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R7: SS "High Fivers" (5)


(In Death, #2)
Finished: 2/29/16
Rating: 4 stars
Review: I'm really loving this series. In the first book I didn't really understand the future setting, but now it's really clicking for me. The world is becoming more clear and I really enjoy the nonchalant way the characters interact with the technology. The author gives us the room to figure it out for ourselves.
Eve Dallas is such an intriguing character and I love her flaws and inner demons. Her relationship with Roarke has developed nicely and I'm curious to see where it goes from here and how the series will develop.
This installment's killer was maybe a bit obvious, and somewhat boring. I thought the first book's mystery was more complicated and therefore more fun for me to try and unravel. I did appreciate how this story brought Nadine and Eve together and I hope we see more of that working relationship (and possibly friendship?) in more books.



How it fits: 6th in a series
Date: 02.03.16
Rating: ★★★★
Review
I decided to carry on with the Virgin River series, I really like it. All the books are really easy to read and you don't have to think about them too much.
This book focuses on Shelby a twenty Five year old woman who in some terms is very naive but also immensely strong. She has been the main care giver for her Mother for the past few years who had terminal illness. After her Mother passes away Shelby decided to move to family in Virgin River and sets her sights on Luke Riordan. She knows it is love at first sight but do due to her naiveté and the age gap between the pair Luke tries to stay away.
Again one of the main things I love about this series is that new characters and old characters are brought together throughout the books so you always know how everyones life is panning out. I love a happily ever after.
Week 7
Spot: 52
Book: The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Qualification: Magisterium #2
Finished: 28 Feb 2016
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Review:
Summer away from school and his friends gives Callum a lot of time to think about some things... like the fact that apparently his body houses the soul of the Enemy of Death, making him technically an evil overlord and not slightly awkward but mostly normal apart from being able to do magic Callum Hunt at all. His relationship with his dad is somewhat strained as well, thanks to the fact the Call brought home a chaos-ridden wolf, insists on returning to the Magisterium, and, well, might be evil which he is quite sure his father suspects. Things don't get any easier back at school either: When the students hear that a powerful magical artifact called the Alkahest has been stolen, Call suspects his father is behind it. Voicing that suspicion aloud to Aaron and Tamara sets off a chain of events that sends the three of them with an unexpected and not overly much appreciated companion on a dangerous roadtrip that might get them all killed.
The book started off a bit slow, but quickly picked up the pace. I'd have liked to see more of their time in the second year at the Magisterium, as we barely got to see any of that. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride despite the fact that these books are a bit too juvenile for me and am looking forward to seeing where the series is going.
Spot: 52

Book: The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Qualification: Magisterium #2
Finished: 28 Feb 2016
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Review:
Summer away from school and his friends gives Callum a lot of time to think about some things... like the fact that apparently his body houses the soul of the Enemy of Death, making him technically an evil overlord and not slightly awkward but mostly normal apart from being able to do magic Callum Hunt at all. His relationship with his dad is somewhat strained as well, thanks to the fact the Call brought home a chaos-ridden wolf, insists on returning to the Magisterium, and, well, might be evil which he is quite sure his father suspects. Things don't get any easier back at school either: When the students hear that a powerful magical artifact called the Alkahest has been stolen, Call suspects his father is behind it. Voicing that suspicion aloud to Aaron and Tamara sets off a chain of events that sends the three of them with an unexpected and not overly much appreciated companion on a dangerous roadtrip that might get them all killed.
The book started off a bit slow, but quickly picked up the pace. I'd have liked to see more of their time in the second year at the Magisterium, as we barely got to see any of that. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the ride despite the fact that these books are a bit too juvenile for me and am looking forward to seeing where the series is going.
Good morning, team! :) Today I rolled a 6, so our new spot is 58.
Reading options:
- #5 in a series
- #8 in a series
- #58 in a series
- Alternate: White (has been clarified in discussion thread as meaning white cover)
Reading options:
- #5 in a series
- #8 in a series
- #58 in a series
- Alternate: White (has been clarified in discussion thread as meaning white cover)

Atticus and Oberon, we are finally going to have some fun. Please don't disappoint me :)
Reading


Atticus and Oberon, we are finally going to have some fun. Please don't disappoint me :)
Reading

I didn't realize it was out already!!
Logan wrote: "Is this white enough? If so I'll go with the alternate cover.
"
Sure looks like more than 50% to me!
I'll be reading
.

Sure looks like more than 50% to me!
I'll be reading

Week 8
Roll: 6
Current Spot: 58
✔ Allison Ann: The Big Four by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #5) Review
✔ Denise: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #5) Review
✔ Jade aka MrsTosh: Sea Swept by Nora Roberts (Alternate: White Cover) Review
✔ Logan: Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean (Alternate: White Cover) Review
Sarah: On Holidays
✔ ❀Tea❀: Staked by Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles #8) Review
Roll: 6
Current Spot: 58
✔ Allison Ann: The Big Four by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot #5) Review
✔ Denise: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #5) Review
✔ Jade aka MrsTosh: Sea Swept by Nora Roberts (Alternate: White Cover) Review
✔ Logan: Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah MacLean (Alternate: White Cover) Review
Sarah: On Holidays
✔ ❀Tea❀: Staked by Kevin Hearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles #8) Review
Week 8
Spot: 58
Book: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
Qualification: Bloodlines #5
Finished: 05 Mar 2016
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Review:
Betrayed by her own sister, Sydney is being held in an Alchemist re-education center, cut off from the outside world. After three months of solitary detainment, she gets to join her fellow inmates, desperately hoping to be able to resist the Alchemists' reprogramming attempts and find a way out and back to Adrian and her friends. Adrian, meanwhile, is caught in a downward spiral, with Sydney's disappearance and his inability to find her having sparked a resurgence of his old self-destructive behaviour. Marcus is reaching out to all his resistance contacts to help track Sydney down, but finding someone the Alchemists don't want found is proving to be even harder than expected.
What a rollercoaster ride! A lot of the first half, with what Sydney is subjected to in the re-education center and Adrian's descent back into drinking and depression, is very uncomfortable to read, but oh my, how it pays off in the end. Plenty of suspenseful moments, action, and above all big emotions and an amazing climax - it'll be hard to top all of that in the final book. While I would have liked to see a bit more of Jill and the rest of the Palm Springs crew in this one, the cliffhanger the book ends on does seem to indicate that they'll be back in the center of the action for the big finale.
Spot: 58

Book: Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
Qualification: Bloodlines #5
Finished: 05 Mar 2016
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Review:
Betrayed by her own sister, Sydney is being held in an Alchemist re-education center, cut off from the outside world. After three months of solitary detainment, she gets to join her fellow inmates, desperately hoping to be able to resist the Alchemists' reprogramming attempts and find a way out and back to Adrian and her friends. Adrian, meanwhile, is caught in a downward spiral, with Sydney's disappearance and his inability to find her having sparked a resurgence of his old self-destructive behaviour. Marcus is reaching out to all his resistance contacts to help track Sydney down, but finding someone the Alchemists don't want found is proving to be even harder than expected.
What a rollercoaster ride! A lot of the first half, with what Sydney is subjected to in the re-education center and Adrian's descent back into drinking and depression, is very uncomfortable to read, but oh my, how it pays off in the end. Plenty of suspenseful moments, action, and above all big emotions and an amazing climax - it'll be hard to top all of that in the final book. While I would have liked to see a bit more of Jill and the rest of the Palm Springs crew in this one, the cliffhanger the book ends on does seem to indicate that they'll be back in the center of the action for the big finale.

Book: Staked by Kevin Hearne
How it fits: #8 in The Iron Druid Chronicles
Date: 07.03.16
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
Wow!
I listened this on audio (really recommend it. Luke Daniels is doing great job) so I might misspell some names :)
It was great book, but I do have few things that were irking me so please excuse my rants :)
I still have a feeling books were better before Granuaile got her POV. I just don't like her *shrugs* She's so obsessed with her stepfather and his oil business and insisting on clean power (?) Ok, I do agree with her about pollution, but please stop forcing everyone to your way of thinking! Are you any better if you keep sabotaging those that are thinking differently from you? Somehow I don't see them thinking 'Oh, my oil rig stop working, let's switch to wind power'
I didn't like Atticus callousness this time. He usually thinks about himself first and others waay later. But this time he was so focused on his tasks that he didn't even care about what's happening as consequence (until it was too late, and even then I had a feeling he just shrugged it off). Yeah, I get it he lived over thousands years here, he'd seen everything, done everything and so on. Shouldn't he then at least think about rest of mere mortals that can't heal touching earth? That would actually die when get shot?
Looks like only characters that I don't have anything against this round have names starting with O. Oberon was his usual happy doggy self as long as there was food near (I love that wolfhound ☺) and Owen was so fun with his not understanding modern world that he keeps you laughing every time it's time for his POV.

I'm back next weekend so can continue with reading :)

Series or Alternate: Series

Book: The Big Four
Series or Alternate: Hercule Poirot #5
Date finished: 3/07/16
Rating: 3 stars
Review: I generally love the mystery and hate the characters in any Agatha Christie novel. This was no exception, although I do enjoy the fact that in Hercule Poirot books, the dumb blond who constantly jumps to conclusions is Hastings.

Sea Swept
How it fits: Alternative - White Cover
Date: 08.03.16
Rating: ★★★★
Review
Whats not to like in a Nora Roberts book, they always seems to deliver just enough romance, mystery and a plot that keeps you turning the pages, Sea Swept was no exception.
Part of the Cheaspeake Bay Saga, it follows the story of the Quinn Brothers, all adopted as troubled youngsters by an amazing Man and his Wife, they reunite after their father dies and are left to clear his name and bring up his newest foster Son, Seth. With a little help from Miss Spinelli the Child Agency officer.
The book was very entertaining had me laughing out loud a few times and featured a few fiesty females to keep he turning the pages. ThIs book in particular concentrated on Cams story but I looking forward to finding out more about the other brothers.
The only negative I have is that Nora usually managed to bring a bit of the paranormal into a book and it fist, this one just didn't. Cam can see his dead father and starts talking to him and following his guidance, I just didn't see the point in this but it may become apparent as I continue the series.
That's fine. Please go ahead and roll for us once you've posted it - I might already be asleep by then since I'm way ahead of you timezone-wise. I'll take care of posting our spot and reviews over in the Post Your Spot thread tomorrow, so just roll and post our new spot here. :)

Alternate: White Cover

Finished: 3/11/16
Rating: 3 stars
Review: Well, I put this one off for a long time because I couldn't resist the spoilers and knew what was coming. Needless to say, the lack of mystery took some of the fun out of this one. Georgiana wasn't quite as interesting as some of the other heroines in the series and I'm not really sorry to see this saga reach its natural end.
West was an admirable love interest, though his secret wasn't as horrifying as all the lead up made it sound. I simply found too much of the book formulaic for me to really enjoy it as much as the others. Too bad, but still a fun story and I'll always read Sarah MacLean's books because of the great chemistry and authenticity she infuses into the characters and setting.

Reading options:
- #6 in a series
- #4 in a series
- #64 in a series
- Alternate: Brown
Week 9
Roll: 6
Current Spot: 64
✔ Allison Ann: Looking For Rachel Wallace by Robert B. Parker (Spenser #6) Review
✔ Denise: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #6) Review
✔ Jade aka MrsTosh: Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood #6) Review
✔ Logan: Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop (The Others #4) Review
✔ Sarah: Fall with Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Wait for You #4) Review
❀Tea❀: Prearranged absence
Roll: 6
Current Spot: 64
✔ Allison Ann: Looking For Rachel Wallace by Robert B. Parker (Spenser #6) Review
✔ Denise: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead (Bloodlines #6) Review
✔ Jade aka MrsTosh: Lover Enshrined by J.R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood #6) Review
✔ Logan: Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop (The Others #4) Review
✔ Sarah: Fall with Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Wait for You #4) Review
❀Tea❀: Prearranged absence
Week 9
Spot: 64
Book: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead
Qualification: Bloodlines #6
Finished: 12 Mar 2016
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Review:
It's been a month since Jill went missing, and noone has gotten any closer to finding her. Adrian and Sydney remain ensconced at the Moroi Court, the only place where they're safe from the Alchemists, forbidden from leaving for their own protection. But when Sydney receives a clue that might finally point them in the direction of Jill's whereabouts, there's no way she and Adrian will just stay hidden away rather than try to track her down and take down whoever abducted her.
Richelle Mead pulls out some spectacular plot twists for the conclusion of the Bloodlines series, with action, suspense and lots of emotion coming together for a perfect ending. It didn't quite live up to the sheer awesomeness that was Silver Shadows, but made for an immensely satisfying finale nonetheless.
Spot: 64

Book: The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead
Qualification: Bloodlines #6
Finished: 12 Mar 2016
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Review:
It's been a month since Jill went missing, and noone has gotten any closer to finding her. Adrian and Sydney remain ensconced at the Moroi Court, the only place where they're safe from the Alchemists, forbidden from leaving for their own protection. But when Sydney receives a clue that might finally point them in the direction of Jill's whereabouts, there's no way she and Adrian will just stay hidden away rather than try to track her down and take down whoever abducted her.
Richelle Mead pulls out some spectacular plot twists for the conclusion of the Bloodlines series, with action, suspense and lots of emotion coming together for a perfect ending. It didn't quite live up to the sheer awesomeness that was Silver Shadows, but made for an immensely satisfying finale nonetheless.

Series or Alternate: Series

Book: Looking For Rachel Wallace
Series or Alternate: Spenser #6
Date finished: 3/12/16
Rating: 2 stars
Review: I usually love the Spenser series, but Robert B. Parker has some issues writing women, and this book was centered around a militant-feminist, lesbian writer. Not his best. Certainly not recommended to those who don't already know the series.


Thank you , Denise. Yes! It was a very busy trip, didn't have a lot of down time, but it was all worth it.


Roll 9, Spot 64: Series #4
Fall with Me by Jennifer L. Armtrout
Rating: ★★★★
Read: 3.15.16
Pages: 389
Review:
I didn't love this one as much as I've loved some of JLA's other novels, but it was still a good read. Roxy and Reece have a complicated relationship. They were both holding on to a lot of guilt from their pasts, and they needed each other more than either one realized. I liked the creepy factor included with Roxy's stalker (weird I know), it was well done and not overly cliched or boring. Overall, it's a nice addition to the series.


How it fits: Alternative - Brown Cover
Date: 17.03.16
Rating: ★★★
Review
This book follows the story of Phury. I was intrigued to read his story as to me he is the most mysterious one of all the Brothers so far, I can't work out his complex character.
Sacrificing himself in the previous book, so his brother could marry his mate, Phury taken on the role as Primale, making him obligated to father the sons and daughters with the chosen to ensure their race and traditions of the Brotherhood continue.
After taking a vow of celibacy years before, the previous books have shown his determination to remain so despite his want for his brother mate. I was definitely looking forwards to how this romance would unravel. However, I found his drug abuse through the book took over the story and the romance seemed to take a back seat.


Finished: 3/18/16
Rating: 5 stars
Review: I really don't know how Anne Bishop does it. A story about apparently nothing turns into one of the most tense books ever. Yes, the war is growing and there are revelations. but at the same time I can't help but laugh that I'm on the edge of my seat when characters are just emailing each other! I do appreciate that the story is expanding outside of Lakeside, even more than in the last book. I cannot wait to see how this all comes to a head. This is probably my favorite series in the past few years. I am so in love with the setting and the characters. Please don't let it end!

You can read:
#6 in a series
#9 in a series
#69 in a series
Alternate: Green cover
Thanks for rolling, Logan!
Damn, I was hoping we'd get to the 70s with this roll... I'm all out of 6s and would prefer to save my one and only currently available 9 for later. Let's see if I can hunt down something with a green cover.
Damn, I was hoping we'd get to the 70s with this roll... I'm all out of 6s and would prefer to save my one and only currently available 9 for later. Let's see if I can hunt down something with a green cover.
I guess it doesn't get much greener than this, and I've been meaning to give this series a shot for ages anyway, so for this week I'll go with
.




So I'm debating between Outpost by Ann Aguirre and Resist by Sarah Crossan. Both have green covers.


ETA: I'm going with Outpost by Ann Aguirre it is the 2nd book in the Razorland series.

I am going alternative this week again, with Green Cover -


Book: Catch a Tiger by the Tail by Charlie Cochet
How it fits: #6 in THIRDS
Date: 20.03.16
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
I'm not sure what to say. I heard such mixed feelings about it that I was little scared going in. Not that it was bad, just that characters were acting differently. This book is another one out of main couple, and is basically romance (with very little suspense, just so it can continue with next book). Couple was practically known from book one. Or at least suspected probably from every reader :P
I have to say I love this series. It's funny and keeps you interesting. Only thing that's bothering me are those pesky cliffhangers. Charlie, you really don't have to worry. People love this series and will continue buying books as long as you keep it this good. You really don't need to end every single book with cliffie. They are really really really not necessary.
Books mentioned in this topic
Paradise Valley (other topics)Blood Rites (other topics)
Blood Rites (other topics)
A Lady of Integrity (other topics)
The Ruby Circle (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Jim Butcher (other topics)Alan Bradley (other topics)
Harlan Coben (other topics)
Robert B. Parker (other topics)
Richelle Mead (other topics)
More...
Series or Alternate: Series
Book: Death Masks
Series or Alternate: The Dresden Files #5
Date finished: 2/29/16
Rating: 3 stars
Review: It's been quite awhile since I read the first four in this series and I spent a good portion of this book trying to remember what went on before. Lots of "who?" "what?" "who?" while I was reading. That definitely lessened my enjoyment of the book, but that is my fault and not the authors. It was a typical action packed book, tons of wondering how the MC would survive this new challenge, etc. I just wasn't in the right mood I guess.