Tag Archives: dragons

Do you start if you can’t finish?

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Thank goodness for novellas this week, because if it weren’t for short books I’d have almost nothing to report!

Cover of Lili Zander and Rory Reynolds' Dragons ThiefI stumbled upon the entirely excellent Dragon’s Thief by Lili Zander and Rory Reynolds (I agree, I do seem to have a thing for dragons right now – is there a problem with that?). It’s a reverse harem novella (one heroine; lots of heroes) so I’m pleased to have also found an RH novel I loved. Key for me is that the heroine has a really powerful goal which kicks in right at the start of the novel and powers her all the way through.

But my talking point for this week is because Dragon’s Thief is first in a series. I would have gone straight on to the next, but it’s not out yet (although available for pre-order). That’s fine, I’ll wait. Series are so common these days that I would have thought no more about it, except that a friend on Facebook then posed the question as to whether you’d read the first in a series before more were available, or you’d wait until the whole series was out.

A surprising (to me) number said they wouldn’t start until they knew they would be able to finish the series if they liked it. Partly this seemed to be due to the habit of bingeing which we’ve all fallen into. But equally, readers wanted to be sure that the series actually came to an end – with horror stories of books that ended on cliffhangers by authors who then decided they didn’t want to write any more or publishers who gave up on their authors mid-way through a series.

Interesting to note is that the authors of Dragon’s Thief were clearly aware of this – at the bottom of the description was a note stating that it’s the first in a series, outlining the release schedule and warning readers to wait if they didn’t want to have to stop part-way through.

I don’t mind at all. Of course, if you like a book it’s good to find more in the series or by that author to move on to, but I also find anticipation is part of the enjoyment. I’ve now got two dragon-related novellas to look forward to in February, which is perfect for a woman whose main dread in life is running out of books I want to read.

Over to you, reader. Will you start a series when it catches your eye, or do you want to have all the books lined up before you begin?

Oh, and if you’ll excuse a brief plug, this is probably the ideal moment to point out that my 4-book historical fantasy series, a clockwork war, is now complete and available to read (Kindle and KU). The series starts with The Clockwork War, which you can grab now.

A clockwork war series covers

Being short’s a good thing, right?

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Cover of Kelly St Clare's The ReprisalWell, this week was another gorgeous reading week. I went straight from Sea and Sand to another new release, The Reprisal, by Kelly St Clare. This is the finale in her The After trilogy, and I’ve been waiting impatiently since I inhaled The Return the day it came out. It’s an utter delight. The relationships between Romy and her knot moved forward in fabulous ways, there was lots of humour, and the uncertain fate of those on earth and the space soldiers was resolved highly satisfactorily. Loved it.

And then I found a new series. I’d seen mention of Sarah K Wilson’s Dragon School on social media and thought it looked good. The premise is that a disabled teenager is determined to take on the highly physical role of a dragon rider – will she manage? It’s also fantasy with (you may have guessed) dragons, so there’s lots to love for fantasy readers.

Cover of Sarah K Wilson's Dragon School: First FlightThe books themselves are being presented slightly differently. Instead of novels, they’re novellas, but as a result of their shortness they’re being released more closely together. I’m finding myself growing more and more fond of novellas as I grow older. I daresay it’s just a perception, but it makes me feel as though I’m getting more new worlds in my life. Another positive is that most of them are available in KU, so I feel like I’m working my subscription hard by reading three books where I might only have managed one before!

The first three stories in the Dragon School series are available now (First Flight, Initiate and The Dark Prince), and I loved them. They’re very episodic, so you could think of TV just as easily as books. Amel is a great character (as is Raolcan the dragon), there’s stacks going on in the background so they rattle along at a terrific pace, and the writing is actually very visual so I found it easy to “see” what was going on. I want to read the rest, and I’m delighted to report I don’t have months to wait for the next episode, since it’ll be out at the start of February.

And then just last night (when I’d run out of Dragon School stories) I discovered that there is a book 4 in CN Crawford’s Fae FBI series. I kind of thought there must be another one coming, because book 3 left so many threads unresolved, but last time I looked on Amazon there was no sign. But it’s out now, so that’s what I’ll be jumping into once I’ve written this blog post. Can’t wait!

Shattered Worlds challenge – star-crossed lovers

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Grab a copy of Slayer in Shattered Worlds

I’m on a roll, readers. This week I read and reviewed Slayer by JA Armitage and JA Culican with time to spare. When a trainee dragon-slayer and a dragon shifter come face to face there are bound to be sparks. I loved this Romeo-and-Juliet story about Julianna and Ash discovering the truth about their villages’ enmity. And thankfully, while there’s plenty of lies, betrayal and fighting, no one gets poisoned in Slayer.

And since I can’t bear to be without a book, I also grabbed Joanne Macgregor’s The Law of Tall Girls, a new release by one of my favourite authors. I don’t read many contemporary books because speculative fiction is my first love. But, oh my, when they are this good it’s a pleasure to switch genres! Curiously enough, Romeo and Juliet also featured here, with a high school play of the ill-fated lovers’ story. The Law of Tall Girls is beautifully written with real emotional punch. I loved it.

Check back next week to see what I pick next from the Shattered Worlds collection – or elsewhere!

Q is for … quite slow-going

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So, leading on from my last alphabet post where I noted that you can rate my enthusiasm for a book from how long I take to read it, I’ll start by telling you I finished my Q book, started more than a week ago, at 10pm last night.

I don’t quite know what happened because I thought I’d love Shadow Queen. Maybe I’ve been thinking about reading it for so long I’d ended up with expectations that were never going to be fulfilled.

Cover of CJ Redwine's Shadow Queen
Check it out for yourself.

Irritatingly, there’s nothing specific I can point at to say, “That was wrong; that’s what I didn’t like.” It just didn’t set me on fire the way I always want a book to do. It was written in 3rd person, which was a change, but a refreshing one since 98.27% of YA books appear to be written in the first person. There were three points of view, which again is a lot for YA, but I don’t see how she could have told the story without all three, and they were very different voices and didn’t jar.

It read a little bit generically, slightly as though it had been composed by numbers of what’s ‘in’ right now. It’s clearly a retelling of snow white, with what felt a little like grisha magic thrown in along with dragon shifters (is it just me, or are dragons EVERYWHERE right now?). There were new and creative elements (the apples were revoltingly fantastic!), but overall I didn’t feel as though it was completely heartfelt. Sorry.

Check back in for my R book next week – I’ve only just started, but I’m already gripped by Risuko by David Kudler, long may it last!