Weekly Reading Round-Up

Don’t you love it when you rediscover something you’ve forgotten about and find that it’s even better than you remember?

That happened to me this week with Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Maggie Quinn series. I like to describe them to people as supernatural YA Vicky Bliss. The heroine’s tart tone reminds me a great deal of vintage Elizabeth Peters. Another good description is “the anti-Twilight”.

The first book is Prom Dates from Hell, the second (my favorite) is Hell Week, and the third is Highway to Hell.

Since fondly remembered re-reads were going so well for me, next up I have Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion.

Based on the outpouring of recommendations on this site, I made a detour to B&N the other day and purchased… yes, A Discovery of Witches. But I’m not allowed to read it until I get some serious writing done.

What have you been reading?

10 Comments

  1. jeffrey on October 5, 2012 at 8:52 am

    I’m reading an advance copy of Victori Connelly’s soon-to-be-released novella Christmas With Mr. Darcy. A couple of chapters in, I was thrilled to find the two heroines of her final novel of The Austen Addict’s Trilogy: Mr. Darcy Forever. Unlike some Austen fan fiction that pays lip service to Miss Austen, Ms Connelly submerges the reader in all things Austen. I love her quaint English style and find her works eminently readable and entertaining. A review of this will be forthcoming on http://www.austenprose.com

  2. jeffrey on October 5, 2012 at 8:54 am

    I’m reading an advance copy of Victoria Connelly’s soon-to-be-released novella Christmas With Mr. Darcy. A couple of chapters in, I was thrilled to find Sarah and Mia, the two heroines of her final novel of The Austen Addict’s Trilogy: Mr. Darcy Forever. Unlike some Austen fan fiction that pays mere lip service to Miss Austen, Ms Connelly submerges the reader in all things Austen. I love her quaint English style and find her works eminently readable and entertaining. A review of this will be forthcoming on http://www.austenprose.com

  3. jeffrey on October 5, 2012 at 8:55 am

    Nuts! I apologize for the duplicate post!

  4. CĂ©line on October 5, 2012 at 9:04 am

    I’m reading Shadow of Night, the follow-up to A discovery of witches and am absolutely loving it! I love the details, the characters, I’m thouroughly enjoying it! Everything I loved in the first installment, I find in this one!
    (I’m only at the beginning, though – but I’m sure I’m going to love it all the way!)
    I do so hope that you’re going to like A Discovery of Witches, Lauren!

    Oh and there was a book I read at the beginning of the week. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine sent me a few books and among them, there was The Cinderella solution by Cathy Yardley. I was expecting some kind of short Harlequin book, but it was in reality a nice and compelling friends-to-lovers story that got me hooked till the end (and till far too late in the night)! I love it when books surprise you like that! 🙂

  5. Carly on October 5, 2012 at 11:36 am

    The Garden Intrigue (finally! It took this long to be able to get it from my library)

    Murphy’s Law by Rhys Bowen. I actually enjoyed it even more than her Royal Spyness mysteries. Fantastic look at turn of the century New York.

    Sons of the Wolf (also finally!) I loved the suspense/twist at the end, although I was surprised that there didn’t turn out to be werewolves involved.

  6. Alice on October 5, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett. Loved “Bel Canto” and this was just as good. You will love “Discovery of Witches” Lauren but I found the sequel to be rather long and dry.

  7. Elizabeth (aka Miss Eliza) on October 5, 2012 at 4:44 pm

    I finished 666 Charing Cross Road, the demon hunting parody of 64, Charing Cross Road, which I enjoyed, but not as much as The Ninnies, another Paul Magrs book I picked up. It’s like a darker version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

    I then read the Dr Who short novella that tied into the mid-season finale, Melody Malone and The Angel’s kiss, which was a fun read if you like River Song (which I very much do!) Now I’m reading Wilkie Collins’ The Frozen Deep, which I’m really enjoying! Which is odd, because I usually hate anything with arctic expeditions…

  8. Freda on October 5, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    Love love love A Discovery of Witches as well as the sequel, Shadow of Night. Both wonderful, captivating novels with the right mix of mystery, romance, and wit.

  9. Yvette R on October 5, 2012 at 11:42 pm

    “Unnatural Habits” by Kerry Greenwood – It is the newest Phryne Fisher book. She is a private detective in 1928-29 Melbourne, Australia. I recommend the entire series very highly! (Twenty books so far, and I have raved about them here before.) There’s a catch, though. It is only available in audio right now. Very unusually, the audio version has come out some months ahead of the text version. If your not big on audiobooks, you might consider taking a chance. They are all read by Stephanie Daniels, and she is a wonderful audio-reader/narrator.

    Also, I want to mention a book that I came across on Kindle a while back by a pretty new author, Miranda Davies (she might be only in e-book format, Im not sure…) The book is “The Duke’s Tatoo: A Regency Romance of Love and Revenge, Though Not In That Order” … yes, that whole thing really is the title. I saw that title, and just had to read the synopsys. (I’m not going to describe it, you really have to check it out yourself.) After that I was hooked. It was highly original, very funny, and the romance was wonderful.

  10. Emily on October 8, 2012 at 10:27 am

    I just finished Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson, which is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I want to give a copy to everyone I know and say, “Drop everything and read this, right now!”

    And then I found some cute British YA romances called Wuthering Hearts and Jane Airhead at the library that I’m enjoying. They’re VERY fluffy but a lot of fun.

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