Ash Princess

Ash Princess cover

Ash Princess, by Laura Sebastian, is a story about a former princess (Theodosia) whose country was overtaken by another when she was much younger. Although the new kingdom has taken her in, she has become the subject of beatings and the butt of their jokes. Overall, I enjoyed it, although it didn’t have quite the addictive properties that some other books I’ve read this year had.

The book has a great character arc. Theodosia starts out as this mousy character that meekly takes beatings. Later, she becomes a heroine that is willing to take risks to help her people, which are slowly being exterminated by the ruling powers.

I really like how Theodosia grows to care for her people and has a conscience. The book has something to say about the world we live in today too:

I suppose it’s easy to be at home in a world where you are on top. It’s easy not to notice those whose backs you stand on to stay there.

p. 26

My comment after reading that quote was “Ouch.” I couldn’t help but think about people in other parts of the world making iPhones and cheap clothing at slave wages when I read that.

Ash Princess has some pretty good suspense to it. The main villain is pretty evil, but he’s not the only person Theodosia has to worry about. There are a lot of bad people in the ruling kingdom.

There’s a little bit of romance in this book and the possibility of a love triangle in the next book. I haven’t read any spoilers for Lady Smoke (the sequel), so I don’t know how that goes. I think the love interests have the opportunity for good character arcs as well. More romance would have been nice in this book; maybe the sequel will have it.

Overall, I enjoyed Ash Princess. It wasn’t quite as addicting as The Cruel Prince or some of the other books that will make my top 10 books of the year, but I recommend it nevertheless. I do plan on reading Lady Smoke at some point; I just don’t know when.

The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad cover

I recently finished reading The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. It was a book that looked good to me for quite a while, and when I noticed it was available on audiobook at the library, I had to check it out. For the most part, I thought it was an enjoyable book; however, there were a few things about the book that detracted from the book (for me).

Cora is a young lady that grew up as a slave. When the plantation she lives on changes hands, she agrees to run away with Caesar, another slave. Along the way, they meet hazards, including slave catchers and even the people that are trying to help them.

What I Liked

The Underground Railroad uses a clever metaphor: the Underground Railroad in this story is an actual railroad. Literal trains take our protagonists to their new locations. It was a clever way to fictionalize the story.

I liked the characters, the tension, and the plot to this story. Cora and Caesar are being chased by a slave catcher, Ridgeway, who is irrationally fixated on them. The book also does a good job at portraying the horrors of slavery, as well as the awful things done to black people throughout history.

What I Didn’t Like

Although I liked the story overall, The Underground Railroad played very loose with history. If there was a time when North Carolina decided to kick all the black people out of the state, I have yet to hear about it. Did South Carolina set up clinics to take care of black people and provide them with free medical care? I don’t think so. While I was fine with the railroad analogy, I find it unbelievable that an ex-slave would have even considered staying in the slaveholding South.

Additionally, there were scenes that were unnecessary and/or confusing. When Cora changed her name, I originally thought it was a new character. There was a chapter about a gravedigger and I have no clue why it was put there. I felt the last chapter about Caesar was unnecessary. Maybe because the story was a little over 300 pages and the author thought the story would be too short without them? I would have rather had more scenes that were central to the story.

Overall

Despite the fact that my section on what I didn’t like was longer than my section on what I did like, I was entertained by the story and gave it four stars on Goodreads. I liked Cora and rooted for her freedom. The Underground Railroad could have been better, in my opinion, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth reading. I recommend it, as long as you’re not looking for a historical book that actually follows historical facts.

Non-YA Books I Enjoyed

Top Ten Tuesday

Hello again! Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl), where we talk about books! Today’s topic is “Books I Enjoyed that are Outside My Comfort Zone” but I’ll read just about anything (the exceptions would be the ones that I find distasteful or immoral, and I won’t read those on principal). A look at a recent “Currently Reading” list shows that I read quite a variety of books:

There’s a YA book, an adult book, a Spanish book, a German book, and a 3980 page monstrosity whose first volume was published in 1776. So today I’ll focus on non-YA books, since at the moment, YA is what I tend to read the most of.

Rebel cover

I don’t read a great deal of romance; many of them seem quite generic and a lot of the covers are a bit of a turn-off. If you’re picky about the guys you find attractive like I am, the generic romance covers often leave a lot to be desired. Anyway, I loved Beverly Jenkins’s Rebel and I’d definitely read more from her.

The Fourth Turning Cover

The Fourth Turning was my favorite new-to-me book I read in 2016 (the second post I ever wrote for this blog). Even though I checked this book out of the library, I recently bought a copy of this book because I kept thinking about it and wanted a copy of it for reference.

Ghost Fire cover

Ghost Fire was one of the recent books I received from Bookish First; it’s an adult book set in India and in colonial America that I liked a lot.

The Last Year of the War cover

I should have bought stock in tissues before reading The Last Year of the War. This was such a beautiful story of two friends who met in the US concentration camps during World War II and were separated at the end of the war. I highly recommend it.

Pennies cover

Pennies is a darker book with disturbing themes and is definitely not YA. I still haven’t read the last two books in this series, although I did pick the next book from the random number generator for my fall TBR, so I’ll be reading that one soon

Here and Now and Then cover

Mike Chen’s Here and Now and Then is another adult book (although teens could enjoy it as well). It was the first of three time travel books I’ve read in the last 12 months, and probably is my favorite of the three.

Kiss Quotient cover

The Kiss Quotient is another adult book, although I wouldn’t recommend it to teens like I would Here and Now and Then. I hope to read the sequel, The Bride Test, at some point.

Never Stop Walking Cover

Never Stop Walking is another adult book, although its contents are mostly appropriate for YA audiences. It is a memoir (which I don’t read too many of) about this lady who grew up in Brazil to a poor family. What she survived is amazing.

Unbroken cover

Unbroken is the amazing story of Louis Zamporini, who could have been an Olympic athlete if not for World War II. It’s a beautiful story about forgiveness. It’s even more awesome because this is the story of another Trojan like me.

This History of the Renaissance World cover

I was first introduced to Susan Wise Bauer’s works through her Story of the World books, which are great homeschooling books for middle schoolers. I read all of her History of the — World books; The History of the Renaissance World is one of them. All three of her adult books are equally good though.

So there are ten non-YA books that I enjoyed reading. What books did you enjoy that were either outside of your normal genre or are outside of your comfort zone entirely? I can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Next week we’re going to talk about “Books On My TBR I’m Avoiding Reading and Why.” I don’t normally avoid reading books, so I’ll probably do something like “Books On My TBR that I Really Want to Read But Haven’t Yet.” I’ll see you then!

The Future of Another Timeline

The Future of Another Timeline cover

The Future of Another Timeline is a time travel story written by Annalee Newitz. I recently had the chance to get an Advanced Reader Copy, thanks to Bookish First and Tor books. Oddly enough, it’s the third time travel story I’ve read in the last 12 months.

The story expertly revolves around two characters: Beth and Tess. Beth is a Riot Girrl in the early 1990s (her timeline starts in 1992). Her life is changed after she goes to a concert and witnesses a murder afterwards. Tess is in her late 40s and works in academia. Her official job is to go back in time to study different time periods, but she’s also part of a secret group that is editing the timeline so that women have more rights. She also goes back to visit Beth in the 1990s so she can fix the damage her former self created (but that’s a secret).

Beth is trying to navigate her senior year of high school, getting good grades, having fun with her friends, and dealing with a friend who has gone off the rails. Tess, in the other timeline, is trying to repair a timeline in which a group of controlling men have tried to create a time when women are nothing more than breeders.

As the story switches between their points of view, you discover more about the world and about the two people in the story. The way Ms. Newitz hides the information is genius. I was surprised to find certain details at different points in the story, but I won’t include them here.

The time travel mechanism in this story was interesting. The time travel machines are built into the earth itself, and you can access them from certain places in the world. Her worldbuilding around this possibility was quite clever. In this incarnation of Earth, everybody knows about time travel (although not everybody can do it). I also liked the way actual historical facts are interwoven into the story.

As a conservative libertarian, I tend to disagree with some of the main character’s politics (and probably the author’s too). The book is a little too pro-abortion for my taste; however, that didn’t keep me from enjoying the story as a whole. It was well-written and, for the most part, I agree with what Tess was trying to do.

The Future of Another Timeline is not a YA book, although some older YA readers might enjoy it. There isn’t anything that’s too explicit; however, some scenes might be a little too mature for younger YA readers. One of the protagonists is in her late 40s.

Overall, I thought this was a well-written story with an interesting plot and realistic characters. If you’re looking for a time travel story with a bit of a punk rock edge to it, you’ll probably like The Future of Another Timeline. It won’t be released until September 24th, but you can pre-order it now.

ABC Book Challenge – I

It’s Sunday again, and for the second half of this year, I’m going to go through my Goodreads books and am highlighting books that begin with a certain letter each week. This week, we’re highlighting the letter I (which I have less than a page of). I first found this challenge over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I think it was started by the Thrifty Bibliophile. So here are the I books from my limited selection:

In the Garden of Beasts cover

It’s been a while since I read In the Garden of Beasts, but it was a good book. It discusses the days before Hitler really came into power.

I Wanna Be Where You Are cover

The cover to I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest is gorgeous! I haven’t had the chance to read this one yet. I haven’t heard much about this one for a little while, but it sounds like a lot of fun.

The Insanity of God

I got to see The Insanity of God movie a year or two ago. It was pretty interesting, and I thought it would be interesting to read the book that goes along with it.

Into the Hollow cover

I was able to read Lynn Vroman’s Into the Hollow last year, and it was really good. It’s one of those books that didn’t get much of a marketing budget so I don’t hear much about it, and that’s a shame, because more people should read this.

Isle of Blood and Stone cover

Makiia Lucier’s Isle of Blood and Stone was a good book. Sound of the Abyss, a companion novel, just came out recently.

That’s all the I books I want to highlight today. Next week is the letter J, which I only have three books listed… and one of them I didn’t care too much for. So there won’t be much next week. See you then!

On the Come Up

On the Come Up cover

On the Come Up is a book by Angie Thomas about a girl that wants to be a rapper and whose prospects are looking good. I recently had the opportunity to read this book on audiobook. I highly recommend this book on audiobook because of the lyrical nature of this book. This book is musically oriented, which was probably one of the things that drew me to it.

Bri is a girl living in a poor neighborhood that is bussed to a school in a nicer part of town. Her mom is having difficulty making ends meet; her brother helps to provide for the family. Her dad was killed several years ago; prior to his death, he was an up-and-coming rapper.

Bri has skills and is compared to her dad all the time. When she gets the opportunity to battle in the ring, everybody else finds out she’s good too. It gives her opportunities which draw her into a world that might be a little too much for her. She has to decide whether to follow her heart… or fame.

There was a lot I liked about this book. One thing I liked was the immersion into the rap world. Bri’s lyrics are pretty good (especially on audiobook). I used to listen to a lot of rap, so all the references to the old-school rappers was pretty enjoyable.

Bri herself is an interesting character. Ms. Thomas makes her well-rounded, with a little bit of a temper but a heart for her family. The world is also populated by a struggling single mom, an aunt with some questionable ties, and friends that provide us with realism and tension. I also enjoyed the setting.

I definitely recommend On the Come Up. It is an issue book that deals with topics like poverty, racism, violence, and being true to yourself when you’re pressured to be someone else, so I’d skip it if you’re looking for something light and fun. If you are looking for something with a little substance, then you might want to pick this up. Especially on audiobook!

Satellite Bible Atlas

Satellite Bible Atlas cover

I recently finished reading the Satellite Bible Atlas by William Schlegel. This is the best book of Bible maps I’ve ever seen. If you have a Bible, you probably have a few maps in the back of your book… but none of them are likely to compare with the vast variety of maps assembled here.

After a few general maps of the Levant, the Satellite Bible Atlas is arranged in chronological order. It starts with Abraham and moves all the way through the years of early Jewish rebellion in the Roman world. As the settlement names change over time, the adjoining maps also change. Each map is accompanied by a page of explanation. Often, the explaining page will include quotes from the Bible or even archaeological tablets that have been found discussing the events from that time period.

Sometimes when I read the Bible, my eyes glaze over at all the place names I don’t recognize. Maybe it’s just me, but probably not. This book helps me visualize where most of these places are. It’s certainly not a book that you’ll want to read in a day. It’s not meant to be a page-turner like a lot of books I review here. However, this is a book that you can use as a reference book. Even though I’ve finished reading the book, I’ll probably refer back to many of these maps again at some point in the future.

I’d recommend the Satellite Bible Atlas to several types of people. If you’re interested in ancient maps, if you want to know where all those little towns in the Bible are, or if you’re interested in ancient history, you might like this book. Otherwise, you probably won’t find this book to be very interesting. But if you are, then this is the best collection of Biblical-era maps I have seen.

Books I’ve Read That I’d Like in My Personal Library

Top Ten Tuesday

Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and you know what that means! Another episode of Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Today we’re talking about “Books I’ve Read That I’d Like in My Personal Library”.

I’m in a fortunate position in that I currently get an allowance every month, and since I’m not really interested in much else, most of that money goes towards books. That wasn’t always the case, and since I have a limited amount of space to store books, I have to be careful about that too. Plus there’s collectible editions of some books that I’d kill to get my hands on.

The Raven Boys cover

After nearly a year of saying “I have to read something by Maggie Stiefvater someday” I finally read The Raven Boys. I ended up borrowing the first three books from the library. I loved these books, but don’t own them. The fourth book, The Raven King, was unavailable from the library, so it’s coming from Amazon on Thursday. But I don’t own the first three, and I can’t really justify buying the books when I might not read them again for a while.

Life After Legend cover

The reason I don’t own the original edition of Life After Legend (the one that was given away as a free gift for pre-ordering Warcross) is because I can’t find it for sale. Anywhere. I periodically check eBay to see if anybody has it up for sale, but I can’t find it. I don’t blame people for not wanting to sell it though. I’ve read it (I bought the paperback edition of Warcross specifically for this) but I don’t own this collectible edition. I’ll keep looking. If you have one you’d like to get rid of, I’d happily buy it from you.

Shadow and Bone cover

Another author I talked about reading for months was Leigh Bardugo. I actually own Shadow and Bone (I found it on sale on the Kindle for $1.99) but I don’t own the other two. This would be a nice series to own in hardback.

Summer Days and Summer Nights Cover

I read Summer Days and Summer Nights last July. There are so many sweet stories in here. I thought about purchasing a copy this summer, but then I realized that I probably wouldn’t end up reading it this summer, and I’ll be getting Veronica Roth’s story “Inertia” with her book The End and Other Beginnings in five weeks, so I decided to postpone the purchase. Maybe I’ll get a copy next year. Sure, I could just get it from the library again if I wanted to read it, but some books you just want to have on hand whenever you feel like reading it.

Fangirl cover

I listened to Fangirl on via audiobook (that I borrowed from the library) and I really loved it. I’d probably enjoy having a hardback copy of this book. It’s such a sweet story.

Enchantée cover

Enchantée was such a lovely book, but I don’t own a finished copy. A lot of times when I receive an ARC, I don’t buy the finished copy, but I occasionally do when it’s a book I really loved. Plus, the digital Enchantée ARC is pretty rough. Maybe I’ll get a gorgeous hardback to go with its sequel, Liberté (which comes out on July 14, 2020). I’d rather reread the first book in a pretty hardback than the rough ARC.

The Evertree cover

The Evertree is the only Marie Lu book or book containing a short story of hers that I don’t own in at least some form. I’ll probably buy this book at some point, but since it’s the seventh book in a middle grade series, I’m not really in a hurry. The reason I never reviewed this book on my blog is that I never read the six books that came before this one. Perhaps someday I’ll check the six books that came before this one out of the library (my boy is currently on this book of the series) and I’ll buy this one so I can complete my collection.

In the Garden of Beasts cover

So the first seven books on my list are all sweet, maybe the world is in jeopardy but there’s still some levity to it, and then you get to this book: In the Garden of Beasts. This is a story about the early days of Hitler’s reign. One of these things is not like the other. Even the cover is pretty dark. I loved this book though, and wouldn’t mind reading it again.

Ever the Hunted Cover

Although I still haven’t read the third book in the Clash of Kingdoms series by Erin Summerill, I really loved Ever the Hunted and Ever the Brave. I read both of these books as library books.

Echoes cover

Echoes is another book I own as an ARC, but I don’t have a finished copy. The sequel, Fissures, is supposed to come out in winter 2020. Maybe I’ll buy a finished copy around then. I’ll probably want to read it again, and I’d rather read a nice hardback then a rough ARC.

So those are the books that I’ve read but would like in my personal library. Which books would you like to own? Next week we’re going to talk about “Books I Enjoyed Which Were Outside My Comfort Zone”. I might end up tweaking that topic, because I’ll read just about anything.

The Lady Rogue

The Lady Rogue cover

Jenn Bennett’s The Lady Rogue is a historical adventure/romance set in the late 1930s. I have to thank Netgalley and Simon Pulse for providing me with an advanced reader copy. I enjoyed the other book I read by Ms. Bennett, Alex, Approximately (link is to my review), and I liked this book as well. This is definitely a different kind of book, but I enjoyed it nevertheless.

Theodora is a spirited girl who gets into trouble and loves crossword puzzles. Her dad left her in Turkey while he goes and traipses around Romania in search of Count Dracula’s magical ring. When he disappears and Huck, a boy she has a history with, shows up, they have to go on a trip to try to find him and rescue him. All while their funds are dwindling, they’re being chased by bad guys, and people around them are dying.

I loved the characters in this book. This book is set in 1937, so the mindset of people was a little different back then than it is now, but Theodora is adventurous and smart. I really liked her character. She and Huck obviously have a lingering attraction to each other, and their interactions are fun to watch. It’s also fun to find out exactly what happened and watching them work through their conflict. If you like enemies to lover’s books, this has got a little bit of that going on (also a twist on there’s only one bed).

The Lady Rogue has a great setting. Reading the book, you get to experience a little bit of old Turkey, the countryside of Romania, a haunted forest… it’s a lot of fun. The descriptions are great and well done. I enjoyed the historical context to this story as well. It was fun to learn about Dracula and Romania.

If you’re looking for an adventure story with a spirited heroine, evil magic, bad guys, and magical artifacts, then The Lady Rogue might be for you. It has a hint of romance to it (probably less than many of her books), but the other exciting elements of the book make up for it. I highly recommend it. It won’t be released until September 3rd, but you can pre-order it now.

ABC Book Challenge – H

It’s Sunday again, and time for another letter in the ABC Book Challenge! Until the end of the year, I’ll be going through my Goodreads TBR and highlighting books that I really want to read or thought were really good. I first found this tag over at Me, Myself, and Books, but I believe it was started by Thrifty Bibliophile. The letter H doesn’t have a ton of books to it, but we’ll go over some of the ones that stick out to me.

Heavenly Man Cover

The Heavenly Man was such an inspirational book! I loved reading the miraculous story of his life.

Here Be Dragons cover

Here Be Dragons came out 11 years ago, but I just found out about it in the last year, and I really want to read it. The story is set in thirteenth century Wales, which seems like such an interesting time period in history. Some of her other books look pretty interesting too.

Here and Now and Then cover

Here and Now and Then is a cool time travel story set in San Francisco, both in the present and the future. And the past.

History of Modern Europe cover

The H’s I guess are for history. A History of Modern Europe from the Renaissance to the Present by John Merriman is a huge book, but it was also pretty interesting. I found it a lot easier to read than Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which is ginormous, and Kindle says I have over 90 hours of reading left (this book here didn’t take that long).

The Hobbit cover

J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit is a classic H book. Although it wasn’t set in our world, it still kinda fits into the history theme of this letter, as Middle Earth has a lot in common with our medieval era.

Hunger Games cover

The Hunger Games seems to be the odd one out in our “H is for history” theme today. This book is set in the dystopian future. If this is what our future has in store for us, I think I’d rather go hang out with the dragons. Although I can’t imagine they’d be that pleasant either.

So those are some books on my TBR that start with the letter H. The I books on my Goodreads TBR take up less than a full page, so I’m guessing that there won’t be too many on my list next week, but we’ll see what we can come up with.