Grumpy reader at the moment

Hello, my lovelies!

I hope you're having a better July than I am.  I have two neighbours (in my unit complex) who seem to think that the only good music is extremely loud heavy metal and techno/dance music!  Earlier this month I even bought some noise cancelling headphones to try and dampen the sound, but it still bleeds through.  Reading is difficult at any time, but especially at night, and I've literally had to plug those headphones into my iPod to watch movies, or listen to a local radio station on my phone, to try and distract myself from going nuts!  Arrrrrgh!

However, you really don't want to hear any more of that, so on to some happy news - my latest bookmail!

Evie Nyxx likes the box most of all!

On Wednesday the courier dropped off a rather large box that only contain five books.  Yes, five smallish books all wrapped up in some amazing bubble wrap and held in place by those air pockets to make sure that my items were not going to move in the slightest.  It's so funny when you rip open the box as you have to make your way through all the protective wrapping to get to the books ;-D

Phrynekinns wouldn't get off the bed (or my pillow!), so she got surrounded by the books ;-D

In this haul I took advantage of Booktopia's free shipping period and bought some long standing items from my wishlist. 

I couldn't resist trying one of the graphic novel adaptations of Agatha Christie books.  I've seen them hauled and review quite a bit on BookTube recently, but the titles I would have loved to get (The Man in the Brown Suit, Death on the Nile, And Then There Were None, and Murder on the Orient Express) were all unavailable, or worse still - out of print!  So, I bought Hallowe'en Party, and I was very happy with it.  I read it that afternoon and it took no time at all as it's only 45 pages long.  Liked the art style, it was interesting but without being so odd or weird that it was distracting.  However I adore the cover art.  So good! 😸

Then I read Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones.  This is the seventh book in the Charlie Davidson series, and while it is still okay, I'm not sure that I will be continuing to buy these in hardcover - unless I come across some amazing bargins (books 1-3 for $1.49 each on Book Outlet, but the p&h was just highway robbery!).  Thankfully, this book was only $10, so I'm okay with that.  Will try and get a mini-review up at some point in the future.

The last three books are on my TBR pile.  Unseemly Science sounds amazing, but I don't know if I have to read The Bullet Catcher's Daughter first, or if I can just jump straight in?  So that's why it's on the back-burner at the moment.  Next is Shakespeare Undead, which sounds like a hoot and a half - and an odd coincidence as I reread Shadow of Night on Tuesday, and I love that books as we see Kit Marlowe as a daemon, and young Will Shakespeare as a wannabe playwright hanging around with the members of the School of Night - and eventually stealing Marlowe's work (given to young Annie).

Finally there is Stray Souls by Kate Griffin.  This sounded amazing when I read the synopsis online, and I love this style of contemporary urban fantasy that mixes element of mythology.  Since the Dark Heavens series finished earlier this year, I have been on the lookout for a new series (or stand alone) that can fill the void.  Hopefully, this may be it.

And that my lovely ladies and gentlemen, is what came in the mail for me this week.  Next week I am expecting the new release of the illustrated edition of Neverwhere.  I nearly bought the previous release of the author's preferred text edition (I love that cover!), but when I found out from an IG account I follow that this was on it's way - I had to pre-order it as I love Chris Riddell's illustrations!  So look out for a pic of that when it arrives ;-D

Until next time,

 

T5W || Chapter Headings

This has been perhaps the hardest T5W topic for me so far.  After looking through two shelves, and through the huge pile that is my TBR, I found only a handful of books with Chapter Headings.  Plenty of quotes, and things along those lines, but chapter headings were very rare indeed.

So, after a few days of wracking my brain trying to find books - I even roped my in my mum on the search (perfect time for a visit) - I finally came up with something for this weeks topic.  I hope you enjoy it...

click to enlarge

As you can tell, most of my chapter headings came from the Steampunk genre - thank you Gail Carriger! 

(#5) Chapter 7, Soulless - Gail Carriger

I think this chapter heading gives you a real sense of what you'll find in Soulless, and the Parasol Protectorate in general.  Quirky and fun, an interesting chapter heading.

(#4) Chapter 10, God Save the Queen - Kate Locke

I chose "Curiouser and Curiouser" (#4) because I have a think about Alice in Wonderland, and the way it has been embraced by pop culture.  Also this heading does fit in with the story.  Another quirky and amazing Steampunk trilogy.

(#3) Lesson 5, Etiquette & Espionage - Gail Carriger

I think that this is pretty self explanatory as to why I chose it ;-P

(#2) Chapter 18, Timeless - Gail Carriger

I loved this chapter heading.  It just caught my eye.

(#1) Chapter 20, Grave Concerns - Gwen Hunter

How could you go past this one? 

Woo-hoo!  I finally got this post up ;-D

This took f o r e v e r and I am so glad that it is finally done, and I can put it behind me.  If you have any fun or quirky chapter headings, I'd love to know what they are.  Please let me know in the comment section.

And, as always, T5W was created by the lovely Lainey at GINGERREADSLAINEY and I'll include a link to the Goodreads group {HERE} if you would also like to participate. 

Until next time,

June in Review

I hope your June was better than mine.  My right wrist has been aching for about 4 weeks now, so after one particularly painful episode, I made an appointment with the doctor.  It turns out that I have tendinitis in said wrist/forearm and to keep it strapped up and immobile for God knows how long.   As you could guess, this has severely limited my daily life, and has made typing on the laptop painful.  Therefore, I'll keep this short.

The last meeting of the book club went well.  Turns out we loved Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger - yeah! - however, The Goddess Test didn't get quite the same reaction (reviews to be posted later).  Then came the hard task of trying to select next month's reading material.  Turns out that there was one item on everyone's list...

So in the end, the reading list for July is:

Fated - Benedict Jacka

Tempest Rising - Nicole Peeler, and

The Reluctant Reaper - Gina X. Grant

In the mean time, I have to figure out how to keep myself sane now that the laptop is out of bounds, and holding onto a book for hours is painful.  This dilemma has given me the kick in the butt to delve into my stash of material kept hidden in the linen cupboard.  Now, surrounded by piles of beautiful fabric, I find myself mentally sorting through it all, designing quilts to make for family and friends.  I don't think I'm up for the sewing yet - I'm right handed! - but that hasn't stopped me from buying more material lately, so I think this winter I might ditch the knitting and crochet (too hard on the wrist), and think about some sewing instead...?

Happy reading!

New Titles for Book Club

It's taken me two days to get enough oomph in my WI-FI coverage just to blog without constant issues.  However, I'm excited to say that the second meeting of the Fangtastic Fiction Book Club met at my local library last Friday, and we spent a fabulous morning just chatting about books - it was great!

We then had the enormous task of trying to decide what to read in June.  It took us a while, but in the end it was decided that we shall be reading... {drum roll if you please}

The Goddess Test by Aimee Carter

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

I am looking forward to E&E - I loved the Parasol Protectorate series! - but I am not too sure about The Goddess Test.  For some reason we ended up with two books that are firmly in the YA section, but apart from the odd fabulous book, I've pretty much outgrown YA.  Who knows?  Perhaps The Goddess Test will be one of those stunning reads?   The other odd coincidence is that both books are the first in a series - a hint for later reading materials, perhaps?

Wish me luck, and happy reading!

Review: The Phoenix Rising crashes and burns

Phoenix Rising
A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Bk 1
Pip Ballentine & Tee Morris

Mass Market Paperback, Harper Voyager, 2011, 402p.
ISBN: 9780062049766

Evil is most assuredly afoot - and Britain's fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade ... and a librarian.

These are dark days indeed in Victoria's England.  Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as sorpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone.  Yet the Minister of Peculiar Occurrences - the Crown's clandestine organisation whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling - will not allow its agents to investigate.  Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest ... and she's prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the

perilous fray.

 

For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons.  And Books and Braun - he with his encyclopaedic brain and she with her remarkable devices - must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot ... or see England fall to the Phoenix!

Sorry about his folks, but Blogger's auto-save function crapped out on me and I lost my whole original review.  So, my thoughts - take 2.

"Malevolence has met it's match in Agents Books and Braun!"

And so did my patience.

 

I have had Phoenix Rising in my wishlist for about the last three months, so when I saw it discounted at a Collin's Bookshop I was so excited.   I loved Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series so I was looking forward getting stuck into another Steampunk title ... I should have known.

 

Phoenix Rising was just a disappointment through and through.  Our antagonists, Wellington 'Welly' Books and Eliza D. Braun were just whinny and annoying.  Braun is an loose cannon and arrogant to boot.  She just likes to blow shit up and bucks authority at the drop of a hat.  And while the more sedate Books is the 'by the book' character, he was just as obnoxious and unrealistic.  They annoyed me to no end and I found that I had could make no real connection with these characters.

 

The protagonists were just annoying and cliche, and I found the Aussie character's stereotyping as the colonial knob more than a little insulting.  The POV changes with every chapter, bouncing back and forwards between these two.  Even the writing style left me hanging.  I eventually gave up reading the book as I just couldn't take any more of this drek.  I skimmed the last few pages hoping that the ending was good enough that I could convince myself to go back and slog my way through, but alas, it wasn't.  I think I must have just fluked reading the Parasol Protectorate first because Braun is just a poor man's Alexia Tarabotti, if that.

The only plus I could find here were some of the gadgets.

 

This book will now go to the back of the bottom of my bookshelf to collect dust.  I can't believe I wasted my time trying to read this and I even begrudge it the $3.50 I spent on it. If you do come across it, walk away unless you're a major fan of the genre.  If you must try it, find it on the shelves at your local library.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Wicked As They Come
A Blud Novel #1
Delilah S. Dawson

Back cover:

When Tish Everett forces open the ruby locket she finds at an estate sale, she has no 

idea that a deliciously rakish Bludman has cast a spell just for her. She wakes up in a 

surreal world, where Criminy Stain, the dashing proprietor of a magical traveling 

circus, curiously awaits. At Criminy’s electric touch, Tish glimpses a tantalizing future, 

but she also foresees her ultimate doom. Before she can decide whether to risk her fate 

with the charming daredevil, the locket disappears, and with it, her only chance to return 

home. Tish and Criminy battle roaring sea monsters and thundering bludmares, vengeful 

ghosts and crooked Coppers in a treacherous race to recover the necklace from the 

evil Blud-hating Magistrate. But if they succeed, will Tish forsake her fanged suitor 

and return to her normal life, or will she take a chance on an unpredictable but dangerous 

destiny with the Bludman she’s coming to love?

I bought this book via an online recommendation and all I can say is WOW!  This is such an original book - and that's saying something these days.  As a new reader to the world of Steampunk, I fell in love with the world, and the characters.  

As a 20 something nurse, Letitia 'Tish' Everett - our heroine - has already had a hard road to hoe.  She's just come out of an abusive relationship, her parents are out of the picture, and her beloved Grandmother is dying of cancer.  Her world seems to be falling apart.  So, when Tish sees a locket at the estate sale of a former patient, she falls in lust with the gorgeous image within.  Little does she know that the blood she spills on the locket while trying to clean it, activates a spell a century in the making.  That night she is transported to the world of Sang, and the deliciously bite-able Criminy Stain (who finds her naked near an alter in the woods).

At first Letitia, as Criminy calls her, is certain that this is just a very vivid dream.  But when a cute little bunny turns into a blood-sucking furball, she starts to think that there just might be something wrong.  Now she finds herself at the mercy of Criminy Stain.  How will she get back?  Can she get back?

This book felt a little like Alice in Wonderland to me, so when Tish falls down the rabbit hole into Sang. . . OMG.  Having only read one Steampunk series previously, A Parasol Protectorate, I was expecting to find the same world-building as in Gail Carriger's books.  Well, I was half right.  Whereas the Protectorate books deal with a truly paranormal savvy techno-Victorian world, Dawson's world is truly in another realm altogether.  I loved the parallels drawn by Dawson, like the fact that some city names are the same, which makes the world seem somehow familiar and therefore easier to fall into.  The invention of blud-animals was fabulous.  I loved the bludbunnies, and if I had to catch a bludmare in a field I think I'd pass.

There are a few little plot twists that I didn't expect, but that just makes it more interesting.  Just who do you trust?

I loved the cover.  It was part of what made up my mind when I was deciding whether to purchase it or not. The dark colour scheme reflects the nature of the book, but while there are some dark scenes, there isn't anything truly violent.  There is no graphic sexual content for which I am grateful as I am getting quite sick of that as a story device, and whatever bad language there is, it's not very graphic.

If you want to read a book that found an voice of it's own, then grab this anyway you can.

I'm looking forward to the next book, Wicked As She Wants, available April 2013.

Steampunk... whuh?

Okay, I've never given much thought about Steampunk.  It always sounded too sci-fi for me, that is until I took the advice of one of the guys at my old bookshop.  Although I was still hesitant about trying it, the cover was so intriguing I thought "what the hell?"

I don't regret my decision.  The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger (love the logo) is truly wonderful.  It is full of the customary corsets and carriages, teapots and tiaras, that one expects from a period series, but don't let the Victorian setting put you off from reading this awesome series.  Our heroine kicks butt with her jumped up hi-tech parasol.

For those of us who adore a little supernatural spice, you will get your fill of werewolves, vampires and other things that go bump in the night - rest assured that they play a major part in the storyline.  The central story revolves around a bluestocking, Alexia Tarabotti.  A lady of Italian extraction, who just happens to be soulless.  Her curse, if that is how one wishes to view it, is that if she touches another supernatural being, they become human - and can be killed.

And if that didn't set her apart enough, then Alexia has the most superficial and gossip-mongering family.  If I was in Alexia's shoes I would have tried to do away with them long before now. . . hint hint




And yes, I know it's actually 'An Alexia Tarabotti Novel', but it doesn't have the same ring as the Parasol Protectorate does it :D



About the Books

So far there are four books available in the Parasol Protectorate series, with Timeless being released on 28 Feb 2012;

Soulless

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire -- and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

SOULLESS is a comedy of manners set in Victorian London: full of werewolves, vampires, dirigibles, and tea-drinking.

Changeless

Alexia Tarabotti, the Lady Woolsey, awakens in the wee hours of the mid-afternoon to find her husband, who should be decently asleep like any normal werewolf, yelling at the top of his lungs. Then he disappears - leaving her to deal with a regiment of supernatural soldiers encamped on her doorstep, a plethora of exorcised ghosts, and an angry Queen Victoria.

But Alexia is armed with her trusty parasol, the latest fashions, and an arsenal of biting civility. Even when her investigations take her to Scotland, the backwater of ugly waistcoats, she is prepared: upending werewolf pack dynamics as only the soulless can.

She might even find time to track down her wayward husband, if she feels like it.


Blameless

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon becomes the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires -- and they're armed with pesto.


Heartless

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barely has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama's second best closet?


Timeless

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a damper on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle.

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

UPDATE - this does seem to be the last book in the series {searching for tissues to sniffle into} however Ms Carriger is planning another series set in the same funky Victorian period, only 25 years earlier, and at a Finishing School.

About the Author

Ms. Carriger began writing in order to cope with being raised in obscurity by an expatriate Brit and an incurable curmudgeon. She escaped small town life and inadvertently acquired several degrees in Higher Learning. Ms. Carriger then traveled the historic cities of Europe, subsisting entirely on biscuits secreted in her handbag. She now resides in the Colonies, surrounded by a harem of Armenian lovers, where she insists on tea imported directly from London and cats that pee into toilets. She is fond of teeny tiny hats and tropical fruit. Find out more about the author at gailcarriger.com


PS all book descriptions and author bio were taken from Amazon.  The bio is the same in the back of the books, but it just saved time to cut and paste.