Hi everyone and welcome to today’s catch up in this Sunday Summary post! I hope you have all had a good week, whatever you have gotten up to.
Mine has been a busy week! Aside from reading and blogging, I’ve spent a good deal of time on home improvements. I’ve spent a good few evenings this week re-painting my downstairs loo. I have friends coming over next week for afternoon tea, so I wanted to get the most garish room in the house dealt with before then. I’m not joking when I say it was Kawasaki green…
It’s not anymore!
Around that, I’ve been writing blog posts about my Top Ten Fantasy Novel Covers in Tuesday’s ‘Top Ten Tuesday’ post and on Thursday, I shared my review of The Rue Stone by Janet Stock for the book birthday blitz blog tour. Try and say ‘book birthday blitz blog tour’ quickly five times, I dare you!
Books Read
Although I have been doing a lot of work on the house, I’ve still managed to get a fair amount of reading done. My top priority at the start of the week was to read The Rue Stone since I was taking part in the blog tour on Thursday. The Rue Stone is an 80-page or so novella, so I actually read this in one sitting one evening. It was nice to read something short for a change and I enjoyed the storyline!
I’ve also started reading Rags of Time this week. I haven’t made huge progress as I’ve been decorating and general house bits, but I’ll dive into this properly tonight once this post goes live.
Since I haven’t really been in a position to sit and read a book, I’ve made a lot more progress with listening to Jack the Ripper: Case Closed. I’ve now listened to around 4-and-a-half hours this week, so I’m nearly halfway through the audiobook. I’m finished with decorating again for a little while, but I’ll definitely have to keep up with listening to this and finish it soon.
Books Discovered
I haven’t added a book to my TBR since the 5th August. For once, it’s actually starting to go down. I’m starting to think there’s something wrong with me…
I’m actually quite glad about it, to be honest – the length of it is entirely ridiculous and I need to get on top of it. It’s nice to see the number dropping!
Coming Up…
I want to share another book review with you this week. I have a few on my list that I need to catch up with. Next week I’ll be starting with a follow-on series to a trilogy I read years ago. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson is set in the Mistborn universe but in a completely new timeline far into the future of the previous books. I’ve gone on to read all of the published books in this second follow-on series since, but I’ll just be reviewing the first book in the coming days. I hope you can join me and check out what will be my glowing review!
Nearly a month after I planned to share this post (I got my blog tour days/dates mixed up so I realised last minute I had to postpone), I’ll be sharing a Shelf Control post on Friday! Yes, blog tour commitments and such have meant that I haven’t shared any regular Friday features for a month now. But, Shelf Control is back this Friday and featuring a humorous non-fiction book that’s all about the psychology of the mind.
As always I’ll round off the week with another Sunday Summary post.
However, that’s all from me in this week’s Sunday Summary update! What have you been reading? I’ll catch up with you in the next one.
Hi everyone and welcome to today’s review of The Rue Stone as part of the organised book birthday blitz blog tour with Rachel’s Random Resources. The Rue Stone is an entertaining fantasy novella, so if that sounds like something you are interested in, please stick around to read on. Before diving into the detail, I’ like to say a huge thank you to Rachel and the author of the novella, Janet Stock, for the opportunity to take part in the tour!
In addition to my review, today’s post also provides the opportunity for UK readers to enter a giveaway and win a paperback copy of the novella! Those details can be found later in the post! For now, though, let’s talk about what I loved about the book!
The rue is a mysterious and rare being who is rarely seen, and Janna is amazed when one arrives at the inn where she works, looking for a room. The next morning, her life has changed, and she is left wondering whether she will ever see him again, but only time and the rue stone know the answer to that question.
Whether you are a regular reader of fantasy novels or are looking to explore the genre, The Rue Stone is a perfect read regardless of audience. As a fairytale-like novella, it is really easy to pick up; there isn’t a huge commitment to a long, complex storyline to invest into. I personally read The Rue Stone in one sitting, so it’s also ideal for anyone who doesn’t have much time to set aside and read.
Even though the novella is only 80 pages, there is plenty of beautiful descriptions and folklore incorporated into the narrative. The rue are mysterious, magical beings of legend. Janna has heard the stories, but she learns the truth of them when a rue walks into the inn she works in and changes her life. There is a great deal of mystery about the rue and they have plenty of potential to be explored further.
There is an element of romance in the novella, but I liked that it didn’t overshadow the plot. Regular readers of mine will know that I’m not a big romance fan, but the budding relationship in The Rue Stone isn’t too heavy.
The amount of detail in the background of the story is well proportioned with current events. I would, however, like to see more from this world and the backstory to the rue explored further. Having read this particular story from the perspective of Janna I’m intrigued to know how different the story would be from Arval’s viewpoint. There is definitely potential in this story for further stories and I would definitely be interested in seeing Janet’s fantasy world explored in more depth.
Author Bio
Having written all of my life, I decided to self-publish my writing when I turned 50. I have published four books since then. Two are collections of short stories; Dark & Fluffy; Dark & Fluffy II and 500 Words, which is flash fiction. My latest book The Rue Stone is a fantasy novella.
My passion is medieval fiction, and I am working on my first novel The Little Servant – The Wait’s Son, set in the 12th century, in Lincoln, where I live.
Giveaway to Win 5 paperback copies of The Rue Stone (UK Only)
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Hello everyone and welcome to today’s fun Top Ten Tuesday post. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl. Whilst I don’t take part every week, I do enjoy some of the topics that are chosen to feature and this week is one of those. It is one of the broader topics I have seen for a while as the topic centres around book covers. Which ones are entirely at my discretion!
In today’s post, I have decided to feature my top ten fantasy novel covers. Whether it’s just the aesthetic or artistic appeal of a cover or the clues they give as to the plot, characters or tone of the novel, I love each and every one of the covers listed below for a variety of reasons. I have read the vast majority of these books, with just one exception. There are also a couple of entries where I share a series because I couldn’t narrow it down to just one book! They all have a similar style, so I think it’s only fair to share them all.
Shall we find out my top ten fantasy book covers?
Mistborn Trilogy – Brandon Sanderson
Caraval – Stephanie Garber
The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson
The Black Prism – Brent Weeks
The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss
Strange the Dreamer – Laini Taylor
King of Thorns – Mark Lawrence
Daughter of Smoke and Bone – Laini Taylor
Circe – Madeline Miller
The Relic Guild trilogy – Edward Cox
So, here are my top ten book covers! Do you agree with any of my selections? What is your favourite fantasy novel cover? It can be featured here in today’s Top Ten Tuesday post, or any other cover you like! As always, I would love to hear from you!
Hello everyone and welcome to another Sunday Summary weekly update from me! I really appreciate you guys taking time out of your day to have a read my posts, so thank you very much! So what have I been up to this week?
On Wednesday I shared my first discussion post in a while. The particular topic is one I have debated for a while now – Book Subscription Boxes – Yay or Nay? If you haven’t already checked out my post, please have a read and let me know your thoughts! Then, on Friday, I shared a review of Freedom of the Creed by Nicholas Coleridge has part of the recent blog tour. If you are a fan of Western novels, this is definitely one for you to take a look at!
Books Read
I started the week by reading a bit more of Lord of the Flies by William Goldberg. I had to set this aside in favour of reading Freedom of the Creed for my blog tour post on Friday. Since then, I haven’t picked it up again though. It was okay to read, but not exciting enough to draw me back to it again. I have a lot of other books to read that I’ll probably enjoy more, so I decided to DNF this one.
As mentioned above, the next book on my list was Freedom of the Creed and I read this almost in its entirety this week. I had just started Freedom of the Creed last week, but with the upcoming tour this was my focus for the majority of the week, finishing it on Thursday.
For the first time since July, I listened to part of an audiobook this week! I haven’t picked up any in a while. Honestly, I think I almost listened to them too much when redecorating and I wanted a break. Now I’ve had that break, and rather ironically I might add, I started listening to Jack the Ripper: Case Closed yesterday when I started doing some more decorating! I have listened to the first few chapters now, so made a solid start. I’ll be chipping away at more redecorating this week so I expect I’ll listen to more of this as I’m going.
Books Discovered
Nothing to add again this week! This has to be a record by now, surely?!
Coming Up…
I’m going to share a Top Ten Tuesday post this week, with a superficial subject. This week, I’ve decided to share my top ten fantasy novel book covers. This won’t just be limited to books I’ve read either, so I could be featuring a lot of different books in this post!
On Thursday I’m taking part in yet another blog tour for The Rue Stone by Janet Stock. It’s a short fantasy novella, around 80 pages. Naturally, this will be my reading focus over the next few days.
As always, I’ll be rounding off the week with another Sunday Summary post to update you all on my week and all things bookish!
That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary post, however. I hope you have had a great week, enjoy the next one, and I’ll see you again for another catch up in a week’s time!
Hello everyone and welcome to today’s blog tour post for Freedom of the Creed by Nicholas Coleridge. In today’s blog tour post, I am featuring my review of the book. Thank you for checking out my post and also a huge thank you to the author and Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for organising the tour.
If you enjoy western-themed novels then saddle up and read on, as this book (and review) should be right up your street! Don’t forget to check out the other blogs that have featured in the tour as well. The details can be found at the bottom of my post.
The Woe-Be-Gone boys, a vicious gang of outlaws rushes south through the American frontier, leaving desolation in their wake.
On their trail is Saoirse Creed, a bounty hunter with a debt to pay. Her only chance to pay that debt rides with the gang, but what depths will she sink to achieve her goal.
Now, as she tracks them down to a town on the precipice of despair, Saoirse must overcome the final hurdle in order to capture her man and return to a life that she thought was all but lost.
It was Freedom of the Creed’s western theme that appealed to me. It’s not a genre I pick up very often, but when I do, I really enjoy them! I suppose the most recent read that it reminds me of is Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series.
Saoirse (pronounced Sur-sha) is by far the character I loved best. She is a wickedly smart and fierce young woman. Her motivations are largely unclear for the majority of the book, making her passion and drive in the chase an intriguing mystery. I’m glad the pronunciation of her name is clarified early on in the book – I couldn’t even have made a guess! It is unusual and makes her doubly stand out as a unique character.
The plot is full of deceit, subterfuge and layers of depth that make it easy to immerse you in the detailed storyline. Exciting clues and revelations to further developments of the story are timed perfectly for maximum impact. The pace of the novel is well balanced and allows for full, detailed setting of the scene whilst still including plenty of action to drive events forward. It’s a steadily fast-paced novel but equally doesn’t come across as rushed in any way.
The author really captured the essence of old-fashioned attitudes in small communities very well. Each individual character has their own distinct personality, but they also gel together as a community. There is enough commonality between them that implies years of co-existence together in a desolate, now derelict town. I could picture the characters and their interactions in the town of Kites Run so clearly! The Woe-Be –Gone boys are a sort of community in themselves and I enjoyed the dynamic and power struggle within the group. They’re also the seedy types of human beings that you love to hate; routing for Saoirse in her hunt for them couldn’t be easier.
I really enjoyed the conclusion of the book and there is a lot of potential for the remainder of the series. I can’t wait to see where Saoirse and Wolfe find themselves in the next chapter of their story. Given how well the book has been written, I am amazed this is the author’s first novel!
Author Bio
N.J Coleridge finds time to write when he is not performing his official duties as his daughter’s “royal servant.”
He has always had a passion for the frontier and the old-west. Freedom of the Creed is his first novel.
For more adventures featuring Saoirse be sure to read the novella “A Prayer for the Dying”.
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s Sunday Summary weekly update post! I hope you have all had a good week as well?
At the beginning of the week, I shared a promo post for a book I read last year. It has been re-written and published as Escaping Demons and has been re-launched with another blog tour. If you are interested in the sound of the book, you can check out my promo post linked above and in that post is also a link to my review of the previous edition.
Next, I shared my Reading List for September. I still can’t believe it’s September already; this year seems to have flown by. This month I am reading a couple of books for blog tours, one at the request of an author and the rest are all on my Beat the Backlist challenge. If you haven’t already, you can check out my reading list linked above.
On Friday I shared my review of a recent read as part of the organised blog tour. I read Mindworm last month in anticipation of the early September blog tour date. Fans of the supernatural should definitely be interested in this novella, so if you are, please check out my review.
Books Read
As of last week’s Sunday Summary post I was around halfway through Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I had read the previous half over the course of a week, and put my reading progress for that week to shame as I finished the rest between Sunday evening and Monday alone! I really got into the ending and did NOT want to put the book down. Without a doubt, I’ll be reading the rest of the series before long…
After that, I started reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding. So far I am around 22% of the way through. I have actually borrowed this from my library electronically and as a result, I am reading this book on my phone. It’s not my favourite method I have to say, but I’ll make it work. The book itself is okay – perfectly readable. I’m not loving it, but not hating it either. I just need to give myself a nudge to read a bit more of it sometimes.
Lastly, I started a book I am due to be reviewing soon for a blog tour yesterday. I signed up to review Freedom of the Creed by Nicholas Coleridge and I’m enjoying it a lot more than Lord of the Flies. I’m 13% through this one, so I’m only a few chapters in, but it’s a lot easier to read. Reading this western-themed fantasy novel is going to be my priority for the next few days.
Books Discovered
I’ve been good again this week and no new books to report!
Coming Up…
Since I have a review towards the end of the week I want to publish an opinion post at the beginning of the week. I’ve been thinking about a topic for a little while now and I think it’ll be fun to not only share my opinion but also hear back from you guys on it. The topic? Book Subscription Boxes: Yay or Nay?
On Friday I will be sharing my thoughts of my current read, Freedom of the Creed, as part of the upcoming blog tour. My first impression of the book is great, so I can’t wait to finish reading and publish my review for you all to check out. I hope you can join me for that.
Last, but certainly not least, I’ll be rounding off the week with another Sunday Summary post.
That’s all from me in today’s Sunday Summary! What have you been reading this week?
I can’t believe it’s September. Where has this year gone?
Given the current circumstances I don’t suppose it’s a bad thing that this year is flying, but still… shortly we’ll be 75% through with 2020 and it doesn’t feel like it should be at all!
Regardless, it is the beginning of a new month, and you know what that means. It’s time to share my TBR for the month ahead. This month’s list features a couple of books that I am reading for blog tours. Another is a request from the author and the rest are all from my TBR and contribute towards my Beat the Backlist challenge I set earlier this year. 8 months ago.
Again, where has this year gone? That barely felt like five minutes ago!
Anyway, shall we check out the books on this month’s reading list?
The Woe-Be-Gone boys, a vicious gang of outlaws rushes south through the American frontier, leaving desolation in their wake.
On their trail is Saoirse Creed, a bounty hunter with a debt to pay. Her only chance to pay that debt rides with the gang, but what depths will she sink to achieve her goal.
Now, as she tracks them down to a town on the precipice of despair, Saoirse must overcome the final hurdle in order to capture her man and return to a life that she thought was all but lost.
I am reading this particular book for an upcoming blog tour. The first thing that caught my attention when reading the synopsis is the chase through the desert. Might sound daft, but that combined with the western vibe reminds me of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. If you’ve read the book I think you’ll get it.
I haven’t read anything like this in a little while so I’m looking forward to it!
The rue is a mysterious and rare being who is rarely seen, so Janna is amazed when one arrives at the inn where she works, looking for a room. The next morning, her life changed forever, she is left wondering whether she will ever see him again. Only time and the rue stone have the answer.
The Rue Stone is a fantasy novella that I’m squeezing into my blog tour schedule. It’s only around 80 pages, so a nice short read. I’ve enjoyed picking up some shorter books lately and I’m sure this will be no exception. Janet has published four books to date but this will be the first time I have tried anything of hers. Novellas are a great way to try a new author and I’m looking forward to giving this a go. The synopsis doesn’t give much away, so I’m intrigued to find out what happens!
Thomas Tallant, a young and ambitious Spice Merchant, returns from India to find his city in turmoil.
A bitter struggle is brewing between King Charles I and Parliament, as England slides into civil war. The capital is simmering with dissent. The conflict is ready to boil over.
But Thomas soon has other troubles to contend with. A wealthy merchant, Sir Joseph Venell, is savagely killed; then his partner Sir Hugh Swofford plunges to his death, in the Tallant household.
Suspicion falls on Thomas, who is sucked into a mire of treachery and rumour within the City of London. As the merchant struggles to clear his name, he becomes captivated by the enigmatic Elizabeth Seymour, whose passion for astronomy and mathematics is matched only by her addiction to the gaming tables.
Pursued by the authorities, Thomas races to unmask the real killer who claims a third victim to implicate him further, toying with his future in a deadly cat and mouse game.
In a desperate race against time, Elizabeth applies her powers of logic and deduction to unearth the clues that will point to the killer, but her way is barred by a secret message from the grave.
Can she crack its code before Thomas, now a wounded and exhausted fugitive, succumbs to the chase?
And, if she succeeds, has Thomas the strength to face his tormentor and win his life and reputation back?
Rags of Time is the first book in an engaging and entertaining new historical crime series, set during the upheaval of the 17th Century.
Despite not really taking on many ARC’s at the moment, I’m glad the author Michael Ward contacted me to ask for a review of Rags of Time. It’s a historical/crime fiction novel which is right up my street! It’s not too long a novel either, so should fit perfectly into this month’s TBR with my other reads. It’ll also be nice to have a bit more variety in genre as there’s a high proportion of fantasy in this month’s list.
The Psychology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained – Various authors
Clearly explaining more than 100 groundbreaking ideas in the field, The Psychology Book uses accessible text and easy-to-follow graphics and illustrations to explain the complex theoretical and experimental foundations of psychology.
From its philosophical roots through behaviorism, psychotherapy, and developmental psychology, The Psychology Book looks at all the greats from Pavlov and Skinner to Freud and Jung, and is an essential reference for students and anyone with an interest in how the mind works.
Regular readers of my blog will have picked up on the fact that I’m a huge psychology fan. I studied it back in school and loved the lessons since I had a great teacher. I added this book to my TBR a good few years ago as a refresher to some of the things I have learnt already. I’m hoping there are also some new and different things in there as well though.
I have picked up this book before so I have an idea of its formatting. Its chapters are quite short and there is a new one for each ‘idea’. This will be a good book to pick up here and there as these chapters are very short and digestible.
Before The Matrix, before Star Wars, before Ender’s Game and Neuromancer, there was Dune: winner of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, and widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
Melange, or ‘spice’, is the most valuable – and rarest – element in the universe; a drug that does everything from increasing a person’s life-span to making intersteller travel possible. And it can only be found on a single planet: the inhospitable desert world Arrakis.
Whoever controls Arrakis controls the spice. And whoever controls the spice controls the universe.
When the Emperor transfers stewardship of Arrakis from the noble House Harkonnen to House Atreides, the Harkonnens fight back, murdering Duke Leto Atreides. Paul, his son, and Lady Jessica, his concubine, flee into the desert. On the point of death, they are rescued by a band for Fremen, the native people of Arrakis, who control Arrakis’ second great resource: the giant worms that burrow beneath the burning desert sands.
In order to avenge his father and retake Arrakis from the Harkonnens, Paul must earn the trust of the Fremen and lead a tiny army against the innumerable forces aligned against them.
And his journey will change the universe.
It’s only taken me three and a half years since being gifted my copy of this book to get around to reading it…
I’m finally going to read an iconic sci-fi novel and I can’t wait to see if I agree with all the reviews. I have actually picked it up and flicked through the first few pages before now. I think I must have been bored one day and needed a change of genre. I’ve only really read enough to sample it so I know I like the writing style. It’s the longest book on this month’s list at just over 500 pages. Fingers crossed it lives up to its reputation as a brilliant book.
I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.
At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.
But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.
Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…
I couldn’t tell you how old I was when I last picked up a book by Mark Lawrence. I’d quite safely bet that I was a teenager, but that’s as specific as I could guess.
The only series of his I have read to date is The Broken Empire series; I loved it! I’m surprised it has taken me so long to read another of his books. Red Sister has been on my TBR since April 2017 and it’s one of the books on my Beat the Backlist challenge. I’m not sure if I’ll get to finish this one before the end of the month, but I’ll try my best!
So, that’s my reading list for September! Have you read any of these books? What are you reading?
Good morning everyone and welcome to today’s feature post for Escaping Demons by Killian Wolf! This is the second time I have featured this author on my blog; it’s a pleasure to be able to again today. There is also the chance to win an Amazon gift card in today’s post – please see the details and terms and conditions before entering below!
Escaping Demons is a re-written version of a story I read and reviewed last year, previously called The Haunting at Paradise House. If you want to check out my review for a general feel of the book, you can find my review here. Please bear in mind though that Escaping Demons will differ from the version I read. However, based on the synopsis I think the story is similar enough for my review to still be relevant.
Here are the details for the re-written version and the synopsis. I hope you like the sound of it as much as I did!
One phone call landed me the perfect job. Too bad it didn’t come with life insurance.
I didn’t think this job would be anything special. Sure, the first phone call was weird, and yeah, maybe it wasn’t the smartest idea to come to someone’s house before I met them in person, but Dax seemed nice. All he wanted was a caretaker for his sick father.
Oh, and an exorcist for the spirits haunting his family’s estate. Now he’s left me alone with his father, and the ghosts know my name. Caring for an old man with dementia, I can do. Fighting evil spirits? That’s way above my pay grade.
But Dax has disappeared so I have to learn on my own or both Orlando and I might not live to see tomorrow…
Killian Wolf is a Miami, FL native who enjoys pirates, rum, and skulls as much as she loves writing about dark magick and sorcerers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology and a Master of Science in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy.
Killian writes books about obtaining magickal powers, and stepping into other dimensions. She lives in England with her husband, a tornado of a cat, and the most timid snake you’d ever meet.
When she isn’t writing, you might find her at an Archaeological dig, rock climbing, or sipping on dark spiced rum while working on a painting.
Giveaway to Win a £25/ $25 Amazon Gift Card (Open INT)
*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
Hi everyone and welcome to today’s Sunday Summary post. You may be a bit confused as to why this post is going live today given that I said it would be published first thing tomorrow morning in last week’s post. Well, long story short, I got my days mixed up. I have already had a blog tour this week and I have one next week; I knew what dates my posts were but completely got my days wrong! Perhaps I should have checked before I published, but never mind! I blame the bank holiday weekend throwing me off…
Anyway, let’s get into what posts I shared this week. My first post of the week was a review of The God Game by Danny Tobey. I read this book back in March this year following receipt of an ARC copy courtesy of Gollancz. If you enjoy or think you’ll enjoy a combination of science-fiction, thriller and YA then I definitely recommend giving my review a read. Then, on Friday, I shared my thoughts on a second book I’ve read – Grubane by Karl Drinkwater. This post was shared as part of the ongoing blog tour and I really enjoyed writing the post and the feedback I received from it!
Books Read
This week I’ve read around half of Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. I’m hoping to get to around 75% before turning in tonight though. It’s only about 180 pages so far, but it is progress. I’ve actually spent a lot of time doing other things this week – crochet, watching TV (a rare occurrence in my house!) and even working late. Thankfully not too much of the latter! I’m really enjoying the book and it’s proving easy reading. I shouldn’t be surprised by that – I haven’t disliked a single book of his… and I’ve read a few!
I still have a couple of books on this month’s TBR to read. Thankfully both are short, so although I might just creep over into the beginning of September it shouldn’t set me back at all.
Books Discovered
Glad to say that once again, there are no new additions here this week! I would say that I should be thinking of the money I’m saving, but unfortunately, that’s not the case – it’s just getting spent on other things!
Coming Up…
My first blog post of next week is a feature post in the ongoing blog tour for Escaping Demons by Killian Wolf. I would have signed up to review, but since I had already committed to taking part in a couple of other tours with reviews, I couldn’t this time. I’m still looking forward to featuring this book on my blog and hopefully, the book catches your eye!
Midweek I will be sharing my TBR for September. I was just saying to my parents today that I can’t believe this is rolling around next week already. It doesn’t seem fair! The not being able to do anything thanks to ol’ corona makes it feel like we haven’t really had much of a year so far.
On Friday I will be foregoing my regular Shelf Control post (already on hold from this week thanks to my mix-up) and sharing another review. This week’s blog tour review is for another recent read, Mindworm by David Pollard.
Last, but not least, I’ll be sharing my Sunday Summary post as expected.
Don’t worry, I’ve fact-checked this all this week, so I’m not unintentionally lying to you!
That’s all from me in this week’s Sunday Summary post! I hope you have had a good one and enjoy the last day of the weekend tomorrow.
Hi everyone! I’m glad you can join me for today’s book review of The God Game by Danny Tobey. I was very kindly sent a copy of this book for review by Gollancz. The synopsis caught my eye immediately and I knew this was a book I was going to really enjoy – I wasn’t disappointed! Thanks to Gollancz for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for a review. As always, the opinions stated below are honest and my own.
For fans of Stranger Things and Ready Player One, The God Game is a brilliantly plotted science-fiction thriller about a VR game in which the stakes are impossibly high: if you die in the game, you die in real life
Five best friends in a high school computer club get sucked into an underground hacker’s game run by a mysterious A.I. that thinks it is God. It’s all fun and games until people start to get hurt.
And the stakes keep getting higher. As the Game pits them against each other and turns their high school upside down, it offers the ultimate promise – win and learn the meaning of life; die in the game, and die for real.
The God Game cleverly combines its sci-fi/fantasy genre with thriller to keep readers on the edge of our seats.
The most chilling part of the narrative is that, if such a game existed, I honestly think some kids today would buy into it. I graduated school a good few years ago now, but recently enough to remember what it was like. Peer pressure would definitely do its part in egging kids on to push the boundaries and do something they would regret later.
I enjoyed how well the sci-fi elements of the novel were written to be accessible to all. I didn’t find the language too technical or difficult to read. Anyone could pick this book up and understand what is going on.
I enjoyed the variety of characters in the novel. The dynamic of the group and the individuals within has a significant impact on the narrative and how each character responds to the circumstances they find themselves in. By the end of the book, I felt I knew them all well as if friends of my own. They aren’t the crowd I would choose, but the narrative is so immersive that you come to know them well by the end. The difficult and moral decisions they have to make give us an intimate knowledge of where their boundaries lie.
Sci-fi is one of those genres where I might not pick it up for a while, but then I’ll read a lot at once to make up for the fact. I read The God Game at the end of March this year and that was the fourth sci-fi book of the year. After reading it, I read another two books immediately after this. Despite this, the storyline of this particularly prominent and memorable. It’s a unique story and one that I think will be popular with a YA audience.
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Having written all of my life, I decided to self-publish my writing when I turned 50. I have published four books since then. Two are collections of short stories; Dark & Fluffy; Dark & Fluffy II and 500 Words, which is flash fiction. My latest book The Rue Stone is a fantasy novella.
Killian Wolf is a Miami, FL native who enjoys pirates, rum, and skulls as much as she loves writing about dark magick and sorcerers. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology and Sociology and a Master of Science in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy.
