Clockwork Princess

Note to self: When it’s been over a year since you have read the last book in a series, a refresher might be a good idea. It was almost 18 between reading this book and reading Clockwork Prince and I spent a lot of time looking things up on the internet and hoping I didn’t accidentally fall into a spoiler. I liked the book, but one day when I have some time (you know, when I win the lottery I never buy a ticket for) I am going to reread all three back-to-back so I’m not so confused!

I found what I wrote last August:

I had a hard time getting into Clockwork Princess. It dragged at first but about 5 chapters in it picked up. I'm not sure if it was the book that dragged or if it dragged because it had been so long since I read Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince.

Clockwork Princess reveals a lot of genealogy and other details that are relevant to the Mortal Instruments books as well. I am quite tempted to reread the three Infernal Devices books and the first five Mortal Instruments books before the last book comes out. I always reread all of the Harry Potter books before a new one came out and while I knew those books better than these, it always helped.

I thought the epilogue wrapped things up a little too nicely...there seemed to be a little too much of people getting what they wanted even if it was far fetched…

(August 2013)

The Secret Keeper

Of the four Kate Morton books, this one was my least favourite, but it was still a good read. As her mother’s health declines and dementia takes over, Laurel begins to unearth secrets that explain a secret Laurel has kept for decades. Kate Morton did a great job of weaving past and present and keeping me guessing about what actually had happened and when and why characters acted one way but later on it appeared they had acted another.

(August 2013)

The Round House

The one book I didn’t finish in 2013…I think…

I think I might have been in the wrong frame of mind to read this book. I read most of it, but I just couldn’t do it. I was surprised as it had been recommended by two people who’s taste in books I respect – one is an English teacher and the other a librarian. The subject matter is pretty heavy and maybe it was just too much for me with my new baby and five year old…

 

(July 2013)

The Forgotten Garden

This was the other new book my new friend at the library suggested. I loved it. Again it’s a book with a past and present story, unlike in Lighthouse Hill, these two stories are most certainly connected. There are almost three stories, although two of them belong to the same character. The title suggests the classic The Secret Garden and I loved that Frances Hodgson Burnett makes an appearance in the novel. I read all four of Kate Morton’s book and I think this one was my favourite, although I did love them all and I’m eagerly awaiting the next one (I heard it was coming out this year!) If you need a book to read, I’d recommend this one for sure!

(July 2013)

Lighthouse Bay

I actually did write a few drafts of some of the books I read in the last year…here are some of my thoughts immediately after reading this.

New baby = not a lot of time to read. I don't get a lunch break these days and our apartment has been so stifling hot that J has been staying up super late. Her room is by far the hottest in the house and by the time I tuck her in, feed C and possibly wash the dishes, it is time for me to go to bed so I can get up around 4:30 for C's middle of the night feed. Which is a long way of saying I don't get to read before bed anymore.

But I need to read. That's just who I am, so I decided I'd pick out a book for myself at the library when I took J last week. I stood there contemplating the books and the nice lady next to me loaded me down with 3 books. I went in looking for an easy and walked out with The Book of Negros, which I read a long time ago, and two totally unknown books. It turns out they were both written by Australians. I started one as soon as I got home and couldn't put it down and then I got distracted by this book.

Lighthouse Bay tells the stories of Libby and Isabella. Libby's lover had just died and she returns home to Australia from Paris to live in a cottage he bought for her near her childhood home. She has been gone for 20 after making a tragic mistake that her sister may never be able to forgive her for.

Isabella arrives at Lighthouse Bay in 1901 after washing up on shore, the sole survivor of a ship wreck that kills her husband. She has to fight for her survival and figure out how to get out of Australia.

This is the kind if book I like to read when I don't want to concentrate too hard - I didn't have to draw a family tree or make a character list, so that was good and it made this a perfect book to read while C was eating or when I had an extra 15 minutes. I liked that the two stories, while loosely linked were independent of one another. I found it interesting that the author chose to write the older story (Isabella's) in the present tense while Libby's present day story was written in the past. Isabella's story was more flushed out and more detailed, but to me that made sense. Her struggles have bigger consequences than Libby's did. A wrong decision or mistake by Isabella and her life could have been over...Libby was never at risk of losing her life.

I will probably see if I can find Wildflower Hill next. It seems to be the better liked novel of the two by people who have read both.

(July 2013)

Speaking from Among the Bones

Baby C came home from the hospital and a few days later, Alex came home from the library with this…I had put a hold on it and of course the hold came up at the most inopportune time…but I finished it and I enjoyed it. Easter at Buckshaw and the crypt in Bishop’s Lacey is opened and disturbed…sounds like a ghost story and maybe a bit like of of the most famous ghost stories in Christian lore…and then, because he can, Alan Bradley tosses a curve ball on the last pages…a good book for a new mom!

Oh, and have I mentioned that I think the name Flavia is awesome? I would have named Baby C Flavia, but Alex wasn’t a fan…and I think I like her name better than Flavia now anyway…but Flavia is still an awesome name.

(April - May 2013)

The Lost Boy

This was the last book I finished before Baby C made her grand entrance…and it had me guessing for most of it…the connections were not what I thought they would be. The next book (the eighth I think) will be available here soon and I am really looking forward to it!

(March – April 2013)

The Lady in the Lake

More crime…jeepers…I read The Big Sleep in university and this book had been sitting in my bookcase for a few years. I really enjoyed The Big Sleep and more hard-boiled detective stories seemed up my alley…What got me about this book was there were no computer, no fancy crime labs, no smart phones and yet Philip Marlowe was still able to figure it out…I guess we don’t need all that technology after all!

(March 2013)