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Kiwiria's August Adventures
Sep. 1st, 2022 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiwiriaYet another very slow reading month. However, I'm slightly excused as one of the things I did read was a 1200+ page fanfic! So page-wise, I'm doing fine :-D
Gummi-Tarzan / Orla Frøsnapper - Ole Lund Kirkegaard*, 3/5, 246 pages total
Reading Albert last month made me realize that I wanted to reacquaint myself with more of Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books. I remembered these two as being his best, and they were quick reads, so it was a fun revisit.
No Roses in June - Essie Summers, 4/5, 300 pages
A bit too 'twee' for me to give it the final star, but all in all I loved it :-D "The Sound of Music" (the first half, anyway) set in New Zealand with shades of "Pride and Prejudice" thrown in? What's not to like??
Well, perhaps some of the prideful part - a lot of the issues could have been sorted earlier if Fiona and Edward had just TALKED earlier, but it worked out, and apart from a minor eye-roll whenever it came out, it wasn't a big deal in the greater scope of things. I loved reading about how Fiona interacted with the kids, and how she slowly got used to life in the middle of nowhere, New Zealand.
I think it was originally published as a Harlequin romance? But definitely find the quality is better than many of those. Will definitely be checking out more novels by this author.
The Valley of Horses - Jean M. Auel*, 4.5/5, 546 pages
No longer my favourite in the series - I actually liked the first one a tad more. I found that I didn't care all that much about the chapters focusing on Jondalar and his brother, and kept looking forward to the ones that focused on Ayla instead.
I still really enjoyed it though, and finished it in just a few days.
Manacled - senlinyu, 4/5, 1235 pages
The aforementioned fanfic. It's not every week I finish a 1000+ page chunkster in just one week, but this one captivated my attention completely and didn't let it go again. It's dark AU HP fanfic, and one of the best HP fanfics I've read in a long time. Incredibly well written and well edited.
I didn't find it quite as emotionally devastating as most other readers seem to, but my guess is that this is precisely because it was AU. I kept thinking, "Well, that's not the way it actually happened, so XYZ didn't really die."... which of course makes no sense whatsoever when we're talking about fictional characters anyway X-D
I couldn't put it down, and read it at any chance I got. The flashback chapters bothered me a bit at first (I wanted to get back to the 'main' plot), until I realized what the author was actually doing - after which I enjoyed them just as much as the original story line.
This fanfic is definitely going to be added to my list of regular rereads... although perhaps not too regular, considering its length ;-P
Where There's a Will - Beth Corby, 4/5, 336 pages
A light and funny read. Not very realistic, but charming enough that I found myself not really minding, as it stayed true to its own universe. It's nothing special, but exactly what I needed, and I finished it in two days.
I wish Hannah and Alex could have communicated better, but they managed after awhile, and I loved Jane, Donald and Mrs. C.!
Lighthearted escapism that kept me nicely distracted :-)
Books Read: 76
Gummi-Tarzan / Orla Frøsnapper - Ole Lund Kirkegaard*, 3/5, 246 pages total
Reading Albert last month made me realize that I wanted to reacquaint myself with more of Ole Lund Kirkegaard's books. I remembered these two as being his best, and they were quick reads, so it was a fun revisit.
No Roses in June - Essie Summers, 4/5, 300 pages
A bit too 'twee' for me to give it the final star, but all in all I loved it :-D "The Sound of Music" (the first half, anyway) set in New Zealand with shades of "Pride and Prejudice" thrown in? What's not to like??
Well, perhaps some of the prideful part - a lot of the issues could have been sorted earlier if Fiona and Edward had just TALKED earlier, but it worked out, and apart from a minor eye-roll whenever it came out, it wasn't a big deal in the greater scope of things. I loved reading about how Fiona interacted with the kids, and how she slowly got used to life in the middle of nowhere, New Zealand.
I think it was originally published as a Harlequin romance? But definitely find the quality is better than many of those. Will definitely be checking out more novels by this author.
The Valley of Horses - Jean M. Auel*, 4.5/5, 546 pages
No longer my favourite in the series - I actually liked the first one a tad more. I found that I didn't care all that much about the chapters focusing on Jondalar and his brother, and kept looking forward to the ones that focused on Ayla instead.
I still really enjoyed it though, and finished it in just a few days.
Manacled - senlinyu, 4/5, 1235 pages
The aforementioned fanfic. It's not every week I finish a 1000+ page chunkster in just one week, but this one captivated my attention completely and didn't let it go again. It's dark AU HP fanfic, and one of the best HP fanfics I've read in a long time. Incredibly well written and well edited.
I didn't find it quite as emotionally devastating as most other readers seem to, but my guess is that this is precisely because it was AU. I kept thinking, "Well, that's not the way it actually happened, so XYZ didn't really die."... which of course makes no sense whatsoever when we're talking about fictional characters anyway X-D
I couldn't put it down, and read it at any chance I got. The flashback chapters bothered me a bit at first (I wanted to get back to the 'main' plot), until I realized what the author was actually doing - after which I enjoyed them just as much as the original story line.
This fanfic is definitely going to be added to my list of regular rereads... although perhaps not too regular, considering its length ;-P
Where There's a Will - Beth Corby, 4/5, 336 pages
A light and funny read. Not very realistic, but charming enough that I found myself not really minding, as it stayed true to its own universe. It's nothing special, but exactly what I needed, and I finished it in two days.
I wish Hannah and Alex could have communicated better, but they managed after awhile, and I loved Jane, Donald and Mrs. C.!
Lighthearted escapism that kept me nicely distracted :-)
Books Read: 76
