BookSirens

Morning lovely people of the world! I hope you’re waking up with delicious hot beverages and cuddly fur buddies to start a new, exciting day.

Weirded out by my optimism? Yeah me to. Just go with the flow.

I was recently invited to join BookSirens.com, a website for book reviewers. It appears to be much like Netgalley but the authors/publishers come to you. (Although it looks you can still request stuff too.) Now, I don’t plan to go crazy on ARCs but this may tie into my bookish resolutions for 2020. (To be explained at a much later date.)

Does anyone else have experience with this website? And if so, what are your opinions on it?

Wanderers – Book Review

Published Date: July 9, 2019

Publishing Co.: Del Rey

Pages: 800

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

What if the world began to end today? That is the essential premise behind Chuck Wendig’s new apocalyptic novel Wanderers.

Set in today’s political atmosphere, with the twist that the opposite team won the election. The losing political side is having a hard time accepting those terms and when the world starts to go to Hell in a hand basket due to a mysterious sleepwalking sickness, they stoke the fires of rebellion. Of course, they don’t call it rebellion, they call it revolution. (It’s always considered revolution if you’re on the “right” side.)

Shana’s sister Nessie is the first person to begin wandering the land, blank faced, and unresponsive. She’s shortly followed by other random people in town. Every few hours the herd grows. People try to stop their loved ones, but the results are deadly. The only thing Shana can do is follow her sister into whatever awaits, as her shepherd. Her guardian. Who else is going to do it?

Shana and her wandering sister are joined by an eclectic cast of characters during their journey. Benji, a CDC doctor desperate to crack the mystery. Pete, an aging rock star clinging to any notoriety he can find even if that includes joining up with a disease no one understands. Sadie, the brains behind a computer program that is trying to save the human race. Marcy, a former cop injured in the line of duty who finds relief from the pain only by being near the flock of sleepwalkers. All act as shepherds along with dozens of other friends and family members who refuse to leave their loved ones to wanderer the countryside without protection.

On the opposite side of this mysterious malady, are the people calling for the extermination of the walkers. Stoking the fires of dissent and promising to take matters into their own hands if the government won’t stop these “terrorist agents.” Preacher Matthew Bird is gaining fame with his sermons calling these people “the Devil’s pilgrims” at the behest of a man he barely knows. A man he has been warned is dangerous, but popularity is an addicting thing. He’s looking toward the wrong evil and there will be hell to pay.

At 800 pages this is a whopper of an apocalyptic book. It took me about a month to wander my way through but it wasn’t boring. I could give it a break for a day or two and then pick it up and binge read for hours. This is an original tale and if you like reading about the end of the world, you should give this a try.

ARCs & Guilt

Amazingly, I am really good at controlling myself on Netgalley. I request one to two books every couple of months and I always try to read and review them before their release date as that helps the author sell. Being such, I’ve felt a bit of guilt lately. The last ARC I read, I didn’t review until after the release date by a couple of days. This guilt is all self-imposed, Netgalley doesn’t really require that you do reviews one way or another. At most, sometimes the publisher requests that you wait until two weeks before the release date to post your review.

So, the one that is laying on the guilt for me is :

I was SO excited to start this late last week and then I realized it releases today, the second. AND it’s 800 pages.

Now I love a fat fucking book but man, did that take the wind right out of my sails.

I still plan to start it here soon but it’s going to take me some time to get through, no where near it’s release date. But I love this author, so I think it’s making the guilt worse.

Now I’m left wondering, how the fuck do all these book reviewers who receive a metric fuck ton of ARCs manage to get through them all?

I want to know their secrets, I also want to know if they have any sanity left.

Now I’m just kind of grumpy and not reading anything. D:

The Final Days of Magic (Witches of New Orleans #3) – Book Review

Published Date: June 18, 2019

Publishing Co.: 47North

Pages: 340

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The King of Bones and Ashes review.

The Book of the Unwinding review.

I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

The Final Days of Magic was the most solid installment in the trilogy, which is a good way to end a story. In my reviews of the previous books, I complained that the author appeared to skip important parts or explanations and it left the feeling of an incomplete story. I’m happy to report that seems to have been cleared up in this addition.

Our three witches, Alice, Evangeline and Lisette have for the most part, gone their separate ways again. Each trying to both heal but prepare for whatever the world throws at them next. They don’t have to wait long until they’re tested by the dark force that wants back into their realm.

This time the action felt much more fleshed out and kept me entertained. There were definitely some dark moments for some of the characters that provided a more emotional connection. However, the deaths of a couple of characters felt a little rushed and we were not given proper time to mourn them.

Overall, this series was entertaining and provided a great atmosphere with interesting characters. It’s hard not to love a story set in New Orleans with witches, but I’ve seen it fail before. The author clearly spent a lot of time researching history, the occult and magic and it really paid off.

Magic for Liars – Book Review

Published Date: June 4, 2019

Publishing Co.: Tor

Pages: 336

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

Ivy Gamble is a small time private investigator who deals with mostly, disability fraud and spouse cheating cases. Today, however, the local school of magic has approached her to investigate the death of a teacher, first ruled an accident. The principle of the school suspects that it was actually murder, and she can’t sleep until she gets a second opinion.

Ivy need the money, and the notoriety. The problem is, she’ll have to confront her estranged sister. The sister she’s been jealous of for a lifetime, for getting to be magic while Ivy was just ordinary. It’s not just her sister she’ll have to contend with though, it’s a whole league of people she doesn’t know how to interact with. People born to magic, who use it for such trivial reasons. She’ll have to manage her anger, on top of solving her first murder case.

Sarah Gailey’s strength is definitely in characters and their development. Ivy’s internal struggles are deeply relateable. Her interactions with people she’s uncomfortable with, and her attempts to hide her own magic inability, make for a fascinating look into the human psyche. The plot was fairly straightforward for a murder mystery. Gailey dabbles with a couple of red herrings but in all honestly, I had the mystery figured out far before our awkward PI did.

I’m left wondering, does Rahul give her a chance to explain? We’ll never know though as this is a stand alone novel. Some mysteries never get solved.

The Black God’s Drums – Book Review

Publishing Date: August 21, 2018

Publishing Co.: Tor

Pages: 110

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in an exchange for an honest review.

An orphan girl wanders the streets of New Orleans, making a living picking pockets. She just so happens to have part of a goddess riding her body as well. She dreams of grand adventures and accidentally overhears the bad guys talking about kidnapping an important scientist. She takes this information to the captain of an airship and uses it as a bargaining chip to gain access to the ship when it leaves. But, before that can come to fruition, they fail to stop the kidnapping of the scientist. Thus, leads into a rescue adventure in the bayou.

This is set in an alternative New Orleans just after (or during, I honestly don’t remember now) the Civil War, where New Orleans is considered neutral territory. Blue cannot fight Gray here. But, that doesn’t mean that both sides aren’t working on secret missions to sway the results in their favor.

The entire story is rich with ideas and decent character building, but I just wasn’t feeling it the way a lot of other people seem to. I think it’s worth the read but I wasn’t blown away.

City of Lies (Poison War #1) – Book Review

Published Date: July 3, 2018

Publishing Co.: Tor

Pages: 560

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I received this copy from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Fuck. Yes.

One of my favorite reads of 2018 thus far.

I’m so bubbled over with excitement that I don’t even know where to begin with this review. I guess with honesty. For about 75% of this book I was convinced it was going to be a 4 star read. Nothing wrong with that at all, but the last 25% really sent me over that edge.

If epic fantasy is your preferred genre, as it is mine, then you know that a very high percentage of the plots in the genre involve war or some type of battle between good and evil. Even as a fan of such, sometimes it gets to be too repetitive. Usually when that happens, I’ll just switch up genres for a bit. Or if I’m lucky, I’ll find a book that flips the paradigm around a bit.

City of Lies is that lucky find. While it is about the opening of a war that has been undetected by the city involved until it’s too late, the story is encased in the city under siege. Much like the characters, you can’t escape the danger, lies and deceit around every alley corner in the city that may become your tomb. It is this atmosphere that sucks you in from the beginning. It’s a murder mystery wrapped in healthy helpings of fantasy.

The Chancellor and his proofer (tester for poison) are murdered in the very beginning by the very thing the proofer is supposed to save the Chancellor from. Poison. A poison that no one can determine the source of or provide an antidote. The reign moves down the line to his nephew, Tain, who has his own proofer best friend, Jovan. This is the way of honor for Jovan’s family, protecting the ruling family from quiet murder. His older sister, Kalina, was supposed to be the next proofer but her poor health sidelined her from her destiny. Her little brother Jovan took up the family mantle, despite his eccentricities and obsessive compulsive disorder. A move that stung her deeply but she continued to find ways to make herself useful despite her disabilities.

Before Tain, Jovan and Kalina can recover from the murder of their uncles, the city is under siege from an undefined foe. They are thrust into the roles they’ve prepared for their whole lives but never really thought would come. Together, they try to survive assassination attempts and determine what the enemy wants. But not knowing who the enemy is, handicaps their control of the situation.

You don’t fully understand the beauty of the world building until the last 25% of the book as well. While trying to absorb this new world, I was quite busy being choked up about things happening to the characters. It was then that I realized just how much I loved this book.

Go read it or I’ll sneak into your house and poison your whole family.

The Book of the Unwinding – Book Review

Publishing Date: June 26, 2018

Publishing Co.: 47North

Pages: 300

Goodreads Synopsis.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Witches of New Orleans #2

My review of the first book The King of Bones and Ashes.

I received this copy via the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Suffers from second book syndrome. It just doesn’t live up to the first but it’s not a bad read either. In fact, I’m certain I’ll still read book #3 when it comes out.

Four months after the events of book one, we’re given a view of how life has changed for our witches. Some for the better, others not so much and yet others still trying to find themselves in the aftermath.

The focus of the first half of the book is trying to free Alice from the Dreaming Road before she disappears forever. This was an incredibly slow build up with some things that really needed to be explained further. There’s some talk about a certain kind of destiny that isn’t fully examined. Perhaps it’s supposed to be self explanatory, but for someone not into ‘destiny’ talk, it leaves a decent size gap in the world building.

The second half of the book was kind of a cluster fuck of events. How did our new villain become a major player? One minute they were sterile and unable to do anything, the next they’re clearly here to fuck everyone’s shit up. How did this come to be? I’m still not sure. In some instances, the characters go into detailed flashbacks of past events, but current happenings are skipped over completely and almost left to the reader’s imagination of how they transpired.

Despite these complaints, I still love the characters. I’m still interested in what is going to happen to them and where all this drama will lead. Just please J.D. Horn, fill in some gaps for us.

 

2018 in Review Thus Far

Whoa! How did that happen? It’s already half way through 2018. I thought it a good point to stop and assess how the year has gone thus far in the reading department.

My bookish resolutions for the year were to knock down two lists; continuing series I’ve already started and reading more stand alone novels.

Stand alones: 3%

Series to Continue: 20%

Clearly, there is work to be done there.

On my Goodreads yearly challenge I’m at 34/70. (48%)

For June, I have a few ARCs to finish before I attack those lists once again. I was approved by Tor/Forge for two ARCs and want to get in good with them since they’re one of my favorite publishers. Plus, I had another Goodreads friend as that I read their book and I picked it up a couple of months ago so I might as well try it while I’m in extreme review mode.

ARCs:

American Hippo – Book Review (complete)

City of Lies

The Book of Unwinding  (I received an ARC of the first book, my review here.)

Goodreads friend’s book: A Darker Shade of Sorcery

That’s a whole month of reading nothing but ebooks. I’ll probably go crazy on physical books once July rolls around.

Check these pretty covers though:

 

Too Early for this Shit – Netgalley

It’s not even Halloween and I’m already thinking about book resolutions for the New Year. (They’re the only resolutions I ever stick to!) I’ll go more in depth at a later time but this is a post in which I’m asking for your opinion.

For the last year or more, I’ve been thinking about joining Netgalley. I’m afraid of commitment but excited at the prospect of reading more ARCs.

What has your experience with Netgalley been like? Should I take the plunge?

Tell C&M the ways of the book force.