Kickstarter Campaign

  

Julia Huni, author of the Space Janitor series, has a Kickstarter campaign going for her Krimson Empire series. Check it out here if you're interested in her books.

 

 

 

The Relationtrip by Elana Johnson

 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Romance, Clean Romance, Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Content: Clean

 

Question: What do a reclusive author and an outgoing travel agent have in common?
 

Answer: Nothing.
 

But fate brought them together on a vacation five years ago, and as Logan and Sloane prepare for their annual get-together, there are sparks flying between them.


Sloane:

When Logan Murphy, my accidental best friend, calls to say our annual mid-winter trip has to be "redone," he's already got the solution. Belize. An adults-only resort, and we leave in two days.


I'm giddy with excitement, because I need this trip more than I can express. When I see Murph standing in the airport, my heart twitches to a beat it hasn't since my fiance left me to tell our friends and family that he couldn't make it to the wedding.


So it's a short-lived twitch, because I'm never going to get into the dating boxing ring again-and least of all with my best friend.


Logan:

I've never told Sloane what I do for a living, and she doesn't know how I feel about her either. But I want her to know all of my secrets.


I want my best friend in my life more than once a year, and I've already started penning a happily-ever-after for the two of us.
 

This year, I tell myself, as my crush on the vibrant woman is at least two years old now.


If only I knew how to tell her...

It's been a while since I picked up a book and literally couldn't put it down until 4am. Even then, I put it down just because I had to get some sleep. I finished the last few chapters the next day. It was also the first time in a long time that I actually picked up a physical book to read. It felt so nice to actually have a real book in my hands again and turn the pages. 

This was the first book I've read by this author, but it won't be my last! I like her writing style. It was so compelling, and I enjoyed the slight twist on the vacation love story. Instead of being about how Sloane was jilted at the alter and met Logan on the way to spend her honeymoon alone—which I'm pretty sure is the plot to a Hallmark movie I've seen—this story is set 5 years later after they've met and become best friends. 

I usually enjoy clean romances, but this one had me wanting a little bit more to happen! The heat from their attraction had me fanning myself. Once the book got to the point of feelings being confessed, it switched gears and became about a lot more than attraction though, and I loved that about the story. I will say that Sloane drove me crazy at times, but I still liked her. I love a good friends to lovers story, and I definitely recommend this one! It's a perfect summer beach read.

Thanks to the author for sending me a copy of this book.

 

 

 

 

The Shadow Casket (The Darkwater Legacy, #2) by Chris Wooding

  

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Off page torture, Off page sex, Unwanted pregnancy, Murder

 

A BAND OF REBELS.
A TRAITOR IN THEIR MIDST.
A REVOLUTION ABOUT TO BEGIN.

It's been three years since Aren seized the Ember Blade. Three years since they struck the spark they hoped would ignite the revolution. But the flame has failed to catch. The Krodans have crushed Ossia in an iron grip of terror. The revolution seems further away than ever.

Far in the north, the Dawnwardens seek to unite the fractious clans of the Fell Folk and create a stronghold from which to retake their land. But even if they can overcome the danger of treachery from within, they still have to contend with the dreadknights. Only the druidess Vika can resist these near-unstoppable foes, and there's only one of her.

But what if there was a weapon that could destroy the dreadknights? A weapon of such power it could turn the tide? A weapon that, if it fell into the wrong hands, might mean the end of all hope?

The Shadow Casket has returned from out of the past, and it will save or damn them all.

 

After reading The Ember Blade several Years ago and then doing a reread of it earlier this year, I was looking forward to reading this book and finding out what happened next. Despite my reread earlier this year, I still needed a reminder of how a few people and things fit into the story, but I quickly caught up. 

While the first book in the series had some dark elements to it, it felt very much like a traditional Lord of the Rings type fantasy. This book ended up going even darker, with quite a few deaths, betrayals, and murders. And that doesn't include the horrible things the Krodans do in the book. It got a little depressing for a while, but I stuck with it.

 

“Treachery was an axe, not a scalpel. It was hard to make a clean cut.” 

There were several new characters added to this book, some I never really warmed up to. Most of the characters in this series have been very gray, with a lot of them motivated for their own self-serving reasons. This made it hard for me to really like some of them. Grub is still my favorite, as he provides the much needed comic relief, and I very much enjoyed reading his point of view. 

 

 ‘Right now, all the people want is a leader, a warrior: the hero with the bright blade. Hope is simple, and they want hope. But afterwards, after we’ve won– they’ll want to know every piece of it. Then your tale will be told. Grub the Cunning. Grub the Strong. Grub the Brave. And it will be passed from one generation to the next, just like Orica’s song will.’ 

 

Fen's character irritated me throughout most of the book, and I felt her character in particular, did not go in a direction I liked. In the end I was ok with her but there were some things concerning her character that were just skipped over. She went from very upset and uncertain (to put it mildly), to happy and content without the reader getting to see how that came to be. We are just told a brief explanation. That didn't work for me at all. 

Surprisingly, I liked reading about Klyssen, who might be on the wrong side of things, and may have done some bad things, but his love for his daughters was something I couldn't fault him on. He's one of the best written characters in the series. I really would love to see him switch sides!

 

“The things we value make us weak, he thought. Or they can make us unstoppable.”  

 

In the end, I'm on the fence about continuing this series. I would like to see how a few things end up playing out, but I didn't love this book as much as I wanted to, so I'm hesitant to continue. I doubt I need to hurry and decide though, because I've probably got several years to think about it before the next book is published.

 

Another ARC

I usually don't hold out too much hope that I'm going to get an ARC of a book that's super popular, but this makes two in a row that I've gotten. Thank you NetGalley. Yay! I can't wait to read this!

 

 

Look what I got an ARC of!

  

I'm so excited to read this! Although, it's been way too long and I've forgotten some things, so I might have to reread The Aeronaut's Windlass first.

June 2023 Wrap-up and Planned Reads For July

It was a lot, but I ended up getting to all the books I had on my reading list this month. Some of them I've only just started within the last couple of days. As of this writing, I'm still working on three of them. 

The Shadow Casket,

 

Magic Claims,

 

and Dragon and Herdsman.

 

The Shadow Casket is a big book, so I fully expect to be reading it for another week. I should be done with Magic Claims within the next day or two. Dragon and Herdsman should also be done within a couple of days.

I did read three unplanned books during the month. The first one was An Inconvenient Ward by Audrey Harrison (See my review here.)

 

 

The second one was The Surprise by B. E. Baker. (See my review here.) This author decided to surprise us with a bonus book, so of course I had to pick it up right away and read it! I was very surprised and flattered that the author included my review in her newsletter!

 

 

The third book was Opening Gambit (Tournament of Shadows #1) by Tilly Wallace. We had planned on starting this series soon, but decided to go ahead and add it to the schedule this month. This is the prequel series to the Manners and Monsters series. I ended up liking this one quite a bit, but not quite as much as the Manners and Monsters books. I enjoyed reading about Seraphina's past (Hannah's mother in Manners and Monsters), and how she met Hugh (Hannah's father).

 

 

July Reading List-

I've planned a shorter reading list for July. Well, it's only two books shorter, but I hope to be able to relax a little and pick up more unplanned books to read.

I've got three books to read with the Mystery Book Club-

The New Lady Darby book, that I'm super excited to read, A Fatal Illusion (Lady Darby #11) by Anna Lee Huber.

 

 

Sweeping S'Ride (Space Janitor #4) by Julia Huni

 

A Dangerous Ruse (Tournament of Shadows #2) by Tilly Wallace

 

Reading at Fantasy Buddy Reads-

Dragon and Judge (Dragonback #5) by Timothy Zahn

 

 

Daughter of Ancients (The Bridge of D'Arnath #4) by Carol Berg 

Reading for NetGalley-

An Evil Heart (Kate Burkholder #15) by Linda Castillo.

 

 

 

My 'Pick it for me' book for July- 

Secrets in the Mist (Gothic Myths #1) by Anna Lee Huber

 

Our book club book for July-

What Mad Universe by Frederic Brown

 

The Hercule Poirot book for July-

Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot #22) by Agatha Christie