Review Of Esther by Rebecca Kanner

Title: Esther

Author: Rebecca Kanner

Format eArc from Netgalley

Publication Information: Expected publication: November 3rd 2015 by Howard Books

Source: Netgalley

Description from Goodreads
From the award-winning author of Sinners and the Sea comes a breathtaking new look into the timeless tale of Queen Esther.

A glittering Persian king has a vast empire that reaches farther than where the sun meets the horizon. He is bathed in riches and commands a frightening military force. He possesses power beyond any other mortal man and rules his kingdom as a god. Anything he desires, he has. Any woman he wants, he possesses. Thousands of them. Young virgins from all across his many lands.

A Jewish girl is ripped from her hut by the king’s brutish warriors and forced to march across blistering, scorched earth to the capitol city. Trapped for months in the splendid cage of the king’s palace, she must avoid the ire of the king’s concubines and eunuchs all while preparing for her one night with the king. Soon the fated night arrives, and she does everything in her power to captivate the king and become his queen.

But wearing the crown brings with it a new set of dangers. When a ruthless man plies the king’s ear with whispers of genocide, it is up to the young queen to prevent the extermination of the Jews. She must find the strength within to violate the king’s law, risk her life, and save her people.

This is a story of finding hidden depths of courage within one’s self. Of risking it all to stand up for what is right.

This is the story of Queen Esther.

My Review
4 out of 5 stars

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this from Netgalley

Rebecca 's story of Esther takes us to different sides of Esther than I think we have seen before. We see her as a concubine, a woman, a friend, a protector, we dig deeper into who Esther was and who she becomes. Esther has always been one of my favorite stories in the bible, a woman who is chosen to be the savior of her people at the moment when they needed one. She becomes queen to the most powerful man during the time in which she lived.

I love Kanner's look inside the months before Esther marries the king. She delves into the harem, where the story has never really gone before. We see Esther's rivals, her friends. We find ourselves cheering on a maid in an act of bravery that befits a king. We look at the others in a different light, how maybe they have more to do with Esther than thought before.

Of course the villain is disliked, if ever there was a villain I found easy to dislike, it was Haman.
However now we get to dislike Haman's sons as well, which just adds to the story.

We have a different sort of love story in this version of Esther, it was this one point where I found I didn't know how to feel. I can see why the author did it, but I can not say if I entirely liked it. Esther has always seemed to be a devoted and loyal person, to her people and to her king. This veering of character, it seems out of place, yet even though that is, I do not think it takes away from the story.

Esther is a wonderful character to read in the first place. I hope you find the time to pick up this book especially if you love strong female characters.

Work, and more work

I know I haven't been active lately, but work has been stressful. I love blogging and reading books but I haven't taken the time to do so lately. This weekend, I actually decided to sit down and do some stuff.


PS Leaving a picture of one of my books shelves. I have many books to read before I sleep.

Review of The Wrath and The Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

Title: The Wrath and the Dawn

Author: Renee Ahdieh

Format: Hardcover

Publishing Information:  May 12th 2015 by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers

Source: Purchase

Description from Goodreads 
 

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end. 

Review + a little extra

5 out of 5 stars

Finished Reading this book in August. I could have probably have devoured it in one sitting, however I wanted it to last. I had to make myself put down this book and walk away. I love the story and the setting and the details that made it a little different from the original One Thousand and One Nights. Everyone has their own agenda, everyone has different reasons for falling into this one place. The love story starts to build, and even though maybe it starts to climax. Then boom...what the heck was that in the ending. NOOOOOOOOO...you can't do that to the reader.

Okay back to other things, I know many readers loved this book, so I am adding a little extra at the end. The picture features Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in one of my favorites movies Jodhaa Akbar. I think they would be a good pair for the leading roles in the movie of The Wrath and the Dawn. Its also features one of my favorite scenes, the sword fighting one...Ms Ahdieh can we have another sword fighting scene in the second book. One that is part dangerous...part sexy. Ahem ok moving on.

If you haven't read this one, go read it

(Pictures is not mine, all rights reserved, will remove if asked)

The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry

The Courtesan By Alexandra Curry
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: September 8, 2015
Rating: 5 stars
Source: eARC from NetGalley

About the book: The Courtesan is an astonishing tale inspired by the real life of a woman who lived and loved in the extraordinary twilight decades of the Qing dynasty. To this day, Sai Jinhua is a legend in her native land of China, and this is her story, told the way it might have been.

The year is 1881. Seven-year-old Jinhua is left an orphan, alone and unprotected after her mandarin father’s summary execution for the crime of speaking the truth. For seven silver coins, she is sold to a brothel-keeper and subjected to the worst of human nature. Will the private ritual that is her father’s legacy and the wise friendship of the crippled brothel maid be enough to sustain her?

When an elegant but troubled scholar takes Jinhua as his concubine, she enters the close world of his jealous first wife. Yet it is Jinhua who accompanies him--as Emissary to the foreign devil nations of Prussia, Austro-Hungary, and Russia--on an exotic journey to Vienna. As he struggles to play his part in China's early, blundering diplomatic engagement with the western world, Jinhua’s eyes and heart are opened to the irresistible possibilities of a place that is mesmerizing and strange, where she will struggle against the constraints of tradition and her husband’s authority and seek to find “Great Love.”

Sai Jinhua is an altered woman when she returns to a changed and changing China, where a dangerous clash of cultures pits East against West. The moment arrives when Jinhua’s western sympathies will threaten not only her own survival, but the survival of those who are most dear to her.

A book that shines a small light on the large history of China’s relationship with the West, The Courtesan is a novel that distills, with the economy of a poem, a woman’s journey of untold miles to discern what is real and abiding. 

My Review:

First I would like to thank the publisher for letting me review this title.

This one intrigued me when I first saw it on Edelweiss, I have to admit, I am glad I followed my intrigue to Netgalley, where I hoped beyond hope to get my hands on an early read of this. I love historical reads, I especially love historical reads that are about places where I have been. I traveled to China while I was in college, it was a trip I won't ever forget.

The loved how the author took me back there in her descriptions and in the rich culture that I can clearly see that she loves.

The character of Sai Jinhua is very intriguing, we see her at her most innocent in the beginning of the book, she loves her father very much. She feels like her father's death is her fault in a way. For a child the very act of losing a parent is devastating. Yet it does not stop there, she is then sold to "A house with a wide door" by her mother. She is first put through the process of foot binding. Can I admit that I became slightly squeamish at this part, I mean I have heard of foot binding before, I have seen the pictures. Yet the thought and the descriptions, just to have the smallest feet possible, I have to always wonder why.

She is also taught how to pleasure a man, this house is; in a simple description a brothel. All cultures have their own names for them, but the Chinese names are always elaborate descriptions. This one is called The House of the Round Moon and Passionate love. I have read even more elaborate names, but you get the point. So at 12 Jinhua loses her innocence, this scene made me slightly less squeamish than the foot binding.

So a year goes by, and while Jinhua is not alone, she in the years she has been there has made a almost sister like friendship with the maid Suyin. This friendship is one that she treasures always, even though a strange twist of fate takes her away from the house. This part of the book, from the introduction of the scholar to the journey to Vienna, was a little hard to understand. This was suppose to happen to her, it was suppose to lead her to something happy, but it all seemed sort of random. I mean how does the scholar know to go to that house, where there happens to be a girl who remembers her father's beheading by painting a red line across her throat.

So moving on, her master is sent to Austria as an emissary, and you can clearly see the difference in the experience with these two. One holds tightly to his cultural background, while Jinhua wants nothing more than to learn about everything she can. I don't really think it was the Count she meet there that made her happy. I think it was what she gained in knowledge that made her truly happy. In the book she meets the Empress of Austria, Elizabeth. who shares with her the tale of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

After three years, we find Jinhua and Suyin in Peking, the year is 1900. They own their own brothel by the name of The House of Midsummer Dreams.

I only mention the year because of the events that happen in Peking in 1900, what is known as the Boxer Rebellion. I first heard about the Boxer Rebellion when I was in middle school, I was watching a movie one day called 55 days in Peking. It’s an old one starring Charlton Heston, this piece of history from that day truly fascinated me. The author mentions a book in her sources about the Boxer Rebellion that I actually own. It is Jinhua's relations with foreigners that causes her trouble here, leading to a tragedy that changes her life forevermore.

As a wrap up, this book is about a truly fascinating person, and I would recommend to anyone who likes history, who likes learning. I would recommend it to a person who likes to be drawn into the life of a woman who defines an age in her countries history. I commend the author for sharing Jinhua's life with the rest of us, and offer a thank you to her for a truly wonderful book.

Top Ten Tuesday #1

Happy Top Ten Tuesday. This is my first top ten list, so enjoy.
August 5:

My Top Ten Retellings

One of my favorite kind of books is one that twists a fairy tale into something new. So I am doing this a little different in that I am going to mention the fairy tale then the book.

Cinderella:


 This first book in the Lunar Chronicles was the reason why I love retellings, especially when they involve science fiction.



Beauty and the Beast

Robin McKinley (note this is just one of the retellings she writes for Beauty and the Beast)




Persuasion

I love Diana Peterfreund retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion 




1001 Nights

This is my favorite so far of Arabian Nights, but I still want to read The Wrath and the Dawn, it looks completely awesome



Jane Eyre

Another awesome combination of Science Fiction and the a classical tale.




Alice inWonderland

So far Splintered is my favorite in this category




Rumpelstiltskin
  

This one is good, but I think there is another one I am forgetting




Rapunzel- I have read a couple and Cress is on my tbr list, the others are just ok.

This is a retelling of a Grimm fairy tale of the Seven Swans, and one of my favorite books.

Phantom and the Opera, I really liked this book.




That is just a quick list of some of my favorites, I have more to read and others to ponder some more.

August Read

Announcing the August read for The Not Your Normal Book club: The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson. Watch for Teasers and other posts devoted to this book.

Wow #5

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

About the book: In a perfect world, sixteen-year-old Phoebe Martins’ life would be a book. Preferably a YA novel with magic and a hot paranormal love interest. Unfortunately, her life probably wouldn’t even qualify for a quiet contemporary. But when Phoebe finds out that Dev, the hottest guy in the clarinet section, might actually have a crush on her, she turns to her favorite books for advice. Phoebe overhauls her personality to become as awesome as her favorite heroines and win Dev’s heart. But if her plan fails, can she go back to her happy world of fictional boys after falling for the real thing?

About this author Isabel Bandeira grew up surrounded by trees and lakes in Southern New Jersey, right on the edge of the Pine Barrens. Her summers were always spent in Portugal, where the cathedrals, castles, and ancient tombs only fed her fairy tale obsession. Between all those influences and her serious glitter addiction, it wasn’t a surprise when she started writing stories of her own.

In her free time between writing and her day job as a Mechanical Engineer who designs and develops medical devices, she reads, dances, figure skates, and knits.

Isabel lives in New Jersey with her little black cat, too many books, and a closetful of vintage hats. She is represented by Carrie Howland of Donadio & Olson. BOOKISHLY EVER AFTER is her debut novel.

My thoughts: I love the idea of a character who loves books just about as much as I do, she sounds like a someone I would like as a friend. And her idea of a perfect place is Belle's library...who doesn't love that.

(Just as a side note, the last part came out of a discussion on #FAC16 a twitter chat that features new authors)