It’s time again to ask ourselves the three W’s:
What’s “too many” currently reading books?
Who decided this magic number in the first place?
Why have we artificially put a limit on how many books one person can read simultaneously?!

Wait, no, that’s not right. We ask these three W’s:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I couldn’t actually say what I was reading, because it was part of the BBNYA (Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award) competition. Since that’s over and the winners have been announced, I can finally update everyone! So really, this is all the books I’ve read in the past month since my last WWW.

The Smartest Kid in the Universe by Chris Grabenstein
★★★☆☆ || Goodreads
This was a fun book, though one I think kids would enjoy more than I would. It’s funny, but not quite my sort of humor, and the story felt a little disjointed plot-wise rather than pulling neatly together. Still, the adventure was fun and I think would easily capture children’s attention! Plus, I love how many little interesting nuggets of knowledge are slipped in. This is a great one for anyone who enjoys learning little bits of trivia mixed with a fun adventure.

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
★★★★★ || Goodreads
I’ve had several people tell me how much they enjoyed this book, and I can see why! The illustrations are so charming, the tea dragons are absolutely adorable (obviously, I want one), and the story is just heartwarming and lovely. This is one I want to try to convince Minion to read, and I hope more kids will read it at the library. I want to check out the other books in this series now!

Peril in the Old Country by Sam Hooker
★★★★★ || Goodreads
When I first started this book, I thought it could go either way. It’s a comedic fantasy with dry humor, and I thought I’d either love it or hate it. Guess what? I loved it! The situations are a little bizarre, but totally endearing. Poor Sloot Peril isn’t a particularly capable hero, unless it comes to his skills in accounting (which honestly count for nothing when things go awry, obviously). I just loved everything about this one!

Soul Remains by Sam Hooker
★★★★★ || Goodreads
Book two in this series! I was very concerned at the end of book one, with the way it ended, that there would be nowhere to go with book two, but that definitely wasn’t the case. This one surprised me with how creative the author was in continuing the plot and still making it compelling! Definitely didn’t see any of this coming. Same old lovable characters, but with bigger stakes and more unbelievably fun adventures.

Now Before the Dark by Sam Hooker
★★★★★ || Goodreads
I’m sort of sad this series is over? Feels weird to say, considering how unsure I was about it when I started. The humor is just *chef’s kiss*. The situations were never what I expected and always kept me guessing. The characters in this were some of my favorites (plus bringing back the characters from the earlier books, of course). I’m also convinced that I need my own bard, though not Igor, please. Anyone but Igor.

Specter by Katie Jane Gallagher
★★★☆☆ || Goodreads
I will say that Gallagher knows how to create a spooky atmosphere, and I think that was my favorite part about this book. The mystery and ghosts hooked me right away! Unfortunately, the book sort of took a weird turn into territory I wasn’t expecting and the sort I don’t generally like, such as conspiracy theories and teen drama and drugs, etc. Just not my thing. If that’s your thing, though, you should give it a try!

The Devil’s Apprentice by Kenneth B. Andersen
★★★★☆ || Goodreads
I’ve heard wonderful things about this series and was so excited to finally give it a read! Glad I hadn’t picked it up sooner. My procrastination finally worked in my favor. Imagine that! Andersen’s work is funny and fun, playing heavily off of subverted expectations, which worked well with the humor. It was a little too predictable in places for me, where I didn’t feel like there were really any big twists in the last two-thirds of the book except one. So if you’re looking for just a fun, entertaining read, I’d highly recommend it! As long as you’re not expecting any plot twists to really catch you by surprise.

Fid’s Crusade by David H. Reiss
★★★★★ || Goodreads
This was such an unexpected gem! If you’re into superheroes and supervillains, this fits a unique niche in that area. It delves a lot into what exactly makes a hero versus a villain, and do they always have to exist in those labels where they’re placed? Or can heroes be villains and vice versa? There was such much depth to this story, so many little things to love about the characters, so much complexity into each of the characters. The only real issue I had was the plot was a little jumpy and non-linear, which made it hard to follow at times, and the world-building wasn’t as sound as it could be. I’d think I knew what the world in the book was like and then I’d be smacked in the face with something new in the world that hadn’t been previously mentioned and I hadn’t known was a thing, and that happened multiple times, which made it a little frustrating.

I’m currently reading aaaall the books. I need to catch up on some that I started and haven’t finished. I want to go into 2021 with a mostly clean slate, so I’m trying to finish as many of these as I can this week while I have time off from work.

Mistborn: The Final Empire
Status – around 25%. I’m home all week with hubby, and he’s been nagging me incessantly to finish it, so that’s just what I’m going to do … hopefully.

The Poppy War
Status – around 50%. My Kindle loan ran out on this through the library, but thankfully, my library has a copy, so I grabbed that and I’m working to finish it. I’ve been told it picks up, and I’m still waiting on that. It’s picking up a little, but hopefully it’ll be more soon.

The Memory of Souls
Status – around 90%. Listen. I just didn’t want this book to end, and if I don’t read the very last part, then it never ends, right?! That’s what I’m going with. Book four comes out next year, though, so it’s really time to go ahead and finish and begin the long, arduous wait until the next one!

Ring Shout
Status – around 25%. Honestly … I kind of forgot that I was even reading this? Probably not a good sign, though I did enjoy what I read of it so far. It just wasn’t quite what I expected. Definitely want to get back to this one, though!

Sherlock Holmes and The Beast of the Stapletons
Status – around 50%. Enjoying this one, but the narrative is just so dryyyy. Honestly, the author captures Doyle’s writing style really well, but I now remember what a pain it was to read the original Sherlock Holmes series. I’m trying to read at least a chapter of this every day, but it’s definitely not one I’m likely to binge read.

Seven Devils
Status – around 40%. My library loan on this expired, so I had to wait for it to come back around. Thankfully, the wait wasn’t nearly as long as it was the first time, so I’m already back at reading this one!

There’s nothing here for a change! How weird is that?! But I’m determined to finish my ongoing books before I pick up anything new, darn it, so next week’s upcoming reads will be my reward for actually (hopefully) taking a nice chunk out of the ongoing books I’ve got.

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