Audible Book Review: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Blurb:

A coming-of-age tale for the young and naïve 17-year-old Catherine Morland, Northanger Abbey takes a decidedly comical look at themes of class, family, love and literature. Reveling in the sensationalist - and extremely popular - Gothic fiction of her day, the story follows Catherine out of Bath to the lofty manor of the Tilneys, where her overactive imagination gets to work constructing an absurd and melodramatic explanation for the death of Mrs Tilney, which threatens to jeopardize her newly forged friendships.

This Audible Originals production of Northanger Abbey stars Emma Thompson (Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA winner, Love Actually, Harry Potter, Sense and Sensibility), Lily Cole (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Snow White and the Huntsman, St. Trinian's), Douglas Booth (Noah, Great Expectations, The Riot Club), Jeremy Irvine (Warhorse, The Railway Man, Now Is Good), Eleanor Tomlinson (Poldark, The Illusionist, Alice in Wonderland) and Ella Purnell (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Never Let Me Go, Kick-Ass 2), amongst others.

My Review:

Let me start by saying that I've tried reading this book 4 times previously and never been successful. It's just so dry on the page, though I've always loved the gothic setting of Northanger Abbey.

That being said, the audible adaptation is fantastic! I liked how this was set up with a cast of narrators so that it played out like a stage play that you couldn't see. It made the story much more enjoyable. 

Catherine is sweet, but very naive - definitely quick to believe whatever people tell her and imagine that the things she reads could truly come into being. I've always hated Isabella Thorpe and her brother, John and I thought their personalities were well portrayed in the audiobook. And then, of course, there is the flirtations Mr. Tinley and his family. 

In case you are wondering, I did finish Northanger Abbey this time. I soaked up Jane Austen's words in this wonderful adaptation. If this were the first time I'd listened to an audiobook, I'd marvel at why I hadn't given them a chance sooner. I really wish more audiobooks were made in this fashion. Sometimes having only one narrator gets boring, it was nice for each character and the narrator to have a distinct voice in this one. 

Overall, I give the story a 4, or perhaps a 3.75 - I feel that sometimes Austen got lost describing rooms and dresses and such which got tedious and boring. But the audiobook I give a solid 5 stars! Well done Audible! 

Book Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Blurb:

'The Great Gatsby' written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published in 1925. The story is of the year 1922 and characters of this story live in the town of West Egg of the prosperous Long Island. Jay Gatsby is a young millionaire (born in a poor family) with mysterious quixotic passion for the beautiful woman Daisy Buchanan. The story explores the social change with decadence, idealism, resistance to change and excesses. It creates a portrait of the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties. 

My Review:

I can never tell when I read this book whether Nick Carraway truly liked Gatsby at times, or whether he was silently judging him.

The Great Gatsby begins with Nick arriving from the Midwest and reaqauinting himself with his distant cousin, Daisy and her husband. He doesn't yet know Gatsby but soon he will meet him and be drawn into Gastby's fantastical world where everything is fun and nothing is serious. 

But Gatsby has an ulterior motive - he's been in love with Daisy for years and wishes to see her again. As the dominoes begin to fall into place a deadly chain of events will be set off and Nick's life and the way he sees the world will never be the same again. 

The Great Gatsby is a classic for a reason. It has beautiful lines and a glittering, inviting world that you wish to be a part of. Goodreads and Amazon describe this book as a cautionary tale about the Jazz Era but I don't think Fitzgerald meant it that way at all. I think, in a way, The Great Gatsby was autobiographical to him. The wild parties were part of a lifestyle I'm sure he was accustomed to and perhaps he saw himself in Gatsby and his wife, Zelda, in Daisy; their difference in social stations and ill fated end mirroring and a premonition of his and Zelda's ultimate parting. 

Gatsby is my favorite character in this book for his unwavering hopefulness. He truly believed if he made himself into something that he would finally obtain the love of the woman he's infatuated with. Nick, as I said before, I'm not sure about. He seems to like and care about Gatsby at times but at others it's like he's judging him from not coming from the same world as himself and Daisy and Tom. Daisy comes off as an air headed, absentminded fool who as we learn doesn't truly care about anyone but herself and how society perceives her. Tom is the very same way, possibly showing us a glimpse of the rich in that era. I've never truly liked the character of Jordan Baker, she's so wishy-washy. Gatsby is alright as long as he's providing her with entertainment but ultimately she judges him too when she learns of his background and lack of good breeding. And Mrs. Wilson (who's first name eludes me  at the moment) is both yet another victim of the destructive tornado that is Daisy and Tom Buchanan and a cruel woman in her own right. Her husband was just a simple minded fool who loved his wife and became a pawn - a means to an end to get rid of Gatsby in the end. 

Overall, I really like this book. The parties and Gatsby's dizzying, carefree world are well set and the story is well plotted. 

My Rating
4 of 5 Stars! 

"What I'm Reading" Wednesday #84

Once again this "WIR"-Wednesday I'm reading a few different books. Last night I started listening to Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo on audible and since I finished Riot by Jamie Shaw yesterday, today I'm starting a re-read of...

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Blurb:

FROM GOODREADS:

THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

Why I Chose This Book:

It's been a few years since I read The Great Gatsby, probably about a month after the movie came out to be exact and I absolutely love this story. I always feel so heartbroken for Gatsby and such contempt for Daisy. I'm on a no-fantasy ban on reading right now so I thought I'd pick this up for a change. 

"Book Mail" Thursday #14

I fell off the metaphorical book wagon in the past week and ended up doing a lot of book shopping therapy. I wasn't planning on any new books (other than my monthly OwlCrate book box) until I received my Apollycon order next week or the week after but there was a huge sale at Half Price Books last week and here is the result...

Books I've gotten (in order of receiving them):

ARC from Publisher:

Roar by Cora Carmack 

In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.

Aurora Pavan comes from one of the oldest Stormling families in existence. Long ago, the ungifted pledged fealty and service to her family in exchange for safe haven, and a kingdom was carved out from the wildlands and sustained by magic capable of repelling the world’s deadliest foes. As the sole heir of Pavan, Aurora's been groomed to be the perfect queen. She’s intelligent and brave and honorable. But she’s yet to show any trace of the magic she’ll need to protect her people.

To keep her secret and save her crown, Aurora’s mother arranges for her to marry a dark and brooding Stormling prince from another kingdom. At first, the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. He’ll guarantee her spot as the next queen and be the champion her people need to remain safe. But the more secrets Aurora uncovers about him, the more a future with him frightens her. When she dons a disguise and sneaks out of the palace one night to spy on him, she stumbles upon a black market dealing in the very thing she lacks―storm magic. And the people selling it? They’re not Stormlings. They’re storm hunters.

Legend says that her ancestors first gained their magic by facing a storm and stealing part of its essence. And when a handsome young storm hunter reveals he was born without magic, but possesses it now, Aurora realizes there’s a third option for her future besides ruin or marriage. 

She might not have magic now, but she can steal it if she’s brave enough.

Challenge a tempest. Survive it. And you become its master.

1st Half Price Books Trip - Thursday:

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving 

Sleepy Hollow is known for being home to ghosts and spirits, the most famous of which is the terrifying Headless Horseman, a spectre searching for the head he lost to a stray cannonball during the American Revolutionary War. Ichabod Crane, a superstitious schoolmaster, is more concerned with earning the hand of Katrina Van Tassel than worrying about ghosts, but the night that he expects to earn Katrina’s affections holds something quite different in store for him. 

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Bathsheba Everdene, just past twenty, inherits a prosperous farm in rural England. 

She says she does not want a husband, yet three men pursue her. Will she marry the dashing, handsome, yet self-indulgent Sergeant Troy? Or will she choose wealthy William Boldwood, who loves her passionately, but whom she does not care for? Or will her choice be the steady, reliable Gabriel Oak, once her equal, but now her hired hand?

The Valiant by Lesley Livingston

Princess. Captive. Gladiator. Always a Warrior. 

Fallon is the daughter of a proud Celtic king and the younger sister of the legendary fighter Sorcha. When Fallon was just a child, Sorcha was killed by the armies of Julius Caesar. 

On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Fallon is excited to follow in her sister's footsteps and earn her place in her father's war band. She never gets the chance.

Fallon is captured and sold to an elite training school for female gladiators—owned by none other than Julius Caesar himself. In a cruel twist of fate, the man who destroyed Fallon’s family might be her only hope of survival. 

Now, Fallon must overcome vicious rivalries, deadly fights in and out of the arena, and perhaps the most dangerous threat of all: her irresistible feelings for Cai, a young Roman soldier and her sworn enemy.   

A richly imagined fantasy for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Cinda Williams Chima, The Valiant recounts Fallon’s gripping journey from fierce Celtic princess to legendary gladiator and darling of the Roman empire.

2nd Half Price Books Trip - Saturday:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Theresa Anne Fowler

I wish I could tell everyone who thinks we're ruined, Look closer…and you'll see something extraordinary, mystifying, something real and true. We have never been what we seemed.

When beautiful, reckless Southern belle Zelda Sayre meets F. Scott Fitzgerald at a country club dance in 1918, she is seventeen years old and he is a young army lieutenant stationed in Alabama. Before long, the "ungettable" Zelda has fallen for him despite his unsuitability: Scott isn't wealthy or prominent or even a Southerner, and keeps insisting, absurdly, that his writing will bring him both fortune and fame. Her father is deeply unimpressed. But after Scott sells his first novel, This Side of Paradise, to Scribner's, Zelda optimistically boards a train north, to marry him in the vestry of St. Patrick's Cathedral and take the rest as it comes.

What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined attention and success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Everyone wants to meet the dashing young author of the scandalous novel—and his witty, perhaps even more scandalous wife. Zelda bobs her hair, adopts daring new fashions, and revels in this wild new world. Each place they go becomes a playground: New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.

Everything seems new and possible. Troubles, at first, seem to fade like morning mist. But not even Jay Gatsby's parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? How can she forge her own identity while fighting her demons and Scott's, too? 

Graceling by Kristen Cashore

Kristin Cashore’s best-selling, award-winning fantasy Graceling tells the story of the vulnerable yet strong Katsa, a smart, beautiful teenager who lives in a world where selected people are given a Grace, a special talent that can be anything from dancing to swimming. Katsa’s is killing. As the king’s niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his thug. Along the way, Katsa must learn to decipher the true nature of her Grace . . . and how to put it to good use.

A Shadow Bright and Burning (signed copy!!!) by Jessica Cluess

I am Henrietta Howel.

The first female sorcerer in hundreds of years.

The prophesied one.

Or am I?

Henrietta Howel can burst into flames. 

Forced to reveal her power to save a friend, she's shocked when instead of being executed, she's invited to train as one of Her Majesty's royal sorcerers.

Thrust into the glamour of Victorian London, Henrietta is declared the chosen one, the girl who will defeat the Ancients, bloodthirsty demons terrorizing humanity. She also meets her fellow sorcerer trainees, handsome young men eager to test her power and her heart. One will challenge her. One will fight for her. One will betray her.

But Henrietta Howel is not the chosen one. 

As she plays a dangerous game of deception, she discovers that the sorcerers have their own secrets to protect. With battle looming, what does it mean to not be the one? And how much will she risk to save the city—and the one she loves?

The Heir by Keira Cass

Kiera Cass’s #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series has enchanted readers from the very first page. In this fourth romantic novel, follow Illéa’s royal family into a whole new Selection—and find out what happens after happily ever after.

Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon’s heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn’t expect anything like her parents’ fairy-tale love story...but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.

A new generation of swoon-worthy characters and captivating romance awaits in the fourth book of the Selection series!

Owlcrate April Box Book:

Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller

There will be plenty of time for me to beat him soundly once I've gotten what I came for.

Sent on a mission to retrieve an ancient hidden map—the key to a legendary treasure trove—seventeen-year-old pirate captain Alosa deliberately allows herself to be captured by her enemies, giving her the perfect opportunity to search their ship.

More than a match for the ruthless pirate crew, Alosa has only one thing standing between her and the map: her captor, the unexpectedly clever and unfairly attractive first mate Riden. But not to worry, for Alosa has a few tricks up her sleeve, and no lone pirate can stop the Daughter of the Pirate King.

eARC from Author:

Just An Illusion - the B Side by D. Kelly

Three life-altering months …

That’s how long it’s been since Amelia Greyson joined the Just an Illusion Tour with Bastards and Dangerous. She’s made new friends, embraced her past, and even found love. 

Back on the road …

Following a tragic situation, Amelia is determined to hit the road, put her life in order, and finish the book she was hired to write. Mel’s not the only one affected by what happened; the men of BAD are all trying to move forward, not wanting the past to ruin the remainder of their farewell tour.

Brother vs Brother …

Tensions are high on the Weston brothers’ bus. As each brother settles into their role in Amelia’s life, secrets threaten to rip their relationship to shreds. Can Noah and Sawyer find a way to save the brotherly bond they share? Or will the woman of their dreams end up tearing them apart for good? 

Currently Waiting On:

My Apollycon Order:

Wicked, Lux: Beginnings, Oblivion, and Cursed by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Nowhere but Here, Walk the Edge, and Long Way Home by Katie McGarry

Play by Kylie Scott

The Great Pursuit by Wendy Higgins

Riot and Chaos by Jamie Shaw

Sublime by Christina Lauren

Beautiful Creatures Manga signed by Kami Garcia

The Affiliate by K.A. Linde

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Retellings: What Are They?

With my next major writing project (the top-secret NaNoWriMo project I refuse to talk about) being a YA Fantasy / Fairy Tale Retelling, and the sub-genre being more popular than ever I've been asked: What is a retelling? How can an author take something that's already published and write about it again? Isn't that plagiarism? The simple answer is no. 

What is a retelling of a story?

A story retelling is when an author takes a preexisting story (whether a fairy tale or a classic story) and updates it, changes it, gives the story a new twist. 

For example: Romeo & Juliet. What if Romeo and Juliet were from two different warring planets? Or what if Romeo were an alien and Juliet was a human? What if they hated each other? 

Why isn't that plagiarism? 

Well, because though the characters are named the same and the basic format of the story (lovesick boy meets girl, they fall in love, their families hate each other, they both die [or maybe not]) may be the same, it's no longer Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. The setting is different, the timeline is different, the genre is different, hey maybe they don't even die at the end! That's what makes it a retelling. A retelling is a completely new version of an old classic. 

What sorts of stories have been used for retellings?

Lately every time you look there's a new retelling hitting the shelves. Lots of stories from Romeo & Juliet to Pride & Prejudice to fairy tales like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Beauty and the Beast have been used as inspiration for story retellings. 

In fact, I just read an ARC for a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera and another book I saw on Netgalley is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Retellings are becoming the new "big thing" in YA fiction. 

Does That Mean Authors Are Getting Lazy & Don't Have Any Original Thoughts?

Absolutely not! No my dear readers, that's what's happening to Hollywood and the film industry! But I digress... back to the original point. If you had a cool idea to spruce up or take something old and beloved and make it newer, fresher, and even better wouldn't you pursue it? 

That's kind of what a story retelling is like. We all love "this story" but what if secretly that story didn't go like that at all? What if it really went more like this... That's another way to bring about a story retelling. As an author you may create a character that you felt got "wronged" in the original. Let's say they were cast as the villain. Aren't all villains just misunderstood heroes that's dreams were crushed? What were they like before they became the villains every one knows them to be? It makes you think, doesn't it?

What Are Some Story Retellings I Might Like?

A lot of story retellings come into the YA Paranormal or Fantasy genres so here are a few story retellings you might like...

*Note: Each of these books are part of a duology, trilogy, or series, so for this blog's purpose I'm showing you the first book in the sequence. 

1. Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Release Date: August 9, 2011
Retelling of: Romeo & Juliet
Tagline: The greatest love story ever told is a lie.

2. Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: September 1, 2013
Retelling of: Alice in Wonderland

3. The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Genre: YA Mythology / Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
Release Date: May 1, 2011
Retelling of: The Persephone Myth

4. Cinder by Marissa Meyer:

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: January 3, 2012
Retelling of: Cinderella

5. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas:

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Retelling of: Beauty and the Beast

6. The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

Genre: YA Fantasy
Release Date: March 8, 2016
Retelling of: The Singing Bone by the Brothers Grimm

7. The Hollow by Jessica Verday:

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Retelling of: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

***

Do you like story retellings? What's your favorite retelling?