Short Story Sunday [8]

Enjoy the Moment

by Jack McDevitt

Review

This was such a great story.  It's about a physicist who wants her name to go down in history, she gives up on dark matter energy for that dream and instead just wants to have a comet named after her.  It's a lesson on be careful what you wish for, she gets something much more than a comet with her name attached to it.  I loved this story, and I loved the pre apocalypse idea.  It's all about the discovery that the end is coming, but there's nothing about when the end happens.  Such a fantastic idea for a story!

I give this a 9/10, only because I wish it were longer! It didn't completely and utterly wow me, but I did love the story a lot and I kind of want to get the apocalypse triptych...

I first hear this story on Escape Pod, it was narrated by Sara Tolbert who did a fantastic job.  Go have a listen!

Valkyrie's Song

by M.D. Lachlan

Summary From GoodReads

The Harrowing has come to the North. And the wolf of Viking legend, a wolf that will kill a god, is on the hunt...

M.D. Lachlan's brooding and powerful tales of Vikings, Norse gods and werewolves have already won praise from, amongst others, Joe Abercrombie, Adam Roberts, Mike Carey and Chris Wooding.

With an original and terrifying take on magic, an ability to bring the Norse gods to vivid life on the page, a keen historical eye and a knack for fast-moving and brutally effective plots, M.D. Lachlan's series has won over critics, fellow authors and readers alike.

VALKYRIE'S SONG moves the action to Norman England and the Harrowing of the North. An immortal wolf and an immortal woman are on the run, fighting for their lives. They carry a magic within them, runes which flare with power when brought together. But others hold runes of their own, and the runes desire to be united.

And when they are, Ragnarok will come. 

My Thoughts

I'm a big fan of these books.  Lachlan does his due diligence with the mythology and the setting.  Historical Fantasy Fiction done right.  I had pre-ordered this one so I didn't run into the same trouble I had with acquiring a copy of Lord of Slaughter, they're published in the UK, with not many copies sold state-side.

Review

This book continues with Loys and Styliane surviving over a hundred years until the cycle begins again.  This time the wolf does not change, it is Loys, and Beatrice reincarnates as Tola.  It's set in 1066 in the north, right after the English won the battle against the Vikings and were defeated by the Normans (the French led by William the Conqueror) during the Battle of Hastings.  Loys has been waiting for Beatrice's reincarnation to kill him, thus ending the cycle, while Styliane tries her hardest to thwart him so she can remain immortal while the Gods' story is broken.

I was so excited to find out that this book took place in England in 1066.  Finally entering the time period that I know a lot about!  It was really cool to read about the Normans, the Englishmen, and the Vikings all in the same area, how everyone killed the Englishmen, and the Normans and Vikings killed each other, all vying for control over England.  At times it got a little confusing, just trying to remember Normans were Frenchmen from Normandy, not the Northerners.  But other than that the historical setting was fantastic.

The characters in this one I didn't care for as much as those in Wolfsangel and Fenrir.  Tola was okay, Gylfa was annoying, as was Freydis.  I really disliked Styliane, but I think you're supposed to.  The only one I was actually interested in was Loys.  His struggles against the wolf inside, his constant search for a permanent death so the story wouldn't replay and inflict the pains and horrors on future incarnations of himself and Beatrice.

This book, like all the others, added a little more Norse mythology to the mix.  There were the Valkyries, as well as Hel.  Even Jörmungandr (the serpent around Yggdrasil, the tree of life) was alluded to, though not by name, yet.  So two of Loki and Angrbodas' three spawn accounted for as important characters in the story, Fenrir and Hel.  I hope Jörmungandr plays a role in future installments.

The one odd thing about this book that bothered me a lot was the random mistakes.  I don't know how they made it past the editor's desk.  Someone wasn't doing their job.  In one paragraph at the very end of the book Gylfa's name is spelled Gylpha at the beginning and Gylfa at the end.  The only occurrence of "Gylpha" in the entire book.  Then there were some pronoun mistakes scattered throughout the book that made me stop and reread the last bit to figure out who it was.  It was very strange for a published book.  I'm used to small things like that in ARCs, but an actual published book?  Sloppy.

Overall I give this book a 9/10.  Not my favorite of the series, but things are getting very interesting in the story.

Waiting on Wednesday [15]

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Dreamland by Robert L. Anderson (September 22, 2015)

Summary from GoodReads

Odea Donahue has been able to travel through people’s dreams since she was six years old. Her mother taught her the three rules of walking: Never interfere. Never be seen. Never walk the same person’s dream more than once. Dea has never questioned her mother, not about the rules, not about the clocks or the mirrors, not about moving from place to place to be one step ahead of the unseen monsters that Dea’s mother is certain are right behind them.

Then a mysterious new boy, Connor, comes to town and Dea finally starts to feel normal. As Connor breaks down the walls that she’s had up for so long, he gets closer to learning her secret. For the first time she wonders if that’s so bad. But when Dea breaks the rules, the boundary between worlds begins to deteriorate. How can she know what’s real and what’s not?

Why I'm Waiting

This sounds really interesting.  It reminds me a bit of Afterworlds, but way cooler. 

Top Ten Tuesday [10]

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that allows bloggers to share their top ten lists for that week’s topics

Top Ten Fairy Tale Retellings that I've Read

1. Beauty - Robin McKinley 

This is my all time favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling.  I love that the castle itself is enchanted and everything is invisible.  No talking objects.  

2. East - Edith Pattou

I loved everything about this book, then I found out it was a fairy tale (East of the Sun, West of the Moon) retelling and read then fairy tale and loved the book even more.  Such a fantastic book!

3. Enchanted - Alethea Kontis

I had stumbled upon this one, and Alethea at BookCon last year, then months later finally picked it up to read, why oh why did I wait so long.  There are so many fairy tales referenced, but the main one is the Princess and the Frog.  Not my favorite fairy tale, but it was told beautifully.

4. Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Cinderella as a cyborg, how could you not love it?  And instead of loosing a shoe, she looses her metal leg.  Loved it! One of my favorite series.

5. Cress - Marissa Meyer

Of course all the Lunar Chronical books are going to show up here.  They're so blasted good!  I loved Cress as Rapunzel, and instead of a tower she's locked in a satellite orbiting Earth.  Love it!

6. The Goose Girl - Shannon Hale

A coworker of mine when I worked at the library recommened this book to me.  I had never heard of the fairy tale (of the same name) when I read it but I absolutely loved the story and have since read the fairy tale.  This book did such a great job with the story.

7. The Fairy Godmother - Mercedes Lackey

I love the take on fairy tales in this one.  Most people subjected to them hate them, and the magic forces them into it.  Some lucky ones, like this version of Cinderella, can escape it and use the magic to be a fairy godmother.

8. Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey

The retelling of the little mermaid mixed with the seventh son.  In a world where magic forces people into fairy tales they want no part in.  Yet again an awesome installment by Mercedes Lackey.

9. Scarlet - Marissa Meyer

So far this was my least favorite of the Lunar Chronicles retellings, but I still loved the story.  A genetically altered human to make him wolf-like.  And Scarlet and her grandmother were pretty awesome.

10. Spindles End - Robin McKinley

I don't typically like Sleeping Beauty, but this retelling was pretty great.  It made me like at least one version of that fairy tale.

Since Fairy Tale retellings are one of my favorite genres here are a few on my TBR:

Winter - Marissa Meyer

Ash and Bramble - Sarah Prineas

The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman

Hero - Alethea Kontis

Dearest - Alethea Kontis

Trixter - Alethea Kontis

The Sleeping Beauty - Mercedes Lackey

Beauty and the Werewolf - Mercedes Lackey
Kissing Frogs - Rich Amooi

Stacking the Shelves

Got this on the kindle, it looks really cute!

Got this one for the kindle too.  It sounds really cool.

Yet another kindle buy.  It sounded interesting, High Fantasy is by far my favorite genre.

It came out!! I had this baby pre-ordered so I got it on its release day.  I am the most excited for this one.  I'm sure a review is coming very very soon :-D

July Round Up

Hi All, this is my first non-bookish post.  I think I'm going to be doing one at the end of each month with stuff I've been doing, books I've read, nail art I've done, crafts I've completed etc. As well as any blog news for the upcoming month.

My July

For me July was a pretty relaxing month.  Lots of reading, lots of sunshine and water.  This spring I bought a boat and was able to take her out for the first time.  I also participated in my yacht club's first 6-mile race for the season and ending crewing on the boat that placed first.  I'm hoping I continue to crew for him and we win the series!

I was back in the city on June 28th to go see Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Darren Criss with one of my best friends.  We happened to have bought tickets for the show after the Pride Week Parade, so the show had this fantastic energy.  Lots of rainbow flags flying, Darren even took someone's from the audience and was waving it around during the finale.  After the show we stage door'd and was able to meet the entire cast, it was pretty awesome!

The Fourth I spent with family, friends, and the boyfriend at the yacht club to watch my city's fireworks.  We had gorgeous weather, and that moon, wow!  It was amazing.  My boyfriend and I made a trifle for desert for everyone, well, more like my boyfriend gave me the ingredients and I made the trifle for everyone.  It came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

I have three blueberry bushes in the yard, and they just burst with blueberries at the beginning of the month.  Luckily I netted them in time so the birds didn't have a chance to get them!

 

The town where I work has a summer concert series, so I went to see Andy Grammer last night.  He's completely amazing live!

Other than that my July has pretty much been hanging out at the island and reading.  It really doesn't get any better than when you combine the two and hang out on the island on a gorgeous day with a bottle of beer (or glass of wine) and an awesome book!

This month my reading sort of halted, due to two factors, M.D. Lachlan's books, while I love them, take me a little longer to read.  The other factor was a friend of mine gave me his manuscript to read.  I read it fairly quickly, but it was a pretty dense book and it took me a week (I apparently finished it the quickest out of everyone that he gave it to).  I don't want to say too much about it, but he's starting his second revision this fall, and I'm hoping that at some point in the near-ish future I'll be able to tell you all when its release date is...but first he needs to finish it and find a publisher...  I was only able to finish 6 (7 if you count my friend's) books, City Love by Susane Colasanti (7/2), Lord of Slaughter by M.D. Lachlan (7/4), The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin (7/5), Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith (7/7), Stone Rider by David Hofmeyr (7/26), and Valkarie's Song by M.D. Lachlan (7/28).  I'm hoping to make some serious headway in my pile of books in August, but that all depends on how quickly I can get though Dinosaur Lords, which I totally started the day I got it :)

July's Artsy Stuff

I do a lot of nail art, it's kind my thing.  Every time I go into my ballroom studio the instructors and the girls at the front desk make sure they see what crazy design I have that week.  so here's my nail round up for the month.

 My Fourth of July nails.  

These were my own design :)

Underwater scene.  

I'd been dying to try ombre nails, and finally did.  

These are also my own design 

Cat nails

This design I found on Pintrest.

The thing I'm holding was a gift from a friend when she got back from vacation.  I love it!

Lobster nails

Every year my yacht club does a huge clambake (aka the Lobster Holocaust) this year we cooked about 250 lobsters for it.  I'm part of the fire crew, so it's an all day event for me, and a blast!  I had to do my nails for the occasion :)

This design I found on Pintrest

Blog News

This month I did a massive overhaul and organized my books (for the most part) So I have a nice big stack of books for a give away, so stay tuned for that. I'm planning to do it in August, then probably another later in the fall and possibly one in the winter.

I've been seriously slacking on my Short Story Sundays, so for August I'm hoping to get back into them, and plan a bit better so when I wake up Sunday morning I don't go "crap! I don't have time to read a story and write a review".  Here's to planning ahead and drafting things before the day I post them so I can just click a button when I get up and not fall behind schedule.

Waiting on Wednesday [14]

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking The Spine allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on The Last of the Firedrakes by Farah Oomerbhoy (August 15, 2015)

Summary from GoodReads

16-year-old Aurora Darlington is an orphan. Mistreated by her adopted family and bullied at school, she dreams of running away and being free. But when she is kidnapped and dragged through a portal into a magical world, suddenly her old life doesn’t seem so bad.

Avalonia is a dangerous land ruled by powerful mages and a cruel, selfish queen who will do anything to control all seven kingdoms—including killing anyone who stands in her way. Thrust headlong into this new, magical world, Aurora’s arrival sets plans in motion that threaten to destroy all she holds dear.

With the help of a young fae, a magical pegasus, and a handsome mage, Aurora journeys across Avalonia to learn the truth about her past and unleash the power within herself. Kingdoms collide as a complicated web of political intrigue and ancient magic lead Aurora to unravel a shocking secret that will change her life forever.

Why I'm Waiting

This sounds really cool.  I'm a sucker for high fantasy, I can't get enough of dragons, unicorns, pegasi, fae, royalty, mages.  This sounds right up my alley.  And look at that cover! so pretty!