Unapologetic Reviews

I finally enjoyed a book! I've been in quite the slump lately, DNFing books , dragging my heels reading a book. This one I started reading on the bus. Not a lot of time to read when you have a newborn and an online university . This book dragged me in and wouldn't let go. I stole a minute here, an hour there. I read while feeding my son, preparing formula... So what got me so hooked? This story isn't too complex. It's about a girl who's attending an elite university on a scholarship . Yes, there's magic, but you won't see spells flying around on campus, nor a Potions class . Magic here costs and the funds are limited. That's something I found unique about the magic system . Every spell costs a kind of money and how much you have a month depends on your worth. A division between rich and poor even in that. That's one of the themes of the story. Ren , our heroine, can be a bit of a cliché. She's poor, dead father; because we can't have a prota...

I debated if I should give it 5 stars, but in the end it was more like a 4. I did really enjoy the book, it just wasn't perfect. The world itself is interesting. You get the sense right from the beginning that all is not right with the picture portrayed by the dominant people, and that only becomes more obvious as things progress. What I found really interesting about the world was the description of fanatism and religious brainwashing, which are in interest of mine. The world itself is pretty small. We learn about two cities and the path between them, and not really a lot about anything else. It does keep thing streamlined and leave space for further exploration. There are two POV characters, Kyla and Marlowe . They're very different people, and not just because one is a guy and the other one is a woman. Their narrative voice is different too, so that was well done. I found Kyla's story a bit more interesting in this book, but things were just amping up for Marlowe at the...

The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso is the first book I managed to get to the end of in a while. I’ve been in quite the funk. This novel is not perfect, but it kept me reading, so that’s a gold star. This book is about two young women caught up in the intrigues and mysteries of a fantasy version of 16th century Italy . The magic I really liked. Basically, there are people who as kids have these “ mage marks ” in their eyes, which is like central heterochromia . That is when around the pupil you have a ring of different colour. I actually have this. Why I hate surveys with eye colour. So I guess I’d be a mage in this world. Mages can have active powers like being able to command elements , or make plants grow, and then there are kind of scientists that can mix magic with machines , and people who make potions. So according to the author the basis of the story is this magic system, since obviously these powers manifest in little kids, and what do you do with them? Raverra – Venice – ...

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant was a disappointment. It started out great. Exciting. However, I was eventually let down. It was like sex without orgasm, which for a book about a courtesan is ironic. The story isn't really about the courtesan. I think that's where I was first disappointed. I was promised a courtesan. I expected sex. A story of a woman selling her body but making it look like art. It was written by a woman! Instead, I got the narrative of a cynical imp. It wasn't so bad. He was funny at times, and saw the world around him for what it was. But it wasn't what I was promised! Funny thing, the Hungarian title is much better. It's "The Courtesan and the Dwarf”. Much more fitting. The narration was mostly good. The author presented me with a lot of historical details. The streets and settings came alive. However, it did sometimes ramble on, freezing the story too long for thoughts and descriptions. If I wasn't listening to an aud...

Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me by Ron Miscavige is about Dave Miscavige, as seen through the eyes of his dad. In some ways it’s an interesting book. It’s not solely about Dave, as Ron calls him. It’s actually about a couple of things. First of all, it’s about Ron himself. You do have to understand where he comes from, to understand his parenting, and his marriage. His first marriage was a tumultuous one. They fought a lot, and sometimes it turned violent. From his description it was the fault of both of them, but he does point out that maybe he saw it wrong. His wife, Loretta, died some years ago. I do applaud that he says that, because it could be easy to blame it on her, maybe her Italian temper, or that she wanted a kind of a man that he just wasn’t. However, he came from a place and an era when people often didn’t have the tools to resolve their marital problems. It’s partly in an effort to find a better way to communicate with his wife that he got in...

I really wanted to like The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin , but it was a major disappointment. Let me tell you why. The setting is the same as the previous books, mostly taking place in the capital city. The difference is that in this case the main character isn’t a mortal, but actually one of the godlings, Sieh . He is the oldest and the first. I was actually excited to read from his point of view, because I liked him a lot in the first book. It’s hard to talk about this book without spoiling the major plot point, but I’ll try. He meets two children by chance, a brother and sister, both Arameri . He meets them several times, at a few points in their lives, until an incident happens that changes his life forever. Now, you may think this is a start of a great adventure of self-discovery. Herein lies my problem with the story. Things do happen. Here and there. In between those sporadic events though are lots and lots and lots and … did I mention … a lot of thinking. And...

First of all, having read The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin , I still don’t really get the title. I mean, if the title has the word “kingdoms” in it, you expect intrigue, politics, conflict, that sort of thing. I’m trying to decipher a hidden meaning, and at the edge of my thoughts there is something that I cannot grasp, but it eludes me. No wonder I had a hard time even remembering the title. This, however, didn’t mean that the book was bad, it just means that I think the title was a poor choice. I actually enjoyed this book, though perhaps not as much as the first one. The reason for it was the ending. It almost seemed like it had this steady pacing up until a point, when the author realised she was coming up on her word limit, and suddenly tied everything up into this neat little bow. It felt off, but you’ll have to read it to understand it. It was an okay ending, but it was still weird. Now onto the story itself. This is a sequel of a kind. You still get some of the o...