A Moment In Time by Bertrice Small

Fiction

After last weeks disappointment, I decided that I needed to read a book that I knew would be well written and contain an amazing story. I knew that Bertrice Small, a woman I consider the queen of historical romance on top of being one of my favorite authors, would have a book for me. I have read many of her books over the years but I have never picked up her stand alone novel, A Moment In Time. The majority of the story takes place in 11th century Wales but the tale begins a thousand years before the main characters Wynne and Madoc even meet. If you enjoy the theme of reincarnation, you will find yourself enthralled with both joy and sadness several times over as the souls of these two lovers find each other at this particular moment in time. 

This is the first Bertrice Small book I have read that is not part of a larger series and it has encouraged me to read her other singular novels. I am lucky enough to have access to what may be a complete collection of all of the late Smalls novels, and I may not be able to control myself in consuming another one of her books. Her books are long, usually well over three hundred pages. But they are so interesting, full of adventure, and packed with romance, that you don’t even realize how much time has passed, you truly get lost in her stories. I recommend A Moment In Time if you aren’t ready to commit to a series but you do want to find a new author to love.

Vicious Kings by Eva Ashwood

Fiction

I can’t remember where I first heard about this book, but I was curious about the author and the story so I decided to buy it off of Amazon. 

If you want to read, but you want something easy that doesn’t require a lot of thinking, this is just the book for that. It is a one day read, I got through it in a few hours. If you don’t mind a not so great plot and some contradictions, if you are literally only interested in reading in order to get to the spice, then your itch will be scratched because there are certainly more than enough spicy scenes. It is flawed and I found myself frustrated because of the flaws, but it is not the worst piece I have ever read. It is a good book for a beginner who wants to start their journey into this genre but an experienced reader may find themselves disappointed in this reverse harem tale. I am going to read the next two books in the trilogy to see if the writing gets any better, and I will be sure to let you know what I think.

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

Fiction

If it takes this man another twenty years to write another book I will not mind the long wait as long as it is equally as good as his second novel, Imaginary Friend. This over seven hundred page book was in my hands morning, noon, and night as I tried to get through the pages as fast as possible while still reading slowly enough to fully appreciate the plot and absorb all the details. It caused me to lose sleep as I kept saying to myself, ok, only one more chapter before I go to bed. I wish I could read this book again and experience it all for the first time. It’s a blend of everything I love to experience from reading a good book, it gets me excited to see what happens next. It’s a little scary, it’s supernatural and psychological, there are heroes that you love to root for and villains that you want to see meet their end. I didn’t even mind the religious and spiritual themes, beliefs that can irritate me at times, which did not do so in this case as they were appropriately subtle in the right places and given a villainous quality in a way that I enjoyed.

I think this is the last book I am going to have finished before the new year, and I ended it on a high note. I almost want to find a way to contact Mr. Chbosky and let him know that he needs to invest more time into writing novels because he is so incredibly talented. If your New Year’s Resolution is to read more, start it off right by reading this book. It will kickstart a new interest of reading in you and encourage you to hunt for similar books if you get the craving to read more, which I think this book will.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

Fiction

If the Netflix trailer for the film had not piqued my interest so greatly, would I have ever read this book? Probably not. Am I glad that I read this book? Yes, I think so. Banned books have always intrigued me simply because at a point in time they were labeled either too vulgar or too revolutionary to be read by the general public, and so the persons in power, who didn’t want the masses to read such perverted literature or get radical ideas, decided that they must be banned. As I was reading the afterword, I learned that this book is still banned in China, and by that I am going to guess that it is still banned in a few other countries as well. I can see why, at the time, this book was banned in both the United Stated and the United Kingdom. It would have upset the ideal of the nuclear family and traditional male and female roles. 

I usually don’t enjoy the classics, but if more of the classics were written like this then I would. I enjoyed reading in the language of the time, even if it is hard to believe that people at the time actually spoke like that, and it was made even more enjoyable by the filthy and sometimes crude language of the gamekeeper, Mr. Mellors, as he speaks intimately to his lover, Lady Constance Chatterly. Although I have not seen the film yet, I expect that they will modernize the dialogue to make it easier for the audience to understand as well as make it more enjoyable for todays ears. I do hope that they keep some of the more raunchy lines, because they really do make the story. If you want to get into the classics, I would highly recommend this as a starting point. It’s somewhere between Pride and Prejudice and a Bertice Small historical romance, a blend of which I really enjoyed.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Fiction

I bought this book with the intention of finishing it in time to go see the film in theaters, but that didn’t happen. When I came to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to get through it before it left theaters I spoke to my friend who had read the book. I asked her if they managed to fit the entire book into one film and she said no. So I had then planned to read up to the part she said the film ended at, but that didn’t happen either, because I will say, getting through the first few chapters was a bit rough. You just get thrown in the middle of it without any backstory or explanations, which can be challenging or frustrating when the text is full of unusual made up words and strange names. Trying to figure out what the words meant and how the characters were related to each other meant that I was reading relatively slowly at first. But as soon as I got into the story I found myself looking forward to my evening reading in bed. 

I’ve been trying to think about what reading this feels like, or what it can compare to, but I can’t think of anything. I always mentally compare it to Tatooine, because of the vast deserts, but it’s more than that and vastly different from Star Wars. It’s political, tribal, mystical, but also serious and dark, expressing very few moments of joy or humor. It is definitely a book I would read again.