Melanie's Week in Review - September 22, 2013

I will start this post off with a mini apology. I am later than I normally like to be writing my WIR. I have gotten back into playing a game on my Xbox called Dragon Age Origins which I have played before. My best friend and I were talking about the newest game in the series to be released in 2014 which got me reminiscing about my favourite characters. I thought I would re-play the first hour or so and I am now 6 hours into the game and back to being obsessed! Extremely naughty as stuff I need to get done....like reviews aren't happening as quickly as they should.

Enough of that though...onto books. I have had another excellent week of reading. I was minding my own business on Twitter when I saw a tweet by J.T Geissinger saying her latest release Edge of Darkness was on NetGalley. If it was possible to  to trip racing to NetGalley then I think I would have. I had the book downloaded and started reading about 5 minutes later. I have been enjoying this series and this book was no exception. I am going to be reviewing it so not in a position to say too much here. Keep your eye out for it though as I have lots to say!

I also had a little delivery through my letterbox in the form of Chimes at Midnight by Seanan McGuire.  This continues the October Daye series and finds one of our favourite heroines back to risking life and limb. I really enjoyed this installment and perhaps more than the last. In previous books October has been almost as obsessed with drinking coffee as she is with fighting baddies. In fact when I think back that is what I remember about the story rather than what 'really' happened. In Chimes at Midnight October loses her coffee obsession and this lets the plot shine though. There is lots more of Tybalt who I really like as a character,as well as The Luidaeg. McGuire is a great storyteller and even more so that she can switch between different genres so successfully. I absolutely loved The Newsflesh trilogy written under her Mira Grant pseudonym. Chimes at Midnight is another great book in the series with chases, near death experiences and a lot of plot development.

I am ending the week reading Cracked by Eliza Crewe which I am LOVING! I will also be reviewing this one but what I can say it is HILARIOUS. I am going to have to restrain myself and not quote all the funny lines. I am not sure but I think it is YA but there is a lot of blood, guts and swearing. Maybe it is 'funny' genre?

I thought it was quite interesting reading a number of tweets and blog posts about book reviews and reviewers this week. One that I thought was very interesting was on Ilona Andrews' blog. They (not sure if it was Ilona or Gordon who wrote it) were discussing how readers interpret their books differently....differently to how they thought they had written it. They also talked about negative reviews and reviewers in general. I find it interesting how book reviews seem to be more 'volatile' than other types of review - restaurant reviews, theatre reviews, movie reviews. I find this odd. I have made decisions not to watch a movie if it got poor reviews but seldom use reviews to decide whether or not to read a book. I wonder why this is? Do we put more value into book reviews than other types and that is why people tend to comment more to negative reviews? Chuck Wendig tweeted that he doesn't read reviews which I also thought was interesting....and maybe a tiny bit disappointing as a reviewer. Whether I like a book or not I value the fact the author can do ...or did do something I haven't and likely ever to, which is to write a book. I did have to force myself not to read all the comments or I wouldn't have gotten anything else read. I am sure the topic will come up again on Twitter again soon.

I better finish this off so I can get it posted so that's it for me folks, until next week Happy Reading,