Hello Bookworms,
Here we are as the shortest month comes to an end. I was quite busy at the begining of the month but I made time to read. I have found that my night ends around 10 pm, unless I am still trying to get things done, I normally shut down and crawl into my bed with a book. I try to read until like 11 or so and then head to sleep. I admit that this month I sort of ignored that rule.... (cough cough ACOMAF cough) and stayed up till closer to 2 in the morning. That made getting up the next day sort of difficult. Opps. So this month I read 4 books, and my average rating for the month was 3.85. So not a super high month for reading.
My TBR List was

1. Etiquette and Espionage 
2. The Perks of Being a Wall Flower
3. The Sun Is Also A Star

So, I only  read Etiquette and Espionage but its okay cause I read several other books! More than I thought I would read in February. I am also reading Moby Dick for class by Herman Melville... It is so dense, I am having real trouble getting through it. I find listening to the audio book on Spotify is my saving grace. 

 3.5 Stars 
Hardcover, First Edition, 404 pages
Published September 6th 2011 by G.P.Putnam's Sons
It is 1910, the age of flying machines is still in its infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first daring aviator to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the prime candidates-an intrepid woman named Josephine Frost-and that's where Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, comes in.
Frost's violent-tempered husband has just killed her lover and tried to kill her, and he is bound to make another attempt. Bell has tangled with Harry Frost before; he knows that the man has made his millions leading gangs of thieves, murderers, and thugs in every city across the country. He also knows Frost won’t be after just his wife, but after Whiteway as well. And if Bell takes the case . . . Frost will be after him, too.
The Full Review >

5 Stars
​Kindle Edition, 626 pages
Published May 3rd 2016 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights. ​

The Race (Book #4 Issac Bell)
By Clive Cussler
3.5 stars
Kindle Edition, 369 pages
Published (first published September 6th 2011)
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Nobel
Goodreads Summary:
It is 1910, the age of flying machines is still in its infancy, and newspaper publisher Preston Whiteway is offering $50,000 for the first daring aviator to cross America in less than fifty days. He is even sponsoring one of the prime candidates-an intrepid woman named Josephine Frost-and that's where Bell, chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, comes in.

Frost's violent-tempered husband has just killed her lover and tried to kill her, and he is bound to make another attempt. Bell has tangled with Harry Frost before; he knows that the man has made his millions leading gangs of thieves, murderers, and thugs in every city across the country. He also knows that Frost won't be only after his wife, but after Whiteway as well. And if Bell takes the case . . . Frost will be after him, too.
My Review:
​As with most books written by Clive Cussler, I never really knew I had an interest in planes and how they worked but I found myself very intrigued in the descriptions of the mechanics of the machines.

The plot follows the race set up by Preston Whiteway, who we have seen before, Marion works for him making moving pictures. Whiteway wants to create a central hub for his newspapers so he creates the cross country race for airplanes. He chose to have a plucky tom boy named Josephine Frost as  his sponsored underdog. 

However Josephine has a past. She is married to Henry Frost, a man who Issac Bell tried to get once before when he was an apprentice for the Van Dorn Detective Agency. But just before the race Frost shoots Marco Celere, Josephine's boyfriend and goes on the run. Because of this, Mr. Preston Whiteway hires almost the entirety of the Van Dorn Agency to protect the members of the race. Specifically Josephine.

This book was fairly interesting, I found the plot line sort of predicable but the details were cool. As I said above Clive Cussler really knows how to pay attention to detail. His individual knowledge was clear but I didn't feel like it was like to much exposition. However as I felt like it was really predictable and kinda just ended. I was not impressed with with the ending at all. It happened really fast and just felt really convenient to me.  

I would suggest this book to anyone who really likes the details of the planes or the time period. But again just ignore that plot and that ending. 

Thanks for checking in with me. Check back next Monday for A Court of Mist and Fury (Book #2 ACOTAR) By Sarah J. Maas
What did you think of this book?
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The Spy by Clive Cussler
Hardcover, 436 pages
Audiobook 10 Hours
​5 Stars
Published June 1st 2010 by G.P.Putnam's Sons
It is 1908, and international tensions are mounting as the world plunges toward war. When a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in a sensational apparent suicide, the man's grief-stricken daughter turns to the legendary Van Dorn Detective Agency to clear her father's name. Van Dorn puts his chief investigator on the case, and Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide but to murder. And when more suspicious deaths follow, it becomes clear that someone-an elusive spy-is orchestrating the destruction of America's brightest technological minds... and the murders all connect to a top- secret project called Hull 44. 

But that is just the beginning. As the intrigue deepens, Bell will find himself pitted against German, Japanese, and British spies, in a mission that encompasses dreadnought battleships, Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, Chinatown, Hell's Kitchen, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Isaac Bell has certainly faced perilous situations before, but this time it is more than the future of his country that's at stake- it's the fate of the world.
 
My Review
I loved this book, it was everything that I loved from a detective fiction. I read quite a bit of detective fiction, and a lot of Clive Cussler so at times I could guess where the story would go but I wasn't dissapointed by it. It is kinda a challege for me to figure it out. I'm just weird like that. 
This is a book that dabbles in gangs, a new interest for me. I never thought that gangs and mob politics would be interesting to me. Watching the groups working together and against each other, along with Bell was really cool. Any books you would suggest I would love. 
I really liked the pacing of this book, it felt fast but was not like I was rushed, I felt swept away by the story into the world of 1908 I loved the build up and the way that we found out who the people we wanted to  arrest with Bell was interesting, I found it kinda funny but also terrifying that they kept popping up. I was waiting for them to lash out. 
I did feel this book for me was more about the plot than the charecters. I really enjoyed the themes in this one. 
I definitly would recomend this book to a friend, but one who likes historical books, because like most of Clive Cusslers books, they can be "bogged down" with the history. I don't mind but I know people that really don't like his books because of it. 
What are you reading this week?
Shoot me a tweet at @scripturienting and let me know.
love ya,
​Kate

The Chase (#1 Issac Bell)
Published November 6th 2007
Hardcover: 404 pages
Audio: 10 Hours
4 /5  Stars
Goodreads Summary:
For decades, Clive Cussler has been delighting readers with novels filled with suspense, action, and sheer audacity. Now he does it again, in one of the wildest, most entertaining historical thrillers in years. 

April 1950: The rusting hulk of a steam locomotive rises from the deep waters of a Montana lake. Inside is all that remains of three men who died forty-four years before. But it is not the engine or its grisly contents that interest the people watching nearby. It is what is about to come next . . . 

1906: For two years, the western states of America have been suffering an extraordinary crime spree: a string of bank robberies by a single man who cold- bloodedly murders any and all witnesses and then vanishes without a trace. Fed up by the depredations of the "Butcher Bandit," the U.S. government brings in the best man they can find-a tall, lean, no-nonsense detective named Isaac Bell, who has caught thieves and killers coast to coast. But Bell has never had a challenge like this one. From Arizona to Colorado to the streets of San Francisco during its calamitous earthquake and fire, he pursues what is quickly becoming clear to him is the sharpest criminal mind he has ever encountered, and the woman who seems to hold the key to the bandit's identity. 

Using science, deduction, and intuition, Bell repeatedly draws near only to grasp at thin air, but at least he knows his pursuit is having an effect. Because his quarry is getting angry now, and has turned the chase back on him. The hunter has become the hunted. And soon it will take all of Isaac Bell's skills not merely to prevail . . . but to survive.
 
My Review:
I picked up this series because I have always enjoyed Cussler's writings. At times I don't always understand quite what he is saying about the cars, trains, and boats he so loves, but he paints a picture that even the most uninclinded reader can understand. While this first book was alot of that I still enjoyed it. It helps me to know that he always is very throughough with his research and clearly has a passion for it all. 

I enjoyed this opening story, at times I felt like this was a later case and there should have been other books before it, but that was just because Cussler painted Bell as a very expierienced detective. The charecters are brilliant, in thier flaws and brain power. At times I felt Bell was a bit OP but not to the point where he was invincible. I appreciated that he was shot... sorry Issac. I really liked Issac's and Marrion's relationship. I felt at times that it was a littttlee rushed but now seeing their relationship grow in the later books I am more okay with it. 

I always enjoy Cussler's writting, because when I think I know what is going to happen he changes it up on me. I really enjoy that in a book. So I would have to say this one is a 4 out of 5 stars. It was a pretty good read.