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Kat

Kat’s DNF Parade (Audiobook Edition)

January 7, 2016      Leave a Comment

 

I love audiobooks and will usually listen to anything on audio, but recently I’ve have had a long line of DNFs.

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Mini Reviews : Adult Fiction

November 12, 2015      Leave a Comment

Robert Langdon is back. This time the symbologist (although most of this book really just needed a Art Historian and Italian Lit professor) wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with no memory of how he got there or why a shadowy organization is after him. As Langdon dashes across Italy with a beautiful blonde Girl Friday doctor, Sienna Brooks, he starts to put the pieces of his memory together. Langdon and Sienna are racing against time to save the world against a plot inspired by Dante Alighieri himself. This installment features all the twist and turns you expect in a Dan Brown novel with the addition of what I think Dan Brown considers strong female characters. I didn’t see the ending coming and Brown mixes just the right amount of facts and fiction to create a page flipping novel. A great addition to the Langdon series,  this coming from someone who has read every Brown novel.  We’ll just pretend The Lost Symbol never happened. Jess – ★★★

 

Song of Achilles is the story of Achilles from The Illiad told  through the perspective of his lover, the exiled prince Patroclus.  Let me stop you right there. Yes. Yes, this book is basically The Illiad fanfiction, but it’s the good kind. Although I suspect if Patrolcus was a female character in a YA book he’d be called a Mary Sue and bad role model. His character begins and ends with how awesomesauce Achilles is.

Miller’s writing is so vivid and engrossing, it works perfectly with Frazer Douglas’s audiobook narration. This book works great on audio because some of these names can be tough. Douglas’ does read a little slow and it felt like the ending of this book was dragging. I think it’s best to go in knowing as little as possible about the actual story because it follows the Greek myth so closely.

I do want to point out that there is a fair amount rape and misogyny in this book, but Miller handles female characters well. The few speaking women in this book could have easily been lamps with wombs, but Douglas brings them to life. Kat – ★★★★

SIDE NOTE:

Also, Miller does the *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* thing to keep it kind of meta. Odysseus tells a central character (who you have probably never heard of) “Who knows, I could be more famous than you one day. Welp, back to Ithaca I go now.” (Okay, that may not be paraphrased.)

Game by Barry Lyga

September 15, 2015      Leave a Comment

  • Release Date: April 6, 2013
  • Genre: Contemporary
  • Audiobook Hours: 13 hours 28 minutes
  • Publisher: Hachette Audio

From the opening lines–which describe a serial killer’s thoughts as he disembowels his recent victim –this book hit my squick button. Hard. I  can do gritty, but Game had more body mutilation and necrophilia than I like in my….everything. I was prepared to return this audiobook to the library but I was driving so I kept listening. I’m glad I did because once I got past the prologue, I was dipped right back into a story that was like watching my favorite procedural crime shows. From its twisty mystery, acerbic humor and constant supply of WTF-ery….

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Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

September 5, 2015      Leave a Comment

 

  • Release Date: October 2, 2012
  • Pages: 336
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Publisher: Tor Books

Well, it’s time for to me fill my “Reading Outside of My Usual Genre” quota for the year.

I came across this book on NPR books where Amal El-Mohtar discussed how awesome the diverse covers for this book were and how Max Gladstone became one of his favorite authors. I had a Fantasy space in my Summer Book Bingo, so when I saw this was available on Scribd I started reading.


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Sisters of Blood and Spirit by Kady Cross

July 2, 2015      Leave a Comment

  • Release Date:March 31st 2015  
  • Pages:288
  • Genre:Paranormal YA
  • Publisher:Harlequin Teen

I picked this book up at the Harlequin Teen signing at BEA and knew nothing about .I knew Cross vaugeley from steampunk series that starts with The Girl in the Steel Corset, but I’d never heard of this series. I think I chose this as my first post-BEA books because this is the first time in a long time I’ve read something with no information about it. It felt like the old days when every book I read was a new discovery.

Sister of Blood and Spiritis a paranormal YA with a bit of a horror twist.Twin sisters Wren and Lark (wink, wink) are near identical with two key differences; 1. Wren’s hair is a bright red and Lark’s is white and 2. Wren was born a ghost and only Lark can see her.

Yeah, this cover is very on the nose.

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Now and Forever by Susane Colasanti

March 26, 2015      7 Comments

  •  Release Date: May 20, 2014
  •  Pages: 273
  •  Genre: Contemporary YA
  •  Publisher: Viking Juvenile (Penguin)

So, I’m starting to realize I may have a new book kryptoniteand it’s the what I like to call “I’m with the band” stories.  These are the books were either a friend, parent, or the love interest is a rock star. I haven’t read many of them, but if I see one it instantly goes on to my TBR pile. I’m not sure why I’m so interested in this.  Maybe its because my guilty pleasure movie is the Disney Channel Original Movie Starstruck or that Sarah Dessen’s This Lullaby was my favorite book as a teen. Either way, pair this knowledge with the fact that I’ve been meaning to read Susane Colasanti for years and Now and Forever was the perfect choice….

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