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My latest podcast is up on the New Books Network website! In it, I interview Iain MacGregor about his oral history of the Berlin Wall. Enjoy!
My latest podcast is up on the New Books Network website! In it, I interview Iain MacGregor about his oral history of the Berlin Wall. Enjoy!
Per fictfact's new release calendar at https://www.fictfact.com/BookReleaseCalendar .
Look there to see the full list.
As my second Kindle (monthly Prime rental) book, I thought I’d go for a “top” book in my genre. An Amazon imprint publishes it, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s not a long book, but it felt much longer than it should’ve. It’s set back a hundred or two hundred years ago in London where magicians work with man-made goods. I thought the premise was fun, and it was interesting that the main character Ceony, worked with paper. I also quite liked the idea of working with man-made things such as metal (smithing) etc. and being able to enchant them.
I felt that there was too much backstory to the story. We dive into the backstory of Mg. Thane about half-way through the book and then spend the rest of the book there (I can’t explain this without giving away the story). I don’t know about most people, but I just cringed when I read all of this. I wasn’t interested in any of this, but I guess the author thought this backstory would be fun.
I still don’t know how I felt about the evil character, Lira, who is what is named an “Excisioner”. I felt she wasn’t exactly thought out or explained in this book (even though she features in a lot of the back story). I don’t know, but none of the characters resonated with me in this story. Ceony, the main character felt rushed and way too easily charmed. Mg. Thane almost seemed too cliche.
I thought it was quite a cool concept, but not executed as well as it could’ve been. I would recommend you get this out at your library, or if you can rent it free as I did, that’d be a good opportunity to read it also. All in all, I liked the magical concept, but not the actual execution of the story.
So, it’s a new month, and that means that I can rent a new book for the month (as an Amazon Prime member). Note, I don’t have the unlimited books for Amazon Prime. I looked at the selections and in Germany, you do get a crap selection (I don’t read German books). If someone at Amazon can prove me otherwise, be my guest.
We follow Ceony Twill again through this magical historical world. Now, she still loves her teacher, for whatever reason after being in his heart. I don’t really like this romance and would rather see it die. It seems to be Miss Twills only reason to do things and (well I’m not a 19-year-old girl) I don’t think 19-year-olds would put their entire life and career on the line for a man much older than her (maybe a 16-year-old would do that because of their first love etc. ).
We also join a character Delilah, who is apparently one of her best friends becomes kind of a major character in this book. She’s a glass magicia, and I guess that’s why she’s in this book at all. Delilah explains to Ceony how Glass magic works, and that’s about all she does.
I guess this book returns to the theme that love conquers all. This is shown with Ceony’s insistence that she needs to protect her teacher because she loves him so much (even if he pretends he doesn’t like her).
The book also follows along the lines of good vs. evil. Good is the side of the magicians who don’t use the blood magic and evil is the team that uses it.
Another theme is that society oppresses people. How is this shown? With the magical bindings that each have to choose after school. Ceony breaks this and can change to a glass magician.
My recommendation is the same as the last that you should rent this book (for free). I do like the concept in the story, but the characters and the actual story needed a bit of work. My thoughts are also that it was too short. All in all, I will probably read the last book in the series with my next month rental.
