80:120 Fairy Deby by Gail Carriger

Cups is a young fairy with a big problem.  Her mother was saved by the local human king and so she owed him a death debt.  When she died with it unfullfilled, it passed on to Cups and no fairy can grow their wings with such a debt hanging on to them.  Now she has traveled to the King's court to become the Lesser Jester to the princess to try and work off this debt but somehow, teaching the princess to tumble doesn't seem like it will do the trick.

A fun little tale with fairies and a princess and even a dragon to read when you standing in line at the grocery store or otherwise have a few minutes to spare and just want the world to stop for a bit.

Page count: 21p/21,403p ytd/270,553p lifetime

79:120 Sweep in Peace by Ilona Andrews

The second book in the Innkeeper Chronicles.  Dina is the Innkeeper of Gertrude Hunt Inn.  An Inn is in need of guests for the energy to sustain itself and Dina is in need of guests for money to pay the bills.  Unfortunately, she has only one full time guest, Caledonia, who is a sadistic tyrant in hiding from the galaxy.  When the Arbiter shows up at her doorsteps asking if she is willing to host a peace conference made up of three species who want nothing more than to kill each other, Dina has to think long and hard about accepting but ultimately the health of the Inn makes her decision easy.  Unfortunately, while all three factions have lost dearly enough in the war to come to the table, getting them to put their pride on the back burner to make the deal is another thing altogether and the Arbiter has many strings to pull to try and bring the peace about and is not afraid to pull every last one out.

My thoughts on this book are all over the map.  I really enjoyed the first one and was thrilled to get the second one as I'm just horrible about reading things on a blog on a weekly basis so don't bother.  I enjoyed the world building and OMG, Orro the chef is fabulous!  But at the same time, I had issues with it.  It was definitely darker in tone which I don't mind but wasn't quite what I was expecting.  The constant "I'm exhausted", "I'm the Innkeeper, it's my job to ...", and "I wonder what Sean is up to right now" inner monologue by Dina got old less than half way through and never let up.  Maybe that worked in a more serial type of format but reading it straight through was annoying.  Many of the other characters were simply drawn with very little in the way of depth to them.  I love how rich the characters are in the Kate Daniels series so I'm not sure why these got so little.  I still enjoy the world and hope to see more books in it but I also hope they are a bit more polished.


Page count: 237p/21,382p ytd/270,532p lifetime

78:120 Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews

The 9th book in the Kate Daniels series.  Kate is finally ready to tie the knot with Curran but when they ask Roman to officiate, she starts realizing just how big a deal her wedding is going to be.  Then the Witch Oracles send for her to show her that if she marries Curran, he will die by her father's hand but if she doesn't, their son will die by her father's hand as a baby.  Either way, she cannot win. Then Roland, her father, kidnaps Siaman and she is forced to try and get him back.  The future is not set in stone but right now, no path is looking good for Kate and those she loves.  Being Kate, she finds some completely insane and reckless plan in a last ditch effort to save her family and her city. Only time will tell if she has done the impossible.

So much is going on in this book as it seems like the final confrontation with Roland is getting closer.  Kate is her usual, impetuous self but there is definitely something darker growing within her.  She can feel it and she is doing everything she can to not turn into the monster her father is.  With Curran's love and the help of her family and friends, I'm definitely hoping it will be okay.  I am now unhappy though because I read this book in just a couple of days and I now have to wait like a year for the next one to come out.  I want more and I want it NOW!


Page count: 328p/21,145p ytd/270,295p lifetime

77:120 Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger

Lady Preshea Villentia is a highly trained spy and assassin and also a widow 4 times over which has earned her the nickname "The Mourning Star".  She is now set up to live her life as she pleases, being no longer under any obligation to anyone but when Lord Akledama invites her to a secret meeting, she realizes she is bored and the task of keeping a Duke safe while under the guise of working for him to break up the relationship between his daughter and an unsuitable suitor seems like just the thing.  She wasn't counting on a Scottish soldier to truly enliven things for her.

Set in the world of Ms. Carriger's Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series, Preshea is a character from the Finishing School who always said that she was more interested in murdering her husbands than cohabiting nicely with them.  It seems that what she really needed was someone who knew her worth and was content with any affection she choose to show him.  The courtship was sweet and the book a fun, fluffy read.


Page count: 150p/20,817p ytd/269,967p lifetime

76:120 A History of US: The First Americans by Joy Hakim

This is now my third time reading this history book.  Here's my previous review:

Book 1 in the History of Us series which we are using for 5th & 8th grade US History.  It's a two year course so I'll be working on these for a while.  Honestly, I'm not overly thrilled with the series.  It's very jumpy in it's telling and the language isn't as engaging as I was hoping for.  8th grader loved it in 5th grade but hates it now.  I can see why.  It's working well for the 5th grader tho with the super short chapters.  So long as it's working, we'll stick with it but I was so hoping for something more engaging like the Oxford series we did for middle school Ancient History.

Well, having a year break from the lovely Oxford series and trying to read high school history while reading this along with a having a child who is enjoying it makes it seem better than this.  I think it is a decent history curriculum for the 5-6th graders, short chapters and a bit of engaging "let's pretend" thing going on, but it definitely will suffer in comparison to other, stronger texts.  Still better than high school history courses in general though since it dives deeper.


Page count: 183p/20,667p ytd/269,817p lifetime

New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 4th Quarter 2016

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.

So I'm not entirely sure where the heck July and August went but they certainly did not contain much in the way of reading and so I'm staring down the fourth quarter of the year over 10 books behind pace to make my goal, 5 books behind my new author goal, and about 10,000 pages behind that goal.  So yeah, I seriously need to get reading done in the next few months.  At least I shouldn't be seeing my To Read pile growing crazily as there are only a few books coming out this quarter that I will definitely be picking up.

The first is Otherworld Chills by Kelley Armstrong.  This is the last of the promised trilogy of short stories and novellas that was promised in her Otherworld series.  Apparently this one wraps up several of the story lines that were not fully resolved.  I can only hope she will continue to play in this world moving forward as while I enjoy her other work, I really really enjoy this universe and the characters in it.

Release Date: October 4

Shadowed Souls is an anthology of stories where things are not always as black and white as they appear.  It contains stories from Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Kat Richardson, Tanya Huff, and several others I'm not as familiar with but looks to be a fun read.

Release Date: November 1

Also being released that day is Curse on the Land by Faith Hunter.  This is the second of the Soulwood books that are set in the Jane Yellowrock series but follow Nell and the PsyLED team.  This takes place after Nell has completed her training.  She returns home only to find that the land itself is sick and evil is spreading.  I am a book behind in the Jane Yellowrock series and haven't gotten to the first book in this series but considering how much I like her work in this universe, I will definitely be picking it up.

Release Date: November 1

I haven't fully made up my mind about The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen.  The first book was ok but not spectacular and had many issues.  My book club read it (my pick) and several people had more issues with it than I did but several others seemed to enjoy it but also expressed issues with the writing and such that I did.  Two people went on to read the second book, one was enjoying it and the other actually gave up half way through.  Based on this, I think I'm going to read the second book before deciding whether or not to buy this one.  It does sound from the description that things will get wrapped up which is not surprising since it's a planned trilogy which is one good thing and I do like to see things finished but it really depends on if the writing gets better in the second.

Release Date: November 29

So just four books and one of those is a maybe.  Hopefully this means I can get some of the other reading caught up but the way the school reading is going this year, that may just be a pretty dream.  We shall see.

75:120 The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Book 1 of the Queen of the Tearling trilogy.  Kelsea has spent the first 19 years of her life in the care of a married couple whose job was to raise her to take the throne upon her coming of age.  Her mother died when Kelsea was young and her uncle has been the Regent ever since.  The country has been in despair almost her entire life as the Regent cares more about his comfort than the people and they are basically enslaved by a treaty to their neighbor, Mortmense, ruled by the Red Queen for the past 100 years. Now that Kelsea has reached her majority, the Queen's Guard has come to take her to be the Queen.  However, her uncle has been searching for her to kill her for her entire life and the odds are not in her favor of ever getting her crown, much less living long enough to do anything with it.  In spite of those odds, the Guards execute a plan and get her to the castle and a crown placed upon  her head. Her first act was to stop the tribute of thousands of people being sent to Mortmense as slaves every month and now she must try to prepare her country for an invasion from an insurmountable enemy that she has just kicked in the face.  To top it all off, she has enemies in her own country that would prefer things to go back to the way they were.

So where to start on my opinions of this book.  Hearing that Emma Watson had been cast as Kelsea and all the praise and good reviews as well as being a lover of fantasy in general made me extremely hopeful for the book.  Unfortunately, it did not live up to expectations.

First the bad.  Kelsea didn't read as fully believable.  She was isolated for 19 yrs but somehow knew how to read people completely but yet seemed to have no concept of decorum, palace management, diplomacy, history of her people, or a number of other things potential rulers are generally schooled in.  She goes back and forth between knowing and understanding tons of things seemingly instinctively and then having no clue about similar things.  She constantly bemoans the fact that she isn't pretty enough.  Her thoughts and moods swing wildly but yet manage to be somehow monotonous. Some of the other characters are a bit more balanced but none have much in the way of depth and there is definitely character growth lacking.  The villain is suitably mysterious but other than being incredibly cruel doesn't really seem to even know why she cares about taking over Kelsea's country.  When after almost 20 years she hasn't been able to find and kill Kelsea, she finally reveals that she has some sort of demon that is in charge of her and he doesn't want Kelsea harmed.  No reason given.  So why has this been a thing then?

The fact that this story is apparently set on Earth in the future but with a medieval feel with hints at some great catastrophe that has reduced technology backwards hundreds of years could be a set-up for something really interesting.  It's an interesting way of world building but I still found it jarring to hear references from nowhere to modern things.  It kind of brought me out of the world and the story that was being told.

For all that, I think there were some interesting things being hinted at and I hope that they start to come to light in the next book.  I think a better editor could have pulled this book together better and made it more cohesive.  It's a first book and I think it really shows in places.  Potential is there but execution lacks.  I have the second book in the series here so I'm going to give it a try and then decide if I care enough to finish the trilogy.


Page count: 434p/20,484p ytd/269,634p lifetime