Sunday 30 November 2014

Red Rose, White Rose

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Book Title: Red Rose, White Rose
Author: Joanna Hickson
Date Started: November 8th 2014
Date Completed: November 30th 2014
Genres: Historical, Romance
Rating: Four stars
Review:

Thank you to HarperFiction for providing me with this copy to review.

Because I wasn't really aware of the actual history of The War of the Roses, I didn't really know what was going on outside of the narration - which probably meant I missed out on a quite a lot of the story. Even so, I did enjoy most of this book, despite not being completely aware of consequences not witnessed by the narrators.

Cicely Neville is the youngest daughter of the Ralph Neville, and has been betrothed to Richard, Duke of York. And as power shifts in the years following her marriage, Cicely could become the most powerful woman England. But on top of the conflict between the White Roses of York and the Red Roses of Lancaster, Cicely has a dark secret which will cause her dire consequences in the future.

At first, I found Hickson's writing a little bit jerky and hard to get along with, but after I'd moved further into the story and was comfortable with the characters and their positions, I found that actually I really enjoyed the dual narrative. The only issue I really had with the writing was the vast amount of historical detail - which isn't a bad thing thing at all - but the fact that it was dumped onto the reader as facts throughout the entire book. I would've much preferred to have perhaps a little less detail communicated through the narrative or speech rather than just stated on the page.

The story arcs, in my opinion, are the best thing about this book. Because the story spans over such a huge amount of time (something I'll get to in a second), we see the characters develop an awful lot. This made things more exciting for me, because I didn't know how events would affect the people and therefore who they would react. The downside of this massive time span was that everything just wasn't focused on enough. Far too much was tried to be packed into a 500 page book so I didn't understand how certain things impacted overall. Again, I might have understood this better if I knew the history, but since I didn't, I struggled to appreciate the storyline.
Another thing I really would've liked to read about would be the politics; there's so much history packed into the story, but perhaps due to the situation the characters are in, the politics aren't really looked at - or I just didn't understand them when they were put in with everything else. This again made it really hard to understand the story because I didn't know the history.
However, towards the middle of the novel, I really started to enjoy it: I knew the characters, I was vaguely aware of the story and consequences and I had gotten used to the writing style. When things got complicated towards the end, I got lost again, but I appreciated the last few chapters despite not really knowing why things were happening. Basically, if you know the history, I think you'll really enjoy it. If you don't, you're going to have a bit of trouble with the understanding.

The characters were the element that I think people that didn't know the history could really get invested in, because you can follow their whole journey and understand where they're coming from.
Cicely was a brilliant character I think, especially because of her arc and development throughout the story. She wasn't really a very nice person, and because of this I felt that her actions were a lot more realistic and understandable, and I also assume it's true to the history.
Cuthbert narraters the other half of the book, and I have to say I was more interested in Cicely's half-brother's story. This was due to the fact he's involved in a lot more action rather than the household, and that interests me more. Hilda, who's featured in both but I think is more impactful on Cuthbert's story, was my favourite character because it's clear she knows a lot more than she lets on.

I think the pacing of this book depends on how much the reader knows and understands about The War of the Roses. Being pretty much entirely unaware of the events of the 1400s, I think I found chapters that were explaining key points fairly boring just because I didn't know what was going on. But, if I'd already known a little more about the circumstances I probably could've appreciated the deal more.

Red Rose, White Rose is a great novel about The War of the Roses, but it'd probably be a good idea to brush up on your history before you try diving into the story to avoid confusion. I would say that patience is needed and younger readers probably wouldn't get along and/or find it appropriate at times.

Stay tuned for a very special Q&A with Joanna, coming December 11th!

Image Sources: HarperFiction

Tuesday 18 November 2014

The Sham

22879003

Book Title: The Sham
Author: Ellen Allen
Date Started: October 10th 2014
Date Completed: November 18th 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery
Rating: Three stars
Review:

Thanks to Ellen Allen for approaching me to review this book.

The Sham started off really interestingly, but as more and more parts of the story were added it just became too confusing and strange for me. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I think some other people might have a different reaction to the book, but personally I found it very hard to follow and I ultimately couldn't end up enjoying it as much as I'd hoped. It's also an important point to mention that this book is not for younger readers as there is some disturbing material included.

Emily has moved to the Sham, where the people are as boring and uneventful as the place is. Until they aren't. When Jack first turns up and girls start to go missing, things seem to be getting a little more exciting. Until fingers are turned towards her new boyfriend, and she discovers Jack has more things to hide than living in the wood.

I was quite impressed by Allen's writing, and right from the first page the flow of the words jumped out at me. Even with complex writing styles, authors sometimes struggle with the way their sentences flow off the tongue, but Allen's narrative really worked nicely for me. The chronological jumps were also interesting, though I think they dwindled slightly more after the middle of the book.
However, though I enjoyed parts of Allen's writing, the style was too informal for me to be comfortable with. The text it littered with culture references and riddled with slang and it just hit one of my pet peeves. But honestly the biggest issue I had with the writing was the fact that a lot of emotions were directly stated to the reader, rather than being implied through the actions and atmosphere: we were told people were angry, but I just didn't feel it in the atmosphere and would have liked to make my own deduction from the way the characters acted and spoke to each other.

I'm pretty sure that the pretty much only - though really big - reason that I didn't get along with The Sham was because there was just too much going on. Too many names to remember; too many issues being addressed; too many little stories conflicting with the main one; too many relationships to keep track of. In such a short book, to have so many things pushed into an actually long duration of time it just meant that nothing was developed or explained enough for me to understand or follow anything. I didn't know what was happening for the majority of the book because I couldn't remember who this person was, or what kind of relationship these people had. And for a murder mystery, it's extremely important that the storyline is clear, because what the characters are investigating is deliberately the opposite. I also wasn't a huge fan of the lack of build up for the character's relationship and the instant trust felt between them without any reason for the whole story.
I do honestly think there's some really good ideas and story lines in this book, but they're lost somewhere in the middle of everything else going on and it's hard to invest yourself in either a whole story patched together through little things, or a tiny section of the book that lasts for a very short amount of time.

This book has a lot of characters, and while I might be able to name around six of them, the majority are just lost to me, and I don't think I could really differentiate any from each other.
Emily's narration was definitely one of the strongest I've ever read and she's undeniably the one character that stands out among the rest. But, unfortunately, I just didn't like her very much and found it very hard to sympathise with her because of this. I'm not even sure what it was about Emily that made me dislike her, but I found it very hard to look at anything in the same way as her.
There isn't much to say about Jack's character because he was very unbelievable to me. His relationship with Emily happened far too quickly and from then on Jack's character seemed to constantly be changing without any real consequence and just added to the confusion of the story for me.

The pacing was just too fast with too much happening. I can't personally tell if it's the fast pace to blame or the fact that there's too much going on, but everything was very hard to follow for me and the book was just too short for things to be developed or explored how I would like.

So, though The Sham really wasn't for me, I don't think everyone's responses would be the same as mine, so I'd encourage readers to have a go if they're interested in more unusual contemporary mystery stories. I do understand that the book is intended to be a little strange, but it just was a bit too much for me. I would recommend devoting attention to this book, since there is so much going on at the same time.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/
22879003-the-sham?from_search=true

Saturday 1 November 2014

The Traitor Queen

12970162

Book Title: The Traitor Queen
Author: Trudi Canavan
Series: The Traitor Spy Trilogy #3
Date Started: October 26th 2014
Date Completed: November 1st 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery
Rating: Four stars
Review:


This novel was a great end to the Traitor Spy Trilogy and I really enjoyed it, but it definitely isn't as good as its prequel series - the Black Magician Trilogy. Though this series is much more focused on the political side of the world, since the characters are all older, I think the threat lacks a little bit and there's a restricted sense of adventure. But it was still great.

Tensions between Sachaka and Kyralia are higher than ever, and with the revolt between the Traitors and Ashaki across the sea, and the battle for power in the city's underworld, Sonea feels another war approaching. She must travel to Sachaka to try and bring peace, or at least a promise of safety for her people, as well as her son who has decided to join the revolution and consequently has strained the ties between the Guild, the Traitors and the king.

Canavan was one of the first high fantasy authors I ever read, and I've adored her writing ever since. She's got an amazing talent at wrapping numerous stories together into one big story, but still letting each have its own personal significance. I also love the personalities and experience put into the narrative even though it's told through 3rd person. To have such a complex world and variety of beliefs and cultures, you've got to be able to support it with a complex narrative - and Canavan does this and more.

From the previous books right up the beginning of this one, you can tell that something serious is building up in Canavan's world. The characters are tense and wary, the ties between the Guild and the foreign countries is weakening, Skellin's reign of power over Kyralia's underworld is becoming stronger. This was brilliant because no time had to be wasted really to build anything up - events could start happening right away.
I have to admit, this didn't happen quite as I expected it to, as it still took quite a while for things to pick up, and consequences were considerably less impactful than I thought. However, there was still a background of tension and implications throughout the whole thing. Especially in the political portion of the book. I absolutely love the politics for Canavan's world. While it's still complex and echoes both the corruption and success of existing or past governments, it's shown from quite a few different angles, as each character's position is explored.
This is another thing that's just amazing about these books: the intertwining stories. It's not as rare as it used to be, but I've read very few books that master the knack of switching between narratives so smoothly and in a way that the reader can click back to the different people and their situations. The way each story usually quite forcefully impacts the others definitely helps to keep track of things.
The ending, as you've probably already gathered, was a bit anticlimactic for me. I still thought it concluded everything very nicely and had enough action to keep me happy, but it just didn't reach the same scale as I've seen Canavan achieve before.

My favourite thing about this sequel trilogy has to be seeing all the old characters again, and where they've progressed from. I really wish some of the older friendships were included more (especially Sonea and Rothen's) but I appreciate that the story does make this hard.
Sonea continues to be my absolute favourite character, and she's such a great heroine. I've loved reading how she's matured since the last trilogy, but also how, due to her background, she does tend to look at everything around her in a very different way, and at times still seems quite young. But, particularly in this novel, we really see her take on her responsibility and protectiveness over Lorkin. (Slight spoiler ahead) I also really loved her growing relationship with Regin. It was so nice to see how they'd grown as people into liking each other after their past, and having a romance that wasn't from a teenage perspective, but also wasn't driven by sex or situation.
Lorkin is another character I have a fondness for. Though I admit I didn't find his chapters too interesting most of the time, he's a great character and watching his methodical mind working all the time wherever he is is a great link to his parents.
I was really happy that Dannyl was included in more than just the politics this time, as well as not just with his lovers. He was forced into a few situations that were out of his comfort zone as the war started, and I think the way he dealt with them, and with both Tayend and Achati was really interesting. And he's just a lovely, lovely person.
Lilia and Anyi's parts of the book were, unfortunately, the most boring to me. I think the biggest problem I had was the rest of the book is very serious with much older characters, so when we jumped back to an equally serious situation, but with younger characters, I just found it slightly hard to adjust fast enough. I did, of course, love Rothen and Cery's inclusions in these parts however, and I think I would've got along with their story earlier on had they both been featured more.

Being a high fantasy novel, Canavan's stories rely a lot on background knowledge and the gradual understanding of the world. So, at times, the pacing can maybe seem a little slow, but as you progress on you realise that actually everything's very important. And, personally, I love the depth of the world in this story so I'd happily just read about it for a whole novel without much need for anything else.

The Traitor Queen didn't disappoint me, but it was slightly underwhelming considering what I've read before from Canavan. However, I still enjoyed it enormously, and it did conclude the trilogy nicely. If you like fantasy, world-building, intertwining stories, fictional politics, magic, a little bit of action and light romance then the Traitor Spy Trilogy is brilliant. But 100% read the other books first, particularly the Black Magician Trilogy (the series this is a sequel to) or I think it'd be quite hard to understand and you'd get less out of it.


Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/

12970162-the-traitor-queen