Book Reviews: April 2024

I got some eclectic books this month (as if my books have ever been anything but eclectic), though they can be grouped into two main categories – medieval and Ancient Rome. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy 3 out of 4 of them, but here they are anyway:

Wild by Jill Barnett:

I just finished two books in a series set in medieval Wales last month, so I’m moving to another book also set in medieval Wales, but this one is more of a straightforward romance – a young Welsh woman, suspected of being a witch, finds a wounded knight near her cottage, and tends to him, and of course they fall in love, but the knight is still smarting over being rejected by his childhood sweetheart, and there’s the matter of who wounded him in the first place. I like all the descriptions of the heroine’s life in the woods with her animal companions, and the romance is sweet, but I find the heroine a bit too naïve and childish, and the hero boring. I was going to give this 3 stars, but then the two most important conflicts of the story – how they’re going to be together with him being a knight of the realm and she a wildling woman, and who attacked the hero – are all resolved very quickly and easily in the last two or three chapters, so I had to dock one star for the rushed ending. 2/5

The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis:

Yep, another medieval book, but not a romance. I’ve read Connie Willis’s “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, set in a universe where time travel is used by historians to study the past, and quite enjoyed it, so I decided to pick this up, which is set in the same universe, but instead of traveling to Edwardian England, the character is sent to Medieval England. I have to say, I’m glad I’ve read “To Say Nothing of the Dog” first, because otherwise I would not have the patience to finish this. There are two parallel stories dealing with two epidemics – one is an influenza epidemic in 21^st-century Oxford and the other is the bubonic plague in 14^th-century Oxford – but the modern-day storyline could have been condensed a great deal. The chapters about the plague are absolutely heartbreaking and devastating, but it takes so long to get there. True, some of the modern-day stuff is eerily prophetic, like the quarantine and the hoarding of toilet paper (the book was written in 1992), but I skim-read the first 3/4 of it because it just feels so repetitive. 2/5

Caracalla by S.J.A. Turney:

This is something a bit different. One of my favorite actors, Joseph Quinn, is going to be in the Gladiator sequel later this year, playing a Roman emperor, Caracalla. Apparently Caracalla is considered one of the worst Roman emperors ever, even worse than Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus, so I got curious and wanted to read more about him. Most of the biographies I found tend to focus on his military exploits, so I opted for a historical novel instead. This is part of a series that puts notorious Roman emperors (the previous books are about Caligula, Commodus, and Domitian) under a more nuanced light, and it follows Caracalla from his childhood to the start of his reign as sole emperor, with a focus on his deadly rivalry with his brother, Geta. It sounds pretty interesting in theory, but the book is very boring. How do you make constant wars and scheming and murders sound so bland? It tries to make us sympathize with Caracalla by having him narrate the story in the first person, but it’s all telling and not enough showing. Also, I wish it had explored more of Caracalla’s later reign and the events leading up to his assassination, instead of ending with Geta’s death. It should have been called “Caracalla and Geta” instead. 1.5/5

Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard:

Continuing the theme of “Roman emperor”, I checked out a nonfiction book about the men who ruled Rome – not a traditional chronological biography of them, but rather an examination of the life of an emperor in general, at work, at play, the people surrounding them, how they are presented to the world, etc. It’s a fascinating account that shows much of the stories we hear about these emperors may be the result of the Roman equivalent of PR and political machination more than hard facts, and ultimately, being an emperor is a thankless job. It’s surprisingly witty as well – I chuckled out loud a few times (such as when the author translates Caligula’s nickname as “Bootikins” – “Caligula” means “little boots”). My one complaint is that some topics could use more focus, while others could use less. I mean, do we need a whole chapter on the emperor’s dinner table? Meanwhile, the chapter on the emperor’s inner circle is seriously lacking. 4/5

Book Reviews: February 2024

Since I was on break, I managed 6 books this month (though 2 of them are quite short). Here they are:

A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett:

I still refuse to read the last Discworld books I have left (Thud! and The Shepherd’s Crown), so when I saw that a new book has been published of Terry Pratchett’s recently unearthed short stories, I jumped at it. These were written by Sir Terry under a pseudonym for newspapers back in 1970s and 1980s, most of them predating Discworld, but you can see his trademark humor and style there already. Plus each story is quite short, so it’s a breeze to read. 5/5

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell:

Continuing my quest to find more books about Florida in the 1940s-1950s, I came upon this coming-of-age story set in Palm Beach in 1947, about a girl who goes on vacation with her mother and stepfather, and runs into her stepfather’s old Army buddy. She quickly develops a crush on this young man, only for her world to crumble when tragedy strikes and the truth is exposed. This one is a bit darker than your average YA novel, but it captures a teenage girl’s inner thoughts pretty accurately, showing her naïveté and selfishness without making her annoying. And the details of the setting are spot-on, exactly what I was looking for. My only complaint is that the last third of it feels a bit drawn-out. 4/5

The Governess Affair by Courtney McMillan:

Another free romance novel (novella, in this case) I got. It’s a prequel to a series about the sons of the characters featured here, but you don’t need to read the series to understand it (though the epilogue of the novella wouldn’t make much sense – I haven’t read the series so I have no idea who these kids are). The basic story is a marriage of convenience – a Duke raped and got a governess pregnant and she demands compensation, so the Duke’s henchman marries her to give her child a legitimate name, and of course they fall in love, etc., etc. The setup is fine, and I like the characters, but it’s too short for me to really buy their romance. Plus, I think rape is too heavy a subject for what is supposed to be a sweet story, and it’s handled too lightly (the Duke could have simply seduced and discarded her and it wouldn’t change the story at all.) 2.5/5 (I almost deducted half a star for that horrendous cover too.)

Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle:

This is another romance, but it’s a contemporary. A daydreaming woman inherits her great aunt’s crumbling mansion along with a grumpy groundskeeper, and now they must try to fix up the place without stepping on each other’s toes. As far as romance goes, this one is not terrible, but it’s too sweet for me. The female lead is a doormat. The male lead is boring. Their scenes together are cloyingly sweet, especially after they get together, so much so that I was constantly rolling my eyes at them. Nothing wrong with the book per se (though I have some complaints about the plot and how some plot points never go anywhere), but I like a healthy dose of cynicism with my romance. 2/5

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett:

Last year I’ve greatly enjoyed Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, so of course I had to pick up its follow-up, which continues to follow fairy expert Emily Wilde and her fae partner Wendell as they try to find a way back to Wendell’s fairy kingdom. This one is just as fun as the first, and I enjoyed it even more because the plot is tighter, the pacing is quicker (though the middle still sags a little), and Emily and Wendell’s relationship is finally settled. 4.5/5

First Truth by Dawn Cook:

I haven’t read a proper high fantasy book in a while, so when I came across this YA book about a girl who travels to a magical fortress in search of the truth about her father’s death and her own legacy, it seems like a fun one to start. Well, I was wrong. This is probably the most boring, generic YA book I’ve read in a while, and I’ve read plenty of those YA dystopian books in their heyday. None of the character has a clear motivation (the book starts with the protagonist’s mother kicking her out of the house and forcing her to go to the fortress because… she’s been falling asleep in the garden?), I don’t know how the magic works (there are mentions of sources and tracings and things like that but I cannot for the life of me understand it) or what it does (the protagonist and the bad guy are both after some book, but we don’t know what the book does or why they want it), and the characters are very bland. The two leads are supposed to be in their late teens-early 20s, but they act like middle-school kids. I suppose some of the questions are going to be answered in the rest of the series, but I’m not interested in finding out. 1/5