Honeyville

By Daisy Waugh.

I apologise for my lack of a post again even though I promised one on Sunday or Monday. Time just ran away from me before we left for Jersey and then our flight was delayed on the Monday so I got back later than expected and was so tired I forgot to write a post again.

Routine will once again be my way of life once I am resettled and out of holiday mode!

[The town of Trinidad, Colorado,
was a tough place to be a woman in 1913.
But it was the best place in the West to find one,
if you had the cash. Honeyville, they used to call it.

A murder throws Inez and Dora together - two women from
opposite sides of a town built for men. Against all odds,
the well born girl and the high class hooker are drawn together
in friendship... But this is a place that is rotten to the core,
and beyond the rustling of silk skirts, the dancing and laughter,
deadly unrest is building...

Welcome to Honeyville - a town living by its own rules,
where nothing is quite as it seems.

A story inspired by a lost chapter
in American History.]

 Now this book, I picked up purely because I saw it was about the war. Just not the war I thought. Whoops.

That, in turn, made me like this book only. I didn't love it.

I was intrigued by the juxtaposition of the friendship between a hooker girl and an upper class girl.

Dora - I really liked. She was down to earth and relatable, even though she was a hooker. I had a weird on-off thing with Inez though. She had some lovely, sweet moments, but at times I wanted to throttle her - especially when she was being a brat!

I liked Xavier's character as well. His and Dora's friendship was quite heartwarming.

There were a few twists and turns I didn't see coming. Some were funny little snippets that gave the seriousness of the story a brief break, but the one big one (even though VERY obvious from the beginning which my stupid brain somehow neglected to pick up on) was kinda heartbreaking.

I also don't know whether this fault lies with me or the storytelling, but I kept getting confused in what the strikers were fighting for and whose side Inez was on. It all got a bit muddled and I was never truly engaged with it for that reason. Maybe I just need to brush up on my history of mining strikes, but everything was all higgledy piggledy.

I did enjoy the scenery though and the era it was set in. It had beautiful imagery but the overall story was just a bit, well, odd.

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Jersey posts to come soon!


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Mistborn: Book One, The Final Empire

By Brandon Sanderson

Narrated by Michael Kramer

Image From Goodreads

[A thousand years ago evil came to the land and has ruled with an iron hand ever since. The sun shines fitfully under clouds of ash that float endlessly from the constant eruption of volcanoes. A dark lord rules through the aristocratic families and ordinary folk are condemned to lives in servitude, sold as goods, labouring in the ash fields. But now a troublemaker has arrived and there is rumour of revolt. A revolt that depends on a criminal that no one can trust and a young girl who must master Allomancy - the magic that lies in all metals.]


It took me a while to get into this one. There were a lot of new concepts and places and characters I had to learn all at once, so getting my head around it in the beginning was interesting.

Once I'd begun to understand it though, it was great. I really warmed to the characters. They were interesting and well-rounded with flaws and dreams like anybody else.

I particularly liked the banter that seemed to go back and forth between them, especially in the first half. It all got very serious towards the end with consequences taking place.

I couldn't decide whether Vin's harshness towards herself was irritating or endearing. We've definitely all been there. But her interactions with Elend at the beginning were heart-warming and had you rooting for them all the way through like most budding romances tend to do.

I loved getting to know backstory's of the characters as well, especially Kelsier and Dockson. I was also intrigued by the different "types" of characters: mistborn, mistings, Gods, terrismen, obligator, inquisitor, mistwraiths. The inquisitor's and mistwraith's fascinated me most with their individual, unique qualities.

The whole balance of adventure and plotting the downfall of an empire against the structural system of class within balls that were thrown, court gossip and power battles between various houses was enchanting.

I was shocked by the ending though. Everything seemed to fall apart so quickly but it was very exciting and I can't wait to see what happens next!



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