Title: 

In a small farming town, a bad reputation is easy to get and hard to lose. By the time Patty Pugh disappears, she has such a reputation as a troublemaker that hardly anyone is surprised or bothered by her disappearance. Farmer Jack McIntyre’s daughter is one of Patty’s only friends and her concern for Patty slowly draws him in. As he learns more of Patty’s story, he becomes determined to save her, even if no one else believes he should.

I avoided The Casual Vacancy because I was afraid a story about the dark underbelly of a small town would be too depressing for me. Given that expectation, I was completely surprised by how much I liked the setting of this story. I liked the mystery, which kept me completely hooked. I also liked that the author used the setting to touch on deeper themes, making me think about how we sometimes ignore truths right in front of us and how we should sometimes try looking at our surroundings with fresh eyes.

The beginning of this story was particularly engaging. I was immediately drawn in by the beautiful writing. It was plain but poetic and felt perfect for a story told by a farmer who loves his family, his land, and his community. It reminded me of Sarah, Plain and Tall but wasn’t like anything I’ve read recently.  I found the unique feel refreshing. The characters were so real, each with their own flaws and worries and secrets. I loved learning about their relationships with each other and their complicated pasts. By the time Patty disappeared, I was deeply invested in the story and couldn’t stop turning pages to find out what happened to her. This is where things started to get strange.

For the last half of the book, I often found it hard to even follow what was happening.  As Jack searches, he gets drawn into a strange and decadent world which felt surreal and disconnected from the rest of the story. While this might have been intentional with the reader sharing the character’s feelings of confusion, I can’t say it made for enjoyable reading. Eventually there is a dramatic confrontation, which might have made all the strangeness worthwhile if it had resolved anything. Instead , Jack goes back to life as usual and we slowly learn vague details of what happens to Patty as she reaches out to Jack over the following years. Instead of the confrontation being followed by dramatic change leading to a satisfying resolution, the story trickles its way along to a somewhat flat ending. I thought this was a letdown after the promising beginning, but given the great writing, I’d definitely give this author another shot.

Amazon|Goodreads

The post When Patty Went Away appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Despite being a ghost, Leiyin has a lot to accomplish. To learn why she hasn’t moved on to the afterlife, she has to relive her memories of a life she’s forgotten in death. Along the way, her three souls (valuing duty, love, and wisdom) will help her achieve understanding. As she learns when she relives her life, a selfish decision made in the pursuit of romance led to her punishment with a hastily arranged marriage. These events started her on the path towards her death. However, she left behind a daughter she loved dearly and who she’s willing to protect at any cost – even if that means being stuck in limbo forever. (I’m not sure my description did this wonderful, complex book justice, so you might also check out the goodreads description. )

Not only is this book set in China, it’s set in the 1920′s and 1930′s, a time period during which I know next to nothing about China. As a result, I particularly enjoyed discovering the incredible events shaking Chinese society during this time period. The author did a spectacular job bringing the culture, the society, and the political atmosphere to life. The relationship of personal events to political ones gave the bigger issues a face and made them all the more affecting. The mythology the author created sounded vaguely familiar, but was almost completely new to me. From the reader’s guide, it sounds as though this is indeed a new take on an old mythology and I loved the author’s version.

The way the author chose to tell the story was also unique. The first half of the book is spent learning about Leiyin’s life. Her ghostly commentary truly added to the story, making her younger and sometimes more foolish self sympathetic through her ghostly self’s explanations. The souls’ different perspectives on her actions encouraged the reader to think about all sides of every issue. One of the few things I didn’t like about the book were a few decisions she made which even her ghost’s explanation couldn’t make me sympathize with. I especially disliked that these choices led to a sudden and rather pointless end to her life. The ending to the book was similarly abrupt. I did, however, love the parallels of her life to Anna Karenina and the author’s references to that book. I always enjoy literary references to books I love! At the end, I appreciated that  Leiyin was able to influence events, despite being a ghost. I dislike characters who lack agency, but that wasn’t a concern here. Despite the abrupt endings, I found this a beautiful and thought-provoking read. Perfect for book clubs.

For some other perspectives, check out the other stops on the tour, Amazon, or Goodreads.

The post Three Souls appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

We all know the fairy tale story of sleeping beauty, but have you have ever wondered what that story would have looked like in real life? What would cause the king and queen to avoid inviting a powerful woman to their daughter’s baptism? Was the woman who cursed the princess really a fairy, a witch, or just a very bitter woman? And if not by magic, how was the princess cursed and then saved? Elise is able to tell a tale to answer all those questions from her time as a servant in the castle. She’ll also tell a tale of her own, including love she won and lost and the sacrifices her loyalty to the princess demanded.

This book was one of those books I immediately got so swept up in, I had a hard time making myself take notes. Elizabeth Blackwell has a masterful command of language. She used large words that I noticed not because they felt out of place but because they were always perfectly chosen. They lent her sentences a beauty that demanded to be read out loud. She brought the medieval setting to life with her vivid descriptions, from the struggles of the poor to the court intrigues of the nobility. Little thoughtful asides about human nature elevated this book to something truly out of the ordinary for me. Commentary on human nature is something I often love in classics, so seeing it in a contemporary novel was delightful and surprising.

Although you might describe this book as a darker version of sleeping beauty, I think it’s more accurate to say that it’s a sleeping beauty story for adults. This retelling makes the original story look like a sanitized version of the true story. There are deceptions and schemes behind the scenes that motivate the events of the original. There are some very low points in the story and Elise has to deal with some heartbreakingly difficult decisions. The end was more realistic than the original, but surprisingly happy and the happiness was all the more beautiful for the suffering and darkness the characters had to make it through first. The author kept me hooked throughout, dropping just enough hints about the coming events to make me desperately curious to read more. Basically, the writing, the plot, and the characters were all perfection. I simply couldn’t put this one down!

Amazon|Goodreads

The post While Beauty Slept appeared first on Doing Dewey.

As always for longer read-athons, I’m just going to try to read a bit more than usual. This week, I’d particularly like to read and review When Beauty Slept and The Bombers and the Bombed since they come out on Thursday. I’m also hoping to fit in something just purely for fun without a review deadline. Perhaps The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress or The Year of Living Biblically. I’m also looking forward to the mini-challenge! I’ll be tracking my reading progress throughout the week here.

Monday
Pages Read: 153
Books Read: Emma
Books Finished: Emma

Tuesday
Pages Read: 68
Books Read: While Beauty Slept
Books Finished: 

Wednesday
Pages Read: 77
Books Read: While Beauty Slept
Books Finished:

Thursday
Pages Read: 291
Books Read: While Beauty Slept, The Bombers and the Bombed
Books Finished: While Beauty Slept

The post Love For Books Read-athon appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Sugar may be on the run from her life in the South, but her past still travels with her in the form of the bees she raises and her sweet Southern manners. Although her neighbors in Manhattan are skeptical of both at first, they quickly realize that Sugar and her bees are changing their lives for the better. Now they just need to get Sugar to realize that she deserves as much help and love as she shows everyone else.

As Leah at Books Speak Volumes once described a book, starting The Wedding Bees was like sinking into a warm bath. The writing is just so beautiful! It’s lovely, warm, vivid, charming – perfect for the story of a Southern girl like Sugar. When I first read a post by Kayla at The Thousand Lives, I didn’t get what she meant about wanting authors to write with more color. Since then, I’ve read several books, including this one, where the author describes things using more color. And I love it! The addition of more colors to the descriptions gave the places she described a vibrancy that brought them to life. I also loved the dialogue, which was cute and funny, but not unbelievable. Sugar is almost unbelievably sweet and positive, but I couldn’t help falling in love with her right away.

While the other characters the author created weren’t as sweet as Sugar, they were easy to fall in love with too. They’re very real and they all have their flaws, but the author puts you right into their heads and into their lives. By sharing the bits of their past that got them where they are, she makes you understand each and every character she introduces. Even though all of the characters have their flaws, this is not a book that makes you wonder if everything is going to work out. The saddest of back stories still seems optimistic in this book, because you just know that everything is going to work out. For the most part, everything does. I would like to mention though that one of the characters is anorexic, and while things get going in the right direction for her, they don’t just magically work out. While this isn’t a topic I know much about, I thought this was a far better way to end her story than with an unrealistic instantaneous cure.

I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by my blog this week so this sweet, beautiful, happy little confection of a book was just what I needed. If you love Southern lit or NYC or sweet romances or are just looking for a book that will put a smile on your face, I highly recommend you pick this one up.

For some other perspectives, check out the other stops on the tour, Amazon, or Goodreads.

The post The Wedding Bees appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Lady Anne has been committed to Bethlem insane asylum, declared unfit to stand trial for a crime she doesn’t seem to remember. Her husband is unsure whether to love her or hate her and may harbor dangerous secrets of his own. Dr. George Savage simply wants to restore Lady Anne to her sanity and return her to her husband. However, when events spiral out of control both Dr. Savage and the reader will be forced to question everything they’ve learned about Lady Anne and her husband.

This book was great both as a thriller and as historical fiction. The mystery element sucked me in right away. Little bits of what happened were slowly revealed from the perspectives of Lady Anne, her husband, and Dr. Savage. This was done very skillfully. Even though I was kept in the dark about facts the characters knew, I never felt that the author was awkwardly manipulating the characters’ thoughts or the dialogue to keep these facts hidden. It was just enough to keep me constantly curious about what happened next without getting frustrating. My only complaint with this part of the book is that the constant surprising revelations usually were obvious to me before the characters reached the same conclusions. This made some of the most intense moments of the book feel a bit anticlimactic because I was there before the characters were.

From a historical fiction perspective, I really enjoyed that the plot was so tightly integrated into the time period. The author based many of her characters and plot points on real people and events. The way women and the insane were treated in the late 1900′s was essential to the plot and the plot gave interesting insight into the time period. There were a few tiny typos in my pdf version and the dialogue was occasionally a little rough, but for the most part, the writing was perfect for the time period. The author did a great job capturing language and attitudes that would have been prevalent at the time. Even cooler, she drew on many primary sources when writing some of the psychologists notes and other parts of the book. Although the material in this book was a bit darker than my typical fare, it completely won me over with the engaging mystery and excellent historical setting. Definitely an author I’ll be watching out for in hopes of a follow-up to this spectacular debut.

Amazon|Goodreads

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The post Darkly Dreaming Dexter – A Bookish TV Show Review appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

Dexter is generally a nice guy except for one small thing: he’s a serial killer. Fortunately he only kills bad guys – people he knows without a doubt did something terrible but who the police can’t catch. His job as a blood spatter analyst for the police makes it easy to find victims. It also puts him right in the middle of a police investigation of some murders with an MO very much like his own. Dexter’s strange connection to the murders soon begins to make him question himself. Did he do it?

My knowledge of the psychology of serial killers is limited to the probably inaccurate information I’ve learned from TV shows. However, given what I know, I felt the author did a creepily good job of capturing Dexter’s feeling of anticipation, need to kill, and satisfaction at doing so. He also did an impressive but even more creepy job of making Dexter likeable. In fact, while I enjoyed these books, being asked to empathize with a guy who, oh by the way, cuts people up while they’re still alive (!) was just too weird for me. I don’t think I’ll be reading any more of the series.

If you like thrillers though, I’d check this out. The author does a great job giving just enough details to make you imagine terrible things. This made the book readable for even someone with my aversion to gore without losing any impact. I liked the authors dark sense of humor and did enjoy Dexter’s morally ambiguous character. If you like being creeped out more than I do, this book might be just what you’re looking for.

Amazon|Goodreads

The post Darkly Dreaming Dexter appeared first on Doing Dewey.

Title: 

In Germany in the 1200′s, much of life revolved around the church. However, pre Martin Luther, many people in small towns still rely exclusively on sometimes corrupt officials to interpret the bible for them. When Adelaide’s town suffers a plague, the church abandons the people. Although tithes continue to increase, few priests are brave enough to provide the funeral services they claim are necessary for a happy afterlife. After a bribable but cowardly priest disrespects her mother’s funeral, Adelaide is determined to bring down the corrupt priests, despite having to work within the many rules restricting women’s rights in the middle ages.

Surprisingly, the fairy tale aspect of this story was my least favorite part. Although Adelaide’s nickname is Snow White, the resemblance between her story and the fairy tale is very thin. That wouldn’t have bothered me too much if the author hadn’t also tried to bring in a bunch of other fairy tales. Most of these other stories are included by having characters relate them. They in no way connect to the plot. They’re just randomly related by characters as fables or as their past experiences. As a result, the very good historical fiction plot drags a lot more than it needed to. The inclusion of many unrelated dreams and memories slows the plot down as well.

As historical fiction though, this story had much potential. I was truly impressed that the author managed to have her heroine act within the restrictions faced by women in the middle ages. Without doing anything unbelievable, she manages to be a strong heroine, taking control of her own life. She does so by either cleverly acting within the boundaries she faces or by sneaking around them. I was also very impressed by the historically accurate details, such as the fact that most families in the middle ages almost exclusively drank ale or watered down wine. I think if the author hadn’t tried to try this into the recent fairy tale craze, it could have been a very good book. I’m hoping the next book in this series will capitalize on that potential and would also be very excited to read any historical fiction the author writes in the future.

Amazon|Goodreads

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Title: 

Although her father gave away the invention meant to cure her before he died, Eyelet is determined to hunt down his invention and use it herself. In a world where madness is treated without mercy, the machine may be her only hope to cure her seizures. However, her father’s power hungry colleague, Professor Smrt, is determined to beat her to it. When she finds it at last, it’s only to watch Urlick Babbit steal it before she can. In order to defeat Smrt, she and Urlick will have to face many dangers together, including the machine which may turn out to be the greatest danger of all. (adapted from goodreads)

Jacqueline Garlick has definitely mastered that most talked about technique – showing instead of telling. This book was action packed right from the beginning and while it took me a bit to orient myself in the original world she’s created, I loved every minute of it. I’ve only read a little steampunk, but to me at least, many of her creative imaginings of that kind of world were brilliantly novel. Her hero and heroine were equally unique, with features that distinguish them dramatically from the annoyingly unrealistic perfect heros and heroines who populates so many YA stories.  This only made them more likable. They each had their quirks and insecurities which contributed to the realistic romance that followed. Unlike in many books, I can point to specific reasons the characters like each other, a fact that makes a romance feel far less cliche.

My only problem with the book is the pacing. While more realistic than most, the romance progressed fairly quickly. The adventures were exciting, but the hero and heroine were so often in near death situations that they lost their emotional impact. By the end, they could be gasping their last breath and I wouldn’t be too concerned, because they’ve survived everything already! Despite my lack of worry for the characters, I was sad to come to a cliff-hanger ending. While I’m sure everything will work out, I wanted to know what came next. I really became invested in this fantastic world and the fates of these unique protagonists. I can’t wait to read more! I would recommend this to any fan of steampunk, but also to fans of realistic romance and of gothic stories since this had a distinctly gothic feel at times.

Amazon|Goodreads

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