BOOK REVIEW: The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell, the second installment of The Saxon Stories series. Read my review for The Last Kingdom, the first book of this series, here. Like all my reviews, this review has spoilers. The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell is a fast-paced and action-packed historical novel, and it is the first book in this series that follows this author’s well-known formulaic style. After defeating the Danes at Cynuit (and saving Wessex) in the process, Uthred falls out of favor with King Alfred whilst his enemies…
BOOK REVIEW: The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi
I don’t remember exactly how I first heard about The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi but I thought it might be a book that I would appreciate given its interest in raising concern for the conservation of the ocean and the animals living in it. But this book was not what I expected. Coralline is a young mermaid engaged to the merman of her dreams, but on the night of her engagement party an oil spill wreaks havoc on her village and her little brother falls gravely ill. Blaming herself for his condition, Coralline decides to leave home and embark…
BOOK REVIEW: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. Visit the author’s website here. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang is the first book of the eponymous trilogy based on the second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). It is both a coming-of-age story and a grimdark military fantasy series. Trigger warnings for this book include self-harm, rape, genocide, drug use (the protagonist is an addict), violence and gore, torture, and death, to name a few. It is also a very popular, highly-acclaimed, and award-winning novel that debuted in 2018. This review has minor…
BOOK REVIEW: The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell. This book is the first installment of The Saxon Stories. However, the series was renamed The Last Kingdom after the premiere of the TV show on BBC America based on these novels in October 2015. I will talk both about the books and the TV adaptation here wherever relevant. Broadly speaking, The Last Kingdom series can be summarized as the story of Alfred The Great and how he and his descendants repelled the Viking invasion of Britain, united the four kingdoms of…
AUGUST WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. In this post, I will be doing a wrap up of all the books I read in August. These reviews have spoilers: 1. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell This is the seventh installment of The Saxon Stories and Uhtred has been living in relative peace for at least 8 years in Fagranforda. He is still Aethelflaed’s man and is in charge of keeping Edward’s ‘bastard’ son, Aethelstan, alive. Uthred’s children also start taking a more prominent role both in his life and in the political intrigues between the kingdoms of Britain….
JULY WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. In this post, I will be doing a wrap up of all the books I read in July. These reviews have spoilers: 1. The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell This month I continued on with Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories with the second installment of this series. In this book, Uthred loses King Alfred’s favor after the battle of Cynuit and decides to go Viking by raiding Cornwalum, where he meets the shadow queen Iseult and takes her as his lover. Upon his return to Wessex, however, Alfred condemns Uthred to death…
BOOK REVIEW: The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I’m reviewing The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. This author, however, is best known for her second novel The Night Tiger (read my review here).Nonetheless, The Ghost Bride is also quite popular, and it has been picked up by Netflix for adaptation into a TV drama series. The show is available for streaming on Netflix’s website now. Visit the author’s website here. This review has spoilers. This book is definitely going to make it to my most surprising reads of 2021 list, for I liked it a lot more than I…
BOOK REVIEW: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Visit the author’s website here. I went into this book thinking that I would love it. But, alas, I did not. I wanted to love it, and that is probably why I tried so hard to like it. I’d heard so many good things about it, and I was excited about reading it. But it was not to be. For starters, I could not click with the author’s writing style and that affected my overall enjoyment of the book as…
BOOK REVIEW: Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. This is the author’s debut novel. Visit her website here. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint is a retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, from the point of view of the woman who helped Theseus kill the monster, Ariadne of Crete, daughter of Minos and the King of Crete. Or so that is what Goodreads says. Frankly, the synopsis of this book is a little misleading because this is not what the book is about. Yes, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur…
BOOK REVIEW: Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I am reviewing Alcestis by Katharine Beutner. This book was first released in 2010, and it won the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction in 2011 and was a finalist for both the BSFS Compton Crook Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Debut Fiction. Visit the author’s website here. Poor Alcestis. Brave Alcestis. Strong Alcestis. Poor, for having a husband that does not deserve her. Brave, for accepting a fate that was not her own. And strong, for having the will to face such a fate where others (Admetus)…