June 11, 2020 – June 16, 2020

I made a mistake and washed my hair before bed. It was necessary, as it had been… longer than I can record in this record, but let’s say my scalp was being destroyed by inching.

So here I am awake, instead of my new and insistent goal to sleep better. I’ve been sick for the last two weeks and need more sleep, but because of wet hair I can’t yet.

I was disappointed to find that this next book didn’t take off where the other left off. I loved that the last book continued the chronicle yet was new, so I hoped that it would now focus on the guy who just got his new demon, but instead it was some random kingdom. Which is fine, it just made me panic at the beginning trying to see if there were any names I recognized.

The plot was interesting, but the part that grabbed me most was the idea of them both getting each other’s heart.

It is said that if is a blessing that you can’t read each other’s minds in a marriage, but to read each other’s hearts…. isn’t that what we are reaching for?

I’ll hold on to that as I finish this book.

June 5, 2020 – June 11, 2020

This book was awesome and I actually liked it much more than the first one! Maybe because I knew the world better, but I think it had more to do with her bitter attitude while in the last one Caz was just – well – broken. Not that she wasn’t, but while Caz’s brokeness made him feel worthless it made her feel angry. With all my depression you would think that I would relate to Caz more, but her story and journey of opening up to the gods felt more relatable to me, where you have so much pain happen in your life that you’re honestly ticked off at God. Maybe that’s another reason I related to her, because I went through a similar period in my life years ago when it wasn’t so much that I thought God didn’t exist anymore as much as I just wanted to walk away from Him because of how horribly I felt I had been treated. But like her, obviously, I found my way back.

I know this might sound dumb, but I loved that she was in her late 30s (39? if my math is right?). I’m 33,000 years old now and it is kind of hard to see myself as old, because I honestly still feel like I’m 17/23/27 years old, with all the craziness that those protagonists get to FEEL. BUT I’M OLD!!! Ok, I know not really, but in all those other books how are the 30+ characters portrayed? On the sidelines, right? Because that’s what they have to be so the younger generation can step up and save the world! Hey, that’s even how it’s done in MY books!

So now that I’m old, can I still have adventures that aren’t just “old lady stabs people with knitting needles”?

Insert Ista!

She was awesome, and kicked butt, and didn’t read like an old lady but with that same feel we give to younger kiddos. And other than figuring out her own superpowers to defeat bad guys and save the world, she also got to find true love too!

I need to chill out – I think my over ridiculousness is going to make this sounds less serious than it really did feel for me.

Because this book meant a lot to me, not just for the hope that it gave me that I’m not too old to have my own novel and that my chances of a happy ending have expired, but like everything good in the world that I eat with my brain it gives me another leg up for the type of person I want to be.

At the very end, she’s talking to Bastard churchy guy about who the gods choose to do their work and she said this:
“…the gods did not desire flawless souls, but great ones. I think that very darkness is where the greatness grows from, as flowers from the soil. I am not sure, in fact, if greatness can bloom without it.”
I think that is something we can all read and think about.

Ok, enough of all that – I have NEVER read someone who was actually able to make shirtless, battle crazed hott guys riding on a horse into a fray of bad guys actually work and feel exactly like they are supposed to feel instead of just being embarrassing or annoying – but she did! I’m still amazed at authors who are able to pull off action scenes so well, but to then have random horsemen appear in the moonlight as you’re being dragged away by your captors to then give a “fey” smile on their unholily attractive face before slicing all of them open takes it to a level that I feel so helpless to even begin figuring out how to reach.

Oh well. I’ll just have to enjoy the ride and keep reading books by people who can. 🙂

Update:
Oh yeah. I forgot the pitchfork. A shirtless, battle crazed hott guy riding on a horse into a fray of bad guys with a PITCHFORK while swapping sassy anecdotes with his brother.

May 24, 2020 – June 5, 2020

And THAT is how you finish a book! Crazy climax that you felt had to happen but wasn’t sure how with a ton of other junk that was “woah, wasn’t really seeing that coming” along with pulling in the deep philosophical insights of the protagonist with his own insecurities and finding out he was enough and “wow, this great supernatural being needed me?” And then letting him have a happy ending but also wrapping it up and tell you how but then having the last scene reflect the over arching pain of the whole book.

Where you spend the whole book with the hero feeling the helplessness of your own happy ending because it would just barely be possible for everyone else to have one – but then to have you NOT die from being skewered.

My new mantra is “believe in happy ending- believe in the third act.”

There are more books, but this book had the same feel that Mistborn had when I finished it, that it really could have been a stand alone novel.

I guess I’ll start book two tonight.❤️