Books Via Ashley

The Glittering Court - Richelle Mead Review: This book was engaging and well-written, but the story was… unexpected? When you read “Glittering Court” and look at that cover and hear that it’s fantasy, you expect, well, something fantastic. Like Magic. The book gives off the idea or expectation of some magical glittering Fae court, but it is nothing like that. And after reading reviews of the book on Goodreads and Amazon, and I am definitely not the only one who felt misled. The book is set in a different world (hence why it can be called “fantasy”), but really it’s just our world with different names. While the world is vast and Mead does a good job of describing the towns and cities and cultures, I dislike it when authors take already existing cultures in our world and just rename them in theirs. It had me wondering if it was just an alternate history of our world? For instance, the Sirminicans were obviously Spanish/Italian, but with a terrible civil war that is just like S...

Walk On Earth A Stranger - Rae Carson Synopsis Leah Westfall has a gift: she can find gold. When her parents are murdered, she joins the migration west to California. Disguised as a boy, she makes the perilous journey across the continental United States, learning what it means to trust and have friends, and also learning more of who she wants to be. Review This was a really good book. I was expecting a bit more magic, but what I got was more Western. And I didn't mind at all.  I enjoyed reading about the trek west in the California gold rush in 1849. As someone who grew up in California and learned about this as part of my history in school, and also as someone whose ancestors were pioneers and made the same trek, it made me feel connected to the book and the characters. The plot was good, fast-paced, and pulled me in. A couple of times it was like EVERYTHING happened all at once. But I know that pioneer treks were hard and dangerous and people endured everything des...