Author: Lauren

I'm not a good writer, so I'll just keep writing until I am.

A Little Re-Organization Never Hurt Anybody

Lauren1 Comment

So the hubs and I have a small library. We have carefully cultivated our collection over the years and to be honest, we have neglected the bookshelves. Because we keep the books organized by authors, some of the books were starting to pile up, as there was no more room for new books.

I mean, there was a little room. But it wasn’t with the original authors!

I may have a thing.

This particular picture was taken after I had cleaned off this shelve to put the books downstairs. I wasn’t hauling all those books back upstairs. Clearly, I am a genius.

My project supervisor was sleeping on the job…until I went to take this photo. And then of course she wakes up.

The good news is this project only took a few hours. The bad news is I now know all the books I am missing from some series.

I want the pretties.

One has to have a shelf dedicated to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.

I can’t get the magazines to stand upright, so on their sides they go!

I still think there is some work to do. But I keep buying books, and my husband just informed me he has a bunch of books on the way soon, so its an ongoing struggle for us. As it is with any book lover.

it would help if I read them when I got them. Instead I am constantly reading old books. Because old books bring life!

A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires- A Book Review

Lauren4 Comments

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in. 

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Holy cow. What a ride this book was.

I have to say, I was not expecting to enjoy that as much as I did. I mean, I had heard great things about this book, but that doesn’t always mean a book is good.

But this book was great. I mean really. I couldn’t put it down.

Except I did put it down because I didn’t want it to end. Anyone else do that?

There are some trigger warnings for this book, so be aware of that. A hazard for any vampire book these days it seems.

The characters where great. I mean really, the author does a great job of painting Patricia as a woman who is is both uncovering the truth and seemingly coming unhinged to the people around her.

The world building was strong. Grady Hendrix’s world of the North Carolina suburbs in the 1990’s was really well done.

I loved our villain. James was wonderfully written. He was both charming and creepy all at the same time.

And that ending. Oh my goodness that ending! I loved it!

At the end of the day I had to give this book 5 out of 5 stars. How could I not? It was brilliant.

A Birthday Away

Lauren6 Comments

So I turned 40 a few weeks ago and the hubs turned 40 a few days after that. Go us!

We decided that since our original plan of going to Disney was cancelled due to Covid-19 that we should still do something local. So we planned a staycation.

We had some very exacting standards that had to be met, like all the rooms had to be accessible from outside, not inside, the main building. The location had to have a small number of rooms, so a small amount of guests! And we could eat in the room, not the main dining room. Also, masks all around!

After hours of searching we finally managed to find a place! And by we I mean me. I did all the searching and then the hubs agreed to the locale.

We found Elm Creek Manor! This little B & B met all of our requirements and had the added benefit of being a farm to table location too! They are located about two hours north west of Dallas, TX so the drive there wasn’t too bad.

I must say, we were not disappointed at all. This quaint little B & B was everything we hoped it would be. The room (which I forgot to take pictures of) was comfortable, and the bed was great. The sheets were super soft. Not typical hotel sheets at all.

I totally forgot to take pictures of the food, by the way. I was to busy eating it. But the food was amazing. Home grown arugula salads with fresh picked tomatoes. Farm fresh eggs with breakfast for the hubs because I am allergic. And the dinners! Country ham with pink peppercorns and tomato risotto. Roasted chicken with hominy and roasted veg.

It was so good.

We took a little hike/romantically cheesy scavenger hunt that took us all over the property. This was part of the package we had selected. This package also included a massage. The masseuse wore a mask the entire time and I felt safe with the precautions she took for us.

When all is said and done we are considering going back in post Covid times when we can experience the town of Muenster, TX, which is where this B & B is located. We spent all our time reading.

Go figure.

The Priory of the Orange Tree – A Book Review

Lauren2 Comments

The Priory of the Orange Tree was written by Samantha Shannon

As I sat down to write this review, which was right after finishing the book, I realized that I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it.

The premise: The kingdom of Inys has stood for a thousand years, and at it’s heart lies it’s queen, Sabran. Now it’s time for Sabran to do her duty and conceive an heir, but evil lurks in the shadows. A plot to undo her kingdom is at hand, and an ancient Dragon awakens in the deep.

This 800 page fantasy book is 3 parts political drama 1 part fantasy story. With a little queer romance thrown in just for good measure. And I’m not the biggest fan of pure political drama if I’m going to be honest. To much real political drama in the world, thank you very much!

The world building is the book was excellently done. Like, superbly done. The author paints a chaotic landscape in fear of the apocalypse to come.

The character building was well done. Sabran, Ead, Margret, Tané, Loth, Nicklays, and all the rest are very well fleshed out with strong backstories. They all have growth, if not all in the ways that you expect (here’s looking at you unexpected queer relationships!).

The plot, well that, that is where I have some problems. Overall, it’s good. The story is engaging and the world is thriving. But I had some problems with the little bits. Some things happened too slowly, some too quickly. There was an awful lot of “if it could go wrong, it will go wrong” happening here. But again, overall, it’s a good plot, with plenty of momentum to pull the story forward.

On the whole, the book was pretty good. I gave it 3.75 out of 5 stars.

What to Read? – My October 2020 TBR

Lauren14 Comments

It’s a week of lists. First you get what I bought last month. Then you get what I read last month. Now you get what I want to read this month!

That’s a lot of lists.

On to the TBR!

The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso

Magic is scarce in the Raverran Empire, and those born with such powers are strictly controlled — taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon army, to be used as weapons in times of war.

Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire Empire.

Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations.

But fate has bound the heir and the mage. And as war looms on the horizon, a single spark could turn their city into a pyre.

This book is also on my TBR for the year, so that makes me want to read it even more!

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy with a normal life, married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. They’re even about to have their first child. Yes, Charlie’s doing okay until people start dropping dead around him, and everywhere he goes a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Charlie Asher, it seems, has been recruited for a new position: as Death.

It’s a dirty job. But, hey! Somebody’s gotta do it.

I’ve had Christopher Moore on my to read list for a while now, I just didn’t know where to start. Hopefully this is a good place!

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

I’m not gonna lie, I discovered this book because of booktok. The description reeled me in though. I mean, trans and Lantinx representation? I’m there.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

I’ve read this before, but it’s been years. I want to give all four books a good read through, so I have to start here!

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

IT TAKES A GRAVEYARD TO RAISE A CHILD.

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy—an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod’s family.

I’ve wanted to read this book for a years and just never got around to it. Halloween is the perfect time!

Well, that’s all for my TBR. I’m more of a mood reader, so I don’t want to try and make a huge grandiose list of books that I know I won’t get to. That would be awkward.

So awkward.

Everything I Read in September 2020

Lauren3 Comments

So I thought I’d give this a try, sharing with you everything I read this past month.

Everyone likes a nice recap, right?

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

A story about Kingdoms with huge religious differences and dragons. Not to mention positive queer representation. I ended up giving this book 3.75 out of 5 stars.

The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett

The story of two black sisters from a small southern town. I found myself liking this book a lot more than I anticipated, which was nice given all that I had heard about it. I gave it 4.5 of of 5 stars, You can read my review here.

Shadows in Death by J.D. Robb

A deadly assassin is after Roarke and all he holds dear. Eve will protect Roarke with everything she has, even the full might of the NYPSD. I have been reading the In Death books for years and they are suffering a little from series fatigue. I gave this one 3 out of 5 stars. I’m gonna read the next one too!

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

A short novella about a robot that would rather watch it’s shows than perform it’s duties. What’s not to love? I gave this 4 out of 5 stars.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

A modern exspansion of the Authurian legend and female lead who also happens to be a person of color? I’m down for that. I gave this book 3.75 out of 5 stars. You can read my review here.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

A mysterious pandemic is leaving people with memories of lives they have never lived. This book took me through it! I gave it 5 out of 5 stars!

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

All this villain wants to do is bring down his arch enemy, within the rules of course. Enter his new sidekick Nimona, who just wants to sow chaos. This graphic novel was so cute! I gave it 3.75 out of 5 stars.

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

A young girl looks to forbidden magics to save an Empire on the brink of revolution. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. You can read my review here.

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne

In the kingdom of Pell you’ve never seen a Chosen One quite like this. I DNF’d this one. And I wanted so much to like it. Is no stars an option? No? I gave it 1 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente, art by Annie Wu

A series of intertwined stories from hero/villain connected women who have been fridged (killed). If you love comic books this is for you! I gave this 4 out of 5 stars!

A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Patricia finds a vampire lurking in her small town and and the ladies of her book club are the only people she can trust. I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

A band has to perform in a singing competition for the fate of humanity. In space! I wanted to like this book, as I loved The Refrigerator Monologues by this author, but alas, it was not to be. I DNF’d this frantic, hyperactive book. Sorry book. 1 out of 5 stars on Goodreads because you can’t give zero stars!

Fangs by Sarah Andersen

The adorable graphic novel about the love story between a werewolf and a vampire. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Of everything I read this past month, I’d have to say I loved Recursion and A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires the most. Obviously, I gave them both 5 stars!

What did you read in September?

The Bone Shard Daughter-A Book Review

Lauren1 Comment

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.
Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.
Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.

Well, that surely was a read, wasn’t it. See I’m not so sure about the first half of this book. And the second half was good. But as a whole book, does it work?

I just don’t know. I’m so conflicted!

From the very beginning of this book I felt like I was jumping in at the middle of the story. Which as we all know from my review of Faith that it’s not my favorite thing to have happen in a story.

I also didn’t like how the character pov jumps happened by chapter. Don’t get me wrong, as the book went on I understood why the author chose the approach she did take on the time she spent with each character. It just really bothered me during the first half of the book. For example, she mentioned a character in the first 4 chapters that wasn’t heard from again until you were 30% of the way through the book.

Given all of my negative thoughts thus far, I very nearly DNF’d this book. But I decided to stick with it, and I’m glad that I did. I found myself really enjoying the second half of the book to the point where I was up until midnight reading because I had to know how it ended.

I will say the ending felt a little weird to me. I know its the first book in a series but I dislike when endings don’t actually end something. This felt like one big ole “see you next season”. I don’t particularly like when books try to be movies or tv series.

It irks me.

All that being said, I really enjoyed the bone shard magic system. It’s complex and, well, gross. I loved it.

The world the author created is of a nation on the brink of revolution, and it works, for the most part. I would be really interested to see how the world expands in future books in the series.

Pacing was slightly problematic for me, the first half of the book plodded along while the second half picked up speed. It’s part of my confusion at reading the book.

Character development was really well done. The authors characters really shine in this story. They were rich and complex, which is something other parts of the book were lacking.

As I don’t know that I’d pick up the next one in the series, I have to give this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Decorating The Front Room With Books

Lauren4 Comments

So if you haven’t noticed, I love books.

Big shocker, I know.

And one of the things I usually do with books is decorate with them. We’ve been in this house for two years and, thus far, the front room has no books! This must be fixed!

See! No books! Lots of empty spaces for books though. And I have a collection of my mom’s old books from when she was a youngling. Of course, they were all upstairs in the library so I had to drag them all downstairs. Multiple trips.

That was fun.

As you can see the books added some much needed brightness and color to the dark cubbie shelving things.

And yes, most of my plants are still doing well! Despite my best efforts, one of them gave up the ghost. One of them is trying to make up its mind as to whether or not it is going to go bye bye. I’m still striving to keep them going.

But that’s it. That’s how I decorate with books (and plants).

The Vanishing Half- A Book Review

Lauren3 Comments

For this months book club we read The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett.

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

So let’s talk about this.

I had heard great things about this book before it came up as a book club book. So, I must admit, I might have had high expectations for actually reading it myself. I’m happy to admit this book mostly lived up to those expectations.

It did have it’s drawbacks for me. Spoilers ahead (sort of) so be prepared for those.

The first 47% of this book is told from one sister’s perspective. I know because I was reading it on my kindle. And that’s before it jumps into her daughter’s perspective. But then it jumps into the other sister’s perspective and then into HER daughter’s perspective.

We don’t see a lot from the one sister’s POV. We do see what happened to her and what she went thru for her life. It takes up a lot of emotional space if not physical.

And when I say emotional space, I mean emotional space. The sisters went thru some stuff. They would probably benefit from some therapy, if therapy was something that they did back in the day.

They would also benefit from some better communication skills with each other.

Just sayin.

I was also waiting for one thing to happen that never actually did. Which was annoying. But that was more me wanting there to be something more to the book.

I did find myself internally cringing at some points. Mostly at the horrific racism of the south in the 50’s. People were terrible. And that was part of the point I imagine.

Pacing was good. The flow never felt slow or forced.

Plot was fantastic. Really, A+ plot.

World Building was great. Britt Bennett paints a vivid picture of the past.

Character development was great. I did have some problems with one of the daughters. She never felt fully fleshed out, despite the book giving her a full life. It could also be that I just didn’t like her.

That may be it.

When all is said and done I gave this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Legendborn-A Book Review

Lauren4 Comments

Legendborn is written by Tracy Deonn

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

Well, I said I wasn’t going to do it, but I did it. I bought Legendborn.

I don’t regret it. Do I have questions, yes. Absolutely.

Do YA books always move the plot along so quickly? Especially at the beginning? I don’t read a lot of YA fantasy so I don’t know.

These are the questions that the internet is good for!

So let’s get on to the actual review.

I’m not gonna lie, I had some misgivings about this. I haven’t read a YA book in years. I had, in fact, written off the genre about 7 years ago because the books I was reading just weren’t all that good to me. I don’t even remember them, that’s how memorable they were.

But this book had an interesting enough premise that I couldn’t resist it.

See, I’m a sucker for a good King Arthur story. They just, well, make me happy. This is even though I haven’t read all of Le Morte D’Arthur. I have it, I just haven’t read the whole thing. That’s a big, dense, book.

But this book isn’t a retelling, it’s an expansion of the myth. It’s what happens if the descendants of Arthur and his Knights survived to modern times.

I’m not gonna say I went nuts over it, cause I didn’t, but I did enjoy it enough that I would pick up book two. Because cliffhanger!!!

The plot for the story was great. I enjoyed the way it twisted and turned as it went. And followed it to its, for me anyway, unsurprising conclusion. Maybe it’s because I’m not the target audience and have been reading fantasy books for over 25 years? Maybe? And I did have a problem with how our main character just walked up to a door and was like, “hello, I’m here for the thing”.

And they let her in! She didn’t even know what the thing was!!!

The world building was really great. I thoroughly enjoyed the painting the author created with her story. It is magical realism, given that it is set in modern day North Carolina, and I sometimes have a problem like that, but not here.

Characters were good too. There were sometimes where people just accepted things a little too easily, or got angered for no reason other than “oh look, she’s here”.

Pacing was a bit frantic as the author tried to fit as much in the beginning as she possibly could, but it did level out into smoother waters as the book went on.

All in all I’d say this book has earned a good 3.75 out of 5 stars from me!

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