Book Review - Seraphina

So here we go! Let me know what you think to the review.

Review 
Title: Seraphina
Author: Rachel Hartman
Genre: YA, High Fantasy, Dragons
Source: ARC provided to me by JessHeartsBooks and to her by the folk at Doubleday
Publication Date: 19th July 2012 (UK), 10th July 2012 (US)

Synopsis: The kingdom of Goredd is populated by humans and by dragons who fold themselves into a human form. Though they live alongside each other, the peace between them is uneasy.

But when a member of the royal family is murdered, and the crime appears to have been committed by a dragon the peace and treaty between both worlds is seriously threatened . . .

Into this comes Seraphina, a gifted musician who joins the royal court as the assistant to the court composer. She is soon drawn into the murder investigation and, as she uncovers hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace in Goredd for good, finds herself caught desperately in the middle of the tension.

For Seraphina hides a secret - the secret behind her musical gift - and if she is found out, her life is in serious danger . . . (taken from the Amazon.co.uk page).

My Thoughts
When Jess told me about this book that she'd received which was a high fantasy debut with dragons in it I was pretty intrigued. When she mentioned that Tamora Pierce (my literary idol and creator of over half the female characters I would kill to be) had blurbed this book and raved over it then I was all "sign me up to read it stat!" So after Jess had to have a parting of ways with the book due to to personal differences I offered to give it a home and review it as an additional thank-you.

I have to admit to reading it twice *ahem three times*. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a notorious re-reader but the books that get read more than once in the same year are the ones that you know are fantastic and are to be foisted upon anyone who you think will like them. (I'm not going to press-gang reluctants but if you look even slightly interested you *are* going to find yourself reading this book).

With Seraphina you are plunged into the prologue which introduces us to two of the main characters and a whole host of questions that get answered as the book progresses. In just three pages you are drawn to the infant Seraphina and immersed in a rich world that promises to become exponentially more detailed and fascinating with each turn of the page.

 Rachel Hartman has done a fantastic job of creating the world in this book; it's vast and has several layers of complexity. There's a well-developed society with religion, politics (heck religious politics), and such a depth of history as you can believe that this world has been living in a somewhat shaky peace with the dragon population for the last fourty years.

And that's another fantabulous element of this book; the dragons. The concept of dragons which can take human form is brilliant and it's shown off so well in the book with characters like Eskar and Basind who although they may look the same as everyone else think so differently and view the world in such an alien way that it's almost chilling how they consider humans. Also what I found fascinating was the detail put into the Dragon's society and their philosophy of Ard and keeping all emotions out of their lives. It's been a long time since I've read a fantasy book with that level of world development.

My favourite thing about Seraphina was the lady herself. As a character she is flawed in that beautifully human way but she's so relatable and likeable that you can't help but want to cuddle her when she's having a grumpy or sad moment. You feel along with her when she fights to keep her secrets and emotions in check and it makes your heart soar when she finds out that she's not quite as alone in her plight as she thought. She's also funny and snarky and made me chuckle on various occasions throughout the book. Seraphina is kind of girl I would love to be friends with; she's loyal and would literally chuck herself into danger for those she cares about.

The rest of the characters are a fabulously vibrant bunch of folk; with Orma's oddities, Glisselda's bubbliness and Lucian's Kiggs-ness they all come alive in the book and any author that can make me care a whole damn lot of a group of fictional characters is definitely on the way to becoming favourite of mine.

Overall the book is a cracking debut, with some beautiful writing, a fantastic cast of characters, and a compelling story that ends neatly enough that you're not left dangling off a cliff-hanger but with just-enough left undone to have you slavering for a sequel (and I am already getting antsy wanting to know what's going to happen!). So if you want a fantasy read that can give you a bit of everything with dragons to boot then get your hands on a copy of Seraphina this summer.

My Rating: 4.5 out 5 Stars!

Also just as a final note I got to admit that I prefer the US cover of Seraphina, it's very similar to the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik and the line drawings are vair cool. I will probably buy a finished copy of the US edition next month when I'm in Florida.

So there you have it! My first written review in months and months! I hope it's not entirely useless and let me know what you guys think!

Speak to y'all soon
LadyV

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Books Read and Acquired - Blog the First!

Good afternoon my chickies! Just to prove that I wasn't having a one-day burst of blogenergy I have decided that it's about time that my Youtube Channel reconnected with my blog. During my long blog absence I was still making vlogs over on Youtube, there I started doing a little thing I called "Books Read and Acquired" where on a Saturday I would plonk myself in front of my webcam and witter about all the books I'd bought/borrowed/been given and also what I'd read over the past week. My own little one-woman meme.

Up to now I've done 12 of these vlogs (occasional gaps where I've not made a video for a while) and today I thought beforehand "I should totally post this on the blog as well" and here I am. I gotta warn you these videos are usually pretty lengthy (I can talk a *lot* when I put my mind to it), so if you can make it through the whole thing then the congratulatory cookies are on the table for you *grins*. Do excuse thumbnail pouty face.

 

Books Read

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (Re-Read)

The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Second Book of General Ignorance by Johns Lloyd & Mitchinson

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

*Also Re-read* Seraphina by Rachel Hartman - REVIEW COMING SOON!!

Books Acquired

The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint (From the BHF)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (From awesome Antique shop in Alfreton)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (From the Works)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (From the Works)

*Not Mentioned* The Second Book of General Ignorance (Also bought in the Works)

Unrest by Michelle Harrison (From Waterstones)

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (From Waterstones)

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (From Coventry Waterstones)

Slated by Teri Terry (From Cov Waterstones)

Saving June by Hannah Harrington (From Cov Waterstones)

Revived by Cat Patrick (From Cov WHSmiths)

Myth & Magic: The artwork of John Howe by John Howe (From The Works in Derby)

The Illustrated Jane Austen Library by Jane Austen (From the Works in Derby BLESS YOU) 

So there yous go! If you want to catch yourselves up on the previous vlogs then please feel free to head on over to the Tube of You-ness and watch the playlist I will shortly be creating (link).

And now I shall be dashing off to go do a prodigious amount of ironing (which seems to be almost my occupation these days). Keep your eyebulbs peeled for the Review coming later this week. I may also post any vlog reviews I did during my hiatus.

Domestically Yours

LadyV

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A Reintroduction of Sorts

So this is rather unexpected...
I had thought that my blogging days were over but following a conversation with a very lovely person (who knows exactly who he is :D) earlier today I find myself logging back onto blogger (which is looking very snazzy I must say) and stretching those writing muscles to write you folks something you've not seen from me in many, many moons. A review *lays out crash mats for the overly shocked*.

Now it's a review which I'm owing and should have probably written about three months ago since I read the book in question back in April (hell, I re-read the book in June as well) but as the book is only due to be released this month I suppose the delay is a little excusable. Although only a little.

So you shall soon have the very long awaited event of an actual post of substance from me and I hope it's not a last-ditch attempt too late. I'm sorry life kidnapped me for a while there and I do hope to get back into this ol' blogging lark one baby-step at a time.

I am rather excitedly
Yours
LadyV

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Egads! Strangers!

So... Hi...

Dammit now I've freaked you all out, stop shrieking folks I'm not that shocking to see I hope. Bah maybe I am it's been so long I'm surprised I still remember what my blog looks like. I can't really make a sincere apology for my absence as that'll require me to promise not to bugger off without warning again for several months and I'm not entirely sure I can do that.

Reality is truly a bitch and it's very sad that I've essentially cut myself off from something that I really used to enjoy doing. But work is such that my brain literally can't think creatively or constructively outside of the office, I'm still managing to read thank god but it's becoming more of a life raft to stop myself from turning into a hideously boring person who does nothing but talk about work.

I worry that if I tried to kick-start my blogging again then I'll distract myself too much from work and since the internet (and Nanowrimo) factored largely into my breakdown of interest in University then I don't want to get myself fired because my sometimes addictive personality has me checking twitter every hour when I'm at work. I don't even dare to open the card games on my computer for fear I dissolve into a Freecell junkie once more :S

So where do we go from here? I did actually start a review post the other week after I read the third book in the Beka Cooper trilogy by the incomparable Tamora Pierce (the draft got incredibly gushy and due to a saving error I lost the gushiest chunk of it - a blessing perhaps?). The major thread of the review was that I'm now desperately in love with Farmer Cape and I seriously want to marry him when I grows up :D Oh and Mastiff was fecking awesome although Tammy did break my heart a little (why him?) but in the end everything that happened only helped to make it a fantastic end to a fantabulous trilogy. Oddly Beka is the character I feel most similar to, if that makes any sense (except for the pigeons, god I hate pigeons *shudders*). She's a pragmatic lass who won't take no nonsense on the job but is as shy as a dormouse without her baton. But I digress.

What do people reckon? Should I start posting the odd review now and then? I don't think they'll be anything extraordinary unless of course I read a book that blows me away, just brief thoughts and a rating perhaps? I find myself watching a lot of dvds at the moment since it requires a lot less concentration to stare at a screen than to process words. I'm a serious Downton Abbey convert (with the nerdy advantage for me that the company I work for has actually done mugs for Highclere Castle where they film the show so I got to squee just a little) I just finished earlier tonight watching the second season and God knows I'm going to be on tenterhooks until the Christmas Special and then Season 3 because IWILLNOTBEABLETOCOPEIFMATTHEWANDMARYDON'TGETTOGETHERINTHEENDARGH!

*ahem* Tangent should be my third middle name. Anyway if I stay in the right mood I'll post something with an updated list of what I've read in the past few months, some corkers I remember and an actual DNF I'm sad to say (luckily it was a library book so I'm glad I didn't buy it first). If people want more detailed thoughts on anything leave me a comment and I'll try to do some mini-reviews or something. Oh and the point of the last paragraph was that I may do the odd TV/DVD review if it's something I really get into. Don't be too surprised if a post appears in the future that is an Ode to Matthew Crawley and his drop-dead quirk of a smile. You've been warned.

Now this has rambled and raved long enough, it's 2am and I'm two glasses of wine worse off. But it's certainly been cathartic to just type for a while and I hope that you lovely folk might motivate me into posting a little more because I really need to do something more productive with my time than just bulk digest CSI re-runs every evening.

It's been good to tread the boards again, here's hoping they're not all rotten through.

Night
LadyV

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In Despair of not quite being there

Yes I realise that I have totally dropped off the face of the planet for nearly a month and a half and I apologise for doing so without notice. While I was on holiday I was all optimistic that I could have a decent work-play routine that actually left me with enough energy to so much as switch on my laptop when I got home. Well, you can all see how brilliantly *that* plan turned out.

I'm rather at a loss to understand where August and in fact Summer has gone, I'm somewhat doubtful that Summer even exists at the moment since I'm wearing a hoodie as well as a dressing gown and thick bed-socks- oh and not to mention the fact that the central heating is on - IN FREAKING AUGUST! Bah anyways I didn't dig myself out of my hermit hole merely to rant about how effing cold it is right now.

Basically I've realised something recently - I am getting ever closer to my 21st birthday (bricking it btw) and I have yet to find the niche in this world where I feel like I truly belong. This revelation of sorts came to me this weekend while I was in Oxford with my family for a Bank Holiday weekend break. Back when I was still with my boyfriend I went down to Oxford to visit him at uni several times so I knew my way around the town reasonably well. As we walked about I found myself wishing I could live in this gorgeous town since it's chock-full of bookstores and coffee-shops, which are pretty much the two best things I could hope for in a
place to live.  Yet for some bizarre reason I felt like I shouldn't be there, like I was invading an intellectual nest where I wasn't welcome.

Before I ended up at Aberystwyth Uni, I had applied to Oxford university (although in retrospect it really was a crap idea and a waste of a uni choice) and when I got rejected I couldn't help feeling like it was a massive door slammed in my face which really quite upset me at the time. It was like being told that I wasn't smart enough to deserve to go to Oxford when I'd been told waaay back in primary school that I was in fact *that* smart.

After I left uni last December I did actually reapply to do a totally different course which at the time I thought I'd really enjoy, ironically enough the best place in the country to do that course (Publishing media if you're interested) was at Oxford Brookes - Oxford's little sister uni as it were. In the months after applying I slowly lost all enthusiasm for the course and when I finally got the email saying I'd been unsuccessful in my application I really wasn't massively bothered (bear in mind that it was on the day of my Grandad's funeral and I had just got a job that morning after 5 months of being tediously unemployed so I was a tad hysterical) but this weekend I came to the conclusion that perhaps I'm supposed to stay away from Oxford since neither of the universities want me there so as much as I'd like to live there I just don't ... belong there.

I've been feeling somewhat the same at work recently, it gets remarked on frequently that I use a lot of big words - my production manager kept asking me to repeat the word "eviscerate" most days for nearly 3 weeks. Whenever someone asks me what I was doing at university there's always a quiet moment after I say  "French & Spanish" like they don't quite know what to make of me. My love of Harry Potter is gently mocked on a regular basis by one of the directors (whose 16 yr old son got onto to Pottermore early) like my enthusiasm about the books is something to find amusing.

I have a bad habit of launching into long-winded explanations for things that could really be summed up in a few short sentences (this blog post for example) - although I try to improve myself on this front it's pretty dang hard so I do waffle on a bit at work. However I find it rather hurtful when my production manager (who I end up pestering for large portions of the day so I know that jobs are getting done and that I'm not going to have angry customers ringing me up wanting to know where their mugs are), blatantly tunes me out when I'm trying to talk to him and maybe making a hash of it. It's bad enough that my own sister does it to me if I'm waxing lyrical on something vaguely nerdy but when my employer does it to me when I'm trying to do my job then it does make you feel pretty shit.

At the risk of sounding terribly snobby I feel like no one at work is quite on the same intellectual wavelength as me. Don't get me wrong most of the people I work with are lovely in their own quirky way but I feel like I'm masquerading in a boxful of round pegs when I am secretly a octagonal one - I can't help but wonder if there are some other weird pegs like me in jobs that don't entirely satisfy.

All in all I'm not altogether happy with the turn my life is taking right now - yes, I have a stable job which on it's less stressful days I do enjoy. But the next few months are going to get progressively more insane and I worry that the day will actually come I that do stay so late at the office that I fall asleep there. At my age I *really* don't find that prospect appealing, I need a job that won't keep me stressing all weekend because I know everything is going to go horribly wrong the next week when half of the factory staff is on holiday (this will soon become a reality so don't ask me how my week's been on Friday - it's for your own safety). I need a job that I can switch off from in the evenings, one that doesn't keep me late and take up my lunch hour. I need a job that doesn't lump a massive amount of pressure on me and leave me with inadequate managerial support. I need employers who respect and appreciate how freaking hard I work sometimes and don't just bitch about how infrequently I make the tea.

Basically I need a new job - but considering how long it took me to get this job I'm obviously very wary to just hand in my notice and jump ship blindly. I'd actually have to have another position secured without a doubt before I could say "cheerio" and in these times that's next to bloody impossible.

So my dilemma is eating all of the brainpower I've got left at the end of a day, I'd read almost nothing for a week until this weekend. I've not blogged since I was on Holiday, I've not made a youtube video since the same time, I'm barely on facebook or twitter anymore. It seems like I've living for work, food and sleep with odd moments of sociability on Friday nights - I cannot spend the next year like this, I just can't.

Help. Please. I need to get off this merry-go-round of highs and lows. Hell I just need this whole year to become a faint memory - it's times like these that I get mightily nostalgic for high school.

You may now go back to your lives (thank you if you were dedicated enough to reach the end of this - I owe you a cookie or something).

LadyV

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Hogwarts and Horrendous Weather

Thursday was a mixture of Awesome Nerdy times and seriously insane rain. To my extreme joy we went to Universal's Island of Adventure which if you don't know is the home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!! Last time I'd been to Florida the park was still being built so I've been dying to visit it for *aaages*!

The day started off looking bright enough although it still took a beastie-sized cup of coffee to de-zombiefy my lazy ass. When we got to Universal it was batshit-crazy busy in Hogsmeade, seriously there was a line that looked nearly an hour long just to get into Ollivanders! That's not even mentioning the 75 minute line to get into the Hogwarts Castle ride.

We first hit up the Triwizard Dragon Challenge ride (formally the Duelling Dragons ride) which is a fab way to make yourself light-headed early in the morning. Strangely the queue for this ride was tiny in comparison to the Hippogriff ride which was nothing more than a glorified runaway train, being the adrenaline junkie that I am I found that odd since who'd pass up the chance to get flung around upside down and instead sit and go round and round in speedy circles with a bit of steep banking?

After retrieving our bags from the teeny-tiny-omg-why-are-they-so-small? lockers we wandered towards the castle, shuffled our way through the *extremely* packed shop by the exit to the ride, drooled enviously over purdy scarves, ties and $50 Marauder's maps (yipes that was crazy), before escaping to freedom in the baking sunshine. That's when we noticed the cart selling wands.

Spot my Mommy in Hogsmeade!

Now before this trip I knew that what I wanted most from TWWoHP was a wand, so that I could finally stop messing about like a pathetic muggle with the crappy wand I made from K'nex donkey's years ago (no, really). So my sister and I had a nosy at the different character's wands and decided that we both really liked Ginny's and Luna's wands so we batted our eyelashes like suck-ups and the rentals agreed to let us have them *happy dance*. We also got Hermione's wand for a very special Twin of mine - Jess m'dear we are gonna Accio nerdytimes like nobody's business! I think we should mock-duel in the middle of the cinema when we meet oui?

Ahem, moving on. Thus wandified we then had to decide what to do next and with a choice of humungous queue for Hippogriff ride or humungous queue for the Hogwarts Castle ride... Hogwarts won out. Once again we had to stuff our bags into lockers I swear someone had hexed to be that tiny and useless, and join the endless queue which snaked *outside* of the normal park area into hidden, special staff only areas because it was *SO FREAKING LONG*.

For an hour we shuffled round all the queue lanes, getting baked by the sun (which later became sunburn),  and fanning ourselves frantically with maps so our entire faces didn't melt off. It was actually kinda cool being in the queue as you end up in the Herbology greenhouses just before you enter the actual castle, there were mandrakes behind a little cage thing and what I think might have been a Venomous Tentacula but alas there were no staff around to ask and I'd hate to reveal my extreme nerdiness by asking the general queue-folk.

The House Points system

This is my sister and I just as we get to the castle entrance (praise be to sweet, sweet air conditioning), please ignore how hideous I look as I am not suited to hot climates :S

Inside was super-cool and chock-full of awesome Hogwarty stuff as we continued queueing to the actual ride. Check out ze pics.

Entrance to Dumbledore's Office

 The ride itself was an awesome amalgam of a simulator ride with a big-ass projector screen (like Soaring at Epcot) and a crazy coaster. You have to run down one of those conveyor belts and jump into the four-seat box thing and chuck your harness down as everything keeps moving the whole time so you gotta be quick!

Then you get lifted off the ground and away you go! There's an awesome bar on the front of your harness which you hold like you're on a broom and it seriously feels like your flying round Hogwarts. Occasionally the scene changes and bam! You're in the Forbidden Forest and there's fecking SPIDERS EVERYWHERE! Then everything goes back to nice and normal for a while... wait no NOW THE DEMENTORS ARE COMING FOR YOU!!! *Freaks the frick out*

Sorting Hat!

I will hands-up confess to being genuinely scared when the Dementors appeared because damn... that's one thing the movies did perfectly *shudders*. I will also own up to being a major spaz and yelling "Expecto Patronum" like it would bloody do something, oy vay I'm an idiot.

Overall the ride was absolutely amazing and dang if you didn't feel like you were really flying (I know I was leaning forward to go faster), it was a total rush and *so* worth the hour's queue time. If we could have I would have ran back round and rejoined the line as I wanted to live in that castle!

By the time we got finished in Hogwarts we were starved so we went and sat at the back of the Three Broomsticks and ate our sandwiches whilst cooing over our wands (Beth and me that is, our parents just thought we were mental :P). We still had a few more places we wanted to go in Hogsmeade, like Honeydukes so after lunch we joined the crush in the sweet shop. There were so many awesome looking sweets in there (although jeepers they were pricey) but we eventually got a chocolate frog and some Bertie Bott's beans for my sister and I to share. Later however when my sister butchered the poor frog we realised that the chocolate wasn't all that great so we still haven't finished it *oops*. On the bright side we got Rowena Ravenclaw as our Wizarding Card.

Beth  & Me outside the Post Office

As the day was getting on we had to finally try and do some other rides cos we'd done only two so far and we'd been in the park for 3 hours or more. So we started walking round toward the Hulk ride but as we got into the Jurassic Park area it started. The Rain. The Torrential Monsoon Season Rain. The OMG Will It Ever Stop Rain.

We were stuck inside a restaurant for probably getting on for an hour waiting for the downpour to ease off, in the end we just manned up and got out there in our super-cool yellow ponchos (I was lucky enough to have my special pink mac instead :P). With how shit the weather was the two rides that we'd wanted to go on (Hulk and Dr Doom's Fearfall) were now closed cos of the lightning risk so we decided to schlep our way to the exit and went for an early dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (the food was really nice btw).

So that was our Epic-turned-Epicly-Wet day at Universal's Island of Adventure where we managed an amazing TWO rides due to the horrific turn in the weather. But in my eyes it was totally worth it because we got to go to HOGWARTS for crying out loud! I kinda wish that the other shops in Hogsmeade were actually accessible instead of just being cool shopfronts with "just popped out" signs on the doors cos that would have been super-awesome. I also think that it would rock if they built a full-size Hogwarts Express that you could travel round the outside of the park on cos then you could sit with other Harry Potter nerds in the compartments and revel in the awesomeness! (Alas I realise that Universal has like no space for expansion unlike Disney who have practically a county to themselves).

But yea, it was a fab day and I gots to say thanks very muchly to my parentals for tolerating my nerdiness enough to take us to the park (not that they'll read this but at least the thought is there).

Has anyone else been to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? If so what bit did you like best? Do you think that it could have been even more awesome? What HP goodies did you buy? Let me know!

Witchily Yours
LadyV

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In My Mailbox #53 ze magical one!

Hola mis chicas! (or chicos I dunno what the female:male ratio is for ze blog). Tis the end of the first full week of my stay in Florida and it's kinda scary that in just a week I'll be going home again, gawd knows how I'm gonna adjust to having to go back to work *sad face*. Just as I've got into a routine of responsible adultness this holiday has set me back at least three years on the maturity ladder, so although I'm inching ever closer to my 21st birthday right now I'm feeling rather like a sixteen year old on her summer vacation. Ugh, why can't I just stay here and work at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter? I would *kill* to be able to spend all day dressed in Hogwarts robes and to buggery if I'm sweltering in the heat-  I'd have the best job EVER!

But anyways digressions are the bane of my life. To business!
In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren and inspired by Alea of Pop Culture Junkie



Books Acquired this week
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George
The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June by Robin Benway


**AND**
Luna Lovegood's Wand *squee* (I did want to maybe get a Ravenclaw scarf but the shops were so crazy-cakes busy that it was a challenge to move around in there so escaping was the sensible option)
Hermione Granger's Wand  - for the Darling Jess of Jess Hearts Books (So we can be nerdy witchy nutters when we go see HP7 Pt2 later this month)


My post detailing the awesomeness of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter avec pictures will hopefully be up later today so keep your peepers peeled for that!

So do let me know what Y'all got in Your Mailboxes this week!

Magically Yours
LadyV

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