Shannon
I truly enjoyed this series. It had fantasy and technology which I think is somewhat unique. It had adventure, but since there was really no giant evil to fight or anything, it was lighter than some other recent books I've read. The setting, characters, and stories all make this a very fun read.
I was greatly anticipating this new book from Rick Riordan. I was part of a touring show adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea in college, so I felt that I was familiar with the source material and was curious about what he would do with it.
You don't need to have experience with the original story to enjoy Daughter of the Deep, though. This is kind of the Percy Jackson treatment for Captain Nemo(not the cartoon fish). It was nice to recognize some characters and events from the original story, but the book gave you everything you needed.
I enjoyed the female main character and the diverse group of supporting characters. The world of their training was really interesting, with Dolphins, Sharks, Orcas, and Cephalopods, each representing a house that had different strengths and talents.
There was a point at which I was expecting a character to, like, turn out to be a dolphin or something. Then I realized that wasn't happening because this is sci-fi! I've watched lots of Star Trek, but I haven't read that much sci-fi, compared to the amount of fantasy I've read.
Despite the action early on, the story felt like it built a bit slower than other Rick Riordan books that I've read, but it definitely picked up. I was riveted to the page by the end. I loved the “alt-tech”.
If there is a sequel, I'll definitely read it. I'm not sure if there will be or not. This book definitely works as a stand-alone, but I think the door is open for more stories in this world.
Fantastic. Reminded me a bit of a not-fantasy Matilda, where the mother and daughter are both Matildas. It's not literally the story of Matilda, but gave Matilda vibes. Location: California Historical Time: Mostly 1955-1962
This book feels like hanging out with an old friend. It's so funny and relatable. It's kind of therapeutic. .
I enjoy a book that's a bit later in a series where basically the “romance” plot has already happened and the couple you've been following is married. It's really nice to check in on them a couple years later. Other stuff happens, but there's no relationship drama. They're just doing regular married people stuff.
The only real downside is that it kind of ends as if the pandemic was over after a year, when here we are three years later, with COVID not “over”.
I remember this book fondly from childhood. I grew up with alot of cats and after reading this book I always wanted to have a grey cat with white feet. Now that I'm newly married I'm remembering this book and hoping to get a new cat soon.
Really fun book. A bit like Princess Diaries crossed with Sabrina The Teenage Witch with a little Shopaholic vibe.
Spoilers. I'm going to check the box to hide the whole review, so hopefully that works properly and no one gets spoiled.
I just re-read this story as part of my chronological-ish Shadowhunter books re-read. I thought that I remembered this one pretty well from when I read it six years ago. It was November then, too!
I've been remembering sadly through much of this book/series, that George doesn't make it. One thing that I didn't remember was that Simon takes the Shadowhunter name of Lovelace. I really enjoyed the brotherly relationship between Simon and George, and Simon telling George he was a brother, and then taking his name after he died made it really sweet.
Also, the audio version for this was one of my favorite performances. I remember thinking this when I read and listened the first time, and being surprised to see that the narrator was an actor from Agents of SHIELD that I wouldn't have expected.
I had to stop in the middle to read Insurgent, but all in all I enjoyed this book. I realized near the end that it was similar to the Fablehaven series in the “scavenger hunt” nature of the plot. It is a book targeted at a little younger audience than most of my recent “young adult” reads, but that is a nice change of pace sometimes. It's a bit more innocent. I liked the “other world” and “beyond” setting, had a slight Narnian quality to it in that way.
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a great historical fantasy adventure. Amina Al-Sirafi is a middle-aged piratey sea captain who is persuaded out of retirement and away from her daughter. What she thinks will be a fact finding and rescue mission to recover the daughter of a former crewman turns into a full scale supernatural adventure. This book had a lovely, satisfying ending. Open ended with room for more stories, but not in a cliffhanger way. I got my book from Book of the Month Club and read it in hardcover, as well as listening to the audiobook for some of it.
This book was really sweet and a fun, creative fairy tale. The characters were very likable and the story had some adventure as well as unexpected twists and turns.
I don't know why, but I've generally shied away from books about different kinds of vampires. I read their descriptions, I think maybe I'll try it, but I never do.
This book has a movie coming out soon, and I haven't started a new series in a while. In my defense, I have a two year old.
So finally, I decided to start this book. The world has everything. Vampires! Magic! Boarding school! church, and they still have technology and seem to live in the modern world as well as their unique one.
This book was exciting and interesting. I've read a few reviews that indicate that the series improves as you go along too.
I'll read the next one.
A bit crass, but funny.
I live in Orange County and got a few laughs from it.
It's pretty short and I think I read it in a few minutes.
Thanks to Kindle highlights for reminding me that I read this.
Very interesting to read, especially when you consider what this book is. I am glad that To Kill a Mockingbird got written and published in the end, but I'm also glad that I had the opportunity to read this book.
I am behind on my book updates. But I did read this book pretty much immediately when it came out, and I enjoyed it more than the previous book in this series. However, I was behind on the “prequel” companion series and decided to read this right away instead of reading the most recent Infernal Devices book first. I suspect there were some tie-ins I didn't fully get.
I really enjoyed this book. It was light but interesting and very easy to get into right away. A good change from my last few books. I really liked all the theories and trivia about trends and the like. I am the sort of person who reads the social security baby names website and looks at the trends, so mention of name's “rankings” early on in the book really amused me.
I didn't feel as compelled to finish this book as the two before it, but I still enjoyed it. This is a really fun fantasy/adventure series.
It was so good. I couldn't put it down. Fantasy, action, lovable characters. I thought they might be about to take down every hierarchical structure standing in their way at some points. I would preorder a book three right now if it were possible.
A helpful book for organizing a household. I didn't have a whole household, but it helped me with the couple of rooms that I needed to rearrange before the baby arrived and it had suggestions about what baby things you need as well as where to put them and a list of suggestions for what to bring to the hospital. When I read the beginning of this book and it applied economic theory to the space in your home, I was sold. I had thought of this previously while reading a “decluttering” book, but had never seen anyone else mention it.
I love this depiction of how Narnia was created as well as the back story of where the White Witch and the Wardrobe came from.
We are loving this series. We finished it right before bed, and Guinevere couldn't understand why we couldn't start the next one right away.
This was a wonderful book. It had magic, other worlds, and twists that genuinely surprised me! When I started describing this book to my husband at one point, he said “Wait, there's another book inside your book?”
Yes, friends, this book is like two books in one.
Fourth Wing was a wild ride. I enjoyed the dragon-centered fantasy adventure and the romance. The narrative style is a bit more crass and profane* than I prefer, but I was easily pulled in by the world, story, and characters. And, of course, the dragons! I think I hit the point of “can't put it down” at about the 60% mark. I flew through it and preordered the sequel.
It feels like the entire internet is reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros this summer, which is definitely part of the fun.
*The narrative style was a big contrast to the book that I read before this, The Secret Book of Flora Lee, which is more of a lyrical, atmospheric prose style of book.