Kitty Tylney and Catherine Howard have grown up in the household of the Duchess of Norfolk, surrounding themselves with games, mischief and boys. When Catherine captures the attention of King Henry VIII, their girlish dreams of going to court are realized. Among the glitz and glamour of court life, Kitty soon realizes that she may [...]
Review: The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
The Future of Us takes place in 1996, when the world was just getting introduced to the internet. Emma and Josh are best friends and upon putting an AOL disc into Emma’s new computer, they find themselves on a strange site called “Facebook”. Their curiosity gets the better of them as they view pages with [...]
Review: Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
The premise for Helen Oyeyemi’s novel Mr. Fox is an intriguing one. The title character is a writer who has a penchant for writing horrific outcomes to the women in his stories. His imaginary muse appears one day and challenges him & his writing. What follows is a series of short stories/scenarios that explores all [...]
REVIEW: Wild Abandon by Joe Dunthorne
This unconventional coming-of-age story takes place on a Welsh commune and follows the stories of the residents as they deal with the disintegration of their “community” living situation. Following Kate & Albert, a teenage girl and her eleven-year-old brother, their unusual upbringing is causing internal questions and confusion in Kate as she grows up and [...]
Review: Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
The new highly anticipated spin-off series by Richelle Mead, set in the same world as Vampire Academy, follows Sydney who comes from a world of Alchemists. Due to her previous actions, she is set to redeem herself in her family’s eyes. Alchemists are born and bred to dislike the Moroi and Strigoi, both different types [...]
Review: Vampire Academy #1 by Richelle Mead
After finishing my ARC of Bloodlines earlier this week, I was curious to see where it all started. (My review of Bloodlines will be posted on August 30th, as part of the Penguin blog tour.) I have to admit, I was a little skeptical to this series… I wondered if I’d enjoy it or if this would test [...]
Review: The Help movie
Thanks to a Twitter contest a couple weeks ago hosted by Penguin Canada, I won a pair of advanced movie screening passes to The Help! I had just finished the book in June (my review here) and loved the book so much, I couldn’t wait to see this movie. Even when I just saw the [...]
Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The year is 1962, and the racial division is in full force. Well-to-do white families hire coloured maids to care for their children & their home and black people are beaten senselessly for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. So brilliantly and eloquently told, this novel is narrated by 3 characters in [...]
REVIEW: The Witch of Babylon by D.J. McIntosh
I have to admit, when I saw the title of this novel by D.J. McIntosh, I was thinking it would be of the supernatural variety. (Which, honestly, wouldn’t have been a bad thing as I like that genre!) But upon reading The Witch of Babylon, I was very pleasantly surprised. Comparable to the style and genre [...]
Review: A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Warning: there are SLIGHT spoilers in this review Book 1 of the All Souls trilogy, Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches jumps right in to an intriguing story. Diana, a witch who’s in denial of her powers, comes across a long lost manuscript. Not understanding how sought after this book is, she finds herself in a surrounded [...]
