Michelle Rene (1)

4.25 Tears? At the end of a western of all things? I'll blame it on the steriods. Loved this, the story telling reminding me of sitting around the campfire and telling stories of days gone by. Calamity Jane, presented in all her many colors, hard drinking, expert marksman, friend or possibly more of Wild Bill, defender of the weak. To the Glass children she would be much more.

Really didn't know much about this woman, knew who she was of course, but few details. Quite a bit of this story is show more an accurate historical portrayal, and the author did a fantastic job of fitting her fictional story within it's frame. The life of prostitutes, the difficulties of life on the frontier, the violence, the town of Deadwood and the horrible smallpox epidemic that cost so many their lives. This story though was Jane's, her own love of storytelling, her strengths and her many weaknesses. The atmosphere was amazing, so realistic, vivid. Even adored the support characters, but my heart fell for young Hour. A young girl, who will owe much to Jane and will add much to this wonderful story.

So glad more and more Westerns are once again being written, such a colorful time of our past. Not all good, but colorful with some amazingly hardy people waiting in the wings.This was quite a large sisters read and I think the first time we all loved the story.

ARC from Edelweiss. show less

There were many typos and I didn’t keep track of them all and tried not to let it retract from the story. But I really liked this book so much more than I expected to. When I started it I had no idea what it was going to be about. But when Polly and nat were brought to Camille’s house and we learned how wondrous it was I was instantly hooked. I wanted to learn more just like nat and I wanted to know what great things would come while they were there. It sort of reminded me of miss show more peregrines home for peculiar children but less creepy and sci fi. I really like this world. Of course it ended on a cliff hanger so I guess there will be a sequel? Need to get my hands on that. show less

This was interesting! From the blurb, I was super interested in the world-building and the author did not disappoint. The setting was a scary blend of fantasy and realism, and I felt like this made it even more relatable and immersive.

Tattoo takes place in a world where everyone is marked by tattoos that tell the stories of our lives. Every sin, every moment in your past appears on the skin, for everyone else to see. The only way to hide them would be to visit illegal tattoo artists who have show more learned how to cover it up with clean skin. And then there are flesh dealers.

When a young woman suddenly arrives with completely unblemished skin, the world is thrown into chaos. People see her as a mystery, or as a monster - but in the midst of all this, there is a small band of people who still have goodness in their hearts, who know there is something that needs to be done.

Another unique thing about this book is the chronology - it’s written in reverse order! To be honest, it did confuse me a little bit at first but I actually really liked this formatting as it allowed the reader to be thrust into a jarring new world that they could then gradually learn more about.

Personally I’ve never been a huge fan of books written in multiple perspectives, and honestly, this was no different, as I definitely liked some point of views better than others. (The tattoo artist’s chapter was my favorite!) Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how the story seemed to weave amongst the different characters.

Overall, I thought this was a quick and intense read, perfect for readers of dystopian or fantasy! show less

I was initially going to give 3 stars (3.5 stars rounded down), but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It really is better than just 3, so 4 it is!
This is the 3rd installment of the series The Witches of Tanglewood. Almost the entire narrative follows the anchor child named Natalie of the goddess Nat as she attempts to retrieve Nat from a book housing all the past goddesses’ stories. He is overcome with grief over a tragedy that apparently took place in the second book (I’m show more trying not to include spoilers, but it’s pretty clear right away what happened). I’ll be completely upfront and say that after reading the first book, I wasn’t really interested in reading the 2nd, so I skipped straight to this ARC for review. The beginning and end of the book are fabulous. The ending is particularly well-done and left me with warm fuzzies for days.
I have to say, though, that the middle of the book is kind of… long. At one point I actually annotated on my kindle that it “felt like it was dragging on” and that “although the descriptions of faraway places and times were interesting, there’s not much of a plot so far. She’s just getting aimlessly shuffled from one time period to another.”
That said, Rene’s writing is excellent. This would be an excellent choice for the upper middle grade to YA crowd, especially if there is interest in historical time periods. I received a free ARC ebook through LibraryThing’s early reviewers program. All opinions are my own. show less