I liked this well enough. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the Titanic and the paranormal elements. I was never entirely sure what was going on, although I did have all the pieces pretty early in the story. It is refreshing when I can’t quite put everything together. My biggest quibble is that the story could have been tightened up […]
The Long-Lost Home by Maryrose Wood: Book Review
I have listened to all of these books on audio and Katherine Kellgren’s whole-hearted narration has kept me coming back. She threw everything she had into howling at the moon, singing songs, and giving voices to both the innocent and the bad guys. I realized that Katherine had passed away before finishing the series as I added…
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: Book Review
4 Stars. As I write this, it’s been a year and a half since I listened to The Golem and the Jinni and I still think about how good it was. Then I feel a pang of guilt that I haven’t reviewed it and spread the love. So here we go. Details have faded a bit but I do remember that I loved innocent Chava and jaded Ahmad. Chava was […]
Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier: Book Review
Caitrin is on the run from a bad situation at home. With only the clothes on her back, a few coins, and her box of scribing tools, she just wants to get away. Her money runs out late one evening in the middle of nowhere. She finds her way to a village called Whistling Tor. […]
The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood: Book Review
I seriously did not think I could love an audiobook performance more than I love Katherine Kellgren’s narration of the Bloody Jack series by L. A. Meyer. And then she narrated The Mysterious Howling. Holy cow. I am in awe of Ms. Kellgren’s talent! Old men, teen girls, simpering married women, wolfish children howling at […]
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik: Book Review
Captain Will Laurence and his dragon, Temeraire–or is it the other way around?–are in something of a bind. Temeraire was meant to be a gift from the Chinese emperor to Emperor Napoleon. The Chinese people are not happy when they find out that Temeraire is a mere captain’s pet and he’s being used to wage […]
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik: Book Review
His Majesty’s Dragon begins when Captain Will Laurence’s ship has just overpowered a French ship. Napoleon is slowly conquering Europe, so any defeat of the French, no matter how small, is a big deal. As Will’s crew is inventorying the French ship’s cargo, they find something unusual: a dragon egg. But complications arise when they […]
The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg: Book Review
Ceony Twill has put herself through magic school in only a year when most people take two. She’s a smart girl and she’s hoping that her magic will be based on metal. She wants to design weapons and machines and things that matter. Instead, she gets paper. Boring old, get-it-wet-and-it-falls-apart paper. She’s crushed. She hopes […]
The Resurrectionist by E. B. Hudspeth: Book Review
Dr. Spencer Black was a brilliant doctor whose career was derailed by an obsession with mythological creatures. He believed that anatomical deformities were not so much mutations as throwbacks to earlier days in the evolutionary timeline. He believed he could prove this by recreating creatures from fable and myth. If he could make them viable, […]
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray: Book Review
Gemma Doyle is living in India, but she desperately wants to move back to England. As 16-year-old girls will do, she’s bickering constantly with her mother over it. One day, in the midst of an Indian market, tragedy strikes and Gemma gets sent back to England. But she also starts having strange visions. Can the […]
Journey to Inuyama by Lian Hearn: Book Review
Picking up exactly where Episode 1 left off, Episode 2 finds Takeo and Kaede en route to a marriage at Lord Iida’s stronghold. Takeo is still bent on revenge and Kaede is just trying to survive this brutal world of men. There’s still a lot of potential in this series, it’s just not getting places […]