GWM living in Oregon.I used to love books that would really stretch me, but lately I've needed more solace from the books that I read.
My ratings are as follows: * 5 stars: it's truly a great book, and I'll want to re-read it again and again. * 4 stars: it's a good book, and I enjoyed reading it. I'll probably re-read it. * 3 stars: It's a fine book, just not special. I may re-read it if I'm looking to just relax and not have to think, but I would probably pick up a new book instead. * 2 stars: I finished it, but might have given up if I were in a different mood. * 1 star: I didn't enjoy the book and probably didn't finish it. I wouldn't blanketly recommend it, but it might speak to someone else.
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Although this is somewhat a book about practicing the piano, it will apply to many other instruments as well. It's only 32 pages, so a quick read. Nothing that hasn't been said in other books on practicing, but it's always good to have a reminder.
Another re-read just for fun.
Re-reading this because I just want a fun book to read right now.
I'm not in the mood for this book right now. It's a bit too dark for me at this time. The writing is fine (which actually makes it "worse" in that it's easier to imagine the bad guys).
Content warning It looks like the author introduced who the character who will become Cian's love interest. I was hoping that it would have been a radiant energy mage both to wrap up one loose end and because a radiant energy would play well against Cian.
This feels more like a placeholder book. The author included characters from Blood Omen and Wolfsbane, but they didn't really add much to the plot in this book. Some was set-up for a subsequent book, I think, but that didn't really help this book.
I do really like Cian as a character, though.
I've re-read the other books in this series several times, but I don't really see that happening with this one.
Re-read this before the next book in the series came out.
I really like the characters and the tension in the plot is good but doesn't rely on some huge villain.
I stopped after a couple of chapters. I didn't like the main character, I didn't like the ghosts. Maybe it would have gotten better, but there wasn't enough in the first few chapters to make me want to put in the effort.
Content warning It bugs me when a character has some secret that is supposedly incredibly important, but we don't find out enough in the first book to know whether we actually care about what that secret is.
I didn't really care about any of the characters. Some of the stuff was clever (the AI Bartender), but I never really felt invested in any of the people.
It was hard for me to really understand the main character's motivation. She throws herself into other people's problems but it's not really clear why (other than an off-hand reference to her taking care of people).
Some of the resolution stuff was a bit pat, but that's kind of to be expected with a light read like this.
Fairly predictable, but a nice story with sweet characters.
Some stories were OK, I skipped a bunch, and then just wasn't in the mood.
Got Me Hoping
This is a nice book with characters you care bout and want to spend time with.
This is very similar to his other "Tales of the City" books. If you read those, then you have an idea of what this one will be like.
The one problem I had with this book is that it is written about the past. With the other books, he was basically describing "current events" and the people were all aging along with the books. This is a throw-back to a previous time, and so it felt a bit strange in that way. Not really so different for those who are coming fresh to the books (because for them, they are all in the past), but for people who have read the books as they were released, it just feels a bit odd.
Not the book for me as a hobbyist musician. His focus was on people who are very serious about becoming better musicians. I'm playing an instrument for fun and to exercise my mind, so most of what he talks about isn't useful to me.