How is it September?!: Mini-Reviews

Why is it officially the ninth month of this year now?!?! Anyway, I know I’m not the only one feeling this sense of impending doom. All right, all right, that’s a bit extreme. But not really, when you consider that White Fang and Muffin are starting high school and preschool within 24 hours of each other. I’m dying here, folks…

Since lately I haven’t been up to much (rather than my head exploding over Volume 2 revisions), I figured I’d try something new — a quick recap of some of my most recent, current, and next reads. I’ve been really good about posting my thoughts on Goodreads, but not so much on here.

Here are two I read in August: A Matter of Temperance and Halayda.

A Matter of Temperance by Ichabod Temperance is cute and fun. I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of the old radio shows, where relating a lot of the action relied on the narration, and there were scenes that were much more dialogue than prose. The only thing about this writing style meant sometimes it was a bit difficult to follow, but usually it was pretty easy to catch up and keep going.

The protagonists were SO stinkin’ adorable, I cannot even with how sweet they were together, and separately. Ichabod Temperance is an innocent old-fashioned country boy, and Miss Persephone Plumtart is a proper lady but absolutely no shrinking violet. In a steampunk Victorian England, they try to save each other and eventually the world from monsters that are a cross between Lovecraftian nightmares and giant insects. (And, yes, I did enjoy this!)

Halayda by Sarah Delena White was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The world-building is very ambitious, and it’s a unique take on the worlds of faery and human meeting in a not-very-good way. However, I struggled with parts of it. The main protagonists, Sylvie and Taylan, seemed a bit self-absorbed and short-sighted, in my view — basically, the villain is getting ready to blow up the entire world, and they were more concerned with cementing their romantic relationship and avoiding their personal destinies until about 50 pages from the end. The secondary characters, Zad and Diza, were very likable and relatable, and I enjoyed reading about them.

There was plenty of action, and emotion, and a background history that was very interesting. But the exposition got rather lengthy in places, and there were subplots introduced that I didn’t get enough conclusion on. Overall, this is a different sort of fantasy tale, and worth trying. (White Fang will be reading it soon, and we’ll see what he thinks.)

Reading now…

Believe it or not, I am currently reading A Game of Thrones. I must say, I am surprised that I’m liking it. I’ve seen a few episodes of the show, and didn’t care for it at all. The level of profanity — not just the violence, but the vile language and the base level of sexuality portrayed — really shocked me. Also shocking was when I found reviews saying the books weren’t as bad. So, I wanted to see for myself. And, yes, G.R.R. Martin’s original material is definitely for adults, and not a pretty story, but the text is 10 times less foul than the show. (Okay, off the soapbox…)

It’s very well-written; the characters are fleshed-out; the style of the prose reminds me more of the early 20th century than the Middle Ages it’s set in (which is great, because I can understand 90% of what’s going on without having a dictionary at my side). Some of the characters are completely horrid and deserve to get the sword. (I already have my own nominations.) But others are wonderful or cool, or an interesting gray area and I want to know more about them.

The only downside is each book in this series is loooooooong. I may very well be going on 50 before I finish it all.

Coming up next…

Later this month, I will be part of the launch team for EB Dawson’s The Traveler, which releases in just a couple of weeks! I’m receiving an ARC of this indie author’s latest release, and am looking forward to this new story!

Oh, and one more thing — last night we watched Collateral Beauty, and everybody needs to see it. Bring the tissues. Actually, just build a fort of opened tissue boxes, and sit inside that.