Romantic Parvenu

Book Review: Beware the Wild by Natalie C. Parker

October 31, 2014

Beware the Wild is a very promising YA debut that, nevertheless, still leaves a lot to be desired. The southern gothic aura of this novel is unique, and the storylines provide the author with a lot of material to work off of. But the problem is, ...

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Book Review: Slide by Jill Hathaway

October 24, 2014

Jill Hathaway’s debut novel is set up extremely well: a murder mystery with a unique paranormal twist all sounds very well on paper. And I must admit that the first half or more of Slide was very well written, engaging, and different. Yet this ...

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Book Review: The Emperor’s Conspiracy by Michelle Diener

October 23, 2014

This book is just a soap opera with petticoats, and not a good one, either. There was no substance to this book at all, and I felt very much that I was biting on air as I read this, rather than something filling. The Emperor’s Conspiracy tries, ...

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Book Review: The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

October 22, 2014

Jessie Burton’s debut novel is different from any sort of historical fiction I’ve read before. The Miniaturist really breaks molds and does its own thing, and I liked a lot of aspects about it. At the same time, this wasn’t the book I expected ...

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Book Review: Flight of the Sparrow by Amy Belding Brown

October 21, 2014

I did like this book, and I’m glad I gave it a try, but at the same time, I don’t necessarily find it anything truly wonderful or worth making a fuss about. I’d recommend Flight of the Sparrow to readers who are interested more in colonial life ...

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Book Review: Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

October 12, 2014

It’s hard to explain how perfect this book is, how remarkable it is that Amy Zhang took things I really don’t like (rich white kids, mean girls, flashbacks, lofty prose) and made them into a book that’s so emotionally gripping and flawless. ...

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