WWW Wednesday (2)

Wow Wednesday has come round fast! The book meme WWW Wednesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading.

The aim of WWW Wednesday is to answer the following three questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

What are you currently reading?

I started Storm Front by Jim Butcher yesterday and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's the first in the series.

I also started The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2014 Edition last week as I received it through NetGalley for review but once I finish the story I am currently on, I think I am going to stop reading. Short stories are just not for me. What tends to happen is that I am just starting to get to know the characters and what is going on and then the story ends. I find it rather frustrating. Short stories are just too short for me.

What did you recently finish reading?

I finished reading Inferno by Dan Brown at the beginning of the week which I really enjoyed. It feels good to be able to tick another finished and/or up to date series of my list.

From a great reading experience to a failed one with MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. I just couldn't carry on with it unfortunately. I was so looking forward to the final installment in the trilogy but a couple aspects of the story (characters mainly) really started to grate on me, although I never had that with the first two books.

What do you think you’ll read next?
Depending on how quickly I get through Storm Front depends on what my next read will be as I have a buddy read coming up at the end of the month. I am flying through it at the moment though. If I finish it in the next couple of days then I might try to squeeze in one of the following: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence or Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.


Related Posts:
Storm Front First Lines & Teaser

Tuesday Into & Teaser: Storm Front

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea. So for this book meme, I just have to post the first paragraph of the first chapter of either a book I am currently reading or about to start.

I'm going to be focusing on my current read Storm Front by Jim Butcher, which is the first book in The Dresden Files series.

"I heard the mailman approach my office door, half an hour earlier than usual. He didn't sound right. His footsteps fell more heavily, jauntily, and he whistled. A new guy. He whistled his way to my office door, then fell silent for a moment. Then he laughed.

Then he knocked.

I winced. My mail comes through the mail slot unless it's registered. I get a really limited selection of registered mail, and it's never good news. I got up out of my office chair and opened the door."

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. So for this book meme, I have to randomly turn to a page (or two) and choose a sentence to post here to tease you all with. I'm combining the two book memes and using the same book for both.

My teasers:

"Paranoid? Probably. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face." ~ pg8

"No wonder she had recovered from her terror enough to come back up the stairs and fire my gun at the demon." ~ pg 169

Storm Front: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

Monday Mailbox (6)

Mailbox Monday is a book meme which is hosted by Marcia at Mailbox Monday blog.

Basically, we have to make a post featuring the books which we bought, received for review, or loaned this past week. Here is what made it in to my house:

Personal Purchases:


Stephen King is one of my favourite authors so I am looking forward to reading this one.

Firestarter: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads
Before They Are Hanged: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Books for Review on NetGalley:


I don't usually go for anthologies or short stories but this Dark Fantasy & Horror one took my fancy mainly because Brandson Sanderson and Neil Gaiman have contributed to it. When I got this book I was in such a dilemma - whether to go straight for their stories first or work my way through the book from start to finish. How do you tackle compilations of short stories?

As for the second book, I may not have gone for it if it hadn't been focused on the Balkan region during the Yugoslavian War in the 90s. I visited the region for a holiday a few months back and wanted to find out more about it and the war in particular.

The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2014 Edition: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads
Rose of Sarajevo: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline's often wondered what's behind the locked door in the drawing room. It reveals only a brick wall when she finally opens it, but when she tries again later, a passageway mysteriously appears. Coraline is surprised to find a flat decorated exactly like her own, but strangely different. And when she finds her "other" parents in this alternate world, they are much more interesting despite their creepy black button eyes. When they make it clear, however, that they want to make her theirs forever, Coraline begins a nightmarish game to rescue her real parents and three children imprisoned in a mirror. With only a bored-through stone and an aloof cat to help, Coraline confronts this harrowing task of escaping these monstrous creatures.

Gaiman has delivered a wonderfully chilling novel, subtle yet intense on many levels. The line between pleasant and horrible is often blurred until what's what becomes suddenly clear, and like Coraline, we resist leaving this strange world until we're hooked. Unnerving drawings also cast a dark shadow over the book's eerie atmosphere, which is only heightened by simple, hair-raising text. Coraline is otherworldly storytelling at its best.

This was a simple story which made for a quick read. It's also pretty short. You could tell it was aimed at young readers as the language was much more straight forward compared to Gaiman's adult focused books. It had the usual Gaiman darkness to the story which, among other things, have made me a fan of his. I like how he doesn't shy away from the darker side of life even with his children's books. Even though it's dark in places, it's not particularly scary. That said, I did find a couple bits gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I think it's just me. I have a thing about eyes and Coraline's other parents had black buttons sown on where their eyes should be and combined with my over-active imagination it made me shiver and cringe.

I don't really need to explain what the story is about as the synopsis above pretty much covers the whole story. I think whoever compiled the book blurb on the back could have revealed less of what was to happen especially as it's a pretty short book - they've not really left anything to surprise! I loved the eerie drawings at the beginning of each chapter too. Another fantastic read by Neil Gaiman.

I read this for a "Name that Tune" themed read-a-thon in which I had to choose a song and change it's lyrics to relate to the book in some way. You can read my Coraline song here.

Coraline: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Related Posts:
Coraline First Lines
Coraline Name That Tune Song

Review: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

Mercedes "Mercy" Thompson is a talented Volkswagen mechanic living in the Tri-Cities area of Washington. She also happens to be a walker, a magical being with the power to shift into a coyote at will. Mercy's next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a bus for a vampire. This is the world of Mercy Thompson, one that looks a lot like ours but is populated by those things that go bump in the night. And Mercy's connection to those things is about to get her into some serious hot water...

Reading Format: Kindle eBook
Year Read: 2014
Star Rating: 5 stars

This book was so much fun! Mercy is a fantastic character. She isn't the stereotypical female which I love: she's strong, knows what she wants, doesn't take shit from anyone, she is a mechanic, and she is a purple belt in karate. All this does mean that she sometimes gets herself in to a spot of bother.

Mercy is a shape shifter, with Native American roots, and she shifts in to a coyote. I really liked that the author chose something different other than the usual vampire and werewolf supernaturals. Don't get me wrong, I love both, but it makes for a refreshing change to have something different as the main character. There are both vampires and werewolves featured heavily in the book though with some really interesting characters. Oh and there are Fae and Witches in it too.

So a lone, newly made teenage werewolf turns up at Mercy's garage looking for work. One day, she finds him being held at gun point and coerced to go with another newbie werewolf and a human. Mercy shifts and intervenes, killing the werewolf in the process. The Alpha of the local pack comes to help clear up the mess and takes the new werewolf in. But then things go a bit tits up. Adam, the Alpha of the pack, is attacked in his own home and left to die and his daughter is kidnapped. Mercy saves Adam and then the hunt is on to discover what happened, who has taken his daughter and to get her back.

So when I read most Urban Fantasy books, I'm wondering when the obligatory romance will start. However with this book, there was nothing until the last chapter, maybe even just the last 5 pages, which was a blessing in my opinion. I have got nothing against romance in books as long as it is not the main focus. Women do not need to be in a relationship to be complete. That's one of the reasons I like Mercy!

The front cover put me off reading the book for a while. I really can't work out who the cover is trying to attract. I think the readership of this series is predominantly female because Mercy is a strong female character but then why the scantily clad Mercy on the front cover?!? To encourage men to read the series? Who knows what the publishers think!

I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. I've added them all to my ever growing wishlist!

Moon Called: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

Related Posts:
Moon Called First Lines & Teasers

WWW Wednesdays (1)

So I've decided to start with another book meme. This one is called WWW Wednesdays and is hosted by Should Be Reading.

The aim of WWW Wednesday is to answer the following three questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

Now I'm not sure how easy this will be to me as I quite often read a number of books at the same time. I almost always have one audiobook on the go while also reading a print book of some kind, whether that's a kindle ebook or a dead tree book. I don't want these posts to be never ending so I may be selective in how many I choose to list for each question. So here goes...

What are you currently reading?

I am currently listening to (still) Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. It started off really well but it started to drag so I put it to one side while I listen to the first Harry Potter book. Now I've finished that, I'm back to Miss Peregrine's. I generally only listen to my audiobooks while I'm on the bus going to work or doing household chores so I don't get through them as quickly as my print books.

I am reading a review copy of MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood. I've enjoyed the other books in the series so I am looking forward to finding out how everything comes together in this book. I just don't seem to have the motivation to read it though. I keep picking it up and putting it down.

What did you recently finish reading?

Ooh! So this is more interesting question to answer for this week. Over the weekend, I finished two short novellas which were both fantastic: Coraline by Neil Gaiman and The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, two of my favourite authors. I read these books for a challenge and I had to write songs about them which you can read here.

Another notable book I have finished was Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I must be the last person to have actually read this book. It was an audiobook, narrated by Stephen Fry, and I thought it was fantastic. I'm not going to review it on here as nobody needs to read another Potter review especially one which is seven years late!

I will say however, that I really wish that I had read this book as a child as I would have appreciated it more. That said, I still did really enjoy it and will be listening to the rest of the series.

Yesterday I had a huge gap between clients (3 hours to be precise) so I took myself off down to the local cafe, bought myself a nice cappuccino and settled myself down to read. So I managed to finish Moon Called in that time. A great start to a new series for me. I'm looking forward to hearing more about Mercy Thompson.

Reviews to follow shortly.

What do you think you’ll read next?
Decisions, decisions! Well, I am a member of a couple of book groups on Goodreads so I have some books to read for challenges and group reads already planned out. Two I need to read this month are Inferno by Dan Brown and Snowblind by Christopher Godden. I think I'm more inclined to read Inferno so that I can mark another series complete (until Dan Brown releases another book)! Neither of these choices are fantasy or science fiction so whatever I do decide to read out of those two, I won't be reviewing on here, just on Goodreads.



Related Posts:
Coraline First Lines
Miss Peregrine's First Lines
Name That Tune
Moon Called First Lines

Tuesday Intro and Teasers: Moon Called

First Paragraph - First Chapter - Tuesday Intro is hosted by Bibliophile By the Sea.

I'm going to be focusing on my current read Moon Called by Patricia Briggs which is the first book in the Mercy Thompson series. I've heard so many good things about this series so I couldn't wait to get started with it.

"I didn't realize he was a werewolf at first. My nose isn't at its best when surrounded by axle grease and burnt oil - and it's not like there are a lot of stray werewolves running around. So when someone made a polite noise near my feet to get my attention I thought he was a customer.

I was burrowed under the engine compartment of a Jetta, settling a rebuilt transmission into its new home. One of the drawbacks in running a one-woman garage was that I had to stop and start every time the phone rang or a customer stopped by. It made me grumpy - which isn't a good way to deal with customers. My faithful office boy and tool rustler had gone off to college, and I hadn't replaced him yet - it's hard to find someone who will do all the jobs I don't want to."

In addition to the Tuesday Intro, I have decided to take part in Teaser Tuesdays, which is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. I'm going to combine the two book memes and use the same book for both to make things a bit easier for myself.

My teasers from pg 214:

"The pack is coming," I told Samuel, as we cruised slowly by Warren's house for a look-see.

"I don't know how much you remember from while you were changing, but Warren called for help."

Moon Called: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads

What do you think? Would you keep reading?

I did keep reading and I'm about 65% done with it and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Watch out for the review once I'm done!