Melanie's Week in Review - October 13, 2013

Hello! Welcome to autumn. It is officially fall now in the UK. After getting away with an absolutely gorgeous Sunday and a pretty decent week everything changed on Friday when Jack Frost came nipping at my nose. You will be glad to know the change in weather brought about a change in my reading patterns and I had a better week on the reading front. So no hissy fits from me this week.

I found The Prince's Man by Deborah Jay on my Kindle recommendations. It is the first in the The Five Kingdoms series and even though I had told myself not to buy anymore books I succumbed and bought it anyway. It was less than £2 so I thought why not. It is described on Amazon as a cross between James Bond and Lord of the Rings. I am not totally convinced by that comparison. This was definitely more fantasy than James Bond and to be honest I didn't really see where the James Bond comparison came into it. I thought it was OK but it was a bit bland in parts and the hero, Rustum was a too much of the nice guy rather than the Lothario/spy he was supposed to be. I read quite a bit epic fantasy so in comparison to other fantasy novels such as Tigana and the Riyria Revelations series The Prince's Man pales in comparison mainly due to the weak characterization. This was, however, Jay's debut novel and a first novel in a series. So taking these two factors into consideration is was pretty good. I suggest a little less Lord of the Rings and The Mistborn and a little more character development and there will be the makings of an excellent series.

I then decided to read something off my TBR. I had completely forgotten that I had downloaded The Case of the Singing Sword by Tee Morris last year. I LOVE the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences that Morris writes with his wife, Philippa Ballantine and decided it was high time I read his solo novel. This book is a must read. It is HILARIOUS!!!! That is funny with a capital 'H'. The Case of the Singing Sword is a good, old fashioned murder mystery set in the late 1920s. The lead character is Billibub Baddings who is a little man filling some pretty big shoes. Billi is a dwarf....not just a little man but an actual dwarf. Billi fell through a portal and ended up in Chicago in the roaring 20s. Forced to pose a human Billi does the one thing guaranteed to make use of his 'otherworldly' talents so he becomes a private investigator. Billi gets offered the case of a life(time). It starts out as a simple case of finding out who dunnit and ends up to be a chase across Chicago for a mystical sword that could see the downfall of mankind. Lucky for all humanity Billi Baddings is just the dwarf for the job.

Morris has developed wonderful characters and paints a picture of Chicago in the 1920's so real that it almost feels like you are there. The dialogue was very authentic, so much in fact that I felt like was just another dame, with a little moxy, reading an incredible book. Some of the lines were so funny that I was 'lol'ing' it up on public transport. I am tempted to quote a few of my favourite lines for you but as I look through my notes there are too many and this post would end up being pages and pages long if I did. I can't believe this book was first published in 2004.  If you want a really good murder mystery, great characters, a lush and colourful environment and best of all, several laughs then you need to get downloading The Case of the Singing Sword asap!

I am finishing my week with Rogue's Possession by Jeffe Kennedy which is the second in the Covenant of the Thorns series. I read book 1  - Rogue's Pawn back in July 2012 and I have unfortunately forgotten quite a bit of the detail. The same details that keep coming up in this second instalment. I am enjoying it and will hopefully have it finished to review next week. I will let you know what I think of it then.

That is all from me for this week but I wish you all a great week. Until next week Happy Reading.