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Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Revolution’s a bloodthirsty business . . . Scarlet is a thrilling reinvention of the tale of The Scarlet Pimpernel with the addition of magic and even more mayhem.
Revolutionary France is no place to be, especially for aristocrat vampires facing the guillotine. But the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel are determined to rescue them. And they have an ace up their sleeve: Eleanor, a lowly maid from an English estate with a striking resemblance to French royalty.
For Eleanor, the League and their legendary deeds are little more than rumour – until she’s drawn into their most dangerous plot yet. The mission? Travel to France in disguise, impersonate Queen Marie Antoinette and rescue the royal family. If they succeed, it’ll be the heist of the century.
But there’s more to fear than ardent Revolutionaries. For Eleanor stumbles across a centuries-old war between vampires and their fiercest enemy. And they’re out for blood . . .
Scarlet is the first book in the Scarlet Revolution trilogy, set during the turbulent French Revolution, and featuring all of Genevieve Cogman’s trademark wit and fast-paced plotting. It’s perfect for fans of The Invisible Library series, Kim Newman and Gail Carriger.
(From https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/genevieve-cogman/scarlet/9781529083729)
About the Author
Genevieve Cogman started on Tolkien and Sherlock Holmes at an early age, and has never looked back. But on a perhaps more prosaic note, she has an MSc in Statistics with Medical Applications and has wielded this in an assortment of jobs: clinical coder, data analyst and classifications specialist. Although The Invisible Library is her debut novel, she has also previously worked as a freelance roleplaying game writer. She is also the author of The Masked City and The Burning Page, both in The Invisible Library series. Genevieve Cogman’s hobbies include patchwork, beading, knitting and gaming, and she lives in the north of England.
(From https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/genevieve-cogman/6979)
What I Thought
I’m sure I’ve seen a Scarlet Pimpernel film at some point but can’t really remember much about the plot so I did go in to this book with a pretty open mind having been hard sold by the addition of vampires. I am now affectionately thinking of this as The Marie Antoinette Switch meets Interview with a Vampire meets Six of Crows.
In essence this first book of the trilogy is a heist story where a lowly English maid gets dragged into a plot to save Marie and her children from the revolutionaries.
Eleanor as a character is immediately relatable and despite the uncertainty we may feel as the reader in knowing whose side we are meant to be on we definitely know that we want to see Eleanor safely through this.
The English Aristocrats in the League are a mix of foppish personalities and a rag tag bunch but there are a number of points that as the reader we are left questioning if what they are doing is truly right. But equally the revolutionaries are chopping people’s heads off left right and centre. Including those of vampires.
Eleanor has been living in the home of an English Vampire and her view of what vampires are has been understandably swayed by her own experience. But are they as honourable as Lady Sophie has seemed to be. Her journey into France has her questioning everything she has ever known.
Vampires are just an accepted part of this world which otherwise reflects what things were like at the time of Revolutionary France so I was a bit surprised by the addition of some extra supernatural magic which definitely plays a part in this book but will definitely have more prominence as the story develops across the trilogy.
I do think lots of seeds have been sewn in this book that means the role of Vampires and 🤐 will take centre stage as we enter book two. I’m intrigued about how the League will fit into this wider world view and excited to see more badass women spies.
Thanks to Black Crow PR and the publisher TOR UK for the gifted ARC. All opinions are my own. Check out the rest of the tour stops to see other people’s views.
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The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman – Blog Tour
Publishing tomorrow- 9th Dec 2021 is the concluding book in the Invisible Library series – The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman.
About the Book
In this thrilling historical fantasy, time-traveling Librarian spy Irene will need to delve deep into a tangled web of loyalty and power to keep her friends safe.
Irene is trying to learn the truth about Alberich-and the possibility that he’s her father. But when the Library orders her to kill him, and then Alberich himself offers to sign a truce, she has to discover why he originally betrayed the Library.
With her allies endangered and her strongest loyalties under threat, she’ll have to trace his past across multiple worlds and into the depths of mythology and folklore, to find the truth at the heart of the Library, and why the Library was first created.
About the Author
Genevieve Cogman got started on Tolkien and Sherlock Holmes at an early age, and has never looked back. But on a perhaps more prosaic note, she has an MSC in Statistics with Medical Applications and has wielded this in an assortment of jobs: clinical coder, data analyst and classifications specialist. Although The Invisible Library is her debut novel, she has also previously worked as a freelance roleplaying game writer. Genevieve Cogman’s hobbies include patchwork, beading, knitting and gaming, and she lives in the north of England
The Unread Story 🤦♀️
What happens if you mix a book blogger with ADHD, a TBR house, a penchant for stories about stories and a rapid response to a PR email?
You get me. Excited about the idea of The Untold Story. Recognising the author as the one that wrote The Invisible Library that you’ve been meaning to get to for a while. Requesting this one to read them together and realising that this is book 8 and the reason you didn’t read the first one was because you liked the Story but weren’t keen on the audio narrator. Sorry.
So, um. I appear to have unintentionally added an 8 book series to my to read list. 🤦♀️🤦♀️ The Blurb says that the book can be read as standalones or as a sequence but I personally can’t read out of order – it’s not the same. And someone on goodreads mentioned a cliffhanger in Book 7!
Another reason I can’t read it yet is because the blurb has echoes of a middle grade book I’m writing with a buddy so we want to finish our draft before we go reading other things that sound similar. We are halfway through so far. I suspect we mind have to add an intertextual nod in the rewrite.
The rest of this year is looking hectic for me so I’m going to host a readalong next year. One book a month – finishing on my birthday month of August. Who is in?
I will host it on booktok because why not. I want to move from just posting dog videos to talking about books and YouTube seems like far too much commitment. 3 min reviews sound ideal. So follow me there – I’m @kirstyes. I’ll post fuller details of the readalong at the weekend.
For fans of Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, All Souls trilogy, and Discworld. Lovers of dragons, skulduggery (not pleasant – although that would make an awesome cross over), faes and librarian spies and to top it all off, the foiling on the book a quote for N.K. Jemisin who says:
‘I absolutely loved this… flavoured with truly unique mythology and a dash of the eldritch. Such clever, creepy, elaborate worldbuilding and snarky, sexy-smart characters!’ Check out that exclamation mark.
So, if you’ve not read this series yet and you like the same kind of books I do this series really seems tailor written for us. Let’s start again right back at Book 1, Chapter 1 with
The Invisible Library
Synopsis – Book 1
Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission – to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.
Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested – the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene’s new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.
Soon, she’s up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option – the nature of reality itself is at stake.
Huge thanks to @BlackCrow_PR, @UKTor/@Panmacmillan for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review which I promise will come next year. Hey. I bought 7 books because of the title and cover of the this one.
@GenevieveCogman – What kind of wild ride will I be going on in 2022? And who will be joining me?
Do check out the rest of the tour stops for bloggers who aren’t doofuses to see what they thought of the concluding chapter and to find out if they’ll be checking this series out again and joining our readalong in 2022 using #ReadInvisibleLibrary22
kirstyes 