I only read 11 books in August which was short of my goal but I am not disappointed since I read a lot of amazing books this month as well as completing two series that have been on my TBR for a while.
Reflected in You by Sylvia Day 5 Stars – I re-read Bared to You a little while ago and still loved it, way more than Fifty Shades of Grey and I am finally continuing with the series since I’ve heard that it gets so much better. Re-joining Gideon Cross and Eva Tramell was amazing, even though I am still reminded of the irony of Eva’s name and it makes me laugh. The opening just recaps the ending of the first book, how we learnt of Eva’s incredibly messed up past and how Gideon’s is just as bad even though they haven’t openly spoken about it yet because he isn’t ready to. However, Cary messed up his love life by engaging in a clusterfuck orgy on the living floor and Eva is having to deal with the fallout of that but I do believe she is partially at fault for it since she and Cary have always leaned on each other for support and she unknowingly took that away from him by spending all her free time with Gideon. They are planning a trip to Vegas since Gideon has to go to Arizona for work anyway to give themselves some time to figure things out and fix their relationship as friends. The sexual tension between Gideon and Eva is immense as always but I did like the fact they are working through their trauma in order to make their relationship work and both admit their faults, possessiveness for Gideon and jealousy for Eva.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood 4.25 Stars – The novel opens in March 1975 from Amy’s perspective where she explains that her mother sister, Val ended up in prison and her cousin, Wavonna is coming to live with them. We soon learn that Wavonna aka Wavy is a strange child not eating in front of other, not speaking at all and sneaking out at all hours of the night. After a while Amy’s mother sends Wavy to live with their grandmother and she seems to get better but when Val is being released from prison, Wavy’s grandmother’s cancer has returned and she dies soon after so she returns to her mother’s car. We learn from Wavy that her mother is a meth addict and she also seems to have some form of OCD which is why Wavy doesn’t eat in front of people. Wavy now also has a younger brother Donal and the abuse they suffer is immense but Wavy even at her young age takes care of Donal. The man, Val calls Daddy, whether or not he is their real father, Liam seems to be a drug dealer and this is how Wavy meets Kellen. After Kellen wrecks his motorbike, Wavy calls Liam after Kellen tells her to, to get him help and she ends up making a friend in Kellen. He is the first to realise the conditions the children are living in and helps out by cleaning the house, changing and feeding Donal while Wavy is in school. He also gets them food and takes Wavy back and forth to school but from the synopsis I know Kellen and Wavy’s relationship becomes much more than friends or caretakers.
Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano 5 Stars – This series has been on my TBR for while but I haven’t been in the mood for murder mysteries lately but since it was chosen as the Destroy my TBR book club pick for August it was a given I was going to pick it up. The opening to Finlay Donovan is Killing it wasn’t what I was expecting, I was expecting more murder mystery and less suburban single mom but I am willing to give it a chance. We are introduced to Finlay who is a single mother of two children after her husband cheated on her and then divorced her for said woman and her life isn’t going well. She is swimming in debt barely keeping her head above water with her ex-husband’s help since she is overdue to turn in her book to her editor who she is meeting with that morning. Finlay is a romantic suspense novelist and is struggling to write after the collapse of her own relationship and the demands two children make on her. During the meeting with her editor someone overhears their conversation and mistakes Finlay for a hired killer rather than a writer and wants to hire Finlay to kill her husband for fifty thousand dollars and despite how crazy the whole situation is she is considering the offer because she has researched every conceivable way to kill someone and she really needs to money. I am excited to see where novel goes but I have a feeling it is going to go down more of the comedy route than a serious one and I’ve never got on well with comedic books so we will have to wait and see.
As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson 5 Stars – I read and adored the first two books in this series but I put off reading the final one since I didn’t want to say goodbye to Pip and Ravi just yet but I am finally cracking it open. The opening to As Good As Dead was interesting as we learn that Pip hasn’t been dealing well with Stanley’s death and is suffered from PTSD over the incident but this only the beginning. Charlie still hasn’t been caught and Pip feels that he holds the answers to what she is feeling right now and she is currently self-medicating on Xanax bought from Luke. She is also facing a lawsuit from Max as he wants an apology from the recording Pip published with him admitting to what he had done and she refuses telling him she would die before apologising to him as she believes he is truly a monster and wants him behind bars and I agree. Max on the other hand, is cunning and sly and if it does go to court I am not sure how well Pip is going to do with her current mental state. It would be better if she had support but she has lied to everyone and made them believe she is getting better when the opposite is true. She is also receiving unsettling comments on her podcast from an anonymous email as who will look for her when she is the one to go missing and it is question she isn’t even able to answer in her own head.
The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan 4.5 Stars – It has been a little while since I read A Natural History of Dragons but I absolutely loved it aside from some minor pacing issues and I couldn’t wait to jump into this book since the audiobooks are great too. The opening of The Tropic of Serpents reintroduces is to Isabella after the devastating ending of A Natural History of Dragons and she is organising another expedition this time to the wilds of Eriga. However, she is facing some backlash since her family don’t want her to go as an unmarried woman mirrored by Natalie’s family and her mother is concerned by her lack of a bond with her son and it is because Isabella isn’t the maternal sort and she does understand baby Jacob. There also seems to be some interest in Eriga particularly close to the place they are traveling but this biggest concern for everyone involved right now is that fact that Mr. Kemble’s laboratory was broken into and a lot of his bless on preserving dragon bones were stolen. The latest research was with him at the time and he manage to copy most of what was in the older notebooks from memory but it seems that time of running out to find an alternative material and none wants the senseless slaughter of the dragons on their mind.
Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton 4.5 Stars – I read the first four book in the Anita Blake series really close together and while I enjoyed them none of them have been stand out reads for me but I have been informed the series get better the further in you get so I am jumping back in with Bloody Bones and I am hoping there is more spicy content in this book than the previous instalments. The Opening to Bloody Bones was interesting as Anita is being giving a raising but this one is different as she will be required to raise an entire graveyard without a human sacrifice and even Anita isn’t sure she can do it because all the bodies are jumbled together and there are no name which are usually vital for raising but Anita isn’t a normal reanimator. Before she leaves she goes to see Richard and things seem to be heating up between them but after five weeks of dating both Richard and Jean-Claude, Anita knows she has to make a decision and it is going to end badly either way since Jean-Claude won’t let her go and he has proven he is willing to kill Richard to have Anita. Before she can do much at the construction site where the raising will happen she gets a call from Dolph about three dead bodies near her location and she is being sent to go and see if there is anything supernatural involved in the murder and decides to take Larry along for the ride even though he isn’t part of spook squad like she is. Honestly, jumping back into these books is so easy as they often recap the previous book and there are really easy to read which means I’ll probably fly through this. There is a common theme of the book titles relating to place and much like The Lunatic Café and Guilty Pleasures, Bloody Bones is a restaurant owned by a family that claim the land the construction site is on belongs to them even though the council decided otherwise and the raising is to prove whether or not it is a family plot like the one family claim it is.
The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton 4.5 Stars – The opening to the sixth instalment in the Anita Blake series was interesting as we can see Anita questioning her feelings towards both Richard and Jean-Claude more especially after the events of Bloody Bones. However, she soon learns that Edward was offered a contract to assassinate her and he is going to turn it down as he feels he can make more money and be more useful protecting Anita which she is grateful for as she knows how lethal Edward is although he isn’t happy about her dating a vampire. After returning from a party with Richard she is confronted by a man in her apartment who tries to shoot her and obviously he ends up dead which causes a headache for Anita as she has to explain without letting slip that there are hitmen after her and this one is only going to be the beginning. I was spoiled for this book as a friend told me that Anita sleeps with Jean-Claude in this novel which I am insanely happy with and I am excited to see how we get there but I would have appreciated the surprise since I have been waiting since their meeting in Guilty Pleasures and all the other hints dropped in the previous five books to get to this.
Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton 5 Stars – The opening to Burnt Offerings was great as it begins with Anita receiving a call from Stephen asking her to help him protect his friend, Nathaniel who is a wereleopard. This is a bold move from Stephen since Sylvie is in charge of the pack while Richard is away and she has forbidden the wolves to help the leopards because of her own personal dealings with them. There is also the issue of Sylvie climbing the ranks at a rapid rate and many believe she is harming the pack by doing so. Anita agrees because Stephen is her friend and she calls in Kevin to help since she still holds the rank of lupa until Richard takes another. However, she speaks with Irving in the hospital and he is worried about Richard since after killing Marcus and losing Anita he has been prone to rages where he hurts the wolves who challenge him which isn’t like him so Anita steps up.
Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel 5 Stars – It has been a while since I read Sleeping Giants by I absolutely loved it and started to read this book before I put it down for some reason. After months I am finally picking it up again and I am eager to learn more about these aliens and whether or not they are going to make an appearance. Waking Gods opens with Rose Franklin or the version of her that is younger and didn’t die in the explosion that is now continuing with the previous Rose’s research but this Rose feels that Themis wasn’t left here for Earth’s protection but to be hidden from anyone that wanted to find it and the aliens didn’t count on humans putting Themis together which is why another robot, Kronos has been sent to London. Meanwhile, the Earth Defence Corp or EDC is sending Themis to interact with this new robot to figure out who or what is piloting it and how it appeared fully formed in a London park when it took them years to find all the pieces and put Themis together. So far it has been nearly a decade since the first Rose died meaning the timeline of this series might span at least one generation maybe more but I am excited to see what secrets they uncover with the arrival of Kronos.
Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel 5 Stars – The opening to Only Human was really interesting with many things going on, it seems that America got the robot that Rose damaged to work again and they have been slowly taking over as many countries as they can as well as disbanding the EDC and the UN to prevent them being stopped. Meanwhile, Rose, Vincent, Eva and the General have been on Esat Ekt, the planet of the Ekt people and after nearly nine years they convince Ekim to help them get back to Earth. Their plan works and drops them int he middle of the Russian Federation where they are rescued and learn of what America has been doing and the new Russia is the only thing standing between them. Shortly after arriving on Earth, Ekim gets sick and they have no idea how to help him and Katherine begins briefing Rose and Vincent on what has happened while they were away and it seems this is going to spark another war but this time between humans. Neuvel’s opening was amazing but I am hoping to learn more about their time on the alien planet and how they interpreted there for nine years before coming home. We do have a little information like the General died there of natural causes and after arriving they were stuck inside Themis for several days since no one seemed aware that they were there.
The Lost Files by Sylvain Neuvel 3.5 Stars – File 002 was very short but gives some context to the opening of the series as our mystery narrator is investigating the discovery of some metal objects in India that emanate light which sounds remarkably similar to the Ekt robots and this might be why the Themis project was started in the first place. Also, pissing off Robert was a huge bonus for me that man could be an ass at times.
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