Books for February
Instamom - Chantel Guertin, 3/5, 336 pages
Sweet story, and a very easy read. It was fun to read about what an IG influencer is up to, even if I have NO clue how realistic it actually is.
I was quite amused to discover - by page 90 or something like that - that the book took place in Toronto. I don't know if there had been no mentions of the specific city before then, or if I'd just completely missed all of them, but suddenly Kit and Will were making plans to go on a picnic on Centre Island, and I did a double take! It was fun to be able to picture exactly where they were :-D
My main issue with the book was the way Will and Kit communicated - or rather did NOT communicate when times got tough. I put down the book in disgust at around page 220, but was SO close to the end that I decided to push through. I'm glad I did, as they redeemed themselves in the end, but they could have gotten there sooner.
Although - to be fair - I think it was a very realistic way of failing to communicate, and having to take some time & space to figure out what should come next. The time Kit spend with her father did ring very true to me. So in the end, I appreciated the way it was handled. In any case - well worth the $3 I spent on it ;-)
(I now kinda want to look at other editions of this book, because on page 281 Kit was paged to come to stall 281 -- that CANNOT be a coincidence!!! X-D )
Crystal Singer - Anne McCaffrey*, 4.5/5, 311 pages
Not as good as her "Harper's Hall" trilogy, but still very, very enjoyable. Guess I just enjoy books where people have to learn stuff, because the parts where Killa learns how to sing Crystal are definitely my favourites.
I'd forgotten that we only get to see her out in the ranges once in this book though.
Shooting Stars over Bluebell Cliff - Della Galton, 3/5, 310 pages
A sweet and charming read, but slow - VERY slow. Also, the back blurb is completely misleading, as part of what it claims as "the main plot" doesn't happen until halfway through the book, and the conflict it claims is so tiny as to be irrelevant.
I do enjoy reading about filming shows though, so still liked the book well enough, and the familial relationships were described really, really well.... the romantic ones less so though, and all in all I don't think it's a book I'm all that likely to reread.
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England - Brandon Sanderson, 4/5, 366 pages
Everything about this book just appealed to me. The title, the cover, the book-in-a-book excepts, the back blurb. So even though I was just going to flip through it, I ended up reading the entire thing over the weekend.
And fortunately the story itself lived up to my expectations. I loved the mix of fantasy, mythology and realism, and liked seeing how John slowly remembered more and more of his past, and pieced together his life from clues along the way... even when he turned out to be spectacularly wrong.
This is one of those strange books where I can't say exactly why I loved it as much as I did, but it caught my attention from the very first chapter, and wouldn't leave me alone till I turned the last page.
Wolfsong - T.J. Klune*, 4/5, Audiobook ~18hrs
This book is made out of cup cakes and pine cones. Of epic and awesome.
Though very different in plot and style from The Lightning-Struck Heart I can definitely recognize T.J. Klune's 'voice' here, and the book itself is almost as good (although not quite as surreal). It has definite shades of parts of the "Twilight" series, and knows it too, as it pokes fun of it at every chance it gets.
Ox is awesome, and I loved seeing him grow into his role through the book, but my absolute favourite thing about the book is the relationships shown in the various packs. The natural love and accept flowing from Thomas Bennett down through the pack to Ox and his mother, and how that philosophy lives on in Ox and grows to include other humans as well. T.J. Klune writes relationships very well indeed.
The ending was perhaps a bit cheap, and I'd seen it a mile off, but the rest of the book made up for it. I ended up listening to it at every chance I got, and finished this +18hr audiobook in just little over a week.
The Lightning-Struck Heart - T.J. Klune*, 5/5, Audiobook ~17hrs
Felt like re-listening to this, and love it just as much as always :-D I absolutely adore the narrator, Michael Lesley. He makes the audiobooks even better than the physical books.
Books Read: 17
Pages Read: 2511
Hours Listened to: 76
Book of the Month: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook... very fun read!
Biggest Disappointment: Shooting Stars.... Not a bad read, I'd just expected more.
Sweet story, and a very easy read. It was fun to read about what an IG influencer is up to, even if I have NO clue how realistic it actually is.
I was quite amused to discover - by page 90 or something like that - that the book took place in Toronto. I don't know if there had been no mentions of the specific city before then, or if I'd just completely missed all of them, but suddenly Kit and Will were making plans to go on a picnic on Centre Island, and I did a double take! It was fun to be able to picture exactly where they were :-D
My main issue with the book was the way Will and Kit communicated - or rather did NOT communicate when times got tough. I put down the book in disgust at around page 220, but was SO close to the end that I decided to push through. I'm glad I did, as they redeemed themselves in the end, but they could have gotten there sooner.
Although - to be fair - I think it was a very realistic way of failing to communicate, and having to take some time & space to figure out what should come next. The time Kit spend with her father did ring very true to me. So in the end, I appreciated the way it was handled. In any case - well worth the $3 I spent on it ;-)
(I now kinda want to look at other editions of this book, because on page 281 Kit was paged to come to stall 281 -- that CANNOT be a coincidence!!! X-D )
Crystal Singer - Anne McCaffrey*, 4.5/5, 311 pages
Not as good as her "Harper's Hall" trilogy, but still very, very enjoyable. Guess I just enjoy books where people have to learn stuff, because the parts where Killa learns how to sing Crystal are definitely my favourites.
I'd forgotten that we only get to see her out in the ranges once in this book though.
Shooting Stars over Bluebell Cliff - Della Galton, 3/5, 310 pages
A sweet and charming read, but slow - VERY slow. Also, the back blurb is completely misleading, as part of what it claims as "the main plot" doesn't happen until halfway through the book, and the conflict it claims is so tiny as to be irrelevant.
I do enjoy reading about filming shows though, so still liked the book well enough, and the familial relationships were described really, really well.... the romantic ones less so though, and all in all I don't think it's a book I'm all that likely to reread.
The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England - Brandon Sanderson, 4/5, 366 pages
Everything about this book just appealed to me. The title, the cover, the book-in-a-book excepts, the back blurb. So even though I was just going to flip through it, I ended up reading the entire thing over the weekend.
And fortunately the story itself lived up to my expectations. I loved the mix of fantasy, mythology and realism, and liked seeing how John slowly remembered more and more of his past, and pieced together his life from clues along the way... even when he turned out to be spectacularly wrong.
This is one of those strange books where I can't say exactly why I loved it as much as I did, but it caught my attention from the very first chapter, and wouldn't leave me alone till I turned the last page.
Wolfsong - T.J. Klune*, 4/5, Audiobook ~18hrs
This book is made out of cup cakes and pine cones. Of epic and awesome.
Though very different in plot and style from The Lightning-Struck Heart I can definitely recognize T.J. Klune's 'voice' here, and the book itself is almost as good (although not quite as surreal). It has definite shades of parts of the "Twilight" series, and knows it too, as it pokes fun of it at every chance it gets.
Ox is awesome, and I loved seeing him grow into his role through the book, but my absolute favourite thing about the book is the relationships shown in the various packs. The natural love and accept flowing from Thomas Bennett down through the pack to Ox and his mother, and how that philosophy lives on in Ox and grows to include other humans as well. T.J. Klune writes relationships very well indeed.
The ending was perhaps a bit cheap, and I'd seen it a mile off, but the rest of the book made up for it. I ended up listening to it at every chance I got, and finished this +18hr audiobook in just little over a week.
The Lightning-Struck Heart - T.J. Klune*, 5/5, Audiobook ~17hrs
Felt like re-listening to this, and love it just as much as always :-D I absolutely adore the narrator, Michael Lesley. He makes the audiobooks even better than the physical books.
Books Read: 17
Pages Read: 2511
Hours Listened to: 76
Book of the Month: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook... very fun read!
Biggest Disappointment: Shooting Stars.... Not a bad read, I'd just expected more.