Shannon
Sweet
A great short Christmas story. It was nice to see Kat, Hale and friends again for another heist society adventure.
A great finish to the trilogy. This book really didn't go as I expected, which is a pretty rare thing. It was very exciting and thoughtful, and I was satisfied with the ending. I don't want to give spoilers, so I won't say more.
Informative and readable. Practical information in a book you can actually read. Lots of things I already knew from my child care experience but was reassured to see in a book. as well as tips and things I hadn't thought about.
I enjoyed this book, it definitely pulled me in. I was surprised that there wasn't more uprising as I would expect from a dystopian story. There is a sequel though, so I'm sure they're building up to something more.
My husband is a game developer, and this is his favorite book. It was pretty interesting.
Chalice of the Gods is the coziest possible Percy Jackson book. It was reflective, sweet, and hopeful. It was funny, in the traditional style of Percy's narrative voice. It was a book of low stakes questing with no world-ending peril. It had really strong themes of family and friendship.
Had to start this book over after forgetting I had started it almost a year ago when I had a newborn. Not as good as the initial trilogy. I'm enjoying the period spinoff more.
I think this really was the last book in the series, this time. It's funny reviewing it. When I read the first books in this series, I was 19 or 20. Now, by the magic of book time, I think I'm older than Becky. When I read Mini Shopaholic, I was pregnant with my daughter. Now she's four, but Minnie is still two years old. Funny how things work out.
The previous book wasn't my favorite, but it ended on quite a cliffhanger. Even then, it took me a while to feel “in the mood” to read this book. I think it's the fall release. Shopaholic books just don't seem like fall reading to me, I guess.
I do hope this is the finish of the series. It had better pacing than the previous book. It solved the mystery, had nice character moments, and even some actual character growth from Becky. It really seemed like the book gave closure for the series.
With all that's going on this time of year it seemed to take a while to finish this book. I liked it alot, it's a fun series with good characters and I'm looking forward to it continuing.
SpoilerThe only thing about this book that bothered me, and it bothered me through at least half of the second book was why Erec didn't think that King Piter was his father and the royal triplets were not dead. I realize with what happened after he found out that was why it was held back in the story, but it seemed like a bit of a stretch that he couldn't have guessed long before then. I had kind of assumed that he was a missing triplet at the end of the first book, but that may just be me thinking that “destined to be king” was equal to “heir to the throne” or “long lost prince”. That's the only reason this book got three stars instead of four.
Even with that factor, I really enjoyed this book. It was full of adventure, magic, friendship, etc. All the good stuff. I haven't looked to see how many more books are expected in this series, but I'm assuming there's at least one more based on how it ended and especially now that that whole question of Erec being the prince is worked out I'm really looking forward to the next volume.
I apparently forgot to update that I had finished this book! Great conclusion to the series.
I was on the fence about whether to read this. Since it is a play, ideally it would be seen performed first. Since I know there is no chance of my being able to see it anytime soon, I decided it was better to read the script. Additionally, I was a theatre major. I've read lots of plays, and performed in staged readings. So I was probably more prepared than many who will be opening this book for what to expect.
I just finished reading this. I enjoyed it very much. While it was not the sort of thing I would want or expect in a sequel novel to the Harry Potter series, I think it was a very good Harry Potter play. SpoilerThe use of time travel and flash back dream sequences allowed us to see familiar moments and characters that we love. The new characters were great stage roles, and there was plenty of lovely dramatic dialogue that I would have enjoyed performing.
As for the story, if it were a novel, I think I would be somewhat disappointed. Since it was a play, I really liked it. With all the time travel high-jinks I felt a little like it was a Harry Potter version of Back to the Future. But that was okay. (note: I love Back to the Future)
The first thing that surprised me was that Scorpius Malfoy was a sympathetic character. I was excited when Albus chose to befriend him. I was not expecting this to be a time travel story, and it very much was. I really liked the portrayal of Draco Malfoy. I think that he was definitely changed by the end of Deathly Hallows, and that is the way he was written. He was definitely not his father. That alternate universe scene where Voldemort had won, while terrifying, was also pretty amazing. Seeing Snape was a treat, and I enjoyed the shock of Umbridge being there. “You're ruining Voldemort Day.”
By the way, I thought it was a little strange that in 20 years, no one at the Ministry had made more time turners. Why were they there in the first place? Did they decide it was too dangerous to replace them? Oh, well. Willing suspension of disbelief.
The bit I had the most trouble suspending my disbelief for was Voldemort having a child. I thought the character of Delphi was wonderful, but I just can't get past the idea of Voldemort having a child with anyone. Maybe when he was still handsome Tom Riddle. I half expected a time travel related explanation for her. It was a twinge more believable when it was revealed that her mother was Bellatrix Lestrange. It's still weird, and wait a minute she was married. But the Lestrange were severely twisted in their serving of Voldemort. Radolphus probably volunteered to share his wife with the Dark Lord. So creepy. Also just wanted to point out that this makes Delphi Draco's cousin.
The end scenes were lovely with Harry and company getting to witness his parents' sacrifice. Seeing Hagrid meet Harry for the first time was especially nice.
It looks like a good show, and I hope to be able to see it one day!
I'm so excited about this collection of Holiday themed shorts. Some of the authors are new to me, some I already love. I'm going to do some “by story” reviewing, so I don't forget which is which.
Midnights by Rainbow Rowell - Loved it. I just read my first book by Rainbow recently(Fangirl). Great way to start off the collection.
The Lady and the Fox by Kelly Link - Very interesting. I couldn't tell if it was set in period or modern at first, which I kind of liked. I haven't read this author before and I would be curious about her other work.
Angels in the Snow by Matt De La Pena - skipped because there was a lot of language at the beginning. I might go back.
Polaris is Where You'll Find Me by Jenny Han - Another interesting one. Again I was unfamiliar with the author. Different take on North Pole elves.
It's a Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown by Stephanie Perkins - Another loved it! My first taste of this author and I'm definitely going to look into reading more from her. I loved the characters.
Your Temporary Santa by David Levithan - I was skeptical about this story at first, but it grew on me. I thought the interaction with the younger sisters was sweet. And as a kid who grew up not believing in Santa, I thought the parts about how he accidentally revealed it to another kid was pretty funny. (I never did any such thing, by the way. That I know of.)
...
The No-Show was different and wonderful. The book is told from the perspectives of three different women; Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane. At the beginning of the The No-Show, I was most interested in the stories and backgrounds of the three women. Even when I wasn't sure what to think about each woman's interactions with “No-Show” Joseph Carter, I was invested in finding out more about the female characters.
The way in which everything was connected was so different from what I was expecting. I was enthralled. The characters were well developed with depths that I was excited to uncover. I did not predict what was going on in this book, and it was so much better than what I would have guessed.
After reading Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare, I had been wanting to read another of her books. I couldn't decide between The Switch and The Road Trip. When The No-Show came out recently, I decided to go right for her newest release.
I also consumed this book entirely through audiobook, because I had a backlog of Audible credits and I saw that one of the narrators is Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies. They used a different narrator for each woman and it was really well done.
Spoiler
I was expecting the three women to run into each other and the man to be caught, or for there to be some mystery that they would solve surrounding his missing day. Maybe the man was a spy or had multiple personality disorder or something. That was nothing like what was actually in The No-Show.
I was ready for all of the characters to all come together at the New Years Eve party when it was revealed that they were all in different years!
The way all of the characters' stories connected was really amazing. At some point before the end, I realized that something terrible was probably going to happen to Siobhan. It wouldn't really make sense otherwise. That was pretty sad. But the way Joseph Carter and Jane's stories were intertwined so that they ended up together was pretty cool. They both had so much trauma, they were able to be each other's second chances.
The different years twist really reframed the whole first half of the book! I'm still going over things in my head and realizing how they fit together. The mysteries were explained in really satisfying ways that enriched the story rather than taking away from it.
This book is the opposite of Lost.
So, I guess I finished this book yesterday, and I was lying awake at night, imagining what I thought of it.
First impressions, this book is longer than, I think, any of the other Shadowhunter books. I noticed in particular because I'd actually ordered the hardcover edition, and it seemed huge! I guess that's a point in favor of the Kindle edition. It didn't really drag, though. The pacing was pretty consistent.
I liked all of the “new” characters, though of course we kind of met most of them in City of Heavenly Fire. I loved the Blackthorn family motto, a bad law is no law. A nice contrast to the usual Shadowhunter creed.
I liked the way Malcolm was introduced. At first I thought he seemed like he was going to be too much like Magnus, and I think that was deliberate misdirection because when he showed up with his shirt half unbuttoned I thought that he was going to be show-offy like Magnus. Then he said he'd just forgotten to finish buttoning it. And he'd tied his shoelaces together.
I liked the tie-in to the children's story.
I did not predict the ending at all. I was very sad to learn that Malcolm was the enemy.
At my MOPS group somewhat recently, we had a speaker on the topic of protecting your children from sexual predators. A lot of the things that Malcolm did reminded me of the predatory “grooming” that she talked about. He got the family to trust him, he watched movies and ate pizza with them. He played with Tavvy and gave him toys. This actually made the scenario much more believable for me.
I was interested in the tie-in of the Edgar Allen Poe poem. I was half expecting to read that Malcolm was really Edgar Allen Poe or something. It was pretty awful what happened to Annabel, and it's sad that Malcolm thought that everyone had lied to him about her. I was glad to learn that they didn't know either.
Emma/Julian - That's going to be a problem. All of the main ships in these series has had big obstacles, but I can't see how this one could be overcome.
A lost Herondale! Great surprise near the end. I thought that perhaps Kit would be selected to go to the academy and try to ascend or something. I didn't expect him to be Christopher Herondale.
How awesome are Tessa and Jem?
This book actually wrapped things up more than I am used to for something that I knew would be the first in a series. I appreciate that. The main plot of the book was pretty much ended, and it wasn't really cliffhangery.
I was wondering what would be left for the next book until the reveal of Christopher Herondale, the parabatai curse, and... Annabel waking up.
While reading the History Smashers book about The Mayflower, I remembered this Baby-Sitters Club book that I read as a kid. In Claudia and the First Thanksgiving, they put on a Thanksgiving play at the elementary school. They do lots of research to make it more historically accurate, but then parents get mad and make them change it to a “traditional” Thanksgiving story. They stealthily write “Censored” on all the posters.
That's what I remembered from my childhood reading of this book. But I couldn't remember what they did in the play that made people mad. I didn't have my childhood copy, so I looked up the book and downloaded the Kindle edition.
Claudia and the First Thanksgiving felt surprisingly relevant to 2021. When I was a kid, I remember wondering why adults would censor and protest a Thanksgiving play with more historical accuracy. I'm now an adult with kids, and I definitely recognized those parents who are protesting more historically accurate critiques of those who came before us. 25 years later, we're still having the same problems.
As far as what enraged parents and some faculty about their Thanksgiving play? They brought up women's rights. They also stated that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and Native Americans observe a day of mourning. They pointed out differences between then and now. They got to keep the more accurate costumes and foods. I guess those didn't anger the parents.
I'm actually looking at the book cover right now, and wondering if the cover artist read it. Lol.
I hadn't read a Baby-sitters Club book since middle school, and didn't have super high expectations for Claudia and the First Thanksgiving to hold up for an adult, but this book was kind of amazing. I remembered a surprising amount of weird details, like when Claudia decides to stir marmalade into her oatmeal, but also considers the option of grape jelly.
One thing that surprised me a little bit was the release date. Claudia and the First Thanksgiving was published in November of 1995, when I would have been in 7th grade. I'm guessing that I must have read this book very soon after its release. I think I started reading BSC books in 4th grade and kept reading them through 8th grade, so this was relatively late in my Baby-sitters Club reading era. I had definitely read at least one hundred Baby-sitters Club books in my life by age 14. I definitely learned about lots of things from BSC books, including diabetes and autism. Re-reading this book reminded me of the idea that maybe we could understand each other better if only everyone read more books.
Wonderful
This is only my second book by this author, and they've both been amazing.
The Gospel is not religion. It's news.
I love this book. I've read it many times since my childhood. I think that not just every girl, but every person should read it. It's especially good if you have siblings (I'm the oldest of 3 girls) or even better to understand a sibling relationship if you don't have siblings.
I liked this book, but for some reason I was thinking it would be the conclusion. It was not.
See you next October, demigods.
I have that feeling you get at the end of a long series. It's strange that it's over!
I made a point to reread the whole Heroes of Olympus series before this book. I was trying to do it before the final book came out, but I was still 1.5 books behind when release day came. I managed to keep myself rereading before diving into the new book, and I'm glad I did. I didn't remember the first couple of books very well and I felt like I really knew the characters much better.
SpoilerI think it's interesting that there were no chapters from Percy or Annabeth's POVs, but the first book in this series didn't have Percy in it at all, so maybe it was a bookending thing. I did feel like, after a book full of scenes with Percy/Annabeth alone together in House of Hades, there wasn't enough resolution for them without any of their POVs.
I'm really glad that Leo ended up with Calypso after he “died”
Rick Riordan announced a series called “Magnus Chase and the gods of Asgard” which is obviously Norse mythology, but people also wondered if he's related to Annabeth Chase. There was a throwaway comment made by Annabeth about an uncle and cousin in Boston that she hasn't seen in a long time. I'm guessing that's the tie-in.
This is one of my favorites from this series. Having Rilla as the main character was almost like a return to the first few books in the series when Anne young. The World War 1 setting makes it fresh, it is a treat to see all of Anne and Gilbert's children grown up, and I really love Kenneth Ford.
Legendborn has a vivid world and characters. The fantasy elements were exciting, and it kept me guessing how everything would fit together. It turned out to be an even better retelling of the Once and Future King story than I could have imagined, with really satisfying allusions to the story of Arthur.
I enjoy Arthurian legend, and Legendborn started off seeming like it was going to be a fantasy adventure in the vein of Percy Jackson or The Mortal Instruments, with a character discovering a new magical reality. It was those things, but it got much more personal and complex than I was expecting.
I bought this book a while ago. I think I had even preordered it because I was following the author on Twitter. One of the reasons I put off starting Legendborn more recently was that I saw that the second book is releasing in November. I told myself that I might as well wait until a little closer the next book. Now I've got a few months of anticipation. I'm ready. Bring on Book 2!