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London, 1887. As the city prepares to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Veronica Speedwell is marking a milestone of her own. After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica wields her butterfly net and a sharpened hatpin with equal aplomb, and with her last connection to England gone, she intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
But fate has other plans, as Veronica discovers when she thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron who has ties to her mysterious past. Promising to reveal in time what he knows of the plot against her, the baron offers her temporary sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive natural historian as intriguing as he is bad-tempered. But before the baron can deliver on his tantalizing vow to reveal the secrets he has concealed for decades, he is found murdered. Suddenly Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.
The Reason
I enjoy historical fiction and mysteries with female detectives at the helm, so of course I had to try this one.
The Quotes
“I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea.”
“That is the hallmark of a good partnership, you know – when one partner sees the forest and the other studies the trees.”
“One cannot innovate new improvements without understanding old failures.”
“I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.”
The Characters
I want to like Veronica and Stoker, but I don’t think that they are likeable characters and I can’t decide if that’s by design. Veronica is outspoken, intelligent, and courageous, and she appears cool and calm on the outside, but then there are moments when she seems completely foolish and immature. I feel like I would’ve thought it brilliant if it was by design and Veronica was able to see her faults and own to them, but it doesn’t seem that way.
My Thoughts
This was a really great story and I loved how smart it was. I also really loved how the story unfolded and the secrets that were revealed. It was a little slow at the middle, and I’m not completely sure the traveling show part was necessary at all except as a plot point for the “fake dating”, but it got really intense near the end.
My Feels
I’m missing the feels for this book. I like the story and the idea. I love the way the information was deduced, I love the little tidbits of knowledge about butterflies and other stuff Veronica and Stoker were well-versed in. And while I’m not completely in love with Veronica and Stoker, I thought they were interesting characters. I just don’t like them enough to continue with the series.
My Rating
3/5 stars. This is a solid good book. Just not for me.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Peter is quick, daring, and full of mischief—and like all boys, he loves to play, though his games often end in blood. His eyes are sparkling gold, and when he graces you with his smile you are his friend for life, but his promised land is not Neverland. Fourteen-year-old Nick would have been murdered by the drug dealers preying on his family had Peter not saved him. Now the irresistibly charismatic wild boy wants Nick to follow him to a secret place of great adventure, where magic is alive and you never grow old. Even though he is wary of Peter’s crazy talk of faeries and monsters, Nick agrees. After all, New York City is no longer safe for him, and what more could he possibly lose?
There is always more to lose.
Accompanying Peter to a gray and ravished island that was once a lush, enchanted paradise, Nick finds himself unwittingly recruited for a war that has raged for centuries—one where he must learn to fight or die among the “Devils,” Peter’s savage tribe of lost and stolen children.
There, Peter’s dark past is revealed: left to wolves as an infant, despised and hunted, Peter moves restlessly between the worlds of faerie and man. The Child Thief is a leader of bloodthirsty children, a brave friend, and a creature driven to do whatever he must to stop the “Flesh-eaters” and save the last, wild magic in this dying land.
The Reason
Another one of his books – Slewfoot – came highly recommended, so I went to check him out and saw that most of his books had high ratings. I went on Libby to borrow a whole bunch of his books and this one just happened to be the first one available.
The Quotes
“Men who fear demons see demons everywhere.”
“Everything comes with a price. Everything. Some things just cost more than others.”
“Both sides so blinded by their fear and hate of each other that they couldn’t see they were all fighting for the same thing.”
The Characters
Well, this is a mash up retelling of a few different stories, but most notably, Peter Pan and the Mists of Avalon, so we see some familiar characters, but also a lot of new ones.
I want to state upfront that I’m having a lot of trouble with this review because I am a character-driven reader, and I hated the character inconsistencies in this book. I wanted so badly to DNF by the time I was 75% in, but I also wanted to give it a chance because of the great ratings.
My Thoughts
To give credit where it’s due, I think the story idea is really good and I love how creative Brom got with fitting in the Peter Pan story with the Mists of Avalon, and a bunch of other Scottish folklore. I also liked that he didn’t shy away from the darkness and gory, and I think that the story in general was very well-written.
In trying to stay objective, I think that if I wasn’t a character-driven reader, and if character motivations and inconsistencies wasn’t such a big deal to me, I might have really liked this book. But I don’t.
My Feels
This book made me angry, and not in a good way. It’s mostly my own fault because the longer I stay with a book I don’t like, the angrier I get, and maybe I should have DNF’d earlier but I ended up finishing it instead because of the sunk-cost fallacy and wanting to mark it as finished.
The Issues
I’m going to put them in spoiler tags because I’ve got rants and they give away a lot of the story. Click on the arrows to read more, but only if you’ve already read the book or don’t care that you get spoiled. You’ve been warned!
Nick
Nick ran away because he was in an unsafe environment that his mother put him in and he was originally very angry with his mother. During a conversation with the Devils, they said something about him being a bad person for leaving his mom in that unsafe situation (that she put him in), and he began to feel guilty and wanted to go home to her. First of all, it’s not Nick’s responsibility to take care of his mother, but the other way around, but that’s another story and not really part of the character inconsistencies. What I didn’t like was that in the beginning of the book, Nick knew that it was a situation his mother put him and rightly blamed her for it and it was a reason for him to run away. Then later in the book, he started thinking he was the bad person for leaving his mom behind, and it became a reason for him to want to go home. His change of heart didn’t feel organic or reasonable, it felt like a plot point.
Not to mention the whole time he kept complaining about being there in Devil Tree and wanting to go home, he never actually tried to go home and kept inserting himself into situations and helping people whom he said he didn’t care about. I just didn’t connect to his character motivations, like there was no reason for him to do whatever he did.
The Devils
Leroy killed one of the Devils (I forget her name and I can’t check it because I listened on audiobook) and framed Nick for it. The rest of the Devils were upset because they liked Nick and didn’t want it to be true, but if it was true, they had to go after Nick for justice. Later on, they did find out that it wasn’t true, and instead of being happy, they were disappointed that they couldn’t get to kill him?! That doesn’t make sense at all. Again, I don’t get the character motivations.
It also didn’t make sense to me that they used Nick’s guilt about leaving his mother to make him stay with them. They tell him he’s a bad person for leaving his mother, so he wants to go home. But then they use the fact that he left his mother to guilt him into staying with them. It just doesn’t make sense, it’s counterproductive!
Leroy
As a character, Leroy just doesn’t make sense. He was a bully, and a blustering one at that, but yet he was so meek when it came to challenges? He was picking fights with everyone and everything, you’d think his fake bravado would at least get him fighting in the real world. He might not be good enough to win fights, and I can totally see him taking the credit for Nick’s fight, yes, but not running from fights. Especially when we find out later that he ran away because he killed his father! And not to mention he’s the one I’d have expected to take the Captain’s offer of water in exchange for betraying the Devils. His character is just all over the place for me.
I should also say here that after Leroy framed Nick, Nick was obviously not a huge fan of Leroy and wished him dead in not very kind ways. And yet, not long after, when Leroy was actually dying and Peter wanted to leave him behind, Nick defended Leroy and condemned Peter for being heartless. I mean… there was no reason for Nick’s change of heart, it felt like he just wanted to be contrary.
Peter
Was he a good guy? Was he a bad guy? I don’t even know. He believed in Nick, until he didn’t, because it was a convenient plot point. He was strong and resilient and independent, until he became weak and in thrall to the Lady’s every wish, because it was a convenient plot point. Look, I like character arcs, but there are no character arcs here. I don’t even know if there are any real characters here, they’re all just puppets and caricatures.
There are actually lots of other issues but I don’t want to get into them because the more I do, the more upset I’ll get. I actually still intend to read Brom’s other book, Slewfoot, because it was the original recommendation and there are 12 years in between the two books and authors can improve. But I’m also going to be more discerning and allow myself to bail at the first sign of character inconsistencies!
My Rating
2/5 stars. I’m sorry, I just can’t get past all the issues.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
Inspired by the true World War II history of the few bookshops to survive the Blitz, The Last Bookshop in London is a timeless story of wartime loss, love and the enduring power of literature.
August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and blackout curtains that she finds on her arrival were not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London.
Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war.
The Reason
Well, you know, I can’t resist books about books and bookshops, so of course I had to borrow it when I saw it on Libby.
The Quotes
“Books are what have brought us together. A love of the stories within, the adventures they take us on, their glorious distraction in a time of strife.”
“You can’t save the world, but keep trying in any small way you can.”
“There was a special scent to paper and ink, indescribable and unknown to anyone but a true reader. She brought the book to her face, closed her eyes and breathed in that wonderful smell.”
“No one told her finishing the book would leave her so bereft. It was as though she’d said goodbye for the last time to a close friend.”
The Characters
Grace Bennett is the main character but I found myself loving all the other characters very much as well. Even the side characters came very much to life for me. Madeline Martin has such a way of writing the characters that makes each and every one of them stand out distinctly and individually. And yes, there is also a cat! I love it!
My Thoughts
This book gives me so much Anne of Green Gables vibes, which might sound weird because it’s definitely a lot darker. But it has that feel-good thing going on for it, even in the face of horror, death, and disaster, with the war going on. Grace, her friends, and their community face so much loss and grief, but through it all, they come together through the love of books and stories. There were some parts where the author writes about the feelings of guilt for doing well or having fun while others weren’t, and always wanting to do more to help but feeling like it’s never enough. The characters also talk about the importance of preserving books and stories, and making sure that all stories are told, not just the ones the people in power want to be told. So many powerful messages in this book delivered so beautifully.
My Feels
This book totally punched me in the feels. I sobbed so much near the end because it was such a testament to the power of community and people coming together, supporting one another, through hardship and suffering. I see them all at different parts of the book, taking turns being the ones to support others and then needing support from others, and I thought that was so beautifully written and shown, about the power of community. I also love how the bookshop was such an important part of that support system. I have always felt for myself that books and stories have been crucial to my growth and development as a human being living in this world, and sometimes crucial to my survival. I feel that sentiment illustrated so well in this book and I am just completely in love with everything this book has to offer.
My Rating
5/5 stars. No question. In fact, I feel like this may be one of the books I come back to over and over again. I highly recommend it to any and all book lovers, and anyone who believes in the power of community and the resilience of people. This book is a testament that even in the face of the darkest of times, there is still hope and love and magic to be found. It is an absolutely beautiful book.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story.
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?
The Reason
Full disclosure, the reason I picked this book up was because I had just finished another book on audio right before bed, and I needed a new one to sleep to (I have trouble falling asleep and audiobooks help), and these were one of the books my library had available immediately.
To be fair, I was also intrigued by the time-travel aspect, because I love time-travel stories and philosophical questions of “what would you do if you could go back in time…?” so that’s also the reason I picked it out of the other available audiobooks my library had.
The Quotes
“Any story could be a comedy or a tragedy, depending on where you ended it. That was the magic. How the same story could be told an infinite number of ways.”
“All her life, she’d thought of death as the single moment, the heart stopping, the final breath, but now she knew that it could be much more like giving birth, with nine months of preparations. Her father was heavily pregnant with death, and there was little to do but wait.”
“The way you spend your days is the way you spend your life.”
“Grief was something that moved in and stayed. Maybe it moved from one side of the room to the other, farther away from the window, but it was always there.”
The Characters
I’m a character-driven reader so I gotta talk a bit about them. I’m not gonna list out all the characters here, only the ones who stood out to me and why I liked/disliked them.
Alice – the MC and time-traveler. I found her a little wishy-washy at first, but then I realized later how relatable that was, because heck, I have no idea what I’m doing either. What I loved about her was that she was able to experiment and grow from the mistakes she made and lessons she learned. Maybe she didn’t really know what was important to her in the beginning, but I think she figured it out at the end.
Leonard – Alice’s father. I loved what a great father he was and the way he was so present for Alice. I also love that he wasn’t too stubborn to take advice and suggestions from teenagers. There’s just something so wholesome about him as a father, and the way he took care of Alice.
Sam – Alice’s best friend. I love how supportive she was as a friend. Going along with Alice even when she was skeptical, and being all in anyway. I wish we could all have a friend like Sam.
Ursula – the cat. Oh, the cat. I loved that cat. I love that she was there the whole time.
My Thoughts
This book started out slow for me at first. I was quite lukewarm about it in the beginning but I got more and more into it as we got to know Alice and watch her journey. I really loved that this book was about relationships and the people we love. I love that at the end of the day, the things that matter most aren’t status and material things, like the house you live in or the clothes you wear, but that you are happy and have people whom you love and who love you.
My Feels
This book made me feel big feelings. I do ask myself that question sometimes, “What would you do if you could go back in time?” and I have a lot of grief and regrets about certain things, and I sometimes wonder if I could’ve changed anything or “saved” anyone, and I realize you can’t really change or save anyone except yourself, and I honestly might’ve settled for just saving myself if I could go back in time. Reading this book, watching Alice discovering herself through this journey, and seeing the kind of relationship Alice had with her father was just absolutely beautiful.
My Rating
5/5 stars. I wavered a little between 4 and 5 stars because the beginning was slow and I wasn’t feeling Alice at first, but I think that was sort of the point, and the fact that it tugged at my emotions so hard means that it more than deserves 5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
