Good grief, Mortal Heart was LONG. It seems like it was almost twice as long as the first two books and they were long, too.
I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first two — the whole errr relationship thing was a little weird. A lot weird. I liked having the three girls back together, that was good. I liked the solution to the problem with France. That was smart. Errr, the relationship thing was weird. I said that, right?
Greenglass House is from the Cybils shortlist and we listened to it on audio.
I had a little trouble settling into the story in the beginning because I didn’t particularly like Milo. Also all of the folks arriving at the Inn all at once made for a bit of confusion. Weird names, hard to keep people straight, but it all settled down and started making sense.
Even the ghost part. (Oddly, TW didn’t realize the ghost was a ghost until Milo did. I was surprised by that.)
I liked the mystery. I liked the role-playing game aspect. I liked the adoption storylines. I did not love the storyline that had Clem and Georgie trying to steal the guy’s heart. That bothered me. Which is probably the reason why I didn’t give the book 5 stars (TW asked me about that a couple of days ago and I couldn’t really tell her why… now I can. I really loved both of those characters until the reason they were both at Greenglass House came out. I didn’t like that. I didn’t think it was necessary. I don’t particularly want kids to read that and think that this is how young women behave. Or should behave. Or even consider behaving. That’s now how relationships work…)
Anyway. Good book. I enjoyed it.
One of our favorite series to listen to on audio is The #1 Ladies Detective Agency Series. We absolutely love them and The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Cafe was excellent.
I particularly enjoyed that Charlie plays a prominent role in this story and I think maybe he grows up just a wee bit more in the process. I think Mma Makutsi might have grown up a little bit, too…
The Handsome Man’s De Luxe Cafe Read More »
Thank goodness for audiobooks! Without them, my books read this month count would be horrid. Oh wait, it will still be horrid but at least the audiobooks helped. Also, they were great books.
Sarah Addison Allen’s First Frost was terrific. It took me awhile to remember who all of the Waverlys were and how they were connected and what their magics were but I very much enjoyed it. Great book for a road trip.
Next, Anita Diamond’s Boston Girl (read by Linda Lavin!) was excellent and an even better book for a road trip. I wish it had been a little longer, with a few more stories about Addy as wife/mother but I’m not really complaining.
Two Awesome Audiobooks Read More »
We finished our audiobook and didn’t have any waiting for us at the library so I surfed Amazon for free audio books and decided When I Found You looked like the best of the bunch. Turns out it was better than expected. One of those books that you keep thinking about after you’ve stopped listening for awhile. One of those books that makes you sad but also makes you feel good at the same time.
Do you find yourself reading books that are completely unrelated but have odd connections between them? It doesn’t just happen to us, does it?
Like the audio book, St. Nick, that I grabbed from Amazon just because I didn’t have any other audio books and it seemed like it would be a fun listen in the car (even though Christmas just ended) and the Sandman Slim #6, The Getaway God, with the very evil Saint Nick character. Never in a million years would have expected a connection between those two books but there you go. It was also a little disconcerting to be reading them both at the same time. One St Nick was super good and the other so very not good. Very weird.
Anyway, I loved both books…
St Nick — a depressed and struggling cop turned mall Santa is just as you’d expect. The magic of Christmas etc. etc. etc. It was awesome.
The Getaway God, #6 in the Sandman Slim series, was just as awesome (maybe more awesome than some of the other books in the middle of the series) as you’d expect. Stark saves the world (again) and sorts out all of the broken Gods (and Lucifers, for that matter.) The only downside for me with a Sandman Slim novel is the lack of chapters. I need chapters. Why does Kadrey hate chapters? Hmph.
Our last audiobook of 2014, Mermaids in Paradise, was amusing. A little long and dry in a few places but overall, very amusing. It needed more mermaid and a slightly better ending but otherwise — totally fun. Also, stop killing the planet, peoples! Satire, funny satire = #awesome.
Mermaids In Paradise Read More »
Someone over on BlogHer recommended some kids’ audiobooks and Ninja Detectives sounded good so I reserved the first one, The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit and it was fun. Really quick, which was nice — good ending, interesting kids. I’ll definitely reserve the next one on audio at some point next year.
Ninja Detectives Are Awesome Read More »
We listened to Jodi Picoult’s Leaving Time on our trip to/from Oberlin and finally finished it up a couple of days ago. This book was a hot mess, which you would expect because it’s a Jodi Picoult book. But, it might be the biggest hot mess of all of her hot messes. I figured out the big issue long before it actually happened and… oh boy. The look on TW’s face when it happened. Hahahahaha. She might kill me if I ever force her to listen to another Jodi Picoult novel. hahaha. And that’s all I’m gonna say about this one because I don’t want to ruin it (hahaha) for Picoult fans.
When we headed to Oberlin, I made sure another audiobook was in the car, in case Leaving Time was short and we needed another audio book… TW took one look at that and said, “You’re kidding me. Are you trying to punish me? First Picoult, then this?” I laughed and said “What? It’s a Cybils book. It sounds like fun!” And then she put the first disc in and my head almost exploded. I couldn’t handle more than the intro before I told her to turn it off. I returned it.
I don’t think I’ve ever NOT finished a book from the Cybils shortlist before. So this is a first for me. I feel a little bad about that — but not bad enough to sit through William Shakespear’s Star Wars. I’m sure it’s fabulous, if you like that sort of thing. I absolutely do not and I am NOT even gonna pretend.
Two Audio Books — Sort Of Read More »
The second book in the His Fair Assassin series was on the Cybils shortlist but I hadn’t read the first book. So, I grabbed it on audio and we listened to it last month.
We enjoyed Grave Mercy. It’s definitely a YA book — there’s a lot of flowery lovey-dovey stuff that makes me and TW roll our eyes but we definitely liked it.
The second book, Dark Triumph, oh boy. Sybella is a hot mess. Horrible horrible descriptions of horrible horrible acts – killing babies, creepy brother/sister sex stuff. A whole lot of violence. Then, of course, there’s a lot of flowery lovey-dovey stuff which makes me and TW roll our eyes, particularly after we’ve just heard some really disgusting stuff about dead babies and gah. It was good. We liked it. We just needed strong stomachs to get through it.
I need a bit of a break from the series before I can bring myself to listen to the third book. Maybe in the spring? lol