Books I Like, Books I Love (and books I don't)
My go-to genre is YA. Especially if it is Paranormal or Fantasy.
More of a review to come. I will say that I quite enjoyed this and felt it was an interesting story. I'm very much looking forward to the next one...I'm totally a sucker for big old haunted houses. I probably would have given it 4 stars had halves not been allowed but I feel the need to be a little more critical than I have been in the past.
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I'm going to start this off by saying thanks a million trillion for the option of half stars in ratings. I'm going to have to go back and re-rate every single book I've read. I just hope I don't get too greedy and start wanting 1/4 stars or something crazy like that.
So, White Cat by Holly Black. This is the first book I've read by this author so I cannot compare it to previous work. I can say that it was at least different from a lot of what I've read lately. The story follows Cassel, a 17 year old from a family of mobbed up "curse workers". In the book, curse workers are people who have magical abilities in certain areas such as death, luck, memory, etc. Everyone in Cassel's family is a curse worker except Cassel, although he does follow the con-man (or woman) family tradition. Following a series of events Cassel starts to believe his family is keeping some pretty big secrets from him and sets out to find the truth.
This book has been on my to-read shelve forever and, although I'm glad I finally got around to reading it, I wasn't wowed by it or anything. It was a quick, enjoyable read and Cassel was certainly a fine main character. I don't tend to read a lot of books with a male main character and I thoroughly enjoyed Cassel's "voice". His family was secretive, complex and of dubious moral character (but what do you expect from a mob family?). I had no trouble believing anyone's behaviour (and motivations) especially since the flashbacks gave an excellent starting point for their present day interactions with eachother. I also enjoyed Cassel's schoolmates...they provided a lot of the humour throughout the book.
I did enjoy the world these characters inhabit. It was close enough to our own world that no massive information dumps were needed but still included magical elements of which I am always a fan. I'm definitely intrigued as to where the story will go as the series continues.
I think I would have been more likely to give White Cat four (or more) stars if I hadn't been able to see most of the plot twists coming a mile away. There was maybe one thing near the end that surprised me but that was about it. Like I said above, I liked it but just wasn't wowed. I will be adding the next in the series to my list of books to-read but it will not be flying to the top.
Arclight
This was really good. Really, really good. Not quite an all time favorite but very enjoyable and quick to read. It had me hooked from the get-go.
I liked it. Very much, I think. Maybe I will write more later but for now I'll say that I'm definitely reading the next book and I'm quite intrigued as to where the story will go.
A pretty good read...it definitely held my interest. I look forward to reading the next one.
I think my actual rating would be closer to 4.5 stars. I very much enjoyed it but there was just a tiny little something missing.Honestly I had pretty low expectations and I'm not sure why. Ultraviolet has been reviewed quite well and it's right in my genre. It just wasn't really on my radar, I guess? Having said that, I was hooked very early in. The story moved quite quickly and, although I had a few plot points figured out, it kept me interested and curious to see how it would all play out. A solid, quick read.
I think I quite liked this one. It was certainly different from a lot of what I've read lately and I definitely appreciated that. The story felt new and the main characters were ones I had no problem routing for. It also moved at a good pace which is always a good thing.I also loved that it took place in Toronto and parts of it in my old neighborhood. It was so nice to be able to picture clearly the places being described!
Alright...I'm finally hooked. I really struggled to get into this book but I'm glad I kept going. The ending totally made it worth it. Now I have to wait until 2014 for the next one!
I really don't want to wait a year for the next book to come out. Angelfall was fantastic...just utterly fantastic.
Probably actually 3.5 stars. I liked it quite a bit, just not as much as the first. Still very much looking forward to the next one.
I'm abandoning this one. I'm over halfway thru but it just isn't keeping me interested. It's a library book that has to go back today anyway.
Darkness Falls (Immortal Beloved Series #2)
I'm not really sure what it is that I like so much about this series but I do really enjoy it. This one started a little slow for me but soon enough I was hooked again.
Liked it but didn't love it. I just find I'm not a fan of Meghan. Taking a break from the series before reading the third.
This was a very quick read as in I read 2/3 this morning while my poor sick kids watched cartoons. I quite enjoyed the story, the world and especially the characters. I'm really looking forward to the next one.One thing in particular I enjoyed was the fact that I think we will actually get some answers as to how the whole world got to be "dystopian" in the first place. That tends to be one of my main complaints when reading this genre... I always want to know how things got so bad, what happened and, quite often, it's never really explained. There were hints in the book that answers may be forthcoming and I appreciate that.I liked the pace of the story and I liked that neither main character spent pages and pages mooning about their feelings. I've read too many perpetual love triangle series lately and it was a relief to not see that here...at least for right now.
Whispers at Moonrise (Shadow Falls Novel (Quality))
I don't know. It was enjoyable enough but kind of felt like filler. I'm over the triangle. I'll read the next one but I'm not dying to find out what happens or anything. There was nothing wrong with the book, per se, but I didn't devour it like I do most books I read.
So I guess really 3.5? I liked it and I will definitely read the rest of the series. What kept me from really wanting to give it 4 stars is the fact I kept getting distracted by the similarities to other stories. At various times I could see shades of The Labyrinthe, American Gods and Alice in Wonderland among others. I also felt myself not quite buying the romance of the novel...not sure why but just something was missing. Hopefully this is remedied in the next installments.
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