Just like March, I finished one book on the first of the month and just missed 5 books for the month. This is a little late, but I decided to post it anyway since I’ve decided to try to say a little bit about each book in these each month – just in case you don’t want to read the whole verbose review.
Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente (Review)
It’s Catherynne M. Valente, which means it’s a pretty awesome book – incredibly well-written, clever, and creative. I loved the basis on Russian folk tales and the way it was written, both the prose and the wording. If I’d been able to connect to the characters a little more and had enjoyed the last part of the book as much as the first, I would have loved it at least as much as The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden (which remains my favorite of Valente’s books so far). Overall, it’s a fantastic book.
Eon by Alison Goodman (Review)
This one was incredibly difficult for me to put down, in spite of some issues I had with it. Although I didn’t love the characters, I did have a lot of fun reading the story plus it featured a couple of things I loved – an Asian-based fantasy setting and some gender issues. It was riveting enough that I read the sequel soon afterward (this would be the book that I finished on May 1 – well, technically 3:00 AM on May 2nd because I couldn’t put it down – and I absolutely LOVED Eona).
Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly (Review)
A lot of Barbara Hambly’s books have been out of print for a while but were recently re-released as ebooks. Dragonsbane was one of these and it was my second ebook I’ve read (yes, I’m still more of a paper book reader even after trying this one on the Kindle). It was a very interesting fantasy book that had a very complex main female character, torn between her studies and love. What started as a quest to slay a dragon turned into a less conventional story, and it had a very memorable ending. There was some slow pacing and I didn’t find the part of the story with the villainess quite as intriguing, but it did make me want to read more by Hambly.
Passion Play by Beth Bernobich (Review)
This debut novel had some issues and largely seemed to be setting up the rest of the series, but I still found it to be a page-turner for the most part. A lot of the politics took place behind the scenes through conversations and letters, but I grew to really like the main character and I enjoyed reading about the discussions she had. There was enough to like about this book that I’m really excited about the potential for the rest of the series and the YA novel the author has coming out later this year (Fox and Phoenix), particularly since I thought the related short story “River of Souls” was great. Some may have issues with some of the content in the first part of the book (described in more detail in the review).
Favorite book of the month: Deathless, which was quite incredible.
What books did you read in April? What did you think of them? Any particular new favorites?
