Review: A Life Apart – Mariapia Veladiano

May 22nd, 2013 4 stars, Book reviews, Contemporary, Quercus 6 comments »

A Life Apart - Mariapia Veladiano

Title: A Life Apart
Author: Mariapia Veladiano
Publication date: 16 May 2013
Publisher: Maclehose Press (Quercus)
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-85705-233-9
Length: 186 pages
Genre: Contemporary fiction
Age group: Adult
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Synopsis

Rebecca’s parents were born to very different families. One wealthy, one all but destitute, they were united only by their striking mutual beauty. But the sole child to bless their great romantic fairy tale is a daughter of startling ugliness.

The shock of having given birth to such a monster leads the mother to withdraw both herself and her daughter from the world. Only by keeping her child indoors, away from strangers’ eyes, can she protect her from their disgust.

But against all odds, with a little help from some remarkable friends, Rebecca discovers a talent for music that proves that inner beauty can outshine any other.

My thoughts

I haven’t really had the chance to read a great amount of translated fiction before so A Life Apart was definitely unique in this respect, and a bit different from the books I normally read. But since there was something in the synopsis which really intrigued me and because I tend to like emotional stories in which the main character tries to overcome some traumatic incident in his or her life (and because the cover is so breathtakingly gorgeous), I decided to pick it up and give it a try. And while in hindsight I wasn’t particularly keen on the language and narration itself, Rebecca’s personality and her story, her journey towards accepting her looks and living a relatively normal life definitely made up for it.

What surprised me the most is the fact that the novel has quite a few magical elements in it and despite my initial expectations, it’s not an everyday story. As it turns out, Rebecca’s mother’s family has carried a taint for several generations. A minor taint which is supposed to leave your mind, your beauty and your life untouched, but a taint all the same. Now and again an unfortunate child would be born with six or seven fingers on each hand, leaving the family with no other options but to hide them from the prying eyes of their neighbours and everyone else. Hoping to escape this misfortune, Rebecca’s mother marries a handsome young man whose entire generation has been untouched by it. However, when Rebecca is born, they immediately realise that something is very wrong… for despite the father’s impeccable past and the two parents’ beauty, the baby turns out to be a freak of nature. After Rebecca is born, a heavy silence falls on the family home. Literally. She is hidden away from the outside world, is not allowed to attend nursery school or leave the house before sundown and her mother stops talking to them altogether. Not only does she refuse talking to her own husband, she never once sets eyes on her daughter. And this is where Rebecca’s journey starts: in a place devoid of any kind of parental love or affection, where she’s a prisoner in her own home.

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Showcase Sunday #44

May 19th, 2013 Showcase Sunday 52 comments »

Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren, the aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here.

Hello everyone! Guess what – I’m back! :) I don’t know whether you remember all those family/university related things that I mentioned a few weeks ago and which made my life pretty hectic lately. Well, the good news is, I’m graduating in 2 weeks’ time so things are finally starting to calm down a bit. I still have my two final exams left (28 May and 4 June) so I might be a bit slow at responding to your comments and stuff, but I’m here and I’m ready to get down to business. Huzzah!

Since I didn’t do a book haul post in the past two weeks, I think, I have quite a lot of stuff to show you. Ready? Here we go.

For review

Showcase Sunday 44 - review books

Come to the Edge by Joanna Kavenna {read my review here}
The Longest Holiday by Paige Toon

Both of these books were unsolicited review copies I received about two weeks ago. You may remember that I actually read and reviewed Come to the Edge last summer when it first came out in hardback and I absolutely loved it. It’s been one of my favourite books ever since and it still cracks me up. The paperback edition you can see here was published last week and – here comes the best bit – not only does it have a strikingly red cover, its edges are red too! Anyway, it’s a brilliant book so make sure to pick it up if you haven’t read it yet. I haven’t had time to read The Longest Holiday yet but I’ve heard great things about it on Twitter so I hope it’s a good one. Thank you, Quercus and Simon & Schuster!

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Richard and Judy Book Club Reading Challenge – Summer 2013

May 15th, 2013 Richard and Judy Book Club Reading Challenge 38 comments »

Richard and Judy Book Club Reading Challenge – Summer 2013

Hi guys, I’m back! Hurray! *insert cheerful confetti-throwing here* And not only am I back but I have a brand new reading challenge for you. One of my bookish New Year’s resolutions, which I don’t think I’ve shared with you here on the blog, was to try and step out of my comfort zone and read books and genres which I don’t know much about or ones I haven’t really tried before. And I think this challenge would be perfect for this purpose. I’ve been thinking about hosting this event for months but with travelling, writing my dissertation and preparing for exams, I’ve never really had enough time to actually do it. But since – apart from my two final exams at the end of this month – things are finally starting to calm down a bit and since so many of you loved the idea when I mentioned it on Twitter, I decided to go ahead and make it an official reading challenge.

What is it about?

The aim of this challenge is to read all ten books from Richard and Judy’s list of summer book club titles between 1 June and 31 August. (If you’re not from the UK and/or haven’t heard of Richard and Judy, you’ll find more information here) The books on the list are:

Richard and Judy Book Club Summer 2013

Tigers in Red Weather – Liza Klaussmann
The Age of Miracles – Karen Thompson Walker
Close My Eyes – Sophie McKenzie
This is How It Ends – Kathleen MacMahon
Natural Causes – James Oswald
The Light Between Oceans – M. L. Stedman
The Sea Change – Joanna Rossiter
The Universe Versus Alex Woods – Gavin Extence
The Girl Who Fell From the Sky – Simon Mawer
The Sea Sisters – Lucy Clarke

Guidelines

  • The challenge, as mentioned above, runs from 1 June to 31 August, 2013.
  • You don’t have to be a blogger in order to sign up, anyone can join us. The more the merrier! :)
  • To make it as much of a low-pressure event as possible, you can read the books in any order you like and as fast or slow as you can, it’s all up to you. There won’t be any challenges to complete, it’s all about reading, having fun and interacting with other readers. Which brings me to my next point.
  • If you’re on Twitter, make sure to use the #richardandjudy hashtag whenever you post something related to the challenge or the books on the list so that we can all see what you’re up to, discuss what everyone thinks of certain books and encourage each other. If you want to follow or join the discussion, you can go to our Richard and Judy chat room at http://tweetchat.com/room/richardandjudy
  • There will be a monthly wrap-up post at the end of June, July and August here on the blog where you can discuss the books and post a link to all your reviews.

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Calling All YA Fantasy Readers

May 10th, 2013 blog tour 2 comments »

Hi guys! Novel Publicity has another epic blog tour coming up on the 20th of May and we need you. Do you like YA fantasy, want to have fun, drive traffic to your blog, support a wonderful author and win tons of prizes (including cash prizes AND a Kindle Fire) at the same time? ‘Course you do!

We’re touring two books in a YA Fantasy series by Thaddeus Nowak, Mother’s Curse and Daughter’s Justice. Review one, both, or neither. That’s right, you don’t even have to read the books to participate – although we’d love for you to do so. But if you decide not to review them, we will provide your choice of a pre-formatted excerpt, interview, or guest post to make participation easy.

About the books

Thaddeus Nowak - Mother's Curse

Tradition holds that a mother who commits a mortal sin against the gods will be cursed with a daughter born a witch. Stephenie, the youngest princess of Cothel is just such a curse. Hostage to her mother’s will while her father and older brother fight a war two countries away, Stephenie must overcome her mother’s plots if she is to save her father, brother, and the many soldiers she trained with.

Fearful of her mother’s growing traitorous behavior, Stephenie must escape Antar Castle. But to do so, she might have to rely upon her hidden powers, risking others discovering she is a witch…a risk that would most certainly result in her death by burning. With the help of a select group of soldiers and an unexpected ally, she just might survive.

Daughter's Justice by Thaddeus Nowak

Stephenie has revealed to the world that she is a witch!The faithful followers of Felis and the other gods are now demanding that she be burned to prevent the spread of the demon god’s evil. However, another voice is rising up, declaring that she has already been cleansed of Elrin’s influence and that she is chosen by the gods; it is a claim Stephenie detests.

To make matters worse, her brother, who by rights of succession is now King, lacks the funds to pay his soldiers and keep control of Cothel. Their mother, having fled to Kynto with the treasury and war supplies, has emboldened some of the dukes and many of the barons to demand more control of the country in exchange for their support.

Can Stephenie avoid the fires of the followers of Felis and people she once called friend or will their claims of righteous anger overwhelm her support? And even if she avoids being burned alive, will her presence simply be the catalyst that plunges Cothel into a civil war?

Interested in joining us? Make sure to click here and sign up. :)

Showcase Sunday #43 and a Short Blogging Break

April 28th, 2013 Showcase Sunday 38 comments »

Inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren, the aim of Showcase Sunday is to highlight our newest books or book related swag and to see what everyone else received for review, borrowed from libraries, bought in bookshops and downloaded onto eReaders each week. For more information about how this feature works and how to join in, click here.

Hello, how are you all? I’ve had another busy and exhausting week. *yawns, stretches* I’ve been pretty much reading and working on uni assignments 24/7 and it’s not nearly over yet. Anyway… let’s see the books first!

Incoming

Showcase Sunday 43

Three Strong Women by Marie NDiaye { for review }
A Life Apart by Mariapia Veladiano { for review }
You Don’t Know Me by Sophia Bennett { gift }

*does a little happy dance* Well hello, new Sophia Bennett book! I don’t know if you guys remember but I read/reviewed her previous book (The Look) this time last year and I absolutely loved it. I had no idea a new book was about to be published but thanks to Jo at Once Upon a Bookcase, I do now. Long story short, I’ve been following Jo’s blog since she and three other panelists took part in a blogging related discussion at the London Book Fair earlier this month. A few weeks ago (or was it only last week?!) Jo featured Sophia’s new book in her weekly book haul post and not only did she make me realise there was a new book coming out shortly but she was lovely enough to send me her copy. Thanks so much, Jo! :) The other two books are unsolicited review copies from Quercus. Isn’t A Life Apart gorgeous, by the way? Me and my dad were pretty much drooling over the cover when it landed on our doorstep the other day. :D It’s definitely one of the prettiest covers I’ve seen lately. I’m not sure Three Strong Women will be my cup of tea but A Life Apart does sound rather interesting and I’ll definitely give it a try once my exams are over.

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Review: Like This, For Ever – S.J. Bolton

April 26th, 2013 4 stars, Bantam Press, Book reviews, thriller 6 comments »

Like This, For Ever – S.J. Bolton

Title: Like This, For Ever (Lacey Flint #3)
Author: S.J. Bolton
Publication date: 11 April 2013
Publisher: Bantam Press (Transworld Publishers)
Format: Ebook
ASIN: 9780593064153
Length: 400 pages
Genre: Thriller
Age group: Adult
Source: Netgalley
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon UK | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Synopsis

Bright red. Like rose petals. Or rubies. Or balloons. Little red droplets.

Barney knows the killer will strike again soon. The victim will be another boy, just like him. He will drain the body of blood, and leave it on a Thames beach. There will be no clues for detectives Dana Tulloch and Mark Joesbury to find. There will be no warning about who will be next. There will be no good reason for Lacey Flint to become involved … And no chance that she can stay away.

My thoughts

After reading and absolutely enjoying three (or four, if you count If Snow Hadn’t Fallen, a Lacey Flint short story) books by S.J. Bolton, I think it’s safe to say that no matter what she comes up with, I’m going to end up loving it. Needless to say, Like This, For Ever was a great read full of twists and turns, which kept me guessing right until the end.

Perhaps what I enjoyed the most about this book – apart from the obvious, i.e. trying to figure out what on earth is going on and who the murderer is – is the narration. Unlike the previous books in the series, most chapters in Like This, For Ever are narrated by an eleven-year-old boy (who happens to be Lacey’s neighbour) called Barney. Telling the story from a kid’s point of view can be quite tricky but Bolton pulls it off and both Barney’s and the adult characters’ narratives sound totally believable. (I’ve read a few books in which kids of Barney’s age sounded like adults and way too mature for their age, which eventually ruined the whole story for me – Like This, For Ever is definitely not like this.)

Is it the best book of the series, though? No, for me it wasn’t. What I was missing from this story is the creepiness and the ability to scare the living daylight out of you from the very first page, something which the first two books in the series were quite heavily relying on, something in which the author is brilliant at, and something which, despite the fact that they gave me a few sleepless nights, I absolutely loved. I’ve seriously never been as freaked out as when I was reading the previous two books. Like This, For Ever just didn’t have this effect on me for some reason. It might be down to the fact that a) I found this story a bit more predictable than the previous ones. While the first two books had me at a loss and I hadn’t the faintest idea who was guilty and who was innocent, I managed to recognise some of the red herrings quite soon in this one. Mind you, I still had no idea who the killer would be and it did surprise me when I read the last chapter – I would have never guessed. But I figured out who some of the innocent ones were (no matter how shifty their behaviour was) surprisingly fast. Or b) this book is centred around children and teenage boys, which obviously makes the whole issue a lot trickier (after all, you can’t have the same amount of brutality in a book about Jack the Ripper – one of the most notorious serial killers of all time – and one in which young boys are being murdered, unless you want to piss everyone off), I don’t know. All I know is that while I enjoyed the investigation part, loved Lacey and Mark’s subplot and once again, the killer’s identity took me by surprise, it just wasn’t haunting enough to keep me up till the crack of dawn as the previous books did.

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Blog Tour Review: Under the Jewelled Sky – Alison McQueen

April 24th, 2013 5 stars, Book reviews, book tour, historical fiction 16 comments »

Under the Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen

Title: Under the Jewelled Sky
Author: Alison McQueen
Publication date: 25 April 2013
Publisher: Orion
Format: Trade paperback
ISBN: 9781409131182
Length: 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Age group: Adult
Source: Publisher
Add it: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | Amazon US | The Book Depository

Synopsis

A love story for India, for a lost world and a boy from a forbidden world.

London 1957. In a bid to erase her past, Sophie Schofield accepts a wedding proposal from ambitious British diplomat, Lucien Grainger. When he is posted to New Delhi, into the glittering circle of ex-pat society, old wounds begin to break open as Sophie is confronted with the memory of her first, forbidden love and its devastating consequences. This is not the India she fell in love with ten years before in a maharaja’s palace, the India that ripped out her heart as Partition tore the country in two.

And so begins the unravelling of an ill-fated marriage, setting in motion a devastating chain of events that will bring her face to face with a past she tried so desperately to forget, and a future she must fight for. This is a tender story of love, loss of innocence, and the aftermath of a terrible decision no one knew how to avoid.

My thoughts

Regular readers of the blog might know that it’s quite rare when I read and review historical fiction or books with a similar subject matter. I’ve never really been interested in this genre and on the rare occasion when I did pick up a historical novel, I never seemed to enjoy it as much as I should have. However, there was something about Under the Jewelled Sky (possibly the idea of love and loss and a past better forgotten) which really piqued my curiosity and I decided to read it. Never in a million years did I imagine falling in love with McQueen’s story as much and as quickly as I did.

Starting her story with a hint of a family drama and a dark past, the author introduces us to Sophie – a British girl who spent part of her childhood in India – and her mother who is visibly not too keen on seeing her daughter after so many years. We learn that it’s been quite a long time since the two of them saw each other and they clearly haven’t been in touch ever since. It takes a great deal of courage on Sophie’s part to make this visit, yet her mother couldn’t behave in a more rude and nasty way. When Sophie announces that she only came to tell her something, she refuses to listen. And Sophie leaves. Needless to say, it was only the first chapter but I was hooked already. What might have happened to cause such tension between the two women? What was Sophie about to say to her mother? I knew it would be related to some buried family secrets but the complexity of Sophie’s past and what they’ve all been through back in India not only took me completely by surprise but made me read the last 200 pages in literally one sitting.

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