romance

WWW Wednesday – May 31

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 7 Comments

WWWWednesday

 

WWW Wednesday is a meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words and was formerly hosted by A Daily Rhythm. It is open for anyone to participate, even without a blog you can comment on Sam’s post with your own answers. It is a great way to share what you’ve been reading! All you have to do is answer three questions and share a link to your blog in the comments section of Sam’s blog.

The three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

DorothyMustDie

“No matter how tough you think you are, there are certain things that just get to you, and they’re usually the little things. The ones you don’t expect.”

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige. I picked Dorothy Must die up last week and, I admit, I have only read about three chapters of it. It really does seem like a good book but I’ve hit a slump and just don’t think anything will pull me in right now. Maybe I’ll put this one down for a while and try again another time. I don’t want to read it and dislike it just because I’m in funk, you know?

What did you recently finish reading?

11250317

“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. This book is the reason for my reading slump. I picked it up expecting epic battles, the clashing of swords, and a noble and heroic death. What I got was a love story. If you are into love stories it would be a wonderful book, I think, but I’m not. With the name “Achilles” in the title I just expected something very different than the book I got and it was such a disappointment.

 

What do you think you’ll read next?

AndIDarken

“On our wedding night,” she said, “I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.”

And I Darken by Kiersten White . Look at that quote. Look at it. How can I resist? Even Emily May liked it and if you’ve spent any time at all on Goodreads you’ve seen Emily’s reviews and know she is a bit picky. I’ll be picking this book up from the library later today and am really looking forward to getting started on it. Hopefully it gets me out of my reading funk because, at this rate, I’m not going to have a review to put up this week. Yikes!

That is it for WWW Wednesday! Feel free to leave a link to your own WWW posts in the comments and have a fabulous day.

 

My Fictional Valentine

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 5 Comments

valentinesday

With Valentine’s Day being this week, I wanted to take a look back at some of the books I’ve read and the romances, both good and bad, that have blossomed in their pages.

heartless

 

I’ll start with Heartless by Marissa Meyer. The prequel, if you care to call it that, of Alice in Wonderland. The romance in this book damn near broke my heart. Jest and Cath were amazing, even if sometimes sickeningly sweet. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I ugly cried through the last 100 pages or so of this one. It is an excellent book but have the tissues handy.

 

 

 

 

adarkershadeofmagic

The world crafted within A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab takes my breath away. So do the characters. While romance is far from the characters mind’s you can’t help but try to mentally shove Kell and Lila together. I adore Lila’s strength and bravery and Kell’s desire to do the right thing. Together they can save the worlds or doom them. The third book in the series, A Conjuring of Light, comes out on the 21st of February and I can not wait to get my hands on it and find out what happens to our dynamic duo.

 

 

 

24690

Going a bit off the deep end on this one. 24690 by A.A. Dark is one of the darkest, most violent books I have ever read. However, within the blood, bondage, murder, and cannibalism lies love. A twisted, slightly deranged love by most standards but it is there none the less. It’s certainly not the kind of affection that the majority of people associate with. Whatever it is, it works for Everleigh and Bram, even after his death. While I did find this to be an interesting book it is not for the feint of heart.

 

 

 

TheBoneSeasonLast, but certainly not least, I give you The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. We have Paige whose special abilities makes her a target for the government. She is captured and sent to a penal colony inhabited by people like her, other people with abilities that are greater than human. Abilities that cause them to be feared by the mass population. Warden houses her in this colony and teaches her but he is of the race that is quietly enslaving mankind. Their relationship as captor and captured develops into something more and I’m looking forward to seeing how it further develops through the series. Shannon plans for there to be seven books in this world. The third, A Song Rising, has a march 2017 release date.

 

 

Have you read any of these? What do you think about them? What books have you read where the relationships speak to you?

 

Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas

~ Amanda @ Literary Weaponry ~ 2 Comments

minetillmidnight

 

So, yeah, you know that holiday that is coming up? The one where the menus at restaurants shrink yet become more expensive and roses go from 9.99 for a dozen to 29.99 a dozen. There will also be over the top wedding proposals along with some brutal rejections. What’s that day called again? Oh yeah, Valentine’s Day. I’ll be honest, it’s not my holiday. Stop with the snarky comments, it’s not because I’m single. I’m happily married, thank you very much. When I think of Valentine’s Day what usually comes to mind is the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 in Chicago. Capone and Bugs were involved and seven men were brutally murdered in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. In the spirit of that I considered reviewing a horror novel. I even had it picked out. But I was feeling like a softy and changed my mind. So instead of brutal murders and mystery I went with a romance novel.

Here is a fact for you- I don’t really like romance novels. Just not my cup of tea but according to Goodreads this one promised a strong leading lady, historical romance, and some steamy scenes between the sheets so I figured I would give it a shot.

Our story begins in London where Miss Amelia Hathaway is searching for her drunken, possibly drug addled, brother. Upon the death of his fiance, Leo had lost himself and spent most of his time in the bottle or in houses of ill repute. So Amelia makes her way to a drinking and gambling club meant only for the aristocracy where she is confident she will find her brother. There she meets Cam, the gypsy club manager, who obviously has more on his mind than assisting Miss Hathaway. *Hint hint nudge nudge wink wink*

Miss Hathaway believes the only way to save her brother is to remove him from the temptations that the city has to offer. So Amelia, Leo, and their three younger sisters move to an estate in the country. The house is in desperate need of repair but Amelia is convinced they can fix it despite Leo drinking and whoring away their funds.

But really, this is a romance novel, so…

Amelia was wronged by her former love so now she has determined to live her life as a spinster though she is not even 30. Cam, being half gypsy, feels like he belongs neither to the gypsy culture or among the more typically structured society. However they are certainly drawn to each other and even though Amelia and the Hathaways fled to the country they still keep bumping into each other. Amelia resists Cam’s attempts to assist her with the house (even when it catches on fire) but he persists. He is one determined kinda-gypsy.

Really, it is kind of sweet even though he is overbearing and, quite frankly, a bit of a male chauvinist. For the time period the book is written in that is really not much of a surprise. Although it is a little annoying. I kept waiting for her to whoop him. It would have been way better if she had whooped him.

Long story short, Mr. Gypsy saves the day because he has inexplicable good luck, Leo has suicidal tendencies because his dead fiance is haunting him (I think, that didn’t make a lot of sense), and Amelia gives into the chauvinist.

You know, maybe I’m jaded but didn’t seem like much of a romance novel. Man thinks he is above woman’s societal norms, man changes his mind, man expects woman to comply with his demands, woman pretends to be strong willed but is really a patsy in sheep’s clothing.

Yup. I’m jaded. Either way, for a romance novel it wasn’t half bad. Now, I’m going to go pick up a psychological thriller or something. I deal better with murder and mayhem than, “Oh my God, I love you!” and “Hey, I didn’t think I did but you are an overbearing putz who is acceptable in the sack so I’m giving in to you because I am weak willed. I love you, too!” Can’t. Deal.