Review: Blaze of Memory

Blaze of Memory by Nalini Singh
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My least favorite of the series so far. Dev wasn't all that likeable and Katya was up and down with me. But all in all, still a decent book.

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Review: The Mortal Word

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for offering me an advanced copy in exchange for nothing more than an honest review.

If you haven't picked up The Invisible Library, stop reading RIGHT NOW and go pick it up. It's a clever world of time-travel-adjacent adventures with dragons and fae and even a magic language of sorts. It's like Doctor Who meets The Chronicles of St. Mary's, and it's a BLAST to read. So go pick it up. This one is book five, so reading any more now will just spoil all your fun.

Okay, to business. After the crazy rogue Librarian has caused so much trouble, the two major powers in all the universes are set to make a peace treaty, and of course, this means things will NOT go smoothly. Even more, Vale has been called to the world where negotiations are being held to run an investigation of the murder of a high profile member of one side of the treaty. Of course, Irene is to go as the Librarian representative on the team.

For the first time, we get LOTS of dragons, LOTS of Fae, and LOTS of Librarians, all in one story. Multiple major players on every side make this a mystery of Agatha Christie style - lots of potential suspects, and lots of tangled webs woven that need to be un-spaghettied. Yes, I realize that's not a real word. Too bad.

My biggest gripe is that Vale and Silver are yet again relegated to minor characters. I really want them to have the chance to play a key role, but they almost felt like filler in this one yet again, especially since Irene takes over the investigation almost immediately upon arrival. The story seems to revolve around Irene and Kai -- which is great, as they're both fantastic characters, but I think Vale and Silver both have so much potential and are wasted as plot points.

Overall though, this one is a fun romp through the Paris of yesteryear, with heavy doses of Fae chaos and dragon order and Librarian wit, so 4 out of 5 stars.

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Review: Lies Sleeping

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another strong installment in the Rivers of London series. The battles with the dark side are becoming more and more frequent, now that we know the Faceless Man and see more of his plans. But this one takes some even twistier twists and turnier turns and ends up in a place I didn't really expect.

I had grown tired of this series after book 4, and took a VERY long break. In fact, I hadn't entirely planned on ever picking it back up again. Berkley offered me an ARC of this book in their newsletter, which I one-clicked before I thought... and I'm glad I made that impulsive decision. It made me pick up books five and six (both of which were great installments and fixed some of the issues I had with book four that made me set the series down) to get to this one and be caught up.

It's not and never will be my favorite series, but I can now say again that I do very much enjoy it. I'll definitely pick up the next one to see what's happening in the world of Peter Grant and the Folly.

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