A slippery slope

So, I found myself back at my favorite bookshop the Science Fiction Bookshop today (I was there this weekend with my mum too) but this time with some colleagues from work. Always fun when you find like-minded friends at work, even if it’s at my employers HQ in Stockholm (about 1 hour or so travel time) and I work in Uppsala 🙂

So, this last week I’ve been basically buying myself some happiness in the form of books, which is just my kind of pick-me-up 😉

Today I bought Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige, A Potion to Die for by Heather Blake, Dayshift by Charlaine Harris and Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong.

And with my mum on Saturday I bought The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey and Odinsbarn by Siri Pettersen.

They’re all “new” books except Harris and Armstrong, which are sequels. My shopping tend to lean towards 1 new series/book and 1 sequel. It feels more satisfying that way.

Have you read some of them? If so, which ones and what did you think? 🙂

I’m currently reading Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine (really good so far!), which I’ll hopefully finish this week and a review will be published here this coming weekend.

I hope you’re having a nice day too! B-)

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

First of all, Maggie Stiefvater nailed it with this series. I love Blue, Gansey, Adam and Ronan to pieces. Henry was a surprise and I really liked that he got a bigger part in their final story. I loved the creepy goosebumps-inducing name and the insight of their Enemy. Let’s just stamp the whole thing with a I LOVED THIS and move on shall we?

The only thing I can think of that might have brought it down a notch in the Raven King, for me, was this: I liked the way that she built up the storyline by inviting other perspectives, BUT it was also a bit confusing at times. One, two or three of the “new” characters (that until now has been a peripheral influence at best) were to me a bit confusing when they were introduced in a couple of chapters like they were the main characters to this story. Or that the characters themselves at least thought so. Not a big deal to be sure, but it left me a bit unbalanced and wondering if I’ve missed something in the earlier storyline. Are there bits of the story that I’ve forgotten from the previous books or are there novellas I haven’t read yet?

Anyway, overall this book (this series really) was awesome. Such a great adventure!

If you haven’t read this series yet, I really recommend that you read them in order as the Raven King is the conclusion to the Raven Cycle. The first book is called The Raven Boys and it’s there that you’ll first meet our dynamic group of main characters.

Blue lives with her mom and family at 300 Fox Way, a house filled with psychic women. For sixteen years she’s been told that she will kill her true love by a kiss. The longest standing prediction in 300 Fox Way. So when Blue, who has no psychic powers herself other than being an amplifier for such gifts, sees a spirit of a boy on the corpse road for the first time – there can only be one explanation. Either he’s her true love or she’s killed him. Or rather she will, within a year.

As fate would have it, she meets this boy named Gansey shortly after her vision of him on the corpse road. Even though she can’t imagine falling in love with Gansey, she’s determined to find out the truth and to prevent his death. So when she gets the chance to be involved in his search for the legendary king Glendower alongside his two friends Adam and Ronan, she takes it.

At home with my babies

So, it’s Thursday and the kids are still sick. Nils got the same cold and stubborn cough as Oskar, a cough which hasn’t shown any sign of lessening soon. On the bright side I’ve been able to read quite a lot while the kids have been recuperating. I finished The Dark Days Club yesterday and will start reading Rebel of the Sands today.

What book(s) are you currently reading?

Amber Smoke by Kristin Cast (ARC)

Spontaneous reaction upon finishing this book? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That ending was the major of cliffhangers with some author-snark thrown in at the end. “The End…For Now.” I mean, come on! First she gets me invested in the characters, builds up the drama and basically uses the epilogue as a cliffhanger of evil? Genius! The gauntlet has been thrown and I must get my hands on the sequel pronto.

So, to move on and summarize… I loved Amber Smoke!

It’s about Eva and Alek finding their way to each other, their destinies being intertwined with that of the ailing Tartarus. In the realm of the Underworld the prison Tartarus is failing under a curse and tormented souls of the damned are escaping to the mortal realm, wreaking havoc and heralding an apocalypse. Alek, warrior son of the Furies, is sent on a mission by his mothers to find Eva, the descendant of Pythia, who is not yet aware of her ancestry or destiny, before everything falls apart. Though finding this lost daughter of the Oracle proves harder than Alek thought.

The whole story, characters and feel of the world is (not the same but) precisely what I was expecting after having read the first 3 books in the House of Night series which Cast co-authored. I did feel as though the story could have used a bit more something to solidify the relationships and given the whole thing more fluidity. Like a couple of more events to give the characters (and reader) a chance to feel the connection between both them and the plot. To get a more solid grip on everything. Or maybe that’s just me being greedy for more and not ready to let go of the story about Eva and Alek.

If you’ve read The House of Night series, or The Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop, that may not have anything in common other than being built on the premises of other mythological dimensions, the characters that move between and their impact on one another plus the general feeling of them, I think you’ll really like Amber Smoke.

I received this copy from the publisher (Diversion Books) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Our Saturday so far

Oskar is feeling a bit off today, so we’re lying on the sofa and mindlessly watching TV. Well, he is anyway.. I’m alternating between surfing social media, reading Amber Smoke by Kristin Cast and keeping Nils out of trouble. Poor Nils is bored out of his mind and skulks around doing what he does best… mischief 😉

What are you doing this weekend? 😊

Girl in the Shadows by Gwenda Bond (ARC)

I haven’t read that many books with a circus as a backdrop and having read this I don’t understand why, because this book was entertainment of the highest trapeze. Suspenseful with a hint of darkness, but an easy read and quite lovely all together. I loved every minute of this!

It’s about a girl named Moira who dreams of becoming a great magician, performing intricate showy illusions in Las Vegas like her father. There’s one small hitch though. Her father is not keen on the idea of his beloved daughter following in his footsteps, in fact, he won’t even give her a chance to show her skills and shuts her down every time she tries. So, when an invitation to the great Cirque American lands by her feet by accident she takes her chance and who could blame her?

The Miraculous Moira gets a shot at her dream. Little does she know there might be a reason her father was so adamant about keeping her away from magic all these years. Any magic at all…

This book is a stand-alone, though technically Girl in the Shadows is the second book set in this world. The first book published was Girl on a Wire. In retrospect I would have read Girl on a Wire first, because this story’s somewhat based on the first one and both revolve around the same artefact. It made me very curious about Jules, Remy and Dita from Girl on a Wire who Moira befriends upon arriving to the Cirque American, and their adventure.

BUT! This does not diminish Girl in the Shadows at all! So, if you have a chance to read Girl in the Shadows? Take it! 🙂

I received this copy from the publisher (Amazon Skyscape) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. To see the beautiful cover for this book, check it out on Goodreads or Amazon. It’s gorgeous!

The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I had my doubts about this series. I’ve read part of a trilogy by Jennifer L. Armentrout a couple of years ago where I LOVED the first book, was a bit put off by the second and couldn’t stomach the third. Then, at this year’s book sale in February I found the first book in the Lux series in the bargain section. I’m glad I did decide to pick up something by this author again.

The Lux series is delightfully well-balanced with action, romance and moral conundrums. The big plus being the consistency in writing and story through book 1-4 and they’re a solid 4 stars so far. I find that sometimes the first couple of books in a series is usually the best and the rest just kind of…degrades. Rarely to the extent that the books are unreadable, but they’re often not as interesting as the first one(s). For example, the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton and the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling. I freaking love these three, but the first books in either series is just genius compared to the ones that came later.

The first book introduces Kat who’s just moved to West Virginia with her mother. Kat’s life so far revolves around books and blogging about them (bonus points, right there). Having lost her father to cancer and with a mother that’s trying to stay afloat, she’s learned to take care of herself in her everyday life. She’s basically do an infusion of tumult, of the infuriating but hot neighbor variety. It’s just her luck the disturbed neighbor and his friendly sister are aliens. With baggage. Suspicious, two-faced government baggage.

There are five books in total and I have the Kindle version of Opposition waiting for me to read. 🙂

April Wrap Up

It’s unbelievable how fast time flies, it’s already the end of April. Or rather the beginning of May. And I’m not sure if I’ve come to terms with that just yet… Oh well, this month I actually manage to (mostly) stick to my TBR. I haven’t read Winter yet, but I think I’ll save that special nugget until my vacation week this summer. Plus, it’s a little on the heavy side (which makes me one extremely happy camper), so the more time I have the better I’ll be able to savor it.

I’ve read 5 and a half books this month. I still haven’t figured out how to count the one that I started reading one month and finish the next. How do you, my fellow bookworms, count that one? Is it one half in either month or does it counts as one in the month that I finish it? Take for example this month, have I read 5,5 or 6 books? I know, I know, it’s a problem that’s not really a problem, but I can’t decide and it annoys me. 😉

1. Opal (Lux #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – 4/5 stars
2. Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout – 4/5 stars
3. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab – 5/5 stars
4. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken – 4/5 stars
5. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – 5/5 stars
6. Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill – 4/5 stars

Monthly summary: it’s been a good month. Reviews will be up soon. 🙂