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

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

Hey Doug, I know all about car troubles. I marked the A Meddle of Wizards as a want to read. I love her books and I hope that I will love this one. I see that there are reviews up already. They sound pretty good.

A surprise holiday book came out today in the Outlaw Shifter world, A Very Outlaw Christmas

I just finished a short by Kevin Hearne, The Squirrel on the Train this is in Oberon, the wolf hounds', perspective and it is so funny. Luke Daniels does a great job and Hearne's writing was fast and hilarious. It is only almost 3 hours long and I got it on the 1/2 price audible sale that ends today.

Vinity... I am so glad that we will get more in Miranda Davis' Duke's series. I do miss that discussion with her on Amazon. It was nice to chat with her and some of the other authors who stopped by.

Melindeeloo... I'm also glad that your loved one is safe. Her finals had to be tough with all of the fire stuff going on. I have practically no experience with wild fires, except for when we were staying in Montana. The mountain behind us was on fire. We saw the lightening strike that started it on Sunday, by Tuesday it was a raging fire, on Wednesday a complete fire fighting city had sprung up. On Thursday, everything was an amber color, the sun was practically gone and the smoke was intense. Friday, the wind shifted and it gave us and the firefighters a bit of a break. We went home on Saturday and we followed the fire on the internet. It took weeks to contain and put the fire out. The mountain was huge and the ranches were really spread out. The best thing, (and it still gets to me), was that even though there was a drought, hundreds of people lined up to help evacuating families save their belongings and their livestock. Trucks were lined up for miles. I was very proud.

What is everyone reading? Amid the Winter Snow came out today, and if I get a chance, I will start on that.
Also, the funny little series that came out in October with multiple authors writing a different story about people in the same town, Everlasting, ME, has a couple of new additions coming out, today's book is Total Eclipse of The Hunt . This is a series similar to the Nocturne Falls books, in fact Kristen Painter is one of the authors, (Jane DeLeon, Michelle Pillow, and Mandy Roth are the others). The first book in the series is Dead Man Talking .

Ezi is the last book a series?

Paula... Are the deLint books a series? If they are, which series do you recommend? Not that I need more series to read, LOL!! I know famous last words.

I finished the Bec McMaster stories in both of the anthologies. I am so glad that I got the Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection last summer. I loved the story that LAB mentioned previously, "Heart of Fire". I am so happy to say that there will be more in the series. She plans to release Heart of Fire as a standalone novella and the second book will be "Storm of Desire".
I'm hoping that some of the other books in this collection are just as good. I will continue with those.

On the Edge
is $.99. This is the first book of the Ilona Andrews "Edge" series.

I will join the "I hate GIF's in a review" bunch too. It is one thing if you send one in a text that actually applies to your message to a friend, but inappropriate in a review. IMHO

Vinity... I had a problem with Ian at first, but I think that it isn't so much a problem with his ability, but the direction to make him appear bewildered and naive all of the time.
Re: the NC filming, in CT we used to get some filming, but now they build a set to make it appear to be a quaint New England town. Aren't they filming in South Africa?

I agree with Kristi and FangFan. I don't look at things nearly as much as I used to now that I'm not already on Amazon. I don't look at the daily deals, and unless I have a reason, I have not one-clicked anything in a while. There are still a couple of things that I buy that are cheaper on Ammy, or the free shipping makes it cheaper, but I don't have that many. More money in my pocket.

Hi Nancy!! Welcome back!! :-}

Melindeeloo... I was just going to post about the other Myths and Magic anthology. I read the first 2 stories and they were more like intros to a series, then I read McMasters story "Burn Bright". I liked it very much. It has good character definition, lots of quick action, and an unusual mythos with a light romance. All of the things that you would like in a story in an anthology.

I don't know if anyone is interested in this discussion, they are the SOS: Serious Overload of Series group and do a year long re-read of Fantasy, PNR, and UF series that have, (of course), 12 books or more in them. They are voting now, until Dec. 10th, on the next series to read/re-read in 2018.

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Vinity... Is A Duke in Shining Armor a new series for Chase? I love her series, especially on audio. Also, is the Maiden Lane series complete? I don't think that I have listened to the last few books. Have you listened to the novellas?

Karen... Thanks for the Christmas rec, Winter Moon.
I have been wanting to read "Christmas(y)" books.

I finished Rocked by the Bear Complete Novella Collection: Werebear Romance. they were a good dip into 6 of the side characters.
I also finished Under The Kissing Bough which had a story that qualified for one of my challenge entries. This is an anthology that I purchased last year with Christmas themed stories.

Now I don't know what to read, Faith Hunter book hangover, UGH! I think that I will attempt Mel Sterling's book, Ironbound. I have wanted to read the next book, and have put it off for more shinies. Has anyone here read it?

December 8th and I am so close. I need a "Y" location and a "U" author, which by the way was the exact same author letter that I needed last year and the year before at the end of the year.

Ezi... I'm glad that you posted about Razr. I totally forgot about reading that 1001 Dark Nights book. Do you read all of the authors in that series? I just read a few.

After Soulwood, I decided to return to the Maine Bears, Rocked by the Bear Complete Novella Collection: Werebear Romance I'm glad that I didn't purchase these all separately. That's way too much for these novellas.

Liz... I agree with HappyBookWorm... I think that that computer sounds a bit high. I know men that are gamers and I don't think that they pay that much. Please check somewhere else. That's not a lot of ram, (8gig). Your son is still young but you don't want to have to do this all over again next year. I know that it is the "thing" with young boys, but who knows what the next "new" thing will be. Talk to the sales people, ask for a serious gamer for a clerk and get their opinion. They might even be able to recommend someone to build you a gaming tower locally. I would not trust someone that you can't walk up to and ask for help/repairs. Also, some of the "trick" items, lit keyboards, a gaming mouse, headphones, mic's ... are on Amazon and are part of their 12 days of Christmas sales. I would look there for extras.

I couldn't take the h in A Strange Hymn.
It might be just a good book hangover, so I switched to an Historical Read, The Countess Conspiracy I'm getting back the the Brothers Sinister, which I haven't read in a very long time.

I finished Flame in the Dark really late last night.
Like Jane Yellowrock, Nell Ingram is a complicated heroine. I love that each book gives us more about her as she discovers more about herself. Her tumble into the "Townie" world is giving her courage and strength to stand up to, and for, whatever is the right thing to do. Her lack of awareness of things that we all take for granted, (like the concept of dating), complicate her life. Long gone is the "Widder Woman", in her place is a competent investigator. The book has intense action, snarky comebacks, and tender moments. Loved it, Loved it.

On audio I listened to My Lady Jane. This is a "re-telling" of the history surrounding the 9 day reign of Lady Jane Grey. This is all tongue in cheek, set in a supes vs. non-supes world. It was a bit slow going in the beginning, but eventually is was a very enjoyable listen. I would give it 4*'s This was one of my purchases on Audible's latest sale.

I started the second book of the Bargainer series, A Strange Hymn.
While I generally like a Fae/human tale, I'm finding that I am not so impressed with the h and I wasn't in the first book either. She is so bewildered all of the time, she is supposed to be a 24 year old young woman with enough street smarts to co-own a detective agency. Something happened to her and it actually makes her more like her Fae mate, but instead of embracing it, she whines about every little thing. He tells her that she is even more beautiful, does she believe him? No. I guess that it is too YA/NA for me. I can tolerate some ignorance, but everything is a negative challenge. I hope that I can limp my way through this book.

I am a frequent browser of cookbooks. There wasn't a single cookbook in that category that I browsed or purchased. There are usually a couple of books that I either possess or have read through. I wondered if the publishers had a hand in the nominees.

HappyBookWorm2020 wrote: "Vinity, my brain kicked in right after I hit the enter key. Julia Kent has a hysterically funny contemporary series. I don't think I read all five and was fine with it. The first one is priceless. ..."

Vinity... I read the Shopping for a Billionaire series last year at this time, and found it snarky and it moved along at a good pace.
HBW.. The "bee" scene was funny, wasn't it?

Tomorrow I will be reading the long awaited Flame in the Dark I can't wait.
Lately I have been spending my time reading potentially good, but sometimes mediocre reads in an attempt to fill in all of my blanks in the Reading Challenge. I have only a couple to go. Anyone want to recommend a "U" author? Or a "Y" location that I may have missed in all of the books that I read this year?

Vinity... Turns out I bought Sunbolt 2 years ago. Let me know how you like it. I'm sure I bought it on the rec. of someone here.

I have been all caught up in the bear shifter world of V. Vaughn. I originally read her books because I needed a "V" author. I like the books well enough, but I suspect that the next series of books will go a little off the rails because there is mention of an alternate universe. I wanted to read the books about the younger "boys" but they are all about 80-90 pages and cost $2.99 each for 6 "stories".
My mistake, if you look hard enough, all of their stories are on Amazon for $9.99. Rocked by the Bear Complete Novella Collection: Werebear Romance If you know the complete name of the collection, you can find it, but the novellas are all a different guy's name. Tricky Goodreads, tricky!

On audio I am listening to a zany novel about Lady Jane Grey, set in an alternate history, with shifters. It's cute and has had me laughing a couple of times. It's My Lady Jane

Are there any good Christmas/Holidays books coming out? Does anyone have a favorite book or collection that you read at Christmas time?

Last year, I read a couple of the Klaus Brothers books, that I think that perriwinkle reads every year.