Graceling (2009) Kristin Cashore It took me a couple of tries to get into Graceling, but once I did, I ended up staying WAY up past my bedtime to finish it. Katsa is a Graceling–a person with different colored that denote that she is a gift–a special power. Every Graceling has unique powers, and Katsa […]
American Gods: Tenth Anniversary Edition (2001/2011) Neil Gaiman I needed some comfort reading to distract me, so since I’d picked up the 10th anniversary edition of American Gods for the kindle awhile ago, it won the comfort reading lottery. I’ve read American Gods many times before, but not this version with the expanded material. Only […]
Dragon in the System (2007) Cindy Spenser Pape So, another boinking book by Cindy Spencer Paper. Again, I didn’t buy it for the boinking, but because I enjoy her world building, and because it was $1.49. Lori is a herpetologist (really! how awesome that the heroine loves lizards!) who has a broken engagement behind her, […]
Easy (2012) Tammara Webber Wow. I wasn’t sure I wanted to read this story. As I started the first chapter, I REALLY wasn’t sure if I wanted to read this story. The book opens with Jacqueline suffering a sexual assault–a friend of her ex-boyfriend attempts to rape her. That’s a pretty heavy start to a […]
Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul (2011) Leanna Renee Hieber This is a YA/Historical/Fantasy/Romance (got all that?). We are reading the journal of Miss Natalie Stewart, who recently left the Connecticut Asylum, where she spent several years, not because she is a lunatic, but because she has been mute since the age of […]
Angel Killer: A True Story of Cannibalism, Crime Fighting, and Insanity in New York City (2012) Deborah Blum If you’re looking for a light happy story–this is not the correct place to look. This is a true crime history of a man who kidnapped, tortured–and in some cases–at children. That’s now why I read this. […]
X-23 Vol. 3: Don’t Look Back (2012) Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto This is (apparently [at least for now]) the conclusion to Laura’s story arc. The first part of the story–pretty much ‘Adventures in Babysitting’ with X-23 I really could have one without. It felt like they needed to shoehorn some action adventure in, […]
X-23 Vol. 2: Chaos Theory (2012) Marjorie Liu, Sana Takeda, Phil Noto What could this be? Why, it’s a new volume of X-23! This wasn’t bad, but it’s still nowhere near as good as Craig Kyle’s take on X-23 in Innocence Lost and Target X. The first half of this volume is very good–X-23/Laura continues […]
So, yeah. I went to put away my new X-23 comics, and instead ended up rereading all the X-23 and NYX books. Oops! The stories written by Craig Kyle were still–far and away–my favorites. X-23: Innocence Lost (2006) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Billy Tan, Jon Sibal X-23: Target X (2007) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Mike […]
The Killing Dream (2011) Marjorie Liu, Will Conrad It’s possible I should have paused a bit, between reading X-23: Target X and The Killing Dream, because Target X is really really good. That’s not to say The Killing Dream is bad–it’s just not as good as Target X. Apparently, Things Happened between Target X and […]
Target X (2007) Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Mike Choi I really liked the X-23 comics, but for some reason had only read NYX and Innocence Lost. Target X is the same author and storyline as Innocence Lost. We see what has happened to Laura after her escape, and how she has continued to struggle with […]
Hunting Kat (2012) Kelley Armstrong This is a short story that’s part of her existing series. Although this is a self-contained short story, it’s far more a teaser/trailer for other works rather than a story that stands completely on its own. Kat is kidnapped by people wanting to return her to an evil consortium that […]
Clementine (2010) Cherie Priest Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey is mad as hell: someone has stolen his ship, the “Free Crow,” and he’ll stop at nothing to get it back, even if that means going back into Confederate territory, where he’ll be (at best) hung as a runaway slave. Maria Isabella Boyd has been discarded by […]
The Custom of the Army (2012) Diana Gabaldon This is a Lord John novella. During an electric eel party, Lord John ends up in a duel (he’s not entirely sure how). When he opponent dies, Lord John is sent by his commander (also his brother) to Canada, where his presence is requested as a character […]
Lord John and the Hand of Devils (2007) Diana Gabaldon This is a collection of three Lord John novellas: “Lord John and the Hellfire Club,” “Lord John and the Succubus,” and “Lord John and the Haunted Soldier.” The first two stories follow in time after the novel, Lord John and the Private Matter. The third […]
Steel’s Edge (2012) Ilona Andrews According to Ilona Andrews, this is the last book in the Edge series. In the future they may write in this world (and about some of these characters) again, but as it is, they’re done with The Edge series. Second point, this is a relatively long book. Although the story […]