First of all, my apologies on the delay of the Throne of Glass review – it’s coming, I promise! Also my apologies for the confusion on the Ruin and Rising release date. This will be released on June 17th. This week Amazon announced a product launch for later this month. The introductory video is deceptively vague, but most analysts seem to agree a 3D smartphone is likely. For the first time Amazon is also inviting customers to attend this launch in Seattle. You can sign up for an invite. I have put my name down, so we’ll see if I’m lucky. [book-info] One of the books i did read this week was Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. I loved her Eleanor & Park and enjoyed Attachments very much, too. This novel is split between two interwoven strands. We have the traditional third person narrative of Lincoln’s story and the other strand follows Jennifer and Beth through email exchange. The two are connected in that Lincoln’s job is to monitor his company’s email and so he gets to know the two women through their email exchange. What I liked Fun, realistic characters. As in Eleanor & Park, Rowell has a talent for writing…
Those of you who follow my blog will notice a name change. As my husband and I became Canadian citizens this week, I have changed the name to Canadian eReader. It’s not that I’m turning my back on my Scottish roots, but as I live in Canada and my eReading is based on the Canadian market it made sense to update it. Of course, book lovers of whichever nationality are always welcome! Added to my library this week This week saw the release of City of Heavenly Fire, the last in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. I’m in the middle of reading it – it’s irritating that work keeps getting in the way – so expect a review soon. So far I’m enjoying it and appreciating Sophie Turner’s narration. That’s all I’ve added to my library this week. I picked it up in both Kindle and Audible formats. Upcoming releases in June On 3rd of June we have the release of Prince of Fools, the first in Mark Lawrence’s new series, The Red Queen’s War. Lawrence’s previous series, The Broken Empire, sucked me in, almost against my will, and Emperor of Thorns is still one of my top…
This has been a quiet week for reading – I’ve been continuing to listen to Ironskin by Tina Connelly, narrated by Rosalyn Landor. This is a retelling of Jane Eyre with a side helping of fae. So far, I’m really enjoying it, and a full review will come at some point. I also finished Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly. This is the start of a new mermaid based fantasy series. I will be posting a review probably next week. As you may remember from last week, the other book I picked up on release day was Charlaine Harris’s new book Midnight Crossing. I’m about a third of the way through it. It took a little while to hook me in, but I am beginning to really enjoy it and be intrigued by the new characters. Again, you know the drill, a review will be forthcoming. Much of my reading this week though has been travel based. My husband and I are talking about perhaps doing the trans Canadian train journey next year. At this point, it’s still very much a vague dream, but I’ve been having a great deal of fun reading up on it. Added to my library…
This week I finally obtained 100% on Lego: Lord of the Rings on my Playstation so that itch is well and truly scratched. This finally meant I could concentrate on reading, so I got through a couple of books – Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and Kiera Cass’ finale to her Selection trilogy, The One. Both of those are worth full reviews so expect those next week. I was interested to hear this week that Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner along with Jason Dohring has been announced as one of the narrators of the City of Heavenly Fire audiobook. It’s one thing that has irked me about this series: the narrators have changed almost with each book. It means that there has been little consistency in the narration. I’ve also not been overly impressed with the narrators so far. For this one though, I’m very glad that The Mortal Instruments is written in the third person – otherwise for me it would be confusing to have George R.R. Martin’s Sansa thinking Clary’s thoughts. It did make for an amusing scene in my head though with Sansa and Clary having a “who’s had the worse life” argument. Sorry, Clary, but as…
This has been a very quiet week on the reading front. I’m currently reading/listening to two books; Life after Life by Kate Atkinson and Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins. Both of these are good books, but not enough to drag me away from Lego Lord of the Rings/Hobbit on my Playstation, which I can’t stop playing right now. This means that I’m probably not going to blog as regularly over the next few weeks while I work that out of my system. Additionally, I’m planning on marathoning Season 8 of 24 this weekend because JACK IS BACK and I want to catch up before the premiere on Monday. I hope that if I do take a break I’ll come back to reading more refreshed in a month or two. I did also pick up a couple of samples to read. I downloaded a sample of Gameboard of the Gods, the first in the Age of X series by Richelle Mead. As my readers will know, I adored her Vampire Academy series. I have to admit the sample I read did not immediately grab me. With some books I am hooked from the first few pages, with others it takes me…
First of all, I have a confession to make; I’ve not read very much this week. If I’m being perfectly honest, I’ve become engrossed in the Lego The Hobbit game on my Playstation. I wouldn’t consider myself a gamer at all, but these Lego games are so much fun – all the fun little details. Anyway, I digress. The two books I have been reading/listening to this week are Silverthorn by Raymond E. Feist and Lockstep by Karl Schroeder. i am actually reading Silverthorn in French. It would appear that ebook rights for the English version of Feist’s earlier works have not been granted. Since I much prefer to read electronically, that leaves me with the French version. Sigh. I look forward to the day when you can buy an ebook from a different market with as much ease as you can a hard copy. I am listening to Lockstep in audio and so far am very much enjoying it. Reviews will come soon. Added to my library this week There have been some interesting deals on the Audible daily deals this week. I picked up Jennifer Worth’s Call the Midwife narrated by Nicola Barber. I love the BBC…
I was recently given a free copy by the publisher to review The Monster Mob by Andrea Hertach. It tells the story of a group of kids, Alex, Charlie, Leanna and Pete who share a love of creative writing and form the “Monster Mob” to share their (creepy) stories with each other. The novel is structured around the kids’ stories and their attempt to find the storyworthy in real life. From my reading I would guess this is aimed at middle graders, particularly those who already have a love of reading and writing. I don’t think older readers would appreciate as much – the themes and concepts are kept pretty simple and there might be little to hold their attention. However, there are a fair number of classical literary references – to Poe, Shelley, Shakespeare and Dickens and the author makes these pretty explicit in order for younger readers to appreciate them. What I liked The Monster Mob is a very light, quick read and passes a pleasant couple of hours. The writing style was clear and engaging. I did enjoy the ending with Mr Hawthorn – I thought it was rather sweet. What I didn’t like This book is…
Altered by Gennifer Albin is the second in the Crewel World series of YA novels which tells the story of Adelice, a young woman of Arras with the skill to manipulate the weave of life itself. At the end of Crewel we were left with a real cliffhanger – Adelice had just broken out of the control of the Guild and escaped to Earth where a whole new set of challenges await her. While there was a lot I liked about Altered I didn’t find it as gripping a read as Crewel. I didn’t feel it lived up to the promise of that punch of a climax to book one. I found I really missed Arras and Earth wasn’t as interesting a setting. This is the second book in a trilogy and like many, it suffers from middle book syndrome. A lot of time is devoted to setup for the finale of the series with the discussion of the skill of altering, the flip side of the coin to what Adelice can do, and yet for me it was still not exactly clear what the difference is between altering and weaving. The end goal for the series is setup and…
This is going to be a short roundup as I’m still working my way through the behemoth that is Words of Radiance. I won’t say too much more as I will be doing a full review shortly. One thing I will say is, I’m REALLY noticing the lack of Whispersync for Voice on this book. I have been experiencing it as a mixture of ebook and Audible audiobook and it is a real pain in the posterior to have to find my place each time I switch devices. I know that’s very much a first world problem, but once you’ve grown used to the convenience of Whispersync for Voice, it’s hard to do without. Added to my library this week This week saw the release of Night Broken, the eighth book in Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series. While I love Briggs’ world and characters, personally I felt Mercy’s story had come to a natural end two or three books ago, but I will read it anyway. It’s certainly getting good reviews on GoodReads. I picked it up in both Kindle and Audible formats. I only discovered very recently that Robin Hobb is releasing a new book in her Farseer universe….
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. The Wheel of Time, for example, starts off focussed on our heroes from the Two Rivers and it’s not until later on in the series that we have epic battles and world changing consequences. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy The Way of Kings, although in all fairness I used Tor.com’s excellent Way of Kings Reread and Where We Left Our Heroes article to catch up with it. I am enjoying Words of Radiance which I am listening to in audiobook format rather than reading. I do enjoy Kate Reading’s and Michael Kramer’s narration. However, this audiobook weighs in at a hefty 48 hours and 15 minutes. I don’t expect to read much else in the next couple of weeks, so please don’t expect many other…