Malin’s #CBR4 Reviews #66-69: Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin, Becoming Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and Scandal Wears Satin by Loretta Chase
So I did a fair bit of reading over the summer, even though I actually spent 15 days while in Iowa not so much as thinking about opening a book (which may be the first time in my adult life I can remember that happening). I did fall dreadfully behind on my reviews, and I’m not even blogging everything I read anymore. You can therefore expect several bulk posts from me in the coming weeks.
Book 66: Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin. Beginning of a very enjoyable paranormal fantasy series. The covers are particularly awful, even by the standards of the genre. Please don’t let that put you off if you like light-hearted adventure fantasy. 4 stars.
Book 67: Becoming Bindy Mackenzie by Jaclyn Moriarty. Extremely well-written young adult novel with a protagonist it’s difficult to like at first. More teenagers should discover these books, they’re an absolute delight to read, and a million times better than most YA fiction out there. 4 stars
Book 68: Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I break my own rules for the first time in three years of reviewing for CBR. I’ve read this book four times now, but it’s one of my absolute favourites, and when Mrs. Julien and a bunch of others were reading it, I had to revisit it as well. 5 stars
Book 69: Scandal Wears Satin by Loretta Chase. One of her weakest efforts, but still quite entertaining. Worth checking out if you like this sort of thing. 3 stars.
Cannonball Read IV 
OMG you linked to me! You just made my day!
Speaking of Scandal Wears Satin, I liked it better than Silk Is for Seduction. I think sometimes I like a nice big and dumb hero and Chase provides those quite nicely, and it had less sturm and drang than its predecessor.
I’m interested to see how many Outlander reviews appear here eventually. It seems to be turning into its own club over on FB.
Will you be reviewing A Lady by Midnight? I am in the starter’s crouch to order Milan’s latest due out in October. I suppose I’ll track down the new Julie Anne Long about the hot vicar as well.
I’ve been reading some Mary Balogh and she’s quite a good writer. More historically accurate than most, all things being relative. I recommend Slightly Dangerous, if you haven’t already read it. It’s “Notting Hill meets Pride and Prejudice” as one Amazon reviewer said.
A Lady by Midnight is absolutely on list for books I need to blog (along with two of Eloisa James’ “Fairytale” books). I have no idea why you couldn’t comment on my blog, I’ll see if Blogger changed the settings, which they seem to do every so often, just to keep me on my toes.
I don’t know if I’ve read any Balogh. I may have read one. Will have to check my Goodreads. I still have a huge Kleypas backlist to go through, though, so I won’t be getting to Balogh any time soon.
I could probably help with what Kleypas not to bother with. I’ve read/attempted virtually all of her historicals.
Balogh is tamer on the whole, but she does damaged people finding each other very well. From the reviews I’ve read, she also repeats herself a bit plot wise (meaning more explicitly than is usual for the genre). I tried Slightly Married and didn’t like it, but out of desperation I tried another book at it was better, much better. I find I keep reading their most highly recommended books first so almost everything else is a let down.
Sorry -I tried to post this on your blog and it wouldn’t let me:
Re: Outlander
YAY! I think of it as the ultimate romance, but that’s probably owing more to my current obsession (101 books as of yesterday) than Gabaldon’s books. Och, Jamie.
Written in My Own Heart’s Blood (best title EVER!) in T – 12 months!