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Review: Competence: Custard Protocol (The Custard Protocol #3) by Gail Carriger
I came upon Gail Carriger in 2011 when I had entered a Steampunk reading challenge. She was an author I would never have picked up on my own but as soon as I read the first book, I was completely hooked and so thankful that I had stumbled upon both the reading challenge and her books! Since then I have read just about everything she has put out, with the exception of The Custard Protocol series. When this book came up for review, I was a little worried because it’s the third in the series…..a series which I haven’t even read though the world sounded the same and Carriger’s writing…
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Review: The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty
As 2017 comes to an end, I couldn’t ask for a better book to close out the year with. This book was all over my Instagram feed for weeks and it was also on Book of the Month so it basically got a lot of hype. I was really hesitant because of the hype, but believe me when I say—the hype is real! Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned…
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Review: Whispers Beyond the Veil (A Change of Fortune Mystery #1) by Jessica Estevao
This was definitely my year of DNF books. I did not start out this year thinking I would have so many, but when I put down The Gunslinger earlier this year, something happened to me. I suddenly felt like it was ok to put books down that I wasn’t enjoying rather than suffer through something I was not interested in. So here we are with year another book that I DNF this year and I was shocked when this one went back to the library earlier than expected. This should have been a book that I had great things to say about. I was willing to give it a few…
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Review: The Villainous Viscount Or The Curse Of The Venns by Lucinda Elliot
This is a new author for me and frankly I only agreed to read this novel because of the tag line: “An appreciative satire of the cliches of classical Gothic”. I love Gothic romances. I lived for Gothic romances as a little girl and as I’ve gotten older I cannot tell you how much I love them. It’s embarrassing. So how could I pass up this book about Gothic romances? I couldn’t! When Clarissa Greendale inherits the fortune of disreputable uncle she hardly knows, she does not expect to find herself forced into marriage with an aristocratic fortune hunter and wild, brawling, debauched social outcast. Not only that, but her…
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Take Two Review: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire #3) by George R.R. Martin
Over the last couple of years, I have started re-reading the ASOIAF series. The first time I read all the books, I felt completely rushed and didn’t have a complete scope of everything that was happening. And let’s be real….there is SO much going on in this series. So many layers of betrayals, history, lore, and the complexity of the characters and houses alone warrants at least a few re-readings. This time through, I promised myself that I would savor each book and not feel rushed or like I was on a timeline to read each one. This book is my absolute favorite in the series so I was happy…
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Review: Romancing the Werewolf (Supernatural Society #2) by Gail Carriger
I first discovered Gail Carriger in early 2010. I loved her Parasol Protectorate series so much for a number of reasons, but mostly because of how well she developed her world. Since completing the series she has gone on to write a number of other novels/series and novellas in the same world. When the second installment of the Supernatural Society came out, I was happy to review it and see what characters would find a HEA. Werewolf in trouble… Biffy, newly minted Alpha of the London Pack, is not having a good Christmas. His Beta abandoned him, his werewolves object to his curtain choices, and someone keeps leaving babies on…
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Review: The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno Garcia
There was something about this book cover that reminded me of Gail Carriger’s Finishing School series. I kind of thought that I was going to read a steampunk-esque romance with a little paranormal thrown in. But considering that I have not actually read the Finishing School series, I think I can safely say that I had no idea what this book was going to be about other than maybe something YA with magic. In a world of etiquette and polite masks, no one is who they seem to be. Antonina Beaulieu is in the glittering city of Loisail for her first Grand Season, where she will attend balls and mingle…
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Review: The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor
When you first glimpse the cover of this book, it doesn’t shout ‘magical realism’. It shouts ‘family saga’. At least to me it does. Admittedly, I skimmed the review pitch very lightly and didn’t really pay close attention to it because like it or not, I knew I would review this one based on the cover and title. It just sounded like a title that said ‘family saga’ in the vein of Kate Morton for some reason. Then you add in that cover and there you have it, I was convinced at face value that this was a family saga (something that I love). So imagine my surprise when there…
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Review: The Library of Light and Shadow (Daughters of La Lune #3) by M.J. Rose
MJ Rose has a talent for writing romantic, magical, and passionate historical fiction novels. I love her Daughters of La Lune series even if at times, the books didn’t end on a high note, overall they are really fun to read and have progressively improved between book I and book II. I was super excited to see this one come up for review, ironically I had just been wondering when the next Rose book was due out and I was thrilled to see that it was this one! Her writing style is sensual and lyrical and the story is almost always a promising romance, so you can’t go wrong with…
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Review: The Luster of Lost Things by Sophie Chen Keller
When I got this book in the mail, the sweet dog on the over sitting with a little boy totally did me in. We all know how I feel about covers with animals on them…I’m a complete and utter sucker! What a way to lure readers….so cute and charming was this cover. Plus I love the blue and gold accents. Basically this was an easy yes for a review based on the cover. But the question for me was when can I work it in to my schedule? I was already pretty tight for early fall reviews so I had planned on Oct for this one. But the cover just…