Reading All the Books
Just a quick run-down of the rest of the books I read in 2014:
Book 13 of 2014:
Nickel Plated, by Aric Davis -- Kindle Lending Library selection for September. Nickel is a young rapscallion type who deals dope and works as a private investigator to make a living. In his spare time, he helps kids who need it. When he is contacted by Arrow to find her sister, Nickel finds himself in over his head. If he finds Arrow's sister alive, it will be a wonder. If he himself survives, it'll be a miracle.
I was of two minds on this one. I liked the characters, especially Nickel, but the story seemed a little sparse. I read this one because its sequel was my Kindle First choice the same month, and I wanted to make sure I had the whole story so far. I was glad I read it, but I can't say I loved it.
Book 14 of 2014:
Tunnel Vision, by Aric Davis -- The aforementioned Kindle First selection for September. A few years have passed since Nickel Plated, and the book opens with Nickel committing an act that, to me, felt completely out of character. Now 16, Nickel has become hardened and seems to have less heart. I didn't like him as much.
Another issue the book had was with point of view switch. This one has the second focal character of Betty. While Nickel Plated was completely first person (past tense, thankfully) from Nickel's perspective, this one switched from third person during Betty's vewpoint to first person during Nickel's. The other MAJOR issue I had was that Nickel's POV switched mid-book from past tense to present tense. I almost put it down, except that I was much more interested in the mystery this time than I was for the other book.
(It involves Betty's friend June, who is the spitting image of her aunt, who was murdered quite some time ago. The convicted killer has a following convinced he didn't do it, and Nickel and the girls are thus on a mission to solve the cold case... which has also been closed, as far as the authorities are concerned.)
In the end, I think I liked it, but I'm not in a hurry to seek out more Nickel books, if they exist.
Book 15 of 2014:
The Paper Magician, by Charlie N Holmberg -- My Kindle First selection for August, begun at the end of September. This one should have been right up my alley: A fantasy-ish novel where magic can only be done by human-made elements, such as paper, glass, and human-made metals.
It fell apart for me fairly early on, when the apprentice magician Ceony (the main character, a girl too smart for her own good who doesn't get the magic medium she wants) falls in love with her mentor, the master paper magician Emery Thane. It started to look like it would pick up when an Excisioner, who practices the outlawed Blood magic, shows up and takes Thane's heart.
Alas, Ceony's quest to retrieve the heart before the paper one she manufactures to keep Thane alive gives out (it's a very temporary fix at best, you see) is not nearly as interesting as it should have been, becoming more like A Christmas Carol than Sword of Truth in its execution.
It's book one of a trilogy, and I don't see myself picking up the other two.
Book 16 of 2014:
Wayward, by Blake Crouch -- Kindle Lending Library selection for... I want to say October (and GoodReads seems to confirm that). This is book 2 of the Wayward Pines trilogy. The secrets of the idyllic town of Wayward Pines have been locked away with what the founder believes are very good reasons, but Sheriff Ethan Burke isn't so sure secrecy is the best policy. When he makes contact with an underground rebel group -- led by the woman he once had an affair with -- will all of Wayward Pines's secrets be revealed? As Aunt May said in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (the trailer, anyway): "Secrets have a cost. But so does the truth."
I liked this one a lot, and if not for the fact that I'm currently enthralled in someone's NaNoWriMo novel from this past year, I'd already have read the conclusion. I really can't say much more about it, because... well... "SPOILERS."
I finished Wayward just before NaNoWriMo started, so I went back and read my first two Sivarta books (which I don't count here). Then when December hit, I started reading Tanya's NaNo book. I thought I would pick up The Last Town on days I didn't have a section of her book to read, but that hasn't happened, and it's already January.
Incidentally, the Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge is active now. As usual, I have set myself a goal of 11 books. (One per month, minus November.) Though technically, I could count Tanya's novel, I won't... in part because it doesn't have a Goodreads entry. Pretty sure The Last Town will end up being Book 1 of 2015.