Month: February 2019

The Next Person You Meet in Heaven Review

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  • Author: Mitch Albom
  • Series: The Five People You Meet in Heaven Duology #2
  • Genre: Fiction
  • No. of pages: 213
  • Date read: 16.02.19 – 18.02.19
  • Rating: 4 stars

I read the previous book on holiday in Greece. It was a spur of the moment purchase and I wasn’t sure I was going to like it. I ended up loving it and that book has been one of my favourite books of all time. I was quite nervous going into this one as I was worried it wouldn’t match up to the first one. I was very stupid to have worried so much!! This book was soooo good. Just as good as the first one.

Plot: The accident that killed Eddie (the main protagonist on the first book) left a mark on Annie. It took her left hand, which needed to be surgically reattached. Injured, scarred, and unable to remember why, Annie’s life is forever changed by a guilt-ravaged mother who whisks her away from the world she knew. Bullied by her peers and haunted by something she cannot recall, Annie struggles to find acceptance as she grows. When, as a young woman, she reconnects with Paulo, her childhood love, she believes she has finally found happiness. The book starts with Annie marrying Paulo. But when her wedding night day ends in an unimaginable accident, Annie finds herself on her own heavenly journey—and an inevitable reunion with Eddie, one of the five people who will show her how her life mattered in ways she could not have fathomed.

I don’t normally read these highly inspriational books. I don’t want to they don’t appeal to me. I don’t like to self-reflect but with the meaningful messages that were introduced into this novel you can’t help but look back and view your life differently. Albom is not screaming down your throat “APPRECIATE LIFE MORE” he is just trying to help turn negative expereinces into positive ones and trying to give a level of reassurane and comfort to those who are sturggling with deep personal issues. The novel is very light and easy to read so I think this helps in Albom’s case.

I loved the character of Annie. You go on this journey with her through self-acceptance, forgiveness and heartbreak. You can;t help but fall in love or at least really like her. You can understand the grudges she holds, the anxiety she tries to deal with. I personally really connected with her.

The ending, I did not expect at all. You feel with books like this that you know where it’s going and I found it really refreshing when Albom subverted my expectations with what was going to happen next. I tried so hard not to cry on the bus!

This is the kind of book that I think everyone needs to read at least once. It’s very impactful and moving and I think everyone could learn something from it. Pick it up!!

The next book I will be reviewing is Legendary by Stephanie Garber. This book is part of my 2019 sequels challenge as it read Caraval last year and also it is part on the ONTD Reading Challenge for the month of February which is read a book that contains romance or two characters experiencing a break up.

The Monogram Murders Review

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  • Author: Sophie Hannah
  • Series: New Hercule Poirot Mysteries #1
  • Genre: Murder Mystery
  • No. of pages: 388
  • Date Read: 12.02.19 – 15.02.19
  • Rating: 3.5 stars

This was a book I was really excited for. I was really interested to see what my opinions would be on Hannah’s version of Poirot. I have only read 4 Poirot books but I have watched multiple episodes of the TV show starring David Suchet. I feel that Suchet’s portrayal is the most accurate portrayal of Poirot so I went in with that performance in mind.

PLOT:  Hercule Poirot’s quiet supper in a London coffee house is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done. Later that night, Poirot learns that three guests at a fashionable London hotel have been murdered and a cufflink has been placed in each one’s mouth. Could there be a connection with the frightened woman? While Poirot struggles to put together the bizarre pieces of the puzzle, the murderer prepares another hotel bedroom for a fourth victim. In the hands of internationally bestselling author Sophie Hannah, Poirot plunges into a mystery set in 1920s London – a diabolically clever puzzle that can only be solved by the talented Belgian detective and his ‘little grey cells’. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

POSITIVES

The plot was really interesting. I really enjoy serial killers stories and when I read the synopsis of this story I had to just pick it up. What I loved about the plot is how intricate it was. I can’t say too much as I am trying to keep this spoiler free and with murder mysteries, you can’t say too much or it will ruin the novel. Let’s just say its a very detailed plot with a lot of interestings factors raised.

The big reveal at the end was really satisfying. This is probably the first murder mystery where I had no idea who it could be. Normally, I would think as I read about who it could be but with this book I consumed it so fast I didn’t have to think about who the murderer could be. When I found out the who, how, why I thought it was done really well. All I will say is it was a very Agatha Christie ending, so if you love her kind of reveals you will love this one.

I loved the variety of female characters in this story. All the women in this story vary in some way or another. I never felt I was reading a carbon-copy of your basic 1930’s woman. They were all interesting and, like with all mysteries, had something to hide. I really enjoyed reading about incredibly layered female characters, I would have to say my favourite character was Margarent Ernst.

I enjoyed the POV of Edward Catchpool, I think he was a good choice as the main character. As someone who likes to try and figure out who the murderer could be it is advantageous to have someone straight-forward thinking like Catchpool explaining the story rather than Poirot so you can think of all the ways the murders could have happened. If you read the story through Poirot’s mind it’s not just as fun becasue you would already know the awnsers.

NEGATIVES

To be honest, I didn’t particularly care for Hannah’s version of Poirot sadly I found him to be rude and unlikable which was disappointing. Sadly, I found him to be condescending and lacking the warmth I am so used to. Overall, the portrayal was fine it was similar to Christie’s version but there were just certain elements that put me off him.

Hannah gave some unnecessary backstory to Catchpool that, if removed from the story, wouldn’t affect the progression of the plot. I didn’t really see the point in adding this character points in. They weren’t expanded enough in the story to really warrant being used at all. This may come into play for later novels as a recurring theme we see with this character but I am not so sure. It came across as points that were meant to be important for the characters development but just weren’t explained or given any detail. It just seems unnecessary.

As mentioned before, I really like the intricate and detailed plot but when it came to the big reveal at the end, it felt like there was a lack of structure in how Hannah was going to explain the motive and how the victims were killed. The explanation was a bit all over the place which led to alot of confusion.

The next book I will be reviewing is The Next Person You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. The highly awaited sequel that has me feeling all the feelings.

The Arm of the Sphinx Review

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  • Author: Josiah Bancroft
  • Series: The Books of Babel #2
  • Genre: Fantasy/Steampunk
  • No. of pages: 448
  • Date Read: 09.02.19 – 12.02.19
  • Rating: 4.5 stars
  • Challenge: 2019 sequels

Another brilliant instalment to an incredible series by Mr. Bancroft! This was probably my highest anticipated book for 2019. I read Senlin Ascends last April and loved it! I was a bit nervous getting into this that it might not match up to my expectations but I couldn’t of been more wrong!

Bancroft’s writing is exceptional. I just love the way he writes. It draws you in and paints a perfect picture for you. I was about 4 pages into the book and fell back in love with this story purely based on Bancroft’s writing. It stands out as probably my favoirte writing style.

The world that Bancroft has created is so inventive. I loved re-entering this scary but inticing world and it was so much fun to learn more about the features and the history of the tower. I think it was a brilliant expansion on a world that was set up really well in the first installment.

I love the representation of women in this book. All the women in this book have a variety of different qualities whether it’s strength, wisdom or curiosity. And despite these differing qualities, each woman is presented as strong in her own way and I loved it. We had Iren’s strength, Voleta’s curiosity, Madame Bhata’s intelligence. No women is shown to be less than the other. Especially when it comes to the women of the Stone Cloud, they all bring something key to the team which helps them succeed in what they set out to do. I love seeing a strong woman in novels but what I loved about this story is we get not just one strong women but a good number of strong women. We also see a variety of women of colour which also makes me happy.

All the new characters introduced, like in Senlin Ascends, have such important roles to play in the story and continuing the narrative and it just shows the thorough detail Bancroft has put into this book. Every decision made, in this story, has a consequence or level of importance in progressing the plot and I love that about this book.

I loved the friendship between the crew of the Stone Cloud. They are a rag-tag group of individuals forced together and they form this amazing unlikely bond. They all disagree and fall out but ultimately look out for one another which was an interesting dynamic. I also loved how we got to focus a bit on each crew member and learn it a bit more about them as people. The first book was all about Senlin and his journey but this story felt for about the group as a whole rather than Senlin specifcally.

However, this book does feel more like a set-up book for the following novels to come. The second half of the book felt very stand still in, terms of action, as Bancroft had to set up points that would be important for the rest of the series. I ultimately didn’t mind this, as loads of interesting plot points and character developments were made and introduced to the story. That ended up with me asking more questions and created more tension but not a lot of action really happened in this novel compared to the first book.

I am so excited to pick up his next book as I feel all the setting up he’s done in this book will come to full fruition later on and I want to see it all unfold. The next book I will be reviewing is The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah.

January Wrap Up

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This is just a small post to cover all the books I read in the month of January. I read 4 books this month, which are listed below alongside the review I wrote about it. So please give them a read and let me know what you think!

The Light Fantastic – Terry Pratchett (4.5 stars)

https://indiareads.home.blog/2019/01/06/the-light-fantastic-review/

Fire and Heist – Sarah Beth Durst (2 stars)

https://indiareads.home.blog/2019/01/13/fire-and-heist-review/

The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R Tolkien (3 stars)

https://indiareads.home.blog/2019/01/27/the-fellowship-of-the-ring-review/

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (5 stars)

https://indiareads.home.blog/2019/02/03/nevermoor-the-trials-of-morrigan-crow-review/

Obsidio Review

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  • Author: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
  • Series: The Illuminae Files #3
  • Genre: Sci-fi
  • No. of pages: 615
  • Date read: 01.02.19 – 08.02.19
  • Rating: 4 stars
  • Challenge: 2019 sequels and ONTD Reading Challenge: Feb (Read a romance or a book that includes a break-up)

WOW! What an amazing end to an amazing series!!! This book is incredibly emotional and I nearly cried numerous times while reading this! This is the first series I have finished in a longggg time! I’m trying to be consistent in getting through series hence why I am doing this 2019 sequels challenge. Check out this post to read more about that.

POSITIVES:

The Illuminae Files is most well know for its dossier style presentation where the pages look like a bunch of files. There are transcripts, drawings and normal prose. I felt that this added to the story so much in terms of enjoyability for me, it made for a really interesting reading experience

I feel that the story handles morality incredibly well. The theme of life and death, murder and survival run like waves throughout the series and not as much as it does in this book. It poses a lot of questions like, “Is it worth sacrificing 100 lives to save 101 more?” What I also loved was how the authors would give names and sometimes a small bit of background to unknown characters who we never meet. For example, The list of people killed on Kerenza IV after BeiTech take control and the names of the pilots who die in the fight to capture the Magellan. I feel this book really shows the reader the horror of war and the countless people on all sides that are left nameless and forgotten.

I loved AIDAN’s role in the plot and his impact on the story as a whole throughout the series. AIDAN is my favourite character. One of my favourite literary characters of all time. I think he is so intriguing to read about. I really liked the sections where we got to read his thoughts, they were very insightful and again made you question morality in so many ways. He was so horrified but also heart-breaking.

All the characters were great! I loved how the authors would make you so attached to every single side character which you know is stupid becuase most of them would die but you can’t help but root for them all the same!

But I would have to say that Hanna and Kady were by far, the best characters in the series as a whole! I loved their strength, their love for their friends and family, their perseverance. I really enjoyed their budding friendship as well, it was good to see two strong women supporting each other wholeheartedly. In fact, all the women in this book were powerful ass women and it was so enjoyable to read about them and also to read about a variety of different female characters, with a lot of women in positions of power!!!

One of the authors strongest suits is their diversity! These books had numerous POC characters, characters from the LGBTQ community, characters with disabilities and characters going through trauma and mental health struggles. There is a lot of representation in this book. That being said I would have liked to see more representation within the core group. The core group is made up of heterosexual, white, characters excluding Asha who I believe is a woman of colour and we do see disability representation in Ella. That being said despite the lack of diversity in the core group it is more than made up for with the rest of the characters. What I also loved is that this representation is normalised and we find out a character is POC or LGBTQ through passing comments o snippets of conversation which is satisfying to read as it’s not done for the sake of it but to show the diverse culture of the world and that also war can affect everyone from race, sexuality, gender etc.

I felt that Kaufman and Kristoff have really mastered writing chaos. I found myself stressing out numerous times when chaos ensued or there was a fight/disagreement. They could really keep you on the edge of your seats! I think this is due to the brilliant characterisation and variety of personalities created as well as incredible pacing.

I was really interested in AIDAN’s obsession with Kady, I thought it was a really cool dynamic to the story. Intially, I wasn’t sure it was going to work very well as I am not a massive fan of AI storylines but again, I think this was done very well.

I loved all the romance. I didn’t feel like any of it was forced. I felt that we were given a couple of different kinds of relationships within this book. You have Ezra and Kady, who have a very secure relationship with a lot of trust and support. Nik and Hanna who start slightly on the rocks, with them trying to come to terms with what happened in Gemina and where that leaves them and their relationship now. You then have Asha and Rhys who are the broken-up couple trying to see if they can give it another shot as well as being star-crossed lovers. And finally, we have unrequited love with AIDAN and Kady. I am glad each relationship was very different and not just the same cliche relationship you see a lot in stories.

Also, the ending was incredibly satisfying!!!

NEGATIVES:

While I loved all the characters within the story, I did feel like Rhys was the exact same character as Ezra. Because the difference between Ezra and Nik is so strong it stuck out to me the similarities between Ezra and Rhys. I did feel Rhys wasn’t bringing much else to the story personality wise, it was a good thing he was initially working for the other side else I would have not been interested in his character at all!

I did find some of the dialogue to be very cringey and it was very obvious it was two adults who don’t know how teenagers speak trying to write teenage dialogue. Certain phrases were used that made me roll my eyes a couple of times which was very disappointing.

The next book I will be reading is The Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft. I read his first book Senlin Ascends and it became my favourite book of 2018! Let’s see if this one is just as good.

Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow Review

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  • Author: Jessica Townsend
  • Series: Nevermoor #1
  • Genre: Fantasy and Middle Grade
  • No. of page: 384
  • Date Read: 25.01.19 – 31.01.19
  • Rating: 5 stars (Favourite)

Words cannot express how amazing and magical this book was! Part of me wishes I didn’t devour this book as quickly as I did and just read it slowly, taking in every single detail. But if I love a book I end up reading them so quickly! I will definitely be re-reading this in the future.

Plot:Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she’s blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks–and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday. But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor. It’s then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city’s most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart–an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests–or she’ll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate.

I genuinely have no bad things to say about this book so it will be purely positive things. I feel I might have peaked early this year.

The imagination in this book was amazing, it surprises me, with every book I read, in the vast creativity of authors where they can come up with such fun and imaginative ideas. This book is no exception! This book exuded magic and imagination, I felt like magic was spilling out of the pages! While I don’t like to compare books to other books, I definitely felt the same kind of magical feeling that I got when I read Harry Potter for the first time. I love the Hotel Deucalion with its varying rooms. I loved especially how the hotel changes the resident’s room to match their personality. It was fun to see Morrigan’s room develop as the story went on. I loved the brolly rail I thought that was super fun and I was impressed in the variety of trials! My favourite would have to be the Book Trial!

This was overall just a really fun book. I enjoyed reading it so much and it was so funny. The dialogue in this book was well balanced in being incredibly funny but not in a cringey way and I found myself laughing out loud at times.

The plot was really incredible. Whether it was just a chapter at the Deucalion or a chapter which involved an important trial each chapter introduces something new, whether it’s an unknown fact about a character or an insight further into the book’s on-going mystery. The mystery especially was one of the biggest highlights, Townsend was really good at keeping you intrigued right until the end, never really solving things but also maintaining the excitement throughout. You can’t possibly put the book down as you need more of this world, these characters, this story!

All the characters were exceptional. They worked really well as an ensemble cast and were all really likeable. They were also all incredibly different which made for a better reading experience. Morrigan was also a solid main character and I enjoyed viewing Nevermoor from her eyes. I found her POV to be fun to read about. My favourite character though would probably have to be Hawthorne Swift, he was such a ray of sunshine, hilarious and so much fun to read about.

The next book I will be reading is my first sci-fi novel of 2019. I will be reading Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the third and final book in the Illuminae Files Trilogy.