R16: Team #1 ~ One and Done

[Allison Ann]

It's why I rarely read romance. I really just don't get the bad boy allure. If someone is mean, it really doesn't matter to me what they look like. In my head they will be ugly. Always.

[Eldarwen]

That is actually a good attitude!
For some romances, I like the "rough around the edges" type but in real life, I don't think I would ever consider a real bad boy to be "like, such a babe" (that piece of quote is from a movie.... but can't remember which one and it bugs me haha).

Raphael can be an ass and he was very much a dick in that first book, especially under silence (or whatever it was called again), but he's not so bad overall. Dimitri remains a dick towards Elena throughout the series but I like that about him.

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Yep, even when he's found & won his mate, he's still a dick to Elena :D

[Victoria]

Allison Ann wrote: "It's why I rarely read romance. I really just don't get the bad boy allure. If someone is mean, it really doesn't matter to me what they look like. In my head they will be ugly. Always."

I agree, that's a great attitude to have! And I used to love reading the "asshole redemption" trope, but the more I read the more I begin to hate it. I still enjoy it to some extent, but I've dropped a lot of books lately with asshole/controlling male leads.

Although I'm still willing to give the Guild Hunter series a try!

[Victoria]

I finished by Necromancer book, but have NO idea what to write for a review. I think I liked it, but I'm not too sure... I feel as though my mind kept spacing out while listening to it - not sure if it was the fault of the narrator, the story, or both (or maybe it was just my general absentmindedness)

And still need to decide on a Hunter book...

[Allison Ann]

Victoria wrote: "I finished by Necromancer book, but have NO idea what to write for a review. I think I liked it, but I'm not too sure... I feel as though my mind kept spacing out while listening to it - not sure i..."

It wasn't 100% for me, but Angels' Blood was still an interesting story line. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to people who aren't as picky as me. :D And not impressionable adolescents. :D

[Allison Ann]

Eldarwen wrote: "That is actually a good attitude!
For some romances, I like the "rough around the edges" type but in real life, I don't think I would ever consider a real bad boy to be "like, such a babe" (that piece of quote is from a movie.... but can't remember which one and it bugs me haha).

Raphael can be an ass and he was very much a dick in that first book, especially under silence (or whatever it was called again), but he's not so bad overall. Dimitri remains a dick towards Elena throughout the series but I like that about him. "

I'm thinking every movie from the 80s, every single one. ;D

I have no problem with Dmitri remaining a dick, as long as Elena doesn't suddenly find it charming and then we have a love triangle and then I'm really done. :D

[Eldarwen]

Victoria wrote: "I finished by Necromancer book, but have NO idea what to write for a review. I think I liked it, but I'm not too sure... I feel as though my mind kept spacing out while listening to it - not sure i..."

Hahaha :-))
I often have to laugh when that happens to me, wondering whether I liked it or not, or if I finish the book and have no idea what I just read.
Narrators can really break or make a book though!

[Eldarwen]

Allison Ann wrote: "I have no problem with Dmitri remaining a dick, as long as Elena doesn't suddenly find it charming and then we have a love triangle and then I'm really done. :D"

Ahahahaha! Nope, no way :-))

[Eldarwen]

Guess now that Uno is over, I really need to decide which book to read for the Hunter shelf. I'm hesitating though.

Think I'll just pull all three off the shelf and sit down with them tonight and read a couple of pages in each one, see which one catches my fancy most.

[Allison Ann]

Eldarwen wrote: "Guess now that Uno is over, I really need to decide which book to read for the Hunter shelf. I'm hesitating though.

Think I'll just pull all three off the shelf and sit down with them tonight and ..."

Sounds like a good plan. I'm taking a day off from reading, though I doubt it will last all day. I just don't know how to read without a goal right now. :D

[Eldarwen]

Haha ;-)

I have a mini goal - a personal one. I want to finish my orange book soon so I can catch up on the Hunter shelf and whatever will be called tomorrow. But will be reading at a slower pace. The last week of Uno was a little extreme.

[Victoria]

I think I finally decided on reading Skinwalker for hunter

[Eldarwen]

Good choice :-)

[Allison Ann]

Victoria wrote: "I think I finally decided on reading Skinwalker for hunter"

Enjoy your book. New shelf call tonight. So many different options to give us 4 in a row. Fingers crossed.

[Eldarwen]

Fingers crossed indeed!!

I'm going to be travelling this weekend (long weekend) so I may not get a lot of reading done, except for the plane ride, which is barely 3 hours total, but still! I'll do my best :-)

Also, Allison and Tatenisha, if you're in the NBRC group, Tower Teams are up - thought you might like that one. Victoria and I are already signed up ;-)

[Allison Ann]

I love Tower Teams, but I don't participate in team challenges during the summer. I simply don't have time and don't want to be one of those half-assed participants. :D

My summer schedule is as follows: Tuesday through Sunday - work 4 a.m. to 7-9 p.m. Read for 8 1/2 minutes before passing out, Monday - luxuriously sleep in until 5:30 a.m. and only work 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Read for 3 1/2 minutes before passing out. Repeat until October. :D

[Eldarwen]

Why on earth do you have such long working hours over the summer??

Or do you count family into that?

[Victoria]

Allison Ann wrote: "I love Tower Teams, but I don't participate in team challenges during the summer. I simply don't have time and don't want to be one of those half-assed participants. :D

My summer schedule is as f..."

ugh, and I thought my schedule was bad!

[Allison Ann]

Self-employed, seasonal business, service industry, workaholic. :D

[Eldarwen]

Here we are!

Shelf #9 ~ 2/5/18: Urban Fantasy
DIRECT LINK - https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

Gives us even more options for 3 in a row.

[Allison Ann]

I was going to read but I picked it up off my shelf to read last week and then didn't read it. However, I also didn't put it back on the shelf and after searching my house for an hour last night, I gave up. It is hiding. Hiding very well. So instead I will be reading which 1405 people have shelved as urban-fantasy - 342 pages.

[Eldarwen]

Hahaha! Evil book! Hiding from you and not even coming out when you're calling for it, tsk tsk ;-)

I'm not sure yet what to read for this shelf, but I have a few options.

For Hunter, I'm going to read . I'll take it to Vienna with me for a long weekend away. Not sure I'll get a lot of reading done except for the fairly short plane ride but every page read is a page read :-)

I'll be offline for the next 3 days but I'll be back online during the day on Monday.

Happy reading and enjoy your weekend, guys!

[Allison Ann]

Have a great time in Vienna, E.

[Eldarwen]

Thanks!

[Victoria]

Enjoy Vienna!!!

I'm going to decide on my UF book after I finally write my necromancer review. Which I'm going to write... right now... Perhaps after a glass of wine...

[Victoria]

One glass of wine later...

Completion Post
Necromancers
Book:

Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling
How it fits: tagged once as "necromancers"
Date Read: 30 Apr
Rating: 3ish stars
Review

3ish stars - really don't know how I feel about this one.

This book is right up my alley, a high fantasy with spies, thieves, and political intrigue - all things I love. And all these things were probably done pretty well in this book, but for whatever reason I could NOT focus on what was happening!

I didn't really like the audio narration, but at the same time it wasn't particularly bad. So I'm not sure if my lack of focus was due to the narration, me not being in the right mood, or the story itself. Or, perhaps a combination of all (or some) of the above. There were quite a lot of info dumps which definitely contributed to my lack of focus, but they were well spaced out and don't explain why I was so absent minded for the rest. I followed enough of the story to understand what occurred, but not enough to grow any real attachment to the story or characters, whether good or bad.

I probably shouldn't bother rating this book, but it annoys me to leave the stars blank.

I think, when I'm in the right kind of mood, I'll pick up a physical copy of the second book and that'll probably (hopefully) determine my feelings on the series and whether or not I continue.

[Tatenisha]

Completion Post

Shelf: Hunter
How it fits: shelved 4 times


Book: Bloody Bones
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Date Read: 5/1/18
Ratings: 4 stars
Review:
Anita is sent to Missouri to raise a graveyard so that they can discover who the land belongs to. She is sent to help the police investigate some gruesome murders and must call on the help of her vampire Jean Claude.
She must now fight a master vampire who wants her blood and she must help with solving the murders of slain teenagers.
This is one of the better ones in the series.

[Tatenisha]

Selection Post

Shelf: Urban Fantasy
How it Fits: shelved 1104 times

Book: The Killing Dance
Authour: Laurell K. Hamilton

[Allison Ann]

Moving right through the Anita books Tatenisha. Good job! :D

[Victoria]

haha that series really does work for most of these shelves

[Tatenisha]

Yeah, that's the good thing about the series but its challenging dealing with the MC.

[Allison Ann]

Completion Post

Week: Nine
Shelf: Urban Fantasy
How The Book Fits: Shelved 1405 times as urban fantasy


Book: Definitely Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Date Read: 5/04/18
Rating: 4 stars
Review: Sookie continues to grow on me. She only mentioned her word-a-day calendar three or four times in this book. :D The way the last book ended, I thought for sure she'd get her ass kicked this outing - and she did, but she survived, she is learning to keep her mouth shut and be sneaky around the supernatural people, she is learning about herself, she's not quite so immediately judgmental of new people. Also, BONUS she seems to have kicked Bill quite definitely to the curb. Her reasoning is that of a 12 year old, but then Sookie is pretty much a 12 year old with boobs. I'm not sure replacing him with a tiger is a great idea, but at least Quinn is much less boring. Amelia and Bob have excellent potential, let's continue that shall we?

[Eldarwen]

Lots of completion posts! :-D

I'm back and Vienna was awesome!! Though as predicted, I didn't get much read. Will play catch-up this week.

[Eldarwen]

Necromancer stamp requested!

[Steph, Serious series addict]

CONGRATULATIONS, One and Done!
You now have an updated BINGO card with a stamp on 'necromancers'. 

[Your updated BINGO card can be viewed on page 1]

Good Job!! :D

[Sandra, Kindle Operator Licence Required]

Congrats on the stamp O&D!

[Allison Ann]

Welcome back E. Glad you had a great weekend.

We have 900 million three in a rows now. Wednesday has to bring us something in line! Please!

[Eldarwen]

Thanks for the stamp, ladies!

Thanks, Al! And yessss! I'm crossing my fingers for a good stamp - that is not Guilty Pleasures, Kindle Freebies or 2016 Reads. Because those are needed for Bingo by other teams ;-)

[Victoria]

Completion Post

Week: Eight
Shelf: Hunter
How The Book Fits: tagged Hunter 11 times

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter
Date Read: 08 May
Rating: 3 stars
Review:
I liked this, but not as much as I expected.

To begin with, I loved the fact that Jane was a skinwalker and the magic and rules involved with it. In particular, I loved Beast who is by far my favorite thing about this book. I also really loved the dynamic between Beast and Jane and how the live and work together. I also really liked Hunter's world-building and her take on supernatural characters.

Jane as an MC was okay in my opinion. I liked her well enough, but not as much as I should have seeing as she's the MC. Overall, I didn't really care for any of the characters. Other than Beast, who I loved, I liked Leo and Bruiser (George?), but that was about it. Everyone else was just sorta meh. Although, I have a feeling I'll love Molly and Angie in the subsequent books. Not sure how I feel about the romantic interests. There seems to be a few and other than maybe Bruiser I'm not too fussed about anyone. Particularly Rick, I did not like him and really hope he doesn't become a thing.

I did like the overall mystery and how everything played out (for the most part anyway).

I think my main problem with this book was a lot of small things that really irritated me. Such as explaining every item of clothing a person is wearing. This is a problem I have with a lot of books. Sometimes it's a handy way to describe a person, but when it's overdone and brought down to itemized detail it's infuriating to read. I'm able to ignore it, for the most part, in light-hearted romances, but in other genres it just gets on my nerves.

The author also over-explained a lot of unnecessary things, for example:
- During a fight her opponent asks "what discipline?" and than "He was asking what form of martial arts I studied." - no shit
- Another character asked: “I am having a lovely little Assam black. Would you join me?” and than the narrator added: "Assam black meant tea." - even if I didn't know assam was a type of tea I would have easily figured it out through context. Plus, it's already stated Jane is obsessed with tea.
- “What do you press, anyway? You got arms like a gorilla.”
'Press. As in bench press. ' - again, no shit
- "Beignet - a french doughnut" - no kidding, what do you think I've been craving since knowing this was set it New Orleans!
- etc

Anyways, maybe I'm too critical and nitpicky. I did, admittedly read the majority of this while trying to stay awake for a night shift and on one occasion hungover, so maybe I was just cranky during my reading and couldn't help but focus on the annoying, but minor details.

Despite my rant I did enjoy the story overall and plan on continuing with the series.

[Victoria]

Eldarwen wrote: "Lots of completion posts! :-D

I'm back and Vienna was awesome!! Though as predicted, I didn't get much read. Will play catch-up this week."

Glad you loved Vienna! I really want to go, but because I view it as a nice romantic getaway I keep waiting till I have the perfect boyfriend to go with. In short, I'll never visit lol

[Eldarwen]

Haha, don't wait! It's totally worth seeing without the perfect boyfriend. If I waited for such a guy, I still wouldn't have been!!

And happy to see that you enjoyed Skinwalker, for the most part anyway :-))

[Victoria]

haha so true! I'll move it up my "must visit list"!

And I feel as though I was too sleep deprived to properly enjoy Skinwalker. Hopefully I'll like the next one more and read it when I'm fully awake (and sober... it was a bank holiday, what do you expect lol)

[Eldarwen]

It takes a bit to get into the series, especially because Jane isn't the typical kind of MC - at least not where the books I read are concerned. But it's something I enjoy about it a lot. And Beast is absolutely brilliant!

[Eldarwen]

Shelf day!! :-D

Tomorrow is a bank holiday for me, so I'll definitely get some reading done. And I might even still be awake for shelf call today, maybe. No guarantees hehe. I've been very tired ever since returning from Vienna and barely manage to read on my bus rides, which is starting to really bug me, because I'm getting the impression that Dead Witch Walking is taking ages to get into the swing of things but really it's just me not getting a move on.

[Allison Ann]

Let's hope for a good call. Even though I'm busy, I don't quite want this one to end yet. :) Then it's really summer and I can't avoid my work anymore. ;D

[Eldarwen]

Oh noes..... Sam's new update reduces the shelves we want to be called by a lot!

Shelves needed by other teams to get Bingo, otherwise known as shelves we do not want to be called today:
- Kindle Freebie
- Guilty Pleasures
- Vampires
- 2016 Reads
- Assassin
- Gargoyles


Soooo.... shelves we could potentially like is Series Complete, Fae, Supernatural Thriller or Magic Users. Spin-Off is another option but it's a shelf I personally hate, so I'm hoping that won't be called. And now I really hope I didn't jinx it hahaha.

[Eldarwen]

Allison Ann wrote: "Let's hope for a good call. Even though I'm busy, I don't quite want this one to end yet. :) Then it's really summer and I can't avoid my work anymore. ;D"

Fingers crossed, yes!
I don't want Bingo to end either. I never do, really hehe.

Shelf call is in about an hour, I think, but I'm heading to bed and try to get a few pages read before I fall asleep. Pretty tired and it's midnight here.

I'll probably be dreaming of shelf options o.O

[Allison Ann]

Yeah you jinxed us. :D

We got the completely useless to us but equally as useless to almost everyone else Gothic Horror

Shelf #10 ~ 5/09/18: Gothic Horror
DIRECT LINK - https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...

[Allison Ann]

Selection Post

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind - shelved 17 times as gothic-horror

I was going to read Frankenstein but apparently that book is lost with the book I wanted to read last week. Why are my books hiding from me? I am good to them. I save them from yard sales and garbage bins everywhere. Very badly-behaved books!