Book Haul #25

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly event hosted on Tynga's Reviews, In My Mailbox is a weekly event hosted by The Mod Podge Bookshelf and Letterbox Love is a UK edition hosted by Narratively Speaking. Here we can share what new books we've picked up this past week. There are also lots of other 'book haul' memes out there for you to choose from!

I have had an excellent week this week! A few freebies on the old Kindle Fire, monthly library day and one or two lovely surprises...

Kindle Freebies

Silver - Cheree Alsop

Falling - Amber Jaeger

Cursed - Casey Odell

The Mystic Wolves - Belinda Boring

Kindle Buys

The Forgotten Ones - Laura Howard

Storm - Brigid Kemmerer

From the author

Year Of The Great Seventh - Teresa Orts

From the publisher

Oksa Pollock: The Last Hope - Anne Plichota & Cendrine Wolf

Library Books

The Girl In The Flammable Skirt - Aimee Bender

Willful Creatures - Aimee Bender

Undone - Cat Clarke

Working Stiff - Rachel Caine

Two Weeks' Notice - Rachel Caine

Such Wicked Intent - Kenneth Oppel

Black Arts - Andrew Prentice

Killing Rachel - Anne Cassidy

Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell

Hysteria - Megan Miranda

A Kiss At Midnight - Eloisa James

Princess Of Landover - Terry Brooks

The Glimpse - Claire Merle

What did you get this week?

Reading RoundUp #19

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

I was right about not getting much reading done last week, hopefully this week will make up for it! What will push my reading up is my participation in the 24 hour read-a-thon on Saturday (starting at 1pm here in the UK) which I crazily signed up for a couple of weeks back, I'm hoping to get some of my own books read for that as I also need to start making a real effort in the Off The Shelf challenge for which I've read approximately 0 books so far.

Finished

Bitter Greens - Kate Forsyth

This Dark Endeavour - Kenneth Oppel

Started

House Of Secrets - Chris Columbus & Ned Vizzini

Pack Of Lies - Sara Dailey & Staci Weber

The Memory Of After - Lenore Appelhans

Still reading

Carniepunk - Rachel Caine et al

A Clash Of Kings - George R R Martin

The Taker - Alma Katsu

Tell me what you've been reading!

This Dark Endeavour - Kenneth Oppel

This Dark Endeavour (Apprenticeship Of Victor Frankenstein #1) - Kenneth Oppel
Website - Kenneth Oppel
Twitter - @kennethoppel

ISBN - 9781849920896 

Publisher - David Fickling Books

Twitter - @DFB_storyhouse
Find on: Goodreads

Book Depository

'The purest intentions can stir up the darkest obsessions.

In this prequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic classic, Frankenstein, 16-year-old Victor Frankenstein begins a dark journey that will change his life forever. Victor’s twin, Konrad, has fallen ill, and no doctor is able to cure him. Unwilling to give up on his brother, Victor enlists his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and best friend Henry on a treacherous search for the ingredients to create the forbidden Elixir of Life. Impossible odds, dangerous alchemy and a bitter love triangle threaten their quest at every turn.

Victor knows he must not fail. But his success depends on how far he is willing to push the boundaries of nature, science, and love - and how much he is willing to sacrifice.' - Goodreads

Wow, where to start with this one? It's been on my wishlist since I first heard about it back in 2011 but I've only just read it as I was so sure I would be disappointed. I needn't have worried, This Dark Endeavour (in my opinion) is all I expected it to be. You don't need to have read Frankenstein to read this but if you haven't and you still don't want to after finishing the book then there's something wrong with you! 

From the beginning the characters and the storyline hold your attention and draw you in, the tone is just as dark and enthralling as Shelley's original and the relationship between Konrad & Victor is almost a perfect split between good and evil - his having an identical twin is the perfect plot device to show how easy it is to do anything, including going against the laws of nature to keep a loved one with you. Unlike Shelley's novel you get to see Victor's character in all its glory and depth as he is the principle main character, although he is the 'villian' of the piece you can't help but root for him throughout This Dark Endeavour.

Victor, Konrad, their cousin Elizabeth and best friend Henry are always together, so when they discover a hidden alchemical library deep in the bowels of the Frankenstein mansion shortly before Konrad falls ill, it is the obvious place to search for a cure even though they have all been forbidden from ever entering it again. There then begins a race against time to save Konrad aided by an unreliable source of help, an old wheelchair bound alchemist in the nearby town with a big cat as a guard/servant and going to extreme lengths (especially in Victor's case) to save his beloved brother whilst also falling in love with his brother's betrothed, cousin Elizabeth and the intense rivalry this causes on top of the usual competitiveness between twins. 

It was almost eerie reading Victor's thoughts and seeing quite clearly how he becomes the mad doctor of Mary Shelley's novel, how he is already tiptoeing the fine line between insanity & mere obsession and t becomes easy to see how he becomes the Dr Frankenstein of the classic. The final few pages set out quite clearly the path that Victor is, in a way, destined to follow. The ending shocked me and had me ranting that it was impossible for me to buy the second book in the series, Such Wicked Intent, immediately! Definitely worth staying up until 3am to finish...

Reading RoundUp #18

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Having patchy internet access for four days did wonders for my reading this week, as did being 'home alone'! I read like a reading demon this week which is probably just as well as I'm away next week staying with the twins so will be lucky if I get one book read!

Finished

The Blackhope Enigma - Teresa Flavin

Broken Illusions - Ellie James

Falling To Ash - Karen Mahoney

Alys, Always - Harriet Lane

Mirror Mirror - Nancy Butcher

Surrender - Lee Nichols

Started

Carniepunk - Rachel Caine et al

This Dark Endeavour - Kenneth Oppel

The Lost Girl - Sangu Mandanna

Still reading

Bitter Greens - Kate Forsyth

A Clash Of Kings - George R R Martin

The Taker - Alma Katsu

All the books I finished are library books which are due to be collected on Thursday when I'm not here so I wanted to get as many finished as possible! I'm still reading Bitter Greens, not because it's awful but because I'm loving it and don't want it to end. My reread of the 'Song Of Ice & Fire' series is going well, I'm about 250 pages into A Clash Of Kings and as I have a copy on my Kindle it will be going with me on my trip. I'm going to wait until I've reread all the way up to Dance Of Dragons before doing any sort of review, it's so hard to talk about any of the books without giving away huge, huge spoilers! I figure if I do a summary post about the entire series so far I won't accidentally blurt out that ***** gets killed or ******* gets married ;)