en-US Tue, 01 Nov 2022 20:08:39 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 902715
Northmen have spilled over the border of Angland and are spreading fire and death across the frozen country. Crown Prince Ladisla is poised to drive them back and win undying glory. There is only one problem � he commands the worst-armed, worst-trained, worst-led army in the world.

And Bayaz, the First of the Magi, is leading a party of bold adventurers on a perilous mission through the ruins of the past. The most hated woman in the South, the most feared man in the North, and the most selfish boy in the Union make a strange alliance, but a deadly one. They might even stand a chance of saving mankind from the Eaters. If they didn't hate each other quite so much.

Ancient secrets will be uncovered. Bloody battles will be won and lost. Bitter enemies will be forgiven � but not before they are hanged.]]> 441 Joe Abercrombie 0575077883 C.C. 4 4.35 2007
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/01
date added: 2022/11/01
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy C.C. 5 read-in-2022, nonfiction 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/18
date added: 2022/08/18
shelves: read-in-2022, nonfiction
review:

]]> 18077769 The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.

John RodrĂ­guez (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.

In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Area X's most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.]]> 341 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104107 C.C. 3 3.54 2014
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/09
date added: 2022/07/10
shelves: did-not-finish, fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 944073
Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

]]> 515 Joe Abercrombie 0575079797 C.C. 4 4.21 2006
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/07/10
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2022
review:
Well-written with great characterization, but I cannot be moved to give a single flying F about Jezal. I much preferred to read about Logen, Glokta, and Bayaz.
]]> 36524503 stay dead.

The risen corpses are known as "bone houses," and legend says that they're the result of a decades-old curse. When Ellis, an apprentice mapmaker with a mysterious past, arrives in town, the bone houses attack with new ferocity. What is it that draws them near? And more importantly, how can they be stopped for good?

Together, Ellis and Ryn embark on a journey that will take them deep into the heart of the mountains, where they will have to face both the curse and the long-hidden truths about themselves.]]> 335 Emily Lloyd-Jones 0316418412 C.C. 5 3.99 2019
author: Emily Lloyd-Jones
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/03/18
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 43582648 That awkward moment when an ER doctor has to inform you that you’re pregnant…with his baby.

Three things Lynsey Jones knows about the hot doctor: he’s grouchy, an arrogant jerk, and strangely obsessed with pie.

Three things Dr. Dick knows: he doesn’t talk about his past, he doesn’t do relationships, and the crazy girl in the hospital cafeteria who ate a fistful of French silk pie…is annoyingly irresistible.

After a chance meetup at a bar and a heated cab ride together, things come to a head and now instead of hating each other, they’re horizontal in a bed.

Three months later, the weird cafeteria stalker who crept out of Dr. Dick’s house like a thief in the night, winds up as his patient in the ER after her Tinder date from hell.

Dr. Dick is prepared to keep it cool and professional. That is until her bloodwork reveals that she’s pregnant.

What really throws him for a loop…is that the surprise baby…is his.]]> 307 Amy Daws 1944565302 C.C. 4 read-in-2022, romance 4.04 2020
author: Amy Daws
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/03/03
shelves: read-in-2022, romance
review:

]]> 43425849
The moment I laid eyes on Kyle Kingston I knew he was a mistake. A satisfying, toe curling, hair pulling, best night of my life mistake, but a mistake all the same. I didn’t yet know his name, or who he was, but I knew he was a bad idea.

I take comfort in that, because it means my instincts are still good. Too late, but it’s something.

Because, FYI, I’m pregnant

� and did I mention my baby daddy is both heir to a retail empire and impossible to get ahold of?

I do what any girl would. I break into his Grandfather’s retirement gala by telling the prissy gatekeeper Kyle’s my fiancé. It was a halfway decent plan at the time, trust me.

But it blows up in my face, disastrously so. You see, Kyle Kingston is all about representing the family values his family’s retail empire was founded on. At least in public. In private- well I’ll tell you about that later.

He proposes � a marriage of convenience.

Convenient for everyone but me, because while I’m falling in love with my convenient husband, he’s keeping a billion-dollar secret. From me.]]> 280 Jana Aston 0998244465 C.C. 5 read-in-2022, romance 3.85 2019
author: Jana Aston
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/28
shelves: read-in-2022, romance
review:

]]> 40677587
The next stand-alone installment in the electrifying Immortals After Dark series by #1 New York Times best-selling author Kresley Cole. Venture deeper into the Lore, fierce realm of the immortals—if you dare. . . .

TORMENTED IN UNIMAGINABLE WAYS

Coming off torture at the hands of his warlock captors, Munro MacRieve never expected to find his mate, or to lose her just as abruptly. Driven to desperation, the ruthless warrior uses his enemies� own powers to reunite with her—in the distant past.

STOLEN FROM HER TIME

When a crazed werewolf crashes her wedding, Kereny “Ren� Codrina does what any cunning huntress would do: she captures him. Yet she finds herself softening toward the wounded beast—until he turns the tables and forces her into an incomprehensible future.

CAN A HUMAN AND AN IMMORTAL UNITE IN ORDER TO SURVIVE?

As danger mounts, Munro will do anything to make her undying, even sell his soul to an evil sorceress. But first he must convince his fiery mate that she belongs with him. If seduction means her survival, Munro will use every weapon in his arsenal to possess her—forever.]]> 432 Kresley Cole 0998141437 C.C. 5 4.21 2022
author: Kresley Cole
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/19
date added: 2022/02/19
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, romance, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 34219880 In the Raverran Empire, magic is scarce and those born with power are strictly controlled � taken as children and conscripted into the Falcon Army.

Zaira has lived her life on the streets to avoid this fate, hiding her mage-mark and thieving to survive. But hers is a rare and dangerous magic, one that threatens the entire empire.

Lady Amalia Cornaro was never meant to be a Falconer. Heiress and scholar, she was born into a treacherous world of political machinations. But fate has bound the heir and the mage.

War looms on the horizon. A single spark could turn their city into a pyre.

The Tethered Mage is the first novel in a spellbinding new fantasy series.]]> 438 Melissa Caruso 0316466875 C.C. 5 3.76 2017
author: Melissa Caruso
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/11
date added: 2022/02/10
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 48915408
But when monsters attack the Woodsmen and their captive en route, slaughtering everyone but Évike and the cold, one-eyed captain, they have no choice but to rely on each other. Except he’s no ordinary Woodsman—he’s the disgraced prince, Gáspár Bárány, whose father needs pagan magic to consolidate his power. Gáspár fears that his cruelly zealous brother plans to seize the throne and instigate a violent reign that would damn the pagans and the Yehuli alike. As the son of a reviled foreign queen, Gáspár understands what it’s like to be an outcast, and he and Évike make a tenuous pact to stop his brother.

As their mission takes them from the bitter northern tundra to the smog-choked capital, their mutual loathing slowly turns to affection, bound by a shared history of alienation and oppression. However, trust can easily turn to betrayal, and as Évike reconnects with her estranged father and discovers her own hidden magic, she and Gáspár need to decide whose side they’re on, and what they’re willing to give up for a nation that never cared for them at all.

In the vein of Naomi Novik’s New York Times bestseller Spinning Silver and Katherine Arden’s national bestseller The Bear and the Nightingale, this unforgettable debut� inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology—follows a young pagan woman with hidden powers and a one-eyed captain of the Woodsmen as they form an unlikely alliance to thwart a tyrant.]]> 448 Ava Reid 1529100739 C.C. 4 3.51 2021
author: Ava Reid
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/22
date added: 2022/02/10
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, romance, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 58259552
But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.

Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva's. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.]]> Christopher Buehlman 1250807832 C.C. 5 4.36 2021
author: Christopher Buehlman
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/10
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2022
review:

]]> 43064173 There’s a fine line between lust and hate.

I don’t care that Drew Merritt spent the last year transforming himself from grungy slob to sexy playboy. With messy, dirty blond hair and gorgeous eyes, his looks aren’t the problem.

His mouth is.

And the stupid things that come out of it.

But after an emergency strands us together, and he does his damnedest to take care of me�

Let’s just say there’s one thing we don’t clash on.

And it doesn’t involve talking.

I’ve despised Drew since I met him years ago. One weekend can’t change us that much, can it?

Spoiler alert: It doesn’t.

Except he left me a little keepsake.

And in nine months, I’ll have a surprise for Portland’s most notorious player.]]> 350 Lex Martin 0997513926 C.C. 4 romance, read-in-2022 3.82 2019
author: Lex Martin
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/02/10
shelves: romance, read-in-2022
review:

]]>