2019 Reading Challenge Reviews: Books 55 & 56
Hello readers!
I've decided to participate in two reading challenges this year: the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge and NEWTS. You can find out more info on both challenges in previous Overview posts.
The first book reviewed in this post was actually not for either challenge. I've been receiving Book of the Month deliveries every month, and wanted to try to read as many of those this year as I can too. The second book in this post was for the Pop Sugar Reading Challenge.
Here are my book reviews for my 55th and 56th books of 2019:
I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads. (This is another that could have been 3.5 if half stars were options.)
This book had no prompt. It was a 'just for fun' read. :)
This book follows Rowan Caine, a nanny who comes across a job listing that seems too good to be true. Which is of course, exactly what it turns out to be. The story is written in a long letter to a potential lawyer as she tries to explain and plead her innocence. While at this luxurious, possibly haunted, house in the Scottish highlands, a child under Rowan's care dies and Rowan is the only suspect. But is she even what she seems?
I found myself getting really antsy waiting for the twist in this thriller. A part of me wanted to skip ahead to find out what was going to happen. But this could possibly be said of me with all thrillers.
That said, once the twist did come, it was worth the wait. The very, very end of the book was a complete shock to me, and that's always exciting. It gave me a different interpretation of everything else in the story as I looked back.
I'd recommend this book to any thriller lover.
Book 56: The Silmarillion by J.R.R Tolkien
I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads. This book was really complicated for me to give a star rating to. Some aspects deserved different star ratings than others so here's my more detailed break down.
Universe building: 5/5 stars. Tolkien was a genius when it came to building full universes in his books. The species, their history and legends, their languages, etc. Not many authors have the ability to so completely create a fully developed world.
My reading comprehension: 2 or 3/5 stars. This isn't necessarily a fault of the book, but rather of myself. I found some sections (particularly early on in the book) difficult to follow and understand fully. It felt kind of like a history book that I was studying for class. Which may actually have been a good thing towards that universe building.
Universe building: 5/5 stars. Tolkien was a genius when it came to building full universes in his books. The species, their history and legends, their languages, etc. Not many authors have the ability to so completely create a fully developed world.
My reading comprehension: 2 or 3/5 stars. This isn't necessarily a fault of the book, but rather of myself. I found some sections (particularly early on in the book) difficult to follow and understand fully. It felt kind of like a history book that I was studying for class. Which may actually have been a good thing towards that universe building.
The Pop Sugar Challenge prompt I chose for this was "A book published posthumously."
This book is the history and legend of the creation of Middle Earth and the early years of elves, dwarves, men, and orcs long before the rise of Sauron and the adventures of the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy or The Hobbit. However, there are some common characters to both, particularly some of the older elves, (ie. Galadriel and Elrond). This history was written by J.R.R Tolkien and edited into book form by his son, Christopher Tolkien after J.R.R.'s death.
I would recommend this book to fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy that want to learn more about the history of Middle Earth. Just be prepared, you have to be a BIG fan to follow some of it.
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