Love To Read? Book Reviews with Amber at The Mewton-Clawson Library #185 featuring **Junkyard Cats** by Faith Hunter PLUS Friendly Fill-Ins

Hello gorgeous library guests 

and 

Welcome to the Mewton-Clawson Library at BBHQ 

Thank mew for joining me in the stacks today, and I do hope mew've all had a very festive couple of weeks.

We packed the Catmas tree away on Wednesday and took down all the festive trimmings

and lights at BBHQ, and it does seem somewhat lacklustre now.

 

I've been enjoying some really big catnaps in the sitting room while the woodburner has been roaring away and delivering an ambient temperature of totally tropical, as mew can see I was well in the snooze zone in my picture, as there's nothing like a freshly washed blanky and a fire to send mew into the land of nod! MOL

Do tell me about what mew've been doing, as we haven't been online at BBHQ due to catching up on jobs around the house during our Catmas break.

Today the P.A. is also joining in Friday Fill-ins Blog Hop with the pawesome 15 & Meowing and Four-Legged Furballs.

1. My focus word for 2022 is ________________.

2. This year I want to learn more about __________________.

3. I _________ during the first week of 2022.

4. In this season of my life, I _________.

The P.A.'s answers are...

1. My focus word for 2022 is completion. I've been sadly lacking in that area since Commander Basil departed for the rainbow realm, and have so many half-written books and B Team projects gathering dust, so I'm hoping to complete some of those this year.

2. This year I want to learn more about different forms of meditation.

3. I made a list of all the projects that I would like to complete this year during the first week of 2022.

4. In this season of my life, I find it difficult to concentrate and complete my writing goals. I have a bit of a butterfly brain and seem to flit from thing to thing. 

Let's see what I've got to show mew this time!

This week's top book pick is...

Mewton-Clawson Library Copy

Junkyard Cats

by

Faith Hunter

       Here's a little snippet of the book blurb:      

After the Final War, after the appearance of the Bug aliens and their enforced peace, Shining Smith is still alive, still doing business from the old scrapyard bequeathed to her by her father. But Shining is now something more than human. And the scrapyard is no longer just a scrapyard, but a place full of secrets that she has guarded for years.

This life she has built, while empty, is predictable and safe. Until the only friend left from her previous life shows up, dead, in the back of a scrapped Tesla warplane. Clutched in her cold fingers is a note to Shining—warning her of a coming attack.

Way, way, way back in 2016 when I first started sharing my book reviews, I reviewed another book by Faith Hunter, Skinwalker, and have gone on to enjoy twelve books in the series, although there are fourteen available and the fifteenth comes out later this year. I've also read three of the Soulwood books, and a few of her other titles too so I'm quite the fan.

Junkyard Cats has been on my to-read list for ages, and when I was perusing Audible last month I saw that it was available for free for members, lucky me and even luckier for Parsley not having to buy me a new book! MOL

Anyhoo I hastily downloaded it and I've been listening to it this week. Set in a post-apocalyptic world full of tech and things that are in all honesty probably just around the corner for us, a couple or three decades away and where some robots and machines aren't friendly. I just know that A.I. in a real-world situation is a bad idea, haven't any of these brainbox scientists and tech companies ever watched The Terminator? It amazes, in fact astounds me, that they think they will be able to remain in control of their inventions.

But I digress, after being immersed in Faith Hunter's other fictional universes it took me a while to get into the story, especially as it was the same narrator from the other books and as I was listening I kept being propelled into the other books.

However, that aside I have enjoyed it, the cats are quite something to behold, and if mew know about my alter ego in The B Team, then mew'll know I have an awful amount of respect for these fighting felines.

Although slow to start and get immersed in, once I was there I really enjoyed it. If mew love fantasy, sci-fi, dystopian books I would definitely add this to your reading list.

Great news, book two in the series is also free to listen to on Audible, and book three is coming out this year.

Audio 5 hours 2 mins

Kindle 106 pages

My Ratings Scale

Ratings of:

Junkyard Cats

Overall Enjoyment

Other Fun Blog Hops to Join in Today

         Catblogosphere        Feline Friday        Nature Friday        Flashback Friday     Friendship Friday       

I really hope mew enjoy the book as much as I did if mew decide to read it.

It's time for me to say BFN or bye-fur-now as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time and I'll be back next week with another specially paw-picked book just for mew, and don't furget that all my previous reviews can be found on my Book Review page.

Until next time...

Keep calm and read more books

Amber 

Follow me at angry_amber_badtemperedkitty

& @BionicBasil® on Instacat

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 graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com 

Wordy on Wednesday with Biblio-Kitty Amber #10 featuring Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

Welcome to 

The Self-Appointed Biblio-Kitty

Pawesome greetings fellow bibliocats

*waves paw with much glee and mirth*

Mew may remember a few weeks ago I mentioned that I really needed a library ladder, well mew'll neffur believe it, I actually got one.  Not an actual purroper library ladder but a ladder nonetheless, appurrently it's a stopgap until the P.A. can source a nice antiquey dark oak one from one of the local auction houses or flea market or get some beat-up thing from a second-hand shop etc...  she says she's not bothered if it needs a little restoration but ultimately it has to be the right thing.

In the meantime I got this...

Look it's not that I'm ungrateful or anything, but I still can't reach shelf five! MOL

And I did hear the P.A. mutter several unmentionables as she was constructing it, appurently self-tapping screws are not her favourite thing and more than once I heard the phrase 'supurr tight mother flocker!' [I'm not quite sure what a mother flocker is, or maybe I had my cloth-ears on and misheard thus mispronouncing said wurd! MOL]. Then appurrently the destruction booklet was completely useless.  It was at that moment I thought it was a moot point to say anything at all about purrchasing flat-pack furniture and promptly left her to it.

Sometime later... much later... but not too late...

The ladder was complete!

Aftur seeing it finished fur the furst time, I decided the best course of action was to appear purrleased even though really I wasn't as this clearly shows in the main picture.  I did howeffur rub my furry chops all offur it just in case anypurrdy else thought about claiming it, afturall I don't know how long it's going to take to source the real thing.

The good news is, that I'd already purrpared some nice little stickers on my label machine so it clearly states the ladder is for: CAT USE ONLY! 

Aftur all that excitement I think it's time we moved on to the main event... don't stop reading as it just gets more exciting.

This week on Book Reviews with Amber, I'm sharing

Skinwalker

by

Faith Hunter

This is the furst novel in the Jane Yellowrock Series and I can safely say, wow what a novel!

This is a paranormal, dark fantasy novel, so if mew like that genre mew'll just love this.  It's got shapeshifters, vampires, witches and were-creatures; the series is ten books long at the moment so there's plenty to sink your teeth into - pardon the pun.

Mew maybe wundering what this has to do with cats, well let me clear that up right now; the main character Jane Yellowrock is a Cherokee Skinwalker aka a shapeshifter and can shift into any type of creature provided she has a sample of DNA to use, but she isn't just any old shapeshifter.  Long, long ago when she was a child and on the brink of death she accidentally absorbed the soul of a mountain lion, so in essence she shares her body and mind with the consciousness and independent entity of said mountain lion, who in the novel is called Beast.  So that's where the cat element comes in today.

Obviously I'm not going to spoilerize anything fur mew, but how the two became one is one of the central plots within the series and as each new novel picks up at the end of the last one, the story is continued revealing more and more of their accidental joining.

In this purrticular novel Jane, who is a Rogue Vampire Hunter has been hired by Katherine Fontaneau, one of the oldest vampires in New Orleans to hunt down a rogue vampire that's been terrorising both humans and vamps leaving a bloody body count in its wake and that's how the story begins.

Also Beast has her own voice and opinions which are sometimes at odds with her Skinwalker host; I really love Beast, she is one tough kitty and the two of them together are a merciless fighting force when it comes to taking down rogue vamps.  

 I could talk fur hours about this series, the great characters, the twists and turns of the story but I'm not going to bore the fur off mew with my opinion, howeffur I will say this Faith Hunter has written an amazing series with a plot so tight it made those self tapping screws seem like they were going into jelly, and as each new novel comes out I'm amazed at the complexity of the plotting and depth of the story-line.  She truly is one of the best dark fantasy/paranormal writers I've discovered in recent years.

I would recommend listening to the audio version as the narrator, Khristine Hvam brings the characters to life in a such way that mew just don't get by reading it yourself.  This is especially true for Beasts character, as she doesn't speak or think like us and the narration of her character is beyond exceptional. Did I already mention that I just love Beast!? MOL

If I had to sum-up in one wurd, it would be:  EPIC

Paperback copy: 336 pages long

  Audio Edition:  14 hours 34 mins long

The Amber Biblio Rating System:

Ratings of : Skinwalker

Plot Twists

Characters

Story Development

Ofurrall Enjoyment

This is my third 5 paws all-round novel, if I gave it any less I'd be lying! MOL

Have mew read today's book?

What did mew think?

Well, it's time fur me to sign off again, as mew know the deal, so many books, so little time! 

And if any of mew have written a book that mew'd like me to feature; either use the contact form - look left on the sidebar - or use the contact us page fur our email address, as I'd love to showcase our furiends pawesome literary talents.

Happy reading

Purrs

Amber

Graphics created with paid licence www.canva.com