I have read lots this season. Baby laptop went away for a longlonglong while
and so abundant guilt-free reading happened instead.
The pile looked like this, but in addition to
those I also read
The Hive by Gill Hornby (Women’s)
Here’s looking at you by Mhairi McFarlane
(Women’s)
Hold on Tight by Abbi Glines (NA)
You were mine by Abbi Glines (NA)
Existence by Abbi Glines (YA)
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
(aka JK Rowling) (Crime)
The Christmas bake off by Abby Clements
(Women’s)
Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo
(Crime)
The Dead Will Tell by Linda Castillo
(Crime)
The Coldest Girl in
Cold Town
by Holly Black (YA)
The Darkest Part of the
Forest
by Holly Black (YA)
What a Girl Wants by Lindsey Kelk (Women’s)
It Happened in Venice by Molly Hopkins (Women’s)
I’m
finding that I am just not getting to the books on the e-reader. I managed
just one of the three I’d planned and that was the novella. Poor, no? I guess I still
love holding my books and my eyes aren’t impressed if I stare at a screen
before trying to sleep. The e-reader books only really get a shot if I am
waiting somewhere and use my phone to read. (LOVE that I always have a book to
hand when out and about. I think that is my fave thing about e-readers.)
I
was having a Women’s Fiction splurge, and it has been really helpful for my current
story revisions, although having discovered Mhairi acFarlane, I do sometimes
wonder if I should even bother. Some writers are just so good they make me
consider packing everything away and relearning to crochet instead. For that Here’s Looking At You gets Book of the Season, but it was a close
thing. Other contenders were The Hive
and The Coldest Girl in Cold Town.
The former is a fabulous look at mums in the school playground (aka my peers).
Hornby has an exquisite way with tone and phrasing. The latter showed me that
while I thought I was done with Vampire fiction, if done differently it still
entertains. That and Holly Black rocks when it comes to anything supernatural.
Jenny Han’s We’ll always have summer was a satisfying end to the trilogy, which is always pleasing when you’ve invested the time.
Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike
books grabbed me, so I had to get hold of the sequel immediately. I do find
myself thinking “Oooh JK” every time there are swear words, because they aren’t
in the Harry Potter books. If you are
on Twitter, then Rowling sometimes tweets between herself and her alter ego which is fun
to follow.
Lindsey Kelk is an excellent Women’s
Fiction writer. Her dialogue is brilliant; it’s funny and it bites, hence I had
to get the sequel asap.
Other thoughts;
One of these books left me thinking
MEH. It couldn’t have been written in a more boring fashion. I had to check the
Amazon reviews to see if it was just me. It wasn’t.
One of these books showed me that a
writer can definitely be better in one genre than another. The change of scene
made this writer’s storytelling go flat.
One of these books convinced me that
I have to like my MC. The story was sound, but I just thought that she was a
silly, daft, annoying bint and I wasn’t rooting for her as much as I might have
been. Yes characters can and should be flawed, but I prefer the faults to get
sloughed off over the arc of the story, not still be kicking about at the end.
I’m not sure she learned very much.
One of these author’s I am signing
off now as I just find her style dull. (But it gives me some hope...)
Those were my gut reactions. The new
pile should be up early next week.
