Linnea has just received her teaching certificate and is ready to begin her career in a small North Dakota farming town. She is all arranged to be staying with her host family, the Westgaards, as she adjusts to small town life. There, she meets Theodore, a man who does not want a woman under his roof. He is constantly finding flaws in Linnea but eventually they might find more than just that.
A lot of the time when I read romance, the authors have a hard time making their characters seem like real people rather than just a fantasy. It will be this man is a jerk but no backstory into what made him be like that. Spencer, she gave her characters those backstories. Linnea is still young and naive, she does not know much, if anything, about love. Theodore, he has been in love and has had his heart broken. He is reserved and scared to go down that path again even if he does not admit it. Linnea and Theodore are three dimensional characters.
This was a well researched book. It might just be the first romance book that I have read where the atmosphere or setting is actually important. This was a great portrayal of what day to day American life was like in the days of the First World War.
The writing was great if you love drawn out and long descriptions. When I first started the book, ‘I was like wow this is some great descriptive writing.’ Those sentiments are what later made me dislike this book more and more. It went on forever!! Nearly five hundred pages, the chapters were all long and it took me double the amount of time to read than it usually does for a book. The pacing was a major issue.
In romance, listing the tropes seems to be the way to tell a plot. Here we have; age gap, enemies to lovers, and small town romance. I am fine with all of those but enemies to lovers is probably my all time favorite romance trope. The author did a great job with all of those tropes as I really did enjoy the romance between Linnea and Theodore.
A lot of the time when I read romance, the authors have a hard time making their characters seem like real people rather than just a fantasy. Linnea and Theodore are three dimensional characters.This was a well researched book. This was a great portrayal of what day to day American life was like in the days of the First World War. The writing was great if you love drawn out and long descriptions.The pacing was a major issue.Here we have; age gap, enemies to lovers, and small town romance. The author did a great job with all of those tropes as I really did enjoy the romance between Linnea and Theodore. This is a good book and I would still recommend it if you are in for a long slow burn journey!
Marcus is an actor who has his big show coming to an end. An unsatisfactory ending, that is. April is a fangirl but has never shared her interests with anyone in her life. That is until there is a tweet from Marcus’s show that asks fans to send in their best cosplay pictures. April sends in her picture and it definitely gets a lot of attention, and not all positive. Marcus takes note of this and invites her out to dinner from the kindness of his heart. Little do both know that they both already know each other through their secret online identities and that there might actually be real feelings.
I did not hate the characters but I also did not connect with them. First we are introduced to Marcus and he started out like a jerk but somehow when he is with April he is a completely different person, yeah, I don’t know. April started out good, we got some backstory on her and building on her personality but as the novel went on she was a stagnant. At times, she did annoy me but I could only find it relatable, of being insecure about yourself and also trying to date. It isn’t easy and I am glad to have read about a character going through something similar.
In romance books, atmosphere plays little part so there is not a whole lot to say for the atmosphere category in the CAWPILE system. It is set in Northern California, scenes in the Bay Area and Sacramento.
The writing was lengthy, this was something that I was shocked by. Usually, romance reads fast even if I am not a fan of one or two elements that the story has. Here, I was constantly having to check how many more pages that the chapter entailed. This could have been diced down a lot and not include, or just dice down, the bits of scripts and fan fictions between chapters.
Where this book will be a hit or miss for people will be the plot. I mean, is the star of a show like Game of Thrones really writing fan fiction about his own character and cast mates? I mean, it is kind of creepy to be writing dirty stuff about your coworkers, if you ask me. Still, this book is every fangirl’s dream. The other fan account you are talking to ends up being the guy your are a fan of? I think all fangirls have dreamed that at one point or another. All the talk of servers, fanfiction sites, and just the dynamics of a fandom, is spot on. Especially if you are apart of the Game of Thrones or ASOIAF fandom, I think that you will have at least a little fun with this one!
I did not hate the characters but I also did not connect with them. April was a relatable character and it was nice to read to someone who has the same fears of dating and relationships that I do. In romance books, atmosphere plays little part so there is not a whole lot to say for the atmosphere category in the CAWPILE system. The writing was lengthy, this was something that I was shocked by. It could have been diced down a lot and you would still get the same story. Where this book will be a hit or miss for people will be the plot. An average, three star, read.
In 1993, Mallory Blessing inherits a home, on Nantucket, from a beloved aunt. Her older brother wants to host a guys weekend at the house but that results in all the guys leaving except one, Jake. Jake and Mallory spend the rest of Labor Day weekend alone and agree to be “same time, next year’ lovers with one another. This goes on for the next, you guessed it, 28 Summers.
Flashforward to the spring of 2020. Mallory is terminally ill and asks her son to call a phone number that is in a hidden envelope. The number belongs to Jake McCloud who is married to the woman that is likely to be the next president of the United States. The son thinks this must be some kind of mistake, but little does he know of the secret life that his mother has been having.
The characters were the highlight of this but also the downfall as well. Is that not strange? They were so realistic and developed throughout the novel. I mean, hopefully they would be as we did experience the majority of their lives alongside them. Mallory is obviously the main character here, even ahead of Jake. This is made clear towards the last quarter as we get less and less Jake and get ‘chapters’ at his wife’s perspective instead of his. I don’t think this is a mad thing as we get to see both women and how different they are from each other, but I think we still should have had more Jake towards the end. Now, here is why they were the downfall. It might just be because cheating frustrates me, I just don’t get why these two could not get together. Later, in the more recent years it makes sense as Ursula, Jake’s wife is a famous politician, but before that when they’re all young and out of college. Why could they not just start a relationship? I think it is really immature from both our main leads.
Elin Hilderbrand does a great job at making the reader visualize Nantucket. I have never been, but I did not have a hard time at all picturing the little beach cottage and then the island in my head. I also liked how the majority of the characters were from Baltimore as that is an important place to me. Shoutout to the University of South Carolina representation as well!
Early on the writing felt as though we were reading a gossip column but later, I felt as though it got more like a novel, more personal. Again, Hilderbrand is a descriptive writer, but she does not go on and on and I really appreciate that. This was fast paced even though this is over four hundred pages, which is huge for a romance novel! I was shocked how fast it went by, sometimes I did not believe that I had read eighty pages. Quick and fun read.
I think that I gave enough of my thoughts on the plot in the character category. I just don’t understand why this was considered a forbidden romance at the start. I feel like if they really did truly love each other as much as they seemed to, then they would just come clean and become a couple. It just really bothered me. I do not know if it was pride of immaturity that they would not do it, who knows. I do like that we went through this much time with the characters as most romance books last only a week or month but here, we went through three decades, pretty amazing.
I did enjoy this read. The characters did annoy me at times but overall, they were well written, and I can see that sometimes just committing to someone is hard for some people. I like that we did get both women’s perspectives to see what Jake was trying to choose between. I don’t think these characters were likeable, but they were real. Elin Hilderbrand can paint a beautiful setting and really immerse you into it. The writing was fast, but you never truly felt like anything was left out. I don’t think this needed to be a forbidden romance but then it wouldn’t be as exciting, would it be?
Lara Jean wrote a letter to each boy that she has fallen in love with, she never had the guts to actually confess her feelings to any of these guys. One day. the letters all get sent out, Lara Jean has no idea who sent them. All the guys from her past start to confront her about her feelings and the letters they received.
This book might have the most relatable characters that I have ever read. I could see a piece of me, especially in my teens, in each of these characters. Lara Jean just reminded me so much of myself, being a sentimental person and being too afraid to actually get into a relationship (cue the sweating emoji). She definitely has to be an INFP personality type, a little dreamer. Out of the guys, Peter was my favorite. I just like he had more depth to him and was built better as a character. He was not perfect, he had his flaws. Josh, I felt like was a Gary Sue. He was just too perfect that it annoyed me. I felt like he had zero flaws and was just every girl’s dream guy.
The atmosphere was like any other contemporary romance. I liked that it was set in Virginia as that is a state that I am quite familiar with.
The writing was once again like any romance novel. Some of the things that the character’s said, I think were too childish and not what sixteen year olds would say but that isn’t too big of a deal. Just a small thing to either laugh or roll your eyes at.
Short chapters and relatable characters. That is basically all I need for a book to intrigue me to pick it up and read the next handful of chapters in one sitting.
Logic wise, I think this was all fine. Nothing really stood out as being too totally unrealistic. I think this book is very believable and could happen at any high school. I’m just glad that I never had the idea to write letters to my crushes.
Oops. I just realized that I forgot to leave in what I thought about the plot. This is such a cool plot with the letters and then the guys finding out about the feelings. I think that is very creative and I cannot think of any other novel with that kind of premise. I will admit though, I did predict who sent the letters out and the reasoning behind why they did it.
This book was a surprise for me. It falls under almost all the categories of tropes and genres that I do not like. However, I LOVED it. Going in with low expectations really did me well this time and I am so glad about that. This book and its movie counterpart were really popular, my senior year of high school, so I was nervous that the hype would kill it for me but it didn’t. I will be continuing this series but I don’t think that I will watch the movie but who knows!
Emily’s sister April got in a car accident and has broken her leg. Emily moves in with said sister and her niece to help out until April can get on her feet again. She has never lived in a small town like Willow Creek, Maryland before. She assumes it will be a rather boring summer with nothing to do except sit around the house and watch Netflix. Willow Creek is known for it’s Renaissance Faire, which Emily’s niece, Caitlin will be working at with practically the whole town. Simon’s brother is the one who founded the festival around a decade ago. Simon takes on all the weight of the festival on to his shoulders. It is something that he takes very seriously and does not like Emily’s lack of understanding about the festival.
Emily was a really relatable character. I could understand her feelings and thoughts. She was a pretty funny perspective to read from. I do think she grew throughout the story and we were able to see that. I was not a fan of Simon Graham, though. To put it kindly, I think he was a jerk. I so did not want our main character to get with him but from the synopsis of this book it is obvious that the two of them get into some kind of relationship. I liked him in his pirate character but outside of character he was just terrible! Maybe it was so we can really feel how Emily feels but I don’t know, I could be a minority here. I think I might have felt better about him if we had chapters at his POV. I did like the townspeople though, this really did feel like a small and cozy town. I liked the side characters a lot. We will give the character’s a three out of five.
I, myself, have never attended a renaissance faire or festival but I REALLY want to go to one. When I am vaccinated and it is safe to travel again you can definitely catch me at the Carolina Renaissance Festival. This setting was a lot of fun but it did get repetitive at times. We just went through the every day activities of the tavern life. If we were not there we were at the human chess match. I think I actually preferred the parts when our main character Emily was at her bookstore job. The setting was good though I think we will give it a four out of five stars.
The writing was not anything great. It was just average and bland, nothing to get excited about. As I stated earlier it was a funny writing style, it could make me laugh. Just your average three star.
The main trope of this book is enemies to lovers. That is advertised everywhere, so, no, it is not a spoiler. I usually love that trope but here I just did not enjoy it. I felt like their reason to hate each other was just petty. I would get maybe disliking but these characters full on hated each other, that is until she saw him in leather pants. Like come on, you are going to stop hating a guy just because he looks good in a tight pair of clothes? Stupid. Then, the going from enemies to being lovers was just so sudden, I do not think Simon would just suddenly change like that, again maybe if we had chapters from his perspective too that could be different. I just was not a fan of this romance. I feel like this might be extreme but I am going to give that a two out of five.
The chapters in this book were too long for a romance novel. I was dreading picking up the book knowing that the long chapter potentially would be going through the same events yet again. I get that is life that the same events usually happen day to day but it’s just boring for a book. I feel like there could be so much done with the Faire setting. 3/5.
I guess everything here is logical as it does feel realistic. I have never been to a Renaissance Faire so I will take this book’s word for it that this is how they play out. We will do a four out of five.
Did I enjoy this book? I don’t really know. It was an average read, I know it seems like I hated it but I am being honest, I did not hate it. I really liked the main character, Emily, and then all of the side characters. The atmosphere was pretty cool, I just wish we could have explored more into it. The writing was not anything special but it was not bad either. The romance was not my favorite but it does seem I am really picky with romance novels, I think I do better with ones in a fantastical or historical setting but I did like A Lesson in Thornes by Sierra Simone. The chapters were long, even though this book was under three hundred pages, I feel like it could have been shorter. This could have made a good novella. This did seem like a realistic romance even though it might have been petty. ( I am glad that I don’t have a hate like that towards anyone.) I think others might enjoy this book but it was just not for me. I will not be continuing the series.
This is a new kind of post for me to write. Today we are going to be looking at new releases in the historical fiction and historical romance genres! I never used to pay attention to new releases as I would get to them when I got to them but now I think that I will purchase one every month with my monthly Barnes and Noble trip, which has been done online since April. There are so many new and diverse books coming out this month and later in the year as well. I am glad that authors of different faces and those in the LGBT+ community are being heard. I can only hope that reading from people with these experiences can help bring us as people together and realize that we all walk different paths in life and that we all need to treat each other with kindness.
Historical Fiction
Isaiah and Samuel were slaves on a planation in the Deep South. The barn that the two boys worked in together was a sort of escape from the harsh world around them, there it was just the two of them and the animals that they tended to. One of their fellow slaves begins to preach to the other slaves, leading them to turn against one another. Isaiah and Samuel are no longer safe as their love for one another is now seen as a sin. This novel shows the pain that was so prevalent during this time in history, but yet the hope that the people had as well, and what the power of love can do. This book was released on January 5, 2021.
Ada is seventeen years old in the year of 1894. She lives a happy life, she loves her husband and enjoys the job she has, helping the midwife. Things start to go downhill though when it has been over a year of marriage and Ada has not given her husband a child of their own. The act of being barren in their town often leads to women being executed in thoughts that they are witches. Ada joins a gang of outcast women as a source of safety in this patriarchal society. Ada has to decide if she really wants to live the life of an outlaw. Outlawed is one of the five choices this month over at Book of the Month if you guys would like to check it out there but at other locations it was put on the shelves on January 5, 2021.
Find Me in Havana is based on the true story of Cuban singer, Estelita Rodriguez. She started her career out at the young age of just nine years old by singing in the smoky bars of Cuba in the mid 1930s. Her voice and talent takes her to places like New York and Los Angeles, it is the one thing that belongs to Estelita, no one could take it from her when the revolution happened in 1933, and all the other tragic events that happened throughout her life. Thirty years later, Nina Rodriguez is left with the mystery of her mother. Nina has to go through mazes and mazes to seek out the truth about her mother’s path. This book will be published on January 12, 2021.
Pheby Brown is born on a planation in Virginia, into slavery. She has been promised she will be freed once she becomes an adult. Things do not go as planned, she is sent against her will to work as a slave at a prison that is known for its brutatlity and torture to its slaves. Pheby is forced to become the mistress to the owner of the jail. This story is powerful and shows her fight to freedom once and for all. You can pick it up on January 12, 2021.
The Walters are seen as the picture perfect, good Christian and Texan family. Victor is the main man, the leader, of the family. He is a preacher and now for his conservative values, that seem to be falling away in the 1970s. His daughter starts telling stories of having a baby that somehow died but the story keeps changing and no one knows what is true. However, the granddaughter, Lily, has as secret that could bring her whole family and its charade down. This book with be available for purchase on January 19, 2021.
Historical Romance
Sarani Rao is an Indian princess, she has everything that a girl could want; wealth, jewels, and beauty. However, her mother is English and that makes Sarani seem less than perfect to her peers. Her father is then killed which makes her life turn upside down, she is no longer safe without him. Then, there is Captain Rhystan Huntley, a duke rather he like its or not. He is with an English fleet in India and the one girl he has ever loved needs to escape that country. She must leave with him on his ship. This one will be released on January 26, 2021.
Sir Henry March is out on a cold London night and stumbles upon a girl who has appeared to be beaten. Eliza Broad escaped the abuse of her evil stepfather. Henry has agreed to take care of her until she has recovered. During her time of recovery Eliza is shown the world of culture that she had no idea existed in the same place that she lived. A romance soon sparks between the two of them. Throughout their romance dark and sadistic secrets of the elite are revealed. You will be able to find out for yourself on January 12, 2021.
My Highland Warrior is the start to a new historical romance series. Magdalene is one of the most beautiful women in all of Scotland the younger sister of a lord. She is known for her madness. One man feels as though he has to marry her for his peoples’ sake. She comes from a powerful family and he has to keep his people alive. Gabriel MacLachlan agrees to marry her but is scaredof how the curse on his family name might impact her. This title will be published on January 19, 2021.
Gilded Age America, Arizona to be precise. Evan Rounsevell is on the run from the responsibilities back home. He has always been fascinated with the American West and the cowboys that come with it. He would rather be a cowboy than and English lord. Daniella is left with her ranch after her fiancé fled from a draught a few years prior. Evan has no money left to his name so picks up work at Daniella’s ranch even though she is convinced that she does not need a man in her, especially this snotty English one. The adjustment is hard for Evan but he is desperate to win Daniella’s affection and her seeing his work on the land that she loves so much might cause her to have a change of heart. You can download this book on the Kindle app starting on January 30, 2021.
Which of these books would you choose? You can check out my Youtube channel, I will have a video with my selection at the end of the month! Izzy Rain
This is a retelling of the Canterbury Tales. This is not the original. Barbara Cohen took four of the original tales and made them easier for us to understand in modern times. This is done in prose and not poetry like the original.
The first tale that we are told is the one of ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale‘. It is a fable which uses animals to get its point across. The reader learns in this that if someone is too prideful they might not see their own faults or anyone’s around them. This could lead to their downfall.
Then we come to ‘The Pardoner’s Tale‘, this is a tale to teach the readers about greed and what corruption that it can lead to. However I found that it could also teach us you get what you deserve and treating others how you want to be treated.
Ah, now the tale that I remember the most from reading this in high school, ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’. In this tale we really see how women were as people and how they were treated in fourteenth century Europe. I do think this is a feminist story, we see how women want to be treated in a relationship and also that there is more to a woman than just her face and body. Something that I really wish men would understand.
The last tale that we come across in this short book is, ‘The Franklin’s Tale‘. This is a tale on relying on someone else, having faith in that person. It can also be seen as staying true to yourself. It is a story of honor, very much Stark and Tully manner.
When I purchased this book on Amazon, a year ago, I thought it was all the Canterbury Tales and the original version. Not a version that is made for young readers to understand and get a general idea of Chaucer. This is my fault! This is all a me problem and not the book problem.
I found that the way the prologues are done to be awkward. They mention tales that the reader will not read in this bind up, I found myself being confused by this. I know that I did not go into too much detail about what the tales are actually about but when they are around ten pages long I feel like there is not much that I can say without spoiling it.
Should I find a copy of the actual Canterbury Tales to read it? If so, do you have a certain one that you recommend? Again, everything here is a me problem so I felt like I should just give the book an average rating of a three star.
The Bennet family is derived of five daughters, the home will pass to a male cousin as this is set in the late 1700s or early 1800s. The daughters need to be put into good marriages as they might not have somewhere to go once their father, Mr. Bennet, passes away. Jane is the eldest daughter and the most beautiful in the eyes of society, then there is Elizabeth or “Lizzy” Bennet she is very witty and intelligent, Mary who is tucked away in her studies, and then the two younger and wilder daughters, Catherine “Kitty” and Lydia Bennet.
One day in the small, sleepy village of Meryton, a big to do happens when an old estate is purchased by a young bachelor from London. This obviously widens Mrs. Bennet’s eyes as she is trying to get her daughters into good and respectable marriages.
The man who moves into Netherfield Park is Mr. Bingley. He brings a big entourage from London with him, including his best friend and then his sisters. A ball is hosted to celebrate their arrival and Mr. Bingley dances with Jane not once but twice. Mrs. Bennet is thrilled. Therefore the relationship between Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley begins. At the party there is Mr. Mystery or otherwise known as Mr. Darcy. He refuses to dance with any of the women from the Meryton area, even saying that he does not wish to dance with Miss. Elizabeth Bennet. All of the locals find him prideful and that he thinks himself to high mighty to converse with commoners. He gets a bad name in the village and surrounding areas.
The story is a slow burn romance starting at that ball and going through months of denying having feelings for each other over ranks in society, and in fact over pride and prejudice against Mr. Darcy and Miss. Bennet.
This is very much a character driven novel! I really enjoyed the character of Elizabeth Bennet. I felt as though she had more of a head on her shoulders than the other women in her family. As stated before she has wit and intellect to her, she does not see herself as one just to settle down and be any man’s wife, she refused two proposals in this book! I think she was very ahead of her time.
Mr. Darcy, a literary favorite of many. This man is loved by so many people, and I am certainly glad that he did not let me down. I think he was very similar to Elizabeth he had wit and was intelligent. He was not just the good looking man with money like his friend, Mr. Bingley. Darcy was a very complex character that we got to unravel throughout the novel. I think he is the reason for the “bad boy” trope that we see in many romance novels in modern day.
Characters got a five out of five for me. There were some characters like Mrs. Bennet and Lady Catherine that I did not like but I believe they were written that way.
The atmosphere did not impress me too much. It was average, just a small little English town that soldiers would sometimes get stationed in and people would come to live in, in the winter or summer. The writing could have saved this but I was not too impressed with Austen’s writing either, very average and dull. Both atmosphere and writing got a three out of five.
The plot was going smoothly for the first fifty percent, but when I picked it up for the last twenty chapters it just seemed to drag. I felt like Austen was throwing in some drama, with Lydia, that did not necessarily need to be there and I felt like it had no real impact on the story. Remember, this is a character driven novel and I felt as though that made up for when the plot was lacking at times. The plot got a three out of five.
Going into Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, I did not think I would like it. This classic is very hyped, and a favorite of many. If you follow me on Goodreads, you know that I have had a hard time with romances in the past and this is one of the most iconic romance books of all time. I was scared. I did however very much enjoy it. I love a nice slow burn love story and then the two love interests being a bit feisty is always good! I can totally see so many tropes that came to be inspired from this book. I think this is a very influential book and inspired many. I cannot wait to read more from Jane Austen.
My February TBR is here, the first blog post of 2020! This month I plan on reading five books to bring me closer to my 2020 reading goal of 63 books! In February I will be participating in the Explore-A-Thon! I will leave a link to their twitter at the end of this post!
The first book I plan to read this month is a booktube favorite, the first book in the Illuminae Files trilogy, written by popular authors Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. This book is written in a multimedia format and I’ve been told the audiobook format is the route to take as you follow along.
This story takes place in the unimaginable year of 2575, following two main characters, Kady and Ezra. They were once lovers but the relationship did not seem to work out for the pair. Their planet gets taken over by an enemy civilization, they both have to find their way to an evacuation craft. An enemy ship tails at them, willing to end it all at any second. That is a worry until a plague breaks out among the evacuees. Kady has to get to the bottom of how it all started, the artificial intelligence is supposed to be protecting them from such things. She has to try to break into the system but it is almost impossible to hack through all the codes and files of data. There is one person who can help her and that is no other than Ezra.
Beartown is a work of fiction that is translated from Swedish. It is also one of the longest time books on my TBR, it has been on my shelves for at least two years and I am so ready to get to it!
A small village nestled by a forest, that’s what Beartown is. Everything revolves around the ice rink that was built years ago by the town’s founders. Their local team is making its way into the national hockey playoffs. If the team of teenagers could win, that would wake up this sleepy town again. A violent incident comes upon a young girl, that could change everything for the town. Tempers are flying with fingers being pointed, all the hopes and dreams of Beartown could come crashing down.
I found out about this nonfiction book from Claire Ridgeway on YouTube! If you are fascinated by Tudor England, I highly recommend checking out her channel. She has written several books on English history as well.
Margaret of Austria played and important role in Middle Ages Europe. She was an influence to one of the most notorious consorts in English history. Margaret was well educated and spent her youth in various courts across Europe. She was regent of the Low Countries and cared greatly for the arts and humanities. Margaret showed what it was like to be a strong ruler.
In October, I finished four books. That adds up to 1,357 pages. I don’t give rankings to graphic novels or children’s books, so overall the ratings I gave these books made it be a very good book month!
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 4/5 stars
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan 4/5 stars
I also took part in the Witch-a-thon on book tube. The challenges I completed and which books I used will be listed down below.
Pick a book that features your heritage: The Book Thief as I am 30.9% German.
4. Pick a book that involves a pantheon of deities: Wicked Saints as our main character can communicate with the gods.
Izzy Reads 