Just Another Reader

John Charming is from the line of Charmings, many of his ancestors have performed deeds which now live on in fairy tale. They were also knights who patrol the earth and eliminate any supernatural beings who would make themselves known.

John was trained as a knight, but because of an accident when he was a fetus (seriously) he became half-werewolf (still serious) and while he was trained by them, he is also feared.

Meanwhile, he's just trying to live a normal life bar tending. However, when a hot blonde and a vampire appear in his place of work, he gets drawn back into that life as they try to take down a vampire hive.

I couldn't really get into this book. It had some funny lines and snarkiness, but I never connected with any of the characters. I may read another, but I'm not really sold on it.

I think I wanted more of a fairytale aspect but I got an urban fantasy.      

Unfortunately, I can't read this without comparing it to the Percy Jackson series by the same author. I did like it, but I've never been as into Egyptian mythology as Greek.

The series follows Carter and Sadie Kane. They are siblings raised apart after their mother's death, Carter with their dad and Sadie with the maternal grandparents. Their father is an Egyptologist and takes them to the British Museum of History. He also accidentally releases five gods on the world, one of which captures him and then implements a plan to destroy the world.

The siblings have to learn fast about their family history, abilities, and Egyptian mythology if they want to save the world and their father.      

Seven years after their marriage, Mr. Collins meets his end at the hands of a cart driven by mules. Not the end his wife thought would want (likely something grander) but she was finally free, happy to live on as a widow.

But after 18 months her life becomes more interesting as her younger sister Maria wants her to be her chaperone while she seeks a husband. So ensues drama, prejudices, and romance.

It was a fun book, but more of a typical historical romance versus an Austen novel. I may pick up more of her work at one point since I see she has a series of these.      

Have you seen the movie? Did you like the movie? Were you confused for how certain things worked or what to know more about the character and world?

Well then pick up this book in which the entire movie is expanded on. We get to learn so much more about all the characters and their inner thoughts. It follows the book fairly closely with a few changes here and there.

Reading this without watching the movie? I think it would still hold up, though I liked also having a visual picture of the fights and how people looked. The voices for the audiobook weren't great but not terrible. If I would read it again I would likely just pick up the book though.      

Red Rising is about Darrow, who works in a miner on Mars. The Reds are told that they are the pioneers of planet and their mining will allow the planet to be terraformed and allow the overpopulated Earth some relief. When this happens, the Reds will be highly praised and regarded in society.

Or so they are told. Darrow soon learns that the planet has been colonized for centuries and the Reds are considered slaves to keep mining the Helium 3 that allows the Golds, the ruling class, to keep expanding and terraforming more planets.

I did like this book, but about a third of the way in, it turns to a hunger games/divergent/percy jackson mashup where warring houses based on Roman deities battle among each other to come out on top.

I plan to keep reading the series and am optimistic of where it will go, but I think this one will stay a 3-3.5 for me.      

The A Ghost of Granny Apples series is one I stumbled upon and I frequently forget about, but always enjoy.

Emma Whitehouse has gotten used to dealing with ghosts since she discovered her ability to see them two years ago. She finds herself contacted by an old friend who thinks she is being haunted by her dead husband and wants Emma to just take care of it.

Emma finds out that the daughter has been acting strange she decides to look into it and finds herself tangled up in another mystery.

It's a fun book and while I did have an idea what was going on, it was an enjoyable read.      

Now two stars may be a bit harsh, but there were a lot of problems with this book. It felt like too much of a mashup of teen romance dystopian training sci-fi with aliens and political drama. And it jumps between those different concepts the entire book with little cohesion.

Also, if you're going to have military secrets why the hell do you keep telling a 17 year old girl???????

It really wasn't terrible, but made some extremely stupid decisions that I couldn't get past.      

This was a bit difficult to read since it has been at least a year (or twoish) since I read Volume 2. Angel and Crew are still in LA, which is also Hell at the moment. There was a decent summary in the beginning but I was still a bit confused throughout.

I'm also not a big fan of the art style for this series. I will finish it one day, but I may start over.

Remy is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. She was in a "safe area" but it was recently overrun by zombies who have come together in a large group and may even be working together.

She gets out, but loses contact with her brother who was shuffled to another "safe area". Remy starts trekking across the US to travel back to him picking up a ragtag bunch of survivors along the way. Including a lion. Seriously, a lion.

I enjoyed it overall, but didn't love it. The ending was a good twist so I may continue.

I love this series. It's insanely fun and hilarious.

In this one, we have the Viking swimming contest, in which the last who comes back wins. Fishlegs can't swim and Hiccup isn't much better. However they get kidnapped by Norbert the Nutjob (probably my favorite reoccurring villain) and put on a ship to America (which doesn't exist).

I am not going to be happy when I run out of these.

I mentioned before that I read Blood Red Road between this and The Knife of Never Letting go so I didn't have back to back by the same author, only to find out those two books were extremely similar.

A Monster Calls has almost nothing in common with KNLG. Well, it's middle grade male protagonist. But it's a paranormal book set in contemporary times.

Conor's monster comes at midnight. He's been struggling in school and is being bullied. His mother is being treated for cancer. And a monster keeps showing up at midnight and wants the truth.

I can't go much more into the book, other than to recommend it.

The irony in me reading this right after The Knife of Never Letting Go (KNLG) was so I would have a break between Patrick Ness books (see tomorrow). But this book has a lot in common with KNLG in that they are both YA Dystopias with lying adults and a stream of consciousness narrator who has terrible spelling.

I also liked it, but not as much as KNLG. Saba lives in a desert wasteland with her twin brother, father, and younger sister.  Mysterious men show up one day and kidnap her brother and kill her father. She and the younger sister go after them.

Not sure if I'll continue the series. I'd have to check reviews.

The Knife of Never Letting Go starts with Todd. He's 30 days from his 13th birthday and in his colony of Prentisstown, that means he will be a man. As the youngest person in his town he wants to be accepted with everyone else. There are no women in town and everyone can hear each other's thoughts.  They came to the planet before he was born and warred with the native alien race, resulting in the death of all the women and the aforementioned ability to read everyone's thoughts.

However a series of events forces Todd to leave and venture out in to the rest of the planet, where he finds that most of what he knows was a lie.

I liked the book overall. The writing style was a bit annoying in that it was a stream of consciousness and he is uneducated so there were many spelling errors. I think I'll continue the series at one point.

Halfway to the Grave is a new (to me) paranormal/urban fantasy series about Cat Crawford, a half-vampire/half-human who has spent the last six years hunting vampires in revenge for her mother's rape (which resulted in her).

Her actions catch the attention of Bones, a vampire who makes a deal with her. He will train her and help her track down her father in exchange for her working with him as he tries to bring down the operation of another vampire. 

I enjoyed reading this. It's a fun story with interesting characters. I did find it surprising that when I was reading some other reviews that compared Bones to Spike, my favorite character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. Both are blonde (not naturally), use and assign nicknames, are attractive, British, and vampires. But honestly I never connected the two and even while reading don't. They do have a lot in common, but I felt the characters where different. 

But I look forward to the next one.

Dark Triumph picks up during the end of Grave Mercy. I had liked Grave Mercy, but didn't remember much. Thank you to the recaptains for having a summary.

The books are a historical fiction about the events in the country of Brittany and focuses on a group of assassins. The first book followed Ismae, as she tries to assist the young ruler of the country. She ran into her fellow assassin Sybella during the book, but was not able to find out what she had been up to.

In Dark Triumph, we learn why Sybella had been so mysterious and where she was getting her information from in the last book.  Her mission also puts her in the path of Beast, a monstrous man who became a friend and ally of Ismae in the first book. 

I really enjoyed this book. The relationship between Beast and Sybella was a joy, despite the darkness of the story. I'm not sure what will happen in the last book, since based on the notes from the end of the book, the author has adpated most of the historical incidents that drove the first two books. But I look forward to reading it.