Tag: Bloggingforbooks

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ARC Review: Jane of Austin

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Book Title : Jane of Austin
Book Author : Hillary Manton Lodge
My Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Publication Date : March 18th 2014

Can you believe the only Jane Austen book I have read was Pride and Prejudice?

I haven’t gotten the chance to read any of her other work especially Sense and Sensibility which this book is based upon and now I truly wish I had.

I love retellings so it’s no surprise I would pick this one up to read but – here’s my first but – as I have not read Sense and Sensibility first, I had no idea who is who or what the plot is based upon. I think it would have been more enjoyable for me if I did. So I fully blame myself for this one. *smacks own head!

Retellings aside, I found it to be a very enjoyable light read. It’s entertaining, its cute and its fun.

The books starts with Jane Woodward and her sisters escaping their father’s scandal by fleeing to Austin – Texas, to start anew and to re-open their tea-shop there. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded as they were faced with many challenges, whether it’s with the tea shop or their relationships along with falling in and out of love. The story is told through Jane’s POV and through the retired Marine, Captain Cullum Beckett, who you can’t help but admire. I don’t think I have hated any of the characters or got annoyed by. They were so real, so wonderful that it makes you wish you were living right there with them.

This would make the perfect summer read, or by the pool or even while you are getting your nails done.

I would recommend it <insert shrug here> but if you are not as big on chick-lit as I am, you’d find it mediocre and not as memorable. It’s just one quick fun read between intense ones.

I received this book from Bloggingforbooks and Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Into The Water

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Book Title: Into The Water

Book Author: Paula Hawkins

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Publication Date: May 2nd 2017

Though I did enjoy, The Girl on the Train, I was still surprised by the major popularity it gained. Heck, it was even made into a movie which I also thought was fairly well.

So I decided to pick up Paula Hawkin’s second book Into the water and give her another chance. I would start by saying I was not impressed at all.

I know it became a trend that books have POVs, and alternating between the past and present but I believe not all books could pull it through. Some work and some don’t. This one obviously didn’t.

And the main reason why?

There were just way too many characters – most with their own POVs. If that’s not enough for you, add in snippets of the past which I thought some were truly unnecessary and adds or explains nothing to the plot.

I didn’t find it easy to get into the book once I started reading. I had to reread the first chapters more than once then gradually started to get impatient and didn’t really care to reveal “the mystery” behind all the events and to expose each character’s secret.

Overall, in my opinion, it wasn’t an intense read. It wasn’t as gripping and you won’t find me recommending it to any thriller fans.

Book Blog, Book Reviews, Other Reviews

Book Review: Homegoing

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Book Title: Homegoing

Book Author: Yaa Gyasi

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Publication Date: June 7th 2016

“This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others.”

This was a great example of what storytelling should be like.  I wasn’t sure if I could rely on all the reviews and recommendations I’ve got about this book and I knew I had to experience it by myself.

I was not disappointed.

Yaa Gyasi made it really easy for me to mark this Historical Fiction as one of the best reads for this year. Set in Ghana, a captivating tale about two half-sisters, unknown to each other, born in different villages. Effia was married off to an Englishman, comfortably living in Cape Coast Castle, while Esi was sold into slavery and shipped off to America.

I didn’t know what to expect but I was so convinced this was going to be a tale about sisters reuniting, bonding with each other over tears of happiness and what’s not. Boy, was I mistaken. This was so much more than what it is, way more!

This was about history! It was about culture and traditions. It was about slavery, prejudice and racism. Lots of it!

I thought it was really clever how the structure of the book was written. Each chapter is unique and focusing on a descendent, alternatively, of one sister which talks about generational diversity of different times and places, where we get to experience their struggles whether it’s mentally, socially or physically.

I would totally recommend this to all historical lovers and especially if you are a fan of short stories.

Book Blog, Book Reviews, Penguin U.K. Books

ARC Review: Leopard at the Door

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Book Title : Leopard at the Door
Book Author : Jennifer McVeigh
My Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Publication Date : July 13th 2017

Are you a fan of Historical Fiction?

Whether your answer is a yes or no, you should definitely visit your nearest local bookstore and get yourself a copy of Leopard at the Door.

Set in the 1050’s, Eighteen year old, British Rachel Fullsmith, returned back, after six years, to her home in Kenya expecting her life to be pretty much the same. She soon discovers that a lot had changed and gets caught up in the political drift that involved the secret Mau Mau group, rebelling against the European Colonial living there.

I literally couldn’t put the book down!! Even though I was surrounded by family and kids, I managed to finish it in a day as I was totally captivated by it and I just had to know how it ended.

Jennifer’s writing style was very impressive which made the story easy to follow with all those rich descriptions and the mind–blowing events that had me gripping the edge of my bed till my hands bled. I was purely drawn to the characters, their emotions as it was so vividly described.

Aside from an informative Kenyan history, this book touches subjects about racism, prejudice, injustice and much more. It’s also a book about self-discovery, family relationships and love.

I would, without hesitation, totally recommend it as it was truly a book that leaves an impact on you.

Thanks to @penguinUkbooks for this book, which was given in an exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

 

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Book Review: I Let You Go

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Book Title: I Let You Go

Book Author: Clare Mackintosh

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Publication Date: November 9th 2014

It is not always easy to pick up that book that had been lying, on which seems like forever, on your TBR (to be read), but at the first chance to do so, I was glad to finally pick it up.

I let you go follows the story of Jenna Grey who after a terrible incident, walks away and hides on the Welsh Coast. As soon as she thinks she is safe and that she can have her happily-ever-after, her past with all the fears that haunted her catches up with her and she starts living that nightmare again.

This was a slow read at first. It started with a hit and run involving a five year old and then nothing made sense after that for the next 150 pages. I was this close to calling it quits and pick up another book. Perks of a buddy read is that they encourage you to stick it out a little more or until the end. Oh, was I happy to have done so!

Things started to fall in place (well as much as it could), events started happening that I needed to catch my breath on every page or so and we had our fast pace thriller!

I was not able to predict or guess correctly about what really went on. I had a zillion predictions on what might be and how it would end.

I would totally recommend this book for all lovers of Thrillers, like myself, and especially if you are a fan of ambiguous endings, where the author gives us the chance to interpret and make up our own conclusions.

 

Bloggingfor books, Book Blog, Book Reviews

ARC Review: Here and Gone

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Book Title : Here and Gone
Book Author : Haylen Beck
My Rating : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Expected Publication Date : June 20th 2017

I love it when a book grips you right from the beginning and this was extremely the case with this one.

Audra Kinney was fleeing the country with her two kids, Sean and Louise, when she was pulled over by the town’s Sheriff who suspected her and asked to search her car. Having found a bag of marijuana, he arrests her, ask a fellow officer to come to pick up the kids, and throws her in jail. When Audra asks him where took her children, he replies.

“What Children?”

And all fun begins from there. The book started out really well, I was so attentive and clinging to every word trying to make sense as we were given tids and bits about Audra, who was a recovering alcoholic and a Sheriff who been serving the town for years.

Where are the children? Were there really any children? Did her abusing husband arrange all this?

The suspense was just unbearable. It was incredibly tense and I was flipping through the pages (actually tapping the heck out of my iPad) to find out what happened and to find an end to this nightmare that had begun.

As enjoyable as it was, halfway through, some of the mystery fell and we got the answers that we were looking for. I really wished it would have kept us on the edge longer or till at least near the end of the book as I wasn’t reading the rest like that first half.

Overall, I would truly recommend this book to all thrillers fans, especially those who love the domestic and/or psychological kind.

I received this book from Bloggingforbooks and Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.