What the Wenches Are Reading

This is it Readers. This is the big day. The last installment of Jeaniene Frost's very epic Night Huntress series is out today, and this past week, a lot of us have been busy finishing rereads, or keeping ourselves busy with other books after our rereads. There's some romance, some mystery, a brand new first installment in a new series we are already in love with and some of us are still making our way through Westeros and the Outlander world!

Click through to see what we've been up to, and let us know what you've been reading this week and whether you'll be reading the last Cat & Bones book today!



Amanda: Different week, same story. Still chugging along with A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin. It's still awesome!

Angela: It's all about The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon this week. I'm enjoying it, but I officially declare that this book has the longest day in the history of writing. This might be a slight exaggeration, but you sure can pack a lot of things into one day. I'm waiting for the action to pick up, which my sanity keeper Kathi has assured me will happen. She's busy keeping me sane.

Barb: I finished Dirty Magic by Jaye Wells, and it was wonderful. Just....it was so good, and I am thrilled to be getting in on the ground floor of a series by an author that I trust. I'm excited about this series. Upon finishing DM I was kind of lost for a day, with nothing calling to me from my TBR. It was definitely a book hangover, resulting from consuming three amazing books in just about a month. I finally settled on giving Vampire Academy a try, and got through a chapter before I fell asleep last night. It was a great chapter, though, and I'm intrigued.

Beta: My skimming through books 1 and 2 in the Night Huntress series changed into a full reread, and in between that I was working on our favorite scenes post. I'm now halfway through At Grave's End but I don't know if i can finish a full reread of the series before I pickup Up From the Grave which will be released TODAY! I just don't think I can be that patient especially after having read the first few chapters, Which. I. Loved!

Care: This week has been a flurry of reading for me! I started and finished One Grave at a Time and started a new series - Rear Entrance Video by Heidi Belleau, quickly making my way through both Apple Polisher and Wallflower, in preparation for her upcoming release of Sharp Shooter! I'm way too excited about this, but I do love new books, and I really need to get my backside over to Riptide's website to buy Static as well - a title I wish I'd had the time to review before its release, and am antsy to read now that it has released.

Donna: This week I read a couple more stories from Dangerous Women. Also, Jeaniene Frost gifted us with the first few chapters from the final Cat and Bones book - I was all over that!

Kathi: My Night Huntress reread continued this week with Destined for an Early Grave, and "One for the Money", a short story featured in Magic Graves. I had just begun book 5 when my daughter arrived for a weekend visit, and then an updated Outlander TV trailer hit the interwebs (which automagically diverts my attention from anything less important than a natural disaster), so I’ll attempt to read the last two books in the week ahead. I don’t remember them well, so I want to finish them before settling down to savor the new book. (My daughter is a fan of Night Huntress too, by the way! And Outlander!)

Merit: This week is allabout Dangerous Women anthology. When I acquired the book, I read only Diana Gabaldon’s “Virgins” and “Hell Hath No Fury” by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I started reading other stories in that book and  still reading. My favorite stories so far (Besides Virgins) are: “Some Desperado” by Joe Abercrombie, and “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” by Brandon Sanderson. I don’t read the stories in order and I leave my favorites, GRRM and Diana Rowland, for last.

Natalie: So this past week I managed to squeak in the last of The Knight in Rusty Armor and managed to get a little further with Insurgent. Damn mandatory overtime at work; it's great for the paycheck but bad for your reading time. After I hit save and send on this post I am going to dedicate the next hour or so to finishing the last 75 pages of Insurgent. I have to say that Roth's second book in the Divergent series has lost my interest a little due to the politics of the story line. I'm hoping that book three brings the energy and enjoyment I felt from the first book. Overall still a good YA series. I, however, won't be jumping into book three this week; unless by some miracle I manage to get more time and it's not likely with overtime being required again at work. I do plan on dedicating the rest of this weekend to Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. And although I urgently want my nose in this book for many reasons, I'll be good and finish Insurgent. For our Wenchy readers there are some great things in the works when it comes to Jojo Moyes and two of her books, but I'm going to leave it just at that for a teaser. As always stay tuned, and keep checking the blog so I can tell you why I'm in love with her work. Well have a great week and happy reading!

Shau: I've been enjoying Howling for You, Jeff and Fallon are so cute and fun. I can't wait for more CLV, novels and novellas.

Zee: After I got over the flu, I picked up Amanda Grange's Mr Darcy's Diary. Now, I'm usually dead against anyone fucking up my favorite authors worlds and characters, and lets face it, they usually do. You aren't the same author... you don't get to give their beloved characters a different ending as far as I'm concerned. So I tend to stay away from stuff like that. But I picked up Grange's Captain Wentworth's Diary years ago and really loved that side of the coin (and Persuasion is my absolute fave Austen.) Unfortunately, Mr.Darcy's Diary wasn't as fun. Maybe because Wentworth actually has much more page time in the story and the author doesn't have to fill that much in? Maybe because Darcy's appeal is in his aloofness, mysteriousness and reserved nature and in his diary it doesn't really come across? Maybe because she wrote beyond what we see in P&p and that falls in a different category again. There were definitely a couple of parts I liked. But on the whole, I was underwhelmed. My bff and I were talking about trashy romances and bodice rippers we read when we were much younger and went on a reread marathon! Everything from Judith McNaughts to Amanda Quicks to Linda Howards. A lot of eye rolling and giggling ensued. But I'd be lying if I said both of us were now NOT reading a romance and kinda enjoying it. I'm reading Amanda Quick's Mistress, after finishing Judith McNaught's Until You (Omg... the sheer innocence of those heroines makes me want to shake someone...ridiculous) and Linda Howard's Shades of Twilight (Which I sort of enjoyed). Up next, going with Olga's recommendation of the Chocolate Lovers series! But I'll be honest, I'm anticipating Up From The Grave more than anything this week!