Summer vacation is off to a great start and after an extremely productive trip to the library yesterday I’m ready for the first read-a-thon of the summer! I’ll be keeping track of my books here and am hoping to really dig in this weekend.  I’ll be going out of town on the 26th and have a final exam to take before I go so I’ll be frontloading this one for sure, but still!  Anyway, on to the good stuff:

Completed Books:
The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch

Currently Reading:
The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn 

The biggest downside of long breaks in between blog posts, other than the implication that there are lots and lots of other things going on that require my attention, is that when the dust finally settles, there are lots of reviews waiting to be written.  A lot of time has elapsed since I read the books though- what to do, what to do…

Anyway, here’s the solution! Six books from my review queue, with brief thoughts.  Then, on to more recent, more detailed things.

Heart of Brass by Kate Cross (obtained from my public library)- The first in a steampunk romance, this is the story of Arden and Lucas.  Lucas has disappeared and everyone except Arden thinks he’s dead; when he appears, brainwashed by the enemy and assigned to assassinate Arden (his wife,) things are, as they say on Facebook, complicated.  I think I would have enjoyed this book a little bit more if I hadn’t been reminded of this:

Overall, not as much steampunk goodness as I would have liked, a decent romance and setup for the next book, generally an okay book.

Rating: 3/5

Wild Invitation by Nalini Singh (book purchased by me)- I will follow this series to the ends of the earth and this anthology was a good bridge between full length novels.  I had read two of the included stories already but it was nice to have my own copies.  The two new stories were excellent as well.  I loved it but I would totally start this series at the beginning and enjoy all that it has to offer.

Rating: 5/5

Gloomcookie Vol. 1 by Serena Valentino (obtained from my public library)- I don’t read a lot of graphic novels but picked this one up after seeing it mentioned on another blog (I forget which, but I’ll link up if I remember.)  I confess I wasn’t really impressed with this story- I enjoyed the dramatic circusy artwork and the visual elements but the story didn’t stay with me at all.  Maybe I’ve just officially become old and can’t get into the OMG he likes you/no he doesn’t/I hate you/you don’t understand me element? Don’t know, don’t care, but I won’t be continuing with this series.

Rating: 2/5

Geist by Philippa Ballantine (obtained from my public library)- This is the first book in this series, and honestly I think it suffers a little bit for that.  The characters come on too strong in some segments and washed out in others and I think it’s because there’s so much worldbuilding to be done in a really short number of pages.  There are lots of different genres making an appearence- fantasy, romance, adventure, steampunk- and I love genrebenders typically, but I think this book might have fared a little better if one had been a little more prominent than the others.  Not sure if I’ll continue with this series or not.

Rating: 3/5

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley(obtained from my public library)- I really enjoy this series and I think it’s very telling that although I think this is the weakest book in the series so far, it’s still outstanding and was a fun read.  Gypsies, town history, mystery, the antics of an eleven year old, and of course chemistry all come together to tell a fun and intriguing story.  I admit I wasn’t quite as satisfied with the ending of this one as I had been with the past two books, it’s a small quibble and I’m still a huge fan.

Rating: 4/5

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley (obtained from my public library)- Christmas, Flavia de Luce style!  This was an interesting book for the family dynamics of the de Luce clan- Flavia thinks her family pretty much wants nothing to do with her but certain things happen that make her question that assumption.  The financial troubles of Papa de Luce also take center stage, as without them there’d be no need for this story!  I enjoyed this book tremendously- Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Overall Rating: 4/5

And there you have it!  Six short reviews, with full reviews coming back in the next post. What have you been reading lately- good, bad, or indifferent?

Indeed! It’s been a long time but the school year is over and therefore my time is significantly more available for the next couple of months.

Seriously, it’s all coming together!  I decided not to teach summer school this year so except for a few things here and there I’m looking forward to lots of days by the beach and FINALLY getting caught up on all the books I want to read (and reread, too!)

Here are just some of the things I’m excited to finally dive into in the coming weeks:

My annual Harry Potter re-read.  Hooray!

Re-reads for other favorite series: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Kate Daniels, etc. Oh yeah, and finally starting and hopefully getting through a bunch of new series too!

Speed round reviews and logs of books.  I set my Goodreads challenge at 100 books for 2013 and I am incredibly behind for possibly the first time in my life.  Being a grownup is hard!

More Moers!  I decided to do it!  I’ll be doing a week of reviews of nothing but the quirky and awesome books by Walter Moers.  Schedule TBD but there is fun to be had!

Can’t wait! Happy summer everyone! 

Welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday!  This week is a rewind week, so we get to pick any previous top ten list and run with it! This week, I’ll be talking about my top ten favorite places to read!

I have to say at the onset though, I can read anywhere!  If there are printed words, I’m there. Just saying.

Anyway, and in no particular order…

2. At the Beach.  Here’s a picture of my beach:

I live about four miles away from the ocean so it’s delightful to pack my stuff and spread out in the sun.

3. On the Couch.  Under the couch is where I store all my library books so when I’m feeling spontaneous I’ll grab a book off the stack and just start reading.  Good times.

4. In the Waiting Room.  I’m a very good patient at the doctor because I always have a book with me so I don’t stress out about how long I’ve been there.

5. Car Rides.  Maybe not print books, but I LOVE listening to audiobooks while I’m driving long distances.  Makes the time fly!

6. With Kids. I love sharing stories with the students in my class!

7. Airplanes.  If you have to wait for hours for something, you might as well pass the time in a nice way.

8. On the Swing Set.  Maybe not so much anymore, but when I was little I used to love to sit at the top of my slide with a book.

9.At the Park. Lay out a blanket and stretch out with a book.

10.At the Library.  When a book is finished there are plenty more to choose from?

What are your favorite reading places? 

Title: The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag
Author: Alan Bradley
Page Count: 364 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: historical mystery
Copy for review obtained via my public library

Back Cover Summary:
From Dagger Award–winning and internationally bestselling author Alan Bradley comes this utterly beguiling mystery starring one of fiction’s most remarkable sleuths: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders. This time, Flavia finds herself untangling two deaths—separated by time but linked by the unlikeliest of threads.

Flavia thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacy are over—and then Rupert Porson has an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. The beloved puppeteer has had his own strings sizzled, but who’d do such a thing and why? For Flavia, the questions are intriguing enough to make her put aside her chemistry experiments and schemes of vengeance against her insufferable big sisters. Astride Gladys, her trusty bicycle, Flavia sets out from the de Luces’ crumbling family mansion in search of Bishop’s Lacey’s deadliest secrets.

Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What of the vicar’s odd ministrations to the catatonic woman in the dovecote? Then there’s a German pilot obsessed with the Brontë sisters, a reproachful spinster aunt, and even a box of poisoned chocolates. Most troubling of all is Porson’s assistant, the charming but erratic Nialla. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve—without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?
*****

So I’m pretty notorious, at least in my own mind, for starting a series and loving the first book and then not keeping up with the series, right? Well, stop the presses, because I have continued reading a series in a timely fashion compared to when I started it.

That series is the Flavia de Luce series, which features, quite possibly, my favorite narrator under the age of 13 in any book, ever. Flavia is what could charitably be called precocious, which as anyone knows is a word that people use when they don’t want to say “that kid is annoying.” She’s smart as a whip (far too smart for her own good in fact,) terribly observant, insatiably curious, and has a mind like an endless filing cabinet. These characteristics come together to make a narrator who’s a chemist, an investigator, and a believer in justice, even when she’s not sure what an affair is or how to tell if her older sisters are having fun at her expense.

As I’m writing this review, I’ve read the next two books in the series as well (reviews forthcoming) and I have to say that as far as the mystery goes, this book’s puzzler was my favorite. I loved the descriptions of the puppets and the puppet show and I thought it was great the way the history of the town of Bishop’s Lacey was intertwined with the mystery of how the puppet man died and why it clearly wasn’t an accident. But who could want to murder a guy that, as far as anyone knew, nobody had met before that week? Well, read the book and find out!

This book introduces several characters who have repeating roles in future books, and their inclusion added some interesting historical aspects to the story as well, especially Dieter, the German pilot who was a POW but couldn’t bring himself to leave after the war was over.

Unsurprisingly, Flavia saves the day and puts the facts together in a new and unusual way, and I don’t think that’s a spoiler because it wouldn’t be much of a mystery if our detective didn’t solve it, right? One of my favorite parts of these stories is the big reveal at the end, where Flavia and the Inspector sit down and compare notes, and the Inspector tries not to be too impressed or too annoyed at the eleven year old that beat his own cops at figuring out the story.

I’m pretty sure I’m the last person on earth to start reading this story, but just in case you’re actually that person, I highly recommend making a place for Flavia on your TBR. My next two review slots are taken up by the next two books in this series, and then I’ll only have one book to go before I’m current! Imagine that!

A Favorite Quote:

I am often thought of as being remarkably bright, and yet my brains, more often than not, are busily devising new and interesting ways of bringing my enemies to sudden, gagging, writhing, agonizing death.

Title: A Rogue by Any Other Name
Author: Sarah MacLean
Page Count: 386 pages
Publisher: Avon
Genre: historical romance
Copy for review was purchased by me

Back Cover Summary
What a scoundrel wants, a scoundrel gets…

A decade ago, the Marquess of Bourne was cast from society with nothing but his title. Now a partner in London’s most exclusive gaming hell, the cold, ruthless Bourne will do whatever it takes to regain his inheritance—including marrying perfect, proper Lady Penelope Marbury.

A broken engagement and years of disappointing courtships have left Penelope with little interest in a quiet, comfortable marriage, and a longing for something more. How lucky that her new husband has access to such unexplored pleasures.

Bourne may be a prince of London’s underworld, but he vows to keep Penelope untouched by its wickedness—a challenge indeed as the lady discovers her own desires, and her willingness to wager anything for them… even her heart.
*****

I had seen this title bandied about on various blogs a couple of months ago, right before the second book in this series was released, and filed it away for future reference. After reading enough good reviews and seeing that the price had temporarily dropped on Amazon, I was ready to dive in.

The story was a nice tale of redemption for Bourne, one of the owners of a notorious gambling hell who, in his wild younger years, made a stupid mistake that changed the entire course of his life. That mistake was, for whatever reason, gambling all of his holdings that weren’t entailed on a single hand of cards. It’s something a young and stupid person would do but for whatever reason Bourne was surprised when the scumbag he was playing against held him to his bargain. Bourne’s obsession with regaining his family estate was born on that night.

Enter the other half of the equation- Lady Penelope Marbury, whose family estate bordered on the one that Bourne (Michael) lost in the card game back when they were children. Penelope had a secret crush on him when they were both young, but kept it a secret and nurtured her feelings in private, writing and never sending lots of letters and the like. Fast forward to the present day of the story and Penelope is something of a pariah, having broken an engagement years ago when she found out her fiance was in love with someone else. The fiance is happily married with children; Penelope is a walking punch line and her family really wants to get her to the altar.

Penelope’s family was kind of douchey in this book- I understand that Penelope’s actions had consequences for them but the whole “we’d rather you be unhappy forever than have your choices impact me” line got old after awhile. It was her dad deciding that enough was enough and adding more land to Penelope’s dowry that got Bourne on the scene to ruin Penelope’s reputation in the first place. I wish there had been more explanation of how Penelope’s dad came by some very sensitive information about Bourne’s nemesis, but what can one do.

Anyway, the best part of the story was easily the blossoming romance between Bourne and Penelope. Penelope is the best kind of nice girl heroine- the one who is honest and true without being vapid or shallow, the one who has beliefs and lives by them and tries to make the best of a bad situation without coming across as naive. Penelope wants the kind of love that lasts a lifetime and resents the implications of oh, everyone she knows that she should be happy with a groom who is vertical and above room temperature. She decides to make the most of her marriage with Bourne, even before Bourne realizes that revenge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Likewise, Bourne makes an excellent redeemed bad boy. He’s faced with the inconvenient situation of actually falling in love with the woman he was supposed to marry to get his estate back and then forget about. She’s determined for them to be happy together, and his friends at the gambling hell are happy as clams to see Bourne entangles so thoroughly. Meeting the other owners of the Fallen Angel conveniently introduces us to the heroes for future books in the series. It all works out nicely.

Overall this story was a pleasing way to spend an evening after work, and it definitely got me on board for future installments in the series. Each of the owners of the Fallen Angel has his own terribly convoluted story that true love can help sort out, so I’m excited to be around for the ride.