Best of the Best 2018
Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone had a fantastic year and I hope that 2019 is just as good if not better. It’s that time of year again where I look at my books from last year and at the same time look forward to the books that are due out in the next few months. By the way, I’ve already seen some lovely lists of forthcoming books. Check out this great post from Way Too Fantasy Last year I read 104 books – I still have to catch up with my December reviews but hopefully I’ll soon be back on track.
So, my favourite reads of 2018. I have cheated slightly and included 12 books but what can I say, it was difficult to narrow it down any further:
- Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence
- The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
- The Poppy War by R F Kuang
- The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Age of Assassins and Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker
- The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams
- The Tower of Living and Dying by Anna Smith Spark
- You Die When you Die by Angus Watson
- Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
- The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
- Sworn to the Night by Craig Schaefer
December : My Month in Review + book covers
Wow, 2018 is coming to a close. I feel short changed somehow – like somebody pulled a fast one and shortened the year somehow. It’s been a lot of fun this year though in spite of the way it’s flown by at breakneck speed. I’ve loved my reading and blogging, interacting with this wonderful community, taking part again in the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off and just becoming involved in lots of bookish endeavours. For those of you who celebrate Christmas I hope you’ve had a lovely time – for those that don’t, I hope you’ve also had a lovely time during December and I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone all the best for the forthcoming New Year. Anyways. I’ve read 10 books this month. I’ve also completed my final batch of SPFBO books and chosen a finalist to go forward to the Second Stage. My reviews will start to appear in January. I can’t deny that I have some catching up to do in terms of the blog and visiting all my bookish buddies but I decided to concentrate solely on reading my SPFBO books during December which is why I was mostly absent – well, that plus all the holiday socialising. So, here’s my month in review:
Books read: this month = 10
- An Empire of Tears by Tim Marquitz
- Purple Haze by Andrew Einspruch
- Kingshold by D P Wooliscroft
- Dark Oak by Jacob Sannox
- Sworn to the Night by Craig Schaefer
- Forsaken Kingdom by RJ Rasmussen
- Under Ordshaw by Phil Williams
- High Barrens by Alice Sabo
- Songs of Insurrection by J.C Kang
- An Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
What’ve you been reading??
Backlist books
None.
Unfinished series completed:
None.
Books Bought:
- The Corset by Laura Purcel
- Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs
- City of Miracles by Robert Jackson Bennett
Review Books
- A Time of Blood by John Gwynne
- The Dollmaker by Nina Allan
- Bound by Mark Lawrence
Cover compare:
These two are not just completely different style wise but also the title. I actually did a double take and wondered if I’d gone wrong somehow. I think I prefer to the blue cover this time.
Hope you’ve all had a good month.
Friday Face Off Freebie: Blackthorn and Grim by Juliet Marillier
28 December 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Blackthorn and Grim, Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, Juliet Marillier
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, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – 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. This week’s theme:
Choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
Strangely enough having the freedom to choose any book at all this week actually threw me into a turmoil! No idea why, I thought the chance to use any book would be liberating but it turned out too much choice and the overall dilemma of what to pick. Basically, I was like a child in a sweetie shop and on top of that I really have used a lot of my favourite books already (sometimes more than once – eeek!) Anyway. I’ve cheated slightly – I’m not comparing a particular cover but instead going with a series of books and displaying their covers because I love them all: The Blackthorn and Grim series by Juliet Marillier – feast your eyes on these gorgeous covers and fall in love:
The covers:
My favourite this week: all of them 😀
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so I can visit and check out your covers. Thanks
Next week – A cover that is ‘fresh’
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
2019
4th January – A cover that is fresh – New beginnings for a New Year
11th January – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king’ – A cover that depicts a novel set in the Tudor period
18th January – A cover featuring an Amulet – either in the cover or title
25th January – ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’ – A cover featuring a monk/priest/person of the cloth
1st February – A comedy cover
8th February – ‘Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.’ – A cover with snakes
15th February – A heart – for Valentine’s day past
22nd February – “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – A cover with abandoned building/s
1st March – ‘who will buy this wonderful morning’ – A cover featuring a shop or market
8th March – ‘Two little fishes and a momma fishy too’ – A cover featuring a fish/fishes or other sea creatures
15th March – ‘Beware the moon, lads.’ – A cover with a shapeshifter
22nd March – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ – A cover featuring a king
29th March – “I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.” – A cover featuring a unicorn
5th April – ‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
#SPFBO Finalist Announcement
27 December 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: #SPFBO 2018, Craig Schaefer, Sworn to the Night
You may have noticed that my blog has been very quiet during the month of December. I decided to focus on reading the nine books I’d rolled forward for the first stage of the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off and with all nine now complete I’ve chosen my finalist. It wasn’t an easy decision and in fact I have 3 very close runners up but without further ado my finalist for #SPFBO 2018 is :
Sworn to the Night (The Wisdom’s Grave Trilogy #1) by Craig Schaefer.
I have to say I had a great batch of books and I’d like to thank all the authors who took part in the competition.
My second, third and fourth place books are:
As promised I will be reviewing all nine books in the forthcoming weeks starting with Sworn to the Night.
My thanks again to all the authors who took part. I wish I could have chosen more books but at the end of the day there can be only one and with that in mind I would conclude by wishing all the finalists the best of luck in the second stage of the competition.
Details of the other finalists can be found here.
Friday Face Off : ‘ho, ho, ho’
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, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – the list has been updated to help out those of you who like to plan ahead – 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. This week’s theme:
‘ho, ho, ho’ – A seasonal cover
I was thinking of snow predominantly when I chose this theme but seasons are very different dependent on where you are in the world so it will be interesting to see what people have come up with. I’ve gone for A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens which is a book I used to love at this time of the year. There are many covers to choose from as you might imagine but I’ve gone for those with snowy scenes and just selected a few:
And the covers:
My favourite this week:
I quite like the blue cover with the snow flakes, I think the top hat feels like a Christmas pudding but my favourite this week is the wintry scene:
Like last week I’ve added a Mr Linky here so that you can leave a link if you wish or please leave me a link in the comments so I can visit and check out your covers. Thanks
Next week – A freebie – choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ of one of your favourite covers)
28th December – A freebie – choose one of your favourite titles and compare the covers
2019
4th January – A cover that is fresh – New beginnings for a New Year
11th January – ‘I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king’ – A cover that depicts a novel set in the Tudor period
18th January – A cover featuring an Amulet – either in the cover or title
25th January – ‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’ – A cover featuring a monk/priest/person of the cloth
1st February – A comedy cover
8th February – ‘Hi little cub. Oh no, don’t be ssscared.’ – A cover with snakes
15th February – A heart – for Valentine’s day past
22nd February – “Woe, destruction, ruin, and decay; the worst is death and death will have his day.” – A cover with abandoned building/s
1st March – ‘who will buy this wonderful morning’ – A cover featuring a shop or market
8th March – ‘Two little fishes and a momma fishy too’ – A cover featuring a fish/fishes or other sea creatures
15th March – ‘Beware the moon, lads.’ – A cover with a shapeshifter
22nd March – ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’ – A cover featuring a king
29th March – “I thought unicorns were more . . . Fluffy.” – A cover featuring a unicorn
5th April – ‘nomad is an island’ – A cover featuring a desert landscape
12th April – ‘Odin, Odin, send the wind to turn the tide – A cover featuring a longboat
19th April – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – A cover featuring a school
Books and travelling with Lynn 