Review: The Midnight Library

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I’ve been looking forward to reading this book since I first read about its upcoming release on Goodreads about three years ago and being intrigued by the premise – a young woman, Nora, heartbroken, despairing of life, and filled with regrets discovers, at her lowest possible moment, an infinite library filled with the stories she could have lived had she made different choices – and by the powerful message in Haig’s previous novel, How to Stop Time. I knew that anything he wrote would be thought-provoking and intense. But the book was perpetually checked out from my local library system for the last two years.
When I finally came across a copy while browsing in one of the branches I don’t frequent a few weeks back, I was overjoyed. And I was certainly proven right about Haig’s thought-provoking message. The book’s power and obvious popularity lie in its themes of regret, self-perception, and the loneliness of the modern world that, I think, most of us can relate to. While the message and Nora’s struggles with her regrets and loneliness inspired a lot of feelings for me they weren’t from the story itself which I did not find as engaging as the story in How to Stop Time and Nora did not have a well-defined sense of character (reflecting Nora’s own sense of herself). However, the in and out from the library to life was fast-paced leading to an ending that may not be satisfactory for everyone, especially if you like a book with a very definite this-is-what-happens ending.

It is funny how my reading develops sorts of themes throughout the year. Last year seemed to have a focus on strong women from history, which was inspiring, while this several of this year’s books have focussed on characters struggling through despair and stagnation. While The Midnight Library is quite different from the other books I’ve read this year, Nora’s character has some similarities to the main characters in The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick, The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton by Eleanor Ray, and After You by Jojo Moyes. They also have in common the fact that they are all set in the UK. It also shares a similar style to Matt Haig’s other novel, How to Stop Time, which also explores the idea of one character living many different lives and the idea that things we think we want such as an extra long life (in How to Stop Time) and seeing what our lives would have been like had we made other choices (in The Midnight Library) may not be as great as we expected.



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Shelly’s Year in Books 2021

Well, it was another crazy, stressful year but with my books, my crochet, and my music, I made it through. The summer of 2021 was a good time for reading thanks to a long-overdue and just plain long (24 hours on the road each way) trip to see family in upstate New York followed two months later by Hurricane Ida I got to do a lot of car-trip reading.

I didn’t read too many books that just blew me away and there was a lot of focus on educating myself through my reading with books like The Art Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. With Jillian Cantor’s Half Life, two books from Amy Stewart’s Kopp Sisters novels – Dear Miss Kopp and Miss Kopp Investigates, and Nina de Gramont’s The Christie Affair there was a definite focus on historical women.

Other highlights were:

Juliet Marillier’s Heir to Sevenwaters, the most magical and romantic installment in the Sevenwaters series since the first book, Daughter of the Forest

Kelly Harms’s The Bright Side of Going Dark which explores the culture of social media addiction

Farah Heron’s Accidentally Engaged, a fun romantic comedy that explores family and culture while dishing up some delicious romance

Katherine Reay’s The Printed Letter Bookshop with all of its heart and love of books

Lyssa Kay Adams’s The Bromance Book Club which provided a breath of fresh air to the romance genre

And The Complete Peanuts, Vols. 3 & 4 by Charles Schulz

In the midst of crazy, stressful years, what we need are the things that bring us joy – the uplifting music, the hobby that gets our mind off of everything that is going on, and, of course, the books that transport us to happier times and places. So my book, well books, of the year are The Complete Peanuts which transport me to simpler times in my life and still make me laugh.

To view my complete year in books visit my Goodreads page.

Review: Time’s Convert (All Souls #4)

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I thoroughly enjoyed Harkness’s original All Souls Trilogy which was filled with magic, history, and romance. Time’s Convert is more of a spinoff than an actual continuation, focusing on the life of Matthew’s vampire son, Marcus, and his fiancé, Phoebe. While this book had some magic, a bit of romance, and plenty of history, for me it fell flat. I attribute this to a lack of real suspense. Phoebe decides to become a vampire herself but according to custom, the lovers must stay apart for three months. To keep him occupied and to quench Diana’s passion for history, the Clairmonts listen as Marcus opens up about his pre-and-post-rebirth history beginning during his childhood in Western Massachusetts in the last years of Britain’s colonial rule of the American colonies. The historical aspect is fascinating but in choosing to tell the tale of someone that the reader knows survives through the many tragedies he encounters, there is no real urgency to his story. It didn’t hold my attention like the original series. Also, while I loved experiencing Diana’s magical evolution, the in-depth look at becoming a vampire that we experience through Phoebe is somewhat unsettling. Maybe that was just me. My favorite parts of the book were the scenes with Diana and her extended family, especially the babies but even these mostly light-hearted moments didn’t jive with the feeling of the previous books. I don’t want to judge Time’s Convert solely based on my feelings for the All Souls Trilogy. I believe that as a stand-alone it still would’ve garnered a three-star rating from me but it is impossible for me to separate the two.

I highly recommend The All Souls Trilogy, which includes A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night, and The Book of Life to any lover of fantasy and history. If the idea of seeing centuries of history through the eyes of one long-lived person like Marcus’s experience and those of his Vampire relatives, I recommend Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time, a powerfully thought-provoking exploration of human history and the pain an extended life would really bring.

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Review: The Orphan Witch

The Orphan Witch by Paige Crutcher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I received an ARC copy of The Orphan Witch through Goodreads.com. Sadly, there are many problems with this fantasy novel about a woman who has only ever wanted to find a place to belong, where she doesn’t have to worry about hurting those she cares for. Persephone believes she’s found just that on an island populated by witches – witches who turn out to be her family. But the island is cursed and not everything or everyone is exactly what they seem.
I say sadly because the story is essentially a good one – sort of Harry Potter meets Deborah Harkness’s All Souls Trilogy – but it loses its way. The biggest problem for me was the writing. While Crutcher writes some beautiful images, the language often gets obscurely and unnecessarily flowery making it difficult to visualize the action. As for the story, it is kind of all over the place. Is it about Persephone finding her place? Or the Library of the Lost (I wouldn’t have minded a book just about that at all!)? Wile Island and its curse; good versus evil; light magic and dark magic? The many threads never really come together cohesively making the climax when they do come together feel inorganic.
I really wanted to love t his novel. I am hoping that before it is released in October some of the issues I had with it addressed.

If this story interests you or you just like stories about witches I highly recommend the All Souls Trilogy . Another good book about witches and about family is Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic. I personally love books about witches and am always on the lookout for my next magical read so if there’s a witchy novel out there you’ve enjoyed let me know.


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Review: Heir to Sevenwaters (Sevenwaters #4)

Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

I love reading historical fantasy when the weather is chilly. There is something about winter that makes the transportive power of books even stronger so when the calendar turned and the temperatures dipped (albeit temporarily here in South Louisiana), I turned to my favorite Celtic historical fantasy series. The fourth installment of Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters series focuses on the third daughter of Lord Sean of Sevenwaters, Clodagh, who, when she compares herself to her other sisters – Muirrin, the healer, Sibeal, the seer, the scarred Maeve, and the precocious Eilis – does not believe she is anything special, destined only to make some suitable man a capable wife.
As a character, Clodagh is real. She reacts as most people, especially a sheltered young woman of her time, would to the frightening adventure she is sent on. I could identify with her self-doubt throughout the story. And Cathal? Well, he is the most swoon-worthy hero of the series at least since the first book. He has the complexity of Bran (from Son of the Shadows and the gentle kindness of Red (from Daughter of the Forest). While Clodagh believes she is just a little too average and strives to show nothing but her capability, Cathal is her opposite, struggling to hide just how extraordinary he is. The chemistry between the two made this story at least as romantic as the first novel and their journey through the otherworld and dealings with the fair folk and the old ones make it the most magical yet. Heir to Sevenwaters was more face-paced than some of the previous books and had everything I always hope for from the Sevenwaters books.

If you love historical fantasy and grown-up fairy tales like I do, I highly recommend the whole Sevenwaters series starting with Daughter of the Forest which tells the story of Sorcha, Clodagh’s grandmother and her brother’s when otherworld interferes in their lives. I also recommend Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy which beautifully blends history and Russian folklore and makes particularly good reading on those long winter nights.

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