Rita’s Comments (group member since Jul 23, 2010)

Rita’s comments from the Unlocking Books group.

This week, I finished The Hob's Bargain. The story made me love fantasy again. I've become such a fan of urban fantasy that I've forgotten how good a pure fantasy book can be.

I want to introduce our guest Discussion Leader: Stephanie. As she has already read the book and raved about it, I asked her to take over this month.

I hope to be reading along, but I haven't got the book yet. My library doesn't have it, so I may be ordering it from Amazon.

I think he adds comic relief and dimension to the dialog. Remember that I'm reading the story as an audioboook, and the reader gives him a gruff voice. The way he reads him, it makes him much more interesting. If not for that, I don't think I'd like him either.

I'm excited about sharing this story with my family. Then I can start calling my kids "Cupcake".

Another great quote: Can you call a goat beefy?

I love Coach Hedge.

I haven't read past the first book yet. Last year, I tasted a bit out of a lot of different types of books, with the intention of coming back to their sequels later. I'm running out of books I want to read, so I'll probably pick those up soon.

I thought it was a strange way to end a love triangle, but I preferred [can't remember his name] to Jace. I'm a sucker for the guy best-friend who falls in love with heroine.

And I agree with you about the sick factor. It's not like they knew.

But then I married my best friend and never regretted it.

Kate wrote: "I'm trying the Mortal Instruments series. Read the first one; thought it was pretty good."

Without giving anything away, were you shocked/upset/sickened by the major revelation of the romantic interest?

I found out about it when I went to a book signing with Maria V. Snyder and 5 other authors. I could only buy 2 books (Outside In was one of them, of course), and for the other, I decided to pick one of the new authors.

Sadly, very few people bought books from the new ones. They all flocked to Snyder and Julie Kagawa.

Anyway, I'm not sure if I like XVI. There's too much of a culture shock to understand what is going on in the first chapters.

I'm reading XVI. Three chapters in, and I'm not sure what I think of it. Has anyone else read this one yet?

Hmm, you take on your friends' fights yourself and your story Shoshanna is about the key to the start of a war. Perhaps you are a son of Aries?

I think Riordan's great at memorable lines. Yesterday, as I was reading on my drive home, I came across this discussion between Jason & Leo. While sitting in a Chicago sewer, they are discussing the prophecy, wondering who the other 4 adventurers will be. Jason says, maybe they are also on a quest and the groups will meet up later.

Leo says: "I bet their sewer is better than ours."

I laughed out loud. I don't think I'll ever forget that line.

Kyle wrote: "I don't know who my god/goddess parent would be, any suggestions or thoughts?"

I'm not sure. Maybe we should come up with a quiz:

Do you prefer to...

(a) create things with your hands?
(b) get your hands dirty in the garden?
(c) paint your fingernails?
(d) get into a fight?

When your friend is in trouble do you...

???

Congratulations on the book signing!

Hi, Ace! I hope you enjoy Unlocked. It was a fun project, and this group was born out of that.

Story-weaver. I like that term. Mind if I steal it?

June's book discussion will be on The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum.

Will you be reading along?

What did you think of Outside In?

Ouch? See, there I go again, putting my foot in my mouth. I thought I was complimenting you! Ornery is a good thing. It makes the world a more interesting place.

And about the stone and the beer, I was just quoting you.

I know very little about Capris because I haven't known many. Since you are a stone to break my teeth and someone who pours his beer on his friend, would you say a Capri is ornery?

Kate, the conversation between Cornelia and Lollia when they studied Uncle Paris's carved likenesses (pages 216-217 of Daughters of Rome) has a lot more meaning for me. I had liked how you incorporated the 4 goddesses into the story, but now I really love it.

I think you would definitely be a daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter