Monday 28 January 2019

The Night Knight by C H Clepitt + #Giveaway


The Night Knight (Guild of Dream Warriors #2) by C H Clepitt
Self published in July 2018.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the author

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"It's hard to sleep when you're afraid to close your eyes..."

Bella is playing catch up. Ten years in a coma has left her feeling out of every loop. When a mysterious knight begins to invade her dreams, she finds herself pulled into a war which is threatening to spill out of her dreams and into reality.

The second in the Guild of Dream Warriors series hits the ground running, and doesn't pause for breath until the end.

I loved that Clepitt switches the narrator for this second volume of her Guild of Dream Warriors series. It's a brave move to give the lead voice to a new character, and I feel it works well here. The first book, My Dream Woman, was narrated by Andi with Bella comatose for the most part. Now Bella is very much awake and we follow her experiences through the next stage of the Dream Warriors' battle. Bella is a softer character than Andi. Comatose for a decade, she also has a touching naivete due to her lack of social integration. When a faceless Knight appears, I could completely understand why Bella would swiftly fall for them. The romance aspect of this novella fits well in between the faster, aggressive scenes and I liked these emotional contrasts. The differences between dream world and real world are effective too. Clepitt has a deft touch in concisely describing her locations.

Although The Night Knight does have a self-contained storyline, I don't think it could easily be read as a standalone novella. The Dream Warriors world is well explained in My Dream Woman and, while I appreciated Clepitt not bogging this second volume down with recaps of what we've already learned, that does also mean this is (so far at least) a series that benefits from being read in order.

And now it's time for the Giveaway!

The prize is an ebook edition of either The Night Knight OR the first book in C H Clepitt's Guild of Dream Warriors series, My Dream Woman, gifted to the winner via Smashwords. I will ask the winner which book they would prefer.
Open internationally until midnight (UK time) on the 11th February 2019.

Entry is by way of the Gleam widget below. This giveaway is entirely my own and is not affiliated with either the author or Smashwords. I just really want more readers to be aware of this book!
(GDPR: Gleam will ask for your email address so that I am able to contact the winner. I will then need to tell Smashwords that winning email address so they can send out the book.)

The Night Knight by C H Clepitt ebook giveaway



Etsy Find!
by The Peachy Polka Dot in
New Hampshire, USA

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Books by C H Clepitt / Fantasy fiction / Books from England

Sunday 27 January 2019

Pocket Poets: Rupert Brooke


Pocket Poets: Rupert Brooke
Poems originally written between 1908 and 1914. This collection published by Vista Books in 1960.

My 1900s read for my 2018-19 Decade Challenge, my 15th Classics Club read, one more step up Mount TBR and P for my 2019 Alphabet Soup Challenge.

How I got this book:
Swapped for at a book exchange (I think)

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A collection of twenty-nine poems and sonnets composed by the acclaimed First World War poet Rupert Brooke. Includes his most famous poem, The Soldier, which was first published in The Times in 1914: ("If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is forever England.")

I really don't like Brooke's most famous poem, The Soldier. It's one that seemingly gets recited whenever English people want to glorify our war history so I've come to associate it with jingoistic nationalism and pointless death. I don't know whether Brooke actually wrote it to encourage young men to sign up and fight in the First World War, but my attitude towards this one poem has always put me off reading anything else he wrote. Recently however I discovered that Brooke was associated with the Bloomsbury Group and a friend to Virginia Woolf - whose writing I do like very much. When I saw this slim vintage volume of his 'best' poems, I thought maybe it was time to give Brooke a second chance.

Based on this collection, I can say that Brooke was obsessed with Death and Love, in that order, and was rather a melodramatic soul! The timing of his poetry together with historical hindsight makes several of his poems especially poignant. The sonnet which begins "Oh! Death will find me, Long before I tire" and the poem Dust are both absolutely beautiful in their own right, and are given an extra edge by knowing that their author will indeed have died - of a tiny mosquito bite - just six years later. Brooke's work is very English and English in a way that bears no relation to the country I know. Instead this is a land of "honey for tea" and Tennyson at Cambridge. I couldn't relate to much of Brooke's hankering for that kind of life, but longing for home and his desolation after heart-break are universal. And I liked seeing the world through the eyes of fish!

Etsy Find!
by The Vintage Coop UK in
Sevenoaks, England

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Books by Rupert Brooke / Poetry / Books from England

Sunday 6 January 2019

Black Holes by Ochi + #FreeBook


Black Holes by Ochi
Self published on Smashwords in September 2014.

B for my 2019 Alphabet Soup Challenge and featured in WorldReads: Kenya

How I got this book:
Downloaded the ebook from Smashwords

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In this riveting and revolutionary anthology of poems , Ochi offers his personal reflections on a wide array of subjects ranging from globalization and self-awareness to the nature of good and evil in modern societies. Through indelible sonnets and proses, the importance of introspection, moral reasoning and of questioning authority and societal norms to enhance personal growth is revealed to the reader. Black Holes, a lyrical journey through emotions experienced in human life, breaks all barriers of individualism to voice the pain of the unfortunate, it also glorifies the beauty of unconditional love; the language simplicity conveys its message to people from all walks of life.

I took advantage of the Smashwords sale between Christmas and New Year to download three books of poetry by WorldReads authors. Over the next few weeks you can expect my reviews of poetry collections from Romania and from the Caribbean, but the first of the trio I read is Black Holes by Kenyan poet, Ochi.

The overriding feeling imparted to me through reading Black Holes was anger. Ochi writes about how historically colonialism destroyed Kenya and how nowadays the same role is effectively played by Western-style capitalism. The early poems here reminded me emotionally of Andy Carrington's work and I think readers who enjoy his poetry will also appreciate Ochi (and vice versa). The poems are frequently rhythmic prose with the first long section including longer works often of a page or more, and a brief section section consisting mostly of very short pieces of roughly haiku length. I was disturbed to read what I believe were two homophobic jibes, however I didn't understand all the slang language used so I could be mistaken on one occurrence. Overall however Black Holes gives a stark and honest insight into Ochi's view of the world from his perspective which is frequently very different from that shown to Western audiences.

Etsy Find!
by Paper Rocket Studio in
North Carolina, USA

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Books by Ochi / Poetry / Books from Kenya