BOOK REVIEW – ACOWAR

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Blurb

„Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s manoeuvrings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit – and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.
As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords – and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the earth will be painted red as mighty armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy them all.“

Source: Goodreads

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First sentence

„The buzzing flies and screaming survivors had long since replaced the beating war drums.“

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My opinion

Since I absolutely loved ACOMAF my expectations for this one were pretty high – and let me tell you: they were not disappointed.

Let me start with the basic plot of the book: While I thought that the first few pages were a bit slow, the story developed pretty quickly and things started to unravel. I absolutely love the way Feyre’s character has changed and grown throughout this series and I love how seriously badass she has become.
The storyline was interesting and catchy during the whole book, it was an easy read that I could not put aside. We learned some more details about some very interesting characters, and while there were some rather slow parts, the overall plot was catching, sometimes breath-taking and very well written.

Now about the love story: I must say, what I really loved about this book is that Maas didn’t try to make things difficult between Feyre and Rhys only to construct a more interesting story. Their love is steady and heartwarming throughout the whole book. Nevertheless,  the way sexuality and physical love is displayed in this novel seems a bit problematic to me.
First of all: Feyre and Rhys seem to be horny all. the. time. Like, come on, Sarah, that’s not how reality works! Thisth is such an irrealistic picture!
Second of all: The sex scenes are way too intense to still be called „young adult“ in my opinion. I mean, sure, the book has a mature content warning on the back, but still – I know some 13 year old girls reading these books and honestly? I don’t think they should already be exposed to this kind of content.

Some criticism: Don’t get me wrong guys, I really enjoyed this book – a lot. But I can also see why a lot of people would find it problematic.
I’ve already told you my problems with the sexuality, but there’s one more part that I really didn’t agree with.
MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS
SO, the love story between Mor and April has slowly developed, slowly building up some heat, some background, and usually all you need to have an epic climax where everything falls into place – or doesn’t.
Still, the way Sarah J. Maas chose to resolve this relationship was not only disappointing, but also slightly unfair to the whole LGBTQ community in my opinion.
When Mor told Feyre that she was lesbian, it felt so wrong, so out of her character, that she would hide such a fact from her loved ones, her family, only because she feared they would look down on her. I mean, this woman has endured so much in her life, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell them this?
It feels like the easy way out of a problem that Maas created herself. Mor could’ve had so many reasons to turn down Az that would fit the story so much better. Taking homosexuality as an escape for a hopeless relationship just feels.. wrong.
Plus: Mor has known that Az loves her for five hundred years and still does not tell him that there is no hope whatsoever. To me, that’s just.. disappointing. Really.

Anyhow: In the end, I really enjoyed this visit to the Night Court, I love all the characters so much and would have wished for a bit more development on all the open love stories, but who knows, maybe more of that will meet us in the next book!

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Rating

Overall, a 4,5 star rating for me!

Now tell me – have you read ACOWAR? What did you think?

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author: Sarah J. Maas — pages: 699 — paperback edition 

R E Z E P T : Rhabarber Tartes

Hallo ihr Lieben,

heute teile ich ein schnelles aber wirklich tolles Rezept mit euch, nachdem mich einige von euch gefragt haben!

Viel Spaß beim Backen!

Eure Sherlock’s Words

Ihr braucht

• 250g Blätterteig (Fertigrollen gehen am schnellsten 🙂 )
• Etwas Mehl für die Arbeitsfläche
• 1 Paket Vanillepudding Pulver zum Kochen (ca. 37g)
• 500 ml Milch
• 3 Esslöffel Zucker
• 400g Rhabarber
• Puderzucker zum Bestäuben

 

 

Los geht’s!

1. Den Blätterteig auftauen lassen und auf bemehlter Arbeitsfläche ca. 3 mm dünn ausrollen. Acht Quadrate ( 10 x 10cm ) ausschneiden und auf ein mit Backpapier belegtes Backblech legen. Den Teig mit einer Gabel mehrmals einstechen.
2. Das Puddingpulver mit 1/3 der Milch, sowie dem Zucker verrühren. Die übrige  ilch aufkochen und das angerührte Pulver zugeben. Unter ständigem Rühren eine Minute kochen lassen und die fertige Creme auf den Blätterteig Quadraten verteilen.
3. Den Backofen auf 200°C vorheizen.
4. Den Rhabarber waschen, Fäden abziehen, in 6 – 8 cm lange Stücke teilen. Auf jedes Teigquadrat nebeneinander 3 – 4 Rhabarberstücke legen. Die Tartes im Ofen 12 -14 Minuten backen.
5. Noch warm großzügig mit Puderzucker bestäuben und dann – guten Appetit !

 

“ Musicians want to be the loud voice for so many quiet hearts. “

• Billy Joel

DISCOVER my top ten dance tunes

Hey peeps!

I don’t know if I’ve already told you this, but you might consider my taste in music a little… weird. Jazz is one of my favorite genres, as well as hard rock and funk, old songs and rap. So yeah, I hear a lot of things all mixed up, which is why I love creating playlists on my own!

Today’s playlist contains some of my favorite tunes to dance to (even though I don’t dance in public cause… nobody wants to see this girl dancing. like, really – I do dance a lot in my room though)

Here we go:

1. 1. Staying Alive – Bee GeesHow could you say no to this one? Besides, Moriarty loves it so I gotta love it, too! Actually, I don’t even know if I love Moriarty because he loves this song or if I love this song because Moriarty loves it.

      

      source

       

   2. December, 1963 (Oh what a night) – Frankie Valli & the four seasons
      Now this one I discovered through SHERLOCK actually, because it’s the song they play at Mary&Johns wedding and I just love that scene and this song and ahhh the feels.
   3. September – Earth wind and fire
      

      

      sources

      if I could only dance like Omar Sy…

   4. I wish – Stevie Wonder
      sosososo much fun(k)!
   5. Dancing in the moonlight – Toploader
      This song reminds me of so many good moments in my life, where I felt free and happy 🙂
   6. Can’t Stop – Red Hot Chili Peppers
      This one gets me pumped whenever I hear it
   7. Wake me up before go-go – Wham!
      Actual footage of me and my hostkids when this song comes up:
      
   8. Cheap Thrills – Sia
   9. Makeba – Jain
      I learned to love this kind of music during my year in Paris because it was the music Eva, my six year old girl, danced to at school and we practiced her steps all day long
      
   10. The Right Thing – Simply Red
       Or any other simply red song really. I just love them!

I hope you enjoyed this little list of mine! What are some of your favorite dance tunes? 🙂

 

Can’t wait to here from you!

Love,

Your Sherlock’s Words

xoxo

 

February – The Secret of Chimney’s

Hey peeps!

It’s the end of February already! Time flies…

This month, I decided to read „The Secret of Chimneys“ for my 12 months of murder challenge. The decision was not based on anything in particular, just my intuition when I stood in front of the bookshelves in the shop.

So here we go!

After all, that was what one came abroad for – to see all those peculiar things one read about in books.

Basically, the story is about Anthony Cade, a young man settled in Africa at the beginning of our story, who goes to England to do a favor for a friend and to gain some money himself. But this job seems to include some pretty risky memoirs of a count of Herzoslowakia – a highly discussed country these times.

So Anthony travels to England and gets immediately involved in all this political stuff happening, including – of course – a murder at the residence called Chimneys. But not only that, he also meets a woman who seems to be in trouble, which young Anthony can’t help but trying to solve it for her…

He was forcing her to see all the things which she had felt dimly at the back of her mind.

Okay, this summary might confuse you, but I really don’t want to give too much of the story away, because it is amazing! When I started to read this book, I was afraid that I would be disappointed because I really loved „The mysterious Mr. Quin“ and had high expectations for this one as well.

And, what can I say… NO need to be worried. Agatha Christie did an amazing job once again. The story line was intriguing from the very first moment, the characters were HILARIOUS and the solution of the whole thing was mind blowing. Somehow, Christie manages to keep me on the wrong track no matter how hard I try – I always think that I know how the story is going to end, who the murderer was and how he did it – but I’m always wrong. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to solve the crime on your own, because Christie gives you all you need to find the solution yourself…seems as if I have a lot to learn if I want to start a detective agency 😀

Most people, you see, haven’t got any imagination.

Once again, I am mind blown by this masterpiece of a book. Thank you, Agatha Christie, thank you.

xoxo

Your Sherlock’s Words

PS: If you ever read this book, watch out for Lord Caterham – he is hilarious and made me laugh so many times!

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LET’S TALK about bookish merch

Good evening, dear bookfanatics!

Today’s let’s talk is about: BOOKISH MERCH

It is for sure something that evoques different opinions from readers, and I am dying to hear what you think about it!

For me, I really like having some book related things because they remind me of my favourite books which I connect good memories with. Nevertheless, paying a whole lot of money for merch instead of buying new books is just not my thing, if you know what i mean. I feel like I’d rather buy some new book than decorating my room with stuff that I’ll probably throw away ten years from now.

Well, that’s my opinion on general, but it changes with my moods. Sometimes I just loose it and order 373483 bookmarks and 38382 funkos on amazon – but that’s life!

To end this, I’ll give you a short list of some merch I own:

• some bookish candles (got them with bookboxes I ordered and never lit them)
• bookmarks (mostly out of bookboxes, too)
• Funkos ( which are looking pretty damn good on my shelves)
• Sherlock pillows (I love Sherlock)
• Sherlock socks (look at explanation above)
• Sherlock key chain (what can I say…)
• Sherlock phone case (I’m addicted)

Well, I think that’s pretty much it! Now tell me: What do you think of bookish merch? Do you have any? If yes, what kind? If no, why not?

Love y’all,

See you soon, Bakerstreet People,

your Sherlock’s Words

Giving people a chance

Hey dears!

I don’t know how many of you are aware of the fact that I’m a law student, but today’s post kinda is inspired by what I learn and experience through my studies, so I thought I might at least mention it.

For my studies, we often read decisions of various courts to various problems, but when I read one for my French law class last week, there was something that really disturbed and yeah, moved me.

Just so you know what I am talking about: There was this decision made in 2017 of one of the highest courts in France, refusing to let a man change his official sexuality (like in passports and other official documents) to „neutral“. He was born intersexual, meaning that he had both male and female genes and genitals. His parents had 5 days after his birth to decide which sexuality they’d want their kid to have, and so they decided that he should be male. I don’t judge the parents at all, if that is what you might think at this point – they simply had to make a choice, and they made a good one if you consider all the biological and medical reasons behind it.
But how the heck are people supposed to KNOW what is good for they kid as such a young age? I mean, okay, the kid needs an identity and a gender, but why not give him the chance to choose himself when he is older?
I actually never really thought about people having these problems, my childhood was spoiled with uncomplicated situations and easy answers. But now that I come to think of it – isn’t it unfair that this „man“, who clearly doesn’t feel like a man, but who doesn’t feel like a woman either, that this man is forced to pretend to be something he is not?

He said that he felt neutral, not belonging anywhere, not to any defined gender. And our system forces him to choose: He can either be man or woman, but he can’t be something in between.

I never really questioned that judgement – there even was a time when I found it ridiculous that the highest court of germany thought about creating a third gender – but as I read the reasons that lead the French court to the decision of denying this man his chance to be „neutral“, something in my head just clicked.

They refused his demand for administrational reasons. You heard right, they said that creating a third gender option would be so much administrational work and effort, that it ocular not weigh up to the simple satisfaction of Mr. X, so they refused it.

Source

And that’s when I started to question this whole thing. I mean, how can we deny happiness to someone just because it would mean to change our administration? This man didn’t choose this life, this identity and the fact that he was born intersexual. Isn’t it hard enough already that he felt like he didn’t belong anywhere for his whole life? Isn’t it enough that he was probably called freak more often than we can imagine, that he had to take medicaments and hormones to avoid illnesses because of his intersexuality? And not to stop with that, those hormones made him look like a man more and more, even if he didn’t even feel like one.

He is a human being just like we are, born and loved just like we are, he has his burdens and his dreams just like all of us. And we deny him to identify himself as what he feels because it would be too much work for our administration? I really dont want to imagine how it would be like to always be „in between“, not belonging anywhere, always making a choice of what is less uncomfortable for me. I really dont want to change places with him

We all only have one life, and even if this sounds like a cliché, why do we take the right to say that some of us are not allowed to live their lives as they want to? What would it cost us to give them just a little bit more happiness? Okay, we’d have to build a third toilet – so what? to have three changing rooms instead of two – so what? Why is this such a big step to take when we would do everything to gain more money or do a good investment?

Why not invest in happiness for once?

We cannot save everyone, we cannot solve every problem – but we should at least try. We could at least do something. What would it hurt you and me if there was a third gender? I wouldn’t be „less woman“ and you wouldn’t be „less man“ only because others choose to be neutral.

So please, give happiness a chance.

 

Love,

Your Sherlock’s Words

xoxo

Source

 

Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär AUDIOBOOK

*Werbung*

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Hey meine Lieben!

Ich wünsche euch allen noch nachträglich ein frohes Neues Jahr 2018 und hoffe dass es euch gut geht!

In meinem ersten Post dieses Jahr möchte ich euch gern ein wunderbares Hörbuch vorstellen, dass ich netterweise vom Bloggerportal zur Verfügung gestellt bekommen habe! Leider wird es keine Bilder dazu geben, da ich das besagte Hörbuch gleich an meine Freundin verliehen habe, die kaum erwarten konnte, in die wunderbare Welt von Walter Moers einzutauchen.

Worum geht’s?

Wer kennt ihn nicht? Den guten alten Käpt’n Blaubär, Abenteurer und Held der meisten Kinderträume. Doch wie ist er zu dem fantastischen, mutigen und kühnen Wesen geworden, dass er heute ist?

All das und noch vieles mehr erfahren wir in Walter Moers‘ lustiger, spannender und einfach packender Erzählung über die 13 1/2 Leben vom vermutlich letzten Blaubären auf dieser Welt.

Der nun schon betagte aber natürlich immer noch top fitte Käpt’n Blaubär nimmt uns in diesem Hörspiel mit auf eine Reise zu seinen Ursprüngen und lässt uns in seine Welt eintauchen, die nicht immer nur schön, sondern oft auch ganz schön gefährlich sein kann! Macht euch also auf etwas gefasst!

Meine Meinung

Ich war wirklich hin und weg von diesem tollen Hörspiel. Zuerst einmal die wunderbare Stimme von Dirk Bach, der Käptn Blaubärs Story auf packende und zugleich unglaublich schöne Art und Weise vorliest, und dann auch noch die vielen tollen und wirklich ausgefeilten Soundeffekte, die den Hörer wirklich komplett in die wunderbare Welt Zamoniens eintauchen lassen, haben mich wirklich verzaubern können.

Auch die Geschichte vom Blaubären war alles andere als langweilig oder einschläfernd, wie es mir sonst meistens bei Hörspielen geht. Man erfährt so viel Neues über den geliebten alten Käpt’n und kann seinen Geschichten wirklich gut lauschen, weil immer wieder neue Wesen, neue Orte und neue Handlungen vorkommen, die einen überraschen können.

Für dieses tolle Hörerlebnis kann ich nichts anderes als fünf meiner geliebten Sherlocks verteilen! Vielen Dank nochmals an das Bloggerportal, dass mir diesen Ausflug nach Zamonien ermöglicht hat!

January – The mysterious Mr. Quin

Hello and welcome to my personal challenge of the year! Or as Sherlock Holmes would probably say:

The Game is on!

So yeah, what is all of this about, you may ask…

I was actually inspired by the lovely Clara and Lucie ( @thebookwormofnotredame and @wishesandpages on Instagram) who decided to read one Agatha Christie book for every month of 2018! Agatha Christie always intrigued me but somehow I never came along her books so far, so why not takes this inspiration to finally do so?

The book I chose for January was called „The mysterious Mr. Quin“. I chose it randomly, only because the title reminded me of some childhood memory. And guess what? It turned out so great!

I won’t do a full size review here, just share some thoughts and impressions, but I’ll leave you the link to the book at the bottom, so you can check it out if I intrigued you 🙂

I have a certain friend – Mr. Quin. His presence is a sign that things are going to happen, because when he is there strange revelations come to light, discoveries are made.

Okay, so the story was basically about a man called Mr. Satterthwaite, a wealthy, well educated and cultured man that somehow always stayed in the background of things, observing them but never interacting or being the one to tell stories on his own. But then one day, another man, long and dark and mysterious, appears. He calls himself Mr. Harley Quin and whenever he and Mr. Satterthwaite meet, it is almost sure that something strange will happen. Maybe a murder, a mystery, a love story… who knows? The only thing that we can be sure of is that Mr. Satterthwaite is going to be in the centre of it – every time Mr. Quin appears, the role of Mr. Satterthwaite seems to change from on-looker to actor, listener to detective…

But who is this mysterious Mr. Quin that comes and goes as he pleases?

A problem is not necessarily unsolvable because it has remained unsolved.

Actually, going into this book I didn’t have any expectations. I hadn’t read anything of Agatha Christie yet and the only thing I knew that her books were quite mysterious. But hell, I for sure didn’t expect this! Even though the action is quite slow (as often found in older books) it never gets boring! I mean, we follow Mr. Satterthwaite through all these different situations and mysteries that don’t necessarily belong together, but every one of them brings us closer to Mr. Quin, this mysterious guy who seems so sympathetic but also kind of dangerous…

You have a most curious effect upon me. One says things so often without even seeing what they really mean. You have the knack of showing one.

This book took me so completely by surprise, I don’t even know what to say. The atmosphere, the characters, the locations.. it was all so realistic and mysterious and dark and ahhh I really couldn’t let go of this book. Every time I stopped reading I thought of possible solutions for the origin of Mr. Quin, rethinking all the cases Mr. Satterthwaite had solved with nothing but his mind! It is exactly that kind of thing that made me love Sherlock Holmes in the first place – solving crimes with nothing but your thoughts, only by deduction, observation, imagination. And it was what made me fall in love with this book as well. So many great quotes, so much to think about, so much inspiration!

Nobody knows what another person is thinking. They may imagine they do, but they are nearly always wrong.

Good one, Christie, good one.

I’m SO prepared for the next month – even though I haven’t chosen my next mysterious read yet…

 

xoxo,

Your Sherlock’s Words

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Find the book!

‘Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. ‘The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!’

Sherlock Holmes