Like many other people I did Kickstarter for Mr. Sanderson's four secret books. Tress of the Emerald Sea was the first book released. 

I believe I have read some of the novels in the cosmere universe but I do tend to struggle with them. I am not really sure why since I do enjoy Mr. Sanderson's story telling. Tress's story was no exception, at times I struggled and had to step away from the story. 

One of my favorite overall things is the chapters had titles, I love chapter titles. I also appreciated how the chapter titles font color changed as the story progressed. 

Despite being part of the Cosmere Universe Tress's story is stand alone. I really like Tress, she showed a lot of growth and clearly did not want to conform to the social norms of the time. Despite this I do see Tress as coming off as too powerful and overcoming things easily at times. Yet every time an obstacle occurred Tress continued to make the same mistake of trying to tackle it herself despite having friends who were eager to help her. 

It is clear that Mr. Sanderson is not big on writing love stories and this was partly a love story. I do like that he tried and thought of keeping a fairy tale feeling despite adding in some twists of his own. At times the story did drag on and I struggled to continue to reading. 

 

All the Pretty People was last week's Free Friday and I love a good mystery so I gave it at try. 

Willow has never been the same since her best friend disappeared one summer while her family was vacationing on an exclusive island. Terrified the same fate would bestow one of her daughters Willow's parents bundled them all up and quickly left the island never to return until ten years later when her youngest daughter decides to get married on the island. 

The main character, Willow, was not my favorite she felt so flat. Her sister goes missing and she manages to stay calm enough to investigate despite having no formal training and supposed PTSD from the disappearance of her best friend years earlier. Drake the other main character lost his sister and gave up the will to live except for finding her. He is described as angry and dangerous but never comes off that way.

Despite the lacking main characters I like the mystery with all the twists and turns as information was slowly revealed. I had a guess between two people at the end on who the killer was and while I did guess right for one of them I appreciate not being able to figure it out easily. 

69 Million Things I Hate About You

 

69 Million Things I Hate About You was a Free Friday recently so I decided to give it a try. It is an easy read and I pretty much read it in two sittings. 

Parts of the book were unbelievable, immature, but flat out funny. Kiersten hates being perfect for her boss but needs the job. Upon learning she has a windfall of money coming in she decides to pay her boss back with some well deserved pranks. Most of the pranks are immature but funny. I did laugh a lot at the antics in the book. If you are easily offended this is not a story for you and it could be triggering for people who have dealt with sexual harassment in the work force in the past. 

Amazing Agent Luna Vol 3

 

I am glad I continued on with Amazing Agent Luna since the third manga is where the story really picked up for me.

A bit more sure of herself at school Luna is really coming out as her own character. Readers were finally treated to a bit of Luna's early years and how Control felt about situations inside the facility where Luna grew up. As Luna is growing more into her own person she must learn to make hard choices and this becomes very apparent as Luna is forced to choose between her mission and her conscious at one point.

Of course the story ended on a cliff hanger and volume 4 is not free on the Nook. I still do not like the manga enough to buy it. After checking the local library I was sad to see they do not have volume 4 but with more digging I found an omnibus that is volume 4 and 5 combined so I ordered that. 

Amazing Agent Luna Vol 2

 

The second manga in the Amazing Agent Luna series was also free on Nook so I read it last night. 

Despite not being the biggest fan of the first manga I like the second manga more which is unusual since I find second books of any sort to usually be lacking. While we know Luna was developed in a test tube we know little to nothing about her handler Control so this was the back story for Control. Lots more humor and believable moments overall. A slight air of mystery still remains with the "bad guy" in the series. 

The third manga was also free on Nook so I have it downloaded to read next. Still not a manga I would pay for.

Amazing Agent Luna

 

I could not sleep last night so I decided to give a random book on my Nook a try, it has been years since I read a manage and Amazing Agent Luna was free so I decided to give it a try. 

This was not the best manga I have read but it did have a clear story line. I like the humor mixed in with the serious moments. The drawing was alright and I did enjoy the little moments of the artists and writers adding in comics about making Luna. It is not a manga I would have considered buying I just do not consider the story line unique enough. 

All in a fast read but average manga. 

Duck for Cover & Other Tales A Collection of Short Stories

 

Mrs. Venkatraman was kind enough to give me a copy of Duck For Cover and Other Tales A Collection of Short Stories for free. 

Normally short stories are not my style but I was pleasantly surprised by most the stories in Duck for Cover. Not every story was my favorite but all were interesting enough I read them and every one had a wonderful lesson. 

Several times I found myself laughing or relating to the situation at hand. Also the story was fully complete which is nice. Far too often I read collections of short stories and wonder was going on, how the story ended properly, or just could not even figure out if it was a short story or a preview for a novel. 

*Receiving a free copy had no impact on my review