#WWW Wednesday – July 11, 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

I’m literally listening to the last half hour of  A Mask of Shadows, the third Frey and McGray novel by Oscar de Muriel, as I write this post. To be honest, it’s nowhere near as good as the first two books in the series and I can see why those reviewers for whom it was the first Frey & McGray book said they wouldn’t read any others. I still plan on finishing the series, though.

I posted by my review of Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner last Friday. Read it here.

What are you currently reading

I am still reading Blackwing by Ed McDonald. I haven’t been making a lot of time for reading, which is entirely my own fault, but I am liking it, despite going slowly. Because I’ve been listening to the Frey & McGray books, and because Galharrow, the MC in this book, is a loveable grump like McGray, I am hearing his narration entirely in Andy Secombe’s grumpy Scottish McGray voice. This is not a bad thing.

What do you think you will read next?

The fourth Frey & McGray book, The Loch of the Dead, became available earlier than I expected, so I have that ready to go. I’m hoping it’s back up to the standard of the first two.

I also checked out the adult SFF section at the library for once (I usually make a beeline for the YA section) and picked out a couple of Mercedes Lackey titles. I think I am going to try Beauty and the Werewolf first. Though Joust has a dragon on the cover and that is also very tempting. So we’ll see what I end up with.

What are you reading this week?P.S. If you’re  interested, head over to my writing blog, Letting the Voices Out, to read a snippet of my current WIP here.

#aww2018 #LoveOzYA “I’m improvising, but I’ve been doing that my whole life.” // Review of “Unearthed” by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Title: Unearthed (Unearthed #1)
Author: Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Genre: Sci-fi
Target Age Group: YA
Dates read: 20/06/2018 – 26/06/2018
Rating: ★★★

Review:

This book was marketed as “Indiana Jones in space” and while I can see that somewhat… I feel like that ended up giving me expectations for something this book wasn’t. So while I enjoyed it for what it was, I was disappointed it wasn’t what I was expecting.

So what was I expecting? Okay, so I love doing escape rooms, right? My partner finds them a little stressful but he humours me because in return I go to karaoke with him on wekeends. I was expecting this book to be some kind of epic scale escape room in book form, lots of solving puzzles and boobie-trapped rooms and such. And there was a bit of that. But there was really only one interesting puzzle (a musical one which was quite clever). The characters are out of the temple by about halfway to two-thirds of the way through the book and it becomes something completely different.

I liked Jules and Amelia, though I don’t think first person narration works when you have two POV characters. They sound much the same. Yes, they have different personalities and quirks, but I feel like probably everyone sounds fairly similar inside their head. It is different when you can hear different voices, but on the page, there’s not much to differentiate. I couldn’t get too engaged in the romance, as the action takes place over only a few days, maybe a week. I am more of a fan of a slow-burn over “we’re high on adrenaline and running for our lives and I’m gonig to kiss you now”.

Still, the action in the last quarter ramped right up, and the cliffhanger at the end was intriguing enough that I kind want to check out the next book when it’s released just to see where they go with that.

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This review is part of my 2018 Australian Women Writers Challenge. Click here for more information.

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#WWW Wednesday – July 04, 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

As predicted, I finished Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner last Wednesday night after my post. It was fun, and I have to admit the cliffhanger has me intrigued enough to consider reading the sequel, but it was not quite what I had hoped. My review is scheduled for this Friday.

Still, that was better than I Had Such Friends by Meg Gatland-Veness, which is being pimped as the #LoveOzYA debut of 2018 and I just… did not like it at all. Well, I didn’t like the main character, but in a contemporary novel written in first person, that pretty much equates to not liking the book, too. Still,  it was a quick read and I received it an as ARC so I can’t complain too much.  Here’s my full review.

I also posted my review of Zombie Playlist by K. J. Chapman. Click here to read it.

What are you currently reading

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel is on hold while I listen to A Mask of Shadows, the third Frey and McGray novel by Oscar de Muriel. The format is a bit different to the first two books and that took a bit of getting used to. My favourite thing about this series is the banter between the two main characters and so far, they’ve been separated a lot in this one, so that’s a bit disappointing.

I am also reading Blackwing by Ed McDonald which was recommended to me by a friend. He’s quite picky about his fantasy, so I have pretty high hopes. It’s an industrialised fantasy world, not a straight medieval fantasy, which I am glad about, as I’m not in the mood for the latter. But this is intriguing so far.

No movement on All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque this week.

What do you think you will read next?

I’m still leaning towards The Olmec Obituary by L. J. M. Owens. Also, if you’re interested, I posted my planned July/August TBR here.  Let me know if you’ve read any on there!

What are you reading this week?P.S. If you’re  interested, head over to my writing blog, Letting the Voices Out, to read a snippet of my current WIP here.

#WWW Wednesday – June 27, 2018

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

A good reading week this week! I finished Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen. This was a good story but the writing style let it down a bit, I felt. I reviewed it here.

Then I finished A Fever in the  Blood by Oscar de Muriel, which I enjoyed a lot (review here). I recommend these to everyone who enjoys historical fiction and murder mysteries, but if on top of that you are also an audio book listener, definitely get the audio books! They are wonderful. I also read The Hunt, which is a short story set just before this book, but it is basically a slightly expanded account of an event which is described in A Fever of the Blood, so it felt a bit pointless. I’m glad it was a freebie on Kindle.

On Saturday I read Zombie  Playlist by  K. J. Chapman in one sitting, as it was a novella and easy to get through. I’m not the biggest fan of zombie fiction in general, but I enjoyed this one well enough, despite a few niggles. I’ll have a review up on Friday.

What are you currently reading?

I finally decided on Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel for this month’s Audible choice. I actually started at the top of my GoodReads TBR and kept going until I found one available on Audible. I’m about a quarter of the way through but haven’t really formed an opinion yet. There are different things going on and I can see how they all intersect but I assume things will fall into place as the story goes on.

I am still going with Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. This is one of those occasions where the book is simply something different to what I was expecting, and that’s not the book’s fault, but it’s still disappointing, because I was pretty excited for what I was expecting. I’ll probably finish this tonight or tomorrow.

I made sure to read a few more chapters of  All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque on the weekend.  I’m actually surprised how readable it is, given both its age and the subject matter.

What do you think you will read next?

I’ll post a full July-August TBR on Sunday, but I think first up off that list my be The Olmec Obituary by L. J. M. Owens. I am way behind on this series, I think there are at least three books out now. And given some of the book takes place in a fictional versino of my workplace, I feel it’s really time I get on that.

What are you reading this week?P.S. If you’re  interested, head over to my writing blog, Letting the Voices Out, to read a snippet of my current WIP here.

#WWW Wednesday – June 20, 2018

Hello, everyone. Just a quick note before we get to the crux of today’s post. I’ve revitalised my Facebook author/blogger page recently, and am talking about what I’m reading as well as my own writing projects. If that sounds like something that might interest you, head on over to Emily Wrayburn and give it a like. 🙂 I’m also cross-posting a lot on Instagram, if that is more your jam.  And now, on with the show.

It’s time for WWW Wednesday! This blog hop is hosted by Sam over at A World Of Words. Link up with us by commenting on Sam’s post for this week, and just answer the three questions.

What have you recently finished reading?

Nothing this week, though I am quite close to finishing some things. I did post my review of Uprooted by Naomi Novik on Friday, and you can read that here. As you may remember me saying last week, I didn’t love it in the end.

What are you currently reading?

I finally managed to make some progress with  Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen over the past couple of days. Another day or two should see me finished. I haven’t really been hooked with this one. The writing style is quite detached. And there are German words peppered throughout it which I have to keep looking up on Google Translate.

Fortunately, I have whizzed through the audio of A Fever in the  Blood by Oscar de Muriel, which I am enjoying just as much as the first book in the Frey and McGray series. I have the third audio book reserved on my digital library and it tells me it will be available on July 1.

I haven’t  continued with All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque this week. I will pick it up again soon.

What do you think you will read next?

Not really sure. I need to read something rollicking and fun, I think. I’ve been thinking maybe Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. I went to a book talk with them when this was first released and it was a lot of fun, and I think it will be quite well-written, too, from the way they talked about their writing process. I haven’t had much patience for more trashy books of late, so I need something well done.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should use this month’s Audible credit on? I’m a new member so I only have two things in my wish list and neither of them are appealing to me right now.

What are you reading this week?P.S. If you’re  interested, head over to my writing blog, Letting the Voices Out, to read a snippet of my current WIP here.