Review: All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls

Title: All Fall Down

Author: Sally Nicholls

Series: N/A

Genre: YA Historical

Summary (from Goodreads)

A deadly contagion races through England…

Isabel and her family have nowhere to run from a disease that has killed half of Europe. When the world she knows and loves ends forever, her only weapon is courage.

The Black Death of 1349 was the deadliest plague in human history. All Fall Down is a powerful and inspiring story of survival in the face of real life horror.

Review

When I was a kid, I had a real obsession with the Plague. Morbid, I know, but I had this book that was all about diseases – in the fun, quirky illustrations, cartoony sort of way. Despite the cartoons though, it used to scare the hell out of me. Every time I felt even slightly ill I managed to convince myself I was going to die of the plague. And this was before you could Google your symptoms.

There’s just something really scary about the thought of a plague that could kill more than half the population of Europe. It’s a fear that has inspired a whole horde of modern preoccupations, from the Zombie apocalypse to superflu pandemics. All Fall Down plays on that fear, bringing it to life through Isabel, who has the misfortune to be stuck in the middle of Black Death’s worst outbreak in history.

Isabel is not a particularly likeable character. She’s a coward, equally selfish and fearful most of the time. But in the context of the story, it works. She’s not got a massive quest to go on, requiring bravery and heart. She’s stuck in her village while all her friends and family die around her, and her reactions to this are realistic, leaving you questioning how you would behave should you find yourself in that situation. Exactly the same, I would imagine.

It’s a claustrophobic little tale, made worse by the fact that we now know why the plague spread, but the ignorance of people at the time meant they endangered themselves unknowingly. The story also brings to light how the absolute dregs of society acted – charging for digging graves and stealing from the homes of the dead. The dark side of human nature is illuminated, and it’s about as pretty as a Black Death buboe.

A scary little story that fans of the grizzlier side of historical fiction will enjoy. The period is brought scarily to life.

Rating: 4/5

Review: The Accidental Time Traveller by Janis Mackay

Title: The Accidental Time Traveller

Author: Janis Mackay

Series: N/A

Genre: Middle Grade Fantasy

Summary (from Goodreads)

Saul is on his way to the corner shop on a seemingly ordinary day, when a girl appears suddenly in the middle of the road. She does not understand traffic or the things she sees in shops, and she’s wearing a long dress with ruffled sleeves. Her name is Agatha Black.

Agatha Black is from 1813, and Saul needs to find a way to get her back to her time. With help from his buddies Will and Robbie, he tries to figure out how to make time travel happen.

Review

There’s a lot about Saul’s disgruntled voice that will appeal to children of 8-12. His worries about whether or not he’ll get a BMX for Christmas, his frustration with his twin baby sisters and his lacklustre attitude towards school all come across in a very realistic and relatable way.

And though I know little about Scotland, let alone Scotland in 1812, because Saul rings so true, it was easy to get swept up in believing Agatha’s voice as well. The little details about life in the 19th century were interesting, and would no doubt be enough to send the more historically minded tweenager to their history books or Google to find out more.

In terms of story, it’s a fairly predictable but sweet tale of friendship and realising that money isn’t everything. There are some missed opportunities with outcast character Agnes, but otherwise it’s a heartwarming tale and one that could be enjoyed by both parents and children.

I did keep hoping when I started a new chapter that this would be the one where Saul ends up back in 1812, but that never happened – another shame, as I would have been fascinated to see Agatha’s world. But other than that, I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to any younger fantasy fan.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Dating the Devil by Lia Romeo

Title: Dating the Devil

Author: Lia Romeo

Series: N/A

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Summary (from Goodreads)

Lucy O Neill is a plain-Jane New York PR assistant with a tiny apartment, a dead-end job, and a pair of annoyingly perfect roommates. Nothing exciting ever happens to her, until one night at a neighborhood pub . . .

Lewis Mephisto is tall, handsome, and hot. Very hot. He meets her gaze through the crowd, a wicked grin on his lips, an irresistible invitation in his eyes.

He’s Mr. Right Times Ten. Sophisticated, wealthy, sexy, and completely devoted to her, body and soul. So what’s her problem?

Can she handle dating the Devil?

Review

This is one of those cheesy, predictable books where the characters rarely show signs of having more than two dimensions, the plot never throws up any surprises and just occasionally you find yourself skimming a scene because it’s just so cringy.

But it’s also one of those books that makes up for all that by being just good fun.

There’s very little here that you won’t have seen a hundred times before. Even the interesting concept of the Devil and whether or not he is evil is brushed over in favour of steamy scenes in hallways and lifts and offices and just about everywhere else. Background characters have problems you can guess long before Lucy figures them out and the whole thing in general is as familiar and comfortable as driving home.

But for a light bit of fluff it achieves everything it sets out to. Charming, attractive lead male, hapless, underconfident lead female, lots of fairytale princess scenes, emotional highs and lows, and a feel-good funny ending to leave you with a smile on your face. A perfect bit of summer beach reading.

Rating: 3/5

A Remedy For An Exhausting Month

April has been a very long, tough month, in which none of what I said I was going to do really got done. But a lot else besides did, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time or at all unproductive. Just busy in ways that precluded any sort of writing or leisure time. Which has meant I haven’t had a lot to write about, let alone the time to write about it.

But, this weekend I am emerging from my hibernation. Nice that the bank holiday weekend has coincided with the end of work stresses and tight deadlines. Perfect that the weather yesterday was just beautiful.

With the Boyfriend at work, I spent most of the day with my family. A six mile jog in the morning with Mum got the day off to a good start – it was the furthest I’ve ever gone and has boosted my running confidence after a couple of really bad weeks. Running out all the stress of the past two weeks left me feeling detoxified and energised (if a little stiff and achy) and after a nice soak in the bath and lunch cooked by the Boyfriend (luxury!) before he headed to work, I went back to Mum’s to repot a plant and ended up relaxing in the sunshine reading books all afternoon. Bliss.

It was particularly nice to spend some time with my sister. We went to the local library to choose some reading material, which got us onto a conversation about what we were reading on our Kindles. I admitted I was reading an entirely cheesy but enjoyable romance novel. Charlie responded with great enthusiasm, saying she’d downloaded a load of them from the Kindle Top 100 free books and started sharing recommendations.

A note about Charlie. She’s sixteen, and in many ways mature, but she doesn’t like it when our mother and step-father smooch in the kitchen. To learn she has a secret taste for romance novels was something of a hilarious surprise.

‘I like the bad storylines,’ she said. ‘Sometimes they just turn into porn, but I skim read that stuff.’

We spent a giggly half an hour scanning through the current Kindle free bestsellers, and, after downloading about twenty of them, we chose a book to read together. A very short one. I’m not sure what our mother thought, hearing us laughing our heads off and reading dodgy quotes to each other.

I might be even more stiff and achy this morning. And I might have a Kindle full of soft porn, but it was an absolutely perfect day yesterday, rounded off with a noisy drink in the local Wetherspoons with Mum.

I hope it’s the first of many days into the run up to summer that involve doing things I love rather than stressing out and working all hours.

Charlie reading Billion Dollar Baby

May Reading List

April has been a month of hellish busyness and unexpected short turn around reviews. I’m not quite caught up on everything I’ve read yet, though I did manage to read 10 books. Just had to put off my ‘borrowed’ book from the reading list in order to get the reviews done on time. I will have to read that this month instead.

I do have a brief holiday coming up, in which I plan to read as much as possible. I won’t be taking any hard copies of books – just the Kindle – which should have the effect of getting me through some of my NetGalley books (yup, still chipping away at that backlog lol) as well as getting a big number of books read in just a few days.

Dreams and Shadows by Robert C. Cargill

Review here.

Dark Child Eps 1-3 by Adina West

Review here.

Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein

Review here.

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn

Review here.

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza

Review here.

The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

Review here.

Angelopolis by Daniella Trussoni

Review here.

The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson

Review here.

The Exiled Blade by Jon Courtenay Grimwood

The final instalment of the Assassini trilogy pits Tycho against murderous ex-Regent Alonzo to protect his love Giulietta and her young son Leo. In the elaborate chess game that is Venetian politics, enemies become friends, friends are betrayed and a lot of knives find their way into a lot of backs. Can Tycho end the war once and for all? And will it cost him Giulietta?

 

Visceral and gruesome as its predecessors, Grimwood continues to be unflinching in his portrayal of the horrors of life in his alternate 15^th Century Venice. A satisfying conclusion to a gritty trilogy. Highly enjoyable.

4/5

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday

Dr Alfred Jones doesn’t want to be involved in a project that wants to see salmon swimming in the Yemen. But when his bosses make it clear he has no choice, Alfred gets sucked in to the project and inspired by its eccentric mastermind Sheikh Muhammad.

It took me a while to get into this one. Told in a series of letters, emails, extracts and interviews, it’s a disjointed story; however, I found myself getting absorbed by poor Alfred’s plight. It’s hilariously realistic how everyone changes their minds around him, and I’m sure a telling insight into how politics works.

4/5

May Reading List

The Family Trap by Joanne Phillips (Self Published)

All Fall Down by Sally Nicholls (borrowed from Library)

And When Did You Last See Your Father by Blake Morrison (From my shelf)

The Disgrace of Kitty Grey by Mary Hooper (Review)

Review: Dreams and Shadows by Robert C. Cargill

Title: Dreams and Shadows

Author: Robert C. Cargill

Series: N/A

Genre: Fantasy

Summary (from Goodreads)

There is another world than our own—one no closer than a kiss and one no further than our nightmares—where all the stuff of which dreams are made is real and magic is just a step away. But once you see that world, you will never be the same.

Dreams and Shadows takes us beyond this veil. Once bold explorers and youthful denizens of this magical realm, Ewan is now an Austin musician who just met his dream girl, and Colby, meanwhile, cannot escape the consequences of an innocent wish. But while Ewan and Colby left the Limestone Kingdom as children, it has never forgotten them. And in a world where angels relax on rooftops, whiskey-swilling genies argue metaphysics with foul-mouthed wizards, and monsters in the shadows feed on fear, you can never outrun your fate.

Review

I love fairies. Not the pretty, Disney-fied version. The ugly, creepy, twisted versions of myth and legend – as multitudinous as the stars at night, each one even more horrible and fascinating than the rest.

Dreams and Shadows brings many of them out to play in a story that is at once an epic tale of war and an intimate story of friendship between two young boys as they grow into two young men, their lives entwined with the magic and treachery of the fairy world.

The story is told from a number of different perspectives, including a series of extracts from a book on the Fairy world which ought to have been dull, but actually added to the colour of the world. Knowing more about the habits and the horrors of each of the species encountered just added to the sense of building foreboding as the story built towards its climax.

It’s difficult to say much more than that without spoiling the reading experience. It’s a strange book, but in the best sort of way – a rich and fascinating experience that will leave a lasting impression. And make you careful to close your windows at night.

Rating: 5/5

 

Review: Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson

Title: Fairest Beauty

Author: Melanie Dickerson

Series: N/A

Genre: YA Fantasy

Received for review from NetGalley

Summary (from Goodreads)

Sophie desperately wants to get away from her stepmother’s jealousy, and believes escape is her only chance to be happy. Then a young man named Gabe arrives from Hagenheim Castle, claiming she is betrothed to his older brother, and everything twists upside down. This could be Sophie’s one chance at freedom—but can she trust another person to keep her safe?

Gabe defied his parents Rose and Wilhelm by going to find Sophie, and now he believes they had a right to worry: the girl’s inner and outer beauty has enchanted him. Though romance is impossible—she is his brother’s future wife, and Gabe himself is betrothed to someone else—he promises himself he will see the mission through, no matter what.

When the pair flee to the Cottage of the Seven, they find help—but also find their feelings for each other have grown. Now both must not only protect each other from the dangers around them—they must also protect their hearts.

Review

I love a good fairytale and I’m a sucker for a good romance, so in most respects this was right up my street. I very much enjoyed the ‘realistic’ twist on the classic Snow White fairytale, and though re-imaginings always have the downside of you knowing where the story is going, I always find it kind of fun to guess what connection each of the characters has and exactly how events are going to unfold. Fairest Beauty certainly wasn’t a disappointment here – from twisted step-mother Ermengard to the seven (not dwarfs, with one exception, but outcasts with physical or other difficulties that render them different – a clever reflection of the time) the mythology was woven in a clever and satisfying way.

And as characters Gabe and Sophie were likeable. Roguish charmers are my particular favourite and Gabe with his grinning and flirting but ultimately heroic heart was a perfect romantic interest in my book. And though Sophie was inevitably a little helpless – not in an irritating way, but as an accurate reflection of what her life would have been like at the time  - she had enough gumption about her to make her sympathetic rather than simpering.

That said, there was a little too much of Sophie worrying about her feelings for Gabe and whether it was the right thing - it just started to get a little on the tiresome side after a while, but not so much as to be a detriment to the story in a big way. It was just a bit padded out, like a few more chapters were needed to make the book publishable so they were filled with Sophie and Gabe’s indecision. I do like the whole ‘will-they-won’t-they’ thing, especially when it’s clear they ultimately will, but it’s a fine line between making it tantalising and page-turning, or becoming annoying.

But, the thing that bugged me most were the references to Jesus and the Bible. It’s not my cup of tea – I just find it a bit preachy. I didn’t realise when I picked it up that it would have Christian themes, and if you like that sort of thing, I’m sure it’s done very well, but it’s just not for me.

So, a nice little romance that’s a bit drawn out and perhaps not best suited for me, but overall I enjoyed it and did find myself dipping into it as often as possible in the hope that on the next page there would be some romantic scene between the two leads, so on that front it was very successful!

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: Angelopolis by Danielle Trussoni

Title: Angelopolis

Author: Danielle Trussoni

Series: Angelology #2

Genre: Fantasy

Received for review from NetGalley

Summary (from Goodreads)

A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her wings a betrayal that haunts him still. The Nephilim are again on the rise, scheming to construct their own paradise—the Angelopolis—and ruthlessly pursued by Verlaine in his new calling as an angel hunter. But when Evangeline materializes, Verlaine is besieged by doubts that will only grow as forces more powerful than even the Nephilim draw them from Paris to Saint Petersburg and deep into the provinces of Siberia and the Black Sea coast. A high-octane tale of abduction and liberation, treasure seeking and divine warfare,Angelopolis plumbs Russia’s imperial past, modern genetics, and the archangel Gabriel’s famous visitations to conceive a fresh tableau of history and myth that will, once again, enthrall readers the world over.

Review

Ugh. Where to begin?

I was always in two minds about Angelology. On the one hand I really loved the concept of the world, and had a fondness for the main characters Evangeline and Verlaine, but a rubbish ending (when there was no promise of a sequel to follow) made me feel it was just overall poorly executed.

Then I read this and redefined my idea of what poorly executed means.

It’s as if this wasn’t edited at all. Like the publishers received a terrible manuscript and thought: what the hell, it will sell anyway. The story is rushed, the characters motivations a mystery and there are some dreadful continuity errors.

It’s very frustrating because this could have been good. Like in Angelology you have the continent hopping excitement of a Dan Brown-esque adventure novel. Trussoni has clearly done her research on ancient traditions and histories and her interweaving of her own angelic mythology into our real history is clever and satisfying. But then it’s clumsily regurgitated by an academic character who just decides to launch into a monologue on ancient Russia with no regard for time pressures or raging battles.

And the battles aren’t that exciting either. Everything seems rushed. Even the final payoff of Evangeline and Verlaine’s relationship is summed up in a sentence before both characters inexplicably turn to completely the opposite line of thinking to what they had displayed throughout the rest of the book.

Overall, I was left both confused and disoriented by poor transitions, rushed scenes, brushed over revelations and a load of historical info-dumping that, while interesting, rarely did anything to move the story forwards. I couldn’t even tell you what it was really about. Except it had something to do with some flowers and a Faberge egg…

Such a disappointment.

Rating: 1.5/5

Review: The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

Title: The New Hunger

Author: Isaac Marion

Series: Warm Bodies #0.5

Genre: Post Apocalyptic Science Fiction

Received for Review

Summary (from Goodreads)

New York is a bayou. New Orleans is a reef. The entire country has been devastated by natural disasters and governmental collapse, and on top of everything else there is the annoying problem of zombies trying to devour you at every turn. But sixteen-year-old Nora and her younger brother Addis are about to discover the most frightening thing yet: being abandoned in this horrific world by their own parents.

Left with only a bag of clothes and a first-aid kit, Nora and Addis begin a harrowing journey to connect with anyone who isn’t looking to rob them or eat them. A wounded man wrecks a meal of green beans and French fries at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle. An attempt to get a good night’s sleep in a fortified motel is ruined by an undead face staring at them through the window. And they just can’t seem to shake someone – something – that’s been following them everywhere they go….

Meanwhile, a girl named Julie is traveling toward the city in an SUV with her parents. She is only twelve, but has already seen friends die and her school burn. She has watched her father become nearly as cold and remorseless as the Dead. All she wants is someplace to call home, even if it never really will be.

And somewhere nearby, a tall man awakens in the woods, unsure of exactly where he is, or even who he is. As he struggles to remember details of his life, a single consonant comes to him: R. He is…a name that begins with R….

Review

It’s been a while since I read Warm Bodies, and I don’t really remember it all that well. All I remember is really enjoying it. I really enjoyed this, but it was odd. Very definitely a prequel – more for the benefit of pleasing fans than gaining new ones.

Because I couldn’t really remember Warm Bodies, I only just barely remembered that the main girl was called Julie, and therefore that the Julie featured may be her. I didn’t remember Nora at all, so events that transpired there did come as something of a shock, though those more familiar with the story may see where it’s going.

Despite the disparate threads of story all leading up to the set up of Warm Bodies, there isn’t really a story. It’s more just background information about the characters. But because Marion writes so well about life and death, it doesn’t really matter. You get swept along with the lyrical prose and the wider questions posed and sink easily into the horrific but beautifully depicted world.

And though Warm Bodies is a romance, and The New Hunger definitely has notes of that – though the characters are too young really for it to be a major element – there is definitely a strong thread of horror. One particular scene with some skeletal zombies is quite discordantly horrific after pages of the zombies being no more than a shuffling presence, outpaced by a brisk walk.

So, it’s enjoyable fare for fans of Warm Bodies, though I wouldn’t recommend it as a starting point for the series. Read and enjoy Warm Bodies first, then come back to sample this.

Rating: 4/5

A Brief Hiatus

I’m going to be disappearing for a few weeks.

Things have been a bit chaotic recently. In a very good way – busy busy busy, but productive and exciting. I’ve taken up a new volunteer position and I’m starting to make some forwards steps towards a new career (been wanting one for a while, finally feel in a position to start pursuing). I really want to give this my full energy, and because I’ve got so much on, something’s got to give.

So I won’t be posting anything on the blog other than book reviews (that NetGalley backlog isn’t getting any smaller, not with so many shiny books on their shelves!) and I’m ducking out of Camp NaNo – hours spent on CVs and covering letters mean very little inclination to write anything.

But, in six weeks time I should be going on holiday, and will hopefully come back with plenty to blather on about and renewed energy for my self-publishing projects.

For now though, I’m going to read voraciously and build websites and review theatre productions, and whatever else the volunteering and job hunting throws up.

Hopefully, I’ll see you on the other side!