Books. Cats. Nonsense.
The Raven Tower is a funny one because if you described it to me, I’d be sure it wouldn't be my thing. However, I am so glad I took a chance on this weird and wonderful fantasy debut -- I think it's a book that will stick with me for a long time. Ann Leckie is the author of the mind-bending, completely cool Ancillary Justice. I adore that book and was so excited to see how her writing style would transfer over to fantasy.
Why is it that January feels like the longest month of the year? Maybe it's the cold and dark, maybe it's the fact that it's the start of a new year. Whatever it is, we survived! Hooray! This was an interesting month for reading. I started the month pretty poorly, but then managed to read three 4.5-5 star reads. Overall, it was a pretty solid book month -- I managed to read 7 books.
You know that feeling when you love a book and you can't quite put into words why? You just want to run around, throwing copies of it into the hands of unsuspecting readers? That's how I feel about The Gutter Prayer, Gareth Hanrahan’s astonishing debut. The Gutter Prayer is a breath of fresh air in a genre that can sometimes feel stale, and I cannot get enough of this insanely cool world.
I’ve been curious about Victoria Schwab’s new middle grade tale because it's such a departure from her adult fantasy novels. As you all may know, I’m not a huge fan of her adult books but really like her as a person. City of Ghosts sounded promising because it contains so many things I love -- ghosts, Edinburgh, and cats. I dove in a little skeptical, but ended up really enjoying this little tale.
Blackwing was one of my favourite novels of 2017 -- I absolutely loved the refreshing world, story, and characters. I had high expectations for the sequel, and those expectations were absolutely smashed. While some authors struggle with ‘second book syndrome’, McDonald is showing that his talent as a writer is only growing.
This is the first book by Gavin Smith that I’ve read, and I’m so happy to say that The Bastard Legion lived up to my hopes and expectations. It has so many things that I absolutely love: a dark and gritty world, cool and complex technology, morally grey characters, and a butt-kicking leading lady. This is a tough one to review because I feel like you should really dive in and discover for yourself, but I’ll do my best.
I feel like I’m saying this at the end of every single month, but seriously how is September already over? This year is absolutely flying by! It has been a brilliant month for reading and for blogging. Not only did I land myself on a few publishers's blogger lists, I launched my YouTube channel! I'm not sure how you could miss that fact if you've been frequently reading this blog -- I'm definitely talking about it and linking it constantly -- but if you did, you can find my channel here 🙂
