{"id":294,"date":"2016-02-29T20:02:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=294"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:43:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:43:38","slug":"quick-monday-reviews-shepherds-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Quick Monday Reviews: THE SHEPHERD’S CROWN and THE DETOUR"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two very different titles (genre- and style-wise) to cross my desk this past week were Terry Pratchett’s final Tiffany Aching book and S.A. Bodeen’s latest action-packed suspense tale.<\/p>\n

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The Shepherd’s Crown<\/i> brings to a close that subset of the Discworld universe I like best: the world of Tiffany Aching, witch of the Chalk hills where she was raised by generations of shepherds. She’s THEIR witch\u2014their hag, as her tiny leprechaun-like protectors the Feegles call her\u2014and in this final book before Sir Terry’s death, Tiffany is called upon for a great many things, possibly more than she can handle on her own. With rather frightening synchronicity, one of the long-running and much-loved Discworld regular characters has died, leaving the barrier between their world and Fairyland unprotected. And the elves who have been kept out\u2014they’ve got a serious vendetta. Can Tiffany enlist the help she needs to defend the Chalk and the entire kingdom? Can she put up with the insufferable Mrs. Earwig? Can a boy ever become a witch? Possibly, if he’s got a smart enough goat\u2026 Fans of the Discworld and Tiffany will be touched by this novel and want to hug it, because for us, it feels like a goodbye. <\/p>\n

I received my copy of this book courtesy of a friend who loaned it to me. You can find THE SHEPHERD’S CROWN<\/i><\/a> by Terry Pratchett at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!<\/p>\n

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I’ve read a couple other suspense novels by S.A. Bodeen–The Compound<\/i> and The Raft<\/i> (reviewed here<\/a>). Her books tend to be quick, vivid, page-turning reads, great for a one-day reading binge and appealing for reluctant readers who want plenty of action. The Detour<\/i> is no exception. Readers will start off with little sympathy for narrator Livvy Flynn\u2014she’s 17 years old and already a bestselling author, and she sounds like she feels pretty darn entitled. By the time she crashes her fancy red sports car on an Oregon back road, on the way to a writers’ retreat, you’ll find yourself thinking, well, perhaps it’s no more than she deserves. But then things go from bad to worse. When she wakes up and finds out she’s been locked in a basement, injuries and all\u2026well, she’s got a lot of time to think, and it’s interesting to watch the backstory unfold and see how Livvy got to this point. Although there was one plot point that I guessed at early on (making it hard to wait for the final reveal), and although I ultimately still found myself annoyed at the narrator, this was a fast read that kept me turning the pages and needing to find out not only WHOdunit but also WHY. <\/p>\n

I received my copy of this book courtesy of the Stanislaus County Library. You can find THE DETOUR<\/i><\/a> by S.A. Bodeen at an online e-tailer, or at a real life, independent bookstore near you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two very different titles (genre- and style-wise) to cross my desk this past week were Terry Pratchett’s final Tiffany Aching book and S.A. Bodeen’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,12,5,6],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-af","tag-fantasy-sci-fi","tag-reviews","tag-suspense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8833,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/8833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}