📚A book club suggestion.
@bookclubfavorites & #bookclubfavoritesinsiders thank you for the copy @simonandschuster
🔸Release Day: January 23rd, 2024
🔸Genre: Hispanic American Literature - Magic Realism - Literary Fiction
🔸Adult
🍊My review:
4.75 /5
A fun western with magic realism inspired by the author's grandfather's life as a Bandido with a life full of adventures, murder, revenge, loss, unique friendships, evil deeds, and some redemption. What a character.
The book focuses on Antonio "Tragabalas" who should have died at birth but the entity in charge of claiming his life decided to let him live and see what would happen. Unlike most books, the middle was my favorite part it just picked up with revenge and meeting Peter. I also liked Jaime's period when he gets the book about his family and discovers all that he doesn't know.
It's a great Western and a great read.
Only one scene pulled me out of the story and felt forced and out of character (the mask party), apart from that I enjoyed it all. The end seemed abrupt at first but overall it was satisfying.
📮📚 Maude Horton's Glorious Revenge with @bookclubfavorites #bookclubfavoritesinsiders #freegift Thank you for this free copy. @simonandschuster
🔸Published: Jan 16th
🔸Genre: Historical Mystery, 1800s, Sisters Fiction
My review
4.5 🌟
I love 1800s novels and on top of that, this one combines elements that I love: mystery to solve, the game between "hunter (villain) and prey", and expedition/journey to the Arctic on a ship, London at that time.
Maude is not the most adventurous, but when she learns her sister is dead (and has no other information about what happened expedition) she decides to investigate. She reads her sister's diary in one go and acts after having more knowledge, but we get the diary entries throughout the entire book and learn of what happened to C. Horton in a combination of multiple POVs including male characters.
I didn't plan to read the book in one sitting but it happened. The author's writing is very lyrical and beautiful. It seems to be slow, Maude seems naive and lost, but her character develops well and I couldn't put it down. It has so much tension that we must fight the urge to skip just to peek ahead.
It builds up a lot around macabre and fascination for death, bones, and the human body so we are expecting something as macabre for an ending. It did not go to extremes as I was hoping but it is satisfying perhaps a bit abrupt, but I like that.
I feel the author researched a lot and it shows in her writing. I am glad I read this one.
I got a copy from the publisher. My review is voluntary.
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