science fiction/fantasy

Yesterday by Felicia Yap: Crime and Science Fiction in One Book

10th August 2017 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Yesterday by Felicia Yap

Summer 2016: I hear about a book written by a female author from Southeast Asia with a very interesting concept:

There are two types of people in the world: those who can only remember yesterday (Monos), and those who can also recall the day before (Duos). You have just one lifeline to the past: your diary. Each night, you write down the things that matter. Each morning, your diary tells you where you were, who you loved and what you did.

Today, the police are at your door. They say that the body of your husband’s mistress has been found in the River Cam. They think your husband killed her two days ago.

Can you trust the police? Can you trust your husband? Can you trust yourself?

Felicia Yap grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and studied biochemistry at Imperial College London, then earned a doctorate in history at Cambridge University. …

TBR List Check-Up: Book Series I’ve Been Meaning To Read

20th June 2017 by Gemma 5 Comments

Book Series to Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. More information, plus future topics can be found on this page. This week was ‘Top Ten Series I’ve Been Meaning To Start But Haven’t’.

I used to really love book series — some of my all-time favourite books are the Harry Potter books and The Lord of the Rings. The reader gets to keep coming back to that wonderful ‘verse and learn more about the magic rules/systems and the interesting characters inhabiting it. Unfortunately, some series don’t seem to have been originally planned to be such: the first book contains most of the details and the heaviest plot, and you can see the author trying to stretch it out in the following books but absolutely failing.

Here’s hoping the following books aren’t at all like that! …

9 Reasons to Read The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams

2nd March 2017 by Gemma 4 Comments

9 reasons to read the ninth rain

High fantasy (or epic fantasy) and science fiction — these two genres are not well-populated by female authors. Or it seems like it because I’m sure it’s not for lack of trying!

Most of the fantasy I read nowadays fall under the young adult/new adult bracket, and I find most of them lack the complexity of a typical high fantasy/science fiction novel. I can barely name authors that are not of the Robin Hobb/Ursula Le Guin/Tamora Pierce/Margaret Atwood variety — Becky Chambers is the only one that comes to my mind. I am probably speaking from the point of ignorance as I don’t delve that much into the genre, but I’m sure it is also not incorrect to say it is very hard to break through and be a household name in the genre if you’re female.

So when I saw The Ninth Rain at the Headline Bloggers’ Night I immediately grabbed and latched onto a copy of it! …

Bookish Merch: Feyre Candle by William & Joseph

18th September 2016 by Gemma Leave a Comment

Foreword: I’ve always liked scents. I used to spend money on oil fragrances from indie sellers (yes, I was into BPAL) but I’ve given up on that as it needs a lot of testing to find the right fragrance for you. Skin/body chemistry makes the scent different on application after all, not to mention any temperature changes from shipping that might affect the oils. Candles and wax melts, however, seem more stable — at least what it depends on most is the craftsmanship. When using wax melts, I might sometimes test it on my electric and tealight wax burner depending on how intense I want the fragrance to be. I am aware, though, that this means shorter fragrance life for the wax tart, and I will definitely mention it on the review if I used the tealight burner with it.

Feyre Candle by William & Joseph
“[..] the fragrance features sparkling citrus top notes leading into a heart of transparent white flora, dewy rose and watery jasmine with notes of creamy coconut and succulent peach resting on an indulgent base of light woods and smooth amber.”

William & Joseph makes scented candles inspired by books and, at the time of writing, Disney. The shop owners are based in England, UK, and seem to be very nice guys. My item was lost in the mail (having issues with lost packages in our flat building recently, so whether it was stolen or lost in shipping, we still don’t know), and they replied promptly to my messages about it and were so helpful in making sure I would definitely get the second parcel they sent out.

Their candles are made with “superior grade paraffin wax”, and at present, are priced at £12.95 and does not including shipping. If this appears a bit pricey to you, I suggest reading more of this review.

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