This week I am reviewing The One Kingdom: Book One of the Swans’ War by Sean Russell which is not the next book I listed in my last review of On the Beach.It has been a year since my last review and I wanted to review it while it was fresh in my mind. I found The One Kingdom while I was packing up to move and it called out to me so I knew I had to read it immediately. Do books call out to you like that too? When I was much younger I used to go to the library and run my fingers along the books until one called out to me and then read that one and most of the time the book hit the spot I needed to itch immediately.

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I do not remember when I bought this book but it looks like it came out in 2001 and is now out of print. I am finding that a lot of books I bought around this time are now out of print or hard to find so I will link the Kindle version which is available with this link: The One Kingdom. You can probably find it and the other two books in the trilogy at the library or a used book store. I am not going to give these away since it looks like they may be hard to find elsewhere.

This book is a fantasy book set in another realm where there was a past war that current groups of people are still grappling with. Intrigue, succession, plotting and even cold blooded murder are afoot in this book as we follow three friends from a small hard to reach village as they travel down the river which twists and turns and takes them down paths both known and unknown. On their way they meet a mysterious stranger who changes their lives forever.

I will not say much more about the plot except that it is exceptionally well written and I loved reading it another time through. I had completely forgotten about these books as they were in boxes from my big move over a decade ago but I am definitely going to finish the series now that I have started it. They are so well written and the plot is unique from other fantasy books with a similar premise. I highly recommend them! If you want to know more about the author, Sean Russell I did find a link to their website that outlines some of their other works listed below.

Sean Russell Website

A little late, but our next book will be: Bringing up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman

Resources:

The One Kingdom by Sean Russell

Book Review: On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Rereading Books Before I Give Them Away Part 1

Although On the Beach by Nevil Shute is not on my original list of Books I am Rereading Before I Give Them Away, it is a book that I had heard about a bunch of times before adding it to my cart and accidentally buying it off of Amazon. And yes, it was a total accident. I was in the middle of a book buying ban last winter and somehow I forgot to move this to my wish list while Christmas shopping and I didn’t realize it until it showed up in a box of gifts for the kids. Whoops! I decided to keep it and read it anyways since it had such great reviews.

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

On the Beach is a dystopian book set in a time where nuclear war has happened and most of the world is covered in radioactive material so intense life cannot happen. Australia is the lone holdout where the toxic winds have not reached the country as they spread their radioactivity around the world.

One of the ways the Australians are coping is through maintaining the order and every day routines of life, including our military man submarine captain who leads expeditions around the known safe areas to find survivors and measure the progress of the toxic wind. Our story follows him, his lady friend and his friends who have a baby to take care of as the grapple with the reality of their situation as it gets worse. This book focuses on the reality of their situation and does not sugar coat how desperate the situation is which is very refreshing.

On the Beach was very well written and I definitely think it is one of those books that you will find more meaning the more times you read it and even though it is not on my list of books to give away, all of my books are on the chopping block as we work through downsizing and decluttering. However, I will be keeping this one and reading it again in the near future. I would also love for my kids to read this one as well when they are of the right age.

VERDICT: Please read this book!

Our next book will be: Bringing up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman

Links:

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

Book Review: the namsake by Jhumpa Lahiri

Book Review: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Rereading Books Before I Give Them Away Part 1

I reread The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge as part of my Rereading Books Before I Give Them Away Part 1 early in my stack of 10 books. As with my other books, I wanted to do a brief review of the book and let you know whether I decided to keep it or give it away.

This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I did not remember what this book was about before I picked it up again but it is a mystery about the death of a valet named Peter working at a fancy party in The Hamptons. The brother of the murder victim, Jack, is the main character in this story as he solves the mystery of who killed his party boy brother and why amongst a city wide cover up. There are lots of twists and turns and the scandal around the death a good one. The main conflict in the book is between the townies that live year round and the wealthy billionaires that summer in the The Hamptons.

Peter works for a particularly wealthy couple doing odd jobs and as a valet while his brother Jack is a lawyer. There is a lot of investigating and clues to unravel surrounding Peter’s death which Jack works through as he uncovers a seedier side of town that he did not see growing up there. This book was pretty fast paced and there were a lot of twists and turns. I don’t want to give too much away so I will keep this review brief.

The first chapter was very well written and drew me in. Unfortunately this is where our victim meets his end and I was less engaged in the story past the first chapter. I usually like reading James Patterson as a quick read but for some reason this book did not spark interest like it had in the past. I am not sure if it was because I read too many books that week or if I have just changed my tastes but I wasn’t really into this book when I read it. It was a good book the first few times I read it so I do recommend reading it if you love mystery, action and adventure.

I ended up giving this book to my oldest daughter to read since she was looking for a good mystery. She will either pass it on to a friend or sell it at Half Price Books for someone else to love.

VERDICT: GIVE AWAY

My next review will be of “We’ll Meet Again” by Mary Higgins Clark so stay tuned!

Links:

The Beach House by James Patterson

“We’ll Meet Again” by Mary Higgins Clark

Rereading Books Before I Give Them Away Part 1