The Martian || Andy Weir

Title: The Martian

Author: Andy Weir

Length: 369 pages

Publication date: September 23, 2012

Genre: Science fiction

Rating: 5/5

Mark Watney is in trouble. He's on the fourth manned expedition to Mars, and on the sixth day of the mission, an intense storm forces them to abandon the mission, and in the chaos, Mark is left stranded. On Mars. By himself. Oh, and the storm eliminated any communication with Earth. So Mark has to figure out how to make his limited supplies last until the next expedition arrives... in 4 years. But Mark is smart, and he's bound to figure out how to make it, right?

I had heard for months that this book was amazing. I even bought it and had it on my shelf, somewhere close to the top of my TBR (to-be read) pile for a few months. But then I watched the trailer for the movie adaptation, and I knew I couldn't put it off any more. That day I picked it up, and within 2 pages I was glad that I had made that decision, and by page 6 I had laughed out loud at least once. Really.

The Martian was quite different from what I was expecting when I picked it up. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got. First of all, this is a very scientific book. After all, it is about an astronaut trying to survive on Mars. He does that through science. And Mark Watney is very smart. This book is filled with his scientific calculations, and yet I never felt bored! Sometimes it went over my head, but Weir did such a great job writing it in such a way that it was accurate and still somewhat entertaining.

I also really liked the character of Mark Watney (I just really like to refer to him by his full name.) He was very resourceful, and his sense of humour was great. That's what made the book for me. He had a very dry sense of humour, and he would react to situations very differently from what I would (ie he remained calm whilst I would have sat in my spacesuit and cried for a year.) The only thing that I would have liked to see more of was a bit more of the emotional and psychological effects of being completely alone for many months. You get a hint of that at the end, but just a hint. But this isn't necessarily that kind of book either. This isn't a story about Mark Watney's emotions. This is a story about his survival. He's too busy trying to grow potatoes in Martian soil to worry about his feelings.

This story is told mostly through Mark making log entries, but there are chapters focused on the people back at NASA and his crew on the ship, which I thought was interesting. Seeing things from their view as they try to get Mark off of Mars alive, and then reading his own account after was really cool. It filled in so much of the story.

This is a survival story at its finest. Really, when the very atmosphere of the planet you are on will kill you, it makes for a really intense story at times. There is some moderate swearing, but I didn't find it to be gratuitous. To my memory there was one allusion to two characters having sex, but other than that there wasn't any sexual content either. If you're looking for a really exciting and funny story that has you holding your breath as you reach the end, this might be for you!

(As a side note, last night I dreamt about Mark Watney. In my dream, his family was with him on Mars, but the rest of the situations were the same. One night, a dinosaur (really, brain?) came into their living area, destroyed his potatoes, and killed his sister. I was really really upset about the potatoes being destroyed.)

The Last Heiress || Mary Ellis

Title: The Last Heiress

Author: Mary Ellis

Length: 304 pages

Publication date: February 1, 2015

Genre: Historical fiction

Rating: 3.25/5

English heiress Amanda Dunn sets sail from England for Wilmington, North Carolina, where she hopes to somehow restore shipments of raw materials for her family's textile mills, which have been severely disrupted by the American Civil War. She also anticipates spending time with her twin sister Abigail and Abigail's husband, who happens to be in the cotton industry himself. While working on her business dealings, she also meets a young grocer who catches her eye, and suddenly business isn't the only thing on her mind...

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would! It wasn't without flaws, but I liked the story. It is a historical romance, but it didn't feel like the romance wasn't the extreme focus above everything else, and I didn't find it annoying. 

I've not really read anything set during the Civil War, so I don't know much of the history and details of it. This provided enough detail of what was going on without confusing me with names too much, but it did sometimes assume that the reader had at least a rudimentary knowledge of the war, which I wouldn't stay I have. It was interesting to learn some more about it. 

I have mixed feelings about the characters. They didn't feel very complete sometimes, just like simple characters. In the last quarter of the book the main characters each went through changes that didn't have much lead up, so the changes felt very abrupt. However, the characters weren't boxed into a single trope either. I think the potential was there for the author to do more with them. They weren't bad characters, just nothing really deep. The faith part of this story was very surface level, just casual mentions to God. It could hardly be called a Christian fiction.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, and I would recommend it for fans of romance or people interested in American history. 


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The Invention of Exile || Vanessa Manko

Title: The Invention of Exile

Author: Vanessa Manko

Length: 304 pages

Publication date: August 14, 2014

Genre: Historical fiction

Rating: 2/5

Austin Voronkov is a Russian immigrant to Connecticut in 1913. As an inventor and engineer, he loves the opportunities he has in the United States. He has met a beautiful American woman named Julia, who agrees to become his wife. But Austin is wrongly accused of being an anarchist, and as a result he and his wife are deported to Russia. Over the next several years, they move from place to place in Europe, having 3 children along the way. Because of the Russian civil war and unrest in Europe, the family decides to go to Mexico, where they will try to get permission to go back to the US. Julia and the children are eventually able to return to their home, while Austin must stay behind in Mexico. Over the years of their separation, Austin must deal with his feelings of isolation from what he knows, and struggles to stay connected to his family.

This book had a lot of promise. The summary sounded really interesting to me, right up my alley. I really enjoy historical fiction and I hadn't read anything set in this situation. However, basically everything about his book was a big disappointment. The writing seemed like the author was attempting to be very poetic, but it just came across as scattered. There were SO many sentence fragments, I couldn't even handle it by the end. The scattered writing also made the story feel horribly repetitive; in fact, if it had been written/edited properly, it probably would have lost 50 or 60 pages.

The dialogue was another problem for me. It was often strained, and not because of Austin's grasp of English. The characters felt quite disconnected from each other, like they were strangers being forced to interact, or bad actors without chemistry. I will say that the author was very good at painting a picture of the setting. I really did feel like I was in Mexico with Austin. Unfortunately, as this was a character based story, that wasn't able to carry the story.

I also had a problem with how the author handled the characters. A few side characters were introduced, and then dropped with no mention again. There is a significant antagonist of the story, a character that causes Austin incredible amounts of stress, to the point where he looks over his shoulder all the time for this character. This character seems like a big deal, yet two-thirds of the way through the book, it seems like the author literally forgot about him! He, the huge problem for Austin, just stops being mentioned at all. He doesn't have any last lines, Austin stops giving him any thought, and it makes you wonder if he was even in the book at all?

The ending was horrific - it was such an anticlimactic letdown! I actually kept trying to turn the page on my ereader because I could not accept that I had reached the end! It felt like a section of pages had to be missing! I was so upset because after struggling through the story, I didn't even have a good ending to show for it!

Now, in full disclosure, I did have a galley of it, and I truly hope that there were things legitimately missing from it that are in the final copy of the book. The story truly did have a lot of promise, but the writing was too weak to pull it off. This is a debut novel, and I feel like if the author keeps working at it, she could have some wonderful stories in the future. I also feel like a strong editor might have made all the difference with this book.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The Villa || Rosanna Ley

Title: The Villa

Author: Rosanna Ley

Length: 417 pages

Publication date: August 5, 2014

Genre: adult contemporary

Rating: 2.5/5

One day Tess Angel receives a letter from the solicitor of a man she never met, saying she inherited his villa in Sicily. The man, named Edward Westerman, was Tess' mother Flavia's employer when she was a young woman. The thing is, Flavia never went back to Sicily after she left when she was in her early twenties, and she never spoke about it with Tess. Because Tess has so many questions about what her mother's life was like growing up, and why she has inherited this villa in the first place, she goes to Sicily to do some investigating. Flavia struggles with her daughter's decision to go to her hometown, and has to deal with all of the memories that come flooding back. And in the meantime, Tess' daughter Ginny is dealing with her own problems of deciding what to do with her future now that she's completed high school. The story follows these three women as they face the past and make decisions that will greatly affect their futures. 

I was intrigued by this book mostly because it was set in Sicily, and didn't look much at what the plot was, to be honest. So I didn't have many expectations for this book. And unfortunately, this book was not very enjoyable for me. First things first, the writing was really clunky. Ever been a passenger in a car with someone who is learning how to drive manual, and they aren't quite picking up on how to shift gears? That was how reading this book felt to me. The sentences didn't always flow very well, and the author really liked to use ellipses and dashes excessively. It did smooth after the middle of the book, but it still wasn't great. 

I don't have much to say about the plot of the book. It was alright, pretty basic, kind of predictable. It would make a good beach read.  But mostly I didn't like the characters all that much, especially Flavia. **Spoilers ahead** As a teenager, she meets a man named Peter and they fall in love. Peter has to leave, and for 6 years Flavia pines after him. Finally she decides to go to England to see if she can find him. She does end up finding him, but he's married with a child by then. So Flavia is heartbroken, and ends up getting married a couple years later, even though she'll never love him the way she loves Peter. After Flavia gets married, Peter comes waltzing around and tells her that he's left his wife because he "was never happy with her." At least Flavia doesn't run out on her husband, although that would have preferable to what she does end up doing, which is her having an emotional affair on her husband for 25 years. These people have been separated for THIRTY-THREE years and yet they think their love is true love. NO. I'm sure this was supposed to seem romantic, but it was just pathetic and it made me upset. I do not condone cheating at all, under any circumstances. By the time you find out what Flavia and Peter were doing, it was about 75% into the book, otherwise I might have stopped sooner. The worst part? Flavia doesn't think it affects her husband at all, that it has nothing to do with him. Well, Flavia, you are an unbelievably selfish person if you believe that. At then beginning of the book, Tess is "the other woman," and you can see where she gets that trait from. (At least she smartens up and leaves the guy)  That whole storyline was enough to sour my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, The Villa is just a mediocre book, and I feel like there are better books out there for you to spend your time on. I didn't hate everything about it, but I just can't recommend it.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Top 5 Favourite Books of 2015 (so far)

Hey guys! Today is Top 5 Wednesday! Top 5 Wednesday is a Goodreads group, and you can find the information here.

I really liked this week's topic, but I didn't have time to make a video, so I decided to write a quick blog post about it. So this week's topic is your top 5 favourite books of this year so far. It was pretty easy for me to choose, but they are in no particular order, because I don't roll like that.

5. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
         This actually the first book I picked up this year, actually. I read it while we were driving home after our Christmas holidays. This is a great dystopian/urban fantasy type story, and the story and the characters just pulled me in. The writing wasn't always my favourite (the author has a tendency to rush through action sequences, which left me feeling lost at times) but overall it was a gripping story and I was just wrecked at the end.

4. Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod
        I read this book just a couple weeks ago, and I still think about something or other about it just about every day. It's a memoir of a woman who decided to save up for a year so she could quit her job and live in Europe for 6 months. The title gives away where she left her heart. The writing was quite beautiful, and I could really feel the author's passion for the decisions she made and the things she was experiencing. It made me feel like I could save up money for a year so I could quit my job too!

3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
        If you are any kind of geek, or have any interest in video games or the 1980s, this book is going to be right up your alley. The story is set decades in the future, in the 2040s, and the world basically exists in a virtual reality online. The creator of this world passes away and leaves clues for the world's most epic scavenger hunt. Again, this was a story that just pulled me into the world, and I loved (almost) every page! There were a couple things that I found offensive (a rant of heavy Christian/religion bashing, and a crude sexual reference) but otherwise it was so much fun!

4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
         I love me some WWII fiction, and this was a beautiful one. Doerr's writing was just incredible. He was able to weave together a moving account of two children from different sides of the war, growing up in the middle of it. I was often amazed at his attention to detail, and how he was able to intertwine all of these events to create one long thread. By the end I had experienced all the feels multiple times. Keep your tissues handy.

5. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
        I had heard a lot of hype about this book, and I had reached a point where I had to read it because I was scared of getting spoiled! If I had started reading this on a Friday night, I would probably have read most of it through the night. This was such a well-crafted fantasy world! A princess runs away from her wedding, and the prince she left and a hired assassin are sent to bring her back. The tricky part is that we don't know which one is the prince and which one is the assassin. I got so into that part, trying to figure out if my guess was right. But this book is so much more than an awesome fantasy world and a crazy twist. The characters are so awesome, I loved all of them. The princess is one of the best female characters I have read in a long time, and there are good lady friendships! I couldn't ask for anything else, except maybe the second book in the series, like, yesterday!!


What books would make your top 5 list? Leave a comment and let me know!

Summer is here and I'm excited about it.

Summer is almost here! Well, today we have a rainfall warning, but it still feels more and more like summer. Church activities are winding up, and there's a lot more free time on the horizon. I never realized how much you love free time until I started working full time. That was an adjustment. Sometimes I really miss working part-time. I had a lot more time for housework and hobbies.

I have many plans for the summer already, such as:

• doing a bedroom refresh 
• having a garage sale with some friends and getting rid of so much junk
• doing some DIY projects, like painting a couple bookshelves and building an end table
• going to the zoo (I haven't been to the zoo in like a decade or something, and they've added a ton of new things since I was there last)
• writing back to my poor pen pals who probably wonder why I went off the radar
• getting so much reading done!

These are the two tables I'm looking at making. I might make both. We'll see.

I hope to enjoy some of the last two while sitting outside in my lawn chair apparatus. I call it an apparatus because I wouldn't know what else to call it. It's two Adirondack chairs attached with a table in the middle. Very handy. But the table is broken so I have to fix that. And I want to get some cushions, for maximum comfort. I've got my eyes on some seat pads from IKEA, because I'm too lazy to make them myself.

What would you call this thing? Anyway, here it is, freshly painted in my favourite colour. That table wasn't properly attached, so it came off and now I have to fix it.

I'm also quite excited for summer weather, as a lovely bistro just a short walk away from my house is selling gelato. I am pleased to announce the stuff tastes like heaven, and I anticipate walking over there many evenings with a book.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy || Sam Maggs

Title: The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks

Author: Sam Maggs

Length: 208 pages

Publication date: May 12, 2015

Genre: non-fiction

Rating: 2/5

I heard about this book last winter, and I thought it sounded really cool. I definitely consider myself a fangirl and a geek, so this sounded like it would be right up my alley. Plus the cover was adorable! So I was pretty excited when I was able to receive an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

This book is basically an introduction on how to be a lady geek. The author lists many things that have extensive fandoms online, such as Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Supernatural, and many more. There are chapters on fan fiction, conventions and how to navigate them, feminism in the geek world, and other things.

Unfortunately, this book fell very flat for me. The beginning of the book was a list of swag that members of certain fandoms can be seen wearing or owning. That's really all it was. And the book stayed at that shallow level. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was really hoping for something more in-depth. This really just felt like a book for people who want to be geeks because it's trendy. I also felt like some of the author's points were contradictory, and the whole book felt like a boring mess. I skimmed so much of it because it just wasn't interesting, or it was old information to me as a longtime fangirl.

AND THERE WEREN'T EVEN ANY REFERENCES TO THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY! What?? You copy the title and don't even talk about it at all??

There were some short interviews with well-known girl geeks, and that was neat to see their different perspectives on what being a fangirl means to them. For me that was the only good part of the book. And I had it as a galley, so the formatting on those pages was really messed up and it was hard to read! Sad.

In the end, I would give this book a pass, but make your own life choices!



I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.