The Black Prism

Brent Weeks - The Black Prism
629 Pages - Orbit
For the Color Coded Reading Challenge and the Big Book Summer Challenge

This was a really good book to read for the color coded challenge because not only does it have a color in it's title but the whole magic system in it is color based, very similar to Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker, which I read for last year's big book summer challenge.

Gavin Guile is the Prism, which, in this world is both the emperor and the high priest. People in this land can 'draft' certain colors to do different things. Red can start fires, blue and yellow can build things and so on. Most people can draft only one color, some people, called bichromes can draft two and even more rare are polychromes, who can draft three or four. There is a limit to how much color they can draft in their lifetimes, and after that limit is reached, they go mad. Well the prism can draft all the colors, and there's no limit to how much he can draft, but prisms only rule for multiples of seven years, and Gavin has already ruled for sixteen, and he feels like he only has five more years to accomplish all he wants to accomplish.

I really like the way that Weeks writes. His characters seem more real to me, I think, because they don't speak in a particularly archaic way. Gavin is a bit of a smartass, and I liked that in a character who is supposed to be serious. This book took a few twists and turns that I wasn't expecting. I'm excited to read the next book in the series.

I'm In!

Thanks to Sue for hosting again!

This was the first reading challenge that I've ever done last year and look where it's lead me, lol. So oooobviously I'm totally in again. I'm not sure what all books I'm going to read for it but I do have a few big ones on my to-read list that I'm going to try for. At least 2 big books I hope!

Sorry Mom, lol

Alright Black Dagger Brotherhood. For too long my mother and my sister have been recommending this series to me in the high hope that I would love it as much as they did. Too long has Goodreads told me with every list that included the words 'paranormal' and 'romance' that this was the GREATEST PARA-ROMANCE NOVEL OF ALL TIME OMG YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE IT!

 Really, guys? Really? I'll admit that there are a lot of sexy parts in this book, because the main characters fuck like vampire bunnies, but, people... the bad guy's name is Mr X. MISTER X, for fucks sake. Add to that the fact that the rest of the character's names are: Wrath, Rhage, Tohrment, Phury, Vishous and, my personal favorite, Zsadist. No one bats an eye at this either. 'Beth, this is Zsadist, which is the word sadist, which is kind of what he is, with a Z on it." "Oh, hi Zsadist, nice to meet you." WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN. They are vampires though, so they can't have normal names because that would be WEEEEIRD. Well, alright then we wouldn't want anything to get weird then. Nothing weird about a group of vampires who love to listen to gangster rap in their giant mansion filled with priceless artwork with their butler.

 My final problem with this book was the fact that Wrath went from being a badass vampire to being a total pussy at near ludicrous speed, because he met a girl and fell in love with her. This seems to happen a lot in paranormal romance books, but this time it just seemed really over-the-top. Sorry Mom, I tried to like it, lol. Two stars.

Inferno

Because I'm a sucker for this sort of thing apparently.

Dan Brown - Inferno
464 Pages - Doubleday
For the Sub-Genre Challenge (Mystery-Thriller)

I remember really really enjoying both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. I really got into them and as the mystery unraveled I was engrossed. I suppose that was also like 10 years ago but whatever.

Then there was The Lost Symbol which I found extremely disappointing but I'll give Brown another chance. Now, Inferno.

Robert Langdon is back and he is in Florence, Italy and has amnesia. Apparently something involving Dante Alighieri and his epic poem The Divine Comedy. So he, in true Robert Langdon style, goes through an entire mystery of art, symbols and literature to find out what's happening.

Why so many instances of having to solve mysteries based on Renaissance art? I don't know but this one was not very thrilling in my opinion. Maybe I'm just becoming bored with the whole Dan Brown thing but this one had me losing interest a lot, even in the last few pages. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great and didn't have me turning pages like a madwoman to see what was going to happen. So I gave this one three stars.

One more reading challenge.

I've decided to sign up for one more reading challenge, because I think at this point that I might actually be able to do it, lol. Earlier in the year I wasn't so sure, but now.. I think it might be possible.

It's the Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge - where you read more books than you did in 2012. Well ok!
I read 63 books in 2012 according to goodreads, so lets see if I can beat that.

Thanks to the book vixen for hosting! 

So far I'm at 49 books for the year, and it's only May. This is... beyond my normal reading powers. I don't think it's going to get -much- over 63, because I have other things I need to complete later this year, so I'm going to stick with the 'getting my heart rate up' level and try for 1-5 more books. We'll see!~

White Night

Jim Butcher - White Night
416 Pages - Roc
For the Color Coded Reading Challenge and the Sub-Genre Challenge (Urban Fantasy)

I've been plugging along on this series for a few years now and I'm glad I'm getting further, because I like Harry Dresden as a character. I think he's just smart-assy enough to make me giggle. Sometimes his puns have my eyes rolling though....

Once again, because this is book 9 in the series I'm going to try and review this without spoiling anything for anyone who wishes to read the series.

In this volume of the Dresden Files, Harry Dresden, Wizard, is investigating the deaths of some women who had some talent in magic. A little talent, but not enough talent to become full-fledged wizards (or witches I guess, lol). As Harry investigates, he finds that all signs are pointing towards Thomas Raith as the killer. Harry does all he can to clear Thomas' name, but discovers a larger plot involving the White Court of vampires (of which Thomas is the son of the king).

All and all I thought this was a good addition to the series. I do like the white vampires. I think that their ability, or their hunger is a better way of putting it, is a really interesting spin on the traditional vampire. I gave this book 3 stars because while I did enjoy it I thought it was a little slow in parts. I'm going to keep plugging along anyways.

Mercy Thompson

Patricia Briggs - Silver Borne
342 Pages - Ace
For the Color Coded Reading Challenge (Other Color)

I have since finished what there currently is of this series because I -could not put it down- and then this morning I realized that about a week ago I read a book that was totally relevant to the color coded challenge and didn't even realize it at the time because I was so engrossed, so here we are, lol.

This is the fifth book in the series and as such I'm going to try my best to not spoil anything for those who haven't read the series yet. Which is hard because this far in.. well pretty much everything is a spoiler, lol.

Mercedes Thompson is a walker. She can shapeshift into a coyote. She's also a mechanic specializing in Volkswagens. She is friends with.. and enemies with.. all kinds of creatures- fae, werewolves and vampires. Mercy gets a call from her friend Tad asking her to check in on Phin, the owner of a local bookstore and from whom she borrowed a very old fae book. She becomes targeted by the fae who want this book back, and she tries to protect her friends from those who would hurt them to get it.

This series owned my whole existence from book two until book seven, which I slammed in about a week. I had read Moon Called about two months ago and while I thought it was great, I had so much on my plate at that time that I didn't end up picking up the rest of them until last week. I've never read so many books in one sitting, lol. So, five stars, obviously.

Reading my husband's favorites now

Roger Zelazny - Nine Princes in Amber
175 Pages - Avon
For the Color Coded Reading Challenge (Yellow)

I was originally going to read Half of a Yellow Sun for this challenge (and hey, I still might because it sounds pretty good!) but upon thinking about other books that involved colors, I figured that this series has been on my shelf for such a long time and... well... It's one of my husband's favorites, and so I thought I'd finally give it a go.

Amber is the one true land among many shadows (including our own Earth). Corwin is one of nine princes of Amber, and he and his brothers all want the throne, but none more than Corwin and Eric.

Corwin wakes in a hospital in New York with amnesia, and slowly journeys back to Amber while running into his 8 brothers along the way and begins to remember who he really is.

Eric has decided he is going to be the king of Amber and so Corwin and some of his siblings (mostly Bleys and Random) help him try to defeat Eric to take the throne himself.

I went into this book with a pretty open mind, because I knew it was going to be pretty dated (which isn't usually bad in a fantasy novel but this one is partially modern day too) and I found it short but pretty entertaining and not at all as dated as I was expecting. Corwin is a bit of a smartass, and I liked how the modern day language partially followed him into a fantasy style setting. For example, one of Corwin's brothers asks him if he's going to go against his brother Eric and he responds with something along the lines of 'You bet your goddamned ass I am!'. So that was cool. I gave this one three stars, because I did like it but I didn't love it. I'm going to continue with the series and see how far I get =)

Real Vampires!

It's been a long time since I read a book about vampires that wasn't romantic in any way, and I have to say I did sort of miss it.

Beck Sherman - Revamp
439 Pages - Kindle
For the Sub-Genre Challenge - Supernatural Menace

I found this book for $1 on the kindle store and I thought it looked really interesting, plus the reviews for it were really good so I went ahead and bought it for later consumption. Luckily, I have a reading challenge that this one fit right into, lol. I used to read a lot of horror when I was younger and really into Stephen King, but I haven't read any for a long long time, so this was a nice change of pace.

Emma Spade is a college student that is about to travel to LA for her spring break vacation. She packs her bag and boards here plane and falls asleep en route. When she awakens the plane is empty, and so is the entire airport. Bags are just left haphazardly laying around, as if everyone just suddenly disappeared. She finds herself on the run though an empty Los Angeles and finds herself being chased by vampires. She gets picked up by another human survivor and brought to an old storage facility which they are using as home base while they come up with a plan to save the country from the vampires.

Two weeks earlier there was a mysterious blackout, and when the lights came back on, every major city in the United States was taken over by vampires. They have completely taken over, and are breeding and farming humans and slowly changing the country to suit their own fancies.

This book, despite being quite long, was really well written and I found myself totally unable to put it down. I loved the ending! Seven was my favorite character by far. She kicked total ass, and I loved how the author used flashbacks to give each of his characters a back story. I hope the author has more books coming, because he's got quite a talent for storytelling! 5 stars~

High Five!

Janet Evanovich - High Five 

317 pages - St. Martin's 

For the Sub-Genre Challenge - Amateur Detective

I really do enjoy these books now, but it took me up until about Four to Score to get into them. I wasn't a huge fan of One For the Money, but my mom insisted that I stick with it, because it gets better along the way. These novels, much like paranormal romance, for me, are truly a quick, cheap way to be entertained for a day or so. They're nice novels for reading in between bigger more in-depth novels!~

Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter. She works for her cousin, Vinnie Plum. Unfortunately, the only job he currently has to offer her is to bring in a small bond only worth $70. She decides to diversify and starts taking on odd jobs for her bounty hunter mentor Ranger. At the same time, her uncle Fred has gone missing, and her family has tasked her with finding out what happened to him. He's a perfectly normal old man who went missing in the middle of performing perfectly normal old man errands. Meanwhile, an old enemy is back on the streets, and following Stephanie around...

I enjoyed this one a lot, there was a lot going on in it, but I liked where it ended up. It wasn't too hard to figure out, in the end, but I found it entertaining nonetheless. Like I said, they are great novels for reading in between bigger novels, lol. I gave it 4.5 stars, because I read it all in one day. That means I must have liked it a lot, lol.