Sunday, July 31, 2016

Jack Sparrow Doesn't Like This Book But I Do

I must ask all of you a question.
Where has the week run off to?
Actually, where has the summer gone? GOOD GOSH, IT'S THE LAST DAY OF JULY.
For me, school starts in a week. ONE WEEK PEOPLE.
I had plans this summer. I was going to read books. Remember that shelf of books that I haven't read in the post in which I analyzed my bookshelf? Yeah, that shelf was my book goal.
I read three books on that shelf.
THREE.
I'm ashamed of myself.
Anyway, I read a book during the school year that I have been wanting to review for a while now, and yes, that is the book for this post.

A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller


One decision can change your whole life. For Vicky, that decision was posing nude in the French art studio she was secretly drawing at. If she hadn't gotten caught, she would have stayed in France, at the studio, and at the finishing school she was staying at.
But Victoria Darling got caught in the act. And in 1909, doing such a thing was social suicide.
She moved back to England, leaving her one friend and passion for drawing, where a boring scheduled out life waited for her. To cover up the scandal, her parents arrange a marriage with a classy gentleman named Edmund.
For most girls her age, that would be a dream come true. But for Vicky, it's the opposite of what she wants. She wants to attend The Royal College of Arts and expand her drawing skills. The last thing she wants to do is get tied down to a man she barely knows.
Vicky will try everything to get her dream of being an artist, even if it means joining the suffragette movement and engaging in a scandalous relationship with a working class boy.
If it means being able to be an artist, Vicky would go to the moon and back.


******
(Six Stars)
And yes, the scale is still out of five. This book was so gosh darn good that five stars was not enough. There is a certain thing about the way Sharon Biggs Waller writes her books that even what would be the most boring parts of a book are still exhilarating in her books. And the most interesting parts are more emotional than when the Percy Jackson fandom thought Blood of Olympus was the last of Percy Jackson completely.
At certain parts I would just have to put the book down and take a deep breath. And then immediately pick up the book again because not reading it was more torturous than the feels in this book.
So A Mad, Wicked Folly is a historical fiction novel based off the suffragette movemet in England in the early 20th century. It follows the story of seventeen year old Victoria Darling, who is high up on the social ladder and wants to be an artist.
The thing is:
You guys know how much I hate historical fiction. (Shout out to my review of The Friendship Doll part 1 and part 2 and my review on Out of the Dust) This book was completely different. Sharon Biggs Waller captured the brave characters of a great Action Adventure book, the dramatic relationships of all successful romance novels, AND the historical accuracy for that time and for the events going on at that time that are necessary to any historical fiction book.
The feels are too much to handle all the time, and you never want to put the book down. This book made me cry, which says a lot because I've never actually cried watching a movie or reading a book. This book was amazing.
And don't forget, it is based around the events of the suffagette movement, so it is very uplifting and empowering to all girls that read this. (Plus, Sharon Biggs Waller included the Pankhursts in the story as actual characters, and I think that's really cool.)
I do warn you though, a good age to read this book is definetely 13 and up, because there is a descriptive kissing scene.
One of my friends (who was twelve at the time) and I got in an argument about who could gross out who at school. He is absoloutely disgusted by anything romantic, so I brought the book to school the next day, opened to the kissing scene, and made him read it.
He read one word and slammed the book shut. And made this face:

So I do advise if you or the person you might recommend this book to doesn't like romancey suff, than I wouldn't read it just yet, because it is a romance book.
But it is a great book, and if I were you reading this, I would read A Mad, Wicked Folly. (Plus, Sharon Biggs Waller is super nice so you should check out her blog here.)

So, how was your week? Are y'all sad that the summer is almost over?
I will try to do another interview sometime soon, and I will most definetely be reviewing Sharon Biggs Waller's other book, The Forbidden Orchid.

Have a great week!
:)

3 comments:

  1. I did the exact same thing! I had a plan to read all summer and then at the end of June, I had read a total of 3 books! *sigh* A Mad, Wicked Folly sounds really interesting! I do appreciate historical novels if they're good. So I might give this one a try! If there is more emotion than when we thought BoO was the end, the I must read it! Because there were a lot of feelings there. XD

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  2. I did the exact same thing! I had a plan to read all summer and then at the end of June, I had read a total of 3 books! *sigh* A Mad, Wicked Folly sounds really interesting! I do appreciate historical novels if they're good. So I might give this one a try! If there is more emotion than when we thought BoO was the end, the I must read it! Because there were a lot of feelings there. XD

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  3. Sigh. None of us ever reads all the books we intend to read. It's jus the way it is. Thanks for this review. I hadn't heard of this book. Sounds interesting.

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