[Book Review] A dark and stormy night, plus amnesia

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Canary

Book Review: The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

“Dear you,

The body you are wearing used to be mine.”

Myfanwy Thomas opens her eyes to find herself standing in the pouring rain, in a London park, surrounded by bodies, with absolutely no memory of who she is, and a letter in the pocket of her coat addressed to her.

This book had me hooked from that first line.

The mystery is tantalizing – I couldn’t get enough of it. Who’s after Myfanwy? Aliens? Evil scientists? Paranormal? Government conspiracy? The story unspooled its revelations one by one, teasing and keeping the tension taught. Myfanwy starts out as a brilliant combo of practical, cool-headed, and completely lost as she tries to a) stay alive and b) navigate the deadly life of her past self. Continue reading →

[Book Review] Short stories and Shadowed Souls

Posted on September 24, 2016 by Canary

Book Review: Shadowed Souls, edited by Kerrie L. Hughes & Jim Butcher

This has been a great month for short story collections and Urban Fantasy. I just finished Patricia Briggs’ Shifting Shadows, a collection of stories from her Mercy Thompson werewolf world, when this book popped up on my radar. Shadowed Souls. Am I on a short-story-collections-that-have-‘Shadow”-in-their-title kick? Seems so!

So Shadowed Souls. Where do I start? How about with the list of authors:

Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Tanya Huff, Anton Strout, Kat Richardson, Kevin J Anderson, Lucy A. Snyder, Jim C. Hines, Erik Scott de Bie, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Rob Thurman. Just writing out all these author names is setting my heart aflutter all over again. The stories span the entire spectrum of mood and tone, from playful banter and zany world-building, to chilling darkness and regret. Continue reading →

Buddy Read with Tash | The Handmaid’s Tale

Posted on August 3, 2016 by Canary

This is it. August will be the month.

When I saw Tash’s list of titles from her most recent book haul, my eyes landed on The Handmaid’s Tale and I was sucked into a vortex of nerd gloom. For years now, whenever anyone starts raving this Atwood novel, I just nod along, “Oh yeah, definitely. Sure. Yah-huh. That writing style. What message.”

All the while, this is the hard, cruel truth: Hello, my name is Naiya, and I have never read The Handmaid’s Tale.

But August is the month to change that. This month, I’m doing a buddy read with Tash, 25% of the book each week, starting this week. Now. Today. Continue reading →

[Indie Book Review] Disappearances, a cute guy, and an impending elf invasion.

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Canary

Boreal and John Grey by Chrystalla Thoma. Fast, fun, fey and…I just run out of adjectives starting the the letter f. I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would not use the word “feisty” when talking about book characters unless I’m talking about a cute-angry kittens (see right). But it was kinda that too.

Written in five “episodes” of about 50-pages each, this little series (“season”) is fun and fast. Ella works for the Paranormal Bureau taking down evil monsters when they cross into her world through the veil between worlds. But for the first time in centuries, they are coming across in droves, and they’re getting harder and harder to kill. When Ella’s work partner goes missing, she finds that she has to rely on a stranger-without-a-past named Finn to survive.

I’m no fan of TV terminology in my reading (Associations: episodes, seasons, why is Grimm so terrible? ZIVA WHY DID YOU LEAVE US), but the elves and the stoic male lead with his tragic past more than makes up for any mental sidetracking into all the shows I am currently watching except I’m not because I don’t have the time, but – Continue reading →