The Burning Sky - Sherry Thomas

The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the kind of Fantasy that I can just devour in a day. It's light, adventurous, romantic, and hard to put down. Soooo not epic. It's not that I don't enjoy Epic Fantasy, too. It's just such an investment, and you have to have patience, and often the characters are just a little too remote. Usually I have to take breaks from the Epics, both during and between installments.

Sometimes I just want to jump in and enjoy. I want a couple of characters that I can like, with problems that are a bit smaller so I can just enjoy hanging out in the world and getting to know them. It doesn't have to be impeccably detailed. It can have elements of what some people might call tropes, because - let's be honest - the tropes are the core of what I love about Fantasy in the first place. So although I do appreciate the grand, epic tales, I have to admit that I like this kind of Fantasy better. This is the kind I save up for days when I have plenty of time to read because the hours are going to fly by.

So, I really enjoyed reading The Burning Sky. It has fun magic (and plenty of it), romance (but not overwhelming), 19th Century London set alongside mage realms, British boarding school experience, a girl disguised as a boy, and magical training in a virtual reality type world. Oh yes, there are also wyverns! And just to keep it from being boring, there's overarching danger and a suitably detestable villain or two. But it's the development and interaction of the two main characters that really carries the story. Pure fun. I can't wait to see what comes next.

A Lady of Resources - Shelley Adina

A Lady of Resources by Shelley Adina
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked A Lady of Resources, but I struggled a bit with Claire not being the main character anymore. Sure, I liked the Mopsies as side characters, but it was a lot different with them being center stage. Even though they had potential to be interesting as former thieves, they really weren't. Lizzie, the main POV in this one, was too focused on wanting to pretend to be a lady to allow time for antics. She was also kind of a brat. I think by the end I warmed up to the change, and to Lizzie, but it's a much more reluctant feeling than with the original story arc, which I simply inhaled.

Due to the passing of time and shift in POV, there was a lot of time spent on re-setting the stage. I found it a bit slow (again, unlike the original books). There was also less Steampunk engineering and less adventure, and I missed both. But since the action picked up towards the end, now I do find myself wanting to read the sequel. I'm hopeful that it will keep the pace now that we've been reintroduced to the characters.

So, I liked it well enough. It was a fast read, at least mildly entertaining most of the time. I'm just not as entranced as I was with the original series.

The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer

The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is the weakest Heyer I've read. I can see why it's not one of the well known ones. Frankly, it's boring! There's way too much dialect (something that I find tends to get in the way in some of her other works as well), and nothing much actually happens. Even the action at the end isn't action. There's some smuggling potential, but that all happens off the stage. There certainly isn't enough going on to justify the hero and heroine deciding they love each other. They just decide it.

I really struggled to finish this because it was so boring, but pushed through mainly because I've enjoyed so many others by Heyer and couldn't bear to leave this one hanging out there. It did pick up in the last quarter, but still was pretty lackluster. Not recommended, even for Heyer fans.