Need to C& P a post here

And hopefully going forward everything will mirror from now on.

#20 The House of Binding Thorns by Aliette de Bodard

The second book continues quickly from the previous book and plows right ahead with the scheming of the houses to come on top. This one also has the dragons dealing with schemes and plots and they are working on an alliance with the House Hawthorn. No matter what happens in the books past events always shape both people and future plans. Overall I enjoyed the book and the worldbuilding but for the most part no one ends up with a completely happy ending. I think it brings home the fact that the Houses provide safety in the world but not much happiness.



Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

#21 Final Girls by Mira Grant

The latest novella from Mira Grant is in a new setting. Thanks to advances with VR, a doctor has come up with a new use for it in helping people heal mental wounds. With any new advances, there are skeptics and people who want the technology. As Doctor Webb conducts a doubting Thomas journalist through one of the healing scenarios an industrial spy is downloading the info and sabotaging the demonstration with a bonus on the line to also kill the Webb.
The story uses the idea that scaring yourself can be healing and that is the scenario they use along with drugs during the highly scripted and controlled VR environment but when someone takes over the control and changes everything in order to kill you what will be the outcome.
A great story by Mira Grant as usual.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

#22 Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop

The latest in The Others series has the Courtyard secretly hosting the Elders as they observe the humans that live there. A known troublemaker moves in and is being allowed to stay only because he is related to Lt. Montgomery. His family knows he causes strife and is always looking for the easy way to slide through life. But the Elders want to see what happens. There is progression with Sam and Meg. For the most part this felt more like a book of smaller stories and things happening to lots of people to set up future stories set in this universe. Over all I enjoyed it but I certainly wouldn’t recommend starting here at all in the series.

#23 Phantom Pains by Mishell Baker

The second book in the Arcadia Project series pulls no punches with the characters. Set several months after the previous book, Mille is working at Valiant studios and helping the Arcadia Project hide the fact that there is fey gate in one of the sound stages thanks to the ending of the previous book. While asking for help in possibly cleaning up the sound stage and getting it usable for a producer that wants it very badly instead there is a ghost there and it draws Millie back into working for Arcadia even though she really doesn’t want to give that type of control of her life. Things get complicated rather quickly and Mille is trying very hard to clear a friend of murder charges placed on them by Arcadia and clean up a time bomb of a problem from the last book.

Everything moves fast and yet almost everything in this plot has tendrils that go back way in the past that Millie and the reader know nothing about. I’m very interested to see what happens in the next book with the solution the Arcadia Project in LA came up with to solve the problems.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss