Hello!
I am back to work this morning so that will be a shock to the system after a lovely week off. The week off has really helped my reading and blogging this week and I have managed to get a good chunk of my dissertation written as well.
Posts this Week
Currently Reading
I was good and didn’t buy any books this week.
Happy Reading
Sistersong by Lucy Holland
Blurb
535 AD. In the ancient kingdom of Dumnonia, King Cador’s children inherit a fragmented land abandoned by the Romans.
Riva, scarred in a terrible fire, fears she will never heal.
Keyne battles to be seen as the king’s son, when born a daughter.
And Sinne, the spoiled youngest girl, yearns for romance.
All three fear a life of confinement within the walls of the hold – a last bastion of strength against the invading Saxons. But change comes on the day ash falls from the sky, bringing Myrddhin, meddler and magician, and Tristan, a warrior whose secrets will tear the siblings apart. Riva, Keyne and Sinne must take fate into their own hands, or risk being tangled in a story they could never have imagined; one of treachery, love and ultimately, murder. It’s a story that will shape the destiny of Britain.
Review
I will be honest I struggled with this book and at least twice I considered not finishing it. However, I am pleased that I did finish it because it did pick up and I really enjoyed the second half. I think my main problem was that I just found the beginning rather slow and to be honest annoying.
The story is based around the lives of three sisters and two of these sisters at times drove me mad. Sinne was the worst culprit for driving me mad and it was simply because she was a spoiled brat who was very immature and rather heartless. Sinne spends her time dreaming of romance and adventures and not living in the real world and because of this she does not see what is happening around her or that people she loves are hurting.
Riva is a troubled character, she was terribly burned in a fire when she was young and although she is now healed but left with scars she is clearly not healed mentally. At times I felt sorry for Riva but I also despaired at her naivety and just wanted to shake her at times.
Keyne was my favourite character and the reason I carried on reading. Keyne was born a daughter but clearly wants to be a son but nobody sees this in her and everyone just thinks she is a silly girl who dresses in boys’ clothes. As the story goes on you see Keyne develop as a character and become what he was meant to be. Keyne can see in people their true worth and also is not so easy to trust people.
Osred was another favourite of mine, he is sworn to serve Tristan and can not speak but he silently watches and is a true friend to Sinne. Tristan however was not a favourite of mine and I did not trust him at all.
The book is full of magic and wonder but it is also the tale of three sisters who are so different from each other that only love and their parents really holds them together. It is also an interesting telling of how Christianity was starting to be introduced into Britain. Overall, I give this book 3 out 5 Dragons.
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Purchase Links
Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Lucy Holland works for Waterstones and has a BA in English and Creative Writing from Royal Holloway. She went on to complete an MA in Creative Writing under Andrew Motion in 2010. Lucy lives in Devon and co-hosts Breaking the Glass Slipper, an award-winning feminist podcast.
Happy Friday!
I have spent most of today on my dissertation and managed to write 685 words and do some editing and reading through to make what I already had better reading. I will keep working on it over the weekend with the hope I can get a good chunk written before it is back to teaching on Monday.
I hope everyone has some good plans for the weekend ahead!
My chosen poem today is by Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) who was an English poet, educationalist, and secretarial assistant to Florence Nightingale, his wife’s cousin. He was also the brother of the suffragist Anne Clough.
The message of this poem is: don’t give up, keep fighting – better things are on the way.
Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth Say not the struggle nought availeth, The labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, And as things have been they remain. If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars; It may be, in yon smoke concealed, Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers, And, but for you, possess the field. For while the tired waves, vainly breaking, Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back through creeks and inlets making Comes silent, flooding in, the main, And not by eastern windows only, When daylight comes, comes in the light, In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly, But westward, look, the land is bright. Arthur Hugh Clough
Happy Reading
Hello!
I missed last weeks Mid Week Quote sadly, but thankfully I remembered this week.
The quote I have chosen this week is by Euripides. Euripides who was born in Athens around 485 BCE. Euripides was a playwright who is thought to have written around ninety tragedies but sadly only nineteen have survived.
“The greatest pleasure of life is love.”
Euripides
Happy Reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far. I am enjoying my week off so far and have loved meeting friends that I haven’t seen since before covid.
My reading has gone a bit crazy this week, usually I am a one book at a time person but currently I have three books going, which is most unlike me.
Here is my WWW Wednesday!
What I am Currently Reading
The Book Lover’s Bucket List is my dip in book and I absolutely love it. I am building a lovely little list of all the places I desperately want to visit. I am still plodding on with Sistersong and although it isn’t blowing my socks off I am enjoying it but I do find my attention wavering when reading it. I started Death of Darkness over the weekend and I am thoroughly enjoying it and I am wondering why I have put off reading it for so long. Death of Darkness is a kindle book though, so I have slightly deviated from my plan of only reading hardback books this month.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday reading books with my best friends son and these were my two favourites. Due to a busy week dissertation writing these are the only books I have finished this week.
What I Think I will Read Next
I am still only trying to read hardbacks this month and I might continue next month as well because I do have a lot of hardback books to read.
There is my week.
Please drop me a message with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Goodreads Monday is hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners. All you have to do is show off a book from your TBR that you’re looking forward to reading.
Happy Monday!
I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. I am taking a week off teaching this week, so today I have done three hours of dissertation writing, some fun reading, a nice walk and baked some cookies. A very relaxing day.
I am sticking with my classics theme and hopefully I will have built up a nice list of classic books to start reading once the dissertation is all finished and handed in.
Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.
One of my all time favourite books is The Three Musketeers and I have read it more than once so I really want to read The Count of Monte Cristo to see if it is just as good. I know it will take me a long time to read but I do like reading longer books.
Please drop me a comment if you have read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts. Also please drop me a link to your Goodreads Monday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading.
Hello!
I hope everyone has had a good weekend so far.
This week has been slightly better for me blogging wise so I hope it continues.
Posts this Week
Currently Reading
I’ve been struggling to get into this but I will keep trying for a little longer.
So there is another week complete.
Happy Reading
Happy Friday!
I hope everyone has exciting plans for the weekend. I have a family get together on Saturday and an actual day off on Sunday.
My chosen poem this week is by the English poet Wendy Cope (1945).
Shakespeare at School Forty boys on benches with their quills, Six days a week through almost all the year, Long hours of Latin with relentless drills And repetition, all enforced by fear. I picture Shakespeare sitting near the back, Indulging in a risky bit of fun By exercising his prodigious knack Of thinking up an idiotic pun, And whispering his gem to other boys, Some of whom could not suppress their mirth - Behaviour that unfailingly annoys Any teacher anywhere on earth The fun was over when the master spoke: Will Shakespeare, come up here and share the joke. Wendy Cope
Happy Reading
WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words.
The rules are answer the questions below and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.
Hello!
I hope everyone is having a good week so far.
So here is how my week has been going.
What I am Currently Reading
I’ve just started reading Sistersong and I must admit I am struggling to get into it at the moment but I will keep going.
What I have Recently Finished Reading
I really did not get on well with The Man in the Brown Suit (review) and to be honest it almost put me into a reading slump. Thankfully, Mrs England (review) was amazing and got me out of the reading slump.
What I Think I will Read Next
This month I am only reading hardback books so that will limit my selection and hopefully help me to choose what to read next.
Please drop me a comment with your WWW Wednesday and I will head over for a visit.
Happy Reading
Mrs England by Stacey Halls
Blurb
West Yorkshire, 1904.
When newly graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England, a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners, she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, it becomes clear there’s something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious Mrs England. Ostracised by the servants and feeling increasingly uneasy, Ruby is forced to confront her own demons in order to prevent history from repeating itself. After all, there’s no such thing as the perfect family – and she should know.
Simmering with slow-burning menace, Mrs England is a portrait of an Edwardian marriage, weaving an enthralling story of men and women, power and control, courage, truth and the very darkest deception. Set against the atmospheric landscape of West Yorkshire, Stacey Halls’ third novel proves her one of the most exciting and compelling new storytellers of our times.
Review
I thought I was in the beginning of a reading slump but then I started reading this book and the reading slump soon disappeared. I just could not put this down it kept me riveted from beginning to end.
This book is mainly set in Yorkshire and is a true gothic novel with more than one mystery to solve. Ruby May is a Norland nurse who spends her time keeping busy with her charges and sending all the money she can afford home to help her family but it is also clear that Nurse May has a secret in her past and this secret she keeps locked up in a tin in her trunk but you can tell that the secret weighs heavily on Nurse May and she is never free from it.
Nurse May finds herself working for the England family but soon realises something is not right with her mistress Mrs England but she can’t work out what it is. Due to Mrs England’s aloofness Nurse May directs all questions about the children to Mr England and soon finds Mr England to be the perfect master. However, something is still not right about the house and Nurse May can sense this and you soon realise as the reader that there is another mystery to try and work out that surrounds the house.
The setting in the Yorkshire countryside really adds to this book, the wild crags, waterfall and forest all make the characters seem isolated and in danger. The other fact that all doors need to be locked at all times really adds to this fear of something or someone.
I loved reading this book the atmosphere and the mystery meant that I just could not stop reading the book until I had all the answers I wanted. I will definitely be reading more books by Stacey Halls and I give this book 5 out of 5 Dragons.
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Purchase Links
Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery
(All purchases made using one of the above affiliate links gives a small percentage of money to myself with no extra cost to yourself. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of this blog. Thank you ever so much, your support is gratefully received.)
About the author
Stacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor. The Familiars is her first novel.
Lady Book Dragon 