"Fiction reveals the truths that reality obscures." ~Ralf Waldo Emerson

There is nothing so satisfying in this world than a good murder mystery. And none so good (I dare say) than this, the mystery than influenced so many. Agatha Christie is, to me, almost one of the classics. There are very few perfect "who done it?" stories out there, but such a thing seems to have been found right here!
Reading something so gripping as And Then There Were None will make you want to write one of your own! I admit, I wondered while reading it if I would not like it because it was not romantic nor necessarily "action", but I found something truly unique in this book. It really did change my appreciation of books completely, and remind me that books don't have to be just for lazy entertainment, but can be thrilling and altogether stimulating!

This book is only a couple hundred pages, but is fraught with mystery from beginning to the end.
We open by meeting ten strangers. Each has received an odd invitation to spend the weekend on the private island of one wealthy man each assumes the other knows. Each of the ten conceals their own secret-- a scandal they swore they would never admit. But by the time they realize their millionaire host is nowhere to be found, the tide has already come in and all transportation off the island is delayed.
Here, their fate is sealed. As it says so beautifully on the back cover:

 "For each has been marked for murder. 

One by one they fall prey. 

Before the weekend is out, there will be none. 

And only the dead are above suspicion."

Oh but I'll have to stop here, I don't want to give anything away!

I fell in love with this book, and it has remained over the years one of my all-time favorites. Agatha Christie has mastered suspense, and knows exactly how to include those little things that will make your spine tingle.

I encourage all of you to give it a try!

Thank you for stopping by!

Keep reading!

1. “No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. — Lady Montagu

Morning everyone!
Today I have a little young adult piece for you. Only a couple hundred pages long, one could easily finish it in a week. I read The Knight of Redmond by Jennifer Clark when I was young and desperate for anything romantic that reached mother's standards of appropriateness, no matter if it was a serious novel, or more of a "fluff" book. However, that is not to say I did not enjoy it!
This is your classic village-girl-now-on-her-own-teams-up-with-handsome-man-for-the-greater-good-of-the-kingdom kind of book. But in this case, there are some rather gipping plot twists that will keep any young reader engaged!
I loved the battle/fight scenes, the romance, and the overall conflict between the two kingdoms.
The main character, Lily, is not one I particularly connected wholeheartedly to, but still enjoyed her as a heroin.
Lily and her mother have been outcasted as witches, so she is forced to live a life hoping to go unnoticed. However, with royal blood running in her veins, that is far from the high society life Lily is dreaming of, and was destined to claim. When trouble with the invading "Redmond" kingdom forces her to come in contact with a handsome enemy knight with dire commands he must complete, a sort of Romeo and Juliet scenario begins to unfold. Coming from rival kingdoms, danger threatens love and friendship.

It is a fetching tale of shamed reputations, secrets, kidnaping, betrayal, and desperation to end the war that has send thousands up in flames.

Overall, I'd give it about 3 stars. It is a pleasant little book that will keep you reading till the very end.

 "There is nothing to writing.
All you have to do is sit down at a typewriter
and bleed."
~Ernest Hemingway 

Hello, readers!

(You'll have to forgive my picture, I was in too big of a hurry to post I didn't have time to make it look too pretty!)

To start off, I refer you again to the quote above. Though there is a good chance you have read this before, I have chosen it as my heading because I feel it encompasses the theme of this book incredibly well.

Drowning in historical significance, I was more than willing to dive right in to this novel, and am happy to have it on my list of favorites! I have always found that Hemingway, much like Fitzgerald, weaves such raw, yet simple, details of a suffering society into the pages of their novels. Which is why I picked this particular quote. Hemingway has always provided cathartic release to readers through his honesty and simple language. Despite the fact that much of his symbolism and meaning would have been seen as a little too honest, at the time. 

In this story, our characters (without it being explicitly said) are living an aimless life. 

Drinking and traveling from place to place, it is not difficult to feel the numbness of the unhappy hearts wandering the bars of post WWI. 

Most of our characters are veterans (or ex-nurses) of the war and the entire layout of the plot is structured around their inability to find themselves after suffering through what they have. 

It is 1926, and the very idea of what it meant to be a man had been lost. 

The reality of war is that survival did not depend solely on bravery or ‘manliness’. In the chaos,  both the courageous and weak soldiers fell. 

Which is why the (main) men in this novel struggle to cope with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy, and seek to fill this gap inside them through other means. 

Though they know it would be wrong to outwardly speak ill of the war, they are all disillusioned at this point, and left to cope with the angst rendered to an entire generation who all experienced too much too young.

But what appeals and engages me most, is how the characters move through the scenes as though nothing can touch them. This is where the “lost generation” complex comes in with the lack of hope, and living as though nothing they do has or could have an impact, captures another side of a historical decade. 

Moving from the deafening parties of Paris, to the gripping bullfighting rings of Spain, they search for their new purpose and satisfaction in a world -- so open to them-- that yet now will never be seen as anything but empty and cynical.

Here, nothing is forced on you, yet everything Hemingway included has meaning. Their excessive drinking, unrequited love, bankruptcy, spiritual criticism, you name it. Reading between the lines has never been more enthralling. 

"The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think" -- Harper Lee

Good evening everyone! Today, I have a young adult fiction trilogy I have been meaning to discuss for some time now, all written by the Mrs. Megan Shepard, and each based off a different well-loved classic. The first time I came across these books, they were only meant to be something to occupy some travel time during a vacation. Yet as the series has progressed, these have become favorites of my young adult life. 

The first of her series is titled The Madman’s Daughter (Inspired by H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau) . Now, I read these only a few years ago, and found myself undeniably hooked. Despite any sort of debating opinions I may have had from time to time while reading each book, my heart was far too invested to turn back. 
Right from the start you will notice her style of writing is darkly enchanting, and truly invigorating! It goes well with her heroine, the young, orphaned and abandoned, Juliet Moreau. 

Living in old London, Juliet is an intelligent girl, working as a maid in a medical university. She is versed in anatomy and could likely be a doctor with her know-how if it were not for the times and her finical standing. Her mother died a few years previous, and her father was disgraced for his medical work. Long since forced into hiding, Juliet believes he is dead. 

The beginning is rather raw, as our protagonist is dragged by her friend, Lucy, and several crude boys, into the University after hours, leading her to a shocking discovery which may prove that her father may not only be alive, but also continuing the dangerous, immoral, and gruesome experiments! 

Determined to finally know if he is the monster all his previous colleagues declared he was, Juliet falls into the path of an old friend who may be able to help her. Montgomery, her father’s handsome apprentice lets slip of an island where he has been aiding the shamed doctor. Casting away with them, Juliet has no idea the dangers and madness she is about to descend in to, and the truths she will live to regret. 

Though the book became a little too far-fetched for me, when it came to the actual experiments we find he father dedicated to, the plot and stakes are truly gripping! I really did enjoy the book and found myself actually surprised and at times making hilariously intense expressions as I read. 

The second book in the trilogy, Her Dark Curiosity (with inspiration from Robert L Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), may be my all time favorite book in the series. Without giving much away, in case you have not yet read the previous book, Juliet is back in London. And while she is tiredly trying to rebuild her life, it is suddenly shaken when an unknown murderer seems to be taking the lives only of those people close to her. 
Unnerved by the evidence found at each murder scene, Juliet becomes determined to entrap and put an end to whoever, or whatever, is ruthlessly killing the people of London. 

Impeded by the worsening illness inside her, Juliet’s condition may swing from alarming to critical in a matter of days if she is not able to obtain the serum in which to save her own life. On top of it all, trust begins to run thin and confusions ramped when rumors of a secret organization once founded by her father is thought to still not only be in progress, but powerful as well. 

Now tantalized by more secrets of her family’s past, and thrust again into frightful danger, a torn heart may be the terrible end of it all. 

In a hideous finale, A Cold Legacy is the last book to our gripping trilogy.

Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Juliet is forced to flee her home and seek refuge with her companions to her relative’s remote manor on the Scottish moors. Right away we fear the mysteries which lie in the house, and those pursuing them beyond its walls. 
Here, Juliet will be forced to confront the darkness inside her, and decide if she is destined to be the madman her father always was, or scramble for the lighter path of her tragic mother. Though, with the basement looking like its own morgue, her own friends developing secrets and lies of their own, and the young children residents becoming more and more strange, it seems it may be too difficult not to fall into the curious madness lurking in every shadow. 

Finally dedicated to the man she loves, Juliet is risking losing it all as her part in the family’s secret seems without escape.

In a book where outside forces threaten the sanctuary of an end, sympathy and pure curiosity may finally turn our to be our character’s downfall. 

In every book I found my head spinning with each new nightmarish creature. But before you turn up your nose to the books, answer me this: who doesn’t love a good monster? Who doesn’t love the contemplative madness we deny is inside us all? And who doesn’t feel that spine-tingling thrill when we turn the page and another body is discovered? 

I loved the intelligence of these books, the questioning of what is actually right and wrong, and the constant movement of the plot that keeps you reading (which is also due to the fact that it is riddled with the guilty-pleasure type of romantic drama you get in young adult novels). Lets face it, these piquant books are loaded with twists and dramatic secrets. And every time I think I disliked an ending, or some slow part, the next book proved to me why the last was so good. They really do make you stop and contemplate the morality of something you never thought you would. And in the end, although you will fall in love with the characters, just like in Frankenstein and The Island of Dr. Moreau, you will find yourself wondering if you have not also fallen in love with the monsters. 

"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." --Mason Cooley 

Every now and then, if you’re lucky, you’ll find that one book that reminds you what reading is all about. For me, The Time Traveler’s Wife did just that. I received this book as a gift and fell in love with it from the get-go. No question, I would give it 5 stars. I found the plot line thoroughly captivating, and found it was only enhanced further by the several lovable, and painfully real, characters. 

My heart became invested almost instantly. I finished it in about a week, but still found myself slowing down so I could enjoy it longer. This book is the kind of book you want to relish in. This is the book that takes you away for a moment, but also will bring out the nostalgia you feel for life and for the past. 

This book, as it has been said, is a twist on your average boy-meets-girl plot line. It is a fantastic love story with diverse characters, and many painful obstacles which must be overcome. 

It is not what I expected, and far more real than I could have predicted. Though it is fictional (I hope), it is completely connectable. From wondering childhood, to fearful adolescence, to the threats of adulthood, the depicted times easily bring back old aches and forgotten laughters of personal years. 

Here, you are reminded of the pains people keep behind closed doors, the beautiful passions to immerse yourself in, the important chances and choices there are waiting in life, the mistakes that make us all human, and the love we are all capable of— the love which, if we allow it, can surpass all else. 

  "I believe that reading is like falling in love. If you’re doing it right, you’re using your whole heart. And if your heart isn’t prodded, torn, and hopelessly lost in the process, then you’re not doing it passionately enough." ~ Literary Monarch 

Salutations, bloggers! Seeing that this is my first post, I decided it would be best to begin with something very close to my heart to hopefully give a well enough insight into who I am, and what I intend this blog to be. So I have chosen The Great Gatsby to review to you all today, seeing that it is a favorite of mine. 

Now, if you haven’t already decided you hate it because that one English teacher you loathed in high school spent half a year drilling its metaphors and motifs into your mind, I encourage you to pick it up this weekend. It is a short, easy, read drenched in delicious diction, and that rich-living we can help but fantasize for. 
I won’t lie, there are some slower parts near the beginning, but I assure you, this novel is far more than a movie DiCaprio starred in, or another dusty classic those pompous readers discuss so loudly in coffee shops. This is the book that holds mirrors to us all, and the one that tore down the curtain shielding the reality of what shames high society. This is the book, I dare say, that permanently changed how we see our America. 

Not only has it been accurately considered “The Great American Novel” but the potency of Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s words are undeniable and captivating. Flawlessly sculpting the raw truth of society’s dark underbelly, and human nature itself, Fitzgerald expresses eloquent emotion of what the American dream is, and also the reality of such a thing. And who cannot relish in such an untainted honesty as that?

Although the story takes place in the glamorous high of the roaring twenties, so much remains extremely relatable. Our protagonist, Jay Gatsby, is a man hell-bent on obtaining his american dream. Draped in outrageous fortune, he makes it clear that social position is everything if he wishes to possess his elusive dream: the married, Mrs. Daisy Buchanan.

Our narrator Nick Carraway, though unreliable at times, serves as more of a bystander than a real influence to the story. He serves as a confidant to the other characters, but his observations are what breathes life into the pages. 

Dripping in scandalous endeavors, bootlegging, mansions, fantastic parties that would put any modern concert to shame, and a high life most can only dream of, is soaked deep into the ink of this novel. This books tells the story of one man’s desperation to be “great”, to have the fantasy life that’s worth gloating over, the misery in such worldly perfections, and the price that extravagancy demands…

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, feel free to leave a comment of how you liked it, or if you have any recommendations for me!

Thank you so much for your visit! 

Keep reading!