So I thought I was on track for March-reading but then the Pandemic hit. I still managed five books but boy was it hard to get through the last one.

We’ve joked before about the weeks and months feeling sometimes several years long, but boy did March drag on. And we’re still not through it. Stay safe and healthy!

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The Viscount and the Vicar’s Daughter by Mimi Matthews was fun. Tropefilled but fun and well done. The ending felt slightly rushed but I saw someone refer to the book as a novella so maybe the author ran out of time? It was over 200 pages so I’m not sure if that counts as a novella. I prefer the author’s more recent work, but everyone starts somewhere.

The Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher. I liked this. Written by the same author as Paladin’s Grace from last month and this was every bit as fun as that one. This is really part one of a book that has been divided into two for inexplicable publishing reasons. I have part two but I needed to pace myself. Here we meet another Paladin, this one with a demon problem, a ninja accountant and her assassin ex-lover as well as a misogynic scholar. It’s set in the same universe as Paladin’s Grace but appears to take place several years before. Highly recommended.

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch the 8th novel about Peter Grant, London police officer and wizard apprentice. In this installment Peter has been suspended from the force and has taken a job with a software firm with a Douglas Adams complex and an intruder problem. I always enjoy these books even though the later ones haven’t been as good as the first one.

One Night in Boukos by A.J. Demas. Oh how I love this author’s books. I read Something Human last year and completely fell in love. Then I read Sword Dance – Also last year – and I am so happy to hear it is going to be a series. The books all take place in a fictitious world modelled on Ancient Greece and it is rich and detailed and I think the author can live in it and write so much because there are so many cultures to draw from. One Night in Boukos was not my favourite but it was still so, so good.

The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch is book 3 in a popular fantasy series about confidence trickster Locke Lamora. I loved the first book in that series when I read it in 2016 but then I wasn’t as taken with book 2 and book 3 has lingered on my book shelf since December that year and I have. Not. Been. Able. To. Get. Through. It. But, I decided that 2020 was the year and I did it. Mostly because it has been announced that book 4 will release this year. But it was a slog. I know I could have DNFed it at any time but I didn’t want to, even though some weeks I couldn’t read more than a page or two before I lost focus – I blame the pandemic as well. (Doing the link for future reference). The start of it was exciting, the last of the first half was difficult and then it kicked off in the second half, only by then I just wanted to get through it. There was a nice setup for book 4 though so I will read that once it is released.