"Of Fire and Ash" by Gillian Bronte Adams

Of Fire and Ash is my teenage daughter's favorite book right now.  She's eagerly awaiting the next book in the series, Of Sea and Smoke, which launches in just under two months.  And she wants to dress as the main character from this one, Ceredwin, for Halloween this year.  So, when Gillian Bronte Adams announced a read-along of this book on Instagram, I decided to participate because I knew it would make my daughter really happy if I read it.  And, it did!  She had such a great time discussing it with me as we read -- she reread it during the read-along too.

I can see why my daughter loves this book.  Ceredwin is a fierce, opinionated young woman and a mighty warrior.  The book has nonstop excitement, lots of fighting and angst, and not really any romance.  There are funny characters, sad characters, and lots of very brave characters.  Also, some dastardly villains.  If I had read this before she did, I might have asked her to wait a couple years before reading it, as there are some torture scenes that I might have thought were a little more than she could handle, though she doesn't seem to be bothered by them at all, as it turns out.

But this was not really a book I enjoyed.  I appreciated many aspects of it, yes.  The characters were excellent, and they were why I kept reading, because I wanted to find out what happened to them.  But I did not like the pacing of the story -- I actually set the book aside many times because of the pacing.  There are three different stories happening simultaneously, each with its own main character, and the book would spend a couple of chapters with one character in their storyline, then hop abruptly to another right when I was getting invested in what was happening.  Often, I would just put the book down and go do something else because the cord of my interest had been severed.

Also, the pacing suffered from something I have noticed in a few other modern books lately:  lack of rest for the readers.  When you have an adventure tale, in particular, every time you have a big high point of action, your audience needs some rest after it, just like your characters.  Think about The Lord of the Rings, how after being chased by Black Riders, the hobbits and audience get to rest in Bree.  Then, after the attack at Weathertop, we get rest in Rivendell.  After the ordeal in Moria, we rest in Lothlorien.  And so it goes, throughout the whole saga -- the audience gets to catch their breath along with the characters.  If you don't let them rest, they will set your story aside to find rest away from it -- but there seems to be this thinking in today's writers that you have to keep throwing exciting stuff at your readers constantly or they will lose interest.  Trouble is, they will also get overwhelmed and lose interest because of that.

In this particular book, many times when the characters got to rest after a battle or skirmish or fight with a monster, the book yanked readers away and tossed them into another big fight scene in a different storyline, and that got very tiring.

Now, would I recommend this book?  If you like swords-and-sorcery kinds of high fantasy, absolutely.  The writing, aside from the pacing, was stellar.  The story and characters were definitely engaging.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for violence, torture, scary situations, death, branding, angst, emotional pain, and monsters.  No cussing and no smut.

This is my 48th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Murder at Queen's Landing" by Andrea Penrose

Yup, still enjoying this series.  A lot :-D  At this point, I'm fast friends with not just Charlotte Sloane and the Earl of Wrexford, but with all the regular side characters too.  And that means I delight in spending time with them between the pages of each book.

In this particular book, a clerk from the East India Company is murdered near the London harbor.  Nobody thinks much about it, as he's not an important person, but friends of his ask others to help, and they ask others, and soon it's up to Charlotte and Wrexford to untangle a complicated snarl of mathematics, machinery, monetary fraud, and murder.

Plus, Charlotte and Wrexford finally admit to themselves and each other that they care very deeply about one another.  One of the things I like best about this series (at least, the first four books that I have read) is that the romantic undercurrent is strong, but remains clean.  No one has hopped into bed with anyone else so far, which means I don't have to provide any caveats for my praise.

The pacing of this book is a bit slower than the previous three, but I appreciated that.  It spends a lot of time letting us experience Charlotte and Wrexford both coming to grips with how forming friendships and relationships of all sorts has helped them both grow too, and I loved that.

Particularly Good Bits:

Keeping secrets, however well intentioned, was fraught with peril.  Omissions tangled with misunderstandings, and suddenly trust, an oh-so-fragile bond to begin with, snapped (p 120).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder scenes that are not described in a grisly way, some violence, discussions of opium addiction, and a sprinkling of cuss words throughout.

Giveaway Winners and Wrap-Up for A Tolkien Blog Party 2023

It's time to announce the winners for this year's Tolkien giveaway.  Without further ado, they are:

Prize One (an enamel pin) -- Ivy Miranda

Prize Two (five bookmarks) -- Olivia

Prize Three (Rohan banner sticker sheet) -- Bethani Theresa

Prize Four (hobbit door sticker sheet) -- Samantha B.

Prize Five (One Ring sticker sheet) -- Eva S.

Prize Six (dragon sticker sheet) -- Sam Mouse

Congratulations to this year's winners!  I will be emailing you shortly to ask where you would like your prizes sent.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this year's party!  I have had a lovely week, and I hope you have too :-)  If you're like me and still working your way through everyone's posts, here's the link-up widget again so you can easily access those.  Also, if you have any last-minute posts you want to add, go right ahead, I won't mind.

See you in Middle-earth again next year!

Answers to the Middle-earth Locations Unscramble Game

Here are the answers to this week's unscramble game!  Scores are below.

1. Delveriln = Rivendell

2. Snami Hittir = Minas Tirith

3. Breero = Erebor

4. Armio = Moria

5. Bothnibo = Hobbiton

6. Doomkriw = Mirkwood

7. Hotgailis = Osgiliath

8. Heartwopet = Weathertop

9. Hillroonet = Lothlorien

10. Grandies = Isengard

11. Roades = Edoras

12. Wetklona - Laketown

Scores

Bethani Theresa -- 12

Ivy Miranda -- 12

Sam Mouse -- 12

Olivia -- 11

Middle-earth Locations Unscramble Game

Time for our second party game for this year's Tolkien Blog Party!

I've scrambled up the names of lots of places mentioned in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  See if you can unscramble them!  Put your answers in the comments, which I am putting on moderation so no one can cheat.

1. Delveriln

2. Snami Hittir

3. Breero 

4. Armio

5. Bothnibo

6. Doomkriw

7. Hotgailis

8. Heartwopet

9. Hillroonet

10. Grandies

11. Roades

12.Wetklona

Good luck!

What's Your Hobbit Name?

Hobbits are known for having quirky, old-fashioned names.  Our first game this week is all about figuring out what your hobbit name would be if you were transported to the Shire suddenly.  Just follow these instructions and you'll soon be answering to a quaint and humorous name of your own.

First Name -- Part One

The last letter of your real first name determines the first half of your hobbit first name.

A/B/C = Clover-

D/E/F = Flor-

G/H/I = Hum-

J/K/L = Jolly-

M/N/O = Merry-

P/Q/R = Ros-

S/T/U = Star-

V/W/X = Wink-

Y/Z = Yawp-

First Name -- Part Two

The number of letters in your real middle name determines the second half of your hobbit first name.

2 = -ago

3 = -pin

4 = -kins

5 = -luna

6 = -anders

7 = -fling

8 = -abello

9 = -fer

10+ = -o

Last Name -- Part One

Whichever of these words is included of the name of the street where you live determines the first half of your hobbit last name.

Avenue = Brace-

Drive = Floor-

Highway = Apple-

Lane = Light-

Place = Proud-

Road = Blythe-

Street = Sack-

Way = Withy-

All others = Sandy-

Last Name -- Part Two

Your favorite member of the Fellowship of the Ring determines the second half of your last name.

Aragorn = -muffle

Boromir = -bucket

Frodo = -buckle

Gandalf = -cobble

Gimli = -foot

Legolas = -girdle

Merry = -stool

Pippin = -turner

Samwise = -ville

Now just put them all together!  For instance, my hobbit name is Jollyluna Lightbucket.  I rather like that :-)  Sounds sort of frolicsome!  Now, tell us, what's your hobbit name?

A Tolkien Blog Party 2023 -- Kick-off Post + Tag!

Welcome, friends!  Here we are again, all geared up to celebrate Professor Tolkien and his creations for the eleventh year in a row.  Are you ready?  I'm ready!  Let's party!

If this is your first time attending a Tolkien Blog Party here at the Edge of the Precipice, I will briefly explain how this works.  As host, I provide a couple of games for you to play (starting tomorrow), a giveaway (which you can enter here), and the official party tag (see below).  Everything else is up to you and your fellow party goers!

All the party participates post things on their own blogs that relate somehow to J. R. R. Tolkien or his creations. We celebrate not only the author and the books he wrote, but also the world of Middle-earth, the movies based on his stories, and so on! You can use any of the official graphics in your posts -- you'll find all five of them in my announcement post. 

The only rules are:

1. your post must be related to Tolkien and his creations somehow, 
2. your post should contain a link back to this post so people can find the party and join the fun, and
3. your post needs to be respectful and family-friendly. This is a celebration, so please don't contribute any rants or whiny posts. 

If you don't know what to post, you can always fill out the tag, which you'll find below this handy link-up widget. Enter each of your posts in the widget (including posts of tag answers) so we can all visit each other's blogs and share the Tolkien joy!

Here is this year's tag:

A Tolkien Blog Party Tag for 2023

Which of each pair do you prefer, and why?

1. Rohan or Gondor?

2. Rivendell or Lothlorien?

3. Erebor or Moria?

4. Bilbo or Frodo?

5. Merry or Pippin?

6. Galadriel or Elrond?

7. Eomer or Faramir?

8. Fili or Kili?

9. Bard or Beorn?

10. Gandalf the Grey or Gandalf the White?

Simply copy that and paste it into a blog post of your own, answer with your preferences (and explain them in as much detail as you wish), add party graphics and a link back to this post, and whatever else you so desire!  Once you've posted it, come back and add a link to your post to the list above so we can all visit each others' blogs and enjoy their answers.  And don't forget to visit other people's blogs too, to keep the party going!