Muggle Monday: New Images from the Fully Illustrated Edition of Harry Potter

It's time for Muggle Monday, in which I highlight a significant piece of news from the Harry Potter franchise. This is somewhat inspired by the Mundane Monday posts by The Mundie Moms.

But let's be real as to why I made up this feature: I just want the opportunity to post something about Harry Potter.


So it's been less than half a year since we've had news about a new Harry Potter Edition being released... so now's a good time to introduce yet another one, yes? Well, the announcement of a fully illustrated edition of Harry Potter is actually old news, but just recently, Bloomsbury released brand new photos from this new edition illustrated by the very talented Jim Kay (also the illustrator of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness):

Draco

Hagrid

Hermione

Ron

Harry

And if you've never read A Monster Calls before (okay, first of all you SHOULD), here are some samples of Jim Kay's work from that:

So yes, as you can probably tell, Jim Kay's illustrations tend to fall on the dark, creepy side. I really love how, in the portraits we've seen so far, the characters aren't movie-star-good-looking like in the movies, nor are they cutesy-looking like on the covers of previous editions of the series. They're not exactly how I imagined the characters to look like when I first read the books, but they're a damn sight closer to my imagination than the actors in the movies, I'll tell you what! Also, J.K. Rowling has approved these illustrations herself, so that's always good to hear. This edition will be released October 6, 2015 and already I'm pondering if this is something I should own. I mean, if I were rich you got to believe I would own ALL the editions. But realistically, as much as I would LOVE to own ALL the pretties, I really can't justify it when I already own a perfectly good - and much-loved - set of my own. Plus, this illustrated edition will cost the equivalent of £30!! Damnnn, why can't I be rich?? Ah, oh well. I will just have to borrow it from the library if they get a copy in. I'm SO curious to see what the rest of the illustrations will look like! How about you, what do you think of these illustrations?

Review: Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier

Publisher: Roc Hardcover
Published: November 4, 2014
Pages: 448
Source: For Review From Publisher
Rating: 3 Stars

In exchange for help escaping her long and wrongful imprisonment, embittered magical healer Blackthorn has vowed to set aside her bid for vengeance against the man who destroyed all that she once held dear. Followed by a former prison mate, a silent hulk of a man named Grim, she travels north to Dalriada. There she'll live on the fringe of a mysterious forest, duty bound for seven years to assist anyone who asks for her help.
Oran, crown prince of Dalriada, has waited anxiously for the arrival of his future bride, Lady Flidais. He knows her only from a portrait and sweetly poetic correspondence that have convinced him Flidais is his destined true love. But Oran discovers letters can lie. For although his intended exactly resembles her portrait, her brutality upon arrival proves she is nothing like the sensitive woman of the letters.
With the strategic marriage imminent, Oran sees no way out of his dilemma. Word has spread that Blackthorn possesses a remarkable gift for solving knotty problems, so the prince asks her for help. To save Oran from his treacherous nuptials, Blackthorn and Grim will need all their resources: courage, ingenuity, leaps of deduction, and more than a little magic.

In short: Dreamer's Pool showcases Juliet Marillier's talent for writing and characterization, but failed to truly blow me away.

I'm beginning to wonder whether perhaps Juliet Marillier's novels just aren't for me. I'm well aware of her stellar reputation among fantasy fans, but I've yet to read a novel of hers that has completely blown me away. I can absolutely recognize that she is a talented writer and I'm always impressed with her genuine characterizations. But I find that her plots tend to be a bit on the slow, quiet side. Nothing wrong with quiet plots - especially if the writing is beautiful - but I find it difficult getting truly invested her stories, enough to make me want to come back for the sequel.

Dreamer's Pool started out very strong, I thought. Enigmatic characters with unknown backgrounds, an intense prison break, a strong set-up that promised an intriguing story to come. But after the initial excitement in the beginning, I felt like the pacing took a drastic downturn. The story continues, the plot still unraveling, but progress is very slow and I felt impatient for something MORE to happen. However, like I mentioned, the writing is quite lovely and I grew fond of the characters pretty quickly despite their sometimes prickly natures. I think I just needed more ACTION.

So I'm wondering: if you're reading this and you are a fan of Juliet Marillier's, would you recommend I read more from her? Or do her books tend to fall along the same lines as Dreamer's Pool - beautifully written and excellent characterization, but slower reads? I know Daughter of the Forest is an all-time fave for many fantasy readers - do you think I would enjoy that one even if I wasn't totally into Dreamer's Pool? All feedback is appreciated, thanks!

Author Links:
Website
Goodreads

My 2014 Bookish Stats

I've always loved those bookish stats posts where bloggers look over their year in reading and breakdown their books read by rating, genre, etc. I'm always curious! So I've put together a few pie charts depicting My 2014 Bookish Stats. Don't know if anyone will even be interested in this except me, so feel free to skip this post!

Total Books Read in 2014: 125

Note: To make this easier, I've rounded UP all .5 Star Ratings. So 4.5 Stars is lumped in with 5 Stars, 3.5 Stars is lumped in with 4 Stars, etc.

2014 Breakdown by Rating: This stat pleases me: I read an equal amount of 4.5-5 Star reads and 3.5-4 Star reads in 2014 and together, these reads made up the majority of my reading for last year. A pretty solid year in books, I would say! It helps that over the years, I've gotten better at picking books I think I will like. These days, it's pretty rare that I read a book that I don't enjoy at ALL.

2014 Breakdown by Genre: No surprise here: fantasy makes up the biggest pie slice in a breakdown of reading genres in 2014. Of course, there are many sub-genres within Fantasy that I could break down some more: high fantasy, paranormal, mythology, etc. - I love it all! I'm impressed with myself that fairly sizeable portions of the pie go to Contemporary and Classical Fiction.

2014 Breakdown by Type: Here lies the reason I was able to fit in 125 books in my schedule in 2014: I very much got into audiobooks this year! I didn't always have a ton of free time in 2014 with which to read, but I DID have regular life obligations like cleaning, cooking, getting ready in the morning/bedtime, working out, etc., and those turned into the bulk of my reading time, via audiobook. 2015 is shipping up to be much the same! Audiobooks are a great way to reread favourites and act as plot-reminders pre-sequels and book-to-movie adaptations.

2014 Breakdown by Source: Those audiobooks I mentioned in the previous stat? Well, a lot of them were the freebies that SYNC Audiobooks gives out every summer. I also took advantage of Free Books of the Week deals on various websites. I'm quite proud that the majority of books I read in 2014 were either free or borrowed! If I had put together these stats in my first year of blogging, I guarantee you that Review Books and Purchased Books would make up the majority of the pie. Notably, I read only 8 review books from publishers in 2014... and I'm quite happy with that. Honestly, I've largely fallen out of love with reading early galleys from publishers. Most of the time these days, I'd rather wait to read reviews first before deciding whether the book will work for me. Generally makes for a happier reading experience for me! And indeed, the 8 reviews books that I did read in 2014 were some of my lower-rated reads.

2014 Breakdown by Author Gender and Protagonist Gender: Pretty pleased with these stats! Female to male proportions are almost equal in both a breakdown of author genders and a breakdown of protagonist genders for 2014. BUT you'll notice I have no graphs depicting the POC and LGBT representations of books I read in 2014 - basically because it's not good. It doesn't help that POC and LGBT characters don't tend to be the protagonists in the non-contemporary reads I favour. I'm already working on fixing this in 2015.

2014 Series vs. Standalone: Wow, it's surprising to see this stat laid out like this! I mean, of course I knew that I tend to favour series over standalones, but I didn't think the ratio would be 3:1. Ultimately though, I'm not one of those readers who is wanting more standalones and less series in their life... But I DO want to keep a tab on the series I do read and work on getting my overall numbers of series on-the-go down. I'm thinking I need to make a worksheet of all the series I have read/am in the middle of/want to read in the future to keep track of all of them. DROWNING IN SERIES!

So there you go! I wish I had done this in previous years so that I could compare stats from year-to-year. I guess I'll just have to remember to do them from 2015 on!

Review: Waistcoats & Weaponry (Finishing School #3) by Gail Carriger

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published: November 4, 2014
Pages: 304
Source: For Review From Publisher
Rating: 4 Stars

Class is back in session...

Sophronia continues her second year at finishing school in style--with a steel-bladed fan secreted in the folds of her ball gown, of course. Such a fashionable choice of weapon comes in handy when Sophronia, her best friend Dimity, sweet sootie Soap, and the charming Lord Felix Mersey stowaway on a train to return their classmate Sidheag to her werewolf pack in Scotland. No one suspected what--or who--they would find aboard that suspiciously empty train. Sophronia uncovers a plot that threatens to throw all of London into chaos and she must decide where her loyalties lie, once and for all. 

In short: Waistcoats & Weaponry delivers on all the whimsy, cleverness, and rollicking good fun that is expected from a Gail Carriger read.

Gail Carriger's books always make for a good pick-me-up between slower or more serious reads. She just has SUCH a great talent for quirky humour and breezy plots that leave you smiling and cheered. I had great fun with the first two books in her Finishing School Series, Etiquette & Espionage and Curtsies & Conspiracies, and I couldn't wait to dive back into the steampunk-paranormal world with Waistcoats & Weaponry to get me out of the reading slump I was experiencing at the time.

Sophronia is now a bit older and a bit more experienced as an intelligencer, and just as resourceful and bright as ever. In between learning how to master the art of battling with bladed fans and bestowing seductive looks to unsuspecting gentlemen at Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality, Sophronia - along with her ragtag group of friends - of course manage to get themselves involved in yet another conspiracy from which a romping good adventure results, as well as a little romance along the way.

Looking for a rollicking good read filled with quirky characters, clever humour, and dastardly plots? Then look no further than the Finishing School Series by Gail Carriger! Gail Carriger's special whimsical brand of humour is practically guaranteed to put you in a good mood and draw you out of a slump. Next up: Manners & Mutiny, coming this November 2015.

Previously, my reviews review for Etiquette & Espionage and Curtsies & Conspiracies.

Other Reviews:
Alice Marvels
Megan Likes Books
The Nocturnal Library

Author Links:
Website
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads

Waiting On Wednesday: HarperCollins Spring 2015 Catalog

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill of Breaking The Spine in which upcoming, eagerly anticipated releases are highlighted on the blog.

This week, I've chosen to feature a few picks from the HarperCollins Spring 2015 Catalog:

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley
Date: April 28, 2015

Add to Goodreads

Aza Ray is drowning in thin air.
Since she was a baby, Aza has suffered from a mysterious lung disease that makes it ever harder for her to breathe, to speak—to live.
So when Aza catches a glimpse of a ship in the sky, her family chalks it up to a cruel side effect of her medication. But Aza doesn’t think this is a hallucination. She can hear someone on the ship calling her name.
Only her best friend, Jason, listens. Jason, who’s always been there. Jason, for whom she might have more-than-friendly feelings. But before Aza can consider that thrilling idea, something goes terribly wrong. Aza is lost to our world—and found, by another. Magonia.
Above the clouds, in a land of trading ships, Aza is not the weak and dying thing she was. In Magonia, she can breathe for the first time. Better, she has immense power—and as she navigates her new life, she discovers that war is coming. Magonia and Earth are on the cusp of a reckoning. And in Aza’s hands lies the fate of the whole of humanity—including the boy who loves her. Where do her loyalties lie?

Ahhhh, THIS COVER. Just SO gorgeous. And the synopsis is mighty intriguing, too - really out of this world, heh. I'm really hoping Magonia will blow me away!

Omega City by Diana Peterfreund
Date: April 28, 2015

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Gillian Seagret doesn't listen to people who say her father's a crackpot. His conspiracy theories about the lost technology of Cold War–era rocket scientist Dr. Aloysius Underberg may have cost him his job and forced them to move to the middle of nowhere, but Gillian knows he's right and plans to prove it.
When she discovers a missing page from Dr. Underberg's diary in her father's mess of an office, she thinks she's found a big piece of the puzzle—a space-themed riddle promising to lead to Dr. Underberg's greatest invention. Enlisting the help of her skeptical younger brother, Eric, her best friend, Savannah, and Howard, their NASA-obsessed schoolmate, Gillian sets off on a journey into the ruins of Omega City, a vast doomsday bunker deep inside the earth.
But they aren't alone inside its dark and flooded halls. For while Gillian wants to save her dad's reputation by bringing Dr. Underberg's secrets to light, there are others who will stop at nothing to make sure they stay buried . . . forever.

Oooh, I do love Diana Peterfreund! She always writes winners in my eyes. Omega City is her first Middle Grade novel and I can't wait to see what she brings to a new age genre!

The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Date: June 9, 2015

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With each passing day, Kelsea Glynn is growing into her new responsibilities as Queen of the Tearling. By stopping the shipments of slaves to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, she crossed the Red Queen, a brutal ruler whose power derives from dark magic, who is sending her fearsome army into the Tearling to take what is hers. And nothing can stop the invasion.
But as the Mort army draws ever closer, Kelsea develops a mysterious connection to a time before the Crossing, and she finds herself relying on a strange and possibly dangerous ally: a woman named Lily, fighting for her life in a world where being female can feel like a crime. The fate of the Tearling —and that of Kelsea’s own soul—may rest with Lily and her story, but Kelsea may not have enough time to find out.

The Queen of the Tearling wasn't a perfect read by any means. But it did deliver on what it promised to be: a high-stakes political fantasy. I'm definitely curious what will happen next in The Invasion of the Tearling!


How about you? Are you waiting on any of these HarperCollins Spring 2015 reads? Are there any upcoming books from the HarperCollins Spring 2015 Catalog that I didn't include here that you feel I should add to my list?