Review of 'A Storm of Swords Part 2: Blood and Gold' by George R R Martin

2020 is going to be the year I finish reading the Game of Thrones series. Probably. But I'm feeling pretty determined to get through it after starting back in 2018. This is the fourth volume, the second part of the third book in the series. It's probably the most action packed of the books so far, and if you're a fan of the TV show, there are some massive scenes from it that all fit into this book.

This book mostly revolves around marriage, betrayal and revenge. After Robb Stark betrays the Freys by marrying a woman he falls in love with, breaking his engagement to one of the members of their family, they propose a marriage between his uncle and one of the many Frey daughters. This leads to the Red Wedding, where things don't quite go to plan for the Starks. Margaery and Joffrey Lannister are married, another wedding that tragedy strikes. Across the water, Daenerys is on a mission to free slaves and allow them to join the army she is amassing.

It's hard to ever go into much detail on the plot for these books because each one just has so much crammed in. Part 1 of A Storm of Swords really set the political background for a lot of the drama in this, and it really felt packed full of shocking scenes without making them seem forced, as the narrative had been leading up to them for a long time.

I'm very excited to read the fourth book in the series now, which I managed to find in a charity shop a few weeks ago!

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Review of 'Attachments' by Rainbow Rowell

After reading Fangirl and Eleanor and Park, I figured this would be another of Rainbow Rowell's books that I liked but didn't love. A comfort read that I could whizz through and maybe this time it'd be one I really liked. But I just couldn't get on board this time around.

Attachments is about an IT guy called Lincoln whose job it is to look through emails that his work's system flags as being inappropriate (i.e. not work related) and check if they were correctly flagged. However, when he keeps needing to check Jennifer and Beth's emails because they've been flagged, he doesn't report them as he ought to. Instead, reading their emails to each other becomes his favourite part of his job. It's a distraction, but it all seems fine until Lincoln realises he really does have feelings for Beth, and he has no way of knowing who she is in person.

I really struggled with the message this book sends. The plot is centred around reading someone's private emails without their knowledge. Yes, the women shouldn't have been sending them at work, but there's also something insidious about the fact that Lincoln uses the private information he's gleaned to make himself as appealing to Beth as possible when he meets her. The issue beyond that is that there's no blame or shame attributed to him for what he's doing, and this is a book that's aimed at teens. Just an FYI - eavesdropping or spying in any form, digital or otherwise isn't the way forward in trying to hook up with someone. It's manipulative and puts things in an unfair power balance when they can't know anything about you in return.

I gave this a one star because the whole plot was centred around this creep - I didn't warm to him at all as a character, and I didn't want the romance to work (which makes it pretty hard to enjoy a romance novel!).

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