Genre
Book Review: Red Runs the Witch's Thread by Victoria Williamson
Paisley, Scotland, 1697. Thirty-five people accused of witchcraft. Seven condemned to death. Six strangled and burned at the stake. All accused by eleven-year-old Christian Shaw. Bargarran House, 1722. Christian Shaw returns home, spending every waking hour perfecting the thread bleaching process that will revive her family’s fortune. If only she can make it white enough, perhaps her past sins will be purified too. But dark forces are at work. As the twenty-fifth anniversary of the witch burnings approaches, ravens circle Bargarran House, their wild cries stirring memories and triggering visions. As Christian’s mind begins to unravel, her states of delusion threaten the safety of all those who cross her path. In the end she must make a terrible choice: her mind or her soul? Poverty and madness, or a devil’s bargain for the bleaching process that will make her the most successful businesswoman Paisley has ever seen? Her fate hangs by a thread. Which will she choose?
By Marie Sinadjan2 years ago in BookClub
Book Review: Undine's Blessing by Tessa Hastjarjanto
A dutiful daughter, a mystical archipelago, and a hidden power waiting to command the tides... Marella spends her days caring for her sick mother and selling her father's fish. Bound by duty and love, she dreams little of adventure. But when her mother must travel to the city for treatment, her father takes her out to sea, despite her fear of water. A storm steers them to Emberrain, home to a tribe of magical nymphs and a place of secrets, where Marella discovers a startling truth: her father is a frequent visitor to these mysterious islands. Soon she learns that Emberrain isn't the only secret he had kept from her. Marella has the power to control water and communicate with aquatic animals. Overwhelmed by the magical but dangerous islands, and the secrets of her father, Marella must learn to harness her powers to save herself and her new aquatic friend before they are separated from their parents forever. Undine's Blessing is a journey of wonder, where fears are faced and mysteries unravel, and a young girl learns that true adventure begins when you dare to embrace who you truly are.
By Marie Sinadjan2 years ago in BookClub
Book Review: Sparks of Bright Matter by Leeanne O'Donnell
When ambitious apprentice chemist and secret alchemist Peter Woulfe is tasked with caring for a mysterious illustrated book, the Mutus Liber, he quickly realises that the grimy underworld of Georgian London is even more dangerous than he first believed. Soon the book is stolen by the light-fingered Sukie and Peter finds himself being pursued by threatening men who are willing to do anything to get the book back. Where in teeming London might Sukie be found? Why is Peter so enthralled by her? And what is it about the Mutus Liber that is so enticing? As the search for the book becomes an urgent game of cat and mouse, it seems that the key to Peter's present dilemma might only be found in half-remembered events from his childhood, and then further back still, in the mists of Irish myth. A spell-binding and unputdownable tale about spirit and matter, love and lust, and reality and magic.
By Marie Sinadjan2 years ago in BookClub
WE MUST GO FASTER THAN LIGHT!
Earth had an expanding interstellar empire; for decades they had been locked away, trapped inside their solar system, barely able to send manned spaceships beyond their closest neighbouring body. All they had sent into space since that point in their spacefaring history were probes and space stations.
By RobertFeld2 years ago in BookClub
Fletch and the Man Who
2024 is turning out to be a pretty ugly year. There is the continued war in the Middle East (when isn’t there one, you might say; so cynical), price inflation for basic food items (priceflation is an expression I will not use after completing this piece), there is the election noise of the various parties up here in my beloved Canada…and down below. Our parties seem to grow quickly, like mold in a basement. And I tend to wonder why there isn’t more growth in that noisy basement I refer to as the United States. I tend to ignore politics until it is trying to take more money out of my wallet, or asking me to care…or entertaining me on the page or screen.
By Kendall Defoe 2 years ago in BookClub
Audiobook Review: We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix
In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success -- but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania. Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western - she's tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry's meteoric rise to success may have come at the price of Kris's very soul. This revelation prompts Kris to hit the road, reunite with the rest of her bandmates, and confront the man who ruined her life. It's a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a Satanic rehab center and finally to a Las Vegas music festival that's darker than any Mordor Tolkien could imagine. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul...where only a girl with a guitar can save us all.
By Marie Sinadjan2 years ago in BookClub
Book Review: Wolfsbane by Franklyn S. Newton
One cold winters' eve a bookish witch is closing her apothecary, when a dashing lycanthrope pack leader knocks on the door, looking to speak to her. But as the moon rises, their meeting takes a turn that requires her magical expertise.
By Marie Sinadjan2 years ago in BookClub
