The Constellation of Moon

Moon’s 1st third of 2018 Round-up

Posted on May 4, 2018

Let’s do a fun sum up of this quarter of the year (can anyone believe it is already May?!). It has been an interesting start of the year for sure.

Our Whatsapp Book Box Club group got more hype and we’re doing a lot of fun things. You can check out more of the shenanigans on this post. But trust me, that we have enjoyed meeting other bookish people. First rule about our club is you need to have purchased at least one Book Box Club and attended a Clubhouse meeting.

I have had successful buddy reads of several books thanks to this. And thanks to the buddy reads that sparked me out of reading funks, so I have been reading more.
I have preordered several books, trying to support authors and publishers alike (54 preorders placed by 29th of April).

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Blog and twitter have grown a lot and I am glad, I even have one surprise coming up my sleeve about the blog, which I am sure some of you will be quite excited to hear about!
I moved jobs, changing from one industry to another quite drastically but full of opportunities. Coworkers at my previous job were very kind and gifted me a few things including a Porg (squishie!) and some books.

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I had a small holiday and visited a water-mill (and bought a lot of flour because I love baking and fresh flour is amazing). It was a moment of being in the middle of nowhere and enjoying just being without actually having to be doing anything. This is hard for me, but it was very relaxing. And we fell in love with a wood burning stove.

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I have had the very first fitting for my “Knit” dress. If you’re unsure what I am talking about, you can check my Meet The Character post about her. When I designed Knit’s dress, I had always envisioned making the dress become a reality, and yes it may not be exactly as I first drew it, but it is already looking amazing and I am all excited about fabrics and looks (it may be hard to imagine but trust me, it will be grand).

On the not as great news, my bookmark shop has been on “holiday” for a while due to all the changes and stress happening this quarter. Hopefully it will be reopened soon once I have a few more designs up and ready.
And I have been diagnosed with several little things that add up to the fact that I am “disabled”. It has been hard, working with this but I may post more on this at some point.
It was also a good time because I met Loish who is one of the artists I admire, and that was wonderful too! (Please excuse the over tired face, it was late and I was extremely tired but really happy, it was also too hot in the room so we were all just melting away).

All in all, it has been a wonderful first quarter of the year, with a lot of things coming up, a lot of fresh changes. The new job is promising and we shall see what this next 4 months bring in.

How has your 2018 been so far?

Book Review

Furyborn Review

Posted on May 2, 2018

This book was provided through a Fairyloot box as an advance copy

Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world–and of each other.

Rating:

There was a lot of hype for this book so I was looking forward to reading it. It has an intense start where you find Rielle so interesting, and then you get Eliana. I struggled a lot to get into Eliana’s chapters, and even when it finally got better (around page 350), I still didn’t care very much for her. The reason I was reading her chapters was because of Simon, or Remy (definitely one of my favourite characters of the book!), or Navi or another character in there. I couldn’t feel for her and I just couldn’t immerse myself properly into her world view. Rielle’s chapters on the contrary where much more interesting, and that never helped poor Eliana’s one as they contrasted too much with hers.

I loved the elements and the strange empirium which made me think of atoms making up everything in the world (except empirium is golden here and I don’t think atoms are exactly a certain colour).

But it bugged me that there is a lot of explanations and reasons missing that just don’t make sense. Who decides who is the Sun or Blood Queen? Why is Rielle so powerful and so special? What does Corien want with her and if he so much needs her, why kill her? Most of it doesn’t make sense, and despite the “joining” of the plots, it still has too many gaps.

The writing itself is immersive and I did enjoy the flow of the writing and I had no problems with it or the style, all good there. So i look forward to reading the next book and to read more books from her, but I just feel an overhype for this sadly.

Moon recommends

Preorder Furyborn if you like stories that have two separate generations (by however many generations in between but you know, a past and a present or a present and a future views) and fantasy that has a dark tinge to it.

Subscription Boxes

Fallen Angels Book Box Club Unboxing

Posted on April 30, 2018

Turns out this was a very blue box apparently (I only really noticed once I put everything ready for a picture). And I have to say that as per usual, this was a lovely box from Book Box Club.

Let’s unbox starting from the top right corner:

Jace notebook (from Shadowhunters) by A Traveling Sketchbook. I am not a fan of Shadowhunters but I do love the artwork and it is a notebook, I won’t complain at all.
On top of the notebook is a wooden feather bookmark that was an absolute stunner (the detail is so gorgeous!)
Theme card (feathers, feathers, feathers)
Publisher’s extras which were a bookmark for “More Than We Can Tell” and “Letters to the Lost“, and a postcard for State of Sorrow.
Slayer sticker by Quotify, referencing Buffy which I squealed when I saw and is now on my laptop (obviously).
The book, Out of The Blue by Sophie Cameron, which was in my list of possible preorders and thankfully I guessed it’d be part of this box and didn’t get doubles! (Go me!)
Angel Veil Body Butter by Shimmer Luxe. Sadly you can’t smell it but it is so yummy and perfect that I was salivating over it (yes, I know it is not edible, but still).
Karou & Akiva candle by Bookish Burns. I enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone a lot (the series in general) so it was a lovely surprise to see this one in there, and it has glitter too!
A teacake in a silver box (which somehow survived despite my best efforts to clumsily drop it while unboxing, woops). This is related to the book but since I haven’t read it yet, I can’t say what the relevance is, but I am sure there is one (a friend who has read it bought a box of teacakes because of the book so I guess there definitely is something there).

If you liked the box and it’s contents, you can try Book Box Club and use code MOON17 for 5% off if you’d like 🙂

Book Review

The Wicked Deep Review

Posted on April 28, 2018

We have had our clubhouse meeting so this review is definitely due now!

The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw

Welcome to the cursed town of Sparrow…

Two centuries ago, in the small, isolated town, three sisters were sentenced to death for witchery. Stones were tied to their ankles and they were drowned in the deep waters surrounding the town. Now, for a brief time each summer, the sisters return from the depths, stealing the bodies of three weak-hearted girls so that they may seek their revenge, luring boys into the harbor and pulling them down to their watery deaths.

Like many locals, seventeen-year-old Penny Talbot has accepted the fate of the town. But this year, on the eve of the sisters’ return, a boy named Bo Carter arrives; unaware of the danger he has just stumbled into or the fact that his arrival will change everything…

Mistrust and lies spread quickly through the salty, rain-soaked streets. The townspeople turn against one another. Penny and Bo suspect each other of hiding secrets. And death comes swiftly to those who cannot resist the call of the sisters.

But only Penny sees what others cannot. And she will be forced to choose: save Bo, or save herself.

Rating:

This is a spooky and dreamy read, and I was so glad to read it. You meet Penny just before the Swan seaosn starts, and things are being slowly explained as they happen yet you always feel like you aren’t actually sure.

The setting was lovely, Sparrow was a wonderful spooky, coastal town that just kept me half wanting to be there, and part not wanting to at all because of the sisters.

And Penny is such an interesting character on her own.(This is a hard review without spoilers!!!!! There is so much I’d gush about but can’t really because it’d spoil this story and this is the kind of story you shouldn’t be spoiled before you read).

So, I can say the writing was gorgeous and dreamy and I just kept wanting to keep reading (and I did do that after a few buddy reading sessions, and got told off for that but it was just irresistible).

Moon recommends

I recommend The Wicked Deep, and all previous Book Box Club books with similar styles like The Memory Trees or The Disappearances, which have that kind of dreamy melancholic feel to them that just wraps you and takes to a different world, one slightly tinted with dreaminess, melancholia, old life.

Discussion

Moon Goes to: A Taco Party!

Posted on April 26, 2018

Last Saturday I hosted a taco party with friends, and met a few more fellow Book Box Clubbers.

If you wondered what box to buy, I can’t help but recommend Book Box Club. It is not just a book subscription box, it is so much more. It gives you a community, it gives you friends, it gives you new books to read.

I met my best friend thanks to Book Box Club, and I also have a lot of friends added to this with whom I have gone to signing events, book launches and soon will also attend YALC together.

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Obviously, you also get the benefits of having me around, and getting invited to Taco parties or any other party shenanigans that come to mind. This year we’ve already had taco and piñata parties.

(Doesn’t all that food look amazing?)

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But it is not only about food but about friendship, about community. I have to admit, Kate & Libby wanted not just a book box but a community and have made it! Girls, thank you so much from all of us.

We have slowly come out from behind our books and socialized between us and become friends that meet up (from several places in the country, someone travelled quite a lot to come to the taco party) when possible, but we also support each other.

We have had a few “drunk texts” from a few of us, which has made our weekend nights fun and makes us feel a little like part of it. We have gossiped about dates and life and work. We have counseled each other through bad things. We have celebrated success for one another.

We even started a “birthday elf box” where we send a box of goodies curated by one of us to another one on their birthday. And obviously we unbox them for all to see in a video.

And we have a “trade” and swap way, where we send books and goodies to each other, or pass along books we recommend or things we think someone else might prefer in their tastes.

It has become a wonderful group of friends, a great community, and we all owe it to Book Box Club.

Ps. Everyone in this picture is a confirmed not-serial killer, Dr. Bea approved, and Moon validated.

Book Review

The List of Real Things Review

Posted on April 24, 2018

The List of Real Things by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

A poignant and big-hearted story about love, loss and believing in the magic of the imagination. The fourth novel from bestselling Waterstones Children’s Book Prize shortlisted author Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, following BACK TO BLACKBRICK, THE APPLE TART OF HOPE and A VERY GOOD CHANCE.

Grace knows the difference between what’s real and the strange ideas that float around in her little sister’s mind. Their parents died – that’s real. A secret hotel on the cliff-top where their parents are waiting – definitely NOT real. So when grief strikes again, Grace is determined not to let her sister’s outlandish imagination spiral out of control. But the line between truth and fantasy is more complicated than it seems…

Rating:

I won this book on a giveaway by Team BKMRK, and the premise sounded interesting enough. However sadly it didn’t live up much, the story was confusing in trying to “confuse” you yet at the same time leave you wondering.

Gracie seems to love Bee and then she turns on everyone, and it doesn’t make much sense in general, except maybe the fact that everyone is trying to deal with grief in their own particular way and trying to cope with it. That was the bit that saved the book.

It is definitely geared to younger readers rather than older ones which makes it a quick read for me.

(As a note to myself, I am definitely picky with my contemporary reads).

Book Review

Emergency Contact Review

Posted on April 22, 2018

Emergency Contact was a spur of the moment purchase, it sounded interesting, but I hadn’t committed to it and then suddenly I made the decision to preorder it and that was that.

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

Rating:

Warning, I usually avoid spoilers as much as possible in my reviews but this one may include some. I will still try to keep them to a minimum.

I am not the biggest fan of contemporary books, and if I do read them I tend to prefer more “magical realism” or something like that, which this does not have. However, the idea of having an “emergency contact” for panic attacks was a lovely thing (I think it is one of the things that made me preorder this book, not sure but it definitely would’ve since I have had panic attacks).

And both Sam and Penny aren’t perfect, are struggling and are learning to be “adults”, so it was refreshing to read from them, and hey look at that, the parents aren’t conveniently out of the way as such (yes it happens while Penny is in college/university but her mum is definitely a big part in this story).

I was shook when Penny’s “secret” was revealed, not because it was a bad secret but rather because it touched me as I had gone through something similar and I could understand her too well.

All in all, the book left me feeling happy to be alive, wanting to fall in love slowly and just needing an emergency contact.

Moon recommends

Reading Emergency Contact, I literally said to my friends they had to read it because it was so good! Another good book that is contemporary and gave me similar vibes is When My Heart Joins The Thousand, so I recommend reading it if this sounds interesting.

Book Review

The Apprentice Witch Review

Posted on April 20, 2018

This book was lent to me (and recommended) by the lovely Nikki, and I am glad she did.

The Apprentice Witch by James Nicol

Arianwyn has fluffed her witch’s evaluation test.

Awarded the dull bronze disc and continuing as an apprentice – to the glee of her arch-rival, mean girl Gimma – she’s sent to protect the remote, dreary town of Lull.

But her new life is far from boring. Turns out Gimma is the pompous mayor’s favourite niece – and worse, she opens a magical rift in the nearby Great Wood. As Arianwyn struggles with her spells, a mysterious darkness begins to haunt her – and it’s soon clear there’s much more than her pride at stake …

Rating:

This is such a sweet story. It reminded me of Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle (the books), The Little Leftover Witch and a few others, and it was just a cozy fun read.

This doesn’t mean bad things didn’t happen but it just somehow left me with a good feeling inside after reading it. Wyn is a spunky girl with a lot of confusion and lot to prove in a way and then Gimma appears to ruin her already frail position as an Apprentice.

Thankfully Salle is a wonderful friend and I just adored her, as I did all the spirits and creatures and the magic in general that happens in the book. (I do not have a Moon hare as prop but I do have an Easter Bunny).

And one of my favourite things was the twist of the test results. Wonderful indeed.

Moon recommends

Reading The Apprentice Witch and all the books mentioned above, because magic!

Book Review

Flawed Review

Posted on April 18, 2018

I have been trying to cull my “library” of books and also to read through old book box books (This one was part of Owlcrate) so I am reading my way through it.

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Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

You will be punished…

Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.

But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found flawed.

In her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society where perfection is paramount and flaws lead to punishment. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything.

Rating:

I admit I like Cecelia’s writing style and as such, this book already had a few stars in it’s pocket. The premise was quite interesting and reading through it, I felt a vibe of a very moral/religious society that dictates what makes you a saint(perfect) and what doesn’t but that also tends to be partial to whomever is the one who has the judgment voice.

However, the perfection of Celestine and everyone’s “perfection” was hard to believe and also, how do others find out you aren’t perfect if no one tells them? Is that possible? Do you get marked as Flawed only if you are a political/ideological enemy or a way to set an example? (Or like Celestine, in a very public setting where it is impossible to avoid having to judge it).

It also seemed like a critic to the fact that as a society we let things happen because we are trying to be “safe” and not cast out even if it goes against compassion and good values.

It was interesting read but it didn’t wow me nor did it hook me much.

Moon recommends

Flawed and Perfect by Cecelia Ahern (I do like her “adult” books more than her Young Adult ones). If you want a different outlook and more political and more “relevant” to today, try Outwalkers by Fiona Shaw.

Book Review

Wayward 1: String Theory Review

Posted on April 16, 2018

Apparently I have been in a reading craze, and have a lot of stuff to review, so yeah, bear with me.

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Wayward Volume 1: String Theory by Jim Zub, Steve Cummings and John Rauch

Rori Lane is trying to start a new life when she reunites with her mother in Japan, but ancient creatures lurking in the shadows of Tokyo sense something hidden deep within her, threatening everything she holds dear.

Can Rori unlock the secrets of her power before it’s too late?

Rating:

I rushed through this volume, without intending to. And it surprised me. I had added this to my list since I like graphic novels and wanted something to get my eyes into but wasn’t sold on Saga which is what others were raving about (I am more of a Monstress/Fables kinda girl). So I decided to give this a go.

I loved it, it is like a mix of American graphic novels and manga, with all the crazy and nonsense of both and the good artwork too. I quickly liked the characters and wanted to know more about what was happening and as much as you can guess a little where the story goes, it ends up surprising you at times.

I can’t wait to learn more about Rori and her group of misfits.

Moon recommends

As I mentioned above, Monstress is a definitely good one however I will warn you it is not for everyone, and then there is Fables which is more well known. And of course, this lovely first volume.