Fables&Wren

Outlander #01: Outlander

/ 05 STARS, 2018 JANUARY, DGABALDON AR OUTLANDER

Outlander Book Cover Outlander
Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
Fiction
New York, N.Y. : Delacore Press ; Toronto : Doubleday Canada
1991
Audiobook
627

Hurtled back through time more than two hundred years to Scotland in 1743, Claire Randall finds herself caught in the midst of an unfamiliar world torn apart by violence, pestilence, and revolution and haunted by her growing feelings for James Fraser, a young soldier

WrensReads Review:

“When I asked my da how ye knew which was the right woman, he told me when the time came, I’d have no doubt. And I didn’t. When I woke in the dark under that tree on the road to Leoch, with you sitting on my chest, cursing me for bleeding to death, I said to myself, ‘Jamie Fraser, for all ye canna see what she looks like, and for all she weighs as much as a good draft horse, this is the woman”

This book struck a chord in my heart I didn’t know I actually had.

Now I want to voice to anyone who isn’t aware already that this book talks about rape, there is attempted rape and rape situations.

Not only that but there is a scene where Claire is literally spanked by Jaime because she got the whole group in a big mess that could have been avoided if she would have done what Jaime told her to do. Now I know all you feminist out there are like outraged and your panties are all in knots and what not, but seriously it is 1743. If a wife didn’t do what her husband asked her to do, sometimes they could be straight up killed and no one blinks an eye.

Jaime told her what he had to do and why it had to happen even though she knew what she did wrong and he didn’t do it out of anger. And he didn’t expect her to like it or to forgive him.

Now, would I just dismiss someone doing that in our time? Absolutely not. Do I think it was the right thing to do? Are you kidding me? No. Would I have not fought back and getting furious with Jaime if I was in Claire’s situation? You bet your bottom dollar I would have scratched his eyes out. But, again, this is 1743. It is a different time and they did things differently, no matter how wrong it actually is.

And yes, I am a feminist in case you got the vibe I wasn’t. I am literally just saying that times have evolved for the better and when a woman from 1945 goes backwards to 1743, she is going to be treated differently because women unfortunately have not always been treated with the equal respect that we deserve.

Anyway, warnings and rants over, let me tell you about the epic dilemma that Claire finds herself in…. she time travels into the past leaving her husband and gaining a new one who is a fugitive with the law. It’s okay though, he is super dreamy and lovely.

Claire ends up having to marry Jaime in order to be released of the English laws and going to see the devil himself named Randall. Thankfully, it works but Randall is still the absolute worst. There is a special spot in hell for men like him.

“And if your life is a suitable exchange for my honor, why is my honor not a suitable exchange for your life?”

Claire has to adapt to being someone’s second. She was a nurse in the war, so she knows about medicines and how to handle certain injuries. This can lead to a lot of problems, as some things have not been discovered. I mean, they still use leeches. GAG ME PUHPLEASE.

I can’t really say a lot about this book without giving things away. Claire deals a lot with loving two men in two different times, being called a witch for the knowledge she has, seeing people poorly treated that wouldn’t be tolerated in her time. Jaime deals with having a wife who knows more about sex than he does and knowing there is more to her than she leads on.

Basically this is an epic love story role into a time-travel history-lesson book. Like this author did her research. You can tell with all the details and all the attention to the events going around them that Gabaldon gives. She truly wrote a masterpiece.

On that note, I am taking a break from this series. It is long, it is detailed, it is high and romance… it is high in emotions and I know if I start the next one now, I will not be doing myself any favors. A break from this will make me more anxious to read the next! Distance makes the heart fonder, right? (That could have a double meaning…)

WrensReads | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram

This broke and mended my heart so many times. RTC

– – –

Want to point out that I started this book before Christmas and I still have a while to go. Not sure why this book is taking so long, because I do really like it! It’s just so much detail and so long!

– – –

More than half way through this book. It’s super detailed and super thick with information, but not very action-centered. Lots of pages, but I am actually enjoying it! It’s just a slower read for me.

SHARE THIS POST
FACEBOOK / TWITTER / GOOGLE + / PINTEREST / WHATSAPP

The Conqueror’s Saga #01: And I Darken

/ 05 STARS, 2018 JANUARY, KWHITE YA THE CONQUERORS SAGA

And I Darken Book Cover And I Darken
The Conqueror's Saga
Kiersten White
Juvenile Fiction
Delacorte Press
2016-06
Audiobook
496

No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

WrensReads Review:

I first want to say that there is no magical element to this book (maybe something in the series?). I’m not sure why it is labeled fantasy, because there is nothing fantasy-like in this book besides my imaginary heart burst and beating for the first time in over twenty years, but it is really phenomenal anyway!

Reasons why you should read this book as follow:
You don’t have you typical plain-awkward-clumsy-yet-extremely-beautiful-talented-shy main girl. No, the main girl, from the first page she was on, is in your face, strong, and nothing to mess with. She knows what she wants and she is going to get what she wants. You want to screw with her? She will cut your throat. You think she is less because she is a woman? She’s going to show you how much more she is. Lada Dragwlya is who every young lady (old too, though LBR) should strive to be.

Now you do have a plain-yet-smart-and-adorable-and-not-really-fitting-in brother, Radu Dragwlya at play at well. He is more strong in the mind and with wit than with the sword and brute (like his sister). He’s so friendly but fragile. He wants to be seen and accepted, but with the brutality of the world he lives in, he is kind of over looked. But the fun part is that he is most definitely, tragically and beautifully gay. And with the time period this is in, that isn’t accepted.

Now, I’m just going to cut right to the point: This story is so unique in the way of love triangles.

“So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?”

I’m not talking just any love triangle that you roll your eyes at, but like the best kind of tragic love triangle that your heart will hate but your attention craves. You don’t know which why it should go because you love everyone involved and it kind of drives you a little nuts. But in a way like cracking your back feels. It hurts, but it’s still amazing.

This whole story starts out with the siblings being traded to the enemy for safety. They are young, like twelve and eleven I think, and so they are basically raised in the hands of the person they were raised to not like. As you can gather from that, the book is very, very political. There are a bunch of chess pieces at play and you have to keep them straight (which isn’t very hard because the author makes it very easy to follow).

On top of the politics, the not-fantasy, the love triangle and the siblings, you have a lot of historical facts. I’m not really a historical reader, though I do have exceptions, so this is where I started losing a lot of my focus with the book. It didn’t take away from anything, it just added a ton of facts (which isn’t bad, just information overload for me sometimes).

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The ending made me bawl my eyes out. You basically are watching these two siblings grow into adults and bring havoc onto the world. So when you are in pain, it’s like seeing a loved one in pain and it makes my heart weep. I am so anxious for the next book though. That cliff hanger was not okay.

WrensReads | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram

SHARE THIS POST
FACEBOOK / TWITTER / GOOGLE + / PINTEREST / WHATSAPP

Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape

/ 04 STARS, 2018 JANUARY, PORENSTEIN AR NOVELS

Girls and Sex Book Cover Girls and Sex
Peggy Orenstein
Family & Relationships
Harper
March 29, 2016
Hardcover / Audiobook
320

The author of the New York Times bestseller Cinderella Ate My Daughter offers a clear-eyed picture of the new sexual landscape girls face in the post-princess stage—high school through college—and reveals how they are negotiating it. A generation gap has emerged between parents and their girls. Even in this age of helicopter parenting, the mothers and fathers of tomorrow’s women have little idea what their daughters are up to sexually or how they feel about it. Drawing on in-depth interviews with over seventy young women and a wide range of psychologists, academics, and experts, renowned journalist Peggy Orenstein goes where most others fear to tread, pulling back the curtain on the hidden truths, hard lessons, and important possibilities of girls’ sex lives in the modern world. While the media has focused—often to sensational effect—on the rise of casual sex and the prevalence of rape on campus, in Girls and Sex Peggy Orenstein brings much more to the table. She examines the ways in which porn and all its sexual myths have seeped into young people’s lives; what it means to be the “the perfect slut” and why many girls scorn virginity; the complicated terrain of hookup culture and the unfortunate realities surrounding assault. In Orenstein’s hands these issues are never reduced to simplistic “truths;” rather, her powerful reporting opens up a dialogue on a potent, often silent, subtext of American life today—giving readers comprehensive and in-depth information with which to understand, and navigate, this complicated new world.

WrensReads Review:

This book was full of factual studies, interviews with all types of girls (sexual orientation, race, background, etc) and about their ignorance with sex. A lot of this book was just proving we need a lot more sex education when it comes to the female body and what goes on with you. As many people already know, sex education is something that is lacking in some educations and that is something that needs to be addressed since that is the age that people start feeling things and exploring with each other.

This book does talk about rap, sexual assault, sex and has some cussing from the interviewees; but it was really enlightening and something I would suggest people read if they want to know that other people have went / are going through some similar situations that you might have. Orenstein talks about some really uncomfortable stuff, so I would advise a preparation of the heart and mind before diving into this book.

WrensReads | Goodreads | Twitter | Instagram

– – –

Okay… this was a needed read. Let me think about how to write a review on this.

– – –

Let’s talk about sex, baby. 🎵

SHARE THIS POST
FACEBOOK / TWITTER / GOOGLE + / PINTEREST / WHATSAPP