July 2025 Reading Wrap Up

06 Aug 2025 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I felt like I struggled with my July reading, but when I sat down here to write about it, it turned out that I did finish four books. While this number doesn’t get me ahead on my unrealistic reading goals, it is steady progress that could land me at 50 books read for the year. Three of the four books that I read were audiobooks: Columbus Day by Craig Alanson, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, and To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose (paid links).

The only non-audiobook that I read in July was Artificial Condition, the second book in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (paid links). I have been on medication that makes me tend to fall asleep when I sit/lay down to read, so I think that is part of the explanation for my reading struggles this month. I also had a lot to do at work, so fewer hours of downtime for reading.

Total pages read in July = 1,192.

I’ve been trying to get through The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence, the third and final book in The Library Trilogy (paid links). The book is fascinating and I can’t wait to see how he ends this series. However, it is also a hardcover, and that means that I’m less likely to read it in bed due to the size and generally lower light conditions. The e-book solution to my reading slump was to start The Feeding by Anthony Ryan (paid link). I’ve had trouble getting into this one so far, but in the past few days I’ve been making more steady progress.

Currently reading:

I just started the sixth book (audiobook) in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series – A Breath of Snow and Ashes. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get through it in August because it is 57 hours, 48 minutes long. The other books that I might read in August are shown below.

I’m particularly excited for several of these! The Nightshade God by Hannah Whitten is the conclusion to a series I’ve really enjoyed (The Nightshade Crown) (paid links). You can find my reviews of the earlier books below:

I also found Julie Leong’s cozy fantasy story, The Teller of Small Fortunes, to be a surprising hit with me, so her new stand-alone novel – The Keeper of Magical Things – is also at the top of my upcoming list, thanks to Net Galley. You can find my review here (paid links).

What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller and Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders were also given to me for review courtesy of Net Galley. These are both by authors I’ve read before and these new novels looked exciting. The other books on this list are also at the top of my mind, but I don’t know which ones I’ll start. It seems like every time I have a plan for what to read next, it spontaneously changes!

One of my book clubs has been reading the Murderbot Diaries, so I have the third book, Rogue Protocol, also on my list for this month (paid link). If you are interested in joining our Science Fiction Women of Central Jersey Club discussion on August 24, take a look here.

I was doing so well with my book acquisition problem until yesterday found me at a local Barnes & Noble. I had already picked up The Nightshade God and Lessons in Magic and Disaster, as well as the latest Fairy Loot subscription box installment – A Dance of Lies by Brittney Arena (paid link).

I couldn’t help myself and left the book store with three more stand-alone novels: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell, and The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon (paid links).

For August, I’m hopeful that I’ll get a lot of reading done. I’m having surgery next week and will have some enforced rest. So despite the anticipated drowsiness of pain medications, I should have more time to read!

What are you planning to read for the end of summer? Have you read any of the books I mentioned? Let me know in the comments.

June 2025 Reading Wrap Up

01 Jul 2025 2 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I didn’t do too badly with my June reading, and with the end of June, this also brings us to the halfway point of 2025. Despite my unrealistic goal of 96 books that I set on this post here, I am doing really well with my reading with 25 books completed so far, thereby putting me on track to read 50 books for the year. That is realistically the highest number I’ll ever hit unless I start reading significantly shorter books, quit my day job, or stop doing any writing, exercise, or cooking.

Overall I’m happy with my reading progress for the year so far! I’ve even managed to keep up with my posts and book reviews here (more or less). On top of that, I put together an e-book of one of my own short stories that is one of my favorite things that I’ve written. You can find my story, Renewal, by following this link.

In June, I finished listening to The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as an audiobook. I finally had a chance to pick up the second book in Mark Lawrence’s Library Trilogy with The Book That Broke the World. You can find my review of the first book, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, here. Then I finished up Inverse by Margot Conor, one of the members of my writing group. With my recent back problems, I needed something easy to read to finish up the month, so I jumped into the third book in the ACOTAR series by Sarah J. Maas – A Court of Wings and Ruin (paid links).

Total pages read in June = 2,014.

I’m currently reading only two books. Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day is an audiobook that starts a military science fiction series, and I only have 6 hours left to go. The Book That Held Her Heart is the final book in Mark Lawrence’s Library series, and I’m less than 100 pages into it (paid links).

Looking ahead for the next month, I have a few books that I’m definitely planning to read in July, either for book club discussions or as upcoming releases that I’m reviewing for Net Galley. The ones that are book club picks include To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose and Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells. I received an ARC of The Feeding by Anthony Ryan and an e-book copy of Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R. Weaver from Net Galley to review (paid links).

I expect that I’ll start the next audiobook in the Outlander series with A Breath of Snow and Ashes (#6) sometime in July, and then if I’m doing really well, perhaps the next book in The Wheel of Time series with The Path of Daggers (#8) (paid links). There are plenty of other books that I’ve had on my upcoming reads list, and I may also pick up one of those, depending on my mood later in July.

Of course, I wouldn’t be myself if I didn’t pick up some new books this month. Orbital by Samantha Harvey is about astronauts and won the Booker Prize recently, so I picked this up in audiobook format. It’s quite short (5 hours), so I might use it to break up my Outlander listening (paid link). Artificial Wisdom is one of the books I already mentioned receiving from Net Galley.

After I enjoyed The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong so much (review here), I was ecstatic to see that the publisher approved me for a copy of the author’s upcoming book, The Keeper of Magical Things, on Net Galley. Then the latest surprise book that I received from Fairy Loot is the new bestseller Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. I’ll put a coupe of photos of the special edition below.

How have you done with your own reading goals for the year so far? What books are you most looking forward to reading later this year? Let me know in the comments!

Book Review – The Fiery Cross

20 Jun 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have finished another book in the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. The Fiery Cross is the fifth book in the series (paid links), and you can find my reviews of the earlier books in the series below:

  • #1 – Outlander (review here / purchase link here)
  • #2 – Dragonfly in Amber (review here / purchase link here)
  • #3 – Voyager (review here / purchase link here)
  • #4 – Drums of Autumn (review here / purchase link here)
I listened to the audiobook edition of this.

Here is the blurb:

The year is 1771. Claire Randall is still an outlander, out of place and out of time. But now she is linked by love to her only anchor: Jamie Fraser. They have crossed oceans and centuries to build a life together in North Carolina. But tensions, both ancient and recent, threaten members of their clan.

Knowing that his wife has the gift of prophecy, James must believe Claire, though he would prefer not to. Claire has shared a dreadful truth: there will, without a doubt, be a war. Her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through perilous years ahead – or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes.

This fifth book in the series took me a lot longer to listen to than the previous volumes. I think that my audiobook brain became fatigued and I had to take a break to “read” some other novels before I could finish this one. It’s not that this wasn’t still an enjoyable book. The beginning felt like it was developing a lot of the underlying character relationships and politics for a payoff later in the series.

The American Revolution is still a few years away at the time of this book, and Claire and Jamie have settled in to a more routine life as settlers at Fraser’s Ridge. I felt like the problems that they encountered in this book were not as large as in the earlier books, so the tension was lower overall.

The historical details are still wonderful. I remember in particular how Claire thinks to herself about the maggots that she uses to help treat one of Jamie’s wounds. She has to make sure that these are not the New World screwworm, because this species will eat live tissue as well as dead. This particular insect has been in the news lately because in modern times it has been eliminated from North and Central America, with a few incursions that are closely monitored. It is these small details that creates a realistic vision of the world that these characters inhabit.

I did enjoy getting to see more of the quiet conversations that let some of the less developed character relationships grow. Like in earlier books, the author also tosses in a few short passages where the characters contemplate the nature of time travel and the core question of whether it is possible to change events and impact the future. The reader is left guessing about this question, but I like to see that the characters question this.

I’m going to start book #6, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, soon, although maybe not until July (paid link). I have made it a little further through season 1 of the show, and will be watching more in the upcoming weeks.

What is the longest book series you have read? What keeps you reading and what makes you lose interest? Let me know in the comments.

You can find more of my book reviews here.

May 2025 Reading Wrap Up

09 Jun 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I did a little better with my reading in May, finishing five books total. Of those books, one was the massive fifth book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series – The Fiery Cross. I also finished the newest book in the Hunger Games world – Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. I should have reviews of these up in the next few weeks (paid links).

Two of the books that I read in May were a bit shorter – Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and All Systems Red (first in The Murderbot Diaries series) by Martha Wells. I had wanted to read these award-winning books for a while, and the start of the TV series on Apple TV got me to finally pick up All Systems Red. The last book I squeezed in for the month was Verdant Divided by Doc Honour, the second book in the Empathic Humanity series (paid links).

A scene from Apple TV’s Murderbot show.

For June so far, I have been listening to The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as a significantly shorter audiobook than anything in the Outlander series. I should finish that in the next couple of days. I’m reading Inverse by Margot Conor on my Kindle, and I have been resisting the urge to read more books at once (paid links).

Looking ahead for the rest of the month, I have some of the same books that I had posted for reading in May, because I will just never have enough time to read what I want to. First up is The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence. For my next audiobook, I’m going to listen to Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day by Craig Alanson. Of course this is the start of another (18 book) series (which I don’t need to become invested in, but oh well), but it was recommended by my brother. After that, I’m not sure which books I’ll pick up, but you can see some of my options in the graphic below (paid links).

I might need to immediately finish Mark Lawrence’s Library Trilogy with the final volume, The Book That Held her Heart, depending on how the second book ends. Or I could delve back into ACOTAR with the third book, A Court of Wings and Ruin, by Sarah J. Maas. I think that both Quicksilver by Callie Hart and The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson are stand-alone novels, which makes a nice one-time commitment. I love reading long series, but well… they’re really long sometimes (paid links).

Depending on how the month goes, I could also plunge into the second book in Ed McDonald’s Redwinter Chronicles, with Traitor of Redwinter. Will I be ready to commit to another Outlander volume? The sixth audiobook, A Breath of Snow and Ashes , is nearly 58 hours long (paid links).

Because I can never have enough books, here are my new acquisitions that I have to squeeze into my reading plans somewhere.

What Fury Brings by Tricia Levenseller was sent to me as an ARC from NetGalley. I’ve enjoyed this author’s other books and this looks to be her first foray into more adult fiction. I received The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig through my Fairy Loot subscription box. I’ve been hearing a lot about this book recently, and this will be a new author for me to read. Lastly, I was feeling sorry for myself with some back problems, so I picked up this special edition of Swordheart by T. Kingfisher to help make myself feel better. It is very pretty, and the green-edged pages are calling to me (paid links).

How do you decide what to read next? How do you resist acquiring more books when you already have too many? Let me know in the comments.

March/April 2025 Reading Wrap Up

30 Apr 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Somehow March flew past and I now find myself sitting at the end of April, but with many fewer books read that I would have liked. This is not truly a surprise, as I always start off my year of reading strongly, then falter as other responsibilities turn up. I’m hoping to have cleared out some of those tasks though and perhaps May will be a better month for me in terms of reading and writing.

I did finish three books in March and April. These were Sistersong by Lucy Holland, A Court of Mist and Fury (book #2 in the ACOTAR series) by Sarah J. Maas, and A Crown of Swords (book #7 in The Wheel of Time series) by Robert Jordan (paid links). The one that got me bogged down was A Crown of Swords, coming in at 880 pages, but now I can say that I’m halfway through The Wheel of Time. I never made it past book #8 in the past.

I’m still slowly working my way through the Outlander series with book #5 – The Fiery Cross (paid links). When I last checked, I had about 20 hours of the audiobook left to go. I need to be better about putting this on when I’m doing mindless housework or cooking. When I leave it only for times I am driving, I’m not making much progress.

I just started Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher and Sunrise on the Reaping, the new Hunger Games novel by Suzanne Collins, and I think these will both be quick reads (paid links).

What else might I read in May? This is my list, in rough order. First up will be Verdant Divided (Empathic Humanity #2) by Doc Honour and Inverse by Margot Conor, both novels written by authors in my critique group. Then I’m excited to turn back to Mark Lawrence’s Library series with #2 – The Book That Broke the World (paid links).

I may need to take a break from Outlander once I finish book #5, and Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day by Craig Alanson is a space opera series that was recommended to me by my brother. I picked this up on audiobook and it certainly looks different than Outlander. If the month is going well, then I might get to the other books on my list: The Courting of Bristol Keats by Mary E. Pearson, Traitor of Redwinter (The Redwinter Chronicles #2) by Ed McDonald, and A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon (paid links).

Somehow with all of these books that I haven’t read yet, I still picked up some new books in the past few months. My recent acquisitions through the monthly subscription box, Fairy Loot, include Immortal by Sue Lynn Tan, The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amelie Wen Zhao, Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake, and This Monster of Mine by Shalini Abeysekara (paid links).

I also received The Book That Held Her Heart by Mark Lawrence, an ARC of The Feeding by Anthony Ryan (through NetGalley), Quicksilver by Callie Hart, and Vault’s Promise by Cameron Coral (paid links). I’ll have to fit these into my reading plans somehow!

What have you read lately and enjoyed? What books are on your to-be-read list that you can’t wait to start? Let me know in the comments.

Book Review – The Black Bird Oracle

07 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I have been a fan of Deborah Harkness’ All Souls series, and recently finished watching the TV show based on her work. So of course I had to pick up her newest installment in the series, The Black Bird Oracle (paid links).

You can find links to each book as well as my reviews here:

  • A Discovery of Witches (book here; I didn’t write a review for this one)
  • Shadow of Night (book here; review here)
  • The Book of Life (book here; review here)
  • Time’s Convert (book here; review here)
I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.

In this stunning new novel, grand in scope, Deborah Harkness deepens the beloved world of All Souls with powerful new magic and long-hidden secrets, and the path Diana finds at Ravenswood leads to the most consequential moments yet in this cherished series.

This book picks up in the aftermath of the previous books, so it would not make sense for someone unfamiliar with the series to start with this one. The opening scenes were promising when Diana receives a mysterious message from a previously unknown great-aunt. However, this book unfortunately failed to deliver on this strange message and other threats against Diana and Matthew’s family.

This novel suffered from a constant lack of conflict and danger. Diana’s relatives turn out to welcome her and her family as they invite her to learn the new power of higher magic. When Diana is challenged by a witch in the local coven, I hoped that something interesting would result. Yet the challenge ends when the other witch just gives up and walks away – WTH?

The Congregation has announced that they intend to test Diana and Matthew’s children for an affinity for higher magic. This threat looms over the entire story, but in the end I found myself wondering why they were even that worried. This is apparently a standard test that the Congregation does for all children suspected to be so gifted. When it actually happens, it turns out to be a non-event.

I felt like the purpose of this entire book was to set up another larger story arc. However, this made The Black Bird Oracle drag to the point where I found myself not caring about what happened in this novel. I’m sad that this book was such a disappointment and I don’t think I’ll be as eager to read more in this series.

This was the first book in this series where I listened to the audiobook edition. Jennifer Ikeda was the narrator and did a good job echoing Diana from the TV series. It took me a little time to adjust to how she voiced Matthew.

Have you read The Black Bird Oracle? Do you agree with my review or disagree? Let’s chat in the comments!

You can find more of my reviews here.

Book Review – Dawn

30 Jan 2025 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , ,

I read Dawn by Octavia E. Butler for a book club discussion at the end of 2024. I had too many physical books that I needed to read, so I listened to this one as an audiobook, narrated by Julienne Irons. Dawn is the first book in the Xenogenesis or Lilith’s Brood series (paid links).

I previously read Parable of the Sower by this same author (paid link) and you can find my review of it here.

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the vast spaceship of the Oankali. She discovers that the Oankali—a seemingly benevolent alien race—intervened in the fate of the humanity hundreds of years ago, saving everyone who survived a nuclear war from a dying, ruined Earth and then putting them into a deep sleep. After learning all they could about Earth and its beings, the Oankali healed the planet, cured cancer, increased human strength, and they now want Lilith to lead her people back to Earth—but salvation comes at a price.

Hopeful and thought-provoking, this post-apocalyptic narrative deftly explores gender and race through the eyes of characters struggling to adapt during a pivotal time of crisis and change.

I have so many thoughts about this book! It made for a great discussion with the book club. This is a hard book to say that I enjoyed because it was quite an uncomfortable read. The Oankali claim to care for the humans that they saved and to have our best interests in mind. But Lilith discovers that if she disagrees with the aliens, they can never accept her arguments and will keep gaslighting her and manipulating her until she is ultimately forced to agree with their decisions. All of her agency is an illusion. Yet at the same time, how much does she owe on behalf of humanity to the aliens who saved our species and our planet from our own destruction?

This book also deals with the topic of sexual consent quite a lot for being first published in 1987. The aliens claim that their species needs to exchange genetic information with each new species that they encounter as they travel through the galaxy. This means that they ask Lilith to have a part-human, part-Oankali baby as part of their conditions for returning the surviving humans to Earth. The aliens also act as match makers, trying to set her up with different men, oblivious to her own choice in this. If the price of mankind’s survival is to interbreed with aliens, then is our species truly surviving?

I loved how Lilith becomes an unreliable narrator to the other humans when they awaken. Her initial doubts about the aliens are duplicated by the other humans and she is self-aware enough to realize how she must sound to them, but cannot convince them that she isn’t under the control of the Oankali (because she is, even if she tries not to be). The factions that developed between the different people and how the group acted when placed into this situation was fascinating.

I thought that some of the science ideas in this book were also novel. One example was that the Oankali are fascinated with cancer and how it allows cells to proliferate. They cure Lilith of a tumor she didn’t know that she had, as well as eliminate her genetic predisposition to cancer. They use cancer as inspiration for their own medical advances.

This story continues in two more books, Adulthood Rites (#2) and Imago (#3), and I plan to read those later this year (paid links). Have you read anything by Octavia E. Butler? Let me know in the comments!

Find more of my reviews here.

Books to Read in 2025

17 Jan 2025 4 Comments

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Each year, I take the books that I didn’t have time to read and roll them over onto my to-be-read list for the next year. This results in a constantly growing list of books for each successive year, so some judicious trimming is always needed. I also set myself a number of books to read for the year and note that in my Goodreads Challenge.

For 2025, I had to pare down my initial list of books to read (no surprise, there). I decided to aim to read two books a week which is eight a month, multiplied out for the year equals 96 books. While I might be able to maintain that pace for one month, I know that it isn’t a realistic goal for the year. Several factors contribute to my reading speed, mainly the length of some of the fantasy books that I like. I try to space these epics out, but when I’m trying to finish something like The Wheel of Time series, I have to keep going back to these long works frequently.

After cutting several dozen out, here is my current list of 94 books I plan to read in 2025:

I know that this list will change as the year goes on. I was able to account for some upcoming releases I’m already aware of, and some book club picks, but I can’t know all of those yet. I intentionally cut out new series as much as I could manage, trying instead to focus on reading those I’ve already started.

Looking back at this same post from 2024, I had 113 books on that list and read 24 of those (and 36 books total), so I generally stick with my initial to-be-read list for 2/3 of what I read throughout the year.

I want to make sure I read a couple of “classics” this year, so I’ve included Frankenstein and The Lord of the Flies. My graphic also fails to include a few books that I already finished this year pictured below:

How do you choose which books you’re going to read? What books are you most excited about reading in 2024? Let me know in the comments (above)!

2024 Reading Year in Review

14 Jan 2025 1 Comment

by Clare in Books Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I’m a bit late with this post, but I still wanted to write up my annual look back at what I read for the year. First off, here is a nice graphic from Goodreads to summarize:

A few other stats that Goodreads provided were that the shortest book I read was The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente at 155 pages, while the longest was Lord of Chaos (The Wheel of Time #6) by Robert Jordan at 1,011 pages.

The average book length that I read was 481 pages, although I think this is not a terribly accurate statistic, because I don’t always put the correct edition of what I’ve read into Goodreads.

My total number of books read in 2024 is down a little compared to recent years as you can see below:

  • 2023 = 48
  • 2022 = 39
  • 2021 = 43
  • 2020 = 39
  • 2019 = 43

So what did I read in 2024? Here is a graphic of all 36 books (not quite in reverse chronological order that I read them):

Here are a few more interesting statistics about what I read in 2024:

  • Science fiction or fantasy genre = 28
  • Historical fiction = 4
  • Mainstream = 2
  • Genre fiction with some romance = 14
  • Non-fiction = 2
  • Classics = none
  • Audiobooks = 6
  • Graphic novels = 1
  • Part of a series = 25*
  • Stand-alones (or could be read as one) = 13
  • Completed reading of a series OR kept up with the series as each book was published = 5*

* I counted individual books here.

I’m counting The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo as fantasy and NOT historical fiction, because magic is a significant component of the story. The Outlander series fills out the historical fiction because although these books contain time travel, the plot mostly concerns other aspects.

I made a note that some of these books contained an element of romance, but none were pure romance novels. I often make an effort to read something considered a classic, but I think that the closest I came in 2024 was God Emperor of Dune, and that only fits under classic science fiction by its proximity to the original Dune novel.

What were the BEST books I read in 2024? Here are my top three:

You can find my reviews of each of these, as well as (paid) links if you want to pick up your own copy:

  • Yellowface by R.F. Kuang: review here, link to purchase here
  • The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune: review here, link to purchase here
  • Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: review here, link to purchase here

Some of my other favorites from the year are below, also with links where applicable:

  • Starter Villain by John Scalzi: review here, link to purchase here
  • Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon: reviews (Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn), link to purchase (series) here
  • Starling House by Alix E. Harrow: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten: review here, link to purchase here
  • The Core by Peter V. Brett: review here, link to purchase (series) here
  • Dawn by Octavia E. Butler: review coming soon, link to purchase here
  • Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen: review here, link to purchase here

Up next will be my look ahead at my reading for 2025: too many books, unrealistic goals, starting more series than I can finish, and much more!

If you are on Instagram, remember to take a look at my bookstagram account there and follow me: @ihazabookproblem

Book Review – Drums of Autumn

30 Oct 2024 2 Comments

by Clare in Books, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have finished another book in the Outlander series, by Diana Gabaldon. Drums of Autumn is the fourth book in the series (paid links), and you can find my reviews of the earlier books in the series below:

I listened to the audiobook edition.

Here is the blurb:

What if you knew someone you loved was going to die? What if you thought you could save them? How much would you risk to try?

Claire Randall has gone to find Jamie Fraser, the man she loved more than life, and has left half her heart behind with their daughter, Brianna. Claire gave up Jamie to save Brianna, and now Bree has sent her mother back to the Scottish warrior who was willing to give his life to save them both. But a chilling discovery in the pages of history suggests that Jamie and Claire’s story doesn’t have a happy ending.

Brianna dares a terrifying leap into the unknown in search of her mother and the father she has never met, risking her own future to try to change history . . . and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past . . . or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong.

I thought that this installment of the series took longer to get started, but ultimately brought the characters together in new and more complicated ways. This book also added more time spend in different viewpoints, with Brianna and Roger becoming more involved in the central plot. Thankfully, the trans-Atlantic journeys in this volume went by in fewer pages than that in the previous book.

Many of the problems that the characters encounter could have been easily solved if they had been more open about talking to each other. Unfortunately, certain assumptions are made that nearly lead to catastrophe. But without circumstances like that, we wouldn’t find conflict and tension in stories, which would make them a lot less interesting to read.

In the third book, Voyager, and again in this one, the characters speculate on the nature of their time travel. This aspect of the series starts out as a completely mysterious occurrence, but as they try to figure out how to intentionally travel through time, I have to wonder how this will play out in future books.

I just started the next book, The Fiery Cross, so I’ll be back with a review on that one in 6 to 8 weeks (paid link)!

Have you read any of the Outlander books? Have you watched the show? I just saw the first episode of the first season last week (for the second time). Let me know in the comments (above).

Find more of my reviews here.

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