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29 January 2021

Prudence by Gail Carriger (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Title: Prudence
Author: Gail Carriger
Publication: 17 March 2015
Format: Kindle ebook 

Amazon Description: 
When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama ("Rue" to her friends) is bequeathed an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female under similar circumstances would do -- she christens it the Spotted Custard and floats off to India.

Soon, she stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis (and an embarrassing lack of bloomers), Rue must rely on her good breeding -- and her metanatural abilities -- to get to the bottom of it all. . .

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff
I tried several books after The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and they were all just ..... so ..... "eh" in comparison. Got my grubby little hands on the next Carriger on my list, though, so life was happy happy again. At least as far as having something worthwhile to read went. Of course, as soon as it was over I was back in the same situation of nothing being good enough. I really don't want to fly through the four Custard Protocol books, though, so hopefully something will click soon. Oh, I've got it! I'm super far behind on my Rhys Bowens so I guess now we know what's up next!

As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

15 January 2021

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

Title: The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Author: VE Schwab
Publication: 6 October 2020, Tor Books
Format: Kindle ebook 

Amazon Description: 
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever―and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

Ramble-y Teaserish Stuff
This book broke me. Over and over again and I loved it. 
I know, it's not normal to love being broken .... but I have never claimed normalcy as one of my traits so there you have it.

If she must grow roots, she would rather be left to flourish wild instead of pruned, would rather stand alone, allowed to grow beneath the open sky. Better that than firewood, cut down just to burn in someone else's hearth. (4%)

It's got history and romance and humor and intrigue and heartbreak. It was everything that I needed and didn't know that I needed.
This is how you live forever. Here is one day, and here is the next, and you take what you can, savor every stolen second, cling to every moment, until it's gone. (44%)
The description doesn't come even close to doing it justice and neither will anything that I have to say ... so, just, you know, get it and read it.


As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

13 January 2021

Getting the mojo back .... I hope

* I re-entered the wonderful world of Twitter

* I re-joined NetGalley (sadly, all achievements and pre-approvals are lost because I have no idea how to retrieve the previous account since the email it was attached to no longer exists)

* I printed up tracking sheets for the Alphabet Soup Challenge -- one for A to Z Titles & one for A to Z Authors. 



Hey, it could happen.

08 January 2021

Timeless by Gail Carriger (Book Beginnings & Friday 56)

And so another series is finished. Luckily, the next Gail Carriger series is a continuation so I'm not quite completely forlorn ..... yet. Slightly forlorn because I have yet to get my hands on the first book of the next set but I will. I definitely will.

Gail is some kind of magic with slump breaking. I believe I've said so before. I'm just hoping that no one ever tries to turn her wonderful books into a tv series or, even worse, condense them down to movie length. Not after what happened to Bridgerton.

No lengthy "this is why it's awesome" because I would have to go all the way back to the beginning of Finishing School and you should just read them all yourself.


As always, Friday 56 (share a blurb from the 56th page or 56% mark) is hosted at Freda's Voice & Book Beginnings (share the first few sentences) is at Rose City Reader.

05 January 2021

Heartless by Gail Carriger (Tuesday Intros & Teaser Tuesday)

I know. I'm horrible. 

To be fair, it's been hard to read much less write about it most days .... weeks ..... months .......

Hopefully 2021 will be better at least as far as that goes. Not really expecting much out of the year in general, but I'm trying to at least get thee ol' book mojo back.

I'm also horrible in completely neglecting to do even a quick tease post about the third book in this series. I did the first and the second .... and now the fourth. Whatever. It was a bad week when I finally eeked out any oomph to read it and then it went and returned itself to the library before I nabbed any quotes. 

It was a great book, though. 

Of course it was. It was written by Gail.

Anyway, I've got 32 percent left to read of Heartless and 3 hours left to my work shift. 

The upside of Tuesdays being teaser days? No one probably expects me to say much besides : here's the book and teasers. 

So, yeah.

Here's the book and teasers:

"First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros" is from the first paragraph or two of a book being read now (or in the future) and is hosted by Socrates' Book Reviews. 

"Teaser Tuesday" at The Purple Booker asks for a random line or two from anywhere in the book currently being read.