Books

“The Priory of the Orange Tree” by Samantha Shannon

I have a BA in English Literature and a Masters in Library and Information Science and I always judge books by two things…the cover…and the length of the book. I love the cover of this book and it is over 800 pages long…I was practically forced to purchase it.

I’m so glad that I did because it is now one of my favorite books of all time. I started reading it in the Cincinnati Airport when the kids and I were waiting for our flight to take us back home. We had been in Cincinnati at the Western & Southern Open for a few days. It was Jason’s bucket list trip that all of our friends and family had fundraised for us to go on. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it there, but the kids and I went in his memory. I was really needing an escape from the reality of going back home and this book did that perfectly.

There are many aspects of this book that are reminiscent of our world today. Both worlds are very divided. There is a plague that is making everyone fearful. There’s a huge dragon that is poised to escape from the abyss unless everyone can put aside their differences and work together to defeat it…oh wait…that one is just in the book.

Anyway…I love the world and the characters in this book. I was riveted through the whole entire thing. And I keep thinking about it. Hallmarks of a great book in my opinion.