Shelf Quest

(source) French Illusions and From Tours to Paris are both interesting books. They follow the 8 months that Linda spent in the Loire Valley and Paris as an au pair, student, and girlfriend. Everything is very detailed, written in present tense, and we often get the story minute-by-minute. These books don’t read like real-life; everyone in them uses perfect, un-conjugated grammar and always seems to say either the perfectly right or perfectly wrong thing. It was very distracting while reading…

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Myke did it again! Another interesting and unique read unlike anything else I’ve read. One of my favorite things about Gemini Cell were the military missions, and while we didn’t have any this time, the lack of those were made up for by the uniqueness of the story. Dead bodies with multiple souls inside, working for and run by the government? Uh, cool. This book is packed with so much action, SO MUCH, especially since it seems to take place…

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(source) Meet Me In Paris is a memoir of a short time in the author’s life; it covers a period of only two to three years. It closely follows the ending of her marriage, taking on a “married-but-in-an-open-relationship” lover, the divorce, and how she works through her own demons to learn to make herself happy. This is not a happy book. It beautifully covers visiting France and the magic of the country, but that’s where the good stuff starts and…

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I was completely blown away by The Obituary Society. The title and the cover first attracted me to the book; the title feel kind of morbid (always nice) and the cover embodies what summer in the south is to me and also something I am craving in the very center of my being in February in the Pacific Northwest. I picked it up a looong time ago when it was free on Amazon and it just took me this long…

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Blood In Her Veins is another compilation of great Jane Yellowrock short stories and novellas. Cat o’ Nine Tales is a previously released audiobook and most of Blood In Her Veins (about 50% of it) is everything that is in Cat o’ Nine Tales, just in print now. I reread some of my favorites from the first book, but mostly skipped to the new stories. I’m only going to talk about those in detail, but know that all of the…

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(source) I’d like to start off this review by saying that I LOVE the Jane Yellowrock series and it is my favorite urban fantasy series by leaps and bounds. BUT. The books have gotten…stale. We’re on book ten, and while there are some interesting things going on, things aren’t happening fast enough for my tastes. At the beginning of the series, it seems like so much would be packed into each book with several events to work around and solve,…

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(source) Woah! Arena! This book totally took me by surprise. It is a good read, but when I realized how subtle the author was with big ideas I was very, very impressed! Kali Ling is part of a team that plays virtual games for a living. In 2054, you are just as strong in-game as you are in real life so you’re really an athlete if you play professionally. These games are also super popular, so if you play them…

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(source) I really didn’t see this book coming. This book is love, pain, losing yourself, finding yourself, happiness, and makes you wonder if you’re doing everything you can to get the most out of life. And it makes you feel like you absolutely must cruise a boat down a river in France. Jean is the proud owner of a bookstore-on-a-barge on the Seine in Paris. He is sure to keep his life absolutely sense-free to keep himself from thinking of…

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Throne of Glass was a very up-and-down read for me. The beginning and end were pretty weak for me but the middle was very interesting and exciting. This story follows Celaena, a notorious assassin who was caught and sent to a prison camp with horrific working conditions; most prisoners don’t last three months but Celaena has lasted one year. One day, the crown prince comes to ask her if she will agree to compete as his champion in a search…

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After reading Sunshine and seriously loving it, then finding out the same author wrote a story on the classic (and my absolute favorite) Beauty and the Beast, I knew I had to read it. Robin does a great interpretation of this story. In it, Beauty (her real name is Honor but she didn’t like it as a child and everyone started calling her Beauty) has two sisters, Grace and Hope, and they live with their father and brother-in-law. On his…

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