Tag: Advanced Reader Copy

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The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

Historical Fiction – Chicago 1911

Wow!!! I LOVED this book. It is this author’s debut novel, and I can’t wait to see more from her in the future. It was sweet, exciting, and well-researched historical fiction. I would rank it very high up in my list of favorite historical fictions, actually. I really loved it. The story is loosely based on the C. R. Patterson family. It weaves a lot of important Black history into the story, and is one of those books you could read for fun while still learning a lot, though I would still say romance is central to the story.

SHORT SPOILERY SUMMARY: First, there is Olivia, who is looking for love and ends up in a love triangle. Helen wants to be a mechanic and is on a personal journey. She wants to be respected and valued for more than a pretty face, but things get complicated when she turns her sisters’ love triangle into a love square by falling for Olivia’s suitor. Amy-Rose works for the Davenports, and has big dreams of opening her own salon. And she falls in love with Olivia’ brother, who already has something going on with Oliva’s riches-to-rags BFF Ruby!!! SO. MUCH. DRAMAAA!

I loved Amy-Rose and her love story, hers was my favorite couple, easily! Helen was an awesome SFL and the chapters from her POV were my favorites overall. But, its hard to pick favorites because Olivia was also amazing!! I think Ruby was my least favorite, just because I got jealous-friend-vibes from her near the beginning and I couldn’t shake them off. But it left lots of room for her character to grow, so that was valuable.

I love when authors hide character traits within the characters’ names (the closest word I can find is ‘Euonym‘: a name well suited to the person, place, or thing named. I feel like there is a better literary device for this, if you know it please help me!). I thought it was clever that there was flower imagery in Amy-Rose chapters, gemstone imagery in Ruby chapters, and Olivia gets an olive-branch moment that is super adorable.

Overall I enjoyed Marquis’ writing style. Having four main characters can be a lot to juggle, but each perspective is so different that it makes it really easy to keep them separate in your head. The multiple POV also allowed readers to see the differences in class, the challenging of gender roles, and the difficulty of aquiring and maintaining wealth and status. There were places where I thought the grammar could have been better, and passages that I thought could be reworded for readability, but this copy was just an ARC and those things are usually fixed in final copies. I did think the story moved very fast, and because of the multiple POVs certain characters and relationships could have been fleshed out more. Also, more history!! I selfishly would have loved to this done as a series, but that’s just because I wanted more lol!

I also maintain that this could make a really great show or movie adaptation!

 Follow Krystal Marquis on Instagram @krystabelle_reads and @krystalmarquis on Twitter.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for sending me an ARC of this title. All opinions are my own.

#PenguinTeenPartner!

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The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories

This is a collection of some of the most magical, moving, chilling and surprising Christmas stories from around the world. These short stories take readers on a Christmas journey, from the frozen Nordic woods to the glittering streets of Paris, a New York speakeasy to a quaint English country house, the bustling city of Lagos to midnight mass in Rio, and even deep into outer space. Featuring Santa, ghosts, trolls, unexpected guests, curmudgeons, and miracles, here is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time.

Collected works by writers big and small make this an essential companion for any Christmas reader. Classic Christmas storytellers such as Hans Christian Anderson and O. Henry have features in this compendium, as well as some unexpected names like Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, and Chekhov, in addition to little-known treasures such as Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Italo Calvino and Irène Nemerovsky (and more!).

Some of my favorites include:

The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen

The Legend of the Christmas Rose by Selma Lagerlof

A Chaparral Christmas Gift by O. Henry

The Necklace of Pearls by Dorothy L. Sayers

One Christmas Eve by Langston Hughes

The Gift by Ray Bradbury

I was a little disappointed that the O. Henry story included wasn’t The Gift of the Magi, but I did enjoy A Chaparral Christmas Gift (which I hadn’t read before), so actually, it was probably a good thing that I got to read a new O. Henry story instead of one I already knew. 

This book of short classic Christmas stories is the perfect book to cozy up with this holiday. I am in love with this collection and can see that myself and my family will cherish reading these Christmas stories for years to come.

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The OK Tarot

Tarot distracts your logical mind with a story. While your logical mind is distracted, your subconscious mind and intuition are engaged. Let your mind drift and allow the cards to speak to you.

If you chose:

Aᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ Sᴡᴏʀᴅs: 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦， 𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡， 𝑆𝑒𝑙𝑓－𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒
A hand bearing a sword. You are a leader, and are at the beginning of a victory. But beware of your own power: for a sword is double-edged, and can cut both ways.

Aᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ Pᴇɴᴛᴀᴄʟᴇs: 𝐺𝑜𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑， 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦， 𝐺𝑜𝑜𝑑 𝐿𝑢𝑐𝑘
A hand is filled with a coin. You have or will soon gain prosperity, financially or in business. Beware of letting your good fortune make you greedy.

Qᴜᴇᴇɴ ᴏꜰ Cᴜᴘs: 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛， 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑦， 𝐿𝑜𝑣𝑒
A crowned cup spilleth over. You have many talents and are admired by many. Let your cup overflow and use it to fill the cups of others.

This is my first time using the OK Tarot so I wanted to do an intuition test to break in the cards and give them a chance to speak to me. IMO all of these cards were probably cards I was meant to pull — tarot has a way of telling me what I need to hear, exactly when I need to hear it. I can also look at this spread as a personal past/present/future reading, or I can focus on the one card that called to me first. All methods are good methods of reading tarot: I like to use it as a tool for recentering, and I take the advice of the cards with the knowledge that the universe is on my side, in big and small ways.

Q: ᴡʜᴀᴛ ᴄᴀʀᴅ ᴅɪᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴇᴛ?

If this is your first tarot reading, let me know what you think! And if you liked this reading lmk and if I should do more of them!

Thank you to @tarcherperigee for sending me the OK Tarot deck by @adamjk@oktarot#atpinfluencers

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Marple: 12 New Mysteries

For the first time in 45 years, Agatha Christie’s beloved character Miss Marple returns to the page for a globe-trotting tour of crime and detection. This wonderful collection is written by all of the newest greats: Naomi Alderman, Leigh Bardugo, Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Elly Griffiths, Natalie Haynes, Jean Kwok, Val McDermid, Karen M. McManus, Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse, and Ruth Ware join Agatha Christie to create a new compendium of Miss Marple’s adventures.

Agatha Christie is quite literally the best-selling novelist of all time (outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare). She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, 19 of which feature Miss Jane Marple as the MC. She is one of Christie’s best-known characters. Because she has such a strong personality and style, it is difficult to replicate her character in a way that stays true to Agatha Christie.

Unfortunately for me, I did not love it as a collection. I really wanted to like it. I tried for a few weeks to read this and set it aside each time, hoping it would get better, and it never did. I really wanted to DNF it, but because I like some of the authors I decided to push through, and luckily libro.fm came through with a September ALC, so I was able to finish it on audio. I think that the authors had a hard time duplicating her character at best, and disrespectfully bungled her character at worst. Though there were a couple of standout stories that I did enjoy: Jean Kwok’s The Jade Emperess, Naomi Alderman’s The Open Mind, and Natalie Haynes’ The Unravelling were among my favorites.

Because each author has their own idea of Miss Marple, IMO, they did not align with the real Miss Marple, or with Agatha Christies writing. There was too much variety for me to believe it was the same character, and each author’s creative liberties clashed too much to be a cohesive collection. The essence of Miss Marple herself became muddled, as if there were too many cooks in the kitchen. This is the limitation with short story collections, and sadly it just wasn’t for me.

While some of the stories may have been “fine”, all this collection of stories did was prove that Miss Marple could only be written by Agatha Christie.

Thank you to William Morrow – HarperCollins for sending me an Advance Reading Copy of this title. All opinions are my own.

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The Complete Language of Herbs by S. Theresa Dietz

The Complete Language of Herbs: A Definitive & Illustrated History by S. Theresa Dietz is an essential compendium for any herbalist.

Plants and herbs have been used throughout history to heal the body—but understanding how to use the medicinal properties of plants in teas, tinctures, and food has become somewhat of a lost art. This book takes us back to our roots, helping us to decode and decipher the lost language of herbs.

The book is presented like a dictionary, organized alphabetically by the scientific name of each herb. Names and varieties are listed, along with symbolic meanings, possible powers, folklore, and facts, making this a unique and new approach to herbal understanding. Illustrations accompany each entry, making it easy for readers to identify and visualize specific herbs. Every common herb is covered, from Sage to Sasparilla.

“All herbs in this book mean something, and they just might have the power to actually manifest a magical effect if the enablement is, at the very least, a heartfelt wish.” Whether you use herbs for cooking, medicine, aromatherapy, or floral arrangements, we should all be using herbs as magical proxies to enhance our power and better our lives.

A huge thank you to Lydia at Quarto Publishing for sending me another amazing Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of this title. All opinions are my own.

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Dirtbag Astrology by Alberto Toribio

I always have a great time reading about astrology. I like learning about the associations with each sign, and how it can theoretically guide our personalities impact our day-to-day lives.

Astrology is the study of the influence of the planets and stars on our lives. You probably know your sun sign if you like to read your daily horoscope, but full natal charts can be much more in-depth.

This book is a good beginner’s guide to astrology. It covers mainly sun signs and moon signs, offering a very basic understanding of the foundations of astrology, with simple modern humor. Experts and beginners alike can learn something from this fun little book!

Though this is not a comprehensive guide to every sign, house, and planetary placement, it does introduce us to eclipses and Mercury Retrograde, and discusses tips and tricks for approaching each celestial event.

Thank you to Union Square & Co. for sending me an Advance Reading Copy of this title. All opinions are my own.

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Lobizona: Undocumented. Unprotected. Unafraid.

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If you enjoy magical realism, you will love Romina Garber’s newest book Lobizona. I have seen this title around on bookstagram for a while and the cover is what really drew me in. I absolutely love the art style, but the title seemed really interesting also. I was delighted to find the naked book is just as beautiful as the sleeve!

Romina Garber | Zodiac, Beautiful book covers, Book quotes

Netgalley gifted me a free e-ARC of this title, which I am so grateful for! It allowed me to start reading it, which sucked me in after the first few pages. I got about halfway through on Kindle before deciding to buy the physical copy. For one, I wanted to support this author (I devoured her Zodiac series a few years ago!) and two, I ended up taking a lot of annotations which I wanted to keep. And I bounced back and forth between the e-book and the physical copy; the e-book is amazing for reading in bed, but the physical is better for daytime reading (and is less of a strain on my eyes, TBH.)

“We use magical realism in our daily lives too. Consider our superstitions. We are always willing magic into reality—that’s our way.”

I love that this book was stippled with Spanish aphorisms and phrases, and included an impressive amount of vocabulary in-context to help teach Spanish to non-speakers. As someone who is constantly trying to improve my Spanish, this is something I really appreciate seeing in new books. Garber does it well, allowing the reader to infer meaning from context clues without needing to use a translator. However, I can really appreciate having the translation dictionary available if I do need it, conveniently built into my e-reader. It saves a lot of time not having to click out of the book, and as a visual learner I enjoy seeing side-by-side translations because it really helps me understand spelling and pronunciation. Continue reading “Lobizona: Undocumented. Unprotected. Unafraid.”

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