What better excuse is there to buy books than restarting a bookish blog? While I typically borrow most of my books from my local library, I couldn’t help some recent purchases, especially with so many beautiful covers on new releases! From The Novel Neighbor I bought Namesake by Adrienne Young, The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, and House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas. I’m not going to lie, I haven’t read any of these authors before, but I’ve heard such great things about them, I figured it was time to give them a try (granted we all know I won’t be reading the latter two until the rest of their respective series are released)! Also, while Namesake is the second book in a duology, Adrienne Young is releasing a standalone novel that takes place in the same universe in September of this year. The City We Became is destined to be a trilogy, but I have not heard any news about the release dates for the second and third novel. Book 2 and 3 in Maas’s Crescent City series are set to be released this year and next year respectively.
I also made a trip to Barnes and Noble and bought Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas and Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, two standalone new releases in YA fantasy. There’s been a LOT of hype about Firekeeper’s Daughter, so I’m exceedingly excited to read it!
Finally, I received a signed copy of The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys as a gift. I was so joyful to receive this book as a present, as I recently read it and absolutely fell in love with it. Full disclosure, I do not typically like historical fiction novels very much. I have read all of Sepetys books, which were great, but it is rare for me to adore an historical fiction novel as much as I do The Fountains of Silence.
The book is written from multiple perspectives, but the main focus is on Daniel, an aspiring photographer from a well-to-do family visiting Spain, and Ana a young Spaniard working at a hotel, who’s parents were killed because of their political views. Ana and her siblings face severe scrutiny for their parents’ political positions, as they went against the ruling dictatorship in Spain at the time. A cute, yet naïve romance ultimately blossoms between Daniel and Ana, but the dictatorship forbids their love.
The Fountains of Silence was such an immensely moving novel that incorporated a lighthearted, but troubled romance, along with aspects of mystery. All the characters were easy to relate to and as a reader I often found myself feeling personally connected to the characters, as though they could have been friends of mine. Sepetys’s talents as a writer are apparent in all her novels, but her writing truly shines in this book. The details paint a clear picture of the time period in Spain and feel extremely real. Not only does Sepetys write a wonderfully beautiful novel, she also incorporates heart wrenchingly authentic issues that were prevalent after the Spanish Civil War. This is definitely a book you will want to pick up on your next trip to the bookstore!
The Biased Bibliophile 