Romantic Parvenu

Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

June 17, 2015

The Martian is totally a book that I was surprised to find myself enjoying. It has its definite faults, some that seem to be pretty insurmountable. But never underestimate the quality of compulsive readability, because it’s harder to come across ...

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Book Review: Unclaimed by Courtney Milan

June 16, 2015

Time and time again, Courtney Milan absolutely kills it with her novels. I think at this point it’s safe to say she’s my favorite romance author of all time. Every book of hers that I’ve read is gold. Unclaimed, this second book in the Turner ...

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Book Review: The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

June 15, 2015

The People in the Trees is well-written, interesting, and compelling. It’s absolutely not a bad book. But I have to attribute the book’s quality, at least in part, to the real-life person who provided Yanagihara with her plot and protagonist. ...

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Book Review: The Anchoress by Robin Cadwallader

June 11, 2015

Robyn Cadwallader brings a great deal of academic work in medieval England to her debut novel, The Anchoress, and it shows—not so much in rich historic detail or a vivid establishment of setting, but rather the authority with which she delves ...

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Book Review: The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

June 10, 2015

With graceful prose and impressive vision, Kirsty Logan’s debut novel, The Gracekeepers, combines the delicacy and magic of fairytales with the smart complexity of dystopian fiction, and the end result is a beautiful story of two young women and ...

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Book Review: Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis

June 10, 2015

André Alexis’ modern fable, Fifteen Dogs, is insightful, thought-provoking, and fascinating. Using the vehicle of a strange wager between the gods Apollo and Hermes, the author is able to explore the human condition (the canine condition?) and ...

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