Murder's Snare

 Hiya Bookworms,

Today book 23 from The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan by Paul Doherty.

What we find in this book? Few gruesome murders, nice splash of politics, some greedy people and some who tries to have their life kinda back on track (by helping others or by vengeance).

Story starts in 1358 in Normandy where the free company called Via Crucis sweeps into peaceful village Avranches and leaves only death and destruction behind, then we finding ourselves in 1382 London where brother Athelstan is helping Coroner Cranston to find the truth and culprits of few murders (all connected to Via Crucis). 

In background we have 'big politics' as France and England are trying to negotiate a truce.

In between we have day to day 'problems' of Athelstan's parishioners and how he's helping them.

Overall enjoyable, solid 4* read for me.

Szpony i kly anthology

 Hiya Bookworms,

Today something from my homeland - Szpony i Kly - anthology of short stories inspired by Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher saga - result of writing competition from few years back announced by Nowa Fantastyka magazine.

We back with this book from our latest holiday in Poland. I did read Witcher (Wiedzmin) in 90s as a young person between secondary school and university and love it.

I was bit worried about this book... But honestly I shouldn't 😁. Maybe it's not written by Mr Andrzej but them guys are not half bad and as message from Witcher's creator on the book cover says few of these authors have a real writing potential.

I enjoyed reading this stories, some were sad, some made me giggle, some were pure delight to read. 

Overall this is solid read and has 5* from me. 

Shattered Sea by Joe Abercrombie part 3

 Hello Bookworms,

So.. Today Half a War - last installment of Shattered sea series.

We are meeting 'old' friends here (Thorn, Koll, Yarvi, Blue Jenner) and new ones: Princess Skara of Throvenland and Raith - sword-bearer to Grom-gil-Gorm.

More fighting, bloodletting, bit of love, friendship and... betrayal - epic scale one. But... will this betrayal be seen/found by everyone in this story? Who turned out be a traitor? If you didn't read this book - who is your main suspect? If you did - was it a surprise for you? I smelled something fishy in all these skirmishes, bigger and smaller attacks here and there, had few characters in mind, cause each of them wanted something real bad.

Nice finish of the series.

Solid 4*. 

More crime stories from Agatha Christie

 Heya Bookworms!

I think I'm addicted to Agatha Christie writing LOL!

This month so far I read two of her books

Why didn't they ask Evans? Fontana published paperback I found in charity shop, one of few novels without Poirot, Miss Marple or any other Christie's well known detectives. Here we have two young people - Bobby - son of a pastor and Fran - or we should say Lady Frances - girl from noble family. They are friends who trying figured out who killed and why. Totally enjoyable read - just my opinion :)

The man in the brown suit - have it on my kindle :) First book with Colonel Race. Interesting bit in here is that Race is not so prominently exposed here, he is more a background person, mostly only mentioned by other characters in this story. Good read for sure if you ask me, but I understand people can have different opinion.

Both have strong 4* from me.

Lives of Bitter Rain

 Hi Bookworms,

Today another Netgalley position on my reading list. Short novella by Adrian Tchaikovsky called Lives of Bitter Rain.

This novella is a part of The Tyrant Philosophers series and telling us a story of growing up of Angilly - child of Pal soldiers who by sequence of accidents and sort of wrong life choices lead her to Outreach.

If you read this series you already met Angilly in Days of Shattered Faith which still awaiting my attention...

I do like Angilly, her live is strange really, I'm not sure she really ever had a choice to be someone else...

This story is very compact if I can use this wording, I would like it much more with bit more dialog, but I understand the author wrote it to give us a chance to find bit more about Angilly without writing next long story from this universum.

I gave it strong 3.5*.

Bookshops and Bonedust

 Hi Bookworms,

Did you read Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree? Bookshops and Bonedust is prequel to this story.

I read Legends.. over a year ago and enjoyed it totally, because come on how to not enjoy a book with ogre girl who worked with sword and decided to stop and be a coffee shop owner :)

This one

telling us bit more about Viv before and is a gem :) I love it :) We have our ogre girl here and ratkin and another ogre and dwarf and bookshop and bakery and I'm not telling more, just read it peeps!

Can't wait to have a chance to read a sequel Brigands and Breadknives which is planned to be published this year.

Tempest's Queen

 Hi Bookworms,

Today another book I read thanks to Netgalley: Tempest's Queen by Tiffany Wang.

This book is a sequel to Inferno's Heir I had a chance to read last year and I can say I enjoyed this one as much as the first book.

Main character of both is Teia princess and later a queen of Erisia. Book 1 tell us the story of a girl who can control two elements and because of that her half-brother - soon to be king - want to have her out of his way (killed). Teia joined the rebels to ensure her own safety by betraying them to her half-brother, but meantime finding friends and... one formidable enemy.

In Tempest's Queen we are finding out what's happened sometime after Teia is crowned Queen of Erisia and she's travelling to Shaylani - her mother home country to warned her cousin about threat from her archenemy Lehm.

I can say it is solid read with right amount of action where you can find friendship, love, manipulation, betrayal and more. 

Both books have solid 4* from me.

The Summer War

 Hiya Bookworms,

Today short novella from Naomi Novik I had a chance to read thanks to Netgalley.

It's sort of fairy-tale like story about Celia who discovering her talent to magic the day her beloved older brother left home.

Book blurp telling us that Celia cursed her brother out of childish anger and then with passing time trying to find a solution to undo this and she's finding out the truth about the old war between her people and their immortal neighbors the Summerlings. Now with help of her other brother she has a chance to undo the curse and heal the war-torn land. 

Whole novella is just bit more then 100 pages long and I can truthfully say fast and nice read when you have some time spare during travelling. I read it when sit in train during my holiday travels.

Story has few twists and giving us a chance to find out more about Celia, her brothers and her father before its final. Characters are nicely written, not 'flat' and I definitely like how this story builds up and how its finished. 

Solid 4* from me here.