![]() ![]() The narrative shifts among three main characters, each on their own path, but whose journeys eventually come together. Rather it’s a very intricately plotted story with a carefully constructed world, and it’s not the sort of book you breeze through quickly. Gwynne clearly has his craft down to a science, and even though it took me a solid two weeks to finish The Shadow of the Gods, it wasn’t because I was struggling to enjoy it. I’m happy to finally check John Gwynne off my fantasy bucket list! And I have to say, I was very impressed. ![]() “We all live with death’s talons in our shoulder, her breath on our neck.” – Elvar The nitty gritty: Complex worldbuilding, intimate characterizations and brutal action make The Shadow of the Gods a must read for epic fantasy fans. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Of the senses, smell is perhaps the least glamorous and most misunderstood sense - yet the author weaves it into an incredible tale, with Grenouille elevating mastery of this sense to superhuman levels. ![]() Grenouille is a genius and psycopath possessing a superhuman ability to smell, to dissect scents and intuitively combine scents into new and irresistible combinations.Īn often underrated and overlooked sense, this book underscores just how much influence it can have on people. It concerns Jean-Baptise Grenouille, an orphan in 1700's France. This is a gripping book that thoroughly captivates from beginning to end. Book Review: Perfume - The Story of a Murderer Book Review: Perfume - The Story of a Murderer ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() "I just finished The Happy Couple and I loved it - an extremely funny examination of modern love, with depth, bite and poignancy. As the wedding approaches and these five lives intersect, each character will find themselves looking for a path to their happily ever after - but does it lie at the end of an aisle? In her wry, sprightly, and unmistakable voice, Naoise Dolan makes the marriage plot entirely her own in a sparkling ensemble novel that is both ferociously clever and supremely enjoyable. And Vivian (a wedding guest) is the only one with any emotional distance, and observes her friends like ants in a colony. Phoebe (the bridesmaid and Celine’s sister) just wants to get to the bottom of Luke’s frequent unexplained disappearances. ![]() ![]() Archie (the best man) should be moving on from his love for Luke and up the corporate ladder, but he finds himself utterly stuck. Luke (a serial cheater) and Celine (more interested in piano than domestic life) plan to marry in a year. For all intents and purposes, the happy couple. An intimate, sharply funny novel about a couple heading toward their wedding, and the three friends who may draw them apart Meet Celine and Luke. ![]() ![]() But what happens when the lie is more significant? ![]() Sometimes they’re even almost a rite of passage, like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. Sometimes these lies are understandable, forgivable. If-when-the truth comes out, there are also all sorts of responses: It’s for your own good. Parents lie to their children for all sorts of reasons. She lives in isolation with her father, who has claimed her entire life that there is no way to break the curse. Lena, the main character of Briar Girls, is cursed-the touch of her skin can kill. Then, of course, I had to figure out how to make these characters feel like real (fictional) people, with compelling thoughts, feelings, desires, and pains. How many characters could I jam into a plot and still hold it all together? I started with Rapunzel and the witch who cursed her, then threw in Sleeping Beauty, Jack (and the Beanstalk), Hansel and Gretel, and made up some of my own tales for good measure. ![]() When I started writing Briar Girls, I was mostly thinking about how much I wanted to create an epic fairy tale mashup. Fairy tale curses are familiar territory, but for Briar Girls, author Rebecca Kim Wells wanted to go beyond the supposed curse and look at what that magical apparent impediment would do to those that have it, and how they live going forward. ![]() |