Bibliophile Support Group

Dreams of Gods & Monsters is the third and final novel in the YA contemporary fantasy Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor. This is definitely a trilogy that you HAVE to read in order. If you haven’t yet read the acclaimed first novel Daughter of Smoke & Bone or the blockbusting second book Days of Blood & Starlight , click on the titles to read my reviews – and go forth and read both books!!! Then you can read this review of Dreams of Gods & Monsters . Got it? Karou made a choice – after a violent attack – that is both a staggering deception to her people, the chimaera, and also their only hope to end the never-ending revenge that plagues their world. Knowing the truth is not easy – nor is following through with a complicated, layered plot to ally with those long considered enemies in order to stop Jael’s machinations that are turning the human world upside down and putting them in terrible danger. This throws Karou together with Akiva – ...

While Love Stirs is a historical Christian romance by Lorna Seilstad and the second book in The Gregory Sisters series. Though easily a stand-alone novel, to enjoy While Love Stirs to its fullest I recommend starting with the first Gregory Sisters book When Love Calls . You can click on the title to read my review. Charlotte Gregory is determined to utilize her education at Fannie Farmer’s School of Cookery to make her dream come true: her own kitchen as a chef at a restaurant. It doesn’t take long for Charlotte to realize, though, that there aren’t many opportunities for a woman to be taken seriously outside of the domestic kitchen – until she is presented with a job at the gas company. They want someone to travel, lecture and give cooking demonstrations on the latest kitchen technology - the gas stove. It’s not quite her dream, but it seems to be the closest she’s getting to it anytime soon! Her position leads her to meet sweet, crooning singer Lewis Mathis. Yet her min...

A Corner of White is a YA contemporary mashed with fantasy by Jaclyn Moriarty, it’s also the first book in The Colors of Madeline trilogy. Since leaving their ritzy life behind for Cambridge, Madeline and her mother have barely gotten by with a single sewing machine and beans nearly every night. Sometimes Madeline really wonders why she ran away from that life. So do her friends. Truly, it’s all very mysterious and pretty hard to believe. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Cello, Elliot has returned home to Bonfire in The Farms after yet another unsuccessful search for his father – who disappeared after an attack by a third-level Purple that left his uncle dead a year and a half ago. Not everyone believes that’s what happened though. There are rumors that his father wasn’t taken at all, but may have murdered his own brother and ran off with the high-school physics teacher. Elliot refuses to believe this. Then, one day, Madeline and Elliot begin to correspond – there’s a lit...

The Girl with the Iron Touch is the third book in the YA steampunk series The Steampunk Chronicles by Kady Cross. You will want to have read the first two books, The Girl in the Steel Corset and The Girl in the Clockwork Collar , before this one. If not, avoid this review and click on these titles to read the reviews of the earlier books. Deal? The Girl with the Iron Touch resumes relatively quickly after where The Girl in the Clockwork Collar left off. They are back in London and romance is in the air. Finley, with her light and dark side having merged mostly into one, and Griffin, whose powers over the Aether seems to be draining him more than ever, have moved forward with their feelings for each other – yet he continues to keep secrets from her and the rest of the group, frustrating her to no end. Meanwhile, Emily, with her affinity for anything mechanical or technological, and Sam, with his super powered robotic parts, are still tiptoeing around their connection – but ...

File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents is a middle-grade comical mystery novel by Lemony Snicket, and around book 2.5 of the All the Wrong Questions series. Personally, I strongly recommend you read this series in order – first Who Could That Be At This Hour? and then When Did You See Her Last? I have read (and loved) them. Due to my weird reading and blog schedule, though, the actual reviews aren’t posting until June. Stay tuned! Anywho, in the midst of young apprentice Lemony Snicket’s time in the mostly abandoned Stain’d-by-the-Sea and his larger, overarching mystery (which we shall not get into now, so as not to spoil all you lovely bibliophiles), File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents covers his smaller, but no less tantalizing mysteries. Here we dive into the details of ghostly hauntings, neighborhood kidnappings, potentially rhyming vandals, and missing food – and more! Oh, Lemony Snicket, how I love thee!!! File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents is humorous and wonderfull...

Along for the Ride is a YA contemporary novel by Sarah Dessen. For a long time now, Auden has been unable to sleep through the night. Nights are her quiet time – her chance to escape everything going on around her. When she decides to stay with her dad, stepmom and new baby sister for the summer in Colby, her odd sleep habits don’t change. But she does meet Eli. Eli also doesn’t sleep at night. Soon enough he becomes her nocturnal tour guide and she begins to, for once, look forward to seeing someone else – after years of social solitude... It’d hard to do a decent synopsis on Along for the Ride , because there’s not much to say. That doesn’t mean there’s no plot – it’s just that there are so many nuances to it you’ll either give away too much or too little. I opted for too little. But any fan of Sarah Dessen, I’m sure, will be more than willing to read Along for the Ride without needing encouragement from me anywho! Auden is a “good girl” – sheltered from peer ex...

Shadow Hand is the sixth book in the fantasy series Tales of Goldstone Wood by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. As I’ve said numerous times before while reviewing this series, it’s definitely a good idea to read these books in order. Though the time periods jump around a little, it’ll help to keep things more clear – which I’ve struggled with, as the books have not come to me in order. So, you’ll want to first read Heartless , then Veiled Rose , Moonblood (review to come in July), Starflower , Dragonwitch and finally Shadow Hand . The below review will have some slight spoilers from earlier books, so tread carefully! After Lionheart, Prince of the Southlands, was dispossessed and banished, Lady Daylily is now betrothed to his cousin Foxbrush, who has taken his place in the kingdom. Lady Daylily had come to love Lionheart – a love that never seemed to be returned – and now a life with Foxbrush seems to foretell a life just like him – awkward and reclusive. On the day of Lady Daylily’s...

Watcher of the Dark is an adult horror novel, and the third in the Jeremiah Hunt novels, by Joseph Nassise. As it is the third in a series – in order to not spoil yourself on the plots of the prior books – I recommend you read Eyes to See and King of the Dead before Watcher of the Dark . Feel free to click on the titles to read my reviews! Assuming only readers of the first two books are continuing on… Jeremiah is on the run. Again. Plus, now he doesn’t have his friends with him – he’s just a blind guy with ghost-sight, a stolen car and next to no money. In Los Angeles. That’s what having the FBI tailing him and a foray into the terrifying kingdom of the dead to bring back the soul of the woman he cares about from a horrifying otherworld will do to you. Especially when, in order to complete the ritual to save her, you have to stab her. And there are witnesses. Others don’t seem to understand the whole, “I had to plunge that knife into her – to save her life!” Now, ...

Murder on Astor Place is a Victorian-era murder mystery and the first in the Gaslight series by Victoria Thompson. These books have been out there for quite some time – in fact there are now fifteen books in this series. I’ve wanted to read them for quite a while – and now here I am!! After midwife Sarah Brandt assists in a standard delivery at a rooming house, she returns to check up on her patient and the baby. When she does, she finds out that a young girl boarding there was murdered. A young girl she saw briefly the night of the delivery – a young girl who looked startlingly familiar to her. Upon meeting Sergeant Frank Malloy, her opinion of the police force and their terrible corruption is not improved – but he requests she search the girl’s room on his behalf, causing her to discover that the girl was from one of the most well-known, affluent families in New York. And the little sister of an old friend. Fearful of scandal, the family doesn’t want an investigation....

Neverwas is a YA sophisticated haunted house story, and the second in the Amber House Trilogy , by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed and Larkin Reed. If you haven’t read Amber House , reading Neverwas will not only cause spoilers of the first book – it’ll also be super confusing. Do yourself a favor – read my review of Amber House here and then read the book. Amber House is extremely awesome – you’ll be glad you listened. If you have read the stupendous Amber House , then read on for a brief synopsis of Neverwas . After the death of her grandmother, beloved by her family and community, Sarah Parsons has come to live at Amber House – a centuries-old estate that has been passed down through generations and carries ghostly echoes of the past. Before long, Sarah begins to get a sensation that things are… wrong … somehow. Different. As the American Confederation of States still struggles with segregation, tension is building in town – but even more so in Sarah as she starts to beli...

Timeless is the fifth and final novel in Gail Carriger’s adult, comedic, steampunk, supernatural series The Parasol Protectorate set in an alternate Victorian age. You have to know that I *strongly* recommend reading The Parasol Protectorate in order!! I mean, ARE YOU CRAZY?! The spoilers will, well, spoil too much squeal-worthy goodness!! So, if you haven’t read Soulless , Changeless , Blameless and Heartless – READ NO FURTHER . If you have, proceed… Over the last couple years Lord and Lady Maccon and Lord Akeldama have settled into an out-of-the-ordinary sort of household harmony. For Alexia this means keeping a hawk’s eye on a toddler that turns supernatural haphazardly and suddenly becomes stronger and faster than she. Oh, joy. Not to mention assimilating werewolves into London’s High Society and hiding the fact that she and her husband are living in a vampire’s second best closet. But Alexia likes to keep life interesting. Then a summons comes from the world’s olde...