Review: The Secret by Julie Garwood



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The Secret by Juile Garwood
Genre: Romance
Rating: 6 / 10

When I first heard about this historical fiction romance novel, set in Scotland in the 1100s, I was so excited. It sounded like exactly my type of book, and I eagerly waited for my library hold to come in. When it did, and the electronic book was automatically put onto my Kindle, I tore into it, only to be sorely disappointed. 

You see, The Secret is not a bad novel. My problem was that I was constantly judging it for something it was never supposed to be. I went into this novel hoping to recapture the magic of Outlander, an amazing time-slip novel which weaves romance and intrigue and historical fiction into a captivating tapestry. The Secret was not that. 

The Secret is a fluffy, quick-read romance novel which, while entertaining, left me wanting more. The plot was overly simplistic, but the main characters were charming. The romance was cute, even if the heroine was perfect and lacked the interest of flaws. I was frustrated by the way every guy in the book would bow to her wishes because, well, she was pretty and charming so hey, why not. Like, you guys, she basically gets women the right to vote. In the 1100s. Because she askes for it. Like. No. 

But this was never meant to be a hard-hitting historical fiction novel, which explored the gritty realities of living amongst warring Scottish tribes. Instead, it was meant to be a feel-good, fun, light romance and I'll admit, it did do that. I just couldn't help but want more from it, even if that's not really fair, to ask a novel to be something it is not. 

If you are looking for a quick (it took me two days), easy to read steamy romance novel, then you might enjoy The Secret-- just make sure you go into with the right mindset (unlike me!). 

What about you? Have you ever read The Secret? Did you like it?

Top Ten Tuesday: 4 Hidden Gems

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's theme is hidden gems, books that you believe have unjustly flown under the radar. To be far, it wasn't easy to figure out which books I've read that are 'well-known' vs 'obscure'. I'm still too young of a book blogger to be really in touch with what's popular (story of my life, amiright??). So, I picked four of my favorite science fiction/fantasy novels that I haven't seen featured on other blogs. I hope you give at least one of them a try!


Uprooted by Naomi Novik


“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley"

Why: This is a delightful, dark fantasy novel that I read a couple years ago and feel very quickly in love with both the story and the writing itself.







Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee

“What was a shadow, after all, but a shape in the moving world reduced to a projection of possibilities?” 

Why: Part of the problem with coming up with weekly lists is that there are bound to be repeats. I have raved on previous lists how much I adore this dark, complex, and inventive collection of sci-fic short stories.








A Madness of Angels by Kate Grifftn

“Where there is life, there will be magic; the one generates the other.” 

Why: The is an amazing urban fantasy a la American Gods novel  finds magic in the neon lights and in the humming of electrical wires. One of my favorite books of all time.










The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

“Take no heed of her.... She reads a lot of books.” 

Why: Jasper Fforde is in a class all of his own, and his books really deserve their own genre. He's witty and writes wildly speculative stories that are brilliant and quirky. Sometimes boarding on the absurd, his novels are always a blast to read.








What about you? I know I called these hidden gems but have you heard of any of them before? What are you favorite fantasy/sci-fic hidden gem novels that I need to discover?

Dear Sunday: a new routine

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with  tyngas reviews
Whew! This past week was the start of the semester, thus the start of both the class I'm taking, and the classes I'm teaching. Annnd on Monday was the solar eclipse! I had a college friend drive 6 hours to stay with me because he wanted to see the totality. Even though I was not the one who drove 12 hours in two days, I have to say, being in the totality was totally worth it (ha ha ha). Right before the totality, it looked like simply a cloudy day (we were beset by clouds but luckily they didn't obscure the totality). To be honest, everything but the actual totality was a bit of a let down-- it merely looked like it was going to rain rather than a magical once-in-a-lifetime event. But the totality? Man. I spent the way-too-short 2.5 min gawking, freaking out, and repeatedly hitting my friend going 'ohmygosh look over there! Did you see that? And that??' And then, suddenly, it was all over.

The next solar eclipse has a path of totality going through my hometown in seven years, so I'm already planning on going home to see that. Seven years, though! Assuming I do two post-doc positions, in seven years I should be 2-3 years into my actual real life career job! That's absurd. Anyway. Let's move away from the existential crisis and talk about books (story of my life, amiright??).
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((click on the book to go to the Goodreads page!))
If you remember, last week I showed off three books I had just picked up at the library and I was trying to figure out which one to start first. Well, before I could decide, this digital library hold came in and was automatically downloaded onto my Kindle...so the decision was made for me. I'll post a review of this book on Thursday so stay tuned!             

  • Top Ten Tuesday: Hidden Gems
  • Review: The Secret by Julie Garwood
That about sums it up! What about you? How was your week? Did you get a chance to see the solar eclipse? 

Review: A Closed and Common Orbit


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A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
Genre: Science fiction
Rating: 9/10
[[because apparently I have moral objections to 10/10s??]]

When I read the first book in this series, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I knew that I had stumbled upon something special. The plot was intriguing and the world building was skillful. Becky Chambers excels at imaging all the mundane (and critical) complications of interspecies interactions. From having different trains for different species (they all require different types of chairs!) to imaging how other species would view child rearing (ranging from getting degrees in parenting to viewing children as lesser than adults due to lack of life skills), she creates this massive world, and then shares with you a small, beautiful part. 

A Closed and Common Orbit is a beautiful, heart-breaking, intriguing book that deals with complex topics without ever feeling bogged down by them. The main character is an AI who find herself in a 'body'. We follow her struggle, as she tries to adapt to a life that she was not programmed for. At the same time, we catch glimpses of her caretaker and friend's toubled childhood. 

That was part of what I loved most about this novel-- how realistically the author depicted Jane as she progressed from child to teenager to adult. When she was a child it was written in a child-like way, when she was a teen, everything and everyone was super annoying and insufferable and she just wanted to sleep goshdarnit. 

PLEASE NOTE that this is technically book number two in a series. This novel has an entirely new cast of characters from the first novel so it is almost a standalone read. However, there is one decently major plot point that reading this book first would spoil for you. You do you. 

My (very minor) complaints about book #1 were not a problem in this novel. The cast of characters was remarkable smaller this time around, so there weren't any subplots that fizzled out, or characters that got left behind. 

Once again I loved Chambers' use of transmedia, interspersing normal narration with snippets of conversations from chat rooms and emails. She made the world come alive by peppering the text with these conversations. I loved how real the chat room discussions felt-- yes they were discussing self-aware AI but also it felt like a chat room discussion that I could read on the internet today (except for less vitriolic). 

Overall, this was an amazing book which lived up to my admittedly high expectations. You should probably read the first book in the series, but it wouldn't be confusing if you were to just start with this novel, as the characters are almost all new. 

What about you? Have you read this novel? Were you as blown away as I was? 

Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Novels set in Boarding School

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's theme is, surprise surprise, a back to school free-for-all. I interpreted this prompt as novels set in schools, actually now that I look at my list, all of them are set in boarding schools! Read on for five books set in boarding schools that I highly recommend.


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The Magicians by Lev Grossman 

Why: This is like a grungy adult version of the Harry Potter series, where finding out that magic exists doesn't make all of your other problems just disappear. It's the first in a trilogy and definitely one of my favorite books of all time.


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Why: So I read this one years ago, but I remember it being a fun, YA read. It's set in a secret agent boarding school, so how could it not be fun?

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Why: It took me ages to actually read this novel, but when I did, I wondered why I had waited so long. It's interesting, odd, and all together an enjoyable read.


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The Secret Place by Tana French

Why: You have probably heard me fangirl about Tana French before-- she is, hands down, my favorite murder mystery author of all times. This novel, which is technically part of a really loosely defined series, centers on a group of friends who go to a boarding school where a murder takes place.



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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 

Why: Okay, I admit, this one is a little bit of a stretch as the entire book is not set in school. However, this dystopian memoir does spend time talking about growing up in school, so I thought I would add it to the list. It is my friend's absolute most favorite novel-- my feelings were a bit more tangled than that. However, it is a hauntingly beautiful book and well worth the read.

What about you? Have you read any of these novels? If so, what did you think??

Dear Sunday: School is coming

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with  tyngas reviews

It's official. The students are back in town, and my city's population has like doubled in the past few days. It's hard not to feel some iota of bitterness, as the traffic gets worse and my quiet campus suddenly explodes with activity. 

But, alas, this is the burden of living in a college town ((and since technically I attend one of the said colleges, I really have no room to complain)). 

Anyhow, I'm super pumped for the eclipse tomorrow! I miraculously live in the middle of the path of totality-- so not only will the moon completely cover the sun, it will do so for like 2 minutes. That is, if it doesn't rain like they are predicting D:

The photo is from my bike ride I did yesterday morning where I beat my personal goal and biked for twelve miles! Which is mildly absurd because I had to clean the church that afternoon. But it was a really nice ride! I saw a rainbow tailed skink (lizard?), an alligator gar, a doe, a heron, and a snake. Quite the nature adventure :) 


Counted with the stars by Connilyn Cossette
The Lady's Maid by Susan Page Davis
Once again I'm combining my stacking the shelves post with my dear Sunday post! I picked up three new books at the library yesterday. Two of them had been on my to-read list for quite some time and The Lady's Maid was an impulse pick. Have you read any of these?

...wow. Like conceptually I knew I didn't post on Thursday (too busy having fun with friends!) but still-- it looks so meager! Here's to a better week this week...

  • Top Ten Tuesday: Back to School themed
  • Some post TBD on Thursday....maybe a review? maybe a discussion about some books I recently decided to not finish reading? 
Andddd that's it! I start teaching this week, and I'm taking one class this semester AND I have my normal research stuff going on. Here's to hoping that I don't drop off the face of the earth and manage to keep up with this blog! 

What about you? Are you pumped about the eclipse? Do you harbor some bitterness towards the incoming college students in your town? Do you know the difference between a lizard and a skink? 

Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Must-Read Books for Scientists

((and everyone else!))
Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

It's back!

Top Ten Tuesday is back! It's a weekly meme that has been on summer break but now, just like back-to-school events and fall themed lattes, it's reappearing in our lives.

This week's prompt was ten five book recommendations for any specific group of people-- so I choose scientists, though of course, I believe that everyone would enjoy this books!

What makes them for 'scientists'? I picked out books that were really inventive-- mostly sci-fic, where the technology is unique, with inventions that just blew my mind and sparked my imagination.


Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

"Tribal: that’s what they called humans from ethnic groups too remote and “uncivilized” to regularly send students to attend Oomza Uni."

Why: This is a beautiful, fascinating story which feels, at the same time, both wildly inventive and universal. It's a coming-of-age novella which casually throws in interesting ideas of technology and space travel.





Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee


“There are too many shapes of love to be counted. One of them is forgiveness.” 

Why: Conservation of shadows is a collection of short-stories that never failed to blow my mind. Yoon weaves in mesmerizing mix of magic and technology with grace, crafting stories that are a delight to read.




The Long way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

 “That’s such an incredibly organic bias, the idea that your squishy physical existence is some sort of pinnacle that all programs aspire to.”

Why: I mean, just check out my review to hear more fan-girling but in short, I loved this sci-fi novel. I loved the way that the author complexly imaged other species, the attention to detail she paid to the clashing of alien cultures.


Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

"I keep expecting this to get easier, that it will start to feel as if I'm going to sleep. But it doesn't. Maybe it's not possible to get used to dying."
Rob reached out to comfort her, then remembered it was forbidden and drew back. If not for the surveillance, Rob would have reached under the silver cover and taken her hand, cold and stiff as it would have been.”

Why: I read this book years ago, but I remember really enjoying it. It has such an interesting, novel premise. When a young woman is killed in a car accident, she wakes up not in a hospital, but in a cryogenic dating center.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Clark

“Finn stood, his narrow body unhinging at the waist. He handed the jar to Cat and smiled, but Cat grabbed the jar and pushed through the door, out into the cool, dampening night. The fireflies glowed again. She could hear them knocking against the glass. 
"How lovely," said Cat's father.
"Lovely," repeated Finn, as though the meaning of the word alluded him.” 

Why: I adored this book. It's a really intriguing mixture of literary fiction and sci-fic, very reminiscent of Never Let Me Go. There are many things going on in the periphery of this novel, self-away AI, drastic and deadly climate change-- but none of those issues are the main point of the novel.

Dear Sunday: Vacation time!!

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

It's finally here. To those of you with real adult jobs, this probably sounds insufferable. After all, I did have a vacation back the first week of July. It seems outlandish that I have another one coming up but y'all there aren't many perks of being in grad school so let me have this. 

This a pre-written post, not to take any excitement out of the illusion that this was written right before you're reading it. I'm currently running some code that I wrote for a project at work and while I wait for it to finish-- and fail because holy cow do I hate Allan variances-- I thought I would quickly write up my Sunday post. Becauseeee as you read this, my college friends will be starting to filter into my town and I will be blissfully busy catching up with peeps I haven't seen for at least one year, if not more. 

Even though I will be busy this coming week, I'm hoping to have a couple of posts up. My reading life has hit a roadblock recently-- I have two e-books that I'm not entirely loving...which means I just haven't been reading at all. So, I will forgo writing a review this week, as I prefer to write reviews on books that I have recently read.

[[Picture explanation: This past week I had to travel to a conference to present my work, which meant 4 hours of driving for 4 hours of conference, which I'm a little miffed at, let's move on. When I got home after the long day, my cat was pretty happy to see me]]


  • Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Books for Scientists 
  • ............who knows...

And that's it! I don't foresee much reading happening this week, so we'll see if my review schedule ever recovers. But, you know, it seems like a pretty good trade off to me :) 

What about you? Do you prefer to review books you just finished or do you like to review old books?

Review: Darkest Part of the Forest

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Rating: 9/10

The Darkest Part of the Forest was a beautiful, fast-paced novel, which upended gender norms with effortless grace. It features a strong, willful, female lead who dreams of slaying monsters and saving the world. Unlike some feminist pieces, this novel doesn't fall into the trap of contrasting strong female characters with a host of weak male characters-- the male characters here are strong and flawed and relatable.

Each characters' strengths and flaws were showcased as they fought monsters and puzzled out riddles, in this surreal world comprised of both faeries and Facebook, of charms and curses and English class. This might sound expected-- isn't that what all authors do?-- but I want to take just a brief second to talk about this.

One of my favorite sitcoms of all times, Brooklyn 99, features characters who exist all across the gender spectrum. You have female characters with stereotypical masculine traits, female characters with stereotypical feminine characteristics, same for the male characters. You get the point. However! For the non-macho male characters, every now and then, their non-macho-ness comes in handy. You know, they can solve the crime because they follow every food blogger in the city and know all about the latest food trends in a very non-manly way but hey it's cool because they just solved a murder. And the macho male characters have their macho-ness come in handy at various points in the show. Here's the thing though-- while there exists a female character who's super 'macho', her BA attitude, her strength-- all those non-feminine traits are seen as a hindrance and never are used to her advantage.

In Darkest Part of the Forest, Hazel is unrepentantly full of "non-feminine" traits. But this isn't seen as a problem she needs to overcome, rather she is treated like a normal person, where sometimes her reckless tendency to charge into a dangerous situation is helpful and sometimes it's really not.

Now that I've properly fan-girled over gender representation, let's move on, shall we?

Another thing that I loved about this book is that one of the most important relationships was the relationship between Hazel and her brother Ben. Yes, there is are romantic sub-plots and those are fun, but the author really focused on the brother-sister bond, which is a relationship that I feel we don't get enough of in literature. (or maybe I'm reading the wrong books!)

As previously mentioned, I love books that are inventive. I love new ideas or new representations and on this count Holly Black gets an A for her representation of fairies. They are beautiful and otherworldly, dangerous and dark.

While there were many things Holly Black excelled out, that does not mean this book was without its faults. Let me preface this one by saying I don't read YA books much at all. However, the characters in this book were just so young. They had this whole tragic backstory thing but y'all when your character is like 16, their tragic backstory happened when they were like ten. It was just hard to believe, reading about this ten year old who taught herself swordplay and went to go kill living creatures with her sword. Like, you're ten. When I was ten I dreamed about slaying monsters but in no way shape or form was I about to go off into a dangerous forest by myself.


“Once, there was a girl who vowed she would save everyone in the world, but forgot herself.”

Also, while I loved the lyric prose, this novel was written in a very distinct writing style that if you don't mesh with then this book is not for you. It's hard to explain, her writing style, but while it isn't arrogant it can err on the side of grandiose at times. 

"They were in love with him because he was a prince and a faerie and magical and you were supposed to love princes and faeries and magic people. They loved him the way they’d loved Beast the first time he swept Belle around the dance floor in her yellow dress. "

In summary, this book was a delightful read and an imaginative take on classic story, with enough twists to keep me surprised.  

What about you? Have you ever read The Darkest Part of the Forest? If so, what did you think?

Pride and Prejudice: Adaptations

I find adaptations fascinating. The idea of taking a story, whose societal context has eroded with the years, and rewriting in such a way as to preserve the original backbone, but also the make it applicable to modern society? Sounds like a challenge too large for me to ever even conceive of tackling. However, it's a challenge that many authors have thrown themselves at, some to great success, others...not so much.

The Best 

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I wish I had enough time to fully expand upon my love of the use of transmedia in the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. In briefs, transmedia is using multiple platforms to tell one story. It breaths life into characters, making them fully fleshed imitations of real people. Jane Bennet has a Pinterest board. Lizzie tweets about Darcy. Charlotte becomes friends with Collins on Facebook. It's a fascinating use of modern technology in story telling.

But aside from the flashiness of transmedia, The Lizzie Bennet diaries is my favorite adaptation because it is such a solid modern adaptation of the original novel. I find their decisions so interesting and inventive. I don't want give away all the secrets because the fun of an adaptation is seeing exactly how the new author portrays plot staples that we all know are coming.

Perhaps my favorite part of this adaptation is how they treat Lydia's story. Lydia typically doesn't get much love-- even in the original novel. She's portrayed as just an air-head silly-party girl who gets into trouble because she doesn't care enough not to. In the LBD, Lydia has a story arc that is really interesting-- we get a chance to see behind the party-girl who-gives-a-care flashy exterior and get to know the girl underneath.

The Worst

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Since I just wrote a review explaining exactly why I was so disappointed by this book, I won't waste your time reiterating my points. In a nutshell, the characters in this novel were poor sketches, halfway filled in skeletons that acted with no reason and did inexplicable things. Modernization was done in a inconsistent manner with some good decisions and some bad ones.

Something Fun

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About a year ago, I saw this movie with a couple friends and I have to say: I enjoyed it. I wasn't watching with a critical eye, I was just looking for entertainment and I found it. Some parts of it definitely were cringe-worthy (I didn't like their choice of Darby) but some parts were wonderfully feminist. When Darcy does his declaration of love there is an actual fight-- it is fascinating to take these characters who in their original context are tightly bound by societal expectations, and let them express anger in such a physical way. It's a freedom that women in Jane Austen's time would have never been granted.
Suggestions? 

This is obviously such a short list! So tell me-- what are you favorite Pride and Prejudice (or Jane Austen in general) adaptations? Which novels do I need to go check out? 

Dear Sunday: already august?!

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with  tyngas reviews. Look at me doing new things.

I know, I know-- how trite? To complain about the pacing of time itself is to, even with the most honest of intentions, repeat an overused complaint. ((move aside Star Trek, take a look at my split infinitive!))

 So I will say no more on the subject on how quickly the months are flinging themselves by and instead take a look at my past week. 

It was a good week, with weaving and bowling, lots of work and watching Dr Who remotely with friends ((we all Skype, and then pull up the video feed and watch the episode together. we're just cool like that)). This coming week I have a poster presentation at a microscopy conference on Monday which will be cool but to be honest I'm mostly looking forward to seeing a college friend who lives in the same city as the conference! And ya know, the physics. and stuff. And then at the end of the week my friends are going to start arriving IRL ((look at me using the cool kids lingo)) to visit and I'm super pumped.

We briefly pause the scheduled ramblings for a look at my stacking of the shelves. Normally I write a dedicated post but seeing how I had only added one book [[and then minutes before writing this post another one appeared]] to the shelf it seemed a bit silly to have that as a post by itself! 
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Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly || News of the World by Paulette Jiles

It is a truth universally acknowledged that whenever I want to download an e-book, there are no copies available. This leads me to having an incredibly long on-hold book list.The second the books become available, they are automatically download onto my e-reader. Which means that this past week, while I was sitting around wondering what book to read next, I received an email telling me a book had just been put on my e-reader. How helpful!

Anyho, that's how I picked up those two books. As much as I adored the Hidden Figures movie, I have to say, the book is a bit more difficult for me to get through. We'll see how it goes! 

Annnd back to the regularly scheduled program!

  • Pride and Prejudice adaptations, or, why you should all go become obsessed with the Lizzie Bennet Diaries 
  • Review: Darkest Part of the Forest
  • mayybeee something else? variety is the spice of life? 
[[I'm not going to lie, I just got distracted by my adorable cat. He's sleeping on the sofa next to me and is having a dream that he's drinking water [[like noisily lapping up imaginary water]] and he just woke up looking so confused as to why there was no water next to him]]

And that about sums it up! How was your week? Have you read either Hidden Figures or News of the World?? 

Review: Eligible


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Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/10

Eligible is a modern day retelling of the classic novel we all know and love, Pride and Prejudice.

Okay y'all. Get ready. This won't be pretty.

Let me preface this review by saying that thanks to the Lizzie Bennett Diary adaption and of course the original novel, I love the characters of Pride and Prejudice. So when I read this novel, it almost felt like a personal affront when the characters weren't (in my humble but loud opinion) done right.

The characters were two dimensional, transparent paper dolls who actions made no sense because they had no depth. Skip character development-- for that to happen you need to establish a baseline character, you need to understand why they do what they do, why they love who they love, something the book devoted zero time towards. Mere outlines of characters were put forth, leaving to the reader the exercise of filling in the rest, relying on Jane Austen's handiwork.

You see, taking on an adaptation is only for sadistic authors because at the end of the day your work is going to be compared against Jane Austen's and really, it is difficult to not be found lacking. Jane Austen's novel made me laugh out loud and while I sometimes disagreed with the character's actions, I always understood why they did what they did. When Charlotte ((SPOILER Y'ALL)) goes off to marry Collins part of me complains and throws up a fight, while part of me understands why this is happening, and what about Charlotte's character caused this outcome. In Eligible, Charlotte's actions are confusing and illogical-- without the backbone of a character, the actions make no sense. 

The timing in Eligible skipped and skidded like a needle skipping tracks on a record establishing a rocky pace that never made sense. There were 181 chapters in this 500 page book, some no longer than a paragraph, whatever the minimum required to push the plot forward was exerted.

It wasn't awful-- it was too boring to illicit such strong emotions. But with all that being said, reading Eligible was sort of like munching on a bag of potato chips while watching reality TV. It was an easy read and the pages flew by but I felt that kind of hazy guilt associated with watching trashy reality TV. I don't necessarily regret reading it, but only because I can use this poor example of adaption to contrast with truly skilled adaptations (post to come!). I will say that some people on Goodreads have brought up the really important fact that there were things in this novel that were actually objectionable. Minority characters are thrown in haphazardly for nothing else except for a look-at-me-I'm-diverse pat on the back.

The only reason that I pushed through to the end and did not give up on the book was to see how the author was going to interpretation the main story elements. Modernization is a tricky beast and a skill the author did unreliably. I did enjoy how she presented the  Bennett family's financial difficulties, that felt authentic. I did not like how she handled Lydia's story arc but to be honest I have a real soft spot for Lydia so I admit I had unreal expectations. She did decent on the Darcy-declares-his-love moment but wrote Wickham in a really odd way, creating this almost throwaway character which wasn't as influential and important as the original was.

In conclusion, my advice is to move on and find another adaption of Pride and Prejudice and forgo Eligible. To each his own and all that, but still, there are so many better less boring novels out there, novels that actually have fully fleshed out characters.

What about you? What's your favorite Pride and Prejudice adaptation? Or do you prefer the original novel?

What I Read: July Edition

I'm linking up with The book date for this monthly review! 


That little graphic pretty much sums it up. I only read four book this past month-- it's  almost like I had a move to carry out and a family reunion to attend! Luckily I'm still on track for my Goodreads yearly challenge.

Genre Breakdown:

Non-fiction
Historical fiction
Fantasy/paranormal
Fiction

Ebooks: 4

That's right folks! I went from not owning an e-reader to exclusively finishing only ebooks this month! My how things change. 

Books I Reviewed


Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Eventually all of these books will have reviews up, but as for now, only two have been published.

Biggest Disappointment

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Come back this Thursday to find out why! 

Best Book I read in July

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I'll have a review up on this book next week, but suffice it to say, I really enjoyed reading it. 

That about does it for the shortest monthly review ever! I don't know how August will turn out-- it probably won't be much better, what with school starting. I'll go from doing research full time to researching, and teaching, and taking a class. Ah, grad school. How little I will miss thee. ((of course I say that now, just wait a couple years and then I'll be pinning for basement labs and juggling three different jobs, and okay I really will miss the flexible hours that are sure to disappear when I get a real-adult-full-time job))

How was your July?? Did the holidays mean you caught up on reading or fell behind?