SOS: Serious Overload of Series discussion

Go, Midu!

I remember seeing a giveaway on here for that book. I think I saw the name "Luc Cain" and decided to give it a pass...

I think Jeann's going to beat me for the Supernatural book!

I'm nearly there!! We can do it! :D

Good Morning Midu! Read more Nalini Singh :P

Midu wrote: "I know..Nalini's just all right."

I haven't read Personal Demons nor am I planning to. Are you gonna continue the series?

I bought Personal Demons cheap from a book fest so it's a shame to see it wasn't rated that highly.

Thanks teamies, I know, right? hehehe

Don't start it yet,Vi. Its bleh, at the moment.

Valerie, there's more: there are a whole lot of angels-Gabriels or Micheal, demons-lucifers and of course, they wear only white and black, respectively.

Jeann, you might still like it, right? Cheap always means good!hehehe

And it has such a pretty cover :)

Hey Sandra! :-)

Alright, I won't write it off yet. Cheap books are always good ;) ...most of the time.

They might not be good but they're cheap! hehe

Finished: February 9th, 2012
Rating: ★
Thoughts: It's not often that a book has me cringing, wanting to throw it down in frustration and never to return to it again. Unfortunately, Beautiful Creatures was written so badly and unconvincingly so that's what I would have done, if not for a reading challenge I was trying to complete.

You'd think such an interesting and unique premise about witches and warlocks would be difficult to get wrong. Unfortunately, the book was written in such a bland, boring manner that it failed to grab me at all. Not to mention that some of the writing is just plain bad. It was contradictory, involved one too many broken sentences, and was rather confusing at times, making it a chore to understand what the author is trying to get at.

Unlike most YA books, it is written in the point of view of a teenage male, but the authors trying to put themselves in a teenage boy's shoes mostly involved talking about how hot some cheerleaders were at the school. There's barely any character development and you're just meant to accept that Ethan just falls in love with Lena, because he's been dreaming about her all of this time.

The plot (or lack thereof) just seemed to drag on and on forever. So much so that at the end, I wondered why I bothered wasting my time on reading this book when there are so many other more interesting things to do.

Also at the most crucial moment when the plot is meant to take off, the authors throws us into a random, unimportant, and rather frustrating side track in the form of a surprise party. Who cares about the other school kids when you are meant to be finding out what happens to Lena after ramping this up for the ENTIRE book?

Save yourself the trouble, and skip this title.

Yaaay Jeann's done!

I've noticed that people seem to either really love or really hate that book!

Yeah, I didn't like it at all, and didn't realise it was over 500 pages!

Shelf: Free Space
Finished: February 9th, 2012
Rating: ★★★
Thoughts: I really liked The Lies of Locke Lamora, so when I saw that somebody added this to the group bookshelf, I immediately knew that I wanted to use it as my free space read. So, how does this measure up to the first book? Ehhh...

It was mentioned in other reviews that this book doesn't have the best pacing. That's putting it mildly, in my opinion. There were so many info-dumps. I don't mind setup if it's interesting, or if the book has something else going for it, but this just did not work. After page 300, I was wondering when things would start to pick up; after page 400, I realized that I could have started and finished another book in the time it took me to slog through those pages, and I began to consider putting it down and picking it up another time. Jean and Locke's relationship/epic bromance, which had solidly hooked me in the first book, had been heavily affected by some of the worse events taking place. And although it was realistic, a depressed, despairing Locke wasn't exactly what I wanted to read about.

However, once things started coming together and Locke and Jean wound up at sea, it got REALLY good. I loved the sailors' mythology and superstitions that Lynch wove in, particularly with the cats and the women. And speaking of women, I adore the amount of badass female characters in this book. They're not only badass, but unconventional! The pirate captain who instills fear in all who hear their name? Is an almost 40 year-old mother of two. From page 450 onwards, I could not put the book down. And Lynch hadn't lost his talent for dialogue; "I hope a shark tries to suck your cock" is now an insult I want to work into everyday conversation. ;D

I only wish that the rest of the book had measured up -- Lies of Locke Lamora was non-stop awesomeness, and the fact that 60% of this book bored me before I got to the good parts was pretty disappointing. Still, I look forward to seeing where Scott Lynch is taking this, and I hope he takes his time to eventually recover from his personal problems and release a great next novel.

Great review Valerie!

Great review, Valerie! Your review makes me want to pick up the first book!

Vi wrote: "Great review, Valerie! Your review makes me want to pick up the first book!"

Me too! it sounds like such an interesting setting!

Yeah, the first book has a GREAT setting - the city of Camorr is like a semi-magical medieval Venice, and he makes it come to life so well. I think it's one of the things I missed from the second book.

Free Space Read
Rating 5 Stars

This is book five in the Donna Grant series and I really liked this one. Galen has been someone I have looked forward to reading about since we were first introduced to him.
Galen is an immortal highland warrior with a the god of the trickster in him and he can hear what others are thinking when he touches them so he tends to stay away from all human contact. He and the other warriors have been fighting a battle against an evil druid called Deirdre.
Galen and another warrior named Logan have been sent to find a group of druids to take them to safety and to recover an artifact that they have that could help defeat Deirdre. When they find them they meet Reaghan who Galen discovers he can't read and that he can't seem to keep his hands off her.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat as it had a lot of twists and turns that I wasn't expecting. I liked Reaghan she wasn't afraid to do what she wanted and she was kind and charming. Galen was himself but during the book you got to see a lot more of his past and seen what made him the man he became. I cant wait to read the next book in the series.

Shelf: Supernatural
Finished: February 10th, 2012
Rating: *****
Thoughts: OMG, I almost cried at the end of this book! This is the best Mercy book yet. I hate to go into more detail because I don't want to spoil it. What happens to Mercy at the end is horrible, but my favorite part was Ben's speech. I'm so impressed with this author, her writing just blew my mind. Good thing I already have book 4 sitting on my shelf. This author needs to write faster! For Valentine's Day, I'm going to go out and buy the entire series for my best friend.

Congrats Suzanne! I'll ask for our stamp now ladies :)

Yaaaaaay! :D

I think I really need to check out the Mercy Thompson books now -- the summaries never convinced me, but your reviews sure are!

They are brilliant Valerie :)

Can I please change my free space read to ? I just can't put down this series!

OMG Congrats Suzanne! Yay for team stamp!

I'll change it for you Jeann :)

Thank you :)

Congrats on the stamp Fieries!

yaaaaay! thanks, Sandra!

Thanks, Sandra! :D Yay, stamp! -dance-

*joins Valerie*

Okay ladies the next shelf is up click on this link to go to the post! If I can recommend a ghost read it has to be Stacia Kane!

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

BSB R4 Ghost Shelf

Carlyn: message 154 Finished 14/02/2012 Rating 2 Stars.

Valerie: message 143 Finished 12/02/2012 Rating 4 Stars.

Jeann: message 150 Finished 14/02/2012 Rating 4 Stars.

Suzanne: message 254 Finished 29/02/2012 Rating 4 Stars.

Midu: message 170 Finished 14/02/2012 Rating 3.5 Stars.

Yay give me !

I'll be reading . This game is *amazing* for getting me through my TBR-owned pile...

Loved the book, Jeann!

I know, I just started and I'm super excited about it :D

I think I'm going to attempt reading for the ghost shelf! Wish me luck hehe

Good luck! :D

Shelf: Ghosts
Finished: February 12th, 2012
Rating: ★★★★
Thoughts: This is one of those books that I've heard so much about, but never had the chance to get around to. It's been sitting unread in a box for months, but I saw that this was shelved as "ghosts" by a few people, so it worked!

This was a really quick read. I had the opposite reaction from my last read; instead of having things coming together too slowly, this kicked off on an adventure immediately. The main character is Sabriel, an eighteen year-old boarding school student who is the daughter of the Abhorsen. The Abhorsen is a necromancer, but instead of raising the dead, his task is to make sure that they stay that way. The world is separated into two countries, Ancelstierre and the Old Kingdom. Ancelstierre has a level of technology similar to the early- to mid-20th century -- there are telephones, tanks, and automobiles, for example -- while the Old Kingdom is pre-industrial, since there's too much magic for electronics to work.

The story begins when Sabriel finds out that her father is missing, presumably trapped in the land of the dead. She inherits his tools for his work and crosses into the Old Kingdom to bring him back. The magic system in this book is really interesting -- it's a combination of reciting spells off markings called Charters and using bells to make spirits go back to Death. Since this book revolves around the living dead, there's some really gruesome creatures -- gore crows (half-animated birds set on killing) and Mordaut (parasitical spirits that feed off the living while they sleep). Along her way, she gains the companions of Mogget, a talking cat with a hidden evil spirit (who was my favorite character), and Touchstone, an awkward boy who Sabriel rescued from petrification.

I thought I'd like this book more than I actually did, but it grew on me by the end. I wish I had known more about Sabriel at the beginning, but she's a strong, capable female character. The writing can get awkward in places (there was one bit about a "new moon, swelling in brightness" that made me go "wait... wait... D:"), but it's readable. And I really enjoyed the romance, in a teenager-y kind of way -- for a young adult book, it was unusually frank about sex!

I think the best part of the book was the ending. It really left me longing for the sequel. :)

Great review Val! I've got that on my To read list :)

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your thoughts on Anna Dressed in Blood, I've heard nothing but great things about it.

CONGRATULATIONS, Fiery Firsts!
You now have an updated BINGO card with a stamp on 'supernatural'.

[Your updated BINGO card can be viewed on page 1]

Good Job!! :D

Go us! Thanks, Steph!

Woot! \o/

Thanks Steph :)

Shelf: Ghosts
Finished: February 14th, 2012
Rating: ★★★★

Reading Anna Dressed in Blood felt like I was reading the accounts of a hunter out of the show Supernatural. Cas is a teen who hunts ghosts for a living, banishing them with his trusty knife. He's drawn to a particular ghost called Anna, and moves to the local town to find and banish her. When he encounters Anna, he takes notice of her innocent, child-like nature interchanged with her scary, seething, murderous side.

It is most definitely a horror story for the most part, you could definitely see it unfolding like a a horror movie, gore, murderous scenes, and the calm before the storm. This was interchanged with a strange and haunting relationship between Anna and Cas. While it is certainly not a conventional romance, neither does Cas live a conventional life. Luckily, there wasn't too much of this going on, otherwise I would have probably liked it less.

What I found intriguing within the story was Anna. She's a tragic, gothic character who had her life taken away in such a horrific manner that her innocence is strongly contrasted with the murderous killer in many ways. You end up feeling both sorry for her and afraid of her, as her split personalities are slowly revealed.

Cas's dialogue was natural and quite believable as a teenage boy; the author never tries too hard to make him seem believable. The teenagers in here were not overly angsty or out of character, unlike a lot of other YA novels out there, which was refreshing to see. I enjoyed how Cas ended up with a circle of unlikely friends, just to give him some companionship in one of the most difficult quests of his life.

**minor spoilers ahead**

Unfortunately, I found like the 2nd half of the book came with a bit of YA cheese. First, there was the "romance" between Anna & Cas, then there was the whole teenage group getting together to defeat the baddie thing, then there was the whole finale where Cas resolves his whole life's goal involving his father. It felt a bit too clean to have all the puzzles falling into place all of a sudden, and I probably would have liked it more if the events didn't occur in this manner.

Nothing overly deep and meaningful in this story, just a really good ghost story. Overall, I would rate it a 3.5. It was a quick read for me and I would recommend it to others.