Book Review #637 - Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass #2) by Sarah J.Maas

My Rating: 4/5


Source: Bought


Goodreads

Crowned by Evil.

Bound by Duty.

Divided by Love.

Celaena Sardothien, royal assassin, is the King of Adarlan's deadliest weapon. She must win her freedom through his enemies' blood - but she cannot bear to kill for the crown. And every death Celaena fakes, every lie she tells, put those she loves at risk.

Torn between her two protectors - a captain and a prince - and battling a dark force far greater than the king, Celaena must decide what she will fight for: her liberty, her heart or the fate of a kingdom... 

Throne of Glass was a book that I enjoyed, but also a book that I had a number of issues with. 

Crown of Midnight however is my favourite second in a series book since Catching Fire. 

Celaena becomes more of the bad ass she was supposed to have been in TOG and I think this is due to the amount of time she spent with Chaol. I think that both of them as characters really feed off one another and bring out the best traits in one another. 

Whilst Dorian is a character that I really don't have any problems with, the relationship between Chaol and Celaena was a lot more believable and real than his relationship with Celaena. 

Chaol having to face his family and getting his loyalty questioned really opened his character up and enabled enormous character development. 

Dorian was a character that really surprised me and proves that I was obviously underestimating him by only seeing him as the third point on a love triangle. He is a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. 

I love the setting as well, it has a very cinematic feel to it and I so I would really love to see some kind of movie/TV adaptation of this series. 

There were so many plot twists throughout this book but the ending was completely unexpected. 

I had planned on reading another book after this one, but with that ending I had no choice but to pick up book 3 Heir of Fire. 

 

Book Review #636 - Salem's Lot by Stephen King

My Rating: 3.5/5


Source: Bought


Goodreads

Thousands of miles away from the small township of 'Salem's Lot, two terrified people, a man and a boy, still share the secrets of those clapboard houses and tree-lined streets. They must return to 'Salem's Lot for a final confrontation with the unspeakable evil that lives on in the town.

This is my second Stephen King novel. The first one I read was Carrie. 

The synopsis of my copy of this book was EXTREMELY vague and so I went into this book not knowing anything about it at all. 

This book is a lot longer that Carrie and I felt like the pacing was a little on the slow side. 

The story is set in the small town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine. The story follows just about every occupant in the town. 

This is something that Stephen King does extremely well. It doesn't matter how old the character is, King is able to give them such a realistic voice and none of the characters blurred with one another. The only other author I know of that can do that so easily is George RR Martin. 

I loved the small town feel of Jerusalem's Lot. There was a real sense of community. 

It was also really refreshing to read a vampire book where the vampires are really something straight out of a nightmare and not like the overdone modern take on them. 

Book Review #635 - Blue Bloods (Blue Bloods #1) by Melissa de la Cruz

My Rating: 3.5/5


Source: Bought


Goodreads

When the Mayflower set sail in 1620, it carried on board the men and women who would shape America: Miles Standish; John Alden; Constance Hopkins. But some among the Pilgrims were not pure of heart; they were not escaping religious persecution. Indeed, they were not even human. They were vampires.The vampires assimilated quickly into the New World. Rising to levels of enormous power, wealth, and influence, they were the celebrated blue bloods of American society. 

The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Allen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes instead of the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates, and she lives with her reclusive grandmother in a dilapidated mansion. Schuyler is a loner...and happy that way. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a popular girl from her school is found dead... drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn't know what to think, but she wants to find out the secrets the Blue Bloods are keeping. But is she herself in danger?

I have read this book once before (before I started this blog). I decided to re-read it because I am trying to condense my TBR and having almost the complete Blue Bloods series on there really helps with that. 

This book reminded me so much of Gossip Girl with it following Manhattan's elite - the elite in this book just happen to be vampires. 

Also like Gossip Girl, there was continual product name dropping which was annoying at first but I blocked it out pretty quickly. 

I found the whole Croatan plot really interesting, the only other time I have seen theories of this was in an episode of Supernatural. 

I also really loved the whole vampire mythology in this book. It was highly unique and I can't wait to learn more about it. 

The only negative things I can say about this book is that it took too long to get going. I think the word 'vampire' was first used around page 144 and this is a 302 page book. 

The other negative is what I mentioned earlier about the product name dropping but also the full descriptions about characters wardrobes. 

Book Review #634 - The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

My Rating: 4.5/5



Source: Bought



Goodreads

EVERYDAY THE SAME

Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She’s even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. ‘Jess and Jason’, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy.

UNTIL TODAY

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.

Now everything’s changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she’s only watched from afar.

Now they’ll see; she’s much more than just the girl on the train… 

The main narrator, Rachel is an alcoholic with extremely low self-esteem. She rides the train to London every day even though she lost her job months ago. 

Everyday the train stops outside her old home where her ex-husband still lives with his new family. A few doors down from them are a couple (Megan and Scott) that Rachel creates fantasies of. 

One day she glimpses something from the train that tears all her fantasies about them apart. 

Rachel awakens one morning to a terrible hangover and no memory of the night before. When she discovers that Megan disappeared that same night, Rachel becomes obsessed with trying to discover just what she was doing that night. 

There are not that many characters in this book and so you would think that picking the culprit would be rather easy. 

Rachel being an alcoholic, is a very unreliable narrator and that just added to the whole intrigue and mystery of the story. I was never quiet sure whether Rachel was completely innocent in the whole mess or not which again added a whole other layer of intrigue. 

I found the pacing of the story to be a little on the slow side. It wasn't the fast paced roller coaster ride I had been expecting. 

None of the characters were anywhere near relatable or even likable and that really added suspicion to all of them as they all appeared distant like they could be hiding something. 

I felt rather sorry for Rachel at times. I felt like she just needed a support network around her for her to get back to the life she wants. 

Overall, I found this book compelling and at times simply unputdownable. I can't wait for the film adaptation later in the year. 

Book Review #633 - The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus #1) by Rick Riordan

My Rating: 3/5


Source: Bought


Goodreads













Jason has a problem. He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently she's his girlfriend Piper, his best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids." What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea-except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools. His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all-including Leo-related to a god.

I loved The Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan but didn't particularly enjoy The Red Pyramid (the first book in Riordan's Kane Chronicles series). The main issue I had with TRP was that it was too long and drawn out.

For that reason, I really wasn't if I was going to like The Lost Hero or not as whilst it is set back in the Percy Jackson universe, it is of a similar length to TRP.

I started off really enjoying this book. The three characters Jason, Piper and Leo were all fresh and interesting.

I am not sure when it started but I thought that whilst I was still enjoying the story, the book wasn't really going anywhere and was taking me way too long to read it.

I love that some characters from the PJO series made appearances in this book especially Annabeth - and I am looking forward to Percy making an appearance in this series.

There was a lot of action in this book and like with all Riordan's books there was an amazing depth to the mythology.

This book felt a lot more mature than the PJO series and yet I felt like the writing stayed the same. This seemed to clash at times. 

I felt there were perhaps too many gods and creature of the like introduced. The glossary at the back helped but there didn't need to be as many as there were.

Overall, I was a little disappointed with this book, but am eager to read the rest of the series.