Category Archives: Books!

June 2, 2019 · 2:35 pm

Review: Terrier by Tamora Pierce


Terrier (Beka Cooper, #1)

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Review: Terrier by Tamora Pierce

This book follows Beka Cooper, a sixteen-year-old woman (most would say girl but if you read the book, she deserves the term woman), who is training to be a Dog. Now, in this world that is the same as the State police from what I can gather from the explanation of its structure. She started out living in the streets after her parents could no longer support her and her siblings. So the Lord in charge of the district ended up taking her in.

This Lord is also the head of the Provost’s Guard which contains the Dogs. This gives Beka an advantage most don’t have. She has both the knowledge of the lower city and the basic training that any one needs to survive on the street. But those aren’t the only resources Beka has. Armed with a magical cat and some unconventional informants, Beka solved some pretty horrendous cases.

This book was fast paced for the most part with some lag in the middle where the case took a back burner. The first-person narrative really draws you into the story and the cases. You feel what Beka feels. You learn things as Beka learns things. It keeps you guessing until Beka finally puts all of the pieces together at the end.

I mentioned in my previous post that something about it seemed safe and comforting and I think that’s the fact that and I think that’s the fact that it’s like I have a friend. The journal style of writing makes you feel like you are reading the journal of a friend or a letter from a friend.

Beka is also someone with severe social anxiety and the whole journey of her training to be a Dog was sort of also her trying to overcome that.

I think having a character who doesn’t really interact with people very well who has a feline companion to help her get through life is a really good idea in this current climate. It brings awareness to something that people don’t really know how to address still. It discusses having a mental illness without it having a name while still validating it and not letting it hold the character back.

I feel like it’s especially useful for the age demographic the book is “intended” for. This book came out when I was in middle school and is geared towards the YA age group. They are the ones who usually have the beginnings of mental illness symptoms and don’t know how to discuss them or are uncomfortable with doing so.

This book isn’t just good because of its background social commentary it has other elements that make it a really good book. For me those elements are: Interesting characters, minimal focus on love interests (this is good for the type of book that it is), and a fast paced and interesting plot. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, to anyone not just YA. (A fight for another time)

-Review written on April 1st.



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March 11, 2019 · 8:06 pm

Post Correction: Tor Books


In my previous post about Tor Books I stated that a book came out March 16th, 2019. This is incorrect. The book The Tesla Legacy was actually due to be published tomorrow March 12th 2019. The tweet confirming is quoted below.

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March 6, 2019 · 12:00 am

Discovery: Tor Books


 It started with an advertisement on Facebook for Tor Books “Free eBook of the Month Club” and who could resist a free eBook every month? The first book of the month was V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic. I had heard about this book from friends and my Goodreads feed, but I hadn’t really heard much about it plot wise just that it was a good book. But then I started reading it and I was hooked. Not to mention look at this great cover:

The cover alone is like a summary of the book. And with this as my introduction to the imprint how could I not be excited to discover more books curated by them? So, I followed their Instagram.

I hadn’t really finished a book by them, or by anyone really, because I was in sort of a reading funk. But between Stephen King’s It which consumed most of last year, and Tamora Pierce’s Tempests and Slaughter I finally felt like my reading slump had ended. But what to read next? I didn’t want to pick up A Darker Shade of Magic again just yet. Not because it’s not a good book, just because it wasn’t the type of book I was craving. It was too real world still, I needed a complete escape. Enter Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, another book with an AMAZING cover:

This cover is just so gorgeous and interesting to look at that I couldn’t help but be drawn to it when I first saw it. But that’s not why I had picked up this book. I had first heard of Brandon Sanderson’s books from Critical Role and Tor Books sponsorship of them but I had never known where to start with them. Mistborn was exactly what I was looking for in a book because it was short enough to read in a couple of months (as opposed to taking me an entire year) and it was enough out of this world for me to escape into its setting. And that’s what I needed at the time.

A Darker Shade of Magic was just too grounded in reality still to accomplish that task. But that’s part of what makes Tor Books so perfect to me. They have books that cover every level of real-world grounded settings. Mistborn is one that has minor similarities to the real world where you can see the influences that historical background has had. But that’s about it as far as real-world similarities. A Darker Shade of Magic has London as its real-world tether with side worlds that are less connected but still based on the standard society.

But Tor also has books that just twist the real world slightly. I just received an ARC from a give away I entered called The Tesla Legacy by K.K. Perez and I am so excited to read it. It seems to treat Tesla like Sanctuary does, but with a twist and it is most definitely grounded in modern day America/World (I haven’t gotten far enough to determine a definite setting. Once I do, I will definitely do a review). The cover on this one is just as gorgeous as the rest:

And I just have the ARC. So I can’t wait to see what the finished product is like.

This book comes out March 16th, 2019 and it’s ARC give away and the free ebook are the only ways in which I was “compensated” for this review and they had no idea I was going to write this to begin with. As I’ve said in the past, nothing I write about on this blog ahs anything to do with sponsorship. They are all things I genuinely like and enjoy and Tor Books imprint is no different. They have books I love, they have great editors from what I’ve seen (you’d think this wasn’t important as long as the story is good but I’ve found that to be very untrue), and their cover designers are awesome!

So, in conclusion, I 10/10 would recommend Tor Books as an imprint to check out, as well as each of these books I have mentioned in this post.

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January 16, 2019 · 8:37 pm

Review: Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce


Tempests and Slaughter (The Numair Chronicles #1, Tortall #8)
The feather is so pretty!

Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book was well worth the wait and I cannot wait for the rest of the series. I am going to try to write this review without giving anything away from all of her other books as well as this one. Tamora Pierce’s books are pretty easy to read as separate series without being lost on what is going on. So I started by reading The Immortals Quartet and then went back to read the other series. The Immortals Quartet is where I was first introduced to a majority of the characters in this book. So I know much more about them than someone who was reading this book first. Arram is the reason I fell in love with these books in the first place, and he is the reason I was so desperate to get my hands on this book.

This book follows Arram from age 11 and continues on until he is 15. It follows him as he meets new friends, tries to find out who he is, and tries to figure out who would make him their enemy. Now, if you know the rest of the story you know how exciting even the smallest detail about Arram’s Carthak life can be, but for new readers this probably sounds quite boring. But this book was anything but that.

Arram Draper is the son of a cloth maker who lives in a country called Tyra. They aren’t in the wealthiest of classes, but they are still merchants. They have a good plot of land, and enough money to send their extremely gifted son to a very good school. Now, this is no ordinary school and Arram is no ordinary student. Don’t get me wrong, this school is no Hogwarts, there are no fancy robes required to attend classes. The subjects aren’t outrageous, but they aren’t uninteresting either. Arram’s power is one to be reckoned with, and when you throw in a few meddling Gods, a cute little bind, and a plot for an Empire you get an interesting kick-off to what hopes to be a brilliant new series.

Here comes the part where reading the rest of the books makes this more interesting: Ever wonder what Ozorne was like as a child? Or how he and Varice became so entangled? How about their favorite teacher Lindhall? And wait? Is that The Sarge? And how cute are these besties? These answers and more are in this book, making it well worth the wait in my opinion.



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January 14, 2019 · 10:55 pm

Review: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco


Stalking Jack the Ripper (Stalking Jack the Ripper, #1)
Can we just talk about this cover too?

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book was so fascinating to me. It follows the life of a girl living in Ripper era London with her Father, her brother, and some pretty high societal expectations. Her Uncle was a doctor with a university position and the ability to perform autopsies. She was a female with a brain too big for her societal expectations and a father too strict to break propriety leading to illicit lessons in forensic science and some next level sneaking around. From carrying extra clothes in her carriage to slipping out in the middle of the night, she had investigative aspirations that reached the sky. Unfortunately, sky high aspirations rarely lead to grounded scientific breakthroughs and this was no different.

Andrey Rose Wadsworth was happy to study under her Uncle. But when the infamous Whitechapel murders threw a wrench in that plan by resulting in her Uncle’s arrest it came down to her and her intellectual rival / eventual love interest to solve the mystery and save the day. With his help, and the notes of the murders, could she fix everything and save her family? Or would it end up breaking it forever? This is the basic summary of just about every heroine story in the YA section of the bookstore with slight variations on what’s being destroyed forever. The difference between this book and the usual heroine stories is the historical aspects of it.

This book brings in just enough detail to bring you in to the times but also lacking just enough to pique your interest and make you want to know more. For me, my brain instantly wanted to know more about the accuracy of the forensic advancement described in the book. For others, the social aspect was more fascinating. The intricacies of propriety and scientific exploration in London’s 1800’s will clearly never cease to be of interest to people, the social aspect was more fascinating. The intricacies of propriety and scientific exploration in London’s 1800’s will clearly never cease to be of interest to people. There is still so much to explore and different perspectives to explore in. I am excited to read the latest installments and see what level she takes the twists to. My overall opinion is that it’s both a good read, and an interesting window into the historical time it portrays.




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April 30, 2017 · 12:30 pm

Yet More Updates


I feel like I have a million posts titled Updates. But I’m constantly updating things and being creative with these titles just takes away from all of the other things that I’m doing.

As you can probably see there is a new page title up at the top called Currently Reading which is intended to be a more real time status update for what books I’m reading and what books I’m reviewing. It will have the book I am currently reading, my thoughts, and the most recent quote that has gotten stuck in my brain. It will also have the book I just finished, just the title unless I have comments that need to escape my brain. And finally it will have the book I’m reviewing, whether or not I will do a full review or just a tiny one on Goodreads, and what the progress of the review is.

So that’s the run down of the new page, now for the run down of what’s currently there. I just finished The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken and my brain is so full of nerd comments that I’m not even sure where to begin. I would like to do a full review on this book because it was just so good but if I don’t have the time or the second book ruins the vibe I’m feeling with this one. It’s such a good book, at least for me right now in my current state of mind.

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April 20, 2017 · 9:40 pm

#ProjectReadathon


Hey all,

So I subscribed to Penguin Random House’s mailing list a while ago, and it gives you updates on different programs and upcoming releases. It also sends different surveys on product marketing ideas. In the most recent email was information about #ProjectReadathon.

#ProjectReadathon is a week long promotion that donates money for every excerpt you read from a Penguin Random House book. However, only certain excerpts qualify. For every minute you read Penguin Random House donates a book to Save the Children. The excerpts that qualify can be found here: #ProjectReadathon. The promotion ends on April 23rd, which is also UNESCO’s World Book Day. So go add to your To Read list for charity!

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December 17, 2016 · 8:13 pm

BookCrossing


So I was looking through my Goodreads shelves and updating the ones I own and the ones I don’t own on my shelves and I decided to finally look up what that BookCrossing ID thing meant. What I found was that BookCrossing is a website where you can custom print book plates with an ID number on it. This ID can be used to track where the book has gone over the years. You can even release your own books into the wild.

It looks like the idea behind this was to make a public library with a world wide community involvement instead of just a local community thing. There are also no due dates, or late fees. You can keep the book as long as you want and release it whenever, wherever, and to whoever you want. You can write reviews and do pretty much all of the same things with BookCrossing as you can with Goodreads. You can even connect BookCrossing to Goodreads. But with BookCrossing you can track books you release, read reviews on the books you release, or see where the book you found is from. It’s pretty cool.

I made a profile for it, and a custom book plate that is released for public purchase. (There are free book plates or ones you can purchase.) My BookCrossing profile is under tonks4life, I’m sure you can find me with that. I just thought it was a cool thing. If any of you do sign up for this site I believe they have a referrer section on the profile so feel free to add me to that!

Since I know a lot of people find me because of the book reviews I used to do I’ll point this out. This site seems like a really cool way to market or spread word about your books. If you have print copies that you’re trying to get reviewed or that you’re selling on your own personal website, or even if you have them in bookstores you might want to buy a few book plates and put them in your books. It might spread word faster and to more people. (Maybe ask permission before placing it in bookstore copies that are waiting to be sold.)

Anyway, have fun sharing your books! Or reading them. Whichever.

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December 3, 2016 · 4:04 pm

Hollister $10,000 sweepstakes


Most of what I post lately is stupid perks links. This is no different. If you want to participate in this sweepstakes click the link. Maybe I’ll post more later, but no promises.

https://m.quikly.com/1821-hollister/t/4iJAAK7-lnk

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September 24, 2015 · 11:36 pm

Sequel Concepts


If any of you keep up with the popular fandoms or Disney Channel you will probably know that both Harry Potter and Disney Channel have come up with an interesting new take on sequel formats. Now maybe this has been happening for a while, and maybe I just haven’t been aware of it. But I still find it intriguing.

For those who don’t really know what I’m talking about. Disney Channel and Melissa De la Cruz have come out with a brand new series talking about after the “happily ever after”. The series is called Descendants and it contains one book and one movie. Now, when I first saw the movie I thought that Disney Channel would do what it normally does with its television movies. I figured it would have an illustrated book with the exact same story that was told in the movie. But when I started reading the book I realized that the book happened long before the movie. Which makes the book a prequel to the movie.

But this isn’t the first multimedia series that has come to my attention this year. That would be Harry Potter. A few months ago, (or that’s what it felt like to me) J.K. Rowling announced that there would be a sequel to Harry Potter called A Cursed Child. Only this is not a book. This  sequel is a play that is currently only staged in London. There is no word yet as to whether or not it will be coming to America, but if it does, I would definitely be interested to see how it pans out.

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