Teaser Tuesday & Top Ten Tuesday: Last Ten Books That Came Into My Possession

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Page 1: "Government work is God's work [...] What was God?"
Karen Traviss, City of Pearl

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. They created the meme because they love lists. Who doesn’t love lists? They wanted to share these list with fellow book lovers and ask that we share in return to connect with our fellow book lovers. To learn more about participating in the challenge, stop by their page dedicated to it and dive in!

This week’s topic: Last Ten Books That Came Into My Possession

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

After talking about this book in my last Top Ten Tuesday as a hyped book I hadn’t read, I actually bought it at the same time that I was writing that post. I got a great Whispersync deal on the book and audiobook. I kept saying that first Schwab book would either be this one or A Darker Shade or Magic, but it looks like it’ll definitely be this book thanks to the deal. Mogsy and Wendy have both written reviews for this book that you should check out here and here, respectively.

The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells

I’ve recently started reading Martha Wells’ books starting with The Cloud Roads in her Books of the Raksura series, which I loved and immediately bought the rest of them after reading the first book. I also read the first book in her Ile-Rien series, The Element of Fire. While I loved The Cloud Roads a bit more, Wells is producing some excellent, innovative fantasy. I did note that after reading the first book, Nine Princes in Amber in The Chronicles of Amber, I definitely saw Zelazny’s influence in The Element of Fire, though, but it was done in a way that I enjoyed. While her Raksura series seems to be all connected, her Ile-Rien books seem to just be set in the same universe with events loosely relating to each other. I was a little sad to see that I wouldn’t be reading more about Thomas, Kade, and the rest of the characters I met in the first book (or it doesn’t seem I will), but I am excited to get back into the universe. While you’re still here, read another review of The Cloud Roads by Wendy.

The Bees by Laline Paull

This was such an impulse purchase because it was part of the Audible Editor’s Favorites sale from last month. When I first saw this book, I was a little perplexed by what could be so interesting about this book, but then the description caught me. It sounded like it would be an interesting blend of nature fiction and science fiction. It’s touted as The Hunger Games meets The Handmaid’s Tale–but with bees. I hate descriptions that use descriptors like that to describe a book. Anyhow, it also falls into my reading more speculative fiction by authors of color. I’ll just let the description speak for it:

Born into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, only fit to clean her orchard hive. Living to accept, obey and serve, she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the Queen. Yet Flora has talents that are not typical of her kin. And while mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is reassigned to feed the newborns, before becoming a forager, collecting pollen on the wing. Then she finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers secrets both sublime and ominous. Enemies roam everywhere, from the fearsome fertility police to the high priestesses who jealously guard the Hive Mind. But Flora cannot help but break the most sacred law of all, and her instinct to serve is overshadowed by a desire, as overwhelming as it is forbidden…

14 by Peter Clines

Another book that was part of the Audible Editor’s Sale. I’d been indecisive about reading, despite Mogsy writing an excellent review of it here.  It definitely sounded like something that would be right up my alley. I just never got around to buying it or reading anything  by Clines, even though he’s had some other books that have scratched my interest. I’d originally wanted to read Ex-Heroes, but then I read it had, ugh, zombies in it, and well… I’ll save that explanation for an upcoming post (seriously, it’ll be posted on the 17th). As you can see, these Audible sales are a GREAT way to get me to read something. I’m becoming such a sucker for audiobooks, especially ones that incorporate Whispersync.

The Martian by Andy Weir

It’s almost shameful that a huge science fiction nerd like myself hasn’t read this book yet, considering all the good things I’ve heard about it even from people who aren’t fans of science fiction. I would’ve included this in last week’s topic of hyped books I hadn’t read, but didn’t think about it again until I’d already finished the topic. I think the thing that was kind of working against it for me, even though I knew it people thought it great including Mogsy, was that I can be very particular about survival stories of the man versus nature variety, but this sounds like it’s done some really interesting things with that part of its story.

The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a pianist and a trumpeter, but the piano is my absolute love. I play everything from classical to contemporary music. There’s not a genre that doesn’t have a song I don’t love in it. I’ve been playing the piano since I was seven, which trust me was a really long time ago. Music is my first love, so books that find imaginative ways to use music always catch my attention. I’m not sure how the music incorporates into the magic of this world yet, but I know that the description says, “While their origins may be a mystery, there are hints of their true nature buried in the songs they have passed down for generations.” And for some reason, reading the description always makes me think of my favorite song called The Poet and the Muse used in the game Alan Wake to act in a similar manner of the true story of  what Alan needs to do in his story. The song is credited to an in-game rock group called The Old Gods of Asgard, but the actual group is called Poets of the Fall. It’s a beautiful, haunting song:

Defiance by C.J. Redwine

A review copy of the Audiobook sent to me by the publisher through mail. It’s young adult, so you know that means I’m going into this with my red pen out. It’s described as post-apocalyptic:

While the other girls in the walled city-state of Baalboden learn to sew and dance, Rachel Adams learns to track and hunt. While they bend like reeds to the will of their male Protectors, she uses hers for sparring practice.

When Rachel’s father fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the city’s brutal Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector: her father’s apprentice, Logan—the boy she declared her love to and who turned her down two years before. Left with nothing but fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself.

As Rachel and Logan battle their way through the Wasteland, stalked by a monster that can’t be killed and an army of assassins out for blood, they discover romance, heartbreak, and a truth that will incite a war decades in the making.

Free Agent by J.C. Nelson

Audiobook review copy provided by the publisher. First book in the Grimm Agency.

When it comes to crafting happily-ever-afters, the Agency is the best in the land of Kingdom. The Fairy Godfather Grimm can solve any problem—from eliminating imps to finding prince charming—as long as you can pay the price…

Working for Grimm isn’t Marissa Locks’s dream job. But when your parents trade you to a Fairy Godfather for a miracle, you don’t have many career options. To pay off her parents’ debt and earn her freedom, Marissa must do whatever Grimm asks, no matter what fairy-tale fiasco she’s called on to deal with.

Setting up a second-rate princess with a first-class prince is just another day at the office. But when the matchmaking goes wrong, Marissa and Grimm find themselves in a bigger magical muddle than ever before. Not only has the prince gone missing, but the Fae are gearing up to attack Kingdom, and a new Fairy Godmother is sniffing around Grimm’s turf, threatening Marissa with the one thing she can’t resist: her heart’s wishes.

Now Marissa will have to take on Fairies, Fae, dragons, and princesses to save the realm—or give up any hope of ever getting her happy ending…

Three by Jay Posey

So, I was approved to read Posey’s Dawnbreaker by Angry Robot. Problem? I didn’t realize it was the third book in a series, so you know what that  means. That means I have to charge through two books before reading the third book in the series. People who can pick up a series anywhere, I salute you, but I break out into hives. 😀 So, I’ll be reading this book and the second book soon. In the meantime, though, read Mogy’s review of the first book. I just realized it has been shelved many times under zombies, too. What have I done?

Dave vs. the Monsters: Emergence by John Birmingham

Another review copy of an audiobook sent to me by the publisher via snail mail. I’ve also received review copies of all three books from the book publisher as well. I’m certainly looking forward to listening to/reading this series. It sounds like it’ll so much fun:

When an oil rig drills too deep, it unleashes a torrent of nightmares—the creatures of legend, always thought to be figments of our imagination, are now a very real threat to the survival of humankind. But when he kills a seven-foot-tall demon with an axe to the skull, Dave Hooper—a booze-soaked, middle-aged oil-rig safety manager—is transformed into an honest-to-god monster slayer.