Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh (UPDATED)

In Flame in The Mist by Renee Ahdieh, Mariko is to be married, but her convoy was cut short when the Black Clan attacked and killed everyone but her!  Mariko wants revenge and decides to join the Black Clan to find a way to destroy them and why they wanted her dead.  

I thought this book was really good!  Mariko is a great character and this book has good action along the way.  I enjoyed the twists in the story that I did not see coming and look forward to book 2 in this series!  (Gerard's review, 5 stars)

Karen's Review, 5/28/17:
Flame in The Mist by Renee Ahdieh centers around Japan and is the story of Mariko, a young woman who feels she is looked down upon because she is a female. She has a twin brother who is a warrior and she would like to be a warrior too. While on her way to becoming the bride of someone she never met that has been arranged by her father, her caravan is attacked and everyone is killed except for her. She gets away but before too long, finds the Black Clan who are the ones she believes were the attackers and wants to find out who wanted her dead.

This story has quite a bit of action in it and I enjoyed reading it even though parts were a bit confusing. The names were strange but I liked the relationship that developed between Okami and Marika. I liked how Marika was able to fool people into believing she was a guy. I did not really understand the magical stuff in this book like the enchanted forest and the beast that came and went. Some things just didn’t make sense to me. The strange ending left me hanging. I did not like the way it ended at all and for me, that brought my rating down from a 4 to a 3.  (3 stars)

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"I Am Tama, Lucky Cat" (A Japanese Legend)

I Am Tama, Lucky Cat by Wendy Henrichs is about a kind Monk to brings in a cat and names it Tama.  In Japan, it is believed that when a cat washes his face, a guest will arrive.  (I didn't know that.  My cats wash their faces all the time and we don't get any guests.)  So, in the book, the cat brings luck. 

I was disappointed with this book.  The illustrations weren't all that cute and the story line was nothing exciting, just okay.  It is a picture book and I read it in five minutes.
(Karen's review, 2 stars)

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Unbroken: An Olympian’s Journey From Airman to Castaway to Captive by Laura Hillenbrand

Unbroken:  An Olympian’s Journey From Airman to Castaway to Captive (The Young Adult Adaptation of Unbroken) by Laura Hillenbrand is an amazing and fascinating non-fiction novel.  With never a dull moment, Louie Zamperini’s adventurous story kept my attention from beginning to end.  Just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any worse for him, they do!  It’s hard to believe he actually survived drifting on a life raft in the Pacific ocean for 47 days and then being tortured and humiliated as a POW. 

I highly recommend this to anyone!  It is well researched and very informative, giving me insight into a life of a POW that I had no clue about.  Unimaginable horrific things actually happened to our POW’s during World War II.  I was afraid this was going to read like a history book, but it really doesn’t.  It is very well written and stayed on my mind long after I put it down.   I found it astonishing that Louie lived to be 97 after all he went through. 

(Karen's review, 5 stars)

 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!