Book Review: The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
Posted on October 10, 2022 20 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
Mogsy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Book 3 of Scholomance
Publisher: Del Rey (September 27, 2022)
Length: 496 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
The Last Graduate was one of my favorite books I read in 2021—a huge comeback from my less than impressed reaction to the first book, A Deadly Education. A sequel that manages to rectify or improve upon all the flaws of its predecessor is a rare thing indeed, which was why I was optimistic that the upwards trend would continue with the final installment of the trilogy, so I was very excited to pick up The Golden Enclaves.
Since the story begins in the immediate aftermath of the previous book (which ended on a killer cliffhanger), it is highly recommended that you are caught up with the series before continuing with this review, as references to events and spoilers from the first two books will be all but inevitable. For years our protagonist Galadriel “El” Higgins has been attending Scholomance, a school for magically gifted children. In order to graduate though, students in their senior year must pass a final test which involves running a gauntlet against a swarm of maleficaria, or “mals”, which are monsters that feed on magic. Every year some students fall to the mals, but this year El had an idea to change things. For weeks, she and her fellow classmates had been training hard to pull off her plan of ensuring everyone succeeded in completing the gauntlet. There should have been no more death, and everyone was supposed to graduate.
Except something went wrong at the most critical moment. Our protagonist’s former nemesis-turned-boyfriend Orion Lake had stayed behind to make sure everyone else got through, then shut the magical gates on El before she could save him from his sacrifice. Now she is heartbroken and filled with guilt, thinking herself to blame for her true love being tortured and devoured for eternity by a soul-sucking monster. El knows she’ll never be able to rest until she puts an end to Orion’s suffering, but to do that, she will need a way to regain entry into the crumbling depths of Scholomance, a feat that will take some powerful allies, not to mention an astronomical amount of mana.
After reading The Golden Enclaves, I’m probably placing my rating for it slightly above A Deadly Education, but still far below The Last Graduate. I had some pretty high expectations going into this one, but ultimately my hopes for a five-star ending to this trilogy failed to materialize, though granted, this wasn’t a bad book. There were some high points in the story, including getting to know more about El’s family as well as Orion’s family, but more on the novel’s strengths later, as I want to first touch upon its weaknesses.
Perhaps my biggest issue with The Golden Enclaves was the pacing. While I understood El’s need to grieve, the beginning of the book ended up being a dreadful slog of just watching our protagonist as she brooded up the place. She quickly became the girl I disliked again, a step back from all the progress she made in the previous book, highlighting the positive impact that other characters like her friends (especially Orion) had on her personality. Alone again, and without her boyfriend, El retreated back in herself, becoming ill-tempered and self-absorbed once more. Whether it’s her sadness or desperation affecting her motivations, El also made a couple of questionable decisions and interactions with other characters that made little sense to me. Needless to say, these changes in her character hardly made me feel as sympathetic towards her for this book.
As for the positives, as I said, I liked how The Golden Enclaves expanded the world-building, essentially throwing open the doors to the greater international network of magical organizations out there. Not only did we get a glimpse into how magic users lived day-to-day, but the story also explored consequences of the different social classes and how all the enclaves, schools, and other powerful magical communities were connected to each other, including how El herself and her family fit into the overall picture. Then there were the surprising revelations about Orion’s family, which led to some major repercussions for the plot. I’ve always loved the world-building for this series, and the only negative I can level on this front is how I wished there had been less info-dumping, which isn’t normally an issue for an experienced author like Naomi Novik, so that was a little surprising.
Still, all in all, I enjoyed being able to complete the Scholomance trilogy, despite it not being everything I’d hoped for. While I wouldn’t exactly call it a tidy ending, it worked in its own way, and it was an interesting and rewarding conclusion overall even if we had to go through a bit of a struggle to get there.
More on The BiblioSanctum:
Review of A Deadly Education (Book 1)
Review of The Last Graduate (Book 2)
Bookshelf Roundup 10/09/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on October 9, 2022 18 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
We kick things off this week with a surprise arrival with thanks from Minotaur Books: The Devil You Know by P.J. Tracy is the third book of the Detective Margaret Nolan series, which I’ve not heard of before now. But with luck, many of these types of mysteries can be read as standalones, and I’m going to check it out if I can. Up next, my thanks to Tor Books for this sweet little hardcover of Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson, a companion story to the original Mistborn trilogy. I’ve read it before in the Arcanum Unbounded collection, but I may do a reread and a more expanded review at some point. Courtesy of Orbit Books, earlier this month I also received a finished copy of Light Perpetual by Andrzej Sapkowski, the third and final book of the author’s Hussite trilogy.
Thank you also to Tordotcom for an ARC of Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire, book 8 in the Wayward Children series. As well, another surprise came from the amazing team at Subterranean Press in the form of Playing Games by Lawrence Block, a new anthology from the author that’s all about the literal and figurative games we play. From the publisher I also received After Many A Summer by Tim Powers, a new novella which borrows its title from a line from the poem “Tithonus” by Alfred Tennyson and follows a hapless screenwriter who takes on a bizarre assignment.
In the digital haul, with thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for an ALC of Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse, a novella which should be a quick listen, as well as Macmillan Audio for The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson which should fit right in with my dark fantasy and horror themed reads this month.
Reviews
Silver Queendom by Dan Koboldt (4 of 5 stars)
The Blame Game by Sandie Jones (3 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Thriller Thursday: The Blame Game by Sandie Jones
Posted on October 6, 2022 16 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
The Blame Game by Sandie Jones
Mogsy’s Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Minotaur Books (August 16, 20212)
Length: 256 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
The Blame Game was my fourth book by Sandie Jones, and as usual her domestic thrillers are reliable entertainment, though this was not my favorite. While the story was interesting to follow, confounding character motivations and slapdash detective work dragged this one down for me, unfortunately.
As the novel opens, we are introduced to our protagonist Naomi, a psychologist who runs a private practice out of her own home. She has two major clients: Jacob, a middle-aged man who has just recently made the decision to leave his cruel and abusive wife, as well as Anna, a traumatized young woman who has become estranged from her husband after the loss of their child.
Against her better judgment (as well as her husband’s wishes), Naomi decides to help Jacob out by letting him lie low at her vacation cottage while he makes the separation arrangements. This being a major breakthrough by her client, Naomi wants to ensure that Jacob’s wife won’t find him and intimidate him out of the decision. Soon after that though, Naomi’s other client, Anna, also comes to her seeking help to escape her toxic marriage. Unable to turn away another client in need, Naomi decides to give Anna a place to stay as well, this time in an extra room in her house.
One thing leads to another, and eventually Naomi can no longer keep her husband in the dark about either Jacob or Anna, putting strain on her own marriage. To make matters worse, one day Jacob calls Naomi in a panic, asking to meet in a hotel bar over fears that his wife has tracked him down. Naomi goes to see him and succeeds in calming her distraught client, but not long after that, Jacob goes missing. Naomi is aware how bad this looks for her, since she’s the last person to see him, but how will she convince the police she’s innocent when someone seems to keep manipulating the evidence to keep pointing the blame at her?
To anyone paying attention, the main issue should be obvious. As a psychologist, Naomi crosses the line between client and therapist big time—not just once, but many, many times. Neither is this the first it has happened, according to her husband, who is right to be frustrated and angry at Naomi, who just keeps digging herself deeper and deeper. Needless to say, it was hard to sympathize with a character whose every action I thought was irresponsible and at times downright idiotic. As such, it also made her completely unconvincing as a psychologist and professional.
All in all, the plot was also a bit of a jumble. As a thriller, the novel succeeds in keeping the pace quick and suspense high, but as a mystery it is confusing and not very realistic, especially when the police get involved. Clues are not so much clues as a roadmap, trite as events in the story had to be in order to make things work. Much of it felt forced, but no surprise there, considering the protagonist’s insistence to make the wort possible choice at every turn.
The good news is that the end was worth getting to, though the ending did not make the overall story any more feasible, and in fact makes things feel even more outrageous. But in the end, that’s the fun of a Sandie Jones thriller. It’s just too bad that an aggravating main character prevented me from liking this more or taking this story more seriously. Still, while The Blame Game might not be my favorite of her novels, it was quick and entertaining.
Waiting on Wednesday 10/05/2022
Posted on October 5, 2022 17 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
Paradise-1 by David Wellington (April 4, 2023 by Orbit)
“When Special Agent Petrov and Dr. Lei Zhang are woken up from cryogenic sleep, dragged freezing and dripping wet out of their pods with the ship’s alarms blaring in the background, they know something is very wrong. Warned by the Captain that they’re under attack, they have no choice but to investigate.
It doesn’t take much time to learn that they’ve been met by another vessel—a vessel from Paradis-One, Earth’s first deep-space colony, and their final destination.
Worse still, the vessel is empty. And it carries with it the message that all communications from the 150,000 souls inhabiting the Paradis-One has completely ceased.
Petrov and Zhang must board the empty ship and delve further into deep space to discover the truth of the colony’s disappearance—but the further they go, the more dangers loom.”
Book Review: Silver Queendom by Dan Koboldt
Posted on October 4, 2022 25 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Silver Queendom by Dan Koboldt
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Angry Robot (August 23, 2022)
Length: 408 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Call me an old softie, but a heist novel featuring an ensemble cast of scrappy thieves will get me every single time! Is it any wonder then why I had such great fun with Silver Queendom, Dan Koboldt’s fantasy adventure starring a crew of criminals who moonlight as innkeepers? Or would that be the other way around?
Darin Fields is the owner of the Red Rooster Inn, not exactly known for its comfort or great food, but the establishment makes up for it with its other services. Those in the know come to see Darin to hire him and his associates for their special talents, and it just so happens, he and his team are currently in desperate need of work. Their latest job didn’t exactly go according to plan, leaving them deeply in debt with their local crime boss who doesn’t take kindly to people who owe her money.
Still, one has to be careful in the Old Queendom. After all, Darin isn’t the only thief in town, and this isn’t a place where you’d want to step on any toes. No job is worth getting killed over, and what good is money if you’re dead?
The foundation of any good heist story begins with the crew, and here, Silver Queendom shines. When the book opens, readers are dropped into the middle of a crime in progress, showcasing each of the character’s strengths. Darin is our leader and mastermind, the smooth talker who sometimes lets his mouth get the better of him. Luckily, he has his friends to help out. Evie formerly comes from wealth, and is a master of disguise and quick thinking. And then there’s Tom, the group’s muscle, though in reality, this mountain of a man is actually quite sweet and gentle-hearted. Finally, there’s Kat, the most recent addition to the team. Kat is an amateur brewer who just sort of fell into the whole thieving gig, but she needed a place to keep her stray orphans safe, and the Red Rooster is as good a place as any.
Of course, Darin has one more trick up his sleeve, and that is his metallurgy. Back at the inn, an old bartender named Seraphina holds down the fort whenever the crew is away on business, but she is also an experienced metallurgist who wishes to train Darin to harness his powers, even though magic is strictly forbidden in the Queendom. Only a few know Darin possesses the talent, and he in turn is very circumspect about it, which might explain why the world-building is noticeably sparse in this area. It’s too bad, because would have liked to see more explanation and detail into the magic system, which involves using the power of silver to fuel the user’s actions.
That said, the action and energy in this was high and unrelenting. The plot is not just one heist but many heists, and they simply get bigger and better. Silver Queendom is an adventure through and through, and while it does not offer the genre anything too groundbreaking or new, it was fun and oh so readable. The characters are easy to like and their relationship dynamics and backstories keep the interest strong. It’s great to see that even as the pacing flies along, character development doesn’t suffer at all for it.
Silver Queendom is my third Dan Koboldt novel and he is reliably entertaining as always! If you have a fondness for heist stories, this one is not to be missed, especially if you enjoy the good humor and camaraderie of a fantastic group of characters. Recommended for avid fantasy fans and newcomers to the genre alike.
Bookshelf Roundup 10/02/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on October 2, 2022 19 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
A big thanks to Union Square Co. this week for sending me a review copy of A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair, the first book of The Halfling Saga which is a new Young Adult series about an assassin spy who tracks her latest target to the lands of the Fae. When Tachyon Publications also contacted me last month about their upcoming titles, Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai also caught my eye. Thanks so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this urban fantasy romance between a Chinese Immortal and a French elf. A huge thanks also to Tor Books for sending me an ARC of The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz, a sci-fi novel of space exploraton and settlement which has been described as perfect for fans of Becky Chambers and Martha Wells.
Just in time for the spooky season, Tor Nightfire also made my week with these two new arrivals, Little Eve by Catriona Ward and The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce. I’ve already started on the latter. It’s gonna be an awesome October!
In the digital haul, the beginning of the month always brings new audiobooks. With thanks to Hachette Audio for an ALC of Blitz by Daniel O’Malley, the long awaited third book of The Checquy Files.
And with thanks to Penguin Random House Audio for the following listening copies: Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty, The Family Game by Catherine Steadman, Jackal by Erin E. Adams, and Dead Man’s Hand by James J. Butcher.
Reviews
Stay Awake by Megan Goldin (4 of 5 stars)
Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison (4 of 5 stars)
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
Book Review: Stay Awake by Megan Goldin
Posted on October 1, 2022 10 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan Audio (August 9, 2022)
Length: 352 pages | 10 hrs and 59 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Memory loss thrillers have been done many times before, in many different ways, but Megan Golden has come up with her own twisty, mind-bending take on things. In Stay Awake, we follow Liv Reese, who wakes up one morning in a cab with no memory of how she got there. The last thing she remembers is working at her desk in Manhattan office, then nothing. When the cab drops her off at her apartment, at first she thinks the driver made a mistake. The building looks familiar, but when she rings the bell at the apartment she shares with her roommate, a couple of strangers answer the door, irritated at being woken up at such a late hour. Liv doesn’t have her phone or wallet, but insider her pocket is a knife wrapped in a bloody shirt. Looking down at her hands, she notices scribbles written all across her skin. One of the messages: STAY AWAKE!
While Liv may be confused as to what is happening all around her, readers are clued in almost right away. Our protagonist has a rare memory loss disorder, leading her to become lost and disoriented every time she wakes up, because in her mind it is still two years ago when everything in her life was perfect—she was rooming with her best friend, dating a wonderful new guy, and working at a trendy magazine for the art scene. But now she is alone in the middle of the night on a park bench, wondering why her whole world as suddenly turned upside down. Then, she spies a news report on a murder where the killer has scrawled WAKE UP! across a window in the victim’s blood. The message, so close to the one written on her hands, as well as the bloody knife sends Liv into a panic. She has no idea why she can’t remember anything, but until she finds out more about what’s going, she knows she must keep on running.
It’s understandable, the comparisons to 50 First Dates and Memento. Like the latter, Stay Awake is a narrative where you have to piece things together somewhat backwards. The story is told very cleverly through the creative use of the timeline and various POVs. One of these is Darcy Halliday of the NYPD, who is the hardworking and tough-as-nails lead detective on the murder case. And then of course there are the flashbacks to Liv’s own past, and her attempts to figure out why her memory seems to be stuck to a point in time two years ago. What happened to trigger her memory disorder? What has happened in all that time since? What happened to her best friend? Her boyfriend? Who are some of these people trying to help her now, claiming to know about her situation? Can she trust anyone?
Questions abound in this mystery thriller, and Goldin weaves together these disparate threads with such great pacing and momentum that once you start you just can’t stop. Speaking as someone who has also read the author’s previous two novels The Escape Room and The Night Swim, this one is perhaps the most exciting and propulsive yet. It might not have had the depth and emotional impact of The Night Swim, which is probably still my favorite book of hers, but Stay Awake definitely had a dark, enticing hook that gave the story much of its appeal.
And while it was a killer thriller, in many ways this story also read like a tantalizing police procedural, thanks to the chapters devoted to Detective Halliday who was easily my favorite character. Liv’s narrative, although very compelling, was also disorienting and quite scattered by necessity. Halliday’s POV therefore had the secondary purpose of pulling all the clues together and bringing cohesion to the plot.
In sum, Megan Goldin has written another crowd-pleaser. Mind you it’s not breaking much new ground when it comes to memory loss thrillers, but I did enjoy the tensions of the plot as well as the resourcefulness and tenacity of the main characters. So far the books I’ve read by the author have been very different, and while I expect she’ll come up with more ideas to keep things fresh in the future, I certainly wouldn’t mind if we saw Halliday and her partner Lavelle again in a future case. I’ll continue to follow Goldin’s work with interest.
Waiting on Wednesday 09/28/2022
Posted on September 28, 2022 9 Comments
Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that first originated at Breaking the Spine but has since linked up with “Can’t Wait Wednesday” at Wishful Endings now that the original creator is unable to host it anymore. Either way, this fun feature is a chance to showcase the upcoming releases that we can’t wait to get our hands on!
Mogsy’s Pick
Witch King by Martha Wells (May 30, 2023 by Tordotcom)
“Martha Wells, the New York Times bestselling author of the Murderbot series, pens a major fantasy novel in Witch King.
Kai-Enna is the Witch King, though he hasn’t always been, and he hasn’t even always been Kai-Enna!
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well.
But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence?
Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions.
He’s not going to like the answers.
Witch King is a rousing tale of power and friendship, of trust and betrayal, and of the families we choose.”
Audiobook Review: Bad Dolls by Rachel Harrison
Posted on September 26, 2022 15 Comments
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating (Overall): 4 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror
Series: N/A
Publisher: Penguin Audio (September 6, 2022)
Length: 3 hrs and 56 mins
Author Information: Website | Twitter
Narrators: Helen Laser, Suehyla El-Attar Young, Frankie Corzo, Phoebe Strole
Rachel Harrison continues to impress me, and the fact that I enjoyed Bad Dolls so much says a lot! Short fiction isn’t typically my format of choice, but after the great time I had with both the author’s novels The Return and Cackle, I thought it worthwhile to give her horror story collection a try when I was offered an early listening copy from Penguin Audio. And I’m so glad I did.
Reply Hazy, Try Again
This first story follows an indecisive young woman who impulsively buys a Magic 8 ball from a flea market. At first, our protagonist treats the whole thing like a joke, posing random advice-seeking questions to the toy just to see the replies she’ll get. Soon though, the ball appears to take on a mind of its own, one that impossibly seems to know more than it should.
As creepy as this all sounds, the story is actually quite light on horror and more focused on human drama, touching upon subjects like work, life, and relationships. The idea behind it is very unique though, and I liked that there was a strong paranormal or uncanny element.
Bachelorette
This was perhaps my favorite story of the collection. “If I’d been told in advance about the blood sacrifice, I would have made up an excuse not to attend the bachelorette party.” Best first line ever! Our main character Natalie is invited to the bachelorette party of her childhood best friend, Haley. The two women have always been close, but ever since Haley moved away for college and made new friends, Natalie has started worrying about them drifting apart. So when one of Haley’s sorority sisters rents a beautiful rustic cottage for the bachelorette weekend, Natalie makes a valiant effort to participate in all the activities and pretend she is enjoying herself for Haley’s sake, even though she feels like an outsider the entire time. Still, even best friends have their limits, and there are definitely lines that shouldn’t be crossed.
Many of Rachel Harrison’s stories are centered on female friendships, and this tale was no exception, looking at the evolution of relationships and how people’s lives change over time. Lots of complex feelings explored in this one too, especially the main character’s insecurities and personal fears. Plenty of humor was involved, and the relatability of Natalie’s voice also made this story very easy to get into, helped by the amazing performance of the audiobook narrator.
Goblin
A woman and her friend decide to try out a trendy new app that claims to be able to help them with their dieting goals, except our main character is someone who has recently recovered from an eating disorder. Supposedly, this app works by summoning an adorable little goblin-like mascot to give you encouragement anytime you need a bit of motivation or moral support. Our protagonist thinks there must be something seriously wrong with her app though, since her goblin turns out to be a nasty piece of work.
I struggled a bit with this one, trying to wrap my head around the basic concept. In the end, I liked it, but it’s also the perfect example of a short story that could have greatly benefited from being longer, just so the ideas and the world and the characters could have been more fleshed out.
Bad Dolls
In this story, a woman returns to her hometown following the death of her little sister to be closer to her family. After going through and tidying up the things in the room that she is renting, she finds a mysterious old porcelain doll which no one seems to know to whom it belonged or where it came from.
Out of the offerings in this collection, this tale had the closest feel to a traditional horror story. Dolls have always creeped me out, so this one definitely gave me chills. Like “Goblin”, I think “Bad Dolls” could have been longer, simply because there’s enough content here beyond the horror aspects to warrant a full-length novel, such as the depth of themes involved like family, grief, and sacrifice.
All told though, I highly recommend this collection, whether you’re an existing fan of Rachel Harrison or are completely new to her work. Normally, I wouldn’t suggest starting with an author’s short stories but I’m making an exception with this book because, short as they are, the tales within are a very good reflection of Harrison’s knack for storytelling and her fun twists on horror. Everything she writes is now a must-read for me.
Bookshelf Roundup 09/25/22: Stacking the Shelves & Recent Reads
Posted on September 25, 2022 28 Comments
Bookshelf Roundup is a feature I do every weekend which fills the role of several blog memes, like Stacking the Shelves where I talk about the new books I’ve added to my library or received for review, as well as It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? where I summarize what I’ve finished reading in the last week and what I’m planning to read soon. Mostly it also serves as a recap post, so sometimes I’ll throw in stuff like reading challenge progress reports, book lists, and other random bookish thoughts or announcements.
This week has been…not so good. One of our dogs got sick suddenly, and it turned out to be more serious than we thought. Long story short, we had to make the difficult decision to put him down, which has left a sizeable hole in my heart and a void in our family. Although I’ve been crying a lot missing my best buddy, I also know it was the right decision, and he’s no longer suffering. Rest well, Strider, my sweet pup. Thank you for twelve amazing years.
Received for Review
My thanks to the publishers and authors for the following review copies received, and be sure to click the links to their Goodreads pages for more details and full descriptions!
Earlier in the month, courtesy of the kind folks at Tordotcom, I received the following: an ARC of The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott, a tale of dragons and portals; an ARC of Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo, a dark sci-fi horror novella about a scientist who develops a neurological interface to literally see through a wolf’s eyes, though her obsession and depth of her research carries a high cost; and also, a finished copy of Leech by Hiron Ennes, a Gothic horror about a doctor who takes a new post in an an isolated chateau in the north and discovers many mysteries left behind by the institute’s previous physician.
With thanks to Orbit Books, I also received a beautiful ARC of Empire of Exiles by Erin M. Evans. This was one of my most anticipated releases this fall, so I’m really looking forward to reading it. From the publisher I also received a finished copy of Notorious Sorcerer by Davinia Evans, a fantasy debut featuring tons of action and adventure and what sounds to be like a pretty unique alchemy-based magic system.
And finally, big thanks to the Minotaur Books team for sending me a copy of Treasure State by C.J. Box. This was a surprise arrival, but I’m familiar with the author’s name even though I’ve never his books before. This one appears to be a later volume in an existing series called The Highway Quartet featuring Private Investigator Cassie Dewell, but fortunately it sounds like it can be read as a standalone.
Reviews
The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper (4.5 of 5 stars)
The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu (4 of 5 stars)
Roundup Highlights:
What I’ve Been Reading
Have you heard of or read any of the books featured this week? What caught your eye? Any new discoveries? I hope you found something interesting for a future read!
The BiblioSanctum