Month: March 2019
The Devil’s Apprentice – Kenneth B. Andersen
★★★★★
Possibly the best Young-Adult Fantasy I have read this year. Enter and discover Hell and see how it works, meet the Devil and learn why we need evil in order to be good! A fantastic story and great adventures await in Hell. Read this at your own risk!
I was lucky enough to receive the first two books of The Great Devil War Series by the author himself. I haven’t heard about Kenneth B. Andersen before, but after reading the synopsis, I knew I had to have these books – I knew I had to read the whole series. Starting with the Devil’s Apprentice.
Meet Phillip – he is a good boy. An angel. He helps his mum with the chores, he helps his friends with their homework, he loves and takes care of animals, and he never lies. But one day, he is sent to Hell by mistake, and he has to become the Devil’s Apprentice. The Devil is ill and before he dies he has to make sure to teach Phillip the worst tricks in Hell’s history, and teach him to be evil – but Phillip is simply terrible at being bad and keeps failing all his tests.
With very little time left to teach Phillip everything, Phillip begins to make friends and enemies in this place. And on top of it all – someone might want the Devil’s throne for themselves…
I loved this book so much! The best thing about it is the setting. We enter a world and we get to see Hell through Phillip’s eyes. Everyone has their own place and role, there is a system of how they designate people and where they go – we meet Death and see the process of how he chooses who dies, and how they place people in either Heaven or Hell, depending on the actions people take throughout their lives, and also, how the Devil throws the dice as well.
Phillip is a typical boy, who goes to school, tries to be a good boy wherever he can. I loved Phillip’s character and could easily relate to him. When he gets in an unusual place, he begins to wonder, and discover and explore, and the way the author writes the scenes just keep you engaged in the book and you can’t put it down before you know what happens next.
The world in Hell is full of adventures, different creatures, lots of scenes where we can’t help but wonder what does ‘’EVIL’’ actually mean, and is it really true that we do need a little bit of evil in order to see the good in ourselves and others? Many moral messages are discovered through Phillip’s adventures, and I loved seeing him grow throughout the book. He keeps learning things and he kept growing. Do you really need to be evil to succeed in Hell?
I am so glad I have read this book, and I can’t wait to read the second book. If you enjoy Young-Adult fantasy, and enjoyed Dante’s Inferno, this book will probably be something you might enjoy. It will make you giggle, make you wonder, and will leave you restless, page after page.
Until next time! x
The Battle of Trafalgar Square – David Winship
Goodreads
★★
I have this rule about books being sent to me – I try to read and review them all, because people spent time, effort and resources to write and share their works with readers. I received this book through a giveaway on LibraryThing almost a year ago, and decided it was time to give it a go.
This being said, my readers are the most important thing in the world. My reviews simply cannot be compromised, no matter how I acquire a book.
I think I should stop babbling now, and start talking about this book.
I dived into ‘’The Battle of Trafalgar Square’ not knowing what to expect. This is a book where two pigeons are the main characters and through dialogue and presentation they share this historic battle, but from their point of view.
It is lucky that this book is only 120 pages long, because otherwise I wouldn’t have finished it. It is a boring book, where one pigeon is desperately trying to tell this story of the battle, and the other pigeon is disturbingly annoying and keeps interrupting. The second pigeon also has terrible grammar knowledge. And even though I know this is on purpose, I applaud the author for the wittiness, but couldn’t enjoy it. Some people might find this funny though, and that’s also okay.
The idea of pigeons telling a story is quite interesting and unique to me, and this is something I admire about this book (therefore, the two stars). However, the plot is unstable, and the story keeps being interrupted and delayed to a point where I started to get fed up. I also expected some more references of the actual historical moment. The only references in the book are the pigeons that were in the battle and had names of famous leaders. However, their pigeon story was not similar to our history books. I really think that keeping the story as close as possible to the real event would have made a difference in this book.
Not an enjoyable read for me, but if the plot sounds like something you might enjoy – go for it. Try it out. Your opinion is also valid!
Until next time! x
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Down The TBR Hole #24
Hello guys! Happy Saturday!
I hope you are all having a lovely start of the weekend. I love doing these posts, and this time I am so excited to share a little piece of my world along with the 10 titles of the week. Let’s begin:
How it works:
❤ Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
❤ Order on ascending date added.
❤ Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books.
❤ Read the synopsis of the books.
❤ Decide: keep it or should it go
Here’s the next patch:
➥ Criminal sociology by Enrico Ferri
Since I was a girl, I wanted to study Criminology. It is a subject I always found fascinating – the way of how a killer’s brain works, the psychology the police force uses while interrogating, all of those little bits. This was one book I picked up for free as soon as I got my first Kindle. I need to read it soon!
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Korean Word For Butterfly by Jamie Zerndt
I love the cover, but I am not sure that I will enjoy this book. At all actually. I have to say bye bye to it.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ Awakening (Children of the After, #1) by Jeremy Laszlo
A dystopian post-apocalyptic book with tons of bad reviews on Goodreads. Are you guys thinking what I am thinking? It goes…
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
➥ The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
This book was extremely hyped, and I kept wanting to read it, but never did. Has any of you read it? Help me make a decision. I will leave it as MAYBE now, and I’ll come back to edit it in a week’s time, after I read all your comments 🙂
Verdict: MAYBE
➥ Prophecies of Nostradamus by Nostradamus
The Prophecies of Nostradamus and Baba Vanga (who, by the way, was born in Strumica, Macedonia) have always intrigued me. I even started reading fiction based on these people’s histories. This must stay.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Odyssey by Homer
A classic that I never read, but should in my life.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ Greh njene majke (Her Mother’s Sin) by Milica Mir-Jam Jakovljevic
➥ Samac u braku (A Bachelor in his Marriage) by Milica Mir-Jam Jakovljevic
These two books are written by one Serbian author, Mir-Jam. I love her writing, and I still remember when I was a teen and my mother gave me one of her books (Ranjeni Orao) – The Wounded Eagle, and I fell in love with her writing of old-time Balkans and the powerful love stories in her books.
I will only keep the second one, and remove the other. The only reason is – once I read one, I will add the other one, without clattering my TBR now.
Verdict: KEEP ☑ & REMOVE ✖
➥ Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
I don’t think I can resist this synopsis and this gorgeous cover. Sorry. I’m hugging this book with all my strength.
Verdict: KEEP ☑
➥ The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson
It seems exciting, but I will pass.
Verdict: REMOVE ✖
We only kept 5 books and removed 4 this time. One is a maybe, and I need your help to decide on it. My TBR is shrinking, and I love it!
Which books would you keep or remove? Please let me know in the comments – I love reading your comments and thoughts!
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Romanov – Nadine Brandes [BOOK REVIEW]
Goodreads
★★★★
From the author of Fawkes comes a magical take on the story of Anastasia Romanov.
The history books say I died. They don’t know the half of it.
Ever since I read Fawkes, I knew I loved Nadine’s writing, and when Romanov was announced, I couldn’t be happier. As I have spend my childhood and young adult life in the Balkans, whilst travelling across Europe, I have always admired Russia, and always enjoyed reading all the theories about the Romanov family.
As a child I would be told stories and fairy tales, I would watch the Disney adaptation of Anastasia, and as I was growing up, I would read history books and fiction on this very subject. When I got my hands on ‘’Romanov’’, I knew I would be up for an adventure, with lots of expectations, but what I never knew was that I would be blown away of how beautiful this book is!
This book is split into two main parts, before and after the Romanov’s execution, but it is also split into the first being the historical part, and the second being the fictional part. Both parts of the book are quite intense, and very different emotions come up to surface, but they are both very powerful throughout, and fitted together quite well.
In the first part, we are introduced to the Romanov family, and how they are kept as hostages by the Bolsheviks. It would’ve been much better if we had more details on the pre-hostage period, why the revolution began, why the king abducted the throne, who are the Bolsheviks and what they believed in. The book starts in the middle of this whole situation, and whilst I knew the beginning before, I am certain a lot of people wouldn’t have.
The history, as much accurate as it was, also had a personalized feeling that the author wanted to give. I have to admit, a lot of the details, especially around the family were quite accurate. The family did stick together and loved each other, they did have secrets and they did make friends with their captors. Anastasia’s brother did indeed had hemophilia and Rasputin was allegedly helping him. However, the author decided to put her personal feelings into the history as well. The king is presented as a wonderful leader that cares about the people. I understand that we see this story from Anastasia’s point of view, and as his daughter, she is supposed to see her father as the best figure in the world. But I still believe this part should be more objective, if not from Anastasia’s point of view, then at least by the king’s actions and dialogues. The other big element that bothered me was the portrayal of Rasputin. He is shown in this book as a family helper and a kind man, when in fact, he was far from that. In the history books, he is described as a madman, a creepy person, and the king was not happy of him coming in the house. The family’s secrecy and the queen’s silent domination over the king, together with Rasputin’s doings were the start of the revolution, and I believe that it one of the required truths that this books should have included, but didn’t. And that troubled me.
On top of this, is the Russian language used throughout this book. There were a lot of spelling errors, and misinterpretations. And whilst I can understand these words, many people can’t, and translation wasn’t provided in the book. Also, I really found this quote interesting, talking about the Russian culture, and how they don’t show emotions. Just a note – this is most of the time true, people won’t be nice to strangers, but actually, Russian people are quite friendly and emotional as well.
‘’We Russians weren’t required to share any amount of emotion we didn’t want to.’’
Apart from these few things that slightly bothered me, I really enjoyed this book. Anastasia is an amazing character, and through her we can see her love towards her family, her country, and even towards the people that wish her harm. We get to see her love, cry, be hurt, be afraid, forgive, and grow throughout the book, and her journey was magical.
‘’As I lay in the grass next to the spell that could rid me of heart pain, I realized that a part of forgiveness was accepting the things someone had done – and the pain that came with that – and moving on with love. Forgiveness was a personal battle that must always be fought in my heart.’’