So I read 19 books in November and only DNF’d one, that means I only have 11 books to read in December to make my Goodreads goal of 200 books this year and a few of those are going to come from my book tours and my bookopoly TBR.
The Bane Chronicles: Vampires, Scones and Edmund Herondale by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan ***** - I loved both What Really Happened in Peru and The Runaway Queen, the first two stories in the Bane Chronicles and this story takes place in 1857 in Victorian London. Magnus is recovering from the events in France and is harbouring quite the grudge against vampires, that is until he meets the lovely Lady Camille Belcourt who is also attending to Consul to discuss peace accords with many other Downworlders. Here we get see some names we are familiar with like Morgenstern and Fairchild.
The Bane Chronicles: The Runaway Queen by Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson ***** - Where What Really Happened in Peru took place in 1791 in Peru, this story takes place in the same year but in Paris. The Runaway Queen sees Magnus in Paris around the time the French Revolution was taking place and he seems to be doing quite well despite the fact that Paris is a home of many vampires, some of whom have their eyes on Magnus like Saint Cloud who invites Magnus to a party and he can’t refuse the invitation. However, in the time meaning Magnus is visited by a man called Axel asking for his help in getting the royal family safely out of Paris and Magnus agrees.
The Bane Chronicles: What Really Happened in Peru by Cassandra Clare & Sarah Rees Brennan **** - After re-reading City of Bones and changing my rating for the better I have decided to reread the series in chronologically order in terms of the story. This means I will be reading the first 3 stories in The Bane Chronicles then The Infernal Devices trilogy, but I am going to review the short stories individually as I read them. I am really excited to read these stories since Magnus is one of my favourite characters in the whole series and he constantly reappeared throughout the timeline.
City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare **** - I read the full Mortal Instruments series years ago and I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it either, it was pretty meh for me. I went on to read the first book in the Infernal Devices and didn’t like it and DNF’d the second and I haven’t read anything by Cassandra Clare since because all her books are set in the same universe. However, this is my last chance read meaning this is the last chance for me to change my mind on the book and/or author, if TMI doesn’t vibe with me this time I will not be reading anything more by Cassandra Clare. The opening chapter was interesting to be fair as we see Clary and Simon going to a club called Pandemonium where Clary witnesses a murder but it is clear to her that only she can see and speak to the people responsible as Simon and the bouncers can’t see them. I was surprised that Jace, Isabelle and Alec didn’t cart her off straight away when they realised that Clary could see them but they let her go and she heads home with Simon troubled by the events of the night but unable to do anything about it. I was also surprised that there was a mention of Valentine so early on in the series, since Valentine plays a large part in the latter half of the series. After the events at the club, Clary’s mother wants to take her on vacation for the rest of the summer which doesn’t sit well with the 15 year old Clary but Luke, her mother’s friend has a strange conversation telling Jocelyn to tell Clary about something and mentions someone called Magnus.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig ***** - I haven’t read anything by Matt Haig in the past, but I have heard nothing but good things about The Midnight Library and I decided to give it a go. We are introduced to Nora Seed, first as a teenager where she has just quit swimming which she was extremely good at and is pondering on her life, specifically the life she is going to live. We then jump forward to when Nora is 35 and witness the events that led her to decide that she is going to take her own life. This process starts with the death of her cat, Volts which spirals into her losing her job and her part-time piano tutoring job and she begins to realise how she isn’t needed by the people around her. We also learn that Nora has had the opportunity to do a lot with her life and ran away from them. She could have been an Olympic swimmer and ran because of the pressure, the band she had with her brother was offered a record contract and she ran away from it, she even ran from the opportunity of having a husband and family which had led to where she is now as she leaves her brother a voicemail and writes a suicide note before taking her life.
Randomize (Part 6 of the Forward Collection) by Andy Weir ***** - I haven’t read anything by Andy Weir before despite having both The Martian and Artemis on my bookshelf and requesting Hail Mary on NetGalley, but I am hoping I like his writing style in this short story. Randomize is the final story in the Forward Collection and centres around Vegas casino games being completely scam proof in the future and it may include a heist aspect to it as well. The protagonist is an IT genius who is enlisted to upgrade the security for the game of keno and its random number generator but not everything is as it seems.
The Last Conversation (Part 5 of the Forward Collection) by Paul Trembley *** - The Last Conversation is the last but one short story in the Forward Collection and while it was interesting, I didn’t enjoy it as much as have with other stories in this collection. It follows a nameless protagonist as awake with no memory of who they were before awakening in a lot of pain. There is a disembodied voice of Dr. Kuhn or Anne as the protagonist comes to know her. Anne explains that it is her job to help the protagonist get back into shape as they have been asleep for a long time and help them recover their memories.
You Have Arrived at Your Destination (Part 4 of the Forward Collection) by Amor Towles **** - This is first story in the Forward Collection that I am not giving five stars. I have a specific reason for this and it is that the whole story felt a bit disjointed and you couldn’t really figure out what was going on. You Have Arrived at Your Destination follows Sam and his wife, who are considering using a new fertility lab, Vitek to conceive a child. Vitek doesn’t just deal with the physical aspects of IVF but allows parents to pick their child’s personality as well.
Emergency Skin (Part 3 of the Forward Collection) by N. K. Jemisin ***** - I have never read anything by N. K. Jemisin but I have a lot of books by this author on my TBR right now so I am hoping that Emergency Skin will give me an introduction to the writing style the author uses to see if I like it before committing to larger series. Emergency Skin is about an explorer who returns to an Earth than has been ravaged by climate change but receives several warnings about what might be found on Earth.
Summer Frost (Part 2 of the Forward Collection) by Blake Crouch ***** - Blake Crouch is one of my all time favourite sci-fi, thriller authors and the Wayward Pines series is one my favourite series of all time too, so I was really excited to get into Summer Frost. Summer Frost is the second instalment in the Forward Collection and is looking at what it truly means to be human through a game developer, Riley and an NPC character, Maxine who refuses to die, even when that is what she was created to do. In the opening to Summer Frost we see Riley entering the game and follow Max as she deviates from her written code as she kills her husband who is supposed to kill her in the prologue of the game. Intrigued Riley offers to tell Max everything she wants but in doing so Riley traps her in a simulated space. In reality, Riley works for a game development company and is in charge of NPC characters but convinced her boss to let her study Max as she is a wonderful accident as she has basically evolved into a self-evolving AI. In her normal life, Riley is trying to conceive a child with her wife but after a year and a half of trying they eventually adopt a child, but Riley also sees Max as a child of sorts.
Ark (Part 1 of the Forward Collection) by Veronica Roth ***** - The Forward Collection is a series of 6 short stories written by some of the biggest sci-fi and fantasy writers including Veronica Roth and Blake Crouch. This collection focuses on stories of the future whether that is near or far and are extremely shorts so they can be read in a single sitting.
Asylum Archives Case Study Vol. 2: True Accounts From The Insane by Jaron Briggs ***** - I read the first book in this series in less than 30 minutes so I had to jump straight into the second book, and I will be following the same review format as I will review each story individually as they don’t tie together.
Asylum Archives Case Study Vol. 1: True Accounts From The Insane by Jaron Briggs ***** - This book was suggested to me after I finished the Dr. Harper Therapy series which I loved, and it sounded interesting as all the short stories are based of real asylum cases. Like the I’m a Therapist series I will talk about each of the stories individually and if they connect together, I will also discuss that towards the end of the review.
The Iron Will of Genie Lo (The Epic Crush of Genie Lo #2) by F. C. Lee DNF - I read The Epic Crush of Genie Lo a few months back and I love it and I have had an arc of The Iron Will of Genie Lo for a while but due to university and reading slumps I haven’t picked it up but I decided I wanted to read it before the end of 2020. The opening chapter of Iron Will begins with Genie telling her best friend, Yunie about the events of the first book and demonstrating her newfound abilities in order to get Yunie to believe her and then we jump forward to the present. After the events of the first book, Genie and Quentin have been charged by the Jade Emperor for keeping the demon population in check which means spending endless hours hearing and granting their requests but many still oppose Genie passing judgement on them until she unleashes her full powers. Genie learns two things in quick succession, one is that she is being watched and assessed on how well she is fulfilling the Mandate from the Jade Emperor and if she isn’t doing well enough she can be replaced, and the second is that there is another demon threat being whispered about, even larger than Red Boy from the first novel. The opening of Iron Will was interesting and reintroduces to the characters we love, especially Quentin but nothing really interesting happens but I have a feeling it might start happening the moment Genie leaves for her trip with Yunie.
Aquarius (Murders of the Zodiac #1) by Alathia Paris Morgan *** - I have tried to finish this series a few times in the past but due to one reason or another I haven’t been able to do so. Once again, I am starting this series from the beginning in the hopes of finishing it this time. We follow Leslie Boxe who has just been promoted to a homicide detective as she gets called to her first murder. Before lunch time on her first day as a detective, Leslie is taken to two murder scene with a very similar M.O. As she finds the first clue is related to their birthday as they both fall under the Aquarius sign which is drawn on cards left behind, we can see that Leslie has a huge job laid out before her just to solve these two crimes without the other murders that are going to follow. One thing I also noted is that we get the killer’s perspective, while this isn’t uncommon in crime novels, they normally hint or leave clues to the killer’s identity, but these books don’t as there is something special about the killer represented in each book.
The Road to Woop Woop and Other Stories by Eugen Bacon **** - A little while ago, I read and reviewed The Invisible from the same publisher and was offered the chance to read this collection and jumped at it. As I do with all the short story collections I read, I will be discussing each story individually and then summing up my thoughts on the collection at the end of this review. The forward to this collection was written by Seb Doubinsky who wrote The Invisible which I loved, so I could wait to jump into these stories.
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