christianreader | three for October

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant - Historical novel about a young woman in love who is forced to enter an Italian nunnery against her will, disrupting the life of the whole convent. I like that the author takes a balanced look at convents in the 1500's - describing both the positive aspects and the negative, including the politics involved. Decent book, not wonderful nor horrible.

Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George - The fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses retold. I like retold fairytales when they're done right, and this was done right. There are fun little additions to the story, like the fact that the soldier is a knitter. An enchanting fantasy.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins - Sequel to Hunger Games, this book finds Katniss and Peeta returning home as victors - but Katniss soon finds that they have unwittingly started a revolution, and the government isn't too happy with them. I think this book suffered from "second part of a trilogy" syndrome - meaning it felt like it was only there to remind us of what happened in the first book and set up what will happen in the third one. That said, it was still an engaging novel, and I truly look forward to the conclusion of the series.