Reverie is getting pretty good. Starts out with lots of questions and then really warms up around chapter 5. I like the revelation that the main character has lost more than just short term memory.
review
The Ugly Princess by Henderson Smith
Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review
3.5/5 stars
I love The Ugly Princess for its message and for having a truly ugly heroine. It’s message, that beauty is only skin deep, came through strong, right from the first page. I especially loved how happy the heroine, Olive, was to be ugly in exchange for her other gifts and how she rejoiced in every new boil and wart.
Ceylon & Rose Petals
My first Monstrositea Tea Subscription came this week, including a sample of ceylon pekoe and one of rose petals. I immediately tired one of their suggested recipes (1/2 tsp of ceylon pekoe and 1/2 tsp of rose petals). Brewed for 5 minutes, served black.
Verdict: Not the best cup of tea I’ve ever had. I’m definitely a black tea kind of girl, and this needs more of it.
Altaica by Tracy M Joyce
I’d been hanging out to read Altaica ever since I saw the cover art (yes, I know, I’m shallow) and once I had my hands on it, I devoured it (in the literary sense). The storyline was engaging, the plot kept rolling along and there was never a moment when I was bored or tempted … Read more
Teaser Tuesday: The Towers of the Sunset
Can you see how the pieces fit together? Not just the visible ones, like the towers of the sunset, but those unseen, like the heart of a man or the soul of a wizard.
What’s awesome about it
- The langauge is beautiful (as you can see above)
- The worldbuilding and the use of the word ‘masculine’.
What’s not-so-awesome
- There’s no blurb! At least on my copy. This makes it very hard to place the book in context to the first, The Magic of Recluce
- The last half of the book is kinda boring
- Magera is a twit.
Would I buy the sequel? I already did, in fact, not only did get the sequel, The Magic Engineer, I splurged on its sequels as well, The Order War and The Death of Chaos. I just haven’t read them yet.
First Draft in 30 Days – The Wiesner method
When a book has a title like First Draft in 30 Days, it can be hard to pass up. If it’s sitting on the shelf at your local library, passing it up is practically impossible, which is why I picked Karen Wiesner’s book.
The idea that I could write a first draft, or in Wiesner’s case, an incredibly detailed outline (which she equates to a first draft), is seductive. So far, it hasn’t happened yet (mostly, because I’m currently writing the second draft of another work) but the dream remains.
Fade to Black on Teaser Tuesday
I have finally, finally, gotten around to reading Fade to Black by Francis Knight (Goodreads link). I borrowed it from the library, and I’ve been so busy (with second drafts and work and, you know, stuff) that I’ve had to renew it twice. Crazy. So far, apart from a few cases of info-dumping at the … Read more
Review: Goldrush by Steven Lochran
I just had to read this book; when I saw it on Kobo.com the want drove me crazy. It drove me so crazy that when I discovered my local library didn’t have a copy but one of its sister libraries did, I drove half an hour to pick it up. Like I said, crazy.
What, you may ask, drove me so crazy? Well, I would answer, I have this thing for superheroes… Plus it had a really cool cover (so I’m shallow; sue me). You can see the original art (which is even cooler) here.
Some sort of cross between The Incredibles and X-men, Goldrush is a classic superhero story where a reluctant hero (Sam) must embrace his special powers in order to save the world. I liked Sam’s reasons for not wanting to use his powers/be a superhero, although, until they were explained in full, those reasons were a little wishy washy. I particularly liked how Lochran made these reasons feel real (when he did explain them fully) by putting names and faces to the people who were injured when Sam first used his power.
Pledged by Gwynneth White
Pledged, a paranormal-romance for young adults, makes a good first impression. The cover is well designed, the book trailer impressive and the blurb intriguing, however the story, while good, wasn’t great.
Immediately engaging, with excellent descriptions of place, I felt that the story moved too quickly and that too much happened. Seth and Erin, the protagonists, seemed to spend all of their time jumping from one event to another with little or no time for the reader to take a breath and really get to know them. Perhaps, if the plot hadn’t had so many twists and turns, and so many characters, White could have spent more time involving us in Erin and Seth’s plight. As it is, White has us following three romances (one of which is love/lust triangle, making it doubly complicated) and two father–son relationships, which is too much for a single book.
Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce
Bloodhound is the second book in the Beka Cooper series by Tamora Pierce. The story follows Beka, now a first-year Dog (aka police officer), as she and her partner Goodwin track down a group of colemongers (aka counterfeiters). Along the way she picks up a scent hound named Achoo, falls in love and saves the day.
What I liked and didn’t like
Bloodhound is written in a journal style. I haven’t read many books in this style but I find it very difficult to believe that someone could recount their day with as much detail as Beka does. Perhaps Pierce should have ditched the journal idea and just made it first person?
Beka is the many times great grandmother of George Cooper, a prominent character from The Song of the Lioness series. Generally these types of books, in which characters from previous novels make cameo appearances, drive me batty, but given that there’s a few hundred years between this book and the Alanna series, there wasn’t much chance of that happening.