I read a bunch of books in the first half of the month and then spent the winter holidays face-down doing nothing much, which in retrospect seems like a fitting cap for this particular year.
- Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher (very good!)
- A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (twice, oops)
- Elite by Mercedes Lackey
- A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey
- When the Villain Comes Home ed. Gabrielle Harbowy
- The Bartered Brides by Mercedes Lackey
- The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett
- Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
- Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
- Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
Lot of good reads this month despite the relatively short list!
I picked up Paladin’s Grace after seeing some buzz about it on Twitter and it is exactly my type of romance novel, which is to say that the romance part has to compete with humor, the main plot, and a subplot of monster murder, plus the main characters actually like each other before we get to the spicy bits. I went in with no real expectations and enjoyed it quite a bit. There’s also a sequel now!
Naomi Novik’s take on the magical boarding school in A Deadly Education was a lot of fun – breaks the magical boarding school mold, adds some good characters, builds up a whole new fun world around it. It’s about teenagers but they’re not the dumb 2D ones I’m tired of reading about, and the broader world that adults created around them. When I looked Novik up after reading this one and discovered that she went to an Ivy League college some things about the book started to make sense. I’m really looking forward to the sequel (expected this fall, probably September).
Otherwise, I was overdue on my Night Watch reread this year – it’s usually a May book – and I picked up Dime Store Magic because a writer I follow on Twitter mentioned a specific element of the magic system that I was interested in, but the plot wasn’t quite up my alley (possibly because Dime Store Magic starts in the middle of the series). Still read a couple more books in that series to make sure, because why not.
Aerugoblog 