The Heretic's Daughter By Kathleen Kent

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent








View all my reviews





From the second I picked this book up I was hooked. It is a powerful story of a mother's love for her children and a family's ability to stay together through terrible adversity. I found myself so involved with the characters that I cried at their losses and smiled at their small triumphs. This is a must read for lovers of historical fiction.

The Amulet of Samarkand: The Bartimaeus Trilogy Book 1

This is an amazing read that I discovered by chance when my little sister was reading it aloud on the beach. Though I only listened briefly I was hooked and I decided at that moment I had to seek out the book and read it for myself.

The book itself is a tale of intrigue, magic and deception in what seems to be a turn of the century London. The story is told from two points of view one of the young magician's apprentice Nathaniel, and the other from the djinni Bartimaeus. I don't want to give to much away but the plot in brief is:

Nathaniel is the talented apprentice to a second rate magician named Arthur Underwood. Arthur Underwood is a pompous magician with little talent and is so wrapped up in his own self importance to notice the great skill of his apprentice Nathaniel. When Nathaniel summons the djinni Bartimaeus to steal the amulet of Samarkand from the magician Simon Lovelace he opens a can of worm that could cost him everything.

I can not say enough about this book other than the fact that I have already moved on to the second one "The Golem's Eye."  I laughed out loud, I was in suspense but at the end of the day I couldn't put it down.

Weird Florida

How curious and wonderful life can be. I am new to the Sunshine State and if I was to be perfectly honest I came here with certain reservations. To put it bluntly I thought Florida was nothing but a mix between Spring Breaker's, Disney, old people and alligators. I have never been so happy to admit that I was wrong, not only did I fall in love with Florida I am fascinated by it's colorful and often mysterious history.
How did this start? Did I stumble upon some really cool book or landmark? The answer is the TV. It was a dark and boring night with nothing especially good to watch on the tube when all of the sudden while watching the guide channel (yes it was that bad of a TV night) I came across a listing for Weird Florida on PBS. Well it caught my eye and so I flipped to the channel and was hooked.
Weird Florida is hosted by Charlie Carlson a native of Florida and currently a resident of my town and his adorable boxer named Miss Scarlet. Now after watching this television special I was hooked on exploring the locals mentioned. Needless to say I didn't exactly get to all the exploring however I did manage to make it to my local library. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mr. Carlson was an author of many books. I checked them all out and read them within days (it would've been hours but with kids just not possible)
So the lessons of this overly drawn out tale are:

• Don't discount TV, you could learn something

• Explore the places around you the are interesting things everywhere

• Nothing beats a library when you are bored or researching an adventure

Ok if you are interested in reading some of Mr. Carlson's great books here is a list of titles:

• Strangle Florida there are two volumes in this series

• Weird Florida

Captain Wentworth's Diary

Calling all Austen-a-holics here is a book that can't be missed. Captain Wentworth's Diary by Amanda Grange, is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion told from the point of view of the captain. Anyone who has had unanswered questions regarding Persuasion will relish in Grange's creation.

I came across this book by a happy accident while searching amazon and I am better for it. The moment I began reading this book I found it hard to put down and when I was finished I had the joy in discovering she has many other titles along the same strain.

Some other great novels to check out by Amanda Grange are:

Mr. Darcy's Diary

Mr. Knightly's Diary

Midnight for Charlie Bone: Children of the Red King Book 1

Charlie Bone is just your average ten year old boy until an accident at the film counter changes his life forever. All of the sudden Charlie's world get turned upside down when he discovers that he has the gift of hearing the thoughts and events of people in photos. Suddenly he is forced to attend the sinister Bloor's Academy and his nasty grandmother and her three evil sisters are constantly breathing down his neck. What's a boy to do?

Midnight for Charlie Bone is an excellent series for children who have read or would like an alternative to Harry Potter. I particularly like this series because the characters are well developed and unlike the Potter series Charlie isn't the only protagonist. I have found that this series is great for younger readers and the great thing is that the plot is interesting enough to hold the attention of an older audience.

Life As We Knew It: Susan Beth Pfeffer

I have mixed emotions about this book. I loved it and at the same time hated it. Part of me thought it was a beautiful coming of age story in the face of great adversity. While the other half of me thought it was a brutal and terrifying account of how humans adapt when facing a survive or die situation. This book to me was such an important read but yet I'd rather forget I ever picked it up.

Miranda is a 15 year old girl starting her sophomore year of High school. Her parents are divorced, in fact her father is having another baby with his much younger new wife. Her best friends have become polar opposites of each other one has become a Jesus freak and the other has started experimenting with boys. Nothing to out of the ordinary in the life of a teenage girl. Oh, did I mention the meteor shower?

Scientist are predicting a meteor shower that will be visible for all to see.They say Earth is in no danger that the meteors are just going to fly by us nothing to be worried about. They were wrong. What do you do when everything you know as normal changes? How do you cope? How do you survive?

This is a wonderful and terrifying story about survival. This would be a great book for young adult readers. I myself would be hesitant to recommend it to anyone under the sixth grade.

Revenge of the Witch: The Last Apprentice

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a local County farmer. Until now his life has been routine but, he has just been informed by his father that he will be apprenticing to a local tradesman. This sounded wonderful until he found he was apprenticing to the County Spook. Being a Spook apprentice is a dangerous occupation as the job requires you to help rid the county of darkness.This means that Tom will be facing witches and boggarts and other creatures that go bump in the night. Will Tom succeed in this treacherous field?

"Revenge of the Witch" is the first book in the Last Apprentice Series (The Wardstone Chronicles in the UK). This is a series that I stumbled upon by chance and I couldn't be happier. I was in the library with my daughter and after picking up books for her I was looking for something for me. After searching for what felt like an eternity I glanced at a cover that caught my eye so I picked it up and read the back I was in love. There was only one problem it was book two "The curse of the Bane," so I put it down and promptly began searching for book one but sadly my search was in vain someone had checked it out. So disappointed I shuffled over to the computer baby in hand and placed it on hold. One week later "Revenge of the Witch" was in hand and there it stayed until I finished it.

I cannot say it enough, this series is awesome. Pick it up you and you will not regret it. I was venture further into the plot but I am so afraid of spoiling it for potential takers. So if you have further questions just ask and I would be delighted to go into detail. A word of warning for my younger readers this book is not for someone who scares easily.