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MC
Merlin's Children
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
First off, allow me to commend Megan for making it past what I would call the Snowpocalyspse level, in which case the weather was nastily for a week in early January. I'm sure that says a lot, and that was not sarcasm whatsoever.

     Merlin's Children starts off pretty much exactly where Taliesin Ascendant left off, and we finally get answers from the prologue of Book 1.

     Or maybe I just now realized the answer to the question and it was in my face the entire time. *shrugs* I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter since as long as the question is answered, then it's all good.

     I still have to applaud the author for continuing to be practically flawless in grammar/spelling (I make it a point to mention these things :p).

     But I do find it really weird that the characters seem to draw their eyebrows downward a lot. I'm not sure if it's possible or I'm just those peeps who can only raise my eyebrows, but each time it was mentioned, I was pretty tempted to run into the bathroom, stare at the mirror and see if it was possible.

     My mother would have thought I was insane if she saw me so I didn't do it.

     HEY! HERE'S A POSSIBLE HUGE SPOILER! I sort of wanted what happened to Jamison to be something else. Maybe because I was thinking of what I read about the Nikita finale in TV Guide, in which I sorrily missed. -_- I am glad that some of the characters from the very first book return though. ^_^

     On a final note, Megan has upped her game a bit compared to the last 2 books (yes, I'm staring at the raw ratings for the series). It's more fast paced, has more action and if anything, I sort of have a short attention span. A semi one, since I can tolerate SOME boring books to the end. :D But then the review turns out bad. I think that was irrelevant.

     For some reason, I keep reading Ermengarde's name as "Er Ma Gawd" so I ended up reading "so and so and Ermagawd..." every so often. That might actually be how the name is pronounced, but I'm honestly not sure so I'll just call her OMG. :D

     Another thing irrelevant I suppose.
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Original Rating: 4.5
Review copy provided by the author for review
Formatting has been lost due to copy and paste.
This review and more can be found at <a href="http://bookwyrming-thoughts.blogspot.com/2014/02/review-merlins-children-by-megan-joel-peterson.html">Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
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The Winner&#039;s Curse (The Winner&#039;s Trilogy, #1)
The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy, #1)
Marie Rutkoski | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.8 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
You never know what kinds of books you'll find when you take your time at the library.

<i>The Winner's Curse</i>, to say the least, is perhaps one of the best, if not <i>the</i> best, book I've read so far in 2015. The characters, the writing, the world, the plot – I loved it all (or most of it, but technically it's still all of it).

Kestrel may be one of my favorite characters – I just love how she resists (flouting them may be more accurate) her father's and society's rules, values, and expectations throughout the entire book, and even how she resists being bossed around by Cheat near the end.
<blockquote>"If a woman can fight and die for the empire, why can't a woman walk alone?"</blockquote>
Frankly, it's fantastic. It's fantastic how she doesn't really care too much about what society thinks of her relationship with Arin, despite the fact the rumors weren't true at the time. And it's even more fantastic how loyal Jess and Ronan are to Kestrel – they stick around even while Kestrel's reputation is obviously going down the drain with each action she takes that society looks down upon (though Ronan may be questionable).
<blockquote>"It doesn't matter what they think. Dance with me."</blockquote>
Then there's the writing – it's beautiful. The parallel structure the author uses occasionally throughout seems almost poetic, or if not poetic, then there seems to be a rhythm every so often.
<blockquote>She would have stopped him. She would have wished herself deaf, blind, made of unfeeling smoke. She would have stopped his words out of terror, longing.</blockquote>
I'm also not typically a fan of authors revealing what really happens through another character (while another character hears differently), but with <i>The Winner's Curse</i>, I find I rather enjoy Rutkoski revealing what really happens through Arin while Kestrel hears something else. Perhaps it's just the character itself, as Arin <i>is</i> an intriguing character and seems to have an air of mystery about him right when he is first sold to Kestrel – the author reveals that there's something up with him, but is vague enough not to give too much away.

The ending to <i>The Winner's Curse</i> is full of tension – with the second book already released or being released soon, I <i>really</i> want to read the next book, in hopes the sequel is as wonderfully written and unpredictable as the first to the <i>Winner's Trilogy</i> is.

<a href="https://bookwyrmingthoughts.com/review-the-winners-curse-by-marie-rutkoski/"; target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Bookwyrming Thoughts</a>
  
The Girl in the Ice (Erika Foster book 1)
The Girl in the Ice (Erika Foster book 1)
Robert Bryndza | 2016 | Crime, Thriller
6
7.8 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
DCI Erika Foster has just transferred to the Lewisham Row Station in London from Manchester. As soon as she is on the job, she has a case. A socialite is found frozen in the ice in the park. No one knows what happened or where she was prior to her death, but DCI Foster is determined to get to the bottom of the case. When another woman is found dead via the same means, the pressure increases to find the killer. Catching flack from her superiors on her methods of investigations, puts delays in finding the culprit. Will DCI Foster be able to solve the case? Does she have too much going on in her personal life to focus the way she should? Will she fall victim to the killer before she is able to find him?

I read this book as part of a buddy read. It has been on my TBR for a while and I was very interested to read it. For the most part I enjoyed the book, but it wasn't the first thing I grabbed. I got through it and the ending helped that along. I had no clue who the killer was and that helped to keep my interest. In my opinion DCI Foster was the kind of woman we all strive to be like, but at times it seemed like she tried to hard. Maybe that had to do with the what she had going on in her personal life. I would like to read the next book in the series to see if the character is in that same mindset or if after some time she is more focused on her job. This is also the first book I have read by Robert Bryndza and I look forward to more books from this author.
  
TF
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
What’s forever if your bot with the right person? Matchmaking has been around for ages and it’s still present today. In this story Kiley is weeks away from her own forever but is it with the right guy? When she reconnects with a guy she had a major crush on in high school things start to become clear with her fiancé. He wants to dictate her life and make sure she fits his vision of what that role is. The way she dresses and if she works all are decided by him. But that doesn’t last long. My first thought was how do you not see these signs when you're a matchmaker? She should’ve known that he wasn’t the one but to please her father I believe she made herself see him different. Gunner has crushed hard on Kiley since middle school but he believes she’s too different know. When he's thrown a challenge to be on her talk show he can’t resist the time he would get to spend with her. It’s a easy million dollars because the one he wants is the one reluctantly looking for his perfect match. I enjoyed the flow in which the author wrote the characters. The easy banters and how they connected to each other. They say you never forget your first love and it seems to be true for our main characters. I was blown away by this book and how it brought the characters alive. How there lives and emotions where front and center for us all to see. The story went so smoothly that I breezed through it only to want to go back and read more. This is what I look for in a book something that grabs me and doesn’t let go.