Hello everyone! Happy Monday!
Though for me it's like Saturday, since I have today and tomorrow off after working the weekend! For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have a book that I preordered after reading the super positive and excited review by Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat, and that I started wondering about after reading some other blogger friends' not so positive reviews. But after reading Alyssa from The Eater of Books' positive review, I knew I had to read the book myself and make up my one mind.
This book is not part of any of my challenges for this year and it's a standalone, so it's just one of those "me" reads, a shiny new book that I felt like reading right away after release!
House of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie Whipple
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
From the moment that I saw the gorgeous cover of this book I was curious about it and though I'm not the biggest fan of book about witches I added it to my TBR list. Then one of my fave blogger friends read an ARC and loved it to bits, reading her review made me even preorder it! But as release date came closer, some negative reviews started popping up on other blogger friends' blogs and I began worrying I'd end up not liking the book. Then also some positive reviews popped here and there, and I knew this was the kind of book you had to read and see where you stand.
Luckily for me, I absolutely enjoyed this book, with its dark moments, its more normal silly and light moments, the different kind of witch lore and the extremely strong friendships between Jo, Gwen and Kat.
Jo has lived alone with her grandma since her mum died ten years ago, trying to hide from the Curse that has killed many witches before and all of the Hemlock family, except for them. One day Jo finds a strange man outside their house and she feels something is seriously wrong with him. That visit is what starts a cascade of actions and reactions, full of plot twists and unexpected revelations.
One of my favourite parts of the book was the witches' lore and how it was its own little bit of unique and dark. Magic is not good or bad, magic is power and as such it can corrupt and control you, the different between good and bad witches is that the good witches control their magic and the bad witches let magic control and corrupt them. Another important part of that was that no matter what ingredients you used for your potion (and we're talking about the most classical spiders, toads' eyes and eagles tears) you always have to sacrifice something of your own, a piece of yourself for the magic to work. Everything in magic has a price and you have to be prepared to pay it.
The darker parts of the book, following the main plot line of Jo and her grandma deciding that they cannot hide anymore and have to fight the Curse are balanced out with the lighter ones of Jo and her crush on Winn and their start of a relationship. It's quite cute and adorable, even if at times it seems that Winn is too perfect to be real (and indeed he is hiding something).
One of my absolute favourite parts of the book is how strong the friendship between Jo, Gwen and Kat is. They're been friends for a long time and when that friendship is put to the test with some dark threats and some gruesome sacrificies, not only it doesn't fail but comes out of it stronger. It's not often that a friendship is so important and pivotal to the plot and to the heroine.
Adorable, funny with plenty of darker moments, some disturbing ones and quite a few unexpected plot twists, this was one book that kept me up late at night reading and deserves 4 stars!
View all my reviews
Though for me it's like Saturday, since I have today and tomorrow off after working the weekend! For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have a book that I preordered after reading the super positive and excited review by Octavia from Read Sleep Repeat, and that I started wondering about after reading some other blogger friends' not so positive reviews. But after reading Alyssa from The Eater of Books' positive review, I knew I had to read the book myself and make up my one mind.
This book is not part of any of my challenges for this year and it's a standalone, so it's just one of those "me" reads, a shiny new book that I felt like reading right away after release!
House of Ivy & Sorrow by Natalie WhippleMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
From the moment that I saw the gorgeous cover of this book I was curious about it and though I'm not the biggest fan of book about witches I added it to my TBR list. Then one of my fave blogger friends read an ARC and loved it to bits, reading her review made me even preorder it! But as release date came closer, some negative reviews started popping up on other blogger friends' blogs and I began worrying I'd end up not liking the book. Then also some positive reviews popped here and there, and I knew this was the kind of book you had to read and see where you stand.
Luckily for me, I absolutely enjoyed this book, with its dark moments, its more normal silly and light moments, the different kind of witch lore and the extremely strong friendships between Jo, Gwen and Kat.
Jo has lived alone with her grandma since her mum died ten years ago, trying to hide from the Curse that has killed many witches before and all of the Hemlock family, except for them. One day Jo finds a strange man outside their house and she feels something is seriously wrong with him. That visit is what starts a cascade of actions and reactions, full of plot twists and unexpected revelations.
One of my favourite parts of the book was the witches' lore and how it was its own little bit of unique and dark. Magic is not good or bad, magic is power and as such it can corrupt and control you, the different between good and bad witches is that the good witches control their magic and the bad witches let magic control and corrupt them. Another important part of that was that no matter what ingredients you used for your potion (and we're talking about the most classical spiders, toads' eyes and eagles tears) you always have to sacrifice something of your own, a piece of yourself for the magic to work. Everything in magic has a price and you have to be prepared to pay it.
The darker parts of the book, following the main plot line of Jo and her grandma deciding that they cannot hide anymore and have to fight the Curse are balanced out with the lighter ones of Jo and her crush on Winn and their start of a relationship. It's quite cute and adorable, even if at times it seems that Winn is too perfect to be real (and indeed he is hiding something).
One of my absolute favourite parts of the book is how strong the friendship between Jo, Gwen and Kat is. They're been friends for a long time and when that friendship is put to the test with some dark threats and some gruesome sacrificies, not only it doesn't fail but comes out of it stronger. It's not often that a friendship is so important and pivotal to the plot and to the heroine.
Adorable, funny with plenty of darker moments, some disturbing ones and quite a few unexpected plot twists, this was one book that kept me up late at night reading and deserves 4 stars!
View all my reviews
So glad you enjoyed this one Pili! The witch lore was a highlight for me as well - I loved that there were was no light and dark magic, only dark and the questions of a witch's control over it. And the friendship between the girls and also between Jo and her grandma was excellent too:) Lovely review!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jenny! I agree that one of the biggest strenghts of the book was the relationships between characters! And grandma was awesome!
DeleteI have read 2 reviews for this one and this one was good and the other was bad. I have been looking forward to a witch book for a while so I might have to check this one out. The relationships seem very well thought out as well :)!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing & great review! :)
Alex @ The Shelf Diaries
I really liked it, Alex. I think it's one of those books that you need to read to make up your own mind!
DeleteI'm so glad you liked it more than I did! I do agree that it's a book that's bound to be a hit or miss and it really depends on your expectations. I expected a gothicky kind of serious read so you see where it went wrong for me haha. This is a more silly kind of read that I was so not expecting nor in the mood for. I do agree the lore was interesting and it's what kept me reading hoping I would start to enjoy the rest, too. Great review, Pili!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Giselle! I agree if you expected something super serious, then this really is not the right read for that at all!
DeleteYay! I am so happy you were able to really enjoy this one since I know you were looking forward to it. :-) I agree that the friendships were well done and one of the highlights of the book. I LOVE that cover.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, the cover is so beautiful!
DeleteThanks Kristen!
I've loved many a book that "everyone" has panned. I think the cover is lovely too. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, the thing about good reviews, positive or negatives, is that if people explain well enough why they liked or disliked something you can figure out if you'll like it or not!
DeleteSounds completely amazing Pili, I can't wait to pick this one up! Your review definitely helps with me moving this up the TBR pile. I love witches and it sounds like this one did them well. Awesome review as always!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll like it, Jeann! Thanks a lot!!
DeleteAwesome review sweetie :D I'm glad you ended up mostly loving this book. <3 I love the cover as well. SO gorgeous. (Though I will never read this book, as I have heard some things that I know I wouldn't like. Sniffs.) But I do think that it sounds pretty good and it makes me happy you liked it :) Thank you for sharing. <3
ReplyDeleteThank you sweetie! And yes, the cover is lovely!
Delete