A Glimpse into my mind

(a book from the library)

Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Growing up on Asgard, son of Odin and in the shadow of his brother Thor, as a magic user rather than a mighty warrior, has not been easy on Loki. More so because Odin doesn't want him to pursue his magical side.

Then Loki meets Amora, apprentice sorceress who is destined to be Court Sorceress and adviser to the King. She encourages Loki to study his magic, regardless of the orders of his father. Then at a holiday feast, Odin looks in a mirror that once every ten years shows the fate of Asgard, and Odin sees trouble being lead by Loki. But the mirror gets destroyed, and Amora says she broke it. Odin banishes her to Earth, where her powers will wither and she will eventually die.

Many years later, strange deaths are happening on Earth and Odin sends Loki to investigate, while he and Thor look for a magical artifact that has been stolen.

Loki finds himself in 19th century England, searching for the cause of the mystery and finds himself face to face with Amora. He needs to deal with his feelings for her, his need/desire to please his father and figure out who he is as a person, prince and magic user.

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This was a quick & fun YA book that gives a bit of personal background and looking at the internal conflict that only made me adore my favorite villain/anti-hero in the Marvel Universe.



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Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


3.5 really. If I were younger I might up it to 4.

20 something Sam's day started out on par for normal... work his dead-end burger joint job with his friends, trying to do as little as possible to earn a paycheck. But when he and a coworker accidentally break the tail-light of a car while playing "potato hockey" while on break, his and his friends' lives quickly become surreal.

Turns out that the owner of the car is the city's most powerful necromancer and he pegs Sam as one as well, though Sam has no idea what the weird guy is talking about. But the man feels that the city of Seattle is only big enough for one powerful necromancer and he seeks to make Sam go away - one way or the other.

As Sam fights for his life, he quickly learns about a world that he belongs to but never knew about and he has to do what he can to save no only his life but those of his friends and a cute girl he just met.

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For what this book is - A YA Urban Fantasy/Supernatural book, it was good. And as I said, I think if I were maybe 20 years younger I might have liked it more. I liked it enough that if I need to fill a reading challenge category, I would look for the next book, but I am right now not rushing out to find out what happens next.



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AND WITH THAT I HAVE FINISHED THE 2020 POPSUGAR READING CHALLENGE!!!!!

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Lady Jane Grey, great grand niece of Henry VIII was a devout Protestant and avid scholar. She wanted nothing more to have a shred of love from her parents and to continue her studies. However, the adults had different plans. First her parents schemed to marry her to her cousin Edward, son of the King, in hopes of her one day becoming Queen and thus improving their standings in Society.

After Edward becomes King, the insiders realize that he is not going to survive due to ill health. So her parents and the head of the Privy Counsel arrange for Jane to marry his son. They also plot and execute a way to put Jane on the throne still. They get the King to declare his sisters bastards (since the marriages of their mothers to Henry were set aside) and through succession Jane would be third in line for the throne - and her mother sets aside her claim so that Jane can be put on the throne.

Jane faces abuse by the hand of her husband, emotional torment by her parents and her conscious as she strongly believes that Mary, the King's eldest sister, should be next. But she is pressured into taking the throne. But Mary rises with the backing of the people and Catholic Spain and fights to regain her rightful inheritance. And in the span of less than a year Jane is crowned, deposed, imprisoned and in the end executed - all because she was an innocent pawn of those who had more power over her life than she would ever have.

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I first learned of the story of Lady Jane through the 1986 movie of the same name (incidentally where I formed my first fangirl crush on Cary Elwes). I remember finding the story tragic and my heart breaking for poor Jane and how she suffered at the hands who saw her as nothing more than a means to an end - people who should have been the ones to love and protect her. This book did not change my impression - if anything it solidified it more.

I have also been a fan of Alison Weir for many years now and will not turn away from books she has written. She has a wonderful use of language and an ability to bring to life the lives of very important women in English history. If you are interested in English monarchy history I would recommend her books (she is a contemporary of Phillipa Gregory but I find I like Alison Weir better).



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Chaos Rising by Timothy Zahn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


3.5 (I rounded up)

I liked this book as it gives more indepth look into Thrawn's rise in the Ascendancy and even a peek into Chis culture. That being said, I finished listening to the book about 5 hours ago and I'm having a hard time remember much of the plot.

Marc Thompson's reading of the book was amazing as always. But I think had it been anyone else OR had I physically read the book, I'm not sure I would have actually finished it - and that makes me sad as I adore Thrawn and love Zahn's writing.


(the reason it fits this category is that I requested several audiobooks from the library at the same time and this one came in first. I say that counts)



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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


4.5 stars.

I was tentative going into this book. I've seen the movie, seen the Hulu TV series. Also I've tried to read Atwood books before and just could NOT get past the second chapter. But I needed to read a book for banned book week and decided to give this one a shot - but as an audio. I honestly think Claire Danes saved the book.

I found her reading compelling and emotional and relatable.

I'm not going to bother summing up the book as at this point, it's enough of a cultural reference item that if you haven't read it, you are still familiar enough with it. But I will recommend doing this book as the audio with Claire Danes reading it. I might actually go look for the sequel. MIGHT.



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Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


3.5 stars but I rounded up.

Kwame Onwuachi had been in a gang, dealt drugs, been kicked out of college and had hit rock bottom. But rather than let that define him, he took inspiration from his mother - a caterer - and followed his love of food and cooking to the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. He parlayed that into working in some of the most exclusive high end, fine dining restaurants. By the time he was 27 he had earned acclaim, been on Top Chef, served food to the President of the United States, opened and closed a high end restaurant in Washington, DC and faced his share of discrimination for daring to be a young black chef who broke into fine dining. But he keeps picking himself up and moving forward.

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I found this story inspiring and also entertaining. I did this as an audiobook and hope to borrow the physical book from the library as I want to get the recipes he mentions as they sound very intriguing (having never experienced Nigerian food).



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Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Pure and simple I found this story... odd. I loved one of the author's earlier book "The Girl With All the Gifts". I knew going in that this was not related to that story at all. The story was still interesting but it felt more like an homage to Stephen King with the weird factor.

The other thing about this book that threw me was that it was obviously an English author trying to write an American story. It takes place in a Larimer, PA ( a suburb of Pittsburgh) and mostly he got things right. But choices of words here and there made it clear it's not an American Author. He refers to the room that we call the Living Room or Den as "the Lounge". Constantly refers to a fox's tail as the brush. Rubber dish gloves are "washing up gloves". Things like that. But other things were correct - Trunk of a car for example.

I still want to read more by this author but this one left me just feeling... hmmmm. I do think the thing that got me staying with it was the reading talent of Robin Miles. She really managed to capture my attention, even with the story did not.

I don't want to really say much about the actual story as I cannot figure out a way to describe it without giving it away.



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One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


really a 3.75 just not quite a 4 for me.

Bea is a fashion and beauty blogger. Which is not unusual for Los Angeles. But what is unusual is that she is plus sized and proud. One night while watching Main Squeeze (the equivalent of the Bachlorette) she gets annoyed at the lack of diversity on the show - shape, age, race, all of it. And after too much wine takes to her blog to rant about this lack.

So the producers invite her to come on the show and be the one that the contestants vie to woo her. See it as a way to promote her blog and get new sponsors, she agrees - especially after getting her heart broken by a long time friend/crush. Vowing to not fall in love, she enters the world of reality.

Things quickly go bad (starting with the premiere episode) and Bea needs to figure out what she wants and how to deal with her own insecurities to maybe find love (both of herself and another).

*****

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this book. It may help that I have never watched an episode of the Bachelorete or the Bachelor. Many of the insecurities that Bea has to overcome are things that I have heard my own brain say to me.

There were bits that made me roll my eyes but for a contemporary romance with characters almost 20 years younger than me, it was a fun read.



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11/22/63 by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I went into this book a bit skeptical. I stopped reading King a good 25 years ago (maybe closer to 30) because he was getting too epic with the tellings when it could have been easily cut in half and still been a good story. I still think it. This book was over 31 hours long. But while I think it could have easily been cut by a good 10 hours and been fine, it wasn't as tedious as I expected. It's not going to get me back to regularly reading King again but it hasn't driven me away again.

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2011, 35 year old Jake Eppings is a recently divorced English Teacher in Maine. He regularly frequents a run down diner and one day the owner suddenly looks much older than he did the day before. Al, the owner, informs Jake that he has found a "rabbit hole" as he calls it that takes him to 1958 - which is where he goes to get his supplies and able to keep his prices so low. Al goes on to say that whenever he returns it's only 2 minutes later in the current time.

Jake has trouble believing it but it's hard to argue that Al has aged seemingly overnight. Al confesses that he spent over 4 years in the past in an attempt to try to stop the JFK assassination, but that lung cancer is stopping him. Al convinces Jake to go back and do what he couldn't - stop Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963. Jake eventually agrees and starts a strange adventure to try to circumvent history and change the world - but at what cost?



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Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mia has survived the trials, and despite failing them, she has been appointed as a Blade of the Red Church and is a fully anointed assassin. While she fulfills her contracts, she still has eyes on revenge against the two men who orchestrated the death of her father and fall of her House.

But there is a problem... they are on the "no kill" list held by the Church because they are patrons. Mia sees this as just an inconvenience. While "on assignment" she arranges to get herself taken by slavers and sold to a Gladatorial Collegium to fight for the amusement of the highborn. The final game of the year holds a prize... freedom for the victorious gladiator and put within arm's reach of the two men who killed her family. But to do that she needs to survive to get to those games and then be the last one standing.

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I am finding myself more and more enjoying this trilogy and look forward to the next book (even though it's the last). It is the right combination of history and sword & sorcery to appeal to my inner geek.



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