Goodbye, Rachel.

“There are recovery programs for people grieving the loss of a parent, sibling, or
spouse. You can buy books on how to cope with the death of a beloved pet or work through the anguish of a miscarriage. We speak openly with one another about the bereavement that can accompany a layoff, a move, a diagnosis, or a dream deferred. But no one really teaches you how to grieve the loss of your faith. You’re on your own for that.” -Searching For Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans

Generally speaking, I prefer to read fiction over non-fiction. Historical fiction is my favorite genre, as it blends learning about historical characters, events, settings, etc. with the escapism I love about fiction. However, sometimes, a special non-fiction book or author comes along and works their way into my heart. Rachel Held Evans was one such author. 

The Dragon Lord Chronicles is The Cat's Meow

Happy Monday! This was supposed to post on Friday, but I fell asleep at my computer, so we're just going to consider this an extension of Dragon Lord Week, which works because the awesomeness of The Dragon Lord Chronicles can't be contained in a mere 7 days. 

Totes legit.

Dragon Lord Week has been an absolute BLAST. It started off last Monday with my review of the first 3 books in The Dragon Lord Chronicles. Then on Thursday, Miles O'Neal - the author of The Dragon Lord Chronicles - sat down with us for an Author Q&A. Now, today, I've got a special edition of The Cat's Meow, a series of blog posts in which my cats give their .02 on the books we've been reading. I say "the books we've been reading" because my cats are super smart and are particularly fond of curling up with my books... preferably whatever book I'm trying to read at the moment. So, you may be wondering, what makes this edition so special? It's authored by none other than Bagheera, my beloved cat who died unexpectedly last August. When his brother, Mojito, was going through Bagheera's personal effects a few weeks ago, he found this draft and I just so happened to have a photo of Bagheera with Year of the Dragon Lord, so it was clearly meant to be. I regret that Bagheera will not be able to join our staff on an ongoing basis for obvious reasons, but I'm happy to bring you his last writings. Bagheera was a wonderful cat who has been greatly missed since his passing, and it brings me some small measure of comfort and a great deal of delight to be able to share his thoughts on The Dragon Lord Chronicles.

So. What did Bagheera think of The Dragon Lord Chronicles?

"This series is a solid 9.5 meows out of 10. As with meowst of the books Esther reads, there is a regrettable lack of mice, but I feel like the abundance of bacon almeowst makes up for that shortcoming. The dragons give the impression of being inspired by cats, which is meowvelous. Perhaps in the one of the later books we'll meet a dragon named Bagheera. That would bump meow rating up to a good 11/10. I will say this book makes a meowst excellent pillow. Just the right size, and cushiony for a book. Very thoughtful of the author. Maybe I should bump the rating up to 9.75. MEOW!"

-Bagheera

Well, there you have it. The Dragon Lord Chronicles is The Cat's Meow. Tune in next time, and have a lovely week.

In loving memory of Bagheera, 2008 - 2017. AKA Baggy-Boo, Bagheera BooBooKins, Boo Boo. A patient cat who loved to sit on my books as I was reading, or my laptop as I was typing. 

The Dragon Lord Chronicles Author Q&A with Miles O'Neal

Photo Credit: Esther Dale

 Welcome back to Drink Read Love. I'm delighted that you're here to join me as Dragon Lord Week continues with an Author Q&A with Miles O'Neal, the author of the Dragon Lord Chronicles, his amazing YA historical fiction with dragons series.

When I originally put together this Q&A, Year of the Dragon Lord and Nemeses Unexpected were the only two books of the series that had been published. Into Otherness was still in the works, but I had had the honor of reading a draft of it to give feedback. Of course, that meant I had to think extra hard about my questions to try to make sure I wasn't giving away anything from Otherness, but it was a small price to pay to get to read that draft. :P Of course, then I ended up not getting the reviews or Q&A published because life went absolutely haywire, so now I'm able to be less restrained, because the first 3 volumes of the series *have* been published, and I have *not* read anything from Volume IV, so I have no secrets to give away. *laughs*

Top Ten Tuesday: Historical Fiction Books on my 2018 TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is...

Books on my Spring TBR.

Book Review: The Dragon Lord Chronicles

Happy Monday, and welcome back to Drink Read Love. It's been a hot minute since I blogged, but that is neither here nor there, because I am now here, and so are you, and I'm *so excited* for the books we're going to talk about this week!

I will start this off by saying that the author of these books is my dad, and I received these books for free as a gift (with no expectation of review, just a plain straightforward gift) from my parents. However, the opinions in this blog post are my own and are not influenced by the author being my dad. I would not ever recommend something unless I genuinely liked it on it's own merits, regardless of my relationship with the creator.

Moving forth.

Today, I'm reviewing the first three books in The Dragon Lord Chronicles. The Dragon Lord Chronicles is a YA Fantasy series written by Miles O'Neal, who says that the best way to describe this genre is as historical fiction with dragons. The first three books have already been published with a fourth on the way. The series is supposed to be 4 books long, but I'm pulling for extending it by a few more books because there is still so much potential left by the end of book 3 that I just don't think everything can be wrapped up in one last book. On to the main event...