A Book Review: The Penderwicks at Last, by Jeanne Birdsall

The Penderwicks at Last, by Jeanne Birdsall

Nine years, five older siblings, a few beloved dogs, and an endless array of adventures–these are the things that have shaped Lydia’s journey since readers first met her in The Penderwicks in Spring.

Now it’s summertime, and eleven-year-old Lydia is dancing at the bus stop, waiting for big sister Batty to get home from college.

This is a very important dance and a very important wait because the two youngest sisters are about to arrive home to find out that the Penderwicks will all be returning to Arundel this summer, the place where it all began. And better still is the occasion: a good old-fashioned, homemade-by-Penderwicks wedding.

Bursting with heart and brimming with charm, this is a joyful, hilarious ode to the family we love best. And oh my MOPS–Meeting of Penderwick Siblings–does Jeanne Birdsall’s The Penderwicks at Last crescendo to one perfect Penderwick finale.

Pages: 256 (Hardcover)

Published by: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers

Published on: May 15th 2018

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3.5 Stars ★★★☆ As with all the other Penderwicks books, this installment has left me with a warm feeling of happiness and nostalgia. That being said, I felt that The Penderwicks at Last did not quite match my hopes. Jeanne Birdsall’s comfortable prose with occasional dashes of humor is still there, but I felt that this novel diverged from the others in that there wasn’t a lot of what is usually featured in a Penderwicks novel, like MOPS. This was to be expected though, sinceThe Penderwicks at Last is written from Lydia’s perspective, and Lydia isn’t a member of the original Penderwicks quartet. Even though I knew this, I was disappointed. The only prominent sisters in this novel are Jane and Batty. We barely get to see any scenes with Skye and we see even less of her boyfriend, Dušek. I’ll be plain in saying that I started this novel with the expectation that Skye and Jeffrey would get into a relationship. They don’t, and I feel comfortable clarifying that because it’s not really a spoiler. Since that expectation was completely trashed, I was hoping for more development of Skye and Dušek’s relationship to the extent that Rosalind and Tommy’s relationship was developed in previous novels. However, since Dušek only actually appears near the end, this didn’t happen either so I get why so many Skeffrey shippers are salty since Skye and Dušek’s relationship feels quite non-existent. There was a nice moment though when they were speaking Czech to each other. Since I don’t understand the Czech language, however, none of that helped me to become more invested in their relationship. I quite liked Lydia as a narrator. Lydia is a super nice person even though she is striving to be viewed as otherwise. Her narration allowed for a certain hated character to be viewed in another light, which I thought was a very nice touch. Also, her adventures with Alice were quite fun but I felt that they took time away from seeing more of the Penderwicks sisters. In the end, Birdsall did wrap the series up nicely with a large reunion of all our favourite characters due to the wedding. Although not my favourite in the series, The Penderwicks at Last was a pleasurable read that ensures that the Penderwicks will remain fondly in my memories. Thus, I highly recommend this novel to anyone who has been following the series and sincerely implore all Skeffrey shippers to try this novel out anyway.

Lots of love and thank you all for waiting for these late reviews!!

Kellie (@Book Delights)

A Book Review: The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black

3 Stars | ★★★

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

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Pages: 384 (hardcover)

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Published on: 2nd of January, 2018

GR / Amazon / B&N

°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°

After being wowed by The Darkest Part of the Forest and White Cat, I was sorely disappointed by The Cruel Prince.

Holly Black’s writing style in this book didn’t really appeal to me. I felt like there were a plethora of grand statements made by the narrator, Jude Duarte, but the statements all had limited contextual content to justify its level of dramaticism. Those flowery, often short and choppy, sentences only served to characterize Jude as a person who over-dramatizes her life. For example, this is quite dramatic:

We are getting older and things are changing. We are changing. And as eager as I am for it, I am also afraid.

However, to identify why that quote seems out of place, we can’t look at the quote in isolation.

Before the quote:

She throws up her hands. “What do you mean, what does fun entail? It’s fun!”
I laugh a little nervously. “You have no idea, either, do you? Fine. Let’s go see if you have a gift for prophecy.”

After the quote:

Taryn pushes herself off my bed and holds out her arm, as though she’s my escort for a dance. I allow myself to be guided from the room, my hand going automatically to assure myself that my knife is still strapped to my hip.

Both passages describe activities that do not really warrant the sudden expression of dramaticism from Jude. A little warning in the form of narrative build-up would be nice. Even though I didn’t like Black’s new writing style as much, it is very quotable. Suffice to say, Jude’s flair for dramaticism wasn’t a quality that made me like her.

Jude also seems to have a penchant for assigning herself duties. I think nothing shows this aspect more than the following:

Her job is to help him care about things other than power, and my job is to care only about power so I can carve out room for his return.

Jude has a messiah complex in the sense that she feels very responsible for assisting the aforementioned returner. Let it be known that the returner has not asked for Jude to do what she has decided is her current life mission. However, Jude’s dominant mentality does not revolve around that semblance of a messiah complex, but rather her distinct inferiority complex. This sense of inferiority makes complete sense to me, since Jude is a human that has grown up amongst the seemingly perfect fae, and Black has welded this inferiority together with Jude’s defining power-hungry trait in a way that helps to make Jude’s character engaging.

A character not as engaging as Jude was the titular cruel prince. Personally, I think that Cardan’s actions were not enough to receive the label of cruelty. If anything, Cardan was extraordinarily petty. Exactly like an immature preschooler. Tit for tat. In what I suspect was an effort to develop Cardan’s character, Black decides to peel off this cover of cruelty. I had detected a falseness to Cardan’s defining characteristic (cruelty), and I was hoping that Black would make this cruelty more concrete rather than doing away with it altogether. After all, the book is named The Cruel Prince.

Some characters I did really appreciate include Madoc and Oriana. As I have already mentioned in a few reviews, I do like Black’s general portrayal of the fae.

The romance in this novel was an anti-climatic guessing game where Jude ended up with the person I expected at the beginning. The romance between Jude and her endgame love interest mirrors what happens when a kid “likes” another kid but cannot express themselves in an appropriate way. E.g. pulling pigtails, tripping… Also known as attention-seeking, borderline bullying activities. Perhaps the nature of this romance was supposed to reflect the participants’ unusual upbringings, but all I could ever view the romance as was a combination of attention-seeking, borderline bullying activities.

The plot of the story was most decidedly an interesting but predictable aspect of the novel. Although Black did not develop the plot much at the beginning, I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know the setting. The story got a lot more exciting as the climax approached, but the climax was quite near the end, which is reminiscent of Black’s novel Tithe. There is a lot of court politics involved, but Jude is left out a lot as she is an outsider who cannot easily communicate with the influential members of the court. Thus, the novel encompasses an outside-sort-of-rebel-group intrigue rather than court intrigue.

To sum this novel up in five words:

The Cruel Prince is okay.

A Book Review: The Thousandth Floor, by Katharine McGee

The Thousandth Floor, by Katharine McGee

2.5 Stars | ★★☆

Blurb

NEW YORK CITY AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE.

A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you’re this high up, there’s nowhere to go but down….

°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆

Review

Dear Readers,

For these past few months, I’ve been in a terrible book slump (so I haven’t been posting any book reviews, sorry!). Even though I didn’t like The Thousandth Floor that much, it was- ironically- the book that has pulled me half-way out of that slump.

There were two things about this book that initially drew me in: the writing, and the concept of a thousand floor tower. McGee’s writing style was perfect for this book and it was engaging. There was some descriptive language that enabled me to appreciate the setting, but the descriptions were not too over-abundant that they detracted from the quality of the tension.

The floor-to-ceiling windows were squares of velvety darkness, though in the distance the sun was quietly rising, the skyline turning ocher and pale pink and a soft, shimmering gold.

Apart from the use of “quietly”, I think this might be my favourite line in the entire novel.

As mentioned above, I loved the thousand tower concept which established the futuristic, technologically advanced era this novel was set in. Although the individual technological machines were not that inventive (e.g. retina scanners- which I’d seen in a lot of sci-fi books), I liked the way McGee incorporated them into the tower. For example, the upper floors people had retina scanners, but the lower floors people didn’t, which was a nice contrast that made this tower interesting: the financial disparity present in one thousand floor tower is on par with that of a country.

However, there were somethings I really did not like. This book was written in five perspectives. Five. FIVE people. This was so distracting, especially as each perspective pretty much had its own story line. On top of that, I seriously did not feel engaged with three of the perspectives: Watt, Rylin, and Eris. Not even the writing could help me become invested in their story. The two other perspectives that were a little more engaging are Leda’s and Avery’s, but I disliked both of them a lot. I feel like Avery is supposed to be the “heroine” (this is a misnomer, really; are they all supposed to be anti-heroes or something?) in this story but I never warmed up to her. I even thought Leda (who is an off-her-bonkers stalker) was a far more interesting character (I don’t approve of her stalking, but it makes her character interesting) because Avery’s internal angst about love for her step-brother (which btw was totally awkward) was so annoying. I’d say that this is more of a character driven book since it was all about the tension between the characters that came about due to their personal secrets, so my lack of interest in the characters was quite problematic.

In the end, it was only the “who pushed the girl off the tower and why” mystery that kept me reading.

That being said, if you’re a fan of Pretty Little Liars, you should try this book out! It was not for me, but you may love it!

Cheers,

Kellie xo

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Published on: 30th August 2016

Published by: HarperCollins

Find it on… GR / Amazon / B&N

°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆°☆.。.:*・°.:*・☆

 

A Book Review: Sleeping Giants, by Sylvain Neuvel

Sleeping Giants, by Sylvain Neuvel

3.5 Stars ↤

Blurb

A page-turning debut in the tradition of Michael Crichton,World War Z, and The Martian, Sleeping Giants is a thriller fueled by an earthshaking mystery—and a fight to control a gargantuan power.

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near her home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved—its origins, architects, and purpose unknown. Its carbon dating defies belief; military reports are redacted; theories are floated, then rejected.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top secret team to crack the hand’s code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the provenance of the relic. What’s clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unraveling history’s most perplexing discovery—and figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result prove to be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?

Published on: 26th of April, 2016

Publishing Company: Del Rey

Pages: 322 pages (Kindle edition)

Find it on…

GR / Amazon / B&N

The Review

Sleeping Giants’ blurb, cover, and reviews made me really excited to read it, but this book turned out to be more of a flop for me.

The book was often compared to “The Martian” (it’s also compared to World War Z, but I’ve never read that book so I can’t say if that comparison is accurate or not), which is a book I love, so I expected Sleeping Giants to be a little similar… but it was not. BUT, it means that this book is superbly unique.

The format was the biggest reason why I didn’t enjoy Sleeping Giants as much as I thought I would. Instead of being a long, continuous narrative (which I personally prefer), this book had prose that was split into many files. Some of the files were interviews, reports, transcribed video journals… which did make the format quite interesting. However, this type of format produced an undiminishable distance between me and the narrative. To put it simply: I couldn’t immerse myself in Sleeping Giants. Since most of the files were interviews, there was also abundant telling and marginal showing.

There was an impressive aspect about the format though. Considerable time passes between each file, but Sylvain Neuvel is still able to make the reader understood what has happened during that period. Thus, there are no significant knowledge gaps that will hinder the reader’s interpretation of the events.

Sleeping Giants has an amazing idea- one that will make you wonder about the universe and all the possibilities it brings. Unfortunately, the idea is never delineated until the nameless interrogator (you will become very familiar with him if you read this book since he is the interviewer for all of the interview files) meets a special person a long time after the start of the story. In fact, I was really only able to continue this book because the idea is so interesting.

After reading Sleeping Giants, I will make sure to research books before I dive into them haha.

I highly recommend this for fans of science fiction and the file format type of writing!

A Book Review: A Study in Charlotte, by Brittany Cavallaro

A Study in Charlotte, by Brittany Cavallaro

———- 4 Stars ———-

Blurb

The last thing Jamie Watson wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s great-great-great-granddaughter, who has inherited not only Sherlock’s genius but also his volatile temperament. From everything Jamie has heard about Charlotte, it seems safer to admire her from afar.

From the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else. But when a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances, ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jamie can no longer afford to keep his distance. Jamie and Charlotte are being framed for murder, and only Charlotte can clear their names. But danger is mounting and nowhere is safe—and the only people they can trust are each other.

A Study in Charlotte is the first in a trilogy.

Published on: 1st of March, 2016

Published by: Katherine Tegen Books

Pages: 321 (Hardcover)

Series: Charlotte Holmes #1

Find it on…

Amazon / Goodreads / B&N

Review

I didn’t expect to like A Study in Charlotte as much as I did. Before reading this book, I scrolled through several reviews , and this book was often given three stars. Perhaps I liked this story more because I haven’t read or watched a lot of Sherlock Holmes stories, so I don’t have a strong impression of the characters. Anyway, this book was a great adventure. Basically, in A Study in Charlotte, Sherlock and John are real people, and each of them have descendants. Charlotte is a Holmes, and James is a Watson, and they meet (surprise, surprise :D) in the novel. I found this idea to be really intriguing and it was what drew me to the novel in the first place. According to the blurb, Charlotte is supposed to be pretty similar to Sherlock, and she is! I was rather impressed with Brittany Cavallaro’s portrayal of Charlotte. Cavallaro is very skilled at maintaining Charlotte’s air of mystery. The enigma that was her past and her secrets truly captivated me. Another aspect of her character that I liked was her development. Through the scarce glimpses into her past (to maintain that mystery), I could see concrete evidence of Charlotte’s maturation, which made her character more realistic. James’ character is also just as interesting. Since he narrates the story, he doesn’t have quite the same aura of mystery as Charlotte does, but his frustrations, his worries- his troubling thoughts in general are realistic. Another bonus is that James is an aspiring writer so I had a chance to peer into the mindset of a writer which is not a type of mindset I often encounter. Also James is quite melodramatic which I personally found humorous. All in all, the characterisation of the main characters is very skillfully done. As for the minor characters… I think they could’ve been portrayed better. A large part of this book includes Charlotte’s Holmish (yep, I made Holmes into an adjective haha) deductions. The deductions were fascinating and exciting. However, the deductions were not always logical- the link between her observations and her deductions are sometimes very weak. For example:   “But how do you know it’s a woman?” She snatched the page back. “All it took was a few minutes’ research for me to find the origin of this font—it’s called Hot Chocolate, how twee—along with a few hundred others on one of those design sites. Well and fine, but that was the ninth hit on Google. The first was a website that catered to ‘sorority life,’ and I found our Hot Chocolate on the page about creating invitations for parties.” “So she’s a sorority girl,” I said. “She’s someone who looks at sorority websites,” Holmes corrected me. Haha, because only females look at sorority websites right? And she could have only discovered that font from the sorority website and not that ninth hit, which is a design site. (Righttt) The plot held my interest up until the final reveal because I was pretty disappointed by who the culprit was. Ultimately, I enjoyed this book immensely and I would definitely recommend it to fans of Sherlock and mystery! Also, this book cover is gorrrgeous!!

 

Cheers,

Kellie xo

A Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas

3.5 Stars | Warning: There may be minor spoilers (a.k.a. Quotes).

Blurb

Feyre survived Amarantha’s clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can’t forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin’s people.

Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two.

With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas’s masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

Publishing Company: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

Published on: 3rd of May 2016

Pages: 640 (Kindle edition)

Series: A Court of Thorns and Roses #2

Get it on…

Amazon / Goodreads / B&N

My Review

I loved the prequel to A Court of Mist and Fury, so naturally, I had high hopes for this book. Before ACOMAF’s publication, I thought of all the amazing possibilities there were for this series, and find myself a little disappointed by the direction this book is headed in. However, I did enjoy reading this book.

The plot of this novel was not remarkable. The first quarter of the book is essentially stagnant and Feyre is melancholic most of the time. Feyre’s broken state came across really clear, perhaps too clear (it was emphasised so much), to the point where I almost lost interest in continuing the story. Thankfully, the pace picked up soon after that. Like Maas’ other books, there is wonderful action contained within these pages… but all of the action is near the end, making the last third of the book extremely action heavy, and the ending chaotic. There are also some twists, but none of them were really shocking.

Even though I talk about being really bored when Feyre got so detached, I still think that part is important, because it paves the steps for Feyre’s eventual rediscovery of her true self. This meaningful, well written character development is definitely what won me over.

As usual, the main cast of characters in this book is utterly amazing. By the end of the book, I pretty much became emotionally attached to Rhys, his gang, and Feyre. Their friendship chemistry is simply awesome and the occasional witty banter made me enjoy their exchanges.

Her eyes fell on the open threshold to the bedroom hallway, and she grimaced. “Why,” she said, “are Amren’s eyes there?”

Indeed, right above the door, in the center of the archway, I’d painted a pair of glowing silver eyes. “Because she’s always watching.”

Mor snorted. “That simply won’t do. Paint my eyes next to hers. So the males of this family will know we’re both watching them the next time they come up here to get drunk for a week straight.”

Each and everyone of Rhys’ gang has a hidden part of their personality that makes them interesting, three dimensional. More about Rhys himself is also revealed and it allowed me to empathize with him at a level I could not before. Another character I liked was Tarquin, and… I hope he survives the next book.

On the other hand, there were other characters who were poorly neglected. For example, Lucien’s fiery personality which I had loved so much in the first book is now nothing more than a few embers, a remnant of what he was before. It was super disappointing. Tamlin, who was also one of my favourite characters from Book 1 just became nothing more than a flat character who had an overwhelming obsession with protection (his “wry humour” has all but disappeared). A lot of characters were sort of… trampled upon just to make way for the main gang.

Velaris was a lovely setting. I’d love to visit Velaris if it existed. *Sigh*, the troubles of a reader.

The Rainbow of Velaris glowed like a fistful of jewels, as if the paint they used on their houses came alive in the moonlight.

In general, the night court proved to be more complex than the spring court and thus, it captivated me a lot more easily. Outside of Velaris, there are also tribes of Illyrians. The traditions of the Illyrians were really interesting. Although the traditions are brutal and unjust (clipping their wings is just cruel beyond measure), it did show me another side to this world.

Before the events in A Court of Thorns and Roses, there was a war between the King of Hybern and the courts of Prythian. The characters who had a part in this war were often mentioned, and I really wanted to know more about them but it was not talked about much in ACOMAF. Hopefully, more parts of that particular story will be revealed in the next instalment since the war sounded pretty epic. In all seriousness though, a brief but informative history would make ACOTAR’s world much more believable.

Finally, the romance. The romantic arc in this book was a little frustrating. So much attention was placed upon the romance, that some attention was taken away from the plot, which is equally important. Also, why does Maas mess with my shipper heart all the time. In this book, my favoured ship sunk, but it’s ok, because I also love the ship that did survive. The romance between Feyre and her love interest is developed in a way that is simply beautiful. But let’s be honest here, all of the possible love interests for Feyre are 100% hot and also awesome.

And he’d be here during the summer, flying over the meadow, chasing me across the little streams and up the sloped, grassy mountainside. He would sit with me under the stars, feeding me fat summer berries. And he would be at that table in the town house, roaring with laughter— never again cold and cruel and solemn.

The romantic arc is a little similar to the overarching romantic arc in Heir of Fire and Queen of Shadows, so if you didn’t like the romance in those books, you might not like it in this book. Nonetheless, I do urge you to try out this book though, because there are definitely some great parts. 🙂

A Book Review: The Rose Society, by Marie Lu

The Rose Society, by Marie Lu

4.5 Stars

BLURB

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good when her very existence depends on darkness?

Bestselling author Marie Lu delivers another heart-pounding adventure in this exhilarating sequel to The Young Elites.

Published on: 13th Oct 2015

Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Series: The Young Elites #2

Pages: 395 (Hardcover)

Goodreads / Amazon / B&N

REVIEW

 

His words stir the whispers in my mind. They are angry now, and so am I. “And who did I learn that from?” I snap. “Who taught me to use others for my own gain?”

Wow Adelina is a lot darker in this book.

Hi friends. I’m glad to report that The Rose Society did not suffer from second book syndrome. In fact, The Rose Society was much better than The Young Elites.

“Why is that, Kellie?” (No one asked me this, but I’ll pretend. 😉)

1. Unlike it’s predecessor, The Rose Society focused less on romance and much more on plot development (a), on character development (b), and on world development (c). All of this extra development really helped to enhance the entire novel. Marie Lu’s writing has also improved a lot (I’ve always loved her writing, and it just got better in this novel)! Lu also remains wonderfully ruthless. One of my favourite characters was killed in this book. </3

(a)
In the last book, the daggers were intent on helping malfettos, overthrowing the throne, blah blah, but no serious progress was made. The plot in this book was much more intricate and it had its fair share of plot twists… even though there was two plot twists that I could see a mile away. The coup d’état in the story was very interesting, as I did not expect it to happen the way it did. I could tell that this story was very well thought out.

(b)
New characters are introduced in this book, and I was really able to emotionally connect with them. I feel very sorry for Magiano and I dearly hope that he survives the next book haha. They had a back stories which just made them seem a thousand times more real. Their powers are intriguing (as powers always are), and they fit into the plot really well. The old characters were also developed more, especially Rafaele. An undiscovered, deeper layer of several characters are revealed. And of course, as I mentioned before, Adelina gets a whole lot darker. The Rose Society is one of the books that makes me so happy that first person perspective exists. Through the first person perspective, Adelina’s occasional paranoia and dark thoughts are plainly shown, making her character exciting and thrilling.

(c)
This book takes place in three major areas. Countries like Beldain are explored in a greater depth. All of the governments in this book are forms of autocracy, but they all have little variations that highlights each country’s distinct individuality. For example, there is an island ruled by a mercenary king. Interesting, right?

2. There is a lot of kick-assery, intense battles, and epic one-liners that actually fit in well with the narrative.

Enzo inherited a throne. Giulietta relied on her royal blood. Queen Maeve rules Beldain because she was born to it.
But true rulers are not born.

We are made

Loved reading this book. Will check out the next!

A Book Review: Fire, by Kristin Cashore

Fire, by Kristin Cashore

3.5 Stars

BLURB

It is not a peaceful time in the Dells. The young King Nash clings to his throne while rebel lords in the north and south build armies to unseat him. The mountains and forests are filled with spies and thieves and lawless men.

This is where Fire lives. With a wild, irresistible appearance and hair the color of flame, Fire is the last remaining human monster. Equally hated and adored, she had the unique ability to control minds, but she guards her power, unwilling to steal the secrets of innocent people. Especially when she has so many of her own.

Then Prince Brigan comes to bring her to King City, The royal family needs her help to uncover the plot against the king. Far away from home, Fire begins to realize there’s more to her power than she ever dreamed. Her power could save the kingdom.

If only she weren’t afraid of becoming the monster her father was.

Published in: October 2009

Pages: 461

Publishing Company: Dial Books

REVIEW

This book started out very strong. When I read the first chapter, I was immediately entranced by the mystique that surrounded the main character of this book who is called Fire. Soon, Kristin Cashore raises the concept of “human monsters” to us. At first, I was extremely confused, because I didn’t remember reading about “human monsters” inGraceling. Then again, it was ages since I finished Graceling, so my memory about the first book was a bit hazy.

I do recall, however, that it was the gracelings’ eye colours that distinguished them from other people. In Fire, it was Fire’s red hair that showed that she was a monster. It was only later in the book, when Cashore introduces a certain graceling, that I realised that a graceling and a “human monster” were slightly different.

Then, I discovered that Fire was not actually the sequel toGraceling, which is why the concept of “gracelings” was not really… incorporated into the novel. Fire is actually a companion novel.

I digress… oops! But back to the actual review…

Cashore had strong descriptions of various locations that the main character travels to. The descriptions were lengthy enough to provide a good picture, but they were short enough to not become boring. This was something I quite liked about this book. Also, Cashore contrasts the different locations, which made the entire country all the more interesting. Firecertainly did very well in establishing the physical/geographical features of the setting, but Cashore did not really elaborate upon the culture of the setting. To me, this was a little disappointing.

Fire had a really strong set of characters. I could tell that a lot of thought was put into each character. A lot of the characters were not clichéd, and all of the major characters had an intriguing back story which definitely enhanced their personalities and by extension, their overall character. The complicated family ties also made the entire cast of characters a lot more interesting.

Unfortunately, Asher was one of the characters that I did not like so much. I do not dislike him because of his personality, but I dislike the way he was portrayed. From the moment I met him, I knew he was going to be that character, the one who was going to have a bad ending, the one who can be/ will be easily discarded. Personally, I wish Cashore was a bit more subtle(?) with the portrayal of Asher.

The romance between Fire and her final love interest was pretty realistic but obvious. Nevertheless, the romance in this book is still better than the insta-love that I encounter so often. Also, the relationship between the two characters was quite cute!

In this book, there was some political scheming involved. Normally, I would have loved the incorporation of political schemes, but the scheme in this book was a let-down. To me, it just wasn’t that exciting.

Fire was an average read, but if you liked Graceling and Bitterblue a lot, I do recommend this to you.

I may or may not decide to read Bitterblue.

Find it on…

Amazon / Goodreads / B & N

 

A Book Review: The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan

The Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan

4 Stars

Magnus Chase has always been a troubled kid. Since his mother’s mysterious death, he’s lived alone on the streets of Boston, surviving by his wits, keeping one step ahead of the police and the truant officers.

One day, he’s tracked down by a man he’s never met—a man his mother claimed was dangerous. The man tells him an impossible secret: Magnus is the son of a Norse god.

The Viking myths are true. The gods of Asgard are preparing for war. Trolls, giants and worse monsters are stirring for doomsday. To prevent Ragnarok, Magnus must search the Nine Worlds for a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

When an attack by fire giants forces him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents, Magnus makes a fatal decision.

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die . . .

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Find it on…

Goodreads / Amazon / B & N

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First of all, this book is thrillingly captivating.

Seriously. This book is based off Norse mythology- how cool is that?!

However, The Sword of Summer did disappoint me a little. Admittedly, that might have been because of my high expectations for this book (but then again, I have high expectations for all of Rick Riordan’s books). Before I read the book, I already had brief knowledge of Norse mythology (for example, I knew of Loki’s interesting ability). This meant that I was able to predict some of the things that were revealed later on. Of course, this caused a little disappointment. The good thing of having this prior knowledge is that it enabled me to understand the content easily.

I have always enjoyed how Riordan trivializes the Gods (and goddesses) in his books so I did enjoy the trivialisation of the Valkyrie and some Gods in this book. I also liked how some Gods like Frey were more serious as it helped to balance out the humour. I really really really like how Riordan portrays Loki and his children. They were very interesting.

As I started the book, I found myself thinking whether or not Magnus would be Percy 2.0. Throughout the entire book, I found myself constantly comparing the two characters. I’m happy to say that my constant comparisons reveal that Magnus is not another Percy. Magnus is a completely different character. Personally, I think that Magnus is way more sarcastic than Percy. I mean…

“That way if we fall,” Sam said, “we’ll fall together.”
“Sold,” I [Magnus] said, trying to tamp down my anxiety. “I love dying with friends.”

Magnus also hates the colour blue. Sadly.

A thing I liked a lot about this book was the diverse cast of characters. There are characters of different species, from different places which makes the book all the more intriguing. In Riordan’s other books, most of the characters were Americans, so my encounters with the different cultures of these characters in this book was absolutely refreshing.

Through these characters, Riordan also tries to communicate some deeper thoughts. For example, arranged marriages, traumatising childhoods are discussed in the book. Using some characters, Riordan is able to talk about these topics from a non-stereotypical point of view which I think is really good. Although Riordan does talk about these real life issues, I felt like the issues were incorporated loosely, making it seem like Riordan is trying too hard to incorporate as many modern issues as possible in his books.

In this book, the human plane is considered to be Midgard. This suggests that the world in which all of the characters (including Percy, Carter… etc. as all Riordan’s books occur in the same reality) live in is held in a branch of the world-tree Yggdrasil. This got me wondering whether or not any harm done to Yggdrasil could affect the Gods and Goddesses from another mythology…

In conclusion, the (arguably most important) reason why you should read The Sword of Summer is: Taylor Swift songs are played in the bars featured in Riordan’s version of the subterranean dwarf world!!

A Book Review: The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown

3.5 Stars

Page Count: 490 (Paperback)

Publishing Company: Anchor Books

Series: Robert Langdon #2

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Blurb

An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe. An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever.

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My Review

One of the many reasons why I picked up The Da Vinci Code was because I read Inferno which I enjoyed. Yeah… I read the fourth book before I read the second book… or the third. Whoops! Another reason why I read this was because The Da Vinci Code is a pretty famous book which I had always planned to read anyway.

When I started The Da Vinci Code, I was not disappointed. Not long after the beginning, the action starts. This was a refreshing change, considering that I’ve read a lot of mystery books where almost nothing happens at the beginning. And yes, the mystery is fast-paced which is also something I really like. The pace of the book kept me captive as new incentives every few chapters.

I’ve always loved codes. I mean, I’m not spectacularly good at cracking them, but they’re always interesting. That’s why I was so happy a lot of the mystery consisted of codes Robert and Sophie had to break. I have to say, many of the codes were just awesome.

In my opinion, the mystery wasn’t quite as good as the codes. Three quarters of the way into the book, I hazarded a guess as to who the Teacher was and… I was correct which made it a little disappointing to me. That successful prediction was all due to Rémy. I did like what the mystery led to though, when the important information about Sophie’s family is revealed. There was something that surprised me though. I really didn’t expect Fache to act the way he did in the end.

Paris was a great setting of this book. Brown does describe Paris quite well, and I can tell he definitely done some research (either by visiting or by internet who knows), as there are street names included. What I loved a lot was Brown’s incorporation of the after-hours Louvre when the red lights are turned on. Basically, I learnt a lot of interesting information about art museums.

When my current English teacher saw that I was reading The Da Vinci Code, he put on his I-can’t-believe-you’re-reading-that face (ironic since the English teachers at my school are supposed to encourage us to read a diverse range of books haha). But, I understand that The Da Vinci Code is a very controversial book, and that some people are uncomfortable with the contents (like my English teacher), so I only recommend you read this book if it doesn’t make you uncomfortable. The mystery was quite interesting though!

By the way, Silas’ practice of purging his sins is seriously creepy.

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Find it on…

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

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