Recent Reads

Here's what I've been reading lately. 

I talked about Cursed Child in an earlier post. 

And I Darken by Kiersten White

Kiersten White is one of my favorite authors on Twitter. She's always saying the funniest things, and she always responds to my tweets. I absolutely loved this book by her. It's a historical fiction about Vlad the Impaler, as a girl Lada. She is fierce and brutal, and not at all a hero. The story follows her and her brother Radu, who are left in a foreign country by their father and their growing up. The book is filled with blood, swords, and kisses.

I will be honest, the beginning was a bit slow. It didn't help that I was reading this book at the pool, and only getting 30-40 page chunks read at a time. Once I sat down and actually read the book for an extended period of time, I absolutely loved it. Another thing that definitely helped me in liking this book is that I took a medieval history class and learned all about the area and time period this is taking place in. My history professor actually visits my work and I told him how his class helped me enjoy this book and he laughed quite a bit at that.


Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

I kept walking by this book at the library and every time the cover drew me in. It's so beautiful and intriguing, and finally I checked it out. This book takes place back in the days of the wooly mammoth, and is written from Kol's point of view. He and his brother's are reaching the age of marriage, but there aren't any girls their age in their clan. When some girls show up on the shore one day, Kol is excited. But Mya is very closed off and private, and Kol can't really get through to her. When he meets another girl, Lo, from another tribe, things get crazy.

I loved the concept of this story, and it was unlike anything I've read before. The only thing I struggled with is the descriptions of killing mammoths and all the meat involved. Usually I'm not squeamish about such things, but every time I see the cover now, I feel a slight gag. I'm weird. I'd recommend this book though. It's a good romance without any mentions of sex, and is not something that you'll read anywhere else. 

Out of Sight, Out of Time 

United We Spy by Ally Carter 

I was recently making a boarding school display at the library, since it's  back to school time and normal schools are boring. One book that I had to put was I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You  by Ally Carter. I read that book in eighth grade, and it was the beginning of a spy obsession of mine. That book is about Cammie who attends a boarding school on how to be a spy. When she falls for a normal guy while out on a training mission, things get, sticky. It's filled with spying, cool technology, and teenage girls. (I learned what a push up bra was from this series. ;)) 

In the chaos of high school and college, I never finished the series. When I had some downtime at work, I read the final two, along with a short story that I found on the Carter's website. I had goosebumps almost the entire time reading these books. It was so fun being back in this world that I'd enjoyed so much as a teen, and finally seeing how everything ended. I highly, highly recommend the short story for anyone who finishes this series. It's the perfect way to end it, and man, I love me some kissing and happy endings :) 

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is the exact opposite of all of that. This book is messed up. It left me feeling just, not quite sad and not quite hopeless, but just blah after I finished it. Yet, it was so well written I flew through it in less than a day. The story is crazy, but I really admired Flynn's skill at manipulating us as the reader, and how no detail was just thrown in, Everything connected to everything else. The language is great as well, although a little too much at times. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book for everyone, and it's definitely not something I'm going to read again.