Hello everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews…again. My name is Melina, and I am a bibliophile, a lover of books, a bibliophage, an ardent reader and a bibliotaph. I hoard books. I am all things biblio. In this blog, I review books of different genres including literary fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, fantasy, YA, and others. Please feel free to turn the page and look around. Hopefully, one of my reviews will help you decide to pick up a book or not. If you’re interested in a review for your published book, please click here to get on my wish list. Happy…
JUNE WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in June. This month I read 7 books, three of which are nonfiction military history books about World War I and 3 are dystopias. I usually don’t read dystopias but I don’t regret reading these. In fact, one of them is my best read of the month. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. HISTORY AND WWI: The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman The Guns of August is the most famous book written about World War I. It is a straight-forward,…
Greek Mythology: 5 Must-Read Retellings and 5 that are still on my TBR
Hello everyone. In this post, I am going to talk about Greek mythology retellings. This genre became very popular after the publication of The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller in 2011. Another well-known retelling of The Iliad is A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes. The books I will talk about here though are not just retellings of Homer’s epic poem. This list includes books that recreate any Greek myth. When relevant, I will also include an author’s other published works on the topic. My personal 5 Must-Reads for Greek Mythology retellings include: 1. Circe by Madeline Miller “Humbling women…
DON’T MISS OUT: Obsidian and Blood by Aliette de Bodard
TW: violence, gore, and death. I found this series on a whim. I had just finished reading Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (read my full review here) and I wanted to read something set in Mexico and its pre-Columbian history that I would enjoy more. And this series became an instant favorite. The protagonist is Acatl, the High Priest of Mictlantecuhtli, the God of Death, turned into a reluctant detective tasked with looking into the disappearance of a priestess (in the first book). This who-du-it storyline is solved by the end of the first installment but all…
Firsts of 2025 Book Tag
Hi everyone. Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Since we are coming close to the end of June, I thought it’d be fun to do the Firsts of 2025 Book Tag. I’ve seen several book reviewers do this on their websites, and I wanted to do my own. The last four prompts to the tag, First DNF, First 5-star rated book, First Lowest Rated Book and First Surprise of the Year, are my addition. Here goes. First Book I Read In 2025 A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez I first read this book in my early twenties, didn’t…
MAY 2025: Best and Worst Book of the Month
Hi everyone. I read 5 books in May and in this post I’ll be talking about the best and worst book I read this month. A full review for all the books I read in May is found here. In this post, I will tell you why these two books stood out as the best and worst books I read this month. Let’s start with the worst book I read in May. WORST BOOK OF THE MONTH: The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner This book is one of most celebrated works of fiction in American literature. First published…
MAY WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in May. This month I read 5 books. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE: The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston This book was on hold at my library for a very long time and when it was finally available I borrowed it, didn’t pick it up, and returned it a week later. Then I had to wait another three months or so before borrowing it again. Was it worth the wait? Some people might think so, but I’m more inclined…
BOOK REVIEW: Becoming a Druid by Mike Mollman
Hi everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I’m reviewing Becoming A Druid by Mike Mollman. This is the first self-published/indie novel that I review in a while. And I apologize for the hiatus. Life got in the way, aka, a baby, and I had precious little time to myself and to reading in a quiet environment. In fact, I still haven’t gotten much of the second back so all those books that are not available as an audiobook are taking me a lot longer to read than usual. For this review, I was contacted by the author and…
APRIL WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read in April. This month I read 5 books and DNF’d 2. Here are my thoughts about them: 1. COZY MYSTERY AND CRIME: The Dark Vineyard and Black Diamond by Martin Walker I didn’t like this book and that is unfortunate because I had such high hopes for it. But it was not meant to be. The crime Bruno has to solve this time around is arson; the deliberate destruction of a wine vineyard in the outskirts of Saint-Denis and I admit that this…
MARCH WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hi everyone! Welcome to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today, I’ll be talking about all the books I read and DNF’d this month. I haven’t done a long wrap-up like this one in a while. I read 7 books and DNF’d 3 in March, so it was a good reading month for me. [Insert smiley face here.] Let’s talk about books. 1. HISTORICAL FICTION AND SPANISH LITERATURE: Yo, Julia (I, Julia) And Y Julia Retó A Los Dioses (And Julia Challenged The Gods) by Santiago Posteguillo First, let’s talk about the protagonist of this duology. Julia Domna was the wife of the…
FEBRUARY WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
1. CLASSIC AND MAGICAL REALISM: A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez I picked this book up right after I finished reading it in Spanish. I did this because I’d been hearing very good things about the translation, and I wanted to see for myself if they were true. They are. Gregory Rabassa’s translation to English of this novel is probably one of the best translations I’ve ever read. Second, I read this English edition back to back with the Spanish edition because I wanted to see how the translator wrote several passages that stood out to me…