Last Books of January
Jan. 31st, 2022 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
under_the_silk_treeHow has the first month of the year been for you guys?
It has been hit or miss for me but I am hopeful that things will soon settle. But honestly probably not...so maybe I should say the way I handle it will hopefully better. I am a fan of routine and so when my current routine changes it always stresses me out so hopefully, I will get used to the new normal soon and then I will be less anxious. *fingers crossed*
Here are the last books of January. I read a lot of books this month mainly because my other hobbies of quilting and writing has kind of fallen by the wayside due to a variety of reasons but I am wanting to pick them back up here soon.
As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other. ~The Conductors
I really enjoyed this book. The magic system was a clever one and the mystery was intriguing. I especially loved the author's worldbuilding and how she set her novel in post-civil war era Philadelphia and then populated it with a great cast of supporting characters. But the real stars of the show were Hetty and Benjy. Hetty is a well written protagonist and I love her relationship with her husband Benjy and how that evolves over the course of the book. The author is also very good at saying so much in the silences between the spoken words. One ding against it would probably be how abrupt some of the writing feels. All in all a very enjoyable book and can't wait till I get my hands on the next one in the series.
When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.
Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.
Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear... ~Goodreads Description
This was such a thrilling ride from start to finish. I just flew through it because I desperately needed to know what happened that fateful day ten years ago and who had brought them all back together in the present day. I thought the author did a great job of switching between the past and present and of getting you invested in the characters. Although all of the characters were a piece of work. I am not a competitive person, so I was surprised by how willing some of them were to push themselves and each other in really bad and awful ways in order to win. No one was completely unlikable but at the same time no one was a saint. The only weak part for me was the motivation the author chose for the killer as it played into stereotypes. Other than that, it was really good.
This was another good book in this series. One nice thing about these books is that it doesn't really matter what order you read them in so I can pick up whichever catches my fancy at the time. I enjoyed the mystery, the characters were interesting. I always enjoyed the episodes that Grady was on the show and so it was nice to get to read about his life now that he is married with a son. I will of course be continuing on with the series.
I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked it overall but there were just a few things didn't quite work for me. First the things that I did like. I enjoyed the mystery. Also, the author created an interesting premise and I liked all of the plant information that was in the book. I think what didn't work for me was the main character didn't seem quite real she was bit too perfect. Like she owned a shop, taught at the local university, and experimented with plants in her basement into the early morning. In addition to all that, she is planning on converting her classic car from gas engine to a hydrogen one because in her words "How hard could it be?" I would collapse from the lack of sleep alone. Plus, the dialogue felt over the top at times. So more than likely I will not be continuing.
Reading Challenges 2022:
Mount TBR: Pretty Poison, The Conductors
LJ Book Bingo A-Z: The Conductors, Pretty Poison
Cloak & Dagger Challenge: Madison Avenue Shoot, The Conductors, Shiver, Pretty Poison
It has been hit or miss for me but I am hopeful that things will soon settle. But honestly probably not...so maybe I should say the way I handle it will hopefully better. I am a fan of routine and so when my current routine changes it always stresses me out so hopefully, I will get used to the new normal soon and then I will be less anxious. *fingers crossed*
Here are the last books of January. I read a lot of books this month mainly because my other hobbies of quilting and writing has kind of fallen by the wayside due to a variety of reasons but I am wanting to pick them back up here soon.
As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Hetty Rhodes helped usher dozens of people north with her wits and magic. Now that the Civil War is over, Hetty and her husband Benjy have settled in Philadelphia, solving murders and mysteries that the white authorities won’t touch. When they find one of their friends slain in an alley, Hetty and Benjy bury the body and set off to find answers. But the secrets and intricate lies of the elites of Black Philadelphia only serve to dredge up more questions. To solve this mystery, they will have to face ugly truths all around them, including the ones about each other. ~The Conductors
I really enjoyed this book. The magic system was a clever one and the mystery was intriguing. I especially loved the author's worldbuilding and how she set her novel in post-civil war era Philadelphia and then populated it with a great cast of supporting characters. But the real stars of the show were Hetty and Benjy. Hetty is a well written protagonist and I love her relationship with her husband Benjy and how that evolves over the course of the book. The author is also very good at saying so much in the silences between the spoken words. One ding against it would probably be how abrupt some of the writing feels. All in all a very enjoyable book and can't wait till I get my hands on the next one in the series.
When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.
Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.
Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear... ~Goodreads Description
This was such a thrilling ride from start to finish. I just flew through it because I desperately needed to know what happened that fateful day ten years ago and who had brought them all back together in the present day. I thought the author did a great job of switching between the past and present and of getting you invested in the characters. Although all of the characters were a piece of work. I am not a competitive person, so I was surprised by how willing some of them were to push themselves and each other in really bad and awful ways in order to win. No one was completely unlikable but at the same time no one was a saint. The only weak part for me was the motivation the author chose for the killer as it played into stereotypes. Other than that, it was really good.
This was another good book in this series. One nice thing about these books is that it doesn't really matter what order you read them in so I can pick up whichever catches my fancy at the time. I enjoyed the mystery, the characters were interesting. I always enjoyed the episodes that Grady was on the show and so it was nice to get to read about his life now that he is married with a son. I will of course be continuing on with the series.
I had mixed feelings about this book. I liked it overall but there were just a few things didn't quite work for me. First the things that I did like. I enjoyed the mystery. Also, the author created an interesting premise and I liked all of the plant information that was in the book. I think what didn't work for me was the main character didn't seem quite real she was bit too perfect. Like she owned a shop, taught at the local university, and experimented with plants in her basement into the early morning. In addition to all that, she is planning on converting her classic car from gas engine to a hydrogen one because in her words "How hard could it be?" I would collapse from the lack of sleep alone. Plus, the dialogue felt over the top at times. So more than likely I will not be continuing.
Reading Challenges 2022:
Mount TBR: Pretty Poison, The Conductors
LJ Book Bingo A-Z: The Conductors, Pretty Poison
Cloak & Dagger Challenge: Madison Avenue Shoot, The Conductors, Shiver, Pretty Poison
no subject
Date: 2022-02-01 01:06 am (UTC)Also, The Conductors looks awesome! Yet another title to add to my TBR list. You always have such interesting titles to review.
no subject
Date: 2022-02-06 05:32 am (UTC)Thank you. I quite enjoyed it I hope you do too.