I’ll post these in groups of ten books, which means thirty posts over the next few months. Twitter will have the shorter version of this, but here I’ll elaborate a bit.

1) Speechless in Achten-Tan by Debbie Iancu-Haddad – I hate to start this way. I’m going to recommend this one if you like YA, but it’s not going on my TBR. First, though Debbie’s craft is solid, I wanted more exposition. I don’t like the feeling of not knowing what’s going on in the world. More, she uses a first-person present and nothing throws me out of a story faster than first-person present. I couldn’t put my finger on the element of her style that didn’t suit, but that’s a me thing, not a her-thing. 

2) DNF – This has so little exposition, I can’t picture the world at all, and I have no idea why the problem is a problem until pages later. I can’t stay in the story if I don’t have a sense of… anything.

3) A Crown of Blood by Lincoln Law – This one intrigued me. I could still use some more exposition, but I’m going to give it a couple more chapters. TBR

4) DNF – This book’s great sin is that it’s forgettable. I couldn’t remember two days later what I’d read. It had exposition, but it didn’t pull me in to the story. And I can’t tell that anything happened. I don’t need action in the first chapter, but I like to know something.

5) Sul by Jacqui Davis and Katy Grierson – It’s a pass for me. I wanted more exposition, but as with Debbie’s, there’s a style thing I can’t identify that doesn’t work for me. I might come back to this one, but I have no concerns about recommending it to others.

6) Anakisha’s Dragon by Eileen Mueller – TBR. This hit exactly in my sweet spot. I’m looking forward to it.

7) The Vow That Twisted Fate by Katherine Graham – This is a maybe. There were some tone switches that jarred a little, but I’m definitely wanting to know more, so I have to give it longer.

8) DNF – This one is not for me. Hardcore tone switching kept throwing me out of the story, and I still needed more exposition. But very much not for me.

9) DNF – This one wanted to be funny, and unfortunately humor is far from universal. I can tell the joke is there, but I’m not laughing. It’s also a sub-genre I don’t read, so perhaps I’d have found the humor if I read more of the field.

10) DNF – The author needs to put away their thesaurus, because the constant search for new verbs was distracting. I kept stepping out of the story to decide if I thought the verbs were right. Otherwise it was an interesting opening.

Part 1 Summary:

TBRs: 3

Recommends: 2

DNFs: 5