Book Review: Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

Title: Ink & Sigil
By: Kevin Hearne
Genre: Paranormal
Pages: 336
Release Date: August 25th, 2020
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Rating: ★★★★☆

Summary from Goodreads:

New York Times bestselling author Kevin Hearne returns to the world of his beloved Iron Druid Chronicles in a spin-off series about an eccentric master of rare magic solving an uncanny mystery in Scotland.

Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails – and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.

But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.

But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective – while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.

 

Review:

This story threw me into a world of unique magic and world building. I really enjoyed this book. It had a mystery that I couldn't figure out until the end, and I'm great at figuring out mysteries early on. It always intrigues me when I don't know what is going to happen.

The characters were deep and dark, something that really played out well in the blackness of the world around them and they really helped the story to move forward at a wonderful pace.

If you want a Harry Potter meets True Blood kind of vibe, this is the book for you.


Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
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Book Review: Reflection by Elizabeth Lim

Title: Reflection
By: Elizabeth Lim
Genre: Fantasy/Retelling
Pages: 408
Release Date: March 27th, 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Rating: ★★★★★

Summary from Goodreads:

What if Mulan had to travel to the Underworld?

When Captain Shang is mortally wounded by Shan Yu in battle, Mulan must travel to the Underworld, Diyu, in order to save him from certain death. But King Yama, the ruler of Diyu, is not willing to give Shang up easily. With the help of Shang's great lion guardian ShiShi, Mulan must traverse Diyu to find Shang's spirit, face harrowing obstacles, and leave by sunrise⁠—or become King Yama's prisoner forever. Moreover, Mulan is still disguised as the soldier called Ping, wrestling with the decision to reveal her true identity to her closest friend. Will Mulan be able to save Shang before it's too late? Will he ever be able to trust her again? Or will she lose him--and be lost in the Underworld⁠—forever?


Review:

If Mulan went to the underworld... This is what would happen...

I loved this twist on a childhood favorite. Mulan followed the man she loved into the underworld, to bring him back. Problem is, he still doesn't know what she is and she only has until sunup to bring him back.

 This was my first Disney twisted tale, but it won't be my last.

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May 2020 Wrap Up


Welcome to my May 2020 book wrap up. A list of what I read last month.

So, I updated my wrap up images. They look pretty snazzy if I do say so myself... And I do... May was a crazy month, but I managed to read a whole bunch of amazing books. Lets get to it, shall we?

Three books made it on my five star list. They are all very different, but I enjoyed them all for their own reasons. My Story by Elizabeth Smart really chilled me to the core, but told a story about the strength of one person to survive. The Girls With No Names by Serena Burdick was an emotional roller coaster of what love between sisters looks like. Hella is a ground breaking scifi with an unusual, but wonderful main character. A must read. 


My Story

For the first time, ten years after her abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom, Elizabeth Smart reveals how she survived and the secret to forging a new life in the wake of a brutal crime.
On June 5, 2002, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart, the daughter of a close-knit Mormon family, was taken from her home in the middle of the night by religious fanatic, Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. She was kept chained, dressed in disguise, repeatedly raped, and told she and her family would be killed if she tried to escape. After her rescue on March 12, 2003, she rejoined her family and worked to pick up the pieces of her life.
Now for the first time, in her memoir, MY STORY, she tells of the constant fear she endured every hour, her courageous determination to maintain hope, and how she devised a plan to manipulate her captors and convinced them to return to Utah, where she was rescued minutes after arriving. Smart explains how her faith helped her stay sane in the midst of a nightmare and how she found the strength to confront her captors at their trial and see that justice was served.
In the nine years after her rescue, Smart transformed from victim to advocate, traveling the country and working to educate, inspire and foster change. She has created a foundation to help prevent crimes against children and is a frequent public speaker. In 2012, she married Matthew Gilmour, whom she met doing mission work in Paris for her church, in a fairy tale wedding that made the cover of People magazine.

The Girls with No Names


Hella











42/50 Books in my Read Around the Country challenge
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17/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge
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6/20 in my Scotland challenge
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39/341 Gilmore Girls challenge
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38/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge


I'm nearly finished with my read around the country challenge, should be done within the next few weeks. Then I can get to work on some of my other challenges. A few are pretty hefty. 

I've already started my June TBR list, its looking like an amazing month. I'd love to hear what you plan on reading. Leave me a comment below.

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Book Review: Little Creepy Things by Chelsea Ichaso

Title: Little Creepy Things
By: Chelsea Ichaso
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 336
Release Date: June 2nd, 2020
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Rating: ★★★★☆

Summary from Goodreads:

When she was a child, Cassidy Pratt accidentally started a fire that killed her neighbor. At least, that’s what she’s been told. She can’t remember anything from that day, and her town’s bullies, particularly the cruel and beautiful Melody Davenport, have never let her live it down.

But then Melody goes missing, and Cassidy thinks she may have information. She knows she should go to the cops, but she recently joked about how much she’d like to get rid of Melody. She even planned out the perfect way to do it. And then she gets a chilling text from an unknown number: I’m so glad we’re in this together.

Now it’s up to Cassidy to figure out what really happened before the truth behind Melody’s disappearance sets the whole town ablaze.

Review:

Creepy is right... This book kept me guessing the whole time I was reading it.

We follow a group of pretty messed up kids, who blackmail, threaten and lie to each other daily. This turmoil of a cast kept me on my toes wondering, "could it be them? I think so... Nope, not them... Wait, is it?" In the end, I didn't see it coming.

The back story really helped hold the plot together and unfolded so precisely that I felt like I had lived it along with the characters.

I really enjoyed this read. Blasted through it in one sitting. A great creepy read for a dreary spring afternoon.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

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Weekly Menu #354 And The Book Of The Week


Monday! What a beautiful week we had. The weather was hot... a little too hot... but sunny and wonderful. Work was crazy busy again, now that the country is waking up from its long sleep, and my boys are finally back on a sleep schedule that works for everyone. It was a little rough there for a while. 

I didn't do as much reading last week as I had wished, but I did manage to finish a few review books that I can't wait to share with you, so make sure to check back in the next couple weeks for them.

This weeks read is Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson (no relation). The book drops in July and I'm excited dive into these covers before its released. I've been waiting for this book for a while now.

What are you reading this week? Leave me a comment below.

The menu looks delicious, so without further ado, enjoy!

MENU 


Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

 Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday
Leftovers Night



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Sunday Confessions #46


Hello Sunday! It's been a long week. I got my hands on the new Hunger Games book. If you didn't know, Suzanne Collins came out with a prequel to the fabulous Hunger Games trilogy, so go get your copy. Our county is now in the post Covid 19 phase 1. Not sure what that is going to look like for me, but I'm dying for a haircut. Pandemic hair is not pretty. And, I've lost 5 lbs in all this Kerfuffle. Its been a weird week.

Anyway, lets move on with this weeks confessions.  


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Weekly Menu #354 And The Book Of The Week
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Book Review: Creepy Little Things by Chelsea Ichaso
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Book Review: Reflection by Elizabeth Lim
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Author Interview: Brian Finney
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Sunday Confessions #47




42/50 Books in my Read Around the Country challenge
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17/196 in my Star Wars Legends challenge
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6/20 in my Scotland challenge
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39/341 Gilmore Girls challenge
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38/100 in my 100 books before you die challenge


I'm ready to get back to normal. Stay safe out there.

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Book Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley


Title: The Winter Sea
By: Susanna Kearsley
Genre: Time Travel
Pages: 536
Release Date: December 1st, 2010
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Rating: ★★★★☆

Summary from Goodreads:

In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth—the ultimate betrayal—that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her.…


Review:

A mystical time traveling tale that brought the future in line with the past.

The way the author wove a historical tale into a new age story, was really creative. As the main character dreamed about something that happened in the past, she used that story to write her book, but when she begins to research her characters, she finds out that the story might actually be true. Its a wonderful way of doing time travel without actual time travel.
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