WWW Wednesday: What Am I Reading? #amreading

On By Teri PolenIn WWW Wednesdays

WWW Wednesday is a meme from Sam at Taking On A World Of Words

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Spells Trouble is written by a mother/daughter team, both with extensive backlists together and individually. I’m only about 20% into this one, but I’m still waiting for the inciting event. Reviews are mixed, so I’m hoping it picks up soon.

Double double, twins spell trouble…

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers–the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

When their mother becomes the first victim in a string of murders, the devastated sisters vow to avenge her death. But it will take more than magic to rein in the ancient mythological monsters who’ve infected their peaceful town.

Now Hunter and Mercy must come together and accept their destiny or risk being separated for good. 

I just finished The Serpent’s Curse. At over 700 pages, this book is like a doorstop. It’s the third in a series that had a promising start, and I honestly thought this was the last book. Once I reached the end, I discovered there’s another. Excellent premise and likable characters, but I feel like some details could be edited out to make for a tighter plot.

Evade the serpent.

Heed the curse.

Rewrite the present.

Esta isn’t a stranger to high-stakes heists. She’s a seasoned thief who has no reservations about using her affinity for time to give her an edge, and she’s trained her whole life for one mission: travel back to 1902 New York, steal the ancient Book of Mysteries, and use its power to destroy the Brink and free the Mageus from the Order’s control.

But the Book held a danger that no one anticipated—Seshat, an angry goddess was trapped within its pages. Now that terrible power lives within Harte, and if given the chance, Seshat will use Esta to destroy the world and take her revenge.

Only Esta and Harte stand in her way.

Yet in their search to recover the elemental stones needed to bind Seshat’s power, Esta and Harte have found themselves stranded in time with a continent between them. As Esta fights to get back to Harte, the Order is no longer the only obstacle standing in her way.

Saving Harte—and magic itself—will put even Esta’s skills to the test. And all the while, another danger grows, one more terrible than both Seshat and the Order combined… 

I’m so excited to get to my next book – Amanda in Malta: The Sleeping Lady. I adored Amanda and her friend Leah in Calgary, so I’m sure they’ll find themselves on another thrilling adventure in Malta.

“Be prepared to learn a lot about the culture while you follow Amanda on her adventure.”—Laura Best, author, Bitter, Sweet

“What a great way for a young person to learn about a culture and to be inspired to experience other countries themselves.”—Irene Butler, author, Trekking the Globe with Mostly Gentle Footsteps

Amanda receives a postcard from her best friend, Leah, and is surprised to learn that she is in Malta with her aunt. Reading between the lines, she senses Leah is in trouble. Desperate to help her, Amanda travels to Malta with her classmate Caleb and his parents.

Amanda is intrigued by this exotic island in the middle of the Mediterranean, full of colourful history, sun-drenched limestone fortresses, stunning beaches and fascinating birds. But…who is killing the protected birds? Who stole a priceless artifact from the museum? And why is Leah acting so strange? She couldn’t possibly be involved in these illegal activities, or could she?

Join Amanda and her friends as they visit ancient temples, an exciting falconry and the enchanting Popeye Village, as they try to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Sleeping Lady.

26 thoughts on “WWW Wednesday: What Am I Reading? #amreading”

  1. I am delighted to see Amanda in Malta is next up on your list. I hope you enjoy this adventure. I just finished reading The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Booker Prize Winner and I can see why. A great example of a character study. So well written. I am currently reading Dis Connected a collection of poems and short stories that are slightly connected. I´m not sure what I will read next. There is so much to choose from. xo

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. Wow, Teri. I don’t know that I would ever tackle a 700-page book. That is a serious time commitment. It sounds as if maybe the book should have been split into two segments. Amanda in Malta is one I have my eye on. A vacation to the Mediterranean sounds heavenly. 🙂 I just finished reading all five books in The Astral Conspiracy series by D.L. Cross and am currently reading Kat Out of the Bag, a murder mystery by Wendy Kendall. Have a great week and here’s to reading!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. It was a definite time commitment, Jan. If it was edited in some areas that would help – and it may be before release. I had an ARC. I finished the third book in the Astral series recently. Such a fan!

      Like

      Reply

  3. 700 is a lot of pages, but I know a lot of fantasy novels run long. Last year, when I was reading Harry Dresden, most of those books came in at over 600 pages (which reminds me I still have three more to read!).

    I’m glad you’re enjoying the Amanda series, too. Those books look so delightful. Happy reading, Teri!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  4. I was wondering why The Serpent’s Curse looked familiar to me, and now I recall I read about half of the first book in the series a couple years ago. It was definitely interesting but it IS very long, and it could have been much shorter! It’s promising to hear that you are enjoying the series, however. Maybe I’ll give it another try!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. I had started another series by PC and Kristin Cast, and it went off the rails by book five. It also took them longer and longer to release subsequent books as the series progressed. It kind of soured me on their work. I hope they got their act together.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. My WWW posts tend to have higher views – I know I’m always interested in what people are reading. I don’t mind a long book if it fits the story, but this one would benefit from a trimming – and it may be by release.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.