Did some hilltop reading! I‘ve got fifty pages left and things are intense. I know where part of the story‘s gonna end up because THE HIDDEN CITY takes place pretty early in West‘s wider series‘s timeline, but I don‘t know how the characters get there and I can‘t wait to find out.
And now, iced coffee.
I‘m almost certain I won‘t finish this tonight. Much as I love it, it‘s huge and I need a break. I‘ll be reading something considerably shorter next.
I found a nice bench to lounge on while I read another chapter of THE HIDDEN CITY. 150 pages left.
Pre-run breakfast with THE HIDDEN CITY. I‘d love to finish it today, but I‘ve got 200 pages left and a bunch of other stuff to do, and I can‘t read West quickly even when I‘m hard into her. We‘ll see how it goes.
From Reading Break #1. They fixed the busted up fountain! I guess life moves faster in rich neighbourhoods. West‘s characters know alllllll about that.
Coffee break with my chunkster. I‘m about halfway through now and I‘m loving it.
I always wanted to try those buns in a tube, and Giant Tiger had ‘em on for $1. They were okay, but SUPER hard to open. I ended up borking one of them.
THE HIDDEN CITY is technically my in-between book, but I‘ve done a crap job of sticking to my reading plan (another 100 pages every time I finish something else) and I‘m kind of on a roll with it, so I‘m gonna keep at it and see how far I get before I need a break. 500 pages left.
Oof. I wish I could scrounge more reading time today, but I‘ve been laid up since Monday with a nasty cold on top of a womb attack and my to-do list is both long and involved.
THE HIDDEN CITY is now officially my in-between book. I‘ll read another 100 pages or so every time I finish something else, unless I fall super in love and decide to read it straight through. That‘s unlikely; much as I enjoy West, I do find her easier in small doses.
Took me a while to decide on my June Must-Reads, but I‘ve finally pinned ‘em down:
• a chunkster that starts a new subseries in a wider series I love
• optimistic SF that I‘m pretty sure is also nice and queer?
• the second Mary Stewart novel I inherited from my grandma
• a rock star romance I got as a freebie mumblemumble years ago and want to prioritize because I do generally enjoy Elizabeth Briggs
panStarted out promising with a morally grey thief training an apprentice in a city built on the ruins of a dead culture. It also features polytheism which usually helps avoid reductive good vs evil themes.
Unfortunately it slogs toward a more and more stereotypical setup with every page. The villains turn out to be literal demon pedophiles and the series is poised to turn into a battle between angels and demons for control of earth. BORING!
The Hidden City: The House Wars: Book One | 
