xennicole's Reviews (2.27k)

I have remind myself first that this is a Young Adult Novel. I have read the 1st Book (and going to read the rest) in The Parasol Protectorate and really enjoyed it. The world is not as fleshed out as it is in TPP series, but the story is intriguing and any Young Adult will enjoy the story. It does have a Harry Potter/Hogwarts feel in regards to recruitment, boarding school atmosphere, quirky teachers and adventures. The book also does not feel like the ending is the ending and you know there will be others books to follow. I also felt the ending was quick, it was really the last twenty pages and could have been more drawn out. But it was a fun read. I will read the rest of the series, but I much prefer TPP series.

Rated 3 stars because it was good in regards to YA genre, story/plot was decent. Characters are quirky and more than likely will be fleshed out more in the series.

I got this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. It was a decent crime drama novel. It was an easy read, but it was predictable. The title I felt was misleading, while the hitman's lover plays a decent role, it is not fleshed out as the title suggests.

I really like Reza Aslan writing. I was excited for this this book. I have read a lot about the Historical Jesus and taking the gospels narratives out of the picture to figure out what the real human aka Historical Jesus would be. I have read N.T. Wright, Borg and Pagel write about Historical Jesus, so not the information is "new." But Aslan does package very well the history of Rome, Judaism and the culture of the time of Jesus to explain more than likely what happened during that time based on other historical documents. His writing style is simple, straight forward and tells it how it is. You can tell he as researched a lot. Once you take away the gospels, which are not historically accurate at all, you are able to see what Jesus from Nazareth was like and why he was killed on a cross for Sedition and why Rome did what they did and with everyone who claimed that were the Jewish messiah.

If you have done any study on anything close to Historical Jesus, most of the information will not be new, but Aslan lays it out there with all the possible scenarios for everything in the Gospels that claims to be plausible and yet would not have happened and why things are written the way there are in the Gospels, because the Gospels are just propaganda in the end to reach certain people about this following Jesus that was able to be kept alive even after his death.