Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson

Buy on Amazon: The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson

I think I will be singing the praises of this book for a very long time.

This book had everything. Kick-butt heroine? Check. Fascinating time in history? Check. Humor? Check. Heart-break? Check. Action? Check. Pirates? Double-check.

When I began the book I was immediately taken in by the almost fairy-tale like start. It was all just so.. fascinating. Fin’s origins, the complex characters that made up the people in her life. Hilde.. I couldn’t decide whether to love or hate (and I think that’s the point!). I fell in love with Bart. Who wouldn’t love a fiddle-playing pirate turned cook? I fell for the pure sweetness of Peter and never once for a moment doubted the outcome of the end of the book with regards to the relationship there.

I read this book in an afternoon. Now, granted, I was traveling.. so I had a lot of reading time, but I found myself walking between gates at the airport, my Kindle in hand, completely absorbed in the saga.

Peterson does not pull any punches. This story will knock you over, pick you up and then knock you over again. I finished it and immediately turned back to the beginning, wanting to read it again (but decided, ultimately, I shouldn’t if I planned to finish my reading list for the week). But I can guarantee you, I WILL be re-reading this book again in the near future.

It’s very easy to see why The Fiddler’s Gun is nominated for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. This book lived up to the story excerpt I read first and then some. Bring on The Fiddler’s Green, Peterson! I want to read it now!

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Fallen by Lauren Kate

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I’m kind of in the middle on this book. I can’t really decide if I just didn’t like it or if the fact that I read it through in pretty much an afternoon actually means something.

Here is what I did like about Fallen.

1. I liked Luce. I think, while she’s not quite as helpless as other will-not-name girl-characters-stuck-in-a-love-triangle have been in other books I’ve read in the past, she still has a bit of a way to go before I really get the kick-butt out of her that I really enjoy reading.

2. I liked Daniel. I did not like his name so much. I think I would have preferred not knowing who the good guy was and the bad guy was right off the bat as a result of the naming. Because there were a few moments in there that I thought.. “hm.. really?”.

3. I liked the setting. Creepy old reform school, very gothic and emo. I enjoyed it. I liked the character back-up to the school and really enjoyed a few of the secondary characters. But.. man, these kids sure broke a lot of rules for supposedly being constantly watched.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

1. I felt like Luce’s history was stuck on repeat. I kept being told the same information over and over about WHY she was in the school, but I still didn’t really get what actually happened. Maybe I missed it? My eyes started glazing over when the fire was mentioned for the 3rd or 4th time.

2. I didn’t get why Luce’s “old” best friend had to be in the picture. The book would have done just fine I think without throwing an extra character into the mix and she’s just not mentioned enough to be any character worth anything.

3. I wasn’t spellbound by the story. Sure, it was interesting but there were parts that I had to make myself read through because I wanted to see how it all ended. I don’t know if that’s so much a product of the actual book or just the fact that I’m kind of getting tired of these drama-filled, teenage angsty-love, paranormal books. I’m fully ready to admit it might be the latter.

Still, I have to admit, I enjoyed Fallen much more than Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. They are remarkably similar, but Luce didn’t grate on me nearly as much as Nora did.

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Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin

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I’ve been on quite the Alice in Wonderland binge lately. Over the Christmas break I read the Looking Glass Wars books by Frank Bedder, then more recently saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie. Then.. I picked up Alice I Have Been.

What a breath of fresh air this was compared to the over saturation of everything else. Instead of exploring more of “Wonderland”, Melanie Benjamin gives us a fictional account of the Alice so few of us actually knew, the one living in our world.

Now, with that said I will tell you.. there are some really creepy, really disturbing parts to this book. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was a disturbed individual (as evidenced by the photographs he would take of young girls see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carro…) I was thoroughly weirded out by the behavior and, honestly, was thankful that Alice in Wonderland is not one of my favorite childhood stories.

Okay, so I said it. It wasn’t one of my favorites. Let me warn you before you pick up this book – if Alice in Wonderland IS one of your favorite stories it’s very possible that reading this fictional book (even with the inspiration it takes from reality) will impact your view of the original Alice in Wonderland. It has affected mine. I intend to do a bit more reading, but regardless.. my view of Alice has been altered.

The story is interesting, I loved how Melanie Benjamin did not hesitate to give us a real picture of what Alice’s life might have been like. I loved the fictional retelling of a real-life meeting between Alice and Peter Llewelyn Davies (Yes.. that Peter Pan). There were quite a few things I loved about this book and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading it, aside from what I stated above.

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The Crimson Rooms by Katharine McMahon

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If I had to sum up my feelings toward this book in one word, that word would be “apathetic”.

The premise sounded good. Post-WWI era in London, one of the first female lawyers struggling to make her mark, the murder of a newly wed young woman, the accused her new husband. Family drama, court drama and love drama all wrapped up in one novel.

It wasn’t that the writing was bad, or that the story was necessarily bad (I was most interested in the mystery part of it all), it was just that I was so incredibly bored the entire time I was reading this book. I found myself looking for chores to do rather than pick it up. And.. I’m ashamed to admit, I think I stared at the cover with more interest and longing then I felt at any time for the contents of the book. (It is a gorgeous cover).

I hate seeing so much potential prove to be so dull. In researching other reviews on this novel once I finished it, I found quite a few others sharing the same opinion. In fact.. I’m bored even writing this review. So I’ll stop now. =)

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Roses by Leila Meacham

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I pretty much devoured this book. With that said, there were a few things about it that disappointed me, but overall it was incredibly easy to read, very easy to follow and heart-breaking .. but not heart-warming as I had hoped it be.

This is meant to be a sweeping story a la to Gone with the Wind about families in Texas and their plantations and businesses. There’s broken romance, a secret offered at the start that will keep you reading, and some terribly twisted happenings.

I loved Mary and Percy and Ollie. I adored these characters and could picture them easily. I loved Mary for her determination, loved Percy for his class and loved Ollie because..well.. he was loveable. A few other characters really spoke to me as well, Wyatt being one. But there were characters I really just did not connect with. I had a hard time feeling anything for Rachel and Matt, as much as I longed to. Instead, I found myself wishing they were both more like Percy and Mary instead of being.. well, annoying.

The ending left me unsatisfied. Recently I’ve been stumbling across books that feel like they are just sort of haphazardly thrown together for an ending, as if the author thought, all of the sudden, “oh, I’ve passed my limit”. That was my biggest complaint about this book. I felt as if reading 600ish pages was enough to merit me a more satisfactory ending and not a cop-out. But, alas, that’s how it felt to me.

Not Gone with the Wind caliber by any means, but still an entertaining enough read.

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I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

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I was hesitant about giving this book a rating on GoodReads – because I can’t really say that I enjoyed it.

There are a few things I appreciated about it. I appreciated it’s short, to-the-point length. Any more and I don’t know that I could have handled it. I appreciated that the book focused so intently on rehabilitation and didn’t feel the need to go into massive amounts of detail with regards to Nujood’s circumstances and the horror she dealt with.

This is an important book. It’s written in a way that really brings out the confused girl-woman’s voice from Nujood. She’s 10 years old – a child, but the things she talks about should never have had to come out of a child’s mouth.

Important book and one that should be read. Talk about this book, get people reading it. I intend to.

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