Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

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I have listened or watched every adaption of this book but every time I started the book since I was in school, I just thought the language was too difficult and never persevered to finally read it. This time though it was different. I flew through it, the book pulled me in immediately and now I understand why this is one of the most loved classics. Jane Austen had a way to bewitch you with words, they draw you into this story and I couldn’t put it down.

The characters were more detailed and I could understand them better, I fell in love with Mr Darcy, I grew frustrated with Lydia, Mrs Bennet irritated me (in a good way) and all the other characters just crept deeper into my heart. The way they all played their part in this story made you either like or dislike them more and to me, this will be one of my favourite character driven books.

I truly wish I read this book earlier, but then I also believe that if a book doesn’t hook you it is not your time to read you. If I pushed through with all my earlier attempts this wouldn’t have had such an impact on me.

If you struggle reading this one, I would also recommend you spend the money and get the audiobook narrated by Rosamund Pike, she does different voices for each character and it really helped me get into this book. I combined the audiobook with my physical copy and in the end only read the book once I got accustomed to the language.

Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers

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This is one of those books when it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve read it, it still draws me in and I get lost in the tale.

It’s set in 1850’s during the California gold rush. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep. Angel has had a hard life and doesn’t expect anything from men that is until she meets Michael Hosea. Michael obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly but surely he breaks down Angel’s walls until her frozen heart starts to thaw.

We read this as part of our reading with friends for July. At first, I thought maybe it won’t be the same experience I had when I first read it many years ago. I was right, it wasn’t the same, but in a good way. I drew a different message out of the book and experienced it on a whole different level.

This is one of the most inspiring Christian Fiction books that I’ve read and that just gives more credit to Rivers. The story pulls you in, it’s heart-wrenching, and shows you a different side to the gold rush. Of course it isn’t a straight forward story, there were scenes that really makes you uncomfortable, but in my opinion, Rivers doesn’t just add it in to shock you. Everything in the story has a purpose and will tie up the threads to weave a beautiful story.

The characters are very well written. You can’t help but fall in love with Michael and wish for a love story where a man will go to all that trouble for you. The way Rivers had written Angel and how you can see her grow throughout the book is the inspiration for my own writing. 

Windfall - Jennifer E. Smith

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First off, whoever designed this cover was a genius, it pulled me in immediately and that was the main reason why I picked up this book. Secondly, this premise is one that will make anyone one run out and buy a lotto ticket.

Alice who has been pining for Teddy, her best friend, buys him a lottery ticket for his birthday. To their astonishment, he wins $140 million, and in an instant, everything changes.

This is probably everyone in the world's dream, to win so much money, but I believe the author captured the burden that comes with instant millions and what effects it can have on you and the people around you.

The characters were well written, all of the characters have extremely well planned out backstories to show the reader how they got to where they are. And when this lucky win does happen you can’t help but feel elated for the characters.

There was a small section where Alice really worked on my nerve, but probably just because I wouldn’t have made the decision she did. But other than that, this was a very enjoyable quick read. I might actually pick up one of the authors other books. 

The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

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I really wanted to like this book. I read this one with my friends as part of our monthly Books with friends, they had both read this on previous occasions and raved about it. Since our tastes in books are very similar I thought this was going to be a great read, how wrong was I?

The circus arrives without warning, no one knows when or where it will pop up. Inside the boundaries of the circus unique experiences full of breathtaking amazements awaits. Only one catch, it is only open at night. There is a competition that has been going for years and the two major players have been chosen when they were children and have since been training. They don’t know the rules of the game, especially the one where only one can survive the game.

It wasn’t that the book, that was supposed to be filled with so many wonderful things, was boring but it just felt like something was off. It took me more than half of the book to finally be pulled into the story, the jumps in the timeline had me confused most of the time and I had to reread several passages to finally get back on board.

There were some colourful characters in this story, and this was probably the only thing that really kept me reading, I wanted to find out what was going to happen to the characters, and in the end, if the circus will be able to survive the game. 

The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons

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Here we go, it took me a while to compile this review, which isn’t a surprise considering it took me almost 84 years to finish this book. I usually love war stories, even with the backdrop of the horrible events during that time period, most authors get to write wonderful tales that pull you in and make you want to fight for the characters. This was not the case with this book. To me, it felt the torture just kept continuing.

No wonder this book was so thick, there was so much useless information in it, and I usually like descriptions of settings in books, but here I learnt how one can overdo descriptions.

The characters were shallow, with little to no growth throughout the book. Almost everyone dies and that just makes you stop caring about any of the characters. Alexander had a horrible temper and what could be considered as an emotionally abusive relationship with both the sisters, but of course he is an officer and girls just fawn over him.

I knew this was a series of books before I started it, but honestly, I can’t think that I would ever pick up the rest of the series or in this case, anything by this author.