‘Normally, I have a very sweet disposition as a dog…The tail I could live with. But the fleas? ‘
1 February 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Shapeshifters, The Fantasy Hive, Tough Travelling
Once again it’s time to go Tough Travelling. So, don your jaunty cap and let’s go and see whether Lembas Bread is all it’s made out to be because this month we’re looking at Elves. The Fantasy Hive are now hosting Tough Travel so don’t forget to head on over there and link up.
This month’s theme … SHAPESHIFTERS.
“Shapeshifting is frequent among both WERES and MAGIC USERS. The usual form taken is that of a wolf, but lions, eagles, serpents, owls and cats are common too. In all cases the Rule is that the Shapeshifter cannot stay too long in ANIMAL form without actually becoming that animal and losing touch with her/his human thoughts.”
– The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones
So many! How to rein myself in – I thought I’d go for type of animal and see how many I can come up with. Okay, in no particular order:
Coyote – Mercy Thompson from Patricia Briggs series. A great series and a great character.
Wolf – werewolves, the more traditional animal that we expect to see in shapeshifter books – well, there are werewolves in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer or there’s Adam, Mercy’s partner and alpha of the werewolf pack in the Mercy series by Patricia Briggs.
Bird – Atticus from the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne can shift into the form of an owl – as well as two or three other animals.
Dog – Sirius Black from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series transforms into a large black dog. Also, Sam Merlotte could also transform into a dog – usually a collie.
Dragon – two dragons immediately spring to mind. One is from Kristi Charish’s Owl series – Mr. Kurosawa, who runs a casino in Las Vegas transforms into a red dragon. The second is from the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman but I can’t say more for fear of spoilers.
Kitsune (Fox) – Suzume Hollis from Generation V by M L Brennan transforms into a Kitsune. She’s a brilliant character and I heartily recommend this series.
Bats/Rats and Mist – Dracula, who else! Bram Stoker.
Bears – in Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series we are introduced to the Maghuin Dhonn – believed to be witches they can also shift into bears.
Finally: Mystique – can turn into just about anything:
Art by Mike Mayhew
This is it for me this month – stop on over to the Fantasy Hive and add your links to the shapeshifters you’ve come up with.
January : My Month in Review
This is my first month in review for 2018 – also, some of these lists look a bit longer than usual but that’s because I didn’t post a month in review for December 2017 so this doubles up. I’ve had a good month with plenty of excellent books – guess I’ve been quite lucky. We’ve had a few mishaps (chunks of ceiling falling down and the like) but it all just adds to the rich texture of life doesn’t it! Anyway, my month in covers is here if you’d like to check out their loveliness. My Month in Covers
Books read: this month = 9
- The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson
- The War of Undoing by Alex Perry – review to follow
- The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
- The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
- The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton – review to follow
- Chaos Trims my Beard by Brett Herman – review to follow
- Hazelwood by Melissa Albert – review to follow
- The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar- review to follow
- The Chrysalids by John Wyndham – review to follow
I still have a few reviews yet to follow but a couple are already written and scheduled.
What’ve you been reading??
Backlist books
Ahem, none this month – although I have started Anthony Ryan’s Waking Fire so hopefully I’ll finish that one soon.
Unfinished series completed:
None this month.
Books Bought (I’ve included December buys in here as I didn’t have a monthly round up for December):
- Age of Assassins by RJ Barker
- Lustlocked by Matt Wallace
- Pride’s Spell by Matt Wallace
- Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan
- The Vanishing by Sophia Tobin
- The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
- Cold Iron by Stina Leicht
- The Reluctant Queen by Sarah Beth Durst
That’s not too bad really when you consider it’s two months and includes my birthday and Christmas – in fact I’ve still got credit left from gift cards.
Review Books (again, this probably looks like a lot of books but it’s two months worth and some of the dates are quite well spread apart (so for example I have 7 titles for February – doable I think).
- The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams
- The Beast’s Heart by Leife Shallcross
- Between the Blade and the Heart by Amanda Hocking
- Planetfall by Emma Newman
- One Way by S J Morden
- Clockwork City by Paul Crilley
- Kin by Snorri Kristjansson
- Semiosis by Sue Burke
- The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse
- Blood of Assassins by RJ Barker
- Looking Glass by Andrew Mayne
- The Sisters Mederos by Patrice Sarath
- The Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst
- Feeder by Patrick Weekes
- The Hunger by Alma Katsu
- School for Psychics by K C Archer
- Bad Man by Dathan Auerbach
- The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
I’ve read two of my SPFBO titles : The War of Undoing and Chaos Trims my Beard. Which leaves me with 7 more books to complete.
My cover compare this month:
The Hunger by Alma Katsu – which sounds chilling to say the least:
It’s difficult to choose isn’t it – one is very dark and foreboding, not to mention barren and rather lonely looking. The other looks bitterly cold and chilling in a terrifying sense with all the warnings. My favourite is:
Hope you’ve all had a great start to 2018. Let me know what plans you have for your reading and blogging and feel free to share a link if you like.
Can’t Wait Wednesday : Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough
31 January 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Can't wait Wednesday, Cross Her Heart, Sarah Pinborough, 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: Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough:
‘Cross my heart and hope to die…’
Promises only last if you trust each other, but what if one of you is hiding something?
A secret no one could ever guess.
Someone is living a lie.
Is it Lisa?
Maybe it’s her daughter, Ava.
Or could it be her best friend, Marilyn?
Due to be published May 2018
My Month in Covers
Below is a quick round up of the books I’ve read during the first month of 2018 – all displayed in covers. My month in review will follow shortly. Hope you’ve read some good books this month.
Feast your eyes:
You better believe it
30 January 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: That Artsy Reader Girl, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday
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 is :
Books I Can’t Believe I Read – but I’m glad I did
This list contains books that I maybe wouldn’t pick up for one reason or another – listed for each book:
- Foundation by Issac Asimov – Space Opera. I’m always daunted by the very sound of space opera – it sounds like something that I’m going to struggle to understand. As it is I read the first three books as a readalong and loved them – which undoubtedly all the discussion helped with, but, even so.
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick – This is a book that I read after seeing the film. I prefer to do it the other way around and read the book first. Usually I never read a book when I’ve seen the film. I just have a mental block.
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A Heinlein- this was a read for Vintage Sci Fi month – so not only sci fi, but vintage! This worked out much better than I ever expected.
- True Grit by Charles Portis – firstly, I never used to read anything that had a wild west vibe – these days, I love anything of that nature so there you go. Also, this falls into the same category as (No.2 above). I’d already seen the film, well, both films actually. As it is, this is an excellent read.
- The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis – the cover. I know it’s fickle but the cover would never have tempted me to look in this direction. It sounds really silly but I would just figure this book was going to be out of my comfort zone. How wrong I was. Plus – the Mechanical, it just doesn’t give me the right vibe. Again, wrong.
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare – Plays. I’m not into reading play.s It seems to me that plays are meant to be watched. This is the only Shakespeare I’ve read and I did enjoy it – I’m still not totally convinced that I wouldn’t just as soon see the play though.
- Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss- I love this book and this author. The reason why it’s on this list is because I actually found this book in a charity shop and just picked it up on the off chance. This was pre blogging and so I hadn’t heard anything about this on the grapevine or elsewhere so I struck gold with this find. Uncannily enough I found the Gentlemen Bastard series and the Poison Study series in a similar fashion.
- The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons- this book was recommended to me by somebody who I worked with – I took it on holiday with me and literally could not put it down.
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon – the first book in this series was another recommendation, called Cross Stitch I’d never heard of it and I’m going to be honest I probably wouldn’t have picked it up with that title – it’s very misleading.
- ??? I’ve left this one free so you can tell me a book title that you can’t believe you’ve read.
Books and travelling with Lynn 