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The Kingdom Revealed
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This is a stunningly illustrated fairytale for all ages from internationally-acclaimed papercut...
The English Wife
9.5
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Anna belle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life: he's the scion of an old Knickerbocker family,...
crime
Cori June (3033 KP) rated Once Upon a Winter's Night (Faery, #1) in Books
Nov 21, 2021
Makes you think (2 more)
Vocabulary
Riddles
But of a mary sue (1 more)
Sometimes drags
This is a good book based on a Norse fairytale. The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue. But it does have some deep subject matter. I'd file it as a winter book. Makes you think and can challenge some views.
The book can be somewhat draggy, as an epic fiction it's alright and doesn't kill itself in. Purple prose.
It's a good book if you want to expand your vocabulary or have High School assignments that are like "pick a book and write the sentence when it uses a word you don't know." Or was that just my english class? Anyway, I'd say it's good for ages 14 and up if they are tired of the kids section and not ready for the bloody. hardcore adult or too snooty (or hate the love triangles) for the ya fantasy. Its pretty easy to follow so if you want to put your toe in for epic fantasy but aren't sure if you want to start you can start here. It's part of a series but can be read alone.
The book can be somewhat draggy, as an epic fiction it's alright and doesn't kill itself in. Purple prose.
It's a good book if you want to expand your vocabulary or have High School assignments that are like "pick a book and write the sentence when it uses a word you don't know." Or was that just my english class? Anyway, I'd say it's good for ages 14 and up if they are tired of the kids section and not ready for the bloody. hardcore adult or too snooty (or hate the love triangles) for the ya fantasy. Its pretty easy to follow so if you want to put your toe in for epic fantasy but aren't sure if you want to start you can start here. It's part of a series but can be read alone.
Merissa (12061 KP) rated Brae MacKenzie (Romances of Mythic Identity #1) in Books
Jun 8, 2023
In this story, Brae MacKenzie has to learn that just because outwardly you may appear to have everything, it doesn't always satisfy your soul. Also, if you are feeling something, then it is undoubtedly real, even if no one else understands.
Brae seems to have everything that she could want. Even her best friend thinks so and even goes as far as to say that Brae's husband's death furthers that. It will remain the perfect, fairytale marriage. However, Brae feels lost inside and doesn't know what to do. On a trip to London, she makes an impulsive decision and boards a train for Glasgow. What follows is almost trance-like, as she meets her guide and follows the journey on her grandmother's map.
Very well written, with no editing or grammatical errors that I found, this book was full of surprises, with snippets into Scottish history as an added bonus. Definitely recommended.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 1, 2016
Brae seems to have everything that she could want. Even her best friend thinks so and even goes as far as to say that Brae's husband's death furthers that. It will remain the perfect, fairytale marriage. However, Brae feels lost inside and doesn't know what to do. On a trip to London, she makes an impulsive decision and boards a train for Glasgow. What follows is almost trance-like, as she meets her guide and follows the journey on her grandmother's map.
Very well written, with no editing or grammatical errors that I found, this book was full of surprises, with snippets into Scottish history as an added bonus. Definitely recommended.
* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *
Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
May 1, 2016
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Salt Grows Heavy in Books
May 12, 2024
94 of 220
Book
The Salt Grows Heavy
By Cassandra Khaw
⭐️⭐️⭐️
After the murder of her husband and the fall of his empire, a mermaid and her plague doctor companion escape into the wilderness. Deep in the woods, they stumble across a village where children hunt each other for sport, sacrificing one of their own at the behest of three surgeons they call "the saints." These saints play god with their magic, harvesting the best bits of the children for themselves and piecing the sacrifices back together again.
To save the children from their fates, the plague doctor must confront their past, and the mermaid must embrace the darkest parts of her true nature.
This was certainly not the story I’m used to reading when it comes to mermaids. This was fully of gore and dark meanings. Some parts are hard to read and not for the context but it’s like a full dictionary has been thrown in and it really put me off. Overall it’s a deeply dark fairytale of mermaids and death. For a small book it packs a punch in places.
Book
The Salt Grows Heavy
By Cassandra Khaw
⭐️⭐️⭐️
After the murder of her husband and the fall of his empire, a mermaid and her plague doctor companion escape into the wilderness. Deep in the woods, they stumble across a village where children hunt each other for sport, sacrificing one of their own at the behest of three surgeons they call "the saints." These saints play god with their magic, harvesting the best bits of the children for themselves and piecing the sacrifices back together again.
To save the children from their fates, the plague doctor must confront their past, and the mermaid must embrace the darkest parts of her true nature.
This was certainly not the story I’m used to reading when it comes to mermaids. This was fully of gore and dark meanings. Some parts are hard to read and not for the context but it’s like a full dictionary has been thrown in and it really put me off. Overall it’s a deeply dark fairytale of mermaids and death. For a small book it packs a punch in places.
ClareR (5726 KP) rated Bottled Goods in Books
Aug 18, 2018 (Updated Aug 18, 2018)
Life in Ceausescu’s Romania.
Set in Romania in the 1970’s, this portrays life for Alina and her husband, Liviu, under the Communist Ceausescu regime. Life for them becomes even harder when Alina’s brother in law defects to Germany. Her husband is a head teacher and is transferred to a difficult, failing school and seems to rely heavily on the alcohol that he drinks on the long train journey home. Meanwhile, Alina is harassed by a Secret Service agent, and this becomes very sinister.
The bottled goods of the title could be used as a metaphor for different aspects of this story: the perfumes Alina covets from the West; Liviu’s reliance on alcohol; how the couple (and probably their countrymen) bottle up their emotions and desire to defect; and a final, more fairytale bottling up - which I won’t give away.
This was all presented in the form of flash fiction that joined together to make a whole story. I liked this approach. It made the whole book feel uncomfortable (you never quite get in to the swing or the rhythm of the story), probably how Alina and Liviu felt, constantly under threat of arrest.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for my copy of this book.
The bottled goods of the title could be used as a metaphor for different aspects of this story: the perfumes Alina covets from the West; Liviu’s reliance on alcohol; how the couple (and probably their countrymen) bottle up their emotions and desire to defect; and a final, more fairytale bottling up - which I won’t give away.
This was all presented in the form of flash fiction that joined together to make a whole story. I liked this approach. It made the whole book feel uncomfortable (you never quite get in to the swing or the rhythm of the story), probably how Alina and Liviu felt, constantly under threat of arrest.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for my copy of this book.
Roxanne (13 KP) rated The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1) in Books
Nov 14, 2018
One day I was just looking online through random books that I could read and I came across this trilogy and it sparked my interest. I thought I would give this book a go. All I knew about it was that it was an erotic twist on a fairytale, I thought it might even be quite sweet...wow! One word comes to mind after reading this book...HARSH! To sum it up I would say 'torture-porn', and how tortured these characters indeed were. Although the story was well written it went beyond enjoyment and straight to 'I don't think I can even finish this book, it's pretty horrendous!'. But I stuck it out and finished it with a gob-smacked expression on my face. This isn't a sweet, fluffy and easy-to-read novel, its hard-core and sadistic. This review sounds like I didn't like the book yet I gave it 3 stars...this is because I really liked the challenge of getting through this book and it left me in shock, so many books i finish with a shrug then move on but this book is definitely something to remember. I am now reading a comedy inbetween carrying on with the series as even I feel like the characters need a break.
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