Book buy roundup

Right then, yet another book round-uppie thingie:

• Demon Hunts, by mizkit (C.E. Murphy), in both print AND ebook because Kit is just that awesome. Since this was two separate purchases, I will in fact be counting this book twice for tally purposes! Urban fantasy, book 5 of the Walker Papers.
• The Enchantment Emporium, by andpuff (Tanya Huff), now that it’s been released in paperback. I’m considering if I also want to buy it in ebook form since Huff is another author who warrants it for me, but as of this writing the ebook version is still showing up as $11.99 on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Whoever answers the @dawbooks account on Twitter says this was an error, so presumably that price will drop soon. Until then, I have the paperback anyway! Fantasy.
• Dead of Light, by desperance (Chaz Brenchley), in ebook form from here. This is one of his older novels, and by his own description, it was urban fantasy before there was really a term for it. Picked up because in general, his writing is awesome.
• The Necromancer’s Bones, by my fellow Telgar Weyr alum Deby Fredericks, the sequel to her first book, The Magister’s Mask. Fantasy. Watch this space for a marathon as I finally actually read The Magister’s Mask as well as this one!
• Too Many Princes, also by Deby Fredericks. Fantasy.

153 purchases thus far for the year.

Fictionwise is still trying very hard to remind me that it’s having that anniversary sale, and that this is the last weekend for it. I may or may not go ahead and get yuki_onna’s (Cat Valente)’s other two books in ebook form, since the print copies I have are trade size and I still don’t like carrying those around in my backpack. Must mull after I get bills paid!

I have a whole lot of interesting samples that I’ve yoinked off of B&N’s site, too, which may or may not become actual purchases in the near future. These include in no particular order: The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry, Darkborn by Alison Sinclair, Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (which is getting quite a bit of attention on Twitter), Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin, Moonshine by Alaya Johnson, The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, Song of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy, Stolen Fury by Elisabeth Naughton, Declare by Tim Powers (previously recommended), Territory by Emma Bull (also previously recommended), and last but not least, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

*whew* Can y’all tell I’m loving me that “grab a sample” feature of the Nook? Though it must be said that it’s also supremely dangerous, how easy it is to just go ahead and buy the book after you’ve read the sample. The effort I expend to not do so if I’m not suitably close to a paycheck is TITANIC, I tell you.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Book Log #41: Lion Heart, by Doranna Durgin

I liked Lion Heart, Doranna Durgin’s second paranormal romance featuring her Sentinels shapeshifters, a bit more than the first book–possibly just because I found the scenario that brought the lead characters together more fun this time around.

Joe Ryan is a Sentinel in exile, believed to have been involved with the death of his former partner. But troubling fluctations of power are happening on the mountain where he’s living, and so Lyn Maines is sent in to investigate them along with Joe. It doesn’t take her instincts long to decide that Joe is innocent, although her more rational brain must be dragged kicking and screaming to that conclusion, along with admitting her attraction to him. Of course, then they have to actually convince the other Sentinels, so that they can all band together to face the actual threat on the mountain.

Overall I found the insistence on Joe’s guilt, not only from Lyn but from the Sentinel power structure, kind of thin; there was a lot of “guilty until proven innocent” going on here, and what glimpses we got of the actual backstory involved didn’t let me come away with any real impression that Joe had bothered to do anything at all in his own defense. That however was my only real beef with the book.

Lyn winds up having decent reasons to be a bit more obsessive than other Sentinels might have been in her investigation of Joe, and I particularly liked that her animal form is an ocelot. That struck me as nicely unusual for a shifter-based story, and the descriptions of her interactions with Joe in his mountain lion form were nicely detailed; I was totally able to envision their distinctly differently-sized feline forms. There’s good continuity here with the events of Book 1 as well, with some followup to the actions of that story’s antagonist.

Overall I’d actually call this a bit more than three, but not quite up to four, stars.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.