It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 9, 2016)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Other Than Reading...

Other than a little medication drama, this was a quiet week. It is hard to get a prescription renewed when your doctor is out of the country! I got my refill with three days to spare but worried for a week that I was going to run out of medicine. Since it was for my Crohn's disease which is exacerbated by stress, it wasn't a very fun few days. I'm really glad that I usually have a two week supply of medicine when I try to refill.

The weather is improving though and the trees are finally leafing out. Yesterday the air conditioning ran at my house. The weekend is looking a little cooler but still very pleasant.

This week has the final day that I will be evicted from my Media Center for testing. Then it should be smooth sailing until the end of the school year. Smooth at least if you don't mind rearranging calendars. There are music programs, field trips, track and field days and other disruptions but they aren't bad to work around when the end of the year is in sight.

Read Last Week

To Love a Wolf by Paige Tyler was a fun paranormal romantic suspense title in the SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team series. My review will be posted on June 4.

Written Off by E. J. Copperman was a cozy mystery starring a writer and her imaginary character who turns out not to be very imaginary. It was a fun mystery. I really liked the author who was all kinds of snarky. My review will be posted on June 8.

Currently

I am currently reading Magic & Manners by C. E. Murphy which is subtitled an Austen Chronicle. While it is a little wordy for my taste (which is why I don't read Jane Austen), it is also filled with sly comments within the prose. I am a big fan of Regency fiction with infusions of magic which this one has.

Next Week

I have dug The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig from the depths of TBR mountain. I bought the next four in the series after reading The Secret History of the Pink Carnation in 2011 but never got around to reading them.

I am also planning to read Boundary Lines by Melissa F. Olson. I bought it after reading Boundary Crossed last May and need to read it before I read the third book Boundary Born which is on my review stack.

Reviews Posted

• Heart of Brass by Kate Cross
• Oath Bound by Rachel Vincent
• Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

I got City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong.

State of TBR Mountain

• New in May: 11
• Unread May: 11
• New in 2016: 136
• Unread 2016: 82
• Total Unread: 1934
• Total Review: 24

To see what Young Adult books I have been reading and plan to read, check out Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.

Book Review: Heart of Brass by Kate Cross

Heart of Brass
Author: Kate Cross
Series: A Novel of the Clockwork Agents (Book 1)
Publication: Signet (May 1, 2012)

Description: Arden is an undercover agent for one of the most powerful organizations of this steam powered world—the Wardens of the Realm—a group with extraordinary abilities, dedicated to protecting England against evil.

Arden Grey enjoys a life most women in 1898 London can’t even dream of: She has the social status, wealth, and independence of a countess. She also has the ability to witness the final moments of a murder victim’s life. But ever since the disappearance of her husband, Lucas, none of this means anything to her. Until one night, when Arden spies a man watching her—a man she recognizes as her missing husband.

He’s been ordered to assassinate Arden as retribution for her part in the killing of a Company agent. Luke remembers nothing of his life before the Company, a corrupt agency that has erased his memory. Even so, he can't seem to complete his assignment. There is something familiar about his lovely target, something that attracts him, and fills him with dread. For he knows that if he doesn’t kill her, someone else will—and kill him as well. 

My Thoughts: Arden Grey has been dealing with the disappearance of her husband seven years earlier by drinking too much, working as an agent for W.O.R., and inventing a number of gadgets. She also assists Scotland Yard in tracking down murderers by using an invention that lets her see what the victim saw just before they died.

When an assassin comes to kill her in retribution for her killing one of the Company's agents, she is surprised to find that it is her lost husband. The Company had captured him, reinforced his bones, and wiped out his memories of the past. However, something stops him from killing her and the old memories start coming back.

Luke is recaptured by Arden and other members of W.O.R. who manage to cut his ties to the Company. But his memories are spotty. He doesn't remember much about his wife or his past. Now he has to protect the wife he barely remembers but still really wants from the Company who still wants her dead. Of course, they want him dead too before he can reveal their secrets.

I liked all the steampunk gadgets in this story set in Victorian time. I also liked the relationship between Arden and Luke. With Arden's memories of the past and her resentment of Luke's need to put his work ahead of his wife and Luke's lack of memory, both of them need to get to know each other again while keeping each other alive.

This was a great story once I got into it. I did think that the first fifty pages were kind of slow until I got up to speed on the characters and the setting. Fans of steampunk won't want to miss this entertaining series.
Favorite Quote:

"She smelled of incense," Luke said, frowning. "The kind they use in the opium brothels."

"Sandalwood," Alistair replied. "It's a stretch, but it could be she's hiding out in one of them."

"Or it could be that she likes sandalwood," Arden commented, looking between the two of them. "I won't bother to ask how you're both able to identify the incense used in those brothels."

I bought this book on May 1, 2012. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Heart of Brass by Kate Cross

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

This week I am spotlighting Heart of Brass by Kate Cross. This book has been on TBR mountain since May 1, 2012. Here is the description from Amazon:

Arden is an undercover agent for one of the most powerful organizations of this steam powered world—the Wardens of the Realm—a group with extraordinary abilities, dedicated to protecting England against evil.

Arden Grey enjoys a life most women in 1898 London can’t even dream of: She has the social status, wealth, and independence of a countess. She also has the ability to witness the final moments of a murder victim’s life. But ever since the disappearance of her husband, Lucas, none of this means anything to her. Until one night, when Arden spies a man watching her—a man she recognizes as her missing husband.

He’s been ordered to assassinate Arden as retribution for her part in the killing of a Company agent. Luke remembers nothing of his life before the Company, a corrupt agency that has erased his memory. Even so, he can't seem to complete his assignment. There is something familiar about his lovely target, something that attracts him, and fills him with dread. For he knows that if he doesn’t kill her, someone else will—and kill him as well. 

Beginning:

"You shouldn't go in there, ma'am. 'Tis no place for a lady."

Arden Grey, known in polite circles as Lady Huntley, and in less polite as "that poor woman," carried a small carpetbag in her gloved hand as she approached the factory door, pewter-colored skirts swishing around her matching pumps.

Friday 56: 

She said good-day to Mr. Chiler and made her way back to the surface, as far away from the oppressive secrecy of the W.O.R. offices as she could get. The din and dirt of the city was a welcome balm to her troubled soul.

Book Review: Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal

Of Noble Family
Author: Mary Robinette Kowal
Series: Glamourist Histories (Book 5)
Publication: Tor Books (April 28, 2015)

Description: Jane and Vincent have finally gotten some much-needed rest after their adventures in Italy when Vincent receives word that his estranged father has passed away on one of his properties in the West Indies. His brother, who manages the estate, is overwhelmed, and no one else in his family can go. Grudgingly, out of filial duty the couple decide to go.

The sea voyage is long and Jane spends enough time unable to perform glamour that towards the end of the trip she discovers that she is with child. They are overjoyed, but when they finally arrive at the estate to complete what they expect to be routine legal tasks, they realize that nearly everything they came expecting to find had been a lie. Also, the entire estate is in disarray, with horrifying conditions and tensions with the local slave population so high that they are close to revolt.

Jane and Vincent's sense of peril is screaming out for them to flee, but Vincent cannot stand to leave an estate connected with his family in such a condition. They have survived many grand and terrifying adventures in their time, but this one will test their skills and wits more than any they have ever encountered before, this time with a new life hanging in the balance. Mary Robinette Kowal's Of Noble Family is the final book of the acclaimed Glamourist Histories.

My Thoughts: This final volume in the Glamourist Histories sees Jane and Vincent travel to Antigua to settle his father's estate. Upon arrival they learn that Lord Verbery is not dead though he did suffer a stroke. He is in hiding to avoid being arrested. He has support from a number of people who are keeping him hidden. He is also not above the use of blackmail and other threats.

Jane and Vincent first want to leave immediately but Jane is pregnant and not doing well. It doesn't help that Verbery's doctor almost bleeds her to death as a way of keeping her on the island. Meanwhile, they are also dealing with an overseer who is unnecessarily brutal to the slaves and who has Lord Verbery's blessing for his actions. They are also surprised that the man in charge of the household is Lord Verbery's natural son who is being forced to do what the Earl demands because of threats to sell the rest of his family away.

While Jane is not able to do glamour while being pregnant, she spends a lot of time of the slaves who have their own forms of glamour. Jane is determined to write a book about the different traditions of glamour. She gets to learn a lot about the lives of slaves on the plantation as she meets with a number who can do glamour. She also calls on their help when she and Vincent are commissioned to create the glamour to decorate the ballroom for an annual charity ball.

I loved the relationship between Jane and Vincent. He has such a hard time because knowing that his father is alive and being forced to spend time with him brings back so many of the memories of the abuse he suffered at his father's hands as a boy. It also raises his fear that he is too like his father to be a good father to his child.

This story had a huge amount  of intensity both because of the setting and because of the threats to Jane's life and health. I couldn't put it down.

Favorite Quote:

She sighed to cover her agitation. "You are insufferable."

"I prefer 'inscrutable.'" He smiles, softening a little at her teasing tone, and because she allowed the change of topic.

"Inexplicable would be more accurate."

"Inconceivable!"

She rested her hand on her ever-increasing stomach. "Not any more."

He laughed and kissed her on the forehead. "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: Oath Bound by Rachel Vincent

Oath Bound
Author: Rachel Vincent
Series: Unbound (Book 3)
Publication: Harlequin MIRA (April 30, 2013)

Description: The Tower Syndicate will fall…

The secret daughter of the head of an infamous Skilled crime family, Sera Brandt has hidden her past, her potential and especially her powers. But when a tragedy strikes her other family, Sera needs justice. And the only way to get it is to reveal her heritage- including a rare Skill-and take the reins of the Tower Syndicate from her cunning and malicious aunt.

If he can figure out how…

Kristopher Daniels might have the answer. He's fought the syndicate to protect his sisters, but he'd never realized just how close to the new heir he needed to get.…

And if they can survive

Neither is used to trusting. But there's something between them that can't be ignored. And so Sera is on the run with a man she can't figure out, a target on her back and the new knowledge of just how powerful she really is….

My Thoughts: This final book in the Unbound trilogy was a satisfying conclusion and a complete change in tone from the previous book. Instead of the almost unrelenting grimness of the previous book, this one had lots and lots of funny parts. This is somewhat remarkable because the heroine had been through a horrible time watching her parents and sister murdered in front of her and being attacked and losing her baby and her future prospects as a mother. She was bent on finding the person who killed her family and her future and watching him die.

Sera Brandt did have some resources. She was the illegitimate daughter of Jake Towers and planned to call on the Towers syndicate to help her get justice. Since Jake's death, his sister Julia has taken charge. As we have learned throughout this series, Julia is a complete snake who will do anything to keep control of the syndicate. Since Jake's death and the escape of Kori and Kenley Daniels, Julia is facing some issues.

She happened to be talking with Julia and Jake's wife Lynn when Kris Daniels shows up. Seems Julia has kidnapped Kenley again and Kris wants her back. In the ensuing confusion, Sera learns that she has inherited the Towers syndicate, not Julia as everyone had thought. Also, in the confusion and amid the gunfire, Kris takes Sera with him to his safe house which Sera interprets as kidnapping.

A lot of the humor comes from the debate between Sera and Kris about whether or not he kidnapped her. But it isn't long before Sera gets on board with Kris, Kori and the rest of the crew who are eager to bring down the Towers syndicate. Along the way Sera learns about her Skills and she and Kris fall in love.

This was a great conclusion to the Unbound trilogy.

Favorite Quote:

Anne was right about that. The Towers did owe me. They owed my mother for the years she'd spent hiding me. For the nights she'd spent worrying that I would turn out to be like my biological father, in spite of the happy, healthy life she'd made damn sure I had. And they were going to pay what they owed, even if that meant pressing whatever advantage my inheritance—Money? Property? Companies?—gave me.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Teaser Tuesday: Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser:

The presence of an infant in any gathering offers all the substance for conversation one might require. 

This week I am spotlighting Of Noble Family by Mary Robinette Kowal. This is the fifth book in the author's Glamourist Histories. I discovered the series this past summer and have become sort of obsessed with them. Here is the description from Amazon:

Jane and Vincent have finally gotten some much-needed rest after their adventures in Italy when Vincent receives word that his estranged father has passed away on one of his properties in the West Indies. His brother, who manages the estate, is overwhelmed, and no one else in his family can go. Grudgingly, out of filial duty the couple decide to go.

The sea voyage is long and Jane spends enough time unable to perform glamour that towards the end of the trip she discovers that she is with child. They are overjoyed, but when they finally arrive at the estate to complete what they expect to be routine legal tasks, they realize that nearly everything they came expecting to find had been a lie. Also, the entire estate is in disarray, with horrifying conditions and tensions with the local slave population so high that they are close to revolt.

Jane and Vincent's sense of peril is screaming out for them to flee, but Vincent cannot stand to leave an estate connected with his family in such a condition. They have survived many grand and terrifying adventures in their time, but this one will test their skills and wits more than any they have ever encountered before, this time with a new life hanging in the balance. Mary Robinette Kowal's Of Noble Family is the final book of the acclaimed Glamourist Histories.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (May 2, 2016)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Other Than Reading... 

Cold rainy weather kept all of us - students and teachers - in school mode this week. The year is rushing by. Just 23 more student contact days this year. We are also finally finishing up the testing season. I'm being evicted from my media center only twice more this year to accommodate the testing. That will be seven times I've had to move my sixth graders up to one of their classrooms for media. Luckily, sixth grade has a set of computers so that our work can carry on. They are finishing up their research project about events that happened on their birthdays and are getting ready to present to their classmates.

At home I am menu planning to use the ingredients in my freezer and pantry in anticipation of being gone for about two months during the summer. Thus far I haven't had to find a way to use the odd ingredients that have appeared there. I often find myself shopping for ingredients for a recipe and then not actually making the recipe. This leaves orphaned ingredients that I have no idea how to incorporate since the recipe is nowhere to be found now. I really hope that this is common and that others do this too.

I am still trying to get my review stack read and reviews scheduled so that I can read from my TBR mountain this summer. I have my May calendar completely scheduled for reviews and memes except for the Monday meme I do. I am reading and scheduling early June now with 11 review books still on my stack for June.

Read Last Week

Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs was an enjoyable addition to a long-running series. My review will be posted on May 28.

Targeted by Kendra Elliot was also an excellent addition to a series. I enjoyed this thriller with a touch of romance very much. This book will be released on June 7 with my review scheduled for June 1.

Fan the Flames by Katie Ruggle was also an excellent romantic suspense title. I really liked the heroine in this one. The book was quite suspenseful too. This is also a June 7 release with my review scheduled for June 2.

Currently

The Love a Wolf by Paige Tyler is a paranormal romantic suspense title. It is another of my June 7 releases.

Next Week

Written Off by E. J. Copperman is another mystery that I have for review from NetGalley. This is a June 14 release.

Magic & Manners by C. E. Murphy is Jane Austen infused with magic. This is a genre that I really enjoy. I can't wait to start this one.

Reviews Posted

• The Witch with No Name by Kim Harrison
• Dragon Harper by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

I have been meaning to read The Martian by Andy Weir for quite a while but have been hesitant to add anything else to TBR mountain. However, this week the book was a Kindle Daily Deal. At least it isn't taking up any physical space.

I also bought Masks & Shadows by Stephanie Burgis for my Kindle this week. I have enjoyed her YA titles and am curious about this one.

 

When I put Front Runner by Felix Francis on my reading calendar, I didn't realize it was the second book starring the same main character. I had to have the first book and so added Damage by Felix Francis to my stack.

I added A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet to my review stack. I was invited to view this title at NetGalley and it sounded good. It won't be released until my birthday - August 2.

State of TBR mountain:

• New in April: 22
• Unread from April: 18
• New in 2016: 123
• Unread from 2016: 72
• Total Unread: 1926
• # of Review Books to Read: 22

To see what Young Adult books I have been reading and plan to read, check out Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.