Melanie's Week in Review - October 27, 2013

I think I was a tad too smug last week with the number of books I read as this week it was much more dismal.  I only read 1 measly book!! ONE BOOK!!!  Well I should qualify that and say I only finished 1 book but started a few more.

I managed to read Hidden Among Us by Katy Moran. It is the story about a baby, named Lissy who is stolen from her parents by the fae. She is returned but only after her mother agrees to return her in 14 years. The story fast forwards 14 years and we find Lissy, a truculent teenager returning to rural Wales and almost directly into the hands of her childhood captors. The story is largely told from Lissy's POV so  I guess it is YUF (tee hee)  - young urban fantasy. The chapters alternate between Lissy's brother Rafe, their mother Miriam and another boy named Joe. The fae are largely infertile and have been stealing babies for centuries in the hope of using them for breeding stock when they mature. Lissy is different and it isn't long before we find out why.  I normally quite enjoy UF/YA but in this case I thought Hidden Among Us was a bit boring. While there was quite a bit of action towards the end there is little character development so I just didn't care what happened to the protagonists. Perhaps this improves over the series but I don't think I will find out.

I also read Dragos Takes a Holiday by Thea Harrison which is an e-novella in the Elder Races series. I got it from the good people at NetGalley. It is Harrison's first self-published work and will be out on November 25th. The clue to the plot is in the title with this one but it took a slightly different format with POV chapters from Pia, Dragos and even from little baby Liam. He sounded adorable and portrayed exactly how you imagine a baby to be thinking/doing. With all the stress of looking for new sentinels, having a baby, killing some baddies Pia decides its high time they go on a holiday so the family find themselves in sunny Bermuda looking for lost treasure. This story is all about sun, sand and sex with a little twist. I quite enjoyed this mini installment and it was like taking my own short holiday reading it as it seemed to fly by.  I am looking forward to Kinked (Berkley, November 5, 2013), the 6th Elder Races novel.

I have to admit I haven't made much progress with King of Thorns by Mark Lawrence as I picked up and started two other books. One is Kindred and Wings by Philippa Ballantine (Shifted World 2) and the other is Blood Shadows by Lindsay J. Pryor.

I always love Ballantine's writing and really enjoyed the first book of the Shifted World series. An added bonus is the cover. It is lovely although the cover of Shifted Worlds 1, Hunter and Fox, was a stunner.  I was always staring at it.  I will be reviewing Kindred and Wings so don't want to say too much plus I am not that far into either book to make any real judgements.

That is all I managed to accomplish this week and I am heading off to Canada for a holiday and to see my family. I will be in the same time zone as some of you so maybe you will leave me a comment or two! Until next week Happy Reading.