DECEMBER 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 December 2021. These reviews have minor spoilers. 1. The Woman In The White Kimono by Ana Johns I Really Liked this book, but there were a few things that affected my overall experience reading it. First off, the narrator of the audiobook is the same one that read The Oyster Thief by Sonia Faruqi and we all know how much I loved that (read my review here). I do not mean to say that this…
NOVEMBER 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 November 2021. These reviews have minor spoilers. 1. Augustus by Anthony Everitt This book is a biography of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome. Forced to take center stage in Roman politics at a young age, Augustus’s rise to power culminated when he defeated Marc Anthony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. Later, he consolidated his power by transforming Rome into the greatest empire of the world. I enjoy reading about the lives of…
OCTOBER 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 October 2021. This month I read Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series in addition to a couple more books that I really enjoyed. These reviews have minor spoilers. 1. The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffmann This book is the first of two prequels to Alice Hoffmann’s bestseller novel Practical Magic, first published in 1995. I read this book for the first time in January 2021, and I admit that I liked it more the second…
SEPTEMBER WRAP UP: What I Read This Month
Hello everyone. Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. In this post, I will be doing a wrap up of all the books I read in September 2021. I confess I have a little catching up to do again, but September was one of my slowest reading months of last year. I think I was in a little bit of a reading slump honestly. Still, I managed to read five books that month, and some of those books are new favorites. In the next few weeks (more than a few,…
BOOK REVIEW: An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. Today I’m reviewing An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson. Please visit the author’s website here. I admit I wasn’t sure about reading this one for the longest time. I just didn’t think I would like it, and unfortunately I was right. It was a very disappointing read for me. I will say that An Enchantment of Ravens had a lot going for it, I just didn’t like the execution. The main character, Isobel, is a talented portrait painter with the uncanny ability of painting raw emotions on the portraits of her…
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….