Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Title:  Alias Hook Author:  Lisa Jensen Genre: Fantasy, retellings, adult fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: "Every child knows how the story ends. The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It's my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy." Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan’s rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And ...

Welcome to week 2 of the Way of Kings Readalong! For those of you joining in, this week we are reading pages 202-405 (up through Chapter 28). The full schedule is below: Dates chapters June 22 – June 28 Finish through Ch12 (page 210) June 29 – July 5 Finish through Ch28 (page 405) July 6 – July 12 Finish through Ch42 (page 600) July 13 – July 19 Finish through Ch57 (page 810) July 20 – July 26 Finish book (page 1002) Again, you can tweet your thoughts and updates to me @spidersilksnow and use the hashtag #WoKRA. It's never too late to join! If you're starting late, you can always comment on older posts or link me to your posts whenever you have them up. What has happened so far (needless to say, spoilers!): Prelude : There are 10 Heralds with immense power who have just finished battling the giant stone beasts known as thunderclasts. One has died and returned to the torturous hell that all Heralds experi...

Title:  Fingersmith Author:  Sarah Waters Genre: historical fiction, mystery, adult fiction My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted fa...

Title:  Steelheart Author:  Brandon Sanderson Genre: YA, science fiction, dystopia My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills. Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience. He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge. Brandon Sanderson continues to be a storytelling god. This is the fourth book I've re...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme:  Book Cover Trends I Like/Dislike I honestly can't think of 10 different trends, so here are a few that I've noticed. 1. I've been noticing a lot of red and black making an appearance on covers lately. I kind of like it - it hints at the darker elements of the stories without making it too freaky or dark. 2. I also really like the trend of water on book covers. 3. I love the 2D/silhouette look of these covers:   4. I think it's really cool how these covers have faces but with a twist. Either the face is part of something else, or it's the illusion of a face made up of other things...

It's finally here! The Way of Kings Readalong officially begins today. Even if you don't usually read epic fantasy, Sanderson is a great place to start - his stories are so rich and exciting, and the amount of planning that goes into them is insane! Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting my thoughts and predictions each Sunday, and maybe some other tidbits and updates during the week. It's never too late to join - if you don't have a copy of the book yet, the kindle version of the book is on sale for $2.99 right now so don't miss out! Feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments of my blog posts, but if you have your own blog posts, leave a link in the comments or on twitter (my handle is @spidersilksnow)! And if you're tweeting anything about the readalong, you can use the hashtag #WoKRA Here's the schedule - I divided it up so that we're reading about 200 pages a week. If you decide to go ahead, please keep your com...

Title:  The Archived Author:  Victoria Schwab Genre: Magical realism, young adult My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what she once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often—violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive. Being a Keeper isn’t just dangerous—it’s a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da’s death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sl...

Title:  Cruel Beauty Author:  Rosamund Hodge Genre: Retellings, fantasy, young adult My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle-a shifting maze of magical r...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Top Ten Summer TBR books I've been AWOL from Top Ten Tuesdays for the past couple of weeks because of finals, but class is over and summer is finally here! Here are some books I've been looking forward to and can't wait to read this summer.   A no-brainer, considering I am a die-hard Sanderson fan and I'll be hosting a readalong of this starting Sunday. CAN'T WAIT.   I've heard a lot of great things about this book around the blogosphere, but I don't really know what this book is about (which is kind of the point?). The blurb sounds awesome, and I'm excited to start reading.   I love this series and just haven't been able to get a copy of this book to see how it ends. I'm still on the waiting list at the library, but I will read this one soon!   I don't usually read romance nove...