First Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A story about the King Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot love triangle. I can’t remember whether Arthur died in the movie. Both book and movie were good. 🙂
Category Archives: Talk about all things writing related!
Review: Troll Mountain: The Complete Novel
Troll Mountain: The Complete Novel by Matthew Reilly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A nice middle grade fable with Trolls, a bad human and a quest for a young hero in it. A fun read.
Review: Changeling
Changeling by Philippa Gregory
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Really enjoyed this first book of the YA series The Order of Darkness set in Renaissance Italy. The cast of characters are individually distinctive and interesting, especially the two support characters Frieze (the annoyingly talkative and interfering man-servant)and the no-nonsense action girl Moor, Ishraq.
Review: Dreaming the Eagle
Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I liked that the tribes were meritocratic and not based on gender. Tribal leadership went from mother to daughter. The relationships between Breaca and her brother and two lovers is interesting. The Dark ages that followed were truly dark and limited!
The book was a bit boring and repetitive in places with all the wars. The book was too long. But I am going to persevere with the series.
Review: The Goldfinch
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Another book like Secret History, where the protagonist is weak, self-pitying, traumatised and chooses friends who get him into affluent society, drugs, alcohol and chronic smoking. Also, like the Secret History the protagonist chooses the path of a criminal. The locations are different and there is a slight tweak in the storyline, but essentially if you read this book without knowing the author and after reading Secret History, you’d recognise the writing style, vocabulary and plot.
Again like Secret History, the book starts very well with the reader routing for the protagonist and then as the protagonist slides into despair and makes bad decisions, the reader becomes detached and wishes the book were over.
My favourite characters in this book are Popchyk the dog, Hobbie the naïve one and the protagonist’s mother. The others are hard to empathise with.
View original post 4 more words
Review: To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A great book from the perspective of an adult looking back through her five year old self at her family relationships, the small-minded town she lived in and a court case about a black man accused of raping a white woman in 1930s America in the deep South. Scout and her brother Jem are brought up by their father Atticus Finch, a lawyer. He teaches Scout to read and write by using his law books and newspapers and she finds herself far too advanced when she starts school which creates challenges for her with her teacher! Scout is a tomboy who loves to use her fists to deal with disagreements and her ever patient father tries to encourage her to be less hot-headed and more aware of others. She turns up in the middle of a mob…
View original post 128 more words
Review: Lords of the White Castle
Lords of the White Castle by Elizabeth Chadwick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the sequel to ‘Shadows and Strongholds’ and deals with Fulke Fitzwarin who was an outlaw in the time of King John and the Magna Carta. A very enjoyable action packed read.
Review: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What a religious fanatic mother Jeanette had. She was crazy! The father doesn’t appear at all in the book, which is weird. The mother is narrow minded and intolerant and believes she is the centre of the universe and doing Gods work. Growing up as a future missionary, Jeanette was messed up and considered fatalistic and upsetting to other children at school, and that was about the time she started to realise her mother was not normal and nor was her own behaviour…
I like the second book, ‘Why be Happy when you can be Normal’ better. It’s more emotional. This book is funny and the fairy story portions were distracting.
Review: The Watcher in the Shadows
The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A young adult horror story set in Normandy about a creepy toy maker who collects poor children’s shadows in exchange for their hearts and a promise of a better life. Of course if you make a bargain with the devil there are consequences…
This story reminded me of his book Marina which also had a crazy inventor creating monsters.
Review: The Great Zoo of China
The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Fun adventure story like Jurassic Park. Not realistic at all, but a quick page turner. China tries to create a cultural revolution with the world’s biggest zoo with some interesting exhibits. Soon the carnivorous animals escape and murder and mayhem ensue till obliteration and peace is found.
westminsterwritersgroup 