Oh, reading has been such a joy during the last week! For once, my choices were perfect for me and I found both books really absorbing, in their different ways.
My first book, which was a completely random choice, was The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah. Here is the blurb:
”“My land tells its story if you listen. The story of our family.”
Texas, 1921. A time of abundance. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. With her reputation in ruin, there is only one respectable choice: marriage to a man she barely knows.
By 1934, the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail and water dries up and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive.
In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.”
I read this book very quickly and wrote the following review on the Goodreads website:
The Four Winds by Kristin HannahMy rating: 5 years of 5 stars
Well, this was an absolutely incredible book! Heartbreaking, tragic, but in the end uplifting. The story of an amazingly brave woman battling everything life could throw at her and her family in 1930s America.
In places, the unrelentingly grim and miserable story was almost too unbearable to read. But what would it have been like to live like this? To watch your children become thin and starved, to have to battle every day to earn enough to feed, clothe and house them.
I will be haunted by this book for a long time, I am sure.
View all my reviews
“Enjoy” is not the word for this book! It was, however, totally absorbing and well worth my time. For my next read I turned to a totally different genre: fantasy.
I have had this book on reserve from the Library’s ebook service for some time and, on finishing it, I rushed to reserve the rest of the series! That gives you an idea of my reaction to Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses!
This is the blurb:
”When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.”
I think the series is probably Young Adult, and I am certainly not in that category! Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and you can read my reaction below:
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. MaasMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Well, I love this book! I don’t care about other people’s opinions, or whether it is the best written book, or about flaws in the plot, or that other renderings of the Beauty and the Beast tale might be better etc., etc. I enjoyed reading it and I lost myself in it and it took away all of my worries whilst I read it. It also left me feeling happy, uplifted and looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
So, thank you to Sarah J Maas. You have really helped me to experience the magic of reading again during this time of chronic illness and severe depression. I am so glad that you have written lots of books as I now have another author’s works to explore!
Fantastic!
View all my reviews
After those two books, I am now reading another by Kristin Hannah. Which one? Well, you will find out in next week’s Reading Roundup post!
Until then, Happy Reading to you all.
Love and best wishes,
Anne
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The Librain
The Librain......retired 