Poetry for a generation of lost adults, only slightly bitter and confused but dealing with adulthood with a very real kind of humour. It’s intoxicating.

Book Blurb from Chapters Indigo

Slouching the Dream: Poems about love. Poems about lust. Poems about heartbreak and professional wrestling. Poems about getting fat and poems about ghosts. Poems about tattoos. Poems about losing your hair and losing your lunch. Poems about getting married. Poems about getting rejected. Poems about Bigfoot, heavy metal and watching too much TV. Poems about fist fights. Poems about having kids. Poems about (not) having a life. Poems about the past and the future and getting older and not having a clue what you’re doing with your life but knowing that it has to, probably, maybe, hopefully all get better somewhere along the line, right?

Slouching the Dream is an awesome collection of real life, witty, nerdy, adulting is hard kind of poetry by Spencer Butt.

Spencer and I were interns together at HarperCollins for all of a month (before he got a cooler, better job and my internship ended). Spencer has incredible comedic timing, in person and in his writing. Hours spent packaging book mail and making buttons were much more entertaining with Spencer around. He is the kind of person that makes you instantly comfortable, unless you are a conservative grandma type who judges people with tattoos. Lucky for me, I love tattoos and apparently I’m now fond of poetry too.

It’s poetry for the nostalgic and the slightly unhinged, for the lost, the lovers, the dreamers and the people slightly confused about the path adulthood has taken them down. I wasn’t sure what to expect going in because i’m not one for poetry but Slouching the Dream is full of relatable and hilarious poems. I was super into it. So into it that I couldn’t pick a favourite. My copy is tabbed with sticky notes, marking my favourite poems and lines. Seriously, I want to share every single poem with you and explain the nuances and kind of just make myself a cozy sweatshirt nest in the lines and live there.

Recommended reading of a few favourites:

• Job Stoppers
• These ARE My Cool Clothes
• If I Ever Disappear
• To Make A Better Map
• Activate Now
• Look At My Muscles
• Time’s Up, Dummy

You can find it in the comedy section of a Chapters Indigo near you!

Until next time,

 

A Study in Charlotte, the next generation of epic Holmes and Watson adventures with a side of well loved YA style romantic pining.

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Book Blurb from Chapters Indigo

Jamie Watson has always been intrigued by Charlotte Holmes; after all, their great-great-great-grandfathers are one of the most infamous pairs in history. But the Holmes family has always been odd, and Charlotte is no exception. She’s inherited Sherlock’s volatility and some of his vices—and when Jamie and Charlotte end up at the same Connecticut boarding school, Charlotte makes it clear she’s not looking for friends.

But when a student they both have a history with dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

Favourite Quote: “I didn’t bother to ask how she knew. She was a Holmes”

As someone who has read a lot of Sherlock adaptations/fanfiction and has been absolutely spoiled by Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman’s portrayal of the epic friendship that is Holmes and Watson, I was all about A Study in Charlotte. I went in with incredibly high expectations. I wasn’t disappointed but it wasn’t what I had expected either. For some reason I thought Charlotte and Jamie were both girls (even though the description clearly says “his distance” apparently I ignored that pronoun) so that may have contributed to it not being what I expected. Whoops.

Charlotte is 100% a Holmes, with all the snark, flair for deductions and complete disregard for social niceties. The pressure to live up to her family name and her intense training lead her to fall into what was arguably Sherlock Holmes biggest flaw, addiction. It was a love/hate relationship with Charlotte Holmes. Charlotte was intriguing, with mind blowing intelligence, which is everything a Holmes is supposed to be. She was well written and had incredible depth, however Charlotte often lacked the charm of the original. She did have a few quiet moments where her gentler nature was revealed which was really lovely.

Jamie Watson was not incredibly clever. He was many other wonderful things, honest, loyal, intuitive and very much the yin to Holmes’ yang but he came across as a little dense. Which was one of my only disappointments. I LOVE me some original John Watson. He is clever and while not at Sherlock speed, he is of above average intelligence. I’m hoping Jamie will flourish under the influence of his friendship with Charlotte in the next book and use his intuitive nature to compliment his intelligence. Also his dad was freaking hilarious.

The case of the Sherringford murder was just what any good mystery should be. It was thrilling and I definitely did not call the ending. It kept me turning pages. The case was an excellent catalyst for our current Holmes and Watson to develop the beginning of the friendship we all know and love. Although this one may end in more than an unbreakable bond and platonic love. There is definitely a side of romantic pining. Jamie, I’m looking at you. But what else did you expect with a genderbent Holmes?

Absolutely would recommend to all Sherlock AND mystery fans. I’m excited to see where Cavallaro takes Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson next.

Until next time,

Blackhearts left a broken heart and an intense thirst for Queen Anne’s Revenge.

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Book Blurb from Chapters Indigo

When Edward “Teach” Drummond, son of one of Bristol’s richest merchants, returns home from a year at sea, he finds his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high society he was born into, all Teach wants is to return to the vast ocean he calls home. There’s just one problem: he must convince his father to let him leave and never come back.

Following the death of her parents, Anne Barrett is left penniless. Though she’s barely worked a day in her life, Anne takes a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks and Anne longs to escape the confines of her now mundane life. How will she ever achieve her dream of sailing to Curaçao—her mother’s birthplace—when she’s trapped in England?

From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn together by a shared desire for freedom, but kept apart by Teach’s father, their love is as passionate as it is forbidden. Faced with an impossible choice, Teach and Anne must decide whether to chase their dreams and leave England forever—or follow their hearts and stay together.

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As a history and pirate enthusiast, I was over the moon when I read the synopsis for this novel. I was immediately excited about Anne, seems Blackbeard’s most ruthless pirate ship was called The Queen Anne’s Revenge. Amazing foreshadowing and world building on Castroman’s part. I was not disappointed with the historical side of the novel. In fact, I was thrilled because Blackhearts was filled with subtle historically accurate moments that made my inner history nerd melt with happiness.

Teach was a little bit of an ass…but likable, torn between family duty and individual passion. Anne was strong, witty and unyielding to the prejudice of her historical position, reminding me of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the real life heroine behind the 2013 movie Belle. I was expecting the plot to be a little more adventure driven, taking a dip into Teach’s introduction in piracy. Blackhearts was very much a romance driven novel, plotting the beginning of Teach’s heartbreak, which I think is essential to his eventual transition to piracy. And who doesn’t love a good slow burn romance? The tension, the bickering, the eventual realization and then the undeniable need to be together. So satisfying. Until the ending.

The ending sets up perfectly for a sequel, which Nicole Castroman announced on her Twitter/Facebook on March 18th! A sequel that I absolutely will be reading. The official title will be BLACKSOULS. Currently submitting a petition for the subtitle to be “An Introduction to Pining and Piracy”. I can’t wait to see how the concept of Queen Anne’s Revenge unfolds. GIVE ME QUEEN ANNE’S REVENGE. Please.

If you like emotional pain (the ending) and historical romance then this book is for you. If you are strictly looking for an adventure novel and hate romance, I would say look elsewhere. But then I really think you might miss out on the piratey goodness that I predict is coming in Blacksouls.

Until next time,

Passenger is an exhilarating scavenger hunt through a stunning display of rich historical scenery. It just takes a few hundred pages to get there.

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Book Blurb from Chapters Indigo

On one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods-a powerful family in the Colonies-and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them-whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home forever.

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passage, n.

i. A brief section of music composed by a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

Let’s be real. We all judge books by their cover. At least a little bit. My first inclination is to pick up the books with visually striking covers.

And Passenger has one of the most stunning covers of the year.

Once I stopped drooling over the cover, it actually took me a couple of weeks to really get into the story.  I found the beginning to be a little slow and 50 pages in, I put it down and didn’t pick it up again for another couple of weeks. It took me almost another 100 pages to really get invested but once it grabbed me, I was swept up into a breathtaking, historically rich, adventure.

Etta is a badass and once she started to show her character I was instantly enthralled by her. She is complex, reflective and strong with some girl boss flair. Nicholas, as a character has amazing depth and is very in tune with the world around him. As a couple…not my favourite but individually, so lovely and engaging. The historical snapshots were so vivid, it was hard not to fall into the story, like Alice into Wonderland, despite not being super into the love story. The time travel could have gone into timey-wimey nonsense territory but Alexandra Bracken had a creative, clear cut concept that kept out major plot holes (unlike Steven “plot holes are life” Moffat).

Overall, beautifully written and seriously elegant. And in true Bracken flair, the cliffhanger left me waiting for book two to find out how this is all tied together.

I’d recommend Passenger to the book lovers who want an entirely drug free yet lucid trip to another time. Just make it through the first 100 pages. I promise it will be worth it.
Until next time,