The Palace of Glass

 

The Palace of Glass is the third book in The Forbidden Library series. 

Once again Alice is on an adventure this time to get revenge for the death of her father. With Ending as a guide Alice ventures into a book to find a portal to a Palace of Glass that houses a prison book. Determined to find a way to trap Geryon for having been part of her father's demise Alice is willing to do anything no matter the cost.

I had to remind myself a few times that this is a story geared towards middle school students. Some parts seems a bit too convenient for Alice and things happened too easily. Despite those flaws I did enjoy the story and the execution of how Alice thinks. She is a tween still and while she wants revenge it is not in her to physically hard someone. Despite some pacing issues and less action overall I still enjoyed The Palace of Glass and cannot wait to read The Fall of the Readers.

The Mad Apprentice

 

The Mad Apprentice is the second book in The Forbidden Library series. 

Alice is tasked with helping capture an appreciate who has gone crazy and killed his master. Along with five other apprentice readers Alice enters the labyrinth of Torment. Unable to convince the others that something is wrong Alice goes along with the older kids plans until things totally start to fall apart and she is forced to take the lead.

I really enjoyed seeing Alice grow in the story. Instead of making easy choices she continues to embrace problems and find a way to overcome them. The writing was just as action packed as The Forbidden Library and I constantly found myself saying just one more chapter. I already have The Palace of Glass checked out from the library. 

Give me Five

 

With Give me Five I am half way through the Princess Diaries series. 

Once again I did not care for any part of the story. I could see the attempts at humor but it was not my type of humor. I really want Mia to grow up some and realize that her friend Lily is not as awesome as she realizes. At least the part about Mia dreaming of going to prom seemed realistic, most girls dream of a fancy prom night. 

Book six was not in the free library but book seven was. I am on the waiting list from book six from the library. Since I am half way through the series I may as well give Princess in Training a try. 

Everless

 

I saw Everless while browsing the library ebooks and thought it sounded interesting.

Jules lives in a world where people are poor and thus sell the only thing they have to live, time. That was my first major problem with Everless I did not understand how the time system worked. It was not clearly explained until the very end and when a story is based on a magical currency it needs details on how it works from the very start. This was the main reason I kept reading I wanted to understand the currency system. I did not end up caring too much about Jules she was too predictable and easily manipulated by everyone around her.

I found the side characters far more interesting besides Roan, he was just boring. I am not sure the side characters are enough for me to continue on with the story though. The writing was not to my taste at all. Getting a lot of vague information dumped near the start of the story with a flat lead character made this a tedious read. 

Mia Goes Fourth

 

I managed to get Mia Goes Fourth from the library since the Little Free Library had the first three and the fifth book but not the fourth one. 

Once again I was bored with the story. I had been eagerly awaiting to read about Mia experiencing Genovia as the heir to the throne but I just wanted that part to end. I was hoping once Mia got back to New York the story would pick up but it did not seem to. Things just drug and I was eager for it to end which is sad since I had been hoping her and Michael would have some fun yet embarrassing date moments. 

Since I already have the fifth book I will read it but I hope the series picks up again. 

The Forbidden Library

 

The town I live in has nine little free libraries so I decided to check out another one and found The Forbidden Library inside. The name is what drew me to the story and shockingly I really enjoyed it. 

Alice has always been drawn to books and is lucky she has a father who encourages her to follow that passion. However life is getting harder when Alice notices that her father has less and less money. Servants are let go and finally her father declares he is going on a trip. Sadly the boat sinks and he is determined to be lost at sea. Now an orphan Alice is sent to live with a mysterious Uncle Geryon whom she had no idea existed. Fascinated that the name of the manor is The Library Alice is excited to see the place. To his dismay the place is just an old house with a couple servants and he Uncle. Left alone to herself Alice becomes determined to find out the secretes of The Libarry.

Despite being a middle school book I really enjoyed the story, it was well written with a fast moving plot. The mystery was well done and while the big questions were answered enough smaller questions were left to make me want to read the next book in the series. 

The Princess Diaries: Third Time Lucky

 

I am so glad I continued on with The Princess Diaries, it keeps getting better and better. I am hoping the library does not have a huge waiting list for the fourth book since the little free library did not have the fourth one in it.

Mia is becoming more believable as a human. Happy to have her first boyfriend she is worried that something is wrong since she is not as excited as she thought she would be over having a boyfriend. Dealing with her mom being pregnant and planning a wedding to Mia's algebra teacher is also causing drama in Mia's life. The other major problem Mia's secret crush now has a girl hanging around him all the time. Even worse the girl is not flunking algebra and knows how to clone fruit flies. How is a girl to compete with that? 

Some of the diary entries still bother me and some seem really fake. It does seem like a more reasonable length for someone who would daily in a diary and I like that Mia is feeling more human and not robotic. I am eager to continue on with the series. 

Beauchamp Hall

 

It took me awhile but I finally managed to get through Beauchamp Hall. My friend recommended it highly and I saw it was available on the elibray so I checked it out.

The way the story was written it felt like three stories in one and I did not care for that at all. It left me not getting a personal feel for Winnie. All the characters came off as super flat to me and I did not really care what happened to any of them. Even though I read the story I would be hard pressed to describe what happened. Nothing really stuck out to me except how slowly the story moved. 

One thing I did learn is that I need to learn to tell friends sometimes a book is not my style but that is alright. 

The Princess Diaries Take Two

 

Oddly enough I enjoyed The Princess Diaries Take Two far more then The Princess Diaries. I think part of it was I finally stopped expecting things to be like the movie and just enjoyed what was going on in the story.

Mia is still trying to adjust to being New York's newest royal and keep her life feeling normal. Struggling with school, her friends, and her royal family Mia just sort of wants to hide. All that changes though when her mother declares she is pregnant and Mia's algebra teacher is the father of the baby. Now determined to help her mother stay healthy during the pregnancy Mia no wonder feels overwhelmed. Still not used to the press publishing every single word she says Mia makes a few mistakes that cause some problems.

I am glad I did not stop with the series since it is growing on me. I have already started The Princess Diaries Third Time Lucky and so far it seems entertaining.