Heart Full of Elves

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

The good, the bad, and the ugly: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1) by Robin LaFevers

1:24 pm four stars, grave mercy, his fair assassin, historical, review, robin lafevers, ya

Finished reading on: 20 April 2016

Clickbait summary: Misandrist in Medieval Brittany joins cult that kills men, falls in love with man.

The Good

The red dress on the cover
The weapons (main character Ismae is an assassin, so she's got a couple)
Medieval setting and all it entails (dresses, castles, mistresses, court politics, etc etc)
Believable worldbuilding
Realistic and sympathetic portrayal of women for the setting
Interesting, or rather, intriguing politics! I never used to care for the political aspects in fiction, but recently I've found myself getting into it.
Theme of loyalty
Decent characters (not brilliant, but better than average, I think)
Good writing
A real page-turner
Language slightly old-fashioned to match setting

The Bad

Is this a feminist story or not? I don't know! In some ways, yes; in others, no.
Would've liked to see more of Ismae's gal pals Annith and Sybella (apparently the next two books in the series are about them, which is great, but I can't cope with more assassins falling in love)
A bit long at 550 pages
Misleading summary - Ismae doesn't fall in love with a man she's meant to kill, she gets orders to kill the man she loves, and it's not as big a plot point as it sounds.
[Spoiler] Healing by sex?! Soooo convenient.

The Ugly

Low-born girl falls in love with nobleman. Really? AGAIN?!
Why the romance? Why? They could've just been friends or allies! (I need my romances to grow over a couple of books, if they have to exist at all, because I find it super boring once the characters are properly together. That's just me, though.)
I thought the protagonist had been set up as a man-hating lesbian assassin... and then she fell in love with a guy. (Where are all the medieval wlw? Not in this book, apparently. I'm going to have to write the wlw assassin historical fiction myself.)
Okay, clearly my main problems with this book are the romance and the lack of diversity. The rest was pretty good.

The Summary

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms #1) by Morgan Rhodes

10:03 pm dnf, falling kingdoms, fantasy, morgan rhodes, review, ya

Did not finish at 52 pages

I picked this up at my mum's library and thought it looked really cool. The start was so strong I thought it would be a great read, my first fantasy in quite a while. I was wrong.

The good

Nice cover and title made me pick it up
Strong start and intriguing prologue - who wouldn't want to keep reading a book whose first line is She'd never killed before tonight?
Super cool character names in the cast lists: Cleo/Cleiona, Eirene, Sabina, Mira, etc.

The bad

Character descriptions I seriously don't care about
Costume descriptions I seriously don't care about

The ugly

Plain bad writing. E.g.:
Cleo despised politics mainly because she didn't understand them. But then, she didn't have to. Emilia was the heir to their father's throne. She would be the next queen, not Cleo. (Pg 51)
Yep. That's the paragraph.
Telling instead of showing - e.g. we are told on pg 11 that Aron is keeping Cleo's secret. On pg 52 we are still being reminded (again, through telling, not showing) of the existence of this secret we know nothing about.
When hiding a character's identity as a plot device, it should be subtle, right? Not in-your-face eye-roll-worthy there's-no-believable-need-to-hide-her-identity-in-this-scene.
Incest. As soon as I picked up the incestuous vibe I wanted to run away from the book screaming. (I can handle icky things - guys, I'll remind you yet again that I'm a Spartacus fan - but incest is not one of them.) However, I held on for another few chapters, only to put it down again for good. I therefore don't know if this aspect gets any less gross or not.
And that's only the beginning. I looked up Goodreads reviews of this book, and other people have pointed out the bad worldbuilding and character development. I didn't even get that far into the book to notice, but I'm sure I would've found the same issues if I'd forced myself to keep reading.

The (extraordinarily long) summary:

In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface.

As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.

Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.

Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realise that the heart can be more lethal than the sword....

Top Ten Songs I Wish Were Books

8:39 pm meme, top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is music and books. This could be challenging, but let's go!

1. Girls Like Girls - Hayley Kiyoko

Watch the music video and tell me this wouldn't make a cute LGBTQ novel.

2. Castle - Halsey

I'm imagining an epic fantasy with medieval elements, and a cold, kickarse female protagonist.

3. Bad Girls - M.I.A.

EPIC. BADARSERY. Do I even need to explain?

4. Wonderland - Natalia Kills

Possibly an urban fantasy with a dark twist.

5. LDN - Lily Allen

I love reading books set in London, but they seem to romanticise the place. This song doesn't.

6. Empire - Shakira

Either historical fiction or space opera, I can't choose which I'd prefer to read more!

7. Bitch Better Have My Money - Rihanna

The music video is fantastic, but imagine how a book would complement it...

8. Fly - Nicki Minaj feat. Rihanna

The book I'm picturing for this song is nothing like the video. I'm thinking more of an epic fantasy series than a dystopian novel.

9. Willing To Die - Gin Wigmore feat.Suffa, Logic

I love the whole aesthetic for this video, so how cool would it be as a book? Revenge is sweet, yeah?

10. My Vietnam - P!nk

We've all read books exactly like this theoretical one, so what's one more?

Curses & Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Shecter

6:28 pm curses & smoke: a novel of pompeii, greece & rome, historical, lgbtqia characters, review, three stars, vicky alvear shecter, ya

Finished reading on: 16 February 2016

I'm experimenting with review styles, so let's see how this goes. Tell me what you think of this format.

The good

Gorgeous cover
Great for young Classics nerds and fans of Spartacus (and therefore me) – Gladiators! Roman women! Pompeii!
Satisfied my need to read more things set in Ancient Rome
Cool use of Latin (which I largely understood, thanks to Spartacus)
Decent writing
Historically accurate - the author clearly knows her stuff without showing off too much; includes interesting author’s notes about the setting
Learnt some new things, such as curse tablets, and that Pompeii wasn’t always a Roman town (Sulla took it from the Etruscans in 80BCE)
Basically, the setting is the best aspect of the book

The bad

The protagonists (Tag and Lucia) are tolerable, unlike a lot of YA characters, but I preferred Quintus, a main character who gets forgotten about, because I love arsehole characters
Written in the third person but the POV changes are unnecessarily marked
Having only two POVs (Tag's and Lucia's) is limiting, and I would’ve liked to read a least a chapter from each of Quintus and Cornelia’s perspectives
Repetitive likening of Tag’s good looks to Apollo's

The ugly

Plot based on the romance (booooring!)
More gladiator and running-from-volcanic-eruption action needed (not at the same time; that drove me nuts about the 2014 film Pompeii)
Ending so disappointing it knocked a whole star off my rating (I was all set to give it four stars)
A whole lot of characters' fates forgotten due to limited POVs - what about Cornelia, Quintus, and the gladiators and slaves?

The romance

Childhood friends suddenly fall in love
Would’ve liked to see the first move between Lucia and Tag at least another 50 pages later on (I prefer slow burn). However, I did appreciate Lucia considering the difference between love and lust this early on.
Love triangle avoided due to an unrequited love I’m proud to say I saw from the very start (although I had moments of doubt where I was wondering if my slash goggles were making me see things that weren’t there). The suggested solution for the trio's dilemma was on my mind since then, too.

The blurb

Two star-crossed lovers.
One city on the brink of destruction.

Tag is a medical slave, fated to spend the rest of his life healing his master's injured gladiators. But he yearns to fight in the arena himself and win the freedom to live - and love - as he wants.

Lucia is the daughter of Tag's owner, doomed by her father's greed to marry a man she doesn't love. But she's determined to follow her heart wherever it leads.

Can they find each other before the volcano destroys their whole world?

Top Ten OTPs

1:29 am meme, top ten tuesday, tv & movies

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week is a Valentine's Day themed freebie: Top Ten Books That Would Make Great Valentine's Day Reads (or anti-Valentine's day reads), Top Ten OTPs, Top 10 fictional crushes, top ten great love declarations in fiction, swoony quotes from books, etc.

I thought and thought about what topic I'd pick for my list, but since I'm not a romantic at all, except when it comes to my ships, I went for the boring but hopefully relevant option. So here are my top ten OTPs, mostly from TV (again). Warning: there is little heterosexuality on this list.

1. Xena & Gabrielle (Xena: Warrior Princess)

I'm a bi girl from New Zealand who was born in the mid-late 90s. No further explanation necessary. My mum saw some pictures of these two on my phone recently and asked if they were a couple. To paraphrase, I said, "Sit down and let me tell you a thing..."

Yeah... "subtext"...

2. Achilles & Patroclus "Patrochilles"

A love that has lasted millennia. The Iliad is an amazing story, and to anyone who thinks these two were not lovers: their ashes were mixed together! That is not a symbol of friendship!

BTW, if you haven't already, read The Song of Achilles. Now.

3. Agron & Nasir "Nagron" (Spartacus)

I don't know how to talk about these two without having a massive fangirlish ramble so let's leave it at "they're adorable and hot together". *Spoilers* In a show where everyone dies, they survive. Wise decision, Steven DeKnight.

Look at these adorkable cuties.

4. Gaia & Lucretia (Spartacus)

Two beautiful, intelligent, manipulative Roman women. The hair and the costumes alone are shippable. What's brilliant about their relationship (apart from the insanely hot sex scenes *fans self* (it is an R18 show, peoples!)) is that it has a huuuge impact on Lucretia's character development. Because darker versions of characters are always better.

Insanely hot, I tell you.

5. Piper & Alex (Orange Is the New Black)

A relationship that's totally not healthy but I love it all the same. I just want them to be together, is that too much to ask?

Why can't they just be happy and together? At the same time.

6. Leia & Han Solo (Star Wars)

Probably my first ship, long before I knew what shipping was. I was attracted by the love-hate relationship, and I still love it every time I watch the original Star Wars trilogy. By the way, I haven't watched The Force Awakens yet, so please no spoilers!

Is it just me or does Leia look bored?

7. Joel & Maggie (Northern Exposure)

Would you look at that, another love-hate relationship! Theirs is classic. They have this tension season after season and it's amazing. Too bad the last season of the show was terrible.

8. Clara Oswald & Jane Austen (Doctor Who)

This one is a little bit of a crack ship, but it has canon foundations! In the ninth series of Doctor Who, Clara has a couple of lines that suggest a romantic relationship with the writer Jane Austen. Cue the headcanons and fanfiction.

Gif source

The one line that started it all.

9. Jack & Ianto "Janto" (Torchwood)

Over the past few months I've been moving on from this show, but Janto was a huge part of my life for about 18 months and it would be wrong to leave them off this list. Their relationship is Tragic and has too many parallels with Patrochilles to keep a fangirl sane.

Caption that.

10. Alec & Magnus "Malec" (The Mortal Instruments)

Likewise, these two have similarities with Janto. I wish I'd watched Torchwood when I saw Cassandra Clare at the 2011 Readers and Writers Festival, because then I would've asked her if she based Magnus and Alec's relationship on Jack and Ianto's.

This post ended up way longer than expected. That's what happens when you let me get started on my ships. Moral of the story: don't let me do it.

Top Ten Historical Settings I Love

8:59 pm historical, meme, top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Historical Settings You Love/Top Ten Historical Settings You'd Love To See or Top Ten Futuristic Books You Love/Ten Futuristic Societies I'd Love To Read in Books. I adore historical fiction, and I love reading and watching things set in these eras.

In a very loose order, these are my ten favourite historical settings:

Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Regency England
French Revolution
Victorian
1920s/Prohibition
Renaissance Italy (especially Venice)
Medieval
Elizabethan England

I'd love to know what historical settings you guys love, as I'm always up for discovering more! Reading a book set in a new era is always interesting.

Totally Should've Book Tag

10:15 am book tag, meme

I can't remember where I saw this book tag, but it was on someone's blog that I stumbled across. Feel free to do it yourself and say I tagged you!

1. Totally should've gotten a sequel

Inheritance (The Inheritance Cycle #4) by Christopher Paolini

I know the series was long enough already, but the ending just wasn't satisfying.

2. Totally should've had a spin off series

Adaptation by Malinda Lo

A spin off TV series would be good. I'm imagining a cross between Torchwood and The 100.

3. An author who totally should write more books

Madeline Miller! (author of The Song of Achilles)

4. A character who totally should've ended up with someone else

City of Flowers (Stravaganza #3) by Mary Hoffman

I liked Luciano and Georgia, but it was not to be.

5. Totally should've ended differently

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

But since it's based on a true story, it had to end that way.

6. Totally should've had a movie franchise

Piratica by Tanith Lee

The whole trilogy.

7. Totally should've had a TV show

Theodora: Actress, Empress, Whore by Stella Duffy

8. Totally should've had only one point of view

Opposition (Lux #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

9. Totally should have a cover change

Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1)

10. Totally should've kept the original covers

Derby Girl by Shauna Cross

11. Totally should've stopped at book one

Fracture by Megan Miranda

Top Ten LGBTQ Characters

9:30 pm lgbtqia characters, meme, top ten tuesday, tv & movies

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week is freebie week, where you pick a topic "near and dear to your heart". Since LGBTQ representation is extremely important to me, I thought I'd pick my ten favourite characters belonging to this group. 70% are from TV, the rest from books and movies. (By the way, sorry about the lack of T in this list, but I know barely any transgender characters. They're out there, I just haven't come across them.)

1. Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess, played by Lucy Lawless)

2. Lucretia (Spartacus, also played by Lucy Lawless)

3. Agron (Spartacus, played by Dan Feuerriegel)

4. Saxa (Spartacus, played by Ellen Hollman)

5. Jack Harkness (Torchwood, played by John Barrowman)

6. Ianto Jones (Torchwood, played by Gareth David-Lloyd)

7. Achilles (The Iliad by Homer & The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (not the Troy version, despite the image I've used!))

8. Lisbeth Salander (Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson)

9. Piper Chapman (Orange Is the New Black, played by Taylor Schilling)

10. Alexander the Great (Alexander (2004), played by Colin Farrell (yes, the movie kinda sucks, but he's my second historical fave so we'll let that slide))

Since this is a topic close to my heart, comments are more than welcome!

Just a head's up

4:53 pm

I'm in the process of changing the colour palette of my blog theme, so if it looks weird for a while that's why. (I changed some of the colours today but I got tired and stopped.) I'm not too familiar with the HTML of Blogger themes so I have to use the age-old method of trial and error. It's quite exhausting.

Top Ten 2015 Releases I Meant To Get To But Didn't

8:11 pm meme, top ten tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's theme is Top Ten 2015 Releases You Meant To Get To But Didn't. I was terrible at my book-reading in 2015 (I failed my reading challenge by 3 books, noooo!) but I got a new library card today so I'm hoping that will encourage me to get on with my to-read list this year. I've already placed holds on some of these, which is a start.