Reading A-Z: U to Z!

The Unfinished Song, Book 1: Initiate, by Tara Maya
The real title of this is "Initiate", but my Kindle had it filed under U for "Unfinished". So U it is.

I hesitated a bit on deciding to read this because the cover on the edition I have calls it Young Adult, which generally isn't my reading of choice, and I'm generally not into fae/fairies either. But wow, am I glad I went ahead and read it. The story has a depth and sophistication that makes it much more adult than a lot of YA I've read (also, some of the subject matter might be considered more mature than would be usual for a YA audience). It's set in a refreshingly original world based on ancient Native American cultures and settings, and while fae creatures play an important role, the emphasis is solidly on the human characters. Enchanting, intriguing, and beautifully written. (full review)

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Veil of the Dragon, byTom Barczak
Beautifully-written fantasy about a man facing his destiny to save the world from evil, who has to overcome the evil within himself and those who are supposed to help him on his way. The main attraction of this book is the prose, highly visual (not surprising, since the author is an illustrator and architect; the book is illustrated with the author's own drawings) and impressionistic, weaving visions and reality together. (full review)

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Whiskey and Wheelguns - various authors
    "Where the Devil Drinks" - Alexander Nader
    "Watch the Line" - Joriah Wood
    "Hair of the Dog" - J. Edward Paul
    "Big Roamer" - Michael D. Woods
    "Dark as Night" - John Weeast
    "Zarahemla and the Skinwalkers" - R.A. Williamson

Six teasers/prologues/backstories to stories in the Whiskey & Wheelguns shared weird west universe. Creepy, magical, and filled with weird western goodness. Apparently, the collective kind of changed direction after this collection was released, so further installments aren't always easy to find, but based on the taste here, it's worth the effort.

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Oxygen, by John S. Olson & Randy Ingermanson
I didn't have anything for X, so I went with the next best thing - a title with X in it.

Hard science fiction isn't my usual reading, but one of the authors of Oxygen, Randy Ingermanson, developed a popular outlining method for writers (the Snowflake method) and I found out about Oxygen on his site. I'll admit that what grabbed me was the romance aspect of "science fiction romance", but I ended up thoroughly enjoying everything about this book. Fun, exciting, suspenseful, with a sweet romance and some thought-provoking ideas. (full review)

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Beyond Sanctuary, by Janet Morris
I only had a couple of different possibilities for Y but couldn't stick with any of them, so I chose Beyond Sanctuary because it has two Ys in the title. Lame, but hey, whatever. Plus I've owed the author a read-and-review on it for a while now. [Please note, with very rare exceptions, I no longer do read-and-review requests.]

Interesting, exciting sword-and-sorcery set in the Thieves' World shared world, well-written in beautiful, poetic prose. I'm not familiar with Thieves' World, so it took me a while to figure out what was going on in Beyond Sanctuary, but eventually I got the hang of most of it. On the down side, I found the two heroes, Tempus and Niko, deeply unlikeable - one is a rapist, the other has a penchant for deflowering barely pubescent virgins. To me, these are deal-breakers when it comes to heroes. It's a testament to the author's storytelling skills that when I came across things that would normally make me stop reading and delete the book, I had to keep going to find out how the story turned out. (full review)

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Zanna's Outlaw - Julie Lence
Sweet-natured (though slightly spicy) western historical romance. What I liked best about Zanna's Outlaw was Buck. Even though he's an outlaw, he's also a gentleman through and through. He cares about protecting Zanna and treats her well. And even though no one else in town thinks it's a problem when the town prostitute, Fancy, gets beat up by a client, he makes it clear that no one's going to treat women that way in his town. Quick, fun read with a likeable hero and charming romance. (full review)

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And that brings the Reading A-Z Challenge to an end! (See the other installments: A-G, H-N, and O-T.) Next I'll just be reading a bunch of books I've been wanting to get to for a while, as well as more from some new favorites I've discovered. Watch for periodic reading roundups for my recommendations!