Get Lost in Literature

"... there would always be darkness. But as long as you kept a light burning, it would be okay." After the coup to steal Daevabad, Ali and Nahri find themselves powerless in Cairo and desperate to get home to save their loved ones. Banu Manizheh finds herself the tyrant ruling a broken world, with Dara trapped at her side.  Unlike the second book, the finale of The Daevabad Trilogy is an action-packed adventure, which is really good news considering the book is just shy of 800 pages. It's super fast-paced, with dramatic plot twists. Magic and murder, djinn and Gods, and pirates. That's right, this one's got pirates. Chakraborty's writing is richly descriptive creating settings and characters that are vivid and beautiful even at the most brutal of moments. And there are plenty of brutal moments because Manizheh's worse than Ghassan - I honestly don't know why she wouldn't marry him; they were perfect for each other. I think my favorite parts of thi...

 So this is the part where I normally drop a quote from the book, but due to restrictions on ARCs, I'm not allowed to do that. Birdie is a flighty, free spirited single mother who drinks too much and despite her love for her daughter, harbors a secret desire for freedom from responsibility. One morning she meets Arthur, a recluse who lives in the mountains. He's a bit odd, talking only in present tense and the townspeople mostly eschew his company with the exception of his father Warren, Birdie and her daughter, Emaleen. As their relationship deepens, Arthur invites Birdie and Emaleen to come live with him in his derelict cabin... But Arthur harbors a dark secret that he keeps from his new family. The setting of the book takes place in rural Alaska and the descriptions of the scenery, flora, and fauna are positively decadent. I've never been to Alaska (although I'd love to visit) but Eowyn Ivey's writing makes me feel right at home there. The characters are flawed i...

Top Ten Tuesday is brought to you by That Artsy Reader Girl. Here's my list for Books That Provide a Much Needed Escape.   Harry Potter. All of them. The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini Shades of Magic trilogy by VE Schwab The Broken Earth trilogy by NK Jemisin The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly World War Z by Max Brooks Have you read any of these? What's on your list?

  “ Because a lost little girl from Cairo thought she was living in some sort of fairy tale. And because for all her supposed cleverness, she couldn’t see that the dashing hero who saved her was its monster.” ― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper The Kingdom of Copper is book two in the Daevabad Trilogy and the characters we've come to know and love return to us. Nahri is now living a life married to a husband who despises her, trapped in the palace by the cruel King Ghassan. Homesick for the streets of Cairo, she must find happiness in her new home of Daevabad. Ali, exiled from his home by his father, finds comfort in a rural village but that changes when a stranger shows up with the intention of throwing Ali back into Daevabad's dangerous politics. Dara, resurrected by a vengeful djinn, is once again force to be The Scourge, the living weapon, in a vicious plot to bring the city of to its knees. This book didn't start out as gripping as the first. It was very slow t...

Book Beginnings on Fridays by Rose City Reader -  Share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now. "Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things." The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth trilogy) by NK Jemisin I loved the start of this book. Maybe sarcastic, maybe jaded... could be, based on the events that follow, angry. After all, what could be more interesting than the end of the world? And shortly after, N.K. Jemisin delivers.  Book Blogger Hop Q: September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. What role have libraries played in your reading journey? Do you have any recommendations for books or fond recollections involving libraries? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer) A: I don't remember how old I was when I got my first library card but I remember my mo...

  "There was something about the release of breath as you pulled the trigger, the stillness, the quiet before the almost-welcome recoil, that soothed and comforted her." Maya Burkett's husband is murdered and a few days after his funeral he appears on her new nanny cam. Now she must solve the mystery of what happened to her husband, who killed him and why or is he even really dead? The first sentence of the book was artfully designed to pull the reader in, and you can tell right away that when it comes to writing, Harlan Coben really knows his stuff. He created a collection of characters designed to evoke an emotional response, from our heroine newly widowed and tortured by PTSD to her deeply unlikeable babysitter. But after the plot and characters are introduced, the book slows down quite a bit. It's described as a 'thriller' but honestly, I think that word gets thrown around a little too much and sets expectation too high. For me, a thriller should be on-the...

Happy Sunday! The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted by Caffeinated Reviewer . I will be posting on the first Sunday of every month and I hope you'll join me. August is over already :-( And this year's August had October's weather so it really felt like summer was on its way out. Don't get me wrong, I like winter well enough. I can always add more layers unlike when it's hot and I'm only legally allowed to take off so much... But still, I always miss my short-sleeved Ts and feeling the heat on my skin. It was a slow reading month for me again. It felt like it took me forever to get through The Abominable , and yet I flew through  City of Brass with wild abandon. It was such a slow month that I didn't even have a review to post for the 5th of August. I've been shirking my reading for more active outdoor activities while the weather is nice. I picked up a ton of new books this month. I recieved two ARCs: Elphie by Gregory Maguire  (one of my favorite a...