After the frantic reading of BookTubeAThon 2013 I don’t have many books to discuss for this week’s reading roundup.

The first book I read was Switched at Birth by “Kathryn Kennish”.  The quotes are around the author’s name as this book was written in the universe of ABC Family’s drama Switched at Birth about two families who discover their daughters were involved in a hospital mixup.  This show has been my recent guilty pleasure when not reading.  Other than the character drama the merging of two families causes, I’ve found it a fascinating insight into the world of the deaf – one of the young women concerned is deaf.  Many of the scenes involve, or are wholly in, American Sign Language.  The writing and acting on the show are of excellent quality, so perhaps my expectations of the novelisation were too high.  I found the novel uninteresting and lacking the depth that comes across in the show.  It was written from the point of view of the hearing mother and barely touched on one of the most interesting aspects of the book, her learning about the deaf language and culture.  I would suggest you skip the book and watch the show, but if you insist, you can pick Switched at Birth up on Kindle or Kobo.  Season 1 of the show is available on iTunes.

Another book I read this week was Anne Robillard’s Représailles, the tenth book in her Chevaliers d’Éméraude series.  This is clearly the point in the story where everything turns to custard for the Chevaliers and their allies.  Their enemies are multiplying, their key players are being targeted, the body count is increasing and their king is too wrapped up in his grief and desire for vengeance to think and act rationally.  Characterisation is one of Robillard’s strong points, and in this book I found the characters of Onyx and Hadrian fascinating.  Yes, Onyx is on a real revenge kick, especially after the tragic events of this book.   You can both empathise with him and want to kick him up the backside at the same time.  Hadrian’s real fear and frustration at being unable to control his dearest friend’s emotionally driven actions comes across clearly in this book.  The question is explicitly raised for the first time; would  an emotionally unstable king such as Onyx on the throne be any better for Enkdiev than if the evil lord wins?  Représailles is available on Kindle, Kobo and iTunes

I confess to being torn about reading book 11, La Justice Céleste, the penultimate volume.  On the one hand, I really want to see how the story ends.  On the other, I hear that Robillard pulls a George R R Martin on a favourite character in this book, and I fear it will be very painful to read.  Robillard’s characters are so well written, and I’ve spent 10 books with him so I’m dreading saying goodbye.  Ironically, I wrote a blog post in which I compared Robillard to Martin.  I just wish she didn’t share his tendency to kill off beloved characters!  Although I know the character dies, I’m not sure of the circumstances.  As this is Robillard and not Martin, I’m at least hopeful that he will get a heroic sendoff and not just fall off his horse and break his neck. Additionally, the final book, Irianeth, isn’t yet available on Kobo so I won’t be able to finish the series.

In a recent blog update I mentioned that I found Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns a little too grimdark for my personal taste.  I came across an interesting review of the later books in the series which convinced me it might be worth bearing with the series.  It sounds as if there is some excellent character development for which I’m a sucker.  I will of course keep you posted on my thoughts.

Added to my library this week:

King of Thorns – both Kindle and Audible formats 
Switched at Birth: The True Story of a Mother’s Journey – Kindle
Midnight in Austenland – Kindle and Audlble formats
Requiem (Delirium) – Kindle and Audible formats
Pandemonium Enhanced Ebook (Delirium) – Kindle and Audible formats
The Kinshield Legacy (The Kinshield Saga) – Kindle format
The Romanov Conspiracy: A Thriller – Kindle format