Books Via Ashley

The Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer Time for Series Saturday ! This is one of the new features I'm going to start including on my blog, where I review a series as a whole, rather than just the individual books within it. The Lunar Chronicles is a series that I’ve been hearing about for years . I knew it was a retelling of various fairytales and for some reason, it just really didn’t catch my interest. However, the first book, " Cinder ", was on sale one day for Kindle and I bought it on the fly. It then sat in my "To Read" folder for over a year and a half. One day, I was in a book funk where none of the current books I had out from the library were really satisying the mood and feel I was angling for (I think avid book readers know what I’m talking about). As I scrolled through my "To Read" folder, I saw "Cinder" and thought, "Well, might as well see how this is." Instantly hooked. Set in a somewhat distant future...

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett Synopsis Bulikov was once the city at the center of the most powerful nation on earth, a nation given power by their gods. But then those Divines were killed, and now the tables have turned.  The once great Continent has fallen to poverty and disease, its very reality broken, while the once oppressed Saypuri rule over them. Shara Thivani comes to the city as an unimposing junior diplomat, but secretly she's a covert agent sent to investigate the murder of an esteemed colleague. As she digs through the unrest that boils under the surface of the city, she discovers tangled webs of rebellious plots, and indications that the gods may not all be as dead as they had thought. Review What a book! Bennett's easy prose drew me right into the story. His characters were very relaxed and human, the dialogue subtly humorous. The pacing was very well done, keeping me engaged even while the characters are doing mundane things. Interspersed ...

Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart Synopsis This is the fictionalized true story behind the first female sheriff in the US. In 1914, Constance Kopp and her two sisters are driving into town on their buggy when an automobile crashes into them. The vehicle belongs to no other than Henry Kaufman, a rich and powerful no-good owner of one of the local silk factories. When Kaufman refuses to pay for damages, Constance sues. As a result, she and her sisters are threatened and harassed by Kaufman's gang. Going to the police, Constance finds a friend in Sheriff Heath, who is determined to help the sisters and bring Kaufman in. One of the things he does is give each of the women a revolver and teaches them how to shoot it to defend themselves. Constance also stumbles across another mystery concerning one of the factory worker girls and her son and seeks to solve it. Review I really enjoyed this book. Constance Kopp is an impressive lady (and I like that she was six feet tall!). ...