And now I'd like to move on to the reviewing portion of this post. It's the first of the month, which is oftentimes when I post reviews of all the books I read during the course of the previous months. I haven't done one in a couple of months but I'm going to try and get back into the habit. My reviews tend to be short and to the point and will occasionally contain spoilers. I try to avoid them when I can, but sometimes there's just no stopping a rant.
Here's what I read in January:
Reached- Ally Condie- The third and thankfully final book in the Matched series. A lot of people have enjoyed these books. I’m not one of them. I found this book—and the two before it—to be boring. The prose tries too damn hard to be meaningful, and the pacing makes a snail look speedy. The three main characters are so freaking dull I don’t know why anyone cares what they do or how their ‘love triangle’ will turn out. Because I didn’t. Besides, it was painfully obvious how the ‘love triangle’ would turn out. Also, I’m not happy about what they did with Indie. I thought what happened to her was a lazy resolution to the series’s one interesting character.
Romeo Redeemed- Stacey Jay- I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The first book, Juliet Immortal, kind of bored me. The beginning made me swoon but what followed didn’t hold up. But its sequel was really quite good. There is some lovely prose to be found in these pages. There was a part toward the end where the story line got a tad confusing—things that happened “off screen” that maybe should have happened “on screen”, and I didn’t love the epilogue. I like the fact that we know what happened to the three main characters; I just didn’t particularly care for the way that information was presented.
Crash- Lisa McMann- Fun characters and a cool concept (a girl sees constant visions of a horrible accident and becomes determined to stop it from happening). I haven’t been a fan of the way the author ends her novels, but I did really like the way this one ended. I didn't see that ending coming. I had no idea where the story was going to do, and I was, honestly, expecting to be annoyed all over again, but was pleased with where the story ended up. I'm curious to read the next one.
Just One Day- Gayle Forman- Look, kids! Proof that I do not hate every book I read! The writing style is wonderful, and the characters are fantastic fun. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end, and I am very much looking forward to readings its sequel when it is released. When I read If I Stay by the same author, I liked it quite a lot but its companion novel, Where She Went, blew me away. I'm hoping that will happened again with this series.
Legend- Marie Lu- I’ve been reading good things about this book for a while now and decided that I just had to read it. And now I’m super glad that the sequel is coming out in a week because I want to know what happens next. It’s a very cool story. Day is a damn cool character, and I have to know if June is reunited with her German shepherd. I am a firm believer that no girl should ever be parted from her German shepherd.
1356- Bernard Cornwell- I bought this book because it was a Bernard Cornwell book, and I tend to enjoy his books quite a lot. What I didn’t realize when I bought it was that it was the fourth book in a series, which I think was my introduction to this author. And when I did realize that’s what it was, I was thrilled because I really enjoyed the first three books of the series, really loved the main characters, and I was so happy to find out what happened after the third book ended. So this book does not disappoint. Bernard Cornwell writes the best damn battle scenes ever, and the way he writes the main character of Thomas is how I want some of my main male characters to be. I thought there was a little rush at the end to get to the end but overall, I was very happy with the story.
Live Through This- Mindi Scott- A good book, well written and emotional (made me cry by the end) and moving and all that, but I wish there had been more to it. Pages wise, I mean. Things felt rushed. Considering the subject matter, I just wanted more. It's not an easy subject matter by any means—and bravo for tackling it at all and doing so well—but I guess I just didn't want it to end where it did.
Finale- Becca Fitzpatrick- (PLEASE NOTE THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS AND A RANT) The final novel in the Hush, Hush saga. Thank goodness. I remember liking the first one and then it getting worse from there. But because I am a crazy person, I read the whole series anyway. And now I feel a rant coming on. It felt like there was a lot of story that didn’t need to be included. Like the convoluted pretend boyfriend storyline. I understand that she and Patch are on opposite sides of the war and to continue their relationship in the public eye is dangerous so sure, they need to do the fake break up thing (and then spend 90% of the novel together anyway so why bother?) but why do they have to start the fake story of Nora's new (fake) boyfriend (a plot line, which, by the way, doesn't go anywhere)? Why does Nora have to have a boyfriend? Can’t she just be her own woman? All independent and whatnot? And the Vee’s a nephil storyline. Why? Can’t a girl just be human anymore? And it’s not like Vee was really all that developed during the series anyway so I don’t know why she was made a nephil and what difference it made to anything except for me wondering what the hell is going on in the town of Coldwater that made everyone there have sex with angels. I mean, fine, have sex with whoever you want (so long as it's consensual) but did someone put something in the drinking water? And did anyone give the black dog a home? Did I miss that part? This dog comes to Nora’s rescue and gets mind controlled by Nora for its trouble and then she says something like “I should give him a bath before I take him to the shelter” and later on the dog is seen again, still not in a home nor the shelter, and someone again said “this dog needs a good home” but, as far as we know, the dog is never adopted. Just write a sentence about Nora buying some dishes and some food and a few squeaky toys and presto! Storyline resolved! Besides, if you're going to mind control some innocent animal, Nora, and make him bite people (or nephilim) on your behalf, the very least you can do is give him a home. In your house. And then there’s the epilogue. I have no problem with epilogues, especially in sagas where you maybe want to know what happened to everyone after the Big Event comes to an end. But the epilogue here is dumb, just dumb. It clumsily and lazily wraps up the fate of other characters and makes no sense at all. It is my opinion that this series really should have ended earlier.
Prodigy- Marie Lu- The sequel to Legend. I did enjoy this book but not as much as the first one. You do get a lot of great background information on this particular dystopian society that was very interesting to read, and I couldn’t stop looking at the map at the beginning. I am pleased to report that the question of June's dog was resolved in a satisfactory manner. It also has a great lead-in to the third book— a novel that I am looking forward to reading.
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Well, that's going to do it for me today. Read anything interesting lately? I'd love to hear about it. Until next time...