Labyrinth, a review

This 500+ page historical fantasy is one I picked up because I kept seeing the series in charity shops and eventually gave in… and then didn’t read the damn books for years. I bought this series in 2016!! Anyways, onto the review.

In this book we swap between time periods in southern France. 1209 for the historical time periods, and 2005 for the “modern” day (the book was published in 2005 so it was modern then). It did take me some time to get into this book, for the first 100 pages or so I was… struggling to care? To be blunt.

But once I got past that point, and once the timelines began to interact a bit more I was a lot more invested. I loved the little hints and nods to each era that we got, and the ending was incredibly interesting and well done.

On CAWPILE the scores I gave this averaged out at a 4 star, but on reflection a few months down the line I think that more accurately this is a 3 star read for me. Good, enjoyable, I’ll be continuing with the series as I already own them. But nothing fantastic and not one I’ll persuade people to read.

Let’s hope that the second book is better for me!

Mid July Check In!

We’re halfway through the month now, and hopefully halfway through our tbr piles! But let’s be honest… that ain’t the case! So lets see what I’ve managed to read so far.

First up was Lady Susan by Jane Austen, a collection of letters which chronicle Lady Susan’s intent to settle herself down in life and rid herself of her daughter whilst landing a high placement. She’s not a very likeable woman. I enjoyed these, although I felt the ending was rather rushed.

Next was my few short stories from Armageddon Outta Here by Derek Landy which I’m reading the short stories in chronological order. So that I don’t spoil anyone I won’t go into details, but as always these were really fun.

Then we have The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis which I forgot to put on my July tbr to fulfil the prompt for the Buzzwordathon “Last”. This is a reread for me, but it also brought quite a few things to light. I hadn’t read these since childhood so there were definitely issues with racism, sexism, and the portrayal of religion.

I’m making my way through Labyrinth by Kate Mosse and should finish this before the end of the month if all goes to plan! I’m making my way slowly through this so that I don’t freak myself out by trying to read all 700 pages at once.

And lastly is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, as always me and Olivia are making our way through the book. There have been some time jumps in these later chapters which I have found interesting, as well as the way that Tolstoy chooses to portray events.

Left on my tbr pile are:

Death Bringer by Derek Landy, Checkmate by Malorie Blackman, The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan, Pompeii by Mary Beard, Prodigy by Marie Lu, Persuasion by Jane Austen, and The End of the World by Derek Landy.

That is a BIG tbr left for the second half of the month. I should be fine for the Skulduggery and for Persuasion as it’s split into a few chapters a day. I’m not sure about the rest though so wish me luck!!

How much do you have left on your tbr so far this month?