A Bookworm's Book Reviews

Shades of Milk and Honey Series – Mary Robinette Kowal

Books: 1: Shades of Milk and Honey, 2: Glamour in Glass, 3: Without a Summer, 4: Valour and Vanity, 5: Of Noble Family

Author: Mary Robinette Kowal

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

Plot: 1 – Based off Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, but with magic, it centers around two sisters, Jane and Melody. Magic, called glamour, is a main part of society and used to embellish houses and create moving artwork. Jane is plain but excellent with magic. Melody is considered pretty but not as good with magic. The sisters meet Mr. Vincent, a glamourist (someone who works with magic) who is making a glamourial (a painting mad with magic) for a neighbor. Jane fines Mr. Vincent’s glamour wonderful, but his personality is cold and aloof. No one knows about him other than Mr. Vincent is an excellent glamourist. Melody catches the eye of a neighbor’s son. But it is heard that the son is courting someone else. Why is he courting two people? Who is Mr. Vincent really? Will anyone get a happy ending? Or will everything end in ruin?

2 – Surprise, surprise everything works out for Jane and Mr. Vincent. For their honeymoon, they travel to a little town in Belgium. They see an old friend of Mr. Vincent who has a school there. While there, Jane and Mr. Vincent learn about different techniques for glamour. Jane discovers a new way to work with glamour. Her and Mr. Vincent work in secret to perfect it. While they are perfecting the technique, Napoleon escapes from Elba. Belgium is thrown into turmoil. The people are divided, siding with Napoleon or against him. Everyone is against the English. Should they flea back to England? Should they stay and fight?

3 – Jane and Mr. Vincent return to England and take a job in London. They take Melody with them so she can be out in society. Their employer is an Irish Catholic. Jane and Mr. Vincent, and Melody, are Protestant. Sparks fly between Melody and Jane and Mr. Vincent’s employer’s son. They soon start courting. But the people of London are looking for someone to blame. The year has been unusually cold and doesn’t show signs of warming up. They start blaming cold mongers (glamourists who specifically make things cold) for making the weather cold. Jane and Mr. Vincent know this to be false, it is impossible for glamourists to control the weather. Coldmongers are also looking to be treated fairer and be given better wages and working conditions. They want to protest. But Jane is overcautious and overworried about Melody when she learns the man she is courting is in charge of a coldmonger’s protest and leading a march in secret. Why is the march secret? Is there someone else behind it?

4 – Jane and Mr. Vincent join Jane’s family on a trip to Italy. The couple separates from the family in Venice. Soon after parting ways, the couple are attacked by pirates, leaving them penniless upon their arrival at Venice. A older gentleman offers them help and lodging until they can get back on their feet. Jane and Mr. Vincent start wandering around the city. They are looking for someone to help perfect their secret technique they started on in Belgium. A few days later, the police show up at their lodging saying they owe people money. At first they are confused, saying their host has taken care of everything. The police prove otherwise. Jane and Mr. Vincent go to get their things, only to realize their glamour project has disappeared. Who has taken it? Who is behind the fraud? How will Jane and Mr. Vincent find the culprit? Will they get everything back?

5 – Again, Jane and Mr. Vincent return to England. Their return is short lived when they learn that Mr. Vincent’s father has died. One of Mr. Vincent’s brothers pleads with him to manage their father’s estate in Antigua (a small island in the Caribbean). Reluctantly, they accept. Upon their arrival, they see that the estate is running poorly. The overseer has made few repairs and the repairs that he’s made have been cheap, ready to break again, easily. He runs the estate with an iron fist. The estate still has slaves and they are treated very poorly. Mr. Vincent and the overseer continually butt heads. While they are at the estate, Jane learns that she is pregnant. As she cannot use glamour, she starts to write a book comparing techniques between English and African glamour. But someone is watching her and Mr. Vincent’s every move. They are trying to undo whatever her and Mr. Vincent are trying to do. Who is watching them? Why are they trying to sabotage them? Why? Can they help the slaves and the estate?

Rating: 4.0 – realistic relationships, well worked out magic system, lots of historical facts, sappy moments, lots of twists and turns

Opinion: This is a fun, entertaining historical fiction, fantasy series. It has a magical system with rules and regulations. It is not limitless, which makes it more believable and requires energy for magic use. The relationships in this series are also believable. The couples fight and disagree. They storm off and get grumpy with each other. Slowly, they start to talk about their problems and talk about what happened, how to fix the problem, and compromise and try to see each other’s sides. One thing that bugged me about the series that some things are dropped for some time, then picked up again. The characters seem to forget about certain things, then remember them again. A couple times I had to do a ‘wait, what? I thought we were going that direction?’ I enjoyed this book because of the realistic uses for magic, the history, and the romance. If you’re looking for a good series to read that with realistic magic in a real world setting, I’d suggest this series.

Coffey and Hill Series – Mike Nappa

Book 3 is out and called A Dream Within a Dream

Book Titles: 1 – Annabelle Lee, 2 – The Raven

Author: Mike Nappa

Genre: Thriller

Summary – Annabelle Lee: A mysterious man called Truck hides away a girl called Annabelle in an underground bunker in Alabama. Truck tells her not to open the door for anyone, including him, unless given a safe word, a line from Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabelle Lee poem. In the bunker with Annabelle, is a German Sheppard dog who only responds to German commands. Above ground, seemingly random people are searching for a pair of priceless emeralds. All of these people are connected to the man called Truck: Trudey Coffey, Samuel Hill, Dr. Smith, and ‘The Mute.’ Trudey never thought she’d see her ex-husband, Samuel, again. Until he asks for help. ‘The Mute’ works for Truck, as a soldier under his command. He was charged with protecting Annabelle and the pair of priceless emeralds for Truck. Dr. Smith is searching for Truck and something he has. Something precious he wants back at all costs. As the story unfolds, all their paths converge. Some work together, some are forced to Dr. Smith’s bidding. He has means at his disposal to find the priceless emeralds. He has patience, too. Dr. Smith has spent a decade searching for what Truck hid away. Who will find them first? Will Annabelle survive in the bunker with the dog?

Summary – The Raven: Trudey and Samuel are working together again. This time, they’re drawn into another case. A young man called The Raven is a pickpocket who picked a prominent politician’s, Max Roman, pocket in hopes of extra cash. Instead he finds compromising photos of him and an assistant. Ukranian thugs break into The Raven’s apartment. They make him a deal. The Raven agrees, or loses his hands. All he has to do is break into an old lady’s place of business and steal a logbook. But the old lady is Mama Bliss. She is in league with Max Roman. Together Mama Bliss and Max Roman are shuffling more than antiques through Mama Bliss’s business. The Raven has a week to complete the deal. Trudey and Samuel try to help The Raven change his ways. Hanging above all of their heads is an event called Nevermore. What is Nevermore? Is it a hoax? Does the event even exist? Trudey and Samuel’s contacts are telling them it’s nothing to worry about. Someone else wants them out of the way.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 – good book, well written, good plot, enough lulls to give it a middle of the road rating

My opinion: Both books are interesting. They kept me reading. As with most books, there are lulls. As far as thrillers go, I was not on the edge of my seat. I was intrigued, interested in what would happen next. There were some great plot twists in both books. The plot twists were very strategically placed. There were one or two spots where I could predict what was coming. I give Mike Nappa credit for the great mind blowing twist in Annabelle Lee. I was thinking what the heck?! But it also had me intrigued about the information given. He made me want to research what he was talking about. Samuel is wells deserving of the nickname that Trudi gives him, I couldn’t help but chuckle every time she mentioned it. I was also a little confused of the ending of The Raven. Was it a trick? Or a coverup? Or an accident?Overall, these are good books that kept me reading.

Introduction

Hello all!

I am C.M. Mills, an avid book lover looking for the next good book. I usually read fantasy and historical fiction. I’ve started branching out into thrillers. I’m not the biggest fan of purely romantic books. Sure, put it in a book, but it shouldn’t take the place of a good plot. I am willing to give any book a try. I enjoy reading nonfiction, too. Most of the nonfiction books I’ve read are memoirs, but I’d be willing to give other types of nonfiction a try. I’ve slogged through terrible books and will put up with a lot before I give up on a book.

Some things that I love in a book: a map (if needed), a pronunciation guide (if needed), a reason to care about the characters, and suspense to keep me going. Give me a connection to the protagonist. Authors get brownie points if the villain has a relatable motive, or has a unique stance.

Some turn offs include: introducing too many characters at once (looking at you Game of Thrones), characters with difficult names to pronounce (a pronunciation guide can offset this), not enough character relatability, boring plot, not enough action, etc.

I do enjoy a sappy romance, but it drives me nuts when the characters won’t admit their feelings (yes I know it can be a plot point, but don’t let it be the main plot point), or have again off again relations (it can get annoying). Also too many steamy scenes cause me to skip or skim over book.

Some of my favorite books include The Book Thief (for its writing style and humor despite being a WW2 setting book), Redeeming Love (a slightly predicable romance/historical fiction set in during the California gold rush), The Last Sin Eater (a historical fiction focused on an unusual British Isle tradition) , Immanuel’s Veins (a unique take on vampirish/angelic lore set to a historical fiction book), The Lord of the Rings (a dense read but so unique), Harry Potter (magic, cause why not), and The Chronicles of Narnia (for the world within). These are the first that came to my mind. I have so many more that I’ve enjoyed.

Some of my favorite authors include Francine Rivers (for her takes on historical fiction interwoven with classic tales, also has some sappy romantic books), Ted Dekker (for his unique thrillers and ability to keep the reader interested), Paula Brackston (for her historical fiction and use of worldly magic), Arturo Perez-Reverte (for his descriptive historical fiction use of vocabulary), and Elizabeth Camden (for a sappy love story and use of historical fiction). These are the authors I usually gravitate towards.

Feel free to send me recommendations and requests. I’d love to hear about other genres, books, and authors. I’ll try my best to read those books as soon as I can. My room is a partial library of unread books. Also feel free to ask me questions. I’ll respond as soon as I can.