The House on Durrow Street

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The House on Durrow Street

By Galen Beckett

Ballantine Books

eISBN:978-0-345-52271-9

3 stars

The House on Durrow Street is the sequel to The Magicians & Mrs. Quent.  My review of The Magicians & Mrs. Quent is here if you’re interested in some thoughts on the first book.

After saving Altania from evil, Ivy Quent is living happily with her two sisters and her new husband in her father’s old house.  In the midst of restoring the house to its former glory, many odd things are found, but knowing her father was a magician, none of these things faze the rather unflappable Ivy.  Soon, Ivy and Mr. Quent are swept into the high circles of Altania society, Ivy especially attending party after party.  Nothing seems amiss in her world until she begins to experience a strange calling from the trees and finds out that the magic her father used to safeguard the house may not be as strong as she once thought.

Two things about these books: 1.) I like the world.  It’s sort of an alternative Edwardian England with magic and it’s very appealing.  And 2.) Ivy is a very likable character.  Two more things about these books: 1.) Ivy somehow got a bit dense after she got married; and 2.) I still felt as if I was reading different books only tangentially tied together by a few characters that crossed paths every once in a while.  I had this same complaint about the first book and that was not alleviated with the second.  There are characters and sub-plots in this book that go nowhere and seem to have no ties to the ending.  I do like these other characters and story lines and I especially liked the different look at the lives of those in Altania but having characters meet up in a bar doesn’t make the stories mesh.  And, it moves slow.  Very slow.  In The Magicians & Mrs. Quent, I felt like the pace moved faster but in The House on Durrow Street I kept waiting for something to happen and it doesn’t until 550 pages in to the 602 page book.

I’m a sucker for a series (probably something I don’t have to state if you’ve been reading my reviews) but I’m not sure about this one.  I so wanted to love it because I really like the world built by Beckett but I don’t feel as if the story is going anywhere.  For me, the world can’t be everything and I think that’s the way I feel about this one.  I still need things to happen and they don’t seem to be.  Then again, maybe it’s me so feel free to ignore at will.

A third book in the series is planned — The Master of Heathcrest Hall.  While I wasn’t so enthralled with the first two, something still nags at me and tells me I’ll be reading the third wondering what’s going to happen with Altania even if I’m not sure that I’m totally invested anymore.  Odd?  No.  Call me a book addict is all.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

Having finally finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night, I’m happy to be starting The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann.  Let’s start with the preface shall we.

“I pulled the map from my back pocket.  It was wet and crumpled, the lines I had traced to highlight my route now faded.” (page 6 of 325 on Nook)

Monday Morning Sunday Salon

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I was planning to post a Happy Thanksgiving note last week, but thanks to a weather front creeping slowly towards the East Coast, we got in the car Wednesday night instead of Thursday morning and made the trek to PA snow free and I never got around to posting anything.  So happy belated Thanksgiving everyone.  🙂

I was also planning to have something to post for the Sunday Salon yesterday but my husband is leaving for Denver this morning and I spent the day with him trying to figure out how to fit suits and heavy sweaters into one suitcase and never put butt in chair.

So today it is and we’re going to go about this bullet style so I can cover several topics and not have to worry about coming up with pithy transitions.

  • I honestly didn’t get much reading done, and a week later, I’m still reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  Between visiting relatives and a holiday, reading time was almost nonexistent the last week but I’m actually enjoying this slow meander through the wizarding world.  While I won’t say that the Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the Harry Potter books, I will admit to it being a nice holding place.  A lot happens in this installment but it’s also where Harry tries on male crankiness and I tend to get sick of brooding easily so parts of this one don’t always appeal to me.  That said, I’m still enjoying it.
  • Thanks to a staff retreat, I had the chance to visit the Frederick Douglass house in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC last week.  If you need a refresher on Douglass, the Wikipedia page can help you out.  I was planning to share a few photos but I was using my cell phone and don’t have time this morning to pull them off so if you’re interested in photos, the Park Service site has a few.  Going into the tour, I only knew what I remembered from school, which I hate to admit was not a lot, so I was looking forward to the guided tour from the Park Service.  The house, which is an amazing place, contains 70% of the original pieces of furniture and artwork which Douglass used during his time at the house.  It drips with history and makes you feel as though you’ve stepped back in time.  With a portrait of Abraham Lincoln hanging over one fireplace, you feel the immense burden that Douglass shouldered and the fight which he made personal for all those that would listen.  I think we may have a copy of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave on the shelves somewhere and I need to find it.  I almost bought it at the bookstore but decided to check the house first since I remember seeing it recently.
  • Pictures.  I had several that I was planning to share but again, on the cell phone and don’t have time (really it probably has more to do with patience but whatever) so if I can get myself in gear at some point in time this week, I’ll share.

That’s it for me this morning.  I’m hoping to catch up with some blog reading this week too.  I took a look at my email and blog feeds and let’s just say it was overwhelming and I may just hit delete and start over but I plan to read as you all out there give me some great book selections and I feel I can’t miss even one.  Enjoy the week.

The Distant Hours

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The Distant Hours

By Kate Morton

Atria Books

ISBN: 978-1-4391-5278-2

4 stars

Kate Morton is a new to me author.  I’ve read some mixed things about her books, and about half way through The Distant Hours, I felt I understood some of those reviews.  In the end, I did enjoy it with the exception of one odd thing that left me wondering which I’ll explain later.

Edie Burchill’s mother never cries so when a letter arrives that leaves her mother in tears, Edie wonders, almost obsessively, what was in the letter.  She finds out, after a lot of questioning, that her mother was a child evacuee during WWII.  Her mother, Meredith, was relocated from London to Milderhurst Castle in the deep countryside and found a life there she never imaged possible.  Unfortunately, it was also during this time that her greatest heartache occurred.  Edie finds herself researching the Castle and its three spinster sisters, Percy, Saffy, and Juniper, with the hope that she’ll be able to understand her mother better.  What she finds is a mystery neatly wrapped up in the pages of a children’s book.

A lot goes on in The Distant Hours but it all happens very slowly.  Morton takes her time un-wrapping the story which in some ways can be infuriating and at other moments it’s lovely.  Her writing style lends itself to long, meandering stories which The Distant Hours definitely is.  I liked that Edie was in publishing and had a deep appreciation for words and books.  It made her research and reading, which she does a lot of, fit seamlessly in but as you can imagine, it doesn’t offer a lot of action.  The story didn’t feel slow so much as weighty though and this book is over 500 pages so it’s a literal and figurative heaviness.

So what left me with an odd feeling?  Everything is this book comes to some sort of conclusion.  Every mystery, every thought, every wonder that Edie had about her mother’s life, the sisters of Milderhurst Castle, all find a neat ending.  I’m not opposed to tidy endings but I wasn’t left wondering at all — about anything.  Honestly, I think I would have liked the book more if some of my questions weren’t answered.  Even some of the peripheral sub-plots were tied up.  I almost felt a little ripped-off because I didn’t get the chance to wonder how certain things turned out — Morton told me everything.

But you’ll notice I still gave this book a rather high rating.  I did that because I enjoyed Morton’s writing and I did find myself at times unable to put the book down.  Parts of the story are wonderfully hypnotic, especially those that take place at the castle.  The sisters’ story is sad, almost as decrepit as the castle itself, and yet romantic.  The story is about love lost and love found.  It’s also about endurance (which is handy when reading a book of this size).  For these reasons, I enjoyed it.

This book was sent to me by the publisher for review.

Teaser Tuesdays

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Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  The idea is to give everyone a look inside the book you’re reading.

Play along: Grab your current read; Open to a random page; Share two teaser sentences from that page; Share the title and author so that other participants know what you’re reading.

My teaser today comes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

“Harry had been looking forward to the weekend trip into Hogsmeade, but there was one thing worrying him.  Sirius had maintained a stony silence since he had appeared in the fire at the beginning of September; Harry knew they had made him angry by saying that they did not want him to come — but he still worried from time to time that Sirius might throw caution to the winds and turn up anyway.” (332-333)

Magic Bleeds

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Magic Bleeds

By Ilona Andrews

Ace Books

eISBN: 978-1-101-18776-0

4.75 stars

Magic Bleeds is the fourth book in the Kate Daniels series.  And, let me tell you right here how much I love these books.  I put off buying this one when it came out this summer (Why I don’t know?  I think it had to do with a book buying ban or some other foolishness.) but I gave in when I knew I would be traveling for work.  I wanted something that would suck me in, entertainment, and leave me searching out places to read.  Andrews provided me that little respite with this book, and also, how happy was I to find out there are three more books to come after this one!  So, now the gush is over…the review.

Kate Daniels is making good on a bet she lost to Curran, the Beast Lord.  When he stands her up, she does her best not to make her way to the Keep and rip his head off knowing that as an employee of the Order of Merciful Aid which deals with all magical problems, it would make relations between the Pack and the Knights of the Order even more difficult.  Instead she goes about her days cleaning up magical messes trying not to think about Curran.  Without knowing it, she stumbles onto a strange phenomenon, magically poisoned individuals that emit plagues.  These infectious people start showing up all over magic-ridden Atlanta and all seem to become her problem.  While trying to deal with and contain a possible plague, Kate’s aunt, a god who loves to demolish worlds, appears and it’s not a happy family reunion.  In the midst of trying to figure out how to kill her aunt, she finds herself falling harder for Curran who seems intent on making her his mate.

As the fourth book in the series, I will say this — you can read this book on its own because much is explained and the story here is self-contained enough to make it easy to follow — but why would you do such a thing?  There’s too much fun to be had reading them all.  What I love about this series is the world itself.  The Atlanta in these books is subject to waves of magic that flood the city with craziness.  There are shapeshifters, vampires (But of a different type than most are used to so don’t let that turn you off.), mages, beasts, and everything else you can possibly think of.  Kate is crass, hardheaded, crazy, and funny.  She cracks jokes at the most inappropriate times and she makes the story fantastic.  It’s an odd mix I’ll grant you but you have to trust that somehow all of the ways in which magic makes things happen in these books will work and it does.  Andrews takes a number of fantasy elements and staples and tweaks each one so that it becomes gritty and dark.  For me, it’s like brain candy of the highest caliber.

The love story between Kate and Curran finally comes to some understanding in this book and I couldn’t wait for it to happen.  In fact, I had been waiting for three books for this one so without wanting to ruin this if you haven’t read it yet, I won’t say more.  While I’ll admit to not always being a huge fan of love sub-plots, this one worked for me.  Kate and Curran are two great characters and the reason I keep reading this series.

If you’re looking for different, dark fantasy, you might want to try these.  It’s not your standard fantasy telling but this is a world that will pull you in and you won’t want to put the book down.  The three previous books in this series are: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes.

The Sunday Salon

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We had visitors this weekend so not much reading was done. I did get in a few chapters here and there but mostly it was filled with football games and touristy things.

In the last week, I finished The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, The Exile by Diana Gabaldon, and started Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling so even if I didn’t get to read this weekend, it was still a good week overall.

I don’t have much to say today which is probably due to the lack of sleep I’ve had the last few nights.  Even the nap this afternoon didn’t help so I’ll be making this a very short salon today.  I was planning to talk about cleaning off the bookshelves or maybe even holiday reading but I don’t have it in me today.  🙂

Happy Sunday.

Today’s Book

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I finished The Sherlockian by Graham Moore last night which has left me with a craving for some Sherlock Holmes tales but I’m going to pass on detective stories for the moment (although The Sign of Four is on my TBR to be read sooner rather than later) and move onto The Exile by Diana Gabaldon.

The Exile is a graphic novel based on Gabaldon’s first book, Outlander.  I’m excited about this book especially after hearing her talk about it at the National Book Festival back in September.  Outlander ranks high on the favorites list and the only problem I expect to have is being annoyed that the characters don’t look like the ones that have already been established in my head.  I’ll get over it but there’s always that initial shock of, “Hey, that’s not what Jamie Fraser looks like.”