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text 2019-11-02 01:42
October Books

I read 40 books this month with an average score of 3.69. 9 were graphic novels and 25 were YA. My most-read genres were fantasy, romance, and contemporary. Fantasy absolutely dominated my books this month. Over half of my books were fantasy.

 

My favorite books were Rachel Rising: The Shadow of Death - Terry Moore and Not Even Bones  - Rebecca SchaefferRachel Rising was a reread as I plan on finally finishing the series by first rereading the books I did read and then continuing all the way through. Not Even Bones was a dark story with a main character who loved performing dissections on the bodies her mother brought her. I don't think there was a truly good character in the book, and I loved every moment of it. I can't wait to read the sequel.

 

My least favorite book was The Third Wife - Lisa Jewell. I just didn't like the characters at all.

 

 

5 Stars

Rachel Rising: The Shadow of Death - Terry Moore Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style - Benjamin Dreyer Not Even Bones (Market of Monsters) - Rebecca Schaeffer 

 

4.5 Stars

InSEXts Volume 1: Chrysalis - Marguerite Bennett,Mike Marts  Stepsister - Jennifer Donnelly  The Faerie War - Rachel Morgan  The Faerie Prince - Rachel Morgan  A Dream So Dark - L. L. McKinney  

 

4 Stars

A Drunken Dream and Other Stories - Moto Hagio,Matt Thorn The Stars and the Blackness Between Them - Junauda Petrus  The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms - Nagabe,Adrienne Beck  In The Hall With The Knife - Diana Peterfreund The Faerie Guardian - Rachel Morgan 

Lock Every Door - Riley Sager  Finding Audrey - Sophie Kinsella Bloom - Kevin Panetta,Savanna Ganucheau Out of Salem - Hal Schrieve  The Secret of a Heart Note - Stacey Covington-Lee  Find Me - Tahereh Mafi 

Missing, Presumed Dead - Emma Berquist A Little Light Mischief: A Turner Novella - Cat Sebastian 

 

3.5 Stars

Part of Your World - Liz Braswell  Again, But Better - Christine Riccio  Things I'm Seeing Without You - Peter Bognanni  No Judgments - Meg Cabot  The Demon World - Sally Green  Ink and Bone - Rachel Caine  Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy - Serena Valentino  

 

3 Stars

Frankly in Love - David Yoon Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Volume 1 - Hiroyuki Asada Avatar: The Last Airbender - Team Avatar Tales - Ron Koertge,Michael Heisler,Carla Speed McNeil,Gene Luen Yang,Lark Pien,Faith Erin Hicks,Cris Peter,Jenn Manley Lee,Ryan Hill,Dave Scheidt,Sara Goetter,Natalie Riess,Little Corvus,Kiku Hughes,Coni Yovaniniz  The Near Witch - Victoria Schwab  Catwoman, Vol. 1: Copycats - Laura Allred,Joëlle Jones,Fernando Blanco We Hunt the Flame - Hafsah Faizal 

Romanov - Nadine Brandes Losing Brave - Bailee Madison,Stefne Miller  Dead Reckoning - Charlaine Harris  

 

2.5 Stars

Batman: Damned - Brian Azzarello,Lee Bermejo 

 

2 Stars

The Third Wife - Lisa Jewell Sophia, Princess Among Beasts - James Patterson,Emily Raymond 

 

 

 

 

Books by author gender:

  • Male: 9
  • Female: 28
  • Nonbinary: 1
  • Male/Female Mix: 2

 

Books by format:

  • Physical: 18
  • Audio: 22

 

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text 2019-11-01 13:01
October 2019 Wrap-Up

Welcome to November,

honestly I have no idea where the year has gone. We are entering the holiday season and that seems crazy fast. I can't believe we are here already. 

Reading wise October was a great month and not just for new releases but reading for me in general , I really caught up and read much more then September but let's be honest it is not hard catch up with a one book month lol.

I also caught up on reviews and mostly updates, some I just skipped and posted the reviews.

Oh and I'm happy to report I had the time for my scary/ spooky reads this month and year, both books were awesome.

November looks like another great month for new releases here are just a few I'm really looking forward to.

 

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

 

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Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao

 

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The Toll by Neal Shusterman 

 

The Toll (Arc of a Scythe, #3)

 

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

 

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Currently I'm reading The Burning Shadow by Jennifer L. Armentrout, the second book in her Origin Series, I'm only on page 100 or around there but so far I enjoy it. 

 

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When Evelyn Dasher crossed paths with Luc, she was thrown headfirst into the world of the Lux—only to discover that she was already far more involved in their world than she ever suspected.

Because the Luxen aren’t the only ones with a hidden past. There’s a gap in Evie’s memory, lost months of her life and a lingering sense that something happened, something she can’t remember and nobody is willing to tell her. She needs to find out the truth about who she is—and who she was. But every answer she finds only brings up more questions.

Her search for the truth brings her ever closer to Luc, the Origin at the center of it all. He’s powerful, arrogant, inhumanly beautiful, extremely dangerous…and possibly in love with her. But even as Evie falls for him, she can’t help but wonder if his attraction is to her, or to the memory of a girl who no longer exists.

And all the while, a new threat looms: reports of a flu-like, fatal virus that the government insists is being spread by Luxen. A horrifying illness that changes whoever it touches, spreading panic across a country already at its breaking point.

 

On Audio I'm listing to Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff, the third and final book in the Nevernight Series, I don't have much audio time right now but the little I got in I'm really loving it.

 

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A ruthless young assassin's journey for revenge comes to a stunning end in the conclusion of this acclaimed epic fantasy trilogy.

The Republic of Itreya is in chaos. Mia Corvere has assassinated Cardinal Duomo and rumors of Consul Scaeva’s death ripple through the street of Godsgrave like wildfire. But buried beneath those same streets, deep in the ancient city’s bones, lies a secret that will change the Republic forever.

Mia and her brother Jonnen must journey through the depths of the ancient metropolis. Their quest will take them through the Godsgrave underdark, across the Sea of Swords, back to the library of the Quiet Mountain and the poisoned blades of Mia’s old mentors, and at last the fabled Crown of the Moon. There, Mia will at last discover the origins of the darkin, and learn the destiny that lies in store for her and her world. But with the three suns now in descent, and Truedark on the horizon, will she survive?

Next, I'm planning on reading the The Guinevere Deception as the I received the ARC yesterday, after that I'm honestly not sure yet, I might actually just do a random number thing to pick a book of my TBR.

That should be all, sometime in November there will be a new giveaway going up, so make sure to keep your eyes out for that. I also will try to get my Massive book haul up sometime, it really is massive and that's why I haven't had the time to do it yet or was not in the mood, hopefully soon, fingers crossed.  

You can find any and all buy links in the reviews that will be linked below. Hope everyone has a warm and comfy November and if you are in the US and celebrating it HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

Hopefully see you all in December :) 

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Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews comes an enthralling new trilogy set in the Hidden Legacy world, where magic means power, and family bloodlines are the new currency of society…

In a world where magic is the key to power and wealth, Catalina Baylor is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, and the Head of her House. Catalina has always been afraid to use her unique powers, but when her friend’s mother and sister are murdered, Catalina risks her reputation and safety to unravel the mystery.

But behind the scenes powerful forces are at work, and one of them is Alessandro Sagredo, the Italian Prime who was once Catalina’s teenage crush. Dangerous and unpredictable, Alessandro’s true motives are unclear, but he’s drawn to Catalina like a moth to a flame.

To help her friend, Catalina must test the limits of her extraordinary powers, but doing so may cost her both her House–and her heart.

4.5★


Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

THE LEGENDARY THRILLER THAT CREATED DR HANNIBAL LECTER

Will Graham was a brilliant profiler of criminals for the FBI – until he suffered terrible injuries in the process of capturing Dr Hannibal ‘the Cannibal’ Lecter.

Years later, a serial killer nicknamed ‘the Tooth Fairy’ is massacring entire families each full moon. With the FBI desperate for progress, Will reluctantly agrees to consult. But he soon realises that he alone can’t crack the case; he needs the help of the only mind even better than his own at understanding the mentalities of psychopaths.

The mind of Hannibal Lecter.

But Hannibal is playing his own twisted game from the asylum for the criminally insane. Will isn’t alone in getting advice from the cannibal. So is the Tooth Fairy – the man haunted by visions of the murderous Red Dragon…

4.5★


Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. By age twenty, in fact, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most elite universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers to this herself, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. These eight windowless “tombs” are well-known to be haunts of the future rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street and Hollywood’s biggest players. But their occult activities are revealed to be more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.

4.5★


The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight—but she doesn’t—and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom—to a prince she has never met.

On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

 

3.5★


The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save Lia’s life, her erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar’s interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.

Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: There’s Rafe, who lied to Lia but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be savages. Now that she lives among them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country… and her own destiny.

   

2.5★


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review 2019-10-25 04:36
Brief Thoughts: The Visitor
The Visitor (Graveyard Queen) - Amanda Stevens

The Visitor

by Amanda Stevens
Book 4 of Graveyard Queen

 

 

My name is Amelia Gray.  I'm the Graveyard Queen.

Restoring lost and abandoned cemeteries is my profession, but I'm starting to believe that my true calling is deciphering the riddles of the dead.  Legend has it that Kroll Cemetery is a puzzle no one has ever been able to solve.  For over half a century, the answer has remained hidden within the strange headstone inscriptions and intricate engravings.  Because uncovering the mystery of that tiny, remote graveyard may come at a terrible price.

Years after their mass death, Ezra Kroll's disciples lie unquiet, their tormented souls trapped within the walls of Kroll Cemetery, waiting to be released by someone strong and clever enough to solve the puzzle.  For whatever reason, I'm being summoned to that graveyard by both the living and the dead.  Every lead I follow, every clue I unravel brings me closer to an unlikely killer and to a destiny that will threaten my sanity, and a future with my love, John Devlin.



If I wanted to be honest, it was truly the writing and the mystery of Kroll Cemetary that drew me into this book.  Amelia's destiny and her hauntings as well as Devlin's mysterious secrets were really second string.

While I've liked Amelia in the past, I'm not entirely sure that I'm feeling a whole lot of character development in her, despite the new twists that her character is taking on in this book.  At the same time, I'm still not really all that enamored of John Devlin either.

The romance between them is even harder for me to relate with, if only because Amelia's obsession with Devlin, as well as their mutual attraction to each other seems to be the only thing linking them together.  They don't talk to each other, they keep secrets, they don't even trust each other.  Their relationship has always felt one-sided.

I enjoyed the moments that Amelia spent at Kroll cemetary with Dr. Shaw, or even discovering little clues left her by the blind ghost who looks like her.  In contrast, I didn't care much for the scenes whenever Devlin was around with her, save for a few moments when they seemed to be able to talk freely with each other.  I feel like the two of them could make a great team if they would just stop keeping secrets or learn to listen to each other.

But the writing is beautiful as usual, and the series' overall conflict continues to be intriguing, and you get drawn into Amelia's world readily.  Just for the writing style and the atmosphere of the book alone, I gave a higher rating.


 

 

 

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review 2019-10-18 20:09
Quick Thoughts: Dreamer's Pool
Dreamer's Pool - Juliet Marillier

Dreamer's Pool

by Juliet Marillier
Book 1 of Blackthorn & Grim

 

 

In exchange for help escaping her long and wrongful imprisonment, embittered magical healer Blackthorn has vowed to set aside her bid for vengeance against the man who destroyed all that she once held dear.  Followed by a former prison mate, a silent hulk of a man named Grim, she travels north to Dalriada.  There she’ll live on the fringe of a mysterious forest, duty bound for seven years to assist anyone who asks for her help.

Oran, crown prince of Dalriada, has waited anxiously for the arrival of his future bride, Lady Flidais.  He knows her only from a portrait and sweetly poetic correspondence that have convinced him Flidais is his destined true love.  But Oran discovers letters can lie.  For although his intended exactly resembles her portrait, her brutality upon arrival proves she is nothing like the sensitive woman of the letters.

With the strategic marriage imminent, Oran sees no way out of his dilemma.  Word has spread that Blackthorn possesses a remarkable gift for solving knotty problems, so the prince asks her for help.  To save Oran from his treacherous nuptials, Blackthorn and Grim will need all their resources: courage, ingenuity, leaps of deduction, and more than a little magic.



Dreamer's Pool, to be honest, while written well with Juliet Marillier's style of magic and lore, also sort of tended towards the predictable.  It's a usual plot device of Marillier's to give away the plot twist from one of the tales or stories told throughout the book.  And so it wasn't hard to figure out how everything would turn out in the end.

As has been quite typical of Marillier as well, this first book in the Blackthorn & Grim trilogy involved a lot of world building and set-up.  A lot of traveling happened, and I'm not entirely sure that things started picking up until about halfway through the book.  At least, for me, I didn't start getting really interested until halfway through the book.

So while I enjoyed the book, I still had a hard time with it, not only because of the slowness of the plotting, but also because of how hard it was to really relate with any of the characters.  Blackthorn tended towards more bitter than I felt like she needed to be, and I found I liked her more when she wasn't constantly thinking about how she could betray the new chance at life that Conmael gave her by going back to her need for revenge.  I didn't mind her being a cranky old wise woman (who was hardly old by biological age standards), and I liked her role as the local wise woman.

I'm much like Blackthorn in that I hate being crowded and I like my privacy.  But I think that, as much as Blackthorn and Grim seem to understand the way that the fey work their magic, they don't seem to understand that there might be a reason for the seven year restriction that Conmael has given her.  If Blackthorn went back for her revenge at this stage in her new chance at life, she'd probably just end up back in prison again.

Anyway, the only reason I even gave this book a higher rating anyway was because of the last half of the book.  It certainly did end up drawing me in all the way, and if only we could have stuck with Blackthorn's and Grim's POVs, I think I would have enjoyed the book in it's entirety a lot more.  I sincerely was more interested in their journey, and instead found Prince Oran kind of frustrating to follow.

I also found our "villian" more overpowered than was believable.  Lady Flidais's behavior was never acceptable nor was it normal, so I'm surprised that no one ever called her out on it, save for Oran in private.

Of course, without Oran's POV, there probably wouldn't be a whole lot of story.  Maybe if this book were written in third person, things might have been a bit different?

Nonetheless, the end of the book left me wanting more, and so I will definitely be jumping into the next book when I get the chance.

 

 

Halloween Bingo 2019

 

 

Source: anicheungbookabyss.blogspot.com/2019/10/quick-thoughts-dreamers-pool.html
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review 2019-10-18 20:00
Quick Thoughts: Pocket Apocalypse
Pocket Apocalypse - Seanan McGuire

Pocket Apocalypse

by Seanan McGuire
Book 4 of InCryptid

 

 

Endangered, adjective:  Threatened with extinction or immediate harm.

Australia, noun: A good place to become endangered.

Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice.  Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport.  From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much.

Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges.  Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America. And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own.  The continent which currently includes Alex.

Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground.  Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.



Ah...

I surprisingly found this book more enjoyable than the previous one, and I'm not sure if it's just because I've warmed to Alex and Shelby.  For certain, it had nothing to do with the Australian cryptozoologists, the Thirty-Six Society--I didn't like them at all and felt like they all either needed a reality check or a good whack in their heads as a collective.

Neither Alex's nor Shelby's characters are any more fleshed out than they were in the previous book, but I think what really did it for me was all the lore about lycanthropy in the InCryptid world.  I liked learning about how the lyncanthropy-w virus worked, all the new twists to werewolf transformation that Alex talked about, as well as learned about as new surprises were revealed throughout the book.  What I DIDN'T like was how the Thirty-Sixers had a problem and refused to take the expert advice of someone who knew how to handle werewolves.

And even as Alex proved again and again that he was right about what he was telling them, they still continued to treat him like he was some sort of delusional crazy, disbelieving him and even being overly suspicious despite the fact that his own life had been in danger so many times, trying to save others.  I'm in agreement with Shelby--if I'd have come to Australia with an intent to help and ended up being treated like some sort of crazed criminal, unwelcome and unwanted, I would have gotten on the first plane back out of Australia, and screw the survival of a bunch of jackasses who think they know better.

Outside of all of the above, I DO wish that we could have seen more of the cryptids in Australia.  As the series suggests, Australia is an isolated ecological cesspit for all sorts of fun and new types of living creatures, both cryptid and non-cryptid.  I loved meeting the yowie, and I loved watching the Tanner girls get schooled about how they treat their local sapient cryptids.

Now if only Alex could help school the rest of the Thirty-Sixers about how to cooperate with the rest of the sapient cryptids, maybe life on Australia for the cryptozoologists will be easier.  Of course, on the other hand, I have my misgivings about the fact that an outsider had to teach the Thirty-Sixers this lesson, especially since, by all rights, I'd assumed that at least one person or another would have figured out how NOT to treat the sapient cryptids as monsters.

If a huge organization like the Covenant of St. George was able to produce a few dissenters, I'm surprised that a less restrictive organization such as the Thirty-Six Society hasn't yet.

Anyway, I know the next book goes back to following Verity, but further along the line, I wouldn't mind returning to Australia and visiting with one or another of the Tanner sisters, especially Raina, whom, while I did have issues with at first, ended up warming up to her.

 

 

Halloween Bingo 2019

 

 

Source: anicheungbookabyss.blogspot.com/2019/10/quick-thoughts-pocket-apocalypse.html
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