It's a small world - Virunga National Park

I had never heard of Virunga National Park in Africa until reading The Chimera Sequence by Elliott Garber just a few weeks ago. Today while browsing stories on CNN I came across a story of a little boy who was attacked by a chimp near Virunga National Park who is now getting much needed medical treatment so he can hopefully live a somewhat normal life. (Story on CNN)

While reading the story on CNN I found out there is a documentary on Netflix about Virunga and the plight to save the endangered mountain gorillas living there. (http://virungamovie.com/) I will be watching this documentary in the near future as i'm sure it will fascinating, especially after having just read a book that partially takes place there.

Obviously, this is not a book review but since all these things are related to the book that I read, and if it wasn't for the book I wouldn't have heard about Virunga until reading the article about the little boy, and then I probably wouldn't be as interested in watching the documentary since those usually aren't my thing, I find it pretty interesting. Ok, run on sentence/rant about it being a small world due to the internet and being able to read about/ learn about just about anything from the convenience of your own home!

Off to a good start, first book done! (Red Moon Rising by Tristan J. Tarwater)

It's been quite sometime since I read the prequel and first two books in this series but I remember finding them an enjoyable read with interesting characters and a good plot which is why I wanted to continue on with the third book in the series: Red Moon Rising.

The previous book ended with Tavera's mentor/father figure getting caught and thrown in jail after a heist gone wrong so one would imagine that this book would be all about her finding a way to break him out and rescue him. It turned out to be a completely different story than I was expecting, and while it did involve a rescue - it just wasn't Derk that was being rescued.

This book did a great job further developing Tavera's character and having her figure out who she is and who she wants to be without Derk or anyone else from The Cup to guide/help her. It starts out with Tavera being extremely secretive and just trying to swindle herself and warm bed, some beer and food before she moves on to another town but the nice barkeep convinced her to stay. From there it could have turned into something romantic, instead it turns into an adventure with magic of some sort, clues to follow and a bunch weird cultists.

Once they set out on their rescue mission the book gets very lively, before that it has a more laid back tone with a lot of intrigue rather than action that keeps you reading. I would have given this book 5 stars, but the editing starts to go down hill a bit once you get about half way through. It's not bad enough to really distract from the book too much, just a little annoying at times.





I'm now 1/5 of the way to my goal of reading 5 books this year which is really awesome because i'm about to get bogged down with school. Hoping I can finish at least one book during the semester but only time will tell.

Setting the bar low for 2016

Every year since joining Goodreads i've done one of their yearly reading challenges. Every year i've set crazy ridiculous goals of reading 100 books a year. Every year i've failed miserably at reaching my goal. Last year I went a lot easier and lowered it to just 15 books, but still I failed. This is going to be the year that I reach my goal, so i'm setting it super low, with just a measly 5 books as my target. I'm hoping to maybe eclipse that goal, but i'll be content simply to reach it.

Book #1 is Red Moon Rising by Tristan J. Tarwater. It is book three in the series, of which I read the rest several years ago when my original blog was up and running. They were very enjoyable books so i've decided to continue on with the series.

As for the other four books i'm going to attempt to read this year I haven't picked them out but i'm really, really, really hoping that one of them is going to be the next book in Game of Thrones, but i'm also not going to hold my breath on that one :(

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

I'm on a roll, 2 books down and it's not even January yet. On the down side none of these books will count towards my 2016 reading goal and I still won't hit the goal of 15 books that I set for myself for 2015. On the bright side i've gotten to read 2 fantastic books.

Here's what I thought of The Scorpio Races:

The concept of the water horses in this book is so unique, unlike anything I have ever read before. I found it fascinating from the very beginning all the way up until the end. Since this book is YA you knew there was going to be some sort of romance in the book but it wasn't an in your face or over the top sort of romance so even if you would typically avoid a YA book because of the teenaged romance this book is still within your grasp. I did however really enjoy that you got snippets from both main characters so it gave the book a lot more depth and was well done.

I didn't give this book 5 stars for a few reasons.
1. It was slow in some spots which was annoying because those parts probably could have been left out and the plot still would have gotten along just fine.
2. There were several things about the water horses that were never explained, and I would have like some sort of explanation no matter how brief, about the ribbons and bells and "magic" involved in controlling the water horses. Also, for my own stupid curiosity since they talk about cross breeding the water horses with regular horses - what would such an offspring eat, would it eat grass and hay like a normal horse or meat like a water horse?

First book Read! (The Chimera Sequence by Elliott Garber)

Well I didn't think i'd finish a book so quickly with two little kids underfoot but turns out once you get really into a good book it can still be done. Of course being on winter break from school helps too. It felt so nice to be curled up with a good book (and a baby), I didn't realize quite how much I missed the delight of getting lost in a different world for a couple of hours.

I decided to start with The Chimera Sequnce by Elliott Garber and here's what I thought:

This is not the usual genre of book that I read, i'm more of a fantasy person but I had read the short story No Dog Left Behind that features the same main character so I was intrigued and I was definitely not left disappointed.

I was a little confused after the first chapter because I didn't really understand what was going on, but it was intriguing, so I continued on. Then after that second chapter I was hooked and couldn't put it down. I loved all the characters, and was disappointed on occasion when it would switch to a new point of view because I wanted to keep learning more about the previous character's predicament. But I knew that to keep the plot moving the book had to keep switching so you could find out more and how all the pieces fit together.

If I could I would give this book 4.5 stars, but since places like Goodreads and Amazon don't allow half ratings i'll stick with 4 stars. I would read more books about Cole McBride in the future, I think it's really different to have a veterinarian as the main character of a book, and this one was extremely well written.

Hello and Welcome to the New Dragon's Inkpot

Several Years ago I started "The Dragon's Inkpot" on wordpress and had a lot of fun doing it. But then life got in the way and I got really busy. I had a daughter and started Vet school at St. George's University in Grenada. I have since had a second daughter and finished my third term of vet school (only 3 more to go on the island, plus a year in the States and then i'm a vet, woohoo!).

 I realized today after looking at my Goodreads account and seeing that the only books I managed to read this year were the ones I edited for my husband (T.J. Lantz) who is a middle grade fantasy author. I would really like to change that and am hoping to use this blog as encouragement to find the time to do more reading for myself. Feel free to follow me and like my posts as a way to encourage me and help me find the time to read between playing with my beautiful girls and watching them grow into amazing little people, hanging with my husband and helping him achieve his dreams of becoming a bestselling author and studying to achieve the job of my dreams.

My first Dragon's Inkpot was primarily fantasy and scifi but i'm thinking of maybe expanding my horizons and branching out into some other genres for this blog. My reviews will be a mix of traditionally published as well as self-published books and my goal to start will be one post a month. That post might just be an update on where I am on a book rather than an actual review if I haven't had the chance to fully read a book, so there might be more than one post per book that I read.

 Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year as I don't expect to have my first real post before the New Year.

 Maya