Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Narrated by Michael Page 
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It took me quite a while to get into this mainly because I had no idea what was going on. I think had I actually read the book vs listening to the audio I would have had and easier time. Let me explain, the timeline jumps from present day and to the past and there are so many characters to keep track of. Once I figured out who everyone was and what was going on with the timeline I was fine, it just took me while. Honestly, I almost gave up on this because I was so confused and lost.  I was going to return the audio in exchange for the ebook at the library, but I'm so glad I didn't.  The narrator was excellent, he had a voice for every character, and there were many.  It was so entertaining, he gave life to each and every character.

On to the story, this is about a group of orphans who through one way or another end up in the care of a priest named Chains. Chains creates the Gentlemen Bastards, a band of misfits with Locke Lamora at the lead. Locke is a con man with a flair for theatrics as he has proven to be a great actor and and a better thief. The story jumps back and forth from Locke's time as an orphan from the day he came to live with Chains and his training with the rest of the Bastards to the present day with Locke as an adult and their current scheme. Their current dealings with the politics of the criminal underworld and the actual nobility they are trying to con take them on quite the adventure. There is double crossing, magic, politics, alchemy, and violent fight scenes.

There is some hilarious dialogue in the book, I laughed out loud so many times throughout listening to this. Once I figured out who was who, and which characters were Locke's other personalities for the purpose of his con's and thieving, I was totally invested in the characters. There were some pretty violent scenes and descriptions. The world building is great and I liked Lynch's writing. I'm anxious to see what happens next and what mischief Jean and Locke get into next.

This takes care of my book challenge prompt with alliteration in the title, but you could also use it for a book with a heist, and possibly and anti-hero as Locke is not a good guy.

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Scenes from the Hallway, an all new novella from USA Today bestselling author Penny Reid, is LIVE and as a special Valentine’s Day gift from Penny it’s FREE! 

Synopsis

From the USA TODAY Bestselling romantic comedy series, 'Scenes from the Hallway,' Knitting in the City #6.5

You know who I am.

I swear too much, I crack too many jokes, and I got a thing for Kat Tanner; a messy thing, a distracting thing, a getting-in-the-way-of-everything thing; a thing that makes being in the same room with the woman torture. Sometimes it's the good kind. Mostly, it's not.

What you don't know is how it all started. You don't know how we met, you might not know what happened in Vegas (or the morning after), and you definitely don't know what happened after that.

You want to know the story before the story? Well . . . here you go.

But be careful what you ask for. As I've discovered the hard way, you might not like it.

'Scenes from the Hallway' is a companion short prequel/short story (11k words) for the upcoming book, 'Marriage of Inconvenience,' and includes the first 3 chapters of the soon to be released novel! ('Marriage of Inconvenience' releases March 6, 2018.)

WARNING This short story contains a lot of cussing. Do not download or read if you dislike curse words in novels. WARNING

Read Today for FREE!

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2nZmLHf

iBooks: https://apple.co/2EoXv3f

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2BVE3NV

Nook: http://bit.ly/2nUCZBy

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/2o7gvfA

If you are a UK reader or live abroad, never fear! Scenes From The Hallway will be FREE in time for an evening Valentine’s Day read!

Amazon Universal: http://mybook.to/ScenesfromtheHallway

Meet Penny Reid:

Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband, three kids, and an inordinate amount of yarn. She used to spend her days writing federal grant proposals as a biomedical researcher, but now she writes books.

Connect with Penny: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PennyReidWriter/

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2lakzsD

Twitter: @ReidRomance

Sign up for Penny’s Mailing List: http://pennyreid.ninja/newsletter/

www.pennyreid.ninja

Review: Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst

Inkmistress by Audrey Coulthurst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be released on March 6th, and is a companion to Of Fire and Stars.  I haven't read Of Fire and Stars, but from what I understand it takes place a few hundred years beforehand and in a neighboring kingdom.

I loved the mythology and magic elements in Inkmistress. The people within the world can manifest when they come of age, meaning they can take the form of an animal. The animal they can manifest into ties them to one of the gods the people worship. It is rare that a person cannot manifest, but it does happen. Our main character, Asra is a demigod, and she has unique powers. She is a bloodscribe, and has been hidden away in a mountain town to study as a healer where she will be safe. Her blood holds her true power, but using her powers can kill her. She uses her blood to enchant healing tinctures and aid the townsfolk.

When tragedy strikes the town she has protected, Asra uses her powers to aid the girl she thinks she loves to find her manifest before her time. But we all know by now that magic comes with a price, and Asra's magic doesn't work out as she planned. Ina, Asra's love, manifests into a fierce dragon fueled by revenge for her loved ones. Ina strikes out to revenge the town, and Asra is left feeling guilty that her magic didn't work out the way she'd hoped. Asra follow's Ina to explain what she's done and to stop her from her revenge mission. Along the way, Asra meets Hal another demigod who vows to help Asra. Hal and Asra grow close and they eventually team up to fight Ina on her revenge mission. Asra is betrayed throughout the course of her mission to change the past and fix what she felt she did wrong.

I felt like the pace of the story was really slow and parts of it dragged for me. There is a ton of time spent building up to the various milestone events in the story, but I found them anticlimactic when they finally did happen. There were some plot twists I didn't see coming especially when it came to the numerous betrayals that happen in the story, but there were so many they eventually lost their impact on me. Asra seemed to never learn her lesson after being betrayed over and over again. Her misplaced sense of loyalty and lack of self-preservation got to be a bit much, I'm glad she found her strength and backbone toward the end. I just felt she was portrayed as weak and naive for much of the story, and it took too long for her to find her inner strength. I did like the diversity of the characters, Asra and Ina both appear to be bisexual, but I think Ina might have a preference for women over men if I read the clues correctly. The romance doesn't overpower the story, and it does teach a good lesson to not let your feeling cloud your judgement.

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Review: Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston

Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review.  This book will be released on February 27th.  If you like YA, Sci-Fi, pirates in space, and a little bit of romance I'd go check this out.

This is an interesting take on the typical YA Sci-Fi. I enjoyed it. It had decent romance, but it wasn't overbearing, which sometimes can be the case in YA. It has good action, and strong female characters. It also has good LGBTQA+ rep. There is even a human and AI romance.

This isn't sold to us as an Anastasia retelling, but it has that vibe. Long lost princess is found after she is thought to have been dead for many years. I like that she's been raised by pirates and she's strong, rough around the edges, and a thief. She is everything the future empress should not be, and when her heritage is uncovered, she doesn't embrace the gentle lifestyle of the royals. She continues to be the space pirate she was raised as. Joining Ana on her hijinx is her best friend and faithful companion D09 aka Di. Di is an AI or a metal, who was created to help heal humans during a great plague. Something went wrong with the metals and there was an uprising causing Ana's family to be killed and Ana to be lost in the first place. Di has been with Ana as her friend and protector since her escape from the metal uprising, but neither remembers what happened. Ana and Di are on a mission to find the Tsarina, the long lost ship that holds answers to Ana's past and parts to fix Di's glitching memory core. They run into Robb, a noble, who is kind of an outcast in his family who is also looking for the Tsarina to find out what happened to his father. Robb ends up travelling with Ana and Di to find the ship. We also follow the perspective of Jax, pilot of the Dossier, the ship Ana has grown up on. Jax is an interesting character, but I won't spoil him here. As the four main characters try to uncover what really happened with the metal revolt, the truth of Ana's past, and avoid current plots against them much is revealed and they all are tested. Friends are lost, love is found, enemies are confronted, and an empress must decide to run and hide or fight for her kingdom.

The pace started out a bit slow for me, but it does pick up towards the end. I think part of that was the switching between perspectives. We follow Ana, D09/Di, Robb, Jax, and toward the end a 5th perspective. I'm not a fan of multi-perspective books in general. I can do two, but any more than two and I have a hard time engaging. That is a personal preference not a problem with the writing or the plot. I do think the whole Ironblood thing could have been explained better. It is the defining trait of the rich and the poor, but how people came to have iron in their blood is never really explained and it really doesn't give anyone any special powers just privilege.

Overall, I did enjoy the story and I look forward to the next installment. I enjoyed the originality Ashley Poston brought to the storyline.

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Review: Ryan's Bed by Tijan

Ryan's Bed by Tijan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in a day. It was that gripping. This is my first Tijan book, but if they are all like this it won't be my last. It was recommended by several authors I love, but I have to say I was originally drawn in by that amazing cover. While this deals with a very sensitive subject, it is done in a respectful way.

This follows Mackenzie in the aftermath of her twin sister, Willow's suicide. Mackenzie's family has just moved to Oregon from Arizona, and on their 18th birthday Willow takes her life. Mackenzie finds herself spending the night with family friends while her parents try to make arrangements. Because she's in a strange house, she gets lost on her way back to bed in the middle of the night and finds herself in Ryan's bed. She finds some comfort there that she hasn't been able to find since the shock of Willow's death, and sleeps. She wakes up to a very confused Ryan, but she continues to sleep. After finally waking up with the determination to be strong for her younger brother Robbie, Mackenzie finds a friend in Ryan. He somewhat understands what she is going through, and while everyone else is grieving Willow's loss Ryan is the only one checking on Mackenzie to see if she is OK.

Mackenzie struggles with the loss of her twin, She goes through all of the stages of grief, and some post traumatic stress. She never knew Willow was at the point of suicide. Willow was the outgoing twin, popular, beautiful, she seemed to have everything. Mackenzie knew she had a dark side and about some of her struggles, but she didn't know they went so deeply. Willow never confided in her twin. While she struggles to come to grips with Willow's loss, she also has to deal with the way her family chooses to grieve, especially since Mackenzie is a constant reminder of her twin. It is hard for the whole family and none of them make good decisions.

When Mackenzie begins school, she is not only the new girl, but she has caught the eye of the most popular boy at school. She isn't part of the social pecking order yet, and she doesn't really care. She just wants Ryan because he understands her and he is her safe haven. Ryan doesn't seem to care much for the whole social scene, he genuinely was just a good guy trying to take care of his friends. This is not short on high school drama, there are some serious mean girls and Mackenzie faces off with them more than once before she put all of the pieces of herself back together. The high school drama gets a bit over the top, but kids are mean and this is fiction.

Hang on to your hats because the ending will throw you for a loop. I didn't see it coming until the last page, but after I read it, it wasn't all that surprising if you were paying attention. It was overall an amazing read. It is the kind of book you want to read again.

The only thing I didn't really like about this was towards the very end, it takes a turn towards new adult. This was pretty much young adult through out, and I prefer my YA to stay YA and my adult books to be adult. I'm a grown up so I read what I want and that stuff doesn't offend me, but my preference is if you are going to keep that stuff low level steamy or all the way steamy, keep it consistent throughout. This just got a bit too steamy at the end and felt out of place to me.

I'm using this for my reading challenge prompt that deals with death or grief, but it also deals with twins if you need a recommendations for that as well.  I highly recommend you checking this one out.

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Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Narration by Bahni Turpin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was excellent. Starr reminds me so much of some of my friends from middle and high school. They not only struggled with the normal teenage angst of trying to figure out who they are and where they fit, but they also had to deal with keeping up two personalities like Starr did when she was with her friends from school and her friends and family at home. I know that happened with some of my friends because I saw it first hand, they were taunted because of the music they like or who they dated. It wasn't the accepted cultural norm. Unfortunately, the way they spoke and acted changed depending on who was around, much like Starr mentioned in the book. She spoke one way around her family and neighborhood friends and another way around her schoolmates. She never just got to be Starr, who was really a mix of the smart, beautiful girl who was from the not so great neighborhood but also went to the fancy school. I loved the pop culture references to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Harry Potter. I also loved that Starr was able to share those things with her friends on both sides of her life to bring the things she loved together.

While this isn't a true story it felt like it was. I felt like I got to know Starr and the Carter family. I felt empathy for what she was going through after her friend Khalil was shot. The story focuses on how the shooting affects Starr and her community after the fact. The shooting should have never happened, and Starr has to decide if she is going to testify against the police officer, if she wants to speak out as an activist and use her voice in the wake of the shooting, she also has to consider the safety of her family and how her friends will treat her if she does or doesn't say anything. She also has to deal with the guilt of not being there for her friend when he was struggling and grief of losing a friend. Fortunately she has an amazing family who has a wide range of experiences to help her through it. On top of that Starr is just a teenager, and she has to deal with normal friend and boyfriend stuff. I love the way Angie Thomas dealt with the "you just don't understand" conversations between Starr and her boyfriend Chris, who happens to be white. He may not understand but he always comes to Starr with love and a desire to understand. He wants to see her perspective, and doesn't come at her with argument or excuses. He just wants to be there for her and see her point of view as a person of color. There is also her friend Hailey who doesn't approach racial tension with that kind of desire to have an open discussion. I think those two viewpoints are very powerful. I think there are more Hailey's in this world and not enough Chris', regardless of what the topic of conversation (race, religion, gender, etc).

I didn't particularly care for the way that Chris was spoken to by Starr's friends and family. I can understand that he wasn't immediately beloved, as no boy usually is when he starts dating someone's daughter. It was more about their biracial relationship, and the slang that was used to refer to Chris. It would be racist and unacceptable if Chris had used those words in reverse when speaking to Starr and her family. Those double standards need to go in my opinion. We have a long way to go to break the racism barriers, and better communication, compassion, empathy, and understanding of differences are things we all need to do to break those walls. Overall this was a minor dislike compared to the book as a whole.

Bahni Turpin was an amazing narrator. I highly recommend the audio, she really brought life to the characters in such and authentic way. The characters, regardless of race are very well developed and the narration just adds so much to them as if you were really there and part of their story. The main thread of the story is how Starr uses her voice to give power to the injustice that occurred. Bahni Turpin's voice was very powerful here.

I'm trying to figure out which prompt to use this for the 2018 reading challenge.  It fits a few different ones.  I've got it penciled in as a book about a problem facing society today right now, but it also fits a Goodreads Choice award winner, a book I meant to read last year, and a few others.

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Review: Grin and Beard by Penny Reid

Grin and Beard It by Penny Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been slacking with my reviews.  But I've been tearing through audiobooks like there is no tomorrow.  Hopefully I can get caught up this weekend, but in the meantime let me say I how much I love the Winston Brother's series.  It is funny and easy to read, and I know that Penny's books will always make me smile.  When I feel a slump coming on I know I can turn to her books to pull me out, there aren't many authors I can say that about.

First off can I say that I loved Sienna and I wish she was a real person so she could be my best friend. I think she and I would get along because she is a real person, tells it like it is, has a sarcastic sense of humor, she cares about other people, and while she is a movie star she really doesn't care about fame and fortune. Sienna Diaz is a comedian, actress, and screenwriter, and she is famous. She is breaking the Hollywood mold for what beautiful is because she is what Hollywood would consider fat, but what the rest of us would consider a regular sized person. She is hilarious, strong willed, and she is amazing. She gets lost on her way to Hank's house where she will be staying while shooting her latest movie. Jethro Winson, local wildlife park ranger and reformed biker gang member and car thief, comes to Sienna's rescue and takes her to Hank's house. Hank is the local owner of the gentlemen's club and friends with several of the Winston brothers, he also happens to and old friend of Sienna's from college. Instant sparks fly between Sienna and Jethro, but Jethro is a gentleman and ensure's that she gets to where she is going safely. They meet again the following day when Sienna's missing sense of direction and lack of cell service finds her lost yet again. Her security detail is laying low and giving her space, but she's late and Jethro knows his way around. Jethro has no idea who Sienna is and she loves that her fame is actually lost on someone because she desperately needs a break and a vacation from all of the Hollywood drama and attention. Jethro just sees a pretty, funny girl that he's attracted to. Cletus, Jethro's brother, on the other hand know's who Sienna is right away and insists that she reveal her identity so no one gets hurt. Jethro is a bit thrown by her fame when she is mobbed by the townsfolk on their first date, but he comes to accept that it comes with the territory. They both continue to frustrate each other as life continues to throw obstacles in their path. In true Penny Reid fashion though, everything works out as it was meant to in the end, but she takes you on an adventure before you get there.

The whole family is back in this book, and we get to know a bit more about each of the brothers and Ashley their sister. Cletus is hilarious in this. You just never know what he's going to say or do. I loved that he was always scheming with Sienna's people. I liked that we got to see more of Billy and got some resolution to the rift between Billy and Jethro. If you've read the other 2 Winston Brother's books you'll know what I'm talking about. I can't wait to read Billy's story. I can tell its going to be a good one.

This can be read as a standalone, but I highly recommend reading Beauty and the Mustache and Truth or Beard first because they are good too.  While you are at it read the Knitting in the City series because they are just as funny. 

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