Rae of Light

#Review: RED DESERT by Rita Carla Francesca Monticelli 4 Star reading I must confess a certain attraction to the inhospitable red planet ever since I saw Total Recall . The Arnie version of course. There simply is no other. As many of you know, I’ve even squeezed a mention of Mars into my very own little eco SciFi number. So I was delighted to come across this translation of Deserto Rosso. It is written in diary format from the perspective of Anna Persson, an astronaut landed on Mars together with several colleagues. Together they are hoping to set up a primary colony. The opening is dramatic as use of the present tense and the narrator’s situation draws the reader in. The story line switches between events on Mars and flashbacks, in the past tense, in which we learn a great deal of backstory. I found these details and the relationships Anna has with other characters very engaging. I wanted to read on and in fact finished the book in only 4 sittings. Anna's compl...

#Review: THE RED RIBBON by Rachel Ledge 2 Stars for lack of enjoyment due to frustration This book won a Grand Prize in the Clue Awards so I was excited to see what it had to offer. The plot sounded engaging – set in 1773, a young woman (Julia) from a privileged background struggles to return to a normal existence after the murder of her best friend. To complicate matters, Julia’s fiancé has been found guilty of the murder and awaits execution while Julia still harbours feelings for him despite the fact she has married his best friend. Another problem she faces is a headstrong younger sister who is intent on ignoring the advice of her elders. The opening was very confusing. Initially it was difficult to establish which character was which when it came to the two sisters. Nor were matters helped by the constant shift between modern and archaic language. Even before I was 9% into the reading several proof reading and editing issues had already reared their heads: shi...

In 2016 I resolved to set myself a reading challenge through Goodreads . This first challenge saw me attempting to read 100 books in a year. I achieved this with only the tiniest bit of cheating. I’ve been assured it was allowable cheating, so thankfully my penance simply consists of having to read more books. My second challenge saw me delving into the #Discworld. What a Fantasy-tastic challenge that was. To read about it please check out my 15 December post from last year. For my reviews of all the books I read please go to Goodreads . This year I’m going for the big 100 again but with a little twist. My aim is to read as many graphic novels and Indie books as possible. To save costs I’ll be getting the graphic novels from the library and the majority of the independent books I’ll probably read on my kindle. So I’m going to be spending a fair amount of time accessing books through Instafreebie for that portion of the challenge. For those of you not familiar wit...