 Butterflies are great and all, but Butterfly Palace takes it a little too far. See, the owner of the house is obsessed with butterflies. Huge collections of the things. Some of them flying and flapping around. Some of them . . . not. The only thing he’s more obsessed with is his political aspirations. Unfortunately, it seems like there are quite a few other people obsessed with those aspirations as well. Not to mention the Servant Girl Killer whose path keeps swerving towards Butterfly Palace. Yes. Welcome to Butterfly Palace. The setting of Butterfly Palace was so intriguing—equally gorgeous and eerie. There were so many plots going on and so many suspects running around that I had no idea what to expect. Then the ending came and smacked me out of nowhere. The theme was especially beautiful, and woven in so neatly. I loved how it connected back to the butterflies. I also loved Drew’s journey to overcome revenge against the man he thought killed his father. It was interesting reading about the Secret Service at that time—it’s a subject I haven’t seen pop up in too many historical fiction books. At first I didn’t like Belle at all. But her character arc drew me in and kept me guessing until I was able to applaud her in some of the final scenes. I felt like she didn’t get as much closure in the resolution and would have liked to see a bit more of what her world looked like after the fact. Butterfly Palace may not be a place you’d stay in real life. But within the pages of a book? Absolutely.
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 As you can see above, this tag started at https://bibliomavens.com! However, I was tagged by https://ryanelizabethwrites.com when she tagged anyone who read the post and was interested! If you're interested, please go ahead and consider yourself tagged! Who is your all-time favorite book character? Oh, goodness. Just one? Impossible. On any given day, it could be any of these:
If you were stranded on a deserted island, which book would you take with you? (Survival books do not count.) My Bible. But outside of that . . . I don’t know. If I had some way to charge it, I’d bring a Kindle, even though I don’t really like reading on Kindle, but then I could have all the books . . . What’s your weirdest bookish habit? Not taking the dust covers off hard cover books when I’m reading them. Which book character would you take as your fake partner to a family event? Uh . . . none really. XD That sounded terrible. I am not into romance hugely. If it’s a side plot in a book, that’s fabulous, but it also doesn’t break my heart if the girl and boy are just friends. So when I'm reading a book, I don't automatically think of them as dashingly romantic. *shrugs* So I guess if we’re looking for a just friend that happens to be of the opposite gender, I’d have to say . . . Thomas from Fawkes, Zash from Romanov, or Sheridan from The Nature of a Lady. What made you decide to start a book blog? It happened by accident! I started out trying to do an encouragement and motivation blog. And . . . yeah. I just didn’t get excited about it. I had to drag myself to write a post each month, and even then, I often felt like I was coming up with ideas last minute. Then one month, I wrote an article drawing lessons from Prince Caspian and had a blast (https://racheljleitch.weebly.com/adventure-journal/what-prince-caspian-taught-me-about-publishing). Eight months later, I did one on How to Train Your Dragon and loved it, too (https://racheljleitch.weebly.com/adventure-journal/its-all-you). Finally, it clicked—I love talking about books and movies. That’s what I talk about with my friends. I love sorting out the lessons from what I see and read. I also love giving my opinion about what I read, hence my book review section. What about reading and books do you love the most? I love how I find hope in reading and books. In books, I find characters that are like me (some more than others, but I usually relate to them somehow), and I watch them overcome whatever is holding them back. It gives me hope that I can do the same in my own life. What is your field of study/desired profession/current profession? Professional writing! My dream career is writing YA fiction full-time, especially YA historical adventure fiction. I want to pass on the hope that I have found in YA fiction to other YA readers fighting their own battles. However, for right now, I also work as a general paraprofessional at an elementary school, helping lead reading groups in the classroom. What are some book recommendations that became your favorites/obsessions? Aah, Fawkes and Romanov by Nadine Brandes! I heard about Fawkes on a friend’s blog and checked it out. It looked good, so I requested it for my birthday. It blew me away! It was so creative, so deep with its themes, and I related to the character SO MUCH. I quickly bought Romanov and found more of the same. It is such a heartbreaking and beautiful book! Recommend these books to EVERYONE. Another one that I adore is Dust by Kara Swanson. The Neverland vibes, the glimpses into hurt and finding hope again, and the personality that is Peter Pan drew me in. I cannot wait for Shadow this summer! An author I’m constantly recommending is Roseanna M. White. She writes historical fiction, but there is usually an adventure/intrigue plotline taking center stage. Love her unique character voice and the creativity she brings to the genre! What is the book you shove down everyone’s throat? *raises eyebrows to above* And there you have it! Now you know a little bit more about me and my bookish world! I'd love to hear about yours in the comments below!  Imagine investigating your sister’s murder . . . under a fake name. Yep, that’s exactly what Olivia Stewart is doing. She suspects her sister’s fiancé killed her, so she can’t exactly go barging in, announce her last name is Stewart, and demand to know what happened. No, she has to be more . . . stealthy. Because being thrown off the boat to Mercy Falls by a mysterious assailant is stealthy. Because being saved by her sister’s fiancé, Harrison, is stealthy. Because falling in love with him is stealthy. Naturally. First off, may I just say that cover is GORGEOUS. This is actually the third installment in Colleen Coble’s Mercy Falls series. The library didn't have the second installment, so I will have to track it down elsewhere. (I reviewed the first installment here:https://racheljleitch.weebly.com/rachels-reads/the-lightkeepers-daughter-by-colleen-coble) Of the two, I enjoyed the first installment more—perhaps it was the utter lack of drama. Still, Olivia’s greater inclination towards drama did keep it interesting. As did her grief for her sister. It was brilliantly portrayed and an element that not only drew me into the story, but that I believe would touch many readers going through their own grief. I did have to question Harrison a little bit . . . I mean, he suspected his fiancé was murdered and he didn’t ask the girl he fell in love with her first name? He just rolled with it? On the other hand, it kept things so humorous and intriguing, though . . . It was Eugene’s character that got me, though. I thought he was a very well-developed side character anyways, but the developments in the climax left me reeling and desperately hoping he wasn’t evil. I was very pleased with his ending, and would love to see a future book involving him. The Lightkeeper’s Ball might just be one you want to attend.  The title is actually very misleading because, well, Addie is not the lightkeeper’s daughter. Turns out she’s the daughter of the extremely wealthy and influential Lawrence Eaton, lost in a shipwreck that many people believe might have been a deliberate attack on his wife. But of course, she can’t tell him all that right off the bat, so she’s merely serving as a governess to his nephew, Edward. However, Edward’s widowed father senses there’s far more going on than either of them know. He would be correct. First off, I love how un-dramatic both Addie and John are. Neither one of them beat around the bush. When the dramatic reveal scene comes where John overhears Addie speaking with the one person who knows her true identity, he flat out asks her what she’s hiding. And Addie flat out admits the truth. Aah. Refreshing. The lack of melodrama was what this book brilliant. There were so many layers to the mystery, and even though I had my suspects (and there were MANY suspects, by one point, I was like “It could have been LITERALLY ANYONE”), I couldn’t have imagined how it turned out ahead of time. So if Addie isn’t the lightkeeper’s daughter, who is she, really? You’ll just have to read to find out. |
