Tag: Book TAG

Book Reviews

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer Book Review

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Happy Monday Bookish People! Here is the book review for the second book that I read for the Becca and the Books 48 hour Bookopolathon challenge. The second prompt was a fantasy book and I chose A Curse so Dark and Lonely because, it was on my March TBR, and also I have the full trilogy on my shelf and I hadn’t yet read it. It was about time I finally read it, so many people have recommended it to me.

I will give star ratings for four categories and I will write a little about each one. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible. I hope you enjoy reading my book review.

Plot:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

This book is advertised as a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and it is one of the best retellings that I have read. I think the plot of this book is well constructed and builds the tension brilliantly. It starts with an event that is a catalyst for the rest of the novel and it is paced well so the novel has both exciting events and tension but also leaves enough room for character development. This book has a great plot for this book and it also sets up an over arching plot for the rest of the series which has made me very excited to read the rest of this series – soon!

Characters:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

I loved the characters in this book. The main protagonist is Harper and her personality is headstrong and fierce while being very caring. From the first page I had to know what would happen with her character, I was rooting for her. The two main male characters the first book follows is Prince Rhen and his loyal Guardsman Grey. Both of these are well developed interesting characters who I am very excited about seeing where their stories go. I felt that the ending of this book was slightly rushed with certain parts of it but still had a satisfying ending.

Dialogue and Writing:

Rating: 4 out of 5.

The writing style in this book is a comfortable and easy read, it matches the genre of fantasy well. As for the dialogue I felt this novel had good dialogue between the characters that really cemented their relationships and helped create the mood for the novel overall.

Overall:

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Overall I gave this book five stars because I really enjoyed it and instantly wished I could pick up the second one and read it immediately, unfortunately I couldn’t but that’s what I wanted to do. It was well written, well balanced between plot and character and a brilliantly clever retelling.

Blurb/Synopsis:

Fall in love, break the curse.

Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s pulled into a magical world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom.

Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. A prince? A curse? A monster? As she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.

That’s it for this book review. I hope you enjoyed it! If you’ve read this book, what did you think of it? Do you enjoy retellings?

Book Tags

The Bookshelf Tag

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Happy Friday bookish people! I hope everyone has nice days planned for themselves, I have some work to do for a University assignment and a transcript to write but I might be able to squeeze some reading in later. It’s been almost a week since I’ve had chance to read anything and I’m feeling the effects.

Today’s post is the Bookshelf Tag! I had a really good time answering the questions in this tag, it made me look at my bookshelf for a looong time.

  1. Describe your bookshelf and where you got it from?
    well, my room is small, like really really small. There’s enough room for my chest of drawers, my bed and a tiny walking space. That’s it. Literally my wardrobe is in the hallway so there’s no room for a bookshelf in my room. My Dad built shelves all around the walls of my room so that’s where my books are – and of course in my new book cart I got yesterday for my birthday!
  2. How do you organise your books?
    Okay, here’s something about me – I love organising, anything lists, books, documents, EVERYTHING so I change how I organise my books all the time. Currently they are split into two halves – books I’ve read in alphabetical order then moves into books I haven’t read in alphabetical order. I don’t know how long it will stay like this…
  3. What’s the longest book on your shelf?
    With 984 pages it has to be Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J Maas which I actually have two copies of

4. What’s the shortest book on your shelf?
It’s actually a book that I’m borrowing from my partner, and I have had it for many months, called The Oubliette (I think? I might even have the title wrong! oh dear…) it has under 300 pages.

5. Is there a book that you received as a birthday gift?
Well, yesterday being my birthday (I now have to remember I’m 22) so I got a few books there: I hope you’re listening by Tom Ryan, Cosy Crime Short Stories, Detective Short Stories, the Caraval Collectors Edition, the Throne Of Glass Collectors Edition, Paris by Starlight and All the Tides of Fate by Adalyn Grace. I’m very excited for all of them.

6. Is there a book from a friend on your shelf?
My friend got me Paris by Starlight for me for my birthday so I guess that counts, otherwise I actually don’t think there is. There’s lots of books that were recommended to me by my friends but none they actually got me.

7. The most expensive book on your shelf?
I have a beautiful version of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo with gold page edges and it’s so nice I don’t let anyone touch it. I’m not sure exactly how much it cost but I think it was about £50…

8. The last book you read on your shelf?
Ooh this was What A Way To Go by Julia Forster and I must say I did not enjoy this book very much at all.

9. Do you have a complete series?
Yes, many, but the one in particular that is coming to mind is the Stalking Jack the Ripper series by Kerri maniscalco. I LOVE this series, I’m pretty sure it’s always going to be one of my favourite series’ and also one of my top OTPs.

10. What’s the newest addition to your shelf?
The Caraval Collectors Edition. It took me ages to put it on my shelf because I didn’t want to let go of it, I love it so much. It has a chapter in Julian’s POV and it’s all I’ve ever wanted.

11. The oldest book on your shelf?
That would be Robinson Crusoe but the less said about that the better.

12. What’s a book you’d hate to let out of your sight?
All of them. If you take my books then you’re honestly risking your life.

13. Most beat up book?
I’m actually not sure, there’s an awful crack down the spine (and in my heart!) of my copy of The Cruel Prince by Holly Black.

14. Most pristine book?
All the ones I haven’t read yet, and there are many many books I haven’t read yet on my shelves…

15. A book that doesn’t belong to you?
A Deal With the Elf King by Elise Kova, it’s actually my mum’s but she keeps it on my shelf.

16. A book that is your favourite colour?
Well, my favourite colour is forest green so.. ooh the Strange Case of the Alchemists Daughter by Theodora Goss is really close to my favourite colour!

17. A book that’s been on your shelf the longest and you still haven’t read it?
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I even did a module about Austen on my University course and still didn’t read it.

18. Any signed books?
I have many signed books. Where I live it’s very difficult to just go and get books signed so whenever a book I want has a signed edition to buy I’ll always choose the signed one if I can.

That’s it for today’s tag! I hope you all enjoyed it! My next post is going to be some book reviews so come back for them if you’re interested.

Fan Casting Books

Spellslinger by Sebastien De Castell – Fan Casting

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It’s Friday! I hope everyone is having a good day – and a good week, I haven’t posted my usual Wednesday blog post this week because I wasn’t very well after having the first vaccine. Thankfully I’m better now and I’m here with something I haven’t done before. As you will have seen from the title today I will be telling you who I would choose to play some of the main cast of characters in Spellslinger (the first book in the series) by Sebastien De Castell if it was ever turned into a film or TV series.

It was very difficult to choose these, I tried to stick to the physical descriptions of the characters if there is one in the book but also personalities.

So, first there is the protagonist of the series: Kellen.

For Kellen I went with Asa Butterfield (Merlin, Sex Education) because I think he would be able to portray Kellen’s slightly clumsy, always accidentally being in the middle of trouble, sarcastic personality quite well. Kellen is described as having straw blonde hair and blue eyes, which Asa sometimes has. Well, he always has blue eyes but his hair is naturally dark but is sometimes blonde. Asa could do both the serious and the lighter sides of the story justice as the character of Kellen.

Next is Ferius Parfax:

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Gregory Pace/REX/Shutterstock (10188748ae) Julianne Moore Variety’s Power of Women, Arrivals, New York, USA – 05 Apr 2019

Julianne Moore! When I first got the books, I got the complete series all in one go because I just knew I would love it, and I saw on one of the covers the illustration of Ferius Parfax I instantly was picturing Julianne Moore playing the character. I’m still not sure why but I think she would play her attitude very well.

My favourite character – Reichis:

Of course for Reichis it would be all about the voice rather than physical appearance, I mean I assume they wouldn’t be able to find a real talking squirrel cat who likes to eat eyeballs… anyway, there’s a lot of great voices out there and I could not decide on one, my friend suggested Danny John-Jules (Death In Paradise). Her reasoning was that he’s got a great voice and he’s sarcastic (this is actually what she said) which is basically Reichis so this is who I’ll choose. In case you’re wondering my friend’s second choice was Danny DeVito.

Kellen’s Sister – Shalla:

For Kellen’s younger sister Shalla I would probably choose Chloe Grace Moretz, I have seen her in quite a few films and she plays a variety of characters very well. Shalla is a high achiever but she is very close to Kellen and I think that Chloe and Asa would work well together in this way.

Father of Kellen and Shalla – Ke’heops:

This was another very difficult choice because there are a lot of great actors who would work for this role. I ended up choosing Joe Manganiello. I haven’t seen this actor in anything personally but I did recognize the name and when I looked on google his physical appearance looked a lot like the illustration of Ke’heops on the most recent book in the series, Crownbreaker. Is it just me that thinks he looks similar to the illustration? It’s probably just me.

Finally, Nephania:

I would choose Felicity Jones to play Nephania. After Julianne Moore as Ferius, Felicity Jones as Nephania was the easiest casting choice for me to make because she has the brown hair physical appearance of Nephania and she also has that slightly innocent quality that the character has but she can also be fierce when she needs to be. That is one of the things I like about the character of Nephania.

Okay, there we go, that is all of the characters that I will be fan casting today. There are many other characters in the book but no others that I felt were described clearly enough for me to choose someone to play them.

Only a short post today, I hope you found it fun and I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what other books you think I should do a fan casting for!

Book Tags

The Last Ten Books Tag

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It is Friday! And that only means one thing – Today I’m doing a Book Tag! (Friday’s won’t always be for Book Tags but I do love doing them). The Book Tag I am doing I found on @LousBookStuff and it is ‘The Last Ten Books Tag’! It was a really fun tag to do because it made me think about my answers – and how many books I’m buying because there’s a lot of them (I’m not sorry!) So.. here it is!

  1. The Last Book I Gave Up On:
    Now this would be Lies Like Poison by Chelsea Pitcher. I very rarely give up on books – I have to finish them or I’ll be noticing them on my shelves all the time, they’d be looking at me like YOU! How dare you not finish reading me! And I just can’t handle that. So I read This Lie Will Kill You by Chelsea Pitcher first and I enjoyed it but it scared me so much that I didn’t sleep that night … so I did what any book obsessed person would do – I picked up Lies Like Poison. I put it down after two chapters and the week after I gave it away to my friend who loved it so there’s a happy ending in there somewhere.

2. The Last Book I Reread:
The Lady In The Tower by Marie Louise Jenson. This is one of my favourite books ever. I’ve read it so many times that the book looks a bit, well… battered but I never get tired of this story. And Lord Phillip Stanton, yep, definitely won’t get tired of his character.

3. The Last Book I Bought:
Do Pre-orders count? I’ve just pre-ordered Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo, Gods and Monsters by Shelby Mahurin and Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard. If they don’t count (they should) the last book I bought was the Wolf Hall boxset – and they are beautiful!

  • Rule Of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

4. The Last Book That I Said I Read But Actually Didn’t:
I don’t do this… I mean if I’ve said I’ve read a book then I’ve read it and I could easily summarise it for anyone who asks.

5. The Last Book I Wrote Into The Margins Of:
I didn’t write into the actual book but I did write on bright pink sticky notes and put them into the margins… I’m going to say that counts. Oh, and the book was Howdunnit: A Masterclass In Crime Writing.

6. The Last Book I Had Signed:
That would probably be my February Illumicrate book – A Dark And Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth. I cannot wait to read this book! The cover is gorgeous and the story sounds so good!

7. The Last Book I Lost:
I don’t lose books – or at least I haven’t so far in my 21 years of life. I hope I haven’t just jinxed that…

8. The Last Book I Had To Replace:
This would by my copy of The Hunger Games. I lent it to a friend when I was in Secondary School and she left it in her bag and she left her bag outside, it rained, and I was left with a very badly water damaged version of it. So I bought a new copy.

9. The Last Book I Argued over:
I don’t think I’ve ever done this – not that I can remember at least.

10. The Last Book I Couldn’t Find:
Hmm.. I know where all my books are. There is a strict organizational system in place with my books (there kind of needs to be when you’re Visually Impaired).

So that’s it for today! I’ll be putting up a VERY exciting blog post later today so watch out for that and next Friday I’ll be doing something a little different which will hopefully go to plan. I hope you enjoyed my Book Tag. As for tagging other people I’d say anyone who wants to do it consider yourself tagged!

Book Tags

20 Questions Book Tag

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Hello bookish people!
It is finally Friday, and Friday’s are for doing fun bookish things. So today I am doing the 20 Questions Book Tag that I saw on @Paper Fury’s blog. It looked like it could be fun so I decided to have a go at doing it as well. I hope you all enjoy it!

  1. How Many Books Are Too Many For A Series?
    Hmm… if I am enjoying a series then there’s never too many books because you know I’m going to keep coming back and buying them all BUT if I’m not completely obsessed with a series then I’d say I lose interest after about the 4th book. My perfect amount is probably a trilogy.

2. How Do You Feel About Cliffhangers?
Ah cliffhangers, the the stomach-dropping feeling when you don’t know how long it will be until you can get your hands on the next book in the series and complete the story. Inside I’m throwing the book against the wall and screaming because it hurts my soul to leave a story unfinished.

3. Hardcover or Paperback?
Hardcover. I’d definitely choose a hardback book over a paperback one, I know they’re more expensive but thinking about paperbacks and their cracked spines.. I just can’t do it. Also, on the practical side – hardcovers usually have slightly larger print and well, you know, every little helps.

4. Favourite Book?
That is an extremely difficult question to ask someone who loves books! But I’ll give it a go.. hmm, probably The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. It’s whimsical and magical and it has BOOKS in it and a masquerade party and great characters and.. I could go on and on all day about this book but I won’t I’ll just say that if you haven’t read it I would recommend it.

5. Least Favourite Book?
I don’t have a least favourite book. There have been a few books I didn’t enjoy but I won’t name any here, if you want to know what books I did and didn’t enjoy I will be putting up weekly book reviews starting on Monday so check them out, I will always be honest within my reviews!

6. Love Triangles, Yes or No?
No. No. Nope. No. NO! I do not like love triangles. Do I still enjoy books that happen to have love triangles in? Yes, I do. But will it lessen my enjoyment of it? Also, usually yes. (I’m just going to pretend that the ACOTAR series doesn’t include a love triangle because that series is amazing.)

7. The Most Recent Book You Couldn’t Finish?
Well.. the answer for this one is Charmcaster by Sebastien De Castell, the third book in the Spellslinger series. Now, it wasn’t that I didn’t finish the book because I wasn’t enjoying it or I wasn’t feeling it at the time because I was loving it – the problem was that I was reading it at like 4 AM because I’d woken up desperate to read something (does anyone else ever get like that?) and it was the first book I saw but I was actually still really tired so I had to go back to sleep.

8. A Book You’re Currently Reading?
That would be Bridge Of Souls by Victoria Schwab because my pre-order of it arrived yesterday and I couldn’t wait to dive into it. It’s not on my March TBR but shhhh, that doesn’t matter.

9. The Last Book You Recommended To Someone?
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. My friend and I have pretty much the same reading tastes and she also loves books about Fae, and they don’t get much better than Cardan.. anyway, I lent the book to her and then we went into another national lockdown. So.. she still has my book. I asked her if she’d send me photos of it each week so I knew it was safe but she said no.

10. Oldest Book You’ve Read By Publication Date?
My answer to this is the same as PaperFury’s – Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I had to read it for my University classes.

11. Newest Book You’ve Read By Publication Date?
Definitely the Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab that I’m currently reading as it’s publication date was the 4th March 2021.

12. Favourite Author?
I know I can’t pick just one for this! Here’s a short list: Philippa Gregory, Terry Pratchett, V E Schwab, Kerri Maniscalco, Stephanie Garber….

13. Buying Books or Borrowing Books?
Buying. I like owning my books so that I can just grab them and read them whenever I want to.

14. A Book That You Dislike That Everyone Seems To Like?
Hmm.. I’m going to go for the Guest List by Lucy Foley, I didn’t exactly dislike this book but I picked it up because I saw a lot of people on BookTube loving it and it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

15. Bookmarks Or Dog Ears?
Dog ears would ruin my books so there is no way I will be doing that! I always have a bookmark handy for when I start reading.

16. A Book You Can Always Reread?
Anything by Stephanie Garber or Kerri Maniscalco, the Villains series by V E Schwab, the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead… the list goes on

17. Can You Read While Listening To Music?
Nope. I like there to be quiet when I am reading and music makes me daydream so it would be difficult to read at the same time.

18. One POV Or Multiple?
That depends on the book. Usually I prefer one POV because it’s easier to follow the story that way, in my opinion, but I can get on board with multiple POVs if the characters are good (cough*Six Of Crows*cough).

19. Do You Read A Book In One Sitting Or Over Multiple Days?
Physically, I can do either. Mentally, if I can’t read the book in one sitting and I have to put it down for more than a few hours it is much harder for me to pick it up again.

20. Who Do You Tag?
Everyone! Anyone who wants to do this tag! It was pretty fun to do, if you have different opinions or want to talk to me about anything bookish let me know in the comments!