Snowflakes and Spider Silk

Title:  Now I Rise Author:  Kiersten White Genre: Historical fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: She has no allies. No throne. All she has is what she’s always had: herself. After failing to secure the Wallachian throne, Lada Dracul is out to punish anyone who dares to cross her blood-strewn path. Filled with a white-hot rage, she storms the countryside with her men, accompanied by her childhood friend Bogdan, terrorizing the land. But brute force isn’t getting Lada what she wants. And thinking of Mehmed brings little comfort to her thorny heart. There’s no time to wonder whether he still thinks about her, even loves her. She left him before he could leave her. What Lada needs is her younger brother Radu’s subtlety and skill. But Mehmed has sent him to Constantinople—and it’s no diplomatic mission. Mehmed wants control of the city, and Radu has earned an unwanted place as a double-crossing spy behind enemy lines. Radu longs for his sister’s fierce con...

Title:  Range of Ghosts Author:  Elizabeth Bear Genre: Fantasy, historical fantasy My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Temur, grandson of the Great Khan, is walking away from a battlefield where he was left for dead. All around lie the fallen armies of his cousin and his brother, who made war to rule the Khaganate. Temur is now the legitimate heir by blood to his grandfather's throne, but he is not the strongest. Going into exile is the only way to survive his ruthless cousin. Once-Princess Samarkar is climbing the thousand steps of the Citadel of the Wizards of Tsarepheth. She was heir to the Rasan Empire until her father got a son on a new wife. Then she was sent to be the wife of a Prince in Song, but that marriage ended in battle and blood. Now she has renounced her worldly power to seek the magical power of the wizards. These two will come together to stand against the hidden cult that has so carefully brought all the empires of the Celadon Highway to st...

Title:  Winter Tide Author:  Ruthanna Emrys Genre: Science fiction, historical fiction My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: After attacking Devil’s Reef in 1928, the U.S. Government rounded up the people of Innsmouth and took them to the desert, far from their ocean, their Deep One ancestors, and their sleeping god Cthulhu. Only Aphra and Caleb Marsh survived the camps, and they emerged without a past or a future. The government that stole Aphra's life now needs her help. FBI agent Ron Spector believes that Communist spies have stolen dangerous magical secrets from Miskatonic University, secrets that could turn the Cold War hot in an instant, and hasten the end of the human race. Aphra must return to the ruins of her home, gather scraps of her stolen history, and assemble a new family to face the darkness of human nature. I didn't realize Winter Tide was based on Cthulu mythology and the worlds of HP Lovecraft until I started reading it. The funny thing i...

Round 3 of Bullet reviews! I'm still working my way through November 2016, but I'm hoping to finish November this week and then I'll only be 2 months behind on reviews instead of 4! The bar is so low haha This week's books are Heartless, A Torch Against the Night, and Gemina. These were all "big" 2016 releases, ones that I/the bookish community was hugely anticipating. One book exceeded my expectations, one was a disappointment, and one was just as incredible as I thought it would be. So which one was which? Check it out below! Heartless by Marissa Meyer Genre: fantasy, fairy tale retelling Rating: 3/5 stars What I liked: the descriptions of the food! I love cooking and baking, and all the descriptions of Cath's baking made my mouth water and inspired me to try baking some lemon-flavored things Jest was a really cool character, as was the Hatter. It was interesting to see how archetypal Alice in Wonderland charac...

Title:  The Bear and the Nightingale Author:  Katherine Arden Genre: Historical fiction, fantasy My rating: 3 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn’t mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. After Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. A...

I just finished reading A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir , and I liked it so much more than the first book. I figured out my main problem with it: I can't stand Laia. At all. But this book featured Helene more heavily, and she's definitely my favorite character of the series. The thing that I love about Helene is that even when you take away the people she cares about and crush her soul, she somehow pieces herself back together again and comes back stronger than ever, better than before. Following the theme of crushing and remaking , I decided to make some Black bean and Sweet potato veggie patties. I actually didn't have black beans so I ended up subbing kidney beans, but it was still really good! Here's the link to the recipe: Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burger by The Minimalist Baker So I begin by smashing and crushing my ingredients, which was very satisfying after a stressful day at work...I think I can see why Marcus enjoys it so much (...

Title:  The Rose & the Dagger Author:  Renee Ahdieh Genre: Historical fiction, fantasy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: The darker the sky, the brighter the stars. In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad is forced from the arms of her beloved husband, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once thought Khalid a monster—a merciless killer of wives, responsible for immeasurable heartache and pain—but as she unraveled his secrets, she found instead an extraordinary man and a love she could not deny. Still, a curse threatens to keep Shazi and Khalid apart forever. Now she’s reunited with her family, who have found refuge in the desert, where a deadly force is gathering against Khalid—a force set on destroying his empire and commanded by Shazi’s spurned childhood sweetheart. Trapped between loyalties to those she loves, the only thing Shazi can do is act. Using the burgeoning magic within her as a guide, she strikes out on her own to end both this terrible curse and...

Title: The Night Circus Author:  Erin Morgenstern Genre: Magical realism, fantasy, historical fiction My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air. Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves. Beyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way--a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a "game" to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial maste...

Title:  All the Light We Cannot See Author:  Anthony Doerr Genre: Historical fiction My rating: 5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary : From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining t...

Title:  The Wrath & the Dawn Author:  Renee Ahdieh Genre: Fantasy, historical fiction, YA My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: One Life to One Dawn . In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all. Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself f...

Title:  Fall of Giants Author:  Ken Follett Genre: Historical fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, "Fall Of Giants" moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a co...

Title:  Water for Elephants Author:  Sara Gruen Genre: Contemporary, historical fiction My rating: 4 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: Orphaned, penniless, Jacob Jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and in that instant, transforms his future. By morning, he's landed a job with the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. By nightfall, he's in love. In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus is a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world, where both animals and men are dispensable. Where falling in love is the most dangerous act of all...  I don't often read contemporary fiction, because I usually find it dull compared to my usual sci-fi and fantasy. I had heard a lot of good things about this book, though, so I decided to give it a shot. I read it on audiobook, and I thought the narrator for younger Jacob was great. Older Jacob's voice definitely sounded ...

Title:  Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Author:  Susanna Clar ke Genre: Fantasy, historical fiction My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars Goodreads Summary: At the dawn of the nineteenth century, two very different magicians emerge to change England's history. In the year 1806, with the Napoleonic Wars raging on land and sea, most people believe magic to be long dead in England--until the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals his powers, and becomes a celebrity overnight. Soon, another practicing magician comes forth: the young, handsome, and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's student, and they join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic, straining his partnership with Norrell, and putting at risk everything else he holds dear.  This book was almost painfully slow at first but once it started to pick up, I really enjoyed it! Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is unlike any other fantasy book I'v...

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  The Broke and the Bookish . This week's theme: Top Ten Historical Fiction books Fantasy is my favorite genre, and I also read and love a lot of science fiction, but I figured I would talk about another genre that I really enjoy but don't often wax poetic about on my blog. Historical fiction/alternative histories are really fun for me because I enjoy learning about other eras in our history and imaging what it might have been like to live there. In a way it's kind of like fantasy: escaping into a different time and place than the real world. Here are some of my favorite historical fiction books!   One of my favorite books, this one makes me cry every time. It's such a beautiful story about friendship and resilience and even though war is brutal, it also shows us the human side of things.   This was one of those books I picked up and nearly gasped as I read the prologue because it was just ...