Hello!
The kids are back at school and while I didn’t get much done on my Familiar series during the school holidays, I made a conscious effort not to stress out about this. I did get to do a little research for my works in progress, I started this “blog”, I started chatting to other authors for the “Writer Chats” (suss them out here) and I did a bit of reading too:-).
All going well, each month I’m going to write a “from my book shelf” post where I’ll round up what I’ve been reading about (and or watching on TV or DVD). I’ll also do a monthly post updating where I am at with the books I am writing. If you’ve got any book recommendations or authors you’d like me to check out or chat to (or if you’re one) then contact me via the contact page:-)
So without further ado… these are the books I have enjoyed this month.
From the fiction shelf:
I’ll include a couple from December too which I really enjoyed and I’ll indicate which are “indie published” books so if like me, you like to support indie authors you know which to keep a look out for:-)
Romance
- Autumn’s Dance by Sarah Gai (indie) – this is a young adult, contemporary, Christian romance. While I don’t usually read Christian fiction, or young adult, I really really enjoyed this book. I recommend getting tissues if you read it, as I ended up in tears at the local cafe and on explaining the story to my hubby (a very down to earth Aussie country bloke type) he got a little watery-eyed too. So if you like books that tug at the heart strings and you like tortured heroes or heroines, then you’ll enjoy this book. Sarah and I regularly chat, you can check out some of our writer chats here.
Fantasy
- Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas. I really loved this book. Actually, I really love this series, especially after book 2 where the story and characters get more complex. I like the characters, I love how she weaves the plot. In this particular book I found myself obsessed with the romance in one of the sub plots (I do love a tortured romance!!). Weirdly I keep finding these books in the kids’ section in shops like Big W. Why on Earth they stick them in there is beyond me. I really think they need to reconsider that classification.
- A Court of Thorns & Roses by Sarah J Maas. While the other series is more general fantasy (think: witches, dragons and fae) this series is particularly about faeries. I found it interesting and I’m curious to see where it goes in book 2.
Urban Fantasy
- Complicated Blue by PJ Whittlesea (indie): I “met” Paul in an online writers group we are members of (The Alliance of Independent Authors) and I’ll be chatting to him soon for a Writer Chat. We discovered we were both from Adelaide (despite being in this international group, although he now lives in Europe), so I was curious to read this book. Complicated Blue is about a young witch called Anais Blue. If you love witchy stuff you’ll enjoy this one. I really love the mythology Paul created to explain witches in this series -it’s clever and quirky and I enjoyed it. There are a few questions I look forward to seeing answered in the next book in the series too (hurry up writing it Paul!:-)
- Rising Saints High (series Goo of the Gods) (indie): by DP Joynes. Rising Saints High is Dena’s first book (you can check out my first writer chat with Dena here). It’s a fun story where the nerds are the heroes in an angel vs demons kind of battle (I’d describe it as Buffy meets Scorpion and if you like those kinds of TV shows I think you’ll enjoy this:-). Dena’s working on the second book in the series too and so if you read it and love the world, you’ll be pleased to know there is more on the way:-).
Non fiction
- The Successful Author Mindset & Successful Self Publishing by Joanna Penn (indie). I’ve done a short course on self publishing with Joanna Penn (which I enjoyed) and I also like to watch her Creative Penn videos and so I’ve been reading a few of her books too. Both of these books were interesting and easy to read and if you’re just getting started writing and you plan to indie publish then you’ll find these books helpful:-)
Anyway, that’s all for this month’s round up. Now that the kids are back at school and I’m writing again (more about that in the next post or two) I’m not sure how many I’ll get through but I’ve got a few on the list and so I’m looking forward to getting started on it;-).
If you’d like to keep in the loop enter your name and email address below for a monthly update:-)
