Once again, Jane Austen did not let me down! Brilliant characters - particularly the wonderfully complementary Elinor and Marianne - tied together the romance, the improving-your-personality plots and Austen's trademark wit. (I audibly snorted when a drunken Willoughby called himself a blockhead...)

Both sisters were lovable in their own different ways, and, especially in Marianne's case, grew wonderfully through the book. And as usual, Jane Austen took us on that emotional rollercoaster that I rarely experience in a novel of this genre.

All in all - a spectacular book, and very deserving of its place as one of Austen's top novels!

Overall feelings?



"Everyone has the potential to do something amazing."

That quote pretty much sums up this brilliant book! It was everything I could have ever wanted; the 'superhero' team really being the bad guys, a woman in a wheelchair proving to herself and to everyone else that she can be a hero, a platonic friendship between a heterosexual man and woman, immortals who trained under Merlin... all jam-packed into this short book! (Which I read in one evening... couldn't put it down!)

Nothing was shied away from, and I loved lots of the details and finishing touches; for example, what's it really like being telepathic, and how does that impact on your mental health? Does someone really stop being your brother just because they're your enemy? And I loved that, all the way through, protagonist =/= good guy, as well as a cameo appearance from Nicholas Flamel! Minnie is such an excellent main character, because she's just the right balance of feisty and strong, but also doubting and unsure. I do really really really hope there's a sequel, because there is so much more about the characters and their world that I want to find out!



There were so many brilliant lines in it, I thought I would put a few favourites here; I do think that some of the writing could have done with being looked through by an editor, as sometimes it didn't flow brilliantly or felt a bit repetitive, but this by no means slowed down my reading of it or my enjoyment!

Okay, favourite lines:

"Your mistakes aren't what define you, your reaction to those mistakes is."

"Maybe I am too weak... but taht doesn't mean that I'm going to give up before the battle even begins! I may be weak but I'm still going to fight! I'm going to fight until I can't fight anymore! And them I'm going to continue fighting! I don't care if it's scary! I don't care if it hurts! I don't care if the odds are stacked against me! I don't care if I'm weak! I'm going to fight! And there's nothing that you can do to stop me!"

And, of course,

"Never fall in love with a woman who mysteriously emerges from the lake one day and gives your friend a sword."

...I think that is all of my feelings for now? Who knows! I desperately want a sequel :D so would recommend this to LITERALLY EVERYONE especially if you're into YA, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, or Superheroes. Or anything, really.

This was a really tough read - not in the writing style, but in the content. The world and their cousin love To Kill A Mockingbird and this sort of... opposes a lot of the stuff in that first book. To start with, some characters we expect to be around are not, but because there has been such a time skip between the books, the other characters are more okay with that than you are.

The first half was tricky just because I wish I hadn't reread Mockingbird just before I read it, and so could have perhaps been less surprised by some of the things that were taken for granted. I then got angry, as characters which I loved let me down, but then I understood, and it was all kind of okay again.

Much like Mockingbird, if not more so, you are really taken on the journey with Scout; not only do we see what she sees and hear what she hears, but we feel what she feels, and we only understand when she understands.

So yes, a tricky read, if only because characters who I have loved for years were shown to be deeply human beings, but also an important message about conscience, morals, and, to me, how it is important that each person and each generation has their own.

This book was just so, so beautifully crafted, and utterly absorbing. Whilst this was technically a mystery story, it was really a story about Dutch society during the Golden Age, especially the women, and the relationships between all the women in this story were what made it really special. Nella's growth throughout the novel as a character felt completely natural, as did the changes in her relationships with the other characters as all their secrets were slowly revealed; I think that except for perhaps Otto, my opinions of all the characters by the end were completely different from the beginning. The miniaturist is just as mysterious by the end as at the beginning, as the more we learn about them the more questions we have, but the book is made just that little bit more haunting, knowing that it's inspired by a real miniature house and the possessions of real people.