Double Book Review

Hi Everyone!
I've got another book review for you today but this time it's a double review since it's March 31st and I have not been blogging hardly at all the second half of this month. Please forgive me my little brother got married today and this month has been just one thing after another but here it is. Book review today and then the last book review maybe tomorrow (if I'm not dead after work), two unboxing posts and then the March recap and April look ahead. Hopefully these posts will all be in the next week so here's the old college try. Anyway so today its a double review, S:Es by Koji Suzuki and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.
Caution: Spoilers Ahead!

First up was S: Es by Koji Suzuki which is book number 5 in the Ring Cycle. I received this book in my February Nocturnal Readers Box and had been looking forward to reading it because, quite frankly, the book looked awesome. It had a super creepy cover with artwork on both the dust jacket and on the hardcover itself which is always awesome. It is also a book in the Ring Cycle which is the book series the movie The Ring is based off of. I love the movie The Ring, it was my go-to horror movie for a long time and I was really excited to read this book that was part of the series. That all being said, I was disappointed in this book. It started off very slow and at best the book was sort of boring, at worst it was very, very weird. So it takes the original girl from the Ring, the one who possesses the video tape and adds a twist: if a woman who is currently ovulating watches the tape (or as you later find out, reads the book) instead of dying in a week's time like in the movie and the original story, they become pregnant with a reincarnated version of the girl. So it follows this guy and his girlfriend/fiancee who is pregnant and instead of being a horror movie its really more of a thriller because someone's following her and it turns out its this guy who was involved with the original story  who is killing all of the reincarnated versions of the girl but then he dies, presumably pushed by the girlfriend, and they all live happily ever after. Honestly, the book was disappointing. I expected much more of it but if you like thrillers and who done its and don't mind the weird reincarnation subplot it would be a pretty good book, just definitely a weird one to be part of the Ring Cycle. I finished S: Es on March 8th, read it in one sitting immediately after finishing A Court of Thorns and Roses and I gave it a 3/5 stars on goodreads. 

Second book on this review was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. This book was one I reread, mostly because of the new movie that came out earlier this month. I read it once a long time ago, probably 5th or 6th grade and I remembered the book pretty fondly. Overall, it's not one of my very favorites but it's still a good book. It follows the story of a girl named Meg Murray who has three younger brothers: twins Sandy and Dennys, and the baby Charles Wallace. Their father is away, presumably working on something for the government, and one night Charles Wallace introduces Meg to the strange women Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit who reveal their father is out there fighting the darkness and needs help. So Meg, Charles Wallace, and her friend Calvin go with the women to go and try to rescue Meg's father from an evil entity called simply IT. In the process of saving their father they lose Charles Wallace to IT and Meg has to rescue her beloved baby brother all by herself with only the power of her love for him and his for her to defeat IT once and for all. It's the first book in a quintet that I received for Christmas and I read once about twenty years ago, except for the fifth book which is a more recent release. Like I said I still enjoyed the book and the feelings it evokes are very nostalgic for me but it's not one of my favorites. The religious overtones of the book have places where it really hits you over the head, which I really don't enjoy as it comes off being very preachy. Second, the ending to the book is very abrupt. Meg is facing off with IT over Charles Wallace one minute then her love breaks the spell/hypnosis Charles Wallace is under and he runs to her and then all of a sudden they're home and celebrating with their father and Calvin. All in all though a solid read. I finished this book March 17th and gave it a solid 4/5 stars on goodreads.

Anyway that's all from us for tonight, keep your eyes open for another book review for books read in March, two more unboxing posts, and the March recap/April preview.
Happy Reading!
Richelle and Emma

A Court of Thorns and Roses Review

Hi Again!
So here's the first of what I hope is several days worth of posts in a row as I have this book plus two more to post about followed by an OwlCrate unboxing. So first up is my review of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas. I started it on March 4th after finishing The Hazel Wood and finished it on March 8th. I couldn't put this one down and rated it a full 5 stars on Good Reads.

I'd heard a lot about this book and this author and had picked up this book and the first book of the Throne of Glass series to give a try to. Upon finishing it I went to Powell's Books to pick up the next two: A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Wings and Ruin.

Once again, if you haven't read A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) this post will probably contain spoilers after this point. 

So ACOTAR is about  a girl named Feyre who lives in a village barely surviving and feeding her family (father and two older sisters) by hunting in the forests. One night while hunting she shoots a wolf. The next night a faerie comes to her home in a bestial form demanding retribution for killing the wolf who turns out to be a faerie. Instead of killing her, the faerie takes her across the wall to the land of the faeries called Prythian. Once there, the faerie reveals himself to be a high fae lord named Tamlin and he takes her to his lands, the Spring Court, in Prythian where she lives rather comfortably. She gets closer to Tamlin until the threats to the Spring Court become too much and then he sends her home. Instead of the hovel in the village, Feyre finds out that Tamlin had put a spell over her family which gave them back the money they used to have and ensconced them in a manor house of their own. It's there that Feyre realizes that she's in love with Tamlin and that she has to go back to help him fight against the woman threatening Prythian, Amarantha. She finds Tamlin's home in disarray and only a servant to tell her that Amarantha had called in her deal with Tamlin and took him and his people to her court under the mountain. The servant helps Feyre sneak into Amarantha's court where she is captured and strikes a bargain for the freedom of all the faeries upon the successful completion of three tasks. Using all her skills as a huntress and her resilience, with some help from Rhysand the High Lord of the infamous Night Court, Feyre completes the three tasks. Upon the completion of her tasks, Amarantha attacks those gathered there and kills Feyre. After Tamlin, with his full powers restored by the completion of Feyre's deal, kills Amarantha he and the other High Lords revive Feyre turning her into a High Fae herself. The books ends with Tamlin and Feyre returning to the Spring Court and freedom to be picked up in the next book.

So like I said I really enjoyed this book. It had a very beauty and the beast vibe through it with the curse Amarantha had put on the denizens of the Spring Court: cursing them to have to wear the metal masquerade masks they'd been wearing at the time of the curse, as well as the way the curse could be broken: if Tamlin found a mortal woman who loved him and he loved in return. In addition the curse had a time limit, 50 years, to be completed before he belonged to her. Like I said in the post about The Hazel Wood, I love twists on classic fairy tales and this one was very good. I liked Feyre very much. She was a likeable, relatable, flawed narrator and main character. She has a fiery temper, she can't read, she's dirt poor and although she loves and is almost the sole support for her family she also doesn't like them very much and has conflicts with her sisters and her father. She recognizes her own flaws and the flaws in others. Despite it having a love story, the love story isn't all encompassing to the exclusion of the rest of the story. There's plenty of action and adventure mixed in. That being said, I was not overly fond of Tamlin's character. In fact, I messaged a friend who's read all the books in the series and begged her to reassure me that Feyre doesn't end up with him because I think she deserves much better. Upon finishing the book I really found myself interested in Rhysand and The Night Court (I've heard people gushing about his character in the series) and with his deal to help Feyre during her tasks where she must spend one week a month with him for the duration of her life (forever now that she's immortal) you can be assured you'll see much more of him.

Anyway I really did enjoy A Court of Thorns and Roses and look forward to reading the rest of the series. This book was definitely a 5 stars on Good Reads. Emma liked it too!

Happy Reading!
-Richelle and Emma

March Uppercase Unboxing

Hi Again!
I'm back with another unboxing. This time I have an Uppercase box. Uppercase is another YA subscription box that focuses more on the books rather than the bookish goodies that come with the book. It's a newly released hardcover YA novel signed by the author plus 1-3 extras. It doesn't have a theme like Owlcrate and some of the other boxes so you can't really guess what the book is going to be. This is the first time I've gotten Uppercase but I've seen great reviews of it and decided to give it a try. For the full box it's $23 a month, but you can also buy just the book or add on extra items leftover from previous boxes. I had a promo code that got me a free extra item as well. So without further ado this was the March 2018 Uppercase box. It comes in a plain mailing envelope but when you open it up you have a little pouch with everything in it.

It's a little cloth pouch with the book and all the goodies inside it. So first I went for the goodies to save the book for last since it's always the best part of every box.

First I pulled out this magnet with a little cat with glasses that says Bookish. It's a pretty big magnet, about two inches in diameter. It's already on my fridge along with a Psycho magnet I got out of a Nocturnal Readers Box. I think it's super cute and who doesn't love magnets. 

Second thing I pulled out was a little packet with a necklace in it. It's pretty nice quality and it's got a little comma charm on it. I love it so much. I actually wore it today (my box arrived yesterday) but I ended up snagging the chain and breaking it. Fortunately I had a chain on a necklace I don't ever wear that works with the charm so I swapped it out, no harm no foul. It's adorable and I love the subtle reader/writer vibe of it. 

The last goodie in this box is this little notebook from Sweet Reads. It says 'write this minute' on the front and it's lined which is nice. I like that it has both the little rubber band to keep the notebook shut plus a little attached ribbon to use as a bookmark. You can never have enough notebooks so I always like getting more. 

Finally there's just the book. It's one I hadn't heard of but it sounds really good. And I absolutely love the dust jacket of this book. It's so beautiful, front and back both. 

It's called Ink, Iron, and Glass by Gwendolyn Clare. It's about a girl, Elsa, who comes from this land that was written into existence through a process called Scriptology and her mother is constantly changing and altering the reality they live in. Then they are attacked and Elsa's mother is kidnapped so she crosses into the real world to find her. The real world part of the book takes place in an alternate version of Victorian Italy where she finds a group of scientists who she enlists to help her as an assassin shows up. It sounds like it's got a very steampunk vibe to it, which is great for me because I love steampunk and it's nice to find a steampunk-style novel that takes place somewhere outside the UK. From the Goodreads page it sounds as if this is Gwendolyn Clare's debut novel but that it's planned to be the first of a series of sorts. The cool thing about Uppercase is that you also get a bookmark with the book which has a page number with a corresponding code that you put into the given website for extra content while you're reading the book. So I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up when I play with that. 

Finally, I did have a promo code that got me an extra item with my Uppercase box this month. It's another notebook! This one is Hogwarts themed from Harry Potter and I love it (once again you cannot have too many notebooks). 

Anyway so that was the March Uppercase Box. I liked everything in it and I'm going to get it a couple more times to see how it goes. I'm taking a break from my Nocturnal Readers Box because while i do love it I haven't really been reading the books and they're stacking up. I read much more YA than anything else so I'm going to play around with some of the YA book boxes like Uppercase and Owlcrate. Maybe I'll try out some others. The plan is to get some more book reviews done this coming week given I've read three more books since my last one and have posted about exactly none of them. So that'll happen some time this week. 

Emma really liked the notebook that came in the box. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle and Emma

The Hazel Wood

Caution: This post may contain spoilers for anyone who has not read nor finished The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

My first book finished in March was The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert which was the February book in my OwlCrate. The original plan was to participate in the official OwlCrate Book Club on Facebook but I found myself too invested in the story and completed the book in three days. To be fair, I didn't know what to expect from this book considering the very mixed reviews of it I'd seen on Good Reads and Booktube but I ended up really enjoying it. I ended up giving it a 4/5 stars on Good Reads.

The Hazel Wood is a modern day fantasy story about a girl named Alice who has lived on the road with her mother, traveling constantly as bad luck seems to follow them. Then Alice's grandmother, Althea, dies on her estate, The Hazel Wood, and believing their bad luck is over, Alice and her mother settle down in New York. As it turns out their bad luck is just beginning. Alice's mother is kidnapped by people claiming to be from the Hinterland, the setting of Alice's grandmother's book of macabre fairy tales called Tales from the Hinterland, and the only clue is her mother's message to 'Stay Away from the Hazel Wood'. After this Alice teams up with a boy from her school, Finch, and they head North to the Hazel Wood in search of her mother, pursued by the dark characters from Althea's book.

So the book had action straight from the beginning, with tales of Alice's life on the road with her mother including the Alice's kidnapping by a man connected to her grandmother as a child. It moves through her grandmother's death in the Hazel Wood and Alice's mother's marriage in New York. After seeing the same man who kidnapped her as a child, unchanged, in the coffee shop where she works Alice's mother, stepfather, and stepsister all disappear for a day and then her stepfather and stepsister reappear without her mother that night revealing they had been taken by someone from the Hinterland and then released. The Hinterland is the magical land of dark fairy tales written by Alice's reclusive grandmother, Althea, a woman Alice never met and a book she has never read. Alice teams up with a somewhat friend, Ellery Finch, who happens to be a Hinterlands superfan and has committed most of the stories to memory. AS they head off in pursuit of her mother towards the Hazel Wood, the two begin to encounter the characters from Althea's book. When they finally near the Hazel Wood, it becomes known that Finch has betrayed Alice, selling her out to the Hinterland characters following them in order to experience the land and stories he loves so much. Unwilling to sacrifice her own life, the Hinterlanders kill Finch and transport her to an in between woods where she uses the gifts left by the man who'd kidnapped her in her coffee shop to safely transverse the woods and enter the Hinterland. It is there, talking to the spinner of stories who controls the stories of the Hinterland, that she realizes that she is a character from one of the Hinterland stories. The story spinner sends her back into the story and she has to shatter her story to escape. With the help of one of the princes from her story, the redheaded man who kidnapped her as a child and then reappeared to her as a teenager, and Finch himself (who is NOT dead), Alice manages to destroy her story and escape. Since the story is no longer being told she is allowed to leave the Hinterland and return to the real world where two years have passed but her mother is waiting for her.

I really rather loved the dark fairy tale nature of the story, as well as the snippets of the Hinterland stories told in it. The twist that she was the character from the story was a little predictable but still fun as she battled her way out of it. I related with Alice, because of her fairy tale story she is a very angry young woman. She is skeptical and distrusting of everyone and their motives for doing things. On the road books were her constant companions, her only companions except for her mother. On the other hand she kind of treated everyone other than her mother like crap, including Finch who not only helped her on her trip but also bankrolled it. Admittedly, I cared a lot less about how she treated Finch after it was revealed he had sold her out to the Hinterland and was basically being paid to deliver her there. I'm very excited for the next books planned for the series, which includes an actual short story collection version of Tales from the Hinterland. I turned around and immediately loaned by copy of the book to someone else to read I enjoyed it so much.

All in all, The Hazel Wood was a quick, fun, dark fairy tale read and I recommend it to anyone interested in modern fairy tales.

Emma and I give it a 4/5 stars.

Happy Reading!
Richelle and Emma :D