Books, languages, things I make and notes from everyday life.

Tag: Book review

  • BR: Tell yourself a better lie

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    Tell Yourself a Better Lie is a book that teaches you how to change the bad and limiting stories you tell yourself, and make them good and empowering instead. The book is based on ten real stories of people who did RTT sessions with Marisa, and how they changed their lives by changing their stories.

    I discovered Marisa Peer from a mindvalley video on youtube, where she explained how to heal your body and mind. I was intrigued by her approach and decided to check out her book if she had any and found  “Tell Yourself a Better Lie”. I searched for her work on Everand and was grateful to have found the audiobook. The audiobook was narrated by Carlyss Peer, who is Marisa’s daughter and a trained RTT therapist herself. I enjoyed listening to her voice, as she has a beautiful, crisp, and clear British accent. I find it rather soothing.

    Tell Yourself a Better Lie is a book that teaches you how to change the bad and limiting stories you tell yourself, and make them good and empowering instead. The book is based on ten real stories of people who did RTT sessions with Marisa, and how they changed their lives by changing their stories. The book also has audio guides for each story, which you can listen to online.

    The book has three parts: The first part tells you what RTT is and how it works better than other kinds of therapy. The second part shows you the ten stories, each one about a different problem, like depression, eating disorders, weight loss, fears, and addictions. The third part gives you the main lessons and tips from the book, and some exercises you can do to use RTT in your own life.

    The book was really interesting as she used lots of examples through real stories of patients who had successfully overcame their traumas. Though the stories and people were different but somehow it felt a bit repetitive. However, Marisa seems to be very sympathetic, kind and supportive, and she also shares her thoughts and experience. I feel that the book is not only informative, but also inspiring and motivating. It shows you how you can change your life by changing the way you tell the story to yourself (hence telling yourself a better lie), and how RTT can help you do that quickly and effectively.

    The book is good for anyone who wants to feel better about themselves, more confident, happier, and healthier. It is also useful for therapists, coaches, and anyone who wants to learn more about RTT and its benefits. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars, and I would suggest it to anyone who wants to tell themselves a better lie.

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  • BR: A Court of Thorn and Roses – Sarah J. Mass.

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    Feyre’s survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price …

    I downloaded the book months back and forgot about it. In my effort to catch up with my book reading challenge on Goodreads, I sieved through my unread books and found it. I didn’t even remember why I downloaded it. Perhaps it was a recommendation in Goodreads. In any case, I decided to finish reading it over the weekend. Finished it I did and these are my thoughts on it.

    It is a fantasy novel with a girl called Feyre (Fayruh) as the protagonist. She came from a family that once lived in the lap of luxury but fell from grace, and the onus of keeping her family alive laid on her shoulders from a very young age. She had made a vow to her mother on her deathbed to care for the family, so she worked her fingers to the bone and hunt to provide for her family. It was during one of her hunting trips that she met an enchanted wolf and killed it, only to find out that it was in fact one of the High Faes of Prythian. For this mistake, she was taken away from her family, by the High Lord Fae, Tamlin, to live with him as a replacement for the one she murdered.

    Since I didn’t read the synopsis of this book nor reviews before I read this book I didn’t know what to expect and after reading a few chapters of this book I realized that it reminded me of “Beauty and the Beast”. Surely enough, Tamlin, who had taken Feyre as a prisoner, was under a curse. Not only his powers were curbed and controlled by an evil Fairy but he and along with those belonging in his domain were tricked and  doomed to wear half face masks for as long as the curse had a hold on them.

    I have to admit that the first few chapters of the book was a bit too slow for my taste that I almost gave up. I am sure it was just a build up so that what ever happens at the end would all make sense. The story was told rather well that after the initial boring pages and when things started to pick up pace, it was tough to put the book down. 

    Now, I enjoyed the story enough to read the book till the end in just a couple of days. But I can’t help to have mixed feelings about it as I am not sure I like the heroine of this book, Feyre.  I do like my “tsundere’ or strong female characters. However, Feyre annoys me. She was taken as a prisoner by Tamlin in exchange for killing one of his own men. She should be punished for this yet she was treated with mercy and kindness and her family was taken cared well back in the human domain. For someone expecting punishment she is rather self entitled and proud.  Perhaps also, I felt that she got it easy to just fall in love with an attractive guy with just a mask on instead of a real ugly beast. 🙂 With that sort of character, I doubt she would fall for an ugly beast. In any case, her saving grace is her loyalty to people she cared for and the trials that she had to go through had redeemed her in my eyes somewhat. Though, her pride made it more difficult to make myself to like her the way I liked Belle from Beauty and the Beast. 

    So, I would say if you like stories where the girl needs to break the curse on a mysterious and sexy prince charming, this is for you. Will I be reading the sequel? Perhaps yes, when I can forget how I disliked the main character. 🙂

     

     

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  • BR: Vengeance of the vampire Bride – Rhiannon Frater

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    After listening to the audiobook version of the first book, I went and downloaded the second audiobook of the series. However, I ended up going for the ebook instead, which, I will tell the reason why later on.

    Just like the first book, it is a continuation of the diary of Lady Glynis Wright as she embraced her life as the Countess of Dracula. In this second installment of the series, she tells her story as she fights on for her freedom and also save whatever humanity that it left in her.

    I still like the Bram Stoker, Victorian times vibe of the novel and the fact that the story sets in Buda Hungary in the early 1800. I have to admit that living in Budapest helps me to imagine the old city described in the book. From the very beginning I was much impressed that the author did make effort to make references to something Hungarian – Like the Margit Island and Szilvásgomboc (prune dumpling).

    Hungarian Parliament

    The novel introduced us with more characters and a little bit more history of the vampires but I find it nothing much more was added. Also there seemed to be an error in the creation of her progeny, Laura that I cannot shake off. From the first book I understood that to the point of death of the dying person, if he or she drank vampire blood directly from the maker, then only he or she will become one of the undead. But in Laura’s case, Glynis took 3 sips of her blood and Laura died. And yet she became a vampire. Like how?? Glynis even mentioned that her bite only hasten Laura’s death. I don’t describe myself as a stickler for details but for the creation of a character as important as Glynis’s first progeny, I do care for this.

    I am not much into cruel characters, but throughout the book Vlad did mellowed down a lot of notches. And how he could forgive her and save her after what she did to him showed something that could be called as love. Perhaps I am suffering from the Stockholm syndrome or just like the bad boys gone good type, that after a while I kind of preferred Vlad more to be with Glynis😆. I just don’t like the way how the bad ass, Vlad the Impaler could be reduced to a ‘beggar’ after being rejected by Glynis, right after he saved her ass. It is just a contradiction of what his initial character was depicted in the first book.

    I managed to finish the book in a couple of days and as to why I had preferred the book instead of the audiobook is the narrator’s style of reading annoyed me. This time the narrator is Rebecca McKernan instead of Carol Hendrickson. I couldn’t finish even the first chapter as the narrator’s style is a bit over the top and the Hungarian accent she made up sounded like an Indian accent instead. Just about ‘killed’ the vibe for me. I mean, Really? A Hungarian guy with an accent that sounded like an Indian guy? 😂 It could be just me. I know it is not an easy job but still, I just couldn’t go on with the audiobook.

    So, would I go on with the third and final installment? After the second book I lost interest in what will happen to Glynis. Though I was curious whether she will get back with Vlad. I found a post written by the author herself saying that she knew how many readers were hoping this but being a survivor of a bad relationship herself she didn’t care of what people want and would continue on her first idea of how the story should end. So I too end my reading of this series here.

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  • BR: Tale of the Vampire Bride – Rhiannon Frater

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    A few days ago I started to listen to the audiobook. This is the first time I have listened to or read one of the books by this author. Now lets see what I think of it, but thread carefully, as there may be a bit of a spoiler ahead.

    Lady Glynis and her family were invited by the Count Dracula himself to his castle in Transylvania. She was of the age ready to be married and her parents were desperate to find her a husband despite her many protests. So much so, that when Count Dracula extended his invitation to them and had made known of his interest to court Lady Glynis, both the parents were excited to meet him. Little did they know what were in store for them.

    I have to admit that the Bram Stoker vibe really kept me on the edge of my seat, and it was engaging from the beginning till end. It indeed kept me coming back and wanting to know what is going to happen to Lady Glynis.

    I read that it was supposed to be a Gothic horror but being a historical romance fan I appreciate that it has a touch of romance in it as well, with not only one but two love interests for Lady Glynis – Vlad Dracula and Father Ignatius.

    I like that it doesn’t stray away from folklore like many vampire novels do – the vampires in this book can’t walk in broad daylight, nor they sparkle, and they are afraid of crucifixes – The one of a few reasons I never read any of the Twilight series nor watched any of the movies.

    The author didn’t waste too much time going into details about the architecture and deco. Good Lord, how many a times I had simply skipped through those lines in some other books. But I am glad we are spared of that in this one. A bit of a detail is good, but not too much in my case.

    Now that what I like about the book is out of the way, I will share my opinion about what I dislike about it. I must say that I do not have many bad things to say about this book considering that I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.

    But like people, books are not perfect and so here I state what I thought was some of the imperfections I felt.

    The heroine, Lady Glynis just ‘stomps her foot’ way too may times in this entire book that it got a bit irritating. I want to think that this heroine is a mature and strong woman with a will of her own. But honestly, every time she ‘stomped her foot’ to show her indignance I just felt like slapping her silly. All I could imagine is a spoilt brat.

    Something about the storyline didn’t make sense to me. Vlad Dracula was depicted as an ancient, formidable, strong vampire yet why did he need to find an English bride in order to move to England? He had an English solicitor who, I am sure could have easily paved the way for him, introduce him to those who can help him get into the aristocrat society of England. He was a Count after all.

    Now, a little bit about the narrating of the audiobook. It was narrated by Carol Hendrickson. Overall, her style was engaging and she did make the effort to try to change the accents and tones. But the accent was a bit too exaggerated sometimes. Why in the world she pronounced “Andrew” which is an English name, that in the book belonged to an English guy, as “Ándru’ – the ‘A’ as the ‘A’ in Father. I am not English, yet I don’t think an English person would pronounce that name that way. It was a wee bit disturbing to me. 🙂

    If you can overlook the flaws, I would say that you may enjoy this book as much as I did if not more. In fact, I enjoyed the audiobook enough to look for audiobook 2 of the trilogy. So another review will come up soon.

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