Books
Is it just me or are the days passing quicker? I can't believe it is the second week of September already. We are all doing well here for the most part. The kitchen is still being worked on. We ripped out the old back splash that was very 70's (when the kitchen was last remodeled) white tiles with amber yellow specks. I always hated that tile because of the specks it always looked dirty even if you had just cleaned it. My husband is staining the butcher block countertops in the garage to make them a nice rich mahogany color to contrast nicely with the all-white cabinets. There is still a lot of work ahead, but I think I can see the end. We also went on a hike that was a lot of fun. There is a trail about an hour from here where to can hike down to a river that is a really beautiful place to sit and relax. It is not very strenuous going down. It's the going back up afterwards that is the difficult part because you just keep having to walk constantly upwards and although I work out at home on my treadmill, I don't do a lot of steep inclines. But I love to hike, and I am always glad afterwards that I went.
This week I read: 1 paranormal romance, 1 mystery/comedy, 1 sci-fi, and 1 fantasy:
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This book has been all over social media this year and so since I love a good fantasy book with a strong romance, I decided to pick it up. I have to say I enjoyed it. In fact, I was enjoying it so much that I got kind of miffed anytime I had to put it down. It is a very readable book.
I loved the main character Violet and how tenacious, brave, and clever she was when it came to surviving her first year. I also liked the relationship between Violet and Xaden, and how it develops as the book progresses. They had such respect for each other even when they didn't trust or like one another other very much. Then when they started to fall in love the slow burn was well done. Fourth Wing was just a really fun popcorn read. Is it the best thing ever? No definitely not. Are there plot holes? Yes, for sure. lol But I had a lot of fun while I was reading it and I am looking forward to the next one.
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Probably about a 3.5. I liked this book for the most part. Both Cassie and Fredrick are nice characters, and their relationship journey is good. The problem was it was all just okay. When I put the book down, I didn't have an overwhelming feeling to pick it back up and continue reading. Some of the humor was funny and I liked some of the banter. The third act conflict was solved very abruptly and then the book was over. My feelings were just very lukewarm about this story it wasn't bad, but it wasn't super awesome either.
Deep Blue by Mark Morris
This was a fairly fascinating and fun read, featuring one of my favorite Tardis team's 5th Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough. Also, the Brigadier, Yates, and Benton get thrust into the mix as they try to stop an invasion of aliens by the name of Xaranti. I liked getting reacquainted with Mike Yates as he had a large part to play in this story. In addition, I liked that the author gave all of them pov's. One of the things I did not like was how many really gross descriptions we get of people transforming from human to Xaranti. After a while, I was like "Okay, I get it, can we move on?" The amount of people dead in this one is really high, but I have noticed that trend with the Past Doctor Adventure series they tend to be more violent, and the body count is higher. I also didn't like how abruptly it ended. It needed a bit of an epilogue. All in all, I did enjoy this adventure and count it as one of the successes of this series.
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. ~Goodreads Description
Earlier this year I read Sutanto's book Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and really enjoyed it. So, since I had meant to read this book for a while, I finally decided to go for it. I didn't end up liking this one as much as VWUAFM, but it was an entertaining read for the most part. There are a lot of wacky hijinks in this book and at times the story was very soap opera-y which for the most part I could roll with but sometimes it was just too over the top, to be honest. Also, Meddy kind of drove me nuts, she makes a ton of bad decisions from the get-go. I get that there obviously have to be some bad choices made in order to have the level of shenanigans this book had but it felt a bit much by the end. Other than that, this was good.
Reading Challenges 2023:
TBR: Fourth Wing, Deep Blue
Cloak & Dagger Challenge: N/A
Pyramid of Books: blue covers, coastal settings, urban settings, female authors
How have you guys been?
This week I read: 1 paranormal romance, 1 mystery/comedy, 1 sci-fi, and 1 fantasy:
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
This book has been all over social media this year and so since I love a good fantasy book with a strong romance, I decided to pick it up. I have to say I enjoyed it. In fact, I was enjoying it so much that I got kind of miffed anytime I had to put it down. It is a very readable book.
I loved the main character Violet and how tenacious, brave, and clever she was when it came to surviving her first year. I also liked the relationship between Violet and Xaden, and how it develops as the book progresses. They had such respect for each other even when they didn't trust or like one another other very much. Then when they started to fall in love the slow burn was well done. Fourth Wing was just a really fun popcorn read. Is it the best thing ever? No definitely not. Are there plot holes? Yes, for sure. lol But I had a lot of fun while I was reading it and I am looking forward to the next one.
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Probably about a 3.5. I liked this book for the most part. Both Cassie and Fredrick are nice characters, and their relationship journey is good. The problem was it was all just okay. When I put the book down, I didn't have an overwhelming feeling to pick it back up and continue reading. Some of the humor was funny and I liked some of the banter. The third act conflict was solved very abruptly and then the book was over. My feelings were just very lukewarm about this story it wasn't bad, but it wasn't super awesome either.
Deep Blue by Mark Morris
This was a fairly fascinating and fun read, featuring one of my favorite Tardis team's 5th Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough. Also, the Brigadier, Yates, and Benton get thrust into the mix as they try to stop an invasion of aliens by the name of Xaranti. I liked getting reacquainted with Mike Yates as he had a large part to play in this story. In addition, I liked that the author gave all of them pov's. One of the things I did not like was how many really gross descriptions we get of people transforming from human to Xaranti. After a while, I was like "Okay, I get it, can we move on?" The amount of people dead in this one is really high, but I have noticed that trend with the Past Doctor Adventure series they tend to be more violent, and the body count is higher. I also didn't like how abruptly it ended. It needed a bit of an epilogue. All in all, I did enjoy this adventure and count it as one of the successes of this series.
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding Meddy, her Ma, and aunties are working at an island resort on the California coastline. ~Goodreads Description
Earlier this year I read Sutanto's book Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers and really enjoyed it. So, since I had meant to read this book for a while, I finally decided to go for it. I didn't end up liking this one as much as VWUAFM, but it was an entertaining read for the most part. There are a lot of wacky hijinks in this book and at times the story was very soap opera-y which for the most part I could roll with but sometimes it was just too over the top, to be honest. Also, Meddy kind of drove me nuts, she makes a ton of bad decisions from the get-go. I get that there obviously have to be some bad choices made in order to have the level of shenanigans this book had but it felt a bit much by the end. Other than that, this was good.
Reading Challenges 2023:
TBR: Fourth Wing, Deep Blue
Cloak & Dagger Challenge: N/A
Pyramid of Books: blue covers, coastal settings, urban settings, female authors
How have you guys been?