I have been waiting for this book for about five years. You would think that in this time I would have taken the opportunity to re-read the other instalments in the series to remind myself what had happened, so I would be fresh and ready when I finally got around to getting this new paperback (to match my other fifteen paperbacks). Reader: I didn't.
I first encountered The Last Unicorn when I was a fairly small child. I was given the VHS of the film as a birthday present, and it was the first video I owned that was just mine, not one bought to share with my brother. MINE.
I had been in a bit of a reading slump for the first third of this year or so. I was struggling to find the motivation to consistently pick up a book and finish it. It was taking me weeks to finish novels I would normally have polished off in a number of days. It was no reflection on the books, just that my brain - which had managed pretty well on reading last year, although a lot of that was interview prep - slapped the Time Out button and was just really struggling to grip onto things. This book was like a brain sorbet, a mental palate cleanser. It was sweet, and funny, and easy, and lovely, and I blitzed it like I used to blitz books in a couple of days.
I am very overdue in reviewing this. After vowing I would request no more books on Netgalley towards the end of 2020, I got an email about The Charmed Wife and, a fan of dark fairy tale reimaginings, I was very easily convinced to break my promise.
Crazy Rich Asians was one of the books I reviewed in the first year of this blog and I adored it. After being swept away by the film, I was tickled and surprised by how much more biting the book was.
Something about this description sounded really cute and cozy. I loved the idea of seeing a character reconnect with her family, her roots, and herself through cooking.
Author: Tomi Adeyemi (website) UK Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books Genre: Fantasy, YA They killed my mother.They took our magic.They tried to bury us.Now we rise.Zélie remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. When different clans ruled – Burners igniting flames, Tiders beckoning waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoning forth souls.But everything changed the … Continue reading BOOK REC: Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi
This book is very different from Catriona Ward's other books, and I'll be honest, it caught me a little off guard to begin with. Both Rawblood and Little Eve are historical novels with a strong Victorian Gothic feel to them. There's something about that historical divide that adds to the otherworldliness of the settings, and somehow that makes it more comfortable as a reader. It's a spooky story, but it happened so long ago it's safe now. That's not the case with The Last House On Needless Street, it's a contemporary setting, and that immediately pushed past the little safety zone I had and started me out off-balance and uncomfortable.
Much like Nevermoor, this book took me longer to read than it should have done. I also actually now have two copies - I initially decided to wait for the paperback release because my copy of book one is a paperback proof, but as I adored this so much, I ordered the hardback copy of book three, and that's when I discovered the hardbacks for this series are works of ART. Beautiful bright endpapers, printed and foiled cover under the dustjacket... So I will be keeping the hardbacks in future.
I'll be honest, I was intially drawn to this book because it was on a shelf with a full collection of other titles from the same author and publisher, all in the same style but in a rainbow of colours, and I had to be talked down from clearing the shelf because they looked so beautiful together. This is the second Allison and Busby book I've bought, and the other - Unmarriageable - is also stunning, so mad props to their cover designers. They're smashing it out of the park.
