Monday, August 26, 2013

sorry, but I'm not sorry


just going though a massive reading slump.


Cuckoo's calling hangover? 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

re·view : The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith




The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)  by Robert Galbraith.
5 Stars.



syn·op·sis 


A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide.
After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.

Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.

Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.






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As Stephen J. Cannell points out in "A Deadly Game" "there's only three reasons to commit murder - love, money, or to cover up a crime." 
Even if the author goes around a bit, it always comes back to one of the tree. I have to say that I saw who did it coming, but I really did not expect the why.

The first thing that comes to mind about this book is that the writing is just so beautiful. It is everything I would expect from Jo Rowling.
I also have to say that I love mystery novels, it is probably my favorite genera, but I don't think this is just a mystery. To be honest, the mystery part is good, it is no Agatha Christie though. I also hate to break it to you, but it is not her first, The Chamber of Secrets is my favorite Potter book, and it is also a mystery.

The characters and their relationships is where it shines. In HP, I always loved the world and the magic, but there is plenty of that in the fantasy world. The characters kept me coming back, they grounded the novels in a way that it feels real.
And she hits the jackpot again on this one, Strike and Robin feel like people you might know, I just want to go to London and work for them. Strike is almost a blending of Sherlock and Watson, brilliant and tortured. Robin is just pure wit, the way I would expect Jo to be in real life. 
I love that their relationship is a friendship, yet there is always a door half open for something more. 

Also, it would probably make an excellent TV show. BBC? You there?

The special mention goes to the way she built the plot. She manages to leave clues, always pointing the other way. The way she wovens the little bits throughout the novel, creates such an intricate pattern. In a reread, you find everything right there, under your nose, and yet, you can't see.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

re·view : Mistwood by Leah Cypess






Mistwood (Mistwood #1) by Leah Cypess
2.5 Stars.



syn·op·sis 


The Shifter is an immortal creature bound by an ancient spell to protect the kings of Samorna. When the realm is peaceful, she retreats to the Mistwod.

But when she is needed she always comes.

Isabel remembers nothing. Nothing before the prince rode into her forest to take her back to the castle. Nothing about who she is supposed to be, or the powers she is supposed to have.

Prince Rokan needs Isabel to be his Shifter. He needs her ability to shift to animal form, to wind, to mist. He needs her lethal speed and superhuman strength. And he needs her loyalty—because without it, she may be his greatest threat.

Isabel knows that her prince is lying to her, but she can't help wanting to protect him from the dangers and intrigues of the court . . . until a deadly truth shatters the bond between them.

Now Isabel faces a choice that threatens her loyalty, her heart . . . and everything she thought she knew.




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Well, I don't have a lot to say about this one, witch is rare..
The book is fine. I liked the premise and was very exited to read it.

However, I don't like that the reader doesn't know anything about nothing, though. When I read fantasy, I need some sort of information and background to understand the world, on this one, the reader is just tossed in the water and expected to know how to swim.

The writing isn't my cup of tea either, the way she(and everybody) keeps referring to herself as the almighty shifter was just annoying. I understand where the author wanted to go with it, I just didn't like it.

Finally, the characters. I just could not get myself to care about it..

For those reasons, I don't think I will be picking up any more of Cypress's books.


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

re·view : The Archived by Victoria Schwab





The Archived  (The Archived, #1) by Victoria Schwab
4 Stars.



syn·op·sis 


Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

- Goodreads


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I only hear two things about this novel, is either that the book is amazing or that it is slow paced. I will say it is a little bit of both.

The writing is beautiful and the writing alone is what made me go though the first half of the novel, because the story is just boring. The good thing is that after the first half, the story completely comes together. After that, I was hooked, immersed on the story.

When the pacing picks up, also does the story line and I started to realize just how well plotted it actually is. I love the premise, and how creepy it felt at times.

I'm ok with the love interests, I mean, I could see the villain coming for miles, but is understandable. We can see why Mac does what she does and everything.
It is still not the best love plot line I ever saw. I like that all of it happened as a side plot, so if you dislike books with love interests, this one won't bother you too much.

I really like the character, but I gotta say the best part were the parents. Am I the only one who loves when these characters have actual living, breathing parents who actually have a say in their lives? Just yes.

Now to what I didn't like, the first thing was the back and forth. Sometimes is better to show how things happened, and we learn a lot during does, but I think it could be balanced a better. If Mac just told some of the story and then the other part came from the flashbacks, the rhythm of the book could be a little better.

Second thing was the villain, could see it coming, but i still like how things turned out.

What really surprised me were the revelations about the Library. I new something was wrong, it just felt off, but I never saw that coming.