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Review: Smuggler’s Run (Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens) by Greg Rucka
This young adult novel was a well-written and well-crafted story set between two of the films in the original Star Wars trilogy. All of the battle scenes, whether shoot-outs on ground or ship-to-ship battles in space, were dramatic and clearly written. The plot flowed at a good pace. Unfortunately, I didn’t love it.
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Review: It Takes Two to Tumble (Seducing the Sedgwicks #1) by Cat Sebastian
This was a fantastic look at how two people who might otherwise have nothing in common develop a natural and loving relationship. At times, Ben came across as a little too perfect. Luckily, Phillip balanced this out by becoming a sympathetic character without losing any of the thorny character traits that intrigued me.
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December Wrap-Up & January Goals
Happy new year from all of us at Casa Siamese! Though you won’t see this post until it goes live on Wednesday morning, I’m writing it late Monday afternoon with a tummy full of amazing New Year’s Day brunch and a hot mug of tea. I’m excited to start 2018 with a bang, and by…
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Steel Blood Deleted Scene
Happy New Year to all of my awesome readers! In honor of 2017 finally being over, and to celebrate my birthday (yes, I’m a New Year’s Eve baby), I’d like to share a scene that was left on the cutting room floor after my beta readers read one of the earliest drafts of Steel Empires…
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Review: Outside the Lines (Bluewater Bay #22) by Anna Zabo
Disclaimer: I am friends with the author of this novel; however, I purchased the ebook for full price. My metric for how I view a good romance novel has turned into whether the interpersonal relationships are occurring between mature adults. I don’t have time for whiny teenage angst produced by characters in their twenties, thirties,…
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Build Report: 2017 Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar
I honestly can’t remember the last time I had an advent calendar as a kid. I have vague memories of the ones with cheap chocolate in middle school, which is when my littlest sister was a toddler. Now that I’m an adult, for various definitions of the word, it was time to start the tradition…
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Build Report: Cargo Railway & Octan Twin Tank Rail Tanker
My husband and I have been married for five years, and living together for almost nine. And every time we think we’ve gotten all of our random belongings from our respective mothers’ houses, something else gets dredged up from a dark basement corner. This past summer, it was a ratty box of various LEGO pieces.…
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Review: Moving Target (Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens) by Cecil Castellucci & Jason Fry
This was an excellent Star Wars young adult novel that succeeds at showing realistic decisions that must be made in war, and how people involved in those wars end up making essential decisions regardless of how much power or authority they might have. I also appreciated that Princess Leia is given much authority and agency…
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Review: Shattered Empire (Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens) by Greg Rucka
One of my biggest pet peeves about most war movies is how the characters celebrate at the end of a big battle as if everything is going to be easy from there on out. This graphic novel shows how the opposite is the case and does an excellent job of leading into how the remnants…
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Review: Bizarre Tales From World War II by William B. Breuer
This is an easy-to-read collection of short snippets organized by time period before, during, and after World War II. I’d hesitate to call them bizarre tales, however. Curious coincidences and interesting anecdotes is probably more appropriate. I would not recommend this as a reference book for those writing about WWII. It is, though, probably a…
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Review: Pathways (Tales of Valdemar #11) edited by Mercedes Lackey
While I usually call out two specific stories in anthologies, my favorite and the one I’d most like to see expanded into a novel, I’m unable to do that with this Valdemar collection. I enjoyed most of the stories, but none of them jumped out to me as amazing. A few of the stories also…
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Review: Closer to the Chest (Herald Spy #3) by Mercedes Lackey
It’s taken quite a few books, but I think Lackey is back on her stride with her long-running Valdemar series. While I still noticed a few editorial discrepancies, I enjoyed this novel a lot more than any of the previous books that featured Mags and Amily. This particular story acts as a culmination to what…
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Review: Valhalla (Stargate SG-1 #14) by Tim Waggoner
I enjoyed this book more than I otherwise might have, reading it so soon on the heels of watching Thor: Ragnarok in theaters. Any Stargate reading for me is a visit to a world I love, and this was a solid, though not necessarily memorable, entry into the media tie-in offerings for this world. One…
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Review: A Scandal in Battersea (Elemental Masters #12) by Mercedes Lackey
The novels of Mercedes Lackey’s Elemental Masters series take two forms. The first is re-imagined fairy tales set in Edwardian England (and Europe beyond). The second is a more of a traditional (historical) urban fantasy series that centers around a group of magicians, psychics, and mediums in London, starring two plucky young women and their…
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Review: Artemis by Andy Weir
When the credits rolled on Ant-Man, I turned to my husband and exclaimed, “Marvel made me a heist movie!” When I read the first blurb about Artemis ages ago, I turned to my husband and exclaimed, “Andy Weir is writing me a heist novel!” Considering I read the book in the space of a solid 4 hours…
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Review: Canyon Shadows (Dark Tyrant #2) by C.R. Langille
Disclaimer: I consider myself friends with the author, via the graduate writing program we both attended. However, I purchased the hardcopy version of this novel for full price. Though this book is the second in a shared world of stories, you do not have to read the first in order to get full enjoyment from…
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Review: The Ruin of a Rake (Turner Series #3) by Cat Sebastian
This was a satisfying conclusion to the romantic tales of the extended Turner family. While I was concerned that Lord Courtenay wouldn’t appeal to me as a romantic lead after his introduction in The Lawrence Browne Affair, author Cat Sebastian proves a deft hand at hidden depths that do not negate any of the character…
About Me
Emily Parker
Fashion is a distinctive and often constant trend in the style in which a person dresses. It is the prevailing styles in behaviour.
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