Vanessa’s Comments (group member since Jun 15, 2017)

Vanessa’s comments from the Read, Reading, Planning to Read and More group.

Doug... I had a bit of a time in the beginning of How Hard Can It Be? I also listened to it, which I can imagine is easier than reading it. The voices are amusing and the voice of the lead character made the book for me. I probably would have had a hard time reading it too.

LAB... I agree and disagree with the statement about Rick. He had no say when Paka put him under the spell, but he also had no problem sleeping with a woman for his undercover work. He was "with" Jane when he was with Kenebi's wife and she bit him. Which resulted in her death. He was then kidnapped by the crazy werewolf woman and Jane rescued him. In the beginning of the series, he was sleeping with a married woman as part of his undercover work. That was when Jane had to kill the "U'nta Lanta" (probably bad spelling on my part). So, while I do feel bad for Rick, I think that maybe there will be a mate for him who is not Jane. I was heartbroken for her and I hope that Bruiser is her one true love. :-)

Carol... I read the second book in the Winternight Trilogy, The Girl in the Tower This book picks up where the first left off. Vasilisa goes from a daring young girl to a strong young woman, with a innate sense of honor and yet an innocence and naivete. In order to travel freely, she has to disguise herself as a man. She steps up when she needs to, and pays a great price. I can't wait to see how the author finishes this trilogy. I love her use of Russian mythology and the location of a young Moscow is engaging. I will be reading/listening to The Winter of the Witch. Sadly, it won't be out until January 8th, 2019.

ETA... I love the covers of this series, they're beautiful.

Anyone else watching the Royal Wedding? I am enthralled and enchanted. I Loved their ceremony, the diversity, it was beautiful. One thing that surprised me was there was a handfasting with the Bishop of Canterbury's stole. I didn't remember that at any other royal wedding.

Melindeeloo.... I'm glad that you mentioned the Poison study series. I have been buying those in audio but I don't have them all. Now I just have to download them.

I finished both How Hard Can It Be? and Midnight Wolf
I laughed so much over the craziness of the first book, and I really liked Midnight Wolf too. There is a weird twist added to the shifter's mythology too.

I started listening to Death Doesn't Bargain I almost thought that I needed to re-read the first book, but now I am catching on.

Ok not a narwhal, Venom & Vanilla, and A Court of Thorns and Roses books both have a Naga. Also, the InCryptid series has Naga's. They would serve your "N" series.

Liz... Sorry! I thought that I tried to get you to read all of the "bear" books.

I have been listening to an absolutely absurd and ridiculous novel, How Hard Can It Be?. The story is that a young woman discovers that she doesn't really fit in with her accounting colleagues and joins a women's writing group. They all appear to be socially inept and obsessed with all things sexual. In walks an old, plastic surgery addict who happens to be a famous writer, except she isn't the writer all, these women are. She gets the dirt on everyone and blackmails them all so that they have to write the books for her. It's been working perfectly for 20 years. I have been laughing out loud so many times at this stupid book. The author is Robyn Peterman and I have read a few of her books. They're always crazy.

The next Innkeeper/Sweep of the Blade is up--

http://innkeeper.ilona-andrews.com/20...

LAB.. I have been waiting for someone else to comment about the stopping time thing. I really didn't get the gist of that either. I thought that because it was so late at night when I was reading that chapter, that I just wasn't getting something. I'm going to have to see if someone more aware than me figured it out. I will prowl the threads to see.

Bruiser wasn't really my choice either but I too fell in love with him for Jane in this boo. He has been treating her with such respect and humor that I feel like we have watched their gradual transformation.

I love that she has her "clan" including her witch family, vampires, shifters, and of course her humans. I bet that Nantale's "kits" will become Jane's too. So that she can raise them to "believe in personal freedom and responsibility", like she wondered if Leo would do for his "foster kits". I also love the brothers, Alex is growing up and Eli always has her back. Eli has an uncanny sense of foreboding and the speed to react. The duel was excellent.

When Bruiser and Leo spoke about their becoming friends, I thought, "Oh No she's going to kill one of them off!" Then when the Onorios became the judges, I though it was going to be Leo.

How about her Godchildren and their "Hi Unca Leo!" I think that was truly the first time that Leo was utterly confused and somewhat flabbergasted in a very human way. I think that Angie gave that gift to Leo on purpose. She is very intuitive.

I think that the next book will bring Jane back to her roots. I am glad that she pushes her brother's buttons, he deserves it. Eli, bless him, pegged him with that the first chance that he got. He has known about her for a long time, and never bothered until he needed to use her to get close to the Pellissier clan.

I'm glad that she cut off the head of the SOD. I wonder if Brute will ever become human again.

In the future, I think that Katie will be a problem. She is conniving and Jane figures her to be the most powerful vampire. That wasn't an idle statement. Leo groomed her all of those years and she did betray Leo, Edmund has not had that opportunity in this clan. Now is Jane technically the Enforcer for Edmund? There will be a couple of usurpers that's for sure.

I think that the teeth will bring Jane back again.

Waverly... I will miss Oberon's commentary too. I got the impression that Hearne was done with all of this and that was a quick way out. (view spoiler)[He didn't even have Owen's reaction or have him contact Atticus after the big battle, I can't remember if he was even told what happened to him (hide spoiler)]

I finished A Court of Thorns and Roses. It didn't capture my attention at first but it did eventually. I will read the next two books in the trilogy at some point.

I have the next book in Kenyon's Deadman's Cross series, Death Doesn't Bargain. and I have a couple of off beat comedy's How Hard Can It Be? for one. I'm not sure what will appeal to me.

HappyBookWorm... That's good news about Chele. It is scary to think that so many people have lost so much. Unlike another natural disaster, (flood, hurricane, or even fire ), there is no rebuilding on a lava flow. I feel bad for those families who now have nothing.

Liz.... Chaol's story was in the last book, Tower of Dawn. If you haven't read, Empire of Storms, then you don't have the background for Chaol. He was hurt by the King and he has to go somewhere else to see if they can heal him. He also has to try and find allies for Aelin and Dorian. Tower of Dawn is a full length book, released last year. The final book is supposed to be released in September.

ETA... The final book, Kingdom of Ash is due to be released on October 23rd.

Waverly... I thought the exact same things about the Iron Druid books revolving back around. (view spoiler)[For example: When the Morrigan comes to him in a "dream" and professes her love, it felt like the beginning of the series to me too. (hide spoiler)] I agree with this series as a must listen. Did you get the impression that there is more to come? Granuaile didn't seem like herself to me, (view spoiler)[her flipping out over being left out during the big fight was kind of over the top to me. She admitted that she was only in her 20's and that Atticus was centuries old and she even got fighting instructions from the Monkey King. It just seemed very forced to me. I would have thought that she would have taken her previous statement into account. (hide spoiler)]

So I finished the last Iron Druid book, Scourged . I can see where people would be mad about the ending, but everything isn't always rainbows and puppies. War is brutal. I can''t help but feel that there will be a novella or short story in the future or maybe books about Owen and Granuaile. I would like to know about the young apprentices and even the puppies. I felt that the flow wasn't there but to be fair there are three Druids trying to prevent chaos from occurring in all different parts of the world, and each has a different personality and location. I liked the book, but I didn't love the book. Everything isn't all wrapped up in a neat package and I think that that was what people were looking for. I am satisfied with the ending but not enthralled with it.

I am attempting to finish the books that I stopped reading/listening to for shiny new ones. I am listening to A Court of Thorns and Roses. While it is well written, it isn't capturing me like her other series, Throne of Glass. Although to be fair I didn't read the latest book in that series either, the one about Chaol, Tower of Dawn because people wanted the conclusion of the series and they got thrown a brick about Chaol. I like his character, but his book didn't have to come out first. (Yes, I'm sure there was vital scheming and maneuvering involved).

Bec McMaster's newsletter states that book #3 in her London Steampunk Blue Blood Conspiracy will be out at the end of June or beginning of July and will feature Gemma and Obsidian and is titled "You Only Love Twice". Later, in October, we can expect #4 "To Catch A Rogue" which will feature Charlie and Lark.

On a totally different topic, have you seen where Amazon is pushing their "channels"? You can get all of the series from, (for example), HBO, for a monthly price.

Jennifer Estep, (Elemental Assassin series), has a new series coming out on October 2nd.

https://www.amazon.com/Kill-Queen-Cro...

The first book in the Iron Covenant trilogy, (Hugh D'Ambray's books), by Ilona Andrews is up for pre-order. Yay!!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CZ39YYV/...

Bump, Bump, Bump!! C'mon let's fill in those categories!!! :-}

I didn't get a chance to view her "Cocky" rant, but I did watch the parody video and another video by the indie author guy was quite good too. I still can't imagine that a trademark of that kind will hold up. Also, her patents are recent, not as long standing as we were led to believe, (according to the self publishing with Dale L. Roberts vid).
I did like Jenny Trouts' tweets, they were great.

I finished The Viscount Who Loved Me. on audio.

I decided to continue listening to my audio TBR and I am listening to the last of the Iron Druid books, Scourged. I am going to be sad to see this series go, but I hope that other authors take heed and limit their long standing series like Hearne has done. So far it is still a set up for the "grand finale" (Ragnarok).

On kindle, I am still reading Storm of Desire Storm of Desire I am about 1/3 through the book and it is finally engaging me. I don't know why but it just didn't catch my attention before when I tried to read it.

Doug... I read the first few Dark Protectors novels, and for some reason I stopped, probably something shinier. I don't believe that I have read all of them. One thing that I do like though is the spin-off series Realm Enforcers. Some of these are hit or miss to me, there's a mix of vampire, shifters and witches. Many of the characters are related and so there are some running jokes, and sibling rivalry, (in a good way), involved. They are an interesting spin on the whole shifter world.

DemetraP wrote: "Has anyone read Witch's Reign by Shannon Mayer? I've never heard of this series or author before. Should I read other books first?

https://www.amazon.com/Witchs-Reign-D......"

Dametra... I posted a couple of days ago that I read the first book and immediately read the second. I liked them a lot. They're a root for the collective underdog type of read.

Soo.... I finished Dark Queen a couple of days ago. Stupid me, I read until later in the night and tossed and turned about it all night. I couldn't get it out of my head. I am so curious where this is actually going in the future.

Witch's Reign was someone here's rec, and I am so glad that I read the book. I liked it so much that I read Dragon's Ground. I think that Mayer has really improved in her writing. There are a couple of characters who appear in her Venom trilogy and it is nice to know more about them too. I can't wait for the next two books. Jinn's Dominion will be out June 12th. I love the whole premise of these books. I always cheer for the underdogs, and she has a nice tight group of them. I would give these books 4.5-5*'s. I loved (almost), absolutely everything about them. One of the funniest things are the MC's, (Zam), curses. They are incredibly inventive. In an attempt to finish all books that I dropped to read new shiny ones, I have started reading Storm of Desire again. For some reason it did not grab me like the first book, Heart of Fire. I hope that it doesn't suffer from the sophomore slump.