Review: The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

Publication date: May 26th 2015
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 561

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.

This trilogy has been a see-saw of feelings for me. I loved the first one, struggled horribly to push through the second, and then rocked back to thorough enjoyment for this final instalment.
Back in the present seems to suit the story telling for this series, because I no longer had to force myself to wade through whole sections, instead I flew through it.

We finally got to spend time with the cast of characters I loved so much from the first book. We finally got answers to some questions - like the whole Emily thing, although I'm still cranky about that because it felt really poorly done and didn't really work. We also got to combine favourite characters from both books and see everyone interacting, which was awesome. This book truly sings when the whole cast of characters are together. 

I have to admit, at times it did feel a little bit like fan-fiction for the first book - here we have our hero and heroine being smushy and romantic and making a family! Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I did have a few moments where I wanted it to be something more.

I'd also like to take a moment of silence for Gallowglass, my poor under appreciated baby - you deserved so much better.

I'll be honest, this is not the best book in the world. However it was exactly what I needed at this moment in time, so it kinda worked. It's definitely an improvement on the second book which was a slog, and I think because of the core ensemble of characters being involved throughout this one I may even prefer it to the first book. All told this is an interesting trilogy, with a really great plot and some fun elements and characters. Does it have really problematic issues with an overly possessive and controlling love interest? Sure. And if I go back and re-read the series I may find that that actually puts me off entirely. However right now, this was what I needed.

I'm now experiencing a terrible book hangover, where I want nothing more than to go back and revisit these characters and spend more time with them. What's that? A new book about Marcus and Phoebe, let me get my wallet...

TV Review: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

The nights are getting darker, there's more than a little chill in the air, and Netflix have unleashed the first ten episodes of their much hyped new series (just in time for Halloween no less) with a further Christmas special on the way. What have we done to deserve this?!

I've been excited ever since this show was first announced. I was a huge fan of the 90s "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" series (it's glorious) and I am a huge fan of Riverdale. Plus, you know, the series released on my birthday, so it's an all round win.

With all those expectations I settled in with the first episode and felt... curious, but not entirely enthralled. This could be in part due to the truly terrifying spider sequence that should come with a trigger warning, and basically involved me hiding behind a cushion and waiting to be told when it was safe again.

I left it for a week, mulled over my feelings for it, and then started in on the second episode, at which point I was hooked.

This is not a remake of the 90s-laugh-track-sassy-Salem-one-liners Sabrina. This is dark and twisted, and at times absolutely horrifying. Yet for all that I adored it. I'm not a fan of horror by any stretch, yet this somehow works brilliantly.
A lot of that is in how overblown and melodramatic it is. One particularly squicky episode (episode 5, complete nightmare fuel) left me struggling to sleep. Yet once I explained the plot to my husband, within moments we both found ourselves laughing at how insanely ridiculous it was. The writers had captured the twisty horrifying elements of nightmares, wrapped them up in the insanity that comes with it, and delivered a genuinely diverting hour of television.

The writing is brilliant, the cinematography curiously bizarre, and the cast, oh the cast. These characters are so good. I want to spend more time with them. I just want a normal day in the life of the Spellman household, never mind all the dark fun things that go off in the series. They start off as fairly average stereotypes, and gradually over the course of the series are unpacked into layered, nuanced and thoughtful people. Everytime I thought I had my feelings sorted for them, they'd go and upend my feelings again and make me fall in love with new facets of their characters.

Plus, diversity in television! Not only is Ambrose openly gay and has a super cute date, but we also have some truly amazing mortal friends surrounding Sabrina. Roz - fighting for banned books, suffering from degenerating eyesight. And Susie, a non-binary character who suffers hideous bullying and abuse but keeps on fighting and discovering themselves, played by a non-binary actor. I had several moments of fist punchy happiness watching this series for those characters alone. 

Once I was hooked, I couldn't help but binge the rest of the series. It wasn't what I expected, but it ended up becoming so much more, and ultimately being a really important series to me for the representation, the storylines, and these wonderful characters.

I can't wait to see where they go next.

Film Review: Fantastic Beasts - The Crimes of Grindelwald

I loved Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - it was a fresh and fun filled romp, in a way that the Potter films hadn't been allowed to be in some time. We got a sense of playfulness! We got to see more of the wizarding world! We got fantastic beasts! But most importantly we got Newt, and my love for Newt deserves its own epic post. (later)

So armed with a fresh re-watch the night before, I went into the cinema excited to see the second instalment. Unfortunately that didn't last long. Even now, several days after watching, I'm still reeling, and not in a good way.

I have a lot of feelings, and a good portion of them are spoiler filled, so be warned, spoilers galore beneath the cut.

Review: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Publication date: 10th July 2012
Publisher: Viking Adult
Pages: 584 pages

Picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes Diana and Matthew on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the School of Night. As the search for Ashmole 782 deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them, and they embark on a very different—and vastly more dangerous—journey.

Given how much I enjoyed "A Discovery of Witches" I was really excited to get into the second book in the trilogy, but within a few pages I found that excitement dissipating.

This book was a slog to get through, that ended up taking me several months. There were odd patches that raced along at a better pace and swept me back into the story, but on the whole this was hard work and took me far too long to read for a book of this size.

Ultimately it felt as though Harkness had realised she actually wanted to write a historical novel and wanted to shoehorn that into her urban fantasy series. Sure it had lots of interesting titbits regarding day to day Elizabethan life, but they ended up bogging down the story and stifling any momentum the plot managed to generate.

There wasn't any real movement to the story, and nothing of any real lasting consequence for the story. There were a couple of odd dips into the present to catch us up with the characters from the first book, but they were stilted, strangely done, and skipped over important information that I'm sure we'll get filled in in book three, but just served the irritating purpose of making me flip back through the book going "WHAT IS HAPPENING?!" We met some people, there was some soul searching, there was some character development, but it didn't need to be dragged out over nearly 600 pages. I was left feeling frustrated, bored, and wanting to go back to the first book and pretend this one had never happened.

Yes I will carry on and finish the series, mostly because I struggle to leave a series incomplete. And also in the desperate hope that the third book will recapture what I loved about the first book instead of wading through a quagmire of irrelevant trifles.

This is not the sequel the first book deserved, and it pained me how little I enjoyed it. If I gave half stars it would be two and a half, but I'm feeling generous so I'm rounding up.
If you enjoyed the first book don't expect the same from this one, be prepared for a frustrating read.

Review: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Publication Date: December 27th 2011 (this edition)
Publisher: Penguin Books
Pages: 579 pages

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell. 

I'd put off reading this book for an awfully long time, and now I'm not entirely certain why. Perhaps it had become muddled with other books around the same time? Regardless, I'd steadfastly refused to pick it up, all the while not actually having any idea of what it was about... Genius. However then the trailer for the TV adaptation appeared, and on watching that I realised that I might have been a little bit hasty on my refusal to give this book a go and I should probably pick it up after all.

And I'm really glad I did. The book was incredibly engrossing, and once I'd started reading I found it very difficult to put down. There were a few issues, that did raise some red flags for me (stalkerish protective machoism wrapped up as being a good thing, as well as a few consent issues) and those did colour my feelings for the book, but the rest of the story was so well written and engaging that by the end I could kind of forgive those earlier problems. Mostly. Well, honestly if I think too hard about it then I start to feel a little bit squicky and problematic, which is never a good feeling for a book. But when I think back on the book those aren't what sticks out for me. What I think about is the engaging characters, the vivid and fascinating settings as the story moves around the globe, the curious story that gradually unfurls and wraps you up in it until you feel as though you are with Diana as she tries to navigate this crazy upside down mess she's fallen into.

It starts as a small story, one that feels safe and warm and filled with bright curiosity, and then slowly expands, illuminating the layers and sub plots that tangle in around our heroine and show us how far reaching this story will ultimately be. I devoured it. And then I found the audiobook and listened to that too. 

Honestly I did feel slight Twilight undertones, but they were quickly swept away with a genuinely fascinating story, one that evolves to become its own complex beast by the end of the book, leaving me breathless to find out what happens in the second book.

It's not a challenging read, despite its size it's quick and curious and light, although there are darker undertones waiting to surface. It was supernatural comfort food, with a bit more depth to it than I initially feared I would find. And now I cannot wait to see how the story translates to the screen in the adaptation airing on September 14th.

Review: Lords & Ladies by Sir Terry Pratchett

Publication Date: November 1^st 1993 (this edition)
Publisher: Corgi
Length: 382 pages

The fairies are back – but this time they don’t just want your teeth…
Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven are up against real elves.
It's Midsummer Night.
No times for dreaming...
With full supporting cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and one orang-utan. And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.

Well that was intense.

It’s been well documented here over the last few months, my first foray into the Witches thread of the Discworld books, and I finally made it onto the fourth instalment, which effectively blew me away. Up until now, my favourite had been ‘Wyrd Sisters’ but something about ‘Lords & Ladies’ really clicked for me and it’s now vying for top spot.

I’ve found with past Pratchett novels that the action takes its time to build up, and the first two thirds are generally spent weaving several seemingly random stories that suddenly intertwine and snowball into a brilliant climax. Not so here. The action kicks off right from the start, and whilst there were a few sections that take their time, and storylines that amble along at their own pace, I was thoroughly hooked and engrossed in the story right from the first page.

It features some truly brilliant character development, particularly in the case of Magrat who has a real shift which was fascinating to watch unfold. But also with Granny Weatherwax, who continues to be brilliantly acidic, but with a slightly softer side she likes to keep well-hidden and cowed into submission.

This story takes stories set in motion in previous novels and builds upon them, although a brief summary at the start gives you an overview if you’re coming into this novel without the background laid out in the previous books. It also felt darker and at times scarier than I’ve come to expect from Discworld novels, which kept me on my toes and gave me chills whilst I was reading. This is definitely fairies as you’ve never seen them before, and they are not the nice kind…

All in all this is another fantastic Discworld instalment, offering brilliant character development, more acerbic wit and a brilliant melding of other stories and ideas into one insane yet brilliant whole. Pratchett has definitely found his feet within the Discworld now and it shows in one of the strongest novels I’ve read yet in the Witches thread.

Review: Witches Abroad by Sir Terry Pratchett

Publication Date: December 23^rd 1998 (this edition)
Publisher: Corgi
Length: 288 pages

Things have to come to an end, see. That's how it works when you turn the world into stories. You should never have done that. You shouldn't treat people like they was characters, like they was things. But if you do, then you've got to know where the story ends.'
It seemed an easy job... After all, how difficult could it be to make sure that a servant girl doesn't marry a prince? Quite hard, actually, even for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. That's the problem with real life – it tends to get in the way of a good story, and a good story is hard to resist. Servant girls have to marry the prince. That's what life is all about. You can't fight a Happy Ending, especially when it comes with glass slippers and a Fairy Godmother who has made Destiny an offer it can't refuse.
At least - up until now...

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying my discovery of the Witches of the Discworld, particularly ‘Wyrd Sisters’ and I knew that this third outing would have to work incredibly hard to live up to the brilliantly high bar set by the preceding book.

On the whole it succeeds, but it didn’t quite recapture the magnificence of ‘Wyrd Sisters’ for me as I found the earlier parts of the story to lag and not hold my attention in quite the way I hoped. It’s still a brilliant story and Pratchett flexes his truly impressive writing skills to combine a fantastic array of fairy tales, twisting them into something quite unique.

I loved seeing Granny, Nanny and Magrat out of their element and exploring the Discworld. The combination of countries, cultures and languages that Pratchett appropriates is utterly brilliant, and I don’t think anything will ever beat Nanny speaking the local lingo. Unless it’s Greebo in person form, which was one of the best things I have ever seen.

As with other Pratchett’s the threads are set up and the story ambles along at its own pace for the first two thirds of the novel, which is fun to read but didn’t particularly grab my attention and force me to read. As a result I spent quite a while ambling through this novel around other books and didn’t find myself thoroughly hooked by the story until everything starts to snowball in typical Pratchett style. As everything comes together and we flit between view points as the action coalesces into one glorious whole, that is when Pratchett truly shines and I found myself thoroughly engrossed and unable (and unwilling) to relinquish the story until I’d seen it through to its end.

I love the directions Pratchett takes the Witches on their third outing, I love seeing the character development and the masterful twisting of other tales into one brilliant and unique whole. This may not have been my favourite Witches instalment, but it is still a bitingly funny, brilliantly written book.

Review: Equal Rites by Sir Terry Pratchett

Publication Date: October 1^st 1989
Publisher: Corgi
Length: 283 pages

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son.  Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the new-born baby's sex...

Whilst I was reading ‘The Shepherd’s Crown’ I ended up talking about it with my lovely friend Sarah who also happened to be reading it at the same time, and I had to admit that whilst I have read many Discworld books, I tend to pick a character thread and read along that for a while when I pick up a Pratchett, and horror of horrors, I had not actually read a Witches thread book before.

To which Sarah responded STOP READING THE SHEPHERD’S CROWN NOW, PUT IT DOWN THIS INSTANT AND GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING. And she started telling me about how awesome the beginning was and ended up getting all nostalgic, so we came to a compromise. I would be allowed to finish TSC with the acknowledgement that it wasn’t the best in the Witches thread, and then we would both go back to the beginning and start reading them together.

So I finished, and I read, and I loved.

It has all the incredible weird hilarity that is so typical of Pratchett’s work. The ridiculous names, the oddball collection of characters, the utterly bizarre plots, it’s all there and all at its sparkling brilliance. There isn’t yet the sense of complete ease that comes in later novels when Pratchett has established exactly what he’s doing, but the trademark brilliance is there in abundance. I love the meandering of the plot as it flows along collecting seemingly random characters and moments until suddenly you hit the final stretch of the novel and everything kicks off and it all comes together into one explosive whole. It’s an art form and a thing of beauty to see done so well.

One thing I particularly love about Pratchett’s novels is his ability to take issues that we’re experiencing in the world now and twist them into these utterly absurd parallel situations in the Discworld – a kind of skewed mirror held up so we can see exactly how insane these issues really are. In Equal Rites he tackles sexism and the definition of male and female roles, and he does so spectacularly. I adored the dismissiveness on both sides of how women could only ever be witches and men only ever be wizards and never the two shall meet. I loved how it came out in ridiculously brilliant dialogue and action packed moments, and you know, I think Granny Weatherwax is definitely a new favourite. And that’s just from her first novel, I think when I get back to ‘The Shepherd’s Crown’ at the end of this I’m going to be a wreck re-reading that.

It’s a fantastic start to the witches thread, and has left me incredibly eager to get straight onto the next one and fill in all the gaps in my knowledge. So expect a fair amount of Pratchett here over the next few weeks as I fill in the woeful holes in my Discworld reading.

Review: The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

Publication Date: August 27^th 2015
Publisher: Doubleday Children’s/Penguin Random House UK Children’s
Length: 344 pages

Thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday Children’s/Penguin Random House UK Children’s for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

A shivering of worlds
Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength.
This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad.
As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To protect the land. Her land. 
There will be a reckoning...

This is a really hard review to write, because on the one hand there is a part of me feeling devastated this is Terry Pratchett’s last novel and the bittersweet melancholy and love of Discworld part of me wants to give it a full five stars. But there is another part of me that (reading it objectively) knows that this just isn’t as good as some of his other novels.

It states in the afterword that this book isn’t in the fully finished state that we have come to expect from Pratchett’s works. He had finished writing it, in that it is a complete story with ‘a beginning, a middle, and an end’ but it is not finished finished. Not polished and honed and fully explored. And that shows. There is something missing from this book, some spark or sharpness that I have loved in all of Pratchett’s other works, where yes it is a good story, but it isn’t brilliant.

The writing wavers intermittently between the brilliance we have all come to expect, and something less focused. There were whole swathes where I felt (I hate to say this) a little bored reading it, where the writing ambled at a much slower pace and with less focus or purpose. Which is partly why it was so hard to rate because there were those dreaded parts where I wasn’t enjoying the story so much that it dropped to a three, and other parts where the story picked up and I was laughing and thrilled and loving it where it was a solid four. Those are the sections where it is abundantly clear that this was not the finished story that Pratchett wanted to tell. They read like an outline of scenes and ideas with little character, and so it is a strange read this mix of Pratchett genius with Pratchett thoughts combined into a ‘finished’ piece. There are also several subplots that appear and then disappear randomly and would obviously have had a lot more to them had he had the time he wanted to finish it. As a result the ending feels a little rushed and haphazard, but it is no less satisfying to read.

I don’t want to discuss the plot because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it is very well done. It was bittersweet and a fitting last novel – I’m not ashamed to admit that I was in tears at several parts. It felt at points, as though Pratchett knew this would be the last and is infusing the story with that knowledge.

If you haven’t read any Pratchett novels before I don’t recommend starting with this one. ‘The Shepherd’s Crown’ is not his best novel, and you are far better off starting with one of his earlier ones and coming to it at a later point. However for returning fans of Discworld, of the Witches, of Tiffany Aching, this book (whilst not quite on a par with his usual brilliance) will be a must read. It’s bittersweet with moments of brilliance, and still an incredibly good novel. Just be aware going in that whilst it ‘has a beginning, a middle and an end’ this is not the finished novel that Pratchett most likely would have wanted readers to find. Enjoy it simply, for what it is – the last new outing in Discworld we will have.

Review: The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Publication Date: June 4^th 2015
Publisher: Hachette Children’s Books
Length: 368 pages

Thanks to Netgalley and Hachette Children’s Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Your greatest enemy isn't what you fight, but what you fear.
Elizabeth Grey is one of the king's best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she's accused of being a witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.
Salvation comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most powerful and dangerous wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will save her from execution if she can break the deadly curse that's been laid upon him.
But Nicholas and his followers know nothing of Elizabeth's witch hunting past--if they find out, the stake will be the least of her worries. And as she's thrust into the magical world of witches, ghosts, pirates, and one all-too-handsome healer, Elizabeth is forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies, and of love and hate.

When you put comparisons to Game of Thrones and Graceling on the blurb for a book, I’m going to go in with very high and excited expectations. Unfortunately comparisons like that tend to end up as reader bait, rather than because the books bear any sort of resemblance, and ‘Witch Hunter’ is just such an example.

The blurb (plus the comparisons) had me very excited going in, but unfortunately the book really didn’t live up to any expectations I had and I ended up feeling incredibly disappointed and frustrated and nearly gave up on the book half way through.

This was due to terrible pacing, truly awful dialogue and a protagonist who suffers from a terrible case of one dimensionalism. There was nothing that made Elizabeth feel like a real person, I never got a real sense of who she was, what she wanted, anything that made her into anything more than a cardboard cut-out. She supposedly has these extraordinary fighting skills – she’s supposed to be the best Witch Hunter there is – but she never shows that. We see her in two fights, one where she accidentally kills someone and the second she just ends up hair pulling and slapping. Not exactly living up to the hype. She let’s herself be pushed around and manipulated and never seems to possess anything remotely resembling a spine. Where are the strong heroines I was promised? Don’t make comparisons to two novels with incredibly strong female characters if you then can’t deliver.

In fact all of the characters were cardboard stereotypes, none of whom had enough going for them to lift the novel up into something readable. The dialogue is awkward and cringe worthy, and we never learn anything much about any of the other characters. They’re just there to provide background decoration, fluttering sensations in the stomach area and occasional pieces of information.

The plot wasn’t much better. The ban on the magic is unexplained and that leaves a lot of gaping plot holes all over the place so that the story trips over itself several times. As a result the story is clunky and frustrating and never feels remotely believable. The pacing also leaves a lot to be desired as nothing really happens for the first three quarters, other than Elizabeth mooning over two different boys and a lot of wandering around the countryside, hair pulling and pretty dresses. None of that is enough to lift the novel up into something interesting to read and when the climax hits, it is too little too late.

All in all this was an incredibly disappointing read. All of the promise in that blurb and none of it is delivered. Terrible pacing, awful characters and dialogue, I was left feeling sorely disappointed by this one.

Review: Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

Publication Date: 7^th May 2015
Publisher: Gollancz
Length: 320 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Gollancz for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Welcome to Midnight, Texas.
It's a quiet little town, perched at the junction between Davy Road and Witch Light Road, and it's easy to miss. With its boarded-up windows, single traffic light and sleepy air, there's nothing special about Midnight . . . which is exactly how the residents like it.
So when the news comes that a new owner plans to renovate the run-down, abandoned old hotel in town, it's not met with pleasure. Who would want to come to Midnight, with its handful of shops, the Home Cookin diner, and quiet residents - and why?
But there are bigger problems in the air. When Manfred Bernado, the newest resident in town, is swept up in a deadly investigation suddenly the hotel and its residents are the least of the towns concern. The police, lawyers and journalists are all headed to Midnight, and it's the worst possible moment…

Even though ‘Midnight Crossroad’ and I didn’t get off to the best start, I ended up storming straight through the book in one sitting and came out the other side absolutely loving it and desperate to get back to Midnight to know more. So when I realised the second book in the series was almost upon us I jumped straight back into the sleepy little piece of Texas that is filled with supernatural goings on.

This instalment didn’t flow quite as well for me as the first one. The narrative style is very jarring in places and will put some people off more than others. In the prologues of both books I’ve found it almost too frustrating to get through, but then it eases off into the narrative of the rest of the book and I found myself able to ignore the clunky sections. However the clunky sections were a lot more apparent in this novel, so there where quite a few points where the over complex, telling the reader everything instead of showing them, became more than a little frustrating.

It was also frustrating for this narrative to be less focussed on the characters of Midnight. They were there at the outskirts, but there wasn’t the same concentration as in the first book. Everything was taken up with the murder mystery surrounding Manfred and the actual folk of Midnight are left hanging. The murder mystery was interesting, but it feels like it is tied up far too simply towards the end of the book – almost as though the author became bored. Everything is suddenly poofed into being ok again.
There are so many threads of story and backstory that are picked up, toyed with and then discarded. It felt like a very bitty novel that didn’t really get into the stories that it was trying to at the start.

It’s still a very good and involving story, and I whipped through it in a matter of hours. I loved the time spent at Midnight, I loved finding out a little more about the residents – although it felt as though more questions were raised than answered. I did miss the time spent in the close knit community though – the dinners at Home Cookin’ and the time in Fiji’s shop and the pawnshop. I’m hoping that the next instalment will take us back to the roots of the first book and really get into the mysteries that have been left unsolved from this book and let the characters drive the book again.

If you’re a fan of Charlaine Harris’ other books, or indeed loved the first book then definitely check this one out, although you won’t find quite such a satisfying story it is still a fantastic instalment and sets more up for the third book. If you’re thinking of trying out Charlaine’s books for the first time I definitely recommend starting with the first book ‘Midnight Crossroad’ and be warned that sometimes the writing style can be a little frustrating and awkward, but get past that and you won’t regret it. Midnight is waiting to welcome you in.

Author Q & A with M. J. Scott

Today I am incredibly excited to be hosting M J Scott, author of the upcoming fantasy novel 'The Shattered Court.' With a UK release date of April 28th we're counting down the final days until it hits the shelves, but to help tide us over until then M J Scott has been kind enough to answer a few questions about the book and her writing process.

For anyone who hasn’t yet heard about ‘The Shattered Court’ can you tell us a little bit more about it?

The Shattered Court is about Sophie Kendall, who is a royal witch who comes into power during a time when the court she is part of is attacked. Which means because she misses some of the normal rituals witches undergo, her power is unusual. And to some, dangerous.

What inspired you to write this story?

 My stories usually start with a character popping into my head out of nowhere. I can't remember exactly where I was but I suddenly had the image of this heroine who was bored out of her brain having a magic lesson when she didn't actually know if she had magic yet. So that was the seed of the idea.

How has the story evolved from the initial idea to the book readers can now delve into?

When I had the initial idea, I didn't know anything else about the world or who Sophie was. For me,  my world grows as I write scenes and have to stop and figure out the reasons behind the things about the world or the characters that pop into my head as I write and that in turn pushes the story. So it's kind of an iterative process. I try to keep writing forward but I usually have to go back and tweak things as I go. When I started the book, I didn't know a lot of what was going to happen. I vaguely knew what was going to happen between Sophie and Cameron and also what the initial political situation was but the detail comes as I write, so it's always a surprise. I often have an idea for the last scene of the book early on but for this one, I didn't until quite late in the draft. So I'm still learning about the world.

What was the hardest part of writing the novel?

Figuring out the last third or so of the book as I got stuck for a while and had a "this is never going to work" moment.

And the best/most rewarding?

It's always getting to the end and realizing that it did all work out. That and creating a whole world to play in.

Does anything particular stimulate your writing and creativity and do you have any set writing habits?

I try to write every day but don't always. I have a day job so my routine varies depending on whether or not I am having a day job day or not. I definitely need to make time to do other things and get out of the house to feed the creative side of the brain. For me the things that seem to refill the creative well are reading, watching TV and movies, taking pictures, doing crafty things like knitting or watercolors, cooking, listening to music, hanging out with my friends. Things that distract me while the subconscious can work away on the book.

Did you always know you wanted to write / what was the point that you realized this was something you really wanted to pursue?

I always loved books. Total bookworm. One of those kids who had to have books taken away from them and be shooed outside to play. I always wrote stories as a kid and loved English at school. But I grew up in a smallish country town and no one ever said "hey, be a writer as a job". So I pursued another career but in my twenties the urge to write kept coming back and eventually I thought I might as well write them down and see what happens. Turned out I still loved to write so I decided to get serious and try to get published. Which was a long process but I got there in the end.

What books and authors have inspired you?

I read a lot of fantasy and romance and always have with side trips off to history, mystery and sci fi. Most genres really, though not much horror. I get creeped out too easily for too much horror. Some of my favorite authors are Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Jennifer Crusie, Robin McKinley, Jacqueline Carey, Ilona Andrews, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller, Kelly Hunter, Kylie Scott and Deanna Raybourn. If you asked me for my top 5 fave books, the list would change a bit but near the top will always be Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett, A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold, Sunshine by Robin McKinley, Welcome to Temptation by Jennifer Cruise and Scout's Progress by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. 

Are you able to give us any information on what you’re working on next?

Right now I'm writing one of my Melanie Scott books, which is a contemporary romance, the fifth in my New York Saints series. It's called Playing Fast and will be out next year. Other things are afoot but not that I can talk about just now.

And finally, any advice for inspiring writers out there?

Probably everyone says that but just keep writing. Write the books that you would want to read, in the genres that make you happy. Learn about writing too but most importantly just keep writing and going after your dream.

Thank you so much for stopping by and talking to us! Don't forget to pre-order 'The Shattered Court' in time for its release in the UK on April 28th and you can find M J Scott on twitter too!

Interested in the book? Check out the review I posted here.

Review: The Shattered Court by M. J. Scott

Publication Date: 28^th April 2015
Publisher: Roc - Penguin Random House
Length: 336 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review

Mild spoilers contained below

Entangled in a court ruled by tradition and intrigue, a young witch must come to terms with newfound power and desire—and a choice between loyalty and survival.…
The royal witches of Anglion have bowed to tradition for centuries. If a woman of royal blood manifests powers, she is immediately bound by rites of marriage. She will serve her lord by practicing the tamer magics of the earth—ensuring good harvests and predicting the weather. Any magic more dangerous is forbidden.
Lady Sophia Kendall, thirty-second in line to the throne, is only days away from finding out if she will be blessed—or perhaps cursed—with magic. When a vicious attack by Anglion’s ancient enemies leaves the kingdom in chaos, Sophia is forced to flee the court. Her protector by happenstance is Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a member of the royal guard, raised all his life to be fiercely loyal to the Crown.
Then Sophia’s powers manifest stronger than she ever imagined they would, and Cameron and she are inextricably linked in the process. As a witch unbound by marriage rites, Sophia is not only a threat to the established order of her country, but is also a weapon for those who seek to destroy it. Faced with old secrets and new truths, she must decide if she will fight for her country or succumb to the delicious temptation of power.

This novel was one I was incredible excited about ever since it first cropped up on Goodreads. However it ended up being a slightly mixed read for me. There were elements that I loved, but sadly there were also parts that really didn’t work, so whilst I did enjoy the book it didn’t rate as highly as I was hoping it would.

I enjoyed the fantasy world, and on the whole the world building was really good although there are a lot of gaps to be filled in as the series progresses. The idea of the royal witches, the shake up to the court, the intrigue and underhand dealings in a royal setting are all things I love in novels and I thought were brought into the plot to heighten the tension incredibly well. I also loved elements of the romance, although there were aspects that were not quite as strong that I will go into further detail on in a moment.

It was a quick read, drawing me into the story and immediately shaking things up and launching into a rapidly thickening plot, and as a light romance book with magical undertones and a side serving of court life I really loved it. However I was expecting more from the blurb and this is where the problems start to creep in.

The novel felt like it was trying to be too many things, and go in too many directions at once, and as a result feels as though none of the aspects are more than touched upon. It couldn’t quite decide if it wanted to be a romance, or a court intrigue, or a tale about witches and as a result feels like it touches on each aspect but doesn’t fully develop them. It doesn’t really feel like the stakes are particularly high or the emotional impact or consequences are particularly real.

The pacing is a little off in places, particularly for the first third of the novel. Whilst it is important that Sophie and Cam are separated from the castle for the events that shape the story to unfold, it feels implausible and slows the tempo of the novel right down. Their travels round the countryside sadly do not make for the most fascinating reading.

The romance as well was slightly mixed. There was no real development of feeling between Cam and Sophie. They go from near strangers to acting as though they have been together for years with no real in-between. I would have loved to see more of a build-up and development between them. However their feelings towards each other really drove the latter part of the novel and I am looking forward to seeing more of them as a partnership in the second novel. However do be wary of some of the language used, particularly in the sex scenes, as it isn’t language readers would normally expect in a fantasy novel. If you’re familiar with modern romances it won’t be quite as jarring, but I was quite surprised at some of the language as it really threw me out of the fantasy setting and wasn’t in keeping with the language used in the rest of the novel.

It felt like the ideas were there for this – a love story in a land where nefarious dealings are happening and witches, particularly royal witches are powerful tools of the court – however none of them were brought to full fruition. The groundwork for the second book has been well laid though, and I’m very interested to see where the second books takes us.

Review: Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

Publication Date: 9^th April 2015 (paperback)
Publisher: Gollancz
Length: 305 pages

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Gollancz for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review
Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It's a pretty standard dried-up western town.There's a pawnshop (someone lives in the basement and is seen only at night). There's a diner (people who are just passing through tend not to linger). And there's new resident Manfred Bernardo, who thinks he's found the perfect place to work in private (and who has secrets of his own).Stop at the one traffic light in town, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth...

This book and I almost didn’t hit it off with the prologue, the slightly odd narrative style and over explanation/rambling details about staircases and windows and where doors were was incredibly off putting and I very nearly put the book down just a few pages in. However that felt like I wasn’t giving it a fair chance and I decided to at least see how the first few chapters went – at which point I was hooked…

This is my first foray into Harris’ writing, although I have watched a good deal of the TV show ‘True Blood’ and I was really caught off guard by it. The omnipresent narrative voice was something I haven’t found in a book in some time and it was fascinating. It really felt like it was almost the town itself telling the story, adding in odd little details about what people were doing on the other side of town. Fascinating, strange and a little jarring to get used to at first the writing style had moments of clunkiness, but on the whole it worked really well at sucking me in and hooking me into the story.

The real brilliance is in the sense of the town and the characters that Harris has created. She captures that small town atmosphere perfectly and I loved getting to know these people and the secrets they’ve been hiding – although it feels like there are still many more secrets left to uncover.
I feel in love with these characters without even realising it. They were such an odd and eclectic mix of people yet they make a truly amazing group. Whilst we got snippets from a lot of different residents there are still plenty of people left to find out more about and I genuinely cannot wait to get back to Midnight with the next book.

I also really loved that on the whole things weren’t spelled out for the reader. The people living here had known each other (and this world) for some time so things like vampires didn’t need explaining exactly. The reader was left to use their brain and keep up with the world as it unfolded without being spoonfed every detail, which I loved. So often you have unrealistic exposition so that the reader knows everything easily and it becomes jarring and irritating when the characters would have no real reason to do that. This meant my brain had to do some leg work and I had a couple of moments where my perception of the town had to shift to accommodate new information, but I loved that.

It was slightly frustrating to have worked out the killer at the point that they are first introduced, I think I may have read too many murder mysteries with twists! But despite the shock value being taken away from that I still really loved the puzzle as everyone tried to work out who the murderer was.

This is a really fantastic start to a new series, with a wonderfully eclectic cast of characters and a truly strange town they call home. I loved it and I cannot wait to get back to Midnight for more.