Books and travelling with Lynn

Mount TBR

Posted On 6 June 2017

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Mount TBR, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday

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Every Tuesday over at The Broke and Bookish we all get to look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) examples to demonstrate that particular topic. This week’s topic is:

10 Books ~~From X Genre~~ That I’ve Recently Added To My TBR List

I decided to drop the ‘x genre’ and just go for twelve books that I’ve added on the basis of blogger recommendations.

So here are my last 10 book purchases:

Blood Oath (Sawbones Book 2) by Melissa Lenhardt – okay, I haven’t read the first yet but now I have both waiting to be read and I can’t wait!
Just One Damned Thing After Another: Time Travel Meets History In This Explosive Bestselling Series (The Chronicles of St Mary’s Series Book 1) by Jodi Taylor
The Exiled Heir by Jonathan French – I enjoyed his Grey Bastards so much that I thought I’d check his other work
Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan (this is the last of the series – which means I can now read the last two back to back. Happy days.
The Waking Fire: Book One of Draconis Memoria (The Draconis Memoria 1) by Anthony Ryan
A Red-Rose Chain (Toby Daye Book 9)

Seanan McGuire
Shades of Milk and Honey (Glamourist Histories Series Book 1)

Mary Robinette Kowal
Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
Strange Star by Emma Carroll
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Naamah’s Curse (Naamah Trilogy #2) by Jacqueline Carey readalong week 1

Posted On 5 June 2017

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Jacqueline Carey, Naamah's Curse, Readalong week1

Comments Dropped 8 responses

Today is the start of a readalong for Naamah’s Curse, No.2 in Jacqueline Carey’s Naamah Trilogy. The details and schedule are here and below is a little about the book.

Naam2 Jacqueline Carey, New York Times bestselling author of the Kushiel’s Legacy series, delivers book two in her new lushly imagined trilogy featuring daughter of Alba, Moirin.

Far from the land of her birth, Moirin sets out across Tatar territory to find Bao, the proud and virile Ch’in fighter who holds the missing half of her diadh-anam, the divine soul-spark of her mother’s people. After a long ordeal, she not only succeeds, but surrenders to a passion the likes of which she’s never known. But the lovers’ happiness is short lived, for Bao is entangled in a complication that soon leads to their betrayal.

The questions and answers are below (hosted this week by Alli at Tethyan Books) – be warned that spoilers may be lurking.

1) A lot of this section involves recapping the adventures of Naamah’s Kiss. What do you think about the way this was incorporated into the story?

I love the way Carey incorporates the previous story into the start of this tale. She doesn’t info dump but finds different ways to bring you a recap and this is great for more reason than one – firstly, it’s a great refresher (which quite often I do welcome), secondly, new readers can read this easily and get on with the story immediately (although I would always recommend reading the first) and thirdly Carey has such a great story telling voice that I can’t help but be hypnotised..

2) Moirin heads off alone toward the Tatar steppe in winter. Do you think this was the best course of action, or should she have traveled with some sort of escort or guide?

I think she made the right choice – perhaps it wouldn’t be for everyone and certainly Moirin got lonely every now and again along the way, but she’s a very capable character, she can hunt a little, she can hide using her twilight cloaking abilities, she’s a quick thinker. I like that Moirin can stand on her own two feet but aside from that I think it would have made the situation a lot worse if she turned up on Bao’s doorstep with an escort. It could have been mistaken for an act of aggression or just arrogance but more than that I like that Moirin didn’t take the safest or easiest route. She made her decision and stood by it.

3) What stuck out to you the most about the Tatar tribe Moirin stays with and their way of life?

I really enjoyed this part of the story and could have spent more time there. In fact it really did put me in mind a little of Phedre and Joscelin’s experiences in Kushiel’s Dart. I just liked that here we have a family who defied what Moirin herself was expecting of the Tatar’s – although there is the grandmother’s backstory that we need to find out more of – and also this family are so loving and caring, they have few possessions, live a simple life, and spend many months in hardship but for me they’re a poster for ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ – they haven’t got any wealth to speak of but they’re the furthest thing from unhappy.

4) Bao & Moirin reunite in kind of a difficult situation–he’s been married. Do you think they’re searching for a solution in the right way? What do you think of how Bao has handled things so far?

Not gonna lie – I don’t think Bao has acted very well so far. He got married – why? I’m really puzzled with him and his motives at this point. Part of him is saying he doesn’t know how to handle the bond and yet that doesn’t seem to be the main reason for his running away to find his father. I literally don’t understand at this point in the book what’s going on so I’m keen to read more. I wonder if he might have told Moirin he was married before he swept her off her feet to make love in somebody else’s home! I guess that would have taken away from the drama of the situation though – or who knows maybe added some more. I read on with interest.

5) Bao & Moirin might have been in love before, but now they’re forced together by divine magic. How do you think you would react to finding yourself trapped as they are? Would you initially react more like Moirin or Bao?

I don’t suppose I would be happy, much like Bao, he didn’t ask for help, he didn’t have any choice in receiving help, but, in fairness to Moirin she didn’t plan it either – would she have given her help if she’d really understood the implications. But, as it is – no I wouldn’t have ran as far away as possible and got hooked up immediately. Even now – Bao – just why! Plus, he knew that Moirin was looking for him, he even admitted his annoyance at the fact – so did none of it give him pause for thought. No, I would not have responded like Bao, even if I did want a little alone time.

That’s it for this week – feel free to join with the readalong, all welcome, or please add your comments.

Participants:

Alli at Tethyan Books
Lynn at Lynn’s Book Blog
Grace at Books Without Any Pictures
Susan (me) at Dab of Darkness

Weekly Wrap Up : 4/6/17

Posted On 4 June 2017

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Weekly wrap up

Comments Dropped 22 responses

Another speedy week flies by. I didn’t quite achieve what I wanted to this week – although I did read The Fallen Kingdom and my review for that will follow shortly and I’m 50% into Prey of Gods – and loving it. Absolutely loving it.

Another shocking week, my heart goes out to London.

My reads:

The Fallen Kingdom (#3 of the Falconer Trilogy) by Elizabeth May
The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden – not yet finished but it won’t take me long now that I’m hooked

Next week – I’ll be picking up Borne by Jeff VanderMeer

As it’s the start of our readalong for Naamah’s Curse by Jacqueline Carey (details here) lets have a couple of covers:

Which is your favourite?

How was your week? What you currently reading?

The SPFBO ’17 : Cover Off

Posted On 3 June 2017

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Cover Off, Mark Lawrence, SPFBO '17

Comments Dropped 18 responses

Today is a day for a SPFBO ’17 post methinks. I’m a little behind with looking at all my books and I haven’t posted an introduction or wrap up piece yet – but I will get there. However, and not to jump the gun, as last year all the bloggers are submitting three of there assigned books for a cover art contest. If you’re a bit of a cover tart like me then you’ll love this! Plus, it gives at least three of your books a shot at winning a ‘best cover’ title – which, considering there are three hundred entries and only one winner, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to get a ‘best cover’ award under your belt now would it, not to mention a little bit of extra focus on your book?

So, as last year, my book covers are all laid out below for you to feast your eyes on. My list of books and authors is at the bottom of the post plus a link to Mr Lawrence’s blogspot for a bit more information.

Here be my covers (with one omission as I don’t seem to be able to find a cover for Wishful Thinking by Jim Beach – if the author wants to point me in the right direction then I’m happy to update. Similarly – if I’m using out of date covers for any of these and any authors want to change their covers please let me know.)

LandofGods

Which are your favourites?

Justin Sloan – Land of the Gods /

Elizabeth Baxter – Everwinter /

Charlotte E. English – Faerie Fruit /

Ken Lozito – Road to Shandara /

Layla Nash – War Witch /

Watson Davis – The Archbishop’s Amulet /

Aldrea Alien – The Rogue King /

Jenna Elizabeth Johnson – Faeborne /

Tirzah Duncan – Grace the Mace /

Josh Rhoades & Mike Rutledge – The Apotheosis Break /

Alan Tucker – The Devil You Known/

Scott Haworth – Dark Moonlighting /

Jordan R Murray – The Emperor’s Horn /

C.V. Dreesman – Cursefell /

Kelly Stock – The Soul Guide /

Burke Fitzpatrick – Today Is Too Late /

James Jakins – Jack Bloodfist /

Clayton D Baker & Michael H Kuecker – The Saga of Dirt and Poncho /

Patty Jansen – Sand and Storm /

Gayle Torrens – The Tralls of Nindarry /

Rob Cornell – Darker Things /

Phil Tucker – The Empire of the Dead /

Jim Beach – Wishful Thinking
Anthea Sharp – Feyland: The Dark Realm /
Ilana Waters – The Age of Mages /
Sandy Hyatt James – A Gaze of Flint /
Autumn M Birt – Spark of Defiance /
S.E Burr – Goblin Fruit /
Tiffany Turner – The Lost Secret of the Fairies /
Tom Gaskin – Search of the Lost /

Link to Mark Lawrence’s blog post for further details about the SPFBO.

“Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.”

Posted On 2 June 2017

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books by Proxy, Friday Face off, Moon Called, Patricia Briggs

Comments Dropped 7 responses

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:

Moon “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars”

This week the first book that sprang to mind was Moon Called, the first of Patricia Briggs’s Mercy Thompson series:

There are a lot of covers for this book and some of them are very unusual – like the gates with the red eyes behind them – looks a bit creepy – not quite sure it’s got the right vibe for this particular book. Anyway, my favourite – well, I’d probably go for the one I’m most familiar with but actually I quite like the French version:

Which is your favourite?

Next week – ‘Mummy’

Future themes:

09/06/2017 – Mummy “It shuffles through the dry, dusty darkness”

16/06/2017 – Guitar “You couldn’t not like someone who liked the guitar”

23/06/2017 – Cat “In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this”

30/06/2017 – Hat “It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself “

07/07/2017 – Gold “All that is gold does not glitter”

14/07/2017 – Boats “The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea, in a beautiful pea green boat…”

21/07/2017 – Planet “Any planet is ‘Earth’ to those who live on it”

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