Books and travelling with Lynn

Late Eclipses (#4 Toby Daye) by Seanan McGuire, readalong week 4 (final week)

Posted On 23 July 2016

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Late Eclipses, October Daye, readalong week 4, Seanan McGuire

Today is the final week of our readalong of Late Eclipses (October Daye #4) ) by Seanan McGuire) arranged by Lisa from Over the Effing Rainbow. This week is being hosted by hosted by Hisham El-far. What a great conclusion to the book – so many revelations, so much yet left unsaid, so many reasons to continue reading – not least that I’m loving this series!

The details are over here on Goodreads – the schedule is below. If you want to join in or jump in with the comments then please do so. Also, a readalong of book No.5 will undoubtedly follow so watch out for further information on that. Without further ado here are the questions and answers with a customary word of warning that spoilers will be lurking below:

Week 1: Saturday 2nd July, Chapters 1 to 9, hosted by Over the Effing Rainbow
Week 2: Saturday 9th July, Chapters 10 to 18, hosted by Lynn’s Book Blog
Week 3: Saturday 16th July, Chapters 19 to 27, hosted by Books By Proxy
Week 4: Saturday 23rd July, Chapters 28 to End, hosted by Hisham El-far

1. If May is no longer Toby’s Fetch – what is she? Any thoughts as to what possible role or direction May might take?

Well, given the connection between Toby and May I think they will become more than friends, almost like sisters. I hope so anyway. They already seem to like each other so much – which, come on, pretty unusual to like your fetch and vice versa, but these two get on. I see May become a solid part of Toby’s life and a great help in future stories. But truthfully, I have no idea what becomes of a fetch when her role as a fetch is no longer needed – perhaps, given Toby’s lifestyle – she needs a permanent fetch (just in case).

2. If all Fae lines (Daoine Sidhe, Hob, Tylwyth Teg etc) have a purpose as is suggested this week. What are your thoughts on the revelation that Toby is actually Dochas Sidhe? What would such a Fae bring to Faerie’s delicate power balance?

This, I’m not really sure about to be totally honest. I think I’m still getting my head around what Toby is – clearly she has a great ability with blood. It makes me wonder if somebody had deliberately ensured that Amandine had a heir – for what purpose I don’t really know, and Amandine went to a lot of trouble to try and hide Toby’s gifts so she clearly know that trouble will be involved.

3. Connor is once again a free and single man. So, age old question – Connor or Tybalt?

For me Tybalt. For Toby, I’m not sure. I think she has a massive soft spot for Connor and I think Connor won’t hesitate to step in whereas the relationship with Toby and Tybalt is more one where they seem to be circling each other. I think Connor will definitely take advantage of that (not in a bad way) but to be the first one to try and capture Toby’s affections – and maybe that will work for a while – but personally I think that Toby and Tybalt have something else going on, its just simmering at the moment but I personally don’t the two of them will be able to deny it much longer.

4. When/Will Toby remind Dugan about her promise? Surely that poor shmuck is already regretting his behavior?

I don’t know – I think maybe Toby won’t remind Dugan – she seems the sort to bury the hatchet.

5. Where next for the Tobyverse? Hopes? Predictions? Wishful thinking?

Okay, so Amandine is Toby’s mum, and the Luidaeg is Amandine’s sister – making her Toby’s Aunt, and therefore Blind Michael was her uncle? Does that make Luna her cousin? Who is her father – is that Sylvester? This is getting seriously mixed up. Obviously I could be very wrong about Sylvester but it was just something that was said between Toby and Etienne – ‘imagine having to sacrifice your own daughter’ said Toby. and Etienne replied ‘ what do you think he did when he stood by and let the Queen’s guard have you?” Now if this is true it has such ramifications doesn’t it? Well, if it’s right (and it could be seriously wrong) then doesn’t that mean that Sylvester had a relationship with Amandine who is the sister of Micheal, who is the father of Luna, so therefore Luna and Toby are cousins but Toby is Sylvester’s daughter – no, I have this seriously wrong! But, if I don’t have it wrong then surely Luna would be very torn, loving Toby as a cousin but also resenting her because she’s the daughter of her own husband’s relationship with the sister of her own father? And surely this would make Rayseline very jealous as well. I don’t know what’s going on. I seriously think I need to go away and draw a family tree or something because my head has gone!

Okay – so why does the Queen hate Toby. This isn’t resolved yet by a long stroke of the imagination and I’m just thinking that she must have some strange relationship to all of them as well! Maybe not – but she really doesn’t like Toby and wants here dead! Does she feel threatened by her? I think she will keep trying to find ways to put Toby in danger or just outright have her killed.

What about Simon and Raysel – to be resolved! I’m sure that they’re not going to slink away though.

And then of course Tybalt….

“I am the Keymaster … Are you the Gatekeeper?”

Posted On 22 July 2016

Filed under Book Reviews

Comments Dropped 31 responses

Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme being hosted by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple and can be found here. Each week, following a predetermined theme choose a book, compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Simples. This week the theme is:

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate

A cover which features a gate or gates

I actually found this tougher than I expected – it seemed at one point that I was constantly reading books with gates on the cover but when I looked at my list I think most of them were ‘pre blog’ so I couldn’t find the titles! Anyway, I went for a classic this week: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – and wow – there are a lot of covers for this one – I’ve restricted myself to about a tenth of the available ones out there!

SG12 SG11 SG10 SG9 SG8 SG7 SG7 SG6 SG5 SG4 SG3 TheSG1

It was certainly difficult to choose a favourite from this lot but I’m going to have to go for No.10, No rational reason but I like the style:

SG4

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Posted On 20 July 2016

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Ezekiel Boone, The Hatching

Comments Dropped 10 responses

As it says in the blurb the Hatching is a story that finds the world on the verge of an apocalyptic disaster, with not a zombie in sight I hasten to add. The infestation that is about to attack the planet is of the 8 legged variety and is a species that seems to have been lying dormant for many hundreds of years. Something, somehow, seems to have woken up these arachnids and with their voracious appetites and hankering for flesh it seems unlikely that anything can stop their large scale massacre of virtually anything with a pulse that lies in their path.

The Hatching contains a number of different threads. A professor/scientist who seeks recognition in her field of expertise. A young man who is about to introduce his intended fiancee to his grandfather who lives out on a remote island. A number of survivalists who are prepared for a life threatening event, bunkers set up and kitted out just waiting for disaster to strike. An FBI agent investigating a plane crash seeking to determine whether or not foul play was involved.

We start the story with a billionaire out on a tour of Peru accompanied by three glamorous assistants, a guide and a bodyguard. The trip isn’t going particularly well and the travellers are feeling despondent but their troubles are only just about to begin. At the same time a strange package is delivered to the laboratory of the Professor straight from an archaeological dig in Nazca, Peru. On top of that strange seismic rumblings are being recorded in India and to top it all off China appear to be taking the nuclear threat to a whole new place of strangeness by bombing their own country!

I actually think The Hatching is quite a good read – providing you go into it with the right expectations, which I don’t think I did. I think, personally, I had the wrong idea when I started the book. I was expecting out and out horror with spiders crawling out of every nook and cranny. Don’t get me wrong there were a couple of creepy elements to the story but, given that this is about spiders (and you can therefore assume my fear levels have been ratcheted up to an all time high before even cracking the pages open) this just doesn’t deliver that goosebump inducing fear ride that I was anticipating. I guess I’d say this felt more like a thinking piece than a run and hide behind the cushion piece. As a comparison, when I picked up Mira Grant’s Feed I was expecting a story overrun with flesh eating zombies and blood curdling horror when in actual fact the book focuses much more on the survivors and how they cope with the threat. This book is similar in that the horror is quite subdued – of course there are moments within the book where the spiders are running amok killing and eating everything in their path and there are the additional elements where we discover the truth about where these spiders actually like to lay their basic egg sacs but it didn’t feel particularly horror filled – for me anyway.

I think that in terms of the length of the story it feels like a lot of characters are introduced in fairly short order and most of them feel a little bit cliched if I’m going to be honest. There are also a lot of threads and I think this jumping back and forth between characters and plot lines didn’t really give me a chance to become firmly attached to any of them. That being said I did enjoy the author’s style of writing and I admit this was a very easy book to finish.

At the moment I would say this has a definite ‘set up’ feel to it. There are no real explanations yet explored about the spiders, why they remained dormant for so long, why they became dormant in the first place or how they were awoken. The characters storylines all remain open and the book concludes with a firm focus for what No.2 will be trying to achieve.

In conclusion, whilst I didn’t love this book I am intrigued as to how the story will continue. I would like to see the characters develop more and would like to feel an increase in tension which I thought was lacking a little here but, overall, I am curious enough to continue with the series to see how the story pans out.

I received a copy courtesy of the publishers through Netgalley for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Waiting On Wednesday: A Little Knowledge (The Split Worlds #4) by Emma Newman

Posted On 20 July 2016

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: A Little Knowledge, Breaking the Spine, Emma Newman, The Split Worlds #4, Waiting on Wednesday

Comments Dropped 10 responses

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. Every Wednesday we get to highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. My book this week is : A Little Knowledge (The Split Worlds #4) by Emma Newman. I’m currently reading this series as part of a readalong organised over on Goodreads. We’re coming up to the end of book 3 and so this book release is perfectly timed!

A littleKnowledge

“A Little Knowledge” is the long-awaited return to Emma Newman’s popular Split Worlds series in which dynastic families feud across the ages, furthering the agendas of their supernatural patrons. Innocents are protected by monsters and the beautiful ones are not what they seem. The Split Worlds is an urban fantasy setting with a dash of noir, fantastical magic, evil faeries, and people just trying to drink their tea in peace.

Due August 2016

Around the World in 80 days, or…

Posted On 19 July 2016

Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Books around the World, The Broke and the Bookish, Top Ten Tuesday

Comments Dropped 23 responses

10 books!

99187-ttt

Every Tuesday over at the 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. The topic this week is:

‘Ten Books Set Outside The US’

I adapted this slightly – to a world trip which includes a couple of US stopovers. Around the world in just 10 books