February...ugh....
As much as I love Valentine's Day and any excuse for a long weekend, my February was not fun at all. I was excited when we had an early thaw of all that damn snow, but I didn't like that all that damn snow melted and flooded our apartment! Since then it's been non-stop stress of stopping the water, cleaning and dealing with our landlord and all the contractors who seem to need to come in and out of our apartment.
Thank goodness books can transport me out of this world in into somewhere where \i don't have to deal with real life.
Here are the books that distracted me this month:
by Sarah J. Maas
40 Pages
Meet the Assassin: beautiful, defiant, destined for greatness. Celaena Sardothien has challenged her master. Now she must pay the price. Her journey to the Red Desert will be an arduous one, but it may change the fate of her cursed world forever...
Since reading Tower Of Dawn, I've been wondering about the story behind Yrene Towers and Celaena. Of course, I was hoping that it would be one of these short stories and I'm so glad that it was. Although it didn't provide much more information than I already knew, it was still neat to see these two characters interacting.
by J.C. Nelson
416 Pages
Burying the dead is easy. Keeping them down is difficult.
At the Bureau of Special Investigations, agents encounter all sorts of paranormal evils. So for Agent Brynner Carson, driving a stake through a rampaging three-week-old corpse is par for the course. Except this cadaver is different. It’s talking—and it has a message about his father, Heinrich.
The reanimated stiff delivers an ultimatum written in bloody hieroglyphics, and BSI Senior Analyst Grace Roberts is called in to translate. It seems that Heinrich Carson stole the heart of Ra-Ame, the long-dead god of the Re-Animus. She wants it back. The only problem is Heinrich took the secret of its location to his grave.
With the arrival of Ra-Ame looming and her undead army wreaking havoc, Brynner and Grace must race to find the key to stopping her. It’s a race they can’t afford to lose, but then again, it’s just another day on the job . . .
I'm a big fan of the Grimm Agency books, so I was pretty excited when I found out that she had written another books along the same lines. Well, I thought it was along the same lines, but it turned out not to be. It lacked the fun and silliness that I love about the other series. This was much more serious and took place in an alternate earth than the other series. This book was much more about the romance, which was okay, but I was never sold on the two of them being together. It was okay, but not what I wanted it to be. I think if I had come on it and not known the author I probably would've liked it better.
by Ally Condie
366 Pages (9:54 Hours)
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate... until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.
The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.
I really enjoyed this book. After reading so many post apocalyptic books that have characters that come from bad areas of the world and need to fight for freedom, it was an interesting switch up to have the main character come from one of the good areas, not seeing the flaws of society and thinking that life is what it's suppose to be.
Coming from a white, middle class family, I can relate to this. It took me a long time to see that there were a lot of flaws in our own society and I know that I'm privileged enough not to see some of the really terrible things that happen around me.
This book certainly gave me a lot to think about.
Coming from a white, middle class family, I can relate to this. It took me a long time to see that there were a lot of flaws in our own society and I know that I'm privileged enough not to see some of the really terrible things that happen around me.
This book certainly gave me a lot to think about.
by Seanan McGuire
352 Pages
Ghoulies. Ghosties. Long-legged beasties. Things that go bump in the night... The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right? It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed. To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...
I finally got my hands on the first few books of InCryptid. I've been looking everywhere for them but could only ever find the later books in the series. I finally broke down and ordered them like I did with the October Daye novels.
Although the first one isn't the greatest book I've read by her, it was still a lot of fun and I think this series will only get better. There were a lot of great cryptids in this book, but I think my favorite were the mice who celebrated everything. They were so cute.
by Sarah J. Maas
95 Pages
The Silent Assassins of the Red Desert aren’t much for conversation, and Celaena Sardothien wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s not there to chatter, she’s there to hone her craft as the world’s most feared killer for hire. When the quiet is shattered by forces who want to destroy the Silent Assassins, Celaena must find a way to stop them, or she’ll be lucky to leave the desert alive.
Although I'm pretty sure that this book came first, it bears a striking resemblance to Nevernight, to the point I wondered if one was based off the other. It made it a little hard to read because I just kept comparing them and trying to decide who did it better. I never did decide.
by Sue Monk Kidd
384 Pages (13:46 Hours)
Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.
Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.
Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.
This was my LLB for this month. I've wanted to read this book ever since I heard Sue Monk Kidd talk about it in person. Like all of her books, this one hits hard and makes you really think and feel deeply. My heart continually broke while reading this and that just made me cheer harder for the characters that I loved so intently.
by Lisa Mantchev
352 Pages
All her world's a stage.
Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She's not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
That is, until now.
Enter Stage Right
NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.
COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE'S sidekicks.
ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie's weakness. The symbol of impending doom.
BERTIE. Our heroine.
Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book, an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family, and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.
Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience.
This was the first book I ever "wanted to read" on Goodreads. When I was ordering some books for Adam for Valentines Day, I decided to get myself something too. I figured I should actually start reading some of the books on my want to read list. So I ordered the first one there.
This was a very cute story that all takes place at a magical theatre. Her memories are all written like a script and performed on stage. It a cute little added bonus. I grew up in theatre so I found it full of that magic that I once felt. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
This was a very cute story that all takes place at a magical theatre. Her memories are all written like a script and performed on stage. It a cute little added bonus. I grew up in theatre so I found it full of that magic that I once felt. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
by Joëlle Jones, Jamie S. Rich & Chelsea Cain
138 Pages
Betty Draper meets Hannibal!
Josie Schuller is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife, and mother—but she’s also a ruthless, efficient killer for hire! A brand-new original comedy series that combines the wholesome imagery of early 1960s domestic bliss with a tightening web of murder, paranoia, and cold-blooded survival.
I came across some promo images for this comic awhile ago and I was excited to find out that it was actually a comic book series. I was even more excited when I found out that my online library database has comics and this was one of them. I happily lost myself in the life of this '60s housewife/hired killer. It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to get my hands on the next edition.
Books that I am currently reading
by Rohinton Mistry
by Sally Armstrong
128 of 320 Pages
by N.K. Jemisin
Batgirl, Vol. 1: Batgirl of Burnside (Batgirl, Volume IV #6)
by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, Jared K. Fletcher, Maris Wicks & Babs Tarr
22 of 176 Pages
The Forbidden Heir (The Four Arts #2)
by M.J. Scott
105 of 352 Pages
Dreamer's Pool (Blackthorn & Grim #1)
by Juliet Marillier
126 of 329 Pages
by Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, Jared K. Fletcher, Maris Wicks & Babs Tarr
22 of 176 Pages
The Forbidden Heir (The Four Arts #2)
by M.J. Scott
105 of 352 Pages
Dreamer's Pool (Blackthorn & Grim #1)
by Juliet Marillier
126 of 329 Pages
