Sunday, December 08, 2013

Melanie's Week in Review - December 8, 2013



This has been both a good and an average week for me on the reading front. On the good side I managed to finish two books I had been planning to read for months now although on the average side I only managed read two of them. So what was I able to read?

I started the week by reading Three Lives of Tomomi Ishikawa by Benjamin Constable (Gallery Books, June 2013). I will be doing a full review of this book so I can't give too much away. What I can share with you at this point is that it is a really unusual book so stay tuned to the blog for more detail about what else I thought of it.

I also finished Taste of Darkness by Maria V. Snyder which is the third and final installment of the Healer series and due to be released on the December 31, 2013 by Harlequin MIRA. I had really enjoyed this series so far and had been looking forward to this book. I was quite excited when I saw it on NetGalley. When we left Avry at the end of Scent of Magic (Book 2) she had escaped the evil Tohon but in the process Kerrick had been infected with the plague. Book 3 starts almost immediately afterwards with Avry searching for Kerrick who disappears during the night. The rest of the 'gang' thinks he has gone off to die but Avry is convinced he is still alive. She struggles to continue the search while at the same time help Prince Ryne save the Fifteen Realms. The road to freedom isn't an easy one and Avry gets lots of help from her friends to help her not just save the kingdom but herself in the process.

Unfortunately, I felt really let down by Taste of Darkness as it almost read like it had been written by a different author. Gone was the strong, forthright and opinionated Avry that I loved from the previous books and in her place as a whiny, impetuous and not very sensible one. I got the impression that Snyder either had too much story to tell or didn't have enough so had Avry travel hither and yon saving almost every minor character possible. I think she also journeys to nearly every corner of the Fifteen Realms and back again while almost dying in each of the many battles. Kerrick was much more palatable and the changes to his magic almost make him interesting. Tohon was by far the most interesting and he wasn't even a physical presence for most of the novel. Part of my struggle with this book was of no fault of the author as I had an eArc with rather dodgy formatting. There were no defined chapters and I got confused several times when the chapters switched rather too seamlessly between Avry and Kerrick (especially confusing when one of them was allegedly dead). Overall, I was disappointed but this won't put me off reading other books by this author.

Well I am hoping to have more to tell you next week as this has been a very short 'WIR' (although maybe you like that?). Until next week Happy Reading.

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