This is a lovely biography of an early female scientist, by an author who clearly put a lot of care and interest into learning about Maria Sibylla Merian and her work. Born in Germany in the mid-17th century, Merian trained as an artist but was fascinated by the metamorphosis of insects from childhood. She continued to study them throughout her life, observing and creating gorgeous paintings of their life stages, and ultimately traveled from Amsterdam to Suriname in 1699 to study insects there, in one of the earliest European scientific voyages. She was a pioneer of ecology: studying life in its natural context rather than collecting dead specimens to observe under a microscope.

A challenge the author faces is that little material about Merian’s personal life survived, though she left lots of notes and artwork. So there is some speculation here, though Todd often suggests multiple possibilities where we don’t know the answer rather than pushing for a particular interpretation. What we do know about Merian’s life is so tantalizing that I wish we had more: what really happened in her marriage, which resulted in a divorce at a time when this was highly unusual? What led her to join, and then leave, the severe, cult-like Labadist sect, and what was life like in it? There’s a lot we don’t know, but Todd fills in many of the blanks with history, by researching life in Germany, the Netherlands and Suriname at the time Merian lived in these places. I’m surprised others have found the book dry; to me it had a quiet warmth that really drew me in.

Unusually for a biography, this book continues well after Merian’s death, which occurs on page 225 out of 282. It then follows her daughters, her scientific legacy, and recent developments in ecology and studies of metamorphosis, all of which adds a lot to the book. I’d love to see more biographies engage with the context of their subjects in this way. There are also black-and-white illustrations as well as some color plates, many showing Merian’s work, though for me reading this alongside the illustrated children’s book Maria Sibylla Merian: Artist, Scientist, Adventurer was great because that one provides such a wealth of color paintings by Merian.

In the end, I enjoyed this a lot: it’s intelligent, accessible, and wide-ranging in its subject matter while telling what we know of the story of a remarkable woman. I love that Todd wrote this book at all: it’s surprisingly hard to find historical biographies (at least in English) of people who spoke languages other than English, and if they’re women without adventurous sex lives, forget it! But from these biographies Merian emerges as a fascinating person who deserves to be remembered.

Chrysalis Corporation - T.A. Venedicktov I will start by saying this is one of the most beautiful books I've read in a while and I cannot wait for the next one to come out cause I'm going through withdrawal symptoms big time!

We have two beautiful "makes my hart melt" main characters and sweet and funny sidekicks but there's also plenty of stupid, idiot "kill them with fire" bad guys which I hope will meet their well deserved demise in the next book!

It all starts when Damion Hawk decides to escape his hard life on Mars and become an Alpha Fighter pilot, there he meets Juni (also a pilot) and become fast friends while going through their training for many years . All is well until he's announced that he's been chosen by a Core (men with computerized implants and no human emotions) to be his pilot. Each Alpha Pilot has its own Core to help them better manage their fighter plane and to have an improved performance when fighting bad guys.

It's when we meet Core 47, a beautiful, smart and ambitious core who has chosen Damion as his pilot after many years observing his flight scores, IQ tests and such. He has refused to chose other pilots while waiting for Damion since he decided he wants only the best one! Of course the stupid Chrysalis Corporation force other fighters on him, who abuse him but ultimately get killed by Core 47 during test flights. Needless to say that when Damion hears all this, he fears that Core 47 will decide to kill him too, even though Core 47 tells him he's been specifically waiting for him and there are 99.9% changes he won't kill him (lol).

This is when one of the most beautiful love stories starts.

Core 47 is, as I said before, a computerized human male who's been implanted with ports (for connecting to computers and the fighter plane) and lacks emotions since birth. He doesn't understand and can't relate to Damion on an emotional level, but they form a tentative friendship which allows the to trust each other. What make this a difficult and emotional read is the fact that Cores are viewed as slaves and inferior humans (sometimes not even that, just machines) and we witness many abuses against them, it's hard to read how they're treated and scorned by other man.

Damion slowly starts liking Core 47 and decides he doesn't like calling him by a number and gives him a name "Requiem" and also starts asking him to stop eating the drugged food given by the corporation (by giving the Cores special drugged food, which suppress their emotions and makes them easy to control). After no longer getting the drugs in his food, Requiem starts having emotions that he doesn't understand.
The way Damion explains them to him, they way Damion makes him feel like a human and not a machine made me fall in love with this book! It's simply beautiful and sweet and made my hart melt. You have to read this book!

Of course the "Powers that be" don't like Requiem having feelings so they do mean, hateful stuff to make their bonding stop. I hate them and I hope they die a slow painful death!!!
I'll stop hear with my review since I don't want to give away the whole book, but I just want stress again how beautiful their love story is and how much it moved me.
The book ends in a cliffhanger which by many of you could be considered unbearable but in a way (even if I didn't know that we have a next installment coming, hopefully in December) it can be a perfect (albeit tragic) ending.

I'll leave you with some beautiful art of the boys from the author's facebook page:

Requiem aka Core 47



Requiem and Damion together:



----------------------------------

I need a moment... That cliffhanger hit me out of nowhere...still FANTASTIC book!

Great beginning. I totally blushed when Alexander did too

Cute

This was promising. A tortured hero with an unusual disease which opens lots of possibilities for the relationship to be developed, but the idea was wronged by the style of choice and the writing.



Alexander Price has Epidermolysis Bullosa, his hands and feet are covered with blisters that appear spontaneously or by stress and anxiety or by physical brushes on the skin. He can’t touch anybody or carry things or dress himself without a high degree of pain. So, in a romance story the logical first question that comes to mind is: how is he going to make love with his partner?



I like reading stories with a hero with some kind of disability but very few of them are real or fair. Mostly because sometimes the disease or handicap is written in an insufferable and sappy way that makes me want to close the book. I don’t like to be manipulated into feeling empathy to the MC just due to organical or psychological matters. I want to be convinced by facts, feelings and thoughts. More showing and less writing. I don’t want for the character to be defined by his/her disease, I want a whole and real person.



I felt that here. I see this book as a vain attempt. I should have read the three novellas in a row but I was tired of this story just finishing the first part. I wasn’t sure if this book was meant to have an omniscient narrator or to follow to the letter the MC exact thoughts.



One big mistake is using both POV at the same time. Not alternating here, but combining both in the same paragraph or even in the same sentence. My head hurt trying to separate each one of their voices, but still I couldn’t feel close to the MC and their words were too basic and showed little soul and personality.



Also, I don’t know why but misfits always have loyal friends with whom they work in a library of a café, above all those friends being their bosses and helping them even when they are antisocial and weird. Here both MC have two friends in their workplaces, one male and one female, and in each pair one of them is in love with the other but do nothing to make the first move. Alex’s mother is the everlasting concerned mother that gave me chills. She reminded me of the obsessed mum in Black Swan.



As a result, the credibility here is in question, as everything is too forced and unnatural. Very true friends, too much coincidence in crushes, too lovely but scary mothers, too confusing writing and too shallow characters.

A few minor things that rubbed me the wrong way but I'd say...

 

 

Well done overall!  Love that the hero/ine took time to get know one another rather than fall immediately into the kinky sexing per usual of this genre. Much more believable portrayal of a BDSM relationship, than gratuitous kink for titillation sake right out of the gate. 

 

I did wish Awakening was a bit longer; just as their relationship is progressing, the story ends.   I definitely plan to continue with this this series to read Bridget's story, where I hope we'll get some updates on Claire and Evan.