Hello folks. I hope you have had a good week. I was on annual leave this week and start my new job on Monday (15th) so didn't get a lot of reading done. I did however, get quite a bit of DIY done with my youngest step-son who I co-opted to help me out. It wasn't all work, work, work though and I did have a 'me day' which was the only way I was going to get any reading done! Enough about me and my me day....what did I read?
I discovered (and apologies because I can't remember how!) that the final book of Helen Harper's Bo Blackman series had been released - Dark Tomorrow. I will have to admit that I really struggled with this book as I seemed to have blanked the entirety of the previous book from my memory. In fact I had to go back and read a few reviews (including my own) of book 5 before I felt I could continue past the first few chapters. In this instalment Bo is bent on revenge after the Kakos demons destroyed nearly all of the vampires in London. All her new friends and frenemies have been blown up and the 'Families' (of vampires) have been decimated. With very few vampires left there is nothing stopping the witches and the demons from taking control. Michael - Bo's ex-vampire honey bunny - is recovering from his near death experience and struggling with humanity so its now up to Bo to make sure those that led to soo many deaths pay for their crimes. This is all tangled up with solving the mystery of a years old abduction of a young girl. Bo's got a lot on her plate but a few friends along the way to help her out.
I was kind of surprised that this was the final book of the series as it certainly didn't seem like it. I thought that Harper's introduction of the abduction mystery muddied the waters a bit in terms of resolving the power play between the vampires, the witches and almost everyone else. It felt like Harper didn't have enough to say about the decimation of the Families and threw the abduction in to pad out the plot. Harper is quite a prolific writer but I don't find that she is consistent throughout a series. I felt the same way about her Blood Destiny series which I liked at the start but my enjoyment dropped off considerably as the series progressed. Less is often more!
I was looking for something short that I could read in a day so that I had more than 1 book to tell you about. I quick peruse of my Amazon recommendations and I came across Lover of Thorns and Holy Gods by Grace Draven. This is comprised of 3 short (and very short) stories from the Master of Crows, Wraith Kings and from the stand alone novel Entreat Me. The first story - Strong Blood is a cross over with Ballard from Entreat Me and Silhara from Master of Crows. Story 2 - Crow Awakened is set in the Master of Crows world following on from Brush of Blackwings and explains what infliction Martise is suffering from. The final takes us back to the world of Brishen and Ildiko and shows that some things have no cultural divide.
If you have read my WIR before you will no that I don't usually enjoy two things - short stories and crossovers and here I was reading a combination of both! Lucky for me I enjoyed both. I did feel that these were short stories with a capital S for short. They seemed to take only a few minutes to read each. I am sure it was much more in reality. If I had to choose I would say I enjoyed Crow Awakened the most and added more to this series in terms of character development. Worth a read if you are a Draven fan.
That is it for me this week. I am back to commuting 2 hours each day so I hope to have a few more books to tell you about next week. Feel free to drop me a line with your recommendations. Until next week Happy Reading.
I was kind of surprised that this was the final book of the series as it certainly didn't seem like it. I thought that Harper's introduction of the abduction mystery muddied the waters a bit in terms of resolving the power play between the vampires, the witches and almost everyone else. It felt like Harper didn't have enough to say about the decimation of the Families and threw the abduction in to pad out the plot. Harper is quite a prolific writer but I don't find that she is consistent throughout a series. I felt the same way about her Blood Destiny series which I liked at the start but my enjoyment dropped off considerably as the series progressed. Less is often more!
If you have read my WIR before you will no that I don't usually enjoy two things - short stories and crossovers and here I was reading a combination of both! Lucky for me I enjoyed both. I did feel that these were short stories with a capital S for short. They seemed to take only a few minutes to read each. I am sure it was much more in reality. If I had to choose I would say I enjoyed Crow Awakened the most and added more to this series in terms of character development. Worth a read if you are a Draven fan.
That is it for me this week. I am back to commuting 2 hours each day so I hope to have a few more books to tell you about next week. Feel free to drop me a line with your recommendations. Until next week Happy Reading.
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