“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” was not a book I was going to read. I saw it perusing book stores with one of my best friends. We took a look at it and I said “Was she married to seven husbands in total? Or all at once?” After reading the description of the book I put it down and said “I think it would be more interesting if she was married to the seven husbands all at once.” We laughed and moved on from the book.
Recently, I have been seeing it everywhere. I still laughed at the joke I made in the bookstore until I watched a YouTube video. I have been watching “BookTube” more and more. One of my favorite BookTubers does a lot of YA, which I’m not really interested in, but she reviewed “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” because she also reads adult books as well. She raved about this book and said it was probably her favorite adult book ever written. So I borrowed the book from the library.
Hey guys! ‘Tis me, Jen, your favorite techie. You all know I love technology, especially with my review of the Kindle Oasis. Yesterday, I got a new piece of tech that I figured I’d review for you guys. If you guys couldn’t tell from the title of this review, I am going to talk about the new iPad 6th Generation, released this year, and the Apple Pencil!
So, to start off, I should say that I had a 16gb iPad 4th Generation, but I filled that up so quickly with movies and apps with more movies that I wanted to add on to it. So I started looking at the iPad Air 2 in 64gb on Facebook Marketplace. After not finding what I wanted, my fiance suggested we look at T-Mobile and see what they offered. They had the new iPad in both 32gb and 128gb with cellular, and my fiance said I could get the 128gb one if I wanted. So we did! And since it works with the Apple Pencil, I had to get it so I could be cool like my fiance with his Surface Pro.
Now, I have been playing with the iPad, and I have to say that I love it. Many people are complaining about the lack of a laminate display (like the one on the iPad Pros), but I didn’t find this to be a problem. Even using the Apple Pencil on the display didn’t seem to have a huge gap like others were describing. I also was scribbling and did not notice any lag. Everything was smooth and very responsive. I even got every video I wanted on there with 80gb to spare!
One complaint I have is with the Apple Pencil. I wish that it had a button or something that would put it into sleep mode so that it’s not constantly draining the battery. I don’t use it constantly, and having to charge it every night is a pain. I think I’m just used to the SPen with my Note8, which doesn’t need a charge and works whenever you need it.
I also got a case for both the iPad and the Pencil.
I know some people complained that the case did not fit the 2018 iPad, but I found it fit perfectly. I love the sleeve for the Pencil as it adds grip and keeps the cap on for the charging port. The case that came with the Pencil sleeve wraps around the iPad nicely, and even has a little place for the adapter to charge via lightning cable.
All around, I am very happy with my iPad and Apple Pencil. Minus the issue with not being able to put it in standby, I have no complaints.
Now, if you have a 5th Generation iPad and don’t need the Pencil, I wouldn’t say to upgrade. There isn’t enough of a difference between the two that warrants an upgrade. If you need a new/bigger iPad or are upgrading from an older device, then I highly recommend this iPad. The Pencil itself is worth the upgrade, and it works like an iPad Pro, but for half the price!
You can get a 6th Generation iPad here. You can get the Apple Pencil here. You can get my case here, and the Pencil sleeve here.
A few weeks ago, I received my first ARC (Advanced Reviewer Copy) of a book by one of my favorite authors: Lucy Christopher. I was totally excited to read it because I absolutely loved her books Stolen and Flyaway.
Storm-wake is a novel loosely based on the Shakespeare play The Tempest. The story surrounds a young girl named Moss and her father who are living on a deserted island full of magical flowers. These flowers have the ability to heal and give a sort of high to those who ingest them. They also grant wishes and bring storms. One wish that Moss had was for a companion her age. The next day, a young man with fish scales for skin washes up on shore. Moss named him Callan and they became close friends. They spend most of their childhood together with Pa. Then we have a few years jump and Moss and Cal have grown up into teenagers. Pa was constantly telling them that the world flooded and that the flowers would grant their wish and recede the waters to bring back the outside world. When a boy named Finn from the outside world washes up on their shores, Moss starts to question everything she knows. She began to doubt her Pa more and more as evidence piled up showing that the outside world may not have perished as she had been told.
I really liked this book. It had a sense of adventure. I loved reading as Moss grew up and grew into her feelings for Cal. When they were children, it was a sweet sort of friendship, as innocent as the two children were. As they grew up, their relationship matured into love as Moss saw Cal as more of a person rather than the water spirit she believed him to be. On the back of the book, it mentioned that Moss had to decide who she loved. I thought that it would be between Cal and Finn, but there was barely any romantic ties to Finn. Instead, the love was between Cal and Pa. Moss had to decide who she trusted and, in the end, who she wanted to stay with. It was a sweet story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
My only qualm was also the thing that I liked. I found that, because of the way Moss and Cal’s thoughts and speech were written, it was a little bit hard to read. There were a lot of almost infantile words that were smashed together with a hyphen. I found that I breathed a sigh of relief when we were introduced to Finn and his more normalized way of thinking/speaking. However, I realized that I loved the fact that we could see their individuality in the way the story was written by each point of view. When we read a part that centered around Cal, you knew it. When we were introduced to Finn, he spoke more normally than Cal and Moss. I realized that this showed that Cal and Moss were almost stuck in childhood, as they didn’t tend to use large words. Their speech was almost stunted. Again, it made it a little difficult to read, but I’m glad of it.
I really liked this book, even when it was a little hard to follow. The end made me cry and I was left thinking about the story in a different light by the end of the book. I want to re-read it with the ending revelations in mind to see how it changes the story. You’ll want to re-read it too. It’s a beautiful book and you won’t regret it.
If you’d like to get your own copy of Storm-wake by Lucy Christopher, you can get it here.
Yes, my friends, it is another historical fiction. Can you see the trend here?
This book is about Queen Elizabeth I’s cousin Lettice Knollys and her tumultuous relationship with the queen. The novel starts off with Lettice as a young girl and shows her starting life at the court of her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth never really grew to like Lettice because she was much more attractive than the queen. Elizabeth’s jealousy came out in her treatment of Lettice, in how she demanded Lettice go to the house of the newly deceased Amy Dudley, wife of Elizabeth’s favorite Robert Dudley, and get her bed curtains. Robert, after the death of Amy, had intended to marry Elizabeth, but she refused, saying she wanted only to be “married to England.” Elizabeth’s jealousy grew dangerous when Lettice decided to marry Dudley after her first husband died. Robert became the step-father of Elizabeth’s other favorite: Robert Devereaux, the second Earl of Essex. However, Essex did not have the cool head of his step-father and ended up a traitor to the crown, beheaded at the Tower.
Even though this story was clearly heavily fictionalized, I still liked the way that Erickson portrayed Queen Elizabeth. There are a lot of stories and films that show her temper, yet many books are hesitant to show this side of her, preferring instead to see her in a better light. I was surprised, however, that the story did not focus a little bit more on Elizabeth’s worries about Mary, Queen of Scots. It was such a big part of her life and could have been such an interesting dynamic to see through Lettice’s eyes. After all, if rumors were true, then Mary was also cousin to Lettice as well as Elizabeth. While I understand Erickson’s primary focus of the novel was Elizabeth’s relationships with Dudley and Lettice, I would have liked to see how her relationship with Lettice changed as she dealt with the beautiful Mary and her eventual execution.
As far as Lettice goes, I much prefer Margaret George’s interpretation of her in her novel Elizabeth I. George seems to have a more rounded out character, which is always a good thing, but with a character as exciting as Lettice Knollys, it’s even more important. I also liked how George’s Lettice seemed to be more connected to her grandmother, Mary Boleyn. However, Erickson did a good job of portraying Lettice’s attraction to Robert Dudley. He has many times been referred to as “the gypsy,” and Erickson’s depiction of him made him seem very attractive.
I really just wish that Erickson had hashed things out a little bit better. The story seemed to skip many important times, like Lettice’s late life and Elizabeth’s relationship with Mary, Queen of Scots. I think this novel was a little bit rushed, as it seemed like Erickson wanted to get certain points across and ignore other, almost more important, times of Lettice and Elizabeth’s life. However, it’s always nice to see a novel that isn’t from Elizabeth’s point of view, which seems like it would be very skewed. In that aspect, this novel was very well done.
If you wish to get yourself a copy of Rival to the Queen by Carolly Erickson, you can get it here. If you wish to read Margaret George’s Elizabeth I, you can get it here.
