BookCrossed Book Reviews

"If a book is well written, I always find it too short." Jane Austen

[bookcrossed]

Coming Back

At the time I started this review blog, my life was adjusting to too many changes all at once. As such, I neglected Tumblr for a very, very long time. I'm working on some new reviews and will be posting again soon. Stay tuned.

[thechroniclesofajenny]

British Booknerd Problems

Wanting to go to America just so you can visit a Barnes and Noble

[book-escapism]

American Booknerd Problems Wanting to go to the UK just so you can visit a Waterstone’s bookstore

[monkeywriter]

Love it

[aussiebookchic-deactivated20181]

[stashingbooks]

People keep refusing to buy me books as presents because they say I’ve already so many of them and it wouldn’t be as special.

No you don’t understand, getting free books is the greatest gift you can give me

[rollingbluntwords]

This is how you read a novel: you inhale the experience. So start breathing.

Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran (via rollingbluntwords)

[lightningstump]

the problem with reading a good book is that you want to finish the book but you don’t want to finish the book

[fem-wolf]

When the author kills off ur fave

[suggestivedesigns-blog]

[bloodybrilliantbooks]

Book Challenge [23/30]

The Subtle Knife

(Review of The Golden Compass here)

“Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.” 

Being so totally blown away by The Golden Compass as I was is it surprising I finished The Subtle Knife in just 2 days? What is surprising is that I found myself falling more in love with this series than I thought possible with this sequel. It not only builds on the foundation set by its predecessor it towers upwards to a height not many series achieve. 

As much as my heart broke for Lyra’s pain and loss in the first book the feeling is nothing compared to the joy a new character, Will, gave me in this book. He is the perfect counterpart to Lyra and the pair of them really have good chemistry together. I say this in the most unshippy way as possible as they are only 12ish, they just made me believe that their friendship for all of its annoyances could last a lifetime. Lyra in this book goes from being “the chosen one” to being just one person in “the chosen duo.” As in this book Will plays just a central role as Lyra and I have just as much affection and admiration for him. 

My only criticism for this book is that it strays so far from the previous world that certain characters such as Asreil don’t really get featured. This makes you feel like a lot of the story isn’t featured and the plot feels a little too quick. I don’t mind too much however as the Lyra Will moments were a very satisfying swap. 

I would rate it as ★★★★★

I would recommend the series for all fans of books. This book is expertly crafted with a story full of drama and adventure. It has a certain Harry Potter esc feel to it and I’m rather sad that I didn’t read it as a child as it doesn’t yet have a sprinked coating of nostalgia for me. 

_________________________________________________________  More Book Reviews My Goodreads

[bookcrossed]

Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Summary (from Goodreads)

For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again. Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Review:

I’ll be honest; I’m not really a fan of werewolf stories.  I don’t find werewolves interesting, or glamorous, or even all that dangerous.  In short, they’re a big let down in the literary world. 

Perhaps I’m not in the right mind frame to write a review right now, or maybe I’m just getting fed up with a disturbing trend in YA literature.  Let me ask you a few questions:  What happened to the strong female protagonist?  Why does strength mean being absorbed by your male counterpart?  Why is romance and love a black hole that sucks dry any unique and intriguing elements of a character? 

I get it, romance is nice.  I thoroughly enjoy a naughty read like the best of them, but—and I think this is exceedingly important to stress—love doesn’t mean losing yourself.  And I am so sick of reading about these characters that forget how to function unless they’re in a relationship.

Grace…  Forgive me here, but I found her completely rude and lackadaisical.  Once Sam enters her life she stops caring about her friends, her family, school, etc.  She literally lives and breathes Sam Roth.  It’s disgusting and insulting.  Instead of feeling sympathy for a boy attacked and killed by a pack of wolves, especially since she later befriends this boy’s sister, she feels hatred and anger because this means her wolves are in danger.  That’s right; she values the lives of these wolves she’s never even met over the boy they mauled.  And the real kicker?  These wolves also tried to kill her when she was a child—stole her right off her swing set.  Let’s not even delve into the fact these wolves aren’t wolves at all.  They’re werewolves, meaning they are human at least some part of the time.  The best parts of this book are the scenes without Grace, which is hard to achieve given she’s the main character.  Quite frankly, Isabel outshined her in every way; her flaws were present and beautiful in an honest, raw sense, and her quick wit was enough to break the monotony of poetic text that bombards you like Chinese water torture.

Despite my negative comment above, MS’s writing style is not terrible; her prose is lyrical and just rolls off the tongue ever so nicely, but it is a bit over the top.  Purple prose pops up in a lot of reviews and they are spot on.  

The story lacked a lot of substance and dragged on for what felt like forever.  She took 300+ pages to write about the passage of six or so weeks and not much happens during that time.  The one real element of the story that created any kind of drama was dropped and forgotten, so the majority of this story is fluff filler.  The last fifty or so pages heat up with action (literally and figuratively—see what I did there?) but it’s barely enough commotion to cause a nosebleed let alone any real interest.  This was even more frustrating because the issues that pop up throughout the story are time sensitive, so you always have this feeling of urgency as you read, and yet it takes fifty forever’s to get even a hint of a solution.

I was also disappointed with how little the werewolf myth is explored in this book.  I thought creating human/wolf creatures that shifted based on weather was a fresh take on the story, but it is a detail constantly pointed out and rarely explored.  Basically MS is a detail hoarder and doesn’t share well with others.

I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone looking for anything other than a uninspiring, brainless romance.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

[bookcrossed]

Daylighters by Rachel Caine

Summary (from Goodreads): 

While Morganville, Texas, is often a troubled town, Claire Danvers and her friends are looking forward to coming home. But the Morganville they return to isn’t the one they know; it’s become a different place—a deadly one…  Something drastic has happened in Morganville while Claire and her friends were away. The town looks cleaner and happier than they’ve ever seen it before, but when their incoming group is arrested and separated—vampires from humans—they realize that the changes definitely aren’t for the better. It seems that an organization called the Daylight Foundation has offered the population of Morganville something they’ve never had: hope of a vampire-free future. And while it sounds like salvation—even for the vampires themselves—the truth is far more sinister and deadly. Now, Claire, Shane and Eve need to find a way to break their friends out of Daylighter custody, before the vampires of Morganville meet their untimely end…

Review:

Note:  This is book fifteen in the Morganville Vampires Series.  Before you read Daylighters you should read the first fourteen books.  Although I try to eliminate spoilers from my reviews this one may contain spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

Reading order

Glass Houses

The Dead Girl’s Dance

Midnight Alley

Feast of Fools

Lord of Misrule

Carpe Corpus

Fade Out

Kiss of Death

Ghost Town

Bite Club

Last Breath

Black Dawn

Bitter Blood

Fall of Night

Daylighters

I started reading The Morganville Vampire books about four years ago.  I stumbled upon it by chance, and it was the best and worst thing to ever happen to me.  When I discovered it the first eight books were available and for a solid week I did nothing but read.  I devoured those eight books, and then the waiting game began.

To give a little backstory—this is a young adult urban fantasy/vampire series by the great Rachel Caine.  The books follow Clair Danvers and her three housemates: Michael, Shane, and Eve, on exciting and terrifying adventures in the miserable little town of Morganville, Texas.  On the outside it looks like an ordinary college town, albeit a little run down, but after a while you start to notice it has its quirks.  Like the fact that the town is run by vampires.

This series is, hands down, my favorite vampire series of all time. 

For the most part Daylighters reads like any other MV book.  There’s a bad guy to vanquish, pointy fangs to dodge (and rescue), Clair is brilliant, Eve is sassy, Michael is our dark avenging angel, and Shane is… Shane.  But this book is so much more than just an extension of the story.  In short, it was a bittersweet farewell.

One of the best components to this story is RC’s ability to write fantastic characters.  Believable characters.  Real characters.  Her vampires are not wimpy, broody, sparkly, or romantic.  Her vampires are predators and humans are on the bottom of the food chain.  Her vampires are scary, evil, complex, and sometimes insane (a la Myrnin and his bunny slippers).  Sometimes they are even tolerable and likeable. 

Her humans are flawed, prejudiced, and dangerous.  In fact there are quite a few books where the big bads don’t rock a sharp pair of fangs but rather a sharp mind and large guns.  Her world isn’t so cut and dry.  It’s multifaceted and rich and oh so wonderful.

The plot of Daylighters is jam-packed with action.  It picks up exactly where the last book left off and there’s never a real moment to catch your breath.  I commend RC for this.  Fifteen books is an impressive run for a series, and she never really regurgitated material.  There were times when the books lagged and times when I was a little shocked that she went there, but ultimately the arcs were unique to MV. 

RC tied up the world of MV brilliantly.  Was I completely satisfied with all the endings?  No, absolutely not, but in their own way each character got exactly what they wanted.  And to further praise RC for her ending, I completely adored the false sense of security and that cliff-hanger that almost was.

I highly recommend this book, and the fourteen others in this series.  It was time to put the story to rest, but that doesn’t mean I’m not sad to see it go.  And as the catch phrase states:  “Welcome to Morganville, you’ll never want to leave…”

Rating:  4 out of 5

[quoted-books]

'When is a night over? Is it the start of sunrise or the end of it? Is it when you finally go to sleep or simply realize that you have to? When the club closes or when you everyone leaves?' - ‘It’s over when you decide it’s over,” she says. “When you call it a night. The rest is just a matter of where the sun is in the sky.’

David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (via quoted-books)

[library-lessons-deactivated2014]

Or reading them, either.

[bookcrossed]

The Forever Song (Blood of Eden #3) by Julie Kagawa

Summary (from Goodreads):

Allie will embrace her cold vampire side to hunt down and end Sarren, the psychopathic vampire who murdered Zeke. But the trail is bloody and long, and Sarren has left many surprises for Allie and her companions - her creator Kanin, and her blood brother, Jackal. The trail is leading straight to the one place they must protect at any cost - the last vampire-free zone on Earth, Eden. And Sarren has one final, brutal shock in store for Allie.  In a ruined world where no life is sacred and former allies can turn on you in one heartbeat, Allie will face her darkest days. And if she succeeds, her triumph will be short-lived in the face of surviving forever alone. THE FINAL HUNT IS ON.

Review:

Note:  This is book three in the Blood of Eden Trilogy.  Before you read The Forever Song you should read The Immortal Rules and The Eternity Cure.  Although I try to eliminate spoilers from my review this one may contain spoilers.  Read at your own risk.

2014 is not the year for series endings, not for me at least.  Either that or I’m way too picky.

There are two things you should know about me before I continue any further. 

 I have a weak spot when it comes to vampire stories. 

I’m a well-established Julie Kagawa fan (seriously, if you haven’t, read the Iron Fey series).

With that being said… What the hell is up with angst-ridden vampire novels?  I don’t mean to offend anyone’s fandom here but didn’t we get enough brooding with Twilight?  From the start these books have been fueled by drama, but this one was way over the top. 

This is a book that is over 400 pages and it is mostly, “I love Zeke, does he love me?  I love Allison but I’m not worthy!” and so on and so forth. 

When I was five I went to Disney World on a family vacation and because I used to collect dolls (not by choice, dolls are CREEPY) my mom wanted us to go on the It’s a Small World ride.  Well, something happened and we were stuck on that ride for three hours, and for three hours we heard the same stanza of the It’s a Small World song over and over and over and over and… you get it.  This book is the reading equivalent of that experience for me. 

The previous books are, not packed, but balanced with action.  Allie, despite being an emotional blob for 90% of the book here, is actually pretty badass and I was really upset to see her reduced to a crybaby this time.  The first two books lead to this entire story, and it’s like all the growth and development that occurred evaporated overnight.

In addition, the plotline wasn’t all that intense.  There was only one part of the book that caught me off guard, and even then it was more like a stumble rather than a full on braining on the literary pavement.  And the worst part?  It was the same moral dilemmas from book one, all over again.  Let me emphasize this.  All.  Over.  Again.

Kagawa is a talented writer (again, Iron Fey series).  She tackles some gritty details with finesse and she doesn’t shy away from that.  I think that’s a wonderful quality in an author.  We need more fearlessness in our literature. 

She brings her world to life with the details she gives.  I’m not reading, I’m watching a movie in my head.

The ONLY redeeming quality, in my opinion, is Jackal.  I was pleasantly surprised at the depth in his character, and I wish he was the main character rather than Allie.  Truthfully he outshined her in the last two books anyhow.  Sure, he’s a real jerk, and there are a more than a few times I wanted to wring his neck, but he’s not so cut and dry.  If you read this series, or this book, you won’t be able to dislike him.  You won’t be able to resist rooting for him.  Plus he delivers some of the best dialogue in the whole series.

Overall the whole book was just… lacking.  It lacked development, action, balance, pizzazz—yes pizzazz.  It was a boring, repetitive mess.

Rating:  2 out of 5

[somemoronicwolfyclaim]

June Book Photo Challenge: Quote

[bookmad-deactivated20151003]

it doesn’t matter if you like to read

it doesn’t matter if you don’t like to read

but purposely putting people down and calling them unintelligent for not liking what you like is a new low

[lassiesbooks-deactivated2015030]

especially when we are talking about the fact that being different is nothing you should be ashamed of.

and, of course, the fact that we all think differently, therefore, like different things.