Book Review: A Touch of Ruin.

Book 20 of 2021

A Touch of Ruin. (Hades Saga #2) Written by Scarlett St. Clair.

So I definitely spent the weekend in this world. I have found the stories very compelling and hard to put down. While I might have read the first one for the smut, the second one I was definitely reading for the story, and I felt that it was much more story driven.

I do have to say though, while I am loving the world, Persephone in this book really got to me. She felt like a really stubborn Naiive young person who refused to listen to reason. While I think stubborness is a good trait – it has to be to a point, at some point if you are not listening to everyone around you who is saying the same thing then there is a problem!

I am really interested to read the 2.5 book for this story as I am fascinated to read some of the other side of thinking.

I did not like Persephone is this book, as I have said above, so much of what she did just did not sit right with me, deciding that her opinion was more important than everyone elses, deciding that she knew better than these people with thousands of years experience, and the lack of communication between her and her boyfriend just drove me absolutely nuts! It kind of ties in again to my thoughts on what we are teaching our young people about relationships!

Things I did like though included the development of the world, and the new story, as we got a lot more of Apollo and Aphrodite in this book, which I found really interesting, and am hoping we get more of their story explained in the 2.5 book.

Overall – I am still totally obcesssed with this series. Am trying to decide if I take a break before 2.5 or just power through! I do have another two books that I am excited to read.

Mrs K

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Mythology, Retellings, Greek Mythology, Fantasy Romance, Fiction, Paranormal, Adult, New Adult, Urban Fantasy, Hades and Persephone, Speculative fiction, A game of fate, Hades Saga, different persepctives, God of the underworld, Goddess of Spring, Scarlett St Clair, Mrs K Reads, Books, Smut, good stories,

Book Review: A Game of Fate

Book 19 of 2021

A Game of Fate. Written by Scarlett St. Clair.

So this book is the story of A Touch of Darkness, but is told from Hades point of view, rather than Persephones. As such this is a 1.5 book in the series. It does not progress the story at all.

I am not normally into this type of book, as in the same book, just written from a different persepctive, however this one really worked. I think what I liked about A Game of Fate, was because you already knew the outcome and how the story went you were able to slow down and appreciate the world a little bit. This was also significant as you got a lot more information about the world of the gods from Hades point of view. In fact, despite having a common story line, you could argue they were very different books.

You saw a lot more of the gods, and what their roles in the world were. Also how they think and what they do. Which was really fascinating. From that point of view I am really looking forward to the second book in the series from Hades perspective.

I think one thing that I really enjoyed was realising that in this world Hades was just so ancient. Persephone claimed a lot about wanting to know more about him, but how do you let someone know you when you have existed for millenia, and in that time you have changed multiple times.

I will say, that the other thing I really appreciated in this book was the character Hercate. I thought her role as confident to Hades was fantastic and was so nice to see. Especially when there was so much competition and annonymosity between the bulk of the gods.

I will say, and probably have said before, that I do not really know a lot about the myths and the greek gods, but think that I might try and read a lot more of the retellings that are available. I did, a while ago now, really enjoy The Song of Achilles.

Mrs K

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Mythology, Retellings, Greek Mythology, Fantasy Romance, Fiction, Paranormal, Adult, New Adult, Urban Fantasy, Hades and Persephone, Speculative fiction, A game of fate, Hades Saga, different persepctives, God of the underworld, Goddess of Spring, Scarlett St Clair, Mrs K Reads, Books, Smut, good stories,

Teaching; Formative assessment thoughts

So I managed to get into a position yesterday where I was on top of my marking. (At this time of the year that always feels like somewhat of a victory in itself) So I spent some time doing some of my uni study, which included a variety of readings on assessment for learning. Among the readings I cam across this video:

It is just a little under two minutes thirty and I highly recommend that you watch it. In this video he compares piloting a plane to teaching only with formative assessment. I don’t think that anything has every resonated with me more.

What is really exciting is that this also managed to come up at the time where I was using so much of the good practice that I have read about.

Given that I am nearing the end of the term I have been getting my junior classes to work on writing essays, starting with paragraphs. What I have done in a way that I have never done before is giving them a mark and feedback, and then getting them to respond to my feedback with an I statements. So that I knew that they had read my feedback and understood it then they applied that the next day in writing a new paragraph. This has been a really successful way of seeing them improve dramatically, lots of practice, and feedback and all of it timely. Yes this is time consuming for me – and I could not do it for all classes all the time, but for a short burst it has been a great way to boost students confidence.

One thing I really like from the reading that I have done is the idea that not all formative assessment needs to be assessment in the traditional sense. Rather it can simply be asking questions and getting clarification from students, really understanding how they are going. This is similar to the pilot adjusting his speed or navigation based on wind speed and direction. The problem I think comes through the use of the word assessment. Teachers still see all assessment in the very archaic sense of the word, as a cumbersome task that is there to literally assess. What I was interested by is that if you look at the origins of the word assessment:

The Latin root assidere means to sit beside.

So how on earth did we as teachers manage to turn this into a word where we do something to the students!! This to me also brings in the discussion needed about timing. I was explaining to one of my year 13 students the other day that I understand it is tough that in English we do the bulk of our assessing at the end of the year, but that is so that they have the longest chance to grow and develop. Otherwise they have no further knowledge or experience than what they had at the end of year 12. Assessing in February offers very little change from the november assessments and certainly does not give real oppurtunity for students to have any growth.

Don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not anti assessment – but the purpose of assessment should be to allow students to show off what they know, and where necessary get feedback on how to improve, rather than a one off test that allows no growth.

We need to get back to the root of the word, and sit beside our students, learning how to best assess them, rather than simply doing what we have always done.

Back to the pilot anology, how crazy to not take in the situations and surroundings, and then kick everyone else off because of your plan with no consideration whatsoever for your passengers.

On that note – I am off to give feedback to my year 10 students on yesterdays paragraph.

Mrs K

Book Review: Reborn

Book 18 of 2021

Shadow Beast Shifters series. Reborn. Written by Jaymin Eve.

Another day … another trashy novel. I really need to sort my stuff! Any one got any good recommendations of some more substantial YA novels?

This was the conclusion, or the third book in the series, I raced through the other two earlier this year. However I am not as sold on this third book as I wanted to be. I really wanted to enjoy the third book – and I did. I loved the first 44% of it, and then it kind of all just got too much. For me, there was too much smut, there was too much possessiveness, there was too much rebirth, there was just too much. There lacked character development. (I know I know – but even in trashy novels I expect something!) Also when a catastrophic event happended like 80% of the way through the book all I could think was well that is not the end.

I think the first two books balanced the worlds a bit more, a shift between earth, which obviously is familiar to me, and others. This one all was just too much other. My other issue is the massive deal that was made of Sam and Simone at the start of this book and then these were characters who literally just disappeared.

Don’t get me wrong – there were lots of great moments in this text. I loved Mera fighting for her memories, I loved the scenes with the chocolate, and teh development of a pack/family but that was about all. All up I was a little dissapointed with how this series ended.

Mrs K

Genre: Jaynin Eve, Shadow Beast Shifter, Reborn, fantasy, adult fiction, adult fantasy, shapeshifters, paranormal, romance, magic, vampires, werewolves, urban fantasy, speculative fiction, Smut,

Book Review: A Touch of Darkness

Book 17 of 2021

A Touch of Darkness. Written by Scarlett St. Clair

So here we are another trashy novel… but I do have some things to say about this one. So this is a book I saw advertised on one of the YA insta pages that I follow. It had the caption “Good story & Smut” and as I said in my last post, given that I am feeling quite overwhelmed with work etc at the moment and am using reading as a total escape this was exactly what I wanted. It also helped that it was on Kindle unlimited.

I also need to interupt myself to share my absolute joy that when I just looked it up now to get the image I realised there are more books in the series! So guess what I will be reading as soon as I get home! (Well… and after I do my marking!)

This book is loosely based on some of the mythology of the greek gods – clue number one the main characters are Hades and Persephone, however they live in the world outside our window, and people know them as gods etc. I found it really fascinating as these are not stories that I know well. In fact it is an area I would like to find out more about, and I was interested after I had read only a few chapters I asked my husband for the story of Persephone and was interested that what he told me matched very well with the story itself.

Overall I really liked this book. I really liked the aspect of the world of the gods but in our world. That was really fascinating. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of this series.

Mrs K

Genre: Romance, Mythology, Speculative Fiction, Fantasy, Gods, Hades, Persephone, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Scarlett St Clair, Smut,

Book Review: Bitter Sweet Love

Book 16 of 2021

Bitter Sweet Love. A Dark Elements Novella. Written by Jennifer L. Armentrout.

When I grabbed this from the kindle unlimited I did not realise it was a novella, or for that matter that it was part of the Dark Elements world. So you can imagine both my delight in realising it was part of that world and my subsequent horror when I realised it was short!

This was a really great little snippet of the world. It is interesting, because I really struggle with women having so little freedom in a modern western setting, it just seems so crazy to me. I really appreciated the strength of the main character to use situations to her advantage.

I enjoyed this book, but I feel like we should emphasise, like so much of what I have read this year, it is not quite what I would class as good literature or even as something that I would consider teaching. It is also only definitely something to read after you have already been introduced to the world.

Mrs K

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Demons, New Adult, Urban Fantasy, Supernatural, Speculative Fiction, Jennifer L Armentrout, Dark Elements,

PS: I will read something more substantial sooon…. just feeling overwhelmed this year and definitely using my reading as an escape rather than to discuss the issues with the world. I am interested if we will start seeing pandemic literature as a genre though!