Month: July 2023

Audiobook Review: City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn  

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City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn  

Genre: Young Adult, Science-Fiction  

Publishing Info: Audiobook by Tantor Audio, narrated by Sarah Beth Pfeifer

Star Rating: 4/5

Back Cover Summary:

As heiress to a powerful tech empire, 17-year-old Asa Almeida strives to prove she’s more than her manipulative father’s shadow. But when he uploads her rebellious sister’s mind to an experimental brain, Asa will do anything to save her sister from reprogramming – including fleeing her predetermined future with her sister’s digitized mind in tow. With a bounty on her head and a rogue AI hunting her, Asa’s getaway ship crash-lands in the worst possible place: the neon-drenched outlaw paradise Requiem.

Gunslinging smuggler Riven Hawthorne is determined to claw her way up Requiem’s underworld hierarchy. A runaway rich girl is exactly what the bounty Riven needs – until a nasty computer virus spreads in Asa’s wake, causing a citywide blackout and tech quarantine. To get the payout for Asa and save Requiem from the monster in its circuits, Riven must team up with her captive.

Riven breaks skulls the way Asa breaks circuits, but their opponent is unlike anything they’ve ever seen. The AI exploits the girls’ darkest memories and deepest secrets, threatening to shatter the fragile alliance they’re both depending on. As one of Requiem’s 154-hour nights grows darker, the girls must decide whether to fend for themselves or fight for each other before Riven’s city and Asa’s sister are snuffed out forever.

City of Shattered Light is a strong debut with a fast pace and plenty of action, treading down the cyberpunk branch of science-fiction with cybernetics, tech, artificial intelligence and a world of crime syndicates and organ pirates. The bright and dramatic cover is what drew me to this book and it really does capture the novel’s essence so well. Claire Winn does an excellent job of bringing the dark yet vibrant world of Requiem to life with descriptions that paint a vivid picture. The writing flows well, making this book very readable.  

I was drawn in by this book right from the start, and the pacing was so fast that I was hooked all the way through. The main plot is exciting with twists and turns aplenty, and it doesn’t leave character development by the wayside. The plot and characters interweave, each impacting the other and making a very strong web. Some twists were predictable, but I didn’t mind because there was plenty of drama and intrigue. 

Asa and Riven make good protagonists. With quite contrasting backstories and personalities, I enjoyed seeing how they interacted and how they progressed throughout the novel. A bisexual love triangle adds a romance element but it doesn’t overshadow the plot. While Asa, Riven and Ty were all really strong characters, I felt Samir and Diego weren’t quite so well developed and I’d have liked a bit more time to get to know them. I do enjoy the found family trope though so I did like the dynamics of the crew.

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Audiobook Review: Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left2 Comments

Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery  

Publishing Info: Audiobook by HarperCollins, narrated by David Suchet

Star Rating: 3/5

Back Cover Summary:

Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fête, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well known crime writer, agrees to organise their murder hunt. Despite weeks of meticulous planning, at the last minute Ariadne calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance. Instinctively, she senses that something sinister is about to happen. Beware: nobody is quite what they seem!

Last month I went on holiday to Devon and visited Greenway, Agatha Christie’s former holiday home and now a National Trust property. Since Agatha Christie based the setting of Dead Man’s Folly on Greenway, I decided this would be a great read for my holiday. The house is beautifully situated near a river, with zigzag paths through trees leading to the boathouse where the murder in Dead Man’s Folly takes place. It was fun to read the book at the same time as visiting and be able to visualise the places Poirot visited – walking in both Poirot and Agatha Christie’s footsteps!

The concept behind this novel is an interesting one – the mock murder mystery designed by a crime author which turns into a real murder. Despite the intriguing premise, however, this novel failed to captivate me as well as other Agatha Christie novels I have read. The story felt slow and a lot of information and details seemed to be repeated a lot.

There was a satisfyingly unpredictable solution to the murder, but it just felt like a bit of a drag to get there. For some reason it just didn’t hold my interest as much as, for example, The Mysterious Affair at Styles which I read earlier this year. Poirot was absent from the story at many points and I also would have liked to have seen more of Ariadne Oliver (the novelist and planner of the murder hunt), who is a great character.

Overall, this was not one of the best Agatha Christie novels I have read, however it was an interesting experience visiting the place the book is inspired by and I’m glad I decided to coincide reading it with my visit to Greenway.

Audiobook Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

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Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Genre: Fantasy, Romance

Publishing Info: Audiobook by Recorded Books, narrated by Rebecca Soler

Star Rating: 4.5/5

Back Cover Summary:

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

It’s been hard not to see Fourth Wing on Bookstagram and everywhere else for the last couple of months as it’s been riding a massive wave of hype. I’m not someone who usually picks up a book because everyone else is reading it. On this occasion though, I did. Specifically, because chronically ill Bookstagrammers were giving it glowing reviews. Also, the dragons had something to do with it since I’ve been obsessed with dragons since I was a kid.

Fourth Wing is a fantasy romance set in a brutal war college for dragon riders. The romance is a slow burn enemies-to-lovers and although the romance aspect wasn’t what drew me to this book, I ended up loving the slow build. The slow burn gave plenty of time for the characters feelings for each other to evolve and was paced really well, and the author does an amazing job of slowly changing my perception of the love interest. The romance didn’t dominate this book either, leaving plenty of room for plot and character development.

Speaking of character development, Rebecca Yarros nailed Violet’s progression. Fourth Wing is set over a year so that’s a lot of time to cover, but the pacing is done really well. We see Violet grow from the scribe-in-training to a reluctant cadet to a dragon rider.

The chronic illness representation is based on the author’s own experiences of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. While I don’t have EDS, I have lived with chronic illness since childhood and found Violet’s experiences and feelings so relatable. Chronic illness rep in all genres is really important, but I find it especially emotional seeing it in fantasy stories. I’ve loved fantasy since I was young but I’ve so rarely seen anyone like me actually living those adventures. And here we have someone who is chronically ill being completely badass and riding dragons. It really does mean so much and I hope we get to see more rep like this in fantasy. Violet has to adapt, train and build her strength in order to be able to complete the college’s various challenges and obstacles. And although her body gets stronger, she is never cured of her condition.

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June 2023 Wrap Up

M.T.Wilson @ The Last Book on the Left2 Comments

June ended up being a great reading month. I also visited my grandparents in Devon, which was nice to take a break and have some time to relax on the coast.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 – So, this book has been everywhere and hyped so much that I was a little afraid to read it. But when I heard it had chronic illness rep, I just knew I had to. I’m so glad I did. This book has action, twists and turns, romance and dragons. Getting to see chronic illness rep in a book like this just meant so much to me.

Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie ⭐⭐⭐ – While in Devon, we visited Agatha Christie’s holiday home, Greenway. The setting for Dead Man’s Folly was inspired by the home so it was great to visit and then read the book and be able to visualise it. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this one as much as other Agatha Christie books I’ve read.

City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – It’s been a while since I read any sci-fi and I really enjoyed taking a break from my usual fantasy reads. The dark, neon cyberpunk world of this book is brought to life so vividly by Claire Winn’s writing. Plus, it’s fast paced with great protagonists and plenty of action.

As it was my birthday in June, I broke my sort of booking buying ban. I got a hardback copy of The Councillor which is one of my favourites, and Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou. I also went into Waterstones to buy Fourth Wing. It was so amazing to see it had its own table in the fantasy section, and I got a bit emotional seeing a book by a chronically ill author with a chronically ill character displayed like that.

I took some time away from writing while I was on holiday but managed to do some more when I got back, though not as much as I would have liked. Writing with chronic illness can be really hard sometimes.

What books have you enjoyed this month? Chat with me in the comments!