
Girls on Fire: A Girl's Guide to the Braai
Camilla Comins and Russel Wasserfall
Book
If you are heartily sick of going to braais where the guys stand around the fire drinking and...

Could Do Better
Book
Norman McGreevy's illustrated selection of schoolchildren's struggles with the pitfalls of the...

Washington Square
Henry James, Philip Horne and Martha Banta
Book
Henry James's classic tale of romance in urban nineteenth-century America, Washington Square is...

Game of Queens: The Women Who Made Sixteenth-Century Europe
Book
A BBC History magazine Book of the Year and an amazon.com Best Book of the Month Two childhood...

America: Nation of the Goddess: The Venus Families and the Founding of the United States
Alan Butler, Janet Wolter and Scott F. Wolter
Book
In America: Nation of the Goddess, Alan Butler and Janet Wolter reveal how a secret cabal of...

Arabic Quick!
Education and Reference
App
Learn the Arabic Alphabet! This complete guide will teach you how to read and speak Arabic quickly...

graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga #1) in Books
Feb 15, 2019
Admittedly, while I was intrigued at the subject, the beginning of this book was a slog to get through. I wasn't especially fond of the simpering Radu early on, since he was ridiculously sensitive and close to caricature. He features just as much, and perhaps more, than his sister, Lada (the feminine of Vlad). I thought Lada was a well-drawn character and I could totally see Vlad in her. As they age, Radu improves and is the heart of the book. This follows history as well as can be with the major change, so the story continues their progress to being hostages, as it were, to the Ottoman Empire.
The majority of the book takes place with Lada and Radu out of their homeland and as prisoner, befriending the Sultan's son, Mehmet, who eventually succeeds his father. So begins Radu's maturation and overwhelming love for Mehmet, which then turns into a love triangle with Lada. This could have been a total disaster and while it mucks up the history I know, it was done as well as can be. I appreciated how Radu's loyalty and convictions were handled in context with the times and circumstances. While I would have liked a more well-rounded Lada, I am hopeful that the next book will go into more depth. It's not a perfect book, Lada comes up with some big solutions to (mostly) actual events at a young age, which felt too convenient, but I still enjoyed the overall result.

Natari (73 KP) rated Brave the Tempest (Cassandra Palmer #9) in Books
Jul 15, 2019 (Updated Aug 1, 2019)
I consumed this book quickly, wherever there was a spare moment between my chores. It is fast paced like the others and I found it difficult to find times to put it down to eat and sleep because I just wanted to keep reading.
Cassie, our main character, has really blossomed and matured. But she's still so human and relatable and I think that is one of the main things I love about the series.
I'm lying. The main things I love are Pritkin and Mircea. Their own lives and how they interact with Cassie has had a dramatic overturn for this book. It's fun, fresh and always leaves you wanting more. The things that happen to Cassie are unbelievable yet the book is written in a way that just makes you think "of course, it is Cassie afterall".
Returning characters from previous books get much more attention and my love for the wider Cassie world really grew with this book. Seeing sides of characters we know and love from sister series like the Dorina Basarab books (greatest stories ever) offer fascinating insight aswell.
So when in book 10 ready? Oh, December 2019. Not long 😃

Aunt Flo Period Tracker: Simple Menstrual Calendar
Health & Fitness and Lifestyle
App
The Aunt Flo Period Tracker is bold, honest, and humorous! Aunt Flo says what women really think...

The Biopolitics of Gender
Book
Winner, 2017 International Studies Association's Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Section Best...