Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Initiate & The Transfer - Divergent .01 &.02

Both are short stories and both focus on Four. While I did not really care for the Divergent trilogy I enjoyed Four a lot in the books and wanted to get to know more about him.

The Transfer was a bit hard for me to read in parts since it detailed physical abuse which makes me cringe. I loved the inner struggled Four displayed and it came off as believable to me. The writing was well done because I ended up hating Marcus and rooting for Four to find the courage to break free.

The Initiate I did not care for too much. The story did not seem that strong to me and while it was nice to see more of Four I am not sure that the idea for the short story was really enough for a short story.

Really short reviews since both books were short stories.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Messenger - The Giver Quartet #3

I was eager to read Messenger but it turned out to be a let down.

The writing was lovely like all of the writing in Lowry's books I have read but the plot just did not do it for me. Everything started out strong and wonderful but then it seemed to sort of move away from the path that Lowry started down onto a different path that I did not care for much. While I understand Lowry's work is an allegory Messenger's hidden meaning went over my head.

Matty was an interesting character but I do not like how everything turned out with him. The way Matty was portrayed was creative yet the final arc with him was just a disappointment for me at least.

My favorite part was the mention of Gabe in the very begining. I liked Gabe in The Giver a lot so it was nice to see a few sentences about him.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Giver - The Giver Quartet #1

I first read The Giver when I was in middle school and since that first reading I have read it at least a handful of times. The title suits the book well since every time I read it I receive something different from the reading.

Jonas is a very interesting character. Having followed the rules and lived in a society of sameness where everyone is well cared for and supposedly content with their life Jonas never thought to question anything until he is chosen to be the new Receiver of Memory. From that point on Jonas starts to change drastically as a character and it is interesting to see how someone who never had free choice suddenly deals with the many choices in their life.

I wish more was written about The Giver since he is such an interesting character. I do understand why he was in the background though and it leaves me free to imagine more about him in my own way.

The writing is wonderful and flows smoothly.

No doubt at some point in the future I will read The Giver and see a new take on the story.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Grave Mercy - His Fair Assissan #1

I was attracted to Grave Mercy through the cover. A girl with a crossbow, I so cannot see her playing the damsel in distress and I was happy that was true.

Ismae is one of my favorite literary characters. Having been belittled and ran down by her father for her childhood left her with a strong will to survive and fight back. Lacking the skills she tried to survive the only way she knew how to by being meek and obeying the men in her life. All that changes when the Covenant of St. Mortain takes Ismae under their protection. Even better despite spending years at the Covenant Ismae's issues with men does not just disappear overnight. Still holding onto her grude against men she accepts her tasks from the Covenant and is pushed into a court full of people wishing to better their own interests.

Even though I was able to figure out a lot of what was going on I was still caught off guard a few times and I loved that. The intricate web of affairs occurring through the court and Covenant was pulled of brilliantly. Everything was tired together in an amazing tapestry of storytelling.

While I was familiar of the story of the young duchess promised to many suitors I had no issues that Robin LaFevers changed history to make it work with the story. Even better LaFevers worked hard to fit everything into a correct time period and I loved how she tied in Old Gods with a new and changing world without making the Old Gods seem out of place.

The love aspect was amazing and done with an air of elegance while adding in some spunk and one hundred totally believable aspects to everything. Having feared men Ismae was not about to open up to any man and thus the romantic interactions show this while leaving me actually cheering for Duval to make progess without scaring Ismae off permanently. 

The writing was lovely, elegant, and I could not get enough.

I had a whole range of emotions going while reading Grave Mercy, everything from laughter to tears.

The only downfall for me is that the next book in the series is not about Ismae and I loved her so much I wanted to read more about her.

Enchanted Inc. - Enchanted Inc. #1

The first thing that drew me to Enchanted Inc. was the cover. I love it and even better the cover fits the story.

Katie was an amazing character and the way she dealt with everything going on in her life was priceless. It is even touched upon in the story how most people cannot deal with seeing things that should not be happening and have a mental breakdown from it. The way Katie dealt with what she was seeing was believable.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the array of side characters. They were all interesting and even though the story did not focus on them the interactions they shared with Katie gave the reader a glimpse of who they are. The one downfall I can see possible love triangles occurring in later stories since Katie was working with several single men around her age that were all attractive to her in some way.

The writing was just fun. If there were annoying grammar mistakes I did not notice them since I was so adsorbed in the story itself.

Seeing all the funny little things from fairy tales and old sayings incorporated into the story just made me enjoyed Enchanted Inc. all the more.

I definitely want to read the second book in the series.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Creatures of the Night Book Tag

One of my favorite bloggers was curious to know what I would choose for this tag.

1. Vampire

Unfortunately I cannot think of a single vampire book I have ever read. One day I will have to change that.

2. Werewolf

Since I have only read one werewolf book that I can recall My Wolf's Bane is the winner. I actually enjoyed My Wolf's Bane a good deal and am wanting to read more in the series. It is a pure romance book with bits of action in parts.

3. Zombie

Once again I cannot recall ever having read a single zombie book.

4. Ghost

While I am fairly sure I have read several books with ghosts in them the only one that I can recall is Spirited. The beginning was definitely better then the end and it was predictable at times but I loved how no matter what Jules went through she never stopped trying to help people or ghosts/spirits.

5. Witch/Warlock/Spellcaster

 No competition in this category, hands down for me it is The Eye of the World. Stunning, compelling, with layer upon layer of plot developments. I consider it a true masterpiece of the written word. 

6. Fairy/Fae

Glimmerglass is my fae choice. Even though I have mixed feelings about the series as a whole Glimmerglass was an amazing start to what could have been an epic series.

7. Demon

I have not read too many demon books but Eramane immediately comes to mind. While it is never totally stated what Eramane is I feel that demon describes her well. The drawback to Eramane is that it scared me so badly I have no desire to read the sequel. 

8. Angel

 I have not read many books with angels in them but of the few I have read the only one that stood out to me was Hush Hush. While I did find a few parts unbelievable with interaction between Nora and Patch I still ending up loving the story. 

9. Alien

 While it has been many years since I read Acorna: The Unicorn Girl in no way have I forgotten it. I need to re-read the whole series. 

10. Superpowered Human

 Hands down, Steelheart. While the main character lacks super powers plenty of characters have awesome super powers. I loved the way the tables are turned and how the people with the super powers are not the good guys coming to save the day. 


Those are my picks. First time doing something like this so thanks for bearing with me. Have a fun and happy Halloween everyone!  

Monday, October 13, 2014

Vain - The Seven Deadly #1

Vain took me by surprise, I was not expecting half the things that happened over the course of the story nor was I expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.

The premise starts out like a fair number of books I have read. Spoiled rich girl who gets anything she wants that costs money. Father and Mother non existent so the child turns to partying and illegal actives. Due to this I had a hard time getting into Vain. I actually read the first chapter then put it down for almost two weeks before trying again and I am glad I tired again. Never did I think Sophie would end up paying for her "fun" in some other way then jail time.

Sophie drove me crazy at first. I could not stand her self-entitled rich brat attitude which is what I am fairly sure the author wanted to portray. Thankfully the more I read the more I started to like Sophie. Her transformation was breathtaking and totally believable. Sophie's relationships with the people around her were amazing. Not only was everyone able to deal with her spoiled brat attitude at first but they just slowly changed her with the one thing she had never felt like she had love and it was beautiful.

Despite all the ups, downs, and major feels in Vain it did not make me cry which sort of surprised me since it had some moments that were suppose to tug at the reader's heart hard core.

Another huge plus of the book the writing was amazing. Smooth, flowing, lovely, a work of art in it's own.

I could easily see myself re-reading Vain some time in the future.

Friday, October 3, 2014

The Death Cure - The Maze Runner #3

I am not even really sure what to say about The Death Cure. It was not what I was expecting at all and that is not a good thing. The Maze Runner trilogy started out amazing and just went downhill with The Scorch Trials and especially The Death Cure.

The best part for me by far was Thomas. He never stopped being an interesting character and I loved how defiant he was. Doing what felt right to him and going with that. Despite numerous struggles in his life Thomas never gave up but part of that could have been him never having the chance to really dwell on anything going on since everything continued to move very quickly throughout the book.

The Maze Runner was a solid well written book but it feels like James Dashner did not know where he was going with the series so he just sort of did something with the rest of the series. Answers were not really provided on most things and several partial answers were given that left the reader to interpret things. One thing I did appreciate was that the repetitiveness I saw in The Scorch Trials went away for the most part, that is pretty much what let me finish reading the book.