Book Review – The Fire Sermon

The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig

Published – March 10, 2015 by Gallery Books

Length – 384 pages

Other – Netgalley eArc, in return for an honest review

Cass and Zach live in a world where everyone is born a twin, and one of those twins has a deformity.  The twin with the deformity is sent away to live as an Omega, while the so-called perfect twin stays at home as an Alpha.  Sending away your twin can be a bad thing though because you share a special connection…if they die so do you.

Cass manages to hide her deformity for years before her brother Zach and parents find out.  When this happens she is sent away to live as an outsider in an Omega community.  But the world is changing and a resistance is building.

The characters in this book were really well-developed.  It seemed as thought out as to why people would act in certain ways, and yet there was still mystery about backgrounds.  We are brought over a large area and can see what effect the Alphas are having, and get to speculate on what led up to the world they are in now.  I enjoyed this book, at times I forgot to pick it back up, but when I did I remembered why I was reading it.

-3/5 stars

– Meaghan

Library Book Haul March

I stopped by my library on the weekend to pick up a few books that came in as holds.  These aren’t all the books I have had this month from the library or will have (I am picking up a few more later today), but they happen to be the ones I have at the moment.

I have four novels and five graphic novels.  The novels are the rest of the books in Ben Aaronivitch’s Peter Grant series;Moon Over Soho, Foxglove Summer, Broken Homes, Whispers Underground.  The graphic novels I picked up were The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, Blankets, Game of Thrones Volume 1, Fables Volume 1, and Through the Woods.

So far I have read two graphic novels and in the process of reading Moon Over Soho.  What other graphic novel recommendations do you have?

-Meaghan

Taking my Cat to the Vet!

So non-book related post for today.  It’s that time of the year again where Simba needs to go to the vet for his shots.  This is always fun because I usually end up covered in cat hair and stressed out from the wait and needles.

I’m going to at least be able to get some reading done while I wait (last time I was fifteen minutes early for my appointment and wait over an hour for the vet to come in…).  I am currently reading Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson, on recommendation of a friend, so I should be able to get a dent in that while I wait.

And since Simba is waiting to go I better get him in the car before he changes his mind!

– Meaghan

 

Book Review – Midnight Riot

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch 

Published –  February 1, 2011 by Random House Ballantine

Length -298 pages

Other – Library book.

A few months ago I borrowed this book from my library as an ebook, but between the other books I had out and other books I was reading for review, and at home, I never got around to reading it.  I came across it again last week while I was looking for something to read, and finally re-read the summary and couldn’t understand why I didn’t start it when I had it previously.  The copy I ended up picking up has a blurb from Diana Gabaldon on the cover (inset blurb words)  which made me even more excited.  After picking it up I had time to read in my car while it was getting a car wash, and it was a good thing I wasn’t driving because I didn’t want to put it down.  I read about half of it that night until I had to get started on assignments for school, and then picked it up again this morning before I even left for school.

The main character; Peter Grant, is in probationary police training waiting on permanent assignment when he and all extra police are called out for crowd control on a murder.  While there he has a talk with what he believes is a witness, until he realizes he can see right through him.  This leads Peter into a new world where things really are not what they seem and he needs to learn to pay a little more attention to the things around him.  Along with Inspector Thomas Nightingale  they are in the midst of an investigation that neither has any clue how it’s happening.

Before I even got halfway I got on my computer and put holds on the next two in the series, they are the perfect blend of magic and crime thriller that I love.  At this point there are 5 books out in the series with another planned for this year.

-4/5 stars

– Meaghan

Book Review – Vision in Silver

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

Published – March 3, 2015 by Penguin Publishing Group

Length – 416 pages

Other – Received an eArc in return for an honest review.

This is the third installment in The Others series by Anne Bishop.  I sadly found I was not as engrossed by this  book as the previous books and it took me a lot longer to read.  Meg continues to learn more about herself and about her relationships.  Simon continues to question his relationship with Meg, and more humans are moving into the Others pack.

I found there was no major drama in this book.  There were problems, and continuations of problems, but nothing that had me thinking the whole time “WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN???”.  I found the first half of the book to drag and the second half picked up a little quicker.  I really wanted to like this book as much as the first two but I couldn’t, so for now I will eagerly wait for the next book.

 

– Meaghan

Comic Review – Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada (The New 52)

Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada (The New 52) by Jeff Lemire, Illustrated by Mike McKone

Published – March 10, 2015

Length – 176 pages

Other – Received as an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

 

It has been a while since I have read any comics/graphic novels, the last one I believe I read was the second compendium of The Walking Dead, so I was really interested in reading Justice League Canada.  Being able to relate to part of the setting was a big plus for me, and even though I don’t live in the area primary focused on I was still able to pick out landmarks.  I am not familiar with any of the other Justice League comics/plot so I was picking up a few things as the story went on, but I never felt completely out of the loop.  A few jumpy scenes had me scrambling back and forth to see what was happening where and when.

This story introduced a superhero to the franchise who is female and Canadian.  It introduced her background story and showed us some of what her powers will be.  I liked the strong female presence in this installment, it seemed as though they were out to prove they didn’t need help and were powerful enough without men.

Overall I would really recommend this and will be keeping my eye out for future issues!

 

– Meaghan

Quick Update on February Reading and Current Progress

So last month I did not get anywhere near where I wanted to with what I planned to read, much like all good plans it got derailed.  I think I may have upped my Canadian authors read from 0 to 1, and continued on a decent kick of female authors (romance tends to attract them).  After my slump of reading I have decided to change-up my tactics for the rest of this month and probably April too since I will be in the process of finishing assignments this month and the beginning of April and then moving into finals (last finals till my next degree!).  So for the rest of this month my focus on reading  is on rereading War and Peace.  While it is a giant book, I have already read it once so it’s like catching up with an old friend rather than embarking on a new friendship and testing the waters.  After I finish it (I will have to probably buy myself a better copy that isn’t falling apart) I am going to grab another book I have already read (reread the Stormlight Archives?).

If I happen to want something to break up my reading I will probably try to read something I have for review, but I wont be focusing on finishing terrible books that make me want to pull my hair out.  I’m ahead of my reading goal for this year by a lot so I have nothing to worry about getting behind in my reading, and I can guarantee over the summer while I am either working or trying to find a teaching position for the fall, I will have a lot of time on my hands to catch up on reading.

Also I really need to get back into more consistent blogging, I started the year off strong and then I let vacation and school get in the way.  I have had two weeks of dumb group projects (six member groups let’s be serious please) and other random assignments, and now I am back to a steady pace.  I think I need to overshoot this week for a post a day that way three posts a week doesn’t seem like such a big deal next week.

Wish me luck

– Meaghan

Reading Slump and Getting Back Into Reading!

Over the past week and a bit I have been struggling to read.  Not only did I have a super busy week with school (group projects, individual projects, presentations, papers, and research participation all due during the same week), but I just could not pick up a book I was interested in.  I still managed to read a couple of books but I didn’t really enjoy any of them, I also picked up a dozen more and started and almost immediately put them down.  Now most of those that I put down were eArcs so I do plan to pick them back up at some point but now the idea of reading something because I should doesn’t make me want to read.

I have been flip-flopping over what to read to get me back in the mood to read, and usually my go to would be a fantasy (so I picked up Warbreaker to read on the train again), but I think I need to grab something big and complicated to grab my attention for a bit so I think this slump is calling for a re-read of War and Peace.  I read this back in highschool and loved it at the time, but it has been so long that reading it now I think would be like reading a brand new book and might help, and it might kickstart me back into my mound of classics that I have to read.

On the plus side I have managed to almost fully caught up on Downton Abbey (what’s on Netflix anyways), and re-watched the first season of Fullhouse (it can be a lot sadder than I remember).  I have also managed to beat Pokemon Alpha Sapphire; thus making me a Pokemon Master.  In my opinion doing other hobbies during my slump is prepping me to read later, and maybe I will be able to manage things so reading doesn’t take priority over everything else.

What do you do when you get in a reading slump?

– Meaghan

Book Review – Soulbound

Soulbound by Kristen Callihan

Published – February 24, 2015 by Forever

Length – 372 pages

Other – Received from Netgalley in return for an honest review

When Eliza is forced to choose between dying or connected with Adam for the rest of her life; she chooses Adam.  But she makes the decision to flee from him because forever is a long time.  Eliza has no idea what she is or how her past affects her, and Adam is forever chained to the dead.  Finding Adam chained in her aunt Mab’s basement wasn’t what Eliza was expecting and he might be the only one who can help her escape from others who would wish to enslave her.

Eliza as a character seems a little clueless throughout the book, and impulsive about important things.  Adam opens up and develops showing most of his feelings to Eliza.  I really liked the sub-characters as they added something extra to the story and they had dimension, especially with all the creatures/types of people who are brought in.  I found the relationship pacing was spot-on, the plot could have moved a smidge faster but overall not an issue.  The ending was a little meh for me, I understand why it was done but don’t necessarily like it.

I have not read any of the other books that are a part of the series (this is the sixth book in the Darkest London series), but I don’t think it hampered me in connecting with any characters or missing any back story.  I would read other books in this series as I think they would be just as good.

– 4/5 stars

– Meaghan

Things I Want to Read More of!

I find I can sometimes get stuck in a rut of reading the same storyline or genre for extended periods of time, and then subsequently I get bored with reading, or I find that I might not like a book as much as I thought I would.  I don’t know if this is because I was over indulging in a genre or because the book was generally not very good.  Almost always I have a romance and fantasy book on the go because they are my goto’s and I know I will find something I like, but I find I need to vary what sub-genres I am reading.

I have so many books I can read but I find myself reaching for the same things, so I need to start grabbing some different genres.  Recently I read Fuzzy Nation and while I was wary of it, I ended up really enjoying it, which leads me to looking at other sic-fi books I have on my shelf or can get from the library.  I have a stack of classics I have been meaning to get to (usually once I read one I will read like ten), and my non-fiction has grown since I last finished one.

So I might add to my reading goals for this year to read at least 4 genres a month (I’m still not doing well adding in Canadian authors, but that will come).  Do you find you get stuck reading the same things or do you tend to pick up different things?

– Meaghan