Review: The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

The Familiar
Leigh Bardugo
Penguin Random House AUS
2024, 385p
Read via my local library

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family’s social position. 

What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain’s king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England’s heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king’s favor. 

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition’s wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

I was very excited for this. I’m not a Leigh Bardugo super fan, I haven’t even read all her books and what I have read, I have mixed results with. Did not particularly care for the end of the Shadow and Bone trilogy but I adore the Six Of Crows duology with everything I have. I haven’t finished the King of Scars duology but after the first book I was….so-so on it. It was fine. I’ll finish it at some stage but it’s not a huge priority. And I haven’t read the Hell Bent series. But I thought this sounded really interesting and so it was a highly anticipated title for me.

I’m just going to say it. This book was a huge letdown for me. The first 100 pages were so slow and achingly boring. I almost DNF’d this but at the mark I’d set for myself where I was going to make the decision, something did happen and I wanted to know how it played out.

My biggest problem was no one in here felt like they had a personality. Our main character Luzia is impoverished (and Jewish, which is something she must hide) and she’s a scullery maid in a not-very-well-to-do household. She has this form of magic that I don’t really understand and doesn’t feel like it’s ever explained. One day the mistress of the house catches her out in using her magic to fix a loaf of burned bread. Her mistress decides to use this as a way to further her own fortunes by basically having Luzia perform parlour tricks at dinner parties and word spreads, drawing the attention of some dangerous people. Luzia ends up in some sort of competition to be King Phillip II’s….something? Secret weapon? Magician? I honestly don’t really know. There is to be several rounds of competition and Luzia will be ‘trained’ in her magic by a ‘man’ who is really an immortal familiar tied to a specific family, Guillen Santangel.

Luzia has had an honestly, horrible life and I don’t know if that just generated such a lack of caring about anything in her, but to be honest, she felt like a cardboard cutout. Santangel is even worse. He’s hundreds of years old but of course he falls in love with this girl that he barely knows. Honestly the romance in this was straight up awful, there’s no build up at all and it’s all of a sudden like they’re these soul mates. I don’t think romance is Bardugo’s strong point but she’s done subtle strong feelings well before (Kaz & Inej) but this is just so lacklustre. I have no idea why either of them had any feelings for the other, except that they were there. Santangel is disillusioned with everything and has been for years, he’s trapped in this hideous arrangement to a hideous family who use and abuse him. It’s possible Luzia is a form of escape from that, but yeah, I never really felt like anything was building between them in a tangible way.

I was excited about the setting of this book but…..I didn’t really feel grounded in that either. Apart from mentioning King Phillip II in the vaguest of terms during the tournament (he’s depressed because of the defeat of the Armada), I feel like this could’ve been anywhere in terms of the 1500s. Or even a century or so either side. I don’t know enough about the persecution of Jewish people in the 16th century in Spain but it’s a recurring theme throughout history. Interestingly enough I’m listening to an audiobook at the moment about the history of the English monarchy and it’s just touched on a particular period in time where the Jewish were being driven out of a particular area in England, which wouldn’t have happened in the century before or after. I found that part of the story interesting and it also touches on the plight of women, particularly poor women who are forced to make average marriages or find wealthy patrons for protection. Luzia has no options other than to do physical work in a low paying household and her existence is well, just that. She’s existing. Doing the magic gets her attention I guess, it gets her interest and it leads to curiosity at her gifts, it leads to adventure and excitement (and the knowledge that if it all goes wrong, she’ll probably be burned as a witch).

Everything about this was lacklustre. The characters, the setting, the politics and especially the romance. Santangel is honestly such a boring character, apart from how much Bardugo kept referencing his eyes as glowing coins or whatever, he was basically a bland man in a suit with the ennui of centuries of suffering behind him except it never actually felt like that. Apart from falling madly in love with Luzia for…. reasons… it felt like Santangel was so unable to feel anything anymore. And how can you get invested in a character like that? I couldn’t. But then again, Luzia didn’t have centuries of that behind her and I couldn’t get invested in her either.

This was very much not my kind of story. I needed more from pretty much every aspect.

4/10

Book #96 of 2024

I am counting this towards my Historical Fiction Reading Challenge for 2024, hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader and Baker. It’s the 11th book read so far.

Top 10 Tuesday 7 May

Hi everyone and welcome to another edition of Top 10 Tuesday! Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, it features a different bookish related theme each week. To be honest, I’m not really feeling this week’s theme! Living where I do, the weather themes never fit and there are definitely not any flowers blooming here atm. Winter is really steaming towards us, you can feel it. The mornings have all been single digits. I also used a few examples in a nature-cover theme recently so I’m going to try & find some different books to feature here.

Books With Flowers

On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Also known as just Jellicoe Road in the US. This is one of my favourite books of all time. Melina Marchetta is one of my favourite authors, of all time. If you haven’t read this, there’s no point really telling you anything about it, the more blind you go in, the better it all is. Just know it’s set at a boarding school and there’s a kind of….war games. But it’s not really about that at all. And have tissues.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

I have read two phenomenal books by Lisa See: The Island of Sea Women and Lady Tan’s Circle of Women. I haven’t read this one but I definitely intend to.

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

Not his most famous book – actually I have never read this one. But the art style is unmistakable.

The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen

I went through such a SAA stage about……12 years ago? She writes a lot of beautiful stories where the characters tend to be really connected to nature and earth magic. This is my favourite cover.

Throne Of The Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco

I have this one on my TBR shelf. I liked the Kingdom Of The Wicked trilogy but it did really change in tone after book 1! I feel like this one will probably have the same tone as books 2&3 in that trilogy.

Emily Wilde’s Map Of The Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Either of the Emily books would work but I picked this one because I felt it more fits the autumn vibe we have going on where I live – the mushrooms and the little bits and pieces. We don’t have a lot of autumn changing trees here (what we do have are imports that have been brought over from the northern hemisphere) but what we do have are currently changing.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

I read The Bodyguard and really loved it at the beginning of this year so this one is on my Wishlist to see if I like all of her books. I’m also interested in the one she has coming out later this year as well.

With The Fire On High by Elizabeth Acevedo

I love this book! Elizabeth Acevedo’s writing is just so spectacular. I also feel like this one gives more autumn vibes with the colour scheme.

The Stationery Shop Of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

This book is a massive favourite across the board, from what I’ve seen. I liked it but I didn’t fall in love with it like so many did.

Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams

The main female character in this is a florist, so flowers feature quite prominently. I thought this was a really sweet and fun romance.

And there you go – 10 books with flowers on the covers. Have you read any of these? Or if not are there any that catch your eye?

Review: Studio Girls by Lisa Ireland

Studio Girls
Lisa Ireland
Penguin Random House AUS
2024, 336p
Copy courtesy of the publisher

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: It’s 1955, and four talented young women become best friends while living at the Hollywood Studio Club, the famous boarding house for movie hopefuls.

Julia Newman is a rising star. As Goldstar Studios‘ ‘new Grace Kelly’, she has been sent to the club to keep her out of trouble, though Julia is just thrilled to finally make friends.

For Peggy Carmichael, Julia’s roommate, life is not so easy. She takes classes, auditions constantly, and grabs whatever bit-part is offered. Still, her ‘big break’ remains stubbornly out of reach.

Meanwhile, Vivienne Lockhart, the most talented actress of them all, is constantly reduced to ‘sexpot’ roles. She’ll do whatever it takes to succeed. But is she driven by ambition, or by a heartbreaking need to be loved?

Finally, there’s aspiring scriptwriter Sadie Shore, who has little interest in the trappings of fame. Particularly when she becomes the PA of a big studio boss and her eyes are opened to the perils of her friends’ dreams…

This was a hugely anticipated title for me for this year. I have really loved Lisa Ireland’s previous books and was looking forward to this one, a take on a golden age of Hollywood where actors were signed to specific studios and had strict clauses for their employees, particularly their female actresses.

This centres around the Hollywood Studio Club a (real) “chaperoned dormitory” for young women who were involved in the movie business from around 1916-1975. It definitely housed some famous names including women like Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Eden from I Dream of Jeannie fame and Sharon Tate. Studios often required their actresses to reside there because there were some strict rules imposed, such as curfews, dating rules and the like. For the women there, it could be a helpful club as there was plenty of space to practice for auditions, other women to help you do make up or hair or run lines with you, etc. But above all, it helped maintain an image of propriety and provide safety for women in an industry that was already rife with scandal.

Our four main characters, Peggy, Sadie, Vivienne and Julia are all residents in the 1950s. The first three are already there when Julia Newman, newest up and coming star arrives, with a clause in her contract from her studio that she must reside there. Whilst the girls form a tight knit friendship, it’s not one that doesn’t have its problems. Living together provides both a way to form the bonds but also little escape from each other, especially when there are uneven trajectories in the careers of the women. There are romances as well, some of which definitely cause some feelings between the women.

This is set in two timelines – as well as the time they all lived at Hollywood Studio Club in the 50s, there’s also time leading up to New Years Eve 1999, where the women are all much older. Three of them still meet for lunch regularly and you have to read through to find out why it’s only three of them and what happened to their friendship with the fourth. The way it unfolds is so well done. There is some serious resentment towards the woman they have fallen out with in 1999, although one of them is definitely softer towards her. When they are forced to confront the truth of what happened forty years ago, it provides a chance for healing.

I love a dual timeline and I found this so enjoyable. Just a really easy book to sink into and I haven’t been able to read a lot lately (very stressed with uni deadlines, lots of academic reading, etc). But this book? I flew through it. I have read books set in and around the movie production industry before but I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m particularly knowledgeable about or overly familiar with so I found that aspect of it interesting as well, the control the studios had over their talent, etc. Julia is about to be a big name, she’s easily able to afford her own place but her studio decides that they would prefer her to be living in this dormitory style accomodation and so it’s written into her contract. There are other aspects of control they have too, over her movements, what she can do really even in her downtime, who she can date, etc. Julia is by far the most successful so far of the girls, with Peggy and Vivienne still mostly looking for their big break. Sadie wants to be a writer, rather than an actress but lands a job working as an assistant to a big studio head, so she begins to learn a lot of the ins and outs of the business that way.

Through the women, you get a front row seat at the control in this industry, the often double standards, the judgement for certain actions. It’s very much a showcase of its time (not that some attitudes have probably changed that much, in some ways) but it gives you a sense of the lack of agency these grown women often had, over their own lives. It’s hard not to get infuriated at some of the issues the women face and sometimes the decisions they make. In the more recent timeline, there’s a rather sad portrayal of something (done very well) that forces the other three women to confront the truth of events from so many decades ago and the fallout was very emotional. I ended up feeling for everyone in the scenario, even the ones who had perhaps not covered themselves in glory with their actions.

Loved this one!

9/10

Book #95 of 2024

Counting this one towards my 2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Marg @ The Intrepid Reader & Baker! It’s the 10th book so far, so 2/3 of the way through my goal for the year.

Review: Take Two by Danielle Hawkins

Take Two
Danielle Hawkins
Allen & Unwin
2024, 288p
Read via my local library/Borrow Box app

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Sometimes you have to revisit your past to find your future. Laura and Doug were together for ages. Their breakup was just one of those things – she wanted children, he didn’t, no hard feelings – at least not until, with their relationship barely cold in its grave, he got his new girlfriend pregnant.

Now, seven years later, a polite social call to his parents lands Laura back in the family, helping Doug and his playboy younger brother to cope with a whole raft of crises. And what better time to re-evaluate your major life decisions than when you’re wrangling a farm, a bookshop, two small children, your ex’s wife in labour and his two sick parents? 

I love Danielle Hawkin’s books. Chocolate Cake For Breakfast is one of my absolute favourites but I have enjoyed every single book from her. I somehow missed this one and just came across it during a random scroll of the books new to my library’s ebook platform.

Laura is in her late 30s and she’s finished up her latest government contract and is visiting a few family members and friends before going on a long hike in New Zealand. From ages 18-31 she dated Hamish Douglas (aka ‘Doug’) but they broke up because Laura wanted children and he did not. Doug immediately got his next partner pregnant within months. Upon visiting Doug’s mother she learns that Doug’s father Peter has terminal pancreatic cancer and makes an impulsive visit to see him. She’s shocked by his appearance and genuinely devastated at his prognosis. Laura was a part of their family for over a decade and it’s clear that not only do they still love her very much, she still loves them too. The fact that she’s not with their eldest son anymore hasn’t changed anything. She also sees Mick, Hamish’s younger brother and when their mother Cat breaks a leg Mick calls Laura for help. There’s Cat to take care of, Peter and his up and down days, not to mention that Doug’s wife has gone into early labour at 28 weeks and someone also needs to mind the two older kids while he tries to split his time between his farm and being at the hospital with his wife. Laura is happy to help – she loves Cat and Peter and even though the break up with Doug contained multiple layers of pain, they’re {mostly} civil. What ends up happening between Laura and Mick will definitely test that civility over the coming weeks….

Really, really enjoyed this. Loved the New Zealand setting, as I do in all her books and I loved Laura and her calm acceptance of basically, all the chaos. She steps in to do a lot – she has to look after her ex’s children with his wife (and one of them resents her enormously in the beginning) and those children are clearly confused and upset by the disappearance of their parents. Peter, her almost father-in-law is very ill, although he has his good days and bad days. He is still fragile and struggles some days, and Cat, the very capable head of the household, is laid up with a badly broken leg that at first keeps her in hospital for surgery and then definitely restricts her movement and capabilities, a source of frustration for her. She also runs a bookshop in town, which will need help and seems to volunteer for various community things. Laura finds herself cooking for shearers, dealing with overbearing relatives and when she is released from hospital, hostility from Doug’s wife who definitely isn’t happy to find Laura in residence. And then of course, there’s the complex situation with Mick.

Normally I’m not sure how I’d feel about the love interest for a character being the brother of her former long-term partner. And very long-term. Laura and Doug were together for about 13 years. So she was basically part of the family. Mick is younger than Laura by a couple of years and it does seem like he’s spent a lot of time travelling and working abroad so it’s unclear how close they were when Laura and Doug were together. However, I loved Laura and Mick in this. I felt like Mick could’ve called multiple people for help but what he wanted, was Laura’s help specifically. He seemed to appreciate her in a lot of ways and even though she’s very torn about things in the beginning, the fact is, Doug moved on. Years ago. He’s married with 2 kids and one about to arrive at any moment. I thought Mick and Laura worked well together and even though we never saw Laura and Doug together, Doug didn’t endear himself to me as a character at all. He was really sulky actually and Laura is pretty frank about the faults he has that annoyed her during their relationship, behaviour that she sees him still displaying.

I also loved Cat and Peter. So much. They were both wonderful. I loved their rapport with Laura and their relationship with each other. This book excelled in showcasing family relations, particularly through a time of turbulence. We also get some interaction between Laura and her complicated extended family that showcases that as well. But most of the action is concentrated at Cat and Peter’s farm and I loved that part of it. Despite what was happening it honestly did seem like such a lovely place to be and Laura finds endless patience for dealing with kids, helping Peter, making cups of tea, helping Cat, dealing with Doug and his attitude, his wife and hers, as well as relatives who raise their eyebrows at her returning presence. I got so invested in this family, even the kids. One of them is definitely adorable and the other one is very serious, definitely a bit standoffish at first, really not interested in Laura being caretaker but she gently perseveres and that combined with basically there being no other options, you get to see her develop a fun bond with them.

My only criticism of this one is that I do honestly feel like it was a bit short – I could’ve spent so much more time with these people! I wanted more from them, more with Laura and Mick and more just…general stuff. I never felt like I had trouble connecting with anyone but I do feel like a few more things could’ve been developed more. This is a relatively short book, it definitely could’ve easily had another 50+ pages, for me personally. This is still another excellent Danielle Hawkins book though. If only I had more to read!

8/10

Book #93 of 2024

April Reading Wrap Up

Total Books Read: 16
Fiction: 14
Non-Fiction: 2
Library Books: 8
Books On My TBR List: 7
Books in a Series: 5
Authors I’d Never Read Before: 4
Male/Female Authors: 1.5/14.5 (one book by a M/F pairing)
Kindle Books: 5
Audiobooks: 1
Books I Owned or Bought: 6
Favourite Book(s): The Grazier’s Son by Cathryn Hein & The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood (re-read)
Least Favourite Books: Do Your Worst by Rosie Dana & Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver (which was a DNF)
Books That Qualify For Challenges: 3

As I expected, April was definitely a slower reading month, for a couple of reasons. Firstly things started getting pretty busy with uni, I had several assignments to submit this month and a lot of reading to do for both of those which meant that I felt less like reading for pleasure. Secondly we also had a wedding in the family – one of my stepdaughters got married midway-ish through the month and we had a few days where we had to prep for that, spending time getting outfits, my husband also cooked for some of the reception, etc. It was a lovely wedding, we all had a wonderful time. But I definitely did noticeably less reading this month. To be honest I only “read” 14 books – one of the books I finished in April was an audiobook and one book I DNF’d although it ends up getting counted in my stats. May is actually the finish of the uni semester (it always goes so fast!) so I have 2x 2500 word final essays and one other 1000 word assessment all due this month. So to be honest, I don’t expect a lot of reading to happen in May either. I’ve actually returned a lot of my library books in anticipation of the fact that I probably just won’t be able to get to them. I am listening to another audiobook at the moment but I’ve only listened to about a third of it so it won’t be finished until probably the end of the first week in May.

I feel like it was a good mix of reading this month – 8 library books, 8 non-library books, 5 ebooks, 1 audio and the rest print. Some were ARCs, some I owned. I also completed my 3 April TBR Jar prompts: read a book beginning with D – Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan. Unfortunately this one wasn’t for me, but I did finish it. Read a book by a favourite author – this was fortuitous because one of my favourite authors, Cathryn Hein, had her first new book out in quite a while in April so I picked that one, The Grazier’s Son and it ended up being my favourite read of the month. The 3rd and final prompt was read a book off the display shelf at your local library and I chose A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene from the display shelf at my local branch and well, it has a very pretty cover.

2024 Challenge Check in!

2024 Non Fiction Reading Challenge: 2/6

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: 9/15

24 in 2024: 6/24

Good progress made in my challenges. I completed 2 books towards my 2024 Non Fiction Reading Challenge, hosted by Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out: Counting The Cost by Jill Duggar and The Life Of Birds by David Attenborough. The latter I listened to on audio (as I like to do with all of Attenborough’s books) because it’s read by the author and he’s just wonderful to listen to. The audio I’m listening to at the moment will also be able to be counted towards that challenge as well. I only read one towards my 24 in 2024 but…..progress is progress! I didn’t read a historical fiction book for this month but I’m comfortably ahead in that challenge.

Onto the May TBR:

Keeping it small this month. Very excited for the new Lisa Ireland novel, that will probably be my first read of May. I do have a few other books, I still have a couple out from the library and there’s a few books from my March and April TBR’s that I didn’t get to that I’d like to find the time for. But I know how much work I’m going to have to do this month and it’s definitely going to have an impact on my reading time so I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself or I’ll end up feeling overwhelmed and read nothing.

And of course, there’s the TBR Jar May prompts! Ideally I’d be able to fit these into books I already have earmarked to read so….let’s see what we get!

Read a a debut novel
Read a book by an author from Western Australia
Read a popular YA fiction novel

Well, it looks like A Letter To The Luminous Deep is a debut novel, so I should be able to count that book for that prompt. I’m sure I have something from a WA author somewhere on my shelf – if nothing else my husband owns a dozen Tim Winton books I’ve never read, he’s from Perth. But I’m sure I have something on my own shelf, somewhere! I just have to do some research. I have a Craig Silvey book on my shelf, I think he’s from WA? I also have My Place and I believe Sally Morgan is also from WA. So I have options in my home and should also be able to knock a book off my specific TBR shelf, which is the point! As for read a popular YA book….I don’t have much unread YA on my shelves. I do have a couple….I’m not sure how popular they’re classed as, haha. I’ll have to see.

Hope you all had a lovely reading April and have some exciting books for May.

Top 10 Tuesday April 30

Hello and welcome back everyone to another edition of Top 10 Tuesday! Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, it features a different bookish related theme each week. This week is a fun one! Not sure I’ve ever done a topic like this before.

Petty Reasons I’ve DNF’d A Book

I don’t DNF a lot. But sometimes, for your own sanity, you just have to. These are some of the reasons I’ve DNF’d a book in the past few years.

1. Because I Realised I Hoped The Main Character Would Be Murdered. Okay so a while ago, I read this mafia “romance” where the main female character was kidnapped by some leader of the Irish mafia. She was so obnoxious and so annoying that I started to actually fantasise about what might happen if someone actually behaved like this in real life, with the boss of a criminal conglomerate. They’d probably end up executed and dumped somewhere and when I realised that I actually wanted this to be her fate, I was like okay, time to exit this book now.
2. Because I Was Rooting Against Them. Recently I DNF’d a book where both main characters are serial killers (but it’s okay, they only kill bad people. Both of them). The banter made me cringe inside so much and both of them sounded like how teens think adults talk in their interactions and I was like okay, this is a sad indictment on law enforcement (FBI, especially) that neither of these idiots have been caught yet. I wish they’d get caught. And so I set that one aside.
3. Because It Gave Me A Literal Headache. There was one book I tried to read last year I think, and every time I tried, I got a violent headache. I’m not sure if it was coincidence (I do get a lot of headaches) or if it was something with the print size or the type or whatever? Either way I didn’t get more than 50p into it and I had to just return it to my library.
4. Because It Gave Me A Figurative Headache. Stream of consciousness, no speech marks, etc. I lasted 30 pages before throwing in the towel. And it was a Man Booker Prize winner.
5. Because The Love Interest Feels Abusive. There have been books I’ve read where the male love interest is such a douche early on in the book that it really feels like it crosses the line for me into behaviour that is actually abusive and no amount of grovelling could ever excuse. This is more common in historical romance but I’ve come across it in contemporary as well. There’s a fine line between being a redeemable asshole and someone who feels like they are beyond that.
6. Shaming Of Other Female Characters. This was really popular back in the day in romance/women’s fiction. Other women were always sluts or liked to wear too much make up or tight clothing and just lived to steal the main character’s man etc. I don’t bother with anything like that today.
7. Cheating. Is this petty? I’m not sure. Sometimes people like to read about the nuances of real life relationships but I can’t with cheating. If I don’t realise a book has cheating then it hits me, I’ll often just set it aside immediately. This also included a book where the MC’s best friend tried to bully her into cheating on her (admittedly awful) fiancé. Just break up with him you coward.
8. Surprise Cancer. This isn’t petty as such but it’s very much a knee-jerk reaction thing. There was a time when if a book hit me with surprise cancer plot, I’d have to DNF it immediately. It was deeply triggering. If I knew it was going to have cancer, I could make a decision either way on how I felt about reading it but hitting me with it unexpectedly gave me a lot of problems. I had a friend that actually took to warning me about books that we both had, if this happened and she read it before I did.
9. Female Main Characters Who Are ‘Quirky’. Nope. Cannot. If any MC self-describes as quirky, I’m out.
10. Because I Preferred The Male MC As A Cat. This was a book where the male love interest was a demon or something? And was cursed to be a cat. I honestly preferred when he was a cat. As soon as they broke the spell and he became a man again, I found him incredibly tedious. DNF’d not long after.
11. ‘Good Girl’ + Love Interests Who Need To Be ‘In Control’. There’s a trend at the moment, for men calling women ‘good girl’ in love scenes and it makes my skin crawl. I also really hate it when I’m reading a book and we get to those scenes and the man is like “I need to be in control, I need you to do what I say, I need you to not move, not do this or that”. Dude just get a blow up doll. I know people love this (books with this are very popular on a certain social media app) but I will DNF that immediately now. (this one is a bonus after I was writing my monthly wrap up and it came to me). If you love this stuff, that’s awesome, I’m glad you’re able to find that sort of thing. But for me it’s a big no thank you. Also a Venn diagram of books with these two things is practically a circle.

And there you go. 10 reasons of varying pettiness of why I’ve DNF’d books in the past. Would you DNF a book for any of these reasons? Do you DNF books? Or do you push through. Let me know!

Review: A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene

A Feather So Black (Fair Folk #1)
Lyra Selene
Orbit
2024, 490p
Read via my local library

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: The Cruel Prince meets For the Wolf in a sizzling fantasy romance inspired by Celtic mythology, spinning a magical tale of a changeling princess, her cursed sister, and the dangerous fae lord she must defeat to save her family.

In a realm without magic, Fia is a rare changeling, swapped for the Princess Eala by the wicked Fair Folk. Eala’s mother, the High Queen, has taken Fia in as an adoptive daughter and trained her as a warrior spy. Princess Eala, meanwhile, is the prisoner of a shadowy Folk lord, cursed to be a swan twenty-eight days of the month. 

When a forgotten gate to the Folk realm is discovered, Fia is tasked by the High Queen to break Eala’s curse and retrieve her, and to capture a powerful magical weapon that will help humankind destroy the evil in Otherworld. Accompanying Fia on this mission is handsome prince Rogan, the betrothed of Princess Eala, and the very man who Fia secretly loves. 

As the two journey through the gate, Fia is conflicted by her feelings for the prince. And as each moon cycle waxes and wanes, she soon finds herself fighting a heated attraction to the dark-hearted Gentry lord holding Eala captive as well.

With time running out to break Princess Eala’s curse and claim the powerful weapon, Fia begins to question everything-the truth of her origins, the reality of her mission, and the “love” of her mother and High Queen. Ultimately, the key to unraveling truth from half-truth and saving the balance between the realms might just be. . . herself.

My third prompt from my TBRJar this month was to choose a book from the display shelf at my local library. They have a couple of display shelves at my local branch, a small one when you first walk in with some new books to the library and a really quite long one that is ‘recent returns’. I went there to make my choice and I picked this one solely for the cover. The cover is absolutely stunning – love the colours. I was immediately drawn to it. I knew nothing about it when I picked it up and I gave the blurb only the most cursory read over before deciding that it would be my choice for that prompt.

Unfortunately this is: beautiful cover, interesting premise but not great execution.

This book centres around a changeling girl/woman named Fia. A changeling is a child left in place by the fae for a human child they steal. Sometimes those children left behind do things like explode into a flock of birds or crumble to dust or whatever. Fia doesn’t do that however, she continues to grow and age. She is raised by the Queen in place of the Queen’s stolen daughter, who is now somewhere in the realm of the fae. Although the Queen has ‘loved’ and provided for Fia it’s in a way that makes her feel like she’s worthless and that the Queen herself is the only person capable of loving a person such as her. Fia is definitely abused but can’t see it. When the Queen discovers that there might be a way to get her real daughter back, she asks Fia to complete the task, for multiple reasons.

Going with her is her childhood best friend Rogan and a Prince of…..I don’t know, some part of this world. Fia and Rogan played together as children, definitely did more than that as teenagers. It’s complicated by the fact that Rogan has been betrothed to the Queen’s human daughter since they were children. Fia has always known that he wasn’t meant for her. But she has trouble remembering that when he’s around.

This is a love triangle. And I hated it. For me, a huge part of this book is that it focuses way too much on Fia and Rogan when it’s obvious that they can’t be endgame. Instead, Fia meets a mysterious fae when she crosses over into their world and at first he’s definitely villainous but the more she finds out about the mysterious bond that keeps the kidnapped human girls in the fae realm, the more she realises he’s more just a morally grey victim of circumstances. But she can only enter the fae realm once a month on the full moon and stay like 24 hours or something – the rest of the time she spends waiting for the next full moon. With Rogan.

I really disliked Rogan as a character. He’s spoiled (really fits that mould of sheltered Prince who doesn’t know about reality) and patronising. He’s dismissive of Fia and yet will rely on her to pick up his slack about basic things. For example they know this is an in depth mission, this rescue they’re going on and he doesn’t even pack food or a sleeping bag. He just arrogantly assumes that he will be taken care of. And you could say oh he’s a product of his upbringing…..and maybe so. But he has absolutely zero self awareness and responsibility. He claims that he cares about Fia and look maybe he does. He’s also trapped in a terrible position, being betrothed to someone he met once as a child and didn’t like. But I didn’t like the way he treated Fia at all, he sulks and drinks in the times between being able to visit the fae realm and contributes almost nothing to the mission anyway. Because the book spends so much time on them two (it must be almost 60/70% through by the time it stops?) that to me, meant that the other part of the triangle, Fia’s relationship with Irian, the fae, feels woefully underdeveloped. They can already only spend like 24hrs a month together, or whatever it is, but so much of the narrative focuses on Rogan. I can get the childhood nostalgia that Fia feels for him but he’s such a surly baby that it’s hard to imagine any actual grown adult woman wanting a bar of him. And it leads to so few deep interactions with Irian, part of which is the construct of her ability to enter fae lands, but also just because instead of focusing more of the plot on those times, instead it’s the times with Rogan that are expanded upon repeatedly. It’s not until quite late in the book that Fia makes her choice and by that time, I was already bored. I’d had to sit through far too much Rogan.

There are things about the plot I enjoyed. But I honestly felt like large parts of the plot took a backseat for Fia’s internal musings about mostly Rogan. Again, the fact that she can only enter the fae realm every month or so and stay briefly, really means that the plot struggles to be driven forward in a timely manner. There’s so much stuff in-between that is just all filler, no killer. I didn’t realise this was first in a series (I don’t know why, almost nothing is stand alone these days!) but I think that it has been set up in what could be an interesting way for book two. But unfortunately I think I won’t be coming back to see what happens, I found this very so so. The writing is pretty but I want more than pretty writing. I want plot development and relationship development and for me, this book didn’t do either of those effectively.

5/10

Book #91 of 2024

Review: Happily Never After by Lynn Painter

Happily Never After
Lynn Painter
Penguin Random House AUS
2024, 352p
Read via my local library

Blurb {courtesy of the publisher}: Two love sceptics agree to work together as professional wedding disruptors. But fate has more romantic plans in mind for them . . .

When Sophie finds out before her wedding that her fiancé cheated again, she desperately employs the mysterious Max to yell ‘I object’ at the alter.

On the big day, Sophie sees a gorgeous stranger stand up and tell the entire congregation the truth about the cheating groom, blowing the ceremony apart.

Enjoying the thrill from the aftermath of being saved from her own wedding, Sophie agrees to work together with Max as a love-cynic duo.

When they’re both hired for a wedding by a groom, who happens to be marrying the woman that broke Max’s heart many years ago, Sophie sees Max wrestle with his feelings and is struck by her own jealousy.

This can only mean one thing . . .

I have mostly really enjoyed Lynn Painter’s books. I’ve read both YA and adult books by her and they’re a feel good time. So this one was a pretty anticipated title for me for this year and I have to say, it was exactly what I wanted it to be and what I hoped it’d be.

Sophie is about to marry Stuart when she realises that he’s been cheating on her again. Not wanting to be stuck with the bill for the wedding for being the one calling it off, she employs Max, to stand up and declare his objection, based on Stuart’s cheating, during the ceremony. Faced with the irrefutable proof that Sophie knows, Stuart will be stuck with the bill. Max is someone that has done this multiple times before for people, who don’t know how to pull out of the wedding or who, like Sophie, have reasons for not wanting to be the one who calls it off. They end up hanging out a bit together after the failed ceremony and when Max gets another ‘objector’ job, he decides to ask Sophie to help him with it.

From there starts a ‘friendship’ that they both insist is just that, despite realising pretty quickly that they have some crazy chemistry. For reasons, both Sophie and Max are insistent that they don’t want to be in a relationship. Sophie isn’t a believer in love, Max had a relationship end badly a few years ago so they’re both happy to delude themselves I think, that this won’t be anything that threatens the status quo. But the more time they spend together, the more it’s quite obvious that isn’t going to be the case and when Max realises that a new job they’ve been offered to ‘object’ is actually the wedding of his ex, he’s straight up adamant he won’t do it, which really puts him at odds with Sophie.

I really enjoyed Max and Sophie’s chemistry. I thought they were so much fun together and although it’s a bit silly, I actually really liked their side gig of interrupting weddings. Do I imagine there are that many weddings in someone’s (even broad) social circle to be hired for? No. But did it bother me? Also no. I can understand how in this economy and a “person who calls it off is stuck with the bill” mentality, why someone might not want to do that, particularly if they are actually the wronged party, like Sophie was. I found a lot of their scenes very entertaining and I enjoyed the way Max and Sophie’s friendship progressed. This is also a dual perspective so you get to be party to Max’s inner thoughts as well, which I always really like in a romance. Some people prefer having the love interest’s thoughts be a mystery but I am the opposite. I love knowing when he’s obsessing over her.

There were some fun side characters in this, such as Sophie’s senior citizen flatmates and Max’s family. I just spent a lot of this laughing to myself because it was silly, funny and just a feel good kind of read – a book that you pick up when you want something that you can just immerse yourself in without thinking about it too much, when you want something that is light and enjoyable and feel good. This absolutely did the trick for me after a couple of books that I felt like I was struggling with. It was fresh and fun and just a cute read.

8/10

Book #89 of 2024

Review: Life Of Birds (Audiobook) by David Attenborough

The Life Of Birds
David Attenborough
Narrated by David Attenborough
William Collins
2024, 9hrs 59min
Personal purchased copy

Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: A fully updated new edition of David Attenborough’s bestselling classic. BIRDS. Over 9,000 species, the most widespread of all on icebergs, in the Sahara or under the sea, at home in our gardens or flying for over a year at a time. Earthbound, we can only look and listen, enjoying their lightness, freedom and richness of plumage and song.

David Attenborough has been watching and learning all his life. His classic book, now fully updated with the latest discoveries in ornithology, is a brilliant introduction to bird behaviours around the what they do and why they do it. He looks at each step in birds’ lives and the problems they have to learning to fly; finding food; communicating; mating and caring for nests, eggs and young; migrating; facing dangers and surviving harsh conditions.

Sir David has no equal in helping others to learn and making it exciting. His curiosity and enjoyment are infectious. He shows the lifelong pleasure that birds around us offer, and how much we miss if unaware of them.

Not that long ago, Audible lured me back in with the 2 credits for 0.99c deal. They have done this before, probably because they know the chances of someone remembering to cancel immediately are low. How do I know this? Because the last time I forgot to cancel and paid for another credit. And this time? I also forgot to cancel (it renewed 2 days earlier than I thought it would) and paid for another credit. But with one of my original 2-for-0.99c deal credits, I pre-ordered this because when in doubt for an audiobook, I always go for a David Attenborough.

I really love listening to non-fiction on audio. Also David Attenborough is second-to-none as a narrator and considering he writes the books he reads, also as a writer. He manages to pack in so much information but in a way that doesn’t make it feel confusing or overwhelming. Nor does it all immediately fly out of my head the second I’ve finished listening to it. Some of it does but I find that I retain a lot as well.

Look, not going to lie, there are some birds I find quite terrifying. For an Australian, it’s probably embarrassing that I’m scared of emus, considering they’re on our national coat of arms. But I’m sorry they’re just creepy. And terrifyingly large. We also have a deadly bird in Australia, the Southern Cassowary, which is capable of killing a human. I don’t much like those either but you’re not expected to interact with them at least, the way that wildlife parks always want you to interact with emus.

But there are also a lot of birds I really love. I’ve been vocal on here of my love of penguins and I’m also a big fan of a lot of Australia’s native parrots and smaller birds. This was a really comprehensive look at the way birds have evolved to adjust first to the changing conditions of their environments over time but also of course, the ways that human actions have caused problems. There are so many interesting facts in here with a focus on how certain species do things like feed, migrate, mate, lay eggs and raise their young.

One of the most interesting segments in here, are the birds we have lost through human action. The ones that have been hunted to death for fun or sport or a lack of knowledge on how to sustain numbers and the ones that have been driven out of their homes by development and human activity. There’s also a small part on birds that almost became extinct and human intervention to prevent it, to establish breeding programs or relocate small populations of them to safer areas so that they might flourish without predators. One of them was the New Zealand kakapo, which I’ve watched documentaries on before. They’re a ground dwelling large parrot which made them particularly vulnerable to introduced predators in New Zealand like the stoats, ferrets, feral and domesticated cats, etc. Even as of 2023, there are only about 247 of them believed to exist in the wild. The efforts to increase the population of the kakapo have been complicated by the lack of places they can be safely located as well as the length of time it took scientists to understand how to replicate situations where they might breed.

This was thorough – I’d expect nothing less. I’ve listened to so many David Attenborough books now and I think they’re the fastest I get through audios. I just love listening to his voice and I love the topics he’s always talking about. I find the audiobooks easier than the documentaries too, because although I love those, I do find some of them confronting, because they’re unedited raw parts of nature and I hate watching things die, even though I know it’s what happens. In this you sometimes get descriptions and stuff but…it’s different.

I highly recommend anything and everything by Sir David.

8/10

Book #87 of 2024

I am going to count this one to my participation in the 2024 Nonfiction Reader Challenge, hosted by Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out. I am going to put this one towards the science category and it’s the second book read so far towards the challenge. It doesn’t take long to catch up.

Categories:

History
Memoir/Biography
True Crime
Science
Health
Food
Culture
Transportation
The Future
Pets
Architecture
Published in 2024

Top 10 Tuesday April 23

Hello and welcome back to another edition of Top 10 Tuesday! Hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl, it features a different, bookish related topic each week. I took a break last week as I wasn’t really feeling the topic but this one…well. Let’s just say I have a lot of candidates!

10 Unread Books On My Shelf I Want To Read Soon

Okay I have a lot of unread books – probably around 300 physical books. Some I’ve had a really long time. Actually, most I’ve had quite a long time. Some others are newer but I have to admit, most of the ones that have been hanging around for years are books I was sent for review and never had the time for. When I buy a book myself, it tends to be one I read pretty quickly although I do definitely have some books I’ve bought that have been lingering on the TBR shelves for a while. Basically every book on my TBR shelf is a book I want to read (soonish) so I decided I’m just going to pick some at random, maybe the ones that stand out to me today, as I stand and look at the shelves.

Come And Get It by Kiley Reid

I actually didn’t end up reading Such A Fun Age but a family member gave me a copy of this one and I’m curious.

A Fate Inked In Blood by Danielle L. Jensen

This is actually borrowed, so I don’t own it but it is sitting on my TBR shelf so I’m counting it! I’m seeing this everywhere at the moment! Everyone seems to be reading it so I’m very excited to find out what all the fuss is about.

Throne Of The Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco

I enjoyed the Kingdom Of The Wicked series. And I was definitely keen for more of this world, especially one of the Princes in particular. It’s not the Prince of this book (I suspect the book I want is probably going to be last?) but I am definitely keen for this one.

Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray by Anita Heiss

I’ve had this on the TBR for a couple of years now and I’ve been meaning to get to it. Anita Heiss is an Indigenous Australian author (the title is River of Dreams in the local Indigenous dialect from where it is set) and I believe this was the first novel to be released in Australia with a title in that Wiradyuri language. I’m going to a retreat where Anita Heiss will be one of the guest authors so I definitely want to read this before that happens in June.

With Love From Wish & Co by Minnie Darke

I’ve had this a couple of years! Maybe since 2022? I’m not sure why I haven’t read it because I loved The Lost Love Song so much. It was one of my favourite books the year I read it and I was so excited for this. I remember buying it with a bunch of other books and pretty much all of them are still on my unread shelf! I really do need to get to this one.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

This one is a pretty recent addition to the TBR shelf, I think I bought it in the Black Friday sales last year. I’ve heard some amazing things about this book but I’ve also seen a few people say that it wasn’t their thing and that it was overrated. So I’m interested to see how I feel about it…

Possession by A.S. Byatt

I have somehow never read this. I’ve seen it referenced in a couple of books and when I was at a charity second hand book sale last August, I spotted a copy and grabbed it for my stash. Then I spotted a copy in a better condition so swapped out the one I already had for that one. And it’s sat on my shelf ever since, even though I do really want to read it. One day!

The Empire Of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

Hi, my name is Bree and my toxic trait is that I am really bad at finishing series’. Like, I just…do not do it. Is it a reluctance to have it all be over? Am I scared of what might happen and who might not survive? No one knows, but that is my unfortunate bookish bad habit. This is just one of quite a few final books in a trilogy or series sitting on my shelf that I have owned for ages (this one for years) and haven’t picked up yet. Often I leave it so long that it becomes hard to even remember what happened in the previous books. But I want to finish this! I really enjoyed the first 2 books.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

I really want to read this! I can’t remember how long I’ve owned it, definitely quite a few years. I actually can’t even remember buying it. I think I will enjoy Colton Whitehead’s books and I keep hearing a lot about books he’s released apart from this one but I’ve told myself I’m not allowed to buy anymore until I’ve read this….. So. I have to read this!

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

I haven’t ever read Brandon Sanderson before and I feel like I need to give one a go. He has a huge backlist, so if I enjoy this, there’s a lot out there waiting for me. I bought this late last year and I put it on my 24 in 2024 to motivate me and I really do need to find the right time to pick it up. Maybe after I finish this semester at uni.

I am someone that is always getting distracted by the new shiny books and my library is so good that I’m always picking up new releases there too. But I do have a desire to get the number of unread books down and I’m trying to include those books more in my reading, rotating through new/review books, library books and books from my shelf. So these are 10 of the ones I hope to get to soon….here’s to this list holding me accountable as I keep track of my Top 10 Tuesday lists in my planner so that I can check back easily and see how I’m going.