Hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, this is a weekly event to share what we’ve read in the past week and what we hope to read, plus whatever else comes to mind. Here is what I read the week ending 17 September 2018. To learn more about each book, just click on the book cover!

With football in earnest now, my weekend reading will come to a virtual halt – which is okay but it is the time of year I make major progress on my cross-stitch projects. Still, not a bad week for making progress on my review copies.

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FINISHED SINCE THE LAST UPDATE:

 

Zach Hines’ debut novel is an intense story that kept me on my toes and had me guessing through the entire novel. The world building though was a bit weak, and I finished the book wanting more answers than those I received. Some of the reasoning behind the evil deeds and corporate shadiness remains nebulous. I do not believe that this novel is part of a series, but I would certainly welcome future novels within this world if there is more explanation behind the Lakes and the changes occurring within them that is wreaking havoc on the ecosystem.

Sara Raasch’s fantasy about religion versus science, immigration, and governance starts out slowly, probably too slowly for most people. However, once the world-building is complete, the story takes off into a world of intrigue, secrets, and excitement with a cliffhanger ending that is about as cruel as anything Suzanne Collins wrote. I was not certain about the story at first but fell in love with everything about it by the end. Plus, that ending! There are way too many months before the sequel.

The final Parasol Protectorate novel was everything I could hope it would be. We get answers to some long-held secrets. We see characters come into their own. We get the resolutions to some long-standing issues. Plus, we get the future direction of Alexia Maccon’s story. It has a bit more excitement than normal, plenty of drama and etiquette lessons, as well as a fantastic sense of family and love. I have always been a fan of Lord and Lady Maccon, but somehow, this last novel in the series served to solidify my love for the entire cast of characters with which Alexia surrounds herself. Emily Gray, as the narrator of the entire series, does an excellent job with all of the various voices, a daunting task indeed since she must tackle not just male and female roles, but also those of children as well as Scottish, English, Italian, French, and Egyptian dialects. She must traverse the wide swath of English dialects, from royal to lower class. She does all seemingly with ease. More importantly, her pronunciations and voices never waver from novel to novel so that without hearing a name, one knows immediately which character she is voicing. Her voice is pleasant to the ear with just the right amount of irony to it to highlight the satirical nature of the stories. I am going to miss the Parasol Protectorate, as I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with them, but I am glad to say that this is one series I finally finished.

Dathan Auerbach’s novel is creepy but slow. It was one of those that I wanted to finish to find out what happened, but it dragged so much that I ended up skimming a two-thirds of it. The story needs to be cut by a good 100 pages or more to tighten up the narrative and make it a truly impressive novel.

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DID NOT FINISH:

Nothing so far, and I don’t see that changing any time soon given what I have pending.

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CURRENT READ:

  

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CURRENT LISTEN:

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NEXT UP:

August Review Copies:

   

September Review Copies:

Ouch.

            

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So, what are you reading?