Book Review - The Selkie's Daughter by Linda Crotta Brennan + Giveaway

 

The Selkie's Daughter by Linda Crotta Brennan is about a young girl named Brigit who tries to come to terms with being both human and a selkie. Brigit has heard of all the old tales about selkies, sea goddesses, and other magical creatures that are not quite. She should feel proud that she is the daughter of a selkie but she knows it’s a secret she has to keep from everyone. Her aunt, Alys, cuts the webbing between her fingers to help the truth from coming out and to keep Brigit safe from other people.

As Brigit and her family try to keep her secret, a villager has been hurting baby seals and selling their fur. When the Great Selkie hears of this, he brings his wrath to the village.  Brigit decides to travel to Sule Skerrie, the land of selkies, to confront the Great Selkie about the truth. Brigit feels that only the guilt party should be punished and not everyone in the village.

I thought the book was an interesting read. It was a quick and straightforward read with not many twists or turns. I do wish it had a bit more humor to the story. I did enjoy reading about the lore about the selkie and the Sule Skerrie. The author included a snippet of selkie lore at the beginning of each chapter but I wish it was made like a fun fact about selkies. Instead it was a poem, I would have preferred more story based like a snippet of a folklore, song, or myths. The book was a fun read overall and I would be open to reading more books by the author.

About The Book:

Title: THE SELKIE'S DAUGHTER

Author: Linda Crotta Brennan

Pub. Date: January 2, 2024

Publisher: Holiday House

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 208

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-SELKIES-DAUGHTER

A cozy, richly imagined fantasy where a young selkie girl must save her family from a vengeful king.

Brigit knows all the old fisherman songs and legends by heart: sea goddess, warriors, and people who are not quite human. But Brigit also knows the truth. It’s evident in the webbing between her fingers–webbing that must be cut. She’s the daughter of a selkie. A truth she must keep secret from everyone.

But there is another secret growing in the village. A terrible one that will invite the wrath of the Great Selkie, bringing storm, sickness, and death. To protect those she loves, Brigit must find a way to Sule Skerrie, the land of selkies, to confront the Great Selkie and bring the truth—all of it—into the light.

Like sitting by a warm fireplace, The Selkie’s Daughter is an imaginative fantasy, steeped in Celtic mythology and set in Nova Scotia. Debut Linda Crotta Brennan has crafted a magical portrait of a brave girl coming into her own. Perfect for fans of mermaids and Studio Ghibli-esque stories.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

 

About Linda Crotta Brennan:

Linda Crotta Brennan is the author of many picture books, including When Rivers Burned, named a Notable Social Studies Trade Book by the CBC and NCSS and an Outstanding Science Trade Book by the NSTA and CBC. She holds a master's degree in Early Childhood Education and has worked as an instructor for the Institute of Children's Literature. Linda is an active member of SCBWI. The Selkie’s Daughter is her debut novel. She lives in New England.

 

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Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of THE SELKIE'S DAUGHTER, US Only.

Ends January 31st, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/15/2024	Kountry Girl Bookaholic	Excerpt/IG Post
1/15/2024	YA Books Central	Excerpt/IG Post
1/16/2024	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
1/16/2024	Lady Hawkeye	Excerpt/IG Post
1/17/2024	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
1/17/2024	@dharashahauthor	IG Post/TikTok Post
1/18/2024	GryffindorBookishNerd	Review/IG Post
1/18/2024	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
1/19/2024	@anitralovesbooksanddogs	IG Review
1/19/2024	The Momma Spot	Review

Week Two:

1/22/2024	FUONLYKNEW	Excerpt
1/22/2024	Jaimes_mystical_library	IG Review
1/23/2024	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
1/23/2024	One More Exclamation	Review/IG Post
1/24/2024	@froggyreadteach	IG Review
1/24/2024	Lisa-Queen of Random	Review/IG Post
1/25/2024	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
1/25/2024	Confessions of the Perfect Mom	Review/IG Post
1/26/2024	two points of interest	Review
1/26/2024	@enthuse_reader	IG Review/TikTok Post

Book Review - All Eyes on Her by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

 

All Eyes on Her by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn is about Abby, a teenager accused of murdering her boyfriend, Mark. Abby and Mark’s story is a love story like any other teenage romance. Mark is a college student who swims competitively. He falls head over heels for Abby, a high schooler with a notorious reputation. Their relationship seems perfect at the beginning, but then the cracks begin to show. However, can the imperfections in their relationship justify the death of one of them? 

The pair go hiking into the woods to have a picnic near an iconic cliff. However, only Abby emerges from the woods claiming that Mark accidentally fell off the cliff to his death. Many people believe that Abby maliciously pushed Mark, while others believe that Mark got what he deserved. 

The novel is told from multiple points of view except from Abby’s. It was interesting to see how she and Mark were portrayed by their friends and family.  I wonder if this was a social commentary on the part of the author, in that when something horrendous occurs, your voice really does not matter because everyone else has already formed an opinion about what happened. I liked trying to piece together the clues that each narrator shared and tried to figure out what happened on that fateful day. However, the novel moved very slowly and it got boring because no new clues or developments were added. I was disappointed that the ending didn’t prove to be a satisfying ending to me because it leaves more questions than answers.

Book Review - Blowback by Valerie Plame

 

Blowback by Valerie Plame is about a CIA ops officer, Vanessa Pierson, who is close to catching a criminal that she has been chasing for years. Vanessa has been tracking Bhoot, a dangerous international nuclear arms dealer.  When one of her assets asked to meet and mentions that he has intel that she might find useful, Vanessa is excited. Her asset has confirmed that Bhoot will be visiting a secret underground weapons facility in Iran in a few days’ time. The information is useful because the CIA was never able to get any information about Bhoot’s whereabouts before. A few minutes before Vanessa was able to get the location to the facility, an ambush occurs that leaves her informant dead on her watch. Vanessa decides that there are now two people that she has on her target list: Bhoot and the sniper responsible for her asset’s death.

Vanessa decides to go rogue when she determines that she isn’t getting enough support from the Agency to protect her assets from Bhoot’s assassin. She ropes in a fellow ops officer who is also her secret lover. If her relationship with him, or that she asked him for help was discovered, it could jeopardize both of their careers. 

The book was a fast paced read but it didn’t keep my interest. It didn’t have any unexpected twists but the ending was left as a cliffhanger.  I felt like the writing was a bit bulky and stilted. It felt like the author was making an outline of things that happened. This occurred and then that happened and this was done next. It felt boring to read something that should be so action packed. At times, it had too many technical details about the spycraft business that went over my head. Then at times, it had too little detail to make the story feel real. The book felt very basic and had all the same elements of other spy novels without bringing anything new to the table. 

I didn’t really connect with the main character as she was portrayed as flawless and perfect. She also seems to bear a lot of resemblance to the author who was an actual CIA agent but it would have been great if there was more character development with our fictional heroine. There was rarely any opportunity for the reader to bond and connect with Vanessa. I am curious to find out who the mastermind is in the novel but I am in no rush to pick up another book by the author.

Book Review - Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

 

Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer is about an American woman named Hannah Larson and her son, Nicky, finding buried secrets in an old English manor. Hannah and Nicky travel to Ashton Hall, a historic manor house outside Cambridge, England to stay with an ailing relative, who lives there. 

Hannah has given up her academic career to raise her son, who is neurodivergent and experiences the world differently. She is glad for the respite as she left her husband back in New York City. She is afraid what her next steps would be in her marriage after witnessing her husband commit a devastating act of adultery with someone else.

When the pair arrive at the manor, Hannah allows Nicky the freedom to explore the manor unsupervised. Nicky is good at noticing patterns and he was able to find a secret door hidden in the wallpaper. The door leads to a closed off wing and there Nicky finds the skeletal remains of a woman.

Hannah finds herself drawn to this mysterious woman’s story. She and another fellow researcher from the manor dig through personal papers and centuries old ledgers to piece together what happened to the corpse they discovered. As Hannah works to find out the truth, she finds her own life slowly unraveling.

I thought this was going to be a thriller or murder mystery novel as it was classified as a gothic mystery. Instead it was a boring and pointless book. The author goes into such mundane details about everything, that I found myself lulled to sleep while reading. The author would go into detail about what the person read or packed for lunch. However, even though we are given so many pointless details about everything else, we still don’t know what really happened to the dead woman. I think the book is more a research piece on how people lived back in that time period than anything else. 

I also didn’t care for any of the characters. Hannah spent so much time complaining about her husband’s affair and then dealing with his reaction to her confronting him.  Her son was also an unlikeable character. He gets violent to the point where Hannah fears for her safety and locks him in his room at night. She worries if she should tell others but never gives them any warning about his violent tendencies. If this book was billed as women’s contemporary fiction, I wouldn’t have been so disappointed.

Book Review - Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar

 

In the summer of 1988, a small Maryland town community is shaken to it's core when the mutilated bodies of several young girls begin to show up. The police believe that there is a serial killer terrorizing the quiet suburban town. Local residents believe that there is an evil presence stalking young girls and that's its not entirely human. Law enforcement, however, is certain that the killer is human and that he is playing a game with the police. The once peaceful community is on edge because the police is no closer to find the killer and more bodies keep showing up.

Richard Chizmar is a recent college graduate who returns home right around the time of the murders. As Richard tries to focus on his upcoming wedding and his budding writing career, he finds himself entwined with the murders. Inspired by real events, Richard documents his personal account of the serial killer's reign of terror in his small community.

This was my first book by, the author and I am surprised on how much I enjoyed it. At first, I was kind of annoyed by all the small personal details about Richard's life as I wanted to know all the nitty gritty of the murders. However, after reading the author's note at the end, it added whole new layer to this book. The author seamlessly blended true crime and fiction in a book that was hard to put down once the murders started happening. I thought the novel was going to have some scary elements but, a scary house was mentioned and nothing came out it. There were some parts of the story that didn't get resolved in the end. The story ended with the author waiting for the second interview with the murderer but, I wish the author could have included more details about the numbers behind the murders. I feel like the story was a bit unresolved because we didn't know the entire story behind the murders. Overall, it was an interesting read but, I could have done without some of the extra details.

Book Review - The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks

  

Marissa and Matthew Bishop are wealthy Washington suburbanites who seem to have it all. That's until Marissa drops an explosive bomb that she has been unfaithful to her husband. Underneath their mask of perfection is a relationship that lacks intimacy. Marissa wants to work on her marriage for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband who she has known since her teenage years.

Avery Chambers is a therapist who lost her professional license due to her unorthodox methods. She still continues to counseling people who are interested in getting help with her methods. The Bishops are interested in working on their marriage. As they work together to fix their marriage with Avery, bigger secrets are still hidden and no one is safe once they have been revealed.

I have read every single novel that these two powerhouses have written. I found after "The Wife Between Us", the novels doesn't have the same punch. I found this book to move very slowly and found it boring and predictable. I used to be excited when I saw that they had a new book out, after the last few duds I am no longer a huge fan of the duo. This could have been so much more better. There wasn't any likely main characters and a lot of fluff that just went nowhere. The ending was seen a mile away.

Book Review - The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green

 

The story begins on a quiet balmy Southern night near Bo Peep's. It's the local's favorite watering hole. A man is murdered and his companion goes missing. Morgana Musgrove is a well known elite of Savannah society and is called on to solve the mystery behind these crimes. Morgana is known for being manipulative, cunning, and demanding that even her four grown kids are weary of her presence. She tries to rope them into her investigation and they soon discover dark secrets that will crumble everything they held true.

I was very excited to read the book because the cover looked so interesting. However, the writing style wasn't for me. I had a hard time following along and keeping track of things. I also felt that the story moved along so slowly that I lost interest in the novel. I didn't like that there were so many characters being introduced at once and the POVs switched so often that it was hard to keep track of. Unfortunately, I realized this book required more effort than I was willing to give it and I stopped reading about half way in.

Book Spotlight - All Our Broken Pieces by L.D. Crichton + Giveaway

Title: ALL OUR BROKEN PIECES

Author: L.D. Crichton

Pub. Date: May 7, 2019

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 416

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

"You can’t keep two people who are meant to be together apart for long...”

Lennon Davis doesn’t believe in much, but she does believe in the security of the number five. If she flicks the bedroom light switch five times, maybe her new L.A. school won’t suck. But that doesn’t feel right, so she flicks the switch again. And again. Ten more flicks of the switch and maybe her new step family will accept her. Twenty-five more flicks and maybe she won’t cause any more of her loved ones to die. Fifty times more and then she can finally go to sleep.

Kyler Benton witnesses this pattern of lights from the safety of his treehouse in the yard next door. It is only there, hidden from the unwanted stares of his peers, that Kyler can fill his notebooks with lyrics that reveal the true scars of the boy behind the oversized hoodies and caustic humor. But Kyler finds that descriptions of blonde hair, sad eyes, and tapping fingers are beginning to fill the pages of his notebooks. Lennon, the lonely girl next door his father has warned him about, infiltrates his mind. Even though he has enough to deal with without Lennon’s rumored tragic past in his life, Kyler can’t help but want to know the truth about his new muse.

About L.D.:

L.D. Crichton is the author of THE ENCHANTMENT OF EMMA FLETCHER, which received a starred review from School Library Journal. She’s a coffee devotee and lip gloss enthusiast whose infatuation with music is truly astonishing. If she’s not reading, writing, or checking her horoscope for signs from the Universe, you can find her by the water in search of mermaids because they're real. ALL OUR BROKEN PIECES is her first young adult novel. Represented by John Silbersack @ The Bent Agency.

She is one of 6 hosts for a weekly Twitter chat about writing. Search the hashtag #Wattpad4 Monday nights at 8:00 PM EST on Twitter to join in!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of ALL OUR BROKEN PIECES, US Only.

Rafflecopter Link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2926/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

5/1/2019- Lifestyle Of Me- Review

5/2/2019- A Dream Within A Dream- Excerpt

5/3/2019- Novel Novice- Guest Post

Week Two:

5/6/2019- Betwixt the Pages- Review

5/7/2019- BookHounds YA- Review

5/8/2019- Life of a Literary Nerd- Excerpt

5/9/2019- Do You Dog-ear?- Review

5/10/2019- Novel Nerd Faction- Review

Week Three:

5/13/2019- A Bookish Escape- Review

5/14/2019- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

5/15/2019- Dani Reviews Things- Review

5/16/2019- The Pages In-Between- Review

5/17/2019- Lone Tree Reviews- Review

Week Four:

5/20/2019- Savings in Seconds- Review

5/21/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

5/22/2019- Life of a Simple Reader- Review

5/23/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Review

5/24/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

Week Five:

5/27/2019- Popthebutterfly Reads- Review

5/28/2019- Jena Brown Writes- Review

5/29/2019- Literary Meanderings- Interview

5/30/2019- Paper Reader- Review

5/31/2019- Two points of interest- Review