I haven't participated in this comm in ages, but round 15 at celebrity20in20 featured my own texture pack, one I always found really hard to use, so I thought it would just be fair if I tried my hand at it now. I usually find 20in20s stressful, and tend to make filler icons just so I can complete the set, but this time it went relatively easily and I am happy with most of these. (The texture pack was still really hard to use. :D)

Teasers:


( 20 icons of Mehdi Nebbou )

The splatter textures to be used are here: https://icon-resources.dreamwidth.org/3602.html

Concrit welcome! Comments adored! Credit appreciated! Take and use as many icons as you like. If you want to know whose textures and brushes I use, apart from the horribly hard to use ones I make myself ;), take a look at my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire
Toby Daye #10

The king convenes a conclave to decide whether to allow the use of [the important thing Toby discovered last time]. Of course some people use the gathering to further their own political agenda - by murdering people.

Another wonderful installment of the Toby Daye series. I got through it very fast - it was a fun and easy read. Which doesn't mean fluffy. :D As usual for that series, there's lots of death and attempted assassinations (including Toby's and her loved ones'). I simply love Toby's snarking pov, and it makes reading those books a joy every time.

some thoughts WITH SPOILERS

* The stakes kinda can't go any higher for Toby, since she's virtually immortal already and her accelerated healing means she comes back even from being dead now. (She already did in the last book, so that's nothing new. :)) So the threats now expand to her loved ones. In this case, Tybalt and Quentin.

* I love Tybalt with Toby. Period.

* I loved how she pretty much resigned herself to Tybalt being dead and/or asleep for 100 years. Even if the book didn't go there, having her agonize over it was painful enough, thank you. Entertaining the thought for a few minutes was stressful enough for me.

* I also liked all the thoughts Toby has on growing up - not her own, Quentin's mostly. That gave the book some nice weight, in the sense that it brought out the amount of time that has passed in-verse, and that Toby develops and grows along with 'the kids'.

* Apropos kids, I really liked how she described the pyjama party. She's more of a mom now than she used to be (although Toby has always been a mom, but it wasn't as clear in the earlier books).

* Considering the book took place during a political meeting, the politicking was kept to a minimum and didn't get on my nerves. It always helps that Toby doesn't like it either. :D

* Plot-wise, I thought it was suspenseful and even though one would think that there's not much new to tell after this many installments, I didn't feel it was too repetitive.

4 stars - Another fun time with Toby being undiplomatic and almost dying a few times. :D



1 - 5 stars - Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky The Final Architecture #1 [DW link]
2 - 2 stars - Miss Merkel: Mord auf dem Friedhof by David Safier Miss Merkel #2 [DW link]
3 - 4 stars - Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire Toby Daye #10 [DW link]

(I'm terribly behind on those reviews... not on the books, luckily, but I have to write up a few more soon.)