THE NIGHT CIRCUS
- by Erin Morgenstern
"It's called Le Circue des Rêves, and it is only open at night..."
That was all I needed to read before I decided this was the book I was taking home from Barnes and Noble that day.
I was on holiday in LA and literally ITCHING to read ANYTHING.
I was done with A Court of Mist and Fury and for the life of me couldn't find a single copy of A Court of Wings and Ruin in any bookstore I went into so I settled on something that wasn't part of a series - and I wasn't disappointed.
Morgenstern writes as well as Stiefvater does in regards to painting a vivid image with her words. Through the entire book I felt like I could close my eyes and see the Circus exactly as she describes right in front of me; the iron fence that circles it, the striped tents, the ticket booth, the giant Clock, the bonfire, the throngs of people wandering from attraction to attraction and interspersed through it all the dotting of red displayed by the Circuses own Fandom - The Reveurs (it makes me quite excited for the film possibilities).
She also manages to keep up the air of mystery and intrigue through the entire book so that you're always at the edge of your seat wondering where the next sentence will take you which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The troop of characters that we get introduced to throughout the book are exotic and enigmatic; Morgenstern only giving pieces of each character at a time, the puzzle pieces falling into places at each turn of the page.
We have Celia Bowen, our female protagonist, a gifted illusionist and daughter of the Great Prospero the Enchanter; a magician who unfortunately pushed the boundaries of his magic and is now an invisible shadow of his former self and Marco Alisdair, our male protagonist, an orphan boy chosen by the Mysterious Alexander to be his apprentice in a duel that has been waging for centuries between Hector Bowen and Mr A.H.
Our protagonists are pitted against each other, entering into the duel knowing only that they have a challenger and that the circus is their arena. Celia works within the circus, close where she can control it where Marco does his magic from afar, orchestrating it's every move, working as an assistant to the Circus's proprietor, the quirky Chandresh Chrisophe Lefevre.
No one involved in the circus is aware that without Marco or Celia, it would not survive. Their magic creates a sort of time warp, anyone involved in the circus doesn't really age, the twins that are born within the circus have special abilities too - it's implied these abilities stem from the magic that runs from Celia and Marco.
Morgenstern takes us on an exciting journey of magic and mystery, secrets and heartbreak and a forbidden love story so well interwoven with the circus itself that the reader is terrified of the consequences. Highly recommend this book if you're a lover of magic or just wanting to get lost in something other than reality.
7/10
Hello Lovelies,
I am writing to you from the comfort of my cousins couch in South LA while "The Real Housewives - Atlanta" plays in the background.
Since my last update I obviously managed to sort out the last bits and pieced for Canada.
If you haven't already pop over to my Travel Diary Blog to keep up with my travels so far.
This is just a quick update though.
Clearly I didn't quite get around to writing my reviews for the movies I watched and I honestly haven't had ANY time for reading.
I've left all of the books I was reading back home and I am so upset about it.
I am literally ITCHING to buy more books. The bookstores here in the states are absolutely mind-blowing just because of their sheer size. And I just want to take all the books home with me - but I know it's a bad idea since I still have to move to Calgary and my bags are already overweight.
I think I'm definitely going to have to join the library once I get to Calgary because I don't think I'm going to have the space to buy all those books either.
I definitely caved and bought "The Night Circus" the other day because I convinced myself I needed a new book to read that wasn't already part of a series. I'm only a few chapters in but I'm loving it so far, might write a review on it but I haven't decided yet.
Until next time - C xx
HAPPY EASTER!
Goodness, I cannot believe we've made it to April already and I have done little to no reading AT ALL!
With my departure for Canada literally 25 days away I really haven't had much time to do any reading at all.
And my review for the second and third installments of "A Court Of..." series have fallen by the wayside because I haven't managed to get my hands on the third book and I took too long to write the review for the second so I cannot remember a damn thing! Other than it was brilliant.
Life has been very hectic lately trying to catch up with friends and trying to get all my ducks in a row before Canada. I think the only thing I really have to sort is my travel insurance - and I'm doing a really good job at procrastinating that. I also need to sort out my bank situations but other than that I think all that's left to do is pack my things up and get on that plane.
I have been watching copious amounts of movies lately as I can just switch off my brain.
So to change things up a bit I might do a review on the couple of movies I've watched recently that I've really enjoyed.
Also - haven't gotten around to writing any of my travels while I was away over Christmas and new years but I might get around to doing that since it's a long weekend - might take my laptop up to Mom's and potter away.
until later - C xx
I think after reading comtemporaries for so long (for me) the "Forever" Series what a good series to jump back into the world of fanasy. It was still based in the real world but with fantasy entertwined - a very believable werewolf story which I was very thankful for. In all honestly, it took me WAY longer than it should have to get through the series - and it was probably a combination of being too busy at work and not being as into the story as I'd hoped I'd be. I had planned on writing a review but it took me so long to read that anything I'd wanted to say has completely left my brain. I think I'll have to do a re-read if I have any hope of writing a half decent review. So, I'm not wasting any time in writing the "A Court Of..." Series reviews. I was planning on writing a review on the whole series once I was done but I decided I'll just do it one book at a time. So... without further ado (and potential spoilers)..
A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES - By Sarah J. Maas.
Feyre is human. A huntress. At 19, the youngest of a poor family, she is trying to keep her Dad and two sisters alive. They weren't always poor. Her Dad was successful, until he made a critical error and ended up losing money for the wrong people, which cost him is job - and nearly his life. Feyre's older sisters Nesta and Elain, who still remember living in luxuary, struggle to come to terms with poverty.
Feyre is hunting to feed her family when she too makes a critical error - she kills a wolf, but not just any wolf. The wolf she kills is actually a faerie.
An exciting journey unfolds as she is swept away by a Beast-like creature to pay for killing the wolf-faerie. Friends are made, albeit cautiously, a romance blossoms, a curse needs to be broken and an enemy makes their way ever closer.
Okay so can we just pause a minute to talk about how much I wish Fae were real. Because OMG. I wish Fae were real. In every book I've ever read involving Fae all the legends and stories are the same. The can't lie yet they choose their words very wisely. They are very tricky and mischevious. They are beautiful and magical and they aren't afraid of their promisquity. I just, I need a beautiful Fae man in my life. And faerie males in this book make me want one even more.
I think one of the things I enjoyed about this book was how loosely it was based off Beauty and the Beast. Feyre is whisked away by a beastlike creature to the Spring Court to live out the rest of her days as punishment for killing the wolf-faerie. The Beastlike-creature as well as the entire Spring Court has been cursed to roam around for the rest of their lives with masks that obscure their faces; who they truely are.
Tamlin is our beastlike creature - devistatingly beautiful. He is Feyre's captor and protector.
Along with his friend and emissary, Lucien (from the Autumn Court), they show Feyre all that life has to offer being a fae - and a High Fae none the less. They show her riches beyond her wildest dreams and she gets used to living a life of weath and leisure.
Feyre is by no means my favourite character in this book but I really enjoy her development.
She is very much the type of girl who has been forced to fight to survive her entire life. To begin with she fights against everything but she is so young so of course when you have someone who takes care of you and protects you and makes sure you have every comfort you ever wanted your resolve will break and your walls will fall. Because it's nice to have someone give a shit about you. It's nice to not have to worry about defending yourself. So as Feyre warmed up to Tamlin, so did I.
Even though he was unlike anything Feyre had ever experience before, and even though he harboured many secrets from her, he also cared for her, which was something she was never used to. He made sure she was safe; and the fact that he was beautiful definitely helped her fall for him. Even though I was weary of him I started to think that maybe my sceptism was misplaced.
Although, somewhere around the middle we get introduced to Rhysand. Who is definitely right up my ally being the type of guy I'd most definitley go for. Obviously beautiful, but dark and dangerous and mysterious. The type of guy you know you should have no business wanting but that makes you just want him even more.
I found myself reading more quickly, just wanting to get another glimpse of him. Find out more about who he is. We only see him a couple of times in this book. And he is an arrogant ass hat who has some hold over Tamlin - and seems far too interested in Feyre. But most of that just seems to be because it seems to bother Tamlin.
There was a part of me that thought for a bit it was because Rhysand was in love with Tamlin - but let me just say, I'm very glad I was wrong.
What I did enjoy as well was that the plot develops really quickly without leaving you feeling like you've missed out on major character developments.
And things manage to go from bad to worse really fast but it keeps you on your toes. It was honestly one of those books where I wasn't sure the leads would make it out alive (and maybe that just comes from reading Game of Thrones) but I was honestly hoping that Feyre would pull through. Also, the antogonists in the book are very evil. Some not for any reason at all other than because they are pure, vile creatures. Which I enjoyed as well because intrinsically evil characters literally can and will do anything - they have no rhyme or reason for being evil. They just are. And I'm not going to delve into the main Antagonist at all because honestly, when she turned up things got very very interesting so I'll leave you all to read the book and find out for yourself but by the end of it I was left feeling content that what needed to be done was done, and excited to find out more about how Rhysand would continue to fit into the whole picture.
Over all I give A Court of Thorns and Roses a very strong 8/10. Would definitely read again.
Image from - heyashers.com
Hello Hello lovelies & Happy New Year!
Is everyone as baffled as I am that we're 2 weeks into 2018 already!? Because I'm sitting here wondering where the time went.
I have been very busy since Christmas.
Worked finished up on the 22nd December and it's just been Go! Go! Go! since then.
The majority of it is my own doing but I've finally got one more week before I go back to work where I'm just planning on doing absolutely nothing.
Don't get me wrong - being away and road tripping for the past couple of weeks have been amazing and as hectic as it is, it's so good to be back home in Auckland.
And, having time to do nothing else but read to my hearts content.
So, I'm sure this is not just me - I feel like everyone who enjoys reading has this affliction, but I have a really bad habit of reading more than one book at a time. I am only halfway through my first reading of Lord of the Rings, I am halfway through reading Salem's Lot, I am trying to read The Bane Chronicles - I think it's the 10th time I've restarted, it's one of the books I keep picking up when i'm at my parents and have nothing to do - and I have just completed A Court of Mist and Fury. I think we can see a bit of a pattern here; I love a bit of Fantasy. But also - apparently I have the attention span of a goldfish (and I also have no book loyalty. HA!).
The plan is to write a review for A Court Of... Series. I just need to get my hands on the 3rd book. But keep an eye out and bear with me on this. I've enjoyed the first two so much so far and I really cannot wait to sink my teeth into the third.
For Christmas by BFFL gave me 4 books (hard cover too!) so I'm thinking I might pick up one to read & review for the time being.
Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday season and I'll see you all for my next review.
- C xx
THE NIGHT CIRCUS 