Miss Phi's Bookshelf: adventure

adventure

Review: Inherited

7/13/2016

Title:
Inherited
(Curses of VIII #1)

Author:
Freedom Mathews

★★★☆☆

3.75 out of 5 stars

The Wilted Rose, of faery-tale and folklore, is a pirate ship filled with unfortunate souls-each forbidden to love. One such soul is Valencia 'Lennie' Roux. Raised in a brothel and an heir to a curse; Lennie never expected to pique the interest of any man. Yet with the arrival of vivid-eyed Nathaniel, she is torn between wanting to know him better and fearing what that knowledge would mean.

With Nathaniel bringing the crew's total to six, the Wilted Rose sets off in search of the remaining two heirs. They hope that in reuniting, they will convince the faery Sorceress responsible for the curse, to end it. However lurking beneath the water is a long-standing enemy of the Wilted Rose; who is determined to thwart their quest and bring down its leaders.

Together the eight heirs fight for survival, friendship and love.

**ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

Pirate books are not something I look for but Inherited's summary got my attention so I decided to apply for an ARC since I wanted to give the "genre" a try, also because it involved faeries and curses and that itself sounded pretty amazing.

The writing style was very fluid so it got me engaged since page 1, it was an easy read however, the rhythm was inconsistent throughout the whole book, sometimes it would slow down and feel as if nothing was happening then the next chapter it would pick up again making me want to skip a couple of pages every time this would happen. There was also lots of action every few chapters with sword fights because that is what pirates do.

The story itself was very appealing, the idea of a curse where you are forbidden to love let alone tell the person you love how you feel about them, which might not seem too drastic at the beginning but then it got me thinking this is not something easy to avoid when the feelings are too real, then why must such little word mean the death of the ones that are the source of your affection? As if love by itself wasn't hard enough already now add a little curse and complicate things further. I only wish there was a better world building, I felt things were a little too all over the place then I couldn't really get a hold of how the magic system worked and why weren't there witches on earth too.

The pirate crew was very likable, especially because of their dynamics with Lennie -the main character- they all accept her past and respect her because they know that what she did does not define who she is. Lennie is a very flawed character, she has a very dense past yet didn't let it dictate her life, and even though she has her moments of weakness she also fights to become her better self. I liked Lennie a lot since I don't get to read about characters overcoming what she did often, especially on the YA genre. She is a fighter.

The romance was too soon too fast for my taste, it felt a little bit forced and I just couldn't understand why Nathaniel -the newest crew member- and Lennie were so attracted to each other when they barely knew one another, however, they way Nathaniel respects Lennie flaws and all only demonstrates he actually loves her.

I will certainly be looking forward to read more of Freedom Mathew's work in the future.

Happy reading,

__________________________________

About the author:

Freedom is a twenty-something book hoarder with a fondness for all things vintage. She lives in rural Hampshire, UK, with a hotchpotch of family members, ponies and wonky bookshelves. Creating stories has been a passion since before she can remember, and she has been consciously writing since she was 14 years old. An introverted and shy girl, Freedom found her voice in imaginary worlds and has continued to do so…

Website: http://freedomm.blog.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14713025.Freedom_Matthews

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freedommatthews

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freedommwrites

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freedommwrites

Tumblr: http://freedommatthews.tumblr.com/

adventure

The Martian

9/27/2015

Title:
The Martian

Author:
Andy Weir

★★★★☆

4.5 out of 5 stars

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

I consider this to be one of the best books I've read this year. It is smart, funny, with an original story and a lovable main character (yes, I fell in love with Mark Watney, 'cause of science). The story is told in such a way that it makes a serious/stressful situation feel lighter when injected with the perfect amount of humor:

Teddy swiveled his chair and looked out the window to the sky beyond. Night was edging in. “What must it be like?” he pondered. “He’s stuck out there. He thinks he’s totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man’s psychology?” He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.”

LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.

This book I enjoyed from the start and was rooting for Watney to succeed until the very end. Highly recommend.

adventure

Ready Player One

9/27/2015

Title:
Ready player one

Author:
Ernest Cline

★★★★☆

4 out of 5 stars

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved — that of the late twentieth century.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt — among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize.

This book was just so fun to read, it has its ups and downs but absolutely fun for someone who was either born in the eighties or has been active in virtal worlds such as second life (guilty of both!).

I have to admit the main reason why i liked this book was because it makes you think, I found myself feeling pity for all the gunters (egg hunters), thinking "but why would you waste your whole life learning, memorizing every single thing there is to memorize about the 80's pop culture, what happens after someone claims the prize? what if you don't develop any set of skills? is it really worth the try?

And then I went further: how long until we get to the same point? Cause we are certainly getting there, virtual/online communications are becoming more important each day, we are replacing physical presence with online presence.