Archive for July, 2015



Dreams of Gods & Monsters (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #3)Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You know that teary-eyed feeling you get near the end of a book/series where you start reading slower to stretch out reading the last words? Yeah, that happened to me. Even though it wasn’t necessarily sad, still I knew I was leaving my friends behind, possibly to never read about them again. I do hope that is not the case. But there was no cliffhanger. The threads, even those I had forgotten about were nicely tied up. So the chances are there might not be more. I will miss everyone from this series. Even the bad guys had depth.

But my favorites were the secondary characters: Zuzana and Mik. I LOVED them! Maybe even more than I loved the lovesick Karou and Akiva. I don’t hate the main couple. They do what they should to remain superheroes. Oh, and I want to mention one more person, but I don’t want to spoil it for others. I really miss that person. But I’ve missed him for two books. What I did learn today was there is a short book about ZuzaMik. Got it. Will read it VERY soon.

The writing of these books is my favorite kind of writing. It is fast and full with the right amount of dialog to counteract descriptions. I want to study how Laini Taylor’s writing more so I may be reading these books again and again.

And then there is the icing on the cake: narrator, Khristine Hvam. She brings the story to life. She adds attitude where it might only be suggested by the writing. I look forward to reading more by Ms. Taylor read by Khristine Hvam.

May I suggest that you make sure you have a couple days to dedicate to just reading. I didn’t do anything but for the past few days. reading way past bedtimes and food times, and nearly past pee times, oops! All of it was worth it! What a wonderful story!

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Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Normally, when I get a book that has no text-to-speech and isn’t lendable I give it fewer stars in the rating. But since I love this series so much that I would give it more than five stars for each book, you can only go down to the limit of five from above. Dar rationalization. I’m sticking to it! Besides, without the narration of Khristine Hvam, I think, this book would just be average. Who am I kidding? I think it would still be fantastic. Khristine Hvam is just the icing on the cake–but isn’t that the best part?

Book two starts off immediately where book one left off. Good think I reread book one to understand that. The adventure continues with all the same players and a few new ones. I love that there are more points of view introduced in this book. Zuzana now has her own part to play as does her boyfriend, Mik. Their thoughts and histories add humor and wonder to a crazy world that Karou and Akiva already knew and showed us in book one. I love Zuzana so much. I love her sense of humor and excitement. I may love her more than the main character, Karou. But Mik is adorable, too. They add a lot to the story.

I want to write more, but book three is calling so loudly that I can’t think of anything else to say. Please, give this series a chance, preferably with the narration. I think you may love it as much as I do. Now let me go bury myself in the next book. Bye!

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Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-reading so I can remember the story and read the rest of the series. Done.

This reading was to make sure I knew where the story was going before I start on book two. I still loved it. Especially with the narration of Khristine Hvam. She reads this flawlessly. I can’t imagine reading this book without her talented voice in the background. I stand by the review I wrote in February 2014:

***
Oh. My. Gosh! I think this is the best book ever! Thank you to all that recommended it so highly. I, too, now sing its praises!

Laini Taylor is the storyteller’s storyteller. Once I started into the world that she created I didn’t want to leave. In fact, though the copies I had of the hardback and the CDs were borrowed from the library, I couldn’t bear to return them had I not gone ahead and bought the Kindle and Audible versions to read again. And while I was at it I picked up the next in the series.

Oh, and I need to sing a few praises to the narrator, Khristine Hvam. I was caught up in the sound of her voice and her ability to wring out every nuance each word and even syllable the book had to offer.

The main character, Karou, is real, palpable. I could see through her eyes, smell what she smelled, anguish in choices to be made or mistakes that resulted. The cast of characters surrounding her were also real. I keep trying to come up with another word, after all this IS fantasy, but that is all I can come up with, real.

Magic is in abundance in the book, whether it is meant to be or not. Yet it is highly believable. And always leads to hope. Hope is the theme, I think. It made me feel it deep inside in places that haven’t felt it for a while. Hope. How many books give you that? That is a priceless commodity.

Please read this book with the audio along side. It immerses you into this world and you will feel hope, too.

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Horseback Riding-How to Ride a Horse and Improve Your Horse Riding SkillHorseback Riding-How to Ride a Horse and Improve Your Horse Riding Skill by Rick Tomson

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

While I was on my equine wishing, I ran into this freebie. Glad it was free. As it was, I couldn’t finish. I read to about 60% in before I just couldn’t handle it anymore. For having two authors listed, this seems written by one in grade school. Aside from the many editing errors, the authors couldn’t decide which money to bid on switching from pounds to dollars in turns. As much as I wanted to learn something about riding a horse, I found myself running to Google to see how much it would cost to ride a bought versus a rented horse, whether I was in England or the USA. And the bits about actual riding had so many errors that I just couldn’t feel I could trust the instructors. Sorry guys.

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Keeping a Backyard HorseKeeping a Backyard Horse by Marguerite Madden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In my latest research on all things possible on that acre I will, I hope, be living on soon, I thought I would entertain my twelve-year-old self with a bit of horsing around. When this book presented itself as free, I had to grab it. I wasn’t disappointed.

This book is chocked full of information a newbie would need before acquiring a backyard horse. Imagine that, a backyard horse. Yeah, this fed the imagination. Don’t know if a 65-year-old has any hope of starting out with a horse, especially with my osteoporosis. But I can dream, can’t I?

Okay, the only thing I did find a problem with beyond the possibilities, is that this book attempts to be written from the horse’s point of view. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hold true very long. I think the author would have done better by not incorporating this idea. The changing viewpoints made me dizzy. That is the only reason I am not giving this book five stars. Because other than that method of writing, the book was quite interesting. And made me wish…

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