hello and welcome to mine and Ally’s old blog. As you can see there is not much new stuff on here, apart from a broken promise to blog more. Ooops.

I ate chicken last year in September and, for future reference, here is a list of other non-vegetarian foods that I have consumed in the last three years or so:

- Heaps of prawn crackers
- Vodka jelly
- Lea & Perrins
- Vast amounts of non-vegetarian alcohol (I never really check)
- Pesto
- Parmesan and various other cheeses (I only ever check Cheddar)
- Burgers from pubs where I am not sure if they have been fried separately from meat
- Chips from McDonalds
- Chips from Coffee & Cream
- A bit of a Boeuf Bourguignon a friend made last year that he was really proud of and wanted me to at least try
- A salad dressing that was made with anchovies that no one told me about beforehand

I occasionally cook with meat as well, but usually for other people. As mentioned elsewhere in the blog, if you read stalked closely, I made some meatballs a while ago. I also made the German delicacy of Rinderrouladen for my mother last Christmas. I whinged a lot, it was icky. Still made it though.

Madly enough, I still consider myself a vegetarian, seen as I very rarely choose to eat meat and can even deal with the crushing guilt when I do try some.

I hope these facts are not too hard to stomach (pardon the pun) and will not cause you too many sleepless nights. Life r hard.

Ahoy,

So, once again, I apologise and I promise a food post soon after the Easter weekend and then a book post once I have finished a reviewable book.

I’ll leave you with one last readathon photo.

Don’t forget about us.

Hallo.
Ich wollte nur mal durchgeben, dass sowohl Ally und ich am Leben sind. Und ich entschuldige mich, im Moment so lahm zu sein, was das Bloggen angeht. Nur ist leider mein Leben im Moment auch ziemlich lahm. Ich habe zur Zeit keine Vorlesungen, und die letzten paar Wochen sind irgendwie einfach verschwunden, mit lange Ausschlafen, Videospiele spielen und Essen liefern lassen. Ich habe zwar gelesen, aber keine Bücher bei denen ich das Gefühl hatte, sie rezensieren zu sollen, wie zum Beispiel Verblendung, was zwar ein prima Buch war, aber eins eh schon alle kennen und zu dem auch schon genug im Internet zu finden ist.

Ich habe auch nicht richtig gekocht. Ich habe, wie gesagt, viel Essen bestellt, oder Reste-Essen veranstaltet. Aber eben nichts Richtiges oder Tolles.

Also, noch mal, tut mir Leid, dass hier so wenig los ist. Ich verspreche euch einen Koch-Post nach dem Osterwochenende und einen Buch-Post sobald ich ein zu rezensierendes Buch gelesen habe.

I’m only doing this now because my internet was being moody and also, I had to bake. I will update this post rather than post a new one every hour.

Reading: Terry Pratchett – Men At Arms
Started on page: 278
On page: 381, finished
Total pages read: 103
Total time read: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Mini challenge by I heart monster:

1)Where are you reading from today?
2)Three random facts about me…
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

1) I am reading from the lovely village Borgholzhausen in Germany.
2) – My readathon started out in a bit of a mess due to my internet being moody, so I couldn’t access the recipe for the brownies I wanted to make (found here, on this very blog) before it actually started, as planned. So I’m baking and reading at the same time. Not very successfully, I might add.
- I am reading in English and German. I have a feeling this will bite me in the arse sometime later.
- I am soon going on holiday with my lovely co-blogger Anna. I totally didn’t steal this from her.
3) 7, plus a few backups if they don’t hold my attention.
4) Not really, since I have no idea what to expect. Maybe next time!
5) Virgin!

I also added myself to the reading map, so now you can go stalk me.

Hour 3 – 17:19

Reading: Haruki Murakami – Gefährliche Geliebte
Started on page: 7
On page: 9
Total pages read: 105
Total time read: 2 hours, 15 minutes
It’s not going as well as I either hoped or expected, but I should be able to read without any distractions for a while.

Hour 4 – 18:31

Reading: Still Gefährliche Geliebte
Started on page: 9
On page: 27
Total pages read: 123
Total time read: 2 hours, 40 minutes
This is getting ridiculous! I think I take way too much time to blog and making fun of Jehova’s witnesses brochures.

Mini challenge by Allie:

What is your favorite “classic” and why? How has that classic impacted your life? (copied from my comment there)

I’m going to have to cheat and say that my favourite is a tie between Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which, I know is a short story, but I still love it and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I grew up watching several adaptions of A Christmas Carol every year and first read the actual story when I was about nine. I have been rereading it pretty much every year ever since. I like that it takes time during my favourite season, but isn’t all rainbows and butterflies and makes you think about yourself and your behaviour towards others.

As for The Picture of Dorian Gray… Well, I’ve just been fascinated by the story ever since I first read it and I just love Oscar Wilde’s style. I like how the three personas interact with each other and it’s a great read, that, again, makes you think.

Hour 7 – 21:07

Reading: Still Gefährliche Geliebte
Started on page: 27
On page: 132
Total pages read: 255
Total time read: about 5 hours
Still haven’t read as much as I’d like but I think it’ll be better once my father stops distracting me. I also find it rather ironic that I walked to a playground (pictured on the right) to have some quiet from the noisy children in our neighbourhood.

Hour 9 – 23:29

Mini-challenge by The Hungry Readers: Re-Create the Cover

Here is the original:

And here is my awesome recreation, because of which I now have cold and wet feet. But I couldn’t be arsed to put on actual shoes. It’s late. Also, yes, I went with the easiest option bar setting things on fire.

Hour 11 – 1:00

Reading: Finished Gefährliche Geliebte, will now start American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Started on page: 132
On page: 218
Total pages read: 341
Total time read: 6 hours, 30 minutes
I’m now going to have a dance party to this: and eat something. Cross your fingers we still have tomatoes!
Update: Yes, yes. We do! Only cherry tomatoes, but better than nothing. NOM.

Mid-event mini-Challenge (apparently, they take time differently than I do *shrugs*)

1. What are you reading right now? – Just finished “South of the Border” by Haruki Murakami, am now moving on to Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods”.
2. How many books have you read so far? – 2
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? – American Gods
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? – Nope.
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? – Yes, I was interrupted several times by my father, the dog, by having to prepare foodstuffs and hhaving to look for a quiet spot to read because our neighbours’ children were REALLY LOUD. I was mildly annoyed, but okay. Hence only having read two books so far. As it’s now the middle of the night, I hope I’ll pick up some of the slack.
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? – How many people have showed up on our blog to encourage us and how bad I am at this.
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? – Maybe it’s because English isn’t my first language, but the mini-challenges aren’t really mini for me. I spent about twenty to thirty minutes on most of the written ones.
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? – I’d make sure THERE ARE NO PEOPLE OTHER THAN ME HOME xD
9. Are you getting tired yet? – Yes.
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? – DANCE PARTIES. Other than that, nope.

Hour 13 – 3:03

Reading: Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Started on page: 13
On page: 23
Total pages read: 351
Total time read: about 7 hours? I have no idea anymore
I suck. I honestly have no idea what I did the last two hours that I only managed to read ten pages. It didn’t seem like two hours, either. I definitely didn’t fall asleep. WHAT HAPPENED? Also, on the left: Where I moved to for the night. Yes, that is the German edition of American Gods, which may be the ugliest book I ever owned. At least I got it second hand.

Mini challenge by Midnight BookGirl: Book Sentence Challenge!

Create a sentence out of at least three book titles. This was my favourite challenge so far, even though I got very frustrated by the fact that most of the books I could have used best were in German. Not amused. So this is what I came up with:

Death in the Afternoon: Reaper Man, blameless.

Hour 16 – 6:03

Started on page: 23
On page: 66
Total pages read: 394
Total time read: about 9 hours
I’m moving at a snail’s pace, here. I usually read this amount of pages in half an hour. And I don’t even know why, I really like this book so far (except for the font it’s printed in, I hate that) and I haven’t been distracted too much. But I also have a real bad headache and might have to go nap for an hour or two. Meh.

Hour 17 – 7:43

Mini challenge by I heart monster:

1)Where are you reading from today?
2)Three random facts about me…
3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?

1) I am reading in Birmingham, UK, even though I started off on a train from Barnt Green, UK to Birmingham and then walked from the station to my flat, reading, without getting run over. Success!
2) – I have planned out exactly what I want to eat during the readathon, am starting to get the feeling that I won’t have enough though.
- Even though I am fluent in three languages, I am only reading in English this time. This wasn’t planned, it just so happened.
- I am soon going on holiday with my lovely co-blogger Ally.
3) 6 books overall.
4) No real plans. I want to read for as long as possible, but seen as I only managed to get three hours of sleep last night, I will have to interrupt to nap.
5) First time for me. I am lost.

I have also added myself to the reading map that you can find here.

Spent the last hour and a bit reading by the canals. It was beautiful, apart from the amount of drunken people that had to come past here. And the duck that shat next to my shoe.
As you can see I am *still* reading Lord of the Flies. Even though I am incredibly slow, I am enjoying it a lot, wish I had been able to read it earlier. I’ve been wanting to read it since I was about 12/13. In one of our German classes we read an extract, I can’t remember which, and our teacher quickly summarised the book for us. It sounded awesome, scary and haunting and now, nearly ten years later it turns out to be exactly that.
I am happy.

I am still on my first book and am slowly going mad. Got so many nice tweets though reminding me it’s not a race.
I’m going to take a break and cook some dinner for myself and drink a lot of water – I have a bit of a headache.
But then I’ll get back to my book with renewed energy and focus!

I finished my first book and night is coming. I am really not sure I’ll make it without naps, but we’ll see. I had dinner and read whilst eating, some of my curry ended up on the book. Sad times.

It’s minichallenge time and I am stupidly excited about this one. It is by The Hungry Readers and we were meant to recreate a book cover of a book that we are reading/planning to read.
I chose My Mother wore a yellow Dress by Christina McKenna, and this is the cover:

and here comes my version. Yay!
Ok, so my dress isn’t yellow and I don’t have a globe, just a bad drawing on some baking paper, but come on!

Big break, driving from mine to Chris’. And I can’t read in the car
Back to reading with some coffee now though. Go me.

I have spent the last hour eating and reading – by the looks of things very slowly. Hummus and things to dip in it! (Also, coffee!)

By the way, does anybody else think that Sally Lockhart is an incredibly stereotypical character? Mhm.

Here is my reply to At Random‘s mini challenge about book/reading habits.

Definitely time for another update, even though I am not making all that much progress. I had a half an hour nap at around 2am and have been reading since then. I also recorded a motivational dance for my co-blogger Ally in order to help her keep going. If it helped, I don’t know.
All I know is that I am reading incredibly slowly. But I am reading!

Small change of plan. Decided to read after the quake instead. It’s shorter and my vision has started to go blurry. Drinking a cup of tea now though and still reading.

So, my list is as follows:

Ken Follett – The pillars of the Earth
Neil Gaiman – Stardust
Haruki Murakami – South of the border
Douglas Coupland – All families are psychotic
Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Marion Zimmer Bradley – Warrior Woman
Peter David – X-Factor vol. 1: The Longest Night

I also have a smaller back-up pile, consisting of Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors, a short story collection, Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay and Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, which I’ve already read, since it’s very likely I’ll want to kill myself after the first hundred pages of the Follett. As you can see by the three Gaiman books, I clearly thought this through. If all else fails, I’ll switch to Harry Potter or something by Tamora Pierce.

Anna hat ja bereits ihre Liste für den Lesemarathon gepostet, also macht es nur Sinn, dass ich auch etwas über meine schreibe. Ich wusste eigentlich bis vor fünf Minuten noch nicht mal, was ich lesen wollte, also bin ich durch mein Zimmer gewandert und habe Bücher rausgesucht, die ich noch lesen wollte, aber noch nicht zu gekommen bin. Ich habe mich dagegen entschieden, Klassiker zu lesen (sonst wären Dracula und Betty und ihre Schwestern auf meiner Liste), da sie, meiner Erfahrung nach, ein bisschen brauchen, um in die Gänge zu kommen und das kann ich nicht gebrauchen.

Also sieht meine Liste so aus:

Ken Follett – Die Säulen der Erde
Neil Gaiman – Der Sternwanderer
Haruki Murakami – Gefährliche Geliebte
Douglas Coupland – Alle Familien sind verkorkst
Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Marion Zimmer Bradley – Das Schwert der Amazone
Peter David – X-Factor vol. 1: The Longest Night

I felt like posting my planned reading list for the day, which consists mainly of books that have been sitting on my shelves for ages now and decided to use this occasion to finally read them.

Harper Lee – To Kill a Mockingbird
David Nicholls – One Day
Haruki Murakami – After the Quake
Philip Pullman – The Ruby in the Smoke
William Golding – Lord of the Flies
Jack Kerouac – On the Road
Christina McKenna – My Mother wore a yellow Dress

I don’t quite know which order I will read them in, think I will decide on the day how I feel and so on. I also need to figure out snacks and food. Because I am German and therefore totally mega-organised.

Did I tell you I actually booked the day off work, so I could take part?

Nur ein schneller Post über den Lesemarathon, da der ja schon in weniger als einer Woche stattfindet. Ich bin übrigens immernoch total begeistert und kann es kaum abwarten. Ob es mir immernoch so gehen wird, wenn ich seit mehreren Stunden gelesen habe, kann ich aber noch nicht sagen.

Ich poste meine geplante Leseliste für den Tag, die hauptsächlich aus Büchern besteht, die schon seit Ewigkeiten auf meinen Regalen herumstehen und habe mich nun entschieden den Lesemarathon als Anlass zu nehmen, sie endlich zu lesen.

Harper Lee – Wer die Nachtigall stört
David Nicholls – Zwei an einem Tag
Haruki Murakami – Nach dem Beben
Philip Pullman – Der Rubin im Rauch
William Golding – Herr der Fliegen
Jack Kerouac – Unterwegs
Christina McKenna – My Mother wore a yellow Dress (Noch nicht auf deutsch erschienen)

Witzigerweise werde ich wohl nur englische Bücher lesen, ich werde aber über die, die auch auf deutsch erschienen sind, auch auf deutsch bloggen. Ich weiß noch nicht richtig in welcher Reihenfolge ich sie lesen werde, ich denke, dass werde ich dann entscheiden. Und ich muss mir noh über Snacks und Essen Gedanken machen. Weil das eben so ist.

Instead of baking extravagant internet recipes, I decided to make something quick and easy, that I didn’t have to buy any ingredients for. I used the Jane Asher’s recipe from Beautiful Baking and loved it. And I just realised I made these vegan as well, without even noticing.

In other news, Ally would hate these. Don’t ever serve her anything with cinnamon.

Ingredients: (makes 12 large ginger nuts)

50g butter (I used soy spread)
125 g golden syrup
50g dark soft brown sugar (I used caster sugar, because that was all I had, it worked just as well)
175g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger

I started off by melting the butter, syrup and sugar together.

Then separately mixed the flour and the spices,

made a well and poured the melted syrup in.

After mixing it all together with a wood spatula, I made little balls (oh yes, I made balls to make nuts.) and put them on my baking tray.

They went into the oven for 8-10 mins at 180 degrees and turned out perfect.
They’re so fantastic for dunking in coffee. I might have had too many and am now not hungry for lunch. Happens.

Ich habe mal wieder gebacken! Ich liebe es zu Backen, aber komme nicht oft genug dazu. Beim Backen kriege ich jedesmal das Gefühl, dass ich Tonnen an Freizeit und keinen Stress habe, weil dass aber leider im Moment kaum der Fall ist, komme ich auch nur wenig zum Backen.

Statt etwas extravagantes aus dem Internet zu backen, habe ich mich für etwas das schnell und einfach geht entschieden, damit ich nicht noch unendlich viele teure Zutaten kaufen muss. Ich habe den Jane Ashers Rezept aus Beautiful Baking benutzt. Und mir ist eben auch aufgefallen, dass meine Ingwerplätzchen vegan geworden sind.

Ally würde diese Plätzchen übrigens hassen. Ihr solltet ihr niemals etwas mit Zimt anbieten.

Zutaten: (für 12 große Ingwerplätzchen)

50g Butter (ich habe Soja Margarine benutzt)
125g Sirup
50g brauner Zucker (ich habe “normalen” Zucker verwendet, den hatte ich noch im Haus. Hat aber genauso gut funktioniert wie brauner Zucker.)
175g Mehl Backpulver
1 Teelöffel Zimt
2 Teelöffel gemahlener Ingwer

Zuerst habe ich die Butter, den Zucker und den Sirup geschmolzen. Getrennt davon habe ich das Mehl, Backpulver und die Gewürze gemischt, eine Mulde gemacht und den heißen Sirup hineingegossen. Danach habe ich alles mit einem Holzlöffel zusammengemischt, kleine Kugeln gerollt und sie auf ein Backblech gelegt.
Das Ganze kam dann 8-10 Minuten bei 180 Grad in den Ofen und als es rauskam war es perfekt.

Blurb: Lou Bertignac has an IQ of 160, a mother who barely speaks and hasn’t left the house in years, and a father who is desperately struggling to keep his family together. But then she meets No, a homeless girl a few years older than her. As the two become friends, Lou resolves to help No get her life back on track, unaware of the impact that her new friend’s sudden presence will have on all their lives.

Review: I picked this book up without real purpose. I think it was one of those “Buy this for £2.99 if you spend more than £10” offers in Waterstones and the cover looked pretty and the title confused me, so I thought I’d take it with me.

I didn’t expect anything from this book, but found myself thoroughly enjoying it and would put this down as the perfect easy guilt free pleasure read; despite the somewhat “heavy” topic. Which mainly has to do with the fact that the 13-year-old Lou narrates the book, and whilst she delivers a few well observed home truths, (“My mother’s right. Life’s unfair and that’s all there is to it. My mother knows something that she is not supposed to know. That’s why she’s not fit for work – that’s what it says on her social security papers. She knows something that prevents her from living, something you’re not supposed to know until you’re very old.”) there are dynamics in her family that she does not even begin to understand.
When No enters the picture, Lou’s family begins to change, and we, or I at least, do not gain the insight I had hoped for. Lou merely watches with jealousy as her mother opens up in No’s presence and every day life gets easier. Of course this lack of understanding is scripted on purpose to emphasise Lou’s naivety concerning some things, but I was hoping for a bit more depth, seen as this is quite a difficult and heart breaking topic.

The ending is also much calmer than expected. I had the feeling the situation was escalating and it was only a matter of time until something horrible would happen. This suspense built up for a few pages and was then dismantled quite easily and quietly by the author, which left my quite confused, I have to admit.

So, overall a good and fun read, even though it’s not as “deep” as it could have been.

Klappentext: Lou ist hochbegabt und eine Einzelgängerin. Am liebsten beobachtet sie die Menschen um sich herum und stellt dabei gewagte Theorien auf, um das zu verstehen, was tagtäglich mit uns geschieht. Bis sie auf die achtzehnjährige No trifft, die mitten in Paris auf der Straße lebt. No mit den dreckigen Klamotten und dem müden Gesicht. No, die jeden Tag um ein Essen und einen Schlafplatz kämpfen muss. No, deren Einsamkeit die Welt in Frage stellt. Und Lou stürzt sich in ihr neues Projekt: Sie will No retten – und sich und der Welt beweisen, dass sich alles ändern lässt …

Rezension: Ich habe dieses Buch ohne richtigen Grund gekauft. Es gab es billig bei einer Sonderaktion im Buchladen, das Cover sah schön aus und der Titel hat mich verwirrt. Also habe ich es mitgenommen.

Ich hatte keine wirklichen Erwartungen, was das Buch anging, war aber total begeistert. Ich würde es als ein nettes, leichtes Buch beschreiben, trotz des schweren Themas. Was hauptsächlich damit zu tun hat, dass das Buch aus der Sicht der 13-Jährigen Lou erzählt wird, und obwohl sie ein paar gut beobachtete, unangenehme Wahrheiten erkennt, (frei aus dem Englischen übersetzt, da ich das Zitat nicht auf Deutsch finden konnte: “Meine Mutter hat Recht. Das Leben ist ungerecht und das ist alles was man dazu sagen kann. Meine Mutter weiß etwas, was sie eigentlich nicht wissen dürfte. Deshalb ist sie arbeitsunfähig – das ist das, was auf den Versicherungspapieren draufsteht. Sie weiß etwas, das sie davon abhält zu leben, etwas, das man nicht wissen sollte bis man sehr, sehr alt ist.“) gibt es eine Dynamik in ihrer Familie, die sie nicht einmal ansatzweise versteht.
Als No der Familie näher kommt, beginnt Lous Familie sich zu verändern, und wir, oder zumindest ich, kriegen nicht die Einsicht die ich mir erhofft hatte. Lou beobachtet nur mit wachsender Eifersucht, wie sich ihre Mutter No öffnet und das Familienleben leichter wird. Natürlich ist dieses Unverständnis Absicht, um Lous Naivität zu betonen, aber ich hatte auf etwas mehr Tiefe und Einsicht gehofft, da es um ein schweres und sehr trauriges Thema geht.

Das Ende ist auch viel ruhiger als erwartet. Ich hatte das Gefühl, dass die Situation eskalieren würde, und dass es nur noch eine Frage der Zeit war, bis etwas Schlimmes passiert. Die Autorin baut diese Spannung für einige Seiten lang auf, und löst sie dann sehr schnell und sehr einfach wieder auf; was mich ehrlicherweise sehr verwirrt hat.

Blurb: Mae’s life has spun out of control.

She’s just learned that her brother Jamie is a magician and Nick, the boy she’d set her heart on, has an even darker secret.

Jamie has been meeting with the new leader of the Obsidian Circle, who is hell-bent on persuading Jamie to join the magicians. When Mae calls on Nick and Alan to save her brother, the Circle sets in motion a plot to bring Nick down – by convincing his own brother to spring a deadly trap.

With brother set against brother and everyone’s loyalties divided, Mae sees a chance to save them all – but it means approaching the mysterious and dangerous Goblin Market alone …

Review: I remember how nitpicky my review of the first book in this trilogy was, and I have to confess, everything I wasn’t happy about has been fixed in this book.

The characters have been developed greatly, and as it says in the blurb “with everyone’s loyalties divided”, it seems that Brennan has given her characters a good shake and mixed everyone and everything up a little. I loved it! All of a sudden, deep rifts appear between both pairs of siblings and their appearing rivalries make the story a lot more intriguing and exciting.

As a few new characters are introduced and the story is told from Mae’s perspective, this book is very different from the first. Mae is (unsurprisingly) a lot more sensitive and emotional than Nick, so I found it easier to get sucked into the story and enjoy it a whole lot more. I liked seeing things from her perspective; in the first book she seemed quite an annoying character, as if she was trying to be someone that wasn’t herself and hadn’t quite found her place in the world yet, but this book reveals her points of view and feelings on things and it was great to see her character developed and become herself. Although she is the “odd one out” in the group as one with no powers or importance to the Obsidian Circle, she finds her place in the group and her role to play in the fight against the magicians.

What I also really liked is that one of the characters from the first book, Sin of the Market, played a much more important role in this book, because I was just so intrigued about her in the last one, that I was really happy to find out more about her.

So, all in all, a fantastic second book and I am really looking forward to the third one, especially if Brennan keeps up her trend of making me a little happier with each of her books.

Klappentext (frei übersetzt): Maes Leben ist außer Kontrolle geraten.

Sie hat gerade erfahren, dass ihr Bruder Jamie ein Zauberer ist und Nick, der Junge an dem ihr Herz hängt, ein noch dunkleres Geheimnis hat.

Jamie trifft sich regelmäßig mit dem neuen Anführer des Obsidian Kreises, welcher Jamie auf Teufel komm raus überzeugen möchte, den Magiern beizutreten. Als Mae auf Nick und Alan ruft um ihren Bruder zu retten, setzt der Kreis einen Plan in Bewegung um Nick zu vernichten – indem sie seinen eigenen Bruder überzeugen ihm eine tödliche Falle zu stellen.

Jetzt, mit den Brüdern gegeneinander aufgebracht und der Treue von ihnen allen in neuen Bahnen, sieht Mae eine Chance um sie alle zu retten – diese aber bedeutet sich dem geheimnisvollen und gefährlichen Goblin Market alleine zu nähern.

Rezension: Ich weiß noch, wie pingelig meine Rezension des ersten Buches der Trilogie war, und ich muss zugeben, dass alles was mir an dem Buch nicht gefallen hat, in diesem verschwunden ist.

Die Figuren wurden weiter entwickelt, und wie es schon im Klappentext steht “mit der Treue von ihnen allen in neuen Bahnen”, ist es, als ob Brennan jede ihrer Figuren ordentlich durchgeschüttelt hat und damit einiges durcheinander gemischt und neu verwickelt hat. Es ist klasse! Die große Kluft die plötzlich zwischen den Geschwisterpaaren auftaucht und die Konkurrenz die zwischen ihnen aufkommt, machen die Geschichte noch um einiges mehr fesselnd und spannend.

Da ein paar neue Figuren eingeführt werden und die Geschichte aus der Sicht Maes geschrieben ist, ist dieses Buch komplett anders als das Erste. Mae ist (unüberraschenderweise) viel sensibler und emotionaler als Nick, daher war es leichter, in der Geschichte zu versinken. Ich fand es toll ihre Perspektive zu lesen; im ersten Buch kam sie mir wie eine ziemlich nervige Figur vor, die ihren Platz in der Welt noch nicht gefunden hat, als würde sie versuchen, jemand der sie nicht ist, zu sein. Aber dieses Buch zeigt ihre Sichtweisen, Ideen und Gefühle und es war prima zu sehen, wie sich ihr Charakter entwickelt hat und zu sich selbst gefunden hat. Obwohl sie die “Außenseiterin” in der Gruppe ist, als diejenige die keine Kräfte hat und ohne Bedeutung für den Obsidian Kreis ist, findet sie ihren Platz in der Gruppe und ihre Rolle im Kampf gegen die Magier.

Was mir auch sehr gut gefallen hat ist, dass einer der Charaktere aus dem ersten Buch, Sin vom Goblin Markt, eine weitaus wichtigere Rolle in diesem Buch spielt; ich war schon im ersten Buch fasziniert von ihr, und habe mich gefreut mehr über sie zu lesen.