Ricky Pine's Blog, page 116

Review: Salt & Stone

Salt & Stone by Victoria Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At first, I went into this book thinking it would be the end of a duology. But with that cliffhanger? Nope nope nope. And what a cliffhanger it is, too, bringing the main plot of the first two books mostly to an end (with a ton of feels to go with it, of course), while clearly setting up for the next story arc - which of course is even more straight out of The Hunger Games than anything in even these first two books.

Let's just say that...

Review: Grave Peril

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wizards vs. Vampires vs. Ghosts from the Nevernever.

It might sound overdone to you, but then again, it is a Dresden Files book. It pulls the job off nicely, and then some. The usual high action helps, of course - and also the interplay between Harry and his friend Michael, who's more than just a Token Religious Teammate. Being Catholic (or so I'm picking up vibes), he's a pretty good foil to Harry's cheerful agnosticism (at best), and still...

Review: The Collector

The Collector by Victoria Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

And now for something a little different from Victoria Scott - not a story about a young woman going into a deadly near-future competition to save her family, but a story about a self-centered, sin-happy demon who goes around marking souls for collection. His new job - collect the soul of a girl who does so much good in the world that the world, of course, treats her like crap in return.

Dante Walker may be an assbutt, as Castiel might...

The Battlemage: Cover Reveal

The cover to Taran Matharu's third (and apparently NOT final) Summoner book is here. Repeat, the glorious red cover is here!

Is that Ignatius flying in the background too?
Welcome to Mars, I guess...with Fletcher looking very, very dangerous. :D

MUST.

HAVE.

THIS.

NOW. *getting grabby*

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Review: Fire & Flood

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Titans, I've had to go back and start reading Victoria Scott's other work...and this was the first one I chose to go with. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the similarities between Fire & Flood and Titans - chiefly, the young protagonist engaging in a dangerous competition to help her family, as well as a Twenty Minutes Into The Future sci-fi kind of setting that feels like modern day America, except not quite. This...

Review: Ashes of the Innocent

Ashes of the Innocent by Gavin Hetherington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me an agonizingly long time to read this book after beginning it on Wattpad...six months ago? Of course, the book itself was very long, and I had so much crammed into the old schedule...but today, I've finally finished it, and let me tell you, the final three or four chapters or so validate the length with their unending twists and up-to-eleven gore and puke. It's pukey horror in-universe and out. High Octane Nausea...

Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipated Fall 2016 TV Shows

Today, Joey of Thoughts and Afterthoughts put up a "Top Ten Tuesday" meme about his most anticipated new TV shows for this fall. Naturally, I just have to follow suit with my own Top 10 list, which (while a little less cable- and/or web-inclusive than Joey's), if it doesn't get you interested in these new shows, I'm probably not the same species as you. (But we already knew that, LOL.)

This list, of course, counts only brand-new shows debuting this fall - which means no gushing about The...

Review: The Countdown

The Countdown by Kimberly Derting
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was a huge fan, taken, as it were, with The Taking way back in the summer of 2014. Last year's sequel, The Replaced, was still good, though slightly underwhelming, especially on the romance front.

At last, I've read the conclusion to the trilogy, which proved to be quite the mixed bag. The first half was a little slow-moving, and more often than not had me scratching my head, probably because it's been over a year since I read The R...

Review: Fool Moon

Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beware. The werewolves are out to play.

Just like Storm Front, rereading Fool Moon helps remind me of the good old days when Jim Butcher didn't take forever to put out his next book, and when the books were a little more simple and straightforward and not loaded full to bursting with crazy Fae. (Though I didn't get into this series until after the Fae started really coming to the forefront, and then I had to spend a while catching up...but let...

Review: Cam Girl

Cam Girl by Leah Raeder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Elliot Wake's first three books each use some kind of art form as a recurring motif - film in Unteachable, creative writing in Black Iris, and now, in Cam Girl, the sort of art you would find in museums. This leads to what has to be one of the most striking opening sentences I've seen: "A car crash is a work of art." And from there, our new narrator, Vada, launches into a more detailed description using so many famed art movements of the last...