What I've Read Lately - April

The month of April came in with a whimper (mine), but, luckily, went out with a bang.  By this I mean that, after reading a whole handful of not so great books in the first half of the month, I finished things off with three really good ones.  This cheered  me right up, and now I am ready to tackle the six random books that are still waiting on my bookshelf.

Blood & Salt by Kim Liggett, is another book about cults (which I hate), but it was supposed to have this interesting twist to the whole cult thing, like a horror mystery twist, so I decided to give it a try. When I was about half-way through reading it, I was wondering what I would possibly say about it.  There were parts I really liked (backstory, plot, characters, writing), and parts I really did NOT like (backstory, plot, characters, writing).  Then the parts I didn't like pretty much took over and choked out the parts I did, so by the time I was finished, I'd have to say that I was pretty much disgusted with the book.  It was like the author had a great outline, and then she filled it in with a whole bunch of crap (sorry, Mom).  The last four chapters were the absolute worst.  Apparently there is going to be a part two.  I will definitely not be reading it.

The Sin-Eater's Confession, by Ilsa J. Bick, is kind of a murder mystery, except that by the time you finish reading it you realize that the author never intended to tell us who done it, so I guess it isn't really.  It is also kind of a coming of age story; I mean, it has all of the elements in place, except that by the time you finish reading it you are still not sure quite what sort of  'adult identity' has been formed by the main character.  It is almost more like he has decided to just run away from everything or something.  It is quite vague and a bit convoluted at the end.  But aside from the difficulty with its genre identity (ha ha), it was a nice average book.  (Reading Level: 5.0/Upper Grades)

Blackwatch, by Jenna Burtenshaw, is the sequel to Shadowcry, which I read years and years ago.  The books are about a girl who can enter the veil between the living and the dead, and some kind of soldier/assassin guy she somehow gets linked to.  I had the sequel on my list of books to read, but never picked it up (for years and years), and now I think I know why.  This book was JUST. SO. BORING.  I made it through page 182.  Out of 310 pages.  That's more than halfway through.  As a general rule, if I make it halfway, I just keep plugging away and finish the darn book.  But this time I couldn't.  The book spends way too much time describing things, and even the suspenseful parts are written in a way that is just plain boring.  And nothing had even really happened by page 182.  I kept waiting for things to pick up and get going, but I was starting to think they never would and I just couldn't slog through it any more.  So.  Another book abandoned.

Suspicion, by Alexandra Monir, is supposed to be a mystery/thriller, but it is far from thrilling.  It is about a girl whose entire family dies (suspiciously, of course) across a seven year period, leaving her to fill the role as Duchess.  I really didn't like it.  The writing was mediocre at best (I'm being generous with that statement), the timeline makes most of the story utterly ridiculous, and the mystery (mysteries, actually) get investigated and summed up in a fraction of the book, so there really isn't much to the suspense part.  I had a feeling after the first few chapters that the book was going to be a bust, but I had already abandoned two books this month so I thought I'd stick with it.  I regretted that decision again and again as I read, but by the time I got so disgusted with it that I could hardly stand it, I was much closer to the end than the beginning (or even the middle for that matter), so I finished it.  Save yourself the torture and choose something else instead.

I made a special trip into the library, just hoping this book was on the shelf, because after five books in a row ranging from just okay to I-couldn't-get-past-the-first-chapter (I didn't even bother to mention that one), I needed a book that I knew was going to be good.  The Beauty of Darkness, the final book in a trilogy by Mary Pearson (see my mini-review of the second book here), was just what I was hoping it would be.  Which is a good thing, because it was ninety chapters.  677 pages.  It was maybe not quite as good as the second book, which usually seems to be the case with trilogies, but it was still packed with all the great stuff, and absolutely nothing that I could complain about.  The best part, for those of you who haven't read the first book, The Kiss of Deception, yet, is that all three books are out so you can read them right in a row without forgetting all the details from one book to the next.  (Reading Level: 5.4/Upper Grades)

So, I read the first book in this series by Michelle Hodkin back in November (see mini-review here), and I remembered that there were some things I loved about it, and some I didn't care for that much. Part two, The Evolution of Mara Dyer, was the same.  It picks up only a few hours after the first book ends, so reading one after the other is a good idea (and possible, since all three books are out already).  I still loved the banter between the two main characters, Mara and Noah, and I liked the way the author chose to reveal the back story as a means to understanding what is happening now.  What I didn't really care for is how long it took (most of the book) for them to search for answers and basically come up with nothing.  It was like, if you're not going to give us anything, don't take so long in getting there. The author does give us an exceptional cliff-hanger at the end, leaving anyone who even half-way enjoyed the story frantic to find out what happens next.  (Reading Level: 4.3/Upper Grades)

Seeing as how I was so frantic after finishing The Evolution of Mara Dyer, I jumped in my car and drove to the closest library (thankfully less than three miles away) and checked out the final book in the series, The Retribution of Mara Dyer (thankfully it was on the shelf at that branch).  I am pretty much as conflicted about this one as I was about the first two.  I really liked the direction the story went after what had happened in the second book.  I really hated that Noah wasn't even in most of the story, since he is what makes this series so fantastic.  I didn't like the way Mara seemed to be turning into a bad guy, but I did like the ending.  It was unexpected, but appropriate, and pretty much answered all of our questions.  This was another page turner - a great romance with mystery and intrigue and action thrown into the mix - so I would definitely recommend that you read it (after the first two in the series, of course). (Reading Level: 4.6/Upper Grades)