It’s Friday and it’s time for Book Reviews! Last week I read:
- Shoot the Messenger by Pippa DaCosta
- Sweep for Me by Ilona Andrews
Sweep With Me is book #5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles.
I’ve read them. I love them all. I’m putting a disclaimer right here: You’ll likely never hear (or read) me say a negative word about the stories Ilona Andrews puts out.
- Worldbuilding: The Gertrude Hunt B&B is set on Earth. There are humans in these books. And there are oh, so many others, starting with shifters and vampires and branching waaaay out from there.The combination of a ‘real life’ setting in Texas with paranormal activity works for me. It gives me a doorway into the story by allowing me to picture everything in my head with ease. I especially loved that this book (#5) is a ‘Holiday Novella’. You can bet most any holiday being celebrated within the confines of the Gertrude Hunt is unforgettable.
- Romance: There has been a slow-burn romance throughout the series that feels deliciously resolved in this book. Big points for the power of robes.
- Fave Moment: So many that I cannot put it here because *spoiler alert. I will say that Sly Humor is definitely an Ilona Andrews thing, and it is sprinkled throughout this story.
- Stars?
Shoot the Messenger is the first book in Pippa Dacosta’s Messenger Series.
I plan to read all 5 books. I’m hoping I can slow down the pace I set while reading this first book. I might have embarrassed myself with how quickly I devoured all the words…
- Worldbuilding: Whew, there is a LOT. We have a post-apocalyptic setting on a planet that is not Earth. We have space travel, and ‘tek’ and magic and a combination of tek + magic. And fae, lots and lots of fae, Faerie, seelie, unseelie, and a whole lot of backstory about the creation of humans and other races.
- Romance + Relationships: This series is (drumroll please) a ‘Space Fantasy Reverse Harem’. I figured out right away who Love Interest #1 was going to be and as I continue through the series, I’m going to be very interested to see how Dacosta builds the heroine’s harem. I have a feeling it won’t be very ‘normal’.
- Signature Move: The heroine, Kesh Lasota has baggage. And a mission, a whip she uses quite skillfully, and a drone. I adore her drone, perhaps because I am a give me good banter kind of reader. This drone gives good banter.
- Stars? I’m giving this book five stars because it did what we all, as writers and readers, hope a first book in a series will do–hook us and leave us wanting more.
What’s in the reading pipeline?
- I’m slowly re-reading Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches, in anticipation of continuing through the other books in her All Souls Trilogy.
- I’ve purchased the rest of the books in Pippa Dacosta’s Messenger Chronicles series.
- Hailey Edwards’s Pack of Lies, book #2 in her Potentate of Atlanta series.
- In my non-fiction, work-related pile, I’m slowly getting through Newsletter Ninja, by Tammi LeBrecque.
I DNF’d (did not finish) a few books, mostly in the Urban Fantasy genre, but I’m not going to talk about those. I think most of us DNF books; it comes with the territory.
Thanks for reading along. See you next week!
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