Monthly Monkey Mini Review – September

YO PEEPS! Yup, I’m actually online, which feels like something of a miracle at this point. I do want to update you all about *EVERYTHING* but alas I am still away from home and finding it hard to squeeze in blogging time. While I did have big plans for last month, a lot of stuff ended up getting in the way and I don’t know if I realistically be about in September much either… In happier blogging news though, I will be back in sunny England from October, so mark it in your calendars folks!

Anyhoo, my mini reviews for this month are a little late and I’ve not read that much again, BUT I’m hoping that by next month it’ll be a different story (***fingers and toes crossed***)

Mysteries of Udolpho– I get why Austen made fun of this. It felt silly, melodramatic and yet still managed to bore me (I blame all the long-winded, convoluted descriptions with daft word choices). I can’t pretend like I would have been reading much without this book sitting on my kindle, gnawing away at any desire I had to pick it up, but it certainly didn’t help! I seriously struggled to finish this one and DNF’d it after a month. And this gets no bananas for that reason.

Cinder and Ella– finally something to squeal about!!!  If you’ve been around a while, you might already know that I have a thing for Cinderella retellings (ie I LOVE them). And this one was particularly well done. Not only was this funny and sweet, but it also explored different family dynamics in a way that didn’t demonise the step family. I especially liked the way the relationships evolved over the course of the book and characters were given more complex motivations than the typical fairy tale allows. And cos it was so good, I didn’t end up writing very complex notes, so you’ll have to read it to find out more!

Rating: 4½/5 bananas

 

So have you read either of these? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!