Books Archives - Brooke's Reviews and Sweeps

Books With Nature on the Cover

By Brookelorren on May 11, 2021May 10, 20219 Comments

Hello! I hope everything is going well with you. Today I went for a walk… in the snow. Sigh. At least the heating/air conditioning people are coming Wednesday.

But today is Tuesday, and this week, Top Ten Tuesday is talking about Books with Nature on the Cover! Looking through my Goodreads list, I’m surprised at how few covers do have a lot of nature on the cover. But there are at least 10, and it gives me the opportunity to highlight some new books, or books I haven’t talked about for a while.

Golden Poppies – Laila Ibrahim. This book has some beautiful flowers on the cover. It’s the third book in a series, but you can read it without reading the other two books (I haven’t).

Starfish – Akemi Dawn Bowman. Starfish doesn’t have actual starfish on the cover, but it does have marine life. It’s very pretty, IMO.

Song of the Crimson Flower – Julie C. Dao. This is another cover with flowers on it, but it’s also got a dragonfly on the cover. A dragonfly that looks oddly like a flute (an important part of the story).

The Unhoneymooners – Christina Lauren. This is a book that’s been patiently waiting for me even though I bought it on sale more than a year ago. Good thing books don’t have an expiration date. I love the flowers and the bird on the cover.

Switchback – Danika Stone. I don’t know about you, but I love going camping. But I wouldn’t want to go camping without being at least a little prepared. Once I did go camping at the ocean and had to cook with a stick, but that was nothing compared to these teens. Love the mountainside on the cover.

Disappearing Earth – Julia Phillips. More mountains. I’m guessing this is supposed to be the Kamchatka Peninsula (located in Eastern Russia right across from Alaska). Brrr.

Twisted Roots – Shelly Goodman Wright. This book was written by a friend of mine. The book takes place in the Okefenokee Swamp, and I’m assuming that’s what’s on the cover.

Into the Hollow – Lynn Vroman. I loved this book. I’d love to reread this again someday. It takes place in the Appalachian Mountains, and it’s got trees on the cover.

A Thousand Perfect Notes – C.G. Drews. This has such a beautiful butterfly on the cover. The paperback is even more awesome, although I have it on Kindle.

Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand. This is the story of Louis Zamperini, who graduated from the same college that I did. Zamperini was a runner who had the opportunity to be in the Olympics, but sadly, World War II cancelled his Olympic dreams. His Olympic dreams were partially realized when he got to carry the Olympic torch during the Olympic torch relay leading up to the 1998 Nagano games. This cover has the ocean and clouds on the cover.

So those are ten books with nature on the covers, going all the way back to books I added to Goodreads in 2015! What books did you highlight today? Next week we’re going to talk about book titles that are complete sentences. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do that? We’ll see. If not, I’ll try to do something similar.

My Ten Most Recent Reads

By Brookelorren on May 4, 2021May 3, 202116 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, which means it’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Today we’re talking about the most recent books we’ve read.

:: Looks at most recent books I’ve read. Six of them are from the same author/series::

So… rather than bore you with six books from the same author, I’ll be condensing that particular entry into one. Let’s go!

The Ones We’re Meant to Find – Joan He. I just finished this one on Monday and it was so good! There’s quite a few twists to this book, so I can’t really describe it too in-depth. It’s set in a dystopian world where everybody either lived in an eco-city or takes their chances on land where there’s disasters and pollution all over the place.

Malice – Pintip Dunn. If you could save millions of lives by killing one person, would you do it? This twisty story explores that question. It has time travel, people who aren’t who they appear to be, and great characters.

Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages – Gaston Dorren. As an aspiring polyglot, I think languages are fascinating. Babel explores the world’s 20 most commonly spoken languages to give us a peek into what makes other languages different–and the same–to ours.

Red Tigress – Amelie Wen Zhao. Ana is trying to save her kingdom. In the meantime, she discovers that not all is well for the affinites. While I liked this book, I did get a little lost with all the names and peoples referred to in the book. Before I read the finale, I think I’ll need to read the first two books again.

Shadowhunters Books – Cassandra Clare (most recently read first)

City of Heavenly Fire
City of Lost Souls
City of Fallen Angels
City of Glass
City of Ashes
City of Bones
“Jocelyn’s Story”
“After the Bridge”
Chain of Iron
Chain of Gold

With the exception of Chain of Iron, the books on this list were rereads for me (third time reading them) and the two short stories were new to me.

The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah. This is a story about the dust bowl in the 1930s. I loved the main character and how it brought to life the struggles of farmers living in that time. This book doesn’t exactly have a happy ever after though.

Three Dark Crowns – Kendare Blake. This book had been on my TBR for a very long time and I finally got around to reading it. Now I just have to read the rest of the books.

Cinder – Marissa Meyer. The Lunar Chronicles have been on my TBR for about as long as Three Dark Crowns has. It’s a good thing that there have been fewer must read books coming out lately, because my TBR is a mile long and I need to catch up. I liked this one and am looking forward to drawing the next book out of my ever-growing TBR lottery.

The Promised Neverland Volume 3. Emma looks quite fierce on the cover of this manga. This is a good series where the characters look really cute… but the story’s pretty dark.

Midnight Sun – Stephanie Meyer. I read the original Twilight series for the first time last year, because I was planning on reading Midnight Sun when it came out. It was interesting to hear (because I listened to it on audiobook) Edward’s take on the whole situation.

So there’s the books I’ve read since mid-February. What have you been reading? It’s always interesting to see the books we’ve most recently read, because they’re not always the books we always talk about.

Next week we’re going to talk about books with nature on the cover. Looking through Goodreads, this might be difficult. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something though.

Animals From Books

By Brookelorren on April 27, 2021April 26, 202112 Comments

Hello! Last week it was snowy, today it’s hot in my broken-air-conditioner house, and tomorrow it’s supposed to snow again! But it’s Tuesday, so it’s time for another list! Today we’re talking about Animals from Books. I thought this one would be a challenge, but I managed to come up with 10! These involve animals of all types: magical animals, regular animals, shapeshifters, and mythical animals.

Church – Cat from the Shadowhunter’s Universe. Church was the first animal that came to my mind when I thought about animals in books. Jem rescued him in Clockwork Angel, and he’s appeared in all the major Shadowhunter series ever since (Church is immortal). After Jem became a Silent Brother, he went to live with Magnus for a while, and then went to live in the New York Institute, and now he lives in California, often with Jem, but he tends to do his own thing.

When Elephants Fly – Nancy Richardson Fischer. I bet you can guess that the animal featured in When Elephants Fly is–an elephant. T. Lily Decker is an intern at the local newspaper and watches an elephant almost kill her calf. She goes on a road trip to try to save the elephant–all while she harbors fears of becoming schizophrenic like her mother.

Jack – Little House on the Prairie. Jack (you can see him on the cover following the wagon) was Laura’s faithful bulldog, who followed Laura all the way from the big woods of Wisconsin to “Indian Territory” on the prairies to the south. Since this series of books follows Laura from a little girl (age 5, I think) to a young lady, we see Jack age. Losing Jack in the books is almost as sad as losing my own pets.

Wicked Fox – Kat Cho. Gu Miyoung is a Kitsune–they have the ability to shapeshift into humans. I don’t like calling her an animal, because she has such human characteristics, but we’re embracing animals, animal-like creatures, and human-like beings who can turn into animals this week.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. The Dragonlance books are the classic fantasy with dragons books. We don’t see the dragons until well into the first book, but there will be plenty throughout the series.

My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George. I thought this week would be difficult, but I’m finding a lot of stories I haven’t talked about for a while! This is a story of a boy who runs off into the mountains and lives in the woods by himself. His only companion becomes a falcon.

The Crow Rider – Kalyn Josephson. In The Crow Rider, people once rode crows through the sky like one might ride a horse. Unfortunately, something happens to many of the crows.

The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater. From riding crows to riding murderous horses. If your TBR isn’t booked for November 1st, might I suggest The Scorpio Races? That is, if murderous horses are your thing. I loved this book.

The Black Stallion – Walter Farley. This world needs more horse books. The Black Stallion turns 80 this year. I haven’t read this since I was a kid, but Stiefvater’s murderous horses reminded me of this wonderful book and how much I loved horses in elementary school.

Dragonslayer – Duncan M. Hamilton. This is the story about an older guy who thinks his fighting days are behind him, who is suddenly thrust into the position of having to go fight a dragon. It was different than many other dragon books I’ve read.

Thats 10! I thought it would be difficult to find ten books with animals in them, but surprisingly, there were more books than I thought there’d be. Even better, I got to talk about books I haven’t mentioned in a while.

What did you come up with this week? Next week we’re going to talk about the 10 most recent books we’ve read. Easy peasy! Although I’m going to cheat a bit, because out of the last 10 books I’ve read, 7 of them were by the same author in the same universe. So I’m going to lump all of those together.

Books in My TBR with Colors in the Titles

By Brookelorren on April 13, 2021April 12, 202114 Comments

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re talking about colors. The official topic is “Book Titles That Sound Like They Could Be Crayola Crayon Colors,” but that’s a topic better suited to my daughter, who’s an artist. So I decided to switch it up a bit and talk about those books in my TBR with colors already in the title. I did a Top Ten Tuesday before about Books with Colors in the Title, but those were books I had already read. These are books on my TBR. I’m looking to see the colors you’ve chosen though.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I found it very interesting to go through my TBR. There are some books I’ve forgotten about. I figure as long as my TBR is shorter than the “Books Read” list, I’m good. Anyway, here are my colorful choices this week.

Lost Book of the White – Cassandra Clare. While I’ve been dying to read Chain of Thorns since I finished Chain of Iron, this series of Shadowhunter books is not one I’m rushing out to read. I’m sure I’ll get to this at some point, but for now, this one remains on my TBR.

Scarlet – Marissa Meyer. I bought the entire Lunar Chronicles set on sale several years ago for Black Friday, but It wasn’t until recently that I finally got around to reading Cinder, the first book in the series. Next up: Scarlet, which is another colorful title.

A Court of Silver Flames – Sarah J. Maas. I still haven’t read A Court of Frost and Starlight yet, but the last book in the series, A Court of Silver Flames, fits today’s colorful theme. Seeing all these books makes me wish I could read faster! Alas, I seem to be reading slower at the moment. I’m trying not to sweat it. Especially because summer is just around the corner and I’ll have more time to read. But seeing all these books on my TBR makes me want to read them!

Crimson Reign – Amelie Wen Zhao. I recently finished reading Red Tigress (another colorful title). This will be the final book in the series. I think I’ll have to read the other two books before I read this one though. The series is a little complex.

Black Tudors: The Untold Story – Miranda Kaufmann. Hundreds of years ago, people didn’t look at race the same as they do now. Black Tudors tells the story of black people during the Tudor era. I’ve forgotten about this book, which has been lingering on my TBR for a while, but it sounds really interesting.

Onyx – Jennifer L. Armentrout. This is the second book in the Lux series. I read the first book and really liked it, but I haven’t had the chance to continue the series.

African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan – Thomas Lockley and Geoffrey Girard. This sounds like an interesting story about a black guy who ended up in Japan and became a samurai. And it has the color black in the title.

Elissa Blue – T.K. Perry. I’m not sure how this ended up on my TBR, but I found it as I was going through my TBR and it looked interesting. And it has a colorful title.

Black Death at the Golden Gate – David K. Randall. In 1900, the Bubonic Plague entered the United States. This could have ended badly, but fortunately, it didn’t. This looks like an interesting book though.

Splinters of Scarlet – Emily Bain Murphy. This is another book that I didn’t remember putting on my TBR, but it would fit with my Read Around the World Challenge for Denmark. Historical Denmark, at least. Plus it has the color scarlet in the title.

So there’s Ten Books from my TBR with colors in the title. It was nice getting the opportunity to showcase some books that I don’t talk about repeatedly.

Were you able to come up with books that sound like Crayola crayon colors? I’d like to see what you came up with. Next week is another colorful week, as we look at books with colorful covers. That one I should be able to do without tweaking.

Books in The Ocean

By Brookelorren on April 6, 2021April 5, 202110 Comments

Hello! It’s time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today’s topic is supposed to be “Books I’d Gladly Throw into the Ocean.” This is a tough topic for me because there’s only a part of a book I’d consider throwing into the ocean. Plus, I just hate being so negative about books. So I’m going to talk about the seven chapters of a book I’d throw into the ocean and then other books that have the ocean in them.

Seven Chapters I’d Throw Into the Ocean: Allegiant Chapters 50-56. I’d gladly throw Allegiant chapters 50-56 into the ocean. Sorry, I love you, Veronica Roth, but I do not love the end to this book. And “We Can Be Mended” didn’t mend me. But fanfiction did. The canonical end to this story is not my truth. I guess this is the one good thing that came out of this story’s end. I realized in fiction, you can change the ending in your head if you want to. And I can also say that Allegiant also got me into writing again.

Books With the Ocean in Them

So now that we’re done with all that negativity, let’s talk about books with the ocean in them. To be clear, I like these books and don’t want to throw them in the ocean. Although I’d like to sit by the ocean and read them.

Alex, Approximately – Jenn Bennett. As the weather begins to warm up around here, I begin to feel the urge to read this book again more and more. This book takes place along the ocean, and the male MC is a surfer. I get so many beach vibes reading this lovely book.

Start Here – Trish Doller. I know I featured the last two books two weeks in a row; I guess I’m in the mood for beaches and sun at the moment. And there’s only 7 1/2 weeks of school left, so I’m looking forward to a lightening of my workload for 104 days (yes, since I homeschool, I give my boy exactly 104 days of summer vacation). In this book, they go sailing. I need to add her latest book, Float Plan, to the TBR lottery. Ms. Doller said that her new book covers some of the same themes, so I’m on it.

Twilight – Stephanie Meyer. When I was a kid, my parents used to take us almost every year to a beach near where the ocean scenes in Twilight took place. I took my kids camping there when my youngest was 1 1/2 and my oldest was 5 (yep, just me and the kids), and I hope to go again next year. So I’m very familiar with this beach, and it’s nothing like the beaches of California or the Caribbean. But it is a very nice beach to visit on one of the relatively rare sunny summer days they get in the area.

The Vanishing Deep – Astrid Scholte. This book is all about the ocean. While it never says specifically, The Vanishing Deep seems to be set far into the future where the world is covered with water. Not exactly the inviting beaches of the previous three books, but an ocean nonetheless.

10 Things I Hate About Pinky – Sandhya Menon. This book takes place on Cape Cod, which I think qualifies as the ocean. If not, I haven’t had the chance to feature this book much, so I’ll include it here.

The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater. This books take place on an island, so they’re surrounded by ocean. I’m not sure this is the type of ocean I’d like to visit, however. There are murderous horses in the water! If you haven’t read this book yet and are inclined to read it, I recommend you start reading this book on November 1st some year.

Call of the Raven – Wilbur Smith. Every villain is the hero of their own story. While I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, evidently the main character of this story becomes a villain. Even though there’s a picture of a burning building on the cover of this book, a lot of this story takes place at sea.

Crown of Coral and Pearl – Mara Rutherford. It’s been a while since I’ve read this book, but most of the people in this world live at sea. Even though I love the ocean, this isn’t the kind of sea world I’d enjoy. I most definitely wouldn’t want to live here.

Across a Broken Shore – Amy Trueblood. I saw on Facebook yesterday that they put a net under the Golden Gate Bridge when they were building it in order to save lives. Did I know that? Why yes, yes I did, because I read Across a Broken Shore. It takes place in San Francisco while they’re building the Golden Gate Bridge. Which makes this the 9th book today to take place near the ocean.

So how about you? What’s your favorite book to take place near the ocean? Are there any books you’d like to throw in the ocean?

Next week we’re going to talk about books that could be Crayola crayon colors. I think I can come up with some ideas for this.

Places In Books I’d Love to Visit

By Brookelorren on March 30, 2021March 29, 202117 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! It’s spring break! And my husband started a new job! Today’s topic is supposed to be “Places in Books I’d Love to Live,” but… I hate moving. I’ve lived overseas before. Do I really want to live anywhere else? Not really. So today I’m doing “Places in Books I’d Love to Visit” instead. Because there are a ton of places I’d love to visit, but not live.

Tokyo – Warcross. Tokyo would be a wonderful city to visit, and the Tokyo of Warcross’s time would be even more amazing. It seems like such a modern city.

London, 1903 – Chain of Gold. London in 1903 would be a completely different experience than it is today. There’d be horses and gas lamps and everybody would be dressed so differently. However, I wouldn’t want to stay there. There was so much poverty at the time. And pollution.

Kamchatka Peninsula – Disappearing Earth. The Kamchatka Peninsula is that little thumb of land in Russia that’s fairly close to Alaska. When a lot of westerners think of Russia, I imagine they think of Saint Petersburg or Moscow. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to visit those places too, I just don’t have a book about it. The Kamchatka Peninsula would be a completely different experience. It’s located in Asian Russia, which is a lot different than European Russia. It’s way less populated, for one.

Yosemite – Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour. Amy & Roger visit a lot of places on their epic detour, including Colorado Springs, where I live. The first place they visit is Yosemite. I’ve never been, but I think it would be pretty cool to go someday.

China – The Heavenly Man. China has such a long and amazing history. I’d love to get the chance to see the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, or just experience what it’s like there. I wouldn’t want to stay, but I’d definitely love to go here at some point in my life.

Paris – Spectacle. In Spectacle, the characters are in Paris during the time when the Eiffel Tower was being built, but Paris would be a lovely place to visit in many time periods (I think I’d pass on visiting Paris during The Terror though).

California Beach – Alex, Approximately. It’s supposed to snow later today (again) and I’m looking forward to the summer weather. Alex, Approximately takes place on a warm California beach and the surrounding town. I’d love to visit this warm place, especially when it’s cold outside where I live.

Alicante – City of Glass. Alicante is described as a beautiful city. It seems like it would have the charm of an old city. As a bonus, it’s surrounded by forest and countryside.

1963 – 11/22/63. It’s said that visiting the past is like visiting a foreign country, and I can imagine that, even from the viewpoint of my own life. The way Stephen King describes 1963 makes me want to visit there for a while. I wouldn’t want to stay, because there were some obvious problems, but getting to experience it for a few days or a week would be kinda cool.

Atlantic Ocean – Start Here. There’s something calming about being out at sea in the middle of the night, with nothing around you but water. Willa and Taylor, the protagonists of this story, stuck close to the coast in this story, but even a few miles off the coast, the world can seem very remote. I’ve been thinking lately that after this pandemic is over, I’d love to go on another cruise. I think a lot of us would like to go somewhere when this is all over. Anyway, this story makes me want to be out at sea again (although not working).

What about you? I found this week a little difficult, because so many places in books are places I wouldn’t want to go. Are there a lot of places in books you’d like to visit, or even live?

Next week, we’re going to talk about books we’d gladly throw into the ocean. Wow, that’s a little harsh. Maybe throw parts of books into the ocean? ‘Cause I can think of one. I’m not sure if I know of 10 books I dislike that much, so I might tweak it a little.

Books I May Spring Clean

By Brookelorren on March 9, 2021March 8, 2021Leave a Comment

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, which means it’s Top Ten Tuesday! Time to talk about books again! Today is a Spring Cleaning Freebie. I decided to talk about books that I may end up spring cleaning, or giving away. It’s amazing how many books a book blogger tends to pile up. I have so many books in my garage, and while I’ll probably want to get rid of some of them eventually too, books seem to multiply in my house as well. I literally only have a shelf in a closet as a formal “bookshelf;” the others are scattered throughout my house. The books on this list are typically books that I’ve read but have no intention of reading again.

1920: The Year of the Six Presidents – David Pietrusza. I learned a lot from this book. It was well written and humorous at times. However, do I think I’ll read it again? Probably not. There are some books, even in the nonfiction genre, that leave me with a feeling of awe and that I must read it again. This one–probably not.

Hanger Management – Susan Albers. This was a book I got for free from Bookish First (thank you). While it was interesting, a lot of the information in here is fairly basic. While there are some health books I don’t plan on getting rid of, like Deep Nutrition, because there’s so much I might want to refer to later, this one is a little too basic for me to hang onto forever.

A History of Wales – John Davies. While I’m glad I read this book, the topic is fairly narrow and I’m unlikely to read it again. I got it at a library book sale. I have so many unread books from library book sales that I have to stop going to those things. Anyway, while I learned a lot, this book isn’t engaging enough for me to keep.

Listen to Your Heart – Kasie West. For today’s list, I’ve been going through my Goodreads profile and have been picking books that I own in physical form. A lot of books I own on Kindle and I’m keeping those, whether I ever plan on reading them again or now. Listen to Your Heart was a good book, but I don’t think it’s one I’m going to read again. It’d be nice to pass this along to someone who would like to read it.

The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life – Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray. This was another book I got at a library book sale. It’s highly unlikely I’m going to want to read this book again. While some of its findings, like our society can sometimes be a little too complex for some people to navigate through, are interesting, others–like there might be a correlation between race and intelligence–seem a little off to me. Especially as someone who’s married to a black person who’s probably in the top decile of the intelligence scale.

Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine – Anne Applebaum. This one I’m a little unsure of. I know I should free up space and donate it, but do I want this as a reference? Maybe? It’s one of those books, like The Great Influenza, that I may want to refer to later. I’ll hold off on this one for now, but I may want to donate this one.

Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times – John Whitney Hall. This is not the edition I have; the one I have has a yellow cover and came out in the 1960s. I found it to be difficult to read and very narrow in scope. Maybe if I knew a lot about Japanese history it would have been easier for me to read, but it wasn’t.

There’s been a lot of talk about “cancelling” older works of media recently, and while I’m not in favor of destroying art, there are some things that just aren’t relevant to today, and need to be viewed through a different lens. As far as I can tell, there isn’t anything sexist or racist about this work, but it is 50 years old, and perhaps that is why I had such difficulty reading it. It’s more interesting, IMO, from a historical perspective than as something useful for today. And perhaps the same is true of these older works that seem to be horribly outdated today.

Stop Missing Your Life – Cory Muscara. While this book was interesting enough, do I really think I’m going to read this again? Probably not. I know there are a ton of nonfiction books on this week’s list–believe it or not, I actually have tons of nonfiction books that I love and will probably never get rid of–but this book isn’t something I’m likely to want to refer to, or read again. Some books you can read, absorb all you’re going to want to get out of it in one reading, and then you’re ready to move on. I think this is one of those books.

Light from Distant Stars – Shawn Smucker. I liked the book, but out of the thousands of books that I could read, do I want to read this again? Probably not. I’d rather pass this on.

My Mother, Barack Obama… – Keven Powell. While I found this book to be interesting and a glimpse into a life that is completely foreign to mine, I’m probably not going to read this one again. I’d rather pass this on to someone that hasn’t read it yet and would like to.

So there’s 10 books I’m thinking of donating. As my books pile up, I’m trying to make use of the library and my Kindle more, which reduces the amount of books I have to donate. There are some books that I’ll hang onto for years, of course, but these tend to be ones that are either signed or that I plan on rereading.

What did you write about today? Are your shelves overflowing like mine? Do you end up bringing home a bag of library books from those sales and find a lot that need to find new homes?

Next week we’re going to talk about our Spring TBRs. I think these are some of my favorite posts.

Chain of Iron

By Brookelorren on March 3, 2021March 3, 2021Leave a Comment

I finished Chain of Iron an hour or so ago.

So… I just have to review it. Considering it’s March 3rd, the book released yesterday (although I got it Monday evening), the book is 688 pages, I’ve had work duties for the past couple of days, and I’m already 5 books behind in my Goodreads reading challenge, I suppose you can guess that it was a book I couldn’t put down. In fact, I stayed up until 3 AM two nights in a row to read it.

But… wow. That ending.

This review assumes you’ve already read Chain of Gold (click the link for my review of that book).

Lucie is on the cover of Chain of Iron, but this book spends a great deal of time on James and Cordelia. Which I love, because they’re my favorite couple in this series. The book begins right before their wedding. And after that… everything falls apart.

There’s a killer on the loose again, and James is having dreams about the murders. Elias, Cordelia’s dad, returns, but he’s still drinking. Matthew’s still drinking–if you’ve read “Cast Long Shadows” from Ghosts of the Shadow Market, then you know why he started drinking, although Matthew does tell someone what happens during the course of this book. Lucie and Grace are working together, trying to resurrect Jesse.

It’s hard to say too much without giving away spoilers. But… we have some of our suspicions (if you have them) confirmed about Grace, some of the relationships in the Shadowhunter’s Found Family tree are foreshadowed, Belial makes a comeback, and Lucie turns out to be a little more conniving and interesting than she was in Chain of Gold. Grace and Alastair are shown to be… sympathetic characters? Chain of Iron doesn’t excuse their actions, but it does give reasons as to why they behaved the way they did. Maybe they’ll even be redeemed in the last book?

And then there’s the elephant in the room. The ending. It’s not as bad as the ending to that one Shadowhunter book where a major character is literally stabbed to death in (I think) the last chapter, but it comes close to it. If you don’t like cliffhangers–wait to read this one. There isn’t a major death at the very end, but there is a–misunderstanding–that could easily be cleared up under normal circumstances, but Cassandra Clare literally throws every obstacle in the way so that it doesn’t, and now we have to wait a year to see it resolved.

That being said, I’m willing to bet that Chain of Thorns is going to be MONSTER sized (like pretty much all of her last books in trilogies are). There are so many things that have to be done in that book. Matthew’s secret is going to have to come out, all the characters that are supposed to get together and have kids in the Found Family Tree are going to have to find love together, and the epilogue will probably end up showing us how they live happily ever after. Clare has said that after The Last Hours, she’s going to write The Wicked Powers (which deals with the modern-day timeline) and that’s going to be it. Since this will be the end of our London timeline, I’m sure she won’t leave us with loose ends. I’m sure I’m going to ugly cry hard like the end of Clockwork Princess.

In a nutshell–amazing book, noooo!!!! ending because of the cliffhanger. I need Chain of Thorns ASAP. Chain of Iron will most certainly get a reread before next March.

Book Characters Whose Job I Wish I Had

By Brookelorren on March 2, 2021March 2, 202110 Comments

Hello! It’s Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) and I’m so excited because my copy of Chain of Iron arrived early! Sadly, I have a ton of work to do, so I can’t read it this second. It’s staring up at me teasingly. Anyway, we’re talking about book characters whose job I wish I had. I think this may be difficult. We’ll see if I can come up with 10!

Cordelia Carstairs – Shadowhunter. Yes, I know that’s a picture of Lucie on the cover of Chain of Iron, but I’m excited to read it, okay? Cordelia is one of my favorite characters in The Last Hours. She is so caring about her family, and she is willing to sacrifice so much for her friend James, even though her love for him is unrequited. I probably wouldn’t be a very good shadowhunter, but it might be fun to kill demons.

Eliza – Writer. There might be a few writers on my list this week, LOL. Anyway, Eliza writes a weekly webcomic, and she’s very successful at it. While I probably wouldn’t be good at doing a webcomic, I would like to write and be successful at it.

Nannerl and Wolfgang – Composers. It would be cool to write music for a living. As an added bonus, Nannerl and Wolfgang got to travel to different courts and visit kings and queens. Nannerl had the unfortunate situation of being a girl in a world where girls weren’t really allowed to compose, and were expected to give up their careers when they were old enough to get married, but we’re going to give her credit, k? It’s very likely that she inspired some of Wolfgang’s compositions, so maybe we’ve heard some of her work before without even knowing it.

Jake – Time-Traveling Teacher. I teach a small Spanish class once a week (7 students) and also homeschool my son, and teaching the class of high schoolers can be stressful, but I don’t get to time travel. I don’t think I’d bother attempting to prevent John F. Kennedy’s assassination (things happen for a reason, after all) but getting to go back and experience a time I never lived through would be awesome.

Daniel – Photographer. I love taking pictures, and it would be an adventure to document a place like Franco’s Spain, even though it might be a little dangerous. I’d have to be very careful not to get caught.

Annika – Tech Entrepreneur. I love computers, and majored in computer science in college, so I could definitely be a tech entrepreneur.

Ana – Princess. Now, I’m not saying I want to be on the run and be an exiled princess, but I wouldn’t mind being a princess. Who wouldn’t? Sometimes their lives could be dangerous (in real life even, a lot of them ended up in the dungeon), but other than that, it might not be a bad life.

Jo – Writer. One of the things I loved about this book was that Jo was a writer, and I could identify with some of her struggles.

Samantha – Plant cataloger. If I was in Veronica Roth’s Divergent and I had to choose a faction, it would be Erudite. Anyway, I think it would be interesting to catalog plants, although I wouldn’t be too excited about the whole end-of-the-world thing.

Stella – Data Analyst. Stella’s job involves a lot of math, and it pays well, too. One of my first reactions to a review of The Kiss Quotient was “you had me at math” (Erudite, remember?). It may not be something I could do right now, but I wouldn’t mind doing this. I actually am using a little bit of math when I trade cryptocurrency, but probably not on the scale that Stella does.

Whew! I actually did it! I had to go back to books I read all the way back in 2018 to do so, but I found 10 jobs that I’d like (even though I had to use writer twice). I’m kind of happy being a homeschool teacher that writes and dabbles in cryptocurrency trading (even though the last one is the only one I really make any money from).

What kind of jobs did you pick this week? Did you find it as hard as I did? Next week is a Spring Cleaning Freebie. I’m not 100% sure what I’ll do for that one yet.

Books That Came Out Before I Was Born

By Brookelorren on February 23, 2021February 22, 202113 Comments

Hello! It’s Tuesday, which means it’s Top Ten Tuesday Time! Today is the day we get together with all our book friends and talk about books. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s topic is supposed to be “Books that Made Me Laugh Out Loud” but I’m not sure if I can come up with 10. I know there are more than that, but there aren’t a lot of books I can come up with that I think “Oh my that was funny!” Today’s post would be full of Sandhya Menon and Cassandra Clare books. Since I missed a couple weeks, I’m going to go back a couple weeks and do “Books That Came Out Before I was Born” instead, which was the topic for a few weeks ago. I’m going to start with books on my TBR, then move on to books that I’ve read.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays are classics. I saw this play when I was in middle school (I think). Maybe I read it then too? Either way, I’d like to read this play.

Up From Slavery – Booker T. Washington. I’m sure many of you have heard of Booker T. Washington. He started life as a slave and later went on to found what is now Tuskeegee University. I’d love to read his autobiography someday.

Война и мир (War and Peace) – Leo Tolstoy. While this is often thought of as the quintessential long book, it’s only between 1150 and 1400 pages, depending on what edition you get. And I’m sure the translation matters too. While I’d love to read it in the original Russian and French someday, I kinda should finish reading Дивергент (Divergent) first. It’d be much easier to read, and it’s less than 1/2 the length.

And that’s all the books on my TBR that were made before I was born! That being said, there are plenty of other books that were made before I was born, that I either have read or would be interested in reading.

Decline and fall of the roman Empire Gibbon cover

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon. I’ve actually been reading the unabridged version of this book for several years now. I’m 29% of the way through the book. It’s 3,672 pages. I don’t read it every day, and it’s a difficult book. But it is interesting to read about all of these emperors. It also gives me ideas for fictional books I might want to read. Another thing that I like about it is that it reminds me that–politically, things can get a lot worse. I can feel fortunate that they’re not.

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy. I read Anna Karenina a long time ago. I don’t remember much about it, so I’d like to read it again. I had aspartame poisoning when I was in my 20s, and it affected my memory from that time. I would watch a movie and couldn’t keep track of the characters in the movie while I was watching it. I forgot a lot about the books I read too.

Little House on the Prairie (series) – Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’d love to read the entire Little House on the Prairie series again someday. There are a couple more books written after The First Four Years, which I’ve never read, and I’d like to read someday. Ms. Wilder was an inspiration to me; someday I’d like to write my autobiography as well. She fictionalized a few details, and I probably would too.

Anne of Green Gables (series) – L. M. Montgomery. I’d love to read the Anne of Green Gables books again (although my favorite is Rilla of Ingleside). When my grandma died, I really wanted to inherit her Anne books. She loaned them to me when I was in middle or high school. I haven’t read them since, but they definitely need another read someday.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo. I read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in 2019, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is “only” 553 pages in comparison. This is a book I’d love to get around to reading someday.

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas. I have a copy of this book somewhere in my garage, but it looks a little thin, considering that the book is 1138 pages and the copy I have doesn’t look like a brick. I’ve seen the movie, but I’d love to read the book someday. Books contain so much more information–especially if they’re over 1000 pages, you know there’s a lot in the book that never made it to the movie! One of the things I love about old books is that it takes you back into that time period in a way that books written about older time periods cannot.

The History of the Franks – Gregory of Tours. I’ve actually read this book twice already, but I’d read it again someday. It has fantastical stories about the early Frankish kings (that would be, kings that ruled what is now France). It wasn’t meant to be a fantastical story either. I love to read it and wonder what actually happened and was miraculous, and what was just made up. Reading these stories after being more familiar with the characters in the stories I think would change the way I saw the book.

So there are ten stories that were written before I was born, that I’ve either read before and would like to read again, or I’ve never read but would like to. Did you write about funny books this week? Maybe I need to read some of the books on people’s lists this week! Especially as the pandemic is getting close to a year now.

Next week Chain of Iron comes out! Here, we’ll be talking about “Characters Whose Job I Wish I Had.” I think I can do a better job with those than funny books. I mean, there have to be at least 10 books about princesses or authors or something, right? But I’m sure I can find a few others too.