Fierce and ambitious, Aina Solís as sharp as her blade and as mysterious as the blood magic she protects. After the murder of her parents, Aina takes a job as an assassin to survive and finds a new family in those like her: the unwanted and forgotten.
Her boss is brutal and cold, with a questionable sense of morality, but he provides a place for people with nowhere else to go. And makes sure they stay there.
DIAMOND CITY: built by magic, ruled by tyrants, and in desperate need of saving. It is a world full of dark forces and hidden agendas, old rivalries and lethal new enemies.
To claim a future for herself in a world that doesn’t want her to survive, Aina will have to win a game of murder and conspiracy—and risk losing everything.
Full of action, romance and dark magic, book one of Francesca Flores’ breathtaking fantasy duology will leave readers eager for more!
(From the book blurb)
My thoughts:
The world created by Francesca Flores is full of violent gangs, ruthless assassins, orphans and spies.The religion is based on blood magic and can be used to either save lives and create shelter in case of need or to kill in the most horrible manner. This forbidden religion uses rough diamonds to focus the magic and has been outlawed by Steels, people who own technology and industry (we are talking about electricity, steel plants and factories, not computers or spaceships). The protagonist of the book, Aina Solis was orphaned at the age of eight, when her parents were shot while practising their religion. Aina survived on the streets for four years and then was rescued by Kohl Pavel, the Blood King, who turned her into a trained assassin. He also brainwashed her into believing that ‘good things do not happen to girls who come from nothing’, instilled a fear of falling from her dubious grace and taught her to think of herself as a weapon, part of a service, not somebody responsible for taking away lives. When Kohl offers her an extremely dangerous job to do, almost a suicide mission, all she thinks about is not the person who is going to die, but the money she is going to earn and her freedom to open her own tradehouse.
Aina isn’t exactly a likeable character, although you can see straighaway she is going to change and see the error of her ways. She is too confused, too mistrustful, too insecure. I had less trouble warming up to other characters: Teo who felt a life of crime was the only way to buy medicine for his dying mother, gentle Ryuu, almost too ready to understand and see the situation from the other person’s point of view, even Tannis, another ‘Blade’ (Assassin) in Kohl’s group of misfits and protegees.
The book is action-packed, although the pace is a bit uneven. There are also flashbacks to Aina’s past to help the reader understand how she got to be what she is and her relationship with Kohl. I felt that some things were a bit repetitive and could have been edited to make the book shorter and more focused. Having said it, I read the book quite quickly and put aside other novels, because it does have that addictive quality that makes it difficult to put it down. Will be looking forward to reading the second part of this duology to see if Aina manages to save her dark world.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Wednesday Books for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
A Castle in the Clouds follows a girl as she navigates secrets, romance, and danger in an aging grand hotel.
Way up in the Swiss mountains, there’s an old grand hotel steeped in tradition and faded splendor. Once a year, when the famous New Year’s Eve Ball takes place and guests from all over the world arrive, excitement returns to the vast hallways.
Sophie, who works at the hotel as an intern, is busy making sure that everything goes according to plan. But unexpected problems keep arising, and some of the guests are not who they pretend to be. Very soon, Sophie finds herself right in the middle of a perilous adventure–and at risk of losing not only her job, but also her heart. (From the book blurb)
My thoughts:
This was a perfect winter read! The book is set in a beautiful hotel up in the Swiss Alps, while the main events take place between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so I couldn’t have asked for a more atmospheric YA book.
Seventeen year old Sophie Spark is a high school dropout who is working as an intern in a luxury hotel. She is trying to find her own place in the world, however different it might be from her mother expectations and her friends’ chosen lifepaths. Sophie is learning various jobs and tasks hotel staff do: she has been a chambermaid, learnt ins and outs of running the laundry room equipment, worked as the hotel spa assistant and baby-sitter. Sophie’s a lovely girl with her own particular brand of humour. She’s always smiling (maybe a bit too much) and has even occasionally burst into a song in the laundry room. She also gives milkroll crumbs to seven little jackdaws who coo outside the window of her tiny room. Sophie’s also very independent and doesn’t give in to peer pressure. Ben Monfort is the only son of one of the hotel owners and is also working there for free during his winter holidays. Ben still needs to figure out his feelings towards the old hotel. On one hand, he has grown up in it and has known most of the staff since he was a toddler. On the other hand, he feels he will never be free to make his own choices in life. If you are not a fan of love triangles, I’ve got bad news for you, as not only Ben, but also another mysterious, but utterly gorgeous hotel guest falls in love with Sophie.
There is a huge cast of characters. Some of them are nice and warm-hearted (or rather that’s what Sophie thinks) or…the opposite. Sophie might be a bit quick to judge people, but perhaps it is just the prerogative of her age to find out that not everybody is what they seem to be at a first glance. There is a Russian oligarch travelling incognito, a PI following the trail of a criminal, a group of thieves, a famous writer… the list goes on. One of the guests pretends to be nice and meek, although deep down they are cruel and heartless, while another one who doesn’t seem to have a kind bone in their body, turns out to be not so bad.
There is money laundering, kidnapping and jewellery theft, so the book is action-packed, although there are also a few very romantic scenes, including several almost-kisses and a spellbinding waltz on the hotel roof.
Hotels have this special liminal quality that makes you believe anything can happen there, however strange, improbable or downright scary (picture Shining or even Psycho in your mind). You are also allowed to be anything or anybody you want (within reasonable limits) and that includes acting heroically to save somebody’s life. I won’t say more as I don’t want to spoil the pleasure of reading this book.
Overall, entertaining, unusual, sentimental, A Castle in the Clouds has a lot to go for it. Not least, it has a cozy atmosphere, quirky characters, squeeky clean romance, and a feel-good-happy-ending.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
Have you read A Castle in the Clouds or is it on your tbr?
Have you read any other books by Kerstin Gier?
Can you think of other books set in a liminal space that you would recommend?
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Today’s topic is Ten most recent additions to my bookshelf. I’ve added a link to Goodreads and book description (just in case the title and the cover on their own are not enticing enough). Here they come:
It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again. Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . . This fresh take on a classic story will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them.
Bennett Driscoll is a Turner Prize-nominated artist who was once a rising star. Now, at age fifty-five, his wife has left him, he hasn’t sold a painting in two years, and his galley wants to stop selling his work, claiming they’ll have more value retrospectively…when he’s dead. So, left with a large West London home and no income, he’s forced to move into his artist’s studio in the back garden and rent out his house on the popular vacation rental site, AirBed. A stranger now in his own home, and with his daughter, Mia, off at art school and any new relationships fizzling out at best, Bennett struggles to find purpose in his day-to-day. That all changes when three different guests–lonely American Alicia; tortured artist Emma; and cautiously optimistic divorcee Kirstie–unwittingly unlock the pieces of himself that have been lost to him for too long.
In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don’t speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.
Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey’s district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit–and her sister–before it’s too late.
A debut novel set on Cape Cod that centers on a beloved family home and the summer that changed the lives of three siblings forever.
After a disastrous summer spent at her family’s summer home on Cape Cod, seventeen year old Ann Gordon is left harboring a secret that changes her life forever, and creates a rift between her sister, Poppy, and their adopted brother, Michael.
Now, fifteen years later, her parents have died, and Ann and her sister Poppy are left to decide the fate of the old Wellfleet home that’s been in the Gordon family for generations. While they both love the house, they decide to sell it and move forward. But then Michael re-enters their lives with a legitimate claim to a third of the estate. He wants the house. But more than that, he wants to set the record straight about that long ago summer.
Reunited after years apart, these very different siblings are forced to decide if they can continue to be a family–and in the process, they’ll discover that the house might be the glue that holds them together.
It’s 2049, and the survival of the human race is at risk. The earth’s inhabitants must turn to their last resort, a plan to place genetically engineered children inside the cocoons of large-scale robots—to be incubated, birthed, and raised by machines. But there is yet one hope of preserving the human order: an intelligence programmed into these machines that renders each unique in its own right—the Mother Code.
Kai is born in America’s desert southwest, his only companion his robotic Mother, Rho-Z. Equipped with the knowledge and motivations of a human mother, Rho-Z raises Kai and teaches him how to survive. But as children like Kai come of age, their Mothers transform too—in ways that were never predicted. And when government survivors decide that the Mothers must be destroyed, Kai must make a choice. Will he break the bond he shares with Rho-Z? Or will he fight to save the only parent he has ever known?
In a future that could be our own, The Mother Code explores what truly makes us human—and the tenuous nature of the boundaries between us and the machines we create.
A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground.
Two Chinese-American sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. Lucia impetuously plows ahead, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.
Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again—but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans—but what does it take to break them?
Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone—and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all.
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
When Amy, on her way to becoming valedictorian of her graduating class and getting accepted to her dream school, gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she takes a job at a record store to ease the pain. She needs a distraction, badly.
Oliver, Amy’s record store co-worker, isn’t so sure about Amy—his complete opposite—but what he is sure of is his decision not to go to college. He just can’t figure out how to tell his mother.
As they work late-night shifts at the record store, Amy and Oliver become friends and then confidantes and then something more, but when Amy has a hard time letting go of what she thought was her perfect future with her ex, she risks losing the future she didn’t even know she wanted with Oliver.
A wry and cleverly observed debut novel about the privileged bubble that is Liston Heights High–the micro-managing parents, the overworked teachers, and the students caught in the middle–and the fallout for each of them when the bubble finally bursts.
***************************
These are ten latest additions to my neverending list of books to read and hopefully enjoy! Are any of them on your tbr? Or perhaps you’ve already read some of them and can tell me what you think?
A wickedly entertaining and utterly absorbing modern take on the life and marriages of Henry VIII…if he were a twenty-first-century womanizing media mogul rather than the king of England.
Master of the universe Harry Rose is head of the Rose Corporation, number eighteen on the Forbes rich list, and recently married to wife number six. But in 2018, his perfect world is about to come crashing to the ground. His business is in the spotlight–and not in a good way–and his love life is under scrutiny. Because behind a glittering curtain of lavish parties, gorgeous homes, and a media empire is a tale worthy of any tabloid. And Harry has a lot to account for. (From the book blurb)
***
My thoughts:
Olivia Hayfield takes on the challenge of retelling the lifestory of one of the most powerful and notorious English monarchs- that of Henry VIII and his six wives. We’ve all heard about their fate: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, but what would these marriages have beeen like if Henry Tudor was somehow reincarnated in our times? Would he have been able to get away with the way he treated the women in his life or would he have got his comeuppance?
There is no doubt the book is well-researched. Olivia Hayfield names Antonia Frazer and Alison Weir as well as a number of history websites among her sources of inspiration. There are also numerous pop culture references that help the reader get immersed in London in the 1980s and 1990s. It is clear that a lot of thought has gone into how to translate the historical context to make it both entertaining and relevant. For example, Henry’s obsession with begetting a male child and an heir to his kingdom or Henry beheading two of his spouses is impossible to recreate, so the author uses other plot devices: Katie Paragon (Catherine of Aragon) overcomes her severe depression exacerbated by miscarriages and stillbirths and becomes a fertility therapist; stylish Ana Lyebon (Ann Boleyn) is all about ambition and climbing the career ladder… Anki from Cleveland (Anne of Cleves) – I won’t spoil it for you, because the way Olivia Hayfield represented the fourth marriage is ingenious.
The charm of this book lies in discovering how the author reimagines the historical figures and what modern life circumstances she endows them with. Having said that, isn’t it why we love re-tellings in general? Safe in our knowledge of the general direction the story is going to take and the ending, we focus all our attention on the familiar characters in their new environment to see if they will follow their bookish /real life historical destiny or carve their own path. There is a fine line between staying too close to the original with the risk of being called unimaginative and veering so far that the story becomes unrecognizable.
The book is quite long with its 430 pages, but we are talking about a lifetime here, coupled with a very large cast of characters, so the length is quite justified. Similarly, the pace is a bit slow at times, picking up at others. Again, we have to remember that in real life the first marriage of Henry VIII lasted for twenty four years, while the following five marriages happened over fourteen years and ranged in length from three and a half years to six months.
Paradoxically, Henry VIII in his youth was considered handsome, intelligent and charismatic and only later became a ruthless tyrant and philanderer. Olivia Hayfield sets out to investigate why and whether things could have played out differently for him. The real life references the book abounds in extend to much further than just pop music and technology. They also include politics, economics (unemployment rate, the financial crisis of 2008, business asset stripping policies that devastated the north of England and many, many more). All of them mirror the external pressures Henry VIII must have faced in his times.
Olivia Hayfield gives her protagonist a chance for redemption, a chance to become a fair businessman and a doting father who values and cherishes all his children, male or female, and welcomes #MeToo movement.Whether he takes it or not, you can find out by reading Wife after Wife.
Overall, enjoyable, entertaining, recommended for fans of historical romantic fiction in general and Tudor times in particular.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Berkley for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
Do you enjoy modern day retellings of fairy-tales or famous historical events? What is the last one you read and really enjoyed?
When seventeen-year-old Tati sends a saliva sample to a DNA ancestry testing site her results come back inconclusive. What’s wrong with her DNA? And what does it have to do with her unexplained seizures and the beckoning tunnel she sees during them?
What Tati discovers is more than she could have ever imagined possible. Parallel universes exist and her abnormal DNA compels and condemns Tati and her other selves—shy Ana—privileged Tatyana—and on-the-run Tanya, to a lifetime of ricocheting between their parallel lives in the multiverse.
With knowledge of their existence a deadly threat in every universe, the only chance all four have to survive is to work together to take down the scientist responsible: their father (From the Book Blurb)
My thoughts:
I love science-fiction in general and the idea of multiverse in particular. So when I read the blurb for Ricochet by Kathryn Berla I didn’t hesitate, grabbed the book and started reading straightaway.
There are four points of view, so it took me a bit of time to get used tothe four narrators: Tati, Ana, Tanya, and Tatiana. The author clearly put a lot of effort into differentiating their worlds and their voices. In fact, I quickly found myself relating more to one of them than to the others! Two of the protagonists live in the USA, having been adopted by American parents, although they do know that their origin is Russian. Overall, their life circumstances are fairly similar and you can concentrate on how the differences came about. The other two are much more connected to Russia. You can say that the task of following the four different stories was slightly reduced by this narrative device.
The ‘science’ idea the plot is based on is… Wait a second, this is a spoiler! You might want to skip the section between the following two images:
……
The ‘science’ bit the plot is built around is based on the most famous cat in the history of humankind. Yes, it’s Schrodinger’s cat. An electron can exist in more than one state simultaneously i.e. a wavelike state and a particle state, but when it is observed, it loses its duality. Once you open the box, the cat is either dead or alive, but not both at the same time. This theory gave rise to the idea of parallel universes, infinite versions of our life that would collapse the moment we tried to observe them. In this book Tatyana’s father, the proverbial mad scientist and megalomaniac, finds a way to alter the genetic code of the embryo of his own child to provide portals to three other parallel universes. The portals would allow the four girls to travel and observe the other universes. Imagine Schroedinger’s cat looking at itself – dead, half-dead or three-quarters dead. So, it’s a multiverse limited to four ‘states’/’identities’. This ‘genetic modification’ resulted in periodic seisure-like fits (which doctors could not explain or find any remedy for) when one of the girls tried to approach and observe herself in one of the other three worlds through a thin membrane. It was also the reason why the DNA tests run on the girls were inconclusive. With time, the girls’ genes began ‘healing’ themselves which would lead to complete disappearance/closure of the portals and total separation of the four protagonists’ worlds. In other words, the cat was able to periodically observe itself for 18 years.
……
After this brief digression we are back to the original spoiler-free zone!
The story also touched on teenager-parent relationships (e.g. Should you try to stop your parent from leading an unhealthy lifestyle that might lead to serious medical problems later or should you let them continue making their choices because they are an adult and your intervention would mean a strange role reversal), first love, trust issues, and setting boundaries between friends when one of them doesn’t want to change the nature of their relationship.
At some point the pace became really fast and the story started bearing similarity to an action thriller with lots of chases and narrow escapes. This was the bit where I got confused and started wishing for fewer secondary characters. I’m still not sure about the ending– I think if it had been told from the point of view of another protagonist, the one who was the most attached to the girls’ father, it would have carried more emotional significance. The way it was it felt almost too detached.
The cover is really beautiful and deserves a special mention. Overall, a quick read with varied characters and a lot of action, recommended for fans of sci-fi (who do not mind bending a few physics rules for the sake of an interesting plot) and fast-paced thrillers.
Have you read any books by Kathryn Berla? if yes, any you would recommend?
Do you like reading about the multiverse? If yes, what’s your favourite book that explores this idea?
Do you like multiple points of view? What is the number of POVs you feel most comfortable with?
North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women’s Correctional Center. Her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to leave prison, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets.
North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. But what she doesn’t expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.
What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies? (From the Book Blurb)
*****
My thoughts:
This was my first book by Diane Chamberlain and what a compulsive read it turned out to be! As soon as I finish this review I’m off to see if I can borrow any other books by this fabulous writer.
Big lies in a small town alternates between two timelines, both of which I found equally compelling. In 2018 a former art student Morgan Christopher is serving a prison sentence for a crime she didn’t commit. When Lisa Williams, daughter of a famous, recently deceased painter Jesse Williams, and Andrea Fuller, a successful lawyer, make her an offer to restore an old muralin exchange for being released from the the prison, Morgan is extremely surprised. Jesse Williams was known for helping young people who found themselves on the wrong side of the law or in other difficult circumstances to find a way out and get again on their feet, but all his previous ‘protegees’ were Afro-American, and Morgan isn’t. Neither does she know anything about art restoration, but she’s been threatened, cut and severely beaten in the prison, and this is her only chance to get to if not freedom, at least to relative safety. She will just have to learn as quickly as possible and do her best to bring the damaged painting back to life. The mural was supposed to hang in the post office of a small town of Edenton, North Carolina, but something happened to the artist Anna Dale and it was never installed. In 1940 twenty-two year old Anna Dalewins an art competion and is commisioned to paint a mural. Only she won’t be able to use her preliminary sketch, because it will depict the history and essence of a completely different town, town she has never been to, and that is Edenton, North Carolina. Anna decided she needs a research trip, but when she meets the town ‘movers and shakers’, local political and business elite, they tell her that a local male artist also participated in the competition and they would have preferred him and not a young and inexperienced girl wo doesn’t know anything about the town and has no connection to it. Having recently lost her beloved mother, Anna has no one who would care for her presence in New Jersey, so she is easily persuaded to stay and work in Edenton. Very soon she begins to realize how hard it will be to complete her mural amidst pernicious prejudices, blatant misogyny, secrets and lies that will lead to tragic events.
The narrative moved easily between the two timelines and soon it was impossible to put the book down until I found out why Jesse Williams had chosen Morgan to restore the mural and how the two protagonists were connected. There is a mystery element, of course, but the issues the book deals with go way beyond it – racism, prejudice, gender equality, alcoholism, family ties, mental illness, love and forgiveness are all explored in this beautifully-written story. Both protagonists are young, vulnerable women who face a lot of adversity and show a lot of inner strength and integrity.
Big lies in a small town is a powerful and thought-provoking story which I highly recommend to all lovers of general fiction, and, in particular, those who like strong female leads.
Thank you to Edelweiss and St.Martin’s Press for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
Have you read Big Lies in a Small Town or is it on your tbr? If you’ve read the book, which timeline did you find more interesting?
Have you read any other books by Diane Chamberlain?
Dora Ramos and Dallas Van Zant couldn’t have been more different if they tried. Dora is a quiet volunteer at an animal shelter. She comes from a very supportive family of two fathers who taught her unconditional love. Dallas is a madly attractive, rich as croesus, wild, wild water polo god whose parents went through a bitter divorce and taught him that love has to be earned. And yet, it is Dallas Dora has a long term crush on, and it is Dallas Dora kisses at a sorority party. What? Kisses? A sorority party? her roommates would be speechless if they ever found out that she gave in to her cousin’s pleas, got herself a sexy costume of Catwoman and, worst of all, stumbled on the object of her wild desires, drunk and lonely, and even shared a passionate kiss with him. Luckily, Dallas wouldn’t be able to recognise her even if he could remember anything from the party. Or would he?
The events of second part of the Malibu University series happen at the same time as the events of the first book, Nothing but Trouble, and we see a few scenes that focused on the development of Alice and Reagan’s relationship with a different pair of eyes. Or rather two pairs of eyes, because this is also a dual POV book. I already loved Dora, so I was very happy to read her story. Dallas…well, I needed some convincing, but P.Dangelico did a marvellous job of making the readers see beyond the pretty face of this golden boy.
What I loved about Dora was her quiet strength and determination, the way she doesn’t let her speech impediment stop her from expressing herself, the way she never loses her faith in her relationship. I’m not a big fan of insta-love, so I was glad to see that Dora and Dallas take plenty of time to get to know each other working in the shelter before their friendship becomes something more. Another thing that I liked in this book is showing the importance of consent. All of us should be clear on the fact that when somebody’s behaviour is unacceptable, it is our right to say ‘No’ and they should stop.
If you are a fan of New Adult genre and enjoy reading about student life, give this series a try. The novels can be read as standalones, although you might find ‘the link scenes’ unnecessary.
I am already looking forward to reading Zoe (Dora’s wild and outspoken roommate) and Brock’s (sweet and saintly captain of Dallas’s waterpolo team) story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
Have you read Nothing but Wild or Nothing but Trouble by P.Dangelico? Have you read any other books by this author?
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you’re continuing with WOW, feel free to link those up as well! Find out more here.
The book I am waiting for this Wednesday is The Chicken Sisters by K.J.Dell’Antonia.
From the book blurb:
Three generations. Two chicken shacks. One recipe for disaster.
In tiny Merinac, Kansas, Chicken Mimi’s and Chicken Frannie’s have spent a century vying to serve up the best fried chicken in the state—and the legendary feud between their respective owners, the Moores and the Pogociellos, has lasted just as long. No one feels the impact more than thirty-five-year-old widow Amanda Moore, who grew up working for her mom at Mimi’s before scandalously marrying Frank Pogociello and changing sides to work at Frannie’s. Tired of being caught in the middle, Amanda sends an SOS to Food Wars, the reality tv restaurant competition that promises $100,000 to the winner. But in doing so, she launches both families out of the frying pan and directly into the fire….
The last thing Brooklyn-based organizational guru Mae Moore, Amanda’s sister, wants is to go home to Kansas. But when her career implodes, Food Wars becomes her chance to step back into the limelight. Mae is certain she can make the fading Mimi’s look good—even if that pits her against Amanda and Frannie’s. With a greedy producer stoking the flames, their friendly rivalry quickly turns into a game of chicken. Yet when family secrets become public knowledge, the sisters must choose: will they fight with each other, or for their heritage?
Why I am waiting for it? I love reading about complex family dynamics and sibling love. K.J. Dell’Antonia is a former blogger known for her wise and witty exploration of issues related to family relationships and motherhood. She is also the author of ‘Reading with Babies, Toddlers and Twos’ and ‘How to be a happier parent’ – topics which are close to my heart!
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Today’s topic is Most Anticipated Releases for the first half of 2020. So, in no particular order:
The oasis saved them. But who will save them from the oasis?
Alif had exciting summer plans: working on her father’s archaeological dig site in the desert with four close friends . . . and a very cute research assistant. Then the sandstorm hit.
With their camp wiped away, Alif and the others find themselves lost on the sands, seemingly doomed . . . until they find the oasis. It has everything they need: food, water, shade—and mysterious ruins that hide a deadly secret. As reality begins to shift around them, they question what’s real and what’s a mirage.
The answers turn Alif and her friends against one another, and they begin to wonder if they’ve truly been saved. And while it was easy to walk into the oasis, it may be impossible to leave . . .
Katya de Becerra’s new supernatural thriller hides a mystery in plain sight, and will keep you guessing right up to its terrifying conclusion.
(From the Book Blurb)
My thoughts:
What an exciting thriller this book proved to be! Although set in an entirely different context, this book made me think about two of my favourite reads from long time ago – Solaris by Stanslaw Lem and The Roadside Picnic by brothers Strugatsky (both belong to the classic science-fiction genre).
Alif Scholl’s parents are archeologists, so she has grown up around various digs and actually enjoys the task of washing and labelling archeological finds. She is thrilled to spend her summer at her father’s current dig near Dubai. Alif’s friends- Minh, Lori, Rowen and Luke- are joining her. There’s also Tommy Ortiz, Alif’s father’s student and assistant. On their way to the site Alif reads a blog post about the site which claims that there is a kind of curse on it. She brushes it off as a publicity trick, but later Tommy tell her that there was indeed a strange accident in which two people were hurt. Another strange event happens when a young exhausted and severely dehydrated French tourist wanders into the camp and whispers the name of a Messopotamian deity. Alif manages to get a few more sentences from him before he is taken away to a hospital.
The friends are beginning to get the hang of the site routine, when a terrible sandstorm hits. When it passes and Alif comes round, she sees no sign of the camp. Her friends and Tommy have to get back to civilisation, but they have no idea what their current location is. When the situation begins to seem desperate, they reach an oasis with crystal clear water and abundance of fruit. But can they trust the oasis and can they trust each other?
Soon strange dreams begin…
Alif and her five friends are all flawed characters with their own distinct personalities (something that becomes significant at the end of the book). The group dynamics was quite complex, but we only get Alif’s perspective and as the book progresses, it becomes clear that she is an unreliable narrator.
I really enjoyed Katya de Berrera’s seemingly effortless writing style and the way she kept my attention throughout the book. I did wonder quite often whether the events were just a hallucination brought by the gruelling journey through the desert under the unforgiving sun or whether the (post)-oasis events are manifestations of PTSD and then … the author surpassed all my expectations by giving us a mind-bending explanation.
I had a bit of trouble trying to categorize this book in terms of its genre: a thriller? a horror? fantasy? science fiction? Oasis is a gripping genre-bending story that will be appreciated by those who like a goodadventure book set in a fascinating location.
Thank you to Edelweiss and Imprint Macmillan for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
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