Can’t Wait Wednesday : Kin (The Helga Finnsdottir #1) by Snorri Kristjansson
24 January 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Kin, Snorri Kristjansson, Waiting on Wednesday, 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: Kin (The Helga Finnsdottir #1) by Snorri Kristjansson
He can deny it all he likes, but everyone knows Viking warlord Unnthor Reginsson brought home a great chest of gold when he retired from the longboats and settled down with Hildigunnur in a remote valley. Now, in the summer of 970, adopted daughter Helga is awaiting the arrival of her unknown siblings: dark, dangerous Karl, lithe, clever Jorunn, gentle Aslak, henpecked by his shrewish wife, and the giant Bjorn, made bitter by Volund, his idiot son.
And they’re coming with darkness in their hearts.
The siblings gather, bad blood simmers and old feuds resurface as Unnthor’s heirs make their moves on the old man’s treasure – until one morning Helga is awakened by screams. Blood has been shed: kin has been slain.
No one confesses, but all the clues point to one person – who cannot possibly be the murderer, at least in Helga’s eyes. But if she’s going to save the innocent from the axe and prevent more bloodshed, she’s got to solve the mystery – fast . . .
Due to be published March 8th 2018
“Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission.”
23 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 all 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 Really Liked but Can’t Remember Much About
Interesting topic. I think I need to reread a good number of past books not only to reinforce what happened but to see how my feelings stack up if I read a book I previously liked – will I still like it:
- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch – this is a book I enjoyed and a series I’m interested in continuing but before doing so I think a reread will be in order because I definitely would struggle to remember the closing chapters.
- The Six Gun Tarot by R S Belcher – another series where I enjoyed the first book and intend to continue but I will definitely need a reread as quite a bit of the detail is hazy now.
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I loved this book, the writing, just everything about it – but, I would love a reread as sometimes I’m not totally sure I’m remembering everything well.
- Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence – one of those books that I read many years ago. I genuinely cannot remember much about this book at all. I don’t think I disliked it but it just didn’t make a lasting impression.
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón – it feels like a very long time since I read this book and I would struggle to just give a basic outline of it now – which makes me feel guilty because I did enjoy it.
- Atonement by Ian McEwan – I haven’t completely forgotten the storyline for this one, and also watching the film has probably helped in that respect, but it’s not totally solid in my memory.
- Many of the Sherlock Holmes stories – don’t get me wrong, I love these stories, and I haven’t forgotten them as such, but I would love to reread them to once again see Holmes thought processes in action.
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon – this was a very intriguing book to read but I actually can’t remember the ending.
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini – this book really packs an emotional punch. I’ve only ever read it once but I would like to read it again and take my time with it.
- Which book do you struggle to remember???
Weekly Wrap Up : 21/01/18
‘You shall not pass’ – and ‘It burns us, it freezes us’
Thought I’d share these pictures of Gandalf and Gollum. Hope you’ve all had a good week with plenty going on. I think the biggest event this week was part of the ceiling unexpectedly falling down a couple of days ago! That was novel. On the book side I’ve read two of my expected reads this week and I’ve started a new book. I’m still reading Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan although I need to pick up the pace now and I haven’t managed to start The Chrysalids yet.
Books read:
- The War of Undoing by Alex Perry (my first SPFBO book)
- The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
Next Week’s Reads:
- The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock Imogen Hermes Gowar
- Start The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (Vintage Sci Fi book)
- The Belles Dhonielle Clayton
Upcoming reviews:
- Starborn by Lucy Hounsom
- Envy of Angels by Matt Wallace
- The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
- The War of Undoing by Alex Perry (my first SPFBO book)
- The Feed by Nick Clark Windo
I’d love to know what you’re reading this week.
“That’s how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality.”
19 January 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Annihilation, Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, Jeff VanderMeer
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. This week’s theme:
You know your A, B, Cs – a cover made up only of letters/words
I had a few covers in mind for this but I’ve gone for Annihilation (Southern Reach #1) by Jeff VanderMeer (Borne would have been another good choice by the same author). I don’t think I’ve ever had such a varied selection of strange and wonderful covers:
I’m torn with this one – I like the first three on the last row but my favourite is going to be:
There’s just a sense of something really coming alive on this cover.
Which is your favourite?
Next week – a cover that features grass
Future themes:
26th January – “The grass is always greener on the other side of personal extinction” – a cover featuring grass
2nd February – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds – a Psychedelic cover
9th February – ‘My what big teeth you have’ – a cover featuring a cloaked figure
16th February – ‘Groovy baby’ – a cover that is: Retro
23rd February – “There are too many steps in this castle, and it seems to me they add a few every night, just to vex me” – a cover featuring a staircase
2nd March – ‘The only true wisdom is to know that you know nothing’ – a cover featuring something from Greek mythology
9th March – ‘…but Icarus flew too close’ – a cover featuring the Sun
16th March – ‘I got no strings to hold me down’ – a cover featuring a doll or puppet
23rd March – “When she was a child, the witch locked her away in a tower that had neither doors nor stairs.” – a cover featuring a Tower
30th March – ‘A little soil to make it grow’ – a cover featuring seeds/spores
6th April – “After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” – a cover featuring a family
13th April – ‘lawns and rocks and heather and different sorts of trees, lay spread out below them, the river winding through it’ – a cover featuring a panorama
20th April – Where there’s fire there’s… – a cover featuring smoke
27th April – ‘Those darling byegone times… with their delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful places of torture’ – a cover that is positively mediaeval
4th May- ‘A Hand without a hand? A bad jape, sister.’ – a cover featuring a hand/hands
11th May – ‘Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth’ – a cover featuring a dinosaur/s
18th May – ‘Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;’ – a cover featuring a gravestone
25th May – Trip trap, trip trap, trip trap – a cover featuring footsteps
1st June – clinging and invasive – a cover featuring creeping vines
8th June – Raining Cats and Dogs – a cover featuring a stormy sky
Can’t Wait Wednesday : Charmcaster (Spellslinger #3) by Sebastien de Castell
17 January 2018
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Breaking the Spine, Can't wait Wednesday, Charmcaster, Sebastien de Castell, Spellslinger #3, Waiting on Wednesday, Wishful Endings
The third book in the page-turning SPELLSLINGER fantasy series.
‘I was getting almost as good at running away from enemies as I was at making them in the first place. Turns out, I wasn’t running nearly fast enough.’
Kellen has begun to master his spellslinging and the Argosi tricks for staying alive, and he and Reichis have found a career that suits them both: taking down mercenary mages who make people’s lives miserable. But Ferius is concerned that Kellen is courting disaster . . .
Perfect for fans of The Dark Tower, Firefly, Guardians of the Galaxy, Terry Pratchett, Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher.
Due out March – time for you all to read the first two if you haven’t already.
Books and travelling with Lynn 