Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Title:  Miranda and Caliban Author:  Jacqueline Carey Genre: Fantasy, Retelling My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Miranda is a lonely child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves gifts on their doorstep is the isle’s only other human inhabitant. There are other memories, too: vague, dream-like memories of another time and another place. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am I? Where did I come from? The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too; an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Miranda’s father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his...

I'm halfway through December reviews, I'm hoping to finish up some bullet reviews for December/January in the next week or two and then start writing actual reviews again soon! This week is a little bit of a hodge-podge set of reviews; they are all loosely connected because they are all books that I didn't like as much as I thought I would. I had heard so much about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I liked it initially, but then I just got kind of bored with it. I was really enjoying Brian Staveley's Unhewn Throne trilogy, and I'd heard glowing reviews about the conclusion, but I liked the second book better than the third. And finally, I read the sequel to Ancillary Justice since I loved the first book so much, but the second just didn't compare. Here are the reviews! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Genre: mystery, suspense Rating: 3/5 stars What I liked: I listened to the audio version, and I really liked the narr...

Title:  Gilded Cage Author:  Vic James Genre: Fantasy My rating: 2 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Not all are free. Not all are equal. Not all will be saved. Our world belongs to the Equals — aristocrats with magical gifts — and all commoners must serve them for ten years. But behind the gates of England's grandest estate lies a power that could break the world. A girl thirsts for love and knowledge. Abi is a servant to England's most powerful family, but her spirit is free. So when she falls for one of the noble-born sons, Abi faces a terrible choice. Uncovering the family's secrets might win her liberty, but will her heart pay the price? A boy dreams of revolution. Abi's brother, Luke, is enslaved in a brutal factory town. Far from his family and cruelly oppressed, he makes friends whose ideals could cost him everything. Now Luke has discovered there may be a power even greater than magic: revolution. And an aristocrat will remake the world with his dark gi...

Round 4 of Bullet reviews features some not-quite-urban-fantasy books . I say not-quite because all three books involve our modern world and some paranormal creatures but none of them quite fit into the stereotypical UF mold. I was initially planning on making this set of reviews the last few books I read in November, but those three books were completely unrelated so I decided to grab a book from December to make the reviews fit better together. Vampire Academy by Richelle Meade Genre: contemporary, urban fantasy Rating: 4/5 stars What I liked: Full disclosure: I only picked this up because it started with a V and I needed to complete my A-Z challenge. That said, I had zero expectations going into this book and I ended up really enjoying it I loved how it focused on friendship. Yes, there were a lot of messy romantic feelings and such but the core of this story is a bond of friendship, and I'm a sucker for stories about amazing friends Lissa and Rose are bo...