Book

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

By: Garth Nix

Blurb:

In a slightly alternate London in 1983, Susan Arkshaw is looking for her father, a man she has never met. Crime boss Frank Thringley might be able to help her, but Susan doesn’t get time to ask Frank any questions before he is turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin.

Merlin is a young left-handed bookseller (one of the fighting ones), who with the right-handed booksellers (the intellectual ones), are an extended family of magical beings who police the mythic and legendary Old World when it intrudes on the modern world, in addition to running several bookshops.

Susan’s search for her father begins with her mother’s possibly misremembered or misspelt surnames, a reading room ticket, and a silver cigarette case engraved with something that might be a coat of arms.

Merlin has a quest of his own, to find the Old World entity who used ordinary criminals to kill his mother. As he and his sister, the right-handed bookseller Vivien, tread in the path of a botched or covered-up police investigation from years past, they find this quest strangely overlaps with Susan’s. Who or what was her father? Susan, Merlin, and Vivien must find out, as the Old World erupts dangerously into the New.

Review:

Finally, a book I loved. It’s been so long I was starting to think something was wrong. I’m a Garth Nix fan, but I don’t always love his books. Sabriel was one of the first female-led fantasy books I read, and I still go back and re-read it.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London starts with a great tagline on the cover, “Authorized to kill, and sell books.”

Set in 1983, Susan is in London, the summer before university starts, to search for her father. It ends up being a lot more complicated than she previously thought.

At the beginning of her search, she meets a member of a family of booksellers. He also happens to battle mythic and legendary creatures. His world is complicated and scary, but Susan handles it very well. She was calm and cool, with the occasional what the hell is happening moments. It’s a fine line to balance, but Nix did a great job.

There are very few lulls in the story, with something almost always happening. It managed not to be exhausting, though. There was a nice little romance between two of the characters and an entertaining family dynamic that helped with the pace. I thought it was cool that Merlin was gender fluid or non-binary. It was never explained; it was just who he was. It was the first time I’ve read a character like him.

The book didn’t get as dark as Sabriel does, but there is still a satisfying climactic conclusion. It’s written like a standalone book, but I would love to see more. The world of the booksellers was fascinating, and I liked all of the characters.

4.5/5

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

By: Christopher Paolini

Blurb:

Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds.

Now she’s awakened a nightmare.

During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she’s delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.

As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn’t at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.

While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity’s greatest and final hope . . .”

Review:

I was not able to finish this book. I tried. I really did, but I could not do it. I read over two-hundred pages, which only put me over 25% of the way through, so I’m not going to leave a starred review.

I read Paolini’s Eragon book when I was in middle school and remembered enjoying it. I must have because I owned a copy at one point, but it’s not a book I’ve felt a desire to go back and reread. I haven’t even read the last book in the series. I picked up To Sleep because I enjoyed Eragon, though.

The beginning of the book was so heavy-handed with the foreshadowing that it might as well have been Walk Hard. I knew what was about to happen within the first ten to twenty pages, but he dragged it out.

There was a lot of world-building and tons of talking about science, but very little character development. Kira was not a compelling at all. She was boring, and a lot of the time, felt like she was just reacting to what was going on. When I finally gave up, she started to do more than react, but I didn’t care about her by then.

I can’t say I’m disappointed in the book because I went in with no expectations. I wanted to read something besides romance, and I thought trying a writer I was familiar with was a good idea.

500 Miles From You (Scottish Bookshop #3)

500 Miles From You (Scottish Bookshop #3)

By: Jenny Colgan

Blurb:

Lissie, is a nurse in a gritty, hectic London neighborhood. Always terribly competent and good at keeping it all together, she’s been suffering quietly with PTSD after helping to save the victim of a shocking crime. Her supervisor quietly arranges for Lissie to spend a few months doing a much less demanding job in the little town of Kirrinfeif in Scottish Highlands, hoping that the change of scenery will help her heal. Lissie will be swapping places with Cormack, an Army veteran who’s Kirrinfeif’s easygoing nurse/paramedic/all-purpose medical man. Lissie’s never experienced small-town life, and Cormack’s never spent more than a day in a big city, but it seems like a swap that would do them both some good.

In London, the gentle Cormack is a fish out of the water; in Kirrinfief, the dynamic Lissie finds it hard to adjust to the quiet. But these two strangers are now in constant contact, taking over each other’s patients, endlessly emailing about anything and everything. Lissie and Cormack discover a new depth of feeling…for their profession and for each other.

But what will happen when Lissie and Cormack finally meet…?

Review:

I missed that this was the third book in a series. I could tell which couples I had missed, but their stories were never explained, so reading them out of order seems alright to do.

Lissa saw a young man killed in a hit and run. As a nurse, she tried to save him, but she wasn’t able to. She ended up with PTSD after the event. She was unable to sleep, was always jumpy, and had anxiety attacks. It was rough for her. Since the healthcare system was understaffed, they weren’t about to discharge a usually competent nurse. Instead, they sent her off to the country.

Cormac was a former military medic, now working in the small town he grew up in as a nurse. Deciding a change might be good for him; he takes the opportunity to trade places with Lissa. London is a new place for him, and he’s able to learn some things about himself and the world around him. His parts are probably the least interesting. He was an okay character, but his parts were more focused on him experiencing London.

The two exchange emails about their patients, and after a while, personal observations are included. It evolves from there. Sadly, you don’t see many of these communications. They’re occasionally referenced, but it’s more about growing feelings without seeing the reason for those feelings.

I hesitate to call it a slow burn because there never seemed to be any passion between them. It was a sweet romance. They were two people who were hurting. Who were, eventually, able to find comfort sharing with each other. It wasn’t until the end of the book when they were actually in the same physical location.

I loved the Scottish setting. The supporting characters were great. There were a lot of parts that were emotionally moving. So I cried, a fair amount. All in all, it was a lovely book.

3.5/5

In the Company of Wolves (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #3)

In the Company of Wolves (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #3)

By: Paige Tyler

Blurb:

He opened his mouth to order her to drop the MP5 she had aimed at him, but nothing would come out. It was like she’d robbed him of the ability to speak. Shooting her wasn’t an option, though. And the idea of arresting her didn’t make him feel any better.

There’s a new gang of criminals in town who are organized and ruthless in the extreme. When Eric Becker, along with the rest of the Dallas SWAT team, ends up in the middle of a shootout, he immediately senses werewolves-a lot of them. Turns out, the new bad guys are a pack of wolf shifters.

In a spray of gunfire, Becker comes face-to-face with the most gorgeous woman he’s ever seen. Becker does the logical thing. He hides her and leaves the scene with the rest of his team.

Jayna Winston has no idea why that SWAT guy helped her, but she’s glad he did. Ever since she and her pack mates got mixed up with those Eastern European mobsters, everything had pretty much fallen apart.

So what’s a street-savvy thief like Jayna going to do with a hot alpha-male wolf who’s a police officer?

Review:

I didn’t like In the Company of Wolves as much as the previous book in the series. Wolf Trouble was one of my favorite books of the year, so there was a lot to live up to. I still enjoyed In the Company of Wolves, but I wanted certain things more fleshed out. It also dragged in a few places.

I wasn’t expecting Becker to be the next wolf to find love. He’s been almost a running joke in the series up till this point. He’s obsessed with yoga pants and a young werewolf, but he came off as almost an oober alpha in the book. It was unexpected, to say the least.

Jayna believes she’s a beta wolf in a pack with other beta wolfs, whose lone alpha has made a series of bad mistakes. It comes as a surprise to her that she’s actually an alpha, and it’s never clear if she became one when her pack needed it or if she was born one.

Like the previous books, their attraction is instantaneous. As soon as they meet, Becker is doing something completely stupid, and it just goes from there. After the last book, I don’t understand why he didn’t go to his own alpha. Dixon is coming off as an utterly inept alpha at this point. His pack does not share anything with him.

I liked the idea of a pack of betas and enjoyed the werewolf lore being expanded. I wanted more of that, though. Jayna barely had her alpha moment, where she embraces her role and is a total badass. The moment she takes out the previous alpha is anticlimactic and glossed over because of what else is going on.

The book’s plot holes and how slow certain things took to develop made this book less enjoyable. It was a shorter book than the previous one, and I wonder if it was longer if Tyler would have been able to fix things. Fleshed some things out and added more. Or maybe this book should have been a novella. Honestly, I’m not sure.

I don’t have the next book checked out, and considering how many books I have out from the library right now, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to read the next in the SWAT series. So far, there have been two books I’ve found to be okay and one book I’ve loved, so I’ll be continuing. I’m just not sure when.

3/5

Wolf Trouble (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #2)

Wolf Trouble (SWAT: Special Wolf Alpha Team #2)

By: Paige Tyler

Blurb:

He’s in trouble with a capital T…

There’s never been a female on the Dallas SWAT team and Senior Corporal Xander Riggs prefers it that way. The elite pack of alpha male wolfshifters is no place for a woman. But Khaki Blake is no ordinary woman.

When Khaki walks through the door attractive as hell and smelling like heaven, Xander doesn’t know what the heck to do. Worse, she’s put under his command and Xander’s protective instincts go on high alert. When things start heating up both on and off the clock, it’s almost impossible to keep their heads in the game and their hands off each other…

Review:

I loved Wolf Trouble. Soooo much. I flew through this book and had such a hard time putting it down when life called me away. I liked the last book, but this one was so much better.

Khaki, the heroine, was a werewolf and a police officer. She was also dealing with a crazy ex-boyfriend that was doing his best to get her killed on the job. She was smart and strong. She was able to hang with the dudes but not lose her femininity. She balanced a very careful line perfectly. Least favorite part was her name.

Xander was an alpha male, like all the others, but he recognized that Khaki was also an alpha. He didn’t dominate her at all. If anyone was dominant in the relationship, it was Khaki. He fought his attraction because he didn’t understand it, but he never stood a chance the way things work in this universe.

As a couple, they worked out perfectly because of how soulmates work. It didn’t even bother me that he was her superior officer. There was never any question that they were both attracted to each other.

The action was great. I loved the crazy ex storyline. The team dynamic was a lot of fun. I’m so glad I already have the next book in the series and can’t wait to read it.

5/5