Friday Reads: August 31, 2018

I am still sick! While this means I have a miserable cough and sniffles there is a silver
lining. I have
plenty of time to read great books when I am not working and have even made progress on the two novels I am currently writing (one is a YA contemporary dealing with a closeted teen and the other is my bloody elf fantasy book).

Update on my Goodreads reading goal for the year: I have officially passed the 35 book goal with 76  books read! That brings my August count to 9 books.

I ended up being able to finish both books from my last Friday Reads post (which you can check out here) as well as one more of the four that I have been desperately trying to finish in the past three months. A spoiler for my upcoming August wrap-up, my opinions on Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice definitely do not conform to the majority of reviews on Goodreads. That leaves me with still needing to complete Winter and The Queens of Innis Lear from the four books that I had mentioned last week.

At the beginning of this week I picked up the September pick for the Australian book club The Name of the Book run by several Australian BookTubers as well as the fourth book in Jennifer L. Armentrout's Lux series that I began three years ago.

Aside from hopefully writing a few more pages and working, I will be reading the two books mentioned above this Friday! Check out below for the details on both and check back at the beginning of September for my August wrap up post.

Title: City of Lies

Author: Sam Hawke
Page Count: 559
Progress: 141
Format Read: Paperback
Genre: Fantasy
Keywords: Poisoners, Siege, Family
Kid Appropriate: Teen and older

Synopsis from Goodreads:

I was seven years old the first time my uncle poisoned me...

Outwardly, Jovan is the lifelong friend of the Chancellor’s charming, irresponsible Heir. Quiet. Forgettable. In secret, he's a master of poisons and chemicals, trained to protect the Chancellor’s family from treachery. When the Chancellor succumbs to an unknown poison and an army lays siege to the city, Jovan and his sister Kalina must protect the Heir and save their city-state.

But treachery lurks in every corner, and the ancient spirits of the land are rising...and angry.

My thoughts so far:

This book is Sam Hawke's debut novel and so far I would say that it is a solid beginning to a new fantasy series. At a quarter of the way through this one I cannot quite tell where it is going to go but the pacing has definitely picked up.

Be warned if you do pick this one up that the first two chapters are long and very slow. They are necessary for setting up the rest of the book but they dragged for sure. Once you get to the end of the second chapter/the beginning of the third the tempo picks up and there is more action to keep your interest.

The events that occur at this point do give me similar feelings to R.F Kuang's The Poppy War. Certainly don't go in expecting it to be the same but something about the writing style rings similar to me. And of course because of the theme of poison I am reminded in bits of Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.

Each chapter switches perspectives between the brother, Jovan, and the sister, Kalina. While the two sound similar and are not easily distinguished from one another I do find myself preferring Kalina's chapters.

Hopefully this continues to be a strong read! I expect to finish it next week.

Title: Origin

Author: Jennifer L. Armentrout
Page Count: 418
Progress: 105
Format Read: Kindle 
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Keywords: Love, Twilight, Aliens
Kid Appropriate: Teen

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Daemon will do anything to get Katy back.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, he’s facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure.

All Katy can do is survive.

Surrounded by enemies, the only way she can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don’t seem entirely crazy, but the group’s goals are frightening and the truths they speak even more disturbing. Who are the real bad guys? Daedalus? Mankind? Or the Luxen?

Together, they can face anything.

But the most dangerous foe has been there all along, and when the truths are exposed and the lies come crumbling down, which side will Daemon and Katy be standing on?

And will they even be together?

My thoughts so far:

This is exactly what I have come to expect from Jennifer L. Armentrout: fun, sassy, steamy, and full of angst. If you're looking for a lighthearted, angst filled YA book that you'll just be able to fly through I highly recommend her books. My favorites are the Lux series and the Wicked trilogy.