Friday 56: Library of Souls

This is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

 

1. Grab a book, any book.

 

2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

Library of Souls page 55 (page 56 is a picture):

"Let's see now. Families enjoy the Famine 'n' Flame package... in the morning we go upriver to watch viking siege engines catapult diseased sheep over the city walls, then have a nice boxed lunch and return in the evening via the Great Fire of 1666, which is a real treat after dark, with the flames reflecting on the water, very nice."

My schedule remains full so please leave a link to your Friday 56 in the comments and I will get to it as soon as I am able to. Happy Friday.

Leviathan

I have been wanting to read more books in the steampunk genre so upon a recommendation I gave Leviathan a try. I had a super hard time getting into it and it was not until around the seventy percent mark that I started to enjoy the story.

Alek was an interesting character with plenty of flaws and I liked that about him. Scared and confused as to what is going on in his life Alek has to trust his fate to a handful of loyal men doing all they can to keep him safe. While a prince Alek was also shoved aside due to his mother being common and supposedly lost all rights to a title until the war broke out. A key pawn in the game of politics Alek just wants to keep his head down and out of trouble. Unfortunately for Alek this is not an easy task.

Deryn bothered me a lot and I did not care for her lazy attitude about just fitting in the boys. Hiding her identity as a girl came off funky at times and I had a hard time believing that no one noticed a girl was among them. Plus I did not care for how Deryn treated other people around her, she came off as a bit snobbish at times in my opinion.

The writing was alright but it was not page turning for me until near the end. I am not sure I liked Leviathan enough to continue on with the series. I would however like to try something else from the steampunk genre in the future.

A New Darkness

I was so frustrated with The Last Apprentice series I had no intentions of reading the sequel series but when it showed up my libraries home page I figured I would give A New Darkness a try. Since I am beyond furious by the ending I suppose that means I enjoyed the story.

With the death of John Gregory Tomas Ward has taken it upon himself to become the Chippendale Spook even though he only received five years of training instead of the customary seven. The folks in the country are not so sure about Tom though and many claim he is too young. Struggling with the grief of having lost his Master and friend Tom goes about his work doing his best to keep the Country safe from the dark until his daily routine is interrupted by a young girl named Jenny who insists he train her to be a Spook.

While it is nice to see a female get a chance to be a Spook Jenny is not what I like in a character and comes off as annoying. While she is stubborn she does not put that stubbornness into helping her become a Spook. Instead she whines about the practical work, argues about what Tom is trying to teach her, and is disrespectful of Tom most of the time.

The writing was smooth, descriptive, and elegant. I rarely notice mistakes in Mr. Delaney's work and I highly appreciate that. My biggest issue is the ending, I hated it so I guess that means I was also highly connected with the characters and loved it. Since I am eager to know what actually happened the release of The Dark Army cannot come soon enough.

Crystal Kindgom

I had hoped Crystal Kingdom would have had a stronger ending. 

Bryn was a bit of a let down as a character. While Bryn had a lot of potential to grow she just suddenly realized everything about herself in one paragraph or so and grew. It came off as totally unbelievable and sloppy which ruined Bryn as a character for me. 

I think some sort of love triangle was suppose to be occurring but it was weak and neither of the guys were particularly strong characters or really helped the story along. I was seriously disappointed in how the romance part turned out. 

All the major questions were answered in the end at least but overall Crystal Kingdom does not feel like it even belonged in the Kanin Chronicles since it was so different from the first two books. I am still debating if I want to try something else by Amanda Hocking or not.

Friday 56: Crystal Kingdom

This is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice.

1. Grab a book, any book.

2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

Crystal Kingdom page 56:

"No, we're doing this," I told him firmly. "It's our only chance of making things right. We have to get the Queen on our side."

I have been super busy lately and I am still super busy but if you leave a link to your Friday 56 I will get to it as soon as I am able to. 

Avoiding Alpha

Avoiding Alpha was a fun, fast, read. While shorter then Becoming Alpha it did not feel like the story was lacking anywhere.

Tessa is slowly adjusting to being a werewolf and still reluctant to embrace the wolf within her. I love this about it her, it makes Tessa feel far more believable in my opinion. Things still bother Tess and it is taking her time to learn to embrace the changes within her. Yet when her best friend Meredith becomes ill from a curse that was placed on her a few years earlier Tessa will do anything to save her including embracing the wolf within. 

I ended up reading Avoiding Alpha in one sitting, I kept meaning to put it down at the end of the chapter but the chapters ended on such a high note I had to keep reading to find out what happened. I look forward to learning more about Tessa's journey.

Fury of the Seventh Son

I have held off on my review of the Fury of the Seventh Son because I have been super busy and I was hoping my anger would calm so I could find something decent about the ending to what I once considered a great series. Unfortunately it did not work.

With The Spook's health rapidly failing Tom knows he has to step up and lead the fight against the dark. While having no problem with the task Tom knows that he is close to becoming a full fledged Spook and will have to take his Master's place soon but before that can happen the Fiend must be dealt with. Still doing their best to keep the head of the Fiend from the body Tom knows that time is running out and also knows that he cannot sacrifice the love of his life Alice. With few choices Tom works on rallying his allies to help in the final battle between himself and the Fiend.

Alice was barely in Fury of the Seventh Son and I HATED that she went totally malevolent. Even worse Alice left Tom for someone else and she was clearly in love with him. The story felt all wrong and like it was barely thought through on that aspect. It was not natural and had a lame explanation.

The writing was well done but the story itself had a horrible ending. I left too many questions, had weak reasoning for things, and horrible character development with Tom. All along Tom had walked the line between good and evil then suddenly at the end he gives that all up and just throws himself into the light. It just did not fit well at all. My expectations were seriously crushed and I hated the ending so much it ended up ruining the whole series for me. I am considering the companion series by Joseph Delaney but when I read that it can be read standalone from The Seventh Son series that turned me off. Something great was started with The Seventh Son series but it crashed hard in the end and it is frustrating I invested so much time in the series.