In My Mailbox #39

Well it has been a while since I've done an IMM post! Since I've been on a book buying ban this month I've obviously had nothing to show on Sundays but I did actually buy some books the weekend I was away at the Russell Howard gig so I'm gonna tell y'all about those before we reach the end of February.

In My Mailbox is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Kristi @The Story Siren and inspired by Alea @Pop Culture Junkie



Books Acquired Recently
Changeless by Gail Carriger
Blameless by Gail Carriger
Windfall by Rachel Caine


Not much of a haul I know but I'm still rather proud of my restraint this month :P
Next week might bring a vair interesting book which I am *uber* excited for :D but you'll find out about that later.

I really am hoping to get back on track with blogging soon but this "meh" phase is really killing my reviewing mojo and with feeling the obligation to review the books I read it is also affecting my desire to pick a book at all :(
Thanks so much to all my lovely followers for being so patient with me

What's in Your Mailbox this week?
LadyV

Read more...

Covers So Lovely We'd Lick Them #9

Dude I know people are probably wondering what the heck I'm playing at leaving y'all hanging for a week and then only reappearing with a bunch of pretty covers to apologise but I've been having a little unexpected Hiatus since my blogging mojo has kinda buggered off. Although I do have a bucket load of reviews I need to write it is currently the last thing I want to do :( I will be trying to get a review done before weeks end and hopefully next week normalish posting will resume since February will be over and it's been an overall naff month.

Covers So Lovely We'd Lick Them!

The new feature co-created and co-hosted by LadyViolet and Jess hearts books where we show off a book cover which we find so damn scrumptious that we'd actually be willing to lick it!

Every week we each pick a different cover so be sure to check both blogs!

So Silver Bright by Lisa Mantchev (Theatre Illuminata #3)

I know I'm not the only person to gush about this cover in the past week but Oh My Freaking Gods this is quite possibly the most beautiful cover I have ever seen in my life. Steph Su said it first but please can I get this cover framed for my wall? Not to mention that I *lust* after that dress with a passion, I mean the cover artist even shows the embroidery detail on the bodice! *flails*

The girl herself is so damn pretty and delicate and looks simply luminous *sigh* and her expression is so heart-wrenching, I mean look at her eyes! Man I could start pulling out all the pretentious art jargon if I sat staring at this cover for too long it really is *that* gorgeous.

I will fess up to not having read any of the books in the Theatre Illuminata series and I'm hesitant to do so even though I think that all 3 covers are outrageously delectable to the eyes. As folk might have gathered from my lukewarm review of the Iron Witch there's just something about Faerie books that doesn't mesh with me. I don't know what it is but I never really love this type of book so it would be such a shame for me to pick up these fabulously presented books and not enjoy them as much as they deserve.

I defer the duty of recommending these books to people who don't have my weird bias against Faerie books, if you've read any of this series then speak up and tell others what you thought of it if you please :)

So that's what I've been lusting over this week, do hop on over to Jess's Blog to check out what cover she's Licking this week!

LadyV

Read more...

Covers So Lovely We'd Lick Them #8

Covers So Lovely We'd Lick Them!

The new feature co-created and co-hosted by LadyViolet and Jess hearts books where we show off a book cover which we find so damn scrumptious that we'd actually be willing to lick it!

Every week we each pick a different cover so be sure to check both blogs!

Shadow Hills by Anastasia Hopcus

Dude have I ever told you guys how much I love green eyes? This is the UK cover which will be coming out on the 10th of May and by heck is it gorgeous! The eye colour totally pops and there's a cool kinda netting veil-thing around the face and damn is it just infinitely more interesting to look at than the US cover! (Just Sayin'). Also the title font is pretty funky to boot.

The story itself sounds vair interesting with a good dollop of supernatural mystery and danger so this is certainly gonna be on my to-buy list when May rolls around.

So that's the Cover I'm drooling over this week, go to Jess's Blog to check out what cover she's lovin' this Thursday!

LadyV

Read more...

Book Review - The Pain Merchants

Egads methinks I might have to rethink my target of reviewing half of the books I read cos I am seriously behind now. I am not gonna review Fallen Grace fully but if people want to know my general thoughts then I can do a mini-review.

 Title: The Pain Merchants
Author: Janice Hardy
Date: 4/2/2011 PM
Source: Bought
Description: Fifteen-year-old Nya survives on odd jobs and optimism, finding both in short supply in a city crippled by war. Then a bungled egg theft and a stupid act of compassion exposes her secret to two powerful groups - the pain merchants and the Healers' League. 
They discover Nya is a Taker, a healer who can pull pain and injury from others. Unlike the League apprentices, she can't dump that pain into pynvium, the enchanted metal used to store it. All she can do is shift it from person to person, which is useless and has never once paid for her breakfast. But when a new disaster strikes, Nya finds that her talent is suddenly in great demand - but at what cost? (Description taken from GoodReads)

My Review

It's been a while since I read a high fantasy book that had a truly fascinating and original magic system and this book was simply chock-full of interesting ideas with a fab group of characters to follow through the action. I really loved how we were simply dropped into this world that has been through a great upheaval and now Nya's fellow countrymen are made to feel like second-class citizens in their own city. One thing that would have improved my understanding of the world and the shenanigans going on inside it would have been a map- y'know cos all fantasy books need a cool map right?


I really liked Nya, she was funny and savvy having to live by her wits and earning enough money to keep herself in decent rooms. She's fiercely loyal to her sister and even cares about the welfare of complete strangers especially if she has the power to affect or change it. She's not infallible and does make some morally questionable choices even though she does try her damnedest to rectify her mistakes. Her power is really cool although I'll admit to getting slightly confused at times as to how it was different to the normal healing that her sister does.


The whole idea of being able to magically draw pain from the body and store it like energy is so brilliant although I really wanna know where the heck the name Pynvium came from cos it's totally bananas! But really fun to say at the same time. Also the ability to use little blocks of pynvium like weapons by "flashing" them is super bad-ass and I really want to know more about the dynamics between the League of Healers and the Pain Merchants (who really don't feature quite as much in the story as the title might lead you to think).


There is loads of stuff that can be explored further in the next books; the political shenangians that led to Nya's country being conquered by the oft-curst Duke, the ramifications of Nya's actions in the climax with regards to the League of Healers, and the general relationships between certain characters which were mercifully unhurried in this first book (nothing more irksome than rushed romances).


Overall a wonderfully fresh fantasy read and I am excited to read more from this world and see what Nya is up to next in the second book Blue Fire which should be out at the end of March 2011. 


My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars


Eeek I really cannot afford to let myself get so far behind as to be reviewing books 10 days after I finish them :S 


LadyV

Read more...

It's Monday What are you Reading (30)

I know this is rather late in the day but I was just not in much of a blogging mood last night so I'm playing catch-up now and bugger me I think I'm gonna have to spend most of this evening getting a bucket-load of reviews done cos I was *soo* lazy last week with everything and I apologise.

It's Monday What are you Reading? Is a weekly bookish meme where we get together to share what books we've read in the past week, what books we're currently reading and what new books we're planning on reading in the coming week along with any reviews or interesting posts. It's hosted by Sheila @Book Journey

Books I read Last Week

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (So amazing! Review Coming Soon)

Forest Born by Shannon Hale (Review coming soon

Yeesh I had a bad reading week but it was an odd week overall and I didn't feel like doing much of anything and that sadly included reading but I'm hoping that once we get past V-day I should find the swing of things again.

Books I reviewed Last Week

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols

The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney

Books I'm Currently Reading

A Lost Lady by Willa Cather - I needed something short to read last week when my brain didn't want to concentrate so I picked up this intriguing book. I'm not quite finished but I don't entirely know what to make of it.

 Books I'm going to Read this Week

Pemberley Revisited by Emma Tennant this has two books contained within one volume and I want to make decent progress with it this week before it's due back at the library.

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness - It's been too long since I last read about this amazing dystopian world.

I dunno how much reading I'll done this week either since the next few days are gonna be a bit busy with job interviews, dentist and doctor's appts plus I has to help out my uncle with some stuff but hopefully the week will end with several issues resolved and *fingers crossed* a job. Here's hoping!

LadyV

Read more...

Silence in the Library

So this is just a quick post to say I'm sorry for the lack of posting this weekend since I'm gonna be away from my computer until Sunday evening as my sister and I are off to see the fabulously funny Russell Howard in Birmingham tonight *squee*

I know I owe you folks like a gajillion reviews (ok like 4) but I shall try my darnedest to get caught up on those over the weekend so I can get them all typed up when I get home. I've not been reading much these past few days so I'm not continually adding to my pile of stuff to write :P

Only one book for the IMM this week - a library book called Pemberly Revisited  by Emma Tennant which is a bind-up of her two Pride and Prejudice sequels and I am rather looking forward to getting stuck into it soon.

And Finally I shall leave you with a snippet of the unbelievably amazing soundtrack for Tangled which has been brightening my mood all week (dude if you could have *seen* how insane I looked dancing round my house). I defy anyone to listen to this song and *not* find themselves dancing and spinning. But of course if you don't it'll just prove how weird I really am :P



Enjoy Folks
LadyV

Read more...

Book Review - The Iron Witch

I was gonna do the two Tammy Pierce reviews before this but since they were re-reads anyway I'm gonna go back and do mini-reviews when I've got time as I reckon it's important to get the new reads reviewed before I've forgotten everything I liked about them - with re-reads I know all my favourite bits so it's easier to review them after the fact.

Title: The Iron Witch
Author: Karen Mahoney
Date: 1/2/2011 AM
Source: Borrowed from Jess
Description: Freak. That's what her classmates call seventeen-year-old Donna Underwood. When she was seven, a horrific fey attack killed her father and drove her mother mad. Donna's own nearly fatal injuries from the assault were fixed by magic—the iron tattoos branding her hands and arms. The child of alchemists, Donna feels cursed by the magical heritage that destroyed her parents and any chance she had for a normal life. The only thing that keeps her sane and grounded is her relationship with her best friend, Navin Sharma. When the darkest outcasts of Faerie—the vicious wood elves—abduct Navin, Donna finally has to accept her role in the centuries old war between the humans and the fey. Assisted by Xan, a gorgeous half-fey dropout with secrets of his own, Donna races to save her friend—even if it means betraying everything her parents and the alchemist community fought to the death to protect (Description taken from Goodreads)


My Review
Despite all the buzz about this book on the blogosphere and twitter I had reservations before I started it since experience has told me that Faerie books just don't quite push my buttons and with my Twin Jess's lukewarm review I was even more dubious. I tried to keep an open mind but I was left feeling rather underwhelmed.


Don't get me wrong, I thought the mythology of the Faeries and the Alchemists were really interesting although we don't find out a huge amount about either group in this first book (who knows what else we'll learn in the next book). It's just that I didn't really connect with Donna and I found that the book whizzed by far too quickly - I mean she meets Xan and like three days later she's practically gushing over him when she knows next to diddly-squat about him!


I reckon that the third person perspective didn't help me to connect with the characters and I think that I was kinda confused as to why Donna would just go ahead with a crazy-ass plan and not consult her aunt who *knows* about the freaky faerie stuff - seemed pretty daft to me. I also don't think it was fully explained *why* Donna had to have Star Iron melded into her skin after the Faerie attack when she was little and how it gives her bad-ass powers. 


When it came to the climax for some reason I didn't really feel the tension of the faerie threat and everything ended a little too conveniently for my liking and Donna had to deal with surprisingly little consequence for her actions which were pretty serious or so I thought.


So basically I liked the mythology and the idea of the iron tattoos was intriguing enough to lure me in but overall I was left rather disappointed by the hasty development of Donna and Xan's relationship and lack of explanation for certain aspects of the story.


Although if you really love faerie books then I reckon you'd still like this, it's just not for me I'm afraid.


My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars


Has anyone else ever tried a book even though they've not really enjoyed others in the same sub-genre just to see if this will be the one to break the pattern?


LadyV 

Read more...