Tag Archives: Ireland

July 31, 2012 · 6:00 am

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

The Book of Tomorrow, Cecelia Ahern

Even though I hear such good things about Cecelia Ahern, and even though I actually own some of her books, and even though I’ve seen P.S. I Love You and really enjoyed it… The Book of Tomorrow is the first novel of hers I’ve ever read! I guess I was looking for a kick in the pants to finally read one, so I am extremely pleased I got to be part of the TLC Book Tour for The Book of Tomorrow!*

Here’s the synopsis of the book from the TLC website:

Raised in the lap of luxury, spoiled and tempestuous sixteen-year-old Tamara Goodwin has never had to think about tomorrow. But when her world is irrevocably shaken by her father’s self-imposed death, she and her mother are left drowning in debt and forced to move in with Tamara’s peculiar aunt and uncle in a tiny countryside village.

Lonely and bored, Tamara’s sole diversion is a traveling library. There she finds a large leather-bound book with a gold clasp and padlock, but no author name or title. Intrigued, she pries open the lock, and what she finds takes her breath away—for what’s written inside is not only impossible and magical . . . it’s her future.

 

I was looking forward to The Book of Tomorrow a lot for the magical realism element – a book that tells the reader what will happen to her the next day? Awesome! Sadly, this didn’t really come into play until almost 100 pages into the book, so the beginning was a bit slow. You get to know Tamara pretty well – she’s spoiled, immature, and really a horrible teenage girl. I know that she deserved some sympathy for her father’s death and for her whole lifestyle being ripped away from her… but I kind of thought that she deserved it. Younger readers (I’m 25, so I suppose by that I mean teenage readers) might find Tamara more likable, but I did not.

It’s really hard to keep me engaged when I dislike the main character, but luckily the mystery of this book was enough to keep me reading and I finished the book in only two days. Tamara’s aunt and uncle are really strange and seem to be obviously hiding something, and she’s having trouble getting through to her mom. When everything was finally revealed at the end, I was happy to finally learn the big secret but I still felt like there was something I wasn’t getting. Mostly I was like “Well that was weird” and shut the book and didn’t really think about it after that.

I get the feeling that this is a “miss” for an otherwise really good and popular author. While I don’t think I’d recommend this book to others, I’m actually looking forward to reading more of Cecelia Ahern’s books because I still feel like I would enjoy them and that this one was just a fluke. Maybe I’ll try P.S. I Love You next, seeing as how I saw the movie and enjoyed the basic storyline.

Sarah Says: 2 stars

About the author:

Cecelia Ahern

At twenty-one, Cecelia Ahern wrote her first novel, P.S. I Love You, which became an international bestseller and was adapted into a major motion picture starring Hilary Swank. Her successive novels—Love, Rosie; If You Could See Me Now; There’s No Place Like Here; Thanks for the Memories; The Gift; and The Time of My Life—were also international bestsellers, published in forty-six countries and selling more than 15 million copies collectively. The daughter of Ireland’s former prime minister, Ahern lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Visit her website here.

The Book of Tomorrow is already out, so you can visit your favorite bookstore or online retailer to purchase!

The tour is far from over! Please visit some of the other stops to see more reviews:

Tuesday, July 24th: The Lost Entwife

Wednesday, July 25th: I Read. Do You?

Thursday, July 26th: Kristina’s Favorites

Monday, July 30th: Twisting the Lens

Tuesday, July 31st: Sarah Says Read

Wednesday, August 1st: Why Girls Are Weird

Thursday, August 2nd: A Novel Source

Monday, August 6th: Drey’s Library

Wednesday, August 8th: A Chick Who Reads

Friday, August 10th: Just Joanna

Saturday, August 11th: Doing Dewey

Date TBD: My Bookshelf

 

And thank you SO MUCH to TLC Book Tours for letting me a part of this tour!

~Sarah

 

*I was given this book in exchange for an honest review, and I receive no compensation of any sort.

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December 31, 2011 · 11:11 am

The Scottish Prisoner: A Lord John Novel by Diana Gabaldon

 

Yay yay yay!!!! OKAY so for those of you who aren’t familiar with Diana Gabaldon’s books, she’s the author of the Outlander series, AKA the best series EVER. The Outlander series is about the epic awesomeness that is Jamie and Claire Fraser. In that series is a secondary character named Lord John – an Englishman, and a friend of Jamie’s.

Diana Gabaldon also has another series, The Lord John series, that is based on him. They’re much shorter books than the Outlander novels, and they’re written as mysteries – basically little stories that give us glimpses into Lord John’s life when he’s not around in the Outlander series.

THIS book, The Scottish Prisoner, is the latest Lord John novel, but it’s different because it’s the only one that features so much of Jamie Fraser in it as well. The story takes place in 1760, so between the events of the second and third Outlander novels (Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager). Because this is written half in the voice of Lord John and half in the voice of Jamie, I definitely recommend reading the first three books of the Outlander series before reading this book. Most of the Lord John novels are written so that you can just kind of dive in anywhere, but not this one.

So anyways, Jamie is living as a paroled prisoner at Helwater – 14 years after The Rising – thanks to Lord John finding him the position as groomsman in the stables. His daily life is getting on fine until an old-time friend of his, Tobias Quinn, shows up wanting Jamie’s help in a new Jacobite plot. Lord John is in London and brings a packet of papers to his brother Hal - a packet of papers incriminating a member of the army of numerous serious crimes. Within that packet is a poem or verse in a language that they can’t quite make out until they learn that it is Erse – or basically, Irish. Knowing no one else that they can ask without drawing unwanted attention, Hal has Jamie dragged to London from Helwater to try to translate it.

A series of events leads to Jamie and Lord John being forced to travel to Ireland together, to bring justice upon a villainous man and to possibly prevent another doomed Jacobite rising.

So, for reasons that I won’t go into in case people haven’t read the books already, Jamie and Lord John are seriously pissed off at each other in the beginning of this book, and friendship seems impossible. Of course being thrown together against your will has a way of making people get along, and this book is really about how Jamie and Lord John start their friendship after such a rough and almost unforgiveable beginning.

This is definitely my favorite Lord John book, but that probably goes without saying since Jamie is in it so much. While I really like Lord John and think he’s a really fun character in the Outlander series, he actually comes off a little two-dimensional in his own series. We aren’t given enough glimpses into his past personal life, and they’re usually focused more on the mystery at hand that himself. Here, he definitely shines; he’s emotional and passionate and all action-y.

So, basically this is an awesome addition to both the Outlander series, and the Lord John series. PLUS it comes with a sneak peek preview to the next Outlander book, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, which will hopefully be out sometime in the next two years.

 

Sarah Says: 5 out of 5 stars and READ THE DARN SERIES!

 

 

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Filed under 5-star, British, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Outlander series

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August 13, 2011 · 8:55 pm

Love Letters by Katie Fforde

I sometimes choose to read books for some really superficial reasons: I saw this at the library and liked the cover (although it annoys me that the author’s name is larger than the title…), and I wondered if Katie Fforde was related to Jasper Fforde. For those of you wondering, she is, although not directly.

Anyways, this book is about Laura. The bookshop she works in is closing, but just at the same time, she’s roped into helping to organize a literary festival in a small English town. Unfortunately there’s a small error in communication and all of the sudden she’s in charge of trying to get Dermot Flynn to be a part of the festival - a famous Irish author who is notorious for refusing to make public appearances. He’s been her favorite writer for years, but she decides to try to meet him and talk him into being a part of the lit fest. But he’s surly, uncooperative, and annoying attractive…

As you can probably tell, this is more in the chick-lit genre, which usually isn’t a favorite of mine. Good new though – I enjoyed this book. I love that it takes place in England and Ireland, and that it was so literary-themed. I love it when books are a major part of a storyline in a book. Seems silly, but it’s true. Laura was also a likable character – she was sweet and kind of funny. I definitely cheered for her, and envied her life surrounded by such book-lovers. I notice that in all the books I read that take place in Britain, reading is always of importance. Is reading just more highly valued in England? If so, I want to go there like yesterday.

The romance between Laura and Dermot was a bit lacking for me. The inital attraction is there and evident, but I felt like they were apart for so much of the book that a real relationship seemed unlikely and that it made their eventual pairing up seem rushed. Also, there’s a question during the book of what Dermot’s feelings really were, and it was frustrating me that Laura was too shy to really ask him what the deal was. I’m more of a straight-forward person, so that was irking me a bit.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of interesting and diverse secondary characters. I love the bookish-ness of the story, I loved the setting. I looked up the author on Amazon, and some of her other books have gotten higher ratings than this one. Next time I’m in the mood for something enjoyable and fluffy, I’m definitely going to look for another Katie Fforde book.

Sarah Says: 3 stars

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Filed under 3-star, British, Fiction, Fluff

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