Month In Review: June 2019

Well June is at an end and it’s time for another review post. I didn’t do one for May so this will actually be a combined two-month in review post.

Let me start by saying things have been going a little slow here at Off The TBR. I kinda fell into a reading slump and I’m not sure why. It isn’t that I haven’t been wanting to read as much, I just have been reading at a slower pace. Some of that may be due to my son’s baseball schedule and being tired from work, but I don’t think those are big reasons. It really started in April just before the D.C. field trip with my youngest and I just slowed down after that. Can’t really explain it. Instead of my goal of reading and reviewing one book a week (roughly four a month), I’ve been closer to two reviews a month the last couple months.

Legends Of The Exiles Review

Author: Jesse Teller
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date:  April 15, 2019
Format: e-book (read on Kindle)
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars

I was sent a copy of this book for review by the author’s spouse.

The Story

“The isolated barbarians of Neather have deep ancestry and strict traditions. Four resilient women defy tribal customs as they fight to overcome their own tragedies. Abuse. Addiction. Assault. Grief. What struggles can they endure to defend their hopes and their hearts?

Helena seeks a love as bold as she, yet finds the men of her village lacking. 

Jocelyn fears her strange visions and sacrifices a life with the man she loves for the one her destiny demands. 

Torn apart by abuse and grief, Ellen is a brilliant woman who must focus her intellect on finding reasons to persevere.

Rachel, a brash girl of noble heritage, dares all men to challenge her and longs for one who will.

In this set of four interwoven novellas, award-winning author Jesse Teller challenges assumptions and showcases the strength of feminine resolve.”

Legends of The Exiles tells the stories of four legendary women of the Ragoth, a seemingly barbarian mountain people in the decades leading up to “The Escape.” They are stories of love, life, strength, loss, and suffering, where the characters struggle to fight back against the fate of tradition, choose their own paths, and forge their own destinies.

I’ve been sitting here a while trying to decide how I want to tackle this review. A book that is four stories woven together could be approached in a number of ways. It isn’t just a collection of short-stories (or novellas) and it isn’t a single story with a single story arc. At first I was going to dish on what I liked and didn’t like but sometimes they could go together. So instead I think I’m going to just talk about the things that really popped out to me.

Month In Review: April 2019

Well March has come and gone and I don’t have much to show for it. I kinda slacked off this month. Well…that isn’t really fair. I was busy all month, just busy doing other things. In the end I didn’t do nearly as much reading and blogging as I’d planned. Which is OK I suppose, only now my whole reading schedule is thrown off and I need to rework it. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

Here’s a quick overview of what I’d planned to read and review in March:

• Seven Blades In Black, by Sam Sykes (I was actually reading this as February ended and March began)
• Legends of The Exiles, by Jesse Teller
• SWORLD: The Chronicles of Malick, by William Harris
• Up To The Throne, by T.A. Frost
• Holy Sister, by Mark Lawrence

Here’s what I actually read:

• Seven Blades In Black (reviewed this one)
• Legends of The Exiles (didn’t review this one yet)

So what happened? Well I’ll tell you…

Monthly Reading Goals: April 2019

Nicole over at Thoughts Stained With Ink talked me into trying out this post topic back in January and after running with it a couple of months I’ve decided to keep it going. For now at least.

This isn’t something I usually do because I hate locking myself into a specific reading list. It just never works out for me. As my previous Month In Review posts reveal, I rarely stick to what I set out to read. I might read more, less, or switch books out for others. Rarely to I finish the month as I intended.

So my ongoing rule for this topic will be…