November 2018 Book Club: The Power

The Power by Naomi Alderman

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, Rape, Attempted Rape, Sex



Suddenly - tomorrow or the day after - girls find that with a flick of their fingers, they can inflict agonizing pain and even death. With this single twist, the four lives at the heart of Naomi Alderman's extraordinary, visceral novel are utterly transformed, and we look at the world in an entirely new light.

What if the power to hurt were in women's hands?

The Power was our book club book this month. It's set in an alternate world where suddenly women get this power to shock other people. The explanation behind how and why this happens is flimsy at best. This book didn't work for me for more than one reason. First I disliked the fact that this book feels like reading snippets from the news instead of being one continual story. I didn't care for any of the characters either, and I also don't enjoy revenge type stories and I feel like this is that type of story. Honestly I feel like this book is just incredibly silly, and that's sad because I think the author could have written something on the subject in a much better way.

My Goodreads friend Scott echoes a lot of what I think about this book in his review, especially when it comes to how men are portrayed in the book. You can read his review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2509607340?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1 .

Needless to say, I will probably not be reading anything else by this author.

The Bride of Ivy Green by Julie Klassen

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian
Genre: Historical Romance
Content: Clean



Much has happened in idyllic Ivy Hill in recent months, and while several villagers have found new love and purpose, questions remain--and a few dearly held dreams have yet to be fulfilled.

This is the last book in the Tales From Ivy Hill trilogy and I was looking forward to reading it all year. I didn't like this one quite as much as the two previous books in the trilogy. It seemed like there was less time spent on each character which was probably due to the fact that there were so many to cover in this book. I still enjoyed reading about them all though, especially Mercy and Jane. I think the real drawback of this book was that everything was tied up too neatly for me. It would have been more relatable if some characters would have been allowed to not have a happily ever after.

One thing I really enjoyed was the author's note at the end of the book where she reveals that the inspiration for Ivy Hill was the town of Lacock in England. It was nice to read her perspective of the town and look at her photos (you can find them at https://www.talesfromivyhill.com/) since I had also been there and loved it. I'll miss this series a lot, but I'm looking forward to reading whatever Julie Klassen writes next.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bethany House Publishers for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an review.

Some of my pictures of Lacock:

Redeemed by Bridget E. Baker

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post Apacolyptic
Content: Clean


 
Seventeen year old Ruby Behl never expected to be thrust into a position of power. But so much has changed in the past few months, she’s prepared to accept the responsibility.

When a vicious attack accelerates the Tercera virus, Ruby and her friends have less than a week to find the cure, prevent the Cleanse, and rescue her aunt from execution.

I enjoyed this conclusion to the Sins of Our Ancestors trilogy. This is a post-apocalyptic with teen romance thrown in, so if you like that sort of thing you will probably like this series. There were a few little things that niggled at me, like the over protective nature of the love interest, but he never went so far with it that he didn't respect Ruby's wishes so I could over look that. In general I liked him.

There were some repetitive things that happened in the series as a whole. There is a lot of traveling from place to place, and I kind of felt like it got a little old after a while. And Ruby and her friends tended to get captured a lot, which I thought happened a little too often. Mostly though I liked this book and the series overall was good, and I liked that not everything was wrapped up too neatly in the end. There were a couple of deaths that made me sad but needed to happen to balance things out.

Something I liked about this series is the way the author describes the scientific research for creating the virus and finding the cure. I'll admit I am not a scientist and never did that well in science in school, but the way it was written made it feel somewhat plausible to me instead of just coming out of nowhere.

This series was a quick, fun read and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Mild Cursing


Are Nova and Adrian each other’s worst nightmare?

In Renegades, Nova and Adrian (aka Insomnia and Sketch) fought the battle of their lives against the Anarchist known as the Detonator. It was a short-lived victory.

The Anarchists still have a secret weapon, one that Nova believes will protect her. The Renegades also have a strategy for overpowering the Anarchists, but both Nova and Adrian understand that it could mean the end of Gatlon City – and the world – as they know it.

I was really excited to finally get to read this book. I liked the first book Renegades quite a lot and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. That being said, this book was a bit of a let down for me. There was so much potential for the characters in this book, and I think had this series remained a duology as it was originally intended instead of being turned into a trilogy, it would have probably been better. This book definitely has middle book syndrome, and not a whole lot really happened.

"We are so much stronger and better when we put our energy into creating things, not destroying them.”

One of the things I was hoping to see in this book was character growth, especially for Nova. The above quote from the book is one thing I was hoping she would come to see as an important truth. There are opportunities galore for her to change her point of view even just a little, but none of those opportunities are capitalized on. There were a couple of times I thought she would have an eye-opening moment, but unfortunately Nova just stubbornly refuses to see things any way but the way she wants to see them. This made me like her a lot less than I did in the first book.

On the other hand, I continue to like Adrian just as much as before. I do feel like he could have grown more as a character as well, but his powers are explored more here and I liked that part of the book. He's the only character besides Max -- who is stuck in a quarantined environment -- that seems interested in developing and experimenting with his powers. I was pretty impressed with Adrian's abilities. The forest was amazing. Overall though we learn nothing new about any of the characters in the book and that was disappointing. I also wanted to know if there was more to the deaths of Nova's family than meets the eye, and I wanted to know more about the death of Adrian's mother, but we still get nothing.

There were a couple of battles in the book that could have been better if most of the characters would  use their powers to their potential. For example, there are so many cool things Ruby could do with her blood that she never thinks of doing. Why not make some body armor with it for one thing? And the Renegade teams are so unevenly put together. One team has tons of muscle, while another team consists of a too many characters with weaker abilities and no muscle to back them up. It just didn't really seem like that aspect of the book was very well thought out.

In the end I liked this but didn't love it but I will definitely read the last book in the trilogy.

Let the Dead Keep Their Secrets by Rosemary Simpson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong Language


 
Childbirth can be dangerous even for the wealthy. So when opera singer Claire Buchanan shows Prudence and Geoffrey a postmortem cabinet photograph of her deceased twin sister and newborn niece, they express sadness but not surprise. The popular black-bordered portraits are the era's way of coping with the devastating losses that plague every family. What makes this death different is that Claire is convinced Catherine and her child were murdered.

This is the third book I've read in this series and unfortunately I've found that the books have become less and less interesting. I really loved What the Dead Leave Behind and I thought Lies That Comfort and Betray was good but not as good as the previous book. This book is a distant third. The main reason for this is the fact that there is little to no mystery in this book. We know who murders whom and even why pretty much from the start. Add to that Prudence being stupidly reckless in the name of independence and it just made for a disappointing read. Sorry Prudence but if you want to be taken seriously stop doing stupid things and use your brain a little bit more.

One thing I've been waiting to develop more is the relationship between Prudence and Geoffrey. After three books of almost no movement on that front, it does look like maybe that will change in book four. I really hope so because I found the characters and relationships rather boring in this book. They all just seemed a little cardboard here, which shouldn't be the case after three books. I'm not giving up on this series yet, but I'm less enthused about it now.

Like the previous two books in the series, this one inspired a couple of web searches. This time around it was Mullett's Monstrosity -- the post office building that stood in New York City during that time period, and postmortem cabinet photography -- what a weird and rather macabre fad from that time period.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong Language



A land under occupation. A legendary sword. A young man's journey to find his destiny.

Having previously read Chris Wooding's Ketty Jay series and finding it quite the fun read, I was looking forward to reading this. I'll start by saying that this book is completely different from the Ketty Jay series, but that's not a bad thing at all. This is more in the vein of classic fantasy with the sword, the quest to find it, and the champion who will wield it in order to save his people. Those are all things that have been done over and over before in fantasy, so I wouldn't say there is a lot new here, but the characters where all interesting; from Garric the tortured 'hero' with an axe to grind; to Aren the boy he hates, but saves; to Vika the Druid; to Grub the comic relief. Every character has an interesting story and I loved just about all of them. There are other characters I could mention, but you should really just read the book to find out about them all.

There were a few moments in the book that reminded me of The Lord of the Rings. One character has a very Gandalf moment, and I thought that was quite fun. My only real criticisms of the book are that it is slightly longer than I thought it needed to be. It felt like it took forever to get the end and I was ready for it to end at around the 80 percent mark. Also, as I mentioned already, there is nothing really new here. If you like traditional fantasy with a few dark tones added to it then you will probably really like this. I am going to continue on with this series, because I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: fantasy
Content: Small amount of Strong Language



Three years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and the cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start life as rogues-for-hire. Things have gone well enough until they're asked to help prevent a murder. Now they must venture into an ancient corner of the world to save a mysterious woman who knows more about Royce than is safe and cares less about herself than is sane.

I absolutely loved this third book in the Riyria Chronicles. I've taken my time reading these, and I'm glad I have because I love being in this world with Royce and Hadrian. I'll be reading the next book in the series next month and I'm hoping there will be more. I really don't want it to be over!

I loved that the first two books in this series focused on the origins of Royce, Hadrian, and several other prominent characters in the Riyria Revelations series, but I also loved that this book was all about Royce and Hadrian on a job. There were so many scenes in the book that made me smile, especially the ones in the bar. The situations they got themselves into and out of where all entertaining. The best part is always finding out how they will get themselves out of them.

There were some nice surprises that relate to the Legends of the First Empire series, and I'm glad I read all the available books in that one first. It's been an interesting experience reading this middle series after reading the other two as there are things that relate to both past and future in these. At this point I probably don't even need to say that I'm looking forward to reading anything else Michael J. Sullivan writes. It's just a given.