Rani‘s merchant family paid her way into the glasswrights‘ guild thus making the 13 yo a guild member, raising her caste and earning her a 3 syllable name (Ranita). But then the heir to the crown is murdered, the glasswright guild is blamed and destroyed.
Published in 2000. Fun but too many adjectives, some used repetitively, which pulls me out of the narrative.

Borrowed this from the library (first time in years I've borrowed a physical book) and am enjoying it. Narrated in 1st person from the POVs of 3 (so far) different young women. Though the POV keeps changing, they don't get mixed up. Their lives are interlinked and they're all strong in their own ways, changing their lives for the better (at least Miryem and Wanda; I've only just met Irina). Still near the beginning but enjoying it.

I prefer Geoff Taylor‘s covers for The Belgariad (UK Corgi editions) but I still like the ones he did for The Malloreon, too. I like the way each cover references the ones from the previous books.
The prologue is another extract from an academic work from the University of Melcene which gives us ‘a brief history of the Eastern Empire‘ though it scoffs at the idea of Gods being physically present in that world.

I do love the beginnings in this series.

Billed as a romance but there‘s a lot of action-adventure which had me on the edge of my seat - or would have done if I hadn‘t been reading in bed.
Though I am wondering how people keep sneaking up on them in wide open country

Took me a while to get into this, mainly because I was distracted by the World Cup and didn‘t pay attention to the second chapter but now I can‘t put it down. Epic space battles! - but I wish I had a bit more sense of the distances between planets.
20 years ago the Dol‘jhar were foiled in an attack on the Thousand Suns, the systems ruled by the Panarchy and now Eusabian, Avatar of Dol and Lord of the Kingdom of Vengeance, is mounting his revenge

Written in the type of over the top English that US authors tend to use when writing about English high society especially when writing about the Regency/ Victorian periods but still amusing on it‘s own merits. Still on Ch 1
(ETA: Ch 3. I‘m starting to feel it may be intentional)
Not sure when Canterbury became a port city but, hey, if HM QV can have a shadow parliament filled with vampires, werewolves and ghosts instead of Opposition, why not?

Cthol Murgos is on the east side of the western continent - but now we learn of another continent across the Sea of the East

Starting ‘Demon Lord of Karanda‘, the third book of the ‘Malloreon‘. This time the prologue is presented as an academic article on the kingdoms of the east rather than the usual extract from a book of legends

While I like the illustrations for the chapter headings (what are they called agin? For a book it‘s something like ‘frontispiece‘), to me the defined edges are more like smoke than mist. Enjoying this story.

Ch 2. Liking this so far. It's YA but with a flavour of Patricia McKillip

Zith the snake also has her own personality - as long as you don‘t annoy her

I like the odd glimpses of the D of E (who died soon after the book was written but before publication) and his relationship with Her Majesty.
‘Philip had started a picture … she sensed she was distracting him.

I can so empathise with the Queen 🤗

Settling down to the second in kHer Majesty the Queen Investigates‘. The prologue takes place in October 2016 with a murder and chapter 1 starts 3 months before, with the Queen recognising one of her paintings - but it‘s not where it‘s supposed to be.

Henry Evans would say nothing... This conversation was absolutely private.

Rozie wondered ... why it had been so easy for Mr Evans ... But she reflected that for her it was more complicated. Evans simply owed his ultimate loyalty to the Queen and that was that. The man Rozie had to hide this conversation from was the Queen‘s own right-hand man. It wasn‘t that the Queen didn‘t trust Sir Simon. She had seen the warm, long-standing relationship ...

Halfway through. It‘s a quiet, meandering story about a village where the bookshop owner has just died and how the people whose lives he was part of, including his daughter, carry on. He made time to make their lives richer and believed there a book for everybody. Told with some flashbacks.

Reading this for my RL bookclub. This falls somewhere between historical novel/ romance/ political commentary etc but, at 300+ pages in the e-book, doesn't have the heft to do any one of them justice, I feel. It's rather light on details, or maybe I'm not invested in the book. For instance, (1/2 way through) the maharaja has just died and only now is the significance of the religions of his wives emphasised.

This series was written near the end of the Cold War and though there is very much an East vs West vibe we start to see that people are the same all over the world. And there is a slightly darker shading to things though the banter and lightheartedness continues.

A new company for a new prophecy. Ancient Belgarath, his most revered daughter, the Bearer of the Orb, Garion, Ce‘Nedra, the Guide, the Man with Two Lives, the Huntress, the Man Who is No Man, the Empty One, the Woman Who Watches and one other.

‘Why is it that all of this seems to have happened before?‘
‘All of what?‘
‘Everything. There are Angaraks in Arendia trying to stir up trouble… There are intrigues and assassinations in Tolnedra… We ran into a monster… It seems almost as if we were repeating everything that happened… We‘ve even been running into the same people …‘

I hadn‘t noticed before but this is ‘from the ‘Lives of Belgrion the Great‘‘ (plural)
🤔 I don‘t bother about it too much because it‘s beyond the scope of the story but Belgarion is a sorcerer, who could potentially live for thousands of years, but his wife is not.

Starting ‘King of the Murgos‘ for our group (of 2) read on LibraryThing.

I admit I'm not au fait with what a wedding planner/ event manager does but Poppy doesn't seem to have to do anything; there's a property manager to take care of Daisy Hill farm and the bride & groom seem to have booked everything else themselves

Still enjoying this. I don't know much about Windsor Castle & its environs, much less the workings of HM's mind but Bennett has portrayed it very plausibly. It gels with what I know of QE II; whatever I think of the rest of the Establishment, I've always admired her and her work ethic.

One now wishes to continue reading this rather good book.

I imagined the Queen as depicted in the Minions film, remembering the story of how she and Margaret slipped out of the palace to celebrate the end of WWII. But this is set 7 years ago when she was 89, the DofE was still alive (but doesn't (yet) make an appearance) and Obama was US president. Enjoying it so far. Though it seems this isn't HM's 1st case.

Barett Bloom realises that she keeps repeating her first day of university and then discovers that Miles from her physics class is, too but he‘s been trapped for a couple of months already. They team up to find their way out of the time loop and along the way develop feelings for each other.

I‘m in love 🐉

I‘ve always enjoyed country dancing (though I haven‘t done it in years) and listening to this description had me smiling.

The dragon riders (since all the old guard were killed inthe revolution) are all teenagers. Annie (Antigone) and Lee (aka Leo) ~15 &16, grew up together as orphans. She lost her family to dragonfire and he lost his to the revolution and both bear the scars of the past. Both want to be First Rider. They are kids on the cusp of adulthood but the dragoriders are all asked to bear a lot of responsibility for the new regime.

I really liked ‘Fireborne‘ when I read it but I didn‘t review it so now I‘m listening to it for a second go.
I like Julia; she wanted to be part of a male-only profession and not only did she go out and break barriers to achieve that, she rose to the very top.

This book makes me giggle. (To put the quote in context, ‘The Stranger Times‘ is a newspaper which reports weird and wacky stories.)

Have I mentioned that I love 💗 the original Belgariad Corgi UK covers by Geoff Taylor?

A slow start as it catches us up on what the characters from the 'Belgariad' are up to in the five or so years since the end of that series and sets the scene for the new adventure.

- New? I thought all the prophecies were fulfilled? -

So did we all, including the characters. They're a bit nonplussed, too. 😊

Don't worry, Things do start to happen, about halfway through, and there's plenty of action after that.

Garion gets a lesson in climate change and man‘s causal effect.

Mara has inherited half a house but her first meeting with Liam, who owns the other half, was antagonistic - but they secretly have the hots for each other. She has a doctorate in environmental engineering and he‘s a high flying lawyer but they‘re bonding over ‘The Bachelorette‘. The prologue is set in the present, then the chapters start at 6 months ago but are narrated in the present tense, in first person

Love it. The blushing Orb makes me laugh.

When Elizabeth rejected Mr Collins in Pride & Prejudice he turned to her best friend Charlotte. We do get a glimpse of her married life in P&P but this is her (supposed) story. It‘s possible to read this without reading P&P; the few relevant details are filled in. I always start Austen continuations with a healthy dose of scepticism but apart from questioning Mr Collins‘s height and first name, which I don‘t remember from P&P, it‘s good.

The Green Ajah, with more than one Warder each, remind me of the green dragons of Pern nd their riders, who … are known for having several partners, shall we say.

‘I don‘t know how humans do it, but among Ogier … If a girl sees a boy she likes, she goes to her mother ___ and the next thing the boy knows, his marriage is all arranged.‘
___ Mat gave a guffaw ___ ‘Among us, men do the choosing, and no wife can stop a man ___.‘
Rand frowned ___ ‘I think we do it the same way ___ Do you remember your father ever doing anything your mother really didn‘t want him to?‘
Mat opened his mouth ___ and closed it again.

I spent yesterday afternoon volunteering with the horses of Riding for the Disabled. I know that in a cast of thousands the animals aren‘t even bit players but it hurts when Jordan treats them so callously. Red has served Rand faithfully for a long time; I thought, since he‘s been given a name in this series, he‘d get more respect.

I love Loial 😊

Ch 6: I keep confusing Pete (a woman) with the (anti) hero, Gus especially in the current scene where he's the only male in a roomful of women.

I say!

Starting part II and the ladies are in charge. I love Queen Layla‘s tactics - I suspect I may have used them myself. Hmm - and I first read this series in my formative years …

2 chapters in. Could use less casual swearing 🤗 The royal family, as portrayed here, seems a lot more, shall we say, woke. Fun mix of fiction with actual history; the First Family are successors to the Obamas etc. The first US female president is a Democrat from Texas 🤔

Just starting ‘Enchanter‘s End Game‘. Garion is not in a good mood

“I wanted some of your water.” Matty‘s sleepy words were mostly just hot kid-breath into Seb‘s face, and he couldn‘t help but chuckle. Matty always insisted that whatever water Seb was drinking tasted better than any other water. So, for Matty‘s entire life, Seb had been drinking water with kid backwash in it.

His kid was growing up. Losing those chubby cheeks. Seb knew that Daddy was on its last legs. He was only ever Dad when Matty was around friends. It plucked a bittersweet chord in his heart. Of course he wanted his kid to grow up. And of course he wanted his kid to stay a baby forever.