Island of Tory Review

Rating: 5/5

Title: Island of Tory

Author: Regina M. Geither

Page Count (ebook): 192

Official Description

Arella Cline, a sixteen year old teen from Wexford Pennsylvania, finds her life turned upside down when her family summer vacation begins with a tragic car accident which kills both of her parents. Going to live with her Great-aunt Fi, Arella tries to start a new life on a tiny island off the western coast of Ireland. Everything about Tory Island, however, is objectionable to her–the gray and wet weather, the stringent academy she is forced to attend, as well as the island’s lack of modern day amenities. The only thing Arella likes about Tory is Declan McQuilan, a handsome, dark-haired boy who attempts to show her the island’s hidden charms.

But there are too many strange things happening on Tory to make Arella feel that she could call the island home. She keeps seeing shadow figures and strange auras and hearing her parents’ voices. The people on the island are very secretive. And when Arella tries to leave on a ferryboat, she blacks out only to find herself back at her aunt’s cottage as predicted by Cannon Fidelous, another teen stranded on the mysterious island.

When Arella quits The Academy of St. Colm Cille, Father Cillian, a kindly old priest, offers to tutor her using an ancient book of prophecies which is now considered the history of Tory. What he teaches her will lead to a journey into ancient magic and Tory’s cursed past. Arella is forced to face her fears and newly discovered powers to turn back the pages of history in order for her to return to the present.
    

My Thoughts

       Island of Tory completely enchanted me, it has been quite a while since I've read a Young Adult book this good! Everything about this book was spot on. The language was beautifully descriptive without being overbearing, which made the setting so vivid I felt as if I walked into the damp mist of the British Isles myself. The character development was exquisite, every detail about the characters was revealed at just the right moment, making them entirely believable. The story itself was also extremely fluid flowing purposefully through the celtic tides of the tale. I became so enthralled that I finished this story in one day, I simply could not leave the book for a single moment!

      I urge to read this immediatley, the suspense will leave you itching for more as its dark romance and irish lore sucks you deep into this celtic enchantment.


Book Links

Book/ Author Site

Place an order through the author's site

City of Fallen Angels Review

Show More

Show Less

Rating: 4/5

Title: City of Fallen Angels

Author: Cassandra Clare

Page Count (hardcover): 424

Inside the Cover

The Mortal War is over, and sixteen-year-old Clary Fray is back home in New York, excited about all the possibilities before her. She's training to become a Shadowhunter and to use her unique power. Her mother is getting married to the love of her life. Downworlders and Shadowhunters are at peace at last. And - most importantly of all - she can finally call Jace her boyfriend.

But nothing comes without a price.

Someone is murdering Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine's Circle, provoking tensions between Downworlders and Shadowhunters that could lead to a second bloody war. Clary's best friend, Simon, can't help her. His mother just found out that he's a vampire and now he's homeless. Everywhere he turns, someone wants him on their side - along with the power of the curse that's wrecking his life. And they're willing to do anything to get what they want. At the same time he's dating two beautiful, dangerous girls - neither of whom knows about the other one.

When Jace begins to pull away from Clary without explaining why, she is forced to delve into the heart of a mystery whose solution reveals her worst nightmare: She herself has set in motion a terrible chain of events that could lead to her losing everything she loves. Even Jace.

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. The stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.

My Thoughts

     I'll admit it I had doubts, a lot of doubts. I absolutely adored the first three books in The Mortal Instruments Series immensly and for some reason after finishing the third, I came to the conclusion that it was a trilogy. With that in mind, I was contented with the ending so, when I heard there was a fourth book I was more than a little uncertain about it. Hadn't Clare already wrapped everything up? What story could there be left to tell?

    Let me tell you, I was wrong. I don't know how she did it, how she managed to create another masterpiece of Young Adult literature but she did and it was magnificent. City of Fallen Angels is absolutely riveting, I couldn't tear myself away from turning page, after page, after page. The descriptive language Clare uses to write drew me into the story and though I read the third book over two years ago, like a good friend, once I dug into City of Fallen Angels, it felt as if no time had passed.

Book Links:

Goodreads

75% off Youth Fiction Titles with code percyartemis75

This Side of Paradise

Rating: 5/5

Title: This Side of Paradise

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Page Count (Paperback): 276

Official Amazon Description

     This Side of Paradise is the book that established F. Scott Fitzgerald as the prophet and golden boy of the newly dawned Jazz Age. Published in 1920, when he was just twenty-three, the novel catapulted him to instant fame and financial success. The story of Amory Blaine, a privileged, aimless, and self-absorbed Princeton student, This Side of Paradise closely reflects Fitzgerald's own experiences as an undergraduate. Amory Blaine's journey from prep school to college to the First World War is an account of "the lost generation." The young "romantic egotist" symbolizes what Fitzgerald so memorably described as "a new generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken." A pastiche of literary styles, this dazzling chronicle of youth remains bitingly relevant decades later.

My Thoughts

     This Side of Paradise can only be described as a literary masterpiece and a brilliant commentary on Fitzgerald's society. Like The Old Curiosity Shop I loved the character development in This Side of Paradise. Though physically the plot followed the life of Amory from his childhood to around his early thirtes or late twenties, Fitgerald also went into great depth about the transition from boy to man that Amory made mentally. I really enjoyed following this progression as he delved deeper and deeper into Amory's inner journey to discover himself. I definitley didn't agree with all of Amory's opinions on the world but in his philosophical musings both within himself and with the other thinkers around him, Amory presented strong arguments to back all of his opinions.

        One of the wonderful things about Fitgerald's focus on the mind in This Side of Paradise was that it got me thinking. Whenever Amory presented one of his well supported opinions, I would have to stop and think about how I felt and why; in every sense of the phrase This Side of Paradise was most certainly thought provoking.

       Beyond the philosophical and thought provoking nature of this work I also extremely enjoyed the wry wit and candid thoughts of Amory. One of my favourite quotes from the novel was,  "Every author ought to write a book as if he were going to be beheaded the day he finished it" (211). I suppose one of the reasons I was so struck by this quote was because I absolutley agreed with the philosophy behind it, so many authors hold back when writing for fear of what people might think,  truly lessening the impact of their work. But if authors wrote as if they were going to be beheaded the day they finished it there would be no need to hold back for fear of society's reaction and in my opinion, there would be a lot more thought provoking and truly great books in the world today.

Click below to read it yourself:

Amazon

     

Highlight Poetry (#1)

 

A Bit of an Introduction to Highlight Poetry

     For a little while now I've been itching to start a meme but everytime I set about thinking up a theme or a name for it, I'd inevitably end up with an idea that somebody else had already come up with. Eventually I decided that I wanted to focus on something that is important to me and not recognized nearly enough; poetry. And bingo! Highlight Poetry crossed my mind as a good self-explanatory name for a meme that focused on highlighting (acknowledging) poetry. So when I searched "Highligh Poetry" in both the regular google search engine and google's blog search engine and could not find any results for a meme name "Highlight Poetry" I knew I had found the name for my meme!

The First Poem of Highlight Poetry

Embarking at Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1920

"We leave to-night...

  Silent, we filled the still, deserted street,

    A column of dim gray,

  And ghosts rose startled at the muffled beat

    Along the moonless way;

  The shadowy shipyards echoed to the feet

    That turned from night and day.

  And so we linger on the windless decks,

    See on the spectre shore

  Shades of a thousand days, poor gray-ribbed wrecks...

    Oh, shall we then deplore

  Those futile years!

              See how the sea is white!

  The clouds have broken and the heavens burn

    To hollow highways, paved with gravelled light

  The churning of the waves about the stern

    Rises to one voluminous nocturne,

                  ...We leave to-night."

 

A Brief Commentary Providing a Bit of Context

    I discovered this poem a couple of days ago while reading  F. Scott Fitgerald's This Side of Paradise. For those of you who are not familiar with Fitzgerald's works, This Side of Paradise is a ficitonal novel about a rather egotistical young man named Amory. Though the novel itself is not a book of poetry, through the character Amory, Fitzgerald writes several poems of which Embarking at Night was one . At the point in the novel when this poem is included, Amory is heading off to fight in the first world war and is presumably writing the poem about his emotions while he waits to embark in the night on the journey of a soldier.

    I absolutley love this poem, I think it is beautifully written, providing haunting imagery of a soldier's restless wait before he heads off to war. Through this poem Fitzgerald allows the reader to feel as if they themselves are mourning the futile years ahead and the "poor gray-ribbed wrecks" that will fall during the war. I felt as if I was truly transported to another time, while reading this poem, like I could hear the waves breaking upon far off shores and the feel the soldier's fear as he prepared to embark.

What are your thoughts? What struck you most about Emarking at Night?

To learn more about how you can get involved in Highlight Poetry click here.