Audio Book Review - Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Why did I read this book?

I had seen this book on many best of the year lists and it fell under both young adult and fantasy, two genres I like. It's also by an author that I enjoy so when I saw the audio book available at our library a day before our long road trip to California for Christmas, I grabbed it. I knew I'd be able to listen to her books on audio and it was something I could listen to while Rob slept since he had no interest in that author (although I was quite wrong about that, he ended up really liking it!).

What is it about?

This book takes place in the eighth year of Simon Snow's magical education. It's his last year at Watford and he doesn't really know what to make of that. Until he got into watford he was bounced from foster home to foster home so never really has anywhere to go back to and always felt like he was most at home at Watford. There is an evil creature out there to get him and he still doesn't feel as though he has lived up to the potential everyone seems to expect of him. Yes, I realize that sounds like every other magician goes to boarding school story, but this one kept me interested nonetheless!

Why you should read it!

On the surface this book doesn't look like it has anything different to offer than every other fantasy story with a "chosen one". But maybe it was the fact that it was a standalone book or that the relationships were different than what I expected, or maybe even just that the writing was enjoyable but I really liked this book. There were some interesting turns/twists that happened some predictable and some not. This is nice because you don't have to commit to a full series but it comes to a conclusion and wraps up nicely. About halfway through the book I found out about the book Fangirl and that the main character is writing this book in that book! I now really want to read that book. I'd recommend this to pretty much anyone who wants a quick read, a bit on the young adult side but still very well written. Don't let the fantasy aspect of it scare you off either, I think this could entertain you even if fantasy isn't always your thing.

Book Review - Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo (Kindle)

Why did I read this book?

A year or two ago this book was pretty popular in the young adult book talk, and the cover was a pretty easy one to remember. When it came up as a daily deal for Kindle on Amazon, I grabbed it.

What is it about?

This is a fantasy story that takes place in a world that is threatened by a place called the shadow fold. This world trains very talented gifted fighters and magicians called Grisha, at a young age they are brought to the lavish palace to learn how they can serve the King. However, one slipped through their fingers when kids go through the normal testing. Alina’s powers are discovered when her life is threatened trying to cross the fold and the Grisha take her into their special training forcing her to leave her best friend. The story follows her adventure of learning her powers and realizing that being the one to save them all isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (like every other fantasy story!).

Why you should read it!

Although this book has very similar themes to most fantasy books (the chosen one isn’t happy being the chosen one), the setting is a bit different which made it enjoyable. Yes, its young adult and while reading it next to other books it is obvious the writing isn’t great. But it captured my attention and held it through the whole book. This is the start of a series, but with how quickly I read this one, I will probably read the next ones as well!

Book Review - The Onyx Bridge by Sophia Malamas

How did I come into possession of this book?

The author of this book sent me a copy in exchange for a review on my blog.  It sounded like an interesting fantasy book and potentially could be a good series so I agreed to read and review it!

What is it about?

Evelyn is suddenly thrown into a different world and a very long adventure.  She soon realizes that there is a prophecy she needs to stop and that she is the one who has to do it.  She finds herself in a world with creatures who are friends and foes and all new to her.  

What did I think?

This book wasn’t for me.  I didn’t really get some of the descriptions of the creatures in this new world.  Evelyn’s love interest is suppose to be irresistible, but when we are first introduced to him he doesn’t seem attractive at all.  A lot of the characters in the new world are likened to different animals and I then couldn’t picture them as anything but animals, not different creatures with a likeness to a certain animal.  I also had a hard time staying interested in the story, I never really felt like they were getting anywhere.  small events happened that were interesting but I never felt like they were moving towards an overall plot.  I also didn’t think it left me wanting anymore in following books, there wasn’t an overall driving factor that made me want more.

Who would I recommend it to?

I don’t think I’d recommend this book unless you are a hard core fantasy reader and enjoy all kinds of different worlds, especially ones having to do more with animals.  It wasn’t for me, but I think I need a bit more reality in my books.

Book Review - Hera, Queen of Gods by TD Thomas

Why did I read this book?
I was contacted by the author for a copy of this book if I would provide my review in return.   This was  another one I read on my kindle!  The topic sounded interesting and I thought a fantasy book involving Greek gods might be kinda cool.

First Lines:
"Life is about one thing and one thing only. Power." (Thomas 1)

What is it about?
A group of Gods has come to earth and taken over the bodies of some high schoolers to rescue the missing fates.  As soon as they come to earth they are under attack by many different dark creatures.  They also meet up with some witches and a couple mortals who become very helpful in their journey.

Why you should read it!
Well, I'm going to back pedal a bit here, I didn't really like this book.  I don't know a lot about mythology and that might've made me more interested (given me a back story) but most of the other reason I didn't like it don't have to do with the topic.  As soon as the story started they were under attack and it just kept coming, one bad creature after another.  I felt like this didn't give enough time for a story to develop, they were always running and fighting.  I also felt like there was no regard for the lives of anyone they were dealing with.  The human bodies they took over were disposable, everyone who helped them wanted nothing more than to die for them, I find this unbelievable and very unrelatable.  The love story was also very weak and half hearted I think part of the problem were that the characters had no depth.  This book didn't work for me and I can't honestly recommend it to anyone.

Reviews from around the blogosphere:
Zigzag Timeline
City of Books
myseryniti

Did you read this book and review it on your blog? Let me know in the comments and I'll add your link!

the.book.chat link-up, short stroies

The link-up this week for the.book.chat is about short stories.  I don't read many short stories (although I would like to write one!), but when I do read them I enjoy them.  And I recently read a phenomenal one called The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu.  I heard about it from the Books on the Nightstand podcast (if you listen to podcasts, check this one out!). This story is available for free online through Suvudu, from when it appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine.  Even if you don't like Fantasy/SciFi, you should read this short story, it's only about 12 pages long but it is very touching and you might want to keep some tissues nearby!  I'm always amazed at how much an author can get through in such a short story, and this one has it all.  In keeping the theme with short stories, I'll keep this post short!

Head over to this link-up and join in!

Book Review - Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

How did I come into possession of this book?

I bought this at a local used book store, The Thrifty Bookworm.  RoB had bought a book there earlier in the week and they gave him a coupon celebrating an anniversary (I think), so I took that and went by to see what sort of books I could find.  This book store is primarily a romance book store but they do have some small sections for other genres, and since I don’t really read a lot of romance I made a bee-line for the non romance sections.

First Lines:

“I never used to keep track of the phases of the moon.”  (Butcher 1)

What is it about?

This is technically the second book in the Dresden Files series, but it seems like it’s one of those series you don’t really need to read in order, but I did.  Harry Dresden is called in for help when Chicago police suspect a werewolf is killing people.  They hope that he can explain what happened and that it’s all a misunderstanding, but with all the weird things that tend to happen and all the weird creatures that show up when Dresden is around it ends up being much more involved than just a werewolf.

What did I think?

This was the second book I read of his, and the second in the series.  These books are great, a typical thriller with a fantasy twist on it.  My only complaint is I wish he would give us a better background on each character, for example tell us what happened in the end of the previous book.  I would like to follow all the characters through this series but since most people will just pick up one or two of these somewhere in the middle of the series I guess it’s not really necessary.  I felt like there were a few more plot lines in this one than the previous book, which was good, but if he keeps adding more every book it will definitely be too much for me.  I also get really frustrated with Dresden at times, he makes stupid decisions and I feel like yelling at him, but I guess that’s probably a sign of good writing from the author.

Who would I recommend it to?

Anyone who is a fan of thrillers and/or sci-fi, fantasy.  The nice thing about these is they are quick, not an epic, and they still have just enough of a fantasy element to keep things interesting.  I don’t know of many other series or even books that fall into this category so I like mixing in his books to my reading pile every now and then.  They are also fantastic airplane/traveling reads!

Book Review - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (Audio)

How did I come into possession of this book?

When this book first came out I had read many reviews about it and it seemed to be a sort of book I would enjoy.  What mostly drew me to it was that it had a realistic setting with a hint of fantasy.  It also helped that it seemed to be an adult book written in the same genre that so many young adult books are currently successful.  I happened to see it on the audio bookshelf at the library and decided to give it a listen!

What is it about?

Diana is a graduate student at Oxford, and she knows that she descends from a line of witches but chooses not to explore that side of herself and just be a normal person.  This all changes when she comes across a coveted manuscript that greatly affects the whole magical world.  

What did I think?
 

I really liked the way this book started.  It all seemed very real with a vampire or witch thrown in there, but it was still in a believable world.  I felt like I was reading a good piece of literature with a lot of different adventures that could stem off from it.  Then suddenly I was thrown into a love story, which wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t so unbelievable.  Diana falls in love with this vampire in a matter of days.  I now felt like I was reading any other vampire young adult novel.  What happened to this strong female character?  She was gone.  I was quite a bit less interested in the rest of the story, but it held my attention well enough to finish.  It does leave with a big cliffhanger and I’m not totally committed to being interested in where the second novel will take us.  The one thing that may keep me around is that her writing style makes for great reading (or listening), and I do like to see how things resolve.

Who would I recommend it to?

At first I thought this would be a great book even if you don’t like fantasy or vampire stories since it seemed to be written so well.  But when things took a turn for the love struck magical beings I can see how it would lose many readers.  If you like love stories especially ones involving witches and vampires you will like this book, if not you should probably avoid it.

Audio Book Review - Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong

How did I come into possession of this book?
I had listened to the previous book, Waking the Witch, without realizing that that book was part of a much longer series of books.  I really enjoyed it and was always on the lookout for another of her books on audio at the library.  I eventually found and listened to Living With the Dead and realized that some of the characters were the same from the other book and that a little previous knowledge might’ve helped to pick up on who and what some of these characters were.  I’ve since looked into this series of her books and realized you don’t really need to read all of them in order, but it might help with some things. After looking into these books I did find out that Spellbound came after Waking the Witch, and since I knew the ending of that book and most of the characters I decided to borrow the audio version of Spellbound from the library.

What is it about?
The story starts with a young witch who seems to have just lost all her powers in order to save a young girl from becoming an orphan.  Actually that’s the way the previous book ended but that is where the story picks up.  Suddenly she realizes she is being targeted what she thinks to be a witch hunter or possibly another supernatural.  Many supernatural characters come to light as they all try to get together to figure out what is going on in their world.

What did I think?
I really liked Waking the Witch, but this one left me uninspired.  Part of it might be because I don’t know all the characters from the previous books and therefore don’t care about them very much.  I also tend to like fantasy books that also involve reality.  Waking the Witch dealt with a lot of non-supernaturals but this book only dealt with those in the “Otherworld” and it got a little too out there for me.  I also felt like plot lines went in circles and not much was resolved or even happened.  I guess this will be resolved in her next book, but none of the plot lines were compelling enough to make me want to read any more about these characters.  I’m sad this book left me disappointed because I do think Armstrong is a good author but she just didn’t hit the mark with this one.

Who would I recommend it to?
I think I could only recommend this book to hardcore Kelley Armstrong fans that have read many of her ‘Otherworld’ books and feel very connected to many of the characters.  The only other way I would recommend this is if the next book in the series turns out to be great and the information in this book is necessary to things that happen in that book.  But I won’t be able to make my judgment on that, yet (I guess I just set myself up to read it)!

Audio Book review: The Magician King by Lev Grossman

How did I come into possession of this book?
This is a sequel to The Magicians which I read a couple years ago.  I had wanted to read The Magicians when it first came out, but I restrained myself from buying it until I found it at a used book store for a very good price.  Soon after I started reading it, RoB and I went to the LA Book Festival and Lev Grossman was speaking on one of the panels.  He was a little strange, but I guess to be a good fantasy writer you probably need to be a little strange.  After the panel he signed my book and RoB was suddenly interested in reading it once I was done.  I thought it was a good book but RoB was obsessed with it, he couldn't stop talking about it.  So, of course, as soon as the sequel came out he had to have it.  He read it and it has been lying around our house for a while but just when I was about to pick it up to read I saw the audiobook at the library and decided to try out that version.

What is it about?
A group of Magicians finds the land in which they dreamed of living since they were children.  They become Kings and Queens, but one of them, King Quentin, feels like he wants more.  He heads out to sea hoping to find a quest and ends up on an adventure he never wanted to take.

What did I think?
Everything about this book should appeal to me and it does, but for some reason I don't love these books as much as I should.  This one had a great story with just enough fantasy elements involved.  It also had a much more original story line than most fantasy stories.  I enjoy the way they are written, a little more sophisticated than a young adult fantasy book.  I think my biggest issue with these books is that I don't like any of the characters.  Quentin bothers me so much, he is so entitled and NEVER changes.  So I never feel bad for him if things go wrong, which they do, often.  Julia is not there mentally, and I never really felt bad for her before that either, she was just such a mess and a sob story.  None of the other characters have enough depth for me to ever connect with them so I feel a little empty.  Besides strongly disliking the characters I enjoyed the book, but all I could enjoy was the story.  The audio version of this book was good, the narrator kept my interest, however he didn't really do any different voices so it might be boring to some.

Who would I recommend it to?
This is a little tough.  I'd say if you like fantasy that borders on reality you would like this book.  Definitely read The Magicians first (which I would recommend to most sci-fi/fantasy fans), and if you like it read this one.  Even if it's not your favorite, the sequel deserves a chance since it is a good story and it seems like there will be a third which will hopefully bring closure to the series.  Just the fact that I know some are obsessed with these books and some or more meh (like me) I don't think I can pick out a specific type of person who would or wouldn't enjoy them.