SUNDAY POST – 29th October, 2023 #Brainfluffbookblog #SundayPost

This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books they’ve read and share what they have got up to during the last week.

This week has been a struggle. I think it’s a culmination of the emotional whirlwind of seeing my son and his girlfriend for the first time in nearly four years, coping with a heavy cold, and dealing with all the stuff around publishing my first book since 2020. The last of those factors is probably the key one – getting to grips with all the Marketing tasks around publishing a new book has been really stressful. All sorts of niggling things have gone slightly wrong – the biggest being problems around formatting the paperback. I think I’ve got that sorted now. But the upshot is that I’ve ended back in bed for three days this week with the all-too familiar symptoms of dizziness, nausea and exhaustion.

Thankfully, it’s been half term week so I haven’t had to worry about the school run and I’m feeling better today, so I’m hoping this Long Covid relapse is now behind me. Oscar travelled to see his brother at uni on Friday and they had a lovely time together. His birthday is coming up, so Ethan bought him a present and treated him to a meal.

As you can see from the photos, the weather has now changed. We’ve had bouts of torrential rain for most of the week. I’m so sorry for the poor folks in the Isle of Wight coping with being flooded out, yet again. And last night a mini-tornado hit Littlehampton, which ripped the roof off a house not too far away. The pics show the rain coming down – and my Elaeagnus has flowered for the very first time since we planted it twelve years ago. I’m guessing that it’s usually too cold for the flowers to appear – whereas this year the plant is smothered with these tiny waxy flowers.

Books I’ve read this week.

AUDIOBOOK – Quiver of Cobras – Book 2 of The Fractured Fairy series by Helen Harper
Madrona might still not remember anything about her past, and she might be more of an evil villain than a fabulous super hero, but that doesn’t mean she can’t also be a super spy. With Rubus desperately searching for the magical dragon sphere which can return the faeries back to their homeland – and cause the apocalypse in this land – she doesn’t have much choice.

Someone with wit, intelligence and strength has to step up and save the world … and if that person happens to look super sexy while doing it then that’s just an added bonus.
This is a delight. Madrona’s OTT posturing and announcements of her own superhero status are at once funny and also poignant, given the real circumstances that we’re discovering. Harper’s characterisation is funny and yet also tugs at the heartstrings. I’m thoroughly caught up in the story, so broke my usual habit of spacing out series and read the next one immediately. 9/10

AUDIOBOOK – Skulk of Foxes – Book 3 of The Fractured Fairy series by Helen Harper
Madrona might still have amnesia and might yet prove to be a vicious murderess but that doesn’t mean she’s going to quit being a heroine just yet. However, while she might be prepared to go to any lengths to stop Rubus from triggering Armageddon, it’s equally possible that the world will end as a result of her actions too.

Manchester is experiencing terrifying surges in magic which are causing all sorts of chaotic events to occur. With a dragon, several werewolves and a host of faeries by her side, there is still a thread of hope.
Typically, I’d already read the City of Magic series without realising it was a spinoff series from this entertaining and funny urban fantasy offering. And only realised it about halfway through this book – I blame it on the brain fog! Madrona is definitely a Marmite character – you’ll either love her bits and think her hilarious. Or get increasingly fed up with her extravagant pronouncements and headlong recklessness. Usually, I fall into the latter camp, but for some reason I became ridiculously fond of this quirky character early on and even her dafter stunts didn’t frustrate me. I was genuinely sorry that this was the last book in this series, but was delighted Harper ends it so satisfactorily. 10/10

Earth Retrograde – Book 2 of the First Planet series by R.W.W. Greene
The United Nations is working to get everyone off Earth by the deadline – set by the planet’s true owners, the aliens known as the First. It’s a task made somewhat easier by a mysterious virus that rendered at least fifty percent of humanity unable to have children. Meanwhile, the USA and the USSR have set their sights on Mars, claiming half a planet each.

Brooklyn Lamontagne doesn’t remember saving the world eight years ago, but he’s been paying for it ever since. The conquered Earth governments don’t trust him, the Average Joe can’t make up their mind, but they all agree that Brooklyn should stay in space. Now, he’s just about covering his bills with junk-food runs to Venus and transporting horny honeymooners to Tycho aboard his aging spaceship, the Victory.

When a pal asks for a ride to Mars, Brooklyn lands in a solar system’s worth of espionage, backroom alliances, ancient treasures and secret plots while encountering a navigation system that just wants to be loved…
This intriguing duology has a really smart, clever ending that also plays nicely with the title. Review to follow.

My Cousin Skinny – Book 5 of the Jersey Girl Legal Mystery series by E.J. Copperman
An uncomfortable weekend awaits LA family lawyer Sandy Moss when she makes her way to her hometown in New Jersey for the wedding of her cousin Stephanie, sweetly nicknamed Skinny. Uncomfortable, because Sandy is not really looking forward to seeing her family, but at least her boyfriend, Hollywood movie star Patrick McNabb, is by her side.

However, if Sandy thought a weekend with her criticising mother and aggravating sister was bad, she definitely wasn’t prepared for the rehearsal event at the wedding venue! When Skinny enters the room, all eyes are on her and her beautiful party dress . . . covered in blood, with a knife in her hand.

Skinny says she didn’t do it. But with dozens of wedding guests witnessing her dramatic entrance, the question of who killed the corpse in the kitchen seems an easy one to answer – and an equally easy court case to lose.
I’ve become a solid fan of Sandy’s dry wit and watching her negotiate her prickly relations provided a highly entertaining backdrop to a nicely twisty murder mystery. Review to follow.

AUDIOBOOK – Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells
Every year in the great Temple City of Duvalpore, the image of the Wheel of the Infinite must be painstakingly remade to ensure another year of peace and harmony for the Celestial Empire. Every hundred years the sacred rite takes on added significance. For it is then that the very fabric of the world must be rewoven. Linked by the mystic energies of the Infinite, the Wheel and world are one. Should the holy image be marred, the world will suffer a similar injury. But a black storm is spreading across the Wheel. Every night the Voices of the Ancestors-the Wheel’s constructors and caretakers-brush the darkness away and repair the damage with brightly colored sands and potent magic. Each morning the storm reappears, bigger and darker than before, unraveling the beautiful and orderly patterns.

With chaos in the wind, a woman with a shadowy past has returned to Duvalpore. A murderer and traitor-an exile disgraced, hated, and feared, and haunted by her own guilty conscience – Maskelle has been summoned back to help put the world right.
I absolutely loved Maskelle – and found the first four-fifths of this one stunningly good. While the final fifth isn’t bad, I felt the final act was not quite up there with the rest of the book. Which is why this one hasn’t received a ten from me. But it was mightily close and is certainly worth reading or listening to. 9/10

My posts last week:

Can’t-Wait Wednesday featuring Bookshops and Bonedust – Prequel to the Legends and Latte series by Travis Baldree

Sunday Post – 22nd October 2023

Hope you, too, had some brilliant books to tuck into and wishing you all a happy, healthy week😊.