lizziepurpleserenity's reviews
341 reviews

This is such a heart-warming, tear-jerking, chuckle-inducing story about a grumpy man getting on in age and

dealing with grief, learning how to want to keep on living and connecting with others

. At first you wonder what there might be to like about Ove but the more we learn about his past and what makes him tick, the more we grow to love him and by the end I was sobbing and wishing that I knew him in real life.

The structure of the story is quite cleverly put together. We switch between the present day and Ove's past, connecting the dots in a way that makes sense. It was also so interesting how [trigger warning as well as spoiler]

every time Ove was preparing to kill himself, someone would come along needing him to do something-or-other for them, i.e. giving him a reason to continue living, to put them before himself. And the way he would give thought to what Sonja would say if he died and went to meet her having done (or not done) x y z just beforehand was so adorable and a really nice way of thinking about grief, I thought.

. It's so sad and depressing at times spending time with Ove, but somehow (helped by Joan Walker's brilliant narration) the book doesn't feel heavy or too much bear - Backman is a master at combining sadness with humour.

Highly recommend this for anyone who loves a heart-warming found family story.

This was such a fun ride, tropey classic fantasy executed very well, and would be a perfect introduction to the epic fantasy genre or for those wanting to step up from YA fantasy (especially given the main protagonist is sixteen). It's easy to read and fast-paced, with short chapters (always a plus for me!) and the settings are vividly described.

It definitely has its flaws. My main gripe is

around Cade, the second half for him was really disappointing, the potential love triangle felt unnecessary and irritating, and Cade was reduced to a jealous teenage boy, really spoiling the bromance that had begun so strong in the first half, to the point where I found I didn't really care the way I should have about his death (especially given I had seen it coming)

. I enjoyed pretty much all the characters in this book otherwise, but I do feel like there was a little something missing and I can't put my finger on what or why - there were a few places where I should have been tearing up for example, but I realised I wasn't as emotionally invested as I might have been.

But all in all, this is WELL worth a read and I look forward to book 2. 

I LOVED this book so much. It is absolutely spot on.

When we were kids, much to our mum's chagrin, we were big fans of Enid Blyton and would read over and over her Famous Fives, Faraway Tree, and boarding school books, and it was difficult to get us interested in other authors. Enter Anne Digby (who is clearly herself a fan of Enid Blyton - she has, after all, added her own contributions to the Naughtiest Girl stories). I remember the excitement of discovering another boarding school series new to us, and we loved the Trebizon books. They felt more real and grounded to us than Blyton's prim and proper Malory Towers and St. Clare's, set (and written) in our own time period for starters - and they even had boys in it! (One of the the books is called "Boy Trouble at Trebizon".) I'm now rereading them as an adult.

They are short, fun, cosy, and from what I remember, like this first one, the plot for each is usually centred around one main story (unlike Blyton's). In this, not a lot happens really -

Rebecca writes a poem for the school magazine, only to have it stolen by the sixth former magazine editor and claimed as her own, and Rebecca becomes firm friends with the two girls who take a stand to do something about it.

But it's charming, a solid introduction to the series.

I really enjoyed this, especially given I was listening to Nick Offerman's narration! The plot does meander at times, but there are some really lovely, fun moments, Tom turns out to be a real hero, and Huck's final declarations at the end have made me keen to read his book too! 

I have mixed feelings about this and I have a lot of thoughts, but I'll try and keep this brief.

ZOYA. This is HER duology. I love her slow development over the two books, how we get to know more about her backstory and what has made her who she is, and the arc she gets in this book. And it feels believable (not forced or contrived) because it's slow and reluctant and there are solid reasons.

Love her garden. And her dragon is SO COOL.

Nikolai. While I was happy to have him back to himself (

from the demon he was in King of Scars

) it generally didn't feel like he had quite enough of the presence that he deserves. I also really struggled with the

romance aspect - I cringed every time he was pining after Zoya either internally or professing his love externally, it was over the top and too angsty. It didn't feel like the way Nikolai would be. I prefer romance to be more subtle and nuanced than that (I loved it in Six of Crows), and I find myself thinking wistfully back to Siege & Storm and the way he was with Alina,

so this spoilt Nikolai for me to an extent, even though

I do ship he and Zoya

. As for where he ended up, I'm not sure how I feel about it

because on the one hand it would make sense for him to stay and rule with Zoya (which I think is what is supposed to be happening?) but on the other hand I really wanted him to go off sailing the seas as Sturmhond, perhaps with Inej! Or maybe he's planning on some of that too? It wasn't very clear...

The plot(s!): This is a very much politically-focused story, with the bulk of the plot threads gearing up for war, and so atmosphere and character (other than for Zoya) were sidelined in favour of political machinations, to its detriment I think, as I don't think all that side of things was executed very well. It all felt a bit too much of a mess, there were too many players, too many contrivances and also a few character decisions that made no sense.

e.g. why on earth did they place the Darkling within reach of Alina and Mal?! Also don't really understand how the Darkling got his power from them given I thought they'd given all the power up...soft magic that we just have to believe I guess.

Speaking of the Darkling, what the hell was he up to? His chapters were dull, and anti-climactic.

lthough I'm glad Zoya's dragon got to upstage him I guess! :D

I was also mostly bored in the Ehri/Mayu/Makhri chapters too.

Nina: I got confused after a while about what she was up to too

they went from being spies for Ravka, to planning for Hanne to marry a Prince for some reason that I missed?!, to Nina giving up her identity for the person she loves, to ultimately one day become a queen of Fjerda. In one way, that's sort of cool, we'd have Queen Zoya and Queen Nina, and the Fjerda problem neatly solved (too neatly?) - but does it have to be "Mila"? I think it would have been so much more satisfying if Nina and Hanne had managed to do something climactic and awesome in Fjerda.

Loved the Crows cameo (the story itself aside), I MISS them and Ketterdam!!! The Six of Crows duology is where it's at, for me.

I am officially addicted to this series, really enjoying Oliver Chris's narration, and I think this is a bit of a step up from books 2 & 3 so I'm really looking forward to continuing on. Alex is a great proactive protagonist, driving the plot with his brave attempts to save the day but continuously finding himself in scary dire straits, and I think in this book we're beginning to get a little more depth to his feelings about his life, family and so on. The bad guys have so far basically been more or less one-dimensional cackling villains but in this the main villain is at least given a smidge more back story & motivation than in the previous two books, and Oliver Chris's performance of both him and his sidekick is entertaining.

I can't decide what to rate this, but not as much as 4 stars and 3 might be too stingy. I didn't learn much new as I am already familiar with the idea of 'flow' and most of the ideas Mihaly puts forward in this book, so it might be more illuminating for someone who isn't familiar. I did find the results of the surveys interesting - though clearly dated, given this was published in 1995 - but I got a bit irritated with Mihaly's narrow-minded dismissiveness of TV (something which in my family is a very active and sociable activity, not the passive zombifying experience the book implies it is). I also felt there was a strong bias towards extroversion (as opposed to introversion), in the sense that the book (or the results of the surveys discussed) seems to imply that being extroverted is the happier, healthier way to live - despite the fact that one is more likely to achieve a 'flow' state when doing something alone... However, a bit later in the book Mihaly does admittedly address this, suggesting the results of the surveys may be skewed in that respect.

To conclude, I'm glad I finally read this as I'd been wanting to actually read one of Mihaly's books on 'flow' since first hearing about the concept, but I can't say I learnt much and if it was meant to be a self-help book, there's not a lot of practical advice in terms of how to make a change, it's more abstract than that, about attitude more than anything else.... 

This was a mix of poems/rhymes I really enjoyed and connected to, or had something subtly meaningful to say (about 40%), those I'm neutral about (about 25%), and those (mostly the longer rambly ones about kings or knights or whatever) that I didn't connect to (about 34%). Hence it gets 3 stars from me.

A few that stand out as my favourites are Us Two, Waiting at the Window, Solitude, The Morning Walk.

I love Alanna, she is a fantastic protagonist. But although I've heard this story was cut back for its middle grade audience, I would have LOVED a much more in-depth slower-paced and more detailed version of this story. I will happily read the other three books in this quartet one day though.