Open Thread for Readers for June 2018
Misc / Need A Rec!book-pimp / Open Thread / Promotion10 Comments
Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general?
Jennie and I are putting together the finishing touches on a review of Ocean Light by Nalini Singh, which comes out June 12 (our review is tentatively scheduled to run a day after that). I’m currently reading The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, which has gotten a lot of buzz and will be out June 5.
Looking forward to late in June: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse and Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews, though I’m behind on the Kate Daniels series and likely won’t catch up in time.
@Janine: I will read “Iron and Magic” because well, Ilona Andrews, but I still have a healthy dose of skepticism about redeeming one of the best villains in the series. Not everybody has to be redeemed as much as I love redemption stories.
@Janine: I am also looking forward to TRAIL OF LIGHTNING and IRON AND MAGIC.
I just finished THE POPPY WAR by R.F. Kuang, which was a surprise in that I laughed quite a few times, but ultimately struggled with the unrelenting violence of war. The world-building was wonderfully detailed, based primarily in THE school to train students in war and strategy, and I cared a great deal about the characters. The ending is kind of a cliffhanger, so now I wait to see who survives.
Also finished Simone St. James’ THE BROKEN GIRLS. Suspense isn’t my preferred read, but the relationship between four roommates at a dreary and sinister girls’ boarding school was ten kinds of awesome. Alternating timelines built really satisfying tension and I liked how things tied up. If there were any chance of a sequel, I would be all over that.
Looking forward to Ocean Light.
@Sirius: I had the same reaction when I heard that Hugh was going to be redeemed–and I haven’t even read past Magic Breaks, so there may be more bad things he’s done that I’m not aware of. But when I saw the blurb and the “Pray for Hugh. He’s going to need it,” tagline, I became a lot more interested in the book. Partly because I want to see Hugh suffer, and partly because Elara sounds really interesting.
I’m not sure if I will like it partly because of the point you bring up, and partly because it’s self-published and I’ve had better luck with their recent traditionally published books than with the self-published Clean Sweep.
Are you going to review it? I would be interested in your thoughts.
@Darlynne: The Poppy War sounds really good, although dark. I’ll take a look at it. Maybe I should take a closer look at The Broken Girls, too.
@library addict: Hope to see you for the review discussion!
I’m on the fence about Ocean Light. I’ve read the whole series but I’ve down-graded it from auto buy the day it comes out to library wait list. And I’m tempted to not even bother reading this one. I’ll probably wait for the reviews before I decide.
@cleo: FWIW, I liked Ocean Light much better than Silver Silence.
Janine couple of friends already told me that they are waiting for my thoughts before deciding whether to buy the books . Our tastes run very close though and mine and yours – not very much right ? I will review the book , I already preordered but only if I don’t hate it . I don’t have a problem posting negative reviews of their books – I never had a problem saying that I had been very happy that Edge series ended or that as much as I love Kate Daniels books to death and reread them several times , I never went back to book six and not planning to because I have no desire to remember Curran behaving as a clueless idiot and Kate not being her usual self either . But I have a feeling that with Hugh if I am not convinced I will *really* hate it and will want to rant a lot and I just don’t know if I am interested in doing that . So anyway the answer is I probably will :).
Funny thing is I don’t even know if I want to see him suffer. I can totally wish that for the character and for bloody revenge and gruesome death but to me Hugh already lost what he seemed to want . So we shall see .
@Sirius: Re. Our tastes generally—hard for me to say; we don’t read many of the same books because I gravitate toward M/F, but quite possibly if I read more of the books you do, I would find that I feel similarly about them. W/r/t our taste in Ilona Andrews books, I like the Edge books (esp. the first two) more than you, and the first two KD books didn’t appeal to me as much. And I think you liked Clean Sweep better than I did. But we overlap on some things, like disliking book six of KD and loving the Hidden Legacy series. So your opinion might or might not tell me something about how I would feel. But even if it doesn’t, I’ll still be interested in your thoughts.
Re. Hugh—Well, as I said, I’ve only read through Magic Breaks (book 7) of KD at this point, so I’m behind and don’t know if he’s suffered. I want to catch up regardless, though—it’s been long enough since I read book 6 that I think I can get back to the series now.
Janine okay will do .