Casee: I’m reading Rock Chick Renegade by Kristen Ashley. I’m really liking this series. It’s so over the top, but still super funny. I’m also still reading Looking Inside by Beth Kery.
Im listening to Magic Binds. I am so in love with this series. I can’t believe I’m already on the ninth book.
Holly: We missed last week, so here are my reads for the past two weeks. I DNF’d Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope just over the halfway mark. I was liking it early on, but then it turned kind of weird (trucks and cars in what I thought was a fantasy world, etc). I might try the second book in the series. I read The Malediction Trilogy by Danielle L. Jensen. Stolen Songbird, book 1, was really good. I liked the premise and the politics and intrigues. I didn’t enjoy book 2, Hidden Huntress, quite as much, but I liked Warrior Witch, the third and final book. Interestingly, I actually came to like the main character less in each book. I would still recommend the trilogy for the world and secondary characters.
I read and listened to Wishing for a Highlander by Jessi Gage. It was just okay. I liked the premise and the hero, but the wishy-washy heroine and over-the-top villainous characters worked against it. I started the second book, The Wolf and the Highlander, but quickly set it aside when I realized one of the villains from the first book was the heroine of the story. I may come back to it later once I have some space from her actions in the first book.
Aside from that I re-read several novels by Kristen Ashley (Rock Chick Reawakening, Rock Chick Regret, Games of the Heart and Golden Trail), Crush the King by Jennifer Estep to refresh my memory before I reviewed it with Ames and listened to Wildfire by Ilona Andrews. I am planning to read Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts by Nancy Campbell Allen next, I just haven’t gotten to it yet.
What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!
I’ve had a string of not very good books, but also a couple that I loved. By A Thread by Lucy Score was the first book of hers that I read and it won’t be the last. I also loved One To Watch by Kate Staymon-London which is a takeoff on The Bachelorette only featuring a plus-sized fashion blogger. There are some uncomfortable (and sadly true to life) moments when she’s humiliated by some of her potential matches, but also a lot of body positivity and a couple of guys that are totally into her. I thought the book did a great job of capturing the alternate reality of The Bachelor/Bachelorette shows.
Two weeks ago ~
— quite enjoyed Beach Read by Emily Henry which had me laughing aloud from time to time. It had some witty one liners, and the story was entertaining.
— read and enjoyed a new book Hideaway: A Novel by Nora Roberts even if it did strain credulity a time or three and even though it seemed to end rather abruptly.
— Another challenge from my summer reading program was to reread a childhood favorite. On our bookshelves, I found a copy of Æsop’s Fables selected by Louis Untermeyer with illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen; this was inscribed to me by my grandmother in 1969. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve had this book for a few years! This was a fun book to revisit.
— Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold which I enjoyed despite the sad ending.
— the most recent book in the Vorkosigan series ~ Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed the book. I’ve now finished the series save for one novella that I’ve yet to lay my hands on.
— a couple of shorter contemporary romance works by Sarina Bowen. I read the standalone novella (a favorite of mine) Blonde Date: An Ivy Years Novella as well as a short piece, Yesterday, that works best if you’ve read a particular one of the author’s full length novels. Both pieces can be found in the collection Extra Credit: Three Ivy Years Novellas by Sarina Bowen. I enjoyed them both.
— Into Thin Eire: Another John Pickett Mystery by Sheri Cobb South which I quite enjoyed. The only problem was that it had been some time since I’d read the prior book, and I’d forgotten key details. This is a series that is best begun with book one and read in order.
— the novella Penric’s Demon: Penric & Desdemona Book 1 by Lois McMaster Bujold which I quite enjoyed. I look forward to reading more in this series.
This past week ~
— Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?: Another John Pickett Mystery by Sheri Cobb South which I quite enjoyed. It had the side benefit of meeting one of my summer reading program challenges in that it was set in a foreign country.
— Breakfast on Mars and 37 Other Delectable Essays edited by Rebecca Stern and Brad Wolfe which I suspect might be of interest to those of you who are teaching essay writing to your children. One of my summer reading challenges was to read a book in the 300s (Dewey decimal) and this was my selection; it was an entertaining and occasionally informative collection.I
— reread Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold which I first read in May of last year. Since I read the rest of the series only recently, I’d forgotten some details from this first book. In fact, I was about halfway through the final book in the series before I realized that that book was taking place in the same location as this one and that the series had come full circle. I enjoyed revisiting this book.
— Goldilocks by Laura Lam. This science fiction novel surprised me several times. One review describes it as a mix of The Martian and the Handmaid’s Tale.
— Penric and the Shaman by Lois McMaster Bujold which I quite enjoyed. It’s the second Penric book, and I recommend beginning with the first.
— reread with pleasure The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison; it was funny to learn that my daughter was rereading it at the same time in South Korea.
My favorite read this week was N.R. Walker’s Missing Pieces duet—PIECES OF YOU and PIECES OF ME. It’s an m/m romance about a couple who have been together for five years and then one of them is in a terrible accident and awakens with amnesia and no memory of his partner. It was a beautifully-written story about two men relearning the emotional terrain of their lives.