Free fiction and a read-a-thon

Hi everyone! Long time no see. Sorry (again) for my intermittent appearances. I have been reading a lot, but not writing reviews. I have almost certainly not died. Hooray for continued survival!

Anyway, just wanted to share a few cool things from around the interwebs:

1. I freaking love Ilona Andrews. They're well known for the Kate Daniels series, which is one of my top three urban fantasy series, and they're currently posting installments of a fun UF story called Clean Sweep. It's free here. Check it out! It's a great way to try their work if you haven't before, and if you're already a fan, you probably share my excitement.

2. Baen Books, which publishes bestselling scifi and fantasy authors such as Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, Elizabeth Moon, and Eric Flint, has a free library where you can download a large selection of books for a variety of e-readers, no strings attached. Who can say no to free books?

3. The 24-hour read-a-thon is tomorrow! This is the first read-a-thon I ever did, in October 2011, and this will be my third round. It's always fun and a little crazy. It also totally skewed my interpretation of read-a-thons – most of them are not quite so...intensive, and whenever I see others I'm always a little surprised that you can still do things other than reading. Heehee. Anyway, if you're curious, I did a guide to the 'thon for the one in April, and if you can, definitely give it a try, even if you can't do the whole thing. Let me know if you're participating!

Review | The Bright Court by Anthea Sharp

The Bright Court
Anthea Sharp
Feyland #2
Published May 2012
YA modern fairy tale
Review copy from the author
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
The Bright Court was a great followup to the first book, The Dark Realm. Feyland is a fascinating, enthralling modern fairy tale, and I can't wait to read the next book. Definitely recommended.

King-Sized Review
I have something terrible and shocking to confess. Don't freak out - but I don't really like YA as a whole. It has a tendency to be juvenile (I shouldn't be surprised by this, should I), consumed by relationships (like anyone really knows what they want at 16), and kind of generic (I wish people would stop re-writing Twilight with different supernatural creatures). Luckily, some authors, like Maggie Stiefvater, Holly Black, Rachel Vincent, and a few others, manage to step outside the usual trends and write books that are honestly excellent, not just for YA but in general.

Anthea Sharp is one of the good ones. Feyland is a fascinating world, one that merges magic and technology skillfully and seamlessly. I know. You're looking at the description and thinking, "Fairies and video games? Are you sure this isn't just someone combining World of Warcraft and Tron in a book?" Fear not, curious readers. The Bright Court, like its predecessor, The Dark Realm, is much less about video games than it is about bargains, necessity, and even a little bit of love. In this series, the fae resemble classic stories more than in most other books, something I really appreciate. They're dangerous and cruel, and most importantly, they are most definitely not human. I can't think of anything in the worldbuilding I would want to change or complain about.

Feyland has a fairly limited cast of main characters, with secondary characters more sketches than fully fleshed-out figures. Normally I would frown upon this practice, but here it actually fits perfectly with the mood of the story, making it seem more like a fairy tale. (Hey, at least Feyland's characters get real names.) The main characters, Jenet and Tam, exhibit a refreshing lack of angst and (thus far) impending love triangles (hooray!). Their problems originate in socio-economic differences as well as fairy troubles, which, now that I think about it, adds again to the fairy-tale atmosphere.

Overall, I've found this series to be impressively well-written and captivating. I definitely recommend giving The Dark Realm a try and picking up this one as well.

Bout of Books | Wrap-Up

The end is upon us! I had fun doing the read-a-thon, though I didn't get quite as much reading done as I wanted to due to a rather busy schedule. Still, I got a few books in, participated in the Twitter chat on Wednesday, and commented on a few blogs.

My reading has been a little unfocused lately, which is why you'll see me reading (and not finishing) several books on the same day. I've been reading Before They Are Hanged all week and still have about 150 pages to go, but it's one of those books that takes a little more time. So I ended up finishing only four books, but if you added up all the parts of different books I didn't finish yet, that's probably another book or two. So...that counts, right? Ha, just kidding. Hope you all enjoyed the read-a-thon too!

UPDATES

Monday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 1

Books: Angels' Blood

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: >1

Books: Archangel's Kiss, Before They Are Hanged

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 2

Books: Archangel's Kiss (finished), Before They Are Hanged

Thursday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 3

Books: The Giver, Before They Are Hanged

Friday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: 3

Books: Before They Are Hanged

Saturday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 4

Books: Beautiful Disaster, Before They Are Hanged

Sunday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: 4

Books: Secrets of the Demon, Dearly, Departed, Before They Are Hanged

Bout of Books | End Day 2

So remember how I said I was going to spend my evenings this week reading and not watching all of Doctor Who? Well, that was before I got distracted by the second half of Season 3. They keep doing the "to be continued" thing, and obviously I can't just stop. Brilliant show. Although it does make me talk to my computer screen in this weird amalgamation of British accents. Good thing there's no one to hear me.

Anyway. You are not here for Doctor Who. (Though you should be!) You are here for reading. To the point!

UPDATES

Monday

Number of books I've read today: 1

Total number of books I've read: 1

Books: Angels' Blood

Tuesday

Number of books I've read today: <1

Total number of books I've read: >1

Books: Archangel's Kiss, Before They Are Hanged

Wednesday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Thursday

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Books:

Friday

Number of books I've read today:

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Books:

Saturday

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Books:

Sunday

Number of books I've read today:

Total number of books I've read:

Books:

Bout of Books 5.0 | Goals

Hi everyone! Long time, no see. In an effort to get back to my blog (oops) I've decided to participate in Bout of Books 5.0 this week. Let's be honest, it's pretty much going to be like every other week, except with more socializing with other bloggers! But that's the fun. Anyway, here's what I've got planned. (Ha, planned? That's funny.)

TIME DEVOTED TO READING
I'll be reading in the evenings and most of the weekend. Basically same as normal. I'll try to keep away from Netflix for the week, but the call of Doctor Who is hard to resist.

MY GOALS
Que sera sera. I'm just doing this for the prizes! (Are there prizes? I have no idea.)

BOOKS TO READ
Whatever strikes my fancy. I'm currently reading Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie and re-reading Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh.

UPDATES
Monday
Number of books I've read today:
Total number of books I've read:
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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See you all around! Leave your links in the comments and I'll stop by!

Review | Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel

Dust Girl
Sarah Zettel
The American Fairy Tale Trilogy #1
Published June 26, 2012 by Random House Children's
YA urban fantasy
Review copy from NetGalley
3 stars

Bite-Sized Review
Dust Girl stood out from the YA crowd by virtue of its unusual setting and interesting characters. Several of the fairies were truly creepy, and there's plenty to keep this story going.

King-Sized Review
I think this might be the first book I've read that was set in the Dust Bowl. I can't really speak to the book's historical accuracy, since what I know about the period is pretty much "lots of dust, no rain, and no money," but it seemed like it could be accurate. I appreciated the very strong influence the setting had on the story as well – sometimes it seems like many books could really take place anywhere and be more or less the same, but that definitely wasn't the case in Callie's story.

The story begins in the tiny and shrinking town of Slow Run, Kansas, where Callie lives with her mother. Callie would love to leave the doomed town and move to somewhere she wouldn't choke on dust and struggle to find food, but her mother insists that they must wait there for Callie's father – who vanished before she was born. When Callie's mother disappears in a dust storm, several mysterious visitors convince Callie to leave the town to find her mother, along with Jack, a boy she met during the storm. Along the way, Callie learns about her heritage and her family.

Dust Girl was a fairly short, quick read, with decent characters and a good pace. Callie is a likable main character, though nothing about her stands out particularly. The story itself was the best part, with some interesting takes on fairies and several well-written, suspenseful scenes.

One aspect of the book that I particularly appreciated was the lack of the angsty romance that's such a YA staple. While the potential for romance clearly exists, it definitely took a backseat in this book. It may actually have been locked in the trunk. It was a nice change from one of the things I frequently dislike about YA books.

Overall, Dust Girl was a good start and definitely made me want to read the next book in the series.

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Good

Review | Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown

Lies Beneath
Anne Greenwood Brown
Lies Beneath #1
Published June 12, 2012 by Delacorte (Random House)
YA paranormal romance
3 stars
Egalley from NetGalley

Bite-Sized Review
For the first few chapters, I thought I would hate this book, but in the end I actually enjoyed it. It was a good light read, and the male narrator was enough of a change from Everything Else to make it a bit more interesting.

King-Sized Review
Lies Beneath is basically the same book as about a dozen others I've read in the past year. Dangerous boy with superpowers, semi-normal girl, issues, etc. The only differences are that Calder is a merman rather than a vampire or nephilim or werewolf or whatever else is out there, which isn't really a lot, and that he's the narrator, which is a slightly more interesting twist but still wouldn't have been enough to make me like the book on its own. However, in the end, it turned out to be a pretty good book.

When the Hancock family moves back to Lake Superior, Calder and his sisters see it as the perfect opportunity to exact their revenge for the death of their mother. Calder is elected most likely to be able to get close to one of the two daughters, but finds himself falling in love with Lily Hancock. As you can see, it's definitely a rather cliched storyline, though on the plus side, no vampires. (I'm tired of vampires.) The story doesn't really provide surprises, but it is pretty well-written and well-paced, and Calder's perspective, while a little angsty, is an unusual take on the story – one that, happily, doesn't involve him falling head-over-heels in love the first time he sees Lily.

I do have a couple of issues with the book. It's a little overly moralizing in places; any moral a story contains should always be implicit, or you risk alienating your audience. Luckily this is only a small problem in a couple of places, and not bad enough to be really annoying. I wasn't terribly impressed with one or two of the plot decisions – once again, I feel I must point out that the plot serves the characters and not the other way around. Anything else is jarring and wrecks the whole suspension of disbelief thing. Again, not a huge issue in this book, but enough of one that I feel compelled to point it out.

Otherwise, if you're looking for a light beach read, Lies Beneath would be a good choice, because who wouldn't want to read about killer mermaids while sitting next to a large body of water. It's a fun book, with a story typical of YA, and if you like that sort of thing you'll certainly enjoy this book. However, if you're bored with the standard YA paranormal romance, Lies Beneath probably isn't for you.

Quality: Acceptable
Enjoyability: Good

In the same aisle
Die for Me by Amy Plum
Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini