Reviewing the Unreviewed: February 2015

 

I read a lot of books that I don’t end up reviewing for whatever reason. Some because I wasn’t impressed. Some because I didn’t have the time. Some I just wasn’t feeling it on whatever particular day I finished. I thought I’d start doing a post once a month  with just the couple thoughts I shared on Good Reads.

The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen. Read February 8-12. 3 stars.

This book was a little unnecessarily long at times, but overall I enjoyed it. I liked the characters and thought they were well developed. The mystery was pretty well done, too. While there was one part of it I guessed basically right away, and another I guessed fairly early on, there were other parts that I didn’t and I enjoyed the surprise. Even though her previous book was not really to my liking, this book once again reinforces my opinion that Klassen is one of the best authors in this particular genre.

Arranged by Catherine McKenzie. Read February 18-20. 3 stars.

This book had a unique premise that intrigued me, but didn’t blow me away. I found the Blythe & Company process interesting, though a bit outlandish. I thought they were going to end up being something a little more sinister than they were and was a little disappointed that they weren’t.

I liked all the references to Anne of Green Gables.

I didn’t always care for the main character. She was shallow and annoying most of the time, but as the book went on she really grew as a person and I enjoyed that.

The twist in Anne and Jack’s relationship wasn’t what I was expecting, but I thought it was good. My biggest complaint, though, is that I was hoping for the end to be a little less predictable.

The Girl who Kissed a Lie by Skylar Dorset. Read February 25. 2 stars.

There were some humorous moments with the aunts and Ben, but there really wasn’t anything that happened in this book. Perhaps if you read it before you read the first book in the series, you might find it more interesting, but I don’t think it will make you understand the first book any better. But it was a quick read and was good to get reacquainted with the series before I read book 2.

The Boy with the Hidden Name by Skylar Dorset. Read February 25-26. 3 stars.

I debated between 2 and 3 stars for this one, but since it did ultimately entertain me, I went with 3. The story, as in the first book, is confusing. There were often times I didn’t understand what was going on. But I found most of the dialogue humorous. If you plan to read this series, I would recommend doing it all at once so it may be less confusing.

The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart. Read February 22-25. 4 stars.

I read this book in February, but my full review will post in April since this is an ARC and I wanted to post closer to the release date.

I’ve never read anything by Nicole Baart before, but I think I’ll definitely be giving her other books a try after reading The Beautiful Daughters. Her writing was beautiful, even when it was heartbreaking. I was drawn in, straight from the Prologue.

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BACK ON THE TBR SHELF

Breaking The Rules by Katie McGarry. I waited a long time for this to be available at the library, but once it finally came I couldn’t get into it. It seemed like just a bunch of re-hashing of their first book and I got bored pretty quickly. I may give it another go some time, though.

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DNF

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton. I got this from NetGalley and just could not finish it. I was so confused the whole time and I didn’t really care about any of the characters.

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RE-READ

Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White. I enjoyed this just as much the second time around!

Funny Friday

Celebrate the end of the work week with a little book humor.

Free Books are my Favorite

Since I don’t feel like doing Top Ten Tuesday – I didn’t pre-write and schedule it like I normally do and by this point in the day, I don’t think I have any characters to add to the conversation – I thought I would just share what was waiting for me yesterday after I got home from a long, awful day.

Thanks to Fiktshun for the giveaway!

Review: The Return (Titan #1) by Jennifer Armentrout

Synopsis from Good Reads:

The Fates are cackling their bony asses off…

It’s been a year since Seth made the deal with the gods that pledged his life to them. And so far, the jobs they’ve given him have been violent and bloody–which is kind of all right with him. But now Apollo has something else in mind for Seth. He’s got to play protector while keeping his hands and fingers off, and for someone who really has a problem with restraint, this new assignment might be the most challenging yet.

Josie has no idea what this crazy hot guy’s deal might be, but it’s a good bet that his arrival means the new life she started after leaving home is about to be thrown into an Olympian-sized blender turned up to puree. Either Josie is going insane or a nightmare straight out of ancient myth is gunning for her.

But it might be the unlikely attraction simmering between her and the golden-eyed, secret-keeping Seth that may prove to be the most dangerous thing of all.

Because history has once again been flipped to repeat.

Seth was pretty much my favorite thing about the Covenant series, so I was really looking forward to The Return. However, I went into it expecting to be disappointed. The Covenant series is YA and Armentrout announced that this series would be NA. By now we all know how much I hate almost all NA books because most of them are basically just a synonym for erotica. I’m glad to report that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. With the exception of just a couple of overly graphic scenes, there was way more story to this book than most of JLA’s other NA books.

While this is a spin-off of the Covenant series, supposedly you can read it without reading the prior series. However, I would definitely recommend reading the first series before you read this book. There are a lot of references to Alex and Aiden and previous events that are not explained until over half way through this book. It has been awhile since I read the other books and I found myself confused at parts, so I don’t know what it would be like for people who have no prior knowledge of the Covenant world.

I still love Seth and enjoyed being able to see his point of view. I found Josie pretty likable as well. She is the classic JLA heroine, so basically if you like one of them, you like all of them. The story was told in alternating 1st person POV, which was fine, but their voices were pretty similar and there were often times it took me awhile to figure out who’s view we were getting.

Overall, I enjoyed The Return. I was pleasantly surprised that it read more like a YA book than an NA book. I look forward to reading the rest of the series and would recommend this book to those that read the Covenant series.

Rating (out of 5)

Book Spine Poetry

I saw a lot of these posted yesterday for some type of blog-a-thon and while I’m not taking part in it, I liked this so I decided to do it, too.

The Dead Will Tell
Dangerous Girls
Unbecoming
Illusions of Fate

Burn Out

There are seriously very few things I do in my personal time. Mostly there is reading and there is blogging. I’m still reading, though not with the zeal I usually have for it. But blogging is just…not doing it for me lately.

I finished a book yesterday that I wanted to write a review for and I spent probably an hour writing and re-writing the first paragraph before finally giving up on it. For some reason, I just feel burnt out on writing reviews. I can’t figure out how to start them, how to transition from one point to the next. When I do finally write something, I realize after I publish it that I forgot tons of points I wanted to make. There is not one review I’ve written this year that I’m proud of. I honestly can’t think of the last review I wrote where I thought, “yes, that’s a good one.”

I also get discouraged comparing my blogs to others. My viewing stats, followership stats are probably better than I ever expected them to be, but then I’ll come across a blog with thousands of followers or blogs that get more views in day than I get in a year and I just don’t get it. Some of the blogs are super fun and clever. But some of the other blogs I think, “Really? That many people like this? My post was better than that.” (*Note, that is a rare thought, indeed, as I mentioned above, I don’t think my posts are great.) I see blogs that get all sorts of free books to review when I get turned down more than I get approved.

So, anyways, this is just a grumpy, I Hate Everything sort of day. I blame all the snow. I’m going to try to come up with some more standard outline for reviews that will help me with my writers block. But until then, I’ll probably be sticking with random pictures of funny things I find on Pinterest.

Funny Friday

Celebrate the end of the work week with a little book humor

Review: The Ruby Circle (Bloodlines #6) by Richelle Mead

Synopsis from Good Reads:

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

After their secret romance is exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead’s New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series. When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world.

The Ruby Circle is the last book in the Bloodlines series. I’ve found this series to be mostly enjoyable (much more than I did Vampire Academy) and this book was a decent ender, but a little underwhelming.

The arc of the book focused on the search for the kidnapped Jill, but most of it just seemed like filler. I usually really like Sydney, but I found myself skimming through most of her POV chapters. Until we got closer to the end, there just wasn’t a lot that she did that was interesting. Adrian’s chapters were a little better because he’s dealing with being a little crazy, but he also is part of the side plot that is, as the synopsis says, “…the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world“! While it was an interesting development, there was nothing really done with it, which leads me to believe there will be yet another spinoff series.

Also supporting my future spinoff series, Queen Lissa has still not had any progress in changing the law that would keep her queen without a blood relative or approving the Moroi Magic Guardian Squad, which has been a running theme since The Vampire Academy days.

Overall, though, I was glad to see Adrian & Sydney get a happy ending. I liked that even though they got married in the previous book, their relationship still progresses a lot throughout the book. I liked seeing Rose and Dimitri more in this book, too, as well as some of the other supporting cast from the series. One noticeable absence is Angeline, which may bother some, but I never, ever liked her, so I was good with it. While I’ll miss Adrian and Sydney, I was ready for this series to end. I think fans of the series will enjoy The Ruby Circle and would recommend to them.

Rating (out of 5):

Top Ten Tuesday: Book Related Problems I Have

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, is: Top Ten Book Related Problems I Have.

1. I’ve already talked about my problem with Library waiting lists.

2. They cost money.

3. Sometimes they’re sneaky.

4. They keep me from my other love, sleep.

5. I like fictional characters more than I like most people.

6. Re-reads don’t count towards my Good Reads Challenge goal.

7. The TBR pile is a list that I will never complete. The OCD in me can not handle this.

8. Waiting for the next installment in a series to come out.

9. I really want to get a dachshund and name her Bella, but I DON’T want people thinking I named her after a Twilight character. (And yes the picture above says kids, but pet is much more plausible).

10. That not every author puts out as many books a year as JLA.

Review: First Frost (Waverly Family #2) by Sarah Addison Allen

Synopsis from Good Reads:

It’s October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree… and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store.

Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies. Though her handcrafted confections—rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds—are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts.

Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each passing day she longs more for a baby— a namesake for her wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has.

Sydney’s daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to…if only he could see it, too. But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke?

When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.

Lose yourself in Sarah Addison Allen’s enchanting world and fall for her charmed characters in this captivating story that proves that a happily-ever-after is never the real ending to a story. It’s where the real story begins.

I received a copy of this title from Good Reads. It does not impact my review.

I didn’t think it would be possible to like this book as much as I did Garden Spells, but I was once again pleasantly surprised. Allen effortlessly weaves together multiple perspectives and storylines into one heartwarming tale of magic and family.

First Frost picks up ten years after Garden Spells ends. While Claire and Tyler and Sydney and Henry are still all happily married, they are not without their problems – mostly brought on by the magical craziness that always accompanies the wait for the first frost of the season that brings the temperamental apple tree into bloom. Claire has ditched her catering business in favor of candy making, which is a national success. However, she doesn’t find the growing success as gratifying as she thought she would and she begins to question to her magical Waverly ability. Sydney is obsessed with getting pregnant so she can give Henry a son, but things are not going according to plan. Bay is now a teenager and has found the boy that she belongs with, who happens to be the son of Sydney’s old high school boyfriend, but he – and the rest of the school – is not quite convinced.

I love Allen’s writing style. We get the perspective of many different characters which could become overwhelming, but here it’s balanced very well. There was never a time I felt was spent too long with one character and one perspective was never left in a cliffhanger. My only complaint is that I would’ve liked to have seen more from Tyler and Henry’s POV, but at it’s heart, the story is about the Waverly women, so I was ok with it.

Overall, I really enjoyed First Frost. It’s a very character driven novel, which I always appreciate. Even though I was skeptical of seeing these characters ten years later from the first book, I loved them just as much and enjoyed seeing their growth. There were plenty of sweet moments and a few surprising twists. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has read Garden Spells, and if you haven’t read Garden Spells, you should do that now!

Overall Rating (out of 5)