no foundation for the relationship.

Overall 2.5/5 stars.

Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

I was skeptical of this book at first even though I kept hearing so many wonderful things about it. I listened to it on audiobook and at first I hated the main character. I found him very difficult to relate to and pretty much a lot of things I don't like, but as the book progressed he grew on me and grew as a character and now I quite like him.

The main character is a bisexual young man in Europe in the 17th century. He is also in love with his best friend. There were so many themes of talking about sexuality, race, and gender and how they all intersect and oppression. There is even some discussion around ableism. Those were fantastic to read about. There is a trigger warning for some strong homophobia and abuse.

The story itself required a bit of a suspension of disbelief there is an also sci-fi-like element and a big mystery and the characters are running around Europe causing all kinds of havoc. I did find myself laughing out loud in my car while listening as the book was so funny. I recommended this book to many of my friends as a wonderful story.

I do wish there had been more talk about substance abuse and addiction and the intersection of those with trauma. Those elements were all there but just not discussed or explored as thoroughly as they could have been in this book. overall this was a solid 4/5 stars for me. I look forward to reading the spin-off sequel A lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy.

Review: The Grisha Trilogy

I finally got around to reading the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. I am torn on how to rate this. I enjoyed it but it didn't wow me the way Six of Crows duology did. I think this is Bardugo's first series or at least one of her earlier writings but and I think you can tell. I will say that if you want to read King of Scars you do need to read this series or else Kind of Scars will make no sense.

I think the thing that made me the most confused about this book is the religion. I felt like Leigh Bardugo tried to base the religion of Ravka on the Russian Orthodox Church without actually understanding the Russian Orthodox Church or its connection with Russian culture. I cannot don't expect things to match exactly when you are parodying but there were things like the roles of saints and the Apparate that confused me and I was unclear how they related to the church. Maybe it is because I am Orthodox that it didn't make sense and wouldn't bother someone who isn't Orthodox.

I struggled to related to Alina and spoiler I do not agree with Alina and Mal being the final couple. I totally wanted Alina to be with Nicolai because Nicolai was the best character in this whole series. Honestly, the series would be 10 times better if there was more Nicolai. I read through these books pretty quickly so I might need to reread to have a more clear picture of what wasn't quite clicking for me about these books.

Side note: I specifically bought these covers because I wanted the onion domes. I am really disappointed that the new covers do not have onion domes.

Review: To Kill A Kingdom

This book originally caught my eye because it was described as a Little Mermaid retelling. I love the Little Mermaid and have loved it since I was a little girl, so of course, I was interested in this book. I will say that the resemblance to the little mermaid is very slight and I would say that the Little Mermaid was more a jumping off point for the story because it is completely its own story and I LOVED it.

The main characters are Lyra who is the daughter of the Siren queen and Elyan who is a prince but also a pirate/siren hunter. Through a series of events, Lyra is punished by her mother and turned into a human and ends up on Elyan's ship with his crew. I don't want to spoil too much of the book but that is the basic framework of the story.

I listened to this book on Audible and I have to say that that also impacted my experience of the book because it was read by two different people for the two different perspectives. The woman who read for Lyra was just amazing. When she read the title of the chapters which was always the name of the character it set the tone of the chapter. When toward the end her reading of the name conveyed urgency and emotion.

The story was quick paced and also explores what it means to be human and also what love is. The is a lot of political drama happening as well. The romance that is in the story is important and part of the plot but I wasn't put off by that. I think it actually added to the richness of the story.

Overall this book was amazing and I would highly recommend picking it up and the audiobook version from Audible is wonderful.

Favorite Reads

I read several books last year but I have to say that my top three favorites were The Savior's Champion, Crooked Kingdom, and Blood Water Paint.

The reason these three I have chosen as my top three favorites from the last year are how they have stood out and how I still think about them.

Crooked Kingdom stood out to be because spoiler it made me cry. I was upset. I still haven't quite got over the ending. It also stood out to me because of the ideas around prejudice and changing one's perspective and ideas about another group of people. The diverse cast of characters is also something I think about a lot. I hold it up as an example of books should be diverse. I hope to read more books with just as many diverse and wonderful characters.

The Savior's Champion stands out to me because mainly that fantastic concent scene. I am still not over it. It just blew me away. It is hard to not be spoiled for any other book and how other author's write about consent. I also really enjoyed the plot of the story and am very excited for the next book the Jenna is writing.

Where to even begin with Blood Water Paint? It is just so unapologetically feminist in every page that I still think about individual quotes. I think about the feminist retellings of Judith and Susanna. I also loved reading Artemesia's voice as she tells her story and the challenges she faced. I loved how the author moved between telling the story in prose and poetry.

What have been your top 3 favorite books from the past year?

No....Sorry Not a Feminist Story

I don't remember where I heard about this story but I was interested in fairytale retellings and this story is a Red Ridinghood retelling. I thought it would be great, there were werewolves which harkens back to some of the oldest versions of the fairytale. It also popped up as being mentioned as a possible feminist read. Honestly, I have never been so disappointed in my life over a book.

Where do I start?

First, let's start with the older sister and her friendship with the 18 almost 20 something-year-old dude. They seemed close it seemed like a logical romantic pairing. But The older sister is disfigured from a werewolf attack as a child. I thought this would be great let's show how disability or conventional beauty doesn't matter. Wrong. Instead at the end of the story, the older sister goes off to happily hunt werewolves by her lonesome. Supposedly this is best for her. I just was so disappointed. Rather than the older sister learning to open up to others and to allow herself to be open to love from another she is just sent off and shooed out of the story to make way for the "real" romantic pairing.

Now we get to the part I really hate. The younger sister. She is around 13 I think in the book and so hyper-sexualized. She also has a crush on the older boy. I say boy but really he is a man a full grown adult. I at first thought okay harmless crush happens. I also as a 13-year-old had crushes on much older dudes but knew nothing would ever happen and that any actual relationship would be wildly inappropriate. Not in this story. Nope. In fact, the two actually "fall in love" with each other. There is no mention whatsoever of the huge age gap or the fact that their relationship is actually illegal in some states. I just could not believe what I was reading.

This book disappointed me on so many levels. It had the opportunity to explore so many much more appropriate and different ideas. I also felt lied to that this would be a feminist read. It was really the opposite.

Review: Furyborn

I keep going back and forth on whether to continue with this series or not. I have to admit it was the hardest book for me to finish. Currently, my plan is to try and continue on audiobook but if the next books never make it to audiobook I don't think I will continue otherwise.

First off, the worldbuilding is fantastic, and the whole concept is really very original. The idea of it was what made me fascinated and want to read it in the first place. Blood Queen and Sun Queen, angels and saints, magic, and all that jazz. It is a well-constructed world. The characters not so much.

I didn't like Elyana. I have no patience for her. I think what frustrated me was that we are told she killed people and did the terrible things she did to survive but I wasn't really shown that. It made it hard for me to believe. Also if she had that kind of talent why not use it to fight the empire in a gorilla warfare kind of way? It wasn't clear to me why she made the choices she did. We were also told that at heart she is a good person but all I ever saw was a selfish person who was willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of people who were fighting for a cause of justice just because she couldn't deal with facing the suffering of people and selfishly wanted to just do her own thing. I just have not patience for that kind of character.

As for Rielle, I actually related to her way more. She seemed like a much more complicated and interesting character and I actually felt like her actions told me more about her as a person. Where we are told things with Elyana but never shown all of Rielle is shown through her actions. I want to like this book so bad but I disliked one of the main characters so much that it makes it hard for me to want to continue reading.

Another thing that irritated me is Elyana not believing the "big reveal" when it is revealed to her. Honestly, I knew it by chapter 3. So for a character to not believe and willfully not is just irritating as a reader. It is so obvious to literally the reader and every other character but Elyana didn't want the believe it and flat out refused.

Have you read Furyborn? What did you think?

Review: Middlemarch

I first watched the BBC production of Middlemarch and was fascinated by the story. It intrigued me enough that I knew I would want to read the book eventually. However, I found the size of the book and that it was a classic to be a bit of a problem. I struggle with really long classical books (see Charles Dickens).

As I have said before I started and Audiobook journey and this was one of the books I picked up to listen too. It did not disappoint. I greatly enjoyed the plot.

I will say that it is a 35-hour long book. It takes a lot of time to read through and listen. The plot takes a while to take shape and there are many characters to follow with many different stories. I will admit that I got lost a few times and had to remind myself who was who and who was in love with whom.

Dorothea was an interesting character and the introduction of the book was in fact quite feminist. In the discussion of how women were expected to behave and what was expected of them. I got annoyed with a few characters who I thought were ridiculous and had no clue about how the real world worked. Just out of touch with reality.

I am going to look for more books by George Eliot in the future.

Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell

I picked this book out from because I loved North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell and had also read Mary Barton. I will say that Ruth was a much more somber a moralistic tale. I think the fact that Elizabeth Gaskell was the wife of a parson and cared deeply about matters of faith comes through in this book.

Ruth is what in Victorian times would be called a "fallen woman". She makes choices that place her in the company of a man who only seeks to use her. The rest of the story is the story of her redemption and repentance. It was interesting for me to read it as a tale of Christian morality in  Victorian England.

It was interesting for me as well to think about it as an Orthodox Christian. Elizabeth Gaskell was protestant belonging to the church of England but there were many ideas that I could agree with.

In a feminist perspective, this novel would not be seen favorably, but I think feminist should still also read it because it can provide a better understanding of women's experiences in the past being a novel about a Victorian woman by a Victorian woman. That in and of itself being a novel by a woman and about women would be interesting to read.

Skeptical of Audio Dramatizations?

I will admit that I was unsure of audiobook dramatizations. I know that radio dramatizations existed in the past and were very popular but I just wasn't sure if I would like them.

Well, audible was doing a deal to pick out a free book for members and I decided to bite the bullet and pick up the audio dramatizations of Emma. Emma Thompson was in it so I was sure that that would make it good. However, I have a history of struggle with Emma. It is probably the most difficult of Jane Austen's novels for me to get into. I have tried multiple times to read the physical book and have gotten maybe 2 chapters in and just couldn't anymore. I have watched movies and mini-series of the story and enjoyed them.

I have to say I was impressed with this dramatization. I very thoroughly enjoyed it. It has made me want to find more audio dramatizations and an audiobook of Emma. I loved it so much that when I had to get out of my car to head inside to work I was disappointed.

If you were skeptical of audio dramatizations or struggle with Emma like me or are a Jane Austen lover,  I would highly recommend this particular audio dramatization to you.

Review: The Savior's Champion

After reading Jenna's first book Eve: The Awakening, I knew I needed to read her next book that was a fantasy novel. I was so pumped for this book and I wasn't disappointed.

This book is so diverse with so many different characters. I adored Tobias. I did want to know a little more about the world this book was taking place in. Like more about the history of the savior and perhaps more about the fictional country, but I am hoping to get more of that in the sequel that Jenna is writing.

My absolute favorite thing about this book though was the consent scene. I didn't know how much I needed to see consent so explicitly written into a story until I read this. I wanted to cry. There wasn't a big deal made about it it just happened. Why do more books not have consent written into them? We need that. this alone puts it onto a feminist reads list.

I will admit that I skimmed the fight scenes. I know Jenna likes to write more gory and intense fight scenes. They are not my thing and not something I go out of my way to find in a book, but the rest of the book is so good that I didn't feel annoyed with those scenes. I just skimmed them for details and then dug into the juicy parts I wanted to sink my teeth into.

On a different note as a dyslexic person, I am so proud of myself for making through a 500-page novel. I never thought that would happen.

Review: The Last Queen

I have not read anything by C. W. Gortner before and while I had heard of Juana La Loca before I had not paid much attention to her. I am extremely disappointed in not look into her story sooner. This book was just wonderful. I originally checked this book out from the library but I loved it so much that I just had to purchase myself a physical copy.

Juana is written as such a relatable character one you so want to succeed and see her be triumphant but I know her story from history and I know how it ends for her. It just broke my heart. I so wanted an ending that was a happily ever after and totally not historically founded.

This book is so well researched and Gortner provides a wonderful historical note of what he did change to make the plot flow better. I always enjoy historical fiction that is well researched much better than poorly researched.

There are a lot of fascinating feminist themes about women and women who were in positions of power historically and how men treated them and how they were undermined. This goes on my list of feminist reads.

This book does come with a trigger warning for sexual assault and domestic violence.

Review: Eve The Awakening

I found Jenna Moreci's youtube channel and loved her videos so much that I bought her book Eve: the Awakening. I can say that it was my first science fiction book that I had read and I was not disappointed.

The book is quick moving and Eve is a relatable character as an outcast. I enjoyed the themes of discussing racism and segregation in a futuristic setting.

Now, normally I get annoyed with calling the strong female character a woman who is also super strong and "badass".  I am of the opinion that strong female characters are female characters who are written well and with depth. Eve as a female character covers both of these.

I also loved the diversity of characters, there were characters who were people of color and who were also LGBT. These characters just exist and are written as real people. I like a discussion of LGBT and race issues but sometimes it is just nice to have characters who exist in a book without being part of social commentary.

I really want Jenna Moreci to write a sequel to this book. I NEED it!

Review: The Night Circus

From my instagram

The writing of The Night Circus makes me feel reminiscent of my childhood. It is written in a way that reminds of other books in the Sonlight Curriculum. It is beautiful just beautiful.

I love the idea of the plot and the construction of the circus. I believe this falls into the genre of magical realism which isn't normally a genre that I read.

It can be a bit confusing at first to follow the plot as it jumps between two timelines. You have to pay close attention to the dates at the beginning of each chapter.

I actually quite liked the characters as well. Celia was a fascinating character to me and her amazing talent. I wanted a little more the understand Marco. The romance between the two didn't feel real to me though. I wanted it to not feel quite so sudden. We were kind of told that the Circus was the love letter between the two but I never really felt like we were shown how it was. They rarely talked to each other and it just felt lacking to make the romance believable.

Overall I would read this book again and would recommend this book to others. Have you read The Night Circus? What did you think of the book?

Review: Six of Crows Duology

From my Instagram 

Six of Crows kept popping up in my reading suggestions and I eventually got around to reading it. It was fantastic. I loved the diverse cast of characters and the darker plot I enjoyed as well. I was also very excited about the basis of the country Ravka on Russia.

I think I found Kaz a bit hard to relate to. I enjoy darker stories but I struggle to relate to characters who do not care about other people and only seek to look out for themselves. I cannot relate to them at all and find them incredibly difficult to tolerate. I adore Inej though.

I most related to Nina and her love of food and how she has had to be strong through a lot of difficulties and even how she grows and her own opinions about the world change. She is also bisexual representation. Mathias is a character who grows the most in the second book and I think his character growth is the most interesting and poignant for the times we live in.

Jesper was a fun character and is great for more bisexual and characters of color representation. Wylan is also a great representation of a gay character.

This is a great read for diverse characters and I would put it on a feminist YA must-read list.

The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross

I listened to this book on Audible recently and it was fantastic. I was intrigued by the description and picked it up for a free credit.

"Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron. Growing up in Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions - art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge - Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. However, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true: she is left without a patron.

Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, she reluctantly accepts. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana - the rival kingdom of Valenia - and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the throne.

With war brewing, Brienna must choose which side she will remain loyal to: passion or blood."

I would say that the Irish/Scottish influence of Maevana drew me in as well as the idea of a "Queens Relm" instead of a kingdom. I will say that the story was very slow moving in the beginning and it took about halfway through for it to actually get interesting and to the point of the plot. It doesn't particularly bother me when a book is slow moving as long as I am in the correct mood. If it is slow moving and I am more wanting something fast then it is not what I want. I did enjoy the set up of the plot and the world building involved.

Overall this book was fantastic and I would highly recommend. If you are looking for a subtle feminist read this book would fall under that description. I don't feel that it needed a sequel but there is one and I am going to read it as well.

Wonder Woman by Leigh Bardugo

If you had told me that this book was written by Rick Riordan and set in the Percy Jackson universe I would have believed you. It felt like a Percy Jackson book and that is probably what I loved most about. Personally, I like to pretend that Wonder Woman is in the same universe as Percy Jackson.

The story is fast paced and moves quickly and told from two perspectives. I think I might have preferred the story to be told entirely from Diana's perspective but I understand why the author chose to tell it from not just hers. We get an outside perspective on Diana and how others see her and that does add some character depth and in the end, did help me to have a better picture of her.

The plot twist was unexpected and there were several unexpected plot twists. I think as far as a feminists perspective there is a diversity of characters and representation. I am not sure there were any particularly strong feminist themes in the novel but I do think it deserves to be on a list of feminist books because there are several female main characters and they are all well written and not just two dimensional.

I honestly wish there was a sequel to this book with another story from Wonder Woman. I want to know if Diana's home struggles are resolved.

Blood, Water, Paint by Joy McCullough

Have you ever read a book that made you feel so much that you want to cry? You feel so passionately about the story and characters that you cannot express? You want to share with others but don't know how? That is what Blood, Water, Paint is for me.

I knew Artemesia's story as I had listened to several podcasts about her life. One from The History Chicks podcast and the other is a podcast from Art Curious that focuses on Artemesia's most famous painting, Judith Slaying Holofernes. I knew the basic plot since the book is told from Artemesia's perspective. I was not prepared for how unapologetically feminist this book was. It took my breath away.

 This book is told primarily through poetry. The sections in poetry are from Artemesia's perspective but there are sections that are in prose. I believe the prose sections are flashes to the past of Artemesia's mother retelling the stories of Suzana and Judith from the Bible. These are not retellings that follow the exact Biblical text but rather a feminist retelling of them. I find it interesting how Suzana and Judith are both stories from the old testament Apocrypha or rather Apocryphal for Protestants. These books are in the Orthodox and Catholic Bibles. 

I want to talk about Suzana and Judith and Artemesia relates to them. For Susana she feels little control over her situation and is taken advantage of by the men around her and her life is controlled by them. Judith takes control of her life she doesn't let men control and destroy her and I don't really feel that Suzana does either but to me the two figures seem to contrast. They are characters through which Artemesia processes what happened to her and understands her life.

Overall I don't think I could ever express my depth of love for this book. I originally checked it out from the library but I will be purchasing a copy to keep forever.

Jane the Killer

The best summary I can give of this book is that is basically a Jane Eyre retelling except Jane is a serial killer. This book was classified under mystery at my library which I didn't understand because we know exactly who Jane killed. However, there is a mystery in the book. so I do understand why it was classified as such. Also, while I would best describe this as a retelling, the character of Jane Steele actually reads the novel Jane Eyre and is telling us her story because Jane Eyre's life is so similar to her own.

Jane Eyre is one of my favorite classic novels, so I was very interested in reading a retelling. I was both intrigued by the idea of Jane Eyre being a killer and also slightly disturbed. However, Jane only seems to kill men who hurt women which isn't really a good justification for killing anyone but I suppose revenge killings make her more relatable to the reader.

The novel does also discuss topics like colonizations with the East India company and how they invaded India. I am not sure the novel entirely covers the topic to satisfaction but I am also not sure that is the novel's purpose either. However, there is diversity in the cast of characters that is amazing. Many characters are characters of color and while not explicitly stated there is an asexual character and a lesbian character. The sexuality of the characters is not made a big deal of in the book and issues around sexuality in Victorian England are not covered and I actually like that. These characters just existed and that was one of the most refreshing things I have read. The words asexual and lesbian are not used to describe the characters in the novel but I think that is entirely appropriate to the era as those terms are fairly recent terms. To use those terms would actually have been historically inaccurate.

I want to speak about the love interest in the book which if you have read Jane Eyre you know exactly who it is. Though none of the characters' names are the same except for Jane's first name. Mr. Thornfield is wonderful. He is so much better than Mr. Rochester. There were questionable things about Mr. Rochester that make him a bit problematic and semi manipulative. Mr. Thornfield is not like that at all. He still has is issues and flaws. An interesting character is never perfect but Mr. Thornfield is just wonderful.

I honestly really want a sequel to this book so I can just read about Jane and Mr. Thornfield solving local crimes together. I am so bummed that there isn't.