Bogormen

Title: The Woman in Cabin 10
Author: Ruth Ware
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 352
Date read: September, 2016

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. At first, Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for - and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo's desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong...


Wow! That was quite a ride... and I had no idea what to expect when I first started it, which just made it even better.

"The Woman in Cabin 10" is the kind of suspense novel I enjoy the most - where the mystery is slowly unraveled, and seemingly inexplicable events turn out to have a very good reason indeed. No leaps of logic and - more importantly - no supernatural events, no dreams and no split-personality issues!

I liked the way the story unfolded, and loved that it took part on a cruise ship, as they have always fascinated me. Most of the book takes place inside Lo's head, so we don't get to know the other characters as much as I would have liked, but because of the way the story is written, it actually works, without becoming too 'navel gazing'.

Great book. I had a very hard time putting it down. People compare it to "The Girl on the Train", but personally I think it's heaps better :)

Title: Night Study (Soulfinders, #2)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 400
Date read: September, 2016

Ever since being kidnapped from the Illiais Jungle as a child, Yelena Zaltana's has been fraught with peril. But the recent loss of her Soulfinding abilities has endangered her more than ever before. As she desperately searches for a way to reclaim her magic, her enemies are closing in, and neither Ixia nor Sitia are safe for her anymore. Especially since the growing discord between the two countries and the possibility of a war threatens everything Yelena holds dear.

Valek is determined to protect Yelena, but he's quickly running out of options. The Commander suspects that his loyalties are divided, and he's been keeping secrets from Valek...secrets that put him, Yelena and all their friends in terrible danger. As they uncover the various layers of the Commander's mysterious plans, they realize it's far more sinister that they could have ever imagined.


Still not a huge fan of the changing POVs in this series, but I'm getting more used to it, and for once all storylines were equally interesting, which also helped quite a bit.

Lots of surprises in this one, and I'm especially interested in seeing how the relationship between the Commander and Valek will continue in the third book... and of course see if my theory about Yelena's magic loss is correct.

All in all, I'm really enjoying this series. Still can't live up to "Poison Study" itself, but nor could any of the other books in the original trilogy, so I'm not holding that against in. I'm looking forward to the third book coming out next year.

Title: Søvnen og døden (Niels Bentzon #2) (Sleep and Death)
Author: A.J. Kazinski
Genre: Suspense
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 490 pages
Date read: September, 2016

The hostage negotiator at Copenhagen Police, Niels Bentzon, should have been able to talk her out of it. Talk her out of jumping down on the train tracks. But he couldn't. But who was she? What caused her to jump? Somebody or something was after her - something that made her prefer death to life.

Soon Niels realizes that the woman wasn't a mentally ill woman, but a solo dancer at the Royal Ballet who's been missing for two days. And the autopsy reveals something else - the woman has been drowned and revived several times just before her jump.


This was a surprisingly slow read. I liked it well enough, and thought the premise fascinating (man trying to kill and revive people in order to get answers from a dead relative), but it was just too easy to put down and not pick up again.

Niels' way of working annoyed me - it always bothers me when policemen in books and movies get an idea and decide to run with it themselves, instead of following policy and wait for backup. You know it's going to get them into trouble sooner or later - trouble which could so easily have been avoided.

Title: Sea Glass (Glass #2)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 472
Date read: June 2014, September 2016

From one-trick wonder to wielder of terrifying powers.

Not bad for a student.

Glass magician Opal Cowan's newfound ability to steal a magician's powers has made her too powerful in the eyes of the council... Despite being under house arrest, Opal travels to the Moon Clan's lands in search of Ulrick, the man she thinks she loves. Thinks because she is sure another man, now her prisoner, has switched souls with Ulrick.

In hostile territory, without proof or allies, Opal isn't sure whom to trust. She can't forget Kade, the handsome Stormdancer who doesn't want to let her get close. And now everyone is after Opal's special powers for their own deadly gain.

No doubt about it, Maria Snyder writes very readable books. Just like the first one, I read this in a day and enjoyed it greatly. Sure, it did get a bit old how Opal was constantly stumbling into one bad situation after another, but at least near the end it seemed as if she was starting to learn from her mistakes - I'm hoping that will continue in the last book as well.

There is some slight foreshadowing in this book, which typically annoys me quite a bit. Here, the event foreshadowed always ended up taking place already a couple of pages later, so I didn't have time to get too bothered by it.

Interesting ending. I'm looking forward to seeing where she takes it in the last book.

Title: Fire Study (Study #3)
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 441
Date read: October 2012, September 2016

When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder - able to capture and release souls - spreads like wildfire, people grow uneasy. Already Yelena's unusual abilities and past have set her apart. As the Council debates Yelena's fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before....

Honor sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills, and the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Her journey is fraught with allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty. Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself - and save the land she holds dear.

Unfortunately not quite as good as the two first books in the series. I still really liked it, but I didn't love it, the way I did the two others. Still, as a whole it earns the place as one of the best fantasy series I've read since Tamora Pierce.

The threads are nicely wrapped up, and all the questions answered... although there were some of them where I thought, "Well, D'UH! I could have told you that 400 pages ago. Ah well, it still worked. My biggest problem with it was probably the conclusion of the Fire Warper / Jal story line. It seemed rushed and especially Jal's motivation wasn't quite fleshed out enough.

But that's a minor complaint to an otherwise excellent series. Definitely books I want to own as physical books and not just ebooks.

Title: Poison Study
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~10hrs / 409 pages
Date read: June 2012, August 2014, September 2016, July 2024

Choose: A quick death... Or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace - and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust - and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear.

I started listening to this with no particular expectations. I'd never read a review of it, but just kept seeing it all over the place, so I figured it was about time.

I ended up LOVING it!!! One of the best books I've read in a very, very long time. It's a brilliant story that incorporates several of my favourite bookish ideas: Teaching of a craft - check. Latent magical abilities - check. Surprising romance - check. Friends among enemies - check.

Excellent book that's nicely contained. Still, it was so well written that I want to start the sequel right away :)