This book should be a mess, with it's elaborate alternate history and mash-up of genre bits, but Elliott handles it all with incredible precision. There's Jane Austen-esque romance, swashbuckling adventure, sharp dialogue, weird magic, mystery, intrigue, and several stunning plot twists.
Reviews
City of Bones tells the story of a fifteen-year-old girl, Clary, trying to make sense of her world when it is turned upside down.
Set in 1941, The Lost Garden is a beautifully written story about a thirty-five-year-old English woman who volunteers for the Women's Land Army, an organization devoted to growing crops for the war effort.
The author chucked a lucrative professional career (he was head of an international NGO at the time) as he began to feel increasingly isolated from whatever it was his efforts were supposed to be producing. He knew the organization was important, and he understood that it accomplished valuable goals.
If you read any of the Bartimaeus books, be prepared for a whole different kind of story in Heroes of the Valley. It isn't entirely clear from the outset whether this book contains any myth or fantasy, or if it is just a straight up tale of a boy growing up in a small, isolated community. There are plenty of tall tales in the story - it's just that they deal with person and events in the past.
When preparing for the holidays next year, consider checking out Nigella Lawson's Nigella Christmas to help you out. This book is packed with everything one needs to entertain a crowd or feed your family. Chapters cover catering parties, hot
This book meets my foremost criteria for a great book – I was very sorry when it ended. It is a long book and readers may feel they have become part of the story, therefore, making an ending for themselves as well as the story. Much has been written about this book by critics and experts in literature.
Frank Mackey and Rosie Daly were in love and planned to escape together to England. But Rosie didn’t show up for their rendezvous so Frank left home alone. Two decades later he returns to the Dublin neighborhood “Faithful Place” where he grew up and immediately becomes immersed in the family craziness and dysfunction he ran away from so long ago.