Top Ten Tuesday : Opening first lines #WyrdAndWonder
24 May 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Opening sentences, Quotes, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday, Wyrd and Wonder
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic:
Book Quote Freebie
As it’s Wyrd and Wonder all the books I used for this week’s theme are fantasy and in lieu of it being a ‘freebie’ I’m going for first line quotes from recent fantasy – let’s see how I get on. These are all recent reads and the reviews are linked so if you are intrigued by the opening sentence then check out the review and see if the book calls to you.
Nettle and Bone by T Kingfisher – ‘The trees were full of crows and the woods were full of madmen.’
The Girl and the Moon (Book of the Ice #3) by Mark Lawrence – ‘Yaz had walked on water her entire life, and now in this place where it fell molten from the skies they planned to drown her in the stuff.’
The Hunger of the Gods (#2 of the Bloodsworn Saga) by John Gwynne – ‘Orka stood in a tempest of fire and smoke.’
The Justice of Kings (Empire of the Wolf #1) by Richard Swan – ‘It is a strange thing to think that the end of the Empire of the Wolf, and all the death and devastation that came with it, traced its long roots back to the tiny and insignificant village of Rill.’
This Charming Man (The Stranger Times #2) by CK McDonnell – ‘The Hunger. The damned hunger. Phillip had never felt anything like it.’
Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – ‘Julia sees the people in the stairwell when she gets up at night to pee’
The Haunting of Las Lagrimas by WM Cleese – ‘Every night the same things happen.’
The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan – ‘Thirteen-year-old Ursule Orchiere knelt in the shadow of the red caravan to watch her mother lie to people.’
A Witch in Time by Constance Sayers – ‘Just after my divorce was final, my friend set me up on a blind date.’
Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M Valente – ‘Welcome to a new world of luxury living in Arcadia Gardens, an exclusive, upscale gated community!’
#SPFBO 8 Cover Competition
If you follow my blog you’ll probably be aware that I take part in the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off (SPFBO) competition as a judge. SPFBO 7 finished recently and SPFBO 8 is due to commence after a short break.
What’s SPFBO? This is a competition for self published authors of fantasy fiction. It’s the brainchild of Mark Lawrence and it’s mission (other than to boldly go….) is :
‘The SPFBO exists to shine a light on self-published fantasy. It exists to find excellent books that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. It exists to help readers select, from the enormous range of options, books that have a better chance of entertaining them than a random choice, thereby increasing reader faith in finding a quality self-published read.’
Check out Mark Lawrence’s post here to look at this year’s entrants, judges and allocations list.
As with SPFBO 7 The Critiquing Chemist and I will be teaming up again. We had a lot of fun last year discussing our batch of books and can’t wait to start tucking into this year’s entries. Check out the Critiquing Chemist’s intro and book cover post here. These two ladies are just amazing and I can’t say enough good things about them and the charm and intelligence that they brought to our team last year, joining up has definitely been one of my better decisions.
My SPFBO7 wrap up and intro to SPFBO8 will be posted shortly.
In relation to the Cover Competition.
Every year, as part of SPFBO, there is a cover competition. Each of the 10 judges chooses 3 covers from their selection of books and these are then voted on by both the judges and the public. Go ahead and take a look at all the lovely covers and make sure to vote on your favourites once the link becomes available (keep your eyes peeled here).
Below are the covers from LB=TC2′s batch. Feast your eyes :
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And the three covers chosen by Lynn’s Books and The Critiquing Chemist/Bookish Boffin’s are:
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Which covers are your favourites??
Booking Ahead/Weekly Wrap Up
22 May 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Booking Ahead, Caffeinated Reviewer, Weekly wrap up
I’m trying to get back into the habit of doing a round-up of the week just completed and also take a look at my plans for the forthcoming week. I rather got out of the habit of doing this but I would like to reinstate this type of post as I feel it keeps me on track. So, I’m linking up to The Sunday Post over at Kimberly’s Caffeinated Reviewer. Without further ado:
This week we went away for a couple of days for a short break which was lovely. I’m still catching up but my reading has been good this week and I’ve managed to complete two books and I’m halfway through the third.
Books read this week:
As planned, I completed and reviewed The House with the Golden Door which I really enjoyed. I’ve also read Hide by Kiersten White and I’m just over 50% into my blog tour book which I’m keen to share more about.
Next Week’s Reads:
Complete my blog tour book. The possibilities after that are plenty. I have a number of review books to catch up with including the next Stoker-Wilde book : Land of the Dead and also Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandell. Also I’m looking at Black Tide by KC Jones. Who knows, let’s see where the reading vibe takes me.
- The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper
Outstanding Reviews
Hide by Kiersten White
Friday Face Off : Sunny and bright – a cover that is predominantly yellow #WyrdAndWonder
20 May 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Covers that are mainly yellow, Friday Face off
Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book (this doesn’t have to be a book that you’ve read), compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future’s themes are listed below – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout.
Wyrd & Wonder is a month long celebration of all things fantasy check out this post for everything you need to know. This month I will be posting predominantly about fantasy books in all it’s guises.
I’ve added themes in below. For information, I’m trying out some new ideas so along with coming up with particular items for book covers I thought we could also look for certain elements contained within the book or that play a large part in the story – this really broadens things out because I have plenty of more ideas with this – I’ve gone for a few of the Tough Travel Themes (so a book with that theme – just choose any book – the theme isn’t necessarily on the cover, then compare covers), also, I’ve thrown in some genres and some colours. Hopefully this will open things out a little and give us some more freedom to come up with new books.
This week’s theme:
Sunny and bright – a cover that is predominantly yellow
This week I’ve chosen a medley of covers with a couple of books that I still have to read. I’ve chosen all fantasy this week to coincide with Wyrd and Wonder. This is certainly an ‘on trend’ colour for books at the moment:
Which one is your favourite?
If you’re taking part in this week’s theme feel free to leave your link in the comments below.
If you know of an event that’s coming up let me know and I’ll try and include covers that work for the event itself so that you can link up to the Friday Face Off and, as always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment – or if you’d like to host a week then simply let me know. Also, I would just mention that it’s very possible that some of these might be repeats from previous FFOs although I have tried to invent more ‘open ended’ prompt that can be interpreted differently and also prompts that relate to emotions. Finally, don’t struggle with any of these, this is meant to be a fun way of highlighting books. If you can’t come up with a book you think fits for a particular week use a freebie – perhaps a recent read for example:
Next Week’s Theme : Books with ‘You’ in the title
2022
Can’t Wait Wednesday : What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher
18 May 2022
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, T Kingfisher, What Moves the Dead, Wishful Endings
“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is: What Moves the Dead by K Kingfisher. I’ve just read my first Kingfisher novel, Nettle and Bone and absolutely loved it so very keen to read more by this author. Here’s the description and cover:
From the award-winning author of The Twisted Ones comes a gripping and atmospheric retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic “The Fall of the House of Usher.”
When Alex Easton, a retired soldier, receives word that their childhood friend Madeline Usher is dying, they race to the ancestral home of the Ushers in the remote countryside of Ruritania.
What they find there is a nightmare of fungal growths and possessed wildlife, surrounding a dark, pulsing lake. Madeline sleepwalks and speaks in strange voices at night, and her brother Roderick is consumed with a mysterious malady of the nerves.
Aided by a redoubtable British mycologist and a baffled American doctor, Alex must unravel the secret of the House of Usher before it consumes them all.
Expected publication : July 2022
