Tagged: masq1
The Sekhmet Bed by L. M. Ironside
(Cover picture courtesy of L. M. Ironside’s website.)
Is Ahmose’s divine gift a blessing or a curse?
The second daughter of the Pharaoh, Ahmose has always dreamed of a quiet life as a priestess, serving Egypt’s gods, ministering to the people of the Two Lands. But when the Pharaoh dies without an heir, she is given instead as Great Royal Wife to the new king – a soldier of common birth. For Ahmose is god-chosen, gifted with the ability to read dreams, and it is her connection to the gods which ensures the new Pharaoh his right to rule.
Ahmose’s elder sister Mutnofret has been raised to expect the privileged station of Great Royal Wife; her rage at being displaced cannot be soothed. As Ahmose fights the currents of Egypt’s politics and Mutnofret’s vengeful anger, her youth and inexperience carry her beyond her depth and into the realm of sacrilege.
To right her wrongs and save Egypt from the gods’ wrath, Ahmose must face her most visceral fear: bearing an heir. But the gods of Egypt are exacting, and even her sacrifice may not be enough to restore the Two Lands to safety.
The Sekhmet Bed is the first volume of L. M. Ironside’s series The She-King, a family saga of the Thutmosides, one of ancient Egypt’s most fascinating royal families.
The Sekhmet Bed was actually recommended to me by an editor from another publishing house that I consider a friend. It was free on Amazon for that day so I decided to give it a try, considering that her previous recommendations had worked out very well for me. Thankfully, this one was no different.
It seems more and more people are writing about Hatshepsut these days (hallelujah!) but I’ve never, ever seen anyone write about her mother, Ahmose. And you know what? Ahmose deserves a little recognition too because while she obviously couldn’t match her daughter in some of her achievements she was a strong woman in her own way. Ironside filled in some gaps in the historical record with her own imaginings but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that things didn’t actually happen in a similar fashion.
Ahmose is just a girl when she’s married off to Thutmose, a common general who is chosen as the next Pharaoh because of the lack of male heirs in the family. This makes both of their positions extremely precarious and it’s up to Ahmose to smooth things over in the political sphere. She’s very obviously young and naive when she’s first married but I love how she really comes into her own as she grows older. Ahmose doesn’t have an easy time of it in life but she reacts realistically to a rather bad situation and eventually finds a little bit of happiness.
I wouldn’t say the plot is fast-paced by most standards, but it was very interesting. There’s not as much political intrigue as I would have liked but that’s more of a personal preference than anything else. The religious aspect of the novel was fascinating, though, and I love that Ironside went into such detail about Egyptian religion. It’s quite strange to the modern reader but she manages to explain such things to the reader in a way that makes it easy to understand for people new to ancient Egyptian history as well as fanatics like myself.
Basically, this is just an awesome self-published novel. There were barely any errors and none of them were particularly memorable (just some missed quotation marks and such). Really, this is just a good story with an amazing female lead and great historical accuracy. Where there are changes, they’re completely justified so I can’t even complain about that. The Sekhmet Bed is just a great book and I can’t wait to read more of Ironside’s work.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter
(Cover picture courtesy of Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours.)
When your world blows apart, what will you hold onto?
TAG is a medical slave, doomed to spend his life healing his master’s injured gladiators. But his warrior’s heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom.
LUCIA is the daughter of Tag’s owner, doomed by her father’s greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she’s been noticing some odd occurrences in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . .
When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But as they plot their escape from the city, a patrician fighter reveals his own plans for them — to Lucia’s father, who imprisons Tag as punishment. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?
[Full disclosure: I received a free paperback from the publisher in exchange for an honest review during the book tour.]
One of the things that struck me about Vicky Alvear Shecter’s first book, Cleopatra’s Moon was the historical accuracy. She is an excellent writer when it comes to putting little historical details into her writing to give it that authentic feel. In this novel she’s even better because there are detailed descriptions of the medical practices, gladiator training and even the current political climate. That’s not really something you expect from a book aimed at the younger YA demographic (13 to about 15) so I was quite impressed.
Her characters were good, but I didn’t take a particular shine to either of the leads. Lucia is quite naive, as would be expected from her upbringing, but she never really gets any better either. She still doesn’t know when to speak and when to keep her mouth shut, which is pretty frustrating for me. Still, she’s a well developed character and you really get the feeling that she is the product of her upbringing. Tag (short for Tages) is far more interesting with his medical knowledge and his desire to become a gladiator to buy his freedom. That could be because I’m a sucker for the underdog in stories but whatever. In the end, all of the characters Vicky Alvear Shecter writes about are well-developed and have believable motivations demonstrated through their actions.
The plot was quite well done in terms of pacing. There’s this slow build-up to the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and you can see how all of the signs of an eruption were there before from animals acting crazy to wells drying up. Of course no one knew what was going on at the time so it was quite suspenseful for Lucia to slowly discover all of the signs before reaching her ultimate, terrifying conclusion. The only thing I didn’t like about the plot was how it ended. It was a little too melodramatic and the magical curse element seemed to come practically out of nowhere. Looking back, I really think this book would have been better without the random curse that shows up about halfway into the book. It just seems random and tries to add to the overall tension but really doesn’t.
In general, I think Curses and Smoke is a pretty good novel. I don’t think it’s as good as Cleopatra’s Moon but I’d recommend it to young readers 13 to 15.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Mistress of the Wind by Michelle Diener
(Cover picture courtesy of Delighted Reader.)
Bjorn needs to find a very special woman . . .
The fate of his people, and his own life, depends on it. But when he does find her, she is nothing like he imagined, and may just harbor more secrets than he does himself.
Astrid has never taken well to commands. No matter who issues them . . .
She’s clashed her whole life with her father, and now her lover, the mysterious man who comes to her bedroom in darkness and disappears to guard his mountain by day as a bear, is finding it out the hard way. And when he’s taken by his enemies, no one is prepared for Astrid’s response.
It is never wise to anger the mistress of the wind . . .
A captivating and magical adult retelling of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon.
[Full disclosure: I won this book in a giveaway by Michelle Diener and there was no expectation of review so as always this review is my honest opinion.]
I’d previously read a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon in the form of Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. It wasn’t really that memorable but I did enjoy learning about the original myth. Mistress of the Wind is a huge improvement on the original myth. Astrid is, of course, still as feisty as the girl in the original myth but Michelle Diener has given her world far much more depth.
Astrid is a very special girl with some pretty awesome abilities. Bjorn is powerful but Astrid is powerful in her own right and they’re both incredibly stubborn. It makes for an interesting dynamic in their relationship, that’s for sure! They both have their flaws and strengths but the thing that I liked the most was that unlike in the myth, they didn’t fall in Insta-Love. No, they slowly come to respect and eventually love each other and it’s only when things go wrong that Astrid truly realizes just how much she really loves Bjorn.
Michelle Diener has also taken creatures from Scandinavian myths to populate her world. There are both good and evil creatures and in the end both types of creatures contribute to the balance and therefore survival of the world. However, the balance has been thrown off and it’s up to Bjorn and Astrid to restore it together. So not only is there the main plot but there are plenty of these interesting little subplots that tie into the main conflict of Astrid and Bjorn’s relationship.
The plot isn’t break-neck but it was exciting enough for me not to want to put the book down. Like with all of Michelle Diener’s books, I quickly became invested not only in the plot but in the three dimensional characters. If you’re interested in fairytale retellings you can’t go wrong with Mistress of the Wind.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Intrinsical by Lani Woodland
(Cover picture courtesy of Lani Woodland’s site.)
Sixteen-year-old Yara Silva has always known that ghosts walk alongside the living. Her grandma, like the other females in her family, is a Waker, someone who can see and communicate with ghosts. Yara grew up watching her grandmother taunted and scorned for this unusual ability and doesn’t want that to be her future. She has been dreading the day when she too would see ghosts, and is relieved that the usually dominant Waker gene seems to have skipped her, letting her live a normal teenage life. However, all that changes for Yara on her first day at her elite boarding school when she discovers the gene was only lying dormant. She witnesses a dark mist attack Brent, a handsome fellow student, and rushes to his rescue. Her act of heroism draws the mist’s attention, and the dark spirit begins stalking her. Yara finds herself entrenched in a sixty-year-old curse that haunts the school, threatening not only her life, but the lives of her closest friends as well. Yara soon realizes that the past she was trying to put behind her isn’t going to go quietly.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy of this book in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
This book is a solid ‘meh’ for me. There were some things I thought were really awesome and some things that weren’t so awesome. So first I’ll talk about the awesome things.
I loved how Intrinsical sounds pretty much like your typical YA novel from the blurb but Lani Woodland completely deviates from the usual formula. Yes, there’s romance and ghosts but there are so many plot twists you won’t be able to predict the ending. One of the strengths of Lani Woodland’s writing is definitely her ability to plot a novel so that you’re not really sure what’s going to happen next but you’re very, very eager to find out. I didn’t really have the urge to put this book down until I was actually done.
One of the ‘meh’ things was that Woodland’s voice seemed far too sophisticated for a sixteen-year-old, even one going to an elite private high school. It was just too mature, too descriptive compared to Yara’s actions. It’s a shocking contrast to hear Yara thinking like a thirty year old woman but acting like a three year old when she throws her temper tantrums. Some authors can pull this off but this was one of the things that distracted me from the admittedly great story.
The characters were okay, aside from the voice-action contrast I mentioned. Yara is interesting in that she denies her heritage before finally embracing it fully. Brent is interesting in that he’s not a typical male lead because he’s not constantly trying to make out with Yara. He’s actually quite shy about the whole romance thing, which is a refreshing change from your typical bad boy type of love interest. They’re both well fleshed out characters so I can’t really complain about that.
Essentially, Intrinsical is a good book and I’d recommend it to some people. But be prepared for the voice-action dissonance in Yara making this book go from a ‘good’ to a ‘meh’.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
The Collector of Dying Breaths by M. J. Rose
(Cover picture courtesy of BandelierGirlReadsEverything.)
In 1533, an Italian orphan with an uncanny knack for creating fragrance is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s perfumer. To repay his debt, over the years René le Florentine is occasionally called upon to put his vast knowledge to a darker purpose: the creation of deadly poisons used to dispatch the Queen’s rivals.
But it’s René other passion—a desire to reanimate a human breath, to bring back the lives of the two people whose deaths have devastated him—that incites a dangerous treasure hunt five centuries later. That’s when Jac L’Etoile—suffering from a heartache of her own—becomes obsessed with the possibility of unlocking Rene’s secret to immortality.
Soon Jac’s search reconnects her with Griffin North, a man she’s loved her entire life. Together they confront an eccentric heiress whose art collection rivals many museums and who is determined to keep her treasures close at hand, not just in this life but in her next.
Set in the forest of Fontainebleau, crisscrossing the lines between the past and the present, M.J. Rose has written a mesmerizing tale of passion and obsession. This is a gothic tale perfect for fans of Anne Rice, Deborah Harkness, and Diana Galbadon.
[Full disclosure: I was provided a free ebook through NetGalley for the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
If I had to describe The Collector of Dying Breaths in just one word it would have to be ‘beautiful.’ Yes, beautiful.
Beautiful is the word that comes to mind simply because M. J. Rose’s writing style is just that. It’s descriptive, but not overly so. It’s very heavily focused on appealing to the reader’s five senses. Since this is a novel heavily centred around perfume of course she describes the scents in pretty much every scene, but she also doesn’t neglect the reader’s ears or sense of touch. Very few writers can appeal to all five of the senses in a natural way but M. J. Rose stands out in this respect.
As with most books, the one element I liked most was the characters. René le Florentine really spoke to me as a character and through the flashbacks I felt his triumphs and his greatest sorrows. He really is a tragic character and although he tries to do the right thing, it seems like it always turns out badly for him. I can’t tell you much more about poor René without having too many spoilers but I can tell you that by the end of the novel your heart will ache for him.
Jac is an interesting character as well. Having lost her beloved brother and seeing an opportunity to complete his life’s work, she’s in a state of emotional confusion. Added to that are her constant past life memories that are triggered by being around objects and locations with so much history. I liked slowly learning her back-story and seeing how she coped with both her brother’s death and the return of her former lover. She changes throughout the course of the novel and I was very happy with her decision in the end.
The plot is not fast-paced by most people’s standards but The Collector of Dying Breaths is interesting enough to keep you reading into the early morning hours. The plot twists and turns as you try to learn what happened to the unfortunate René and whether Jac could complete her brother’s work or not. These point of view shifts never really slow down the action in the story, though. Instead, they add more tension as the past and present collide, culminating in a heart-pounding climax.
If you like history, romance or just books with well fleshed-out characters, you’re going to love The Collector of Dying Breaths. I can’t speak to its historical accuracy as I know very little about the period, but I guarantee that you’ll feel like you’re right there along with René in the court of Catherine de Medici.
This is the 6th book in The Reincarnationist series by M. J. Rose but it can absolutely be read as a standalone novel, which is how I read it.
I give this book 5/5 stars.