What Are You Reading?
Time once again for Friday’s feature, What Are You Reading? As always, I’m nosy, and I take notes! 🙂 Me, I’m reading a freebie paranormal mystery/romance called Along Came a Demon, by Linda Welch. Pure escapism, with no visible redeeming social value…my favorite kinda book these days. I’ll be reviewing it soon, along with Nora Roberts first two books of the O’Dwyer series, and a creepy, dark, disturbing, and totally compelling little urban fantasy called Summoned.
Your turn! What are you reading? Inquiring minds…as always…wanna know, so let us hear from you! And happy Freya’s Day!
Bookin' It 
I’m reading Swamp Ghosts! 🙂
LikeLike
*scratching head, here* Swamp Ghosts…Swamp Ghosts? Now where have I heard that title before? 😀 Aw, Marjma, that’s great! I sure hope you enjoy it!
LikeLike
Hi Marcia. Quite a read, not what I expected from a granny! No offense. I think it’s great, what an imagination you have. Like the lightness and opposing darkness in the story, a concept I play with in my writing too. Very interesting. I’m about half way through. Will be doing a review when I’m finished 🙂
LikeLike
Hahaha…maybe that’s because I’m probably not your typical granny. 🙂 I have trouble remembering I’m 70 years old, I’ll tell you that much. I’m glad you are enjoying the book. Be sure to read the Author’s Notes at the end for a bit more info on some of the creatures and places therein. And thanks for your kind comments, especially the offer to leave a review. I really appreciate it.
LikeLike
Good on you. It’s great to stay young at heart. No problem about the review happy to do it!
LikeLike
I just finished Kelley Armstrong’s Visions–about a woman living in a spooky and secret-filled small time, searching for the truth about her parents. I’m working on Ex-Purgatory, the most recent in a set of books about superheroes fighting a zombie outbreak that had gotten most of the world.
Then it will, I believe, be finally time for Skin Game! 😀
LikeLike
I downloaded something new by Kelley Armstrong, but I’m not sure that’s the title. Will have to look. I’ll probably skip the zombies, though. With very few exceptions, they are just too…UGLY…for me! Hahaha. I can’t even PRETEND they’re sexy, what with all the bits and pieces falling off of them all the time. 🙂
And woohooo for Skin Games. Can’t wait to see if you like it. (Did you read the last Rachel Morgan book? It was really good, overall. Ah, that Trent! The final one is coming out in September, and I can’t WAIT.)
Keep me posted when you start Skin Games. 😉
LikeLike
Currently I’m reading: City of Heavenly Fire, Raging Star, and Savage Drift.
LikeLike
Hi, famously. I’m making note of all three of these, and checking them out. Thanks for sharing with us today. Have a great weekend!
LikeLike
Great! Have a great weekend too.
LikeLike
Just did a quick amazon check, and saw that City of Heavenly Fire is the Cassandra Clare series. I absolutely LOVED the Clockwork trilogy, but for some reason…and I tried several times…the “city” books just didn’t work for me. I couldn’t get invested in the characters, try as I might, where in the Clockwork series, I was in love with all three of them. I stuck it out for 2 1/2 books, and then stopped, I’m afraid. 😦 The Dust Lands books sound intriguing, and Savage Drift, as well. I might be checking them out soon. I enjoy Young Adult books when they are written intelligently and have credible plots and characters. Thanks for sharing those with us.
Have you read Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys yet? I loved the first book, and have the second one, but want to re-read the first one before starting it. Her book The Scorpio Races is one of my favorite books, ever. So dark and eerie, and beautiful, at the same time.
LikeLike
I know what you mean. The Clockwork series is much better than the Mortal Instruments, but the ending of Clockwork Princess bothered me….
And I love Maggie Stiefvater’s writing I’ve read all her books so far. Scorpio Races is my favorite book from her and Raven Boys is my favorite series. I recommend the Scorpio Races to lots of people and so far haven’t met anyone that found it as beautiful as I did, but I’m so glad that you liked it too. 🙂 I’m so excited for the next Raven Boys book. The cover alone makes me want to read it.
LikeLike
I haven’t talked to many folks who enjoyed both of Clare’s series equally well. Most favor one or the other. I just thought the writing was so much stronger in the clockwork one, plus I loved the steampunk touches. I was good with the ending, though I know a lot of people weren’t. But it satisfied me pretty well. As long as Will Herondale got to spend the rest of his life with her, I didn’t mind what happened after that. 🙂 He was a wonderful character.
I can’t imagine how anyone could read Scorpio Races and not be swept away by the haunting beauty of it all. It’s just a riveting story, and I loved Puck & Sean Kendrick SO much. And the capell uisce (don’t have the book handy, so forgive my spelling) were just downright terrifying. Her writing was just stunning. I think I’ve read all her books, too. I enjoyed the Shiver series very much, but Scorpio just captivated me. And The Raven Boys, as well. I admit, it took me a bit longer with that one, because I didn’t think I was going to like the…Raven Boys. 🙂 They felt a bit preppie to me at first, even thought I liked Blue right away. But then the boys grew on me, and by the end of the book, I was absolutely loving it.
The second book is lying next to my Comfy Chair, and I pat it on the cover now and then, whispering, “Sooooon, my precious…”
😀 SO nice to meet another Maggie Stiefvater fan.
LikeLike
Hahaha I love that! I don’t have a Comfy Chair to put my TBRs next to but I do have a shelf of books that I occasionally walk past and when I do I look at those books with a knowing look in my eyes and they nod back at me.
I agree with the choosing one Cassandra Clare series over the other. I have a friend who just refuses to read the Clockwork series because she thinks it won’t be as good as the Mortal Instruments.
I think I really didn’t like the ending of Clockwork Princess because I wanted Tessa to choose Jem over Will. Jem was just so sweet and should have found someone better than Tessa if he couldn’t have her instead of being hung up on her for the rest of his life. 😦
And it just doesn’t seem like the people I suggest Scorpio to read it long enough to enjoy it. They get stuck on the foreign words, slow beginning, or the mention of death. I just want to force them to read it and then they’d have to love it!
LikeLike
Ah, there you have it. I loved Will from the moment his angsty little self showed up. I liked Jem, but I think he was too nice for me, not quite as dramatic and broody. Will just suffered so much for her, and unlike some readers, I really, really liked Tessa. I understood her motivation, I think, and I wanted them together so much, that I would have been very upset had it not worked out that way. I wasn’t expecting Jem to come back, but as it turned out, I was fine with it by then.
Your friend doesn’t know what she’s missing. And at least I gave Mortal Instruments a fair shot, reading 2-1/2 books before the writing started to bother me. But if I had to list my top ten male characters from all the urban fantasy genres, Will Herondale would be in that list. Along with Harry Dresden, Tybalt the King of Cats (Toby Daye), Ethan Sullivan (Chicagoland Vamps), Odd Thomas, Charles (Alpha & Omega) and a couple more. Some for sheer sex appeal and magnetism, and some (like Odd Thomas) because of an endearing quality you just can’t help but love.
I never thought of the beginning of Scorpio Races as slow. To me, it sounded like the most magical of places, right off the bat…mysterious, and remote, and then the races…where somebody is likely to die, every year. I was captivated. I reviewed this a long time ago…short but heart-felt: https://marciameara.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/the-scorpio-races/
And thinking on it now, I believe I need to get back to her Raven Boys, too, and see if the sequel is as good as the first one. She’s left us in a dilemma, for sure. Let me know if you read it any time soon. Would like to know what you think.
Oh, have you read The Forest of Hands and Teeth? Another dark and disturbing book. But very good, I thought.
LikeLike
I have read the second Raven Boys Dream Thieves and it was truly amazing. The concept of the grey warren that allows you to pull from your dreams was just so vividly described. I loved everything that was pulled from dreams, but the plot in comparison was just good. The story could have been better because not much happened in the book. Although I did think the ending was great in that it made you lust for the third book. The book as a whole was really good. I don’t think it was as good as the first one (maybe just because I have reservations of saying any sequels can be better than the first), but it definitely came close.
I haven’t read The Forest of Hands and Teeth; I recently got into the zombie genre and as a result I’ve only read part of World War Z and Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard. Something Strange is a great book and I think you might like it. I’m going to give Hands and Teeth a try after reading the synopsis. It sounds really good.
LikeLike
Heading out the door for the day in a moment, but I wanted to answer this first. I sometimes think of sequels as a bridge from Book 1 to Book 3, and they can often be the weakest link in a trilogy. But they usually have a pretty important job to do in advancing either the plot or the character development. I need to read Dream Thieves SOON and see if I agree with you.
I’m really NOT a zombie fan. Shuffling, shambling (usually rotting) creatures just don’t work for me. I find them more repulsive than scary, I guess. And there’s always too many of them moaning about. But I have to say The Forest of Hands and Teeth pulled me right in. I read and enjoyed the entire trilogy, and parts of it were really touching and sad. I think I liked it better than most of these because it takes place a long, long time after whatever apocalypse brought about the end of civilization and the advent of the unconsecrated. I also liked the heroine’s stubborn refusal to believe her walled-in village was all that was left of humanity. There was a lot of hope going on, and hope is a very good thing. (Ask Emily Dickinson). There was one event in Book 3 that seemed a bit preposterous to me, but other than that, the author made it all seem believable and compelling. Hope you like it.
Gotta go, but I hope you’ll stop by often. I love talking books in detail like this! Thanks!!
LikeLike
One Glorious Ambition by Jane Kirkpatrick…. the compassionate crusade of Dorothea Dix. It is a novel but based on her life. Jane has a way of creating novels from diaries/stories etc.. of people. One of my favorite authors…and guess who else is too?!! And no, you are not the typical granny!!
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing today, Patty! Taking notes, as always. And thank you, too, for enjoying my books, AND for validating my lack of typicality. 😀 I think maybe the older I get, the farther I stray from the norm. So far, so good, though one of these days, I may find myself hauled off to the Funny Farm, I guess. 😯
LikeLike
If you go to the funny farm save a room for me!! ha ha And I must add…thank you for writing the books!
LikeLike
Ha! And you’re welcome for the books. So glad you have enjoyed them.
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike