I dunno how she does it but I never come away from an Agatha Christie novel without enjoying it to the fullest! This one wasn’t an exception even when it was full of racist and sexist characters. I am also happy that I read this one finally and so close to the release of the new movie too!

A favorite funny quote from the book is mentioned below. It shows the circuitutitous way Poirot thinks:

It was interesting to see the term, pukka sahib, being used in the book. Even though the person who used it, Colonel Arbuthnot, meant it in a different way i.e. the first meaning in the picture below. Poirot got down to the real meaning really quickly i.e. the second meaning of the word:

Picture

I was worried that the sequel won’t suck me in as the first book had managed to do. I worried for naught; this book was as much fun and scary as the previous one. One thing that I both love and hate about this book is that Cas doesn’t sound like a teenage boy all the time. In places, he uses such poetic words about Anna. I also loved the gory decriptions that the author uses for when Anna shows up to show Cas how she is suffering.  This part from the book showcases both the gore and the poetic prose:

Cas’s humor is another thing that I have alays had fun reading. Check out this example:

There are two ways you could look at this series. You can consider the elements typical to most PNR novels and label it as one. Or, you could look at the humor and the cool references to tv shows and movies and love the series for its wittiness. I chose the latter, which is why I enjoyed reading these books! Here are my favorite parts from the last (so far) book:

The October Faction series is based on a family of monster hunters. The parents who have now retired did their best to hide their past from their kids. However, old enemies kept making that difficult. What I love about this series is how dark and gory it is. The artist doesn’t picture perfect characters and their flaws make them feel more real to me!

While I am equally grossed out and intrigued by the television series, the novel itself had failed to make an impression on me. The graphic novels seem to be going down the same windpipe. The only positive thing I have to say about them is that they stay true to the book. Surprisingly, as I had expected, the art isn’t to die for. It could be that the tv series and its amazing cast has me spoiled. I mean, look at the graphic novel version of Mr. Wednesday!

Saga’s art is so beautiful that it hurts. This series draws you in and forces you to care for its characters! I am also including the covers of two of the single issues. Feast your eyes on their beauty:

Ender’s Image

Some of my favorites quotes:

This quote paints an accurate picture of sustainable methods and their importance in everything that we do! Hunting animals to extinction, deforestation to the point of clearing forests after forests…Only this time, we will all be paying the price!

I loved how “human” Jane was without being a human being. In this quote, her sarcasm comes out beautifully, which is probably as human as it gets!

This elitist attitude has always been the source of our troubles and led to colonialism destroying the national identities of many a people. These words were said by Jane who starts to seem more and more deeply insightful by the minute.

I have mixed feelings about this one. The story seems to make Ender seem like an omniscient deity at times. He might be good at reading people but no one is that good!

This quote is from a part of the book where one of the kids rebelliously pees on Ender when he wouldn’t free the kid. This is how he responds to the incident; it shows how humor is threaded through an otherwise serious book.

Look at the exampe below, as well. It talks about religious leaders belonging to a branch of religion that is separate from the religion of the state. Gems such as this one were interspersed throughout the story and made me chuckle every time.

This quote highlights how different two groups of people can be in their beliefs about death and everything else. Leaf-Eater’s people were planted after they died and turned into trees; benefitting the living even after death.

For wrap-ups of the previous months, go here.

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Secret Agent Secretary
by Melissa Cutler
Book 2 of ICE: Black Ops Defenders

I think I liked this second ICE book more than the first.  The heroine, Avery Meadows, was all sorts of geeky fun, what with her overactive imagination about what super secret agents do, admitting that maybe she's watched and/or read one too many spy novels.  But that doesn't negate the fact that she's pretty cool and quick on her feet in explosive situations.

Much like the first book, however, there's a lot of forward movement, and a lot of excitement, so you don't really get much time to stop and dwell on any of the events.  So, to be honest, aside from waxing poetic about how much I loved Avery and her quirky, all-things-secret-agent-obsessed nerdy personality, there's not much else to say.

Main scenes that I found fun and that stood out the most were:

1)  Avery's construction of a paperclip chain in order to zip up her super expensive bright pink dress, and then being unable to unhook said paperclip chain from her dress zipper, so she just stuffs it down the back of her dress.  I also found the very first scene of her turning in circles trying zip up her dress from behind kind of amusing as well; this before she finally came up with the paperclip chain.

And all of this was done at the ICE office.

2)  Avery playing with Ryan's whip, playfully whapping him in the chest why they chat about being a secret agent; this taking place moments after they detain two thugs.  Then she claims the whip for her own.  The whip thing is actually a lot less kinky than it sounds.

3)  The two of them groping a Remington XM2010 sniper rifle.  Okay, this scene was super hot... even if I have no idea what kind of firearm that is.


Believe me, Avery does a lot of things that are both cringe-worthy, in a nerdy way, and also super awesome... in a nerdy way.  She was the life of this book.

Ryan was great as the standard broody alpha male.  He had his moments that endeared him to me, but, to be honest, he didn't stand out like super spy Avery Meadows did!


***

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #23:
BL Task #1 says:  "Let a BL friend choose your next book!"

Page Count:  248
Cash Award:  $6.00

Updated Bank Balance:  $131

Her Wild Hero

by Paige Tyler
Book 3 of X-Ops

Her Wild Hero is just as enjoyable and exciting as the previous two books in Tyler's X-Ops series.  I was sorely disappointed in my library for skipping Book #3 of this series after I finished reading the first two books--they just kept adding on other Paige Tyler books, and NOT this one, going straight to Book #4.

But enough of that rambling about my library--because I can never stay upset at them for long.  Aside from being an enjoyable, exciting survival suspense, the book continues the background conspiracy concerning experimental testing of shifters and creation of human-shifter hybrids by injecting animal DNA in a human vessel.  And apparently, the plot continues to thicken with each book.

I like that the book doesn't spend the entire story detailing the romance, since, obviously, our main characters have more important things to worry about--such as staying alive in hostile territory.

But little bits of jealousies and lust sneaks into a few scenes here and there... and then suddenly there's a huge disconnect when our main couple finally hop right into the romance and sexy times part of the story as if they aren't being chased by packs of bloodthirsty, violent hybrids, bent on either killing or capturing them.  Then we return to the regularly scheduled program, and our couple is back to running from the threat, fighting and killing their way out of the Costa Rican jungles.

I mean, I don't begrudge an author her right to insert sexy times into her books, but the time and place was just a little inappropriate (in a cave, of all places... however, Declan is part bear, so maybe it was fitting?).  Her previous two books at least brought the sexy times when no one was running from danger and it was just another day before the rest of the action got started again.

But aside from that little snafu, where the world kind of stops turning so our main couple could jump each other--meanwhile their rescue party is having a hell of a time trying to locate them and getting injuries and exhaustion while they're at it, which I found kind of amusing for some reason--the rest of the book was quite entertaining.


***

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #22:
This book is tagged 'fantasy' on GR; a book about shifters.

Page Count:  334
Cash Award:  $6.00

Updated Bank Balance:  $125

Meanwhile, I also went ahead and read the two companion short stories the author had written for Declan and Kendra.

Declan and the Disney Elves is a short story that is set in a timeline pre-Her Wild Hero.

It was pretty cute, though I'm not sure what it has to do with Disney elves.  Because there are Disney elves, and then there are Santa's elves.  But whatevs.  This was a cute read and some of the humor was giggle-worthy.

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Click on the above banner to read the story.

An X-Ops Honeymoon is set post-Her Wild Hero, following Declan and Kendra (as the title states) during their honeymoon in New England.

It's a nice follow-up to the main story, with a kidnapping and more politics to deal with.  A great treat for fans, that's for sure, but doesn't seem to add onto what we know of the ongoing background conflict of X-Ops.  Still, worth a go when you're at a standstill on what to read.

There were just a lot of typos in the context, and a lot of schmaltz and repetition in the dialogue.  About what you'd expect of a free read, so I'm not complaining much.

Rating:  3.5 Stars

This short story is only available via Paige Tyler's newsletter subscription, and I was lucky enough to sign up at about the time she started mailing the first chapter.

Pushing the Line

by Kimberly Kincaid
Book 4 of The Line series

I hadn't reviewed any of the previous books in The Line series, as they were also short, novella-length stories with light and breezy, cute romance, with a touch of sexy... and it was enough to satisfy a couple hours of my day.  Not much to think about, but readily enjoyable.

The Line series was where I had been introduced to Kimberly Kincaid for the first time, finding that I immensely loved her writing style.  I remember calling it enjoyable and witty-good, or something to that effect when I reviewed a book from a different series of hers.

Simply put, Kimberly Kincaid is a fun author to read.

Pushing the Line is a great addition to the four book series (which was originally a trilogy, by the way, so don't know if more books are in the make).  It feels like a wrap up for the series, however, since all the couples from the previous three books were brought back in a very Couple Curtain-ish manner, despite the fact that their presence DOES kind of fit.

Like the previous books, Pushing the Line was fun and flirty, enjoyable and cutesy-sweet, with a nice dose of steamy hot.  If it's one thing I would have loved for this short book, it would be a more fleshed out, better developed story line.  There was so much potential to the events and the conflict in this book, but a lot of the action took place in time skips.

I would have loved to see Harper start to realize her love for making candies with her grandmother's recipes, and maybe a scene or two of her slowly softening to the idea of remaining in Brentsville.  I would have liked to see her get along with everyone in town and find that she loved being in Brentsville.  Instead, Harper and Aaron make their first batch of pecan clusters, and then suddenly we're a week later--feelings have grown deeper, and Harper has made batch after batch of her grandmother's candies for all her new friends.

And then the ending was rather abrupt, truth be told.

And that's really the only thing I would have wanted about Pushing the Line:  More.  Because Harper and Aaron are interesting characters, fun to be around.

And I like firefighters and would have loved to see more of that aspect of Aaron's life...


***

Booklikes-opoly

Roll #22:
Start Space says:  "Read any book!"

Page Count:  122
Cash Award:  $4.00

Updated Bank Balance:  $119

Talk Sweetly to Me

by Courtney Milan

Brothers Sinister #4.5 (novella)

This novella felt immensely too short and I wish we could have gotten more about Rose and Stephen.  Their story didn't feel as fleshed out as it could have been considering how wonderfully created Rose's character is.  I loved the astronomer geekiness in her, with her super excellent computing skills, and how she kind of just nerds out at the idea of being able to watch the Venus transit.

Anytime we get a super smart female character in any book, with little quirks like Rose has, I get all giddy and smiley.  We do not have nearly enough of these types of heroines in fiction--smart, decisive, ambitious... not doormats.  And yet at the same time, sweet and level-headed.

Stephen was a bit hard to like at the beginning, but then he starts flinging the jokes and I'm reminded of his brief appearances in the fourth Brothers Sinister book, and how much I enjoyed reading his 'Actual Man' column excerpts.  His penchant for being a jokester also melded quite well with his sudden turn to seriousness... sort of.  There was a slight disconnect, but it's barely noticeable.

It's just that, I'm not entirely sure what Stephen's mission had been when he wanted to get to know Rose.  When he claims that his intentions weren't seduction, I actually kind of believe him.  Because I'm not even sure he knew what he was trying to accomplish.

Anyway, this was a great addition to the Brothers Sinister series, though I do wish we could have seen more of the previous characters, rather than just having a mention of one.  There was some touching upon the race relations that I think was handled very well--the way Rose and her sister were treated by Dr. Chillingsworth was appallingly upsetting.  There were so many times that I just wanted to hit the guy for his "women like her" comments.  But that was (and sometimes still is) the reality of life.  And so it makes me happy to see Rose stand up for herself and her sister, eventually.

Overall, Talk Sweetly to Me was a very enjoyable novella that kind of just sucks you right in.  Before you know it, it's over and you feel that gaping hole that reminds you that the Brothers Sinister series is officially completed.