Hello and welcome to another reading roundup.  Since my last roundup I have read two pretty good books which I’d like to share with you. [book-info]I received an Advance Reader Copy of The Poisoned Blade by Kate Elliott at BEA.  It’s been on my TBR for a while, but it’s only recently I read it.  The Poisoned Blade is the second book in a planned trilogy (I believe) and continues the story of Jessamy, a young woman caught between two cult...

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The Blood Mirror by Brent Weeks is the fourth in a planned series of five epic fantasy books.  The series has a wonderfully imaginative magic system in which magic users can turn light into a physical substance. luxin.  Each spectrum of light (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) produces luxin with different properties and uses.  If you’ve not yet started this series, I heartily recommend it.  Go start with The Black Prism.  ...

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Empire of Storms is the fifth and penultimate book in Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass in which a former assassin uses her skills and her magic to save her kingdom.  Being the second to last book in the series, it focusses very much on getting our protagonists into the right place for the finale. What I liked The pacing.  Despite the fact that Empire of Storms is primarily focussed on getting the team into place for the final confrontation...

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Court of Fives by Kate Elliott is a YA fantasy book and one that I found myself being sucked into even in the middle of a reading slump. I found the protagonists engaging and loved the world. I found it had a bit more substance than some YA fantasy novels. What I liked Cultural tensions. This is very much a tale of being caught between two cultures.  Our protagonist, Jessamy, is the child of a Saroese father and Efean mother and struggles to fit...

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Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine is the second in The Great Library series and is the sequel to Ink and Bone, which was one of my favourite reads from last year.  I realised I never did a full review of it.  Bad Evelynne.  Paper and Fire was also one of my most anticipated reads for 2016 and it did not disappoint.  For those of you not familiar with this series, it is a contemporary alternate reality/fantasy in which the Great Library of Alexan...

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Julian Fellowes’s Belgravia is a new book/audiobook/app series from the creator of Downton Abbey.  It is set in the Belgravia quarter of London in 1841 with a prequel set in Brussels in 1815.  The lives of two families, the rich, titled Bellasis family and the nouveau riche Trenchards are brought together at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball and the effects are felt down the years.  It is available in ebook format, as an audiobook and as an a...

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The Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence is the third and final book in his Red Queen’s War trilogy.  It continues the story of Jalan Kendeth as he continues to follow the path upon which fate has set him. The Red Queen’s War trilogy is set in the same world as, and dovetails with, Lawrence’s earlier Broken Empire trilogy.  In some ways that is both a blessing and a curse.  It’s a blessing because the world in which the trilogies are set i...

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A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray is a YA sci-fi mystery in which teenager Marguerite Caine must use technology developed by her parents, the Firebird, to chase her father’s murderer across multiple dimensions.  She finds out that things aren’t as they first seemed. I picked this book up partly because of this concept and partly because I’ve enjoyed books (Star Wars) by Claudia Gray.  Thanks to Amazon’s Whispersync for Voice I pi...

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Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld is the fourth in the Austen Project of modern retellings of Jane Austen’s novels and attempts to bring her classic Pride and Prejudice into the 21st century.  Having read the other three Austen adaptations, I was intrigued to see how Sittenfeld would update the story of Elizabeth, Darcy, Jane and Bingley.  From experience I know that Austen adaptations, when done well, can be wonderful. (check out The Lizzie Benn...

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Now, pretty much anyone who has an interest in popular culture is aware that the first Star Wars movie since 2005, The Force Awakens, was released on December 18th 2015.  Full disclosure: while I consider myself a fan of Star Wars, I have only dabbled in the Extended Universe/Legends supplementary material.  Like many, though, I was anxious to see what J.J. Abrams would make of Lucas’ legacy and booked my ticket to a showing on release day. ...

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Reading Roundup – 7th March 2014
Book Reviews , Reading Roundup / March 7, 2014

The biggest release for me this week is Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance.  This is the second in the Stormlight Archive, Sanderson’s proposed 10 book epic fantasy series.  That was my biggest issue with The Way of Kings – Sanderson has planned it to be an epic tale right from the beginning so the large scope is readily apparent.  I’ve much preferred tales which have “grown in the telling” as the saying goes.  Th...

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / March 5, 2014

Through Netgalley I was offered an advanced reader’s copy of YA time travel novel The Here and Now by Ann Brashares.  It tells the story of Prenna James, a time traveller and refugee in our time from a future in which global warming and plagues have left the world devastated.  She and her community of fellow refugees must live by strict rules for their protection and that of those native to their adopted time.  One of these include...

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / March 5, 2014

Through Netgalley I was offered an advanced reader’s copy of YA time travel novel The Here and Now by Ann Brashares.  It tells the story of Prenna James, a time traveller and refugee in our time from a future in which global warming and plagues have left the world devastated.  She and her community of fellow refugees must live by strict rules for their protection and that of those native to their adopted time.  One of these include...

The Darkest Minds: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / March 3, 2014

The Darkest Minds: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken is the followup to The Darkest Minds.  This series tells the story of Ruby, a young girl living in a world where most of the children have been killed by a virus but the survivors have been left with supernatural powers.  Ruby is one such survivor with the power to control other people’s minds.  The country has been left devastated by the loss of the children and fear of those who ...

The Darkest Minds: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / March 3, 2014

The Darkest Minds: Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken is the followup to The Darkest Minds.  This series tells the story of Ruby, a young girl living in a world where most of the children have been killed by a virus but the survivors have been left with supernatural powers.  Ruby is one such survivor with the power to control other people’s minds.  The country has been left devastated by the loss of the children and fear of those who ...

Reading Roundup – 28th February 2014
Reading Roundup / February 28, 2014

With the movie coming out soon, I decided it was time to pick up James Dashner’s The Maze Runner.  I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it so I picked it up in eBook from the library.   [book-info] I’m glad I didn’t purchase it because I found it was not really my cup of tea.  It reminded me in some ways of Lost – more questions being asked than answered.  It was particularly frustrating when characters refused to share ...

Reading Roundup – 28th February 2014
Reading Roundup / February 28, 2014

With the movie coming out soon, I decided it was time to pick up James Dashner’s The Maze Runner.  I wasn’t too sure if I would enjoy it so I picked it up in eBook from the library.   [book-info] I’m glad I didn’t purchase it because I found it was not really my cup of tea.  It reminded me in some ways of Lost – more questions being asked than answered.  It was particularly frustrating when characters refused to share ...

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / February 26, 2014

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead is the first in the Bloodlines series, the spinoff from Vampire Academy.  It follows the story of young Alchemist Sydney Sage whom we met in the Vampire Academy series.  In it, Sydney is tasked with protecting Jill Mastrano in Palm Springs and in order to do so attends an elite boarding school with her.  We learn more about the Alchemists and also some secrets about Vampire Academy characters are revealed....

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / February 26, 2014

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead is the first in the Bloodlines series, the spinoff from Vampire Academy.  It follows the story of young Alchemist Sydney Sage whom we met in the Vampire Academy series.  In it, Sydney is tasked with protecting Jill Mastrano in Palm Springs and in order to do so attends an elite boarding school with her.  We learn more about the Alchemists and also some secrets about Vampire Academy characters are revealed....

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – Review
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / February 24, 2014

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is whimsical tale of a magical competition by proxy between two conjurers which takes place through the medium of a fantastical circus which “opens at nightfall, closes at dawn.”  The challenge is further complicated by the fact that the two chosen proxies fall in love. I read recently that the novel in its original form was little more than a series of vignettes with little in the way of plot o...