Book Review

Review: A Mercy by Toni Morrison

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mercy“She learned the intricacy of loneliness: the horror of color, the roar of soundlessness and the menace of familiar objects lying still.”
― Toni Morrison, A Mercy

“I dream a dream that dreams back at me”
― Toni Morrison, A Mercy

With quotes such as this how can one not just love the book that they are from? I am the type that can fall in love with a book because of one sentence. This however was not that book. Maybe it was too short to come together for me….maybe I just don’t like Toni Morrison’s writing style….but this just can’t be! I mean it’s THE TONI MORRISON! I’ve wanted to read her forever and I really, REALLY, R E A L L Y wanted to love this book, it was my first experience with her…….I usually love beautiful poetic writing styles! Why couldn’t I fall in love with this book?????????? Why!!!!???

Honestly, truth be told, I just didn’t feel the story. I didn’t connect with the characters. I didn’t feel respect….I didn’t feel fear….I didn’t feel love…I didn’t feel sacrifice….I didn’t feel regret….I didn’t feel sorrow. There just wasn’t a basis for it. Sure, I knew I was supposed to feel these things. I knew exactly what I was supposed to feel and who my sympathies were suppose to lie with…I knew who I was meant to despise….however, I felt no more emotion for one character than another. I barely cared at all. I just wanted it to end….and it wasn’t even that long of a book. Maybe I needed more character development. Maybe I needed more details. I know the words were there…..there is no doubt that Morrison writes in a beautiful lyrical way….it’s just that in this story….well….it was almost as if Morrison sat down and penned a few great sentences. Sentences full of promises….and THEN and only then did she try to build a story around them. I wanted her to write a story first AND then write beautiful sentences to tell that story….I realize that to some they will think that sounds foolish and silly….that there might not be a difference….a story is just a story, but this is what I thought when I was reading the story….and it’s still what I think after I have finished it.

I want to give Morrison another try. I *really* want to read “The Bluest Eye”…..but I’m afraid that no matter how much I know that I am supposed to love Toni Morrison, that she just might not be the writer for me…..sigh….I seriously HATE when that happens, don’t you?

~Urania

Buy it now A Mercy

Review: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

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16115612I have loved every word Khaled Hoseeini has put to paper. I have waited a long time for this novel. I have held my breath as I opened the very first page of this book and read the first line. I think I might have held that breath the entire first chapter….but as I finished that first chapter, I could only set the book down, breathe deep, sigh contentedly, and smile….yes, the wait had been worth it! As each chapter went on my feelings of pure bliss only grew. I was like the fat cat that had just ate that robin in the garden and was now basking in the sun feeling full, clean, and oh so satisfied. Life could be no better…..I was simply put…in a word…giddy……

Then I hit chapter 5……and my world changed…..

This is hard one to review. This book is broken into 9 chapters. All of them are lengthy…some of them are LONG…..They are told by different characters of the novel. They go back in history and forward in history….I have to say, chapters 1 – 4….they were….pure bliss for me….I loved every single word of them. I think I’ve reread the first two chapters 3 times each already. Chapters three and four have been scanned over multiply times….These chapters had everything I look for in writing. Mystery. Fables. Devotion. Regret. Heartache. Betrayal. Hopelessness. and a beauty that simply made me ache inside….I honestly found it hard to move beyond to the next chapters, it was just THAT beautiful. If this book had stayed on track from those chapters, it would have made it to my all time favorite list.

However, something strange happened at chapter 5 and I am still not sure why Hosseini changed direction. It was still great writing. It was still interesting. But the enchantment for me was gone. It was just good writing. The magic was left out…the interweaving of all the elements of the first part of the novel were laid off to the side. We were introduced to more stories. Yes, the narrators of these stories were all related to the main story, but not a part of it. How do I explain….I almost felt like I was reading something along the lines of 6 degrees of separation. I had no problem following along, I just was left wondering why is Hosseini including these narrators? Why are their stories included? That was it for me…they were not part of the story I feel in love with…they were their own stories. Yes, they were connected…but oh so different. They added nothing to the mystery. The added nothing to the enchantment of the first part of the novel. they were simply fillers….The ones that were important to the story were visited way too late in life to really fill in the part of their history I yearned to know of….Others were never revisited at all….Hosseini wrote a novel in the beginning that demanded I become invested in the characters and then completely ignored my need for more! Confused? I was too. Once you read the book, you will hopefully understand what I mean…..I personally feel like Hosseini had too wide a focus on this book. Perhaps if it were 900 plus pages long (YES! I would love to read a Hosseini book that long!) all of the stories could have been expanded upon and I would have felt that magic throughout the book…as it is, I simply felt like the first part was what the novel should have stayed true to and the rest just felt like an outline/shell of an unrelated story…..again, yes, I know they were all connected and I saw the connection…I just didn’t *feel* that connection….

this book left me so thrilled with its words and it’s story…yet surprisingly empty and let down at the same time…..

~UraniaBuy it now And the Mountains Echoed

Review: Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

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wolves

4 stars

Tell the Wolves I’m Home is about two teenage sisters navigating through their grief after their uncle’s death. A portrait he painted of them is both their preparation for his death and their therapy as they mourn.

The author did a wonderful job getting me to believe June’s life. Reading this book put me right there with her, back at 14 years old, watching drama club rehearsals and not knowing how to relate to boys. I felt like June was a girl I knew, someone I went to school with and hung out with on half-days, sketching or writing poetry in a notebook, trying to figure out how to express ourselves in a grown-up world.

I felt June’s confusion and sadness, her frustration with her sister, her search for an identity. The writing was so authentic, the emotional part of the story was very believable.

A few particulars in the story tripped me up. A 13-year old traveling from Westchester to Manhattan alone, or befriending a virtual stranger so quickly, or driving many miles in the middle of the night without a license seems too far-fetched. Maybe it’s because though I grew up in the same decades June did, I didn’t live in Westchester. I don’t know, but some actions just didn’t ring true.

It was those little implausible details that prevented me from being totally immersed in the story. As soon as I was about to lose myself in it, something unrealistic would jolt me out of the magic.

Still… I laughed and I cried – a sure sign of a good book. The sister relationship was written flawlessly. The expressions of sadness and love were perfectly conveyed. The writing flowed, and the dialogue was natural. The ending … just beautiful. I recommend!

-Calliope

Buy It Now Tell the Wolves I’m Home

Review: The Biscuit Witch by Deborah Smith

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biscuitI first ran across Deborah Smith by accident. I was new to e-book technology and ran across a free book of hers that was titled “The Crossroad Café”. At that time I had very few book titles on my kindle. I expected a quick fluffy read that would entertain me, but soon leave my mind completely….however, years later I still love that book…it took me completely by surprise and was so much more than I ever expected….I seriously love Deborah Smith. She has a wonderful writing style. Very real. She makes the characters come to life. So when I heard this novella was coming out revisiting the characters I had first met in TCC, I was so excited! I started this book the minute I got my copy.

This short novella was a very nice way for me to go back to Crossroad Cove for a visit. I usually do not care for novellas, but this one was a nice break for me. I’m not sure if it was a formatting issue (I am reviewing a copy from NetGalley) or just how the book was written, but it was confusing at parts when the point of view jumped between the lead characters. It was easy enough to figure it out, but it should have been seamless, and it was not. I understand that this is one part of what will eventually be three novellas to make one book….two sibling stories are to follow….however, I feel that there was plenty of story between the Tal, Doug, and Eve to merit a full novel. I felt this was rushed and I missed the building up of their story. I can easily see where 200 +more pages could have been written about them. There was so much history before they all came together, more time should have been made to hear their full stories. I still love Smith’s writing style, but I feel she cheated us on this one….I wanted more!!!!

*spoiler*
My major complaint (besides the rushing of the story) is the rushing of the characters. I don’t necessarily agree that a small child calls a stranger Daddy two days after meeting him. This really bothered me. If this had been a full-fledged novel, this could have been avoided and would have been a moot point…instead, it’s something that left a bad feeling for me.

Still really enjoyed the book and am now more firmly cemented as knowing Smith is a “need to read” for me….

Review copy provided by NetGalley

~Urania

Buy it now The Biscuit Witch (A Crossroads Café Novella, Book One of the MacBrides)

Review: The Mistress by Tiffany Reisz

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ImageSneak Peek – Release date July 30, 2013

The Mistress is the fourth book in The Original Sinner’s Series by Reisz.  If you are faint of heart, I can only warn you, don’t dare read them.  These books have just about every sexual scenario you can imagine in a D/s relationship, plus a few you n.e.v.e.r dared imagine…I wasn’t too sure about this one…since I have read the other titles in the series, I was pretty sure I knew what to expect….however, I was wrong!  It didn’t start out slow per say, but it was so different from the other books in the series. I enjoyed it from the start, but I was almost disappointed in everything that was (and WASN’T) happening…

Once I reached the point where I just figured Reisz had decided to take this book in a safer, more vanilla relationship, the floodgates opened…..I reckon Ms Reisz has a bit of a sadist in her as well as her characters! She seriously made us all wait a very long time with a bit of foreplay to get to where we all expected to be in one of her Sinner’s novels! As we gave up hope of this happening, she showed me that she hadn’t really showed anything in her previous novels!  This was a long wait Sinner behavior to occur, but it was by far some of the best Sinner behavior EVER!!!!  I have to say that it was soooooo worth it!

For me, nothing will ever compete to take the place of “The Siren”…it was such an amazing read….however, this one is no doubt my second favorite in the series. I loved hearing more of the background history of the characters and I seriously loved every single word I read about/from Søren…after reading all of the other novels in the series I didn’t think it was possible for me to like him more…..having read this one I now know it was possible for me to LOVE him more….The ending leaves no doubt that this story will continue…but it does leave much doubt as to HOW it will continue….oh my…..Ms Reisz, I am, as always, your adoring fan…..

ARC provided from NetGalley

~Urania

Buy It Now The Mistress

Review: The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett

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ImageThis book started out wonderfully! It had so much potential and I loved every part of it….The shy hero who hid in a world of books and avoided the “real world”….the hero finding his true loves, first in books and then in a shy young girl….Shakespeare (seriously!!! How can you not get excited about a book that is partly about Shakespeare?)…..old books treated with love and great affection….Lovett gave us love, mystery, century old rivalries, serious bibliophiles, forgery, mystery, murder and personal redemption….however, somewhere along the way this simply turned into a poorly made for television movie that was oh so predictable at the end….

I’ve never read a book that fascinated me so much at times and bored me so completely at other times…Parts of the book were so detailed that I was enchanted with it…I found myself having to slow my pace down. I was so excited by what I was reading that I had to breathe deep and try not to rush ahead…..sadly, it seemed that the further the book went along that the detailed parts had no real meaning, and the parts that were important to the story had very few details. I felt that Lovett just put out a major puzzle piece to the story and just expected us to take it at face value and did not share with us the pieces that finally made the mystery complete. I felt greatly disjointed towards the last 3rd of the book….the great pain that Lovett seemed to take in the beginning to supply us with all the details we needed, seemed like it was too much a bother at the end. I felt that he just wanted to hurry and wrap things up to get this book off to the publishers. The ending really did strike me as a neatly packaged, wrap up everything in a pretty bow, type Hollywood ending…..my least favorite type….Even though I loved parts of this book, I’m not sure I would feel comfortable recommending it to others….

Review copy provided from NetGalley

~ Urania

Buy It Now The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession

Review: A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook and Branon Halpin

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17288907A Really Awesome Mess is told from 2 different points of view, with each author writing one. Emmy is struggling with being adopted and fitting into what she perceives as her perfect family. She’s dealing with being a minority in a white family and trying to become super thin in any way possible. An incident at school leads to her being accused of bullying and having the police involved. Her life is basically not going so great at the moment.

Justin is dealing with some depression and anger issues at his divorced parents. His father walks in on him in a compromising situation and things don’t go well from there.

Both Justin and Emmy end up at The Heartland Academy, a reform school that is meant for kids who need to clean up their act and need more than just regular school. Their parents are hoping it will help them to deal with their issues. There, they meet a cast of characters with their own issues and we get to see them interact with other teens as well as therapists and teachers.

I found this book to be a really funny and touching book. Parts of the story were hilarious as we got to see the kids interact with each other and what they thought of the others issues. Parts were intensely touching as we see exactly why Emmy was accused of bullying and why Justin is so angry.

Seeing the teens come together and form a close group was the highlight of the book for me. They come together to help each other, first in not so healthy ways and then eventually in slightly better ways. Having them interact at the Fair in particular highlights each of their issues and how they are actually seen by other people. The group of teens are such a random group of misfits they almost reminded me of the movie The Breakfast Club at one point.

I think this is a great book that teens could get a lot out of – it’s funny enough they should want to read it all the way through but with enough of a lesson in perception versus reality that they could learn something at the same time.

At the same time as someone who reads a lot of Young Adult books yet is not exactly a Young Adult herself, it’s also a book that people of different ages can enjoy. We can all relate to most of the feelings that the teens went through in this book. The authors did a great job of fleshing those out and making me relate to the characters.

4 stars.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

– Clio

Buy it now A Really Awesome Mess

Review: The Siren (The Original Sinners #1) by Tiffany Reisz

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the siren

Where does one start to review a book such as this….I guess we just have to get the down and dirty out of the way…..yes, it has strong D/s players in it. Yes, there is what some would label violence in it. But in all honesty, there is less actual sex in this book then almost any historical or contemporary romance novel I have read. Yes, the sex is there…yes the violence (in some eyes) is all there…but is it left for the most part to the reader’s imagination.

Now that we have that out of the way, I already feel better….don’t you? bwahahahaha….seriously, this is what people want to imagine they read when they gushed over “Fifty Shade of Grey” (I seriously hate to even mention that book when discussing this one)….again, I won’t even to attempt to review what I don’t fully understand….the D/s relationship….except to say that Reisz seems to understand it much better. A sub needs to be a very strong-willed person…..They are not some timid little mouse that doesn’t know who they are and are easily bent to will……

okay….so see, I told you….I don’t even know where to start a review here…I only know I loved this book. One has to take into consideration face value vs reality here.

Face value….you have a young lady who is so much in control that she is TOTALLY out of control……Face value…..you have a young man who is so innocent that he appears fragile….even to those that know him best…..Face value….you have an older man who is so dominate that he is terrifying…..

Reality….you have a young lady that is so adrift in the world, she is fighting to hang on to anything…she is struggling to maintain control of a world she feels she can’t control…..Reality…..you have a young man who is so strong that he stays his course, no matter the temptations of his own desires….Reality….you have a guy that is so willing to give anything to the woman that he loves that he is willing to sacrifice all that he is….

So what does a woman such as Nora/Eleanor do? Does she cling to the person she KNOWS herself to be? Or does she become the person she WANTS to be? What happens if the two don’t coincide? How does one face these choices knowing that no matter what, someone she loves will be crushed in the end, perhaps even herself? How much of their wants/desires/needs/hurts should effect how she lives her life?

Finally, some quotes….what is a book without quotes that move you anyway????

“The world had fallen away in his presence and now that he was gone, she was left in the equally potent presence of his absence”

“What a beautiful wreck of a man”

“S&M is as psychological as it is physical and sexual, Zach. Imagine being as deep inside a woman’s mind as you are inside her body.”

“When Søren touched her she became his. When Wesley touched her, she became herself.”

“Nora…the siren and the goddess, the ship and the wine-dark sea. She would either save him or end him”

ARC provided by NetGalley

~Urania

Buy it now The Siren (The Original Sinners)

Review: Anybody But Him, by Claire Baxter

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1003328_597913686915103_1068385774_n4 stars

Anybody But Him is a cute, sassy, funny romantic comedy. It started out a little quirky and confusing, but midway through I was hooked on the story of Nicola being back in her small hometown. The characters, plot and dialogue were believable and well-written. The only idea I thought might have been farfetched was the initial meeting between the Nicola and Blair. Once they met, their interactions were natural and fun.

I was satisfied with the predictable happy ending – I like a happily ever after in romcoms and chick lit.

This novella struck me as a streamlined, briefer Jill Mansell-type story. I totally enjoyed it and will read more by Baxter.

My favorite detail in the book was the dog’s name. Quite clever.

This ARC was given to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

–Calliope

Buy it now Anybody But Him (Random Romance)

Review: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

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norwood

Great ending. This sure was the saddest book I’ve ever read. Seems very dark and depressing, but the light comes out at the very end and you can see the sunshine through the clouds. I’ve never read a book like this and to be honest, I’m not sure I ever want to read another one. It just takes a piece of you and leaves you feeling a little empty. I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s like traveling up a mountainside on a dark gray day. Yes, the beauty is still there, but you have to look for it. You don’t even notice the beauty before you because of the overcast skies. The higher up you go, the more drained you feel. At the very end, as you reach the top, you’re bone weary and exhausted, both mentally and physically, but suddenly you can see above the clouds and it’s so bright that your eyes hurt and the whole mountain suddenly looks different…you suddenly feel renewed…the world you thought was gloomy and gray is suddenly bright and new….and beautiful…..

  ~Urania

Buy It Now Norwegian Wood (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage International)