I’m so glad I decided to participate in reading challenges this year. I’ve already discovered two great new books, and we’re less than two weeks into 2016!
This week I read The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) for the Monthly Motif Reading Challenge. Now, murder mysteries really aren’t my thing, and I got bored when I tried reading The Casual Vacancy (Rowling’s book between Harry Potter and The Cuckoo’s Calling) so my expectations were pretty low.
But….I loved it! Seriously. Rowling (Galbraith? Sorry, but I have a hard time taking pen names seriously) may have just won me over to a whole new genre. I definitely plan on reading the other Cormoran Strike books at the very least.
Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin are interesting, likable, and intriguing characters, and the plot is fast-paced and unpredictable. The characters and plot are complicated enough, that even when I was sure I had it all figured out (never mind that I reached several different conclusions throughout the book, every time as certain as the last) I was always surprised by some character being more complicated than I’d previously assumed.
The dialogue was great too. This was my second time listening to an audiobook, and it was really well done. The believable and entertaining dialogue made it a really fun listen. (Though I will point out that this definitely isn’t something you can listen to with kids around if you care about profanity!)
All in all, it was a great book, and it reminded me just how awesome J.K. Rowling is. (Again, though- why the pen name? And why a guy’s name? I find it off-putting).
this quiet morning 
I loved this book too – and am totally hooked on the Cormoran Strike books. I think the penname might have just been an attempt to get away from the expectations of JK Rowling after the huge success of Harry Potter – especially since this is so different.
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