reading

The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M.J. Rose

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TheWitchOfPaintedSorrows

 

Mere minutes ago I finished reading this book and I’m still immersed in the story. Isn’t that part of the goal of every writer? For the reader to finish the words on the page and not want to close the book because then it will truly be over. To have their audience be so caught up in the story that they don’t want to say goodbye. Just to live in the story forever.

I did not want to say farewell to this book.

The Witch of Painted Sorrows is the third book I have read by M.J. Rose and she has never disappointed me. Her stories are so rich and vivid. They live in the real world with a touch of something “other”. The otherworldly aspects are never pushed beyond the believable and into science fiction which is an aspect I enjoy immensely.

In this story we follow Sandrine Verlaine through a period of upheaval and change in her life in Paris, 1894. Rose draws you in with excitement and curiosity in the very first paragraph of the book:

“I did not cause the madness, the deaths, or the rest of the tragedies any more than I painted the paintings. I had help, her help. Or perhaps I should say that she forced her help on me. And so this story- which began with me fleeing my home in order to escape my husband and might very well end tomorrow, in a duel, in the Bois de Boulogne at dawn- is as much hers as mine. Or in fact more hers than mine. For she is the fountainhead. The fascination. She is La Lune. Woman of moon dreams, of legends and of nightmares. Who took me from the light and into the darkness. Who imprisoned me and set me free.”

Sandrine, when she flees her terrible husband in New York, travels secretly to Paris to stay with her grandmother, a courtesan of considerable wealth. She goes initially to escape the man, her husband, that had directly caused her father’s death and whom she feared. While in Paris, she discovers dark secrets hidden within her grandmother’s home that have been there for many generations.

As the darkness she finds creeps over her, possesses her, and tries to consume her Sandrine falls in love with a man that the darkness within her hungers for. While this creature, this consciousness, is inside her Sandrine accomplishes things in her life she had once only dreamed of while at the same time being touched by murder and madness. The spirit, who you learn has haunted Sandrine’s family for generations, seeks to entirely possess her host and force Sandrine out.

Will Sandrine win or will this consciousness from the past push her out? I won’t spoil it here. I will, however, say that the end surprised even me. It wasn’t entirely what I was expecting. I re-read the last chapter to make sure I had read it right. The story did have some slow parts, as most stories do, but push through them. I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 1 Comment

DealingWithDragons

 

I don’t often go for sci-fi. A little bit of fantasy, sure, because what is life without a little imagination. But straight out sci-fi? That happens a little next to never. However, Dealing with Dragons is the first in the series of four in the Enchanted Forest chronicles by Patricia C Wrede and they take you into a world of dragons, fiery princesses, evil plots, and magic that is so carefully written into the story that it seems almost commonplace and normal. My earliest memory of reading is of my mom reading this series to me at bedtime when I was a child. They hold a special place in my heart. 

Cimorene is a princess of the Kingdom of Linderwall and she is not exactly what the king and queen would consider a normal princess. She conjugates Latin verbs, makes cherries jubilee, and can cast a mean invisibility spell. Her sisters learn when to scream as a dragon or orge is carrying them off and different embroidery stitches. But not Cimorene. When her parents arrange a marriage for her to an annoyingly proper prince in a neighboring kingdom, Cimorene goes off on her own and volunteers to become the captive princess of the dragon Kazul. 

Sounds like fun to me. 

While sorting Kazul’s library, organizing her treasure vaults, and making chocolate mousse Cimorene discovers a plot against the life of the king of the dragons. From here she works with a prince that was turned into stone (quite unfortunate), a ginger witch with perfect posture (and a lot of cats), and an only slightly silly princess to try to thwart the over-confident wizards from taking control of the dragon’s throne. 

This series is absolutely wonderful. Wrede keeps to her themes, stays true to her characters, and the series itself winds together beautifully. If you have even a passing fancy of sci-fi or even just a good and fanciful story I cannot recommend the Enchanted Forest chronicles enough. If you aren’t into science fiction I know it sounds a bit silly. However, I truly believe if you give the books a try you will not regret it. Wrede pulls you into her stories with such wonderful writing that you can’t help but keep your eyes glued to the page. They are part of the magic of my childhood. I hope they become a part of your life, too. 

The Tale of Hawthorn House by Susan Wittig Albert

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TheTaleofHawthornHouse

 

 

A book based around the most popular children’s author of all time? Don’t mind if I do!


That is exactly what The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter are. Who is Beatrix Potter, you ask? Why, every child has heard of Peter Rabbit! That is exactly who Beatrix Potter is, the author of some of the most famous children’s stories ever written. Some of her works include The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Tom Kitten, and The Tale of Pigling Bland.

Albert bases her stories (loosely) around events that actually occurred in Ms. Potter’s life. From the history I have personally read of Beatrix it seems to me she made the personality of the character fit very well with the real woman. 

Shy, determined, intelligent, creative. Wonderful. 

In this story Beatrix is visits the lovely little town of Near Sawrey where she owns a farm that she, due to her over bearing parents, doesn’t get to visit very often. Ms. Potter loves her little farm and does her very best to take care of it and make it prosperous. However, every time she comes to the village, she seems to get tied up in some kind of mystery and mild mayhem. In this case it is the mystery of a baby that was left on her doorstep and no one knows where the child came from or why the infant was left on that particular doorstep,


By a series of fortunate coincidences she does in the find the child’s parents and the child gets the best of all worlds in the end. In the meantime Beatrix is mistakenly marked a bride, assists a friend with some much needed courage, and misplaces a duck. I do believe the part about the duck is my favorite. Anyone who has read Beatrix Potter’s stories knows the tale of Jemima Puddleduck and in this book we get to explore a little further into her story as well as her furry friend’s. 


In all of the books Albert has done about Beatrix in her Cottage Tales series, she delves a little further into the children’s stories that Potter actually wrote. It is really wonderful to add to those little details to the stories already in your head, even if it just seems like some insignificant detail. 


Now, if you’re looking for a fast paced, action packed book then this series would not be quite right under those pre-requisites. If you want an interesting, well written, quiet yet detail orientated mystery then look no further. 

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 2 Comments

MissPPeculiarChildren

 

I read the reviews and comments on this book at least a dozen times over the last year before I finally decided to buy it. And I will admit the only reason I did was because it happened to be on an amazing sale that day. I will be the first to admit that the premise of the story is a little bit odd, and I do usually like odd, but I was afraid it was going to delve into the land of cheesy. Honestly, when the cover of the book is a creepy little girl levitating and managing to look menacing all at the same time it certainly sends a message.


That message is this book is either epic or chintzy. 

We start with a pre-teen or early teen boy. I’m going to call him Bob because I simply don’t care to remember what his name actually was. So Bob is a weak, whiny little brat of a boy that offends his grandfather and doesn’t appreciate what is given to him. 

And yes, I very much doubt that was how he was supposed to be perceived. 

Bob instead of helping his grandfather, who calls and specifically asks him for help, assumes he is delusional and his grandfather ends up dead. Bob now sees an evil shadow in the forest with his dead grandfather, who loved his grandson very much, and our main character spends the next several chapters in therapy. At this point, lets just say I was more than ready to put the book down. But, I never start a book that I don’t finish, so onward we plod. 


Wimpy Bob and his father go through the grandfather’s things and Bob finds a box of old photos of children doing things like you would find in a side show act. Levitating, strong man, invisible boy etc etc etc. His grandfather had shown him the photos years before so Bob decides to go to an island. There is a heartfelt and touching story behind all of that but, just like his name, I really don’t care to remember. 


In a nutshell, Bob finds the kids, gets the hots for his grandfather’s ex who never grew up, and nearly gets the invisible boy killed. The evil shadows show back up and now Wimpy Bob is expected to save the world. My impression was that this was supposed to be a coming of age story juxtaposed with children that never age. I also got the impression that this story is supposed to give hope to physically weak or odd children, but mostly the whole story is a bit creepy. And not creepy in a good way. We have all read stories that are an entertaining type of creepy. This story isn’t one of those.


Nor worth my time or yours. 

 

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As an afterward, since I initially wrote this review some time ago a lot of positive press has shown up regarding this story. Out of curiosity I pulled it up on Amazon and it has a 4.3 out of 5 as of this date. I just wanted to mention that I have seen that positive press and for the life of me can’t figure out what they are talking about. However, as the old saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. A day will never come when all of mankind agrees on all things.

Seventy-Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 1 Comment

SeventySevenClocks

 

Christopher Fowler writes one of my favorite book series. The series is known both as the Bryant and May mysteries as well as the Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries. I have noticed, as I have recommended the series to many people, that readers seem to be along the lines of “love it or hate it” and that there don’t seem to be any in between opinions. Admittedly I find the books to be unique and it would take a certain kind of person to enjoy them. Just look at the quote on the book cover above. Deadpan and sly. You would never find the series under a “feel good” header. But I digress…

Arthur Bryant and John May are detectives based out of London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit. The Unit was founded, if memory serves, during WWII out of the government’s desire to keep local, but odd, criminal activity out of the public eye. They did so by giving publicly sensitive cases with the potential to cause mass panic to the specialized and “experimental” unit called the Peculiar Crimes Unit. In one of the prior books in the series it is joked that the unit was originally called the Particular Crimes Unit and only ended up being called Peculiar by accident and joke. 

The two main characters, Arthur Bryant and John May, in the case of the seventy-seven clocks are looking back at a case from their past. A very well to-do family with pedigree and influence, the Whitstables, have become the focus of a string of murders. We start with the death of a family lawyer, Max Jacob, who was murdered quietly in the lobby of a posh hotel. The detectives must figure who and/or what killed him as he died alone in plain sight of the entire hotel lobby.The quiet public killing is a confusing curiosity to our detectives. 

The initial killing is followed by the deaths of three members of the Whitstable family. William, Peter, and their sister Bella. William is blown up in a public place without harming any of the people who are physically near to him, Peter’s throat is cut at the barber’s in the same posh hotel as the business man was killed in, and Bella is poisoned at a play surrounded by at least a dozen people including Mr. Bryant. How are these deaths occurring and what is their motive?

We follow Arthur Bryant and John May as they wade through the case, digging up clues with the help of a mildly annoying teen. You get absorbed as a young child of the Whitstable family is kidnapped, become disturbed when another family member is attacked within the family mausoleum, and either gasp in shock or are utterly bewildered by the cause and purpose of these deaths.

The conclusion is most entertaining and positively weird, so I won’t give it up here. Overall, the book is fascinating. My only real complaint is the annoyance factor of the teenage girl that helps Bryant and May on and off throughout the story. Honestly, what teenage girl isn’t a bit of an annoyance from time to time, though. 

Consider reading the rest of the Bryant and May series:

  • Full Dark House
  • The Water Room
  • The Ten Second Staircase
  • The White Corridor
  • The Victoria Vanishes
  • On The Loose
  • Off the Rails
  • The Memory of Blood
  • The Invisible Code
  • The Bleeding Heart
  • The Burning Man
  • The Secret Santa (short story)