Currently reading
Creative Prayer: Speaking the Language of God's Heart
Jesus Calling: A 365 Day Journaling Devotional
Shadow of Night
The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry
A Celtic Witch (A Modern Witch, #6)
The second-to-last book in the series :) The last one will be out in June.This one was strangely slow to start compared to some of the others, but once it did, it took off with a vengeance. Not much page-time for the Californian witches in this one, which was a shame, but on the other hand I appreciated all the page time that Marcus got. Such a sweet story :)
Perfume (International Writers)
A 2.5 star review.I'm having a really hard time figuring out how to review this. The plot was very weird, and the main character - though fascinating - was so entirely unsympathetic that I didn't even mind that he died at the end.Apparently this has been turned into a movie? I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like!
A fetched witch who doesn't immediately love the Witch Central? Gasp! How is that even possible?! But it made for an interesting twist, and I can well imagine how somebody with aspergers could feel more than a little overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the Sullivan-Walker circus :) I thought Debora Geary handled it well, and I actually really appreciated that we got to see Beth again. I hadn't stopped to wonder what became of her since the first book, but I really should have.And as always - love the kids :D
I'm usually not a huge fan of short-stories, but when the setting and characters belong to a universe I already know and love, it's a different matter altogether. This was an adorable interlude, and I'm obviously a huge sap, because it had me reaching for my hanky more than once :)So sweet - and at less than 30 pages, a very quick read as well. I finished it in my lunch break :)
We're back in Nova Scotia, and this time it's Marcus, rather than a "fetched" witch, who is the main character of the book.Unlike the other books in the series, I wouldn't really call this a feel-good book. It's still a great read, but absolutely heart-wrenching in places. I commend Debora Geary though. She could easily have taken the easy way out with some of her choices, but she stuck to the hard truth, which I think strengthened the story.It did make me sit and sob into my Kindle at times though.But a terrific read nonetheless. I'll definitely be purchasing the later books in the series as well as some of the "inbetween" ones.
A 4.5 star review.I'm seriously in love with this series :) For this one we're back in California, and I think I might like that setting a tiny bit more - although with Net-travelling it hardly makes much of a difference any longer.Sierra is such a sweet witch, and the love the others show her - not to mention their easy way of immediately adopting her, just when she needed it the most - brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. I especially loved Devin and wish we could have seen more of his and Lauren's relationship.
A 3.5 star rating, but leaning towards 3.75 which is why I gave it the 4th star here :)It took me a lot longer to finish this than the book in any way deserved. This was partly me getting sidetracked by other books and projects, partly the fact that it took until the last 150-200 pages for me to fully connect with Dena. I didn't like her much at first, but realize in hindsight (always 20/20 of course ;) ) that I probably wasn't really supposed to. She grew on me though, and I liked the way all the ends were tied up nicely.But reading about how people of colour were treated as recently as 50 years ago always gets my blood boiling :(
Not quite as good as "A Modern Witch". Probably in part because now I knew what quality of book to expect, and in part because I wasn't quite as smitten by Elorie as I was by Lauren.Still a delightful book though, and I read it in one day. It's lovely to read a book where people are just genuinely nice towards one another. There's no major conflict, no big climax - just a cozy feeling of getting to know a particular group of people. Some people may miss the presence of an actual plot, but I love it :)
This book had me hooked already on page two, when I discovered that at least some witches in this universe wrote witching spells using computer code! As an IT consultant myself, this was something that immediately appealed to me and I fell instantly in love.Fortunately the rest of the book more than lived up to my expectations. Granted, it doesn't have the most complex or innovative plot, but it's just a genuinely pleasant book. I loved the characters, and their antics had me laughing out loud so often that my husband started wondering what was up. I fell in love over and over with each new situation, and found myself tearing up from their happiness more than once.This is a true comfort book, and I have a hard time remembering when I've last fallen THIS hard for a new book. It's an instant favourite.Edited in September: I don't often reread books the soon after my first read, but it is that good. Besides, I found it as an audiobook, and figured, why not ;)
As the rating indicates, I found Storm Front good but not great. Its charm is that it allows the reader to see magic and 'reality' side by side. Harry Dresden attempts to be a part of modern society - as much as is possible when technology dies in the presence of magic - and thereby goes against most magical stereotypes as seen in other books. It is interesting to see a magical world that's not kept secret, but is readily available to us common mortals.Reread in 2013: I actually enjoyed this a lot more than on my first read-through... possibly because my expectations were quite a bit lower ;) Everybody I know seems to love it though, so I figured I'd give it a second chance and perhaps move on to the rest of the series this time.
Very cozy book, even though the writing style did take some getting used to. But it's actually one of the odd books where I'd say the book and the movie are equally good - or perhaps that's just because I knew the movie too well before reading the book.It's not a page-turner - evidenced by the length of time it took me to finish it - but just a nice, comfortable read.
A 4.5 star review.Izzy and her mother are Brannicks. Trained to fight mosters from a very young age. It's all Izzy has ever known, but after her sister mysteriously disappears during a job, her mother decides it's time for them to take a break. Fortunately rumours of a haunting at a small high school have surfaced, so for the first time in her life Izzy will be pretending to be an "ordinary" teenager - which turns out to be more difficult than it sounds when you have absolutely no frame of reference.Fortunately for Izzy, the high school Paranormal Mystery Society (PMS) is ready to welcome her with open arms, but keeping her distance and remembering that "it's just a job" turns out to be harder than Izzy expected when faced with friends like Romy, Anderson and especially Dex.Turns out the haunting is very real - and more sinister than Izzy originally had thought. The ghost is able to do things no regular ghost should be able to... which means that there's a hedge witch involved somewhere.This spinoff series to Hex Hall is off to a good start. I was hesitant at first, because I wasn't sure Rachel Hawkins could make it work, but she proved me wrong, and provided a delightfully engaging read. I really liked the members of PMS and how it was obvious that they weren't friends just because they were all considered freaks and had no one else to turn to, but because they genuinely liked each other, and liked Izzy. I thought there was a good balance between Izzy's monster-hunting antics and her relationship with her new friends, but I would have liked to see more interaction with her mother. Hopefully that'll come in the sequel :)
Really fascinating and creepy story. I'd had it recommended to me as "that book it seems like M. Night stole his idea for The Village from", and I can definitely see why! It kept me hooked till the very last page.The perfect read for Dewey's Read-A-Thon.
More a novella than a novel in its own right, and it won't make much sense unless you are familiar with the Sword of Truth universe - at least the first book anyway.That said, to one very familiar with the Sword of Truth universe, it was a fun insight into Zedd's life before the events of Wizard's First Rule. It was a quick and easy read, but I'd recommend it only to people who want to "know more about Zedd" as the plot itself was nothing special.
"Catching Fire" was every bit as well written and interesting as THG. Suzanne Collins really has a way with words that draws you in, and doesn't let you go again until the last page is turned. The games are so atrocious, the deaths so futile that one can't help but be effected - I couldn't anyway.My biggest problem with it was the sense of repetition in it. I often found myself thinking, "Well, yes. This is all very exciting... but didn't the same thing happen in THG?" It made it seem like Suzanne Collins was running out of ideas, which other details made it obvious wasn't the case.Reread in 2013: My opinion is still pretty much the same. Not nearly as good as THG, but still definitely a page-turner. The perfect read for Dewey's Read-a-Thon.