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The Second Mango, The Money Book, The Franchise Affair
The Second Mango – Shira Glassman A newly-crowned queen and a lady knight go on an adventure to find the queen a girlfriend, and on the way end up rescuing a bunch a people and defeating an evil wizard. It’s super fluffy and super adorable! Everybody is Jewish and the queen has food allergies and it’s great. And for about half of the book I appreciated the humor and the light-heartedness, but then it tried to be more serious and things went awry. Because I was so attached to all the fluff in the beginning, I couldn’t make the transition over into seriousness, and I ultimately didn’t like the writing…
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Recently: Peripheral People
I, too, have seen and loved Taylor Swift’s new music video, Bad Blood. Such a fun video! Winner: The Crimson Curse as best super spy name. This past week was the Bout of Books, which went pretty well for me! I ended up reading five books, four of which were comics. I got a little sidetracked on Friday when my shiny new computer showed up[1. It has a matte screen! 10 hours of battery life! And Windows 8.1, which I’ve never used before but which I kinda like. It also only weighs about 2.5 pounds. It’s AMAZING.] and all I wanted to do was transfer files and set up preferences…
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Threshold by Jordan L. Hawk (2013)
This is the second book in the Whyborne & Griffin series and it is much like the first: wonderful plot, great characters, iffy sex scenes[1. more unfortunate word choices ruining otherwise okay sexytimes, although at least each sex scene involves important character/plot development things. I hate when you can cut out sexytimes entirely and lose nothing from the book; what’s the point of having them if they don’t DO anything?] and fun historical paranormal mysteries. Well, not FUN. More like terrifying.
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Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall (2013)
As you know, I am a huge fan of Alexis Hall’s Prosperity series, which is a steampunk historical romance horror thing with amazing characters and a fantastic setting. Her Kate Kane series, meanwhile, is an urban paranormal mystery series with romance elements set in modern day London. I burnt out on urban paranormal mystery romances some years ago, but I had faith that AH wouldn’t just regurgitate the same old tropes that originally turned me off the genre. And he didn’t! A lot of the story elements ARE the same as other urban fantasy series– there are werewolves and vampires and witches, the protagonist is a half-faerie princess PI with…
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Hotblood! vol. 1 & 2 by Toril Orlesky (2014)
I think I found this series through Tumblr? Maybe? It’s a historical fantasy crime Western with centaurs, and it’s available free online. All things I enjoy! I ended up accidentally reading the equivalent of two volumes (plus a bit more) over the course of one evening. The art is so lovely. The limited color palette makes it kinda dreamy-looking, in a stark kind of way It’s a nice mix, and the pages are very pretty to look at.
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Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk (2012)
I somehow stumbled across Widdershins while browsing through something on Scribd. I’m so glad I did, because I ended up having an amazingly fun time reading it.
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Tidying up for the Book Blogger Organization Challenge
It’s a new month which means it’s a new theme for the Book Blogger Organization Challenge! Huzzah! January’s focus was on scheduling, planning, and making goals. Check out my post for more about that! February’s focus is on blog maintenance. I actually tend to straighten things up around her regularly (it’s harder to STOP fiddling, tbh), but there are a few things I’d like to work on this month: update at least 10 old reviews. I still have quite a few reviews that haven’t been formatted to use my beloved Ultimate Book Blogger plugin (affiliate link), which means they aren’t in my review archives and are thus harder to find.…
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Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling (1997)
So this turned out to be one of those books that was SO GOOD it made it impossible for me to read another book for a few days. I didn’t want to! I just wanted to keep thinking about Stalking Darkness, and the characters, and their world, and EVERYTHING. Best new character POV goes to Beka, a soldier and secret Chosen One. (That wasn’t a spoiler because it’s pretty obvious from the get-go.) She’s so great! She’s learning how to be a leader in the middle of war, while also being pulled along by a prophecy she knows nothing about. I’d read an entire book with just Beka, tbh. More…