The Malazan Empire
simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter
infighting, and bloody confrontations. Even the imperial legions, long
inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's
rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
For
Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for
Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of
the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But
Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, yet holds out. It is
to this ancient citadel that Laseen turns her predatory gaze.
But
it would appear that the Empire is not alone in this great game.
Sinister, shadowbound forces are gathering as the gods themselves
prepare to play their hand.... @goodreads
OMG! Note: I will be ordering the rest of this series at the end of the month!
I loved this book soooo much!!
There are things I don't understand but I have some lovely Goodreads friends I can go to if I need answers.
Also, this is a series I will be able to read over and over and find new tidbits! And, I did understand the majority of it 😄
Ye gods! I was a nervous wreck at the end because I thought someone might meet their true
death. < -- I think I got that from Tru Blood but I digress. Because
in this book, not a lot of things stay truly dead! They come back or
get taken over or some such thing. It's crazyyyyy! I love it 😄
There
was so much going on in the book but I kept up with most of it! Yay!
And I loved so many characters. Paran, Sorry, Tattersail, Lorn, Toc ...
and not all of them are good or are they? I felt Sorry for Sorry, she
was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the beginning.
Then someone I really liked, died by stupidity but they were brought back. I thought, yay, you idiot!
BUT!
I'm
totally in love with Anomander Rake! I can't help myself and omg! I
will except you his description and as he's supposed to be pitch black,
the image I found online like that made him look like a prune!! I liked
the million other images of him, one being from Tor.
Anomander Rake's skin was jet-black, befitting Gothos'
descriptions, but his mane flowed silver. He stood close to seven feet
tall. His features were sharp, as if cut from onyx, a slight upward tilt
to the large vertical-pupiled eyes.
A two-handed sword was
strapped to Rake's broad back, its silver dragonskull pommel and archaic
crosshilt jutting from a wooden scabbard fully six and a half feet
long. From the weapon bled power, staining the air like black ink in a
pool of water.
And he's also something else!!! Omg! Im shutting up now!
This
book is one of the best epics I have read yet. I had no idea! I kept
watching soooo many of my Goodreads friends reading this series and I
finally took the plunge! I could have started this long ago but I guess
now was my time 😊
I recommend to all fantasy lovers!
Happy Reading!
Mel ❤️
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1299040057
"There, in the middle of
the broad, bright high-road—there, as if it had that moment sprung out
of the earth or dropped from the heaven—stood the figure of a solitary
Woman, dressed from head to foot in white garments."
Thus young
Walter Hartright first meets the mysterious woman in white in what soon
became one of the most popular novels of the nineteenth century.
Secrets, mistaken identities, surprise revelations, amnesia, locked
rooms and locked asylums, and an unorthodox villain made this mystery
thriller an instant success when it first appeared in 1860, and it has
continued to enthrall readers ever since. From the hero's foreboding
before his arrival at Limmeridge House to the nefarious plot concerning
the beautiful Laura, the breathtaking tension of Collins's narrative
created a new literary genre of suspense fiction, which profoundly
shaped the course of English popular writing.
Collins’s other
great mystery, 'The Moonstone', has been called the finest detective
story ever written, but it was this work that so gripped the imagination
of the world that Wilkie Collins had his own tombstone inscribed:
"Author of The Woman in White." @goodreads
"Why are we to stop her, sir? What has she done?"
"Done! She has escaped from my Asylum. Don't forget: a woman in white. Drive on."
I loved, loved, loved the first bits of the book!
Oh yeah, there will be SPOILERS so stop right there!
.
.
.
I
loved Walter! I thought he was going to be in the whole book and that's
where I started to get a might irritated. Anyhoo, so Walter gets a job
instructing Miss Laura Fairlie and Miss Halcombe. I might mention that
his employer, Mr. Fairlie, was a complete twat!
Oh well duh, on
the road to his destination, Walter meets the woman in white. She's
scared out of her wits but Walter does his best to calm her and they
walk together.
We don't see much of the woman in white in the book. She puts in an appearance here and there.
So
Walter gets to his place of employment where he is to live and teach
the girls and other odd bits. And of course, he falls in love with the
delicate Miss Fairlie. BUT. She is to be married to this twat named Sir
Percival Glyde. Miss Halcombe tries to get her to end the engagement
when they get an ominous letter from the woman in white warning about
him. And then their solicitor is unhappy with the arrangement when said
hubby to be refuses for Miss Fairlie's (Laura) money to be willed to
Marian (Miss Halcombe) and friends. And her twat father doesn't care. I
swear I wanted to smack the hell out of people. And alas, she marries
the jerk! Are you serious right now? You know he's going to kill you
honey if you don't sign it over.
In the meantime, Walter was
sent away by Marian which sucked. Laura had fallen in love with him too
but went on with the other marriage. She was an idiot too. But I liked
how it turned out in the end so there!
So here we go with the
ladies at Laura's new home with a couple of other twats hanging around.
The count and his wife. They needed a bullet to the head too.
We
have a few more scenes with the woman in white, some more people needed
smacking, a death, Walter back in the picture to take care of the
twats, take care of the ladies, another death and some babies 😄
I enjoyed the book even though I thought it could be shorter.
Happy Reading!
Mel ❤️
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1494824502
How do you hold on to hope
when you don't get the ending
you asked for?
When
Katie Davis Majors moved to Uganda, accidentally founded a booming
organization, and later became the mother of thirteen girls through the
miracle of adoption, she determined to weave her life together with the
people she desired to serve. But joy often gave way to sorrow as she
invested her heart fully in walking alongside people in the grip of
poverty, addiction, desperation, and disease.
After unexpected tragedy shook her family, for the first time Katie began to wonder, Is God really good? Does He really love us? When she turned to Him with her questions, God spoke truth to her heart and drew her even deeper into relationship with Him.
Daring to Hope
is an invitation to cling to the God of the impossible--the God who
whispers His love to us in the quiet, in the mundane, when our prayers
are not answered the way we want or the miracle doesn't come. It's about
a mother discovering the extraordinary strength it takes to be
ordinary. It's about choosing faith no matter the circumstance and about
encountering God's goodness in the least expected places.
Though
your heartaches and dreams may take a different shape, you will find
your own questions echoed in these pages. You'll be reminded of the
gifts of joy in the midst of sorrow. And you'll hear God's whisper: Hold on to hope. I will meet you here.
@goodreads
Excerpt :
My kitchen is painted yellow. Because yellow is the color of sunshine and of joy and because yellow is my favorite.
It's never quite as clean as I want it to be in there. As I stand in the after-bedtime quiet, my eyes follow a trail of red-dirt footprints across this floor that is supposed to be white, and tears of gratitude begin to well. My mind fills with beloved memories, so many memories that are held here.
End Excerpt :
I really enjoyed Katie's first book: Kisses From Katie. It was very uplifting and it filled my heart with joy.
This book is wonderful as well, I just didn't like it as much as the first book.
There are stories of her children growing up, children being taken from her, friends being taken by aids while leaving their children behind, her marriage and the birth of her own baby.
Through it all, Katie prays to God and never lets her faith waver.
It brought a tear to my eye when one of her daughters (14 years-old) asked to do the afterward in the book. It was bittersweet.
Happy Reading!
Mel ♥
For the millions who
log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The
obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe,
some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit.
Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a
bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But
the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been
easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks
into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only
to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight
sensation.
Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked
when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young
billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on
the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security
problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose,
Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune
that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a
sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire. @goodreads
I
love Marie Lu, but I had a hard time with this book in the beginning. I
felt like I wasn't really going to get into this book. I have to say it
took almost until the end to really enjoy it. I'm not sure if it was my
mood, that I wasn't really ready for a gaming book or what. Either way,
I did enjoy it after I kept going.
What I want to know now, is that ending? What is going to happen in the next book? I mean who do you trust now?
It was pretty obvious to me right up front who the hacker in Warcross was that wanted to take out the creator, Hideo Tanka.
Emika
Chen is a bounty hunter and a hacker. She hacked into the Warcross game
and everyone saw her. Ooops. You put on these like sunglasses and get
into the game and she jumped right into a tournament and stopped the
game. Well, things obviously change after that because Hideo has sent
for her.
Hideo pays off Emika's debts and hires her to find out
who is hacking into this game. There is a killer among us. He puts her
in the game as a player and it's all go from there.
So the
supposed assassin came as no surprise but the things he said did. . . .
Now I have to wait until the next freaking book to find out if it's all
real or just another game . . . .
. . . .
Happy Reading!
Mel ♥
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2057469411
Merricat Blackwood
lives on the family estate with her sister Constance and her Uncle
Julian. Not long ago there were seven Blackwoods—until a fatal dose of
arsenic found its way into the sugar bowl one terrible night. Acquitted
of the murders, Constance has returned home, where Merricat protects her
from the curiosity and hostility of the villagers. Their days pass in
happy isolation until cousin Charles appears. Only Merricat can see the
danger, and she must act swiftly to keep Constance from his grasp. @goodreads
You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine. Is
it still in use? You are wondering; has it been cleaned? You may very
well ask; was it thoroughly washed?
This book is looney tune. I'm not even sure about some things that happened. 
One
of my GR friends needs to message me so we can discuss some things on
this book. (Of course no one will read this so it's a mute point)
So
Constance, Merricat, and Uncle Julian live in the home together with
all of their land enclosed. The rest of the family were killed.
Merricat
is the only one that leaves to get groceries and books in town where
she is picked on by everyone. I loved her macabre thoughts of all the
said people being dead. She had a lot of different macabre thoughts
through-out the book.
The book was just so strange and I enjoyed that, even though it made me feel crazier than I am!
They
had some jerk uncle that showed up trying to find their fortune. I was
hoping he was going to meet a macabre end himself. But alas, he did not.
And I'm a bit confused at the ending. Hopefully someone can help me out. Either way, I enjoyed the book Mel ❤️
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2142698333
In this spectacular
father-son collaboration, Stephen King and Owen King tell the highest of
high-stakes stories: what might happen if women disappeared from the
world of men?
In a future so real and near it might be now,
something happens when women go to sleep; they become shrouded in a
cocoon-like gauze. If they are awakened, if the gauze wrapping their
bodies is disturbed or violated, the women become feral and
spectacularly violent; and while they sleep they go to another place.
The men of our world are abandoned, left to their increasingly primal
devices. One woman, however, the mysterious Evie, is immune to the
blessing or curse of the sleeping disease. Is Evie a medical anomaly to
be studied, or is she a demon who must be slain? Set in a small
Appalachian town whose primary employer is a women’s prison, Sleeping Beauties is wildly provocative and gloriously absorbing.@goodreads
I lov
ed the tree and animals and that's all I'm saying! 
There
is a reference to a dead cat and a Mercedes. I might have missed some
more but I caught those two and King fans will know where those
references come from =)
There are a lot of characters in this
book and I loved most of them! Evie was freaking awesome! I can't even
think of all of them because I didn't make any notes! I was so
enthralled every time I picked up this book to read on it that I didn't
write anything down. So, I'm just going to ramble a bit and no spoilers.
Nothing major at any rate!
One day something happens, I'm not
going to say what but there is a force that comes into our presence.
It's only here for good, but sometimes things just happen.
Okay, so a lot of the book is centered around some ladies in prison, the police department and the nuts in the town.
And
one day, across the globe, women start going to sleep and their faces
become cocooned. And if you decide to try to remove this cocoon, it will
not be a good day for you my friend. Not a good day at all. I must say,
I did enjoy what happened to a rapist and his Peter Pan when he thought
he could rape a woman. I knew that was going to happen, the attempted
rape that is. Oh the joy if that could happen to all rapists. But I
digress.
So after the female gets her rage on, she then cocoons
back up and is out like a light. But why is all of this happening? Let
give you a hint . . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
READ THE BOOK! =D
It's
a really freaking awesome book. I could feel Stephen King all over this
even though I know Owen was involved as well. I think they made a
fan-freaking-tastic book. It's so damn bizarre and what's why I love it.
Kudo's to the King's < -- heh
Anyhoo, I'm leaving you with a little excerpt.
"Evie?" Lila moves around in a circle, searching--woods,
ground, grass, air, milky sunshine--but there's no one. "Evie, are you
there?"
She yearns for a signal, any kind of signal.
A moth flutters from the branch of the old oak tree and settles on her hand.
Happy Reading!
Mel ♥
GOODREADS REVIEW:
Bone white. Blood red. Along this path, you’ll soon be dead.
Following
the horrifying revelation of Jack the Ripper’s true identity, Audrey
Rose Wadsworth flees her home in Victorian London to enroll as the only
female student in Europe’s most prestigious forensics school. But it’s
impossible to find peace in the dark, unsettling Romanian castle that
houses the school—and was also once home to the depraved Vlad the
Impaler, otherwise known as Prince Dracula.
When a series of
troubling deaths brings whispers of Vlad’s bloodthirsty return from the
grave, Audrey Rose and her sharp-witted companion, Thomas Cresswell,
must unravel the cryptic clues that will lead them to the shadowlike
killer—living or dead. @goodreads
I have always wanted to travel to Romania so it was fun to go with Audrey and Thomas =)
Audrey and Thomas are going to study at a medical school inside of Bran Castle. Oh what joy =)
But
along the way, while riding on the Orient Express, they find a body
outside of Audrey's compartment with a stake through his heart! And thus
it begins....
There are some wonderful new friends they meet at the school and some not so nice.
AND
more
bodies show up. What is happening to these people? The towns people
think Vlad has come back! But I know the real story =) It's a little
cray, but not too much. There were some little tidbits of things that I
enjoyed finding out though.
Also, Thomas finds some interesting things out about his family tree.
This
was so much fun! I could just picture every little thing going on and
the creepy atmosphere. Oh the joy! Well, accept when they were doing
autopsies. Luckily this time around I wasn't snacking. I learned my
lesson in the first book!
The next case will take place somewhere in America! I wonder what they are going to do next? I can't wait!
Happy Reading!
Mel ♥
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2126732140
