Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater QUICK REVIEW

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

4.36 out of 5 Stars

 

This is like a lite Bridgerton mixed in with some faeries -- in other words, absolutely cute as can be. It was perfectly sweet and charming, without being ridiculous and I LOVED the characters. They were a bit simple, but it's not like I was expecting Rhysand of the Night Court from a >300 page book. No, these characters were distinct and, while simple, developed just enough to make the story indulgent in the whimsical romance that it is.  

 

Quick little blurb for a quick little read. Definitely worth it! 

 

Thanks for reading!

Book Blitz: In the Shadow of the Apennines by Kimberly Sullivan

 

In The Shadow of The Apennines
by Kimberly Sullivan

~ Book Blitz with Xpresso Book Tours~

Giveaway at the end!

 

Publication date: October 21st 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Historical, Women’s Fiction

An American divorcée. An Italian shepherdess. Separated by a century, united by common dreams.

The sleepy little Abruzzo mountain town of Marsicano seems about as far as Samantha can flee from her failed marriage and disastrous university career. Eager for a fresh start, Samantha begins to set down roots in her Italian mountain hideaway.

At first, the mountain retreat appears idyllic, but an outsider’s clumsy attempts at breaking into the closed mountain community are quickly thwarted when the residents discover Samantha’s snarky blog ridiculing the town and its inhabitants.

Increasingly isolated in her mountain cottage, Samantha discovers the letters and diaries of Elena, a past tenant and a survivor of the 1915 Pescina earthquake. Despite the century that separates the two women, Samantha feels increasingly drawn into Elena’s life, and discovers startling parallels with her own.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

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SNEAK PEEK:

Pescina, Italy

25 April 1914

Where do I begin? Mamma blames it all on Father Ignazio. She says if only he had left me to the chores I was employed to carry out at San Berardo and the parish house, my cooking and cleaning would be much improved, and I would not be constantly scribbling on any piece of paper I could find and begging for books to read.

She worries I will never find a husband.

“What man wants a wife who only cares about book learning, when she should be tending the goats, washing the clothes, and baking the bread?” Mamma warns me every day.

Mamma says no peasant girl should study beyond the first years of elementary school. Writing the letters to sign your name and computations for simple transactions are more than enough for a female in our region. She calls it getting above oneself. To mamma, this is the worst sin.

Of course, we weren’t always peasants. We used to have some money, back before papà lost his property. It was never much, but our lives were so much easier back then. My brothers and I even had a tutor to teach us to read and write and to know our history and literature. Those hours were the highlight of my day. My tutor was very pleased with me.

It was hard on us when we lost everything. Only mamma said maybe it was for the best – at least for me. Now she could insist I concentrate on what was most important for girls.

I suppose I am lucky it was Father Ignazio who insisted I keep up with my learning. Mamma may often speak her mind, but she will never argue with our parish priest. She respects him too much, and she worries about punishment in the afterlife if she talks back to a priest. So mamma, who is quick to speak her mind on every occasion, bites her tongue until she draws blood whenever Father Ignazio praises my learning to her.

Papà is proud of my reading and writing. He is the one who bought me this diary and the pen and ink for my birthday. Yes, I can hardly believe it, but today I am sixteen.

Mamma is probably right that a girl who reads and writes would scare off the local boys. Boys in Pescina mostly work the land like their fathers or tend the sheep. But even if I am now sixteen and townspeople consider me a woman, I still feel like a little girl.

All my friends talk about getting married, about preparing their wedding chest and living with their husbands. They make eyes at the boys returning with the sheep, the same boys we scrambled over the mountaintops with just a few years ago.

My friend Concetta even has a sweetheart. She always goes to the fountain to gather the water at the same hour so that she can meet Domenico on his way back to town after a day working in the fields.

Sometimes I see them together walking on the path back to town, the ruins of the castle watchtower above them in the distance. They look so happy in one another’s company, laughing and talking, finding excuses for their hands to brush together.

When Concetta and I are together, sewing or baking bread, she always seems to have a far-away look in her eyes, and I sense that she does not hear what I say, that her thoughts are only for Domenico now. Mamma says one day I’lll feel that way about a boy, too, but I wonder if I ever will.

Author Bio:

Kimberly grew up in the suburbs of Boston and in Saratoga Springs, New York, although she now calls the Harlem neighborhood of New York City home when she’s back in the US. She studied political science and history at Cornell University and earned her MBA, with a concentration in strategy and marketing, from Bocconi University in Milan.

Afflicted with a severe case of Wanderlust, she worked in journalism and government in the US, Czech Republic and Austria, before settling down in Rome, where she works in international development, and writes fiction any chance she gets.

She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) and The Historical Novel Society and has published several short stories and three novels: Three Coins, Dark Blue Waves and In The Shadow of The Apennines.

After years spent living in Italy with her Italian husband and sons, she’s fluent in speaking with her hands, and she loves setting her stories in her beautiful, adoptive country.

Website / Goodreads / Instagram / Bookbub / Twitter

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Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz

Anatomy: A Love Story

 

by Dana Schwartz

3.50 out of 5 Stars

 

***Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review***

 

Anatomy is a gothic historical fiction set in 1817 Edinburgh following Hazel as she seeks to find her way to becoming a surgeon. To get the practical education she needs with cadavers, she works with resurrection man Jack to dig up corpses despite the odd disappearances happening in the city and the return of the Roman Fever.  

Given the premise, I really wanted to love this book. I wanted to love this book so badly. It seemed so wonderfully gothic and perfectly set up to be a creepy ambiance to get me ready for Halloween. But instead, while I enjoyed it, it just didn't deliver in some important ways. Although, this is 1000% a book to buy if you are looking for an aesthetic bookshelf -- I mean, just look at that gorgeousness of a book cover.

Plot: 

I loved the plot and the setting of the story. I don't know how much of Edinburgh specifically was really coming through the pages, so much as general Great Britain vibes, but the time period and the medical understandings for that period were fantastic. It is the perfect opportunity to have a very earnest desire to believe these fantastical beliefs about science -- things that we know today to be wrong, but back then were illusions that could reach tangibility if you could figure it out. Using this foundation, I also loved the story of a young woman trying to become a physician or surgeon. That aspect of the story never once wavered, and I think it was developed wonderfully. We see the build to finding education, the obstacles that organically are put in her path, and how she creatively carves her own way to achieving what she wants. It was excellent. 

Characters: 

Hazel -- Hazel is a rich girl, but incredibly intelligent not just naturally, but through constant and consistent self-education, which I think was a great aspect to her character. We find out how she used to sneak into her dad's study past bedtime to read medical text books, and that tenacity in her pursuant of knowledge is exemplified in her actions throughout the course of the story. She's a bit single-minded when it comes to becoming a physician, but I think that's just par for the course for her. I wouldn't expect anything else, and I think her character was well-developed.

 

Jack -- No idea who Jack was. There are the basic facts about where he comes from, what drives his actions, and what he looks like, but there weren't enough nuances about personality quirks, deeply emotional reveals, or otherwise extended development of his character. Overall, he was kind of just there to serve a purpose to Hazel? Which, if this were a story solely about Hazel, I would still not like it, but I wouldn't mind it as much. As it is, there is a romance between them, and it just feels like Jack is underdeveloped.

Writing: 

Sadly, this is where I think I struggled with the book. The writing overall wasn't bad, but it also was difficult to get through at times because it felt choppy. It wasn't a smooth reading experience. There were moments when the language was flowing really nicely, but it was inconsistent. Because of the evidence that there can be really good passages of writing, I don't know how the book as a whole came to have those choppy parts in them, but it makes me wonder what the entire writing process looked like for the author.

 

Also, I don't think there was any need for there to be actual fantastical elements to this story. Like, at all. This is my biggest pet peeve with the book and why I only gave it three stars on Goodreads. The fantasy piece was so minimally there, that it was a huge distraction when it came up. This should have remained a historical fiction and that's it. I'm not even going to add a "fantasy" label to this review. Like I said earlier, the great thing about this time period is that science and medicine was still so unknown and exciting it already felt fantastical. To try to mix in actual fantasy with that felt so out of place. I don't think it's impossible to fantasy books written in this time period, but I think the presence of fantasy needed to be much, much stronger in order for it to be properly incorporated into the story.

 

Thanks for reading!

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe REVIEW

 A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

3.40 out of 5 Stars

***Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!***

 

Honestly, this review is going to be a little hard to write, just because there's a giant boulder of something I didn't like sitting in the middle of a beautiful setting full of everything this book did wonderfully, and I'm not sure how to handle it. As a whole, A Golden Fury was an excellently written, original take on a concept that I personally haven't come across since my baby Harry Potter days. With a backdrop of late eighteenth century revolution, we follow Thea as she studies alchemy and the creation of the Philosopher's Stone. The story starts in France but quickly moves to mostly take place in England after Thea's mother goes mad from the Stone's curse.

 

I loved the writing. I was fine with the historical backdrop really just being a backdrop and nothing more. I really enjoyed the alchemy and the development of the Stone. My biggest, biggest issue was with Thea herself, which is unfortunate. She was, for lack of a better description, a weak character. And not in development, but truly in her character. And without getting into too much detail so I don't spoil anything at this point, it was doubly frustrating because there is a great opportunity for contrast between strong-as-in-independent and strong-as-in-arrogant-and-overbearing, but the opportunity was missed. 

 

SPOILERS

PLOT

As far as fantasies go, I really really loved this plot! At first, I was a little hesitant with the whole "Philosopher's Stone" thing, but it ended up being really refreshing. I think my main concern was that the story would be a typical quest for eternal life, but it really was about intellectual achievement, which made the story all the more refreshing. Even better was the twisted turn the story took with how the madness was a result of the Stone feeding off the minds of the other alchemists. It was so cool in a sort of creepy way how the Stone was a sentient being, parasitical in nature. It was so interesting, I wish he had more depth of that portion of the plot. Very quickly, we move from Thea finding out the Stone is consuming the minds of Dominic and her mother (along with all the others) to Thea willing to drown and die so that the Stone is killed as well. I would've loved to see more of that, not just because I think it would have drawn out the ending more, but because it was just so, so interesting.

CHARACTERS

So, A Golden Fury was... good. But here's the thing, I pretty much only had issues with the main character, and while that might seem like a pretty good position for a review, books in this situation are the most frustrating and borderline-infuriating thing ever. Like, it's so close to being excellent. It's just the main character of the story is maddening and that's kind of a big ******* deal. And while Thea was only slightly annoying in the beginning (her pining after Will did not make sense to me), she was distractedly annoying by the end of the book. As I thought about it -- because I typically try to give a lot of leeway to allow characters to grow over the course of their book -- I realized I was so annoyed because Thea is just as unhealthily dependent on outside emotional attachment at the end of the book as she is in the beginning. Let's delve into this a bit deeper:

I'm not saying she should be like her mother because let's be real, her mother is wack. A great character, but her disdain for any compassion, sympathy, empathy... emotion in general... is bad for any person. But while Thea shouldn't be like her mother, I thought she was trying to cling too tightly to the idea of acceptance by someone else as opposed to accepting herself by herself. Thea is a brilliant alchemist, achieves the greatest scientific feat of all time, etc., but so often, she is so passive, reaching for approval or support from the men around her. It does make sense to some degree. Growing up, she was surrounded, really, by only her robotic mother, which means she's probably starved for attention and affection. However, I don't believe becoming the stark opposite of her mother is the solution, but this is the development portrayed in the book. I would have rather seen Thea learn to find a balance between learning how to have relationships with the people around her and knowing her own value and worth herself outside of what other people can give her. Even at the end, the only plan we see her form is to follow her father back to Oxford. And it's him that's spitballing potential studies for her while she just sort of sits there and agrees with him. *sigh*

Outside of Thea, I thought the characters were pretty good. They weren't extraordinary, but they weren't completely flat either. There was just enough depth to each of them to balance the story on the edge between basic simple storytelling and heart-gripping engagement. Could they have been deeper and more complex? Yes. Did they have to be to improve the story? Eh? I don't really think so.

Also, last random note on characters- I loved Valentin. I know he's like, "one of the bad guys," but is he really? He was one of the most interesting and in-depth characters of the entire book I thought. I was so curious about his background, his morals, his actions and motivations. At one point, I was lowkey rooting for him and Thea to be a thing, but there wasn't really much romance in the book at all besides Thea's pining for Will.

WRITING

The writing was also really impressive. Even though the book was over 300 pages, I completely flew through it. It was captivating and just descriptive enough to give me a full picture of the world of the story without stopping the pacing or slowing it down. With that, if you're looking for a fully engrossing fantasy, this would not be the book for you. If you're looking for a quick dip into a fantastical, magical realism world, this book is spot on.

A Golden Fury: a good first book. For me, one of the best things about reading this was that while I was annoyed with Thea, I really enjoyed the novelty of the plot and the way the author writes, so I'm looking forward to her futures works because I think as her complexity and skills as a writer grow, her characters and depth will grow as well. And the writing style is already there, so huge win on that front!

Thanks for reading!

 

WWII Books

I love almost all historical fiction, even sometime just history in general (I'm not kidding you, I mean history textbooks). One of my favorite time periods to read about is World War II. There are just so many different things that were happening at that time and it seems like no matter how much I learn about it, there is always going to be more to learn. I've read quite a bit of WWII books already, but there are still so many out there that I want to read!!

Top 5 WWII Books that I've Read

1. Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys

2. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 

3. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

4. The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman

5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Top 5 WWII Books that I Want to Read

1. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

2. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

3. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

4. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

5. Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye by Marius Gabriel

Thanks for reading!

My Top 10 Historical Fiction Books

My Top 10 Historical Fiction Books

10. Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn
          Time period: 1914
          Where: Titanic

9. The Diviners by Libba Bray
          Time period: 1926
          Where: New York

8. The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
          Time period: WWII
          Where: Prague, Czech Republic

7. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
          Time period: 1950
          Where: New Orleans
6. In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
          Time period: 1960
          Where: Dominican Republic

5. The Physick Book of Deliverence Dane by Kathrine Howe
          Time period: Modern, but about 1692
          Where: New England

4. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
          Time period: 1945
          Where: Baltic Sea

3. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
          Time period: 1964
          Where: South Carolina

2. The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander
          Time period:  1917
          Where: St. Petersburg
 
1. Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
          Time period: 1941
          Where: Lithuania, Russia

Thanks for reading!

Outlander Review SPOILERS

Outlander Review WITH SPOILERS
by Diana Gabaldon

5 of 5 Stars

Wow. Simply wow. It can be hard to find books like Outlander. Books that take the time to build up the story and the background that they need, but still in a way that leaves you wanting to continue to read and never put down the book. Books that when the main plot line is revealed, you have no power over the way the book has possessed your mind and consumes your waking thoughts. It is hard to find books like this. Outlander has all of it. Even more so, it has a detailed and creative setting with historical accuracy and the some of the best character development that is realistic and true. It is long. VERY long actually, but totally worth all of the time and effort.

SPOILERS AHEAD

CHARACTERS:

Claire Randall: She is.... amazing. She worked as a nurse in WWII, is still keeping up with her herbs and healing practices, and when she is thrown into a time loop back to the 1700s, she has only a small chance to learn what is happening and save her own neck. Which she does. Even when she is told to marry someone else, someone she barely knows, she holds her own before taking it in stride. And despite being surrounded by mostly men in a time period where men are seen as everything and women as dirt, she doesn't take shit from anyone. Bravo to her- if I ever get sent back in time, I'm going to follow her lead.

James Fraser: JAMIE!!!! I loved Jamie. A part of me wishes that the whole first section of the book that takes place in 1900s wasn't even there, even though I know that it was necessary for the book to have made sense the way that it did. It is hard to describe Jamie without seeming like I'm completely fangirling over him because his character is that good. He is loyal to a fault, handsome, brave, and has incredible morals. He supports Claire, is like a knight in shining armor, and even learns to believe the seemingly impossible. Plus, he's gorgeous.

Jack Randall: As much as I hate the guy, he is really interesting. I would never want to meet him. Ever. But his character is twisted and I'd imagine feeling trapped by his sexuality and desires in a time period that is completely backwards from today's ideals and almost archaic in its views.
There are so many more characters in the story, and all of them are really well put together, but I would be writing a novel myself just to review them all. But know that they are all really well written and original. It may help to take notes though to keep them all straight in your head.

SETTING:

I think it is safe to say that I am officially obsessed with Scotland now because of this book. The descriptions of the highlands and all of the different geographical attributes makes me want to visit there and capture all of the beauty that is there.

In the story, the original setting is 1945, which is one of my favorite times in history. But then as Claire gets sent back in time, she goes to 1743, which I know almost nothing about. I know absolutely nothing of what was going on in England at that time, and when references were starting to be made to the historical events of the time, I had no clue what they were talking about. So I did some light research as to the event of the time period and the area and it was so interesting. I then went back to the book and all of the references were much clearer and even more interesting, knowing what was going to happen because of knowing the history. Weird explanation there, but what I'm trying to get across is that Diana Gabaldon did a fantastic job of tying in the history and making sure that was done so in a way that was captivating yet accurate.

WRITING:

Diana Gabaldon's writing isn't necessarily easy to read. It's not that it is grammatically inaccurate, but just harder to read because of Scottish jargon, accents, and a more complex vocabulary and sentence structure. I actually appreciated this because it was nice to read something a little more complicated. I already gushed about how she was able to weave a tale that kept you wondering and thinking about even when you weren't reading, so I won't go over that again.
 
This book was great in that it was fun, challenging, and historical. Her writing was near impeccable, and I cannot wait to read the other books in the series to see where Claire and Jamie will go next and what will happen in the plot.

Thanks for reading!

Outlander Review NO SPOILERS

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Simply wow. It can be hard to find books like Outlander. Books that take the time to build up the story and the background that they need, but still in a way that leaves you wanting to continue to read and never put down the book. Books that when the main plot line is revealed, you have no power over the way the book has possessed your mind and consumes your waking thoughts. It is hard to find books like this. Outlander has all of it. Even more so, it has a detailed and creative setting with historical accuracy and the some of the best character development that is realistic and true. It is long. VERY long actually, but totally worth all of the time and effort.

[
CHARACTERS:
Claire Randall: She is.... amazing. She worked as a nurse in WWII, is still keeping up with her herbs and healing practices, and when she is thrown into a time loop back to the 1700s, she has only a small chance to learn what is happening and save her own neck. Which she does. Even when she is told to marry someone else, someone she barely knows, she holds her own before taking it in stride. And despite being surrounded by mostly men in a time period where men are seen as everything and women as dirt, she doesn't take shit from anyone. Bravo to her- if I ever get sent back in time, I'm going to follow her lead.
James Fraser: JAMIE!!!! I loved Jamie. A part of me wishes that the whole first section of the book that takes place in 1900s wasn't even there, even though I know that it was necessary for the book to have made sense the way that it did. It is hard to describe Jamie without seeming like I'm completely fangirling over him because his character is that good. He is loyal to a fault, handsome, brave, and has incredible morals. He supports Claire, is like a knight in shining armor, and even learns to believe the seemingly impossible. Plus, he's gorgeous.
Jack Randall: As much as I hate the guy, he is really interesting. I would never want to meet him. Ever. But his character is twisted and I'd imagine feeling trapped by his sexuality and desires in a time period that is completely backwards from today's ideals and almost archaic in its views.
There are so many more characters in the story, and all of them are really well put together, but I would be writing a novel myself just to review them all. But know that they are all really well written and original. It may help to take notes though to keep them all straight in your head.
SETTING:
I think it is safe to say that I am officially obsessed with Scotland now because of this book. The descriptions of the highlands and all of the different geographical attributes makes me want to visit there and capture all of the beauty that is there. In the story, the original setting is 1945, which is one of my favorite times in history. But then as Claire gets sent back in time, she goes to 1743, which I know almost nothing about. I know absolutely nothing of what was going on in England at that time, and when references were starting to be made to the historical events of the time, I had no clue what they were talking about. So I did some light research as to the event of the time period and the area and it was so interesting. I then went back to the book and all of the references were much clearer and even more interesting, knowing what was going to happen because of knowing the history. Weird explanation there, but what I'm trying to get across is that Diana Gabaldon did a fantastic job of tying in the history and making sure that was done so in a way that was captivating yet accurate.
WRITING:
Diana Gabaldon's writing isn't necessarily easy to read. It's not that it is grammatically inaccurate, but just harder to read because of Scottish jargon, accents, and a more complex vocabulary and sentence structure. I actually appreciated this because it was nice to read something a little more complicated. I already gushed about how she was able to weave a tale that kept you wondering and thinking about even when you weren't reading, so I won't go over that again.
(hide spoiler)]
This book was great in that it was fun, challenging, and historical. Her writing was near impeccable, and I cannot wait to read the other books in the series to see where Claire and Jamie will go next and what will happen in the plot.

Thanks for reading!


View all my reviews