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. 

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...

Book Review: Courtesan by Diane Haeger

"Do you suppose... that just perhaps, if we had met under different circumstances, Madame, that we might one day have become friends?"
"It is not likely that we shall ever know the answer to that, Your Majesty," Diane said. "But had things been different, I know I should have liked that very much." -Courtesan, by Diane Haeger

Happy Monday (yeah yeah, I know. *guzzles coffee*) and welcome back to Drink Read Love. Today, I'm happy to be reviewing Courtesan, a lovely historical fiction novel by Diane Haeger (who also writes under the name Anne Girard). As is so often the case, I happened upon this book and author through another book and author. In this case, I have Sophie Perinot and her novel Medici's Daughter to thank. During the weeks leading up to the online party for Medici's Daughter, Sophie teased us all by slowly introducing the other historical fiction authors who would be her special guest hosts for the party and some of their books.

One of those was Diane Haeger and Courtesan, her novel about Diane de Poitiers (most well known as the favourite of  King Henri II of France). I recognized the name from watching Reign on Netflix, and - being fascinated at the idea of reading something about Diane rather than Mary Queen of Scots or Catherine de Medici - promptly hopped over to Amazon to pick up an e-book copy on my Kindle. If I'm being totally frank, a lot of that happened while Sophie was introducing her guests. But, I digress. Ahem. Anyways, thus was I introduced to this intriguing book and another talented author.

Medici's Daughter Author Q&A with Sophie Perinot

Hello, and Happy Hump Day! Welcome back to Drink Read Love. Today, I'm being joined by Sophie Perinot, author of Medici's Daughter, which I reviewed yesterday. You can read it here if you haven't already. When I reached out to Sophie and asked if she'd be willing to do a Q&A, I was delighted when she said yes. Quite frankly, Author Q&As are my favorite part of this blog, and getting to chat with Sophie is no exception.

Anyways. Today is the big day: the online party celebrating the 6-month anniversary of the release of Medici's Daughter! I'm pre-gaming with a glass of ginger ale (gotta save my champagne for tonight, and I do have to drive and care for children today). Grab a drink and join me for a chat with Sophie.

Book Review: The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot

Cover from sophieperinot.com

“’Tis sisters who shape the world plain and simple.” –Sophie Perinot, The Sister Queens

Hello, and happy Monday! Today, I’m reviewing The Sister Queens by Sophie Perinot. I first discovered Sophie Perinot when Michelle Moran (another favorite historical fiction author, and the gateway to many of my new discoveries for HF authors) posted in December 2015 about Sophie Perinot’s new book Medici’s Daughter. I went and read Medici’s Daughter… and was so happy with it that when Amazon helpfully suggested The Sister Queens as being by the same author, I bought it. It took me a little while to get around to reading it because that was about the same time as life picked up with moving us into our new house, but I have finally read it and am ready to review. Woot!

Book Review: The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig

Hello, readers. Welcome back to Drink Read Love, and Happy Hump Day! I know it’s been a while. Things got a bit hectic in real life, but I’m getting back in the saddle. And what better way to get back in the swing of things than with a great historical fiction novel by one of my favorite authors?

Today we’re going to talk about none other than The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig. I first discovered Willig’s books late last year, when I was doing a lot of reading when my family moved and we were living in a hotel. I had a lot of down time, especially when doing laundry at night. I can’t remember exactly how I stumbled upon Willig but I am *so* glad I did. I read one of her books (I also can’t remember which one I read first, it’s a very hazy time in my life, lol) and proceeded to read a lot more, and she moved right on up the ladder to be up at the top of my list of faves. One of my favorite books she’s written, if not my very favorite, is The Other Daughter.

Book Review: The Paradox Initiative by Alydia Rackham

Welcome back to Drink Read Love, and happy Monday. This week, I'm happy to introduce you to one of my favorite up and coming authors, Alydia Rackham. Rackham does a variety of types of work including fanfiction (which was how I was first introduced to her writing, but more on that later this week), screenplays, and original novels. Today, I'll be reviewing one of her novels, The Paradox Initiative. Wednesday we'll have an Author Q&A with Alydia Rackham herself. Friday, I'll have my first Fanfic Friday, and it seems fitting to talk about her fanfic that introduced me to he writing. It's going to be a blast. But for now, let's get down to business with The Paradox Initiative.

Book Review: Lady Cannibal by Jessica Rhodes

CW: This blog post will discuss some difficult themes that are portrayed and dealt with in the book, including descriptions of domestic violence, murder, cannibalism, child abuse, suicide, mental illness, and rape.

Welcome to the inaugural review on Drink Read Love. I'm *really* excited. This is the first book review I've done in a while, much less a review that isn't academic and/or of an academic book for school, and it's been fun. Anyways. On to business. Today I’m reviewing Lady Cannibal (Book 1 in The Serena Raymond Series) by Jessica Rhodes. Lady Cannibal is Rhodes' debut novel, published on October 31, 2015 by Immortal Publishing. Quite frankly, I had trouble deciding on a single book for my first review, but as I was reading Lady Cannibal, the review sort of started to write itself in my head with specific sentences and questions, so I decided this was probably a good book to start with.