I've got 7 books planned for April, but first I'll be finishing up Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, and Deliverer by C.J. Cherryh, both of which I'll be done within the next couple of days.
Reading with my book club-
Orconomics (The Dark Profit Saga #1) by J. Zachary Pike
Professional heroes kill and loot deadly
monsters every day, but Gorm Ingerson's latest quest will be anything
but business as usual.
Making a Killing in Professional Heroics
The
adventuring industry drives the economy of Arth, a world much like our
own but with more magic and fewer vowels. Monsters’ hoards are claimed,
bought by corporate interests, and sold off to plunder funds long before
the beasts are slain. Once the contracts and paperwork are settled, the
Heroes’ Guild issues a quest to kill the monster and bring back its
treasure for disbursement to shareholders.
Life in The Shadows
Of
course, while professional heroics has been a great boon for Humans,
Elves, Dwarves, and all the other peoples of light, it's a terrible
arrangement for the Shadowkin. Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and their ilk
must apply for to become Noncombatant Paper Carriers (or NPCs) to avoid
being killed and looted by guild heroes. Even after getting their
papers, NPCs are treated as second class citizens, driven into the
margins of society.
An Insane Quest
Gorm
Ingerson, a Dwarven ex-hero with a checkered past, has no idea what he's
getting himself into when he stands up for an undocumented Goblin. His
act of kindness starts a series of events that ends with Gorm recruited
by a prophet of the mad goddess Al'Matra to fulfill a prophecy so crazy
that even the Al'Matran temple doesn't believe it.
Money, Magic, and Mayhem
But
there’s more to Gorm’s new job than an insane prophecy: powerful
corporations and governments, usually indifferent to the affairs of the
derelict Al’Matran temple, have shown an unusual interest in the quest.
If his party of eccentric misfits can stop fighting each other long
enough to recover the Elven Marbles, Gorm might be able to turn a bad
deal into a golden opportunity and win back the fame and fortune he lost
so long ago.
Reading at Fantasy Buddy Reads-
I had planned to start this one at the end of March but didn't get to it so it's now on my April list. That means I'll be pushing book three in this series to the beginning of May.
The Poisoner's Ring (A Rip Through Time #2) by Kelley Arnstrong
Edinburgh, 1869: Modern-day homicide
detective Mallory Atkinson is adjusting to her new life in Victorian
Scotland. Her employers know she’s not housemaid Catriona Mitchell―even
though Mallory is in Catriona’s body―and Mallory is now officially an
undertaker’s assistant. Dr. Duncan Gray moonlights as a medical
examiner, and their latest case hits close to home. Men are dropping
dead from a powerful poison, and all signs point to the grieving widows…
the latest of which is Gray’s oldest sister.
Poison is said to
be a woman’s weapon, though Mallory has to wonder if it’s as simple as
that. But she must tread carefully. Every move the household makes is
being watched, and who knows where the investigation will lead.
We're resuming our read of this series in April and will read the last three books over the next three months.
The Knights of Erador (The Echoes Saga #7) by Philip C. Quaintrell
“HERE IS TODAY’S LESSON; HEROES DIE…”
It’s
fifteen years since the Orcs were defeated. Fifteen years since a new
king rose from the battlefield. Fifteen years since Illian knew the
horror of war.
Fifteen years of peace are about to end.
Something is coming. Shadows gather. Whispers of rebellion have reached the king. Darkness stirs beyond Illian’s borders.
Beyond
the mountains, Dhenaheim has lost a quiet war. Refugees pour into
Illian, bringing suspicion and unrest. For Doran Heavybelly, Dhenaheim's
war means facing a personal tragedy that demands his attention... and
his axe.
A simple job for too much coin should have been warning
enough for Asher but, like Fate, trouble always has a way of finding
him.
Conspiracy. Rebellion. Betrayal. Time to find out who the real heroes are.
THE KNIGHTS OF ERADOR CONTINUES THIS UNMISSABLE EPIC FANTASY SERIES.
I'm reading this one at Fantasy Buddy Reads and for NetGalley
A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.
In
the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an
impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into
thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained
locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all
under constant guard.
To solve the case, the Empire calls on its
most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her
side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
Before
long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance,
but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an
adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a
ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can
see the future.
Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the
high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest
minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in
their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible
indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic
that allows its wheels of power to turn.
Din has seen Ana solve
impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever
and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears
that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.
Reading with the Mystery Book Club-
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham #3) by Benjamin Stevenson
Benjamin Stevenson returns with a Christmas
addition to his bestselling, Ernest Cunningham mysteries. Unwrap all the
Christmas staples: presents, family, an impossible murder or two, and a
deadly advent calendar of clues. If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder
Club kissed under the mistletoe.
My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I
used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found
myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life
ones. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would
kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.
So
here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze,
whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all
professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.
THE MAGICIAN
THE ASSISTANT
THE EXECUTIVE
THE HYPNOTIST
THE IDENTICAL TWIN
THE COUNSELLOR
THE TECH
My
clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a
memory of how it got there. A murder committed without setting foot
inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you
know, it’s Christmas.
If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.
After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?
Rewind by Catherine Ryan Howard
PLAY
Andrew, the manager of
Shanamore Holiday Cottages, watches his only guest via a hidden camera
in her room. One night the unthinkable happens: a shadowy figure emerges
on-screen, kills her, and destroys the camera. But who is the murderer?
How did they know about the camera? And how will Andrew live with
himself?
PAUSE
Natalie wishes she'd stayed at home
as soon as she arrives in the wintry isolation of Shanamore. There's
something creepy about the manager. She wants to leave, but she
can't-not until she's found what she's looking for ...
REWIND
Psycho meets Fatal Attraction
in this explosive story about a murder caught on camera. You've already
missed the start. To get the full picture you must rewind the tape and
play it through to the end, no matter how shocking ...
Pick It For Me book-
The View From Coral Cove by Amy Clipston
When a jilted romance novelist escapes
to a small beach town, the last thing she expected to find was the start
of an even better love story.
In the wake of a broken
engagement and the death of her last surviving family member, sweet
romance novelist Maya Reynolds moves to the haven of Coral Cove, North
Carolina, to take over her great-aunt's toy store. Some of her grief is
immediately eased by imaginative eight-year-old Ashlyn Tanner, who talks
her into adopting a kitten and inspires Maya to create a princess
tea-party room in the store.
Ashlyn's dad, local veterinarian
Brody Tanner, is quickly smitten by the newest resident of his hometown.
As a single parent, he sacrifices a lot in order to give Ashlyn the
world, so a romantic entanglement with Maya is not a distraction he is
looking for.
As the three develop a deepening bond in the seaside
town where Maya experienced some of her happiest childhood memories,
clouds cast a shadow over Maya's hope for the an impossible deadline
looms over her next novel, a long-held secret by her late mother about
Maya's absent father comes to light, and Brody's resolve to avoid
romance seems unbreakable.
But together, they just might discover that sometimes happy endings happen outside the pages of Maya's novels too.
On Hold for now-
Conspirator (Foreigner #10) by C.j. Cherryh
I think I'll be dropping out of this buddy read, although there's a small chance I could change my mind. For the most part I've enjoyed this series, but after 9 books I feel like I need to take a break from it. It's over 20 books long, and I honestly don't feel like it needs to be. The author clearly loves writing this series and it's obvious she plans to write it until, well, she can't any more. While there are a few series that I would be happy to go on indefinitely, this one isn't one of them. The books have been hitting between 3 and 4 stars for me, with the last three books being 3, 3, and 3.5 stars. The good news is that there are mini trilogies within this long series, so the plot wraps up after every three books and that makes for several good places to stop. So I've read books 1-9, 3 trilogies, and I'm good with stopping here. At least for now. I think I will probably come back to this when I feel in the mood to read it again, but for now I'm a little burned out and need a break.
