Top Ten Tuesday | Series I'd like to finish

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Series I’ve Given Up On/Don’t Plan to Finish', but I feel like I've talked about this fairly recently or at least recently enough that my answers won't be any different, so I decided to talk about the series I'd like to finish instead!

I'm a terrible finisher, but since devouring the Six of Crows duology earlier this year I've rediscovered my love for reading whole series so I'd like to finish some more series this year if I can.

The Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin: I read and really enjoyed The Fifth Season and started reading The Obelisk Gate and then just got distracted by other things. I'd really like to return to this series, though, because it's one of the most original fantasy stories I've come across and I love the way it straddles fantasy and science fiction.

The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan: I tried reading A Natural History of Dragons a few years ago and couldn't get into it, but earlier this year I ended up listening to the audiobook during my commute to work and enjoyed it. I'm not desperate to continue this series, but I'd definitely like to try the other books via audiobook at some point.

The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger: So far I've read Soulless, Changeless and Blameless and this series is one I turn to when I'm in the mood for something quick and fun - I'm hoping to finish this series this year!

The Glamourist Histories series by Mary Robinette Kowal: Another series that's light, fun and easy to read. I've only read the first two books so far but I've liked them enough to want to finish the rest of the series.

The Mistress of the Art of Death series by Ariana Franklin: This series is unusual in that it never got to end properly because the author sadly passed away after completing only four books, and I've seen from reviews that the fourth book actually ends with a cliffhanger. I don't actually love this series, but like the above series I find it really easy to read and I like the characters enough to want to know what happens to them. I've read three books so far so, even though I know it doesn't have an ending, I'd like get to the fourth book at some point.

The His Fair Assassin trilogy by Robin LaFevers: I really enjoyed Grave Mercy and I loved Dark Triumph, and yet for some reason I still haven't read Mortal Heart. LaFevers is bringing out some more books following these characters next year, though, so I definitely need to get to it soon.

The Fruits Basket series by Natsuki Takaya: Fruits Basket is one of my favourite animes and I started reading the manga but still haven't finished reading the series - I'd like to, though!

The Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant: Feed is one of my favourite novels of all time and I loved Deadine, too, but I'm ashamed to say I still haven't read Blackout. Oops.

The Girl From Everywhere duology by Heidi Heilig: I thought The Girl From Everywhere was so fun with such a unique take on time travel, so I'd like to try and get to The Ship Beyond Time this summer.

The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix: I adored The Old Kingdom series when I was younger, Sabriel remains one of my favourite books from my childhood/early teens, but I haven't read Clariel or Goldenhand yet and, to be honest, I think I might have to re-read the earlier books before I do.

Which books made your list this week?

This Week in Books | 14/03/18

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Now | Considering I only gave the first two books in the Mistress of the Art of Death series two stars, it's a wonder I'm reading another book in the series. Usually if I don't love a series I won't bother with the rest of the books, but this particular series is a really easy read and, while I don't think Franklin was the best writer around, I do enjoy her characters and I'm never going to let the chance of reading books centred around women in the 12th century pass me by. I'm actually really enjoying Relics of the Dead so far, especially as this book is set in parts of the UK that I'm familiar with and includes legends I'm familiar with, so it's strangely comforting for a book about potential murder...

Then | For the first time in years I read some Middle Grade and I loved the experience of it. I need to read more children's books and now I have a small selection waiting for me to make my way through this spring. Gaslight was another one that was comforting and familiar, being a Victorian era novel set in Cardiff, the city where I used to work. Look out for my review!

Next | Carrying on with the historical theme - because let's face it, when am I not reading historical fiction ? - I'm feeling myself drawn towards Mistress Firebrand at the moment. Sometimes I like to indulge in a bit of historical romance, and this novel, set during the American Revolutionary War, follows a playwright who once wrote comedies and now writes plays for the Rebels under a pseudonym that have landed her on a British hanging list.

What have you been reading recently?

Top Ten Tuesday | They #$@&%*! you up, your mum and dad...

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Ten Books That Feature Characters...' and I've decided to talk about books with protagonists who are parents, because so often parenthood is the end of someone's story and I've never been entirely satisfied with the idea that a person's life comes to an end as soon as they have a baby. You're still you, you just have an extra responsibility and that doesn't mean your life and your interests have to come to a stand still. Isn't it much more interesting for children to be raised by parents that actually have personalities?

Five of these books I've read and five are on my TBR!

The title is a line from This Be the Verse by Philip Larkin.

Books I've Read

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin: I think Essun is the most bad-ass mother I've come across in fiction. There's not much I can say about this book, and this series, without giving too much away, all I will say is that you should read it.

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples: The main conflict of this series is that a child has been born to two people who should be on opposing sides of an intergalactic war. That the series is narrated by that child is a lovely touch, I think.

Knife Edge by Malorie Blackman: Noughts & Crosses is one of my favourite books and the series continues to get darker and darker. Again there's not much I can say about Knife Edge without spoiling the series, but its honest depiction of early motherhood has always stayed with me.

The Death Maze by Ariana Franklin: I don't love this series but, when I'm in the mood for an easy to read historical thriller, I do find myself turning to it. Set in the middle ages, protagonist Adelia is one of the earliest working single mothers I've come across in fiction!

The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney: One of the driving forces behind this novel is protagonist Mrs. Ross's search for her teenage son who is suspected of murdering one of their neighbours. Really the book is about the town as a whole but it's an interesting read and one I'd recommend for the winter months!

Books on My TBR

The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss: I've heard nothing but amazing things about this novel, told from the point of view of a stay-at-home dad which isn't a perspective you see often in fiction.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: Cora, recently widowed and glad to be rid of a husband who wasn't particularly nice, decides to use her widowhood to pursue her love of science, with her lady's maid and young son in tow. I'm determined to get to this one soon.

Timeless by Gail Carriger: Another one I'm aiming to read by the end of this year so I can finally finish the series and move on to Carriger's other books set in this world. I'm just about to start Heartless, in which Alexia is heavily pregnant, so by Timeless she'll have a mini-Alexia to keep her eye on. It's a nice change to come across a series that doesn't leave the characters behind as soon as they 'settle down' - Alexia's married and pregnant, but she's certainly not ready to settle!

The Untold by Courtney Collins: I'm not 100% sure but I believe this one is based on a true story. I've realised this year just how little I read about Australia and it's something I want to rectify, starting with this book!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë: I've read bits of this book but still need to sit down and read it from beginning to end. I really should get to it soon. Like Cora in The Essex Serpent, the heroine of this novel also has a young son to think of and, considering the time in which she lives, it's pretty damn admirable what she does to keep him safe.

What did you talk about this week?

Review | Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

Mistress of the Art of Death

by Ariana Franklin

My Rating:

Adelia Aguilar is a rare thing in medieval Europe - a woman who has trained as a doctor. Her speciality is the study of corpses, a skill that must be concealed if she is to avoid accusations of witchcraft.

But in Cambridge a child has been murdered, others are disappearing, and King Henry has called upon a renowned Italian investigator to find the killer - fast.

What the king gets is Adelia, his very own Mistress of the Art of Death.

The investigation takes Adelia deep into Cambridge; its castle and convents, and streets teeming with life. And it is here that she attracts the attention of a murderer who is prepared to kill again...

It's no secret that I love a bit of historical crime, but if there's one thing the genre's lacking it's leading ladies. Enter Adelia Aguilar.

When it comes to historical fiction I rarely venture into stories set before the sixteenth century; while I find certain aspects of the Wars of the Roses interesting there's far too many people involved for me to be able to keep track of everyone, and my knowledge of the Middle Ages is very limited so historical fiction set in that period doesn't attract me in the same way a book set during the reign of Henry VIII does. As such I couldn't be certain what was and wasn't historically accurate while reading Mistress of the Art of Death, but that's not the book's fault and I tried not to let it bother me. Ultimately there's no way to enjoy historical fiction if you don't suspend your disbelief a little - after all, none of us were there in the Middle Ages, so how are we really to know what was accurate in the first place? - and I'm a big believer in the power historical fiction has to encourage readers to learn more about history.

That being said, I did feel as though it was obvious this book had been written by a 21st century woman. I know that's a strange thing to say because, obviously, it hasn't been written by a medieval woman, but I didn't feel completely engrossed in the Middle Ages like I was hoping to be. Some of Franklin's descriptions are wonderful and she was clearly a woman who was very passionate about this period of history, but every now and then Adelia said something that was a little jarring and a little too modern. I hate to say that because I am all for more women with agency in historical fiction, particularly pre-suffragette historical fiction, but we must be able to give women in history agency without making them feel like 21st century women in period costumes.

Where Franklin excelled in this novel was with her side characters. Adelia has a charming array of companions who grew on me very quickly, and I thought her characterisation of Henry II was fantastic. Writing a monarch is a difficult thing to do but Franklin wrote Henry II the way I imagined him. Sadly, it was Adelia herself and her love interest whom I had more of a problem with.

Considering this is marketed as a historical crime book first and foremost, the romance took over way too much for my liking and seemed to come out of nowhere. I actually liked the two characters together, there were moments when they had great chemistry, but they seemed to go from distrust to love/lust very quickly and it all got a tad Mills and Boon to the point where Adelia's relationship appeared to be the main focus of the plot rather than her skills as the Middle Ages' answer to Sherlock Holmes. 

I was also a little disappointed that I guessed who the killer was fairly early on. There were enough potential culprits to keep me guessing, just in case I was wrong, but the feeling that I had around half-way through the novel ultimately proved to be correct and it was a shame; I like to be surprised.

Mistress of the Art of Death isn't the best historical crime has to offer - the beginning isn't written particularly well, jumping from perspective to perspective within the chapters so much that I almost stopped reading - but ultimately it's refreshing to read some historical crime with a female lead, and I'm hoping that Adelia has paved the way for even more heroines. I'll continue with the series, if for no other reason than to find out what happens to the side characters and to see if Franklin improves as a writer, and I think this would be a good place to start if you're looking for female-led historical crime. If you're a Medieval expert, however, this book is not for you.

This Week in Books | 22/02/17

This week I'm joining in with Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found to talk about the books I've been reading recently!

Now: I'm in the middle of the second book in the Mistress of the Art of Death series, The Death Maze, and I'm enjoying it so far. It's so refreshing to read historical crime with a female protagonist and I don't tend to read much historical fiction set during the Middle Ages so I've enjoyed pushing myself out of my comfort zone. These books aren't masterpieces and sometimes the romance overtakes the plot, but I'm finding them really fun to read and I like the characters a lot.

Then: I finally read the first book in the series, Mistress of the Art of Death, after trying to read it a few years ago and being unable to get into it. I considered getting rid of my copy for a while but something told me to keep it and now I'm glad I did. I didn't love it, but I enjoyed it enough to continue with the series and I'm hoping the books will continue to get better and better.

Next: I was planning to dedicate February to the ARCs I've managed to accumulate recently but I haven't gotten to any yet. Oops. I do want to read The Bear and the Nightingale this month, though, as I feel like it's going to be a particularly wintery read and I'd rather not read it in the spring.

What have you been reading?

Top Ten Tuesday | Books I DNFed

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is Ten Bookish Things I Want to Quit Or Have Quit, so I thought I'd talk about some of the books I've DNFed over the years. I don't tend to DNF books that often anymore because I'm a lot better now at picking up books I'm going to enjoy, but when I first started out blogging I felt as though there were certain books I had to read that I just couldn't force my way through, and there were some books I had to read for uni that I couldn't make myself finish either.

On with my list!

Divergent by Veronica Roth: I love The Hunger Games trilogy, and dystopian YA was the craze. Everyone who loved The Hunger Games seemed to love Divergent, and even though I wasn't completely sold on the idea of the world I found a copy in my local library and thought I might as well give it a try. I gave it a really fair shot, guys. It was a fast read - if I'd pushed myself I probably could have finished it - but I just didn't care. The world building made no sense to me whatsoever, and I thought Tris was so dull. I couldn't do it.

Kim by Rudyard Kipling: I had to read this one for my Victorian Popular Fiction module at uni and it was brutal. In the end I couldn't force my way through it, it was boring me to death. Thankfully I still came out with a first in that module because I wrote about two other books on the course, The Moonstone and The Secret Garden, which I loved!

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: Another one I had to read for university and another one I hated. I was so bored. So in the end I gave up, and I have no intention of going near it again any time soon.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini: I always get such strong reactions when I tell people I didn't like this book. I really didn't like it. I managed to force my way through 2/3s of it and then I had to give up for the sake of my sanity; I could feel myself falling into a reading slump.

Matched by Ally Condie: Gave up after the second chapter. Rubbish world building, irritating main character, and a love triangle that consisted of the best friend and the 'bad boy'. Nope, not for me.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: Another irritating character, this time described with pretty rubbish writing. The concept of this world was fascinating, but I can still remember reading three paragraphs describing a sneeze. A sneeze. I gladly gave up.

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse: I forced my way through half of this book, desperate to like it, but half way through nothing had happened and I just couldn't do it anymore. Like Eragon, I could feel this book leading me towards a reading slump.

The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory: This was the second time I gave Philippa Gregory a try, but her writing and I just don't get along. I only read the first couple of chapters before I gave up.

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin: This was another one I'd really hoped to like, and the one book on this list I'm most likely to give a second chance. I love historical crime, and I love it even better when the protagonist is a lady, but I couldn't get into this novel. What irritated me most was that parts of it were far too modern; this book is set during the reign of Henry II, and yet the protagonist was warning people about obesity. I may give it another chance in future, though!

The Running Man by Richard Bachman: Otherwise known as Stephen King. I read a lot of dystopian fiction during my third year of university because I ended up talking about dystopia for my dissertation, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Unfortunately I didn't like it enough to finish it, and I ended up giving my copy away. In fact I've given the majority of the books on this list away.

What did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Books That Were Hard to Read!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books That Were Hard For Me To Read'. So, without further ado, here are my ten!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë: I love the Brontës, always have and always will, but when it comes to their novels it's Emily's I've always struggled with. I think the main reason I struggle with Wuthering Heights (and often find the book a little boring!) is because of the narration; first we're told the story through Heathcliff's lodger and then it's Nelly. Personally I'd have found the book a lot more enjoyable if I could read from Cathy or Heathcliff's POV.

The Withered Root by Rhys Davies: To be fair I didn't read this book properly. I had to proof-read an edition of it in the summer during my publishing internship and I despised it. If I hadn't had the enjoyment of correcting all the little mistakes (yep - that's how boring the actual story was) then there's no way I would have read it to the end.

Green Rider by Kristen Britain: I tried reading this book earlier this year and I'd like to give it another try in the future. I bought it a few years ago because it had a pretty cover, and while I enjoyed it when I initially began to read it, it quickly began to drag. Maybe one day I'll try again!

Eragon by Christopher Paolini: I'm sorry Eragon fans, but I hated this book. I managed to get through about two thirds of it before I had to put it down and I have no intention of picking it up again. It was so boring. And before anyone tells me 'the second book is when it gets really good', I shouldn't have to wait until the second book in a series to enjoy the story.

Kim by Rudyard Kipling: This book was on the reading list for my Victorian Popular Fiction module at university. I tried to read it - I really did - but I had to give up after a few chapters. I found the writing style so difficult to read and I wasn't all that interested by the story either.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I liked this book a lot and I did finish it, but gosh it was a challenge. It's not even a very big book, but it's so description heavy, even though the description is beautiful, that reading a couple of pages felt like reading a chapter. Finishing this book felt like an accomplishment, and while I did enjoy and I do think it's gorgeously written, I think it's pretty over-hyped.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: I tried reading The Count of Monte Cristo at the start of the year, but it's one of the few books I own that intimidates me with its size. I really want to read it, though - I've heard great things about it and I think it could become a favourite of mine if I could just get into it. If any of you are interested in reading The Count of Monte Cristo with me I'm going to host a read-a-long starting November 1st - there's a group that you can check out here if you're interested!

Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin: This is another book I'd like to try reading again one day. I tried reading it last year and I was very excited by the premise; I love historical fiction and historical crime is a lot of fun, so the prospect of reading a historical crime novel with a female lead sounded fantastic to me. Unfortunately I found the book pretty disappointing; for a book set during the reign of Henry II there were a lot of modern ideas and terms being thrown about which threw me off a bit, so I felt more like I was reading a book about people in historical costumes rather than people in Medieval England.

Dante's Inferno: I enjoyed this read and I'm glad I can say I've read it, but it was hard work! It wasn't so much the language I found a problem (though it wasn't easy!) but the inclusion of people from Dante's life; I had to look at the footnotes a lot to understand the significance of various scenes, but it was worth it!

Persuasion by Jane Austen: This is another book I'd like to try reading again some day, but I first had to read this book when I was in sixth form and I really, really didn't like it. I had to force myself to finish it so that I could use it in my English coursework, and since then I've disliked Austen's novels. Now that I'm older, however, I'd like to give her another try - it's just hard to talk myself into reading the an author whose books I associate with boredom!

Which books made your top ten?