Marianna

Tyrion Lannister sounds much less handsome than Peter Dinklage is in the show:

"Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Tywin’s brood and by far the ugliest. All that the gods had given to Cersei and Jaime, they had denied Tyrion. He was a dwarf, half his brother’s height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs. His head was too large for his body, with a brute’s squashed-in face beneath a swollen shelf of brow. One green eye and one black one peered out from under a lank fall of hair so blond it seemed white."

 But he is just as clever so who cares?! :)

“Remember this, boy. All dwarfs may be bastards, yet not all bastards need be dwarfs.” And with that he turned and sauntered back into the feast, whistling a tune. When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.

Halfway across the bridge, Jon pulled up suddenly.

“What is it, Jon?” their lord father asked.

“Can’t you hear it?”

Bran could hear the wind in the trees, the clatter of their hooves on the ironwood planks, the whimpering of his hungry pup, but Jon was listening to something else.

“There,” Jon said. He swung his horse around and galloped back across the bridge. They watched him dismount where the direwolf lay dead in the snow, watched him kneel. A moment later he was riding back to them, smiling.

“He must have crawled away from the others,” Jon said.

“Or been driven away,” their father said, looking at the sixth pup. His fur was white, where the rest of the litter was grey. His eyes were as red as the blood of the ragged man who had died that morning. Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.

“An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. “This one will die even faster than the others.”

Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look. “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said. “This one belongs to me.”

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I've been re-watching the TV series and it really made me want to try reading this book again.

I tried listening to the audiobook a while ago but the voices of actors from the TV series are already "attached" to the characters and I couldn't stand listening to the narrator's interpretation of them.

This time I'll be reading it for myself. I can "hear" whatever voices I want this way! :P

I'm especially interested in finding out more about the direwolves. For understandable reasons they are rarely seen in the TV show. But a book is not limited by the cost of graphic designers and well trained animals; I can't wait to see the direwolves in their true glory!

I don't remember much of the storyline from when I watched it as a kid so I started from the very beginning.

I'm up to episode 13 and this Tuxedo Mask guy is really getting on my nerves!

He always comes when the girls are acting their stupidest and steals all the glory!

So he shows up once again in episode 13 only now he's fighting the bad guy, Jadeite. In the process they both fall into the ocean.

Epicness ahead:

"Instead, he delivered me to my family."

Someone, just please...

I'm not a native speaker of English although it is the only language I consider myself to be "fluent" in.

I've been living in Russia for three years now so I haven't been speaking English. At all.

Now, when I write I'm hesitating more and more with word and punctuation placement. It's getting a bit stressful, actually!

This post is a plea for assistance.

If you notice something that is grammatically incorrect or an annoying punctuation mistake in a review please tell me.

I know it's awkward to correct someone out of the blue so I'm telling you in advance: I won't get offended!

Let's make it a game!

This is the type of book I like best. The type that lets you slowly learn about the characters and their motivations.

But, these are also the type of books that are impossible for me to review.

I always feel like I'm cheating someone of discovering things for themselves. So I'll try not to.

Minnie is not a wallflower waiting to be noticed by a handsome duke. Neither is she a headstrong girl waiting to break out from the prison of societal expectations. She also isn't a scholarly maid happy to remain in anonymity to pursue her passions of learning.

She is brilliant and strong-willed and frustrated with her place in society but she is trying her best to stay unnoticed.

It is so strange how all these cliches brought together in an unexpected way build a very intriguing character.

Robert is also not anything I expected. He could have been a rake. He could have been a gloomy man ruined by his horrible childhood distrusting everyone's intentions toward him.

But he is not. He practically jumped into love with Minnie. (Don't worry, no insta-love here.)

From the very beginning I felt his fascination with Minnie. It grew into lust and by the time it got to love I was sold!

Courtney Milan has taken a bunch of HR cliches that we love and hate but managed to use them in a way I've never seen before. Time and again I thought I knew where the story was heading but all those times it went in an unexpected direction. Quite refreshing!

It wasn't always happy with the story's direction but in the end it all came together beautifully and looking back on it feels satisfying.

Here are my updates and quotes: Duchess War Read 2013

The relashionship to melodrama index of this book is imbalanced. The love interest just doesn't inspire faith.

The whole book I wasn't sure if he was actually willing to commit to the heroine so in the end all that angst plus and the cliffhanger felt way over the top for me.

I won't be reading any more of this series but I might check out something else by this author in the future. The magical aspects weren't too bad.

"But I want to be very specific: it’s the author’s name on the books.  We call the final shots.  If Anne wanted us to kill someone and we didn’t, we wouldn’t. If we wanted to kill Curran, for example, she would strongly advise us not to do it, but we could kill him."

Please. Don't even think those words!

Last night was fun but...

...there are so many dirty dishes! >.<

"Patty's working on the last short story for the Shifting Shadows anthology. I'm editing Samuel's story, and Ann is editing one about Asil and the young girl who was changed to a werewolf and sent to the Aspen Creek pack. The anthology has taken longer than Patty had hoped (I seem to say that about all her books), but should have some excellent stories in it." (http://www.hurog.com/)

The girl was very young but was able too control her werewolf side although her father did have to chain her up in the basement during the full moon. I'm so happy she will have a story.

I'm curious about the physics of her change. Since werewolves stop aging at the time they were changed will she stay a child for the rest of her life?

Damn it, I don't remember. In which book did the girl's father approach Mercy?

I guess it's time for a re-read!

If I had to describe this book in one word I would call it "convoluted".

The characters are well written and interesting but the drama that surrounds them was too much for me. 

There is memory loss and baby thieving and forced mating and...

By the end I was, of course, all wrung out and just wanted everything to end.

Perhaps it's my fault. This was the first of Larissa Ion's books I've read and it might not have been a good idea to just jump into the fifth book of a series.

However, from what I gleaned from this book it seems like all the stories go like this.

The characters have impossible situations piled on top of them one after another until by some strange unexpected method they get a "happily ever after" in the end. (Someone tell me if I'm wrong.)

I'm not even sure if you can call it a HEA since although there was a happy ending in this book I see that the drama will just not stop.

I didn't enjoy this book and it is unlikely I will want to put myself through such an obstacle course again.

My Russian family doesn't celebrate Chrismas so I was thinking of getting some holiday cheer from a book.

"Miss Lydia Charingford is always cheerful, and never more so than at Christmas time. But no matter how hard she smiles, she can't forget the youthful mistake that could have ruined her reputation. Even though the worst of her indiscretion was kept secret, one other person knows the truth of those dark days: the sarcastic Doctor Jonas Grantham. She wants nothing to do with him...or the butterflies that take flight in her stomach every time he looks her way.

Jonas Grantham has a secret, too: He's been in love with Lydia for more than a year. This winter, he's determined to conquer her dislike and win her for his own. It all starts with a wager and a kiss..."

I like Courtney Milan's books but I've had mixed reactions to her novellas. This is book 1.5 in Brother's Sinister series.

"Recuperating ballerina Penelope Glazier can enchant the young girls in her Fairy Dreams class, but will her magic work on Carson Langley, the sexy but straight-laced single father of her most talented student?

Widowed doctor Carson Langley didn’t know what surprises him more at his six-year-old’s dance recital, that his reticent daughter is the star of the show or that the attractive teacher, Penelope Glazier, seems to have gotten through to his girl. Too bad she considers teaching a temporary job before she returns to her professional touring company. Even if he were willing to take a risk with his heart, he has to protect his daughter, Eloise."

I've been on a paranormal and historical romance kick so something contemporary might be a good change of pace. I do like stories about dancers but I've never read any of Lola Karns' work so I don't know what to expect.

"In Lynsay Sands' "The Gift," Katricia Argeneau knows grey-eyed cop Teddy Brunswick is her life mate. She just needs to convince him they belong together, and being snowbound in a secluded cabin will make this a Christmas neither will forget.

It's "Home for the Holidays" in Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. Cat and Bones may long to wrap presents and set up a tree, but this Christmas, an evil vampire and long-buried family secrets will threaten to take a bite out of their holiday cheer."

I'm definitely going to read "Home for the Holidays" by Jeaniene Frost. I've been re-reading and finishing the Night Huntress series in time for the last book's release in January (Up From the Grave). I'm not sure about Lynsay Sands' story. It's been a long time since I've read something of hers and I don't remember if I liked it or not.

"Miss Marian Wynswich is a rather unconventional young lady. She plays chess, reads Greek, and is as educated as any young man. And she's certain falling in love is a ridiculous endeavor and vows never to do such a thing. But everything changes when she receives a Christmas visit from someone unexpected--a young and handsome English lord."

It intrigues me that the heroine plays chess but I've never read any of Carla Kelly's work.

Does anyone have a suggestion on which of these books I should pick? Or perhaps a recommendation of their own?

I've been on Goodreads almost four years now. Four years and three Goodreads reading challenges:

I'm pissed and sad about Goodreads but a new year is coming and bit by bit I'm moving on.

In 2014 I'll be doing the reading challenge on Booklikes! :)

It was as if their inner thoughts were a step ahead of the action.

Maybe it's just the first-person narrative that was putting me off? By the time I got used to it and was enjoying myself that ending happened.

What the heck? Talk about mixed messages! Literally. 

I'm not going to spoil it. I just wanted to share my confusion and displeasure. 

That question is for Drew and the author.

It didn't catch my interest in the end(despite or because of that cliffhanger) so now I don't know if I should read the next book or not...