First Light by Michele Paige Holmes (Review)

First Light by Michele Paige Holmes

Published in February 2016. | My rating: ★★★★☆

First Light is about Adrielle, a farmer girl, who ends up at the castle. On her way she learn about magic and curses.

I really don’t want to write a lot of what it is about, it’s fairly predictable as it is without me accidentally spoiling anything. Anyway, it’s an original story based on a lot of fairy tales, which honestly is all I ever wanted.

I need to say, the first 150 pages or so, I hated the way First Light was written. It felt a bit pretentious, with the choice of words and how the sentences were put together, like it was supposed to feel like it was written a long time ago. In the beginning, that annoyed me to no end, and I thought the whole thing felt so forced, but it grew on me. When I finished the book I was pleased with how it was written, and it felt right.

Adrielle then. She was a good character, a little dull around the edges, and maybe a little bit too much like many other characters in this genre. She was kind and trusting, which, made her a bit naive at some times, but she developed so well through the book.

I did not like the romantic plot very much. While the prince Adrielle fell for was, you know, charming and all, their relationship didn’t seem very sincere. Sure, they were adorable and loved each other more than anything, but I don’t even understand what made them fall in love. So, I’d definitely want some depth in their relationship. Still, very cute and very fairy like.

I’m looking forward to more character development in the next book, and to see more of this universe, and to learn more about Cecilia, who hands down was my favorite character. I’d recommend this book if you like an easy read, fairy tales and some cheesy romance.  

The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad (Review)

Bokhandlaren från Kabul (The Bookseller of Kabul) by Åsne Seierstad  

Published 2002. | My rating: ★★★✯☆

This is the story of the Kahn family, taking place in Kabul, Afghanistan, the spring 2002. Seierstad lived with them that spring, and she wrote a book about them, from their point of view. Åsne Seierstad wasn’t in the book, for better or for worse, I don’t know. The Kahns are a upper or middle-class family in Afghanistan. Still only few people in the family live well. In this book we get to see things from the man in the house’s eyes, and from the youngest sister’s eyes, and everyone in between. The differences are horrible, and I wanted to scream out of frustration several times.

Being a feminist, reading this was horrible and eye opening. While I’ve always known women in other countries, especially poor ones, have it bad, I hadn’t quite grasped just how bad. Reading about women being treated as objects and not having right to feelings or opinions made me so angry I didn’t want to keep on reading at some points. Which probably is a good thing, because this book gave me a smack in the face of reality. And honestly, that makes me want everyone to read this book. Not necessarily because it’s a good read, but because it gives so so much more understanding about what’s actually going on over there.

So it’s not a good read, huh?

In my opinion, not so much. It’s a great book, it’s well-written and all,  but it was honestly so challenging to read it, at least for me, since I’m not all that used to reading non-fiction. Sometimes, right in the middle of the story, you come across information-dumps, which I found really tiring. Good to know, sure, but not that enjoyable to read, if you’re after the story of the Kahns, as I was. If you want a book to learn stuff, I’m sure this is for you, just don’t expect an easy read for right before you go to sleep, because that’s not what you’re going to get.

Of course, I don’t know how accurate the representation of growing up in Kabul is, as Seierstad hasn’t, and can only write what she experienced and has been told. You’ll have to decide for yourself if you can trust it, but for me, it felt so real when I read it, so I personally believe it to be accurate. Which, as already mentioned, is horrible.

While I didn’t particularly enjoyed the book, I’m glad I read it. The Bookseller of Kabul opened my eyes, and taught me a lot.   

Adlibris | Bokus

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard (Review)

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Published February 10th 2015. | My rating: ★★★★☆

Before I start, can I just say how much I love this cover? I think it might be one of the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen.  

Red Queen is the first part of the story about Mare Barrow, living in a world where the people are divided by blood. Reds and Silvers, the Silvers being powerful and rich, the Reds are poor, living tough lives, and being recruited for the army at their 18th birthday. Mare would be too, but she manages to get a job as a servant for the King. Turns out she has powers, better even than the Silvers. The Silvers hide her among themselves, the ones she hates the most, as a Silver, and suddenly Mare finds herself engaged to one of the princes. We get to follow her struggling between Red and Silver,  two princes, her mind and her heart, and so on.

I actually started Red Queen months ago, hated it, and put it down after 30 pages. That time, I didn’t like the writing, and I don’t think I got a good impression of Mare either. However, because of that, I had ridiculously low expectations when I started it again 5 days ago, and was pleasantly surprised. While I still wasn’t absolutely thrilled about the way the story was written, it didn’t bother me too much. I like Mare’s character. She isn’t a favorite, but I’m really looking forward to some serious development, which I think will happen in the following books.

I must say, I didn’t care much for her love interests. Both princes, while their moral might be a little different, felt pretty much like the same person. They were the perfect guy, who always cared for the girl and would take their parents/lovers/people’s wrath for it. In short, a concept I’m tiring of after so many YA novels. However, I’m hoping to see some development here too, and be able to give the next book, Glass Sword, a 5-star rating.

Another thing I was sad to not see was any girl/girl friendship. I guess Mare and her sister’s relationship was alright, but we didn’t get nearly enough girl power, in my opinion.

Red Queen is a good book. Good, not the best I’ve ever read, and personally I don’t think it’s worth quite the hype that’s going on around it. While it’s a new world setting, it still doesn’t feel completely original. That’s understandable, the fantasy genre is explored to every corner, so trying to do something new is definitely worth a kudos. And she did it well, I was surprised at some points, and I was excited about the Red/Silver concept, it just wasn’t new. I would recommend Red Queen to anyone who likes fantasy with a royal touch (me), but I think you will enjoy it more if you haven’t read many young adult-fantasy books before.

Oh, and the plot twist. Look forward to that!

Bokus | Adlibris

Book Mail

Some books that just arrived from BookDepository! I'm so excited to read these!

Winter - Marissa Meyer
A Court Of Thrones And Roses - Sarah J Maas
The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller

Marissa Meyer and Sarah J Maas are both two of my favourite authors, and I've heard so much great things about The Song Of Achilles. I hope to start reading Winter tonight.

Have you guys read any of these? What did you think? Feel free to comment and tell me about it!

Fairest by Marissa Meyer (Review)

Fairest by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles 3.5)

Published January 27th 2015. | My rating: ★★★★☆

Fairest is the book about Levana, the villain in The Lunar Chronicles, which is an amazing series, I might add. We get to know her as a teenage girl in the shadow of her older sister, Channary. Levana is a headstrong character, I must give her that. She’s determined, she’s smart, and she’s ruthless. She makes a good ruler, I suppose. Absolutely evil, but that’s what made this book so interesting to read. I don’t think I’ve read a book from the villain’s POV before, so I was thrilled to see where this would be going. Usually while reading, I sympathy with the main character at some level. After all it’s like I’m in their head and see things as they see them. However, this was an expectation, and I’m so excited about that!

I still haven’t read Winter, the conclusion to this series, so  I’m glad I still don’t like Levana. I want her down, so I hope this series will have a happy ending. And after all, it’s a retelling of fairy tales, so it will be happy, right?  Anyway, I’m so excited to read Winter knowing all these things about Levana.

I really loved reading this book. It’s fast-paced, which I really like. All characters had such depth, especially Levana, but also her sister and her love interest. While I still don’t sympathy with her in the slightest, I understand her and her intentions, and oh my god do I love that.

If you like The Lunar Chronicles, don’t hesitate to read Fairest, it makes everything so much more interesting.

Bokus.com | Adlibris.se

First post

Hi there, thank you for finding your way to my blog! I've been wanting to create a book blog since I was 14, (I'm 16 now) so finally, here it is. My name is Tilda, as you probably guessed by the title. I'm from Sweden, but most of my posts will be in English. If I were to read a book in Swedish, that review will most likely be in Swedish, but I'll stick to English as much as possible.

If you wan't to find me on Instagram, I have a Bookstagram @wizardingdemigod, although I'll probably change that to tildareads very soon.

I'm still not very sure how to use this platform, so bear with me while this blog looks like a trashcan.

I'm currenly reading Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, so that'll hopefully be my first review on here.

So yeah, thanks for reading, and I hope I'll see you again soon!