Hello, now that summer is drawing to a close, we’re coming into prime book release time. As usual, I have a metric tonne of books about whose release I am super excited. Some of these are continuations of series in which I am already invested, some are new series from authors I love and some are reissues of old favourites. So, let’s get into it, shall we? To kick off, I was really excited by the recent news that Raymond E.Feist has managed to resolve the ebook rights issue for North America. While most of his newer works have been released in ebook, his earlier novels have so far been unavailable in my preferred format. This will all change on August 22nd when his Riftwar saga as well as his Empire trilogy with Janny Wurts will be released as ebooks. I understand audiobook format will follow later this year. Although I have read all of these, I am very happy to add them to my collection. I consider Feist a true master storyteller and if you are not familiar with his work, this is a great opportunity to get started. Be aware, though,that the series does have a somewhat slow…
I was lucky enough to receive an advanced Netgalley copy of Invictus by Ryan Graudin – thanks so much to Hachette for giving me a copy. I ADORED Graudin’s earlier series Wolf by Wolf so I was very excited to read Invictus.Invictus is described as young adult time-travel adventure with a dash of Doctor Who (guys, you already had me at “Ryan Graudin,” no need for overkill) and Firefly. So without further ado, here’s my review. What I liked Characters From my enjoyment of her previous books, character development is one of Graudin’s strengths as a writer and this is borne out by those we meet in Invictus. I really enjoyed them all and was very much invested in their journeys, romances and challenges. Each person was nicely developed with his or her quirks, wishes and weaknesses. The interrelationships between them all were very well done and I really enjoyed seeing how they developed. Certain characters start out as quasi antagonists, but by the end, I came to care for them as much as for our heroes. Plot Without saying too much – spoilers!- I did like where Graudin went with the storyline. There are some really nicely done twists….
Hello, I thought I’d give you an update into my adventures in the Amazon Echo and home automation. I’m still really enjoying my virtual assistant. Since my last post I’ve added a few more items to my home automation setup. My home now includes two Philips Hue Bloom lights, a Philips Hue Go (thank you, employer, for your rewards program 😀 ) a Harmony hub and a second Amazon Echo Dot for our bedroom. My husband prefers more tried and true methods of controlling our home, but even he has occasionally tried having Alexa control stuff. It certainly amuses him when Alexa doesn’t quite… perform as expected shall we say. The part of my home automation setup I love the most is my Philips Hue lights. Being able to play around with them is awesome and they can make such a difference to my room. I think I’ve just about resolved my issue with being able to set scenes with Alexa – you do need to be quite particular with the syntax you use unfortunately. Once I got that down it was much easier. The addition of the Harmony hub made combining routines much easier. Now I can say Alexa,…