Grace Draven

The State of the Reader: 12/14/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 11/30/22         The State of the Reader: 3/8/23–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 3

Total: $15.97

Books Finished: 0

Books On Hold: 1

Title: Ecofeminism
Series Title: Critique Influence Change
Authors: Maria Mies & Vandana Shiva
Date Added: July 13, 2020
Date Started: May 3, 2022

Cover of Ecofeminism by Maria Mies & Vandana ShivaMedia: Paperback

I shelved this in order to switch to another research book for a bit.  I got some amazing notes from this one, and obviously intend to go back.

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The State of the Reader: 9/7/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 8/24/22         The State of the Reader: 9/21/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 0

Books Finished: 2

Title: The Ippos King
Series: Wraith Kings
Author: Grace Draven
Date Added: May 25, 2017
Date Started: June 29, 2022
Date Finished: August 27, 2022

Cover of The Ippos King by Grace Draven (Wraith Kings #3)Media: eBook/Kindle

I like how Anhuset and Serovek’s relationship was a foil to Brishen and Ildiko from the first book even as the plot set up from there continued.  Draven really shines when it comes to these slow burn romances.

Title: Truly Madly Guilty
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: February 22, 2022
Date Started: August 22, 2022
Date Finished: September 7, 2022

Cover of Truly Madly GuiltyMedia: eBook/Library

Finished it right at the wire.  The loan expires tomorrow, and there wasn’t a choice to renew.  This was okay.  I’m really familiar with the author’s formula now since I’ve read like five or six of her books.  She has some very boomerish views lol, but I guess that’s to be expected for a white Australian woman of her age.  Moriarity does shine in building up the tension and making you want to know what the hell happened.   It’s similar to how she did Big Little Lies, and her bait-and-switches are always excellent as is her foreshadowing.

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The State of the Reader: 8/24/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 8/10/22         The State of the Reader: 9/7/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 1

Total: $0.99

Books Finished: 1

Title: Dark Places
Author: Gillian Flynn
Date Added: October 4, 2018
Date Started: August 1, 2022
Date Finished: August 21, 2022

Cover of Dark Places by Gillian FlynnMedia: eBook/Library

Woot!  I finished this before it was returned to the library.  I think this is the fastest I’ve read a book, and I’m so glad I did complete it.  I don’t think I could’ve waited on hold and probably would’ve wound up buying it.

I initially gave this four stars, but then I bumped it up to five.  The reason for the four stars was because I didn’t like the MC that much, but honestly?  You’re not supposed to.  Gillian Flynn has a knack for making unlikable main characters because the points she’s trying to make require it, and this book is no different.  Libby isn’t likable.  She has terrible habits.  She steals.  She lies.  She’s a mooch.   She’s also extremely traumatized from what she lived through.

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The State of the Reader: 8/10/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 7/27/22         The State of the Reader: 8/24/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 2

Total: $3.98

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF: 0

Books On Hold: 1

Title: Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness
Author: Da’Shaun L. Harrison
Date Added: February 11, 2022
Date Started: May 2, 2022
Date On Hold: August 1, 2022

Cover of Belly of the Beast by Da'Shaun HarrisonMedia: Paperback
Progress: 13%

This book is too heavy for me right now.  I’ve been struggling with what to watch lately, too.  I know those two sentences don’t seem to fit together, but they do.  There’s been this awkward balance of me needing something that will hold my attention but not be too intense.  Anyway, I’m going to shelve this for a bit and come back to it later.

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The State of the Reader: 7/27/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 7/13/22         The State of the Reader: 8/10/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 2

Total: $2.98

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF: 1

Title: The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Date Added: June 21, 2016
Date Started: June 28, 2022

Cover of The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly BlackMedia: eBook/Kindle

I called it quits, and I think I understand why it has the lower rating.  It’s one of those intriguing at the outset stories that can’t keep up its momentum, and this one is more egregious because the author presents a thing we know has to happen (coffin boy waking up) and she has to maintain interest once that happens.  That can be accomplished by keeping some mystery about him or making him appealing in some other way.  Unfortunately, she does neither.  He’s…kind of a jackass lol, and the only reason either of the characters are interested in him romantically is for the sake of the plot.

I’m also not a big fan of the “fairies vs. humans” motif especially since the Fair Folk are indigenous to the land and, well, yeah, it’s their land.  Not that I think the tourists who wind up on their bad side deserve their fate, but if you’re going to ask me to pick sides in a land war, I’m siding with who was there first.

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The State of the Reader: 7/13/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 6/29/22         The State of the Reader: 7/27/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 0

Books Finished: 0

Books DNF: 0

Books On Hold: 0

Books Reading: 6

Title: The Ippos King
Series: Wraith Kings
Author: Grace Draven
Date Added: May 25, 2017
Date Started: June 29, 2022

Cover of The Ippos King by Grace Draven (Wraith Kings #3)Media: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 16%

Even though it’s not about the original characters, I’m still totally into it.  Draven knows how to write slow burn romance.  It’s not so much enemies to lovers as it is “I’m repulsed yet somehow drawn to you” dynamics and I’m here for it as someone whose attraction to people can change (for good or ill) based on their personality/mien.

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The State of the Reader: 6/29/22

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<–The State of the Reader: 6/15/22         The State of the Reader: 7/13/22–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Books Purchased: 4

Total: $12.87

Books Finished: 3

Title: The Last Anniversary
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: June 3, 2022
Date Started: June 3, 2022
Date Finished: June 22, 2022

Cover of The Last Anniversary by Liane MoriarityMedia: eBook/Kindle

I finished this quickly one, because it was a library book (I just got in under the wire); and two, Liane Moriarity is always engaging.  I really, really wish she didn’t hate fat people so much though :\  I know she’s a middle-aged white lady and that’s the “low-fat and diet everything” generation, but it’s really pervasive.  She also has the “tough it out” mentality about marriages that really should end, but that’s a boomer battle cry, too.  All this sounds like I didn’t like the book when I loved it.  I kind of figured out what was going on, but that doesn’t take anything away from the author’s planning; I’m just kind good at figuring out the pattern of stories lol.  I was hoping one aspect wouldn’t be there, but it honestly only made sense, too.  Moriarity is a master at misleading and misdirection, and this one didn’t disappoint.

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The State of the Writer: 6/26/22

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<–The State of the Writer: 6/12/22         The State of the Writer: 7/10/22–>

A post updated every other Sunday discussing my current writing projects and any completed the prior two weeks.

Finished Projects: 2

Project: Story/Series
Working Title: The High Archon (The Truth Seeker Chronicles)
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Type: Original
Length: Novel
Current Word Count: 11,282
Status: Reorganizing & Worldbuilding
Progress: Figuring out more terms and definitions

It took me a bit to locate a good source for this picture, and I actually had to find one that’s the same model in a different pose.  There is also artwork based on this by Âu Trung at Artstation that I almost took for the actual image.

So who is this anyway?  She’s a minor character from the first novel in the series who’s only mentioned once or twice lol; however, as I was fleshing out the details about my protagonist’s father, I realized I was writing a lot about her and granting her more importance.  I realized I needed to make a page for her, too, but then I ran into a problem…

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The Lightning God’s Wife by Grace Draven (Master of Crows)

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Title: The Lightning God’s Wife
Series: Master of Crows
Author: Grace Draven
Date Added: September 27, 2017
Date Started: October 17, 2018
Date Finished: October 19, 2018
Reading Duration: 2 days
Genre: Fantasy, Short Story, Paranormal Romance

The Lightning God's Wife coverPages: 29
Publication Date: September 17, 2014
Publisher: Self
Media: eBook/Kindle

It hasn’t rained for a quarter of a century, and a dying world gasps for water. Outcast and exiled, the rain priestess Revida rescues a man and his children as they flee from the wrath of a creator god known as the Bitter Dark. But Atagartis is more than a man, and Revida soon discovers the lover she’s known only in dreams has a purpose for her and the tearless grief she’s born for more than two decades.

This short takes place in the same world as Master of Crows, occurring after the first novel in the series.  Silhara and Martisse (the OTP) serve as a framing device for the tale at hand, as she’s telling him the story after they’re both woken up by a storm in the midst of a bad drought.

While I enjoyed reading about Silhara and Martisse again (I love when a deadpan snarker is matched with cool witticism), the Lightning God and Rain Goddess story was (ironically) kind of dry, which is a double shame because I’m pretty certain they were supposed to complement to the sorcerer and apprentice turned lovers from the first book.  The idea was good, but the execution didn’t do anything different with the motifs of *spoiler* warring sibling gods and deities falling in love with humans to whom they eventually grant apotheosis. *end spoiler*   This could be because Draven didn’t have time to flesh out these characters in this short excursion into the world, so if the story had either been longer or actually focused on Martisse and Silhara, it would’ve worked better.

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The State of the Reader: 10/6/21

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<–The State of the Reader: 9/22/21         The State of the Reader: 10/20/21–>

A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list.  Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me!  I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.

Purchased: 10

Total: $58.80

Books Finished: 3

Title: The Husband’s Secret
Author: Liane Moriarity
Date Added: August 18, 2021
Date Started: September 15, 2021
Date Finished: September 22, 2021

Cover of The Husband's Secret by Liane MoriarityMedia: eBook/Kindle (Library)

The more I think about it, the less weird it seems that I like stuff like this.  While I definitely have favorite genres, at the end of the day I just want a good story and Liane Moriarity delivers.  This is one of those where I guessed some of the main points, but it doesn’t take away from my enjoyment, because there are aspects of the situation that could go another way (plus I sometimes just know how a story is going to go).  I am noticing a pattern with this author though.  She likes to have a character wind up with or rather stay with someone I don’t think they should.  That kind of frustrates me, but it is what it is.  I enjoy stories that don’t have easy answers or choices, and Moriarity has the talent to at least have acceptable justification for her characters’ (poor) decisions.

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