Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I read this book for the first time several years ago, I remember I enjoyed it a lot more. I still liked the main concept, but re-reading it didn’t grip me in quite the same way this time around.

The events promised by the blurb didn’t occur until more than halfway through the book and while it was interesting to read a book that imagined a different reality, it wasn’t very clear on why the world was so different; what part of history ‘alternated’.

While I’ve never actually read any of the classics, I did find Thursday’s interactions with Rochester intriguing. It was also good to see a different side to Rochester himself, rather than have him just come across as a gruff, dark, brooding man.

I found it particularly interesting to see some of Mycroft’s inventions and recognise at least one of them as technology similar to what we have nowadays. It was good to see that there were some kinks that he needed to work out and there was a nice bit of humour when it came to his interactions with Thursday about the memory machine.

I have to say, I felt the biggest issue with this book was the fact that it kept slipping from first person to third. That made it very difficult to read the book from Thursday’s perspective, as I was forever having to discard knowledge I as a reader had that Thursday didn’t actually know at the time. A lot of the mystery in the book fell by the wayside because of this.

The snippets at the beginning of each chapter were intriguing and enough to give me at least some insights into the world as it stood there. However, there was too much information dumping when it came to Thursday’s relationships and past history with the other characters. I would have liked to see them for myself, rather than have my perceptions of them coloured by Thursday’s own observations about characters like Landon.

I did think there were some good moments of foreshadowing and the book was engaging to read at times. The world had a lot of potential, but I was disappointed that such a promising blurb really ended up falling short by the time I reached the end. And I felt like the book broke its own rules of the universe.

It’s a bit disappointing to admit, but I don’t expect I’ll be seeking out the next books in this series for a re-read.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I recently picked up one of the later books in this series, so when a book reading challenge gave me the opportunity to re-read the first book, I jumped at the chance.

The Dresden Files might be one of my favourite series of books. I particularly like how resourceful Harry Dresden can be, but also that he’s completely clueless when it comes to more mundane things. While there were quite a few instances of information dumping, I still very much enjoyed reading this book and it was quick and easy.

I liked the relationships Dresden had with the other characters, even those like Carmichael, who really disliked him. But one of my favourite characters was probably Karrin, who it was nice to see again for the first time. I really enjoyed her interactions with Dresden and I felt she was a strong character, perhaps in spite of Dresden’s chivalry, which did kind of come across as annoying at times.

I really liked the opportunity to learn more about the rules of magic in Dresden’s world, in particular how he made the potions. And it was really good to see that things did go wrong and not necessarily according to plan, but also to see that Dresden would get up and keep on fighting, despite what happened to him.

Even though I do think vampires are over-used in popular culture, it was interesting to see Bianca and how she and Dresden interacted with each other. The scene with Toot made me giggle and it was really good I had the opportunity to see different types of creatures in the world. Plus, it was nice to see the mystery aspects with the unusual murders. I did, however, get a bit frustrated with Dresden and his abject refusal to tell Murphy anything.

I also really liked Bob, although I was left unsure if the skull was actually an ally, or if he had some ulterior motives, given Dresden had to effectively bargain with him to get what he needed for him and Susan to escape.

Despite the instances of information dumping, this remains one of my favourite book series and I do have other books in the series, along with two more on order.

(This review may contain spoilers).

Ideally, I’d give this book 3.5 stars. I did enjoy this book and found it a fairly easy read, but I was a bit disconcerted when it suddenly switched from first person perspective to third and then randomly back again.

For a book that I’ve seen and read so much about, it took me a very long time to actually read this. I was intrigued by the way the book started and it didn’t take me long to start to like Arnie, even though he was acting in ways so completely out of character.

While this book did move a bit slowly in parts, when the action occurred, it was pretty major. There were parts of this book that were very disturbing to read – and outside of Dennis and Arnie, there weren’t too many characters I liked. It was easier to see why Dennis was so affected by Christine, but less so when it came to Leigh, for instance.

While I didn’t like the switch from first person to third, it did allow me a glimpse into how the other characters viewed Arnie’s obsession with Christine, as well as Arnie himself. I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him, especially when it felt like he was trying to reach out for help and no one was around.

I didn’t like Christine. Yes, the car was a character in her own right. And at first, I actually felt a small sense of sympathy for her. At first, it seemed like she was lashing out to protect herself and her owner. Like a dog trained to bite to protect his or her owner. It wasn’t until someone who was (relatively) innocent was killed by her that my own views of the car changed so drastically.

I did like the slow build of this book and I felt that, despite the supernatural elements, there was a lot of realism in the actions of the characters, particularly towards the end. While there were some disappointing aspects to the ending, it did make a lot of sense and I felt that was true to life as well.

I’m not sure I’d read this book again, but I would, in the future, read other books by this author, especially as I do enjoy the horror genre.

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I first saw the cover of this book, I was immediately taken with it. And I really wanted to like this book. The blurb was such an intriguing one and there was a lot that could have made the book really easy to read.

I felt that Samantha was a character who came across as quite one-dimensional, with a few sparks of more to her that didn’t really go anywhere. I actually found it quite hard to relate to any of the other characters. While there was a lot of potential with Samantha’s mother and sisters, I felt that most of their characteristics only cropped up when it was relevant to the plot. For instance, Samantha saying her mother didn’t like people to be in same-sex relationships. Actually, the two young women romantically involved weren’t even mentioned before the whole conversation. It really felt like there was a lot missing in character development and the switching from Samantha’s first person POV to Manny’s was confusing and made it hard to read towards the end.

I would have liked it if the book had been expanded upon, with more details about the other secondary characters, such as Samantha’s host family. I was also very disappointed that Samantha’s personality kept changing. She went from being absolutely clueless about a guy being interested in her to outright flirting. And there were a lot of cringeworthy scenes where she seemed to come across as a vapid fangirl, rather than a strong female character.

The book was very short, which was a mistake. Considering the book was (I’m guessing?) meant to be about a young woman breaking her way into a man’s sport, it spent very little time actually developing that and it was irritating that Samantha was so much better, despite it being acknowledged she didn’t have the same experience.

There was so much potential in this book, but it really fell short of the execution. I don’t think I’ll be reading more books in this series unless there are some drastic changes put in place.

(This review may contain spoilers).

It took me a while to get into this book, as it started out with a lot of information dumping and I would have liked to see Katherine’s relationship with her parents and siblings, rather than have it summarised.

I did feel that Arthur wasn’t a very strong character, which made sense with him as a historical figure, but even though Katherine assumed he was just writing what he was told to, there was very little about the letters she and Arthur had been exchanging with each other.

I had some very mixed feelings about Henry VII. I felt the female family members were more interesting than him and I couldn’t help but feel a lot of sympathy for Katherine, considering how badly she was treated for such a long time. During the period after Arthur died and before she married Henry, I found myself repeatedly getting angry on her behalf.

While I used to read a lot of books about the six wives of Henry VIII, I only knew bits and pieces about Katherine of Aragon, so it was nice to have a book that was entirely about her. While it was a bit confusing with so many historical figures with the same name, I did find there were a lot who eventually grew on me. And it was good to see something of the politics, even though there was a lot of development that I felt was glossed over. Even towards the end, the characteristics of Katherine’s maids were glossed over and told about rather than shown.

I did feel a lot for Katherine, but certainly at the start of the book, it was good to see a slightly different version of Henry VIII, rather than just him as a villain (which he was, but the beginning of the book showed a different side of him). However, I could still recognise who he would become in the way he treated Katherine before they were actually married.

It was good to see Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour appear and the crossover between the next two women Henry VIII was to marry. However, I don’t think I’ll be reading the next book/s in this series any time soon, as there were times this was bogged down with too much summarising of character relationships and history.

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d ideally give this book 4.5 stars out of 5.

This book seemed to very much more mirror the story in the New Testament of the Bible, at least as far as the other world Thomas found himself in was concerned.

It was good to see the huge differences in Thomas’ two different realities and how he’d changed so much in the forest. I would have liked a bit more detail of the past fifteen years, as I didn’t really get to see much of Thomas’ relationship with Justin previously and it would have had more of an effect if I’d been shown some of their previous interactions with each other. I did really like Justin, though, especially by the end of the book.

I thought it was interesting that I didn’t really see any of Teeleh and his creatures in the world, only the humans. I would have liked some more details about how the Great Romance had been perverted, as there seemed to be two schools of thought about the relevance of it during the present time.

To be honest, I really felt that the side of the story that took place in Earth now was somewhat lacking in comparison to Elyon’s world. It was interesting to see more links between the two worlds, though. However, I would have liked some more details about exactly why each person had a ‘mirror’ in the other world.

I liked Rachelle quite a bit more in this book, but I especially liked the fact that there were so many characters who were strong and had a lot of depth to them. I was especially fond of Mikil by the end of the book, even if I had mixed feelings towards her throughout.

I really liked reading Justin’s interactions with everyone, but I especially enjoyed seeing how he treated Lucy. Those scenes made me feel quite emotional; and it all really came to a head during the scene right at the end of the book.

I did feel there were a lot of fast-moving scenes in this book and I was engaged really easily and thoroughly. I do have the third book in this series that I definitely intend to read at some point soon in the future, but currently, I think this book is my favourite.