Favorite Author Series: Jacqueline Carey

Heeellloooo again!

I thought I would start a series on my favorite authors. I'm open to suggestions, so if there is something you'd like for me to add or would rather I take away, please leave a comment here! I do want to hear from you. All I ask is that you be respectful to everyone when leaving a comment!

The first one in my series is Jacqueline Carey, writer of fantasy. According to her official website (found HERE), she began writing as a hobby in high school, but wasn't until she was studying abroad in London that she wanted to make it her career. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and English Literature, and currently resides in Michigan with her partner Julie.

Courtesy of Jacqueline Carey's Twitter (follow her HERE)

I first came upon this author when perusing the racks at the now defunct Borders. I kept picking up her book titled "Kushiel's Dart." Every time I would pick it up, I would put it back down. I wasn't sure that I would like it. I did this many times. Pick it up, look at the back again, put it down, sometimes picking it back up, and ultimately deciding to walk away. One day, though, I decided to buy it. I was obviously drawn to it, otherwise why would I keep coming back? I am so, so glad that I made that decision! I would have missed out on a lot of great books if I hadn't picked up this one.

I can't honestly pinpoint one exact thing about her writing that tends to draw me into her stories. I love the characters, the story lines, the worlds. I feel immersed in her creations and I don't want to put the book down once I start!

She has a few series out. Kushiel's Legacy, which encompasses 3 trilogies (Phedre's, Imriel's, & Moirin's trilogy). They all take place in the same world, but they are all from a different character's perspective, if you haven't guessed that already. She also has the Agent of Hel series, the Santa Olivia series, and The Sundering series.

Now, I have a confession. I don't LOVE everything by Jacqueline Carey (sorry Ms. Carey!!). I've tried to read Banewreaker, but I always get distracted by another book that looks more interesting. It doesn't catch me in the beginning like most of her other books do. I also don't love her Santa Olivia series. I can tell you exactly why with this one. I just don't like her personality. I can't connect with her for some reason. Yet, I've still read both books in the series so far. By far my favorite is the Kushiel's Legacy books, followed closely by the Agent of Hel books.

If you are going to pick up the Kushiel's Legacy series, just a bit of a forewarning in case this bothers anyone. Basically, in the world that she created, Terre D'Ange, which is kind of like an alternate Europe/time in history, the act of love & sex is sacred and there are different "houses" dedicated to different types of lovemaking (I don't like that word. It sounds weird to me. Ha! But to simply call it sex for this series isn't accurate). It one caters to a different type, depending on preference. There's even a saying in Terre D'Ange: "Love as thou wilt." There is also some of the dominant/submissive type stuff going on. It's not too often and it is tastefully done. It's also a part of the story, not just randomly thrown in there just for the shock of it.

Below are links to the first books of each of my favorite series by Jacqueline Carey,

If you would like to check out other books by her, check out Jacqueline Carey's Author's Page on Amazon. I would say if you also like Anne Bishop or Michelle Sagara, you will most likely enjoy Jacqueline Carey.

Again, I'm open for suggestions on what to add or what to take out when doing these. Just leave me a comment! Thank you all for reading! I will see you all later!

Jen


**This post does contain one or more affiliate links. By clicking on affiliate links and making purchases through them, you are helping to support my blog. If you choose to do so, I thank you! If you don't, that's ok too! I'm just happy you stopped by! :)  **

What I'm Currently Reading

Hello!

Fancy meeting you here! Today I thought I would talk a little bit about the book that I'm currently reading. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I enjoyed the first book in the series a lot more than I thought I would. This book is called "Shadow of Night" by Deborah Harkness.

Click here to go to the author's page about the book or

Shadow of Night: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy, Book 2) if you would like to purchase on Kindle.

The first book, A Discovery of Witches, took a little while for me to get into. I'm glad I stuck with it because it sucked me in after that. I can't remember at what point I was pulled in, since it's been a little while since I've read it. you can definitely tell that Deborah is highly educated by the way she writes. I'm not uneducated myself, but I'm not used to authors writing the way she does. I think this was one of the reasons it took me a little while to get into it. I was adjusting to her writing style. However, I grew to like it and I'm now onto the 2nd book in the trilogy.

I'm liking it so far, but I'm only on chapter 11. Would I recommend it so far? Yes. This book takes place the Elizabethan Era, which is one of my favorite periods in history! Did I forget to mention I LOVE history?! It's not the only reason I like it, but it certainly contributes to it. This book continues the adventures of the two main characters, Matthew and Diana in their quest to find an old manuscript that has something to do with the origins of creatures. Creatures in this series consist of vampires, witches, and daemons.

I would recommend at this point, as I mentioned. Stay tuned for a more in-depth review once I'm finished.

Until then, I will see you all later!

Jen

**This post does contain one or more affiliate links. By clicking on affiliate links and making purchases through them, you are helping to support my blog. If you choose to do so, I thank you! If you don't, that's ok too! :)  **

My New "Obsession"

Hi again!


I've just discovered something recently. I've become slightly addicted, but I am admitting this. Therefore, I'm hoping it helps me rein myself in. This cute little things are called Funko Pop Vinyl Figures. They are collectibles and I've only just fallen into this world. I'm afraid I may have fallen down a rabbit hole....

I've just added these two to my collection today. The picture isn't very good because I took it really quick with my cell phone. Pretty soon I will bring out my camera and take some nice photos to share  with you of my whole collection. Which isn't huge. I'm hoping to keep it that way considering I have an incredibly tiny house and really no room to store them. I've already run out of room for all my books (yet I keep buying more)! 

I told myself I would only collect the ones that I really like. After looking over some of the ones that are out...there's quite a few I would buy. If I had to choose just one, right now, I would probably choose to get this guy:

Baymax from Big Hero Six

I think he's too cute! So far I have "Pops" from the show Supernatural, Harry Potter, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Adventure Time, and Game of Thrones. As much as I love these, if you don't want to get addicted to them, look away quickly! I found them too adorable to resist and now there's no turning back for me! But it's not too late for you! Go, now, before it is too late!

If it is too late for you, what Pops do you have? If you could pick any one of them right now, which one would you get? Leave a comment! I'd love to know!

Jen

An Introduction

Hello!

You might be wondering who I am. Well, even if you're not wondering, I'm here to tell you a little bit about me and what plans I have for this blog. First things first though...

My name is Jenell. You can call me Jen, or Imriela, or, you know, my actual name. Why Imriela? Because I'm a gamer and that has been a gamer tag/character name that I've used in the gaming world for years! How do you say it you ask? Like this: Im (like him without the H) - ree - ella. I also hear you asking how I came up with this name! What I did was took a character from Jacqueline Carey's (one of my favorite authors!) Kushiel series and added an "a" at the end. That character's name is Imriel. So creative right? I've been Imriela online ever since.

Jacqueline Carey's Official Site (this is the book that hooked me!)

I'm currently a working mother of 2, who is not quite 30 yet, with my husband and dog also in residence. When I have time, I love to read, write, play video games, and practice photography. I don't practice photography much any more because I don't have as much time as I used too. I have 2 girls...one is 7 (almost 8!) and the other is 1 1/2. I have my hands full with little one alone! But when I have time between all the other things I love to do, I still do dabble!

I've been a reader and writer all my life. I still have things that I wrote back in elementary school! My cousin and I used to get together and write silly little plays or stories. I also wrote stories on my own. In high school, I used to co-author fan fictions with my friends. We mostly wrote about Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I also tinkered around with poetry during this time and had a poem of mine published in a little rinky-dink book. I was very proud of it though!

If you haven't guessed already, my favorite genre to read is fantasy, followed by Sci-Fi. Although I will read anything if I think it'll be a good story! But I also mentioned gaming. I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer or anything, but I do love to play games! I'm currently preferring PC games over console games, but I go back and forth. Currently I'm LOVING Heroes of the Storm and a game that is still in Early Alpha called Ark: Survival Evolved. I'm not going to go much into them right now because I will probably talk about them more in later blog posts. Some of my favorite games are the Harvest Moon games, the Fable games, and the Sims games!

Ark:Survival Evolved from Steam

What do I plan on doing with the blog exactly? I will be posting reviews of books, talk about games I'm playing as well as reviewing some, and talk about just anything that I can think of! If I have any affiliate links in any of my posts, I will make sure to inform you of that fact. If I don't mention it, then they aren't affiliate links and I don't get any sort of compensation. None of the links in this post are affiliate links, in case you were wondering. I know you were!

So that's me and the blog in a nutshell...sort of. This post ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be!! I hope you enjoyed and I shall see you later!

~Jen