The Year of DNF and other WIPs

So the first month of the year is almost over, thus it seemed like a good time to look up from the list of goals, books, shows, projects, etc., that I had the best of intentions of starting and finishing but now lie half finished and forgotten under a layer of dust and pet hair and make a new list of things filled with good intentions.

As almost always, Crowley is right

I found most of the things that I wanted to accomplish were things I hadn't last year. What was the point of making more goals if I was already surround by piles of Did Not Finish, Works In Progress, and To Be Read.

There is a good chance that someday I will be crushed to death under my TBR pile alone.

At least that's how I am hoping I'll die. #deathgoals

So I decided to start with that, get a handle on my reading. Go through the ones that I had started and then drifted away from like the ghost of a eighteenth century French ballerina off to haunt her duplicitous betrothed in the forest and not finished. Go through the piles of books that I just haven't gotten around to looking at and get them off the floor and either on a shelf or re-homed (Michener why do I have so many of your books? I've never even read you!). Just not buy any more books until I finished the ones I have. That at least should be easy!

I lasted a week.

Damn ebook sales.

You try passing up a sale copy of Alyssa Cole's An Extraordinary Union though. Have you seen the reviews for it? It looks awesome!

Anyway, I had already failed, somewhat gloriously and I was fine with that. I could still go with the second part of the plan which was to actually read through all those DNF books forgotten on the odd side table, under the stack of yarn that needed to be crafted (more on that in a minute), or long forgotten on my ereader when a new JR Charles or Cat Stevens book had shown up.

Yay reading! So that's the plan, alternate books that I have wandered away from with ones that I have been desperately wanting to read. You'll probably be able to tell the difference when reading my reviews.

The second part of this challenge is turning out to be a bit more hands on. Crafting.

So yeah. I have a ton of crafting supplies that were bought for a project and either I had leftovers or that project just never...happened. And now I am in danger of being killed by the fiber arts, and if I am going to die of the arts I'd rather it be by something that involved less googly eyes.

So the yarn will be the first to go. Anything that can't be turned into gifts or made into stuff to be donated will itself be donated at the end of the year. You hear that sub-par red acrylic? You are hanging on by a thread!

Now to writing...sigh

I am soooo close to finishing the first of this last year's Nano. That's the goal...I have the rest of the chapters outlined...it is totally going to happen...now if I could just figure out how to finish the revisions on my other finished draft that would be good.

So there you have it, some steps in the battle of the DNF, WIPs, and TBR specters that haunt me. Now to just keep from wondering off into the haunted forest of distractions...

Review: The Night Circus

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book, but it turned out that it just wasn't for me.

The descriptions of the circus are wonderful, most of the side characters are very interesting, however, the pacing is almost painfully slow. Add in the fact that not even the characters ever get a good answer as to the point of the 'game,' and it gets hard to feel invested in what's going on.
Right as I would start to get draw into the story of one character the chapter would end and the new one would start with the POV of a totally different character.

Again, the settings and descriptions were lovingly written, very interesting, but I found what was supposed to be the love story a bit underdeveloped. I'm not one for the love at first sight trope, and how the way the 'hero' treated some of the other characters made it hard for me to sympathize with him. Add in the nebulous explanation of the 'competition' and I just found myself more irritated than anything else.
A follow-up book from the POV of Poppy and Co would be interesting, but only if the pacing issues were addressed.

Interesting read, just not my wheelhouse.

View all my reviews

Review: A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction

A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting collection of Pratchett's early writing and some of his later short stories. A Blink of the Screen shows the development of Pratchett's tone and abilities, each stories has a intro written by Pratchett and it's neat to see how he notes how he would change the story or how it come about in the first place.

It's a really good read for any fan or writer to see how Pratchett's work developed but kept his tone and feeling throughout.

Quick easy read, and you get a bit of Discworld at the end which is always nice.

View all my reviews

Review: Mad For Love

Mad For Love by Elizabeth Essex
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Quick little novella, Mad for Love is basically a Regency rewrite of the movie 'How to Steal a Million.'

Almost a scene for scene rewrite.
It's a great movie, the retell is sweet but I found it hard to pay attention to as I know the movie so well and I just kept comparing the two.
If you have watched the movie and wished for the under the stairs make out session to be more graphic and longer, than do I have good news for you!

There are a few mentions of the hero's friends, but very little said about them so I don't know if you really need to read this book in order to read any of the other Highland Brides Books. I have the feeling that you don't.

Short read, probably more enjoyable if you haven't seen the movie.

View all my reviews

Review: Forbidden

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was the first Beverly Jenkins book I have read as well as the first 'old West' romance. I do love historicals, but have always steered clear of anything set in this time in the US if I could help it. Knowing about the time period and region has made it hard for me to 'lose myself' in a story.

Perhaps it is due to Jenkins' historical accuracy and focus on a population that we rarely read about but were a huge part of what was going on at the time that I found myself really enjoying this book. Although the romance is the motivating factor for the character's action by the middle of the book, the start of the story is a really interesting tale of a woman, Eddy Carmichael, setting out in search of her dreams against a world completely against her. Honestly, I would have enjoyed reading a book just about her without any romance, however, the relationship between her and Rhine Fontaine added an interesting dimension and issues that I haven't seen in many other books. I might have been more interested in him had I read the first book that he shows up in, from reading other reviews it sounds like he is a character from his sister Sabel's story, a book that I am going to have to look for now.

There are a lot of loose ends that are left at the end in regard to other characters, but that's to be expected in romance books these days as most are part of a larger series. The pace of the story is slow and steady, which got a little irritating for me. I enjoyed the chapters from Eddy's point of view more than Rhine's, but again, that might have to do with not having read any of the other books he is in. Eddy is just such a wonderful, interesting character, and I'd happily read another book all about her setting up her business and making her way in town.

View all my reviews