Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 35

"In the Glorious Fields" by Emily Hayse

So, I inhaled this book.  In a day and a half.  That was the fastest I could read it, snatching paragraphs between cleaning my house for a visit from my in-laws, teaching my kids, and running various errands.  If I could have read it in one sitting, I would have, just to make ripping the Band-aid off go faster.  No lie:  I was very worried about what would happen in this book.
I'm going to love this book, the second time I read it, now that I know what happens to whom.  Right now, I'm almost a li...

Interview with Emily Hayse

I am so excited to have the chance to interview Emily Hayse about her new release, In the Glorious Fields, which is the grand finale for her Knights of Tin and Lead series.  You may recall that the first two books in the trilogy, These War-Torn Hands (my review here) and The Beautiful Ones (my review here) were on my list of top favorite reads from 2021.  I definitely have high expectations for this third and final installment!
(All photos are mine from my Instagram)
The Knights of Tin and Lead se...

"Bed-Knob and Broomstick" by Mary Norton

I've never been a big fan of the Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), though I do like the part at the end when they animate all the suits of armor and send them into battle.  I've always wondered if that inspired J. K. Rowling when she was writing the Battle for Hogwarts.  Anyway, I was kind of planning to skip reading this for the Disney Origins Bookclub, since I don't care much for the movie.  But then I saw it was written by Mary Norton, who also wrote The Borrowers, and I love thos...

"Unbetrothed" by Candice Pedraza Yamnitz

This is an unusual and winsome fantasy story.  Unusual because its heroine starts out fairly unsympathetic, and because the setting has a Latin flavor to it, rather than Germanic or Nordic like so many fairy tales and fantasy books.  Winsome because it has a lot of kind and sweet and lovely secondary characters who more than made up for the unlikability of the heroine.
Princess Beatriz starts the story miserable and snappish because not only does she have no fiance, she has never received a magic...

"The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde (again)

I loved rereading this book!  I first read it in 2004, and I know I've read it at least once between then and now, but it's been at least a decade since my last journey into this wacky alternate universe of literary awesomeness.  This was long overdue.
It's hard to describe this book.  It's set in 1985 in an alternate universe where the Crimean War is still raging, people care about literature the way people in our world care about sports teams, and there are people who can bend time.  Also, dodo...

"Dear Irene," by Jan Burke (again)

What a perfect book to take on vacation!  This one galloped along at a terrific pace, and I really loved all the bits of Greek mythology that got woven into it.  I know I read this back in 2013 (also while on a road trip!), but really didn't remember it at all.
A serial killer sends Irene Kelly cryptic messages foretelling each kill before he makes it, or before he allows the body to be discovered.  They refer to her as Cassandra and him as Thanatos, and they reference lots of Greek mythology as ...

"Dear Irene," by Jan Burke

What a perfect book to take on vacation!  This one galloped along at a terrific pace, and I really loved all the bits of Greek mythology that got woven into it.  I know I read this back in 2013 (also while on a road trip!), but really didn't remember it at all.
A serial killer sends Irene Kelly cryptic messages foretelling each kill before he makes it, or before he allows the body to be discovered.  They refer to her as Cassandra and him as Thanatos, and they reference lots of Greek mythology as ...

"The Swiss Family Robinson" by Johann David Wyss

I read this with some friends on Instagram as part of the #DisneyOriginsBookClub last month, and it was such a fun trip down memory lane for me!  I read this several times as a kid, and I've seen the 1960 Disney movie dozens of times -- it's one my kids love now too.  But I haven't reread the book since my teens, so I was eager to revisit it.
I finished reading this right before we went to Florida on vacation.  My choice of attraction to visit in Disney World was the Swiss Family Robinson tree ho...

"Son of a Wanted Man" by Louis L'Amour

Mike Bastian is the adopted son of Ben Curry, an aging outlaw king.  Curry expects Mike to take over his lawless empire so that he can retire with his secret family and live out the rest of his days in peace.  But Mike isn't sure he's interested.  When others in Curry's organization sense this, they try to take over themselves.  The ensuing violence and outlawry draws the attention of two lawmen, Borden Chantry and Tyrel Sackett, and Mike finally has to take a side and make his stand.
This was a ...

"Stoneheart Hunt" by Abby D. Jones, with Martin Brodde

This book is one wild ride.  It's a wronged-woman-seeks-vengeance western crossed with a post-apocalyptic bounty hunter sci-fi story.  Hannie Caulder meets Mad Max, but as a Snow White retelling.  With motorcycles and poisonous apples and lots of guns.
Psyche is the lone survivor of a vicious biker gang raid on the remote gunsmithing business where she worked.  Raped and left to die, she clings to life long enough to get rescued by a bounty hunter just seeking fuel at her outpost.
Sul wonders if i...