Tome Thursday: The Black Bird Oracle

 

Hello everyone!

 

I hope you're ready for a slightly less-detailed ride of this bookish experience, because - and hear me out first - we've been here before.

 

Been here, done that, and got the T-shirts I think!

 

Which isn't to say that I wasn't excited for this particular release, because I SO was.

 

However, as soon as I started digging deeper into the story and every piece started coming together, I slowly realized that it all seemed vaguely familiar.

 

Like I'd been here before, or dreamed of it some other time, and now was just remembering it once again.

 

This is unfortunate, because at the end of the day, I read books NOT to be repetitive, so that I can - and hopefully do - enjoy them as something new.

 

Tonight's choice isn't quite new, but it also isn't really old either, it's just somewhere in the middle ground of it all.

 

We're returning to the world of All Souls in The Black Bird Oracle.

 

Saturday Snippet: A Discovery of Witches SEASON 3 TRAILER

 

Pardon me while I disappear into binge-world ...

 

xx

*video not mine

Men in Kilts: Witchcraft & Superstition

 

"Ghosts and ghouls."

 

Hello everyone!

 

So we're about halfway through this season of Men in Kilts, and I have to say, you have to be tone deaf not to be enjoying this show immensely.

 

Sam and Graham take us through various aspects of Scotland (and then some!) not to mention the callbacks to Outlander are by far incredibly numerous. And on top of that, the guys are just hysterical most of the time.

 

By this point we've rolled up to what Claire experienced upon her second honeymoon with Frank back in the day, which is that the people of Scotland are as superstitious as they come.

 

Probably more so.

 

Given the fact that three quarters of their lives are spent in the bog and fog, or were at least, I'd say it's a fairly accurate description.

 

Without further ado, let's have a look at Witchcraft & Superstition in Scotland - and don't worry, we aren't getting burned at the stake.

 

Saturday Snippet: Return of the Witches

 

!!!!!

 

xx

*video not mine

All Souls Trilogy (Booktober)

"It begins with a discovery of witches."

What to say about the one witchy trilogy you absolutely NEED in your life? I was late to the Deborah Harkness train, but her All Souls Trilogy is absolutely stunning. It reminds you of Twilight, but in a very good way, and it brings all hands on deck to make the story believable, enchanting, and absolutely spectacular. Diana Bishop and Matthew de Clermont are in a race against the clock, against their own people, their beliefs, and time itself. Is there anything they can do to ensure not only their own survival, but the survival of witches, vampires and daemons?

Because it begins with absence and desire. And it begins with blood and fear.

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research. Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery; so after a furtive glance and a few notes, she banishes the book to the stacks. But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends. Diana has stumbled upon a coveted treasure lost for centuries-and she is the only creature who can break its spell; but the real threat to the future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency ...

(from Goodreads)

xx

*image not mine

Cobweb Bride Trilogy (Booktober)
These Old Shades (Booktober)

Term Limits (Booktober)

Boudica (Booktober)

The Lady of the Rivers (Booktober)

The Name of the Wind (Booktober)

The Red Knight of Germany (Booktober)

The Kommandant's Girl (Booktober)

Nemesis (Booktober)

Outlander series (Booktober)

The Conqueror Series (Booktober)

The Lost Symbol (Booktober)

The Host (Booktober)

The Bridgertons (Booktober)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Booktober)

The Infernal Devices (Booktober)

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter (Booktober)

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Booktober)
Broken Sky (Booktober)

The Shadow of the Wind (Booktober)

Dracula (Booktober)

Life and Death (Booktober)

ACOTAR series (Booktober)

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey (Booktober)

Sepulchre (Booktober)

Pride and Prejudice (Booktober)

Tempting Autumn (Booktober)

Harry Potter (Booktober)

The Hobbit (Booktober)

Tome Thursday: Time's Convert

Hello everyone!

Back with some of my favourite characters yet again, and I was reminded that I need to revisit the world of All Souls at some point in the near future.

Maybe when I stop chewing through our Slovene translation of The Lord of the Rings, which leaves much to be desired (I can now say this with some authority given that I'm a ceritified translator myself, and also because I know the original version almost by heart so if someone translates 'one Silmaril' into 'three Silmarils' I can call bull when I see it).

But I really need to also get my hands on the physical version of these books.

I currently only own the electronic ones, you see.

And it's such a shame because the one thing that e-readers don't really give you the chance for is to easily browse through books like you would when holding an acual one. BUT, that being said, I'm very pro-electronics seeing as it can be much easier to pack!

Enough of my babbling, however.

It's time to dive back in with the Bishop-De Clermonts with Time's Convert.

Saturday Snippet: Baldwin, pt 2

Annoyed older brother, part deux ...

(Baldwin: "I'm getting too old for this sh*t.")

xx

*screencaps mine

Saturday Snippet: Baldwin

Let's take a proper look at the "I'm the annoyed older brother" figure.

xx

*screencaps mine

Tome Thursday: The Book of Life

Hello everyone!

I'm here with the final installment in the witchy-vampire-y trilogy!

Alright that made almost zero sense, but you'll see what I mean as soon as you start reading the actual blog post, I promise.

Two weeks ago I decided to read and review the first of Deborah Harkness' worldwide bestselling All Souls trilogy, A Discovery of Witches, and then of course I couldn't just put the book down and let the other two rest.

I can do that with certain other series, but this one made it virtually impossible.

There's something about these characters and the world that sucks you right in, which means you're unlikely to resurface before you've made it all the way through and it spits you out the other side.

I did take my time and made it a weekly thing per book, however, otherwise my eyes (and probably my brain) would have gone on strike and fritzed out. But I'm finally finished with the original trilogy now!

So without further ado, let's dive right into The Book of Life.

Tome Thursday: Shadow of Night

Hello everyone!

I'm continuing my witchy trilogy this Thursday, and remember how I always say the second part in any trilogy whatsoever is always the weakest? 

Basically, it's not an introduction, and it's not the finale, so it's just a bridge leading from one to the other, and as such it will inevitably suffer from writer ennui or something of the sort while readers try to plod on.

Well, not THIS book.

Seriously, when I started reading A Discovery of Witches, I thought I'd seen it all and that nothing could top it. Especially in a trilogy, you have to be extra careful because you go in with such high expectations for the second and third books, and sometimes (a lot of times) they fall flat on their faces like pancakes dropped from high above.

So I honestly opened the second book up with trepidation and a little flutter of hope somewhere.

I needn't have bothered.

Shadow of Night not only meets its predecessor, but it surpasses it with flying colours.

Tome Thursday: A Discovery of Witches

Hello everyone!

Once again, I'm late to this bandwagon.

I swear I get this feeling that I'm ETERNALLY late to everything when it comes to fans and fandoms and stuff.

But anyway.

I discovered this particular book series through sheer accident - aka I saw a post on Instagram in which Matthew Goode was sitting on a big black horse and Teresa Palmer was beside him on a gray one.

My interest sat up with a vengeance.

Firstly, Teresa Palmer is a bae and I've loved her in pretty much everything. Secondly, Matthew Goode is notoriously underappreciated. Which means I was obviously paying attention to the #ADiscoveryofWitches tag anywhere I could get it, as the show loomed near.

Meanwhile, in the BOOK version of A Discovery of Witches ...

Saturday Snippet: Matthew Clairmont

There comes a time when danger wears a face.

xx

*image not mine

Saturday Snippet: The Kiss

Excuse me, I'm still a puddle somewhere on the floor.

xx

*image not mine

Saturday Snippet: A Discovery of Witches

xx

*image not mine