October is storming ahead and I still haven’t given feedback on my third batch of books – although that doesn’t mean I haven’t made progress – just that I’ve been travelling and finding reliable wi-fi is not always easy.  Anyway, this is my feedback for the last batch of books.  My next set of books will be highlighted tomorrow and I’ve already started to read them.

I am intending to read 20% of each book and if one really grabs my attention to carry on and complete that particular book.  At the end of the six months I should hopefully have read six books, one from each batch, and will then choose a favourite.

Without further ado here are my thoughts:

Faeborne by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

I think Faeborne made an interesting start, the writing style was good and very easy to read however I don’t think ultimately it would be a book that would work for me.  The two main players, Seren and Brennon, are both outcasts.  Based on what I’ve read so far it seems that the stage is set for the two of them to become romantically involved, although that’s only the general feeling I’m picking up so far.  And, I have nothing against that if it’s the case, just a general observation.  At this stage though it feels like everyone is against the two of them – in quite a strong way – and I struggled to understand why that was the case.  Obviously I’ve only read the first 20% so all things will no doubt be cleared up eventually but at the moment I wouldn’t say that Faeborne has grabbed my attention strongly enough to make me want to read further.

The Age of Mages by Ilana Waters

I found myself quite intrigued with The Age of Mages and before I knew it I’d read more than the allotted 20% I’ve set myself for each book.  This definitely comes across as a fairly entertaining urban fantasy, I’m not sure if I’ll complete this one or not yet, I think I probably will read more because I’m keen to find out more about Joshua – and his whole family dynamic to be honest.  His father, Titus, was a Roman general, now a 2,000 year old vampire.  He’s quite a hard character as you might expect and he and his son seem to butt heads quite a lot from the chapters I’ve read so far.  Joshua, he comes across as a little bit petulant and seems to be constantly trying to prove himself to his father.  I liked what I read so far although, Joshua has a way of talking directly to the reader which whilst I quite enjoyed it, particularly as quite often his comments seemed to come along in answer to thoughts that I was actually having, this might not be to everyone’s liking.  I’m very curious as well as to why Titus hasn’t made more of an effort to locate his wife?  Yes, I think I shall read more – the jury’s still out on this one.

Jack Bloodfist by James Jakins

I will definitely read on for this one – I”m just going to be honest and say that the cover did put me off a little bit and so I went into this one with a slightly mixed bunch of feelings – and then I ended up really enjoying the read and wishing to continue.  I’ve not read further yet but I certainly intend to do so to see how things work out.  Urban fantasy again, fast paced and entertaining up to the point at which I cut off.

The Lost Secret of the Faeries by Tiffany Turner

The Lost Secret of Fairies made a good start.   I liked the young protagonist, Wanda, and really liked that the author has chosen a fairly regular, down to earth character.  She’s not really from the ‘popular’ clique but is something of a loner, although she enjoys her reading and is basically quite a happy sort of person.  I had no issues at all with the writing style and I think it could be an intriguing tale for a much younger audience, but, it didn’t work for me as it felt a little too young.  Admittedly, sometimes a book aimed at younger readers can work equally well for an older audience but this one just didn’t pull me in enough somehow although I admit it definitely has a lot of promise and I can imagine younger readers being taken with it.

Grace the Mace by Tirzah Duncan

This is a strange one.  In one respect I really liked the writing, it’s really quite to the point, almost brutally so in some respects, and I think the author does an excellent job in coming up with what could potentially be a very interesting character in her hard boiled sell sword Grace.  But, and this could just be because I’ve only read the first 20% of course, I found it difficult to always like Grace – at least so far.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike her either but at this point I don’t think she’s won me over and I struggled with some of the things she said and did which sometimes left me perplexed.  Overall, I found this intriguing but it hasn’t grabbed me enough at this point to go further forward.