I have been trying to love this and I just don't. At 17% I am still yawning and just plain bored. Nothing much has happened to catch my attention. Next please.

Dreamer's Pool

by Juliet Marillier
Book 1 of Blackthorn & Grim

Dreamer's Pool, to be honest, while written well with Juliet Marillier's style of magic and lore, also sort of tended towards the predictable.  It's a usual plot device of Marillier's to give away the plot twist from one of the tales or stories told throughout the book.  And so it wasn't hard to figure out how everything would turn out in the end.

As has been quite typical of Marillier as well, this first book in the Blackthorn & Grim trilogy involved a lot of world building and set-up.  A lot of traveling happened, and I'm not entirely sure that things started picking up until about halfway through the book.  At least, for me, I didn't start getting really interested until halfway through the book.

So while I enjoyed the book, I still had a hard time with it, not only because of the slowness of the plotting, but also because of how hard it was to really relate with any of the characters.  Blackthorn tended towards more bitter than I felt like she needed to be, and I found I liked her more when she wasn't constantly thinking about how she could betray the new chance at life that Conmael gave her by going back to her need for revenge.  I didn't mind her being a cranky old wise woman (who was hardly old by biological age standards), and I liked her role as the local wise woman.

I'm much like Blackthorn in that I hate being crowded and I like my privacy.  But I think that, as much as Blackthorn and Grim seem to understand the way that the fey work their magic, they don't seem to understand that there might be a reason for the seven year restriction that Conmael has given her.  If Blackthorn went back for her revenge at this stage in her new chance at life, she'd probably just end up back in prison again.

Anyway, the only reason I even gave this book a higher rating anyway was because of the last half of the book.  It certainly did end up drawing me in all the way, and if only we could have stuck with Blackthorn's and Grim's POVs, I think I would have enjoyed the book in it's entirety a lot more.  I sincerely was more interested in their journey, and instead found Prince Oran kind of frustrating to follow.

I also found our "villian" more overpowered than was believable.  Lady Flidais's behavior was never acceptable nor was it normal, so I'm surprised that no one ever called her out on it, save for Oran in private.

Of course, without Oran's POV, there probably wouldn't be a whole lot of story.  Maybe if this book were written in third person, things might have been a bit different?

Nonetheless, the end of the book left me wanting more, and so I will definitely be jumping into the next book when I get the chance.

Halloween Bingo 2019

Made it thru just fine. I've been up walking. Sleeping over night at a hospital is not fun. They poke and prod you every hour or two for blood pressure or blood sugar or whatever. Luckily I brought ear plugs and a sleep mask so I could block out a lot of the outside noise. They think I can go home today since I'm doing really well. 

So me and Felicia the bun bun are just going to read for a while. A blue girl topples from the sky and dies? You have my attention .

So this is what I have settled on to read while I heal. Two are y'alls suggestions, and two are my own. I will be in the hospital Tuesday to probably Thursday. There is a chance I could be sent home Wednesday but I'm not holding my breath on that. I'm taking my Kindle so that I have a ton of options if I don't like what I'm trying to read. Here's to my journey!

I have never seen or received better author swag in my life, recipe cards of food talked about in the book!

I made the Dominican Red Beans, I think mine came out a little more soupy than they are suppose to but they still tasted great

I love the added dimension this swag adds to the reading experience, not to mention the yummy

Ready to spy on your romance, Nesto and Jude... 

American Dreamer by Adriana Herrera purchase link