Right now I’m dividing my time between working on getting the new website ready to go and a review of Tanya Huff’s Of Darkness, Light and Fire. It’s been taking me forever to update all the links on the review index, but after that is done hopefully progress on the new site will go faster.
I also think I’ve found a new author I must read more by – Freda Warrington. Elfland is wonderful so far – beautifully written and very character driven. Unfortunately this is her only book published in the US until Midsummer Night comes out next month. I looked up some of her other books and they are expensive, but I may have to pick up some of them at some point (I’ll probably start with the ones published by Immanion, a publisher founded by Storm Constantine, when I do).
This week I got 3 review copies.
The Spirit Thief by Rachel Aaron
The first book in The Legend of Eli Monpress series recently came out, and the next book will be out September 26 with the third following at the end of November. I’ve actually already read this one since I got an ARC over the summer (this is the finished copy – yay, page 70 kept falling out of my ARC while I was reading it and it was driving me nuts). It’s in my “to review” stack now.
Eli Monpress is talented. He’s charming. And he’s a thief.
But not just any thief. He’s the greatest thief of the age – and he’s also a wizard. And with the help of his partners – a swordsman with the most powerful magic sword in the world but no magical ability of his own, and a demonseed who can step through shadows and punch through walls – he’s going to put his plan into effect.
The first step is to increase the size of the bounty on his head, so he’ll need to steal some big things. But he’ll start small for now. He’ll just steal something that no one will miss – at least for a while.
Like a king.
The Spirit Rebellion by Rachel Aaron
This is the second book in The Legend of Eli Monpress series, and it will be out September 26. After reading the first one, I was glad to see this one show up in the mail. For the first half of the book, I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it, but the second half was better and there were enough hints of things to come in future installments that I’m curious about what happens next. Plus I do have a soft spot for intelligent thieves, and I’m hoping Eli’s character will be better fleshed out in this book.
Eli Monpress is brilliant. He’s incorrigible. And he’s a thief.
He’s also still at large, which drives Miranda Lyonette crazy. While she’s been kicked out of the Spirit Court, Eli’s had plenty of time to plan his next adventure. But now the tables have turned, because Miranda has a new job — and an opportunity to capture a certain thief.
Things are about to get exciting for Eli. He’s picked a winner for his newest heist. His target: the Duke of Gaol’s famous “thief-proof” citadel. Eli knows Gaol is a trap, but what’s life without challenges? Except the Duke is one of the wealthiest men in the world, a wizard who rules his duchy with an iron fist, and an obsessive perfectionist with only one hobby: catching Eli.
It seems that everyone is hunting for Eli Monpress.
The Rebel Prince by Celine Kiernan
The final book in the Moorehawke trilogy will be available in the US on October 18. Although I did read and review the first book in the series, The Poison Throne, I have yet to read the second book. I’m curious about what happens, but not enough to read the rest of these books before some of the other books on the TBR pile. The Poison Throne was one of those tough books to review – one that I liked reading for the most part but also had some big issues with.
Wynter Moorehawke has braved bandits and Loup-Garous to find her way to Alberon-the exiled, rebel prince. But now that she’s there, she will learn firsthand that politics is a deadly mistress. With the king and his heir on the edge of war and alliances made with deadly enemies, the Kingdom is torn not just by civil war – but strife between the various factions as well. Wynter knows that no one has the answer to the problems that plague the Kingdom – and she knows that their differences will not just tear apart her friends – but the Kingdom as well.
