MK READS A LOT

Last month’s wrap-up is happening a bit later in the month than it normally would. I was gone on vacation for a bit, so didn’t really have a chance to read or post very much. But I’m back now, so here are my thoughts on the books I did manage to read in August.

This Vicious Grace, Emily Thiede

Rating:

Spoiler-free Summary

Alessa was chosen by the gods to be the Finestra, the one person who can save her island home from prophesied destruction. To do so, she needs to find a Fonte, a partner with magical powers that she can magnify to stop the destruction. She has already killed three partners and people start to doubt her abilities, some even go so far as to try to assassinate her in hopes that another Finestra is chosen.

Fearing for her life and the future of her home, Alessa hires Dante, an outcast she met on the city streets, to be her bodyguard. With Dante’s help, Alessa must find a way to save her people, and she may just have to break a few rules along the way.

Spoiler-free Review

As I said in my full review, I really liked This Vicious Grace. The characters were well-rounded, there was a good amount of worldbuilding, it was engaging right from the beginning, and I enjoyed the slow-burn romance. If you like YA Fantasy Romances, then I think you should give This Vicious Grace a try.

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher

Rating:

Spoiler-free Summary

In this retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, Fall of the House of Usher, Alex Easton, a former soldier, pays a visit to their childhood friends, Madeline and Roderick Usher, after finding out that Madeline is gravely ill. Once there, they find that the House of Usher, and its tenants, are rapidly declining. As Easton slowly unravels the mysteries within, they begin to wonder: can Madeline and Roderick be saved?

Spoiler-free Review

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Kingfisher really captures the atmospheric nature of Gothic literature, where nothing overt is happening, but the reader still feels that sense of dread. (Also, she somehow makes hares terrifying, which surprised me.) Most importantly she manages to be pretty faithful to the original Edgar Allan Poe story while also adding to the setting and its characters. If you’re interested in my full review of this book, you can check it out here.

The Cruel Prince, Holly Black

Rating:

Spoiler-free Summary

As a young child, Jude and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the Court of Faerie. Now, Jude must try her best to make a place for herself in a world where many do not like mortals. To do so, she becomes inexorably involved in the machinations of the various courts in the fey realm, while also dealing with Prince Cardan, son of the High King and Jude’s unrelenting bully.

Spoiler-free Review

To be completely honest, I didn’t really like this book until I got pretty close to the end. It was fine; it obviously had enough going for it that I continued reading. The fey world was fantastic, but I didn’t love the way the world was revealed. There was a lot more telling than showing throughout most of the book. Beyond the descriptions of the setting and the different fey creatures, the story was just not that interesting at first. But it did get much better a little more than halfway through.

The House Across the Lake, Riley Sager

Rating:

Spoiler-free Summary

Casey Fletcher, a well-known actress, goes to her family’s lake house to avoid the tabloids. She has been drinking heavily since the recent death of her husband, and she’s tired of the gossip and paparazzi pictures. While there, she saves a woman from drowning in the lake. The woman turns out to be a famous model, named Katherine Royce. She and her husband, Tom, are staying in the house across from Casey’s. Casey and Katherine become friends, but Casey also starts to use her husband’s old binoculars to watch the couple’s house from across the lake. Casey starts seeing evidence that Katherine and Tom are having marriage troubles, and when Katherine goes missing, Casey knows she must do all she can to find her.

Spoiler-free Review

It’s hard to discuss what I didn’t like about this book without spoiling things. However, it should be no surprise to anyone that this book has twists in it. It’s just that kind of book. And I actually enjoyed reading this book until I got to one twist–one explanation for the events in the story–that I just didn’t like. It’s clear the author took an overdone premise–a woman who drinks happens to see something she shouldn’t–and had to do something entirely bizarre to have this particular story stand out. It’s a bit unusual, and if you are okay with that, if you can accept the explanation for events, you’ll probably like this book. If like me, that explanation isn’t what you’re looking for in stories, you probably won’t like this book.

The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert

Rating:

DNF

Spoiler-free Summary

(From GoodReads)

Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels. But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: her mother is stolen away by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother’s stories are set. Alice’s only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

Alice has long steered clear of her grandmother’s cultish fans. But now she has no choice but to ally with classmate Ellery Finch, a Hinterland superfan who may have his own reasons for wanting to help her. To retrieve her mother, Alice must venture first to the Hazel Wood, then into the world where her grandmother’s tales began―and where she might find out how her own story went so wrong.

Spoiler-free Review

I can’t really review this one since I didn’t get very far into it. I can, however, tell you why I stopped reading it. This book just didn’t grab my attention right away, and I found the main character uninteresting. It also reminded me of many other books I’ve read, like Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, for example, and I wasn’t really interested in reading another book like that. At least not right now. Maybe someday I’ll return to The Hazel Wood and try to finish it, but it probably won’t be for a while. If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts. Was I right to DNF it, or do you think I should give it another chance?