Tag: Friends

Books

Book 625: Bryan & Jase (Something About Him #1) – A.D. Ellis

Geoff W

SAY IT WITH ME NOW: “If I write a self-published novel I promise I will use a professional copy editor, use multiple beta-readers, and ctrl+f any asinine phrase that I may over use.”

Okay, now we can move on. I didn’t realize these were self-published when I purchased these (for $6) or I probably would not have purchased them. I was trying NOT to judge the books by their horrible covers and was drawn in by the blurbs.

As I was gearing up to read these I did a cursory Goodreads check and knew I was in for an experience and that’s part of what flagged for me these were self published.

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Books

Book 624: Save the Date – Annabeth Albert & Wendy Qualls

Geoff W

So instead of taking a break after realizing I probably shouldn’t read six romance novels in a row by the same author I pick one up that they co-wrote. I really am a masochist right?

Well good news for me, this one took the best parts of Albert’s and Qualls’ writing and put them together. The bad news is that it basically was like and these two characters are crossovers from these three series (Quall’s Heart of the South – yay read it already, and Albert’s Out of Uniform and #Gaymers). Well guess what, On. My. List. Now. BWHAAHAAHAAA.

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Books

Book 613: A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) – V.E. Schwab

Geoff W

Disappointment doesn’t even begin to cover my thoughts on this. Did it end the series well enough? Yes. Did it inspire me to read more of Schwab’s writing? No. Am I even more concerned that she is being compared to Diana Wynn Jones? YES.

A Gathering of Shadows and A Conjuring of Light aren’t so much book two and book three of the Shades of Magic trilogy as they are part one and part two of book two of the Shades of Magic duology. All three of the books in the “trilogy” take place in incredibly short amounts of time with a four month gap between one and two/three.

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Books

Book 611: A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic #2) – V.E. Schwab

Geoff W

Well, this one was stronger than A Darker Shade of Magic, but I’m still not on board with the “natural successor to Diana Wynne Jones” promo-ing in her bio. (But honestly, I can’t blame her, if someone said that about me I’d probably get it tattooed on my body.) Do I think she could get there? Probably. Is she there yet? Not yet based on these to books, but she wrote seven other books I’ve yet to read.

My largest critique of the books/series still stands: Is this an adult book or a young adult book? I honestly cannot tell. There’s no explicit sex, there’s not really that much violence, the language is pretty much G-rated, and the writing and plot are relatively simple and straight forward. There will be MAJOR spoilers in this review so don’t read past this if you don’t want to know.

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Books

Book 610: A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1) – V.E. Schwab

Geoff W

I picked this up after seeing it on LouLouReads’ blog. The title intrigued me and then I read the official blurb and was like okay I like this idea of parallel worlds I’ll give it a go. Thankfully, my local library had the first two and I got them the next day and the third had a very short wait list.

Like LouLouReads I agree that the book was rather one-dimensional to start. I do feel that it grew, but I’m not sure Schwab’s writing deserves the accolade touted in her bio, “the natural successor to Diana Wynne Jones.” Those are some huge shoes to fill that Shwab might be able to do some day.

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