I saw this tag by Rae at PowerfulWomenReaders, on The Mid-Year Freakout Book Tag and couldn’t resist…
The Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2017
Really? I’m supposed to pick JUST ONE out of allll the fabulous reads I’ve had? Fine! But this is a CRUEL question!
After Atlas – Book 2 in the Planetfall series by Emma Newman
Govcorp detective Carlos Moreno was only a baby when Atlas left Earth to seek truth among the stars. But in that moment, the course of Carlos’s entire life changed. Atlas is what took his mother away; what made his father lose hope; what led Alejandro Casales, leader of the religious cult known as the Circle, to his door. And now, on the eve of the fortieth anniversary of Atlas’s departure, it’s got something to do why Casales was found dead in his hotel room—and why Carlos is the man in charge of the investigation.
I loved the first book, but this one… it blew me away. Carlos is such a strong protagonist and a particular twist in this story had me gripped to the extent that I actually yelled. As for that ending – oh my goodness! No wonder it is a nominee for the Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Your Favourite Sequel So Far
I have two – and no… I simply CANNOT decide between them.
A Tyranny of Queens – Book 2 of the Manifold Worlds series by Foz Meadows
Saffron Coulter has returned from the fantasy kingdom of Kena. Threatened with a stay in psychiatric care, Saffron has to make a choice: to forget about Kena and fit back into the life she’s outgrown, or pit herself against everything she’s ever known and everyone she loves.
This classy portal fantasy won’t leave me alone, with the strong story and interesting characters.
Emperor of the Fireflies – Book 2 of the Tide Dragons series by Sarah Ash
Kai and Masao, once enemies, are now condemned to the sea by the Tide Dragons Sacrifice. If Hotaru, the new emperor, is unable to summon the Tide Dragons of Ebb and Flood at the Autumn Moon Festival, he will forfeit the right to rule Cipangu. The two Sacrifices face a desperate race against time to free themselves from this ancient curse before Hotaru binds them with forbidden magic to obey his will – forever.
I loved this beautiful fantasy duology with its strong Japanese influence and fascinating range of characters. If you are looking for a quality fantasy with a different twist, then this comes highly recommended.
A New Release That You Haven’t Read But You Really Want To
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he’s been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life. Always changing his identity to stay alive, Tom has the perfect cover – working as a history teacher at a London comprehensive. Here he can teach the kids about wars and witch hunts as if he’d never witnessed them first-hand. He can try and tame the past that is fast catching up with him. The only thing Tom mustn’t do is fall in love.
I love the sound of this one. The good news is that I have a Netgalley arc, so it is one I am going to enjoy reading next month – I love my life…
Most Anticipated Release of the Second Half of the Year
The Stargazer’s Embassy by Eleanor Lerman
The Stargazer’s Embassy explores the frightening phenomenon of alien abduction from a different point of view: in this story, it is the aliens who seem fearful of Julia Glazer, the woman they are desperately trying to make contact with. Violent and despairing after the murder of the one person she loved, a psychiatrist who was studying abductees, Julia continues to rebuff the aliens until her relationships with others who have met “the things,” as she calls them, including a tattoo artist, a strange man who can take photographs with the power of his mind, and an abductee locked up in a mental hospital, force Julia deeper into direct alien contact and a confrontation about what death means to humans and aliens alike.
I love the sound of this one! So, rightly or wrong, I am really, really looking forward to reading it.
Your Biggest Disappointment
I don’t finish books I dislike, so there’s nothing that’s a disappointment in my reading list so far this year. I have a policy that if I don’t complete a book, then I’m not qualified to discuss it.
Your Biggest Surprise
The Forever Court – Book 2 of the Knights of the Borrowed Dark series by Dave Rudden
Life is returning to normal for Denizen Hardwick. Well, the new normal, where he has to battle monsters in quiet Dublin bookshops and constantly struggle to contain the new powers he has been given by Mercy, the daughter of the Endless King. But Denizen may need those powers sooner than he thinks – not only are the Tenebrous stirring again but the Order of the Borrowed Dark face a new threat from much closer to home…
I had thoroughly enjoyed Knights of the Borrowed Dark – a surprisingly gritty and creepy fantasy adventure, but this sequel took the writing to a new, punchy level. Sharp, dryly funny and also full of violence, this one pinged off the page and into my inscape. Marvellous stuff…
Favourite New to You or Debut Author
The Winter Tide – Book 1 of the Innsmouth Legacy by Ruthanna Emrys
After attacking Devil’s Reef in 1928, the U.S. Government rounded up the people of Innsmouth and took them to the desert, far from their ocean, their Deep One ancestors, and their sleeping god Cthulhu. Only Aphra and Caleb Marsh survived the camps, and they emerged without a past or a future. The government that stole Aphra’s life now needs her help. FBI agent Ron Spector believes that Communist spies have stolen dangerous magical secrets from Miskatonic University, secrets that could turn the Cold War hot in an instant, and hasten the end of the human race.
This wonderful thriller set in H.P. Lovecraft’s world is amazingly good – I loved it. Full of atmosphere, Aphra is a wonderful protagonist.
My New Fictional Crush
It has to be poor Fitz from Assassin’s Fate the final book in Robin Hobb’s Fitz and Fool trilogy. Now he has reached a certain age and still grieving for his dead wife, I can admire him safely from afar – I am, after all, a happily married grandmother…
New Favourite Character
My favourite character is Dina Demille, who is the protagonist in Ilona Andrews’ charming and occasionally hilarious urban fantasy series who we first meet in Clean Sweep – Book 1 of the Innkeeper Chronicles. She is innkeeper to an enchanted inn, providing rest and refreshment to the magically talented. Dina is feisty and resourceful, but has a constant sadness that wears at her soul – her parents are missing, along with the inn where she grew up.
A Book That Made You Cry
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The monster showed up after midnight. As they do. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming… This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth.
Yes… this one made me weep. And that doesn’t happen all that often these days. But the ending was such a heartbreak, yet with also a sliver of hope that poor Conor would finally be free from the terrible dread that had consumed him. As for that monster – it was brilliant…
A Book That Made You Happy
A Hero’s Guide to Deadly Dragons – Book 6 of the How To Train Your Dragon series by Cressida Cowell
It’s Hiccup’s birthday, but that’s not going to keep him from getting into trouble. To save his dragon, 
Toothless, from being banished, Hiccup must sneak into the Meathead Public Library and steal the Viking’s most sacred book. But the Vikings see books as a dangerous influence, and keep them locked up and under heavy guard. To save his friend, Hiccup must brave the Hairy Scary Librarian and his dreadful army of Meathead Warriors and face off against the formidable Driller-Dragons. Will he make it out and live to see his next birthday?
It’s just the loveliest feeling… sharing a funny book with a grandchild and relishing his sniggers and hiccupping splutters of delight at the snarky humour, rude names and broad-humoured illustrations. If I could bottle that feeling, I would save it up for when I’m an old lady and my grandchildren are grown and gone…
Your Favourite Book to Movie Adaptation You’ve Seen This Year
I haven’t.
Favourite Book Post You’ve Published This Year
This has to be my monthly progress report on how I’m doing with my blogging, reading and writing targets for the year, Shoot for the Moon – March Roundup, when I was finally allowed to announce my publishing deal for Netted, my post-apocalyptic science fiction family adventure set in Maine with Kristell Ink Publishing.
The Most Beautiful Book You’ve Bought/Received This Year
Miranda and Caliban by Jacqueline Carey
Miranda is a lonely child. For as long as she can remember, she and her father have lived in isolation in the abandoned Moorish palace. There are chickens and goats, and a terrible wailing spirit trapped in a pine tree, but the elusive wild boy who spies on her from the crumbling walls and leaves gifts on their doorstep is the isle’s only other human inhabitant. There are other memories, too: vague, dream-like memories of another time and another place. There are questions that Miranda dare not ask her stern and controlling father, who guards his secrets with zealous care: Who am I? Where did I come from?
The wild boy Caliban is a lonely child, too; an orphan left to fend for himself at an early age, all language lost to him. When Caliban is summoned and bound into captivity by Miranda’s father as part of a grand experiment, he rages against his confinement; and yet he hungers for kindness and love.
This is a beautiful tale – shot through with lovely imagery and tinged with darkness. If you like retellings with some serious heft and respect for the original storyteller, then this comes very highly recommended.
And that’s my responses to the questions – though as I have now read 84 books so far this year, it was something of a struggle to actually choose. In the meantime, if you have looked at the questions and would like to share your reading highs and lows of 2017 to date – please join in.
Brainfluff 