Friday Firsts: The Path of Flames by Phil Tucker
7 April 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Friday Firsts, Phil Tucker, tenacious reader, The Path of Flames
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. This Friday I’m reading : Path of Flames by Phil Tucker.
The wind plucked at Lord Kyferin’s war banner, causing the black wolf emblazoned on the field of white to snap fitfully as if impatient with the delay. Asho shivered at the sight despite the quilted undercoat that he wore beneath his chainmail, and sat up straighter in Crook’s saddle. For years he had only seen the war banner hanging above his Lord’s high chair in the great hall, limp and still, but now it rippled and surged as if awakened and thirsting for blood. It was his first time riding into war with the Black Wolves. Even though he was at the back of the company with the other squires, he felt as vividly alive and terrified as if he were positioned in the vanguard.
Asho raised his chin. He’d die before he let the others see his fear.
“Asho!” Lord Kyferin’s bellow carried over the cacophony of the great army arrayed around them. “Where are you hiding? Get up here, now!”
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Alardus and Cuncz smirk, could feel the cold stares from Cune and Tyzce. A squire he might be, but the others saw only his white hair and pale skin, the tell-tale signs of a Bythian. That he was free and rode by their side was an outrage they would never forgive.
My First Impressions
I think this gets off to a very good start – and having read further on I confess that my first impression in that respect was spot on. Clearly, peace has reigned for a few years by the sound of it. What changed? And Asho, I’m very curious about him and the way he is treated.
What you reading this Friday?? What are your first impressions??
*The above excerpt was taken from an advanced reader copy and it is possible that the final version may have further changes.
Friday Firsts : Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1) by Chelsea Mueller
31 March 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Borrowed Souls, Charmer #1, Chelsea Mueller, Friday Firsts, Random thoughts, tenacious reader
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. This Friday I’m reading : Borrowed Souls (Soul Charmer #1) by Chelsea Mueller
Callie Delgado needed a soul.
Her brother had been kidnapped, his captors were blackmailing her, and here she was, outside one of the most unusual pawn shops in all of Gem City, about to rent one. She just needed to force herself to walk the twenty steps to the Soul Charmer’s front door. The one wedged in a dirty, rundown building on a dirty, rundown street in the dirty, rundown part of town. It was the last place she wanted to be, but the one place she had to go.
Fate was kind of a dick like that.
Downtown Gem City rolled up by 6 pm; she was alone with her thoughts. She batted an empty soda can with the tip of her shoe. It skittered along the concrete, banging into a nearby dumpster overflowing with the rotting remnants of life. The kind of life her brother would cease to have if she didn’t walk in that door and let the Soul Charmer put another person’s soul into her body.
My First Impressions
Well, I have to confess I have been looking forward to picking this one up – because urban fantasy and the whole concept of borrowed souls sounds very interesting. Clearly borrowing souls is a seedy business going off the location described above and also the reluctance of Callie to go inside the shop. Having another soul in your body – I’m very curious to see how this plays out – do you take on board their memories, do you have their voice running along inside your head – does your soul get taken out in the process – what happens??? I have all the questions and ‘nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition’ – so I’ll read on and see if I can find out.
What you reading this Friday?? What are your first impressions??
*The above excerpt was taken from an advanced reader copy and it is possible that the final version may have further changes.
Friday Firsts : The Music Box Girl by K A Stewart
24 March 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Friday Firsts, K A Stewart, tenacious reader, The Music Box Girl
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. This Friday I’m reading : The Music Box Girl by K A Stewart.
‘The thick coating of dust proved that no one had been in the attic for decades. Felicia surveyed the vast expanse of the room, stretching the entire length of the enormous house, and wondered how they’d ever get through it all.
“Where do we start, Mother?”
The girl at her elbow, a budding young lady of almost thirteen, had her blond hair bound up in a tight tail, a cloth tied around her face to avoid breathing in the plumes of dust that billowed up every time one of them moved.
“At one end, of course!” Casimir, his young nephew Peter thrown giggling over one shoulder, marched off under the eaves with lantern in hand.
Felicia shook her head in amusement at her brother. He was trying so hard to make this a game, and not the sad and depressing task that it was. “Start here, Josie. We’ll sort out anything salvageable, and then the furniture can be hauled out by the automatons. Peter, why don’t you and Uncle Cas start on that wardrobe.”
Some of the things she recognised, Felicia realised. A doll that she’d long ago lost and forgotten. A picture drawn in her primary school days, lovingly kept but brittle with age. An entire crate of baby clothes, though it was anyone’s guess if they’d been hers or Casimir’s.
My First Impressions
I’m intrigued – why are they sorting out the things in this dusty attic, it’s a ‘sad and depressing task’ apparently, have they fallen on hard times and are leaving their home? Has somebody passed away? I’ll have to read on and find out.
What you reading this Friday??
*The above excerpt was taken from an advanced reader copy and it is possible that the final version may have further changes.
Friday Firsts: The Heart of Stone by Ben Galley
17 March 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Ben Galley, Friday Firsts, tenacious reader, The Heart of Stone
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. This Friday I’m reading, well, like last week, a couple of books but I’ve gone with Heart of Stone by Ben Galley. Check it out:
‘Keep still!’ a voice demanded. ‘Keep still or it will take root in the wrong place, mercy me!’
He remained motionless as the soft hands dug inside his mouth; checking, shuffling, fixing. His face felt so wide, so open. He could feel his body tingling, as though he wore the dying embers of a fire.
‘There!’
He felt the fingers crawl back to his chin and cheeks. Always touching.
‘Bite down, and slowly mind!’
His jaw did the work for him, clicking back into place under the guiding hands; teeth crunching, finding their nests. The tongue began to burn in the pit of his mouth.
There came a clanking as the room swivelled about him. Something tugged at him without touching, pulling at every corner of his body. He felt heavier than a mountain.
‘It is time to open your eyes, my new friend!’
My First Impressions
I am absolutely intrigued by this start. It makes you want to read on doesn’t it? I can’t help but have at the back of my mind Frankenstein and his monster – don’t ask me why but just a feel of new creations.
What you reading this Friday??
*The above excerpt was taken from an advanced reader copy and it is possible that the final version may have further changes.
Friday Firsts: Island of Exiles (The Ryogan Chronicles #1) by Erica Cameron
10 March 2017
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Erica Cameron, Friday Firsts, Island of Exiles, tenacious reader, The Ryogan Chronicles
Friday Firsts is a new meme that runs every Friday over on Tenacious Reader. The idea is to feature the first few sentences/paragraph of your current book and try and outline your first impressions as a result. This is a quick and easy way to share a snippet of information about your current read and to perhaps tempt others. Stop on by and link up with Tenacious Reader. This Friday I’m reading a couple of books but the one I’ve just started is Island of Exiles (The Ryogan Chronicles #1) by Erica Cameron.
I press as close as possible to the sandstone wall of the ravine, trying to shove my whole body into the narrow strip of shade on the rising slope. A few feet below, Rai does the same, pulling the canteen of water from the pack strapped to her thigh, loosening the atakafu cloth covering her mouth and nose, and sipping slowly. The sight makes my mouth feel drier than ever.
My hand falls to my own thigh pack, and I toy with the ties holding it shut. There isn’t much water left in my canteen, and I don’t know how much longer we’ll be enduring the brutal, dehydrating heart of the desert sun. The hunt has been longer than we expected and far trickier than it should be.
Pulling my hand away from the temptation, I search the path above us for any sign of our prey. There isn’t anywhere else the teegras could have gone once they entered the ravine, but we haven’t spotted a single trace of them since – wait There.
“Rai, look.” My murmured words are muffled by the atakafu, but it’s enough to draw her attention to fresh claw marks on the red sandstone.
My First Impressions
I like the way this one starts. It has a good opening, there’s a hunt under difficult conditions and just what are these ‘teegras’?? On top of that I’m really feeling stories with a desert type setting at the moment so I need to read on and find out more.
What you reading this Friday??
Books and travelling with Lynn 