November Reads 2014

First off, there’s been some radio silence recently. I just haven’t been feeling things and didn’t want to force anything. I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things soon though, I have taken so many pictures of nail polish that I NEED to upload! Secondly, I managed a measly three books this November. I seriously thought it was going to be one, as I read the first one at the beginning of the month and then nothing until last week. Not only had I lost interest in blogging, but I seriously lost my reading mojo. I am feeling better about it now though and hope to pick up the pace for the final stretch of 2014!

November Reads

Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger

This is the third book in the Finishing School series, a finishing school with a difference. Set upon an airship in Victorian England, this finishing school teaches young ladies to be ladies but also intelligencers. Like all series, I won’t go into the plot but I wasn’t as enthralled as the previous books. I did enjoy the steampunk element but as most of this book wasn’t set in the school and didn’t have all the characters that I love involved, I felt it lacked a bit. Still, it’s a fun YA series, especially if you like steampunk and a tiny bit of fantasy (werewolves and vampires).

 

 

Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop by Jenny Colgan

I’m a big fan of Jenny Colgan. This book actually came out last year but wasn’t in the library so I couldn’t get it out. I thought I’d give it a try to break my slump, as I find Colgan’s books fun, quick and easy to read. And it did the charm. It follows Rosie, who took over her great aunt’s sweet shop. Things are going well with her boyfriend and things seem great. Until a whole bunch of things start cropping up and things get complicated! I was afraid this book might bring along the anxiety I felt after reading the Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe but it didn’t. There’s a third book in the series I will be picking up soon! A perfect cosy Christmas read.

 

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch

Last year I practically swallowed up the Rivers of London series and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this. It’s the next instalment of the PC Peter Grant urban fantasy series and this one sees Peter outside his comfort zone, as he’s leaving London! Well, only temporarily. There was a lot of pros and cons to this book. Cons wise, there was zero development to the MASSIVE cliff hanger at the end of the last book, so this book felt like it was a bit of filler. There was a lot of unanswered questions at the wrap up of the mystery, nothing major and nothing that will affect the future of the series but things that just bugged me a bit. Some of the major characters were missing. We barely saw or heard from Nightingale, which felt a bit like Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix, where we hardly saw Dumbledore. On the plus side, it was interesting to see Peter outside of London, we got to learn a bit more about his mentor Inspector Nightingale, there was developments with Peter and river Goddess Beverly Brook and the book did make me laugh. And there was some good cultural references, two Game of Thrones ones stick out in my head. Overall, it was nice to see Peter and his world again, but I’m just dying to hear more from that massive cliff hanger at the end of Broken Homes.

 

November Stats

Number of books read- 3

Ratio fiction to non-fiction- 3:0

Number of eBooks- 2 (Waistcoats and Weaponry and Foxglove Summer)

Number of books borrowed from library- 1 (Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop)

Number of books from Reading Resolutions- 0

And that’s it! A fairly light and easy month. I did read almost an entire other book but only finished it off today. And there are two other non fiction books I’m reading, neither I’m really feeling, which is why I think I hit a slump as I was avoiding them. Hopefully I’m back in the swing of things and December will end with a bang!