This Months Waiting List - November Edition

For the sake of both of us, and in an effort to explain why a certain book by Rowling appeared on last months list but was never reviewed, let me start by saying this:


It was terrible.

Absolutely, undeniably, terrible.

So freaking bad, in fact, that I only got through the first three chapters before I had to give up. It was boring and I just couldn't do it to myself. Nope. I know that I promised that I would read it. And I didn't. And I'm sorry. But it was awful. Really, truly, D.N.R. so I moved on.

J.K.R. - thanks for giving the world Harry Potter but please, for the love all that is written, put down the pen and walk away!

Ok. I feel better now. So back to our normally scheduled programming shall we? You came here to check out what kind of commitment I'm making for November, not to see me rant...

1. "Days of Blood and Starlight" by Laini Taylor, book two of her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series which in my humble opinion is a must read. (See glowing review of book one here)
2. "The Evolution of Mara Dyer", Mara Dyer #2, by Michelle Hodkin
3. "Redemption" Chosen #4, Denise Grover Swank

Only three this month that I can point to right now and with both my birthday and National Murder a Turkey Day that might, realistically be all I get to. But who knows, I'd love to find time to catch up on another installment of the Dresden Files "Blood Rites" by Jim Butcher as it's looking like a month filled with series 'catch-up'. Either that or it's time to tackle the telephone directory which is "A Storm of Swords" by George R.R. Martin. With Game of Thrones returning to TV in March that would give me a few months to absorb it before the show comes back and consumes my Sunday evenings again.

Borrow One of My Books!

A few days ago I was cleaning up my Kindle archive and realized that the following list of titles are 'loan enabled'. 

• "Perpetual Light" by Jordan K. Rose
• "Seed" by Ania Ahlborn
• "The Hangman's Daughter" by Oliver Pötzsch
• "Madly" (Novella - Madly Series #1) by M. Leighton
• "Callum & Harper"(Sleepless Series #1) by Fisher Amelie
• "Blood of Anteros" (Vampire Agápe Series #1)" by Georgia Cates
• "Sacrifice" (The Chosen #3) by Denise Grove Swank 
• "The Hunger Games"(The Hunger Games #1) by Suzanne Collins
• "Catching Fire" (The Hunger Games #2) by Suzanne Collins
• "Mockingjay" (The Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins 
• "Mercury Falls" by Robert Kroese
• "Mercury Rises" by Robert Kroese
• "Mercury Swings" by Robert Kroese
• "The Black Blade" (A Gull Village Story) by Sean Huxter 

 And so, with all these titles to loan and no one to loan them to I had a stroke of brilliance (if I do say so myself): Loan them to readers here at To The Point - and that, in a word, is You.

Source: Hummingbird Bridal and Event Company

So how to get your hands on a title? Well, I'd open it up as a free for all but Amazon, in combination with all those pesky publishers, have mandated from powers on high that I can only loan it out once and for only 14 days at that.  So in order to keep it fair-as-fair-can-be we'll be playing by the following couple of rules:

Rule #1: Before requesting a title you've got to be a subscriber of To The Point. If you aren't already, go ahead and use one of the methods to the right.

Rule #2: Leave a comment or drop me a line letting me know what title you're interested in borrowing.

Now here's the tricky part: With only 14 titles to loan, I can only guarantee the first 14 people a title, but the more popular titles might have more than request, that and there's always the chance that more people request than I've got books for so here's what I'm willing to give you even if it isn't one of the title above.

If the title you pick is already spoken for (first come/first serve, scouts honor) then your subscription gets you double entry in my next free book giveaway planned for next month and extra consideration when I loan my next title. 
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This Months Waiting List

Those of you with sharp eyes may have noticed that the title of this T.T.P. segment has changed. What once was the Weekly Waiting List is now the new and improved Monthly Waiting List! Not only will you find out what's currently in my Kindle hopper, but I'll try and shed some light into what else you'll be seeing reviews for (i.e. things I've already read but have been too busy/tired/lazy to get a review up for yet) and why I might not have gotten through everything in my last queue.

So, let's start from the bottom of that list and work our way backwards, shall we? Bottom line is I didn't get to all the weekly reads because the goal of four books in a week was just a slight bit of an overreach. Turns out that in a normal week I can easily get through two titles, three in a stretch, four or more if, and only if, it co-stars my favorite blonde viking vampire*. That and two other titles (Blood of Anteros, (still feel absolutely gypped by that one) and the finale of Forest of Hands and Teeth), in conjunction with an entire five book series by Karen Moning did a fantastic job of preventing me from hitting my lofty, entirely unattainable, goal. So even though an entire month has practically flown by the Hangman's Daughter is only 50% completed - as an aside its absolutely one of the best books I've read all year and I'm embarrassed to admit that it's been shoved out of the way twice now so that I could get through other titles.

And that's the long and the short of it! Finger's crossed you'll see reviews up in the next week or so for the only outstanding title from last month, Hangman's Daughter and another for The Fever Series by Karen Moning (don't think I'll split this one into multiple reviews... nope... no I won't do it).

Enough of the excuses though. Here are the four titles I know I'm going to be churning through over the next thirty days:

1. 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' by Laini Taylor
2. 'The Casual Vacancy' by J.K. Rowling
3. 'Red Rain' by R.L. Stine
4. 'Something from the Nightside' by Simon R. Green

A bit of a departure from the Y.A. that's been hogging up my time for the last... oh... three months now and I'm excited to take a bit of a break from it to be honest.

*Fun fact: The first time I picked up a Southern Vampire Mystery I literally got through all ten books over the course of seven days. No - I don't just sit at home all day and read thank-you-very-much. I've got bills to pay and a full time job to do it. But thinking about it now... I'm not sure that I slept much that week.

This Week's Waiting List

It's inevitable. Whenever I've actually found a captivating series one of two things happen.

1. Assuming that the series in question is completed, I'll get to about book two and wouldn't you know it, it's like the book gods smile down on me and all of a sudden my Kindle is choking with titles that tempt me every time I power the thing on. 
2.  Conversely, if the series isn't complete, and I'm madly in love with it*, its near impossible to find anything that is even remotely as good/interesting/well written. It is in these times that I awaken to find myself in the middle of a 'book drought.'

The good news, at least from a reviews perspective, is that I'm currently in a type 1 scenario and I've got a pretty decent waiting list sitting on the Kindle at the moment just waiting for me to get through book three of the Carrie Ryan books. Once that happens you should start seeing reviews for the following pop-up over the next week or so:

• 'Seed', by Ania Ahlborn
• 'The Host' by Stephanie Meyer
• 'The Hangman's Daughter' by Oliver Potzsch
• 'Madly' (Book one of yet another series) by M. Leighton

From what I can tell this is a fairly solid chunk of grade-A reading material and I'm especially keen on starting 'The Host' (even though I wasn't particularly impressed with the Twilight novels).


*As an aside one of my all time favorites ends this upcoming May and I'm not entirely sure if I'm thrilled or preparing for a week long depression when it finally comes to a close. (Team Eric!) Either way, Charlaine Harris caused one of the largest book droughts in my recent history - she's just that damned good. Took me about six months to really shake it off and realize that the Sookie-verse was not the end-all-be-all of my reading.