Posted on by Meghan G

Lady Midnight Book Review

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“You belong where you’re loved.” 
― Cassandra Clare, Lady Midnight

Title: Lady Midnight

Author: Cassandra Clare

Series: The Dark Artifices

Publish Date: March 8th, 2016

Reading Format: Audiobook

Summary:

It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.

Review:

At this point I’m all in when it comes to the world of the Shadowhunters and everything Cassandra Clare wants to give us. I’ll probably read every book she publishes, but I’m not so sure that The Dark Artifices series is my favorite. It might actually be my least favorite of the three series so far, however, it was still a 4 star read for me. This is obviously because Cassandra’s writing is quite good. She makes a world unlike any other and her characters will make you fall madly in love with them (aka Jim Carstairs). With all of that said Emma and Julian are a too tragic for me personally. Both are orphaned and carry a heavy weight of losing their parents in such violent ways. Julian is forced to live with the guilt of how his parents died (I won’t spoil how if you haven’t read The Immortal Instrument series yet) and become the unofficial father to his four younger siblings.

Lady Midnight is a heavy book. I’ve already read the second book in the series so I know it only gets heavier down the road. Though I would expect no less from the author. Tragedy is her forte.

At the moment I have not completed the series. I think I’m going to need to take a little time before I jump into Queen of Darkness.

Rating:

4 out of 5

Do you read Cassandra Clare’s books? Which was your favorite series?

Happy Reading,

Meghan

Posted on by Meghan G

TBR Thursday: Into Thin Air

Lately I’ve been really into podcasts, particularly the What Should I Read Next podcast with Anne Bogel. And as I’ve been listening and catching up on old episodes, Into Thin Air comes up a lot. I mean a lot, a lot. So because so many different guest on this podcast keep bring up this book I thought I might give it a try. It isn’t typically something I read and if I saw it in a book store I might completely look over it, but that is why I want to give Into Thin Air a chance. Hopefully it introduces me to a whole other genre of books I’ve never invested much reading time into and helps me get out of a bad reading slump I’ve been in all Summer long.

Have you ever read a book recommended to that you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up really loving it? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy Reading,

Meghan

Posted on by Meghan G

My Dear Hamilton: Book Review

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“I was someone before I met Alexander Hamilton. Not someone famous or important or with a learned philosophical understanding of all that was at stake in our revolution. Not a warrior or a philosopher or statesman. But I was a patriot.” –Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, My Dear Hamilton

Title: My Dear Hamilton

Authors:  Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publish Date:  April 3rd, 2018

Reading Format: Paperback

Summary:

 My Dear Hamilton follows the life of Eliza Hamilton.  The book is a fictional biographical look at one of America’s founding Mothers and wife of Alexander Hamilton.

Review:

 I was highly anticipating this book when I saw that it was coming out in the Spring of this year.  I actually wasn’t waiting in anticipation because of the whole Hamilton craze that is happening right now, but rather because I loved the authors first book together America’s First Daughter.  And I’ll just go ahead and say that My Dear Hamilton did not disappoint.

The book is all told from Eliza’s perspective and it begins during the American revolution, and before she meets her husband Alexander Hamilton, and moves through the different stages of her life up to her later years.  Before I read this book there wasn’t a whole lot I knew about Eliza Hamilton other than who her famous husband was.  My Dear Hamilton changed all that for me.  Even though this is a fictional book, Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie did such a wonderful job with their research. The novel entwines the tragic and beautiful parts of Eliza and Alexander’s love story quite well.  And delves into them as both a couple and individuals so that Eliza shines throughout the story rather than being diminished to the background of Alexander’s life,  which is why I chose the quote from the book above.  During each of my reviews I try to use a quote under the cover of the book to showcase the story.  Kind of like a small highlight to lure you into the book review.  This particular quote stood out to me more than the others I have chosen in the past and I think that is in large part to the fact that Eliza Hamilton as a character has stood out to me the most this year in my reading.  She was a profound woman who existed in a time that history likes to write out, so I’m grateful that My Dear Hamilton tries to rectify that by not only making Eliza the main character but also by taking the time to research her and the other women during the Revolution.

I highly recommend reading My Dear Hamilton as well as their other book America’s First Daughter.

Rating:  4 out of 5 Stars

 

Happy Reading,

Meghan

Posted on by Meghan G

June Wrap Up 2018

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I didn’t read as much as I thought I would last month.  I took a week long vacation around my birthday on the 15th, but only managed to read halfway through one book.  I suppose I ended up being busier than I thought I would be at the beach because I was under the impression that I could at least finish three books plus whatever else I might buy while I was there.  However, I did read two books and i started two others.  I’m currently debating adding what I’m reading at the moment into my monthly wrap ups but I’ve decided to include it in this one; so if you like seeing what I’m reading lately please let me know!

And now here are the books I read in June of 2018:

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Sleeping Giants By Sylvain Neuvel was a surprisingly good book.  And I don’t say that because I expected it to be bad, but rather that I almost never read Science Fiction novels.  This is the first in a trilogy series and I can’t wait to get my hands on the second book.  Expect a book review coming soon!

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If you didn’t read my last blog post then you may be wondering why I read a Sweet Valley High novel.  Well for starters I feel like there are classic book series that I missed out on growing up because I wasn’t invested in reading as much as I am today so I’ve been trying to experience them now; and also I had an idea to do a series here on my blog chronicling myself going through the entire series.  From what I have researched there are, I believe, about 140 books in the Sweet Valley High series so it would be almost a three year project if I read one book a week.  I was hoping to have others join me but I didn’t get a large response on my survey, though I did still create a goodreads group if you’d still like to join me.  I’ve only read the first book so far and it isn’t too late to join!

Onto the new section!

I don’t know how many people are like this when it comes to reading, but I typically read at least two or three books at a time.  Usually the books I read at the same time have to be different in genre and/or story line because I’ll tend to get characters mixed up otherwise, and at the moment I’m reading one Young Adult novel and a Urban Fantasy novel:

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Both books I’ve owned for a while now and I’m liking each one so far.  I will admit that I thought I would be done with I’ll Meet You There by now but It is a little darker than I was expecting it to be which is causing me to read it slower than normal.  Other than that I hope to have them both read by the end of this month.

I’d really love to hear what all you have read recently or are reading currently.  Please let me know in the comments!

Happy Reading,

Meghan