1:100 Blood in Her Veins by Faith Hunter

A collection of 19 stories from the Jane Yellowrock series including two never before-published novellas.

If you like the Jane Yellowrock series, this is definitely a good read. I've read some of the stories before but there were enough new ones to keep me entertained and fill in some backstory. It was also nice to get some stories that focused on Molly and her family, including some where Jane was not present or not a major part.

Pages read: 542p/542p ytd/390,455p lifetime (from when I started counting in 2012)

7:100 Kitty's Mix-Tape by Carrie Vaughn

 Ms. Vaughn is diving back into Kitty Norville's world in order to give us a collection of short stories about not just Kitty, but many of the other side characters that inhabited the world that people wanted to learn more about. There are songs and story notes for each piece, and many were written for specific anthologies but it's nice to have them all collected in one place and a few new pieces as well.  I hadn't read all the anthologies so many were new for me during this read.

I found it a fun collection but definitely suffered from not having read any of these books those characters appeared in since the last Kitty novel came out, so some of the smaller side characters who got their own stories I had no context for and had to do a quick look up to remember who they were. Those stories were enjoyable but lost what would have undoubtedly made them more special had I remembered what they meant to Kitty and the series. 

Page count: 272p/1,674p ytd/349,055p lifetime

New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 4th Quarter 2019

My usual disclaimer:

Let me state, this is really based on authors or series that I'm already reading since those are the things I follow.  I'm not paid to write this blog nor do I have any affiliations with any publishers so I don't receive free books or advance notice of things except what I glean off Facebook from people who do have those contacts or what I research on my own (which again, leads back to authors that I'm already reading).  Maybe someday I'll be one of those who has the contacts and gets ARCs but it's not today.

Well, adding school to my already hectic life has definitely been challenging.  I'm still trying to figure out how to balance work, homeschooling, college, housework, all the kid activities (bowling, archery, soccer, and gymnastics currently), family life, social life, and down time for things like reading.  Not gonna lie, it's been hard but there are always books to look forward to that I will some day find the time to read.

Starting this list off with what looks to be an amazing anthology of women writers spinning tales of witches and witchcraft, both the good and the evil with Hex Life.  It caught my attention since it has Kelley Armstrong and Rachel Caine whom I enjoy and of course, opens me up to several new writers as well.  Can't wait!

Release date - October 1

Next up is Sharpest Sting by Jennifer Estep, the 18th book in the Elemental Assassin series.  Gin is still trying to figure out what the heck is up with the Circle and dear old Uncle Mason but as she digs deeper, she will uncover secrets that may have been better left off buried.

Release date - October 8

October is just filled with fun stuff coming out as Kelley Armstrong releases Wolf's Bane which is the first of a YA duology featuring Kate and Logan Danvers.  The twins are now 16 and have been sent off to a supernatural teen leadership conference but of course, something is terribly amiss and the twins are going to get to the bottom of it.  I'm excited to return to this universe.

Release date - October 15

I'm so far behind on the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter but I'm still looking forward to Shattered Bonds because it lets me know that Jane is still going strong and waiting for me to find time to read her adventures.  The synposis doesn't look good with her going off to the mountains to grieve the loss of friends (please not Molly!) and sick from a disease brought about by her magic though.

Release date - October 29

And the month wraps up with the biggest present ever from Seanan McGuire with Laughter at the Academy.  A collection of tons of her short pieces from all different genres spanning more than a decade. I love her patreon stuff (even if some of it scares the crap out of me) and I'm super excited to read what she has put together.

Release date - October 31

This list ends with the release of Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer.  This book looks incredibly bizarre with a messianic fox, a huge fish, band of rebels, a homeless woman, and many more unlikely characters trying to save Earth but I'm very intrigued.

Release date - December 3

29:100 Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks

A collection of short stories written by the award-winning actor, Tom Hanks.  I was excited by this as I love him as an actor, enjoyed listening to interviews with him, and was intrigued by what he would do with his stories.

I was disappointed, big time.  There were a couple of the longer stories that were good but the majority were boring and pointless.  Nothing happened.  I read a lot of short stories and even though they are short, you can still build a new world or make interesting characters that the reader wants to know more about or a plot that grips the reader.  That was not the case here.  It was really more like sitting around listening to your grandfather tell boring old tales of people he knew in his youth that you don't know and don't care about and the stories just ramble for no reason and most of them have the same basic premise so you don't even get any type of departure from type.  My dad is 90, trust me I'm really familiar with it and that's not what I want to read.



Page count: 416p/7,378p ytd/828,263p lifetime

15:100 Otherworld Chills by Kelley Armstrong

A collection of novellas and short stories set in the Women of the Otherworld series.  All but one of these was previously published although I had only read 4 of the 7 before.  Those (Brazen, Chaotic, Amityville Horror, and the Puppy Plan) were previously reviewed.

Sorry Seems to the Hardest Word - Zoe short story with Cassandra.  Neither of them are super big characters in the universe to date so they tend to fall off my radar easily.  This story was a fun little romp.

Off-Duty Angel - I always enjoy a good Eve story and one where she is bored and Kristoff tries to keep her occupied but she ends up in a totally different adventure is just super fun.

Baby Boom - This one is way too creepy although its not really meant to be but in this current day, finding out that someone deliberately screwed with Paige's birth control to make sure she got pregnant is just terrifying.  I'm glad that this is a story and she was able to choose how to handle it with support from Lucas.


Page count: 464p/4,086p ytd/314,991p lifetime

84:100 Curran POV Collection by Gordon Andrews

A collection of short stories written from Curran's point of view that take place between Magic Bites and Magic Bleeds, much of them focusing on his relationship with Kate.  Always fun to see the events from the other perspective and Gordon definitely delivers.


Page count: 157p/14,978p ytd/306,994p lifetime

49:120 Urban Allies edited by Joseph Nassise

An interesting concept where 20 urban fantasy writers were paired up and wrote stories with their partner utilizing a main character from their own series.  Rather than going into detail about each story, I'm going to focus more on how well I think the concept worked for that pair.

Jaye Welles & Caitlyn Kittridge - I've only read the Prospero Wars books by Jaye Wells and nothing by Caitlyn Kittridge so I had no idea about the characters in this story but it didn't matter.  One set was sent on a wild goose chase to hopefully take out the other set but the fur flies and it gets figured out so they team up to find the person who betrayed them both. The story swings back and forth between Sabina and Ava and it mostly works. Even without knowing anything about any of the characters, enough was given so I had a clue (and I'm now very interested in the Sabina books and might check out the Ava books as well) and didn't feel lost but I don't think it was so much that it would annoy someone who was already familiar with those worlds.

Seanan McGuire & Kelley Armstrong - This story right here was the thing that pushed me over the edge into buying this book.  I LOVE both of these authors and their worlds and the thought of them being combined might have made me squeee. Unfortunately, the story did anything but.  They "paired" up Verity from Seanan's Incryptid series with Elena from Kelley's Otherworld series but only sort of.  They were both in the same NY forest and stumbled upon the same poacher but their entire interaction was a brief moment when Elena was kicking the guy's ass and Verity says 'Hi'.  Really?!  I know both characters are cagey by nature but this story could easily have not had the other character and it would not have changed anything so in terms of being a collaborative effort and putting the characters really together it fell enormously flat and was very disappointing.

Steven Savile & Craig Schaefer - This is the first story that has more of what I was expecting in terms of a collaborative effort.  It does swing from what I'm assuming is one author's characters to the others but in a way that was naturally flowing and then flowed back to a cooperative narrative. It blended all the characters well and if I did not know this was a joint effort with characters from two different universes, I would not have guessed it to be the case.


Joseph Nassie & Sam Witt - I knew nothing of either of these writers or their universes before this story.  There was enough backstory in there that I didn't feel totally lost although there were definitely pieces of backstory that were hinted at but not explained which for a short story I think is actually good as it works as a hook to get people to go check out their other books which I totally get.  The story and characters worked well together on the whole.


Diana Rowland & Carrie Vaughn - Ok, I have to admit that the White Trash Zombie and Kitty Norville books are both ones that I really enjoy so I was pretty happy to see these characters mashed up together.  Unfortunately, this one didn't have a whole lot of backstory so I can easily see people not familiar with the worlds not really getting the characters.  They felt a bit flat and the story was predictable with little detail in any sense.  Why do the ones I'm so looking forward to in this book end up being the more disappointing ones?!


Weston Ochse & David Wellington - I really enjoyed this tale and had I not known it was a collaboration, I never would have guessed it to be one.  It flowed very well between the two characters who both seemed at home in the universe.  There was enough background for me to not feel completely disorientated but definitely left me knowing there was a lot more and what was it?! I might be looking into these authors a bit more.


Charlaine Harris & Christopher Golden - I didn't know either of these characters although I did recognize the name Niall from the Sookie books so that's the only way I was able to tell whose character was whose.  They did a nice job of melding the characters together in a world that neither was wholly familiar with which put them on more even footing and allowed a bit more exposition to sound natural as they are figuring everything out.  Well done mashup in my opinion.


C.E. Murphy & Kat Richardson - I've heard of C.E. Murphy but hadn't even added anything to my wishlist. I think it was more a "If you like xxx" kind of thing.  I've read most of Kat Richardson's Greywalker series so I knew one of the characters in this.  I have to say this was the most interesting way of combining two characters from different universes.  Instead of just throwing them in together and calling it the same universe, they end up in a pocket dimension that is bridging the two and Jo Walker and Harper Blaine end up there from their respective sides. The mystery is resolved only when each person takes a spirit into themselves that harnesses the power of the other so Jo and Harper both get to experience the magic of the other.  Quite interesting and well done.


Jeff Somers & Stephen Blackmoor - I'd never heard of either of these authors going into. It was pretty easy to differentiate between them (although I couldn't tell you who went with which character) but I felt like Lem's story gave a bit more back story to that world and fleshed things out more which definitely made it more interesting to someone with no idea about the characters or worlds.


Larry Correia & Jonathan Mayberry - I've heard of Jonathan Mayberry (one of my kids reads his zombie books) but otherwise, I came into this cold.  There was precious little exposition so I really only figured out that we were dealing with two military people who deal with different types of supernatural. I didn't get a good feel for either of the characters, the story was pretty simple and typical of the other types of stories in the book but it wasn't anything that made me want to go pick up anything else by these authors.


Page count: 410p/10,378p ytd/284,397p lifetime

40:120 The Orange Cat and Other Cainsville Tales by Kelley Armstrong

Free collection if you pre-ordered the 4th book in the Cainsville series, Betrayals, and features three stories from that universe.

The Orange Cat - Gabriel has never had a client quite like this man.  He has come in and told Gabriel that he has tried to get rid of his cat many times and it always comes back. He is sure the last time, he lost his temper and broke the cat's neck but the next day it was back.  Now Gabriel grew up with time in Cainsville so he knows weird things can happen but this one may just be the one that stumps him.

Bad Publicity - Patrick has always made it a point in his writing career to make sure his contracts keep him from having to go out and do any kind of publicity since that is the last thing he wants. Unfortunately, he is ambushed by his new "publicist" who manages to find a loophole and that's when things take a turn from the mundane.

Lady of the Lake - Ricky and Liv decided to go on a vacation at the end of book 3 and this takes place during their motorcycle trip. They are up in Canada and find a lovely little lake to stop and refresh themselves. Of course they manage to find a portal and a water fae there. They escape and promise not to go back until they are begged by a young woman in the town where they are staying to help look for her missing baby and they realize they may just know where to find her.

A lovely collection of stories that help fill in and enrich the characters we know and enjoy but aren't necessarily needed for the main story but fulfill that desire to know more.


Page count: 164p/8,451p ytd/282,854p lifetime

28:120 Strangers Among Us edited by Susan Forest & Lucas K. Law

Nineteen stories that explore mental illness in many different aspects, both in SciFi/Fantasy and things that you could see today.  I bought the series because it had a story by Kelley Armstrong and I had a different idea of what the stories would be about.  While the stories were not what I was expecting, I found the stories intriguing and extremely well done.  They depicted that even those will mental illness of all types are worthy of love and respect, some of them in the stories even got it and those were definitely my favorites.


Page count: 368p/5,174p ytd/279,649p lifetime

22:120 Working for Bigfoot by Jim Butcher

A collection of three short novellas that take place throughout the Dresden Files series.  Harry is called out to the forest by Rivers Shoulders at three different points to help Irwin, Rivers Shoulders' son.  "B is for Bigfoot" sees Irwin in middle-school being bullied but these aren't just ordinary bullies and Harry needs to do some talking to keep things from escalating badly.  "I Was a Teenage Bigfoot" means that Irwin is now in a private high school but he has all of a sudden been struck with illness for the first time in his life.  The doctors think it's mono but when Rivers Shoulders sends Harry out, he finds that there is something draining his life force and it's definitely not mono.  Lastly, "Bigfoot on Campus" has Irwin in college and having found happiness with a beautiful girl until the girl's vampiric nature comes to the fore.  Good think Harry knows a thing or two about vampires.

In all, it was a fun collection and I enjoyed returning to Harry's world.


Page count: 136p/4,521p ytd/278,996p lifetime

74:120 Once Upon a Curse: 17 Dark Fairy Tales by various authors

17 Fairy Tales that take a much darker tone, more in keeping with the original cautionary tales that Fairy Tales once were than the Disneyfied versions we tend to be more familiar with.  Tales include Alice in Wonderland as a lonely princess with psychological problems, an even darker Snow Queen, the Devil falling in love after a bargain is stuck, and many more.  As in any collection of stories by different authors, I enjoyed some more than others and one or two just fell flat for me.


Page count: 360p/20,050p ytd/269,200p lifetime

56:120 Led Astray by Kelley Armstrong

A wonderful collection of short stories by Kelley Armstrong.  Some have been previously published and I had read before, some are new to this collection.  This was my first exposure to some of her other universes since I've pretty much stuck with Otherworld and Cainsville but I didn't feel like I was missing a ton by not being familiar with the characters or worlds.  There are 23 short stories in this collection, some are standalone and others are in universes her readers would be familiar with.  I can't honestly think of a single story that I didn't like and generally I had to wait to do something else until I had at least finished the story I was reading because putting them down was just hard to do.  I definitely recommend this collection to fans of Kelley Armstrong or even if you are just curious about her work but don't want to delve into a series to give her a try (although seriously, you should totally do just that because she's amazing!).

Page count: 425p/15,599p ytd/265,59p lifetime

54:120 A Fantasy Medley 3 by Carey, Hearne, Bickle, & De Bodard

Goddess at the Crossroads by Kevin Hearne - set in the Iron Druid series, Atticus recalls a night in the presence of Shakespeare when they came across a Hecate summoning which provided the Bard with the idea for the Witches in Macbeth.  This is the second short story I've read in the universe and I've enjoyed them both. I have the books in my to-read stack so I really need to move them up the list and read them already.

Ashes by Laura Bickle - Anya Kalinczyk is trying to track down the powerful Nain Rouge in Detroit before it causes any more damage.  She has her 5ft salamander familiar Sparky to aid her and then Hades' Charon turns up as well and what a team they make.  I found the premise and characters interesting enough to consider finding more by this author.

Death of Aiguillon  by Aliette De Bodard - The house Huyen has been working for has now been taken down by others and she is now trying to survive houseless in the slums of Paris with other houseless servants just like her.  She has however attracted the attention of some of the more powerful beings in the city and it may not be the hand up she was hoping for.  This one just didn't grip me. It felt like there was too much backstory going on that was not given which made it difficult to understand the nuances of all the personal interactions.

One Hundred Ablutions by Jacqueline Carey - Dala has been chosen by her people's overlords to serve as a handmaiden to their gods. However, there are other forces at work that want to see her people freed and they believe that she will be a major part of the revolution.  An interesting tale in a world that I don't think I've read about before but I'd love to read more about.


Page count: 151p/14,746p ytd/264,706p lifetime

50:120 Moon Swept: Otherworld Tales of First Love by Yasmine Galenorn

Three short stories detailing the first loves of Camille, Delilah, and Menolly.  We've seen that before Trillian, there was Camille's cousin Shamus but now we see why it really didn't work out and it wasn't just their family's disapproval.  Next we get to read more about the start of Delilah and Chase's relationship since that happened during one of Camille's turns at narration.  Lastly, we get a glimpse of what Menolly's life could have been like before she was turned into a vampire as she becomes friendly with the neighboring farmer.

It was nice to see what their relationships were before we saw them with their current, lasting partners.


Page count: 51p/13,175p ytd/263,135p lifetime

140:120 Small Magics by Ilona Andrews

A collection of short stories written in the Kate Daniels universe.  I think they have all been previously published but I'd only read two of them before.

A Questionable Client - the story of how Kate and Siaman met.  I'd read this one before and it definitely shows Kate knowledge, determination, and sense of fairness.  Oh, and Siaman is a dick from the start.

Retribution Clause - The company Adam works for has been hired to kill the husband of a murdered woman as part of a retribution clause in her will.  He and his partner have their work cut out getting to him with his excellent security but what they find is not at all what they were expecting.

Of Swine and Roses - Alena has been caught the eye of Chad Thurman, the son of a powerful family in their area.  Her family has pushed her to go on the date but she is very much uninterested but goes along for her family.  The date is going horribly when she spies a small pig running away from Chad's cronies and Chad yelling at them to kill it.  Alena decides it's now worth it to keep that pig alive and see what is so special about it.

Grace of Small Magics - Grace's family is under a bond of servitude to the Dreoch Clan for crimes committed generations ago.  Her uncle has had to do a few jobs for them and so has her mom but now they want Grace to help them in an arbitration challenge.  She is bound to go by the contract but she stands the chance to win so much.

Magic Tests - Kate is making Julie go to school and Julie is not a fan of this plan.  She finally picks a school from Kate's list but when they get there, she is put in charge of finding a missing school rather than just getting a regular tour. Kate knows just the way to get Julie to decide that maybe this school thing isn't as bad as it seems.  I've also read this one before and enjoyed it this time around as well.

In all, I enjoyed the collection although in my opinion there is never enough Kate and Curran these were fun forays into that universe.


Page count: 159p/35,315p ytd/250,231p lifetime

114:120 Straying from the Path by Carrie Vaughn

A collection of short stories in all sorts of genres.  Some are her take on a historical events, some are purely fantasy.  A few were slow moving but most were intriguing and fun to read.


Page count: 196p/29,971p ytd/244,887p lifetime

70:120 Life Sentence: Two Tales of the Living Dead by Kelley Armstrong

Two short stories by Kelley Armstrong about the undead.

Life Sentence ~ Daniel Boyd, a younger son of the Boyd Cabal (a familiar name to those who have read her Otherworld series) has been told he has 6 months to live.  While the other Cabals are researching vampires, he tries the other route...zombies.  Of course, to find a way to turn himself into a zombie with full control over himself and none of that icky rotting issue to deal with is going to take finding a scientist with a lot of brains and few qualms about *ahem* experimentation.

Last Stand ~ The Zombie outbreak has finally happened and survivors are scattered all over.  This group is uncertain how many more are out there and they are willing to live in peace together if only the Others would allow it.  Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be a choice so what else can they do?

Both stories are well written with nice little twists at the end.  The Boyd Cabal is one that is not a big player in the Otherworld series and you still don't get much of a sense of them in this story as it's pretty short and focused on the main narrative and not much world building.  Last Stand doesn't seem to be set in any of her other worlds and again, with how short it is there is not much world building but it's definitely an intriguing concept.

Page count: 33p/16,823p ytd/231,757p lifetime

66:120 Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth

In Divergent, we follow Tris's point of view from the time of her testing and initiation as a transfer into Dauntless and through the events that then unfold because of her being Divergent.  In this collection, we go back a few years prior to that and see Four's experiences.  His choice to escape his father's brutality at home by becoming Dauntless, his initiation into his new faction, his choices as he learns more and more about what is being hidden and how some of the factions are working together against the common good.

I frequently enjoy reading stories with other POVs than the main series and this was no exception.  I enjoyed Four in the series and always wondered what his life had been like prior to when we meet him with Tris.  This was a nice return to that world with an interesting twist.

Page count: 285p/16,394p ytd/231,328p lifetime

61:120 The Bet and Other Stories by Anton Chekov

A collection of short stories by Anton Chekov.  The Bet takes place between a banker and a lawyer who are debating whether imprisonment is a true punishment or not and the lawyer agrees to be imprisoned by the banker for 15 years.  The other stories deal deal with daily life and trials or more modest means.  In all the stories were interesting, although seemed very typical of morality at the time although there was much immorality that could be debated in them as well.

Page count: 152p/15,880p ytd/230,814p lifetime

60:120 Men of the Otherworld: Collection 2 by Yasmine Galenorn

Short stories from Yasmine Galenorn's Otherworld series that are either background tales or simply don't fit in well within the novels themselves.

Fae-ted to Love ~ In Panther Prowling, Delilah stumbles upon a secret tryst between Vanzir and Aveal, one of the Fae Queens.  In this story, Vanzir has been called out to her realm and we see more of their relationship with a bit of how it happened and an even bigger look into where it may be going.

Smoke and Mirrors ~ We get a glimpse at Smokey when he was young and see his first experience with a human woman.

Luck Be a Leprechaun ~ Bruce is sent to a meet of the Leprechaun high families out in the middle of nowhere.  It's really our first good glimpse at Bruce outside of just being Iris's husband as we see him get lost in the woods and then get captured by hillbillies.

Family Ties ~ Morio has been lying to Camille since they met about his family's acceptance of their marriage.  Like Trillian, his family has strict ideas of honor and what constitutes an acceptable match and Camille definitely does not fit into their plans for their family.  Morio's cousin has come to their house to set things straight and the lies are all coming out now...

It was nice a collection of stories and I hope we get more of them, especially some stuff about Bruce and his background.  I'm curious about leprechauns of her mythology but so far very little has been said.  I have a feeling we will see more about Vanzir and Aveal in future books and that should be interesting.

Page count: 71p/15,728p ytd/230,662p lifetime