Book Review - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Finally finished!  I liked the first couple chapters and the last few chapters.  Everything else in between was just filler.  It would be a great book if you have absolutely no imagination at all because every detail is described ad nauseum!  I have enjoyed tomes in the past and with them, was surprised to find myself at the end of 500+ pages, as quickly as they moved along.  Not so with this one.  I found myself skipping entire pages that were irrelevant just to struggle to the end.  While I think I liked the story itself there was no reason for it to be so long.  Then to just stop it to be forced to read another tome of 584 pages made me want to scream!  Sorry Deborah, I'll just have to live with never knowing what happened to your colorful characters.


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Book Review - Thunder Bay (Cork O'Conner Series #7) by William Kent Krueger

Thunder Bay by William Kent Krueger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've listened to the previous six books in this series and wondered if I liked them because of the stories or because David Chandler was reading them. When I first heard Buck Schirner begin the narration, I was admittedly disappointed. I'd become so familiar with Cork O'Conner's voice (via David) it was almost sad to hear someone else speaking for him. But I do love the characters, the plots, the mysteries and the scenery of this series so I kept listening. I did warm up to Buck's voice and felt he gave a wonderful performance, especially the part where he was speaking as a young Henry Maloux.

Krueger did not disappoint in writing another captivating book. I especially liked this one because it had little to do with Cork's life (hasn't that poor man been through enough?) and focused on the life of Henry, one of my favorite characters since book #1.

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Book Review - The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a longgg book and at times was slow moving, but that is exactly what was needed to describe how quickly a normal (for the times) life can suddenly spiral out of control fueled solely by fear. Of course I'm familiar with the Salem Witch Trials but had no idea what really happened. The lengthy descriptions of what led to the trials and what happened after was so perfectly delivered it is hard to imagine how unbelievably cruel humans can be to each other.

I wish I could just say, "Thank goodness it's fiction and that really could not have happened!" and forget it. But this is one of those books that delivers such a historical message, it has made me much more interested in that period if only in hopes that I discover it was far more exaggerated than the truth. Sadly, I don't believe that will be the case.



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