Tag Archives: Reading

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Book of the Week – The Agency Series

Hello gentle reader,

today I’d like to share with you a belated discovery of mine: The Agency series by Y. S. Lee.

The Agency series

It’s a YA Historical Mystery series set in Victorian London. It was published between 2010 and 2014 by Candlewick Press (US-Canada) and Walker Books (UK). It comprises four novels (A Spy in the House, The Body at the Tower, The Traitor and the Tunnel, and Rivals in the City). In the UK the books were published under the title: Mary Quinn Mysteries.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads for A Spy in the House:

Introducing an exciting new series! Steeped in Victorian atmosphere and intrigue, this diverting mystery trails a feisty heroine as she takes on a precarious secret assignment.

Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, young orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn is surprised to be offered a singular education, instruction in fine manners — and an unusual vocation. Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls is a cover for an all-female investigative unit called The Agency, and at seventeen, Mary is about to put her training to the test.

Assuming the guise of a lady’s companion, she must infiltrate a rich merchant’s home in hopes of tracing his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of dangerous deceptions, and there is no one to trust — or is there?

Packed with action and suspense, banter and romance, and evoking the gritty backstreets of Victorian London, this breezy mystery debuts a daring young detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets — including those of her own past.

The first book in the series won the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s inaugural John Spray Mystery Award in 2011. The following instalments were shortlisted for various awards as well.

I enjoyed reading these books because they have an authentic Victorian voice and fun plots. The main character is a strong female character who struggles with a criminal past and her Chinese origin. She’s clever, witty and tough, which I love in a heroine.

I recommend these books if you like Historical fiction and fun whodunits.

Have you read THE AGENCY series? What did you think?

What are you reading this week?

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Book of the Week – 26

Hello gentle reader,

A while ago I wrote a post about the books which successfully build a bridge between literary and genre fiction. The book I just finished reading belongs to this narrow category. It’s entitled NIGHT FILM and it was written by Marisha Pessl. It’s a literary thriller which was published in January 2013.

Night Film

From Goodreads:

Everybody has a Cordova story.

Cult horror director Stanislas Cordova hasn’t been seen in public since 1977. To his fans he is an engima. To journalist Scott McGrath he is the enemy. To Ashley he was a father.

On a damp October night the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Her suicide appears to be the latest tragedy to hit a severely cursed dynasty.

For McGrath, another death connected to the legendary director seems more than a coincidence. Driven by revenge, curiosity and a need for the truth, he finds himself pulled into a hypnotic, disorientating world, where almost everyone seems afraid.

The last time McGrath got close to exposing Cordova, he lost his marriage and his career. This time he could lost his grip on reality.

You may remember Marisha Pessl’s debut novel, SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS, is one of my favourite books of all time. Needless to say, I was eagerly anticipating her second book, NIGHT FILM. I had to wait 7 years for it, but it was definitely worth the wait. This book is amazing. Buy it or borrow it now, and read it as soon as possible.

Have you read NIGHT FILM? What did you think? What are you reading this week?

Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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A Month In Review – ROW80 Check-In 5 and Wrap-Up

Hello gentle reader,

you may have noticed my last ROW80 Check-In was… 6 weeks ago. I was supposed to check-in every week, but life got hectic in May and I chose to use the little free time I had to read and write instead of checking in. But now we’ve reached the end of this Round and it’s only fair that I let you know how I did.

ROW80 Check-In

ROW80 Logo

My goal for this round was to read or write every day.

This round I read 8 novels, 1 novella and 2 non-fiction books for research. I also beta-read 2 manuscripts. My goal being to read one book per week this year, I’m on target here!

This round, I also added 14K to my Work In Progress. It’s not as high a word count as I wanted it to be, but considering that I’m editing my other manuscript at the same time, it’s a good number, I think.

What I’ve been reading

The City’s Son by Tom Pollock (YA Urban Fantasy)

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch (YA Epic Fantasy)

Murder (Mayhem #2) by Sarah Pinborough (Historical Fantasy)

Debutantes by Cora Harrison (YA Historical)

Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Shecter (YA Historical)

Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi (YA Sci-Fi/Dystopian)

Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi (YA Sci-Fi/Dystopian)

The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3) by Julie Kagawa (YA Paranormal/Dystopian)

Born of Corruption: A Born of Illusion Novella by Teri Brown (YA Historical Fantasy)

What I’ve been watching

Penny Dreadful

Penny Dreadful

Places I’ve been

I went to London this week, and walked around Foyles’ new flagship bookstore.

It’s an amazing place, with a huge YA section.

EM Castellan - Foyles 1

EM Castellan - Foyles 3

I also went to Liberty on Regent Street, one of my favourite department stores in London.

I just love its Tudor revival building!

EM Castellan - Liberty

What’s next

In July I’ll be taking part in CampNaNoWriMo, another writing challenge. Feel free to join in!

How was your ROW80 Round? Make sure to share your writing progress and what inspired you in the comment section below! And here is the Linky to check out the other ROW80 posts.

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Summer Reads – 2014 Edition

Hello gentle reader,

I’ve asked my friends which book they’re most looking forward to reading this summer. Here are their answers…

Lauren Garafalo chose The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (YA High Fantasy)

Queen of the Tearling

Jessica Rubinkowski picked Fire by Kristin Cashore and Warrior by Ellen Oh (both are YA High Fantasy)

Fire

Warrior

Ambiguous A. chose The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Fantasy)

The Night Circus UK

Kate Michael picked Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey (Urban Fantasy) and The Falconer by Elizabeth May (YA  Historical Fantasy)

Autumn Bone

The Falconer

Rachel O’Laughlin chose Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Epic Fantasy) and Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne (YA High Fantasy)

final-empire

Midnight Thief

Jenny Adams Perinovic picked Written In My Own Heart’s Blood (Outlander #8) by Diana Gabaldon (Historical – Time Travel)

Written In My Own Heart's Blood

Katie Bucklein picked Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge (YA Fairy Tale Retelling)

Cruel Beauty

And almost everyone said they were either reading or abour to read Ruin and Rising (Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo (YA High Fantasy)

Ruin and Rising Final

Has your TBR pile suddenly grown? Yes, mine too 😉

Which book are you looking forward to reading this summer? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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My Week In Review – ROW80 Check-In 4

Hello gentle reader,

My apologies for the late check-in, but I’ve been busy… writing! I hope you all had a great week!

ROW80 Check-In

ROW80 Logo

My goal for this round is to read or write every day.

This week I read every day and I added 5,300 words to my WIP. I call this a small success!

Book of the Week

Snow Like Ashes

I read my ARC of SNOW LIKE ASHES by Sara Raasch (expected publication: 14th October 2014). It’s a YA High Fantasy and I really enjoyed it.

Picture of the Week

P1030375

Since this was a bank holiday weekend in the UK, I went to London for a day. The weather was beautiful and I had a wonderful time, as usual in this city.

Links of the Week

I interviewed YA Author Michelle Krys and posted the pictures I took in Paris in April.

How was your week? Make sure to share your writing progress and what inspired you this week in the comment section below! And here is the Linky to check out the other ROW80 posts.

 

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Cover Reveal: What The Lady Wants by Renee Rosen

Hello gentle reader,

today I’m delighted to share with you the cover of What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age by Renee Rosen (expected publication: 4th November 2014 by NAL Trade).

I really enjoyed Renee’s debut, Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties. I’m excited for her second book to be out, and I’m even more excited to reveal her beautiful cover art!

Here’s the book blurb. Scroll down to check out the cover!

In late 19th century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto:“Give the lady what she wants.” His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer, and led to an infamous love affair. 

The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watched the flames rise and consume what had been the pioneer town of Chicago, she couldn’t imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world was about to change. Nor would she have guessed that the agent of that change would not simply be the fire, but more so the man she met that night…

Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before: a glamorous palace of a department store.  He and his powerhouse coterie— including Potter Palmer and George Pullman—usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation.

But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago was transformed into the Gleaming White City of the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.

Praise for Dollface 

“Intoxicating….Fans of Boardwalk Empire will love Dollface.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Sara Gruen

“A lively, gutsy romp of a novel that will keep you turning pages.”—Karen Abbott, New York Times Bestselling Author of Sin in the Second City

And now the cover…

WhatTheLady_Cover

Isn’t it gorgeous?!

You can add What The Lady Wants on Goodreads and/or pre-order it here.

 

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On my bookshelf – Adult Victorian Fantasy

Hello gentle reader,

I’ve recently read a couple of Adult books, all set in Victorian London and with some fantasy elements…

Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

Title: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (Burton & Swinburne #1)

Author: Mark Hodder

Genre: Steampunk/Alternate History

Blurb:

London, 1861.

Sir Richard Francis Burton—explorer, linguist, scholar, and swordsman; his reputation tarnished; his career in tatters; his former partner missing and probably dead.

Algernon Charles Swinburne—unsuccessful poet and follower of de Sade; for whom pain is pleasure, and brandy is ruin!

They stand at a crossroads in their lives and are caught in the epicenter of an empire torn by conflicting forces: Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier, and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labor; Libertines oppose repressive laws and demand a society based on beauty and creativity; while the Rakes push the boundaries of human behavior to the limits with magic, drugs, and anarchy. The two men are sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when Lord Palmerston commissions Burton to investigate assaults on young women committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack, and to find out why werewolves are terrorizing London’s East End.

Their investigations lead them to one of the defining events of the age, and the terrifying possibility that the world they inhabit shouldn’t exist at all!

What I thought:

I enjoyed this book, although it became clear quite quickly this was an introductory book to a series. It has its own plot, but many aspects of the world and a lot of characters are just introduced to us and not fully developed. I’ll probably pick up at least Book 2 to see where this goes.

Mayhem

Title: Mayhem (Mayhem #1)

Author: Sarah Pinborough

Genre: Historical mystery with supernatural elements

Blurb:

A new killer is stalking the streets of London’s East End. Though newspapers have dubbed him ‘the Torso Killer’, this murderer’s work is overshadowed by the hysteria surrounding Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel crimes.

The victims are women too, but their dismembered bodies, wrapped in rags and tied up with string, are pulled out of the Thames – and the heads are missing. The murderer likes to keep them.

Mayhem is a masterwork of narrative suspense: a supernatural thriller set in a shadowy, gaslit London, where monsters stalk the cobbled streets and hide in plain sight.

What I thought:

I really liked this book. I loved that it focused on a (real) series of murders that happened at the same time as the Jack The Ripper murders. I also really enjoyed the supernatural twist. The second book in this duology will come out in April and I’ll definitely check it out.

Elijah's Mermaid

Title: Elijah’s Mermaid

Author: Essie Fox

Genre: Historical/Gothic with fantasy elements

Blurb:

Since she was found as a baby, floating in the Thames one foggy night, the web-toed Pearl has been brought up in a brothel known as the House of Mermaids. Cosseted and pampered there, it is only when her fourteenth birthday approaches that Pearl realises she is to be sold to the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, the orphaned twins, Lily and Elijah, have shared an idyllic childhood, raised in a secluded country house with their grandfather, Augustus Lamb. But when Lily and Elijah go on a visit London, a chance meeting with the ethereal Pearl will have repercussions for all of them, binding their fates together in a dark and dangerous way…
In this bewitching, sensual novel, Essie Fox has written another tale of obsessive love and betrayal, moving from the respectable worlds of Victorian art and literature, and into the shadowy demi-monde of brothels, asylums and freak show tents – a world in which nothing and no-one is quite what they seem to be.

What I thought:

This book wasn’t what I expected. It’s slow-paced, and written in the style of a 19th Century novel. The two main characters are very passive, which I don’t really like, especially when they are female characters. And all in all, it was quite predictable. Maybe it just wasn’t for me.

What have you been reading lately? Any Victorian book you’d recommend?

Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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Book of the Week – 25

Hello gentle reader,

Yesterday I finished reading HALF BAD by Sally Green (published on 4th March 2014 by Viking Juvenile). It’s a YA Fantasy which I read because of Xpresso Reads’ review. And I wasn’t disappointed. This book is awesome. I loved it from start to finish, and I can’t wait for the second book in the trilogy.

I’ve heard some people were put off by the use of the second person present in the first few chapters. Although I’m still not sure this was the best choice to start off this novel, I can only say that it’s worth overlooking. The rest of the book is in the first person, and the plot, pacing, world building and characters are so good that it makes it all worthwhile.

Now add this book to your TBR pile and read it as soon as possible.

Half Bad: cover of first novel by Sally Green, predicted to be next Harry Potter or Twilight Saga

From Goodreads:

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?

In the tradition of Patrick Ness and Markus Zusak, Half Bad is a gripping tale of alienation and the indomitable will to survive, a story that will grab hold of you and not let go until the very last page.

Have you read Half Bad? What did you think? And what are you reading this week? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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Writing Pet Peeves

Hello gentle reader,

Sometimes in my readings I come across writing devices that make me roll my eyes and shake my head. I guess we all have them: pet peeves. I’ve recently come to realize that mine are mostly plot-related. I’ve listed them below, and I’m curious to find out if you share my opinion on them…

Pet Peeve #1: The Resurrection

Gossip-Girl-Chuck-Bart

This plot device consists in resurrecting a character that was presumed dead for a good part of the story in order to resolve a plot line. The Resurrection was used twice in Gossip Girl, for both Chuck’s father and mother. I’ll admit, I hate this plot device with a passion, because it’s usually synonymous with plot inconsistencies in particular and lazy writing in general.

Pet Peeve #2: Everybody lies

The pretender

This is when the main character, and the reader alongside her, can’t trust anything the characters say. Please note I’m not talking about the unreliable narrator here. I’m talking about the writing device that tells you something then denies it ten pages later, keeping you from speculating and therefore from really enjoying the book. Remember The Pretender? Teenage Me loved this show. To be honest, Present Me still loves it. But let’s face it, this show had serious plot issues, one of them being that everyone kept contradicting themselves from one episode to the other and saying they’d lied. That’s not good writing according to me.

Pet Peeve #3: The Keeper of Secrets

Witchblade Kenneth Irons

This is when the plot could be resolved in a second if one character just revealed everything he knows to the main character. But he doesn’t because of reasons. And the plot drags on forever. This writing device was used ad nauseam in Witchblade (both the comic book and the TV series): the main villain Kenneth Irons knew everything about the main character’s past and destiny, but he didn’t tell her anything because… he was villainous that way.

Pet Peeve #4: The ellipsis

This is when main events happen off screen and are retold/summarized later. Instead of having the satisfaction of seeing the events unfold in front of her, the reader has to make do with a main character losing consciousness, or a random chapter dealing with a subplot or a simple leap in time. Talk about disappointing.

What about you? Do you have writing pet peeves? Plot devices that make you roll your eyes? Most importantly, did you ever watch The Pretender? Make sure to leave me a comment below!

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Knights of Rilch Swag – Trzl’s Trading Card Reveal and Giveaway!

Hello gente reader,

Remember when I revealed the cover of Knights of Rilch (Serengard: Book 2) by Rachel O’Laughlin?

KnightsOfRilch

Today, I’m delighted to share with you one of the trading cards that have been designed to accompany Knights of Rilch‘s upcoming release!

There are two sets of trading cards, each featuring 4 characters from the books:

– Set of COLDNESS OF MAREK Trading Cards (Trzl, Hodran, Gernan, Colstadt)

– Set of KNIGHTS OF RILCH Trading Cards (Kierstaz, Pier, Ric, Romianz)

Without further ado, here is Trzl’s trading card:

TrzlCard

Original Artwork Copyright Dan Tare 2014

Isn’t it beautiful?

There are 100 limited edition cards of each character (artwork on the front, stats on the back – stats contain spoilers!). All cards are available now to Rachel’s street team or with proof of book purchase while supplies last. You can check out the other cards here.

KNIGHTS OF RILCH will be released on 25th February 2014. You can pre-order it here.

And, last but not least, the giveaway! Enter here for a chance to win one or both sets of cards. Good luck!