Cuddlebuggery is on a two week hiatus as of today.  This means there will be no Buzz Worthy News post going up today or next week either.  In case you haven’t noticed, Steph and I have been a little bit lackluster about posting lately.  We’re tired.  We’ve been posting almost every day for more than a year and thus need a little holiday.

It’s easy to lose your passion for blogging.  A blog isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.  And most blogs take an extraordinary amount of time and attention to maintain.  Not only to keep the site going, generate content, organize giveaways, handle the huge amount of emails we get, acquire and read books, and organize interviews/guestposts, but also to be creative and try new things.  When we first started Cuddlebuggery, we loved to try new things and experiment with different posts and styles.  Lately, the more exhaustion sets in, the more we simply do the bare minimum to get by. 

My, that was traumatic.

So here we are at last.  The third installment in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent series of blood and steel and general unhappiness.  I was assured long before I picked up A Storm of Swords that it was going to wreak havoc upon my heart, even more so than the previous books had done, and so I did my best to brace my tender emotions for the impending doom.

It didn’t work.

Because Martin, it seems, has absolutely no limits or provisions whatsoever when killing off his characters.  No matter what your importance to the story may be, no matter how big of a role you may have played thus far, you are vulnerable to the creator’s mighty pen.

And it’s just awful.

A lot of people die in A Storm of Swords.  This series has never been a stranger to death, of course, but it’s different here, because the killings don’t fall primarily upon the unnamed masses or small, secondary players this time. 

This is going to be one of those rare times where my rating isn’t very indicative of my personal feelings of the quality of a novel. (Savor this moment because I don’t see it happening too often.) Here’s the thing about Neptune’s Tears: if you are a veteran Sci-Fi reader, chances are it will be lacking in complexity for you. However, if you are a noob to the genre or a younger reader or a reluctant reader, this novel may be perfect for you. Unfortunately, I don’t fall in the latter category and I don’t think I’m a part of the target audience for this book, but I can still see a lot of redeemable qualities for Neptune’s Tears.

The Good:

- The writing isn’t bad at all. Even though I mentioned I think this book would be great for younger readers, I didn’t ever feel like Waggoner was talking down to the reader.

This book wasn’t terrible. It began with a lot of good things and won me over initially, but then it quickly fell apart, and here’s why:

Cursecaster, Spellseeker: A Mess of Information
I want to know the cool deetz, yeah. I want to be hip with them kids, yo. As a reader it’s crucial for me to learn all the newfangled traits of the cool fantasy world where the characters live. So tell me and I’ll listen, and I’ll probably be really interested. But when the information just keeps building without stopping, the reading process feels a lot less like discovery and a lot more like I’m being spoon-fed. I really liked where the idea of the spellseeking stuff was going, but I became complacent when it just drawled on.

Return of the Unbelievable Insta-Love
Elizabeth and Stephen fell in love in a matter of what, days? It was kind of ridiculous, and while it’s understandable on Stephen’s part (the kid hadn’t spoken to a single female other than his mother all his life), the devotion component of their relationship, although prevalent in the plot, was incredibly difficult to get behind.

Over the past few weeks, Little Blogger, Big Ambitions has been under construction so we can make donating and entering the raffles as easy as possible. Thanks to the amazing Ashely from Nose Graze, this is now a reality! Seriously, guys, she’s AMAZING!

The only downside is that entrants will have to re-register. But with this new plugin you get a lot more features and control:

• You now get your very own login
• The plugin will keep track of how many raffles you have entered
• You get automatic notifications if you win
• You have the option of getting notifications of new donations
• The raffle page for each book is completely redone and now features the book’s cover and blurb so you don’t have to go looking for it on Goodreads
• You’ll be able to see when and if the donator has shipped the book if you’ve won
• All raffles will be hosted on Cuddlebuggery and NOT Rafflecopter

For donators:

You guys are so amazing and generous!