The Constellation of Moon

Haunted Minds Book Box Club

Posted on November 29, 2017

The theme for this month’s Book Box Club was Haunted Minds. And one of the things I loved about it is that it seems to be geared up to soothe haunted minds rather than actually haunt your mind.

Let’s do the unboxing clockwise starting from the theme card:

Theme card, Haunted Minds, which also on the other side says what everything is and who made it (I love, love, love that they include links to the makers).
Underneath everything there is a wonderful delightful Raven Boys tea towel which made my day (I really love pretty tea towels, the pretty ones are used on our coffee table as centre of it or to hold warm tortillas when we have tacos or freshly baked homemade bread, which is one of the most honourable tasks a tea towel can have in our home).
The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace, the book sounds intriguing.
Bath Salts by , because having a relaxing bath is exactly what everyone needs when your mind is haunting you. The tin they came in is beautiful too and much better than a plastic bag so bonus points for that.
Heathcliff candle, in a TipTree jam jar. If you missed my unboxing I mentioned this made it really cute because the jars are usually given out when you order toast with jam at a coffee shop/tea room and they usually have a saying in the lids. I used to collect the lids because some have encouraging or fun phrases.
An Usborne YA 2018 books sampler with a lot of interesting reads there.
A Calm Colouring pocket book, because once again it is all about relaxing and calming your mind.

This box was a cuddly hug to calm and soothe the mind and the body and I am glad about it. If this sounds good, then maybe subscribe for the month of December? They are including two books! And you can use code MOON17 for 5% off.

Book Review

Before She Ignites Review

Posted on November 27, 2017

Any book that has dragons in it usually makes me curious and Before She Ignites defintiely caught my attention. Then I was lucky enough to win a giveaway for Briony’s birthday and I chose this book as a prize.

Before She Ignites by Jodie Meadows

Before

Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland.

But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station.

After

Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect.

No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse.

Rating:

This book was interesting. I think that’s the best way to describe it. The first few chapters were messy and almost put me off reading it. But I was intrigued by Mira’s panic attacks and her counting as a coping method (this is not a spoiler, as you know I try to keep my reviews spoiler free). Also, there are dragons here (and sadly I think there isn’t enough of them in this book).

However it was interesting to see Mira grow through the whole book and shed a lot of what she “was” for who she is.

I really liked Aaru, probably the reason I kept reading at first. And he doesn’t disappoint as a character. He is definitely my favourite one of them all.

There seem to be a lot of layers to this story and sadly we miss out on most of them because this has to be a trilogy (or a series or whatever it is) instead of a long book. I can kind of see where the story is going, so it isn’t a very surprising plot, but it kept me going.

I think the summary would be that it has good characters (even if Mira isn’t probably the best one out of them), and it touches on interesting topics like panic attacks and a few other things which was refreshing.

Moon recommends

Books with dragons! Also, if you have suffered a panic attack or are curious about them, this is an interesting depiction of it. But I’d also recommend The Last Namsara and all the recommendations done in that post. Here be dragons indeed.

If you’d like to buy this book, you can find it here.

Disclaimer: There is an Amazon Associates link, but if you choose to use them and buy from them, know that you’re just helping me buy more books and feed my reading needs. Book synopsis is from Good Reads.

Books, Subscription Boxes

Historical and Sci-Fi Leafer Box

Posted on November 25, 2017

Before I unbox this lovely box (it is the cheapest box I have found), let me tell you that December’s boxes will include an exclusive colouring bookmark design by me. This design won’t be available in the shop and can only be found when purchasing a Leafer Box.

Just as a reminder, I receive two boxes in one (which means only one chocolate and no repeat items). This time I went for the Historical one rather than Fantasy (the theme appealed more to me), and it is my first “Historical” box.

So let’s unbox it, starting from the chocolate and going clockwise:

A Mint and Lemon dark chocolate bar which is quite refreshing and my boyfriend even stole a few squares of it.
The First Casualty, the Sci-Fi book. I was very pleased that it is an “indie” paperback size (until recently, this was the size I had in my head when anyone said paperback).
A glorious golden cage bookmark, it is so detailed and beautiful.
Galaxy socks, they are soft and comfy and fun to wear.
Space stickers, which I want to stick everywhere and at the same time neveruse them up because they’re so cute and there’s so many designs…
A choker with a purple rose. This is very pretty and I can’t wait to have an occasion to wear such a beauty.
Hidden under the chocolate and by the choker, there’s a magnet with a quote from Charles Dickens which is now holding some To-Do on my fridge.
The Undesirables, whcih was the Historical pick of the month.

As per usual, I was very pleased with my box. It is less main stream but most of the items make me happy and I think it is the box that has the least “set apart to give away” items ever. (As I mentioned in my 101 post, it is normal to choose not to keep some items).

If Leafer Box sounds up your street, you can purchase the November box until the end of the month and then the December one as soon as it is the 1st of December. If you use code KESTREL10 you can get 10% off any purchase and there are several genres to choose from.

Book Review

A Shiver of Snow and Sky Review

Posted on November 23, 2017

This sparkly book was included in Book Box Club and I can’t wait to chat with Lisa during the Clubhouse meeting!

(Also, that cover, it sparkles and it is just so gorgeous!)

A Shiver of Snow and Sky by Lisa Lueddecke

Red, red, the lights glow red
Beware the danger up ahead…

On the frozen island of Skane, the sky speaks. Beautiful lights appear on clear nights, and their colours have meaning: Green means all is well, and the Goddess is happy. Blue means a snow storm is on the way.

And then there’s red. Red is rare. A warning.

Seventeen years ago, the sky turned red just as Ósa was born, unleashing a plague that claimed the lives of hundreds of villagers, including her own mother. This time, when the night sky once again bleeds crimson, she must discover how to stop the onslaught before so many lives are lost again

Rating:

I had been looking forward to reading this book for a while and I am glad it didn’t disappoint.

Ósa is a very well developed heroine. She has layers and she tries to cope with life in her own way, but then she decides to do the bravest thing and go search for the Goddess at the top of the mountains. She doesn’t do it for the glory or to be famous, or anything like that. She chooses to do it because it is the only idea she can think of to help and to redeem the fact that her mother died after giving birth to her.

Ivar was also well developed and I was happy to be able to have his eyes to relate what was happening in the villages while Ósa made her way to find the Goddess. It was real and it was gripping.

I am glad I wasn’t living in Skane, but the world was believable and it was scary but also so beautiful. The stories behind the stars and the ending were amazing and I was left wanting more once I finished reading it.

Moon recommends

You should try reading this sparkly gorgeous book. It is hard to think what to recommend similar to it. The one book that comes to mind is in Spanish and it was also very gripping, sadly there is no translated edition that I could find. La Emperatriz de los Etereos (The Empress of the Ethereal) touches on an adventure towards her realm where it is said suffering doesn’t exist, however the way to it is difficult. Bipa doesn’t believe in it but she ends up making the journey because her best friend Aer sets off on the quest and she’s trying to stop him from the foolishness. It is also very well written and I enjoyed it a lot.

If you’d like to read A Shiver of Snow and Sky, you can find it here.

Subscription Boxes

Witch, Please! Fanmail Box

Posted on November 21, 2017

First let me tell you that I had been eyeing Fanmail for a while but managed to miss all the awesome book editions that they made. And choosing this one was a spur of the moment decision (as I am not that into Halloween so it could’ve gone wrong). However it left me with my mouth wide open, I kept pulling things out of the box and it was awesome.

Let’s go back to the usual and go clockwise starting from the Witch Please card:

Witch Please! card, it includes the items, and recommendations about the theme and what to do and see and watch.
Pancake Madness (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) apron.
Jiji (Kiki’s Delivery Service) keychain, it is the most adorable thing ever.
Print
An extra “treat” and no tricks, which was a Marvel pin.
“Anything is possible if you’ve got enough nerve” T-shirt.
Broomstick pen (this made me laugh and is now sitting on my HP cauldron mug)
Two promotional bookmarks.
Two mini comics.

Book Review

Warcross Review

Posted on November 19, 2017

Before I go into this review, I want to give some background which will help you understand my opinions. I have been gaming since Where is Carmen San Diego (insert 8-bit music) and programming/coding for around 15-20 years. And as part of my job I look at code and logs and software and find the problems so they can be fixed (and also apply fixes, depending on how it will take to fix it and how familiar I am with the system). So you can see where this is going and how the review will pan out. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I love the hardcover with it’s colours (the Funko’s are lead ladies of two game franchises, Emily from Bioshock Infinite and Emily from Dishonored).

Warcross by Marie Lu

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

Rating:

I really found very interesting the concept of Warcross (the game). I am not sure how popular it’d be and how it’d pan out (as I know that VR is considered to be just a niche market and not to go as much as expected), but I’d totally give it a go and play and enjoy it. This appealed to my gamer side very very much.

Another thing I found interesting was the way poverty and being on the brink was described, it felt real (as I have been in struggles like that) and it was well done. And if we’re on well done bits, the team work and the diversity of the characters was good. I love the fact that the cast is diverse but it is subtle, they don’t stick out (for me, diversity has always been around and no one has ever stuck out so this is the best portrayal, were it is normal to be from wherever and look however you do).

And now the side I wasn’t too keen on. When Emika finds the first error with Hideo, I totally get it, the whole search for something out of the pattern. I do that, see things from afar and then zoom in. However, my problem is that unless Hideo coded every single bit of code for Warcross (which I doubt, as he has a company and he mentions having programmers or something of the kind), the code would not be smooth. Software is made by several programmers each with a different style of programming and as such, the code becomes a mash of different patterns and sometimes a pattern is broken by a fix added by a different person to someone else’s code. [Please excuse the teacher mode here]. So impressing Hideo with finding the errors so easily felt like a snowflake moment (and this was made even more snowflake after you realise there are other bounty hunters doing the same thing, why isn’t Hideo impressed as much by them, from Emika’s point of view the other bounty hunters totally hide from her and she doesn’t realise they are in the same boat until later).

The romance was also probably not my favourite part. It felt forced and I wasn’t really buying it. Which probably led me to figure out a lot of the plot twists and to have the Chekhov gun feeling for the “biggest twist”. I did guess easily who Zero was.

In the end, I did like the book but not enough to be super crazy about it. I read it expecting it to fail a little on the coding/hacking side, but that is normal after you’ve been involved in things too long.

I’d still read the next books as I am intrigued by “Zero” and the choices made and I’d recommend it for a relatively easy read. The writing was easy to read and it flowed so I didn’t feel like it was chopped or struggled with it.

Moon Recommends

As expected, I’d recommend Ready Player One because it is good. I’d also recommend watching Summer Wars, somehow it reminds me of this and probably reading Paprika (and watching the film) as they all have this interesting flavour on technology. Each one has a unique point of view of it, though probably Summer Wars is the closest to Warcross in a way.

If you’d like to read the book, you can find it here.

Subscription Boxes

YA + Fantasy PageHabit

Posted on November 17, 2017

Last month PageHabit offered to send an extra book on the same box, which was a good idea for me since I didn’t want two boxes.

Let’s do a counterclockwise round this time (because I keep saying I will and never do, so here you go!), starting from the top right corner:

A Plague Of Giants by Kevin Hearne. This is the book for Fantasy and looks impressive and I really love the annotated part of it.
Light up pumpkin key chain. It is cute fun even if it is small and silly.
Last Star Burning by Caitlin Sangster. This one is the YA book and also annotated.
Bookmark with Einstein quote.
Library Card pillow case, which is really fun!
Author letter for YA book, I wish I had had both author letters since I had both books.
Short story included.
A Nessie tea strainer, which I am happy to get because they have been so expensive I had desisted from buying one but love the look of it (not that I will actually use it for tea. If you read my blog frequently, it is common knowledge that I have one tea strainer I sought high and low to find that was perfect and it is the only one I use, as fun shape ones are a pain to clean).

I liked the box it was simple but had some fun items, so it was good. I get PageHabit because the books are annotated which is nice and interesting. However, some people have been having issues with them, I have not and as such can only say they have been good and I am just unhappy because shipping costs a lot but there’s not much that can be done about it.

Book Review, Books

All The Crooked Saints

Posted on November 15, 2017

I came upon Maggie Stiefvater with the books Lament and Ballad, they were interesting and I decided to try Scorpio Races when it first came out, it didn’t have the same effect that the first two had had, so I didn’t go crazy about her books.

However, All The Crooked Saints popped up on my radar as it touches on Mexico and the culture of saints and miracles and a few other things, and as a Mexican I was curious to see how it would be portrayed.

All The Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

Here is a thing everyone wants: a miracle.
Here is a thing everyone fears: what it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.

Rating:

Let me start with saying that this does not bother me about how Mexican culture is displayed. I did object to a “grammatical error” Daniel makes that was artistic license so that it could sound to what the author wanted. And in all honesty at times it was tiring to read the description of food and everything that made them very Mexican rather than American. It felt like it was necessary to make it stand out and I think the story didn’t need extra information to make it work.

On the other hand I was absolutely pleased with the central message of the book, even if it took some digging to get to it. It was interesting to see the Sorias and the pilgrims figure out how to get to their second miracle and get out of that stuck phase. And the family dynamics were also interesting to read, it felt very familiar to me, with all the hidden drama and just the way they were.

However, the pace was a little slow for me and I struggled for the first few chapters, until I finally got to where things start happening. So that’s why it has a 3 fox rating, it lacked the something to make it amazing but I liked it despite some issues.

Moon recommends

I don’t have any books in English I can recommend that are similar to this, but reading any good hispanic author works. Carlos Luis Zafón, Isabel Allende, Gabriel García Márquez, etc. Also, if you’re a fan of Maggie’s writing, do read this, it will be interesting. And if you are curious about this aspect of life and her writing, you can also read this, just don’t expect a fast paced story. This is a slow book with a lot of internal struggles rather than external action (there is some of that too).

If you’d like to read the book, you can find it here.

Subscription Boxes

Dragon Slayer LitJoy Crate

Posted on November 13, 2017

This is my first LitJoy Crate, I had heard that sometimes they get an author to curate them or something like that so decided to give it a go before they even announced the theme for October. (Yeah, by now you should know I just go and buy book boxes because book boxes, in all fairness, I do check past boxes before buying but the theme rarely ever bothers me and I only worry about theme so I can figure out what kind of items/books are there).

Let’s do around the clock, (one day it will be counterclockwise I promise) starting with the book:

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli. I AM so happy this was the book because for Gollancz Festival there was an event with Kristen and I got my book signed (plus she curated this box and recognised my scarf at the event!).
Underneath everything is an infinity dragon scale scarf which took me ages to figure out how to wear because I have never had an infinity scarf despite having a nice collection of scarfs at home.
A Khaleesi Kisses lipbalm which smells delicious, warm and firey and just perfect.
A dagger/knife shaped bookmark.
Candle
Shakespeare quote print which also has on the toher side the author letter (this broke my heart because I usually stick author letters to the books but I can’t do this for it because it is such a gorgeous print… decisions, decisions, decisions!).
The Complete Book of Dragons by Cressida Crowell which is all about dragons and I think is such a wonderful companion to The Last Namsara.
Jon Snow bookmark, which is stunning too.
Content leaflet which explains why each item was chosen and has pictures identifying each one.

I was very pleased with the box, and I am very happy this was my first one. Of course I am getting more of them so hopefully this will go beautifully well and I will keep raving about it (also no customs which was an amazing bonus).

Book Review

The Last Namsara Review

Posted on November 11, 2017

This will be funny once you see the next post.

I went to one of Gollancz events about Fantasy in YA and managed to get my book signed which was really great and the talk was fun and it was awesome so I left wanting to read the book and I did.

The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli

In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death-bringer.

These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up learning in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.

Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.

Rating:

I enjoyed this more than I expected, I guess partly because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Usually I love books with dragons, except for Paolini’s books for reasons I won’t go into in this review, so I knew I would probably like this one.

I am also really into heroines that seem to have a life purpose that distances from others but they also long for a life, and with Asha, it broke my heart that she had to marry someone she didn’t want to marry (and it just was she didn’t want to marry, not that she had a secret love somewhere). It felt powerful.

The tiwsts of the story and how Asha clings to her previous beliefs then slowly the blinds are taken from her eyes and she starts seeing things in a different light, correcting the wrongs becomes so much more important. This was beautifully achieved and the character growth in this particular aspect was a delight to read.

I wasn’t too much into the romance mostly because it feels like it still has to grow but I assume it’ll be taken on on the book since it is only somewhat starting at the end of this book.

The way the slaves aren’t meant to even look at the draksor and can’t touch them was chilling and I just hope it is delved deepr into why it was chosen this way and what had driven the dragon queen to do such atrocities.

And I really liked the secondary/side characters, Asha’s brother, her cousin, the rest of the cast were very well developed (and also the villains, I love well developed villains with layers and motives and wow).

All in all a good fantasy book with dragons, stories and interesting characters. Definitely looking forward to the second one.

Moon recommends

If you like dragons and heroines, read The Last Namsara. As I read it, I couldn’t help but find a lot of similarities with The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley, which actually at first put me off since it is such a beloved book for me, but the similarities are good and they are different enough that they are each a strong book on their own so my love for them doesn’t conflict.

PS. The book beneath The Last Namsara is Dragonology, I am also taking advantage of Krakow props like the dragon and the coaster because they have their own fire breathing dragon outside the castle.