Bout of Books 17 - August 22 - 28

It's time for Bout of Books 17! It's just the thing to help me recover from Worldcon 74! So awesome, but so tiring, more on that in another post! I'm so glad I have this read-a-thon to ease me down from that amazing event back into real life again, so it isn't quite a full stop back into the everyday. Even as an introvert it's a little jarring to go from super event to normal work, like nothing really happened. Oh but things did happen! I met PEOPLE, and I even TALKED to them! *gasp* (like 20+ authors, seriously) but again, that's for another post! Now we're going to have a big old reading party for a week, want to join me? Click on the picture above, or the link below!

Visit with us all on Twitter at #boutofbooks
 

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 22nd and runs through Sunday, August 28th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 17 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

Updates and whatnot:

Day 1 - 8/22:
With All My Soul = 3:11 (stopped at 5:48)
The Bell Jar = 55 pages

Day 2 - 8/23:
With All My Soul = 2:14 (stopped at 8:02)
The Bell Jar = 41 pages (stopped at 96)
Serpent's Kiss = 45 pages (started at 175, stopped 220)
Total Pages = 86

Day 3 - 8/24:
With All My Soul = 1:09 (stopped at 9:11)
Serpent's Kiss = 60 pages (started at 220, stopped 280)

Day 4 - 8/25:
With All My Soul = :44 (stopped at 9:55)
Serpent's Kiss = 32 pages (started at 280, stopped 312)
The Bell Jar = 60 pages (stopped at 156)
Total Pages = 92

Day 5 - 8/26:
With All My Soul = 1:49 (stopped at 11:44, finished)
The Bell Jar = 100 pages (stopped at 256)

Day 6 - 8/27:
The Bell Jar = 40 pages (stopped at 296, finished)
The Last Wish = 48 pages (started at 169, stopped at 217)
The King's Mistress = 10 pages (started at 90, stopped at 100)
Total Pages = 98 pages

Day 7 - 8/28:

The King's Mistress = 36 pages (stopped at 136)

Final:
Total Pages = 527
Hours listened = 9:07

TBR Pile (subject to change without notice, even to me!):



Finished:

A Murder in Time by Julie McElwain

From Goodreads: Beautiful and brilliant, Kendra Donovan is a rising star at the FBI. Yet her path to professional success hits a speed bump during a disastrous raid where half her team is murdered, a mole in the FBI is uncovered and she herself is severely wounded. As soon as she recovers, she goes rogue and travels to England to assassinate the man responsible for the deaths of her teammates. While fleeing from an unexpected assassin herself, Kendra escapes into a stairwell that promises sanctuary but when she stumbles out again, she is in the same place - Aldrich Castle - but in a different time: 1815, to be exact. Mistaken for a lady's maid hired to help with weekend guests, Kendra is forced to quickly adapt to the time period until she can figure out how she got there; and, more importantly, how to get back home. However, after the body of a young girl is found on the extensive grounds of the county estate, she starts to feel there's some purpose to her bizarre circumstances. Stripped of her twenty-first century tools, Kendra must use her wits alone in order to unmask a cunning madman.

I joined in the Big Library Read this round for A Murder in Time.  Time travel, historical fiction, a serial killer, it sounded interesting, and I'm glad to say it was!  It was kind of like Downton Abbey meets CSI.  It seems far fetched that anyone would have paid heed to Kendra's knowledge of a serial killer's reasoning, but that is smoothed over with The Duke, who is a bit eccentric himself, and willing to be open minded when others are not. I really enjoyed his character and would have liked to spend a little more time with him and his interests and hobbies in the story.  I also liked the lynch pin that belief in her story rested on for Alec, but I don't want to spoil that tidbit for anyone.

A Murder in Time was historically interesting, fast paced and kept me guessing!  I really wasn't sure who the murderer was. I'm glad to see that there is another book in the series coming next spring, to continue Kendra's story.

Challenges:
COYER Bingo R15
I Love Libraries Challenge 2016
2016 New Releases Challenge
2016 COYER Summer Vacation

Make Me Read It Read-a-thon - The Results and the Reading

I'm taking part in the Make Me Read It Read-a-thon hosted by  The Innocent Smiley and Tea and Titles, were I gave a list of books I needed to get through and had the public vote, with the most voted book being my starting point.

The results are in and it's time for the reading to begin!

I've ordered the covers from most votes to least (left to right), though I really only expect to get through 2 maybe 3 at the most.  I have to admit I'm not really surprised by the winner and next couple down. Time to put the eyes to the page and see how far I can get!

Come talk with us at #MakeMeRead !

Updates:
So... pretty much I did terrible, thanks to Pokemon Go and just the book not going as quickly as I'd hoped, plus over extending my reading ability!  I did get to about 150 pages of Uprooted.  I really loved this idea, so I'm definitely in if there's another one!  hopefully next time no one will be releasing a super crazy popular game app at the same time! lol!

TBR:

The Master Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

From Goodreads: Throughout her studies, Ceony Twill has harbored a secret, one she’s kept from even her mentor, Emery Thane. She’s discovered how to practice forms of magic other than her own — an ability long thought impossible. While all seems set for Ceony to complete her apprenticeship and pass her upcoming final magician’s exam, life quickly becomes complicated. To avoid favoritism, Emery sends her to another paper magician for testing, a Folder who despises Emery and cares even less for his apprentice. To make matters worse, a murderous criminal from Ceony’s past escapes imprisonment. Now she must track the power-hungry convict across England before he can take his revenge. With her life and loved ones hanging in the balance, Ceony must face a criminal who wields the one magic that she does not, and it may prove more powerful than all her skills combined.

I read this as a Kindle Unlimited selection and really enjoyed the whole trilogy! I love the magic system that the author has created, with the paper folding and the glass, and other elements, and was really able to visualize Ceony's work in her different lessons, with the ability to bring origami creatures to a semblance of life.  It was delightful!

I love both Ceony and Emery, their personalities and their relationship, and Emery's complex creations, which I won't mention because I don't want to spoil anything.  I feel bad that I'm only reviewing the third book, in case you haven't read the others, so I'm going to be very general and not really discuss plot.

I will say that Ceony always seems to plunge headlong into trouble, after being warned to stay out of it, but in her defense, they always seem to ignore her worries, which turn out to be worth listening to.  On the whole I felt this whole trilogy was very engaging and enjoyable, I was very pleased with the ending, and after reading the first book, I did go check out some origami books from the library because I was just in the mood to make something! lol!  I didn't end up getting around to it, but the desire was there!

I highly recommend the Paper Magician Trilogy as a fun, fairly quick fantasy read.  I believe these would be good read-a-thon fare as all three are around 220 pages each and move at a good pace.

Challenges:
2016 COYER Summer Vacation
COYER Bingo Y23

Updraft by Fran Wilde

From Goodreads: In a city of living bone rising high above the clouds, where danger hides in the wind and the ground is lost to legend, a young woman must expose a dangerous secret to save everyone she loves. Welcome to a world of wind and bone, songs and silence, betrayal and courage. Kirit Densira cannot wait to pass her wingtest and begin flying as a trader by her mother's side, being in service to her beloved home tower and exploring the skies beyond. When Kirit inadvertently breaks Tower Law, the city's secretive governing body, the Singers, demand that she become one of them instead. In an attempt to save her family from greater censure, Kirit must give up her dreams to throw herself into the dangerous training at the Spire, the tallest, most forbidding tower, deep at the heart of the City. As she grows in knowledge and power, she starts to uncover the depths of Spire secrets. Kirit begins to doubt her world and its unassailable Laws, setting in motion a chain of events that will lead to a haunting choice, and may well change the city forever - if it isn't destroyed outright.

Updraft was the June read in a Goodreads group I'm a member of called The Sword and Laser. It was an interesting world of bone towers rising above the clouds, where the primary method of transportation is for individuals to fly using what sounds like a type of hanglider contraption but with more detailed movement.  The picture above looks much larger and more framed than what is described in the book, in my opinion.  Not everyone flies, there are some bridges between towers, and there are flying traders that take goods between towers, of which Kirit's mother is one.  Kirit dreams of being like, and flying with her mother as a trader, but that is not to be, her fate lies elsewhere with other talents.

The structure of this world just brings up so many questions to me.  The bone is living, it grows, it fills in the lower spaces, the Singers can coax it to grow on the top of the towers, adding new living tiers.  So that hints at something very large living below the clouds that these bone towers, spires/spines? are a part of, doesn't it?  They are fairly sturdy, but they do sometimes break, toppling those who live there out of the sky, most likely to their deaths, what other outcome could there be?  What came about to cause a people to live that way?  I hope we learn more in the next book!

I liked Kirit, she knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn't unreasonable.  The problem was there were so many secrets and past events stacked against her, she really had no chance of realizing her goals.  She was presented with many difficult dilemmas for young adult, and it seemed like the odds were constantly against her.  Sometimes the decisions she made were very unpleasant, in trying for the greater good, and there was a lot of weight on her shoulders.

Overall an interesting read with a very different structure of world, good characters and a plot full of intrigue.  I'm looking forward to the next book, Cloudbound, due out in September of this year.

Challenges:
2016 I Love Libraries Challenge
2016 COYER Summer Vacation
COYER Bingo E4

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris

From Goodreads: At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town. Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place. And now they must come together to stop the bloodshed in the heart of Midnight. For if all hell breaks loose—which just might happen—it will put the secretive town on the map, where no one wants it to be...

I am so sad to be saying goodbye to the residents of Midnight, Texas in this last book of the trilogy! I feel like we'd just really warmed up to them all, their quirks, their secrets, their abilities, and now it's over! A lot happens in this third book, most of it very spoilery if you haven't read the first two. There is a lot of big weirdness, some big reveals that I really didn't see coming, and while I did enjoy Night Shift, I really feel like it could have been made into a longer series that explored the characters more. Each book was successively more paranormal than the last as each of the residents is revealed for what they are, or what they can do.  Some you start out knowing and their talents grow or develop in different ways, some wait until near the end to show themselves in their glory, though you begin to suspect earlier on.

While I have a few personal criticisms of the plot, I really am sorry to see it end, and you know that when you feel that way, it was a good story, with well developed characters that have come to life.  There were character crossovers with Harris' other series, Manfred from the Harper Connelly series (probably my favorite of her stories), and I suspect Lemuel's associates may have appeared in the Sookie Stackhouse series though I'm only a few books in, so it's possible we'll see some of Midnight's townfolk again somewhere down the line.  Hope springs eternal!

Challenges:
2016 New Releases Challenge
2016 I Love Libraries Challenge
E9 of the COYER Bingo Challenge

COYER - Clean Out Your E-Reader Summer 2016 - June 18 - September 2, 2016

What is it?

A read and review-a-thon that takes place from June 18th through Sept 2nd. Originally intended to help you work off those e-reader freebies, the Summer COYER throws those rules away and lets you read anything you want, any price you want, library books, freebies, review copies, your own purchased books, anything!

Where do you sign up?

Check out the rules and regs (I thought you said we threw away the rules?! We did, sort of, but you still have to sign up in the right place and do challenges in the right place, that kind of thing) at Fantasy is more Fun, Because Reading or Books, Movies, Reviews! Oh My!. All three have the same sign up, so you can go to any of them.

Then what?

Read! Read like the wind!  Do some reviews and just have fun! We also have a facebook group!

Currently Reading:




Finished - To Be Reviewed:

   


Reviewed:

Make Me Read It Read-a-thon - July 9th - 16th

This is my first time joining this read-a-thon, but since I love voting things, this sounds like fun! In this read-a-thon, you make a list of books that you want/need to read, and your friends vote on them from now until the read-a-thon starts, then you begin reading with the most popular choice and see how far you can get down the list! If you think that sounds like fun and want to join in, check out the sign up post over at The Innocent Smiley! We'd love to have you! Because it means more voting, heehee!

For my list I'm including all of the "Pick it for me" books that I've had chosen for me, but not gotten around to yet, a couple from this year's Hugo Nominations that I need to get read before I can vote for best novel, and a few from other authors that will be at MidAmericon that I haven't read anything by yet, but want to before we go! I will probably only get to 2 of maybe 3 of these if I'm lucky.

Here are links to them on Goodreads so you can see what they are about:



Vote Here

Results
I can't wait to see what you pick for me!

The Fold by Peter Clines

The Fold by Peter Clines

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:

STEP INTO THE FOLD.
IT’S PERFECTLY SAFE.

The folks in Mike Erikson's small New England town would say he's just your average, everyday guy. And that's exactly how Mike likes it. Sure, the life he's chosen isn’t much of a challenge to someone with his unique gifts, but he’s content with his quiet and peaceful existence.

That is, until an old friend presents him with an irresistible mystery, one that Mike is uniquely qualified to solve: far out in the California desert, a team of DARPA scientists has invented a device they affectionately call the Albuquerque Door. Using a cryptic computer equation and magnetic fields to “fold” dimensions, it shrinks distances so that a traveler can travel hundreds of feet with a single step.

The invention promises to make mankind’s dreams of teleportation a reality. And, the scientists insist, traveling through the Door is completely safe.

Yet evidence is mounting that this miraculous machine isn’t quite what it seems—and that its creators are harboring a dangerous secret.

As his investigations draw him deeper into the puzzle, Mike begins to fear there’s only one answer that makes sense. And if he’s right, it may only be a matter of time before the project destroys…everything.

****************

My Review:

This starts out as an intellectual, scientific mystery, and ends with quite a bit of action. The mystery is fascinating and eerie, the perpetrators forcing the action I felt was kind of at odds with the rest of the book. I felt like their development wasn't quite up to the same standard as the detail that went into the problem itself. And the very end, well, that was pretty convenient, but also totally opens the way for a series of books.

I did like Mike a lot, the rest of the characters were fine, some had more personality than others, Olaf seemed to be a much more developed character than Neil, or Sasha, which might have been on purpose. I don't know much about eidetic memory, but Mike's way of controlling and directing it to keep himself sane, productive and not overwhelmed was interesting.

Overall it was an intriguing conundrum and I would definitely recommend it to Sci-Fi fans especially interesting in parallel universe themes.

I received my copy from Blogging for Books in return for an honest review.

View all my reviews

My TBR List - ...Bring May Flowers

And the Winner is...

With 50% of the vote!

******************

Welcome to my May 2016 edition of My To Be Read List, hosted by Michelle @ Because Reading. This is a monthly meme where we offer up 3 choices from our TBR pile for our readers to pick from to help us make the super hard decision of "what do I read next?" a little easier and to whittle away at the ever growing TBR Mountain! 

Theme: ...Bring May Flowers, a continuation on last month's saying/theme. This month all my titles have flowers in them.  ;) Feel free to leave me a comment and tell me which you chose and why.

The poll will stay open through Friday 5/13 , and I'll update this post with the winning book on Saturday 5/14, then post a review on the last Saturday of the month, 5/28.

If you think this sounds fun and would like to join (the more the merrier, because we love voting!) please head on over to Because Reading where Michelle lays out the rules for us!

And the choices are...

From Goodreads: The country may be struggling through the Great Depression, but the good ladies of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up and their town beautiful. Their garden club, the Darling Dahlias, has just inherited a new clubhouse and garden, complete with two beautiful cucumber trees in full bloom. But life in Darling is not all garden parties and rosemary lemonade. When local blond bombshell Bunny Scott is found in a suspicious car wreck, the Dahlias decide to dig into the town's buried secrets, and club members Lizzy, Ophelia, and Verna soon find leads sprouting up faster than weeds. The town is all abuzz with news of an escaped convict from the prison farm, rumors of trouble at the bank, and tales of a ghost heard digging around the cucumber tree. If anyone can get to the root of these mysteries, it's the Darling Dahlias.

From Goodreads: (Pink Carnation #11) In October of 1806, the Little Season is in full swing, and Sally Fitzhugh has had enough of the endless parties and balls. With a rampant vampire craze sparked by the novel The Convent of Orsino, it seems no one can speak of anything else. But when Sally hears a rumor that the reclusive Duke of Belliston is an actual vampire, she cannot resist the challenge of proving such nonsense false. At a ball in Belliston Square, she ventures across the gardens and encounters the mysterious Duke. Lucien, Duke of Belliston, is well versed in the trouble gossip can bring. He’s returned home to dispel the rumors of scandal surrounding his parents’ deaths, which hint at everything from treason to dark sorcery. While he searches for the truth, he welcomes his fearsome reputation—until a woman is found dead in Richmond. Her blood drained from her throat. Lucien and Sally join forces to stop the so-called vampire from killing again. Someone managed to get away with killing the last Duke of Belliston. But they won’t kill this duke—not if Sally has anything to say about it.

From Goodreads: October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas... The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.

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Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

From Goodreads: A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan... But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere. Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to. Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone. For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

Fangirl was my first Rainbow Rowell novel and I'm definitely in for more! What attracted me to this one was the fan fiction aspect, while I never published anything I wrote online, I have many many pages about one of my favorite bands that I wrote in college and beyond, so I totally get it. I could really identify with her reasons for writing, and also her trouble at writing something original. As an adult still interested in writing, I want to move away from fan writing and make something original all my own, and it is hard! Writing within an established world that you've taken so much joy in is comforting, stepping out of that zone and trying to create something new is terrifying, and initially kind of sterile. I believe now that I wrote because I was depressed and stressed, for many reasons, and that was my escape.

Past the writing aspect, I really enjoyed the character development and the relationships.  I loved Cath's roommate and Levi, who is such an unbelievable sweetheart.  I was angry at Cath's sister Wren and just felt so much for Cath's struggles and the hard time her Dad went through. This was a great coming of age story, and now I'll also have to read Carry On, which is Cath's fan fiction.  I think that's awesome that Rainbow Rowell went ahead and wrote that too!

This one gets a definite recommend from me, and I'm looking forward to more!