Scribbling in the Margins

Wednesday again already, huh? Geez, the time does fly. Anyway, here's what I've managed to get read since last week:

Diamonds and Deceit, Leila Rasheed: The second book of the At Somerton series picks up a little after the end of the first book, and follows Rose’s struggles to adjust to life as a member of the upperclass after having been raised as a servant, plus Charlotte’s schemes to marry a suitably rich husband while humiliating Ada, and Georgiana’s growing skill at managing Somerton proper. Meanwhile, WWI looms on the horizon.

Still totally soap-operatic, utterly ridiculous and very fluffy, and a good way to pass the afternoon.

In the After, Demitria Lunetta: Amy Harris has divided the life into two sections, the Before and the After. The line of demarcation is the day that They arrived, voracious and nearly mindless aliens who hunt in the daylight and have exquisitely sensitive hearing. In the After, the only way to survive is to stay utterly silent, and Amy has done so, along with the toddler Baby she found while out scavenging for food. After events force Amy and Baby to leave their home, they encounter other survivors, and that’s when the real challenges begin.

This was a pretty brisk read, moderately entertaining, though it’s pretty much a debut novel in a lot of ways. The book’s broken into three sections, and honestly, I found the first section the most compelling. The second and third sections are broken up between flashbacks and flash forwards, which is pretty gimmicky and distracting. I think it would have been much more effective if the story had been told in standard linear fashion.

Besides that, I may have managed to mainline thirty-three episodes of Yowamushi Pedal and started reading the manga as well, despite the fact that I really need to be packing up and getting ready to move on Saturday. Priorities, y'all, I have them.

(Seriously, though, this series gives me far too many feels and the inevitable end of the Inter-High is going to kill me.)

(Also I kind of want everyone to be sleeping with everyone else, because this is the handsiest shounen sports extravaganza I've seen in a good long while.)

(Except for Midousuji. I think Midousuji needs to be hit by a bus. Or for his captain to get tired of his shit and bury him in a shallow grave out back of the clubhouse and tell the police that no, Midousuji just stopped showing up for practice, we haven't seen him lately, etc. And no amount of tragic backstory can change my mind on this point.)