Hello there guys!!
Happy Black Friday!! I hope you'll be safe & sound if you brave the crazy hoards of sale hunters. I plan to do some online shopping if at all, because finances are tight, no matter how tempting the sales are!
For this week's Friday Reads I'm featuring once again the corresponding book for this month's The Midnight Garden Readalong! I'm discovering and reading so many lovely YA & MG classics with this challenge and this time it was by fate and luck one of my rare re-reads, even made more rare since I had read the book for the first time only the previous month! ;)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm finally getting to read these classics and I can totally understand why they are so beloved by some of my bloggy friends! I love Alanna and her fierceness!!
Re-reading this one for the Midnight Garden Readalong was quite a lot of fun, and once I finished it, I was ready to continue reading the whole series again.
Surprisingly enough my love for this book actually grew with the re-read. I still acknowledge that it's a bit of a raw book, not as perfectly polished or as flawlessly paced, and some odd transitions happen here and there. But I simply loved it again.
Alanna is both bold and strong and angry at the world for imposing her a role that she doesn't want to play, and resents and hates being a girl with all her might. That is one of those things that gave me pause on my first read, but this time... well, this time I know Alanna's journey and growth and I know how things change and progress, so I can understand her anger with her youth and ambition much better.
I must confess to have had bouts of the same "wanting to prove that I'm as good as any boy" at things myself or be pissed at my period for making me want to curl down with a blanket, so it was never hard to put myself in her place.
I loved how she worked very hard and tried very hard at mastering things that didn't came naturally to her and was always worried about the consequences of her actions, and very soon learnt that victories aren't as clear cut as you think they'll be, and you don't always feel like you'd think you would.
I loved the secondary characters, Raoul, Gary and specially Jon and George. I really liked seeing the noble boys learning about more than just their Code and their battles and broading their horizons!
One of the things that haven't change from the first read to this one is how odd it feels for Alanna's reaction to Roger of Comté, and how lil it is explained or explored other than to say how much she dislikes and then hates him on sight... It comes so out of the blue at first, and not even as a reaction from Alanna's magic to his feels like a satisfactory explanation...
All in all, I simply am a newly made fan of the series, and I'm itching to re-read the rest of the series again, and read more of the Tortall series! Hopefully soon!
Well deserved 3.5 to 4 stars to my introduction to Tortall!!
View all my reviews
Happy Black Friday!! I hope you'll be safe & sound if you brave the crazy hoards of sale hunters. I plan to do some online shopping if at all, because finances are tight, no matter how tempting the sales are!
For this week's Friday Reads I'm featuring once again the corresponding book for this month's The Midnight Garden Readalong! I'm discovering and reading so many lovely YA & MG classics with this challenge and this time it was by fate and luck one of my rare re-reads, even made more rare since I had read the book for the first time only the previous month! ;)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm finally getting to read these classics and I can totally understand why they are so beloved by some of my bloggy friends! I love Alanna and her fierceness!!
Re-reading this one for the Midnight Garden Readalong was quite a lot of fun, and once I finished it, I was ready to continue reading the whole series again.
Surprisingly enough my love for this book actually grew with the re-read. I still acknowledge that it's a bit of a raw book, not as perfectly polished or as flawlessly paced, and some odd transitions happen here and there. But I simply loved it again.
Alanna is both bold and strong and angry at the world for imposing her a role that she doesn't want to play, and resents and hates being a girl with all her might. That is one of those things that gave me pause on my first read, but this time... well, this time I know Alanna's journey and growth and I know how things change and progress, so I can understand her anger with her youth and ambition much better.
I must confess to have had bouts of the same "wanting to prove that I'm as good as any boy" at things myself or be pissed at my period for making me want to curl down with a blanket, so it was never hard to put myself in her place.
I loved how she worked very hard and tried very hard at mastering things that didn't came naturally to her and was always worried about the consequences of her actions, and very soon learnt that victories aren't as clear cut as you think they'll be, and you don't always feel like you'd think you would.
I loved the secondary characters, Raoul, Gary and specially Jon and George. I really liked seeing the noble boys learning about more than just their Code and their battles and broading their horizons!
One of the things that haven't change from the first read to this one is how odd it feels for Alanna's reaction to Roger of Comté, and how lil it is explained or explored other than to say how much she dislikes and then hates him on sight... It comes so out of the blue at first, and not even as a reaction from Alanna's magic to his feels like a satisfactory explanation...
All in all, I simply am a newly made fan of the series, and I'm itching to re-read the rest of the series again, and read more of the Tortall series! Hopefully soon!
Well deserved 3.5 to 4 stars to my introduction to Tortall!!
View all my reviews
I was not aware of these books at all until Elizabeth started talking about them quite a bit on her blog because they were her favorite books as preteen. I will have to try the first one. The author was at our local Fantasy/SciFi convention, but it didn't click with me who she was until after the Con. I felt really bad because I would have bought the first paperback and had it personalized for Elizabeth. I hope she comes back again because her table was really popular.
ReplyDeleteI know they've been classics and beloved for a long time but better late than never when reading books! ;) I'd love to meet Tamora Pierce!
DeleteThis is a really wonderful review Pili! It's interesting re-reading some old classics and I love how you can pick up different things on multiple reads of a book. This one has been highly recommended to me as well, but somehow I just never picked it up! Thanks for the thoughts!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll end up reading the whole quarter! They're books that lend themselves very well to binge reading Jeann!
DeleteOh man, I really need to read this series. Everyone totally loves it. I'm so glad you loved it. Definitely gives me hope that I will as well when I get around to reading it. Great review!
ReplyDeleteCassi @ My Thoughts Literally
I do hope you'll get around to reading it soon, Cassi! It's so much fun!!
DeleteAwesome review Pili :D I'm so glad you love this book. <3 Yay for re-reading it :D But aw, I wish it was a perfect book. Hmph. But I'm still going to read it, someday, lol :) Thank you for sharing your thoughts about it sweet girl. <3
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll get to read the whole series soon Carina dear, they're so much fun!!
DeleteI so need to read a Tamora Pierce book! Alanna sounds like someone I might either LOVE or HATE. :D So glad you loved this one - hopefully you get to do a reread!
ReplyDeleteFantastic review, Pili. :)
Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Sometimes she annoyed me a lil bit, but most of the time I really loved her!
Delete