Dev’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2017)

Dev’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

@Susanne

i actually usually don't like books with werewolves but i do like what she's done with them here with the whole mafia thing. i think i generally avoid werewolf books because it seems like all of them are romance books now and the main werewolf love interest dude is always a total asshole, oh i'm sorry i mean ~sexy alpha male~ [loud groaning] and i just hate that soooo much.

i do agree the fear of clowns is silly - especially with everything else cal faces down - but i guess that's why it's an irrational fear lol.

this book probably is the heaviest on romance in the series, which is saying something because even here i don't think it's overwhelming but it's definitely present.

@Annalise, yes sometimes it seems like the ONE book i actually want to read out of my whole TBR is one that i can't get at the library and then i have to go 'ok but do i really want to BUY it right now???'

mine is just over 500 so it's slowly shrinking but i still feel like it's way too big. hilariously enough there are still some days when i literally feel like i don't want to read a single book on it lol

i got through about a third of it yesterday [up through chapter 8] but i think i'm gonna take a break today since most people seem to have just started / not started at all. although honestly i know these books backwards and forwards so i guess it doesn't really matter, but it's still nice to draw it out sometimes.

i'd be interested to hear people opinions on George and the whole Cal/George thing. (view spoiler)[I like her as a character but I've never really liked her and Cal as a couple. Mostly because I just have such a strong aversion to couples where it's like ~cute innocent girl~ who is going to make dark brooding man ~a better person~. Granted that is only barely what is happening here, George isn't that innocent and Cal isn't as much of a monster as he thinks he is, but I still find myself rolling my eyes a bit when he thinks about how ~good and pure~ she is. (hide spoiler)]

also just gotta say that I love my girl Promise! (view spoiler)[Her and Robin fighting over Niko is hilarious to me [especially since Niko has zero interest in Robin at all] and also her interactions with Cal are pretty great. I loved when she reluctantly ate his horrible pancakes and then when she started talking about having sex with Niko because he was zoning out lol. (hide spoiler)]

woo, just barely ahead of the curve lol. i would be further ahead but i seem to DNF and delete almost as many books as i actually read lately *g* oh well, it means i suffer through fewer bad books but when you spend an hour reading 10 minutes of five different books and then throwing them out it's a bit discouraging!

@Sammy I did quit after chapter two lol. I feel bad because I'm the one that nominated in the first place but the 2nd person narrative combined with the confusing dump of information right at the beginning made me not want to continue with it. I hope the rest of you find enjoyment in it though!

@Beth, go for it! And if you want to still comment with thoughts on the book 1 thread or even here then feel free.

i'm listening to chapter 1 right now and it always kills me that cal is afraid of clowns. i mean i guess it's a common fear but i just never got it. probably because my mom had porcelain clown dolls when i was a kid so i was just used to them, but when my friends came to spend the night they would make me put a blanket over them and i was just like ??? ...okaaay??? lol

so i didn't get this started today but i'm definitely gonna start it in the morning

Definitely!

well i'm looking forward to whatever huge brown monstrosities you are planning for us ;) lol

i'm guessing tower teams will be a bit later than it was last year since you guys are still in the middle of a single person challenge?

More Than This by Patrick Ness

A boy drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments. He dies. Then he wakes, naked and bruised and thirsty, but alive. How can this be? And what is this strange deserted place?

As he struggles to understand what is happening, the boy dares to hope. Might this not be the end? Might there be more to this life, or perhaps this afterlife?

From multi-award-winning Patrick Ness comes one of the most provocative and moving novels of our time.

Pride theme: I'm not exactly sure but it's tagged LGBT as one of the top tags and seems to be on quite a few LGBT book lists so I'm sure it qualifies in some way

Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings

Villanelle (a codename, of course) is one of the world's most skilled assassins. A catlike psychopath whose love for the creature comforts of her luxurious lifestyle is second only to her love of the game, she specializes in murdering the world's richest and most powerful. But when she murders an influential Russian politician, she draws a relentless foe to her tail.
Eve Polastri (not a codename) is a former MI6 operative hired by the national security services for a singular task: to find and capture or kill the assassin responsible, and those who have aided her. Eve, whose quiet and otherwise unextraordinary life belies her quick wit and keen intellect, accepts the mission.
The ensuing chase will lead them on a trail around the world, intersecting with corrupt governments and powerful criminal organizations, all leading towards a final confrontation from which neither will emerge unscathed. Codename Villanelle is a sleek, fast-paced international thriller from an exciting new voice in fiction.

This is the book that the BBC series is based on. For the Pride theme: Villanelle is bi and I guess Eve would probably be 'questioning', at least from what I've seen of the show so far.

saw this post on tumblr and it made me laugh bc it's 100% promise lol

https://lumensuperbis.tumblr.com/post...

woo! i used to not be able to listen to audiobooks at all but i really like them now and even find myself switching between reading and audio for some titles if i'm really enjoying them and don't want to stop

it's basically like an online library. you can make an account and borrow anything that's on there and it's not limited to your location like your local library. most books are available in either pdf or epub form - with the pdfs usually being scans of the actual paper book and the epubs being converted from that so i usually go with the pdf option because the epubs often have spelling errors.

you can read the files with either adobe digital editions or bluefire reader on your computer and i think they have apps as well but i haven't tried it that way. you can also read the book right in your browser but i find that to be cumbersome because you have to like zoom in to make the print readable and then arrow around the page.

it's probably a bit more effort than getting it from your library but i often find things on there that my library doesn't have -especially with older books- so i use it on occasion.

cool, i'd love more people to join in! and if you want to make some posts on the buddy read for the first one whenever you read it that's cool too. although watch out for spoilers in our discussion, i think we kind of just stopped using the spoiler cut since we were both done with it. also it looks like both the first two books are available to borrow right now on archive.org if you've got an account there and are having trouble finding your physical copy or getting it from your local library.

i started the audio on The White Road this morning although i don't think i will get more than a few hours in on that today.

trying to decide if i want to finish up The Monster of Florence or start Mycroft Holmes next.

i'll probably read a graphic novel at some point although idk which one yet.

it actually got cancelled so while there are 10 books the last one is the first part of a two parter where the second one never got published. there's a few cute scenes in it but i really wouldn't recommend reading it because it's awful anyway and also book 9 is actually a really good end to the series and i think she should have ended it there anyway but alas.

i had two friends that used to read this series but they both stopped after book 6 lol i understand because book 6 is actually a bit of a struggle for me but books 7 and 8 are probably my favorites so i'm like YOU'RE MISSING OUT!

and may 1st sounds good. i'll go request the thread

yes i was so surprised by the samuel thing the first time i read it, didn't see that coming at all!

and i do like how darkling kept bragging like 'oh i'm not possessing him we're just one person' but then that backfired in that cal's feelings for niko wormed their way in and darkling lost his edge at a few inopportune moments, very nice

and oh god this entire series is just one big brotherly angstfest lol i absolutely eat it up. i was telling one of my friends about it and she was like 'that's not healthy' and i was like ...well ...no obviously not. but it does make for a damn good book.

i'm planning on rereading all of them if you want to keep doing the buddy reads. i was going to try to limit it to one a month if i was doing it by myself but we could do one every two weeks if you want? i know it's hard to read a series slowly if you're really enjoying it