What I Read in 2014: Third Quarter: I Can't Read in All This Rain

July

Skin Game by Jim Butcher

First thing I did the moment I had my hands on it was that I thumbed through every page, ensuring the count was correct. I was so paranoid that I even had a couple of scares and had to go back and recheck a small handful. What can I say? I'm incredibly paranoid after that last time.

It was awesome. The story went in a good direction that didn't rehash a lot of the same ideas from previous books. Rather than the usual mystery-solving this one was very Oceans Eleven-esque.

Tales of Ever by Jen Wylie

Minecraft meets Stephen King's Firestarter, then throw in some Hunger Games for good measure. Awesome.

Undead and Unwed by Maryjanice Davidson

A quick reread before loaning it out to a friend to make sure it's still as funny as I remember. It sure is! A shame the series deteriorated before it could finish with some grace. 

Pines by Blake Crouch

This one grabbed me by my shirt collar and walloped me with awesome. When I was finished I immediately bought the second one.

Wayward by Blake Crouch

Part of the enjoyment of Pines was a mystery surrounding the entire story and I worried that, after the Big Reveal, it wouldn't hold water anymore. I'm glad I was wrong. This is the perfect example of how to write Book Two in a trilogy without it turning into a filler book.

July

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

The beginning of Allegiant was far too confusing, and I knew it had been too long, so I decided to reread this one. This one is a perfect example of a filler book.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I've had this one when it first came out back in October of 2013. So I've been procrastinating it for nearly a year! I was worried since reviews were lukewarm at best and, I'll admit, I felt that a lot of it was emoing and doing nothing, making it feel like yet another filler book right up until the last 20% of the book, but I was not disappointed with the ending.

August

The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Kind of a creepy book, really. Still, apparently it was published in the 1970's, and has held up well despite the time. Not the most paranormal of books, especially by today's standards, but it did hold my interest.


The Giver by Lois Lowry

This one was actually reccommended to me to a friend and it sat on my bookshelf for about 2-3 years. It's tiny, so it hides well when I'm looking at my shelves for what to read next. The movie released recently so I knew I had to read it before it became a Big Thing. I blasted through it in a single evening. It's nice in the fact that it's pretty much every YA Dystopian novel out there right now, except bite-size. No offense to Veronica Roth, I love Divergent, but The Giver told the same story in 175 pages as what Divergent did in an entire thick trilogy.

The Last Town by Blake Crouch

From the way Wayward Pines Book 2 ended, there was no possible way I could wait for book 3 in any way at all. I actually broke my Kindle rule and spent a whole $5 on it. Anything I say about it would be spoilers of all kind for even book one, but I will say the one-sentence epilogue gave me chills.

Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells

I got about 40% through this one, but was ready to give up at 25%. Generic gritty female cop trying to solve the case of a new drug in town making people go murderously crazy when they use it. Except switch the word drug with magic and that's Dirty Magic. No magic to speak of at all, really. Kim Harrison's Hollows series is a more entertaining option along a similar theme.

Moth by Daniel Anderson

Moth is your typical high-fantasy story except the planet the story takes place on no longer moves. As long as you have some suspension of disbelief for the scientific aspect of that it's not a bad story. On the light side are typical humans, but they are afraid of the creatures living on the dark side. First diving into the book I was expecting some sort of LotR badguy army knockoff to be on the dark side, but was pleasantly surprised. On the dark side are Elven, Asian-cultured people (called Elorians) who live rather peacefully. What I found most interesting is that both sides consider the other a myth. The humans think Elorians are demons who live in a dark, black wasteland. The Elorians, however, believe the light side of the planet is heat and light that nothing can possibly survive in. Although the description of the story suggests it's just the viewpoint of one character, it actually switches between two, one human and one Elorian. The story starts with subterfuge and, as both main characters realize there is a looming war between both halves, it promptly starts going in a circle.

The human character gets a lot of focus at the beginning of the book, however, once it switches to the Elorian girl, it pretty much sticks with her, and she does nothing but putter around. She travels to a large city, waits, joins a thieving gang, waits, leaves, plays a flute until she gets fifty coins, gets it stolen, plays a flute until she gets fifty coins, gets it stolen, plays a flute with the plan of getting fifty coins, ends up in a brothel.

I was 66% of the way through when I gave up. Maybe I'm much more impatient about books at the moment, and it started out interesting, but a good beginning can't make up for a book where the character more main than even the main character does nothing. I don't want to read about a character waiting around to talk to someone, then has to work really hard to get money. It started to feel like some kind of Fantasy DMV from Hell. Despite the unique setting, it failed to keep my interest.

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie She's Dead by Christiana Miller

I mentioned this one in a previous post. Aunt Tillie is magical and funny and a but more, ahem, adult than I remember. Still, it was incredibly fun to reread this one. Yes, a reread, of an indie book no less! This one actually holds a special place for me because it was the very first Kindle book I ever bought. It had been almost two years ago to the letter when I found out you don't need to input payment information to download free books on Amazon (Barnes and Noble, meanwhile, does require it.) When I read Aunt Tillie on my laptop I thought to myself "Wow!" because I had never read an indie book before, and it didn't suck! Yes, I know I'm one of those indie authors, but in my own writing career (BAHAHAHAHAHA I know, I know, I said "career" to describe what I do) I've run across a  lot of people who still need a lot of polish in their work.

I said polish not Polish.

But I'm getting off track here. Once I realized how awesome some indie books could be, and getting a few more freebies, it's what pushed me over the edge to go ahead and get a Kindle. So, rereading Aunt Tillie was a treat, what I didn't expect, however, was a sequel being released only a week later.



Wickedly Magical by Deborah Blake

You were expecting the sequel, weren't you? I had finished rereading Aunt Tillie and preordered Aunt Tillie 2 (because Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie We're in Trouble! is both a mouthful and a keyboardful) but, as I mentioned, I had to wait a whole week. I don't go a whole week without reading something, so I picked up Wickedly Magical, a prequel story to Deborah Blake's Baba Yaga series. Now, I've only read nonfiction by Blake, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm not big on short stories, but it was okay. It came, told its story, and left. I was satisfied without feeling cheated, like I do with most short stories. It made me feel better about getting the first book.

Somebody Tell Aunt Tillie We're in Trouble! by Christiana Miller

While not as fun as the first Aunt Tillie, Aunt Tillie 2 still delivered. What I really liked is that Miller must have listened to her fans, because the side character, Gus, has the spotlight. Best of all, I got to experience a type of story I've never really had the chance to read before, something I could really only describe as "Looming Doom". There's not really any mystery, but the main character spends a lot of the story trying to keep certain events from unfolding before the next full moon and, no matter what happens, things keep going in the same doomed direction. It really grabbed me that way and didn't let go.

Wickedly Dangerous by Deborah Blake

This one was part what I was expecting, and part of a let down. Deborah Blake has started a series based on Baba Yaga lore, making Baba Yaga more of a formal title, and the heroine of the story much younger than the crone appearance Baba Yaga has in traditional Russian tales.

It's a mystery romance, but Deborah Blake promised a tough-chick ass-kicker heroine, which I feel failed to deliver. Any ass-kickery was done off-screen, and even then it was by three of Baba's friends. The story kept me interested though, as I wanted to know what happened next. There is absolutely no violence in it, and only some mild romance so, in all, a very cozy mystery for those who enjoy that kind of thing. The setting is also different from the usual large city, instead taking place in a small town and the surrounding countryside/forest. This is one you could read just a preview of and decide from there if you wanted to keep going or not.

Small Town Witch by Kristen S. Walker

Part Hex hall and part Sweep. Small Town Witch nearly put me to sleep. The first 60% of the book is a girl going to school and hanging out with her friends, you know, typical high school girl stuff. Except some minor witch elements were thrown in. Initially it seemed as though the author didn't know where she was going to go with the story and kept writing it until she figured something out. Even then. the mystery in the plot was so obvious I wanted to slap the main character and I nearly stopped reading it, but I'm glad I didn't because once the main character finally (finally!) figures things out the story revs up and then promptly ends on a cliffhanger. If you can read through teenage drudgery there's a good story. The defining part of it, however, is the broom flying. There's not a lot of it, but it gave me a nostalgic Kiki's Delivery Service vibe.