The Hot Zone
by Jayne Castle
Book 11 of Harmony
-- Book 3 of Rainshadow

I've always liked how the Harmony and Arcane Society books will often interweave with each other.  And it feels like now that we have alien catacombs and ghost hunters back in the story, we've returned to the main story line of the Harmony series.  Previously, in an earlier installment's review, I'd mentioned how I sometimes would forget that these Rainshadow books were part of the futuristic Harmony world.  Because even in spite of having the alien created Preserve on the island, the first couple Rainshadow installments really just felt like a bunch of psychics on an island, during present day.

But with the discovery of the alien catacombs leading into the dangerous Preserve, as well as some discoveries of psychically evolved beasts, we're starting to feel more like the futuristic non-Earth world of Harmony once again.  And to top it off, we're bringing back the Joneses and including a descendant of Arizona Snow--a character we met briefly in two previous Arcane Society books--who was known to be a bit eccentric with some conspiracy theories.

And... for some reason, while we continue moving forward with our new Rainshadow discoveries, I also found that this book felt a little suspiciously like a mish-mash of ideas.  There's the Halloween setting, and then the small town "we take care of our own" dialogue.  Then there's the strange, crystal blue alien Jurassic Park in an unknown sector of the alien catacombs, with singing predators and a lead-in to our next book in the Rainshadow series, Siren's Call.  Because now we want to explore this unknown territory, but it'll be hard to do so when alien bio-engineered dinosaurs can sing you to your death.

Once again, I always love the inclusion of the dust bunnies, and am glad that we get to see more of them, and that Sedona's dust bunny companion, Lyle, gets to save the day a few times.

I'm so ready to move onto the next book to see what develops next... and also a little concerned that the series seems to be coming to its end.  Unless, of course, Ms. Castle still has some ideas in the works and we've just yet to see another published book yet... pretty please?

Yeah... We're done.

So... This is probably the most scattered, unproductive 24in48 readathon I've done since I participated for the first time a couple years ago.  I'm not even sure I really tried all that hard, and barely finished one book... if you count the 30% of Entrapment I finished plus the 75% of Siren's Call I managed to read.

I suppose I just wasn't in the right mood.  And then I just stopped keeping track--not mattering how loosely I was tracking in the first place--of how many minutes/hours I'd been spending reading.

I guess there's always July to give it another go.

Books Read

Still Reading

The second update!  Because I've been lazy...

So after posting my first 24in48 update, I promptly went to cook myself some food, fully intending to eat and read at the same time.  And because I over-estimated myself, I thought I would also open up my video game and play passively at the same time.  But then my brother logged into the game and we ended up sucked into it for hours.

The only time I could read were during really, really passive-play times.  And so, while I spent more time than I like playing, I DID manage to get about two hours, scattered, of reading done with Siren's Call.

That is all.  There must be something about readathon weekends that just doesn't allow me to make time to read.  I mean, I could make time, but I always end up doing something else.  Le sigh...

Meanwhile, my snack plans were still useful, I suppose.  Chips, popcorn shrimp... we didn't actually have pizza rolls.  But since I'm craving pizza rolls, there's a high chance I will end up going out and getting some before the rest of the day is over.

Books Read

No books were finished since the last update.

Currently Reading

The Heir by Grace Burrowes | 455 pages
-- 0 pages read in 0 hours

To be honest, I'm not really getting into this book, so the likelihood I will actually read any of it during this weekend is kind of slim.  Still, it is still one of the books I'm currently reading, so on the off-chance that I decide I'm going to give it a go, I'll go ahead and list it here.

Then Came You by Jill Shalvis | 572 minutes
-- 0 minutes listened to

I like having an audio book going for anytime I think I'm going to need to use my hands and my focus for something else for some time.  If I'm doing some passive, mindless activity, like blogging or playing video games, then these handy little lovelies are wonderful.

Of course, I'm also not quite enjoying this particular Jill Shalvis book... yet.  I do hope it picks up soon, but I'm starting to feel a bit wary of our main couple, and I'm only a little over an hour into the book...

Siren's Call by Jayne Castle | 232 pages
-- 68 pages read in ~2 hours

I had fully intended to give this book a full hour of reading after I woke up this morning.  But then I started blogging and time got away from me.  So I ended up only devoting about half an hour, if that at all, to this book.  It was probably more like 20 minutes, but details...

The first update!  Because I slept like a log...

I woke up around approximately 10:00 A.M. to realize that I had dreamed I'd been reading.  Erego, I probably should just wake up and get started on this readathon!

I don't like doing constant progress updates, but have always intended at least an update every twelve hours, starting from the official Hour Zero... but that doesn't always happen, so you end up with those little gems like "Hour Forty-One... and a Half" for some old thon updates.  Life happens.

Anyway, after pulling my lazy self out of bed, I managed to make progress on one new book!  Excellent stuff!  And while I'd like to claim that I finished reading one of my current reads within these two hours I've been away, well, that's not what happened.  I actually did not pass out right away after posting my "Thon Starts Now!" update, and ended up finishing Entrapment by Kylie Brant, which took approximately one and a half hours to finish.

Meanwhile, during the time I've been awake this morning, I was able to squeeze about half and hour of reading in with Jayne Castle's Siren's Call.

And no, like usual, I'm rounding my time, because I haven't been able track my reading time properly since the first time I participated in this readathon.

Hope everyone else is having a fine time this weekend, with lots of books and snacks and activity!

Books Read

Entrapment by Kylie Brant | 245
-- 83 pages read in 1.5 hours

So here's one book finished, even though I technically only had about 30% left to read.  I had hoped to have Entrapment finished before the readathon weekend started so I could just start in on the rest of the books on my plan, but as I'd stated earlier, I got sucked into a video game, and stuff happened.

So instead, Entrapment gets included in my list of thon books for this winter!  Now we're moving along to the next read!

Currently Reading

The Heir by Grace Burrowes | 455 pages
-- 0 pages read in 0 hours

To be honest, I'm not really getting into this book, so the likelihood I will actually read any of it during this weekend is kind of slim.  Still, it is still one of the books I'm currently reading, so on the off-chance that I decide I'm going to give it a go, I'll go ahead and list it here.

Then Came You by Jill Shalvis | 572 minutes
-- 0 minutes listened to

I like having an audio book going for anytime I think I'm going to need to use my hands and my focus for something else for some time.  If I'm doing some passive, mindless activity, like blogging or playing video games, then these handy little lovelies are wonderful.

Of course, I'm also not quite enjoying this particular Jill Shalvis book... yet.  I do hope it picks up soon, but I'm starting to feel a bit wary of our main couple, and I'm only a little over an hour into the book...

Siren's Call by Jayne Castle | 232 pages
-- 19 pages read in 0.5 hours

I had fully intended to give this book a full hour of reading after I woke up this morning.  But then I started blogging and time got away from me.  So I ended up only devoting about half an hour, if that at all, to this book.  It was probably more like 20 minutes, but details...

Er... well, maybe a couple hours ago.  But late is better than not!!

I had fully intended to start at midnight and get a couple hours of reading done before I passed out.  But then I got sucked into a video game with the brothers, and then time got away from me.  Nonetheless, I DID try to sneak a few paragraphs of one of my books in every few pauses in the gaming!  I'm planning on passing out within minutes of posting this update, and then starting fresh in the morning... or mid-morning, I suppose.

I have the whole weekend off!  However, I have to be up early for work on Monday, so that means that I will probably cut off my reading around 9:00 P.M. or 10:00 P.M., CST on Sunday night.  Oh well, hopefully that'll still give me enough time to get at least one and half books read.  Because that always seems to be the extent of my accomplishments for 24in48 thus far.

Currently I'm reading...

My main goal this readathon is basically to make progress on the books from one of two different series: either the last two, currently available books of the Harmony series by Jayne Castle, or the last two books of the Tremaine Tradition series by Kylie Brant.  I'm not sure in which direction I'm going, but I've checked out both Siren's Call and Illusion Town from the library, and so it is more likely I'm going that way!

Hopefully I'll be able to finish reading one, if not two, of the books.


Readathon Hopefuls:

What's everyone else reading this weekend?