Wednesday 31 December 2014

TheDaisyDeer's Best Books of 2014

Here are my favourite books of 2014.
It's been a busy year, and I haven't read quite as many books this year,
but there were definitely some amazing novels.
Here are the best.

Best Overall Novel read in 2014:
10860047
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern

Novel with the Best Story read in 2014:
13741785
The Storyteller
Antonia Michaelis

Novel with the Best Writing read in 2014:
18131799
The Dying of the Light
Derek Landy

Novel with the Best Entertainment read in 2014:
20617636
Heir of Fire
Sarah J. Maas

Best New Discovery read in 2014:
12954620
Falling Kingdoms [series]
Morgan Rhodes

Best Fantasy Novel read in 2014:
18244506
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Laini Taylor

Best Supernatural Novel read in 2014:
12396528
Hollow City
Ransom Riggs

Best Dystopian Novel read in 2014:
10911181
The Scorch Trials
James Dashner

Best Historical Novel read in 2014:
13617066
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller

Best Contemporary Novel read in 2014:
20754586
The Shock of the Fall
Nathan Filer

Best Romantic Novel read in 2014:
16069030
The Winner's Curse
Marie Rutkoski

Best Classic (kind of) Novel read in 2014
[it's a modern classic in my eyes]:
6671933
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart
Mathias Malzieu

Best Mystery/Thriller Novel read in 2014:
18180495
Vicious
V.E. Schwab

Best Graphic Novel read in 2014:
18659623
Through the Woods
Emily Carroll

Image Sources:
The Night Circus cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10860047-the-night-circus
The Storyteller cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13741785-the-storyteller
The Dying of the Light cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18131799-the-dying-of-the-light?ac=1
Heir of Fire cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20617636-heir-of-fire
Falling Kingdoms cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12954620-falling-kingdoms?ac=1
Dreams of Gods and Monsters cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18244506-dreams-of-gods-and-monsters
Hollow City cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12396528-hollow-city?ac=1
The Scorch Trials cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10911181-the-scorch-trials
The Song of Achilles cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13617066-the-song-of-achilles
The Shock of the Fall cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20754586-the-shock-of-the-fall
The Winner's Curse cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16069030-the-winner-s-curse?ac=1
The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6671933-the-boy-with-the-cuckoo-clock-heart
Vicious cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18180495-vicious
Through the Woods cover - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18659623-through-the-woods?from_search=true

Saturday 13 December 2014

Gathering Darkness

22046607

Book Title: Gathering Darkness
Author: Morgan Rhodes
Series: Falling Kingdoms #3
Date Started: December 10th 2014
Date Completed: December 13th 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance, Mystery
Rating: Five stars
Review:


Gathering Darkness was absolutely brilliant. Not sure how else I can start this off. Definitely my favourite of the series so far, and considering I've loved the previous books that's saying something. I literally could not put this book down once it got going, even after a reading slump. Things are developing so well and I can't wait for what comes next.

The Kindred are the key to ending the war. The Kraeshians want them the crystals for power. The rebels search for them to take back their kingdoms. The Watchers must prevent others from defeating them. But if the King possesses them everything is lost. Jonas is fighting for his friends; Lucia for her magic; Cleo for her kingdom; and Magnus is fighting to retain his control. No one trusts anyone. But alliances must be made to stop the King from conquering all of Mytica, and claiming the unstoppable power of the Kindred.

I actually really like Rhodes' writing. It's not the most complex or abundantly vivid out there, but it describes the world nicely, and has a lot more detail behind the narration. Many times in this series, I have found myself lulled into a false sense of security, even when I can see events coming: I know it's going to happen, but never when it actually does happen. Rhodes is constantly turning things around, creating doubts, double-bluffing through the dialogue and the character's narration.
Inevitably there are some flaws in both the writing and the story, but I've become so invested through the strengths of these novels, that I don't really care or pay attention to the weaknesses.

There's one major storyline running through these books, and each character is telling that story. But with each perspective, you get an entirely new way of looking at the situation, and different details depending on the things around the characters. Because of this, you get this amazingly vibrant plot, that can be viewed by the reader in its entirety. This really showcases the brilliant plot itself.
One of the concerns I've had with this series is that it resembles some very famous higher fantasy stories out there, and that this would accidentally push things in a certain direction. But the plot is turning further away from this and into it's own path, which really makes me happy, because I think it deserves to be its own thing, without being compared to existing stories.
The romance is another thing I am continually impressed with in this series. It is a key aspect of the story, but it's written so well that it's important, but not dependant for the characters. And there's such complexity in how it's used: people are disloyal, and cunning with it, and it's hard to know when characters are being genuine or have been forced to use it to save themselves. It's very much a plot device, rather than something thrown in to catch people's attentions or occupy the characters for the duration of the book.
The climax was phenomenal. I was literally audibly gasping and waving my hands in frustration while I was reading. I love where it's put things for the next books, and I loved how it has drawn things from this book together. Once again, the characters are in such different places to the last book, and the one before that, and I really don't want to have to wait a whole more year for the next one.

The diversity of the Falling Kingdoms characters is one of the great things I love about this series, and higher fantasy in general. There's a wonderful mix of genders, personalities, abilities, and I was happy to see the first steps towards sexuality also being explored in the series. The variety just makes everything so much more interesting, and also leaves the reader unaware of how people will turn on each other.
Cleo remains my favourite character, and I utterly adore the progression of her character arc. If I look back at the last two books, she's adapted so much in every one of them, and you can clearly pick out the stages where she's upped her game and decided she needs to work harder; be more determined; choose her path. On top of that her character's personality is just amazing, and the relationships (both romantic and not) she has with the other characters continues to engage me, whether she's invested in them or not.
Magnus, again, is constantly astounding me with his character arc. Though he might not have come as far as Cleo, he's still changed immensely from the first book, and you can see how things will keep turning in the future. You can still see Magnus as a genuinely 'bad,' violent person, but we're aware that there are things that don't fit that assumption in his character, and have been proven to be changeable in his arc. And yes, I do ship him and the character he confesses his love for in his monologue at the end.
Lucia is the one character I can never seem to make my mind up about, because I understand her intentions and reasons why she is the way she is, but she still comes out with things from nowhere from time to time, and this flimsiness irritates me. I don't think it's a flaw Rhodes' writing, it's just in the nature of Lucia's character.
I liked Jonas more in this book than I remember in the last few, but he wasn't as key this time in the pacing of the story. I did really like watching his relationships with his friends and others jump about. Something I love about these books is the disloyalty and dishonesty every single person has with each other, and the uncertainty of why they do various things.

The pacing was very good in this book. The organisation of the chapters really helped to switch between the different parts of the story, and break the tension or lag from one perspective to another. I also felt that the story itself was spread equally around the novel: there was always something very important going on, and what might be considered 'climaxes' were dotted around the plot.

I would recommend the Falling Kingdoms series to anyone wanting to get into higher fantasy, especially young adults that are a bit daunted by big novels like A Game of Thrones. I might have said in previous reviews that the format is very similar, and it has worried me in the past, but this series is really going down its own path which makes me very happy. The writing isn't as hard-going and politics is a bit simpler, so if you struggle with those things in higher fantasy, definitely try this series.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22046607-gathering-darkness

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Blog Tour: Red Rose, White Rose, by Joanna Hickson

Hi guys,
I was lucky enough to be offered a copy of Joanna Hickson's
Red Rose White Rose by the wonderful HarperFiction.
And now (even more lucky) I'm part of the blog tour
celebrating the release of the book.
Exciting stuff.



You can follow/chat/keep up to date with Joanna here:
@JoannaHickson on Twitter
Joanna Hickson on Facebook

Here's my Q&A with the lovely Joanna about the novel, and other book-related things:


1. What are you currently reading and what do you think of it?
At the moment I'm reading a really good book called Red Rose White Rose!  Oh I know I wrote it myself but when I receive my first 'proper' book-shaped copy of a novel I have written, all I want to do is delve into it and see how it reads when bound and in print.  Of course I often read on my Kindle and appreciate its advantages but I don't believe the real book will ever be completely supplanted by the virtual version.  By the way, so far I'm rather enjoying it!
However the book I finished just before RRWR arrived was Philippa Gregory's The King's Curse, which is right up my street because it covers the period immediately after my own historical 'home' in the 15th century.  It follows the ups and downs of Margaret Pole, one of the last Yorkist Plantagenets living after the Battle of Bosworth has removed their dynasty from the throne of England and replaced it with the Tudors. She is a granddaughter of Cicely Neville, so it is fascinating for me to see another author's take on one of my heroine's descendants.  Philippa Gregory has Margaret telling her own story and a very long and eventful life she led, filled with dramatic turns of the Wheel of Fortune.  I enjoyed it very much, although history does not give her much light relief!

2.  What was your favourite childhood book?  
When I was very young I lived in Australia and my parents used to read to me from a book called Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibbs.  The eponymous characters are 'gumnut babies', based on the fruits of the ubiquitous gum trees which cover the Australian countryside and the stories follow their adventures amongst the flora and fauna of the bushland where the author grew up, much as I did myself.  The villains of these adventures are called Banksia Men and I was both fascinated and terrified by them.  The illustrations make them look like the extraordinary 'cones' which appear on native Banksia bushes - ugly and hairy-looking with fat-lipped seed-pods - great objects on which to base creepy characters.  Children love to be a bit frightened when they're being read to while sitting on a safe lap don't they?  For one of my landmark birthdays my artist daughter, who lives in Australia, painted me a 'portrait' of two Banksia Men, which I love.
Just before I came back to live in England at age thirteen I read a time-slip novel called The Gauntlet by Ronald Welch which is set at Carreg Cennan castle in Wales and is about a modern boy who finds a knight's gauntlet lying on the ground, tries it on and is immediately transported back to medieval times and life as a page in the castle.  It was that book that first inspired my love of medieval history and when I visited the same castle later it was a great thrill to wander among its ruined walls and experience first-hand the allure of such an ancient and inspirational building.

3. When did you first become interested in history and writing?
I think I have just answered the history part of this question but as far as writing is concerned that came much earlier.  I can hardly remember a time when I wasn't either reading a novel or writing a story myself, first of all in little hand-made folded-paper books and then, when I got hold of a battered old typewriter, in smudged print on carbon-copies with many crossings-out.  At first they were quite short stories but as time went on I yearned to write a whole novel and I cannot count the number I started and never finished.  Probably every writer recognises that scenario.  However, obviously I eventually managed to complete them and I'd love to say that there are scores tucked away in bottom drawers but I'm not a great hoarder so they've all hit the bin – except those that have been published of course!

4. What were the biggest literary influences on Red Rose, White Rose and your other books?
 I don't think I'm unusual in my literary influences.  At an early age I loved the novels of Charles Dickens and then later came the Brontes, Jane Austen, Henry Fielding and Thomas Hardy.  Of course I also read more contemporary novels, particularly historical fiction.  A strong influence was Anya Seton's novel Katherine (I have a very battered first edition and an equally battered paperback copy, which have both been read many times) and also the Georgian novels of Georgette Heyer.  I always wanted to emulate Heyer's amazing ability to recreate the language of her particular period but I long ago realised that it was a talent unique to her.  Daphne du Maurier was another influence, particularly The House on the Strand – a rather dark time-slip novel which gripped me intensely.  I wrote a time-slip novel once myself (unpublished), but I now prefer to leave that to the experts like Barbara Erskine and wallow uninterrupted in my preferred period of the 15th century.

5.  Were you ever tempted to add a bit more fiction or more hard facts at certain points in the novel?
By definition historical fiction is what it is – a story set in a selected period and based on the historical record.  But records are patchy and unreliable and I leave it to the historians to search and interpret them as they see fit.  I am happy to consult the records myself, read historians' interpretations and then employ my imagination to fill in the (sometimes extensive) gaps.  How much fiction and fact the story requires depends on the necessity of creating a narrative that will grip the reader.  There is no point in writing a novel which uses only the history if the reader becomes bored a few pages in.  So yes, I use fiction extensively, especially when it comes to creating character and dialogue but it always follows the historical timeline and is inspired by what I have gleaned from historical sources.

6. Which historical figure of Cicely's world most interested you and how did you go about adapting them for the book?
This is a difficult question to answer because I can't actually write a character that doesn't interest me!  Obviously Cicely was the one who initially grabbed my attention and made me want to write her story and I think it was because she was the youngest child of her father's extensive family – twenty two children!  Digging into the Neville family tree threw up so many fascinating life-stories that I had real trouble restricting the number of her family members that I could include in the narrative without confusing the reader.  In Red Rose White Rose, as I confess in the Author's Notes at the back, I have invented one very important character by giving Cicely a half-brother called Cuthbert who acts as a second narrator to Cicely herself.  On the Neville family tree there is a son called Cuthbert who died in infancy but I have resurrected him and made him an illegitimate son of Cicely's father, the Earl of Westmorland, who is reared in the household and becomes a champion knight and Cicely's bodyguard.  Through his eyes we are able to go onto the battlefields of the Wars of the Roses which would be impossible if Cicely carried all of the narration.

7. If you could enter the novel's world as any character and go through their story, who would it be and why?        
I think it would be the character mentioned above, Cicely's half-brother Cuthbert.  You'll have to read the book to see why but I will just say that because he has a farmer's daughter for a mother and an Earl for a father he looks at life from a more balanced viewpoint than his noble relatives.  He has to fight for what he achieves and overcome injustice and prejudice along the way and I like the man he becomes as a result! 

8. Have you got any exciting plans for your next book and can you tell us anything about it?
Yes, I have very exciting plans for my next book, which will cover the second half of the fifteenth century, further exploring the Wars of the Roses and involving characters I have already used in my previous three books, as well as introducing other major and minor figures from the period.  I wish I could tell you more but things are at a delicate stage of negotiation...Watch my Facebook Page (Joanna Hickson) and Twitter feed @joannahickson for further revelations!

Be sure to check out www.femalefirst.co.uk on the 12th,
and have a look at the previous blogs if you haven't already!


Image Sources: HarperFiction
Thanks to Jaime Frost.