Naomi Novik – Wonderfilled Reads

August/September Wrap-Up: Reviews, Reading Challenges, etc.

I’m ashamed to say that it’s been so long since I’ve actually finished a book. I started Tower of Dawn when I left on vacation at the start of September and still have not finished it. Though, I’m only about 50 pages away from the end so fingers crossed I can finish it tonight! But anywho…. it seems as though my little reading slump bled over into a blogging slump as well this past month. So I’d like to apologize for the lack of posts during September and I promise that things should get back to normal this month. And holy smoke y’all, it’s already October!!!! We are officially into my favorite season and that means Thanksgiving is basically next weekend and then Christmas in two weeks. (I mean, obviously not really but it sure feels that way!) I may or may not already be hyped for 25 Days of Christmas on “Freeform”. I could literally watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas 100 times in a row and never get bored. #NoShame

Books Read

Frozen Tides (Falling Kingdoms, #4) by Morgan Rhodes – physical book, 5/5 stars
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – physical ARC, 3/5 stars
Brunette Ambition by Lea Michelle – physical book, 4/5 stars
Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3) by A.C. Gaughen – audiobook, 2/5 stars
Smoke and Iron (The Great Library, #4) by Rachel Caine – physical book, 5/5 stars
Sightwitch (The Witchlands, #0.5) by Susan Dennard – physical book, 5/5 stars
Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch – physical book, 4/5 stars
Renegades (Renegades, #1) by Marissa Meyer – physical book, 5/5 stars
The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah – audiobook, 3/5 stars
A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.1) by Sarah J. Maas – physical book, 4/5 stars

Total Books Read: 10

Overall in 2018: 56

Reading Challenge Updates

POPSUGAR

A book about a villain of antihero: Renegades
A book with alliteration in the title: Love & Luck

Goodreads Challenge

Total: 56/75

Previous Total: 46/75

Blog Posts

Book Reviews

WWW Wednesday

Discussions/Misc.

How did your reading go during August/September? Were you able to read all of the books on your TBR? Did you read any new favorites? What book did you like the least? Did you do anything fun or interesting? Did you fall into a reading slump like I did? What do you plan on reading in October?

ARC Review: Spinning Silver

While I did enjoy the overall story, I wasn’t quite as impressed with Naomi Novik’s, Spinning Silver, as I was with her previous novel, Uprooted. I’m not quite sure if the hype got to me or I was just expecting something a little different.

Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders… but her father isn’t a very good one. Free to lend and reluctant to collect, he has loaned out most of his wife’s dowry and left the family on the edge of poverty–until Miryem steps in. Hardening her heart against her fellow villagers’ pleas, she sets out to collect what is owed–and finds herself more than up to the task. When her grandfather loans her a pouch of silver pennies, she brings it back full of gold.

But having the reputation of being able to change silver to gold can be more trouble than it’s worth–especially when her fate becomes tangled with the cold creatures that haunt the wood, and whose king has learned of her reputation and wants to exploit it for reasons Miryem cannot understand.

The Good

Totally Atmospheric! – I think it’s fair to say that at this point we can all agree that Novik definitely knows how to set a tone for her stories. She just has this ability to create a world that completely evokes the essence of original fairytales. If you had told me that she had actually found the original manuscript for Rumpelstiltskin and copied it word for word, I would believe you. This story just feels like it was written such a long time ago. Well done, Novik!
All My Independent Ladies – The women completely run this story from start to finish. Our main three characters (Irina, Miryem, and Wanda) are some of the strongest females that I’ve ever read about. They each bring their own kind of strength to the story, completely transforming those around them. Miryem was my personal favorite because she had a bit more of a spicier personality than the other two girls. While Irina had a much more steady type of strength that I admire, and Wanda finally reached her peak self to take charge of her own life. If you’re looking for a book with a wonderful feminist message, you’ll really enjoy this one!
Portrayal of Judaism – I really appreciated that Novik took such a realistic historical portrayal of Jews during the Middle Ages. They were normally some of the richest people in towns and villages, usually involved in banking and moneylending. I loved how she made sure to give us some historical tidbits about their lives and how they were treated. It definitely helped ground the overall story in reality. I also enjoyed seeing how their religion helped shape the plot. It’s not something that we see a lot in books and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it in the future!

The Bad

Excessive POVs – I really struggled with the multiple point-of-views that would pop in and out throughout the middle of the book. Not only did a few of them not add anything to the actual story, but Novik did not define who was the new speaker and it would sometimes take me a little bit to figure out who we were following now. And as I previously mentioned, some of these additions adding nothing to the overall story, only slowing down the plot. It felt like these were maybe added in during the editing process to help increase the length of the book. I wasn’t a fan at all.
Slowww… – While I was never truly bored during the novel, I did feel like the middle dragged quite a bit. It was like we finally get to the interesting part where Miryem becomes involved with Staryk and rather than the plot really get going, it went back and stalled again until the very end. I prefer a bit more action in the middle of books than what I got with this one.

Final Verdict: 3/5 Stars

Have you read Spinning Silver? If so, what did you think of it? Which main character was your favorite? Do you like this one more than Uprooted?

WWW Wednesday – August 22nd, 2018

Welcome to WWW Wednesday which is currently being hosted by Sam @ Taking On A World of Words. It’s really just a place to do little update on what all you’ve been reading lately. Anyone is welcome to join, just leave a link to your post in the comments and be sure to give the appropriate credit to Sam!

The Three W’s are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah – audiobook
Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen – audiobook
Renegades (Renegades, #1) by Marissa Meyer – physical book

I’m not even a fourth of the way through The Lost Vintage but I’m enjoying it so far. I’m definitely learning a lot about wine, which is kind of fun. I love that there is two different stories going on at once and I can’t wait to see how they intertwine. And y’all know that I’m such a sucker for a good historical fiction.

I’ve been listening to more of Orphan Monster Spy but it’s not doing much for me so far. It’s very slow and the writing style isn’t my favorite.

I’m not very far into Renegades yet so I don’t have much of an opinion at the moment. I have heard some great things about this book though and can’t wait to really get into it.

What did you recently finish reading?

Lion Heart (Scarlet, #3) by A.C. Gaughen – audiobook
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik – physical ARC

Well Lion Heart was a total disappointment. The overall plot faded to the background in favor of the most gushy and cheesy romance that I’ve read in the longest time. It was a terrible finale to the series and that ending was absolute garbage in that nothing happened. So if you’re looking for a good Robin Hood retelling, just keep moving on because you’re definitely not missing anything here.

Spinning Silver was an interesting story. I have come to terms that Novik’s writing is fairly slow but that doesn’t really bother me. However, I felt what really bogged this story down was all of the POVs. At one point there might have been almost 6 and it was just too excessive. Only 3 really added anything to the overall plot with the others were just filler and dragged the rest of the story down. So unfortunately for me, this book doesn’t measure up to her previous novel, Uprooted.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch – physical book
Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6) by Sarah J. Maas – physical book
A Gathering of Ravens by Scott Oden – physical book

What are you currently reading? What books did you finish this week? What are you planning on reading next? Have you read any of the books on my list? If so, what did you think of them? Leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments below!