The Apothecary's Daughter

The Apothecary's Daughter

Julie Klassen

387 pages

Bethany House Publishers

Source: NookBook

★★★★☆

Happy Valentine's Day, readers!  In honor of today's holiday (or, more accurately, by pure coincidence) I will be reviewing a romance novel, The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen.  Finally, I found a romance novel that wasn't totally predictable and held some sort of actual plot!

There were so, so many things to love about this novel.  First, there was an actual plot to this romance novel besides the typical "I love him does he love me?" plot.  Lilly was raised by her father, an apothecary, after her mother left the family.  During the novel Lilly embarks on a journey to discover where her mother left to and why.  In the end she must come to terms with her mother's abandonment.  In addition to that, Lilly's aunt and uncle take her from her small town of Bedsley Priors (which sounds a lot to me like Bedford Falls!) to London, where she learns to be high society and where her aunt hopes she will find a proper husband.  Though Lilly loves her new life in London, when her father falls ill she must go back to her small town to help him with his business and to help him heal.

I think what I enjoyed most about this novel was that even by the last couple chapters I still had no idea who Lilly was going to end up with.  At points during the novel Lilly had up to three potential suitors at one time.  For the longest time I thought she would end up with one man, though in the end she ended up with another and I felt as though she had made the right choice.  

In reading other reviews of the novel I was surprised to read that some readers felt like there was too much Christianity in the story that, they claimed, snuck up on you in the second half.  I didn't notice any such thing.  The main character is a Christian and prays on occasion, but I didn't feel the novel was overly preachy like some Christian novels can be.  In fact, I wouldn't even classify this as a Christian romance novel, but simply a historical romance novel.

The only downside to this novel was that I read the eBook version, which was riddled with typos, especially towards the end of novel.  Extra letters at the beginnings of words, misplaces quotation marks, etc.  It didn't ruin the novel too much and I'm sure a hard copy of the book wouldn't contain such errors.  Overall it was a great read.

Hex Hall

Hex Hall
Rachel Hawkins
323 pages
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Bought for myself because I couldn't wait for PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★★

You can read the Goodreads summary of this novel here.

I think this is the first time I've read a YA novel about witches since I was a YA myself.  Sure I've done vampires (Twilight) and werewolves (Shiver) and fallen angels (Hush, Hush) and immortals (Evermore) - but witches?  Not since I read The Witch of Blackbird Pond in fifth grade.  I discovered this one through that trusty message board I frequent and it seems it's all the rage, despite the fact that when I started I (a) still didn't know it was about witches and (b) could never remember if it was called Hex Hall or Hex Hail.  I think Hex Hail would be a badass title for some sort of novel about extreme weather.

Sophie Mercer was born a witch and came into her powers, as all witches do, at age twelve.  By the time she reached the age of sixteen she had screwed up one times too many and was forced by the Council to attend a boarding school for witches until she turned eighteen.  Mystery and danger ensue and so does a little romance.

I particularly enjoyed the theme of "frienemies" forced by a greater cause to come together, work together.  It was great to see Sophie work together with Elodie until the plot twist of the century at the end of the novel.  I really don't want to give this one away, but trust me - when you get to the last few chapters, everything you thought you knew is actually something different.

I noticed some small parallels between Hex Hall and Harry Potter and even Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but overall it was a new story to experience.  The more I read on, the more I learned about Sophie, the world she was somewhat forced to live in, and the danger she was in.  Overall, it was pretty fascinating and, dare I say, original.  While I read the first half of the novel I didn't think this series was something I would be able to get into, but as the plot thickened in the second half I found myself thoroughly enjoying the novel and now that I'm done, I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Demonglass, when it's released in a few weeks.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either
Meg Cabot
344 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★★

Being that I've already reviewed the first book in this trilogy, I'm not going to spend much time reviewing the second.  In this second novel about Heather Wells, former pop star turned resident hall assistant turned amateur sleuth, Heather and her residence hall are faced with yet another murder, just months after the murders that took place in the first novel, Size 12 Is Not Fat.  As usual, her landlord/psuedo-boyfriend, Cooper, is telling her to stay out of it - but let's face it, Heather cannot let the investigation of the murder of an innocent cheerleader lay solely in the hands of the cops, who we all know from book one are not as competent at their jobs as they would like Heather to believe.

Who doesn't love a saucy, overweight, former teen pop sensation turned amateur detective?  Meg Cabot has done it again with a clever plot, laugh out loud narrative and dialogue, as well as surprises along the way.  Five stars!

Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia
Julie Powell
307 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books, Little, Brown and Company
Source: PaperBackSwap.com
★★★★★

Who doesn't know what this book is?  It's a memoir of a young woman who decided to find herself by cooking every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (that's over five hundred recipes!) in just one year.  Her story was made into a major motion picture starring two of the greatest actresses of our time - Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.  You'd have to live under a rock to have not heard of this by now.  Quite frankly, after watching and loving the film, I'd been wanting to read the book for quite some time.

It was great to go through the memoir and consider along with Julie each thing she was cooking.  She'd never eaten an egg before this experiment, which gets you wondering, how does that even happen?  And to be honest, I couldn't identify with Julie's disgust with bone marrow.  Have you ever eaten marrow?  In my family we practically fight over the bone in the ham steak so we can suck out the marrow.  It's creamy and delicious!  I don't see why the marrow from a cow would be that much different from that of a pig.  Anyway, I was happy to read that Julie enjoyed the marrow when it finally came down to eating it.

One of the more interesting themes for me was the relation between food and sex.  As a pre-teen Julie got a thrill by secretly sneaking peaks of her parent's copy of The Joy of Sex and later found flipping through her mother's copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking gave her the same thrill.  When Julie and Eric started dating she used food to keep him around and to get in his pants, just as Julia used cooking to help establish a relationship with her husband, Paul.  Not just in the memoir, but I think frequently in life, there is this connection between food and sex.  It's hard to explain, but it makes sense - they're both delicious, delectable things to indulge in.  They kind of go hand in hand somehow.

Watching the movie makes me want to get up and cook something spectacular.  Maybe not aspic because, let's face it, that's kind of gross.  But maybe something good like Boeuf Bourguignon.  At the very least it makes me think I'll bone a duck before I die, though maybe not anytime soon.  The book did not inspire me the way the movie did, but it was still a fantastic read.  Julie has a gift for quirky writing and the memoir made me giggle at the right points.  Props to her for blogging and then making a career out of it.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes to cook.

Outlander

Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
734 nook pages
Publisher: Dell
Source:  Nookbook ebook
★★★☆☆

You can read the Goodreads summary of the novel here.

I'd heard about this book on the message boards on thenest.com but, not knowing what it was really about, never thought to read it until it came up as a free Nookbook one week last year.  I "purchased" it right away hoping for a good book to read, considering all the positive reviews I'd seen about it.  What I didn't realize when I started the book is that it's almost 800 pages and it involved time travel.  Great, a long book about something that normally doesn't interest me - yet my compulsion to finish every book I started kept me reading.

The book starts with former WWII nurse Claire and her husband Frank exploring the English countryside.  Through a series of events they eventually come to discover a very old rock formation that, upon her investigating, sucks Claire back in time to the mid-eighteenth century Highlands.  I don't want to give the whole plot away, but eventually she marries a man named Jamie and various adventures ensue.

The author does a spectacular job with imagery that leaves the reader with a clear picture of what each setting looks like.  From fields to forests to castles, I could picture the scene clearly.  In addition to that, her descriptive skills are powerful.  Descriptions of Jamie caught in fights for his life were graphic to the point where I was a little bit nauseous to think about it, though that can be considered a good thing.

I found the novel to be pretty historically accurate overall.  Several other readers have complained about the violence Jamie expresses to Claire both in and outside of the bedroom, but that was a socially acceptable way for men to treat women at that time period.  It's not something we can fault Jamie for, or the author for, now.

Diana Gabaldon is obviously a wonderful writer that deserves five stars, but I only gave this book three stars because the plot was just not for me.

A Billion Reasons Why

A Billion Reasons Why
Kristin Billerbeck
299 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Source: Won on Goodreads!
★★★★☆

The first chapter of A Billion Reasons Why finds our heroine, Katie, at work when suddenly her millionaire ex, Luc, shows up begging her to attend her brother's wedding to which she has already RSVP'd no.  Why does Luc want her to attend?  It seems he wants her to attend because the wedding is 1940's themed and Katie knows to how swing dance very well and his mother would approve of her on his arm as opposed to his other floozy LA girlfriends.  To be blunt, it absolutely appalled me that Luc wanted to use Katie.  Quite frankly, I began to worry that Katie would give in and allow herself to be used, but, thankfully, by the second chapter, she was defending herself pretty well.  Still, Luc is not a character I found myself liking in the beginning.  As the book wore on, his redeeming qualities came out and I didn't feel quite so resentful that Katie ended up agreeing to attend the wedding.

As the novel moves along it becomes obvious that Katie must make a choice - stay with her current boyfriend, who is safe and stable though not very romantic or passionate, or choose her ex, Luc, who is portrayed as a little bit dangerous, spontaneous and definitely passionate - not passionate in a sexual way, but passionate for life, for his work, and for Katie.  It's a traditional plot line in chick-lit novels, but this one had some interesting twists along the way.

There was an underlying and forced Christian theme that permeated throughout the novel, like so many Christian romance novels.  For example, Katie kept a "courtship diary" for herself and her boyfriend, Dex.  She also tried to explain to her roommate why her singing 1940s love ballads in a nightclub made her feel closer to God - something I couldn't quite wrap my head around.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a Lutheran and I have my own relationship with God, but I find these themes in Chick-Lit to be forced to a fault.

Aside from the forced theme and the all too convenient ending (I can't give it away!) I ended up really enjoying this book.  The writing style of the author is smooth and descriptive and I enjoyed the recent pop culture references she used, such as Glee and Kindle.  The story overall is very sweet and it was a light, enjoyable read.

ETA:  Though this book was given to me through a giveaway by the publisher, it has not affected my review.

No, I haven't forgotten ye.

In the past month I've been posting book reviews as fast I can read them, so you might have expected me to have posted a new review by now.  And I'm working on it, it's just that I'm still trudging through Outlander and it's an 800 page book.  Aside from that, it's not holding my attention very well.  It's like Eat, Pray, Love to me: I don't care if I ever finish, but I have this neurosis that says I have to finish.  It's why I'm not reading two books at one time like I normally do, because I have to force myself to read this one.  I want to like the book, I really do, but I'm halfway through it and I'm not in love with it.  Here's some thoughts about the novel so far: 

• I don't mind a steamy sex scene.  In fact, I like them as much as the next romance reading gal, but really?  Get off each other and do something productive!
• I hate to have to admit I'm thinking this, but.... what's the plot?  I get what's happened and I get they're traveling around, but what's really going on?  Are they in search of something?  Is there a mystery going on?  I have no idea.
• Will she ever get back to Frank?  Please, oh please?

So, if all goes according to plan, I'll be done with this novel in a couple days.  Though, the weekend is coming up and my husband has off Friday afternoon and Saturday, which is precious time and then the Superbowl is Sunday.  On top of that I've been sick, so who knows how much reading I can squeeze in!