Category Archives: Books

My thoughts on books I’ve read

The Witches

Hello!
I’m back with yet another book review, thankfully I’m catching up on my Goodreads and reading challenge goals for the year at the very least. This year in addition to finishing a couple of series and working on the Paper & Glam book club and the Creating & Co book club I also decided to take on Rachel Dawson’s reading challenge. If it gets me reading more diverse and interesting books I’m all for it. This book completed the challenge of reading a book that was published in the year you were born. I probably could double this up since this is also a children’s book, but I have another book in mind for that.

I chose this book because not only was it published in 1983, but also because Roald Dahl is a quintessential children’s author. You may have recognized his name from such works as James & the Giant Peach or Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. I had never heard of this book , but apparently it is another classic and also has a movie adaptation. The version I chose to read had an introduction and notes from James Patterson.

In the book, we meet our young hero who has spend a good portion of his youth growing up in England before his parents are killed in a tragic car accident and then he is sent to live with his Grandmama. His Grandmama would like to raise him in Norway, but his parents’ will dictate that the child be raised in England. While in England, Grandmama teaches the young boy everything she knows about witches, so that he can protect himself. Unfortunately, it is on his second encounter with witches that he is turned into a mouse.

The 218 page book with an introduction by James Patterson and notes from the editor Stephen Roxburgh make for a quick read and also add to the interest of reading Roald Dahl books. If you haven’t read a Roald Dahl book in your life I highly recommend picking one up. If you haven’t read The Witches I would definitely recommend this fanciful tale surely to have you turning pages and wanting to dive more into the world of Roald Dahl.

Let me know if you have read the book or seen the movie adaptation. I hope to see you soon!

Daughter of the Siren Queen

Hey!
I’m back with a book review, I’d say more, but honestly I feel as if I have been on repeat lately with last post telling you that original content is coming and it hasn’t shown up yet. Maybe I’ll write about all these thoughts in another post.

Today I’m here to discuss Daughter of the Siren Queen the sequel to Tricia Levenseller’s book Daughter of the Pirate King. If you haven’t read my review on that be sure to check it out here. In this book, we catch up with Alosa just as she has located the last part of the map and is headed back to see her father. We finally get to really meet her crew, a merry band of misfit women that she has gathered along with the few men that she decided to keep from Draxen’s ship the Night Farer. We also see Alosa’s interactions with interactions with her father and begin to really see him as a person. The big twist for the book comes at the beginning finding that Alosa’s mother is alive and that she has been a prisoner to her father all these years.

It is also in this book that we finally get all the steamy non steamy parts of the Alosa- Riden romance that we have been hoping for. During their courtship both Alosa and Riden have to come to terms with the things their parents have done to them.

I loved every minute of this book probably a bit more than the previous book and the only thing the book left me hanging on besides more of the Alosa-Riden romance was to know more details about how the relationship between the Pirate King and the Siren Queen came to be. We know some details, but there is quite a bit left in the dark that left me wondering and wanting a bit more . I highly recommend that you read this book series. and I’m so glad that Paige from Creating & Co and the other members of the Creating & Co book club recommended it for the Journey to Atlantis Readathon. See you soon!

Daughter of a Pirate King

Hey!
I’m back with another book review. I would like to tell you that more original content is coming, but honestly I’m not really sure. In case, you haven’t figured it out yet, this post is going to be a book review on Daughter of a Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller. I had originally started this book for Creating & Co’s Journey to Atlantis Readathon that happened at the end of June, but I didn’t get a chance to finish it and I’m not one to quit on books most times after I start most times.The unfortunate thing about this book is that it’s part of a duology and at the time I am writing this post, have yet to read the sequel. I do plan on reading it though I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

In this book we meet Alosa daughter to Kalligan the pirate king. She volunteers to fetch her father part of a map that had belonged to Jeskor the Headbreaker. Alosa puts in motion a plan that means that she will be captured and upon finding the map return to her father. She doesn’t count on Jeskor’s two sons, Draxen and Ride having taken over the ship or that there is an additional spy on the ship from another crew that also wants the full map.

I love that Tricia Levenseller, put so many plot twists in here and even though the book started a bit slow at first the twists throughout the book make you want to keep turning pages. My copy of the book also had a Q&A with the author and in it she says that she modeled the series after Pirates of the Caribbean. I enjoyed reading the book and plan to continue the series very shortly and you will also get that book review here sometime in the future.

In regards to this book, I definitely recommend that you read it or at least make an attempt at reading it. If you do end up liking it remember to read RIden’s story on Tricia Levenseller’s website so that you can get a bit more insight into Riden and a bit of his backstory. Hope to see you soon!

To Kill a Kingdom

Hey!
I’m back with yet another book review. I wish I could say that for Creating & Co’s Journey to Atlantis Readathon I read a couple of books and actually caught up on my Goodreads goal, but I actually only finished one book for the entire week. I probably have a vlog up on my youtube channel documenting part of the readathon week and the following week, where I attempted to read more books.

Let’s get back to real reason you are here. To Kill a kingdom by Alexandra Christo is a Little Mermaid retelling. From the minute you start the book, you can tell that you are about to dive into something amazing. The story is told from the two perspectives of the main characters, Lira and Elian. Lira, is the daughter to the Sea Queen and is also known as the Prince’s Bane, since she has only taken hearts from Princes for her whole life. Elian is also a prince from a land kingdom, but loves the sea and is determined to make it safe for everyone by killing all the sirens including the Prince’s Bane and the Sea Queen.

When Elian’s best friend Cristian is killed by Lira, he becomes more determined than ever to destroy the Sea Queen and begins a hunt to find a mysterious key that would unite both the land and ocean world once and for all. Lira on the other hand was banished from the ocean for killing Cristian, a prince not on her birthday and was told by her mother that she would need to take Elian’s heart before her birthday. Determined to step out of her mother’s shadow and into her own, Lira begins her own quest to destroy the Sea Queen. Lira leads Elian to believe that she is just an ordinary human before he comes to find the truth.

If you enjoyed The Little Mermaid as a child or have enjoyed any off the other retellings that have come out in recent years this is the book for you. I hope to read more Alexandra Christo books in the future and can’t wait to read her next one!

As for the Journey to Atlantis Readathon, I’m sad that I only finished one book for the entire week, but I know that I am still working toward my reading goal for the year to read 52 books and I will get there. Let me know what you have been reading lately? And what would you recommend to read for a friend? Hope to see you soon in another post.

Family Affair

Hey!
I’m back with yet another book review, I know that it has been a bit since you have heard from me on here, but if you follow me on instagram you will know that I am slowly working my way through the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I have a rather large post coming up featuring the rest of the series, but if you want to read about the first book you can do so here.

In January, I like so many others throughout the world went through a huge moment reading Marie Kondo’s book and watching her Netflix series. After going through my paper products the first time I was left with things that I couldn’t part with because of sentimental reason and yet wasn’t sure if I really wanted to keep. I decided that this year in addition to reading 52 books I would reread some of the books that I am on the fence about that have been on my shelf for years. This is the start of that series.

When Caprice Crane first came into the publishing world with her book Stupid and Contagious, I was hooked onto every word. I bought nearly every book from her which is about a book a year for a while. I even went deep diving on the internet and found out that she was also a screen writer for several tv shows. After a bit I finally slowed down, but still love her as a writer. I read Family Affair back in 2011 or so and found the book cute and charming in a quirky off beat way.

In the story, you meet Layla and Brett a couple that has been married for several years and has been together even longer. Both halves of the couple, while they are still in love with each other are finding nitpick problems that are driving the other crazy. The book is told from both Layla and Brett’s perspectives alternating and occasionally other people’s point of view. If you are into meet cute romance and some sweet family involvement this is the novel for you. Sadly though, while I loved the book as a whole and I still do love Caprice Crane as a writer I won’t be keeping this book in my collection long term though I would say if you can grab this book for a read at the library do so.