Finally Fall Book Tag

The Fall weather finally arrived here this weekend in the Northeast as I type this and I'm hoping it is here to stay. We've had too many days in September above 80 and I'm ready for the sweater weather. To celebrate I've been watching quite a few fall tags so expect to see some in the coming weeks from me!

Review - The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie

Series: The Abyss Surrounds Us #1

Genre: Science-Fiction

Age Group: New Adult

Paperback - 273pages

Publisher - Flux (2016)

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*Kindle $1.99 right now!*

Rating: 4/5

For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water. 

There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner pup. Santa Elena wants to take back the seas with a monster of her own, and she needs a proper trainer to do it. She orders Cas to raise the pup, make sure he imprints on her ship, and, when the time comes, teach him to fight for the pirates. If Cas fails, her blood will be the next to paint the sea.

When I put this in my bag to take along to the beach earlier this summer, I didn't even think about it being atmospheric. As I read it next to the water and heard crashing waves in the background, I couldn't put this book down. I absolutely devoured this story like a Reckoner pup would devour a barrel of fish. Things start out with a bang and Cas's world is rocked right from the start.  Because this book is rather short, jumping right into the action worked really well.

Even when the fighting stops, this book was impossible to put down. The author does a great job of making Cas's position more and more precarious and making the reader feel that tension throughout the book. For a debut I think storytelling is incredibly effective. The world is extremely interesting and, though there are a few info-dumps, the world is well thought out and feels complete.

The characters are fantastic. I really enjoyed both of the main leads. Cas and Swift are developed independently of one another and as their worlds collide they explore and talk about how complicated their feelings and their situation is. I cannot speak to the representation in this novel, but I really enjoyed this romance and the two characters. I have a weakness for the friends to lovers trope and this book really hit me in the feels.

Though I have heard mixed things about the next book in this duology, I cannot wait to check it out for myself and see where Cas is headed. 

 

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Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Book Boyfriend/Girlfriends

This week on Top Ten Tuesday we need to pick out our top ten book boyfriends and girlfriends. I adore all of these characters and have crushed on all of them at some point very seriously. Who is your biggest book crush?

1) George Cooper (Song of the Universe Series by Tamora Pierce) - George was my earliest inclination of a book boyfriend. I still remain a dedicated Geroge fan all these years later.

2) Captain Frederick Wentworth (Persuasion by Jane Austen) -

3) Daemon Black (Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout) - I swoon over all of Armentrout's main male character, but I swoon over Daemon most of all.

4) Blue Sargent (The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater) - While I couldn't choose just one of the boys from the Raven Gang, I can choose Blue. I kind of have a book crush on all of the characters in this friend group though.

5) Touchstone (The Abhorsen Series by Garth Nix) - Ever since my first read through of this series, I have been in love with this man. He and Sabriel make a killer team!

6) Cassandra and/or Swift (The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie) - Both of these ladies are totally crush worthy. For some read Swift looks like Kate Mckinnon in my head so that definitely helps.

7) Percy Jackson (The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan) - I grew up with Percy so I've always had a bit of a crush on this kid. He is just too sweet.

8) Cam Hamilton (Wait for You by J. Lynn) - Again, I love Armentrout's love interests. Cam is so sweet and I adore him

9) Nikolai Lantsov (Shadow and Bone Series by Leigh Bardugo) - KING OF SCARS!! We are getting more Nickolai. I cannot wait!

10) Soap (The Finishing School Series by Gail Carriger) - I just finished this series this past week and it was so emotional. I will always be #TeamSoap

I could name about a dozen more like Kate Daniels, Will Herondale (of course), and Jamie Fraser just to name a few honorable mentions. Well, they aren't really honorable mentions. I just wanted to mention a few characters that aren't going to be mentioned as often.

   

My Last Top 10 Tuesday---> Top Ten Books on My Fall TBR

Review - Curtsies and Conspiracies by Gail Carriger

Series: Finishing School #2

Genre: Paranormal Historical Fiction

Age Group: Young Adult

Paperback: 310 pages

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Rating: 4/5

Sophronia's first year at Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality has certainly been rousing! For one thing, finishing school is training her to be a spy--won't Mumsy be surprised? Furthermore, Sophronia got mixed up in an intrigue over a stolen device and had a cheese pie thrown at her in a most horrid display of poor manners.

Now, as she sneaks around the dirigible school, eavesdropping on the teachers' quarters and making clandestine climbs to the ship's boiler room, she learns that there may be more to a field trip to London than is apparent at first. A conspiracy is afoot--one with dire implications for both supernaturals and humans. Sophronia must rely on her training to discover who is behind the dangerous plot-and survive the London Season with a full dance card.

Carriger has a wonderful talent for writing stories that are amusing, charming and delightful. The first two books in this series have been as fun as the Parasol Protectorate Series. However, this second book felt like a holding pattern. Though I enjoyed seeing how the girls had matured, the supernatural parts of the story seemed to stall until very late in the book. Then we rushed to the finished.

I do quite enjoy how boys are a part of this story, but they do not distract our heroine from her mission or her friends. The girls are focused on their studies and each other more than they are worried about the boys except when they can be used as practice and to discover the enemy agenda. I could go on and on about how this is amazing and clever, but I will retrain myself.

Once again Carriger has integrated her paranormal series into the historical setting seamlessly. I love the way this series sits in historical London like it actually happened that way. As a prequel this series is very interesting and I've already moved on to the next book because I cannot wait to find out where these girls end up.

My Last Review ----> The Three Musketeers 

Bookshelf Tour #3 (Final)

This month I am determined to get back into this blog. After being very flaky all year, I will jump back on the bandwagon. October is my birthday month (in face my birthday is today!) and the height of my favorite season and it contains Halloween. So this month I'm hoping to post everyday as well as read everyday for the #30BookBinge hosted by Misty of The Book Rat.

I have found I work well with goals and rewards. This month I don't have a reward picked out for my goals. Any thoughts for that? Any way today I have the final bookshelf tour to share. Happy Reading!

Review - The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Series: The D'Artagnan Romances #1

Genre: Historical Fiction 

Age Group: Adults

Audiobook- 22hr 45 mins

Dover Publications - 560pgs

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Rating: 3/5

With its rousing cry of "One for all, and all for one," Alexandre Dumas's thrilling adventure novel has captivated generations of readers since its initial publication in 1844. Action, intrigue, and romance abound in this swashbuckling epic, which traces a country lad's path to the French court of the early 1600s and the glorious fraternity of the king's men, the Musketeers.

A son of impoverished nobility, D'Artagnan arrives in Paris to find the Musketeers disbanded by the cunning Cardinal Richelieu, who hopes to seize power from the weak-willed Louis XIII. The daring and ambitious youth proves his mettle in the company of the famous Musketeers — Porthos, Athos, and Aramis — and joins them in a heroic struggle to defend the king and his lovely queen, Anne of Austria.

So often, I am not patient enough for classics. The language is different than what I am used to and the action takes a lot longer than a lot of modern books. In the end it is me that is the problem and not the book. Though my experience with Three Musketeer movies did not prepare me for this book, I did find some of the plot lines very interesting.  

There are actually four main characters in this story and their antics are amusing. All four of them have a strong bromance even though some of their actions would not be considered heroic. Through the book we follow a series of plots that are somewhat interconnected and each new thread picked up just as the last one was losing my interest. The audiobook definitely helped me get through this book and still enjoy it. 

However, Dumas meanders in many different directions throughout the story and a lot of our "heroes" actions are rather selfish and immoral. I wasn't exactly impressed since my impressions as a child put the Musketeers on the same level with Robin Hood. Overall, I think the book could have been trimmed down a bit by being less repetitive and more concise, but the action and adventure was fun to read.I enjoyed some of the plot lines, but I was annoyed that women were either in need of saving or were villains. All the things that annoyed me about this novel were combined when we spent four or five chapters following a women's every move in a jail cell. 

My Last Review: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 

Top Ten Books On My Fall TBR List

Though I have made this list of ten books for Top Ten Tuesday, I doubt I will finish all of these by the end of the year let alone in the next three months! Last year I did this same post and I only read two books from that post! That is my record so we shall see if we can beat it.

 

  

  

My Last Top Ten Tuesday --> Top Things I've Been Doing to Avoid Blogging (Still True)

Review- Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Genre: Biography

Age Group: Adult

Hardcover 818 pgs

Penguin Press (2004)

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Rating: 5/5

In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, National Book Award winner Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. According to historian Joseph Ellis, Alexander Hamilton is “a robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all.”Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.

Though I enjoy biographies, I don't think I would have found this one or enjoyed it as much without the Hamilton musical. I was deeply obsessed with the music when I originally borrowed the audiobook from Overdrive, but I picked up the physical book at Christmas when I couldn't finish 36 hours of audio in two weeks. Finally after many fits and starts I made it my mission to focus on this monster this summer. Unlike Angelica, I am completely satisfied. 

Hamilton's life is a whirlwind and completely captured my attention. He overcame tremendous odds to even make it to the American Colonies and it was a very interesting read. I really enjoyed the writing style and the narrator of the audiobook was fantastic. I did find myself skimming most of the sections about Hamilton's financial policies. They were a bit over my head and his personal as well as his political battles interested me much more. 

While some of the topics can be a little dry, the final few chapters detailing the duel and its aftermath had me in tears. Chernow does a fantastic job of weaving Hamilton's story through the many historical events he was at and connecting you to his life. I can highly recommend this to any fan of the musical as well as any history buff.

My Last Review --> Iron Kiss by Patricia Briggs

Bout of Books TBR (Round 20)

Happy Bout of Books! One of my favorite readathons is happening this week and I can't wait to read what I've picked out. I doubt I'll get a lot accomplished because life is very hectic right now, but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Bout of Books Homepage

Review - Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs

Series: Mercy Thompson #3

Genre: Paranormal 

Age Group: 
Mass Market: 287 pgs.
Ace - 2008 
Add it // Buy it 

Rating: 4/5

Mechanic Mercy Thompson can shift her shape - but not her loyalty. When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.

Mercy's loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can't decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her...

Trigger Warning: Rape, Date Rape, Drugging.

Does every paranormal series hit its stride with book three? If so, I'll go back to a couple I haven't continued. Paranormal series can be a bit formulaic, but so far Briggs has kept things interesting and surprised me many times. I really enjoy the way she sets up her stories. She continues to build up the rules of this world by expanding Mercy's circle from werewolves and vampires to the very dangerous fae.

I'm absolutely addicted to the fast pace of these books and I love how trim they are. Even though they are just 300-400 pages, nothing is missing. There is a fantastic amount of action and I've become very attached to all the characters. One thing I like, especially compared to the Kate Daniels Series, is the relatively small cast of characters.

Briggs expanded her characters and her world once again in this installment and I've been completely hooked. Though many of the elements have been used before, this series is fresh interesting and original. I can't wait for more.

My Last Review---> Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

Bookshelf Tour (Part 1)

For ages I've wanted to publish a bookshelf tour like I did for my TBR shelf. It took a lot more work to capture all these books! I'm excited to bring you part one today and you will see the next installment soon!