Tuesday was a really good reading day

Usually I read one book, perhaps re-read another, depending on what my mood is like.  However on Tuesday I had a great reading day!  I received Dead Ice in the mail, and started that before lunch.  I powered through it in about 5 hours - perhaps 5½ hours - and was pleasantly surprised as to how much I enjoyed it after recent disappointments in the Anita Blake series.

Then I pulled Uprooted by Naomi Novik from my TBR shelves.  It took a little while to get into the swing of things, but I really enjoyed this book.  Would have loved to keep reading, especially with the ending we got.  Will have a review up soon.

As if that wasn't enough (I'd just read 1011 pages!), I decide to start on another book.  The City's Son by Tom Pollock.  This book has been on my TBR bookshelf for more than 6 months.  I don't know why I chose this book, but I'm so glad I did.  I enjoyed my romp through the bowels of London.  Fighting iron wolves and seeing the amazing characters that Pollock created out of the industrial landscape. My only problem was that I don't have books 2 or 3 in the trilogy.  I hate when that happens!

By the time I closed the book and turned off my light it was about 11pm.  I think my eyes were dragging on the ground - in the sand!  But it was worth it.

So on Tuesday I read a total of 3 books or 1468 pages!  That's longer than The Lord of the Rings!  Wow, very proud of myself {patting myself on the back}.

NOTE: I woke up the next morning and my eyes were so sore that I just sat and watched Penny Dreadful all afternoon.  Couldn't read a darn thing!  Fingers crossed that I can finally jump into my TBR shelves again ;-D

Until next time,

 

Book Review || Dead Ice by LKH

Dead Ice
Anita Blake #24
Laurell K. Hamilton

Published: 09 June, 2015

Berkley, hardcover, 576p.
ISBN: 978-0-425-25571-1

Anita Blake has the highest kill count of any vampire executioner in the country. She’s a U.S. Marshal who can raise zombies with the best of them. But ever since she and master vampire Jean-Claude went public with their engagement, all she is to anyone and everyone is Jean-Claude’s fiancée.

It’s wreaking havoc with her reputation as a hard ass—to some extent. Luckily, in professional circles, she’s still the go-to expert for zombie issues. And right now, the FBI is having one hell of a zombie issue.

Someone is producing zombie porn. Anita has seen her share of freaky undead fetishes, so this shouldn’t bother her. But the women being victimized aren’t just mindless, rotting corpses. Their souls are trapped behind their eyes, signaling voodoo of the blackest kind.

It’s the sort of case that can leave a mark on a person. And Anita’s own soul may not survive unscathed . . .

T5W || Multiple POVs

Bonjour!, and welcome to another T5W.  This week we were set the trickier task of finding books with mulitple POVs.  It took me forever to find five books with more than 2 or 3 characters through which we follow the story.

After much scouring of my shelves - and a little help from Goodreads - I finally came up with a list.

 

5.  Throne of Glass was the first - or final - book on my list.  We follow multiple characters, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the following books.

4.  While it doesn't happen very often, during this series Meg, Simon, Henry, sometimes Tess, Vlad and even the police characters get a scene of two.

3.  Had to add this book, but it's still on my TBR pile.  I know we follow multiple characters, and that was good enough for me.

2.  Great fantasy series.  Love that we follow the story through about 5 characters.  Jaenelle, Saetan, Daemon, Yaslana and occasionally a snippet from other characters.  So good ;-D

1.  One of the ultimate POV books.  Follow Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Aragorn, plus others as you journey through Middle Earth.

I hope you enjoyed my Top 5 list.  Next week's should be easier to compile... I hope ;-D  Let me know if you agree with my list - or what books you would add instead - in the comment section below.

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,

 

Dead Ice has arrived!

My postman just delivered a package to my door.  It was my pre-order of Dead Ice by Laurell K. Hamilton.  This is book number twenty-something in the Anita Blake series.  I read the sample chapter at the end of Jason {READ MY REVIEW HERE} and it sounded so good.   

Bought this from Book Depository, and it was a little expensive at just over $32, but I just had to have it.  I wanted this cover to match my other books, and Australian book shops don't stock this edition.  Isn't it so pretty.  The endpapers are just so gorgeous, and completely unexpected.  Total bookgasm ;-D

Hopefully I can start this some time today.  Fingers crossed that we're back into RPIT/animator mode with little to no ardeur action.

Until next time,

 

T5W || Favourite Books of the Year... So Far

Sorry this post is going to be super short - as well as super late.  I'd hoped to get it up on Friday, but the internet was not talking to me (and Photoshop has been playing up).  What are you gonna do?

This week we are listing the top 5 books that we've read so far this year.  I'd love to be able to add some of the gorgeous hardcovers I've been accumulating, but I just haven't gotten around to reading many of them yet.  Perhaps I'll be able to add them for my favourite books of the year.

Anyway here goes.  So without further ado, here are my favourite books of the year... so far.

I had to add Fuzzy Nation, not only because I loved it, but because it has been one of the best recommendations I've received from Booktube.  Thanks Lindsey @angelaudacity!

I hope you enjoyed my Top 5 selections.  I'd love to hear from you if you have any questions or comments.  Have you read any of these books?  Let me know down below.

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, my lovelies

Upcoming series review

In the coming weeks, or perhaps months, I'm finally going to review the Stephanie Plum series.  A huge task as there will be twenty-two books by November (and I hope I've caught up by then!), but I have enjoyed this series so much over the years that I thought it was about time to actually review all the books.  There are one or two books that I have mentioned in this blog before, but I won't be looking at those reviews and instead will be reviewing them with fresh eyes - as I'll be re-reading the whole series again!  Oh boy, what have I got myself into. . .

Book Review || Steal the Dragon

Steal the Dragon
Sianim Quartet, Book 3
Patricia Briggs

This edition published: 2008
Originally released: November, 1995

ACE Fantasy, mass market, 275p.
ISBN: 978-0-441-00273-3

Slave.  Swordwielder.  Spy.  Some girls have all the luck...

When Rialla was young, slave traders from Darran ambushed her clan, killing all the men and enslaving the women and children. For years, Rialla lived in bondage, until she escaped and fled to the mercenary nation of Sianim.

Now she can strike back at her former masters. A lord in Darran seeks to outlaw slavery—but there are plots to kill him before he can. Rialla is chosen by the Spymaster of Sianim to prevent the murder—and is plunged into a world of deadly magic.

At a glance...

First and foremost, I do love the new cover.  The original was a little too much 80's fantasy movie for me, and because of that, I was a little hesitant about purchasing this book.  Why?  Well, because each time I visited one of the online bookshop I use, all they showed was the old cover.  I have the rest of the Quartet in the re-issued covers and I really wanted to have a matching set.  But when I couldn't see the new cover, I just ordered it.  I'd just have to live with a mis-matched set.  

Thankfully when my order arrived on Friday this was the cover that greeted me when I opened the parcel.  With it's eye catching colours - and the action pose of model - it made me very eager to start reading this immediately... which I did ;-D

I'm frozen!

Need I say more?

Until next time,
 

Freezing my butt off!

It's been so cold here at night.  The weatherman commented, on the news tonight, that this is the coldest start to June in over a decade!  Last night was almost 10°c below average!  As you can see, we're in for more of the same tonight, so I've rugged up and I'm sitting in bed under the doona.  Brought a bottle of water and an old favourite to bed so I don't have to get up any time soon ;-D

Fingers crossed that I don't wake up to heavy frost covering everything.

Until next time,
 

Book Review || Very Good Lives

Very Good Lives

The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination

J.K. Rowling

Published: April, 2015

Little, Brown & Company, Hardcover, 80p.
ISBN: 978-1-4087-0678-7

When J.K. Rowling was invited to deliver the commencement address at Harvard University, she chose to speak to the graduating class about two topics very close to her heart: the benefits of failure and the importance of imagination.  Having the courage to fail, she said, is as vital to a good life as any conventional measure of success; imagining ourselves into the place of another - particularly someone less fortunate than ourselves - is a uniquely human quality to be nurtured at all costs.

The stories Rowling shared and the provocative questions she asked of those young graduates have since inspired countless others to consider what it means to live a 'good life'.  Now in print for the first time, her words serve as both a comfort and a call to arms for anyone - of any age - who finds themselves at a turning point.  IN daring to take a risk, and perhaps fail, and by harnessing the power of our imaginations, we can all begin to live less cautiously and, in doing so, become more open to the opportunities life has to offer.

This time I let my fingers do the walking

As if my Big W blow-out wasn't bad enough, I then let my fingers do the walking after yesterday's splurge and visited two of my favourite online places to buy books.

First port of call was Booktopia.  I already had some amazing specials in my cart.  Bought The Swan Gondola for $9.90, and Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch for $6.35!  They also had a copy of Steal the Dragon by Patricia Briggs - to complete the Sianim Quartet - which seems to be either Out of Stock (OOS) or Out of Print (OOP) at Book Depository.  Every time I browse Booktopia I find so many great titles with great discounts.  Great for my bookshelves, bad for my wallet.

About half a hour later, my fingers got itchy again, so it was off to Book Depository.  I caved and pre-ordered Dead Ice by Laurell K. Hamilton.  This is book 21? in the Anita Blake series, and from the sample I read in the back of the novella, Jason, it sounded pretty good.  We're back into the zombie raising aspect of the series, and I hope to see some of the RPIT characters that I have been missing for the last 12 books or so ;-D

So, in all Friday was just a book-fest of a day.  I spent way too much money.  Will have to tighten my belt for the next couple of weeks and ban myself from browsing the online book sites. . . maybe?

Until next time,

I bought more books!

Just a quick hello - Hello! - and an update of why I could never commit to a full on book buying ban. While out shopping yesterday I wandered into my local Big W (for a plant pot) and completely lost the plot.  I ended up getting two of the books {above}, and put a stack on lay-by.  I'm soooo bad.

They had a boxed set of the Penguin Children's Classics down to $15, as well as a boxed set of the Percy Jackson series for $24! Unfortunately these were both in paperback, but for these prices I didn't care!  So by now I thought I'd done pretty good, but no.  There was more discount goodness in store for me around the end of the aisle.

There I found a hardcover book - with slipcase - celebrating 50 years of James Bond posters and a trade paperback of Daughters of the Storm which I have been eyeing off for months now.  They were down to $10 each people... $10 each!  With one final book, Troll Mountain by Matthew Reilly, added to my armful I realised that I had to get out of there.  Considering that about two weeks ago Big W had been a spontaneous 10% off Saturday for ALL books and I'd gone nuts and put so many books on lay-by yesterday's splurge was crazy - but I love them!

I'll post some photo's of all the pretty books once I get them in my hot little hands.  I hope you have had better luck resisting the call of the pretty books.  If you haven't, let me know down below what you bought ;-D

Until next time,

"Where's my book?" Update

Yesterday I posted a small rant about how when my book arrived it was a paperback instead of a hardcover copy.  

Well, it's all been resolved.   I was contacted less than 12 hours after emailing them, and they were very friendly and, like always, I've had no negative experiences when dealing with Book Depository if I have a complaint.  A+ service!

After messaging back and forth, okay once, I found out that the book had been incorrectly advertised, and I received a full refund, plus I can keep the paperback.

Now I only have to decide whether or not to buy the books in hardcover or not since I have one hardcover and one paperback book from the Thursday Next series.  Ah, decisions decisions ;-D

Until next time,

New books delivered!

I love the postman!  Well, not really.  But I do love when they bring such pretty books to my door ;-D

Today's parcels arrived a while ago, however in the rush to get other stuff done I forgot to show you my new books!

Swallowing Darkness is the 7th book in the Merry Gentry series.  I have an ugly UK trade paperback (seriously, have you seen those cover designs... UGLY!) and I have the others in these lovely hardcovers.  So when I happened across this one while browsing on AbeBooks.com I had to get it.

The second parcel was a copy of the Breeds series by Lora Leigh that I did not own yet.  Aiden's Charity comes somewhere after Jacob's Faith.  I have only just started it and although these books include some very sexy times, they are one of my guilty pleasure reads ;-D

Let me know if you'd like to see an overview of any of these series.

Until next time, my lovelies.