September books
Only three this month. But it's back to work, and one of the books was 830 pages, so it's not quite as slacker-ish as it seems at first blush.
1. The Thirteen, by Susie Maloney. My primary memory of this book is that there is a secondary character named Audra who lives in Haven Hills (Woods?). (For those of you not into the tv show Haven, there is a character named Audrey who lives in, well, Haven.) A woman (Paula) who was sent away as a pregnant teenager comes back to her hometown with her daughter after her mother ends up in the hospital. Except Haven Woods (Hills?) is home to a witch-like society of thirteen members, and Audra (Paula's mother) is one of them, and she was cursed or spelled or something by one of the other twelve members of the coven/cult and is turning into a goat. The cult is falling apart and one of Audra's "friends" (aka the cult leader) is desperate to bring in fresh blood, and is after Paula and her twelve-year-old daughter. Turns out Paula was sent away not because she was pregnant but because Audra was trying to save her. I was not especially enamoured of the writing style; there were flashbacks thrown in to the middle of sentences and paragraphs, and while sometimes the grammar and structure and such worked and it all made sense, at least half the time I was mentally editing how it had been done so that it would make more sense/flow better. Not a terrible book, but I wouldn't recommend it and the style might make me hesitate before reading another novel by the same author.
2. Labyrinth, by Kat Richardson. Book 5 of the Greywalker series (which, in retrospect, I started out not liking a whole bunch but now I get excited when I see the latest book at the library. Go figure). This one was sort of complicated so I forget a lot of the details, but the man who "killed" Harper (she was technically dead for two minutes in the first chapter of the first book, which kickstarted her abilities) ends up being murdered. Nope, Harper's not a suspect because she was either still in England or on a plane back home when it happened (this book picks up immediately after the last one, which is a first for this series) but she does encounter his ghost. Um, what else? Big Nasty Vampire Dude she met back in book one has nasty plans for her, which would enable him to take control of the Grey (the world between ours and the dead), but of course she's having none of it and manages to gather enough information and such to foil the plan. IIRC, Harper is kind of special even for a Greywalker, and there's a connection to her past because her (dead) father had similar abilities and (I think?) committed suicide with the belief that the Big Nasties who were stalking him and his family for the same plan to take over the Grey would leave Harper alone. Obviously that didn't work. And I think she died at the end? (But Greywalkers get a certain number of deaths before they're really dead, so that's kind of okay. Except it changes them or their powers or something each time it happens.) Also, I love Quinton. And for some odd reason every 'Q' in this book was capitalized. I want to see a hardcopy version to know if it was an all-across-the-board issue or just with the electronic versions.
3. A Clash of Kings, by George RR Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire book 2. I am not madly in love with this series, but I have eventual plans to read all of it if only to say I did. *g* Some parts of it I really like and other parts I skim as quickly as I can (is it normal for a man to be so obsessed with the colours and standards of families and to describe them in detail even if said families will not appear in the 830-page book again?). I still ::heart:: Arya the best and I'm sort of banking on her saving the entire kingdom before all is said and done. ;) I really like Tyrion and am hoping that he doesn't turn out to be like the rest of the Lannisters, though I'm trying to keep from getting too invested in him because I'm afraid he'll end up betraying the good guys. I think Sansa will redeem herself eventually, because she's on the way, but it might take another book or two for her to get there. I kind of hope that Cersei and Joffrey (that kid is psychotic) die in a fire. I wish they'd pick up the pace with Jon's storyline and introduce us to the Others already. The Stark/direwolves connection continues to get more interesting. I am unsure whether I'm supposed to root for Dany or not. I'm thinking Gendry is going to end up being very very important by the end of the story, which is okay because I think I'm going to end up liking him a lot.
And there we have it. I'm on hold for Downpour (Greywalker #6), A Storm of Swords (ASoIaF #3), and Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1, just to see what all the fuss is about). So those might end up being October's books, time willing.
1. The Thirteen, by Susie Maloney. My primary memory of this book is that there is a secondary character named Audra who lives in Haven Hills (Woods?). (For those of you not into the tv show Haven, there is a character named Audrey who lives in, well, Haven.) A woman (Paula) who was sent away as a pregnant teenager comes back to her hometown with her daughter after her mother ends up in the hospital. Except Haven Woods (Hills?) is home to a witch-like society of thirteen members, and Audra (Paula's mother) is one of them, and she was cursed or spelled or something by one of the other twelve members of the coven/cult and is turning into a goat. The cult is falling apart and one of Audra's "friends" (aka the cult leader) is desperate to bring in fresh blood, and is after Paula and her twelve-year-old daughter. Turns out Paula was sent away not because she was pregnant but because Audra was trying to save her. I was not especially enamoured of the writing style; there were flashbacks thrown in to the middle of sentences and paragraphs, and while sometimes the grammar and structure and such worked and it all made sense, at least half the time I was mentally editing how it had been done so that it would make more sense/flow better. Not a terrible book, but I wouldn't recommend it and the style might make me hesitate before reading another novel by the same author.
2. Labyrinth, by Kat Richardson. Book 5 of the Greywalker series (which, in retrospect, I started out not liking a whole bunch but now I get excited when I see the latest book at the library. Go figure). This one was sort of complicated so I forget a lot of the details, but the man who "killed" Harper (she was technically dead for two minutes in the first chapter of the first book, which kickstarted her abilities) ends up being murdered. Nope, Harper's not a suspect because she was either still in England or on a plane back home when it happened (this book picks up immediately after the last one, which is a first for this series) but she does encounter his ghost. Um, what else? Big Nasty Vampire Dude she met back in book one has nasty plans for her, which would enable him to take control of the Grey (the world between ours and the dead), but of course she's having none of it and manages to gather enough information and such to foil the plan. IIRC, Harper is kind of special even for a Greywalker, and there's a connection to her past because her (dead) father had similar abilities and (I think?) committed suicide with the belief that the Big Nasties who were stalking him and his family for the same plan to take over the Grey would leave Harper alone. Obviously that didn't work. And I think she died at the end? (But Greywalkers get a certain number of deaths before they're really dead, so that's kind of okay. Except it changes them or their powers or something each time it happens.) Also, I love Quinton. And for some odd reason every 'Q' in this book was capitalized. I want to see a hardcopy version to know if it was an all-across-the-board issue or just with the electronic versions.
3. A Clash of Kings, by George RR Martin. A Song of Ice and Fire book 2. I am not madly in love with this series, but I have eventual plans to read all of it if only to say I did. *g* Some parts of it I really like and other parts I skim as quickly as I can (is it normal for a man to be so obsessed with the colours and standards of families and to describe them in detail even if said families will not appear in the 830-page book again?). I still ::heart:: Arya the best and I'm sort of banking on her saving the entire kingdom before all is said and done. ;) I really like Tyrion and am hoping that he doesn't turn out to be like the rest of the Lannisters, though I'm trying to keep from getting too invested in him because I'm afraid he'll end up betraying the good guys. I think Sansa will redeem herself eventually, because she's on the way, but it might take another book or two for her to get there. I kind of hope that Cersei and Joffrey (that kid is psychotic) die in a fire. I wish they'd pick up the pace with Jon's storyline and introduce us to the Others already. The Stark/direwolves connection continues to get more interesting. I am unsure whether I'm supposed to root for Dany or not. I'm thinking Gendry is going to end up being very very important by the end of the story, which is okay because I think I'm going to end up liking him a lot.
And there we have it. I'm on hold for Downpour (Greywalker #6), A Storm of Swords (ASoIaF #3), and Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1, just to see what all the fuss is about). So those might end up being October's books, time willing.