Books

Book 663: The Burning Page (The Invisible Library #3) – Genevieve Cogman

Cover art of The Burning PageThis is my final book of 2019, it took me a month to read (I got distracted with travelling and knitting) and two weeks to post about it—oh well.

Similar to The Masked City, this book starts off with a kidnapping, this time it’s Irene. Well it doesn’t start off with one, it actually starts off with a trip to another highly ordered world (think Nazi’s) and then when Irene has to take a quick solo trip to the Library she gets kidnapped.

This also wasn’t the Dragon companion book I was hoping we’d get after the last books deep foray into the Fae’s political underworld. Instead we were back to the big-bad Alberich for this story. That being said, it does sound like the Dragon’s are still coming with a side comment from one of Kai’s relatives (attendees?), but I won’t hold my breath.

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Books

Book 662: The Masked City (The Invisible Library #2) – Genevieve Cogman

The Masked City book coverWell that was an unexpected month hiatus. Sometimes I forget just how busy December is at my workplace and this was my first December fully in the job knowing what all I would be doing so I didn’t get to read as much or even post responses to books!

This is the second book in Cogman’s The Invisible Library series and it was pretty good. I didn’t think it was as good as the first, but it was a fun quick read. Instead of focusing so much on the workings of the Library (even though the first one didn’t really that much other than to say how mysterious they were), this book tells us a lot more about the Fae and gives us a glimpse at the Dragons.

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Books

Book 656: The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1) – Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library book coverWhy is it every time I say I’m not starting a series, I accidentally stumble into one!? I picked this up when we were visiting the UK last summer because it sounded interesting and there wasn’t a mention of a series anywhere on the cover/back blurb. But of course, as I’m drawn in I realize it’s going to be a much larger story than one book can contain and I find out it’s a six book series, SO FAR. There’s at least one more unpublished. BAH!

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series over time, but I really didn’t want to jump into another unfinished series. I don’t know why, but I’ve become the person who likes to know there’s an ending and that I can reach that ending. This is across all my media these days, not just books. but I don’t want to go on and on about that, so let’s talk about this book.

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ARC, Books

Book 637: The Vanished Bride (A Brontë Sisters Mystery #1) – Bella Ellis

As I mentioned in my June recap, I sort of Twitter-shamed Berkley into granting me access to this book—and I do still feel a little guilty about it. I tweeted because I was so mad that sites like NetGalley force bloggers/reviewers and publishers into tiny little boxes.

How are you supposed to represent everything you are as a blogger/reviewer when they give you 50 words or less and that’s about it? I get they’re trying to provide a service, but it’s like come on be user friendly for all the users. Why would I include that I have dedicated Jane Austen and Brontë pages on my website when I read hundreds of other books. UGH. Either way, the kind people at Berkley took pity on me and granted me access to the review copy and here I am.*

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Books

Book 634: The Mother of the Brontës – Sharon Wright

Book cover for "The Mother of the Brontës"I somehow managed to read a biography of Maria Branwell Brontë prior to reading a biography of any of her offspring. I’m not sure why, but when I saw this one on NetGalley it just spoke to me.*

Maybe it’s because I finally got to visit The Brontë Parsonage last year, or maybe I some how knew that Kirkstall Abbey (which I visited over a decade ago while living in Leeds) was connected to the Brontës without really knowing it. Or maybe, like Wright, I was appalled that I spent a considerable amount of time less than 60 miles from their home. Or maybe it was just another opportunity to revisit God’s Own Country via this book which Wright references. Who knows?

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