Review to come.

Adua is a tale of a father and daughter. It is a tale about colonialism, immigration, racism, and patriarchal relations and experiences. The book focuses on Adua who came to Italy from Somalia during the 1970s. It flashes between Adua in her present as she contemplates returning to Somalia and touches on the current migrant crisis in the Med. Her father and his time in Italy and Ethiopia, when he was a translator for the colonial regime before her birth. And finally, her youth when she came to live with her father in Magola and her ensuing movie career. I really enjoyed the alternating chapters but found Adua's narratives the most interesting and compelling of the book.

The novel is short, just under 200 pages but it feels a very intense read. Adua handles some heavy topics throughout as there is racial violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), sexual assault, racism, war and more. These topics are broken up across the novel and some more explicitly covered than others, but they weigh heavily on the narrative and the reader and for that reason this book is not to be taken lightly. However, it is an excellent exploration of power dynamics between individuals and how power is abused and used to control others. It explores the historical context through emotion and relations rather then straight up depictions of war and violence. It has a very clever narrative style.

I also really liked the various Somalian terms used throughout which had a glossary at the back to help readers understand what they mean. These served to strengthen the characters roots to their Somalian heritage and culture. In addition to this, there was a historical context section for readers at the back about Somalia's history and the colonial legacy of Italy. This was really helpful given the novel does not go into detail about specific historical events, it helps to round out the readers understanding.

Overall I thought Adua blossomed into a thought-provoking and compelling read despite it being not quite how I initially expected. I liked the style and approach Scego crafted and it made the experiences and history feel more real and emotional.

Homecoming was a fun introduction to Mercy's origin story, in terms of her move to the tri-cities and first meet up with Adam Hauptman and Stefan.

I would say literally none of the characters are how I imagined them in my head, which I think is the problem with reading a book series and then picking up a graphic novel of the same characters. I feel like the graphic novel style had a very harsh edge to the characters. It did fit the mood of urban-fantasy and dangerous supernatural creatures but I do prefer my own versions of the characters.

I’ll definitely be reading more of the graphic novels about Mercy Thompson as I love this series and these characters immensely so I’m always eager to get my hands on more books about them.

This series has been a whirlwind so far, I read the first one, liked it and thought I would come back. Then proceeded to devour book 2, 3 and 4 in the space of a couple of days. I have to say, I immediately bought book 5, but there was far less urgency to read. The pressure tailed off for me a little in this one, which is why I'm only giving it 3 stars. I might read the next one straight away... (after finally doing some studying!!) or I might pick something else up. I haven't quite decided. Either way, I'm really enjoying this series and it's really dragged me back into reading again which I love!

Re-read on 11/05/2019 - bumped up to a full four stars. Just as enjoyable as the first time. I would argue that now however, this is now my first favourite urban-fantasy/paranormal-romance series. Definitely ranks above BDB.

3.5 stars.

Frost Burned is the first Mercy Thompson book I've picked up in a while, but it was so easy to get back into it. I remembered most of the characters and although I maybe could not quite remember all the nuanced relationship issues between Mercy and some of the wolves, it was a book that was very easy to pick back up. The Mercy Thompson series is a strong urban-fantasy series that has lots of fantastic elements and is a world that I was glad I found. In terms of paranormal/urban-fantasy it's probably my second favourite series behind Black Dagger Brotherhood and just ahead of Psy-Changeling series.

There were a couple of elements in this book that prevented me from rating it higher.

One being Briggs' recurring trope: Mercy goes in all guns blazing to save the day, which resulted in her nearly dying and getting beaten up and then Adam coming to save the day and being annoyed because she's not physically strong enough. I get that many books have patterns, but I feel like this has been the whole series so far and it's a little bit boring.

I also felt like half-way through the book was winding down to a close and I was a little surprised I was only 60% of the way through. I felt like that was the moment the plot should be ramping up a little and I had to focus on reading the next few chapters to hit the action again.

Despite the couple of issues I had with the book, there were still a few surprises in the plot and hopefully more major plot-lines that will unveil themselves in future books in regards to the government conspiracies and the fae situation.

I also really enjoyed that we got to see a little more of Zee and his son Tad in this one. Although I would love to know more about Zee and his past journey to where he is now because the more I learn about him, the more I am curious to see why he mellowed out so much. I would definitely be game to read a Zee spin-off series.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, it's a fun series to escape into and very quick to read.

The last couple of Alpha & Omega books have been missing their spark a little for me. I'm hoping they pick back up again in the next installment.

Review to come.
This was okay, second half was definitely stronger than the start.

Storm Front was a very enjoyable novel, which is pleasing since I bought the first few books as they were all really cheap.

The premise of the series:
We follow Wizard Harry Dresden, who is basically a private investigator. He helps out the local police force with their queries about the supernatural and also provides personal services to the public. Magic is both believed, but also seen as a bit of an oddity and mystery in the world that Butcher has built.

Summary of this novel:
This instalment follows Dresden helping the police investigate a brutal double murder (done by supernatural means). However there are some very sinister forces in play. This places Dresden in a very precarious position with the magical law as he delves into some very dark magic. In the mean time, he's also been contacted about a missing husband, been roughed up by gangsters and worrying about where his next rent money is going to come from.

Overall thoughts:
Storm Front had lots of great elements - action, humour, magic, mystery. Dresden was a fairly strong character in terms of the development surrounding his backstory, the story progression. However, overall I thought the secondary characters were rather weak and I struggle to remember their names and personalities. I hope as the instalments continue the secondary characters (particularly the women who seemed rather feisty) will be fleshed out further. I'd also like to learn more about the magic world, the elder council and the laws surrounding magic that are the bedrock of this world, so I hope Butcher delivers.

For an introductory novel, Storm Front started off very strongly. The best part was undoubtedly the ending where everything started to come together and all the drama kicked off. I was so hooked whilst cycling (indoor gym cycling) that I pedalled 11km without realising whilst finishing the book. Therefore I would thoroughly recommend and I look forward to reading the next instalment.