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These particular brownies came from Mike's Pastry on Hanover Street in Boston. If you ever have the chance to go, you really should (bring cash). And don't let the long lines fool you (last time I was there, the lines were out the door and down to the end of the block)... they move fast.
Now, with that PSA out of the way, let's talk books. This isn't going to be a very long list today. I didn't get a lot read in October except that's not exactly true. I read both of my novels, Effigy and Second Nature (or what exists of Second Nature anyway) in order to make a new punch list of errors. But I'm not going to review them for you today because I'll be too hard on myself (way too many errors!) and then spend the rest of the day crying under my desk because that M.J. Fifield's just so mean.
But here's what I will review for you:
The Raven Boys- Maggie Stiefvater- So last year around this time, I wrote a review of Steifvater's novel The Scorpio Races and I gushed over it. A lot. And then I gushed over it some more because I freaking loved (and still do) that book. So this year, I pick up The Raven Boys and I bring it to the Keys with me and I start reading it on a beach and because I get so sucked into the story, I forget to turn over and I end up with a partially sunburned ass which affects my ability to sit properly the rest of the vacation and I don't care (much anyway) because the book is freaking awesome. Her character creation, her writing style, the damn ending, all of it just blew me away. The worst thing about this book is that I don't have the next one and I have to wait for the next one and I don't want to wait because I want to know what happens next because I love these characters. Blue and her Raven boys (Gansey and Adam and Ronan and Noah)— beautiful, just awesome. I want to become best friends with Maggie Stiefvater so I can read everything she writes as she writes it. Down to her grocery lists because I figure they have to be pretty damn awesome too.
Reflected In You- Sylvia Day- I read the first book in this series sometime ago. This is the second. It continues the adventures of damaged lovers Eva and Gideon. And I found it to be kind of repetitive. Very repetitive. There was a lot of "I love you but I don't trust you so I can't be with you anymore. Wait, I do trust you, I guess I can be with you. No, wait, I don't trust you so I can't be with you anymore" going on and it got very boring. There's a Big Event that's revealed toward the end that does make me wonder how that might affect their relationship (which is on again by the end) in the third book.
Dead To You- Lisa McMann- So I've read a few of her books and outright didn't like the last one (Cryer's Cross... something about a haunted desk? Whatever.) but the premise of this book I found very intriguing. Ethan was abducted from his family when he was seven years old and finds his way back to them nine years later. Things are all right at first and then things start falling apart. So let me just say... I love 99% of this book. I love the way it's written and I love the characters. So, so good. I worried during the whole of this book, worried about how things were going to turn out for the characters because I wanted good things for them but I knew something was going to happen that wouldn't be good, and this is always a mark of how good a book is. But then there was the ending. Yeah, I'm going to harp on the ending again (and I still need to write my post on good versus bad endings, I know) and without getting into too many details... It stopped where I thought the story was just getting started. And as far as I know, this is a stand-alone novel and there is no more story to come but I desperately want to know what happens next. I needed more.