Take a photo of a barcode or cover
aliciaclarereads's Reviews (1.25k)
read for OWLs Magical Readathon 2019: History of Magic, published at least 10 years ago
I really enjoyed this on audio! The narrator wasn't my favorite as he made Attolia sound too snooty, plus many of the male voices blended together. However, I loved it anyways. I listened to a couple scenes multiple times because... ugh this book just hits me straight in the heart. This book is so beautiful and layered and always offers new things to fall in love with.
-----------------------
Wow. A new favorite for sure.
I really enjoyed this on audio! The narrator wasn't my favorite as he made Attolia sound too snooty, plus many of the male voices blended together. However, I loved it anyways. I listened to a couple scenes multiple times because... ugh this book just hits me straight in the heart. This book is so beautiful and layered and always offers new things to fall in love with.
-----------------------
Wow. A new favorite for sure.
read for Popsugar 2019 Advanced Reading Challenge: a book that inspired a common phrase or idiom, "brave new world," and "in a pickle"
I saw a live performance of this play in January 2019 with an all female cast (which is only how Shakespeare should be performed for awhile just to make things even!), and I enjoyed it but it felt like something was missing. As the play ended my friend and I both went "oh that's it?" and I felt the same way again listening to this performance, although I did get a greater appreciation for the language having been exposed to it one and understanding the general plot.
My favorite bits were Trunculo and Stefano. The actors in the live production did so well and the audience was howling. That's missing from this recording, but since there's no audience reactions it can be hard to get into the true hilarity. Which goes to show that while Shakespeare's comedy bits might read just averagely if you're looking at the text - it can really blossom in a production.
I saw a live performance of this play in January 2019 with an all female cast (which is only how Shakespeare should be performed for awhile just to make things even!), and I enjoyed it but it felt like something was missing. As the play ended my friend and I both went "oh that's it?" and I felt the same way again listening to this performance, although I did get a greater appreciation for the language having been exposed to it one and understanding the general plot.
My favorite bits were Trunculo and Stefano. The actors in the live production did so well and the audience was howling. That's missing from this recording, but since there's no audience reactions it can be hard to get into the true hilarity. Which goes to show that while Shakespeare's comedy bits might read just averagely if you're looking at the text - it can really blossom in a production.
read for OWLs Magical Readathon 2019: Astronomy, 'star' in the title
Hm. This book is quite the little mystery to me. The premise sold me instantly: a princess with a secret magical ability goes to the country where she will be married to the prince, and falls in love with the prince's wild sister. Yes, I'm sold. And this book delivers on the romance! Mare and Denna's love story is so incredibly sweet. We get to witness their rocky start, their budding friendship, and finally a devastatingly passionate romance. The author crafted the love story so well, building with just the right amount of tension. Also the problem with their love is never that they are both girls. In fact there seems to be no problem with any sexualities in this book which is excellent. Fantasy worlds don't need to carry our world's prejudices with them. Plus, it's own voices as Coulthurst herself is a lesbian.
However when you look past the romance... this book does not hold up. The world and magical system is severely underdeveloped. The different kingdoms never feel fully established so the tensions amongst them felt flat. Sure I can understand that the characters are ignorant about magic since it's outlawed, but the political situations? The leads are members of the royal family, there's no way they don't know more about diplomatic relations.
Furthermore the writing was very juvenile and overly simplistic. I mean honestly it read more like a middle grade novel despite that there are some more mature moments. The plot just has so many convenient moments for each point in the mystery. The difficulty was less about finding information then getting the "Directorate" to believe what Denna and Mare discovered.Mare is the princess! Why doesn't she just become a spy/information gatherer officially? She clearly understands the network of spies like... WAAAY too well. I just found myself not caring at all about the actual plot. All I wanted was more of the romance, which means two thirds of the book just felt extremely meh. Plus the twist at the end... well it was deeply predictable.
Outside of Denna and Mare, none of the characters are given any development. And even getting into their characters was a bit rough. Mare is your classic "i don't wanna be a princess I want freeeeeedom" even though she basically does whatever she wants and seems to suffer zero consequences for her actions. Denna has actual stakes so it made Mare's issues just feel childish. She also thinks everyone in the kingdom is an idiot when what this kingdom really needed was for people to actually listen to one another. Oh and this is a tiny detail that drove me nuts:After the king dies Denna is so insistent about "i would never hurt anyone" that she repeats is so often. But like... have we forgotten that she killed the assassin? Girl you literally have already killed someone. That and her storyline of "conceal, don't feel" about her magic just... what did she and her family think was going to happen? Of course pretending it doesn't exist won't solve the problem for fuck's sake
I was intrigued by the ending and curious about what happens next (I'm really interested about the Zumordan queen if we get to meet her), but honestly not enough to pick it up unless I hear that writing has drastically improved.
I think I'm spoiled by my recent reread of [b:The Queen of Attolia|40158|The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2)|Megan Whalen Turner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293505506s/40158.jpg|1124161] which handles complicated politics SO WELL. Every other YA author has to take a close study of the Queen's Thief series.
Hm. This book is quite the little mystery to me. The premise sold me instantly: a princess with a secret magical ability goes to the country where she will be married to the prince, and falls in love with the prince's wild sister. Yes, I'm sold. And this book delivers on the romance! Mare and Denna's love story is so incredibly sweet. We get to witness their rocky start, their budding friendship, and finally a devastatingly passionate romance. The author crafted the love story so well, building with just the right amount of tension. Also the problem with their love is never that they are both girls. In fact there seems to be no problem with any sexualities in this book which is excellent. Fantasy worlds don't need to carry our world's prejudices with them. Plus, it's own voices as Coulthurst herself is a lesbian.
However when you look past the romance... this book does not hold up. The world and magical system is severely underdeveloped. The different kingdoms never feel fully established so the tensions amongst them felt flat. Sure I can understand that the characters are ignorant about magic since it's outlawed, but the political situations? The leads are members of the royal family, there's no way they don't know more about diplomatic relations.
Furthermore the writing was very juvenile and overly simplistic. I mean honestly it read more like a middle grade novel despite that there are some more mature moments. The plot just has so many convenient moments for each point in the mystery. The difficulty was less about finding information then getting the "Directorate" to believe what Denna and Mare discovered.
Outside of Denna and Mare, none of the characters are given any development. And even getting into their characters was a bit rough. Mare is your classic "i don't wanna be a princess I want freeeeeedom" even though she basically does whatever she wants and seems to suffer zero consequences for her actions. Denna has actual stakes so it made Mare's issues just feel childish. She also thinks everyone in the kingdom is an idiot when what this kingdom really needed was for people to actually listen to one another. Oh and this is a tiny detail that drove me nuts:
I was intrigued by the ending and curious about what happens next (I'm really interested about the Zumordan queen if we get to meet her), but honestly not enough to pick it up unless I hear that writing has drastically improved.
I think I'm spoiled by my recent reread of [b:The Queen of Attolia|40158|The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief, #2)|Megan Whalen Turner|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1293505506s/40158.jpg|1124161] which handles complicated politics SO WELL. Every other YA author has to take a close study of the Queen's Thief series.
read for OWLs Magical Readathon 2019: Ancient Runes, a retelling
I'm not sure when it happened, but I've developed a huge soft spot for the 12 Dancing Princesses fairytale. It wasn't my favorite as a kid, in fact I don't even really remember anything about it from being little. But now that I'm older, something about a bunch of girls put in seclusion from the world who sneak out to dance every night just perfectly fits my aesthetic.
I feel like the first 20 pages of this book was a bit hard to get into as you adjust to Valentine's writing (she uses so many parenthesis that it did remind me of some form of fanfiction writing) and adapt to how the story is set up. But once I was in, I was in. I thought Valentine did an excellent job adapting the fairytale, keeping the key elements while also putting her own twist on the plot. Plus setting the story in the 1920's was a great way to incorporate the dancing - and she did not leave out the dancing!
Having 12 sisters means you have to do a lot of character work, and I thought Valentine pulled it off wonderfully. The eldest sister Jo, aka "the General", is doing her best to protect her sisters from their father and the world at large. She's hard and cold, but has a deeply complex interior life. As the lead, we spend most of our time in her perspective, but we occasionally get to visit the other sisters who all stand out in my mind as different characters, which is not an easy feat to pull off. One of the sisters is also not straight (huzzah!) which makes sense because 12 girls? One has to be gay! The bond amongst the girls is incredibly complicated in the way that sisters are. They love each other but also have a lot of tension due to their constrained circumstances. They all get the chance to grow up and thrive, and I'd absolutely read a sequel following any of the girls.
Also the romance was very charming and devastating. Ugh watching Jo wrestle with her feelings she attempts to repress, this is exactly my brand. I think the 'soldier' character is often the focus of retellings, but I like that the attention remains on the girls solidly. He's an excellent love interest without dominating the whole story.
I finished this in one sitting and I'm just so thoroughly charmed by it. Valentine is an excellent writer, and I was so taken with her prose. I'll definitely be picking up her other novel.
I'm not sure when it happened, but I've developed a huge soft spot for the 12 Dancing Princesses fairytale. It wasn't my favorite as a kid, in fact I don't even really remember anything about it from being little. But now that I'm older, something about a bunch of girls put in seclusion from the world who sneak out to dance every night just perfectly fits my aesthetic.
I feel like the first 20 pages of this book was a bit hard to get into as you adjust to Valentine's writing (she uses so many parenthesis that it did remind me of some form of fanfiction writing) and adapt to how the story is set up. But once I was in, I was in. I thought Valentine did an excellent job adapting the fairytale, keeping the key elements while also putting her own twist on the plot. Plus setting the story in the 1920's was a great way to incorporate the dancing - and she did not leave out the dancing!
Having 12 sisters means you have to do a lot of character work, and I thought Valentine pulled it off wonderfully. The eldest sister Jo, aka "the General", is doing her best to protect her sisters from their father and the world at large. She's hard and cold, but has a deeply complex interior life. As the lead, we spend most of our time in her perspective, but we occasionally get to visit the other sisters who all stand out in my mind as different characters, which is not an easy feat to pull off. One of the sisters is also not straight (huzzah!) which makes sense because 12 girls? One has to be gay! The bond amongst the girls is incredibly complicated in the way that sisters are. They love each other but also have a lot of tension due to their constrained circumstances. They all get the chance to grow up and thrive, and I'd absolutely read a sequel following any of the girls.
Also the romance was very charming and devastating. Ugh watching Jo wrestle with her feelings she attempts to repress, this is exactly my brand. I think the 'soldier' character is often the focus of retellings, but I like that the attention remains on the girls solidly. He's an excellent love interest without dominating the whole story.
I finished this in one sitting and I'm just so thoroughly charmed by it. Valentine is an excellent writer, and I was so taken with her prose. I'll definitely be picking up her other novel.
read for OWLs Magical Readathon 2019: Herbology, a plant on the cover
This is still one of my favorite books of all time. The story is perfectly crafted with excellent character development, stunning plot reveals, and a beautiful, desperate romance. Melina Marchetta is an truly a queen, and I welcome her to break my heart anytime she wants.
--------------
Oh boy does this hold up well. Probably my favorite YA contemporary? I certainly wish this book got more love in the YA community.
This is still one of my favorite books of all time. The story is perfectly crafted with excellent character development, stunning plot reveals, and a beautiful, desperate romance. Melina Marchetta is an truly a queen, and I welcome her to break my heart anytime she wants.
--------------
Oh boy does this hold up well. Probably my favorite YA contemporary? I certainly wish this book got more love in the YA community.
read for Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book featuring an amateur detective
read for OWLs Magical Readathon 2019: Transfiguration, a red cover
(Okay technically I finished this in May so it shouldn't count for the readathon but... oh well!)
I'm a little underwhelmed. This book has so much love and glowing reviews on goodreads that it probably worked against it for me. I enjoyed this sure, but I'm not loving it which almost makes me feel like I hate it because I don't love it? That makes very little sense, but it's part of the problem when books are so hyped. Either you love it and agree with the hype or you hate it and rail against "why is this so popular!!" (At least that's what the reviews of this book suggest) But I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle.
I think this world is really interesting. It's Ancient Roman inspired and incredibly dark and brutal. There's hints of magic and supernatural elements that don't quite get explored in this book, but certainly leave the reader wanting more. (I've got to know who the Augurs are because no one seems to know? Yet they're so powerful?) The plot is incredibly fast-paced. So much happens in the course of the book, and Sabaa Tahir quite excellently knows how to build tensions, end chapters with cliffhangers, and really keep you turning the page. The Resistance itself is completely shrouded in mystery but it did actually aid in the story. There's a layer of complexity that I suspect will play out as the story goes along. We get quite the range of characters, and oh boy does Tahir know how to write super evil psychopaths huh? I had some character issues, but i will say that Tahir gave them a nice arc. There was a decent amount of growth, and yet plenty of room for them to continue to grow in the sequels.
So my biggest issue with this book? I didn't like being in Laia and Elias's head. I really feel like I would have enjoyed this way more if there was a third person omniscient narrator. Laia and Elias were incredibly naive (they're 16/17 so it makes some sense) which lead to them just making stupid decision after stupid decision. It was hard to read sometimes because I was shaking the iPad yelling "why would you do that!!!!!" Like I said I enjoyed the character arcs. Laia having to find some courage (though frankly I think she blamed herself WAY too much for the events this story starts off with) and reconcile with her family's legacy. Elias has to decide what sort of man he needs to be. And oh poor Helene is trying to be a good person, but is clearly very loyal to the Empire and the way of life she's been taught since birth. I couldn't fault her for that.
This story was just... so bogged down by the romance. I think that's why I hated being in Laia and Elias's head. Because of boy were these some horny teens! Which is fine and all, but there's extremely little romantic action. Just extremely repetitive (and boring) romantic thoughts.Oh you like Keenan? Name one thing you know about him other than he's a redhead. It doesn't help that the power balance is extremely out of balance for Laia as she's completely dependent on the mercy of Elias and the Resistance.
I feel like I'm mostly being negative, which isn't fair because I did like this. I want to see where the story goes, so I definitely intend to read the sequel. I'm hopeful for these characters to grow and become even more complex. And I'd really like to start learning about the intricacies of this worldso we're all just okay with the Emperor being assassinated because a bunch of red eyed weirdos said he was out? Sure fine you fickle people especially all the magic and supernatural creatures. Hello!! But sometimes when you're 25 reading from the perspective of horny teens... you roll your eyes a lot. Which is where I'm sitting with this right now.
(Okay technically I finished this in May so it shouldn't count for the readathon but... oh well!)
I'm a little underwhelmed. This book has so much love and glowing reviews on goodreads that it probably worked against it for me. I enjoyed this sure, but I'm not loving it which almost makes me feel like I hate it because I don't love it? That makes very little sense, but it's part of the problem when books are so hyped. Either you love it and agree with the hype or you hate it and rail against "why is this so popular!!" (At least that's what the reviews of this book suggest) But I feel like I fall somewhere in the middle.
I think this world is really interesting. It's Ancient Roman inspired and incredibly dark and brutal. There's hints of magic and supernatural elements that don't quite get explored in this book, but certainly leave the reader wanting more. (I've got to know who the Augurs are because no one seems to know? Yet they're so powerful?) The plot is incredibly fast-paced. So much happens in the course of the book, and Sabaa Tahir quite excellently knows how to build tensions, end chapters with cliffhangers, and really keep you turning the page. The Resistance itself is completely shrouded in mystery but it did actually aid in the story. There's a layer of complexity that I suspect will play out as the story goes along. We get quite the range of characters, and oh boy does Tahir know how to write super evil psychopaths huh? I had some character issues, but i will say that Tahir gave them a nice arc. There was a decent amount of growth, and yet plenty of room for them to continue to grow in the sequels.
So my biggest issue with this book? I didn't like being in Laia and Elias's head. I really feel like I would have enjoyed this way more if there was a third person omniscient narrator. Laia and Elias were incredibly naive (they're 16/17 so it makes some sense) which lead to them just making stupid decision after stupid decision. It was hard to read sometimes because I was shaking the iPad yelling "why would you do that!!!!!" Like I said I enjoyed the character arcs. Laia having to find some courage (though frankly I think she blamed herself WAY too much for the events this story starts off with) and reconcile with her family's legacy. Elias has to decide what sort of man he needs to be. And oh poor Helene is trying to be a good person, but is clearly very loyal to the Empire and the way of life she's been taught since birth. I couldn't fault her for that.
This story was just... so bogged down by the romance. I think that's why I hated being in Laia and Elias's head. Because of boy were these some horny teens! Which is fine and all, but there's extremely little romantic action. Just extremely repetitive (and boring) romantic thoughts.
I feel like I'm mostly being negative, which isn't fair because I did like this. I want to see where the story goes, so I definitely intend to read the sequel. I'm hopeful for these characters to grow and become even more complex. And I'd really like to start learning about the intricacies of this world
read for Popsugar 2019 Advanced Reading Challenge: a book set in an abbey, cloister, monastery, vicarage, or convent
Oh my goodness this series is just like a bag of chips: I can't read just one!!!
Oh my goodness this series is just like a bag of chips: I can't read just one!!!
read for Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge: a book that includes a wedding
HELLO, this series dove in and Brisbane a fully fledged Gothic romantic hero traipsing around on the moors. Thank you Deanna Raybourn, you have provided for me with so much.
HELLO, this series dove in and Brisbane a fully fledged Gothic romantic hero traipsing around on the moors. Thank you Deanna Raybourn, you have provided for me with so much.
