What the Wenches Are Reading

Click through to see what we're reading this week! What are you reading, Saucy Reader? 







Angela:  This week I read Silent in the Moor (Lady Julia Grey #3) by Deanna Raybourn. I enjoy the characters Raybourn has created, but I do find the main mystery very predictable so it takes a little bit away from my enjoyment of the books.  I am continuing, as I like the characters enough to want to see where they end up by the final book. Then I finished The Demon King (Seven Realms #1) by Cinda Williams Chima. The book was a YA book and, well okay, it took too long for the action to get started. It felt like reading 400 pages where you get introduced to the characters yet there is little momentum in the story until the last 100 pages. I won’t be carrying on with the series. Once again YA and I just don’t seem to gel.

Anne: I am still gorging myself on Captain Swan fanfiction. It’s delightful. By the time this is posted I will have finished In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larsen. It is absolutely terrifying comparing the early days of Hitler’s reign to the current political climate. After this, I need a break, so I’m going back to Mercy Thompson. I’ll be listening to Book #2, Blood Bound.

Barb: When I opened my Complete Harry Potter Kindle book for the first time, I was just planning to fill some time between new releases with some comfort reading. I was not intending to do a full series reread right now, but I think that may be happening. After finishing Sorcerer's Stone over the weekend, I immediately turned the next page to Chamber of Secrets, and three days later I'll be finishing it either today or tomorrow. I fully expect to move right on to Prisoner of Azkaban. Because this series, this world, is second to none. It's probably been ten years since my last full series read, and I am absolutely loving it. First of all, it feels like going home, like I know all of the people and the places and it's where I belong. Secondly, these stories are as fresh and engrossing as they were the first time. And finally, if you haven't read the Harry Potter series, for whatever reason, do yourself a favor and read them. They are, unquestionably the Gold Standard of fantasy series, regardless of the reader's age. 

Kathi: I’m still reading The Year of the Flood, the second book in Margaret Atwood’s classic post-apocalytpic Maddaddam Trilogy. Slowly, I’m piecing together the mysterious events. I had some gasp-out-loud moments midbook, as I suddenly realized how this story tied into the story told in book 1. (Other readers probably figured this stuff out before Atwood hit them over the head with it, but I was so engrossed in this nightmare world that I didn’t. Wow.) This is a complicated, fascinating story that completely consumes me yet is not entirely unrelated to current events. Oh, there’s a scene where a character goes to the bee hives and tells the bees that their caretaker has died, then proceeds to have numerous discussions with the bees as she assumes the caretaking role. I found this particularly interesting as an Outlander fan. I had never heard of this tradition until Diana Gabaldon used it in the title of the future Outlander book 9, and I enjoyed reading about this special relationship between the bees and their human.

Merit: This week I happened upon a delightful surprise. I received a book called Out of the Blue by Elise Noble, a new book just “out of the oven.” It came highly recommended, and I found myself enjoying it tremendously, a romantic thriller blending mystery, suspense, great humor and romance. Only when I finished it, I found out this was #6 in a series called Blackwood Security. I enjoyed it so much that I went immediately for book #1, Pitch Black, which was as good as the one I read before, I couldn’t put it down. Looking now for the next one in the series.