Once Upon a Time IX: Mini Reviews

As May has passed by I figures I will share with you my thoughts on some other books I read for the Once Upon a Time "challenge".

Spell or High Water and An Unwelcome quest by Scott Meyer (Magic 2.0 #2 and #3)

Format: Audio

Time: 11h39 and 11h46

Source: Own (Audible)

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Thoughts: Spell or High Water was a big disappointment; Martin and Phillip are invited to go to Atlantis, where most of the female users of the Shell program have relocated. Martin is excite to see Gwen and I was excited to see more than one female character...which, ok, I did see more female characters, but they were all such a caricature of women. I am afraid that Scott Meyer did a horrendous job with character building on this one. Even Gwen, who I liked on the first book, turns to this "women-are-complicated" cliché. Interestingly the best part of this book was hearing to Jimmy's side of the story (yes he is back, but you knew that) 2/5 for this one.

Then why did I continue with the story if I disliked the 2nd book so much? Well, I really like Luke Daniels as a narrator and we already had the books, so I figured I will finish the series. The third book was SO much better. Todd, a character referenced a bit on the first book and who takes a bigger role on the second, becomes a main character in this installment. He was banished and we finally learn why (he deserved it that's for sure) but he has manage to regain access to the file and he is determined to get his revenge. He builds a quest game and takes the people who banished him to it, while stripping them of their powers. A lot of gaming references, mostly for MMORPGs, made this part very funny for me. Gwen and Brit are back and this time, they actually participate and bring something to the development and solving of the story! By now, there most of the characters are fully developed and I guess that allows the reader to concentrate solely in the story, which is not bad. It's not great, but it's enjoyable I will give you that. I think I would've stopped the series with this book, but something tells me Meyer intends to give us at least one more book. Can't say I am excited about it, but hey, if they keep Daniels as a narrator I will probably listen to it.



Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia (Caster Chronicles #4)

Format: eBook

Pages: 456

Source: Own

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Thoughts: The last in the Caster Chronicles series. I had postponed finishing it, because to be honest, while I've enjoyed the series as a whole, as I advanced in the story, it has become a bit more and more predictable and having other books to read, well. As you might remember, in the last book Ethan died, or at least that's what it seems. He is trapped between worlds. On one he can finally see his mother again, while in the other there is Lena and everything he left behind. Knowing it wasn't his moment to die, he will have to find a way to get back to the living realm. I liked the depiction of the Otherworld and Xavier was an interesting character. That said, as I mentioned, the story becomes more and more predictable. I gave the book a 3/5 and an overall 3.5/5 for the series.



Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo (The Grisha #2) 

Format: Paperback

Pages: 435

Source: Own

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Publisher: Square Fish

Thoughts: One thing I love about this series is the Russian mythos being used so nicely. While the whole story takes places in a made-up place the influences of Russian culture and folklore are flagrant and that makes for a beautiful world building (at least for my taste). The book retakes with Alina and Mal trying to hide on the other side of the True Sea, but as faith will have it, the Darkling is still alive and has gotten some extra, scary powers. He founds both of them and takes them with him to find yet another amplifier for Alina, this time coming from the Sea Serpent. At the same time, The Sun Summoner has become an even stronger public figure, people referring to her as Sankta Alina. As her power grows so does her despair. With the addition of yet another prominent character, one with a lot of wit and charm (and to be honest with you, much more appeal than the Darkling or Mal, but that's just my opinion) Alina has to not only juggle with the future of the Second Army but also her own.

As with the first book, Bardugo's writing is easy to get into but this time I can tell that the flow is much smoother than with the first. Very good pacing, taking you from action-full battles to the castle intrigues and flowing to the all the "bedside" stories that are unfolding to be deep truths were Alina might find even more power than before. What keeps this story relatively unique is, once again, its use of folklore, and that's exactly what takes me to want to read Ruin and Rising. 4/5



Thorn by Intisar Khanin

Format: eGalley

Pages: 246

Source: NetGalley

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Publisher: Intisar Khanin

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Gallery Books.

Thoughts: The book is a retelling of the Grimm's tale "The Goose Girl". I read the original tale a long time ago when I was a kid, and while you can for sure recognize several elements, Khanin brings enough new things to the story to make it different. Basically a princess (Alyrra then Thorn) has been promised to a prince of another land and in her way there, a servant forces her to change places, making Thorn now a servant. Unlike in the Grimm's story, where this only implied a change of clothes, in this story there is a full change of bodies. Because it is a short story to begin with, it was interesting to see what Khanin did to it, particularly the magic elements and the relationship of Thorn with her family. It was a nice debut novel but I still want to see more of the original work of the author. 3/5.

Mini Galley reviews

The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

Format: eGalley

Pages: 336

Series: NA

Source: NetGalley

Genres: General Fiction

Publisher: Gallery Books

Publication date: Expected on May 19th, 2015

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Gallery Books.

Thoughts: I asked for this book right after I finished A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, hoping for a lighter subject, a nice "sherbet" book as I call them, since A Little Life was so emotionally charged. The book delivered exactly what I was expecting...to the point that was extremely predictable.

The book tells the stories of 9 women that are doing a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Canterbury. In the spirit of Chaucer, through their journey each woman will tell a story of love and at the end there will be a winner declared. The main character, Che, has just lost her mother and to make things worst her boyfriend brakes up with her through a letter. Her joining the pilgrimage was a last minute decision trying to fulfill the last promise she made to her mom. Now, I don't have a problem with books like this being predictable, but I expect them to at least do their research properly. 1) In the first page there's the explanation of the main characters "Che", saying that it was related to the "Cuban" revolutionary. Ernesto "Che" Guevara was Argentinean, and while he got the Cuban citizen at a certain point, before dying he refused it, dying as an Argentinean. At least mention both facts? 2) Someone referenced in the book moves to a country South America: "ColUmbia I think?". You can probably say that this was an innocent typo, but for the record the country is ColOmbia, with an O. 3) Girl lost her phone, that apparently has no password whatsoever, even though she has all her info there. She is worried someone might use her cards...yet she never calls her bank or does ANYTHING to prevent possible fraud.

I wished the book would've more solidity to compensate for things like this, but since the story felt so typical, instead of being immersed by the story I kept being attracted to details like those, making it a just ok book for me. 

Mama Cried by Talia Haven

Format: PDF

Pages: 12

Series: NA

Source: Author

Genres: General Fiction

Publisher: Sheehan and Haven

Publication date: January 7th, 2015


I was asked to review this book by Deborah DeVore.

I was contacted directly to read and review this book and considering it was 12 pages I figured why not. Indeed it was a short read...and I am still trying to figure out what exactly the meaning of it is. It's the story of Jenny, a little girl that will have to make a very big decision in order to move on. I can't tell you more, without spoiling it, and I realize that is not much, but remember, it is only 12 pages. But they were 12 very confusing pages. There are a lot of holes in the story and while I think I got what the background story was, I am still trying to figure out what the message of the book was.

Once Upon a Time IX: Mini Reviews

As you might remember towards the end of March I joined the Once Upon a Time "challenge". Here I want to share my thoughts on the first 2 entries I have for my Quest the First.

 
Off to be the wizard by Scott Meyer

Format: Audio

Time: 389

Source: Own (Audible)
Narrated by:Luke Daniels

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher:Brilliance Audio

Thoughts: I listened to this one because my boyfriend got it (we share your Audible credits) and I decided to give a try. First of all let me say that I really like Luke Daniels as a narrator. He did the Brilliance saga and I think he does a great job pairing voices with characters. The story made me think a bit of a A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court with some elements from The Matrix. Martin is a regular guy who happens to discover that he manipulate reality since, it turns out, it is nothing but a computer program. When things got out of hand, he flees the present to Medieval England, only to learn he is not the first one to try this escape route. As funny as the story was, it felt predictable. Sure, it was entertaining, but you can tell what's going to happen from the beginning. And there is only one girl in the whole story! This, I realize, might not bother a lot of people but it bothered me. We still got the rest of the series since it was on sale, and again, I really like Luke Daniels. Apparently things get better on the second one, so we will see.

 

Wyrd Sisters by Sir Terry Pratchett

Format: Paperback

Pages: 332

Source: Lybrary

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Corgi (Random House)

Thoughts: This was the April pick for the Sword and Laser Book Club. I was hesitant at first to enter Discworld in the 6th book. But their arguments were quite convincing and here we are. The story follows 3 witches, a dead king, a duke going crazy of guilt, a fool and a lost son. As you can probably tell by that, the book makes a lot of references to Shakespeare's theater plays. Reading this I found all the elements I so enjoyed when I read Good Omens: it was fun, it was witty and it was very, very entertaining. The 3 witches, as different as they are from each other are just hilarious. Even if you haven't read Shakespeare (I haven't) most of the references have become such a big part of the popular culture that you see right thought them. However I know from the discussion afterwards that there were several things I missed. Even so, this did not tempered my enjoyment of the story. 

Mini Readathon Reviews

Hello Everybody, 

I decided to do a series of mini reviews of the books I read last Read-A-Thon, that way my thoughts about them are still fresh, instead of doing one by one (what I usually do) and I end up forgetting half of my thoughts when I get to the last one. Shall we begin?

L'oubli que nous serons by Héctor Abad

Format: Paperback

Pages: 389

Source: Own

Genre: NonFiction

Publisher: Folio

Thoughts: I felt weird at first thinking about reading this one in French, but it was a gift. I don't know how he does it (kudos to the translator too) but as I was reading this book, all the words formed in my brain in Spanish, and what is more, in the accent of the region. This is remarkable for me, that an author puts so much of himself in the story, that independent of the language you are reading it, you can feel the original voice. Abad takes us through his childhood and his early adulthood, showing us the events and the people that made him who he became, in particular, his father, a man that was very different of the norm, both for the area and for the time. For a read with so much emotional parts and with so much of the violence of the country, it is amazing how engrossed I became in no time. Definitely a great read.

Books are a travesty of memory, a prosthesis to remember, a desperate attempt to make it more durable which is hopelessly limited

 

How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Format: Paperback

Pages: 305

Source: Own

Genre: NonFiction

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Thoughts: I will be honest with you, for the first 2/3 of this book I was quite disappointed. I bought this book since it kept being recommended to me, based on the fact that I liked Bossypants. While at first she would make me chuckle a couple of times, Moran wasn't completely grabbing me. However I kept reading, and I am very happy I did. The last part, beginning with her pregnancies and the termination of one, suddenly felt in a completely different tone, and the book turned into a whole different light. I find it quite puzzling that it was this part that made me change my mind, considering that as I write this review I am not even close to being a mother. But there you have it. I would still not put it as a recommendation due to Bossypants (it's not the same type of humor at all) but they both have strong messages for women out there. I would say, give it a try.

In the 21st century, any woman, succeeding in any arena, does not need "humanizing"

The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro

Format: Paperback

Pages: 304

Source: Own

Genre: Short Stories, General Fiction, Canadian Literature

Publisher: Penguin Canada

Thoughts: What can I say about Alice Munro that you probably don't know already? That she is master at making "every day" out of the ordinary? That she paints a lot of Canadian landscapes in your mind and you don't even realize it until you get to the end of the story?. This is the second of her collections that I read, and I have to say, I liked Runaway, but Castle Rock is now number one in my shelf. Even though it is built in independent stories, they all share a common thread, in this case portrayed as the genealogy of a family. From Scotland to the United States to finally Canada, in varied characters and dark yet enticing sceneries. While it took me a while to catch the rhythm of Runaway, this set of stories grabbed me from the beginning and didn't let me go until the last page.

Places are apt to do that [disappoint] when you've set them up in your imagination.

 

Inés del Alma Mía by Isabel Allende
 

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 366

Source: Own

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Rayo

Thoughts: My first Allende read, this a novelization of the story of Inés Suarez, an Spanish maiden from the XVI century that, set on taking control of her life, embarks herself to the New World and ends up being one of the main figures in the conquest of Chile. I love this type of books and Allende did a great job giving voice to all this characters. Evidently I am more accustomed to characters related to Colombia, so it was fun to learn about this process for a different country. Inés makes her way from Spain, passing through Venezuela, Panamá, Perú and finally Chile; at first in the look for her stranded husband and then just determined to make her name stand. She will find adventure, chauvinism and love, sometimes all through the same person, and she will change the course of history.

A man does what he can. A woman does what the man can't.

 

In all, I feel it was a very good Read-a-Thon. I've read more books or more hours, but I haven't enjoyed as many as I did this time, and this makes me immensely happy. Have you read any of these books? What where your thoughts?

Mini Reviews: Wife of the House by Gudrun Mouw and Mi Abuelo Explicaba muy bien a los Pájaros by Ivan Castro Rodelo

Wife of the House

Format: Paperback

Pages: 100

Series: NA

Source: LibraryThing EarlyReviewers

Genres: Poetry

Publisher: Raincloud Press

Publication date: April 15, 2014

I asked and received this book through the LybraryThing Early Reviewers program for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Chronicles Books for the book.

First impression

It's been a long time since I read poetry. To be honest with you, both poetry and theater are genres that are hard for me to read; I just don't get immersed enough and most of the time I feel like I am forcing myself to continue reading. Unfortunately for me, this was one of these times. Don't get me wrong, the author manages to put a lot of feeling in each of her poems...I just never connected with them.

Final thoughts

I think that Mouw manages to show and share what she feels as a Housewife, her story of a troubled marriage, how she got there and how she got out. Her imagery can be very vivid and sad and this I have to give it to her, I could feel all that. However I was never fully engaged with the poems, and while it is a short read it felt very long, precisely because I had to force me to continue. This is no fault of the author or the writing, as you will probably notice from other reviews. The book just wasn't for me. 

Mi Abuelo Explicaba muy bien a los Pájaros

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 126

Series: NA

Source: Own (BookOutlet)

Genres: General fiction, Esoteric

Publisher: Grupo Nelson

Publication date: December 1st, 2009.

First Impression

When you look for books in Spanish in BookOutlet, most of what you will get are either bibles or books classified on the self help and religion genres. I am not a fan of either genre, but it is from a Colombian author and I was thinking of my Granpda when I bought it so here we are. This book is somehow categorized as self help and it does have some parts where the main character mentions him finding God, but the story turned out to be more than that, so I did actually enjoyed it. Told in the voice of the grandson, remembering his vacation time spent with his grandfather and the stories he told him, it was quite a beautiful story of love and family.

Final thoughts 

 

More than anything this is a story about love, represented in the grandparents relationship. The side stories of the grandfather joining the circus, and making his way to success reminded me of my grandpa and his stories of odd jobs he took along the way. The book touched a lot of personal fibers for me, and I do believe I read it in the right moment for me to enjoy it. However, as much as it made me smile while I was reading it, I find it hard to identify who else would I recommended for. It was nice and the writing made me remember zones of my country I haven't visited in years but I don't know if this would be enough for me to revisit the book in the future or to pass it along. 

Mini review: The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians #3)

First impression

I think I am reaching a plateau with Percy here. The books are entertaining but not overwhelmingly so. I keep having a good time with the mythology references. In this one we get to know Artemis and her hunters, as well as some new enemies for the Olympians.

Final thoughts

As we advance in the series, it would seem that Riordan is starting to give more and more mythology to the audience, which is great if you are like me, but I haven't engaged fully yet. I think one of the issues I have is that, since I have read my fair amount of mythology, when he is giving clues I end up knowing what the surprise is going to be way earlier than expected and so I get bored a bit. That said, I am not an expert on the matter, so I am hoping that if I continue reading the series I will be able to recognize less things and enjoy their introduction a bit more.

Mini review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

It is silly of you, for there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about

First impression

After watching Penny Dreadful I realized it was time for me to finally read this book. It was a nice read, with very well constructed sentences. However I think I was expecting something a bit darker, if only because of all the times this character or hints to this character have been used.

Final thoughts

While it was not what I expected it was an amazing construction and evaluation of what shallowness can do to us. A book first published in 1890 but whose dialogues can easily be used nowadays. A critic to hedonism, with wittiness flowing out of the main characters. Again it was not what I expected but it was lovely to read. My first read by Oscar Wilde but I can tell you already it won't be the last.