Book Review: Prudence by Gail Carriger

Hi readers, 

Today I'm looking at the sequel to the Parasol series. This follows Alexia and Conall's daughter, Rue, as she sets off to have adventures on her own. Well, sort of, she brings some friends along too! I was excited to see how Carriger would write this story and the contrasts to the first series.

My first in impression is that it's really good. It stays in the same vein as before with the focus being on the supernatural and adventure theme with the steampunk being in the background, though it does feel a little more developed here. Also, there's only a small bit of romance as none of the characters have got together yet. I don't made this though as it means there's lots of time for things to happen between the characters. 

The plot of the novel is that Rue, now a young lady, has been giving a quest to travel to India to investigate a new kind of tea by her adapted vampire father. She's given a state of the art airship, which she names The Spotted Custard, and most of her crew. Rue then recruits her best friend Primrose and her twin brother Percy - Alexia's best friend Ivy's twins- as well as Qusenel, Madam Lefoux's adopted son. Bring all the next generation from the Parasol books together! 

They then travel to India, making some new friends along the way and once there - including a lioness and some monkeys. All isn't as it seems though and soon Rue is dragged into a problem that is a lot more deeper the missing tea leaves. I won't give anything else away, but the ending is happy and solved enough for my liking. 

All the characters work well together and they do develop as the pages turn. Rue does remind me of her parents a lot though and I love one of the scenes were she turns into a werewolf and ends up running through London in bloomers! That image is going to stay with me a long time. I also like her airship being painted like a ladybug and her quick thinking. The other character don't seem to sit on the side though as they all seemed very detailed and come across as them being the main characters. I like all the different friendships too and there wasn't a character that really bugged me. 

I have like three issues overall though. The first is that I felt this book was longer then any of the first series. The chapters felt long and sometimes I found them too broken up for my own liking. The second is that this book does have it's dippy moments. Unlike, the first book of The Parasol series which felt like a run with one thing after another, the same style is a bit less in this book and I don't think it works well. There were a few moments were I got bored because of this, but that just made me want to push on. The third thing is that there's more terminology used, especially to do with the airship and my dyslexic brain didn't understand, though I always felt like I knew what was going on though. 

Overall, I did actually enjoy reading this novel. I don't think you need to have read any other books by Carriger, though of course having that background of everyone's parents etc is useful knowledge, but with all the focus being on Rue and her friends, anyone could pick it up. It's a nice introduction to anyone interested in steampunk and alternate history too. I'm looking forward to the second book now! But I won't get it read for next Monday's review as it's Amazon says it's not arriving till the Thursday after! I might not post anything then so that they follow on from each other. Going to have to see. 

Thanks for reading. 

Image from; Amazon UK. 

Soulless: The Manga, Volumes 1-3 by Gail Carriger

Hi Readers,

Just had to take a moment there because for some reason I thought it wasn't Monday! It was really weird because I knew it was Sunday yesterday so why would my brain think it was any other day? I don't know. Anyway, so today I'm continuing to review Gail Carriger's Soulless/The Parasol Protectorate Series with the Manga Trilogy. I decided to write about these three books together as they just re-tell the first three novels and nothing new is added.

I'd so recommended reading my reviews on the novels before reading this because I don't plan to go into the same level as detail as I did for them. Also, I'd say to read those novels before you read the manga. This is because I found that somethings that happened in the books don't appear in the manga. Those things were mostly details about the other plot lines and characters, which just had more depth. In a way, I wish I'd read something else to clear my head before racing through these mangas, but it was also good because of the things I noticed.

What I did love about these was that the opening pages are colored in so you get a sense of how the manga artist has interpreted Carriger's descriptions. I found that the drawings were also good and it sparked my wanting to read more manga! The opening to the first book is actually something that is set a little bit into the first novel. Alexia and her family are at breakfast and her step-sister is reading the newspaper that tells of how a woman was attacked at the ball they all want to last night. Then we get the flash back of this event. Though that is the actual opening to the novel.

So, basically the manga trilogy is a condensed version which focus on the main plot from the novels. This actually works very well and I couldn't see it done any other way. I love the drawings of the different dresses and the wolves! The characters do come across well, but I got a lot more about them from the novels then I did from the manga trilogy. It was interesting to see the characters in a different way though.

I did enjoy the first book and it was a refreshing read for me. The second one followed on from the first and covered most of the second novel.
  

The opening pages were once again in color and I do wish that the rest of them were too! But I'm guessing that would be real expensive. Anyway, this time Alexia is on a trip to Scotland to catch up with her husband and solve the loss of supernatural elements. I did like the flying airships and the sense of adventure in this one though. It does stick more true to the second novel then the first I thought, but once again it's a very cut down version of the main plot and it didn't seem to have much of the other plots that the novel had. 

I liked reading it though and I think it shows that novels can convert in manga easily enough. I don't think it took me very long to read and the others either, though I did try to space it out to enjoy them more. Also, I wouldn't say these books are aimed at children. They were done for the fans and readers of the novels. There's some nudity and a bit of violence, but not that much that easily offends. The dialogue is simple and short like in other mangas and comics. For my dyslexic brain it was a nice break! And I did really enjoy reading them.

The third book fits in well and it's a shame they only decided to do a trilogy! I think books four and five would have worked out okay, but for some reason they stop here. The actual ending is nice enough, but I really felt the wanting to read more! I did try to see if I could find anything in the same vein of Victorian Steampunk, but I haven't found anything I liked. If you know of any manga series comment and let me know. 

Overall, I enjoyed this manga trilogy. I think they fit in well and go along side the novel series. I'd recommend these for fans of the series, but I'd say if you like this kinda of manga but didn't want fancy the novels for whatever reason then give them ago! 

Thanks for reading and next week I'm looking at the spin off series which follows Alexia and Conall's daughter Pru.      

Images from: Amazon UK. 

July Life Update 2: Leeds Trip!

Hi readers,

I decided to write about my trip to Leeds after all, only because I want to share these three places I found whilst I was there for two days. I'd planned everything out like I did for London and then I found out when I got to Kirkstall Abbey that everywhere was closed on Monday for cleaning ect. It's traditional for museums to be closed, but I don't think I knew that and also I never noticed that about places in Manchester.

Leeds is less then an hour away from me and I'm surprised that we've not been to these places before. They tick all the boxes for a family day out and fit in with what my parents liked taking us to during the summer holidays. Anyway, now I know where these places are I'll plan to visit them again and there's a steampunk fair at the Mill in October too!

I do actually like Leeds and there are lot are interesting places to go and visit. Last time I was there we visited The Thackeray Medical History Museum, where there was a steampunk fair and we also walked around a Christmas market, here's the post on that;
http://hailscrazyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/leeds-steampunk-market-and.html
I've also been to the Leeds Armouries Museum, which is a great place to check out. I also like the city center because there's a good choice of shops and there's the massive indoor market which dates back to the 1800's.

I actually went into the center and the market on Monday afternoon and I had a good walk around. I brought some stuff from the market too. Mostly sweets and some craft stuff, but also these knitting patterns. I saw this fluffy purple hedgehog and I really wanted it, but then I saw this rainbow one and the dragons and I brought both. Mum was fine with me adding them to the knitting list and we even brought all the wool! I'll post up some photos when they've been made.  

So, the first place I want to was Kirkstall Abbey. It was twenty minutes on the bus from the hotel we were staying in and there were bus stops close by, so it was super easy to get too. The bus goes to the city center too, so I got a day saver ticket to travel back and forth. The Abbey set in a large park area, so even though it wasn't open, you can still walk around the outside and you can see just about everything from that. It was smaller then some of the other Abbeys I've been too, but I still felt inspired by the place. I got to walk around inside the ruins the next day and that was cool too. It's free as well and the visiting center and shop are okay. The park area is really nice to walk in too and it seemed popular with local young families. Here are some more photos;

Stuck for lunch, I got back on the bus and went to the retail park I had past on the way. I got some stuff then went back to the Abbey and had a small picnic. It was really nice and I sat under some trees and also read my book. Then I decided to go into Leeds city center and try to come back the next day to see if I could have a walk around inside.

It me it was worth coming back for, but I didn't really see much more then I'd seen the day before. I did find out this Abbey was built in like 1152 and then it was abandoned around 1539 due to the dissolution of monasteries. Most of the stone was then re-used to make other stuff over the years then in 1895, Leeds council did some restoration and opened it to the public. The Wikipedia page also makes for an interesting read about it; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirkstall_Abbey

I did get a few story ideas from this place and I do wish I'd had spent more time sitting and writing because that would have been fun. Actually the Abbey seems to have always attracted creative people as some artists are famous for drawing and painting the Abbey. Maybe I'll go back one afternoon and spend some time writing. Here are a few photos from inside the Abbey;

The next place I went to is Armley Mills. I found out about this place via Most Haunted. I'm not that big a fan of it now a days, but my chance it came on after another ghost thing I'd been watching and when they said they were in Leeds I got interested and then once I had the name of the place, I found it was it like a 20 minute walk from the hotel! I just had to go. I do love old mills because they normally have lots of interesting stuff in them. Also, they smell really good too!

So this Mill has a few working weaving machines but they weren't working when I was there due to being under repair. I learnt some stuff about the spreed of diseases though and about the working conditions. There were some other displays about making things and fashion. But I liked learning the history of the Mill more. Turned out the first Mill on the site actually brought down and they had to rebuild it. There was also stories of children and adults getting trapped in the machines. Always makes me freak out though!

They had farm machines and other stuff too, but I really wanted to see the steam trains as they are my favorite things at museums. But the Mill got flooded last year and since the engines were in the buildings near the canal, they were closed. There's a nice picnic area though and I spent sometime outside, having a snack. I really wish I'd spent some more time here because I ended up rushing through some stuff due to knowing I didn't have that much time- though really I did! Anyway, I'll go back for the steampunk fair.

 
The last place I went to was the Abbey House Museum. This was across the road from the Abbey and I'm so glad I went as the children's' toys and games section was amazing. They always have a Victorian style high street where you can walk into the different shops and the pub and look at the layout of things and the items for sale. Behind is also a side street of houses and it was just lots of fun to be transported back!

The floor above had crime and punishment and I found some of that interesting too. Then it was all the childhood stuff and the history of the house. There were lots of super old toys and games, some of which I did know! They also had lots of doll house furniture and two huge doll houses, don't think I've seen doll houses that big before! They had some creepy china/pot dolls too and I sort of avoided those, I blame all the horror movies/ghost documentary things for my feelings about dolls and clowns!

Surprisingly and like the Mill the museum was pretty much empty, so I got around fast. And once again I wish I'd spent more time, but I was hungry and tired and had been rushing around all day. Maybe I'll go back one day. They had a really nice garden area and a cafe, so I chilled out there for a bit then had to head back because my mum wanted to leave before rush hour traffic started.

Here are the photos and I'm sorry they didn't turn out that well but I wasn't allow to use my flash. I might have gotten away with it at some points, but I always try to respect the photography rules.

So that's it though I'm sure I'll be back to Leeds soon. Thanks for reading and remember to check out my other to blogs and come back here on Monday for a book review. 

July Life Update Part 1: What am I doing right now?

Hi readers,

I'm writing this early too to try and get a head as I'm so busy right now. Originally, the sewing project post was meant to be up first, but then I realized this follows on well from last week's post when I wasn't able to write about two things on there. So, I'm moving that post to August now. Which means the three Mondays for the rest of this month will now be the book reviews of the Soulless Manga trilogy and the first two books in the Custard Protocol series. Though as I've just checked, the second book isn't out till the Thursday 21st July and that's 5 days to read it in. Just pre-order it so it'll come just before or on that day now. Should have got it with my birthday presents, oh well.

The first thing I want to write about today is the question of if  I'm a 'serial dater' or not. Now, my only slight risk of writing and publishing this is that there are certain people I'd rather not see this post. But I do want to reflect on recent things and prove that I'm not really a serial dater. So, as most of you know I broke up with my boyfriend back in January. Since then we've still stayed friends and though this has been hard it's working...beside from not being able to break some of the old habits....

Around April, I decided I had to move on and prove to myself that I was still date-able and not stuck on the highest shelf like a broken doll. I joined two dating websites, both of which I had used before though, this time I was going to juggle being on both of them at the same time. My inboxes every since then have been stacked high with messages from men. Unlike the last times though, I tried to be more picky in which men I message back.

Internet dating is hard. Everyone seems to think it's easy, but to be honest it's a lot easier to lie and just say what you want, because you feel more protected by the screen and being home then say if you met some at a bar or public event. So, I get a lot of messages with men just saying "I have great ect 'place body part here.'" or do "I want to have a one night stand ect ?" I don't reply to those messages. Also, its rare I reply to people not in the same country as me, just long distance dating isn't my thing and I have enough friends right now. Okay, maybe I could do with a few more...but I like meeting up and doing stuff, not just talk online.

I have a lot of rules and stuff in place for my safety as I am so aware of the problems online dating can led too. One of my rules is that I try to spend awhile talking to the guy to get to know him. Another is that the first date is actually called the first meet up and we meet as friends. That's how it's been for all my 'dates' and I have stated this every time, we are meeting as friends. Because it's less pressure off everything really and I'm not in a hurry to get back into a relationship. Not because I'm holding a candle for my ex, but because I've suddenly discovered the freedom of being single. Though sometimes I don't like it, I'm enjoying it for the most part. My long term goal is of course to find someone, but right now I'm happy building friendships. They say that's how the best relationships start anyway.

So, Over the last two months or so I've meet up with four guys now from the two dating sites. To code them, I'm going to give them letters of the alphabet and try not to go into too much detail about them personally (just to protect them and myself, because I'm nice like that).

The first guy, A, I have meet 3 times now. I really like him and we get on, there's this flitting between us which I enjoy too. He's very funny and sarcastic, which I like. He makes me laugh a lot and he finds my stories and jokes funny. Also, all the meet ups we've turn into mini adventures as we end up wandering around looking for places! The downside for me is that he does live far away from me, but he sees the city I live in as his true home and he does want to move here one day. I am hoping things will develop with him, but I'm not sure if it'll last, we don't seem to have that much in common as of yet anyway.

B lives a lot closer and we had an okay first date, even if I ended up taking the led on it. Which I don't mind, but he was lacking in confidence for me. Plus physically, I didn't feel attracted to him. He was really sweet, but I think he was too nice and was happy doing whatever I wanted. Which I didn't trouble me, but some input would have been good. We've stayed in connect and I said we could be friends, which I know he's not too happy about. We have yet to arrange a second meet up.

C and I have met twice now. He seems nice, but like B he is lacking in confidence and also he's shorter then me and I just can't deal with that. There's just something about tall men I like and it doesn't help that I'm tall myself! The first time we met, I had to buy my own drink. which I don't mind - it's not a date! but I think it jarred with me that he didn't even ask me about it or anything....unlike the other two guys. We had a good talk and we did have a bit of a walk too - which is how I noticed the height difference!

We went bowling and for lunch as our second meet up and he talked a lot about this girl he liked. I was actually in one of my low moods and the conversation wasn't that interesting. Bowling was fun though and lunch was okay. I fear that he'll go the same way B went though as he's not for me, but a friendship might work.

D does live a bit away from me and we have met twice now. The first time, I broke my rule of not eating on the first met up. I'm not a shy eater, but I can be a bit messy and I'd rather just get something like a drink which can easily be handled. And I was messy! We had a talk about a number of things and I do feel once again that I was far more confident then him. Though for some reason I was really on edge and so chatty. He was taller then me though and paid for lunch - super nice of him because he didn't have to. But then he give me super mixed signals because he decided to leave.

I don't normally set an end time unless I have to, but that meet up only lasted about an hour and 40 minutes. Which isn't that short but compared to the the four- six hours I'm use to it kinda is. I so thought I'd come on too strong and he'd not liked me. I had all this paranoia about it until he texted me and asked me if I wanted to meet again...turns out he was just super worried about missing his train home though they seemed to be every hour. I agreed and decided to give it another go.

The second meet up went a lot better and actually changed some of my first judgement about him. I think it helped that we went and did something this time. We went to an art gallery and had fun looking at the paintings. He made some jokes and we talked a lot about art and relationships. We went for tea and it was my pick this time, I choice a new place I'd not been to before, but the food was good. We split the bill this time and we hugged like three times before he left.

I'd like to see him again and not just because he said he wanted to go to the zoo for our next meet up! But because I think his confidence will grow and we have lot in common.

So, am I serial dater? I don't believe so. For starts, I'm not actually 'dating' them and they and me know where we stand and I make it repeated clear that's the case. Also, this the first time I've seen a number of men at once. Normally, I stick with one guy and if the first meet up doesn't work then I move on to the next. Actually, I only started dating in my early twenties. As a teenager, I wasn't that interested in boys and it's only been over the last six or seven years that I have changed my mind and become interested in finding someone to spend the rest of my life with.

I looked up what the actual differentiation of a serial dater and there's lots of interesting information out there, but I came to understand that it's a person who has a few dates with someone then moves on to someone else and the pattern repeats. They do this because they like the first stage of dating and don't want to commit to anything. Also they don't want to spend time getting to know people, they enjoy having money spent on them and date people who have nothing in common with them. I don't really tick any of those boxes.

Of course, I know there's going to come a time when either I decide to start a relationship with one of these guys or another I've yet to meet. I currently have two guys I really want to meet up with as well. Then I know I'll have to sort things out because I'm so not a cheat. At the minute I'm having a bit of trouble juggling the four guys I'm making friends with, so I can't imagine managing two different relationships! To be honest, I'm just having fun meeting and getting to new people, which is something I don't do really do.

And before I forget here's a link to a tumblr I llike and some of the posts on here just sum up internet dating messages for me really well; http://really-not-ok-cupid.tumblr.com/ If you need a giggle it's a good thing to check out, also it reminds me why being single can be a good thing!

On the flip side of this, for the past six weeks I have been giving up my Sunday mornings to be a part of the group mentoring at the youth center. It's the first run of this and it's to help 8-12 children who can't do 1-1 mentoring because their problems are not big enough or do to their additional needs they are unstable. But, if once we finish in another seven weeks, the young people still need support they'll go into the 1-1. I thought this would be a good way to start my mentoring as I've not been matched up to a young person yet.

I am finding it tough. It's hard to do anything for the first time even with training and support. I think it's going to take awhile for me to get into it as even after all this time I'm just not getting to grips with it. I'm not going to say mentoring isn't for me, I just think I need more practice at it as with everything. Maybe I need to do some more reading around the subject and look at how I can improve myself.

So the group mentoring sees three mentors, a supervisor, a supporter and eight young people meeting to do a range of activities which I divided into doing an activity often based around teamwork and looking at emotions/feels, lunch and small group time which sees the mentors working with the same 3 or 2 young people in a more focused activity. Now, my two kids are brother and sister and they have a bit of a rough home life, not in any abusive and neglecting ways, just that their mother has a lot on her plate it seems.

Last Sunday was also the second time they'd not turned up and it was the four time all together. It bugs me because I'm giving up my free time to help these kids to reach the reasons they are on mentoring and their mum doesn't seem so bothered to bring them. I'm so hoping this is going to change and that I can now spend the next few weeks actually helping this kids out. I keep telling myself that even if I'm just there for them and they can talk to me and I can teach them one coping technique they remember when they are having a bad time, then I'll feel like I achieved something. It'd be goo if I can do more, but as a mentor there's only so much you can do anyway.

Even though I love my part time job, I'm currently looking for another. I'd love to find some morning work in an office somewhere, so that I could still keep my shifts at the youth center. It wasn't my plan to really stay so long and I wanted a full time job, but I've not had much look and I guess I've become to comfy where I am. But I want to move out and get a car and the only way to really do that is to save up and I need more money to do that. So, I'm on the look out again and hopefully, I'll find something soon enough.

The issue is that job hunting doesn't get any easier really. I find it takes up so much time and it's tiring. Being on sites like Linked In and signing up to temp and agencies does make it easier, but it's putting in all the leg work and the fact I don't get many replies triggers my depression. A few weeks back I had a phone call and I was headhunted for this job as a research at a recruitment center. But the interview was cancelled the evening before because the guy said on reflection I didn't sound confident enough and that totally didn't make any sense to me. Also he wanted to hand in my notice that day before I had the interview so he could hire me the next day! That's just weird too.

In some other news, I have finally got a goal date set for my short story collection anthology release. It's going to be on Monday 1st August. This is going to be published on amazon kindle for £1. Which seems really cheap to me! It's going to be a collection of around 30 short stories from the first year of my other blog The Story Files over on Wordpress. I've been saying for ages that I'm going to do it and now I really mean it. I'll post on here when it's ready.

I so want to look at getting money from my blogs. I know its' difficult to do and most people say it's like a full time job. I've never really wanted to actually get money out of this because it me it's always been my space to just out pour, but it'd be great to get some else in return for writing now. Speaking of that and blogs.....

I had a great idea for a new blog and I plan to start that up next week. My plan is to post on that blog on Fridays and it's going to be about fighting negativity and how to stay positive. This blog is different from my current two and others I've done in the past because it's going to focus on advising people. I had this idea after having a talk with my dad then seeing some self-help books work. Originally, I was just going to make a life post about it but when I started planning it out there was so much I wanted to write about that I thought I could just turn this into a new blog.

I have set a word limit of 500 words per-post because that's about the right word count to draw people in and to read it fully. I try hard to keep the word count down on here, but like I said with this being a space to out pour it can be hard to keep things short!

So, I'll let you know about that when I've sorted it all out.

Update! I've set it up and done the first post! You can check it out here; https://negativitybreakout.wordpress.com/

Lastly, I wanted to write about my future plans. Right now, I'm on a short break in Leeds with my mum. On Saturday it was actually my birthday and this trip to Leeds is apart of that. I might write about that at some point. So, I've got some books lined up for reviewing, more short stories to write, two novellas to finish and I want to get the other two short story collections for the second and third year of my blog sorted and published. I think I'll carry on with what I've been currently doing on this blog, because it seems okay, but I'm hoping my new blog takes off.

Thanks for reading and please stay posted for some updates on all of this stuff soon!


My other blog: https://thestoryfiles.wordpress.com/


Images from https://pixabay.com