I found this at the bottom of my ‘currently reading’ list (there were 85 books!), so I finally downloaded it to my Fire.
Done.
Here is the Blurb from GoodReads:
When Lady Arabella Trunkett’s father, the High Lord Minister of Urbannia is kidnapped, all clues point to the mysterious country of Gandiss and the world is thrown into political upheaval.
Arabella is convinced the more sinister nation of Carabarras is to blame, urged on by a mad scientist seeking revenge. So, she sets out on a perilous airship journey across a variety of exotic locales to save him, and halt the potential world war.
But airship pirates, secret assassins and slave traders aren’t her only trials. The fickle hand of fate has made the captain of the only airship available for charter, the man that left her at the altar. For eight years she’s wished him dead. Now he’s her only hope.
~~~
If you like steampunk scenarios, this is for you. It was a fun read, but not my cup of tea. I didn’t hate it. And the story kept my attention until the end. There is a whole series. I didn’t feel the pull. I guess I thought differently in 2013 when I picked it up. Or maybe being snowed in gives my reading mood a sinker feeling. Whatever my experience is, do give it a chance. It is free with Kindle Unlimited.
This boxed set has probably been on my ‘currently reading’ shelf for quite a while. Library books always take preference due to due dates. I think it was at the 85th position. I am trying to read the earliest between the newest and borrowed books. It’s a work in progress.
This set is so fun. Each book could hold its own, but I think it is more fun to binge-read them all. Think of it as a long book. Still, it didn’t take me long to get through.
I think the best part of these books is the characters. A ghost vampire, an owl familiar, a fallen angel, and a witch who didn’t know she was a magical being. But there are others, like her gorgan receptionist.
By the way, this is free with Kindle Unlimited. Text-to-speech works well with this set. We all need a little levity. Here’s a fun adventure to lift the mood.
This was a satisfying ending to a semi-completed boxed set. I found the whole story a bit confusing until I let go of my preconceived notions of what the afterlife should be and accepted this as the author’s young adult fantasy.
The whole story is fun and a little different. Give it a try if you need an escape from the confusion of the real world.
Per Linda: Hello! I’m here with our twenty-eighth prompt for Just Jot it January 2025. Today, our prompt is courtesy of our dearest Dan. Thank you, Dan! Please visit Dan’s blog to read his posts and say hello. And follow him while you’re there if you’re not already. Your prompt for JusJoJan January 28th, 2025 is “confusion.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
I have finally finished reading not only this but the fourth book. This book was supposed to be the complete series. And probably when I got it, it was all the author had ready. But the ending was a cliffhanger. Had that been all, I would have been very disappointed.
Still, the three-book set was fun. One has to put aside theology and think of this as fantasy; the characters’ abilities were so fun. I loved the main character, Meghan, and how she cared for others.
On the other hand, the antagonist is too much.
Oh, the people you meet along the way. Einstein, can you believe it? No? Well, it’s fantasy, okay?
This is definitely a young adult series. There is far too much romance. Ugh! But hey, it’s a story, and it was a fun read.
Our prompt today comes to us from the sensational Sadje. Thank you, Sadje! Please be sure to visit Sadje’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already. Your prompt for JusJoJan January 27th, 2025 is “glamorous.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
So, to add the Jot to the above review, it was one of the abilities that appear in in fantasies is the gift of glamour. Bingo! It is used in this book set.
It looks like my friend Ralph recommended this to me in 2013. Sorry for taking so long, but I will finish it today, as I am in the last chapter. Yay!
This was probably one of the most yawn-worthy books I have read in a long time, yet it didn’t help me go to sleep. I kept hoping the story would get more exciting, but it didn’t.
Still, it could just be me. Check out the blurbs and comments. Many were quite positive. Well, at least I gave it a chance. It wasn’t horrid.
Welcome! Linda’s here with our twenty-first prompt for Just Jot It January 2025. Our prompt today is courtesy of the lovely J-Dub. Thank you, J-Dub! Please visit J-Dub’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already. Your prompt for JusJoJan January 21st, 2025, is “content.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
While a lot is going on in the world right now, I am just content reading books and watching Jack Black movies (Gulliver’s Travel and The Big Year) and then Friends. My health is worth the energy it takes to stay light. It is the wrong time of year to let things get to you. Winter, dark days. Colder than most, with a lack of snow here. Snow at least makes everything look clean and is rarely as cold as the no-snow days.
When I tried to listen to the text-to-speech of the Kindle version the other day, it didn’t work. I decided to try again last night, and it worked out quite nicely.
I felt a little lost at first as the easter religions and the Dalai Lama are less known to me than the Judeo-Christian Western religions. However, author John Lundin quickly helped us see how familiar those seemingly foreign concepts are. I found myself quite interested.
This book will need multiple reads. This is the first one to get acquainted and see our common interests. But next, I want to go through and practice some of the meditation and kindnesses Mr. Lundin teaches us to use.
I highly recommend this book for seekers and for those who love comparative religions.
“Hi there! I’m back with our nineteenth prompt for Just Jot it January 2025. Today, our prompt comes to us from the wonderful Willow. Thank you, Willow! Please be sure to visit Willow’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.
Why do I write reviews? It started out in the same way as blogging. I needed a place to keep track. What have I read? Sure, I can go to GoodReads to see if I have read a book, but since I try to record bits of my life here, I can see how that book choice or emotions of the day reflect each other. What I read can affect my life. And my life can carry into my thoughts as I read.
Why did I read this particular book? The author gave me the book long ago when I lived in Reno. He live(d) in Lake Tahoe at the time. I promised a review, so I put it on my ‘Currently Reading’ shelf on GoodReads. That was to prompt me to read it soon.
That shelf has overgrown. When a library or Libby book comes up, it goes to the top of the list over those I own. Suddenly, I have 85 books I am supposedly currently reading. Ha! So my new plan is to pull from the bottom of the list (first books added) and then back to the top, the latest added. My plan is to eventually meet in the middle. Does anyone want to take bets on how long that’s going to take?
I was surprised at how much I appreciated this particular book. It seemed to start rather boring. But soon I found that there were answers here I’d been asking, even though I didn’t know I was asking those questions.
Why. The word my kids learned nearly as soon as they could talk. It is an amazing work that mostly keeps me wondering. How often did I hear my babies ask, “Why is the sky blue?” Or just “Why” to nearly anything. I feel we should stay in that frame of mind. Stay young and keep wondering, WHY?
I love this series. It is the only one I truly read. (I usually need audiobooks due to tracking and dyslexia issues). I keep it on my phone on my Kindle and just read it when I have a few quiet moments alone. Laura Bradbury writes in such a way that I never feel lost, even when I have to neglect the read for a while.
The other fun thing about the books is the use of French words or phrases, just occasionally, nothing overwhelming. But it is a great chance to practice my elementary concepts of that language. And don’t worry; it is all contextual and she adds the translation if needed.
The best part is how well you get to know Laura and her boyfriend, Franck, their friends and family. As life continues, you see them grow and learn.
In this episode, Laura needs to take a year of college in Paris to study her educational major. So you learn about her love of ancient French writings. Meanwhile, she and Franck get to visit all the wonders of Paris. I feel I am traveling with them. And Laura learns to stand up for herself and figure out how to do that while in a relationship.
I highly recommend this series. It isn’t too horribly mushy. In fact, I found a few things at 75 that Laura learned when she was still in her 20s.
If you wish you could travel to France, this series, this book is for you.
Where did I hear about this book? I have no idea. But it was a welcome change. I only found the Kindle version at first. And reading this with Text-to-Speech on my older Fire worked out quite well until my Fire died. Then, I was in a tailspin to figure out how to read it. I learned that you can set up TTS on your cell phone. I set it up, but the British TTS’s voice on the phone was horrid. I didn’t know how close to the end, but I wanted to read this while I still remembered what happened. I picked up the Audible version. I did enjoy the voices of the main characters. But sadly, I finished the book within half an hour.
However I read it, I did love this story. It’s a little different than other space travel science fiction books. I don’t like a cliff-hanger. This wasn’t quite that. But I felt the book ended too early. Now, I have to wait for the second and third parts to be published. Maybe I’ll wait for the third one and reread them all.
Maybe, like me, you need the diversion. Try this sci-fi. You might like it, too.
“A senior FBI agent being shot in the precinct’s parking lot is only the first shock in Lieutenant Jane Sparks’s day. The second is Senior Agent Fran Morris is a mirror image of Sparks, an identical twin. After an awkward and confrontational meeting at the hospital while Agent Morris is in recovery, they decide to put their brilliant minds together to not only determine who shot Agent Morris and why but also how they were separated at birth.
How Could It Be? is a fast-paced mystery crime novel filled with lies, deception, and intrigue, and how it all affects a budding relationship between long-lost sisters.”
What better way to explain the story than the blurb from Amazon? I met the author briefly a decade ago, but I see her in the church meetings I Zoom. She doesn’t know me, but I am still proud of her for writing a series!
For a first book, I think this has a lot of promise. The author’s career experience verifies the world the main characters inhabit.
This is a short book—I read it in one sitting—but it was full of promise and intrigue. I can’t wait to read Xiomara Rodriguez’s other books.
First of all, I never learned what the river knows. Second, I didn’t like any of the characters. It’s supposed to be a Young Adult, and I am three or four times the age of the prescribed reader. Still, I usually like YA books, so…
It is supposed to be about magick and fantasy, but it is not consistent or completely helpful. The history is enough that it might bring a young person to Google Cleopatra, Egypt, or Argentina. There is a smattering of very elementary Spanish, making a language student feel smart. But honestly, I felt I wasted time getting to an unsatisfying cliff. It didn’t make me want to continue.
Okay, it could be me. OR it could be that I listened to Text-to-Speech, and I could have used a live narrator who could read all the languages presented.
I hope others will read it and like it. It seems promising, but I don’t plan to read the next part of the series. Still, I’m grateful to Libby for the borrow of the Kindle version.
Working on my series: Haven.
Doodler (zendoodle.com)
Music major: voice and piano
Mom of four great adults
Reiki II practitioner
I have been on disability/retired for 10 years now from depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia.
Where ancient wisdom meets modern technology. Stories that illuminate the wonders of science, culture, and life — crafted with human creativity and a touch of AI magic.
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