Review and Book Tour: Warrior's Surrender by Elizabeth Ellen Carter

Series: Standalone 
Genre: Medieval Romance 
Release Date: November 7th 2014
Source: Received as part of the book tour in exchange for an honest review
Overall Rating: 5/5 Stars 
Cover Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
Synopsis: A shared secret from their past could destroy their future…
Northumbria, 1077. In the years following William the Conqueror’s harrying of the North, Lady Alfreya of Tyrswick returns to her family home after seven years in exile. But instead of returning victorious as her dead father had promised, she returns defeated by Baron Sebastian de la Croix, the Norman who rules her lands.
To save her gravely ill brother's life, Alfreya offers herself hostage to her enemy. As Alfreya gets to know her new husband, she finds he’s not the monster she feared, and their marriage of convenience soon becomes a bond of passion.
But Sebastian is a man with a secret—one that could destroy him. As a series of brutal murders haunt their nights, the man who betrayed Alfreya’s father returns claiming to be her betrothed. He has learned Sebastian’s secret and will use it to further his own ambition—using Sebastian’s own family—which will destroy Sebastian and mark him a traitor, and plunge an unprepared England into war with the Scots…
First Line: The flare of a pitch-soaked torch lit the corner of the timber long-house.

When I read historical fiction I really do tend to love it however I do not pick it up very often for reasons unknown even to me. Therefore, obviously, I haven't read very much historical fiction but I was a huge fan of Phillipa Gregory so I thought I'd give another historical fiction a try and I'm so glad I did. Carter's Warrior's Surrender vastly surpassed anything Gregory ever came up with, and that's not just because it name-dropped a few areas really close to where I live! In fact, it was by far the best book I have read in a very long time. I know reviews always say things like 'I couldn't put this book down' and I always look upon those reviews and recognise exaggeration but now I get it. I literally couldn't put it down. The moment I read the excerpt (which is below so that you can see what I mean) I was gripped, I had to read it. This is one of those books that you speed through all the while mourning how fast it is going. I wanted so much more.

The characterisation of a novel is always the most important part to me, as I know it is to many other reviewers. How can you possibly fall in love with a book if there are no love-worthy characters? It's impossible! I loved almost every character in this book, even the ones you were supposed to hate, because they were all so well developed and relatable. Alfreya, or Frey, was one of the best heroines I have come across. She managed to be both feisty and in love - at the same time. There are so many authors out there who keep their feisty heroines cold with the men in their life in order to keep their independent spirit (Katniss Everdeen comes to mind) but that is not how it has to be and Carter realised that in her portrayal of Frey. She managed to create both a tender and feisty character and that is so rare, I was very impressed. It is not often that I love the heroine of a story as much as the hero but in this case I did - Frey and Sebastian were perfect. Despite this, it was indeed Sebastian who I became most invested in, he had the typical characteristics to begin with: he was cold, guarded and witty. However, unlike most characters who fit these qualities, he had genuine reason to be - given that Frey was his enemy for a long time - and he did not keep these qualities any longer than he needed to. Sebastian, alike Frey, managed to balance his strength with his loving nature. Seriously guys, I loved these two!

The plot itself was unbelievably tense! A compromise for many authors who focus on characterisation is that they sacrifice the plot, it gets slow and uneventful a lot of the time. Once again, this was not a problem for Carter. The plot really kept me on my toes - me! The queen of working out endings in record time. From start to end the plot kept me wanting to turn the pages (aka swipe my phone screen) faster than humanly possible. I will definitely be re-reading this one, it was too good not to. As many of you know, one of my favourite series' of all time is the His Fair Assassin series and this book reminded me of it so much. Yes it lacks nuns, assassins and the god of death but in writing style and characterisation it was on par. Anyone who loved HFA like I did will absolutely love Warrior's Surrender. I can't wait to read more of Elizabeth Ellen Carter's work and I fully intend to get my hands on some more very soon. In the meantime I am praying for a sequel.

Seriously, enter the giveaway or you will really regret it!

Excerpt:

By the light of the fire she could see the abandoned chair. To see the second chair Frey must peer around the door. 
It too was empty.
Frey frowned. Did she doze and Sebastian slipped past her unseen? She took a further step or two into the room and looked.
The bed was…
Before Frey could complete the thought, she was grabbed roughly from behind and held firmly against a man’s broad chest. A large hand covered her mouth and suppressed an involuntary scream.
The man recognised her and relaxed but did not remove his hand.
“You picked the wrong night to slit my throat while I slept, princess.”
Sebastian’s whispered voice filled her ear. He held her still for long moments before speaking.
"Are you recovered? You will not scream?”
Frey nodded and shook her head in answer to each question and she was released, her heart pumping furiously.
“Do you suggest I pick some other night then?” she said, wiping her mouth to rid the sensation of his hand. 
Sebastian ignored her barb and poured a small measure of spiced wine into his goblet. He handed it to her and watched as she drank.
“Why do you assume the worst of me?” she asked.
“Habit,” he answered, arms folded across his chest.
“Now tell me what you’re doing in my chambers while others sleep.”
“I have to speak to you.”
Sebastian’s eyebrows rose in surprise. It might have been scepticism, but Frey couldn’t be sure.
“And it couldn’t wait until morning?”
All of a sudden Frey’s courage left her and she wondered if her senses had taken leave of her too.
She was an unmarried woman, alone, late at night in the bed chamber of a man whose mere presence made her feel powerful sensations that she struggled to understand. What on earth was she doing?
She shook her head softly. 
“This was a mistake.”
As she turned to leave, Sebastian grabbed her wrist.
“It’s a mistake to not finish what you start.”

About Elizabeth:

A future with words was always on the book for Elizabeth Ellen Carter who started writing her own stories when she ran out of Nancy Drew mysteries to read when she was 10.
Using her mother’s Olivetti type writer with the italic keyboard, she spent endless school holidays making up her own stories and then using the Dewey Decimal System to arrange and categorize her bookshelf. Somewhere around the age of 13 she determined to become a journalist and at 17 was awarded a cadetship to the Gold Coast Bulletin. She covered news, council, education, health but had the most fun as the paper’s entertainment and features reporter covering film, TV
and music. Best of all she met her husband there and together they started a small award-winning media, marketing and advertising agency and now she works as marketing manager for an international organic skin care company. In 2012, Elizabeth also returned to the keyboard to write
stories (and laptops are so much better than manual typewriters). Her debut, Moonstone Obsession  was shortlisted for the 2013 Romance Writers Of Australia’s Emerald Awards for unpublished
manuscripts.

Author Links Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Google+ | Web site & Blog

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Review: Darkest Light by Alex Taylor

Series: Darkest Light #1
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance 
Release Date: January 16th 2015
Source: Copy from the author in exchange for an honest review
Overall Rating: 3/5 Stars
Cover Rating: 3/5 Stars
Synopsis: The weather is stormy, and the room is dark and cold. Michael dreams about a woman in the comfort of his bed, missing her warmth against his naked body. He ponders, wondering what he can do to change his lifestyle and crummy house. He hates his job and his daily routine. This isn't just any morning, though. Michael is about to embark on a journey that will change his perspective on life. Darkest Light is a fantasy and a romance, full of mystical creatures, magical scenes and a beautiful alternative world, which will set your imagination loose.
First Line: Bzz, bzz, bzzz, bzzz. The alarm wakes me with a sudden fright.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review and, initially, I was apprehensive, the premise was nothing like I had read before. I know that alternate universe stories are not unusual however I had never come across one before so this was a new experience for me. The story is set up quickly, we meet Michael, a very discontented fellow who wants more out of life and it's easy to understand why from his descriptions of his home and life. It is easy to identify with Michael because in one way or another we are all somewhat discontented however this is taken to the extreme with his characterisation. The main purpose of many people when reading fantasy books is to escape the monotonous nature of real life in favor of  an exciting fantasy land in which anything can happen. This is usual, what is unusual is to have that happen to a character within a fantasy. Michael himself appears to represent the reader of fantasies in the way that he too escapes his tedious life to go to a brilliant exciting world in which he can gain fulfillment. Overall, the plot of the novel really interested me and I think it was quite successfully executed on the whole with the exception, perhaps, of the slow pace. Not much actually happens within the plot now that I think about it but don't let that put you off, anyone who has read The Catcher in the Rye knows that a book does not need much plot development in order to be successful.

My main criticism of Darkest Light has to be the writing style. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that it is weak. What I mean is that it was not for me. Everyone has a writing style that they prefer and for me it is always past tense, I find it very difficult to connect with a text that is written in present tense and sadly for me this book was. I know of lots of people who favor present tense and I know many have no preference between tenses so this is certainly not something that would put off too many people. I may just have been being picky but this did not sit too well with me and is perhaps a reason why it look me quite a while to finish it, that and my very busy schedule.

I feel quite mixed towards the character if I am honest, on the one hand Taylor depicts them very realistically. All the characters are very multi-faceted, unlike with many authors who idealise their protagonists these ones are very flawed. I know what you're thinking, flaws shouldn't be praised because they make the characters less likable. While this is true, flaws also serve to humanise the characters and make them more relatable. This is certainly true of Michael and Noeleen, they are very human and relatable in a number of ways but I really think it's possible to be too relatable. Like I said earlier, the reason many read fantasy is to escape the real world and to then be greeted with character so realistic that you could meet them in the street could be seen as an anti-climax. This was only slight however, I was quite impressed overall with the character development despite this.

In conclusion, though I could not connect with the writing style of Darkest Light the realism of the characters and the exciting and imaginative plot was really quite impressive and for that reason I gave it three stars. I would recommend this book to sci-fi and fantasy lovers who are less picky than me about narrative style.

Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Series: Standalone
Genre: Classic
Release Date: 1951
Source: Owned
Overall Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Cover Rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Synopsis: Holden Caulfield is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves: the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection. Written with the clarity of a boy leaving childhood behind, The Catcher in the Rye explores the world with disarming frankness and a warm, affecting charisma which has made this novel a universally loved classic of twentieth-century literature.

First Line: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."

If you've been following my blog for a while now then you'll already know that I love classics. Like really really love them. If posed with the decision to take one book to a desert island with me then it would always be a classic. But Emily, you all wonder, if you love classics so much then why is there hardly any reviews of them on Confessions of a Bookaholic? That is a good question and the answer is simple, reviewing a classic is one of the hardest things a book blogger ever has to do. Give me one to analyse and I can do it easily but ask me to review it and I get a bit stuck. That's not because I don't have an opinion on it, no not at all, it's because I know anyone who reads my review will have their own opinion of it whether they've read it or not and opinions on classics are almost impossible to contend with. For example, if anyone told me that Charles Dickens was a wonderful writer who didn't at all blather on unnecessarily I simply could not believe them because, despite not having read more than a half of one of his books, I already have my mind made up on that subject as most people do concerning other classics.

But, being the dedicated reviewer and classics lover I am I feel I must at least try to review the great classic that is The Catcher in the Rye. This is one of those books that everyone has an opinion on mostly because the majority studied it in high school and therefore understandably hated it. I, however, have never studied this book in my life meaning I was more open to liking it. And like it I did. I feel like this novel is an allegory of sorts for the 'phony' nature of the world which is as true today as it was sixty odd years ago when it was originally published. We live in a world in which people lie, cheat, and change themselves for their own gain. This is normal in our world, we probably don't even notice it that much. This is where we differ from Holden, he cannot cope with the phonies around him and provides the reader with a narration of his phony society. Some of the 'phonies' he points out seem perfectly fine to us as readers but are later unveiled to be just as bad as he originally made them out to be thus showing Holden to be a more reliable judge of people than we are and perhaps causing us to reexamine our own judgement in our real lives outside of the pages.

To discuss the characters in The Catcher in the Rye is something no reviewer should bother with because we never get to know the characters. The novel revolves entirely around Holden documenting the progression of his emotional breakdown, we don't have time to consider other characters in a novel so dedicated to the thoughts of one character. Through Holden we see whether people are 'phonies' or not and that is about as far as we get. The reader's thoughts become so intertwined with Holden's own that we are not left wanting to get to know other characters because, in Holden's world, they don't matter and we are in Holden's world. We become emotionally invested in his stresses and worries throughout, his questions cause us to question also.

"By any chance, do you happen to know where they go, the ducks, when it gets all frozen over?"

Anyone who has even heard of this novel knows about the existence of this question. It plagues Holden throughout the novel, where do the ducks go? Surely the answer is simple, they migrate or stay put and huddle together like many animals do. So why is Holden obsessed with this question? That answer is just as simple, he identifies with those ducks, he has been kicked out of numerous schools and has no proper family dynamic to speak of. Like the ducks, Holden is left cold. He wants to know how they get through it because he can't. He doesn't know that he can escape, like the ducks, and he doesn't have the social support needed to "huddle" for warmth so to speak. Holden is like a lone duck left out on the ice with no escape in sight and he realises that.

I have read so many reviews in which people describe hating this book due to the "annoying" narrator but I pose a question to those people, do you remember being a teenager? Teenagers are curious, awkward and are constantly developing. They are emotional, hormonal and confused. Holden represents teenagers, he is an exaggerated view of adolescence but that is what he is. I personally do not find Holden annoying, I find him intriguing. When reading I could not help but picture him as an alien who has landed on Earth and is baffled by our customs, and rightly so if you really think about it. Holden's sensitive mental state means that the little things that we overlook such as 'phonies' are massive deals to him.

“I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible.”

Irony is often cited as a massive feature of The Catcher in the Rye but I must disagree. Holden is indeed a terrific liar and many state that to make him a phony however I personally believe that is just his way of coping with his phony world. The narrative voice we see in the novel is honest, emotional and somewhat controversial. That is not a personality that would fit into a world like he believes he lives in therefore Holden conforms in his own way. I don't believe he means to but he does. We readers know Holden to be intelligent, sensitive and kind to those he loves but the other characters see him as a sarcastic liar. Where most characters conceal their real worse selves in order to be liked, it is almost as if Holden does the opposite to push people away. He is clearly a confused young boy who very much needs to find out who he is and how he fits into this world.

"I think that one of these days," he said, "you're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you've got to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to lose a minute. Not you."

Holden has a special quality in him to see humankind's evils, his inability to cope with what he sees gives the reader an idea of how awful the world really is even if we can't see it ourselves. I know that sounds really depressing but it really isn't because once we know of our problems then we can stop making those same mistakes. Holden is depicted by Salinger and the savior of mankind there to save the younger generations from making the same mistakes we have. I personally think that is how Salinger intended the novel to be read, as a warning to stop perpetuating the phoniness of the world and fill it with raw honesty as Holden symbolises. He is a honest youth who has been corrupted to the ways of phoniness and wants to stop that from happening to others.

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.”

Holden Caulfield is the Catcher in the Rye.

I know there are probably many people who disagree with my interpretation so let me know in the comments!

Saying Goodbye to Warsaw by Michael Cargill

Series: Standalone

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Release Date: September 7th 2013

Source: E-book received in exchange for an honest review

Overall Rating: 4/5 Stars

Cover Rating: 4/5 Stars

Synopsis: Like any girl who is loved by her family, Abigail Nussbaum loves to chase butterflies, enjoys lying on her back looking for shapes in the clouds, and happily teaches young children to make daisy chains. In the eyes of certain people, however, Abigail has committed a heinous crime. The year is 1940; the place is Poland; Abigail happens to be Jewish. Along with half a million other Jews, Abigail and her family are evicted from their home and forced to live in the bombed out ruins of Warsaw, the Polish capital. Although a handful decide to fight back, is the uprising strong enough to save Abigail’s spirit?

First Line: "When Abigail wriggled her toes, the tops of her shoes rippled as if a small rabbit were burrowing around inside them."

When I started Saying Goodbye to Warsaw I did not know what to expect. I had not read a wartime historical fiction in a long time so I was slightly worried that my review wouldn't do the book justice due to my lack of ability to compare it to others in the genre. However, as I read I found this problem nullified given that there is no need to compare a book when it is excellent in its own right. A problem that I always find with novels narrated by children are that they are much too simplistic, understandably so of course but it is still off putting. Abigail's narration did not have this problem; it was intelligent and complex while still very dreamy and childlike. The mix of these attributes was a risky one but it really paid off. Another problem of novels in which the protagonist is a child is that it usually results in much less concentration on other characters. Again, Cargill flawlessly avoided this through his choice of narration style. Not only do we see multiple perspectives within the story but we are able to connect with them just as easily as we do with Abigail. In fact, my favourite character, Borys, was one of the most minor but still so well developed that I couldn't help loving him. Not one of the characters is exaggerated or idealised, we can easily relate to the fear Chana's fear for her children's safety as well as Leo's anger at the Germans for forcing the Jews into the ghetto. It is impossible to read Saying Goodbye to Warsaw without identifying completely with the characters responses to their situation, not to mention counting yourself lucky not to have experienced such horrors if you are anything like me.

The plot of Saying Goodbye to Warsaw begins quite slowly but the undertone of the horrific war going on in the background plus the readers own knowledge of the persecution of the Jews means that the tension builds throughout even if the events are relatively calm. This clever plot device means that the eventual explosive climax is all the more shocking and effective in contrast to the calmer beginning. Speaking of the ending, it is not often that I am surprised by finales but this one caught me off guard. I cannot tell you any more about it but be prepared to be emotional. However, the comment on the emotional nature is not only reserved for the endings. The extreme tragedy of the story line is emphasised throughout. I promise you that if you pick up this book there will be times when you must fight the urge to internally scream in frustration, not to mention despair.

One element of the book I didn't enjoy is how unrealistic Abigail's character temporarily became. It was only brief, near the end of the book, and therefore excusable, but I did find myself forgetting how old she really was due to her seemingly innate skill at adult activities such as first aid and shooting. One scene in the novel had her learning to accurately shoot a gun in just three attempts, I am no expert on that kind of thing but I doubt most adults could do that, let alone ten year old girls. But, as said earlier, this flaw is only minor in an otherwise interesting and gripping story.

I would recommend Saying Goodbye to Warsaw to those who love historical fiction just as much as those who aren't such big fans for one simple reason, it doesn't read like your usual historical fiction. You don't need to remember vast amounts of historical detail in order to understand the plot like with many; this book could easily be read with minimal knowledge of the situation in Poland for Jews therefore no one should be discouraged. Saying Goodbye to Warsaw has a tense and gripping plot and realistic characters with whom you can easily empathise with and for this reason it gets 4/5 Stars from me. I certainly look forward to reading more of Michael’s work.

Best Quote: "There we are,' he said, shooting her a quick wink. ’You look so much prettier than your brother when you blush."