- Guardians of the Galaxy/All-New X-Men: The Trial of Jean Grey – Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli & Stuart Immonen. An interesting concept – can you try a time-displaced Jean Grey for crimes that she hasn’t yet technically committed? – that was well handled.
- The Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past – Chris Claremont, John Byrne & John Romita Jnr. A classic storyline for a reason, and a reminder that Kitty Pryde has always been awesome.
- Uncanny X-Men: Fear Itself – Kieron Gillen & Greg Land. Showcases Cyclops-the-military-leader really well.
- Uncanny X-Men: Acts of Vengeance – Chris Claremont & Jim Lee. A solid classic storyline.
- The X-Files Season 10, Volume 4 – Joe Harris et. al. Although I enjoy this generally, it featured a lot of characters I’m not particularly into (Frank Black, Agents Dogget and Reyes).
- American Vampire, Volume 6 – Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque et. al. A collection of stand-alone issues that plug in some gaps in the histories of Skinner and Hattie.
- American Vampire, Volume 7 – Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque et. al. A new big bad is introduced and Pearl continues to be awesome.
- Thief of Thieves, Volume 1: I Quit – Robert Kirkman, Nick Spencer et. al. I’m not a fan of Kirkman’s writing from what I’ve read of The Walking Dead, but I thought I’d give this a whirl to see if it had improved any. And… nope. Underwhelming.
- Who Is Jake Ellis?, Volume 1 – Nathan Edmondson & Tonci Zonjic. A fairly solid action thriller with some interesting twists and turns.
- Wolverine and the X-Men, Volume 2: Death of Wolverine – Jason Latour et. al. Uneven as Wolverine dies off-screen in the middle of the issues collected here, so we move from Wolverine and Storm on a date to the entire school mourning Wolverine without anything in between. Meh.
- Secret Avengers, Volume 2: The Labyrinth – Ales Kot & Michael Walsh. Deadpool – yay! I also quite liked what was happening with Hawkeye (I didn’t know he had a sense of humour) and Spider-Woman, two characters I don’t know a great deal about. In conlusion, Deadpool – yay!
- Morning Glories: Volume 3: P.E. – Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma & Rodin Esquejo. Still really enjoying the twisty, turny story bathed in unease and distrust.
- Morning Glories: Volume 4: Truants – Nick Spencer, Joe Eisma & Rodin Esquejo. See above.
- The Nowhere Emporium – Ross MacKenzie. This is a magical read about a Glaswegian orphan who stumbles on a mysterious shop that turns out to hold untold wonder and, of course, more than a little danger. Loved it!
- Uncanny X-Men: Night Screams – Chris Claremont et. al. So, Dracula’s in this…
- Bright Young Things – Scarlett Thomas. I found this interesting, if not fantastic. Six people answer an ad for ‘bright young things’ and find themselves living together on an unidentified island. They pass the time by talking about anything and everything, but why are they on the island and who brought them there?
- Dirty Little Secrets – Liliana Hart. I enjoyed this little romance mystery more than I thought I would, though it wasn’t without annoyances. The two main characters were likeable and the story zipped along. A nice, light read.
- Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes – Denise Grover Swank. It’s hard to read this and not think of the Sookie Stackhouse books. It has a similar Southern setting, and a similar main character (Rose) who has a supernatural ability that marks her out as different. Rose’s transition from shy wallflower to independent woman throughout the novel is enjoyable, and Rose herself is likeable, but she did make me want to shake her on many, many occasions. The writing is nice though not exactly challenging (the strongest curse that Rose can bring herself to use is ‘crappy doodle’, a phrase that no one should ever say ever) . An uncomplicated read for a day where you really can’t face engaging your brain, I feel. It’s actually still available as a free download on amazon if that sounds like it’ll float your boat.
- Dearest Clementine – Lex Martin. An incredibly overwrought New Adult romance featuring a damaged girl with a mysterious past, a saviour of a man, and a collection of loveable friends. Look, I don’t think that this is a particularly good read and yet I mostly enjoyed it. Sometimes you need to read something that reminds you of the fan-fiction you used to read when you were 13.
- The Sky is Everywhere – Jandy Nelson. I downloaded this for free from amazon and assumed that it was self-published. Imagine my surprise when I saw it on the shelves of my local library not that long after. It has the hallmarks of a self-published YA novel, I think, and I found the premise a bit stretched and the love-triangle hugely unrealistic. I wasn’t particular enamoured with it overall.
- Blur – Kristen Middleton. This poor book tries so hard to be an interesting horror-romance, but it doesn’t manage on either count. The characters are mostly poorly drawn, the dialogue is strained and the relationships are uninteresting. Can we move on from love triangles please?
- Love Handles – Gretchen Galway. The blurb for this made me think it was going to be dreadful – Beverly’s a preschool teacher who never goes to the gym but then she inherits a fitness wear company – but it was actually really, really fun. The premise is silly, the romance is silly but it all works.