Title: The Game of Love and Death
Author: Martha Brockenbrough
Part of a series? No, a standalone.
Synopsis (from the back of my copy) : Love is more than a game. Love and Death choose their players in an eternal game. Death has never lost and Love will do anything to win.
Henry and Flora find each other, not knowing they are the players. Can their love be enough to keep them both alive?
Rating: 4.75 stars.
I picked this book up because I thought it sounded a little bit like The Night Circus (both of them having a game the players don't know about). And, just like The Night Circus, I loved it! I found the writing style wonderful, and it only took me a few pages to adjust to it. I also like how chapters were short; for some reason, I feel like this makes me read faster, so the seventy-two chapters flew by! If you like The Night Circus, historical books, or a great book in general, I would recommend this book. However, if you aren't a fan of romance in books, or if you prefer books with lots of action and tension at the moment, maybe wait a bit to read The Game of Love and Death, as you may not appreciate it as much.
*SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON*
First of all, this story does kind of contain 'instalove' in the sense that as soon as Flora and Henry see each other, they feel a connection to one another, but I didn't have a problem with this; their relationship was basically bound to happen when they were babies by Love and Death. Also, they were so sweet, and I loved how their relationship was filled with music and planes and 'Somedays'.
Like Ethan's feelings for Henry, I did guess Love and Death's feelings for each other, but these were the only parts of the book that I predicted, so I wouldn't say this is a predictable book. There are lots of events caused by Love or Death that make the plot change directions.
Henry was definitely my favourite character. He was hopeful, kind, talented...a perfect fictional boyfriend! Having said that, Ethan was also a possible favourite character, as he was loyal to Henry. It made me so sad to read about how he was scared to admit he was gay, as in the 1930s there will have been real people who felt this way. It took me a while to warm to Death (there's a sentence I never thought I'd type!), but ultimately I ended up feeling sorry for her, as she had to feel the 'unrelenting loneliness of being the only one of her kind; the one everyone feared.' Flora was so strong and I loved how determined she was to fly planes.
The only negative I have is that Ethan's story felt incomplete. He just sort of disappeared! I think it was hinted with Annabel's dream that he died in World War 2, but his ending did not feel as solid as Henry and Flora's. I would have preferred it if, when Death came for Henry and Flora, one of the memories she saw was Ethan knocking on their door, or Henry and him bumping into each other on a street - just something that would have led to his story feeling finished.
Some of my favourite quotes:
'No self-respecting camel eats casserole. It could contain a relative.'
'If it's us versus the world, my money's on us.'
'A life with all its business unfinished is a life too cautiously lived.'
'All of this was how Love showed his affection for humans and their strangely beautiful, optimistic hearts. To be written into story. That was how even the lost lived on.'
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Thanks for reading(:
Showing posts with label standalone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standalone. Show all posts
Sunday, 21 June 2015
Thursday, 9 April 2015
The Cure for Dreaming - Review
Title: The Cure for Dreaming
Author: Cat Winters
Series/ Standalone: Standalone
Rating: 4.5 stars
*There will be spoilers for The Cure for Dreaming, so read it then read this!*
Another amazing gothic story from Cat Winters! I picked this up with high expectations, having read In The Shadow of Blackbirds previously and loved it, and I think for the most part it lived up to my hopes!
First of all, the many good parts. I loved all of the references to Dracula, despite never reading it, and The Cure for Dreaming has made me want to pick up Bram Stoker's novel! I also loved the descriptions of various people; the image of a woman fading as a man nears her is such a powerful image, as was the sharp teeth of Dr Mead. And it was wonderful to see how Olivia grew as a character, how she became braver and braver as more people pushed her back.
The characters were excellent! Not a single one felt under-developed or one-dimensional. I was especially pleased with how we left Sadie: a budding Suffragist no longer content with being silenced (by not voting or hypnotists). Even the characters we weren't meant to like (Dr Mead, Percy etc.) were well-developed. And the love interest...Henry was amazing and caring and a pretty cool hypnotist (Henri Reverie is an awesome stage name), and if I was Olivia, I would not have left him at the station!
Which brings me on to the ending. I felt like the book needed an epilogue, just a really short one, as it didn't feel completely satisfying. Even a one or two page scene where Olivia is walking through the college and finds that Henry is waiting for her would have sufficed, as it wasn't a solid ending and left me heart-broken because of the Henry/Olivia feels. Their relationship was so beautiful - especially the scene on the bicycle, oh, and in the theatre! - and it was mean to end it like that. We never even got to meet Olivia's mother, which we could have done in an epilogue.
I'm really interested in Suffragettes/gists and how women gained the vote, but I didn't really know much about American Suffragists, so I enjoyed reading about that, although some parts were quite shocking and made me think about how lucky we are now. I also liked how there were quite a few female characters that didn't want the right to vote, so we got most viewpoints of the time. As with In The Shadow of Blackbirds, Cat Winters mixes the historical features in with the plot brilliantly.
The Cure for Dreaming is a great book, especially if you're interested in women's suffrage, and the cover is just gorgeous (although a spider died in mine...It's less pretty now...but that's another post). Anyway, let me know if you've read this! Did you like it? Are you excited for The Uninvited or The Steep and Thorny Way (Because I am!)?
Thanks for reading(:
Author: Cat Winters
Series/ Standalone: Standalone
Rating: 4.5 stars
*There will be spoilers for The Cure for Dreaming, so read it then read this!*
Another amazing gothic story from Cat Winters! I picked this up with high expectations, having read In The Shadow of Blackbirds previously and loved it, and I think for the most part it lived up to my hopes!
First of all, the many good parts. I loved all of the references to Dracula, despite never reading it, and The Cure for Dreaming has made me want to pick up Bram Stoker's novel! I also loved the descriptions of various people; the image of a woman fading as a man nears her is such a powerful image, as was the sharp teeth of Dr Mead. And it was wonderful to see how Olivia grew as a character, how she became braver and braver as more people pushed her back.
The characters were excellent! Not a single one felt under-developed or one-dimensional. I was especially pleased with how we left Sadie: a budding Suffragist no longer content with being silenced (by not voting or hypnotists). Even the characters we weren't meant to like (Dr Mead, Percy etc.) were well-developed. And the love interest...Henry was amazing and caring and a pretty cool hypnotist (Henri Reverie is an awesome stage name), and if I was Olivia, I would not have left him at the station!
Which brings me on to the ending. I felt like the book needed an epilogue, just a really short one, as it didn't feel completely satisfying. Even a one or two page scene where Olivia is walking through the college and finds that Henry is waiting for her would have sufficed, as it wasn't a solid ending and left me heart-broken because of the Henry/Olivia feels. Their relationship was so beautiful - especially the scene on the bicycle, oh, and in the theatre! - and it was mean to end it like that. We never even got to meet Olivia's mother, which we could have done in an epilogue.
I'm really interested in Suffragettes/gists and how women gained the vote, but I didn't really know much about American Suffragists, so I enjoyed reading about that, although some parts were quite shocking and made me think about how lucky we are now. I also liked how there were quite a few female characters that didn't want the right to vote, so we got most viewpoints of the time. As with In The Shadow of Blackbirds, Cat Winters mixes the historical features in with the plot brilliantly.
The Cure for Dreaming is a great book, especially if you're interested in women's suffrage, and the cover is just gorgeous (although a spider died in mine...It's less pretty now...but that's another post). Anyway, let me know if you've read this! Did you like it? Are you excited for The Uninvited or The Steep and Thorny Way (Because I am!)?
Thanks for reading(:
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