Charmed & Dangerous
10.0
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Magic takes many forms. From malignant hexes to love charms gone amok, you’ll find a vast array of...
Urban Fantasy Paranormal MM Romance
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic in Books
Jan 12, 2018
In Nora Fischer, we have a modern, independent, feminist woman transported to a place and time where women are inferior (by nature, most think.) There are even linguistic influences that make them inferior; women speak with a lot of "um" and "well" type words in their speech, while men don't. When Nora protests that this makes women's speech sound weaker, she's told that that's "just how women speak." Seeing her confronted with the sexism ingrained within the medieval style culture, and seeing her confront Aruendiel with how sexist it actually is, was a wonderful sub-plot of the book.
The main plot was well-paced and interesting - after being kidnapped by Ilissa at the beginning of the book, and enchanted into being a beautiful, love-struck little ninny, Nora recovers herself with the help of Aruendiel, and spends the rest of the book evading re-capture and finding her place in this new world. The descriptions are colorful, the characters are deep and fascinating, and the land and culture itself shows just how much thought went into creating this world. This is an absolutely spectacular debut novel, in my opinion, and I cannot WAIT for the sequel, since Barker did leave a few questions unanswered at the end of the book. I really can't rave about this book enough. If you like fantasy, (or Pride and Prejudice, since this book, while not attempting to be a retelling or anything, had a lot of the same feel) you should really pick this one up.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com
Charles Williams: The Third Inkling
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This is the first full biography of Charles Williams (1886-1945), an extraordinary and controversial...
Physics Avoidance: And Other Essays in Conceptual Strategy
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Mark Wilson presents a series of explorations of our strategies for understanding the world....
The Magic Misfits
10.0
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‘I adored Magic Misfits. This man is far too talented for my liking, and needs to be...
children
The Complete Short Stories: Volume One: Volume one
Book
The Complete Short Stories of Roald Dahl in the first of two unsettling and sinister volumes. 'They...
The Lower River
Book
Award-winning writer Paul Theroux draws upon personal experience of living in Malawi in his...
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links
Games and Entertainment
App
Take on global Duelists in real-time and while on the go with "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links"! - Star-studded...
Super Phantom Cat 2
Games and Entertainment
App
Meet Ari. He's on a journey to rescue his sister, Ina, who has been kidnapped in the mysterious...
Louise (64 KP) rated The Night Circus in Books
Jul 2, 2018
The story was told in a third person narrative, it is very descriptive from the tents, the lavish dinners, magic and illusions that are performed. There are two young magicians, they are told that they’re in training for a competition, but not told who their opponents are or even when it begins.
Celia is the daughter of the legendary Prospero the enchanter, at 6 years old her after her mother’s death she is left to her fathers devices and signs her up for competition, She is then practicing constantly to become the best Magician possible.
Marco is the protegé of Mr A.H-, Marco was plucked from an orphanage one day after completing some menial tasks and was sent to live and study magic, he too was also informed that he would be in a competition but the details were very vague.
There are other characters in this book that all relate to the circus and intertwine with Celia and Marco’s story, however I don’t want to give too much away.
The descriptive writing in this book was wonderful I felt that I was at the circus, watching the illusionist,contortionists and acrobats, the tents, the magical clock, I could go on, however I felt this took a lot away from any character development and plot. There is not much of a plot to this book and each chapter goes back and forth, which felt it a bit disjointed
The romance in this book was tiresome, it didn’t feel real, there was no spark, I felt no emotion in the writing and it was a bit instalovey, as soon as they knew they were opponents there was this sudden love for one another.
I did enjoy the book and the writing but I didn’t love it, I think it has been overhyped a little.
Overall I rated this book 3.5 stars out 5
For more of my reviews please check out my blog www.louiselovesbooks.wordpress.com