'Days of Blood & Starlight' (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by Laini Taylor

I'm not sure why, but it seems as though the Goodreads reviews of this book are uncharacteristically packed with animated GIFs and internet MEME references. And while a few of them are well done most are... well... nauseating and borderline offensive. See for yourself. Oh, go ahead, I don't mind - I'll be right here waiting.

See what I mean? Too much BLINK BLINK BLINK and not nearly enough substance. I'm sure that there are some great insights to be had in that epileptic stroke waiting to happen, but when you start to feel nauseous just scrolling through the page I'm not sure how much of them you'll see, never mind retain long enough to make any sense of it all.

But we aren't here to review the reviews and on that note the follow-up to 'Daughter of Smoke & Bone' left me jaw-gnashingly expectant of the final book in the trilogy and a thousand times more depressed than I'd every imagined. Launching into 'Days of Blood & Starlight' we find Karou living a life that fits her about as well as a potato sack mumu. It's an existence entirely devoid of happiness - her friends, family, life, love... all of this has has been pushed away aside and replaced with a single, brutal focus: war.

Overall, I'm still in love with all of the characters and getting to see a lot more of the chimaera and Karou's best friend Zuzana is a huge plus. While I did find myself missing the romance that was so heavily played out in book one, this second installment by Laini Taylor still finds plenty of ways to pull at your heartstrings. By finding a perfect balance between the apex of a brutal, soul-shredding war and heartwarming and emotional scenes that will, in all likelihood, carry us to an epic book three due out sometime in April 2014, this book is absolutely worth your time.

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.

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.