Books Read in April

I've got to admit this was the month for non-fiction reading. What else do you expect when it's final exams though. A round-up of my book reviews for this month, in reverse order with the most recent at the top of the list:

Daughter Of The Blood - Anne Bishop
A quote from my review:

This is the first of the Black Jewels series, and an incredible start at that. All of the characters have their quirks, the things that make them human in a brutal world.

Women of the Raj - Margaret McMillan
This was actually a book I bought for my mother.
A quote from my review:

Margaret MacMillan has written a number of bestselling books including The Uses And Abuses Of History, and Paris 1919 and, reading this one, I can see why. She has a way of making the daily details interesting and amusing to read. It was absolutely fascinating, looking at the lives that British women in India were living under the British Empire. The book is written with anecdotes, quotes, letters and the like from the women themselves. It is also lavishly illustrated with four sets of photographic inserts.

The Worlds Of Medieval Europe - Clifford R. Backman
A snippet from my review:

If you're looking for a good background book on the Middle Ages, this is a good one, and it is surprisingly reasonably priced too, at least compared to some of the other books I have.

Reading The Middle Ages - Barbara Rosenwein
This is a book of extracts from the primary source material of the Middle Ages.
A snippet from my review:

This is just as much a suitable book for someone who's just getting started in their study as it is for someone who has more background.

Bloodhound - Tamora Pierce
This, honestly is a book that I'd been looking forward to since last November when I gave in and read the teaser in the back of Terrier.
A quote from my review:

There's plenty of excitement, and as with the Alanna books it's possible to see what a good Rogue can do for the city as well as how much damage can be done by a bad one. That's another neat difference with this series: the thieves and other 'undesirables' are shown as real characters with good points as well as bad ones, not to mention actually playing a positive role in the world Tamora Pierce has created.

The Athenians And Their Empire - Malcolm McGregor
Not my favorite book of the month, I have to admit.
A snippet from my review:

...the book is quite readable, and doesn't take too long to get through. It's good as an overview of the period, but counter it with some other books as well.

Lover Unbound - J.R. Ward
The fourth book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
A snippet from my review:

Not my favorite of the series, but Lover Unbound was a really good read nonetheless. I did find the bad language to be a bit much, which is one of the reasons it moved away from my favorite slot.

Lover Revealed - J.R. Ward
The fourth book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
A snippet from my review:

From the outset of the first book Butch has been an interesting character and one of my favorites. Finding out more of his background and watching his interactions with the others has made this my favorite book in the series to date. The Brotherhood is protective of the human, but he wants to fight the lessers that have made themselves into such a problem.

Lover Awakened - J.R. Ward
The third book of the Black Dagger Brotherhood. As with the others, the villains were creepy and even more evil than I'd thought, while the heroes are nowhere near perfect, but interesting to say the least.
A quote from my review:

Lover Awakened is the third book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and I've heard it called the best of them. While I'm not entirely certain that that is my opinion as well, this was yet another book that I couldn't put down, and I found myself reading until one thirty in the morning yet again.

Lover Eternal - J.R. Ward
The second book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.
A quote from my review:

The sequel to Dark Lover, this was another book that I couldn't put down. The characters are gripping and the story moves fast. And the twist at the end... It's a romance novel, but for a while I was wondering as I couldn't see any way for the traditional happy ending.

On Basilisk Station - David Weber
The first book in his best-selling Honor Harrington series.
A quote from my review:

I can't describe the book from the perspective of a first time reader anymore, it's been too long for that, but this is a book that can be read again and again - as can the rest of the series.

Dark Lover - J.R. Ward
The first book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I picked it up on a whim after a co-worker said that the series looked interesting. WOW! The next day, I was at the bookstore buying the next few books in the series.
A snippet from my review:

No complaints of "I finished this book in less than four hours" here. Instead, Dark Lover kept me up past midnight at least once, and Lover Eternal, the sequel, is following the same trend (1:30 AM last night).