Sword of Kings - Bernard Cornwell

What? A three star rating for a book involving my favorite boyfriend Uhtred? I know, I know. But hear me out. I know what this series is doing, where it's leading. And unfortunately to get from where it started to where it's going, Uhtred has to be like... 70 in this book. And he's fighting in a shield wall? I mean FFS. The man has swagger, but he should very well be dead by decades by now. But in Sword of Kings, here he is, just riding horses and fighting way way younger men.

And there's an odd meandering to this book that the others didn't have. Uhtred doesn't seem to know what he's doing. And that, partly, is likely because no one really knows what happened in the 5-6 weeks during which this book is set. King Edward dies. But then so does Aelfweard. But no one knows how, and eventually Aethelstan is king. But again, those bare bones of dates and events are all that history has left us. So to put Uhtred into the action, he's sailing a ship up and down England, saving women.

And then some side things happen that felt, well just sad and unnecessary. So, yeah. The book is overlong for really only covering a few weeks of time and a lot of back and forth for Uhtred. Listen, the man has swagger, but has outlived the local life expectancy by 100% at this point. I am absolutely going to read the last book in the series and I have high hopes for the events of that one because I'm pretty sure I know what is going to happen, but Uhtred always figures out a way to keep things spicy, just a little bit of a miss in this one.

3/5 Stars. 

War of the Wolf - Bernard Cornwell

Oh Uhtred. What am I going to do with this irascible hunk of man? He's supposed to be 60 in this latest book (he'll always be 28 to me) but I digress, because no way a 60 year old man is riding his horse for days and then hopping off to swing a big sword around to kill Saxons. Just, not, happening. But he does it with such swagger that I'm willing to forgive him.

In the last book, Aethelflaed died and her brother Edward swept in to to snatch Mercia, because somehow this line of kings has it in their head that all of England is to be a English speaking, one God worshiping paradise. They have a very frank surprise coming in 1066 (pun intended). But for now, there are some Mercian's who are not satisfied with the idea of being ruled by Edward and in War of the Wolf, they show their displeasure by trying to overtake Caester in the name of Aethelflaed's daughter.

Uhtred, who is always stupidly giving oaths, promised Aethelflaed he would protect Aethelstan, the bastard/not-bastard eldest son of King Edward. So when he gets notice that Aethelstan may be in danger he rushes to Mercia to help. Surprise, Aethelstan is fine and Uhtred's love for people has been used against him to lure him out of Northumbria just as a new threat from the Norse threatens the last independent kingdom. (The TV show is called The Last Kingdom for a reason).

A Norse leader, thrown out of Ireland by the fierce Irish fighters, has taken refuge in Cumbraland, a lawless area to the west of Northumbria and North of Mercia, marginally held to be part of Northumbria. The leaders, Skoll, a warrior at the helm of a group of berserkers called the ulfhednar (wolf head), seeks to make Cumbraland and all of Northumbria his own. Well c'mon. He has to fight Uhtred first. And my man is not going to let some Norse dickhead roll over Northumbria unchecked.

True to Uhtred form, he underestimates at some point and overestimates at another and then gets a little lucky and... VICTORY. I'll leave the details to you. I will be DEVESTATED when Uhtred finally dies. We've had this thing going for a couple years now and I don't want to give him up. But all good things must come to an end. And a 60 year old man living in the 900s is not long for this world. Wyrd bid ful araed.

4/5 Stars. 

Sharpe's Rifles - Bernard Cornwell

Ah okay, I get it. I kind of messed this up. When I was browsing a used book store in Riverside, California for a return flight read (that was my first mistake, travelling cross country with ONE book), I picked up a copy of Sharpe's Rifles that helpfully had a #1 pasted to the spine and the inside sheet placed it as the first book in the Sharpe series.

Listen, I have a love affair with Uhtred in Cornwell's Saxon Stories series. So I was fairly confident he could get me through a return flight. And I'm trying to set up my exit strategy for when I run out of Uhtred books to read. So I felt like I knew what I was doing starting with Sharpe's Rifles. But I could tell something was a little off when I started reading the book.

First, I didn't really like Sharpe. He was boorish and not very perceptive. Listen, I get he's supposed to be an amazing soldier. Having served in the Air Force, I know the kinds of attitudes that STILL exist regarding prior enlisted officers, but even so, I mean, they guy showed zero leadership abilities and then could not imagine why he didn't inspire loyalty?

Second, some of the secondary characters seemed a little bland. I understand now that Harper is to become a beloved figure in the series, but things do not start out well with the taciturn Irish man who definitely DOES NOT want to be a sergeant.

Finally, there is a badly jammed in love triangle that does basically nothing to inspire the plot other than to make Sharpe appear a little more foolish than he already does. How is the guy who can figure NOTHING else out inspire so little confidence and somehow become a beloved literary figure? I wasn't buying it.

Thank goodness I found out this book is not the foundation for the series but a prequel. So, question, should I read these in publishing date order, or chronological order?

3/5 Stars. 

The Flame Bearer - Bernard Cornwell

Cornwell continues to deliver with this series. Somehow Uhtred keeps surviving and each story feels fresh despite this being the 10th in the series so far. In The Flame Bearer, we get a very Uhtred-centric story. For most of the previous books, Uhtred is caught up in political and literal battles beyond his control and he's serving on behalf of one king or another. But in this one, Uhtred is working for himself. He's finally, finally going to take back Bebbanburg.

But of course there is a little wrinkle. Uhtred has continued to make enemies. His championing of Edwards first son Aethelstan has rankled the Ealdorman Aethelham the grandfather of the other possible heir to the throne. Uhtred is unfailingly loyal to those people who have earned his regard and Aethelstan is one of them. So when Aethelham sees an opportunity to cut the knees out from under Uhtred, he goes for it.

I, like Finan, was not quite sure how Uhtred was going to get himself out of this one. He decided to take on a larger enemy in an impenetrable fortress. Classic Uhtred. When will this man ever lose his swagger? Hopefully never. But I'm very interested to see what is going to happen in the next book. Because as everyone knows, North Umbria did NOT remain an independent kingdom. So I'm certain that clash is coming. How will Uhtred thread that future needle?

3.5 Stars

Warriors of the Storm - Bernard Cornwell

I remain constantly entertained by Uhtred and his references to goats droppings, turds and all things Danish insults. By now I've figured out Cornwell's formula for these books:
1) Uhtred is involved in a minor skirmish
2) Based on the skirmish he perceives a greater threat to Wessex/Mercia than the West Saxons/Mercians
3) He argues his point to the West Saxon/Mercian leaders who are too influenced by priests insisting they "Pray the Danes Away" that Uhtred goes a little rogue
4) Talk talk talk, strategy strategy strategy
5) Big battle, lots of insults, references to shield walls etc
6) Victory and begrudging respect from those in #3
7) Hint of big bad guy for next book

And listen, I'm reading the ninth (ninth!!!) book in this series because the formula works. It's comforting, and, even at 50, Uhtred is a babe (in my mind - he likely has no teeth and is scarred from acquiring syphilis). But I digress.

In Warriors of the Storm, Mercia has a new threat from the Norse, who, finding the Celts inhospitable in Ireland, have decided to try their hand at Mercia. Why should they succeed where others have failed? Well, they can't because we know who was king after Edward and that would seriously mess with history. So in the meantime, Uhtred has to save everyone, and he's the best at it.

I always like when people underestimate Uhtred. That Aethelflaed does it here was a nice change as she's always been mostly on his side (when she's not in his bed - get it girl!). Anyway, Uhtred wins and the bad guy in vanquished, and there is some smart state craft done by the guy everyone assumes is only as good as his sword arm. 

4/5 Stars. 

The Empty Throne - Bernard Cornwell

A mere 22 days ago, I finished The Pagan Lord and wondered how my main squeeze Uhtred was going to continue his dominance of the Mercian and Saxon fighters. You see, his chest, like mine, was pierced by a sword at the end of the last book and I wasn't sure he was going to make it. 

Cornwell, obviously being aware of Uhtred's appeal (I was going to write charm, but that's not quite it), decided to toy with my heart and have the opening chapter of The Empty Throne penned by the younger Uhtred. I was saddened that Uhtred had been put out to pasture so unceremoniously, although I doubted he had died. And I was slightly warming to the idea that Uhtred2 (his son) would carry on the legacy of irreverent humor and calling people turds. 

But, alas the second chapter picks up with our trusted narrator and although he's not doing well (he's got a weeping infected wound) he still manages a few barbs now and then. And as always he's 1/4 to 1/2 a step in front of everyone else. So when King Edward's father in law decides to flex his muscles in Mercia, threatening Aethelstan's life and Aethelflaed's daughter with marriage, Uhtred knows he's got to set some things right. 

In the meantime, he needs to find the sword that pierced him in order to be healed. He's sure that someone is using witchcraft to continue to torture him. And who better to tell him than a lady who is having a change of allegiances after her brother turns out to be a whimpering rat turd. 

In the end, Uhtred is intimately involved in making Aethelflaed the Lady of Mercia and protecting the kingdom of Mercia from marauding Norsemen. It will be interesting to see if Uhtred2 has more narrative involvement in the next installment. You know I'll be reading it.

4/5 Stars. 

Death of Kings - Bernard Cornwell

Death of Kings represents a huge change in the plot for Uhtred and The Saxon Stories. Alfred, the West Saxon king who Uhtred reluctantly attached to himself in desperation for protection from his uncle, is really and truly dying. While still young by today's standards, Alfred has always been ill and now it appears stomach cancer will end his reign. His dream of a unified "England" however, will not die with him, as his children, Athelflaed and Edward, are committed to continuing progress to this dream. 

And finally, Uhtred willingly throws his support behind this idea and abandons the ideas of a Danish ruled England. This comes about not just through assimilation by Uhtred, but by his final understanding of the superiority of Alfred's vision and war craft. While the Danes continue to unsuccessfully throw themselves upon the walls of Alfred's fortresses, the wealth of the West Saxons is safe behind the walls. And Uhtred knows a winner when he sees one. So he throws his support behind Edward, pledging his sword to Edward (and his heart to Aethelflaed, hubba hubba). 

In any case, Uhtred braces the country for an inevitable invasion following the death of Alfred and the divided loyalties and leadership of the Danes prevents this from happening for a full three years. This is also the first time we see Uhtred recognize that he's not quite the spritely 20 year old who killed Ubba by the sea. He's now 43, and is taunted by a Dane who deems Uhtred, "too old to kill." Ouch. 

Uhtred is still Uhtred however. Disgusted with the piety and sometimes hypocrisy shown by the Church in England. He's becoming outnumbered in his faith and he doesn't like it. He's still good with a sword, but Uhtred's strength has also lain with his ability to understand and plan for an enemy's motivations and tactics. And FINALLY he gets the respect he deserves from Alfred. It felt like a nice closure on that story line. We'll see what Uhtred does in his old age. But it will probably involve more sword swinging and lady loving. (Thank God :))

4/5 Stars. 

Warlight - Michael Ondaatje

I've been sitting on this review all day because I felt a lot of things while reading Warlight that I wasn't sure I'd be able to succinctly describe. After a few days I'm more comfortable about how I felt about the book so here goes:

First off, I'd like to say that I listened to the audio version of this book and I believe this was a critical and exquisite mistake. Exquisite because the vocalist did a fantastic job and had a wonderful voice. Critical because the language of the novel, the dreamy quality and the trustworthiness of the narrator led to a really hard narrative to follow in audio format.

The story opens with our narrator, Nathaniel, thinking back upon a very formative period in his life during his early teen years when both of his parents left him and his sister, Rachel, in the care of strangers. Their father, an emotionally distant, blurry figure who, as an executive at Unilever has been called to relocate to the company's Singapore offices for a year. Their mother, Rose, has decided to accompany him for the year, sending the children to boarding school. Their London home is to be looked after by a boarder whom the children refer to as "The Moth." During the months after their father's departure and the start of school whereby their mother will leave, the children grow close to their mother, whom they have no real connection with, having lived with their grandparents during much of the war years.

Once they are ensconced at boarding school, both Nathaniel and Rachel determine they hate it and sneak out to return to their home. The Moth promptly visits the schools and has the children converted to daytime only students. It is once they are back home that Rachel discovers their mother's steamer trunk, carefully packed with all those Singapore gowns, tucked away in a corner of their basement. Both children feel bereft and abandoned. With no way to get in touch with their mother they are left to wonder at the true depths of their abandonment and their parents' deception.

Left to their own devices, Nathaniel and Rachel grow close to The Moth and his case of vaguely criminal friends who frequent the house. Nathaniel especially grows close to a once successful amateur underground boxer nicknamed The Pimlico Darter. While The Moth encourages Nathaniel to get his first real job, The Darter teaches Nathaniel about the back waterways and alleys of the Thames while they smuggle racing dogs of questionable provenance. Un-moored, Nathaniel strikes up a relationship with a girl whose real name he never knows and manages to become close to her while still keeping her at a distance.

And all of this was very interesting and Ondaatje's writing is really fantastic, but then... well the story changes and Nathaniel starts telling the story of his mother, for reasons I don't want to say in this review for risk of spoilers. And given the wonderful distance and mystery Ondaatje spends the first 1/3 of the book creating, the credibility of the knowledge of the last 2/3 is stretched and destroyed by what Nathaniel is able to share about his mother.

The novel is really 1/3 a telling of a child's story from a child's point of view, and 2/3 a telling of a child's story from an adult point of view. It brings up questions and vulnerabilities that are touching and deeply moving and asks us to look at our parents anew from the distance of hindsight and the earned wisdom of adulthood. But it doesn't undo the damage done and the hearts broken in accepting a new perspective.

So all this is to say there were things I really really loved about this book, but when it's all put together it left me wanting a more believable mechanism for getting to the heart of Rose's story without damaging Nathaniel's credibility.

3.5/5 Stars.

Sword Song (The Saxon Stories #4) - Bernard Cornwell

This series continues to be a delight for me and I'm surprised it's been so long since I finished book 3, Lords of the North. You see, I listened to the first three books on audio and although I've never seen the man, I have a complete voice crush on the narrator of the first three books. So when Sword Song was not available in audio I thought I'd wait and see if my library got it in. It didn't. So then I finally got around to requesting the kindle version of the book, and it popped into my queue so here we are.

I had forgotten a lot of the plot from Lords of the North, but thankfully my review of that book (read it here) was uncharacteristically detailed regarding the plot. 

Sword Song picks up with Uhtred manning his burh at Coccham. It's part of a series of defensive cities designed by Alfred to protect Wessex. And Uhtred is doing a good job because when it's military related, everyone knows that Uhtred knows his stuff. He's living happily with his wife Gisela, the daughter of the Viking king of Northumberland. They have two children and all is well. Which means that things for Uhtred are about to get a little bit worse. 

A report arrives that the Thurgilson brothers have taken the city of Lundene (London) and along with Haesten (a thoroughly unthankful a-hole who Uhtred would have been better off to let die) they intend to make a play for all of Mercia and Wessex. 

Alfred is smart but he's also kind of an a-hole so he marries his sweet daughter, Aethelflaed, off to Uhtred's butt kissing insecure cousin Aethelred, who somehow accepts that being less than the King of Mercia is an okay trade for being Alfred's man in Mercia. Alfred is trying to strengthen his position, but in order to do so, he extracts a promise from Uhtred that Uhtred will deliver Lundene as a wedding present to his cousin and Alfred's daughter. Oh Uhtred, he's always making these crazy promises.

In the meantime, the brothers, Sigefrid and Erik, along with Haesten, conspire to convince Uhtred that HE could be King in Mercia, if he only joins forces with them and convinces Ragnar to come down from Northumbria to join them. Uhtred considers because honestly he gets not respect, but ultimately Uhtred is more loyal than Alfred or anyone else give him credit.

So Uhtred comes up with a plan to take Lundene and in the meantime Aethelred takes out his insecurities on his incredibly young wife by beating her for perceived indiscretions with other men. Uhtred is NOT having that. He may be very violent and understand pillage and rape in the context of war, but hitting your wife is not acceptable behavior to Uhtred. 

So it's no surprise that Aethelred's insecurities lead to Aetheflaed being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being kidnapped by Sigefrid. Uhtred has to come up with a plan to rescue her or all of Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia, etc it's all royally F'd. And I'll just stop there.

The thing about these stories is that it's basically non-stop action and I really like the writing. And Uhtred is just a great character, but so is Father Pyrlig. So there's so much to like about these books. I even read it to myself in the narrators voice. So all was not lost. And now I can get the 5th book (also not in audio format from my library :()

4/5 Stars

Column of Fire - Ken Follett

A Column of Fire is the third book in Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series. It's not so much a sequel as the events in this book take place two hundred some years beyond the events of World Without End, which in turn took place hundreds of years beyond Pillars of the Earth. And to that end, Column of Fire seems hundreds of years short of the mark set by the earlier books in the series. 

Both of the earlier volumes dealt directly with the people of Kingsbridge and the drama contained within one town. There were clear simple villains and heroes and heroines to root for. The same is true in CoF, but instead of the character development driving the plot, here we had plot driving the characters and not much development. Characters were introduced and summarily killed off, or just never mentioned again as their narrative seemed to be tied up conveniently. 

Perhaps it's a necessity of the time period described that the scope of the novel would expand so much wider than Kingsbridge, but in the end, the narrative tension fell a bit flat. When you use plot points that are easily searched on google and the outcomes so easily found, then narrative tension cannot be maintained. Will the bad men succeed in their assassination attempts of Queen Elizabeth? Of course not. 

In the earlier books, the tension and climax happened to fictional people and the outcomes were unknown. Each character was in danger and suffered real harm. None of that occurred here and the novel was the worse off for it. I feel a little bit like Follett phoned this one in.

3/5 Stars. 

Best Kept Secret - Jeffrey Archer (Clifton Chronicles #3)

I initially purchased the first three Clifton Chronicles during a crazy Kindle deal. I think the idea was to give away the first three and then get people hooked enough they'd have to purchase the follow-ons. However, if I hadn't gotten the first three together, it's unlikely I would have read past the first uneven installment. (You can read my review of the first book here). 

Best Kept Secret was another disappointment. The story is at least better written than the first book, but the plot meanders and the point of view conveniently and sporadically bounces around to the point where I didn't really care about any of the characters anymore. Additionally, the author leaves each book with a major cliffhanger which is irritating and a blatant trick to get someone to read the next installment. 

At the beginning of this book, we are left with the solution to the last book's cliffhanger, namely, would Giles Barrington or Harry Clifton be named the rightful heir to the Barrington name, lands, and title. Turns out it's Giles who is granted all that stuff (which is the best way to preserve everyone's happiness in the book). And Harry and Emma, although not sure if they are actually half-siblings, get married anyway and decide not to have any more children. They set out to adopt Emma's other half-sister, the baby who showed up at the end of the second book to wreak havoc and an early demise to Emma and Giles' father. 

So Emma and Harry move on to get married and raise their slightly ill-behaved child, Sebastian. Eventually Sebastian becomes a teenager who gets in trouble at boarding school and tries to escape punishment by agreeing to travel to Argentina on an errand for his friend's father. 

In the midst of this, Giles marries a terrible woman then divorces her after his mother leaves them nothing in her will due to the wife's terribleness. There is a will contest and everyone is sad, but it's all glossed over so much there's no real tension there. A villainy villain named Major Alex Fisher is thrown in the mix to try to take down Barrington's shipping company from the inside. 

The Clifton Chronicle villains are all bad all the time with no redeeming qualities and the heroes always triumph. It may be entertaining, but it's not great reading.

2.5/5 Stars. 

Lords of the North - Bernard Cornwell

Once again I thoroughly enjoyed reading about 9th Century England and the various kingdoms. Lords of the North focuses, not surprisingly, on the Kingdom of Northumbria, to where Uhtred has been trying to return since the Saxon Stories began. 

Following his victory at the battle of Ethandun (Edington), Alfred has granted Uhtred a small holding, and Uhtred is, understandably, a bit miffed. But he takes Hild and his horse to bury his horde and then heads north to try to figure out a way to reclaim his lands. But the North is in disarray. Arriving in Eoferwic (York), Uhtred finds the Danes have been slaughtered based on the sermons of a priest. Fearing eventual retribution, Saxons are fleeing the town and Uhtred agrees to go with a wealthy merchant. In order to go where the merchant intends, Uhtred must past through Kjarten's lands, thus bringing him within sword distance of his enemies and satisfying a cliff hanger of a confrontation begun in the very first novel.

This encounter was ultimately satisfying because it answered so many questions left from the first novel, principally, what happened to Thyra!? And it's always satisfying to finally see Uhtred get some of the respect he deserves for being such a great warrior (not until after he's been thoroughly humbled of course). 

This novel also brought forth a new love interest for Uhtred, Gisela is sister to Gothrid, the new King of Northumbria. And it was nice that she didn't die this time around. (Sorry Iseult). 

All and all this was a solid book in the series, although it did, at times, have a bit of padding that was evident. I continue to be thoroughly entertained by these, even if they do prompt my husband to ask which one of us went to engineering school (he thinks I'm a giant nerd).

4/5 Stars. 

The Pale Horseman - Bernard Cornwell

I'm so tickled by this series. The Pale Horsemen follows the story of Uhtred, who in the prior book (The Last Kingdom - you can read that review here) had defeated Ubbe Lofbrockson at the battle of Cynuit (sorry guys about the spelling here, I listened to the audio version of this book and my spelling is gobshite). Having killed Ubbe, Uhtred races home to his wife and child to ensure their safety and then travels to the king, only to find out that Odder (The Younger) had beaten him there and taken credit for the victory. 

Nursing his ego, Uhtred is sent home by a displeased King Alfred. Bored and restless, Uhtred takes a ship of Saxons and raids up the coast of Cornwallum. This leads him to meet a Shadow Queen, Iseult, with whom he falls in love (in a very Uhtred way). When he returns to Alfred, he finds himself accused of burning the newly made monastery at Cynuit and killing the monks there. He elects to stand trial by combat against Steapa. In the middle of the trial, the Saxon town is overrun by Danes.

Uhtred finds Alfred retreating to the swamp lands and helps him regain his army and self-respect. Nothing works out quite as Uhtred planned (fate is inexorable - he reminds us constantly) and there are many turns to the ultimate battle at Ethandun. 

The writing in these stories is engaging and Uhtred is a wonderful narrator for the events. He's realistic and has the right amount of cynicism for a soldier and story teller. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series (listening). Tom Sellwood as the narrator for the audio book is so amazing and funny (he did the original CD version that the library has, I have no idea how Jonathan Keeble is at narrating but I know I'll be disappointed when it comes time to switch narrators).

Apparently this is now a BBC series. If there's some way I can start watching this I will. 

4/5 Stars.

Mothering Sunday - Graham Swift

I first heard of this book from an NPR story (you can read NPR's review here) while I was driving during my morning commute. I think the part of the review that caught my ear was "one of those deceptively spare tales . . . that punch well above their weight." I am a huge fan of short fiction and I appreciate those stories that can do more in 25 pages than some novels do in 500. Short fiction, I've come to understand, is not "easier" to write because the page requirement is less; it's actually far more difficult. A writer must do more in less time, evoke feelings and emotions in the reader that often take hundreds of pages, but do it in 20, 15, or 10. A writer that can do that should be commended. And Graham Swift is a writer that can do that. 

Mothering Sunday takes place on March 30th, 1924. A holiday in which service staff across the English countryside are given the day off to spend with their mothers. Jane Fairchild, maid to the Niven family, however, does not have a mother. Abandoned as a child, she has no family to visit on Mothering Sunday. At first she intends to spend the day with a book from the Niven library - a character trait that is teased out and expanded upon over the course of the book. 

Her plans are changed however, when she gets a call from Paul Sheringham, the only surviving son of a neighboring gentry family with whom Jane has been having an affair for some years. Paul is engaged to be married to Emma Hobday within a couple of weeks, and Jane knows this is likely to be their last tryst. 

Over the course of Mothering Sunday's sparse pages, Jane's character is lovingly teased out as we see the world through her eyes. We know only what she knows. We feel only what she feels. It's a remarkably limited, but also necessary point of view. As Jane wanders Paul's home after he has left her in his bed, we see the changing society reflected back through Jane's thoughts. The war is over - a generation of young men have been buried in France or Belgium, never to return home. And the life of those in service and those they serve, is changing (have you seen Downton Abbey?). 

The story slowly reveals Jane's future as an accomplished novelist in her own right - a path she was set upon maybe even before the events of that Mothering Sunday, but certainly a path that was clearer once the dust had cleared from the day.

At times evocative and luxurious, reading Mothering Sunday felt like a sprint and a marathon all at once.

4.5/5 Stars. 

The Last Kingdom (Saxon Stories #1) - Bernard Cornwell

What a delicious feeling it is to start a new series and thoroughly enjoy the first book. I recently took a long car trip and The Last Kingdom was my companion for ten hours of riveting driving through southern Illinois. The series begins with Otrid (I listened to this so be prepared for some completely inaccurate spellings) in Northumbria. He marches to war at 10 years old with his father and sees his father and most of the Northumbrian army slaughtered by the invading Danes. He's taken captive by a Dane named Ragnar and grows up learning to fight.

As the Danes move to take Mercia and East Agnlia, Ostrid is introduced to real battle and becomes torn between his love for Ragnar and the Danish way of life, and to his fealty to his homeland of England. When the Danes move to take Wessex, the last kingdom free from Danish rule, they are met by an unlikely English champion in the pious King Alfred. 

The book is just really really well done and I have to give special props to the voice narrator for his inflections and changes between accents. Listening to this was really delightful. Cornwell was lucky in that not many source documents exist from this period of time to draw his facts from so he had a lot of room to invent and imagine, but he still kept everything in the realm of reality. 

I was sad that I couldn't immediately start the next book in the series. I can't wait for it to show back up off my hold list at the library.

4/5 Stars. 

In a Dark, Dark Wood - Ruth Ware

Here's a good tip for some people, don't invite your friends to your "hen night" (bachelorette party) if you haven't invited to the wedding. And if you get invited to a "hen night" for a friend you haven't talked to in 10 years and have not been invited to the wedding, don't go.

Had the above been followed, all the mess in In a Dark, Dark Wood could have been avoided. That being said, the characters go through a big mess, but the book itself is well put together. Leonora Shore (Nora) has been invited to the a hen weekend for her childhood friend, Claire. Nora hasn't talked to Claire in 10 years following some unsaid teenage drama. Urged on by their mutual friend, Nina, Nora agrees to attend, even though she wasn't invited to the wedding (alert, alert). 

Upon arriving, the hen weekend party is rather small. Up in the woods of North Umberland, way from cell signals and modern comforts like coffee (British people drink coffee? I had no idea), Nora instantly regrets her agreement to attend. And as the reader, you agree with Nora's sentiments pretty quickly. 

The hen weekend attendees include Flo, Claire's college best friend who is painfully awkward and a little unhinged - think Single White Female - with someone who is not actually cool and calculating but bumbling and hyperbolic. When the group does a round of introductions telling a bit about themselves, Flo only talks about Claire without offering any facts about herself. (Alert Alert!).

The party also includes Nora, who lives a hermit-like existence in London as a crime novelist; Nina, a physician who suffers from a bit of PTSD from her time with Doctors without Borders (MSF); Tom, an actor who is friends with Claire from their theater connections; and Melanie, a new mom who spends most of the first half of the book trying to get a cell signal so she can check on her kid - I sympathize, but man is this lady a downer on a hen weekend. 

In any event, Nora meets up with Claire who informs Nora that she invited her to the hen weekend so she could tell her to her face that she is marrying Nora's ex-boyfriend, James Cooper. Nora is struck speechless. She's never gotten over James - see re: teenage drama. (alert alert).

So Nora then spends some more time regretting her decision to come. And the story starts to get darker and darker until someone is killed and all the hen weekend participants are suspects. 

The story is well done, the characters are well drawn and the suspense is really good. I listened to this on audible so I would be running and then say out loud "NORA DON'T GO IN THERE" and that kind of stuff. It was a quick read too, but thoroughly entertaining. I even picked up The Girl in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware's next book, on audible because I enjoyed it so much.

If you liked Girl on the Train (see that review here) or The Lake House (see that review here), you'll like this one too.

4/5 Stars.

Me Before You - JoJo Moyes

All hail Audible and it's ability to make running long distances be not so unpleasant. This one took a long time to finish only because an unfortunate incident involving a New York subway stair last month resulted in an avulsion fracture to the ankle, extended physical therapy, and a six week hiatus from running. 

So this book was a bit of a slog, but I've finally finished it. If you are an adult with a Facebook account, and eyeballs, you've probably seen something regarding this book and its recent movie adaptation. (The trailer actually looks pretty good). There was something a bit off-putting about what I thought was a emotional sabotage to the book, which is probably why I gave it three stars, despite liking it a bit more.

The story follows Louisa Clarke, a 26 year old cafe worker who loses her job and ends up taking a 6-month assignment as a caregiver to quadriplegic Will Trainor. Will used to be a powerful business man, athlete, risk taker, but was hit by a motorcycle while walking to work and now suffers from almost complete paralysis of his four limbs. He's a bit of a jerk, but that has mostly to do with his circumstances.

Over the course of a few weeks, Louisa and Will begin an uneasy and then comfortable friendship, after which Louisa learns that Will has decided to end his life at the end of her six-month working engagement. Louisa first quits, but then decides she will take the time to show Will what his life could be like and how full it could be.

I'll leave it to you to decide (or read) if Louisa is successful or not. There is a sequel to the book called "After You" if that is any indication. Of course I cried a little during the book, and I really thought about the issues of determining how and where we live our lives. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the choices the characters make, but I understand their grief in the process. 

All in all a good read. As a side note, I'm quite enjoying all these Audible versions of books by English authors (The Lake House, The Girl on the Train) as the accents are entertaining.

3.5/5 Stars.

The Lake House - Kate Morton

On a recommendation from my sister - who almost never steers me wrong - I picked up The Lake House, as I was in need of a new audio book for training for this 1/2 marathon (two more weeks folks).  I was a bit astonished to see a run time of 21 hours though! To put this in perspective, my average book for running is about 10-11 hours. This meant I'd be "reading" this for about three weeks. (Actually it took me more than a month - ouch).

So I settled in for a long story. And it was long. But also good. I liked the writing, even when Morton did get a little long winded. The story is framed by Sadie Sparrow, a London detective who is on administrative leave following a press leak regarding an investigations she was assigned to looking into the disappearance of Maggie Bailey.

As a concession to her partner, Sadie goes to Cornwall to stay with her grandfather, Bertie on holiday. She can't get the Bailey case out of her mind and wonders if it has anything to do with a recent letter she received from the baby she gave up for adoption as a teenager. Layers of several mysteries that are woven together.

To distract herself from all of this, Sadie takes up a keen interest in the Lake House she discovers while running. Turns out that the family that lived there moved shortly after a tragedy in 1933. The tragedy? The disappearance of an 11 month old boy, Theo.

The story then vacillates between Sadie's story in 2003, to 1933 and before told through the eyes of Alice and Elinor Edyvane (yeah sorry, I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right, I only listened to the book). It turns out Theo's disappearance hinges on the family secrets of several of the Edyvane family's individual members. The story gives away just enough to keep you guessing throughout, until the end, when it all starts to fall together and the reader has quite the jump start on Sparrow. I started to lament that she might not be a very good detective after all.

While Morton is certainly long on supposition and story-telling to the point where you don't really care to hear all the details of the moth eaten area rug that serves no purpose in plot - what she does end up giving you is very full character development. Sadie, Alice and Elinor are complete characters, with back story, motivation, failures, character flaws and all the rest. So the completion of the novel - a rounding up of both the Edyvane and Bailey cases, while maybe a bit eye-rollingly coincidental and predictable, is none-the-less very satisfying.

4/5 Stars.

The White Princess - Phillipa Gregory

Probably a 3.5 star book. I really liked the story but the middle of the book was repetitive and thus got a little boring. This installment in the Cousin's War books (do not need to be read in order) tells the tale of Princess Elizabeth of York who weds Henry VII (Henry Tudor), her family's enemy. Told from Elizabeth's point of view, the story focuses on a series of York pretenders to the throne and Henry's treatment of them. It also posits a possible back story for the final York pretender which Tudor historians named "Warbeck" but understandable skepticism exists regarding the plausibility here. I do appreciate that Gregory isn't afraid to go her own way on some of these unclear historical events. The tale ends before Henry's reign ends. I would have liked to see Elizabeth deal with her son's death and the eventual crowning of Henry VIII rather than all the pages wasted repeating Henry VII's fears regarding Warbeck which is basically the same chapter over and over for 100+ pages. I feel like that put the story firmly in Henry's domain rather than focusing on Elizabeth.  3.5/5 Stars.