I am a sucker for all things “Beauty and the Beast”. I will never get tired of it. It has always been my favorite fairy tale I and love reading all the variations authors take on it. That said, this was not my favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling (I think my favorite is still “Beauty” by Robin McKinley). There was so much I appreciated about it but I didn’t connect with it like I had hoped to. I LOVE the idea of this book. I loved Yeva’s (Beauty’s) wanderer nature and yearning for something “more”. She was highly spirited…
Browsing CategoryComing Of Age
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
I was an avid reader of Rae Carson’s Girl of Fire and Thorns series and I was prepared to fully enjoy her Walk on Earth a Stranger series as well. Upon finishing this first installment I am a little let down to admit that this book was good but not great. I’ve never been enthusiastic about magical realism but the historical setting and strong female lead persuaded me to set aside my apprehensions and take a chance on Walk on Earth a Stranger. Lee Westfall is the only child of a prospecting couple in Georgia. Her life is standard for…
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah really had her work cut out for her after she wrote The Nightingale. This beautiful book follows her wild success nicely and I’m betting her followers won’t be disappointed. And while The Great Alone wasn’t quite as perfect as The Nightingale I didn’t mind. I still feel this will be one of the more memorable reads from 2018 (pretty soon to be calling it I know, but you guys this was good!). Let’s talk about the good stuff, there really is so much to mention. First, the backdrop, the Alaskan wilderness was nothing sort of magical. Hannah really…
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
This was such a lovely book. It was exactly what it set out to be (a young girl’s journey in coping with life after the loss of her parents) and nothing more-something I find I am more and more appreciating from middle grade fiction. Holly Sloan did a magnificent job of containing this novel and stripping it to the heart of the thing. As a result the novel was poignant, articulate, and satisfying. Willow was a character I have rarely seen more honesty from. She is intelligent and quirky and I adored her immediately, I suspect few will not love…
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
I only need one word to capture the essence of this book: enchanting. I fell captive to its spell while reading (which only took me two days) and when I finished it was with no small struggle that I awakened to reality. This is a fascinating re-telling of a little known Russian fairy tale and is perfect for the winter season. I’ve never known the original fairy tale so I can’t speak to how true it was to it’s source, but I can say that I enjoyed it immensely. Its greatest strength is it’s atmospheric tone and vividly fresh setting.…
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Ultimately this book disappointed me. Imagine a bell curve; that perfectly illustrates the energy and my interest in this novel. The beginning was slow and that’s okay, a lot of books begin that way. I was prepared to be patient. The writing was good and occasionally very clever, clever enough I felt it promised satisfaction just around every page. I waited, then podded, onward. Even though I’m a self-proclaimed anglophile and I just absolutely adore anything British I was seriously contemplating not finishing this book. Nothing was happening, no character was strong enough to care too deeply about. Could I…