Monthly Group Reads: APRIL 2015 (Group Read 2) Winter Siege by Ariana Franklin

[C.P.]

Sounds interesting. I don't know when I will get to it, as my back is up against the wall for at least another month, but it is definitely on my TBR now.

And apologies for my silence recently. It's a long story.

[Alicja]

Simona wrote: "What did disappoint you most, Alicja?"

I was hoping for Em to end up more of a bad ass at the end. Skills like that in archery should not go to waste.

[Simona]

William said, at the end, that she never married and she managed her own manor. At the time, that meant to be quite a badass...well, maybe not in the sense of a Urban Fantasy badass, but...chapeau, Em :)

[Daniel]

power read tonight. I am about 50% through and it needs to go back to the library tomorrow.

[Dawn]

I have 12 days to start and finish it. Hopefully this weekend...

[Jane]

Alicja wrote: "Simona wrote: "What did disappoint you most, Alicja?"

I was hoping for Em to end up more of a bad ass at the end. Skills like that in archery should not go to waste."

Alicja, how did you like Erinna in The End of Sparta? She was the poetess and female archer who traveled south with the heroine.

[Daniel]

finished, as I stated in my review, This was a very quick, light read. Fun, but forgettable.

[Daniel]

Jane wrote: "Alicja, how did you like Erinna in The End of Sparta? "

Now, she was bad ass.

[Gretchen]

My book is in transit! I should have it on Monday! I'm happy dancing all over my house.

[Meri]

I'm only on page 52 so far but it is an enjoyable read. My issue is finding time to read. Most of my reading is done at work. I need to start setting aside a particular time each day to read. Before bed would work if I could keep my eyes open long enough! Lol.

I was finding the jump in viewpoint a bit disconcerting, was trying to remember who Maud was but other than that the book is interesting.

[Simona]

At work, Meri? May I ask what kind of work you do? I want to do THAT when I grow up!

[Dawn]

I hear security guard is a good one, the kind where you just watch a bunch of monitors.

[Daniel]

When I was in the military, I read a lot during the 'hurry up and wait' times. I found my issued combat gear had a pocket on the right leg that was the perfect size for a paperback book.

[Meri]

Call centre, when people don't ring and it's quiet there is plenty of time to read! Doesn't always happen as some days are really busy but lately it's been very quiet.

[Dawn]

Oh, there is one of those where I live. Maybe when I retire I'll go work there for spending money and get in some reading time. :)

[Dawn]

I used to drive around a lot more for my job and got in a few audiobooks that way but I switched to a smaller town and there just isn't any trips more than 10 minutes now.

[Sandra]

I got my copy yesterday and will start reading tonight. Don't finish the discussion without me :)

[Pamela]

I'm just starting too, got sidetracked by a few giveaway books this month but now looking forward to reading this

[Dawn]

We never finish the discussions, if no one else is here, I promise to keep you both company! :)

Though from the looks of it there is still about 4 members working their way through it, so you should be good.

[Simona]

Meri wrote: "Call centre, when people don't ring and it's quiet there is plenty of time to read! Doesn't always happen as some days are really busy but lately it's been very quiet."

Excellent use of the time, Meri! :)

[Taylor]

I'm afraid this book just didn't do it for me. I was surprised to find it was a romance (I thought this group didn't do romances). Actually I quite enjoyed the story, just not the way in which it was told. The incongruent language has already been commented on but I found that even the narrative was aiming for cute and clever. For me this all detracted from the story

[Dawn]

Hi Taylor, this book isn't a romance. It is a book with a very small romance included. Very different from a book that features a romance as it's main plot line.

I hope next months books will be better for you. :)

[Taylor]

I guess I just referred to it as such Dawn because, a while back, a book with way less romance than this one was nixed because the mods considered it to be a romance. I was just surprised, that's all. I don't mind a bit of romance in my fiction. It was mainly the writing style that put me off. The book did get a lot of four and five star reviews though so maybe I was missing something. Or maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it.

[Dawn]

I'll leave that one for Terri as I believe that conversation was with her.

I wasn't a big fan of this book either, rating it just a 2. For me as well, the writing wasn't the best but I do like this period of history.

[Marrissa]

I read this book a while back to had to read some reveiws to refresh my memory. It has been a while since a book has grabbed my attention that has been about commoners. I know not everyone is a commoner in the book. I did find the end a bit of a neat package though but when you find out who is telling the story it came to me as a way of receiving redemption. I did enjoy it and many tears were shed.

[Dawn]

Are you a fan of the authors Marrissa??

Because if you liked this book I'm sure you'd love her other ones too.

[Sandra]

I'm just over half-way through the book. I'm really enjoying the discussions between Gwil and God. The pace seems to be slowing down a lot. I hope it picks up again soon, since the early part was great.

[Dawn]

The ending is very eventful Sandra, you have lots to look forward to.

I thought those conversations with God were funny, every time Gwil wanted to be self serving his conscience would convince him otherwise. :)

[Pamela]

Enjoyed this as a readable tale, set at an interesting point in English history, but found the modern tone rather distracting. Liked the fighting, but at the end I felt a little disappointed.

My review is here
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Sandra]

I just finished the book. I enjoyed it overall, but agree with many of you that the ending was too rushed, and the evil monk not well enough explained. I'd take it a step further, and call him two-dimensional.

(view spoiler)[ Serial killers are real; they are human. There are reasons why they are what they are. This guy (whose name didn't even stay with me) felt more like a phantom. And after the huge build-up, Penda killed him in a split second. Neither of them seemed to feel anything. After being dragged through the horror of the monk's cruelty, I wanted to feel at least a few moments of satisfaction at his demise! (hide spoiler)]

[Gretchen]

Sandra wrote: "I just finished the book. I enjoyed it overall, but agree with many of you that the ending was too rushed, and the evil monk not well enough explained. I'd take it a step further, and call him tw..."

A spoiler would have been appreciated.

[Darcy]

Please remember to add spoiler tags when discussing specifics of the novel.

Here's the How-To guide written by Teri
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Sandra]

Sorry about that. I didn't see spoiler tags in the other posts that discussed the end, so I didn't think it was necessary.

[Dawn]

Sandra

Could you go in and put a spoiler on that post?? It really gives away the entire ending of the book. Thanks

[Sandra]

I think it worked. Since I'm new here, and this is my first monthly book read, can anyone tell me if there will be a time and place to discuss the book as a whole--including the ending?

[Darcy]

We encourage the discussion at any time, even the endings. We just request that they put in spoiler tags so that those who don't get a chance to read the book until later (as these threads never close) needn't worry about exposing themselves to the key plot points, or surprises in the story.

General thoughts, i.e. discussions about something like the name, or a cultural aspect, don't need to have the spoiler tags. It's only when there are specifics noted.

Feel free to peruse some of our previous monthly reads for an idea of how it might work. There are some with loads of posts (I think A Burnable Book might be a good example, or Pompeii) that show how conversation about the books never truly end, and how we discuss general points of interest versus key spoiler points.

As an aside: Some people add a note before their spoiler tags indicating what part of the book they are discussing.

[Taylor]

Could we have different threads for different sections of the book? That way people could freely discuss the parts they've already read. It would also be great for people like me who mainly use their tablets as spoilers can't be accessed on the Goodreads app.

[Darcy]

We do recommend that people use Goodreads through a browser when on their mobile devices, rather than the app, as the app has loads of problems ;)

The issue is that there each group is limited in the number of threads it can create, and as we don't close threads, we would soon run out, hence why we use the spoiler tags. Plus, sometimes, things that happen in one chapter is called back in another and then threads get kind of messy.

[Taylor]

Thanks Darcy. I didn't know about the thread limitation.

[Maya]

Still working on this one but it is intriguing so far. I really like Maud and she definitely reminds me of Adelia from the other Arianna Frankin books. This one looks like a prequel to the Adelia series.

[Sandra]

Thanks, Taylor, for that suggestion. I would have really liked it if it could have worked.

[Maya]

Finished and I really enjoyed it. Maud was a great character. The girl disguised as a boy story was rather improbable but I think the description of siege warfare in 12th century England was probably fairly accurate from what I know about it. I enjoyed getting to see how a castle would operate in a siege situation. I agree with other readers that the ending was a little abrupt and tidy. Looking forward to other books in this series if Samantha Norman decides to carry it on.

[Dawn]

I've been reading a little bit about medieval life and siege's are part of the information, I think it was accurate but in a sanitized way.

As in, I think there would have been more death, rape and pillage when they did get into the castle and Maud would have been extremely unusual in protecting the peasants at all.

[Gretchen]

I finally got to start this book last night! Took me long enough.

[Gretchen]

I noticed Jane called attention to some of the language used in the book and I am wondering if anyone else can recall if they were a little annoyed with it. I just read a passage where a monk responded to a question using the word "totally". Now, I wasn't alive in the 12th century so this could be a legit way of speaking. However, it just seemed a little modern and teenage girl-like to me. Aside from that I am finding this book to be a sneaky-quick read. We're making a trip to the lake this weekend so I'm hoping to get some quality beach reading in.

[Pamela]

Gretchen wrote: "I noticed Jane called attention to some of the language used in the book and I am wondering if anyone else can recall if they were a little annoyed with it. I just read a passage where a monk respo..."

Yes I found the language a bit of a distraction at times too. In my review I homed in on 'Yuck' and 'God botherer' but there were lots more!

[Gretchen]

I finished and now I'm slightly depressed. (view spoiler)[ My six year old thought there was something very wrong with her mother after I burst into tears when Gwil died. She then proceeded to tell me I shouldn't get so attached to people in books because they aren't real. (hide spoiler)]

[happy]

LOL!

[Kimber]

Gretchen wrote: "I finished and now I'm slightly depressed. [spoilers removed]"

I had a good cry at that point. My cat just stared at me.