The 20th book in the Otherworld series by Yasmine Galenorn, told from Delilah's POV. Delilah's wedding is fast approaching as is her time for bearing the child of the Autumn Lord but there is still the war with Shadow Wing and while they have dealt him many serious blows and the Kerrastar Knights are now together and united under Camille, he is not down and out yet. In his desperation, he has sent Yerghan the Blade to Camille's house on the night of their wedding shower and Shade has been injured with a soul blade that has sent his soul to another realm. Delilah must find it and bring him home if he is to survive and then she and her sisters must make sure that Yerghan can never do this to anyone else ever again.
The characters are what really make these books. The plots are usually pretty predictable without much in the way of twists and turns and all the major characters are going to make it out alive (secondary characters, not so much but that's what they are there for and it doesn't mean it won't sting when they don't). But really, watching the sisters grow and mature, find and accept their paths, is what these books are really about and this book really showed just how much of that there has been. Delilah was always the innocent and while that changed a while ago, you can see her mourning that in this book as well as get hit with it occasionally as things are changing at a breakneck speed now. It was nice for the book to end with the wedding and then the three sisters together for a quiet break.
Page count: 292p/6,256p ytd/298,277p lifetime
Friday, June 15, 2018
Thursday, June 14, 2018
28:100 These Antique Fables by Seanan McGuire
A patreon short story set in the October Daye universe. We met January O'Leary and Li Qin Zhou when Toby had to go into their kingdom for one of her quests. We knew that they loved each other but we never really knew a whole lot about them. In this story, we get to see a bit of January's "childhood" and how they meet for the first time. A short, sweet tale of love and luck.
Page count: 20p/5,964p ytd/297,985p lifetime
Page count: 20p/5,964p ytd/297,985p lifetime
Sunday, June 10, 2018
27:100 Goodnight, Sleep Tight! by Seanan McGuire
Jonathan Dawson had been the head librarian for quite a while and yet again was having the typical budget discussion with some flunky from the city. Blah blah blah, we can't afford a library and definitely not updates to one of any kind. Yet again, he had to keep his promise to protect the library and all those that need it. But he is getting tired and his time is drawing closer...
A short little horror story of why you shouldn't mess with the library or the head librarian, masterfully done.
Page count: 10p/5,944p ytd/297,965p lifetime
A short little horror story of why you shouldn't mess with the library or the head librarian, masterfully done.
Page count: 10p/5,944p ytd/297,965p lifetime
Saturday, June 9, 2018
26:100 Jealous in Honor by Seanan McGuire
October Daye patreon short story. Cyne, the sister and murderer of Cailin's father who tried to pin it all on her mother Colleen is back in the Kingdom of Londinium. Tybalt knows what he must do to keep his family and kingdom safe but it will mean playing a part he does not enjoy with unintended consequences and broken hearts to come.
I love Tybalt but this is looking like things are being set up to show us how he ended up in the Bay Area and it doesn't look like it will be a happy journey for him.
Page count: 14p/5,934p ytd/597,955p lifetime
I love Tybalt but this is looking like things are being set up to show us how he ended up in the Bay Area and it doesn't look like it will be a happy journey for him.
Page count: 14p/5,934p ytd/597,955p lifetime
Thursday, June 7, 2018
25:100 Smoke by Dan Vyleta
It's England 100 years or so ago but not the England that we know. Now when people sin, their body lets go of the smoke. The deeper and darker the sin, the deeper and darker the smoke that the body exhales from every pore. You can smoke in your sleep and if you are part of the wealthy and elite, you will wake in the morning and check your bedclothes for evidence of sin in your dreams. This is the world that Thomas and Charlie live in at their boarding school. Thomas who seems to constantly be smoking almost as much as he breathes and Charlie who barely ever seems to do anything that could be considered even the slightest of sins. They are an unlikely pair but a friendship has formed so when it is suggested that Charlie accompany Thomas on holiday where he has been invited by an extremely influential family, of course he goes.
That's where they meet Lady Naylor and her daughter. That's where Thomas starts learning more about smoke and where it comes from and how the elite use a special sweet to trap their own smoke to look more pure and a special cigarette that allows them to feel the effects of stronger smoke for a brief time. That's where everything changes and Tom, Charlie, and Livia end up becoming fugitives trying to figure out what Lady Naylor's end game really is. They could never have imagined what she has planned if they hadn't seen it for themselves.
It's been a few days and I still don't know quite how I feel about this book. Some of the concepts were interesting but I didn't feel like there was enough explanation to satisfy all the questions I had about the Smoke and how it worked. It seemed to be plot driven more than any specific set of laws. Motives for everyone felt fairly weak and the story moved but didn't seem to go anywhere really. The deeper explanations into personal behavior and motivation that it kept dancing around were what it seemed like it wanted to be about never materialized, instead staying to the outside like vague wisps of smoke when a fire is smoldering but never going to actually catch. That is the story that I thought it was going to tell and the one that would have really interested me but I kept reading and waiting and it just never happened. I guess I can say that this is a book that I read. I didn't hate it but I also didn't see a whole lot of point to it.
Page count: 448p/5,920p ytd/297,941p lifetime
That's where they meet Lady Naylor and her daughter. That's where Thomas starts learning more about smoke and where it comes from and how the elite use a special sweet to trap their own smoke to look more pure and a special cigarette that allows them to feel the effects of stronger smoke for a brief time. That's where everything changes and Tom, Charlie, and Livia end up becoming fugitives trying to figure out what Lady Naylor's end game really is. They could never have imagined what she has planned if they hadn't seen it for themselves.
It's been a few days and I still don't know quite how I feel about this book. Some of the concepts were interesting but I didn't feel like there was enough explanation to satisfy all the questions I had about the Smoke and how it worked. It seemed to be plot driven more than any specific set of laws. Motives for everyone felt fairly weak and the story moved but didn't seem to go anywhere really. The deeper explanations into personal behavior and motivation that it kept dancing around were what it seemed like it wanted to be about never materialized, instead staying to the outside like vague wisps of smoke when a fire is smoldering but never going to actually catch. That is the story that I thought it was going to tell and the one that would have really interested me but I kept reading and waiting and it just never happened. I guess I can say that this is a book that I read. I didn't hate it but I also didn't see a whole lot of point to it.
Page count: 448p/5,920p ytd/297,941p lifetime
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
24:100 Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Autobiography. Trevor Noah offers a unique perspective of growing up colored (half black, half white) in South Africa during the end of apartheid. His birth itself was against the law which meant that much of his young like before the end of apartheid was spent being hidden. Out in public, neither parent could actually afford to acknowledge kinship with him without risking potential jail time and the government taking him away. This meant a life of being inside almost continually where, apparently, he was very adept at getting into trouble but because he was half-white, most of his family let him get away with whatever horrid thing he had done. But not his mom. Throughout the entire book you can feel the love and admiration Trevor has for his mom. The risks she took having him, keeping him safe, and trying to make sure he grew up to have a good life were a testament to her love and strength of will.
From a historical point of view, it was also an interesting read because I remember apartheid in South Africa being talked about a bit when I was in elementary school and being happy when it ended but as I've started to become more aware of how we treat non-whites here in our country, reading this has opened my eyes more to our own oppression of people of color, especially African Americans, and how closely it manages to mirror in many ways those of that apartheid in South Africa. It's not written into law, as such, but when you start researching redlining, looking at how media and news portrays those of color in their word choices, lack of representation in so many areas, arrest and jail statistics, the parallels are pretty easy to draw. I only hope that we can wake up and listen to the voices soon and start truly making this country a land of equality for all.
Page count: 288p/5,472p ytd/297,493p lifetime
From a historical point of view, it was also an interesting read because I remember apartheid in South Africa being talked about a bit when I was in elementary school and being happy when it ended but as I've started to become more aware of how we treat non-whites here in our country, reading this has opened my eyes more to our own oppression of people of color, especially African Americans, and how closely it manages to mirror in many ways those of that apartheid in South Africa. It's not written into law, as such, but when you start researching redlining, looking at how media and news portrays those of color in their word choices, lack of representation in so many areas, arrest and jail statistics, the parallels are pretty easy to draw. I only hope that we can wake up and listen to the voices soon and start truly making this country a land of equality for all.
Page count: 288p/5,472p ytd/297,493p lifetime
Friday, June 1, 2018
New Releases I'm Looking Forward To: 3rd Quarter 2018
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 last quarter I was thinking that as I got more used to the job, I would find a better balance and have more time for reading.
Yeah, not so much. What I have found is that this job cycles from crazy to insane when an election is drawing near. I probably should have figured that out but apparently I'm either an optimist or deluded (probably the later LOL). I'm really enjoying it but it has definitely proven to be a lot more than I originally bargained on and my reading has greatly suffered. Add in two deaths in my immediate family in a two week span of time, end of school year craziness, and volunteer work craziness and well, I'm lucky to read a few pages a day. I haven't finished a book club book since February and have had almost no personal reading time. With the primary election cycle just about done, I'm hoping to get some things caught up and balanced a little bit better before school and the general election craziness starts up but I'm thinking that my goal of reading 100 books this year is looking like a pipe dream unless I find a whole lot more short stories and comics. LOL
None of this means that I haven't been keeping an eye on books that I want to read (and in some cases adding them to my growing To Read pile) so here's what is currently on my radar:
Yasmine Galenorn has been very prolific since going independent with several new series going all at the same time and I have not been able to keep up with them but the second book in the Wild Hunt series, Oak and Thorns, is coming out. I haven't had a chance to read the first book in the series yet but the series looks interesting with this one hitting political intrigue, shadow magic, a serial killer, and the King of Thorns.
Release date - July 2
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is not part of an actual series except that it's another her reimagined fairy tales, this time Rumpelstiltskin. I really enjoyed Uprooted which is her version of Beauty and the Beast and I can't wait to see what she does with this one.
Release date - July 10
Next up is the third book in the Custard Protocols by Gail Carriger. Competence sees Miss Primrose going from Singapore to Peru to pursue some of life's most challenging questions such as "Can the perfect book club give a man back his soul?" I have not yet read the other books in this series but I've loved the other series set in this universe and am looking forward to getting to these.
Release date - July 17
Also coming out this day is Seanan McGuire's second book in her Ghost Roads series, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Rose Marshall has been dead for 60 years now and still looking for her killer. She's been an avenging killer in her own right but still she wants the one that got away, the one that made a deal with the Crossroads that won't let him die...Bobby Cross. But now Bobby is back in the picture and will it be one that Rose can continue to haunt?
Release date - July 17
Another double release for the end of July starts with Portents by Kelley Armstrong. While the Cainsville series is technically over (although I still need to read the last two books), Ms. Armstrong is doing like she did with her Otherworld series and giving us other tales set in the world. Some have been previously released and I've read before, others seem to have been previously released and I haven't heard of, and at least one is new for this collection.
Release date - July 31
We also get a new Dorina Basarab book in Shadow's Bane by Karen Chance. I have enjoyed Dory's stories much more than the Cassie Palmer ones lately and it's been a long time since we got a new one and I'm really looking forward to it. Dory is now the newest member of the Vampire Senate and as their war with the Fae is heating up, she is finding out that the slavers who may have her friend's relative may be up to something far worse than arranging death matches.
Release date - July 31
Only one book is on my radar for August but it's a huge one as Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews is said to be the conclusion to the Kate Daniels series. The Witch Oracle's visions are becoming more intense and then Kate receives a delivery from an ancient enemy who has almost destroyed her family before. To save Curran, her child, her friends, her city, Kate must team up with the most unlikely of allies even knowing she may not survive because otherwise everything she loves will die.
Release date - August 28
I get to go from one favorite series to another as we get the next installment for October Daye the next week. Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire does not promise to be sweetness and light for October though since Jazz and Tybalt are still trying to recover from their ordeal at the hands of October's mother. Toby is also hurt as she can't just snap her fingers and make things better for her family so the universe has given her a distraction in the form of kidnapping her human daughter, Gillian, but we know that nothing in Toby's life is simple or easy and this case will prove no exception.
Release date - September 4
Closing out this quarter's books is Time Convert by Deborah Harkness. Set in the world of her All Soul's trilogy, this bounces us between Matthew's conversion of Marcus to a vampire during the American Revolution and then Marcus's conversion of Phoebe in modern times and how will some things change, some things will remain the same.
Release date - September 25
So last quarter I was thinking that as I got more used to the job, I would find a better balance and have more time for reading.
Yeah, not so much. What I have found is that this job cycles from crazy to insane when an election is drawing near. I probably should have figured that out but apparently I'm either an optimist or deluded (probably the later LOL). I'm really enjoying it but it has definitely proven to be a lot more than I originally bargained on and my reading has greatly suffered. Add in two deaths in my immediate family in a two week span of time, end of school year craziness, and volunteer work craziness and well, I'm lucky to read a few pages a day. I haven't finished a book club book since February and have had almost no personal reading time. With the primary election cycle just about done, I'm hoping to get some things caught up and balanced a little bit better before school and the general election craziness starts up but I'm thinking that my goal of reading 100 books this year is looking like a pipe dream unless I find a whole lot more short stories and comics. LOL
None of this means that I haven't been keeping an eye on books that I want to read (and in some cases adding them to my growing To Read pile) so here's what is currently on my radar:
Yasmine Galenorn has been very prolific since going independent with several new series going all at the same time and I have not been able to keep up with them but the second book in the Wild Hunt series, Oak and Thorns, is coming out. I haven't had a chance to read the first book in the series yet but the series looks interesting with this one hitting political intrigue, shadow magic, a serial killer, and the King of Thorns.
Release date - July 2
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is not part of an actual series except that it's another her reimagined fairy tales, this time Rumpelstiltskin. I really enjoyed Uprooted which is her version of Beauty and the Beast and I can't wait to see what she does with this one.
Release date - July 10
Next up is the third book in the Custard Protocols by Gail Carriger. Competence sees Miss Primrose going from Singapore to Peru to pursue some of life's most challenging questions such as "Can the perfect book club give a man back his soul?" I have not yet read the other books in this series but I've loved the other series set in this universe and am looking forward to getting to these.
Release date - July 17
Also coming out this day is Seanan McGuire's second book in her Ghost Roads series, The Girl in the Green Silk Gown. Rose Marshall has been dead for 60 years now and still looking for her killer. She's been an avenging killer in her own right but still she wants the one that got away, the one that made a deal with the Crossroads that won't let him die...Bobby Cross. But now Bobby is back in the picture and will it be one that Rose can continue to haunt?
Release date - July 17
Another double release for the end of July starts with Portents by Kelley Armstrong. While the Cainsville series is technically over (although I still need to read the last two books), Ms. Armstrong is doing like she did with her Otherworld series and giving us other tales set in the world. Some have been previously released and I've read before, others seem to have been previously released and I haven't heard of, and at least one is new for this collection.
Release date - July 31
We also get a new Dorina Basarab book in Shadow's Bane by Karen Chance. I have enjoyed Dory's stories much more than the Cassie Palmer ones lately and it's been a long time since we got a new one and I'm really looking forward to it. Dory is now the newest member of the Vampire Senate and as their war with the Fae is heating up, she is finding out that the slavers who may have her friend's relative may be up to something far worse than arranging death matches.
Release date - July 31
Only one book is on my radar for August but it's a huge one as Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews is said to be the conclusion to the Kate Daniels series. The Witch Oracle's visions are becoming more intense and then Kate receives a delivery from an ancient enemy who has almost destroyed her family before. To save Curran, her child, her friends, her city, Kate must team up with the most unlikely of allies even knowing she may not survive because otherwise everything she loves will die.
Release date - August 28
I get to go from one favorite series to another as we get the next installment for October Daye the next week. Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire does not promise to be sweetness and light for October though since Jazz and Tybalt are still trying to recover from their ordeal at the hands of October's mother. Toby is also hurt as she can't just snap her fingers and make things better for her family so the universe has given her a distraction in the form of kidnapping her human daughter, Gillian, but we know that nothing in Toby's life is simple or easy and this case will prove no exception.
Release date - September 4
Closing out this quarter's books is Time Convert by Deborah Harkness. Set in the world of her All Soul's trilogy, this bounces us between Matthew's conversion of Marcus to a vampire during the American Revolution and then Marcus's conversion of Phoebe in modern times and how will some things change, some things will remain the same.
Release date - September 25
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