Connie's BFB's for 2024

Hi everyone. Here I am for a new year of BFB-ing. Last year I surpassed my promised 10 books, I read 13 BFB's in 2023. I will stick to that same number in 2024.



BFB's in 2024
01. De storm van de echo's - Christelle Dabos - 572 pages
02. Stromend graf - Robert Galbraith - 1117 pages
03. The Book that Wouldn't Burn - Mark Lawrence - 559 pages
04. Het lied van leven en dood - Marcelo Figueras - 607 pages
05. Kwaad bloed - Robert Galbraith - 936 pages
06. In steen gebrand - Rebecca Yarros - 589 pages
07. Een ijzeren vlam - Rebecca Yarros - 797 pages
08. De familie Aubrey - Rebecca West - 605 pages
09. Al het blauw van de hemel - Mélissa Da Costa - 636 pages
10. Het teken van de vogel - Deborah Harkness - 541 pages

Starting my first BFB for the year

De storm van de echo's by Christelle Dabos, BFB # 1 - 573 pages, ROOT # 1

The blurb

After their initial distrust of each other, Ophelia and Thorn are now passionately in love. But they must continue to keep their love hidden. And listen out for the mysterious echoes. Only then can they attempt to decipher a cryptic code and discover the truth behind the sinister figure of the Other, whose devastating power continues to bring down entire arks, plunging thousands of innocents into the void. At the observatory of the Deviations, overseen by a sect of mystical scientists who conduct terrifying secret experiments, Ophelia and Thorn hope to halt the ongoing destruction and bring the world back into balance.

>2 connie53: This book is finished and gets

My review

In good spirits I started this fourth and last part of 'De Spiegelpassante' by the Belgian-French writer Christelle Dabos. It is a big book and I liked the first 3 parts and with part 4 I had closed another series. I really had to struggle my way through it, because I thought it was all very strange and confusing. The only thing I want to say is that I am happy that the book is finished

Hi Connie my dear, hope all is well with you my dear friend and hope you have a good BFB reading year. Love and hugs from both of us my dear.

Thanks, John and Karen! I hope the same for you, certainly on a personal level too.

Finished Stromend graf by Robert Galbraith - 1117 pages - BFB # 2 -

My review

Impressive book in which Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott investigate the Universal Humanitarian Church. Under the guise of being a religious community, it is actually a sect that carries out all kinds of illegal practices to make money, where the punishments are severe and where nothing and no one is actually what it seems to be.
Robin goes undercover in the largest residential center of the UHC in Norfolk. She must try to track down the son of their client Sir Colin Edensor, Will, and get him out of the center. She has to do all kinds of things there that she finds very unpleasant and scary. In the end she stays 4 months in the centre. While Cormoran is trying to find out as many things as possible and track down former members of the UHC on the outside.
Complicated story. I have a list of 119 people, with their mutual connections, who play a leading or a major supporting role and I have often consulted this to be able to place the people back in the story. It could easily be a 5 star book, but it was just a little too long in my opinion.

Finished The Book that Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence - 559 pages - BFB # 3 -

My review

I had heard a lot of good things about this book and when it was chosen as the Foreign Fantasy book for April 2024 by my RL reading club that was a reason to start it. I read it in English and a difficult kind of English for me too. It took me quite a while to read it, but it was definitely worth it.
It is the story of Livira and Evar, a girl and a boy who have never met but are connected by a book. Their wanderings sometimes briefly bring them together. And every time that happens they are more impressed by each other. Then comes a war that could destroy everything.
I am mainly left with the feeling that wars have no good and no bad people. Only bad ideas from those in power that their people have to pay for.
The story could have been a little shorter for me, but the ending had very unexpected twists and I especially liked the last 150 pages. I can't wait for part 2.

Started and finished Het lied van leven en dood by Marcelo Figueras - BFB # 4 - - 607 pages

Original Spanish

The blurb NOT my review

Argentina, 1984: the junta's rule is over, but the consequences are still painfully palpable. Also for the beautiful, unapproachable Pat, who is hiding with her daughter Miranda in the forests of Patagonia. They are on the run from Miranda's father, a high-ranking military officer, who wants his daughter with him. Their difficult situation improves when Teo, a man of gigantic proportions, crosses their path. A love story develops between Pat and Teo, while they increasingly courageously mingle with village life with its amiable, wonderful inhabitants. When the three have to flee again and Pat threatens to succumb to her responsibility, the girl Miranda shows her true strength.

My review

I am a bit speechless after reading this book. It seems like a normal novel but secretly it also has a bit of magic. It starts with the story of Teo, a man who is tall (2.23 meters or so). Everywhere he goes people react with fear of him or do everything they can to not get in his way. When he meets Pat and she treats him normally, it is a relief and he becomes friends with her and her daughter Miranda. And a kind of relationship even develops between Teo and Pat. They live in a small village in a sparsely populated area of ​​Argentina. The dictatorship has just ended and people still have to get used to the new freedom.
The story is told by an anonymous narrator and every now and then he/she looks forward into events in the future. The titles of the chapters are also very funny at times.
As we get further into the book (the beginning takes a bit of perseverance) we learn that Miranda has a kind of magic. She sings constantly and can sometimes look into the future with help of her music or letting something fly to her that she cannot or does not want to catch. Pat has to make an effort to keep that a secret from the rest of the people around them. They have already left many villages to keep Miranda's gift a secret, but also to stay on the run from Miranda's father.
The book has a rhythm that is pleasant to read and the people from the village, including Mrs. Pachelbel, Mr. Dirigibus, Mr. Puro Cava and Mr. Farfi, are all special people with a user manual but with a philosophical disposition. Gradually everyone starts to change a little. And when you read all those life lessons you also start to think a little about how you approach things. The ending is especially heartwarming when the entire village commits itself to saving something.

Hi Connie, hope you and family are going well, that Figueras book looks really interesting but I can’t find an English translation anywhere, anyway happy reading!

I don't think it's translated into English, Bryan. That's a pity for a big part of the world.

Connie, I think your English is very good, you wouldn’t mind translating the book into English for me!:)

Well Bryan. Thanks for the compliments. Practice is the keyword here. I once had a dream of becoming an English teacher. So I kept reading English books but that dream did never come true. I think you will have to de without this book, ;-)

Kwaad bloed by Robert Galbraith - ROOT # 30 - BFB # 5 -

The blurb

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting his family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother, Margot Bamborough - who went missing in mysterious circumstances in 1974. Strike has never tackled a cold case before, let alone one forty years old. But despite the slim chance of success, he is intrigued and takes it on; adding to the long list of cases that he and his partner in the agency, Robin Ellacott, are currently working on. Plus the pair are still battling their feelings for one another, while Robin is also juggling a messy divorce and unwanted male attention. As Strike and Robin investigate Margot's disappearance, they come up against a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted. And they learn that even cases decades old can prove to be deadly . . .

My review

Another good and exciting book by Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling). The story is complicated, partly due to the number of characters that play a role in it (98!!). That feels a bit too much to me. Every now and then I got lost a bit and I had to look in my notes to see who was who. That makes my rating a bit lower. It must also be difficult for a writer to keep them all apart.
The story revolves around the disappearance of a general practitioner (Margot Bamborough) almost forty years ago. Margot's daughter, who was only 1 year old when she disappeared, has asked Cormoran and Robin to investigate what might have happened to her mother.
In the meantime, the private detectives and their freelancers are also investigating all kinds of other cases and the personal lives of Robin and Cormoran play a role (Robin's impending divorce and a death in Cormoran's family).
That makes reading a real challenge that I do enjoy. I read it with great pleasure.

Read In steen gebrand by Rebecca Yarros - 589 pages

The blurb

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise

My review

I'm afraid I'm mixing up the events of part 1 and part 2 a bit. It all flows together seamlessly and I'm also reading them one after the other. So the dividing line is a bit vague.
Violet Sorrengail is admitted to the dragon riders in the first year of school, in the Fourth Wing. Her mother is General Sorrengail, one of the leaders of Navarre. Xaden Riorson is the son of Fen Riorson, the rebel leader. The rebels have tried to overthrow the gouvernement and have all been executed. Their children have been taken in by Navarre, given a kind of tattoo and are also allowed to participate in the selection process for the dragon riders. Violet and Xaden should actually hate each other, but they feel very attracted to each other. Xaden is in a higher year and that is also a difficulty. When the dragons come to choose a rider, Violet is chosen by 2 dragons, something that has never happened before. The school days are filled with lessons and with flights on their dragon. They learn how to attack and fight on a dragon they have mental contact with.

I hear very different opinions about these books, but I like them very much and therefore continued with part 2.

Started and finished Een ijzeren vlam by Rebecca Yarros - ROOT # 35 - BFB # 7 - - 797 pages

The blurb NOT my review

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College, Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky. Now the real training begins, and Violet's already wondering how she'll get through. It's not just that it's gruelling and maliciously brutal, or even that it's designed to stretch the riders' capacity for pain beyond endurance. It's the new vice commandant, who's made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is - unless she betrays the man she loves. Although Violet's body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else's, she still has her wits, and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules. But a determination to survive won't be enough this year. Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College - and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.

My review

Second part of the series The Fourth Wing. That is the name of the part of the military that Violet and Xaden are part of. Violet is the daughter of Lilith, one of the generals and Xaden is the son of the rebel leader. All the rebels have been executed and their children have been admitted to the Rider training once they have reached the right age. There are 3 years of training and in this book Violet and Xaden are in the second year and they are still in love with each other. There are also some love scenes that are quite explicit, but I scan them diagonally.
The wyvern, a kind of dragon, and their riders, called Venims, are on the warpath and Violet and her friends must do everything they can to prevent total destruction. In the meantime, Violet is looking for a way to make the shields around certain parts of the country work again. That may be their only solution. But the training also continues, with all the assignments and tests of strength that entails. I find these books very exciting and easy to read, although I often find mistakes in the translation. Words that are missing and slightly crooked sentences that follow English rather than being converted to Dutch. But only a nitpicker would pay attention to that (too much). Now we have to wait for part 3.

Started and finished De familie Aubrey by Rebecca West - ROOT # 41 - BFB # 8 - - 605 pages

The blurb

West's semi-autobiographical novel introduces the multi-talented Aubrey family as they strive to find their place in the world. Papa Aubrey's wife and twin daughters, Mary and Rose, are piano prodigies, his young son Richard Quin is a lively boy, and his eldest daughter Cordelia is a beautiful and driven young woman with musical aspirations. But the talented and eccentric Aubrey family rarely enjoys a moment of harmony, as its members struggle to overcome the effects of their patriarch's spendthrift ways. Now they must move so that their father, a noted journalist, can find stable employment. Throughout, it is the Aubreys' hope that art will save them from the cacophony of a life sliding toward poverty. In this eloquent and winning portrait, West's compelling characters must uncover their true talent for kindness in order to thrive in the world that exists outside of their life as a family.

My review

I really expected much more from this book. It is actually a long story, with few dialogues. The writing style probably does not suit me and I kept reading because the story does have potential. This author is apparently very well-known and very famous, but I have never heard of her. She died in 1983 and was 90 years old at the time. This book originally dates from 1954, when I was 1 year old.
It is the story of a family consisting of a mother, a father, three daughters and a son as the youngest. The father Piers is a flamboyant man with an uncontrollable compulsion to speculate with the family's money and always lose. Mother Clare meanwhile does everything she can to keep her children and the household running and at the same time stimulate the musical talents of her daughters and son. Clare herself was a concert pianist but gave up her career when she had children. Cordelia, the eldest daughter, plays the violin, the twins Mary and Rose play the piano. And Richard Quin can play anything, but he only does everything halfway. The book describes their daily lives and the difficulties to keep everything going. Too bad the writing style didn't suit me.

Started and finished Al het blauw van de hemel by Mélissa De Costa - ROOT # 42 - BFB # 9 - Forumchallenge # 33 - 636 pages

The Blurb

After being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's, Emile decides to escape the hospital and the sympathy of his family and friends. He secretly buys a camper and places an ad for a travel companion. He receives a response from Joanne, a mysterious young woman. It is the start of a breathtakingly beautiful road trip.

Mijn review

What a beautiful, emotional book this is. Well written with many descriptions of nature in the French Pyrenees, which immediately made me homesick for this beautiful, impressive part of France where I have spent many holidays.
The story is about Emile, a young man who is diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer's disease. He wants to spare his family that last period of decline and also not be subjected to a clinical examination in an institution. He decides to place an advertisement and ask if someone wants to accompany him on his last journey. He is very surprised when a young woman shows up at the meeting point. It is a young, small woman called Joanne.
Joanne has her own tragic story and throughout the book something is told about it. Together they go on a trip in the camper that Emile has bought. Along the way they meet all kinds of people and they learn more and more that there is no one who does not have a past in which less pleasant things have also happened. As they continue their journey, Emile slowly deteriorates. His memory fails him now and then and Joanne has to find a way to deal with that.
The book is interspersed with quotes from books, especially from 'The Alchemist' by Paul Coelho. I read the last pages with tears on my cheeks. Very beautiful.

Started and finished in december Het teken van de vogel by Deborah Harkness - ROOT # 51 - BFB # 10 - 541 pages -

The blurb

Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself--and her family history ... Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family's future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It's time you came home, Diana. On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family's dark past and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power?if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it

My review

This is the fourth book in the All Souls series and it took me a long time to finish it. Not because it is a bad story, but because I was distracted by other things. It is the story of Diana Bishop, her husband Matthew de Clermont and their children, the twins Philip (Pip) and Rebecca (Becca). Almost all the characters in this book are witches, vampires or demons or a combination.
When the twins are almost 7, they will be tested according to the rules whether and what their magical powers are, but Diana is not happy about that. She does not have pleasant memories of her own test. But before anything happens, Diana receives a letter from her great-aunt Gwyneth who asks her to come to the Ravenswood estate to find out more about her father's family. That is the very extended Proctor family. When it looks like the visit will last longer than a few days, her husband and children also come and it becomes an interesting visit full of magic and family complications.
Excellent book, complicated by the many, many family members and names to keep apart.