Tag Archives: won

Sandrine's Case

Book Review of Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas H. Cook

Sandrine's Case

I won a copy of Sandrine’s Case, by Thomas Cook, quite a while ago. It feels good to finally get it read and reviewed.

Description from Goodreads:
Samuel Madison always wondered what Sandrine saw in him. He was a meek, stuffy doctorate student, and she a brilliant, beautiful, bohemian with limitless talents and imagination. On the surface their relationship and marriage semed perfectly tranquil: jobs at the same small, liberal arts college, a precocious young daughter, a home filled with art and literature, and trips to some of the world’s most beautiful cities and towns. And then one night Sandrine is found dead in their bed and Samuel is accused of her murder.

As the truth about their often tumultuous relationship comes to light, Samuel must face a town and media convinced of his guilt, a daughter whose faith in her father has been shaken to its core, and astonishing revelations about his wife that make him fall in love with her for a second time. A searing novel about love lost and rediscovered, from one of our greatest chroniclers of the human heart.

Review:
Oh, this is a hard one to review. I spent a lot of it feeling slightly bored and wishing the pace would pick up, knowing it wouldn’t. Despite that, it also kept the tension taut and I was never wholly sure which way the ending would go. Consider the whole book takes place in 9 days, most of those with the main character sitting idly in a courtroom, this narrative tension is quite the feat.

The book really made me think. What would I judge a man on, the person he once was, has recently been, is now or will be in the future? When there’s been or will be a significant breach between one and the other, this isn’t an easy question to answer.

For those who enjoy a slow, considered pace and tightly woven psychological thrillers. This is one worth picking up.


What I’m drinking: Just hot water and lemon.

A Promise of Fire

Book Review of A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles #1), by Amanda Bouchet

A Promise of FIre

I won a copy of Amanda Bouchet‘s A Promise of Fire from Night Owl Reviews.

Description from Goodreads:
Catalia “Cat” Fisa is a powerful clairvoyant known as the Kingmaker. This smart-mouthed soothsayer has no interest in her powers and would much rather fly under the radar, far from the clutches of her homicidal mother. But when an ambitious warlord captures her, she may not have a choice…

Griffin is intent on bringing peace to his newly conquered realm in the magic-deprived south. When he discovers Cat is the Kingmaker, he abducts her. But Cat will do everything in her power to avoid her dangerous destiny and battle her captor at every turn. Although up for the battle, Griffin would prefer for Cat to help his people willingly, and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to coax her…even if that means falling in love with her.

Review:
Oh man, I have SUCH disappointment about this book. Authors, could you explain to me why you would set up a whole world around a female character, give her god-like powers, training, skill and intelligence, then infantilize her and allow her to be overpowered by a man for an ENTIRE book? Why? WHY?!

Cat seemed to have boundless powers that develop as needed—very deus ex machina of the moment sort of thing. She defeated dragons, killed thirty soldiers with a single breath, had prophetic dreams, was a soothsayer, was protected by gods (plural). Yet, in the face of one man she’s helpless. What’s more, she’s also presented as unreasonable and needlessly angry that he kidnapped her. Literally, she asked why he expected her to accept him and her situation and he said, “I expected you to be reasonable” and she internally agreed. Excuse me? He abducted her, unknowingly exposed her, threatened her friends and adoptive family. I’m pretty sure surliness and trying to escape IS the reasonable response. And she is kidnapped in the very beginning, so she’s basically a helpless captive for the whole book.

So, I’m angry that the supposedly strong female was basically, ‘strong, but not as strong as the men’ but I died a little with each cliché that was thrown in. The scene where she got accidentally high as a result of her own actions and lets all her guards down, acting inviting and sexy, but being “happy like a child” and needing protection. The one where the scorned woman went homicidal. The one where ‘her body betrayed her’ by being attracted to the man who kidnapped her. The ones where she had to be a virgin because good heroines never have sex with anyone but their hero. My god, this book was practically a cobbled together series of romantic fantasy clichés. It was also repetitive as hell.

The writing, it was fine and I appreciated that when Cat’s curvy body was compared to her thin counterpart she was the one found most appealing, on more than one occasion. Those who don’t mind seeing their women dominated by their romantic lead will probably enjoy it. I personally want to burn the darned thing, but instead I’ll put it in my Little Free Library and hopefully someone in the neighborhood will enjoy it more than me.

The Whipping Club

Book Review of The Whipping Club, by Deborah Henry

The whipping clubI won a copy of The Whipping Boy, by Deborah Henry.

Description from Goodreads:
The Whipping Club explores the sacrificial secrets we keep to protect our loved ones and the impact that uncovered secrets have on marriage, family and society. Both a wrenching family drama and a harrowing suspense story, it chronicles an interfaith couple’s attempt in 1960’s Ireland to save their son from corrupt institutions.

Review:
I won a copy of this book a long time ago, but put off reading it because it looked like it was going to be so heavy. It turned out not to be what I thought, but I’m not sure it was better. This is a hard on to review objectively because I just so strongly disliked it. Everything in this book is grim, even the theoretically happy(ish) ending. It’s all people feeling miserable and being miserable to each-other, especially those in position of authority, and all of that misery is offloaded onto the shoulders of a blameless 11-year-old boy. Even the kind characters are often complacent in horrendous abuses. I felt bad when I finished this book and I do not enjoy that experience.

I can say that I had trouble with the points of view. It stared centered solely on Marian and remained so long enough that I settled into the single POV, but then another one popped up and then another and another until we had an omniscient narrator. But it felt willy-nilly. I also sometimes had trouble telling what was meant to be current and what was memory or flashback.

And honestly, I just didn’t particularly like any of the characters. I appreciated that Marian was educated and taught by her father to think for herself and be proud of her differences, something you don’t see in a lot of mid-60s female characters, but I didn’t relate to her. The only ones I came close to caring about were Adrian and Peter and they were brutalized. Peter especially, I felt he was little more than Henry’s whipping boy, like she wanted this horrible thing to happen but didn’t want to irrevocably contaminate her sympathetic character.

Then, it finished with this rousing declaration to protect the innocent and fight the good fight with a strength of will I didn’t sense in any of the characters up that point. In the end, those who actually enjoy depressing book club books this may enjoy this. But it wasn’t a winner for me.