An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley

Do you like alternate histories? Maybe mixed with a little fantasy? I just finished An Affair of Poisons, and I loved it. It's an alternate history tale of a Shadow Society that poisons King Louis XIV and then takes power. There are two perspectives, one told by a poisoned, the daughter of the Shadow Society leader, who doesn't agree with what has happened, and a bastard prince who is fighting to save his sisters. The two meet and try to take back the city in the name of the boy's brother, the dauphin Louis. I thought it was a beautiful story with strong characters. There is romance but it is slow to build and handled well. It has poison and curatives, magic and intrigue. I highly recommend it.⁣

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Initial thoughts on Mockingjay

Don't worry, I'm going to try and stay away from spoilers, at least for now! In my opinion, the hardest part of writing any book or story is writing the ending. I imagine that it's probably incredibly more difficult when you are writing the ending of a book that has been a popular series. The author always knows that some fans will love it and some fans will hate it. Of course you can't please everyone. That said, how do I feel about Mockingjay? As I book, I loved it, and I wasn't disappointed at all. The action was just as fast-paced and captivating as the two previous books of the series. Suzanne Collins has mastered the art of keeping the reader from getting bored. Around half way through the book, I got a little teary, but I won't say why just yet. Nor will I reveal what part of the ending of the series made me cry. Maybe later I'll come back, when more people have finished the book, or when I figure out if there's a wa...

Shiver and Linger by Maggie Stiefvater - Slight Spoiler Alert

Review written on August 7, 2010 ** Mildly Spoilerish** Books 1 and 2 in the Mercy Falls series I read Shiver last year, shortly after it came out. I did really enjoy the book and even voted to be sure it would appear on the list for the committee I'm on. However, I always had one problem with the book -the "cure". No one else seemed as bothered by this as me, but I just can't get past that. I did like that there was some science involved with why they turned into the wolves when it was cold. Despite the so-called cure, the book was good, so of course I wanted to read the second book, Linger . Only ten chapters in, I was highly annoyed by the book already. The moment that Grace said that Isabel was cold and Isabel said it was Grace that was hot, I just knew that she was going to be sick and how she would be "cured". At first I thought that Sam had gotten her sick somehow, but at least that wasn't the case. At least what Cole d...

Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

This new take on fairy tales focuses on Violet, a prickly court seer that doesn't particularly care if she is likeable. She certainly doesn't care if Cyrus, the prince she saved years ago, earning her place in court, likes or hates her, as she rather hates him. But it is her place as seer to prophesize whether he will find love in time to break his curse and save the kingdom from war and destruction as the previous seer's prophecy foretold. This book does so many things well! The "villainous" main character - this is my favorite type of character, so the bar was high, but this book does it well. The author made Violet properly prickly and supposedly unrelatable, but that just made me love her so much. Enemies to lovers - the chemistry is believable and enjoyable, moving the story forward as well as the rest of the plot. The beasts - The beasts were described so uniquely and beautifully, a strange combination of plant, fur. and horns. Camilla - Rivaling Violet and ...

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