Just Another Reader

The Perfume Collector is a historical fiction book about two women.  Grace Monroe is married and trying to fit into her husband's social circle in 1950s London. She receives a message to travel to Paris where she is to inherit the estate of Eva d'Orsey. A person she has never known.

The story alternates between the story of Eva in the 1920s and 30s and Grace in the 1950s as she uncovers Eva's past and their connection. I really liked the book, but it was a bit predictable.

Another Night Huntress book. Unfortunately Cat's vampire hunting has made her too much of a target and someone from Bones's past is determined to take her out.

It's another fun action packed book with fun writing that is so much fun to read. I highly recommend the series.

We also got to meet Vlad, aka Dracula, who I know gets his own series later and is how I stumbled onto these books. I look forward to finally being able to start them as I have been loving these books and Vlad was a really interesting character.

I'm still not a big fan of this series, but this book was better. It takes place a few months after Shadows. Another new girl moving to town. But since the book takes place from her point of view, she doesn't find out the secret for most of the book. So reading this after Shadows and knowing the secret is a bit annoying.

But something about the book didn't annoy me as much as the other. I don't think I'll continue the series either way.

Whoops. I'm always a proponent of when in doubt, read in published order. And I though I checked the release dates. But apparently this was released after Obsidian. This does take place before though.

I felt like I was reading "Twilight, this time with aliens". I mean the love thing wasn't that bad. But it's basically the same concept. Mysterious families. New girl in town. Attracted to each other instantly. etc. etc.

Also, why is it always a thing that whenever someone is new in town, the book they are reading in English is always something the new person has read a bunch of times (and is usually Jane Austen)? Why is that a thing.

It did give insight for when I was reading Obsidian. But it should be read after.

I first read Hyperion back when I was in high school and I always meant to go back since it definitely ends on a cliffhanger. At this point I knew I would have to reread it since I only vaguely remembered the storylines.

It's still a fantastic book that is set up like a sci-fi Canterbury tales. Seven pilgrims have been chosen to travel to the planet Hyperion, where the mysterious time tombs are set to open soon. Each pilgrim takes a turn to tell their story of their connection with the planet and why they wanted to travel there.

Sol Weintraub's story was my favorite then and it still is today. He is the only one of the seven who had never travelled there before. His daughter had been investigating the tombs and had been affected by a mysterious illness that causes her to age backwards, losing a day each time. One story I didn't remember much of was Martin Silenus's, the poet and his thoughts and dealings with publishing. Especially compared with how publishing is now.

I wasn't big on the audiobook. It does work, but there were four male voices and one female. When the person was narrating their story, it would be completely narrated by that person. So the only time you had the female narrator talk (other than the parts between stories) was in her story. But it's a great story and a classic. I will actually read the followup this time.

So for the Emelan series, I have only read the Circle of Magic quartet, which this is the third of. For whatever reason, Daja's Book was also the one I remembered the most and it's as great as I remember.

The four students and their teachers go with Sandry's uncle as he inspects the northern area of their country, Gold Ridge Valley. Daja is a former trader who was cast out of the Trader clan when she was the lone survivor of a shipwreck. In their lore, she was now untouchable, trangshi. While she helps out in the blacksmith with her metal and fire abilities, a trader stops by to buy some materials. Because the four young mages have been having issues with their powers since they combined their abilities in the first book, Daja suddenly finds herself creating a living metal tree. One which the traders want to buy, but to do so Daja insists that they negotiate with her.

At the same time, the group discovers that this mountain town has not had any fires in many years due to a mage who stops them as soon as they begin. A drought resulting in a dry region and years since a fire to clear out all the brush are a bad combination.

Another great book and one that stuck with me for over 10 years.

Another fun Courtney Milan historical romance. This one takes place years after the prequel novella, This Wicked Gift. In that story, William White helped the younger Gareth Carhart take control of his fortune. Now about 10 years later Gareth is trying to control his younger cousin, Ned, who has been consulting a fortuneteller for two years.

Said fortuneteller, "Madame Esmerelda", aka Jenny Keeble, has been helping Ned after first meeting him as a suicidal 19-year-old. She told him that his fortunes would be good and has helped keep him in good spirits since their first meeting. Ned believes her powers are real and she and Gareth agree on a wager to test her abilities.

The two of them end up drawn together and Ned gets himself in trouble trying to help prove Madame Esmerelda's fortune.

Back to the Fever series. This was the first one to come out since I had caught up on the series, and it was another great book. I do feel a bit bad for the series, since it is clear that based on the backlash Iced got, the idea of a Dani O'Malley trilogy is gone.

I was looking through Shadowfever while listening to this and it says at the beginning that this ends Mac's story. Burned follows multiple POVs and Mac's is the most prevalent and drives the story. Maybe at one point her story was going to be done, but this book goes firmly back into Mac's storyline.  Dani is in this book, but at a much reduced time that I think she would have if the original storyline idea had been followed. This book felt like KMM either dropped or condensed most of her story.

I still really liked the book and I love Mac. I wish I had been able to read the original plan, even though there would have been less of her.

The book did jump around a bit more than I'd like, but the story is fun and exciting. One highlight was the chapters from the perspective of Lor, one of the nine

Both narrators are incredible in the accents that they can do and Phil Gigante's Lor was the highlight. Recommended if you enjoy the series. The eighth book, Feverborn is already scheduled to come out in the fall :)

From the title I knew this was a book I would eventually read and I finally did.

For a book three years old, it already comes off as dated. It is a quick read, but I can't say I was a big fan. When it comes to the paper v. ebook debate, I love both and will never choose and this book felt biased, granted in the ebook side whereas most books trend towards the paper.

Aw, Golden Son. The book, that while I enjoyed, caused a book slump which I am never too happy about. I started it, but for whatever reason, had trouble reading and it took up a decent chunk of my month.

I definitely liked it more than Red Rising. I knew the storyline of Red Rising had a lot of promise, but I had issues with the second part, but I knew that the overall series would go beyond that. And it did. This was a much better book, even though I took a bit to really get into it. The ending. Oh the ending. OMFG the ending. I need the next book.

Another Ghost of Granny Apples book. It's a fun paranormal mystery series I picked up years ago when the first one was free and I keep going back to it.

This book, takes Emma Whitecastle, who can communicate with ghosts to Vegas where she meets the mother of her mentor (and fellow ghost communicator), Milo. His mother is connected to the seedier side of Vegas's past and Emma soon finds herself embroiled in a new mystery. Another fun book and I will be continuing the series.

Finally continuing my Tamora Pierce reread.  Of all the Circle of Magic books, this was the one I remembered the least, but it's still great. While all the books deal with the four children, each one does focus a bit more on a character and in this one it is Tris, the merchant girl who was abandoned by her family and has been struggling to gain control over her weather powers.

The book picks up shortly after Sandry's Book with the cleanup from the earthquake. The four learn that when they bound their powers to fend off the earthquake, it was not temporary. 

I did remember this more as I went and I love seeing the bonds between the group. Hopefully I won't put off Daja's Book too long, as I remember that one the best of the four. 

Masque of the Red Death is based off of an Edward Allen Poe short story. I had no idea of that until I finished and was looking it up to shelve it. I'll have to read it at some point now but at this time, I have no idea on how they relate.

Araby Worth lives with the elite. Their world is crumbling due to a plague. People walk around with masks on to protect themselves and Araby's father designed the system. Therefore she lives in the nice area of town and has numerous masks for different occasions. 

But she still grieves for the loss of her twin brother and vows never to do anything he wasn't able to do. She distracts herself with drugs and alcohol from a club she visits. After a bit of this, the plot does start and involves the villanous Prince Prospero who controls the city and two groups working to overthrow him.

There is also a love triangle between Araby and the owner of the club who struggles to make ends meet for his younger siblings and the brother of her friend who needs her help to change the system.

I'm a bit mixed on the book. It was more on the okay-guess I liked it scale. There's only one book after this so I may pick it up just to finish it. 

Can we please get about 20 more of these? I love Veronica Mars and though we likely won't be seeing more of her on the big screen (though I loved the movie and supporting it) her story continuing through books is paying off. I have thoroughly enjoyed both books so far and hope that more will be on the way.

Mr. Kiss and Tell takes place about eight months after the previous book and involves Veronica being hired to investigate a possible rape at the Neptune Grand for which the victim is suing. She feels invested in the case due to her past and the identity of the victim.

We do also get the return of Logan who was overseas during the entire last book and I love (LoVe) seeing them in a relationship again. Logan doesn't have a big part in the book, but I hope we will keep seeing him in the future.

We also got to pick up on the Weevil storyline where it left off in the movie and another sheriff election.

Please let there be more...