Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Seraphina took the literary world by storm with 8 starred reviews and numerous “Best of” lists. At last, her eagerly awaited sequel has arrived—and with it comes an epic battle between humans and dragons.

The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself—for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways.

As Seraphina gathers this motley crew, she is pursued by humans who want to stop her. But the most terrifying is another half dragon, who can creep into people’s minds and take them over. Until now, Seraphina has kept her mind safe from intruders, but that also means she’s held back her own gift. It is time to make a choice: Cling to the safety of her old life, or embrace a powerful new destiny?

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

The first book in this duet, Seraphina, holds a special place in my heart because it was one of the first ARCs I was ever approved for through NetGalley.  It felt like a big accomplishment and I felt even better about the whole thing when I absolutely fell in love with Rachel Hartman’s world and the story of Seraphina, a half-dragon stuck between two worlds.  To say that I was eagerly awaiting Shadow Scale would be an understatement but at the same time I did try to keep my expectations in check so I could give a decent review.

Sequels should improve upon the first book and in my mind, Rachel Hartman surpassed herself in world-building in her second book.  Not only do we get to see a little more of Goredd and its culture we get to see the rest of her world as Seraphina travels throughout it looking for her fellow half-dragons.  Hartman really does an amazing job of making each culture and country distinct, even down to its language.  She relies heavily on historical influences like ancient Greece and medieval France but it’s not so obvious that it seems like she’s beating you over the head with a stick about it.  No, she takes these influences and historical precedents and twists them to suit the world she has imagined.  It’s done beautifully and seamlessly and her writing style is so beautiful that you’ll feel these different cultures come alive.

As with her first book, Rachel Hartman’s writing style is beautiful.  Her descriptions whether long or short are poetic, with flowing language that doesn’t necessarily slow down the plot or the pacing in general.  Shadow Scale is not the fastest paced book in the world by any stretch of the imagination but it really is the writing that makes you keep reading in addition to the fact the characters are very three dimensional.  The writing is just fabulous and as I said in the last paragraph, it’s what really makes her world come alive.  She could have had the best world-building ever but without her pure writing talent Shadow Scale would have been an awfully boring book.

The characters themselves were also very satisfying in this final book.  Seraphina herself has grown so much and is finally starting to realize that no matter how much you may disagree with a person’s choices, it doesn’t give you the right to demand they change to fit your worldview.  As she begins her search for the other half-dragons she realizes that not all of them are saintly, as in the case of Jannoula and that not all of them even want to come with her and see other half-dragons.  Each half-dragon lives under their own particular set of circumstances and Seraphina quickly learns that no matter how hard she tries, she really can’t convince everyone.  And once she learns this, she becomes so much stronger even if she makes numerous mistakes along the way.  She grows so much throughout the novel that you can’t help but love her even more than you did in the first book.

Unfortunately, for all of my praise I came off of reading Shadow Scale with a real ‘meh’ feeling.  Why?  Unfortunately, it’s because of the ending.  It seemed very rushed and very forced on Rachel Hartman’s part even though she had hinted at certain plot twists before.  Really, it felt like she just didn’t spend the same amount of attention to detail on the ending as she did the rest of the book.  It felt sloppily put together, forced and inconsistent with the personalities and feelings of the characters.  One plot twist in particular in regards to Queen Glisselda felt super forced.  I can’t go into much detail because I don’t want to give away spoilers but I just felt like both Kiggs and Seraphina completely sold themselves out at the end despite fighting for honesty and transparency throughout the novel.

So in the end, despite the fact that this book was awesome for about 90% of the time, I do have to say I was a little disappointed with it.  If you loved the first book and read this one maybe you’ll feel differently but I can’t change my perception of the ending.  It was just too important to do in a seemingly half-hearted manner.

I give this book 3/5 stars.

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A Stolen Season by Tamara Gill

A Stolen Season by Tamara Gill(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

One small mistake in the past will change everything about her future… 

Archaeologist Sarah Baxter just broke one of the biggest rules of time travel: leaving a piece of 21st­ century equipment in 19th century Regency England. Unfortunately, when she goes back to retrieve it, she makes an even bigger mess of things—resulting in the death of an English Earl. Now his brother is not only out for revenge, but he also has Sarah’s device. Which means an entirely different approach is needed. It doesn’t occur to the new Earl of Earnston that his charming acquaintance is responsible for his brother’s death. He is merely swept away by a passion that threatens his very reputation. Yet he gets the distinct impression that Miss Baxter is hiding something from him. Now Sarah must find a way to steal back her device, hide the truth about the earl’s brother and—most importantly— not fall in love…

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

A Stolen Season is one of those books that you can probably guess the ending right off the bat.  It’s really just the journey to get to that ending that makes or breaks your enjoyment of the book.  At least that was the case with me.

First off, let me say that Tamara Gill really is an amazing author.  Her writing style is concise and yet flows in a manner consistent with the time period the majority of the novel is set in.  She’s able to create not only Sarah’s unique modern voice but Eric, our Earl of Earnston’s 19th century voice and sensibilities.  The two main points of view in this novel (with a couple of others thrown in on occasion) really contrast the modern era with the 19th century and Tamara Gill never switches viewpoints for no good reason.  Every switch is designed to carry the plot forward and it does this rather effectively.  Even though like I said, you probably know the ending of the novel before you’ve even begun, the journey to get there really is nerve-wracking.  You won’t be able to put down A Stolen Season because Tamara Gill not only has beautiful writing but a real flair for pacing as well.

The characters really do resonate with me.  Sarah is trying to deal with a major screw-up that led not only to the death of a man in that time but also to the loss of a key piece of time traveling equipment.  She has disappointed her father, the CEO of TimeArch and is tasked to go back in time to a year after the death of the first Earl of Earnston to get the piece back.  There’s only one thing standing in her way: Eric, the new Earl of Earnston and brother to the man Sarah accidentally got killed.  When he meets her he’s put off by her rudeness at coming to a ball that she wasn’t invited to but is convinced to invite her to a different ball and get to know her.  Even though he pretends to protest because of her rudeness, he’s intrigued by the beautiful stranger who doesn’t seem to conform very well to English society’s rules.  Soon they begin an attraction that could be the undoing of them both.

I really know very little about Regency England but Tamara Gill seems to have done her research quite well.  She actually has characters react when Sarah accidentally uses modern phrases and addresses things like the moral standards of the day, i.e. if a man and a woman are alone together without a chaperone they had better get married.  I particularly loved the descriptions of the fashions of the day for both men and women, high and low class.  Gill has such a way of describing things that every single description is captivating and lends an aura of authenticity to the story.  She really transports you back to the time both through the eyes of an outsider like Sarah and the eyes of Eric, a man who grew up extremely privileged in that era.  It really is a magical sort of experience.

Really, what more can you ask for if you’re looking for a time travel romance?  You’ve got beautiful writing that brings you back in time to Regency England, a cast of wonderful and three dimensional characters and a plot that even though you probably know the ending will keep you on your seat.  It doesn’t get better than this.

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Blood Oath by Felicity Pulman

Blood Oath by Felicity Pullman(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)

Love, revenge, secrets – and murder – in a medieval kingdom at war.
A young woman, left alone and destitute after the mysterious death of her mother, plants a sprig of rosemary on her grave and vows, somehow, to bring the murderer to justice. But who can Janna trust with the truth? Even the villein Godric, who wants to marry her, and Hugh, the dashing nobleman, have secrets that threaten her heart and her safety.
In a country torn apart by the vicious civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda, Janna needs all her wits and courage to stay alive as she comes closer to those who are determined to silence her forever.

[Full disclosure: I requested and received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]

I’d previously read I, Morgana by Felicity Pulman so although I normally wouldn’t pick up what amounts to a medieval murder mystery, I decided to request Blood Oath on NetGalley anyway.  She did such a good job with the Arthurian legends I stepped out of my comfort zone to give this one a try.  In the end, I’m glad I did.

Janna is a young woman living with her healer mother, a bit of an outcast in the community because of her rather progressive views on religion but someone who was generally respected enough to come to when people were in trouble.  But when a lady calls Janna’s mother to help her with her birth and then again when the infant won’t suckle, Janna’s life turns upside down when she is called to the manor to discover her mother dead.  It doesn’t take long for her to realize that her mother was of course poisoned, but who did it?  How can one teenager girl, completely alone in the world and an outcast in her own community, solve a mysterious murder that no one thinks was a murder?

Clearly, we have an interesting plot in the beginning but it does get even more interesting.  As Janna roots out suspects and tries to establish a timeline of events leading up to her mother’s death, religious tensions within the community flare and Janna’s position becomes even more precarious than before, particularly since she’s a woman living on her own.  I can’t really go into much more detail about the plot because it would give away some of the pretty cool plot twists, but needless to say Janna does find her mother’s killer and it’s not who you would expect or for the reasons you would think.

The murder mystery itself is pretty fascinating, but it was the characters that really caught my attention.  Janna herself is pretty progressive for a woman at the time because of her mother’s independence but she still is a woman of her time.  She knows that speaking out too much on certain topics can endanger her very life so she has to tread a fine line between standing up for what she believes in and not rocking the boat too much.  But when she discovers who really murdered her mother, she decides to act rather than carry on without carrying out a little bit of justice/revenge.  Janna is obsessed with finding her mother’s murderer, particularly because they argued so much in the few days leading up to her death.  So there’s an element of guilt driving her but also a sense of duty and justice.  She wants things to be right and balanced but knows that it’s not always possible in medieval England, particularly with the vicious civil war being waged close to her community.

In Blood Oath, Felicity Pulman has clearly done her research about the time.  I’m no expert on medieval England but she lends a very authentic feeling to the novel by using the old spellings and old names for where the action takes place in the novel.  Instead of using Oxford, she uses Oxeneford, just little stuff like that. I was also fascinated by the detail she went into for describing medieval remedies for various ailments.  Clearly, she has done her research and she says in her Author’s Note that all of the background events in the novel are very true: there really was a civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda (sometimes known as Maude) being waged in England at the time and it really did split loyalties as is described in the novel.  It will be interesting to see just how much of an impact the civil war has on Janna since she decides to leave her village at the end of the novel.

To sum things up: Blood Oath isn’t the most fascinating book I’ve ever read because the plot is a little slow in the beginning but it is a good book. The characters are good but I didn’t think they were anything special and Felicity Pulman’s research was excellent.  So if the blurb has interested you, I would recommend giving Blood Oath a try.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

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“book bloggers are ugly” Plus More Weird Search Terms

Well folks, here we are again, back for another installment of weird search terms.  This time they’re pretty varied and some are pretty offensive so let’s get right into the list:

name for male love interest

rane.mekarej.booraa

how many women do not like game of thrones

yes i am bad

totar informishan book 2015 m.ad

grab nefertari

a good name for a character

book bloggers are ugly

every one have there on work but am free

can characters fall in love in one week in ya romance?

sick of hearing about diversity

blonde people in books

i hate teenagers

where to purchase terry deary books like barnes and nobles

And, the crowning glory:

how do you know when an introvert is mad at you

 

Um, when they tell you they are like normal human beings do?  Or when they act mad and then ignore you?  I don’t know; I’m an introvert and if I’m mad at someone I’ll let them know.

So what do you think of the search terms this time around?  Any favourites?  If you’re a blogger, have you gotten any weird ones like this?

For further weird search term madness:

“people who critciz the endings of books” and More Weird Search Terms

“Fairy Lovers” and Still More Weird Search Terms

“Yes I Can Do” and Other Weird Search Terms

“Game of Thrones man hatred” and More Weird Search Terms

The Return of the Weird Search Terms

“The Spread of Kidness” and More Weird Search Terms

“Why Do People Hate Naked Men?” and Other Weird Search Terms

 

Lazy Sundays: I’m Hooked on Breaking Bad

When I was browsing through HMV the other day I noticed that the first two seasons of Breaking Bad were on sale for $40 if you bought both of them.  So I finally decided to see what all of the fuss was about with the show and bought them for myself.  I had watched the first episode online and thought it was pretty good so I figured the rest of the show would be just as good.  And thankfully I was right.

The problem is that now I’m hooked on Breaking Bad.  It’s so good!  It has some pretty poignant moments (Walt’s diagnosis, the entire Negro y Azul episode, etc.) but it also has some pretty morbid humour like when Walt and Jesse have to figure out what to do with Krazy-8 and Emilio.  I have kind of a morbid sense of humour anyway so this series is perfectly suited to me.

I’m only on episode 10 of season two, so please don’t spoil things too badly for me.  But if you’ve watched the show, what do you think of it?  Are the next three seasons as good as the first two?  Who is your favourite character?