The Queen’s Assassin by Melissa de la Cruz My rating: 3 of 5 stars I really don’t know what to think of this book. I finished it almost a week ago and I can’t make up my mind how to rate and review it. I mean, I liked it well enough to finish it and it didn’t feel like a chore and punishment to do so. You know how you sometimes force yourself to read through a book just for the sake of finishing it? That was definitely not the case with this book. But something felt missing. I’ll discuss the little things that have been nagging me as much…
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The Stars We Steal
The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne My rating: 5 of 5 stars So, I read this book in two days. I was obsessed with it. I wanted to know what would happen, even though I was fully aware that this was a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. Anyone, who has been following my reviews for the last year knows by now that I did my graduate thesis on Austen’s six major novels, which included Persuasion. It was never my favourite of the six, but I still loved it, nonetheless. So, to come across a retelling of Persuasion set in space had me intrigued from the start, because I do…
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Travelogue of a Research Trip – Jane Austen’s England
2nd April 2019, 4:03am I found pizza in my bed! It was the morning after our return from London and, because of my internal clock still ticking on UK time, I woke up at 4am in desperate need to pee. I pulled the blanket aside and could see in the faint light of the pre-dawn morning that there was something in my bed. It had the size of my thumb nail and my first thought was that it was some sort of mutant bug. I picked it up; it was cold and squishy. In the bathroom light I could clearly identify it as a small piece of pizza covered in…
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Northanger Abbey
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen My rating: 5 of 5 stars I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I love Jane Austen. I love her work. I am a self-proclaimed Janeite. I wrote my graduate thesis on Austen’s six major novels and a term paper on NorthangerAbbey. I have to admit, Northanger Abbey is my absolute favourite. The satire, the gothic, Austen’s humour and her ability to create a naïve character without making her annoying is quite the accomplishment. I adore Catherine’s evolution from a sheltered country girl to being thrown into the fashionable society of Bath. The characters in…
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Hell School, Tome 1: Rituels
Hell school, Tome 1 : Rituels by Dugomier My rating: 5 of 5 stars I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I really liked this comic. The artwork reminded me a bit of the style used in The Adventures of Tintin. I saw it listed on NetGalley and I just had to read it. At first, I thought this was a story involving perhaps zombies or some sort of monster, but I liked the direction it ultimately took. The story just hit the spot perfectly: we got some creepy school with a whole bunch of weird traditions located on an…
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The Marquise of O-
The Marquise of O– by Heinrich von Kleist My rating: 3 of 5 stars I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I read this story twice. Once during my advanced German literature reading course I took more than 10 years ago and then again for this purpose of this review. It is strange to say I enjoyed it, but I kind of did. It certainly leaves a lasting impression on the reader, as it did for me. I remember it so vividly, most likely because we discussed it in detail, but also because of the subtle approach the author took…
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The Liar’s Girl
The Liar’s Girl by Catherine Ryan Howard My rating: 2 of 5 stars I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I love murder mysteries and I’m kind of ashamed that I don’t read enough of them, but when I saw this book pop up in my recommendations, I was excited to give it a try. I really liked the beginning; it had great potential and had a good hook that kept me going for a while. Unfortunately, it fell rather flat and lost all interest for me about halfway through. I found the protagonist intriguing enough to stick with the…
