Friday 4 March 2016

January/February Wrap-Up | Raquel





I originally joined these two Wrap-Ups because I thought they would both be short so it made sense. However I ended up reading a lot in February... Oh well! Here is a really long January/February Wrap-Up!





The first book I read in January was The Game of Lives by James Dashner. This was the third book in this series and it was actually a really decent ending to the whole series. Sometimes I don't like the third books in trilogies because authors just try to either end everything or they just leave everything hanging. I like it when there is kind of a nice mix of both. This series is a science fiction based one so for anyone who likes futuristic and AI type novels, I would highly recommend it. It really can make your head spin sometimes with all the parallels. I would rate it 4/5 stars.








The next book I read was a graphic novel of a book written by Rick Riordan. The Kane Chronicles was definitely one of my favourite series by Rick Riordan. I honestly had no idea that there was a graphic novel of this book otherwise I would have read it awhile ago. I always like reading the graphic novels of books I have read because it provides a visual perspective of something you already have pictured. It is interesting to see how they portray the same ideas versus how you pictured them in your head. This is the same case with things like movies and shows as well. However I feel with certain things it is easier to draw things then to make them using effects or filming. Anyway if you have read the books I would suggest reading the graphic novel it isn't very long and it is interesting to see it in a visual way! I would rate it 3.8/5 stars.




The third book I read was also a graphic novel. It was Sage Volume 5. Faith suggested these books to me a while ago and when I was at the library and I had no books to read I decided to take them out and I ended up really liking them. The only thing I don't like about graphic novels is that they take just as long as a book to come out, but they are so short and I can read them in such a short period of time. Which is why I usually like to stumbleupon graphic novel series after they are either done or like this one a bunch are out already. If only one is out I find that it takes too long for the next one to come out and after one book I can't keep myself interested enough to keep track of it. This series was nothing like I expected and I still am a bit confused as to where it is going, however I am intrigued to see how it ends. I definitely will do my best to keep track of when new volumes come out for this series. I would give this 3.9/5 stars.




The last book I read in January was Extraordinary Means by: Robyn Schneider. This book reminds me a bit of Suicide Notes. It was kind of weird when I was reading this book I had this strange sense of Deja vu and I honestly couldn't put my finger on why. Once I got to the end of the novel though I was easily able to figure it out. Sadie. If you have read either or both of these books you will understand and if you haven't then you should because both of these books are phenomenal. They both make me want to cry. I really like reading books like this because they make me feel something. Even if it's sadness I find it fascinating how I can feel such emotion from something that I never experienced. I rate this book 4.5/5 stars.






The first book I read in February was The Library at Mount Char by: Scott Hawkins. This book was definitely a harder read I would say. It wasn't that the language was necessarily difficult it was just the way it was written, there was a lot of things to grasp. I feel I could read the book twice before I really understand everything in the book. This book was very methodically thought out. I have never read any book like it before. I don't think I could even summarize it properly I would probably just end up telling the whole story in many many pages. The story is very complex and it can be confusing, but it is also really interesting. I have no idea how to even start to describe the story except it is nothing like how you are imagining it. I suggest you read it, read it all the way to the end because you will not see the ending coming. I rate this book 4.6/5 stars.




The next book I read was ever last word by: Tamara Ireland Stone. This book was about a girl who had OCD and about how one thing set in motion a chain of events that changed her life. This story was actually really interesting. I don't have OCD so I can only imagine what it is like to live everyday of your life with it, but I felt like this book gave me a small picture into what it would be like. I don't want to ruin the story, but there was one thing in the story that when you find out in the end the truth, I was really shocked. It kind of made me understand in a weird way how she could have not known the truth that whole time either because neither did I.  It is a very interesting read and if you have nothing to read I would definitely suggest picking this up! I rate this 4.4/5 stars.



The next  book in February I read was The Isle of the Lost by: Melissa De La Cruz. I read this book because I saw the Descendants movie and I thought hey why not read the book too. The book though ended up being a prequel it still was good as well. I did prefer the movie as the book was very different though I can't judge fairly as I did see the movie first. The storyline however was interesting and it was cool to learn how they all became friends in the first place. I would rate this 3.3/5 stars.











The next book I read was All in by: Jennifer Lynn Barnes. This is another book in the Naturals series. I actually kind of like this series it makes me think of a teen version of Criminal Minds. The books can be kind of cheesy at points, but I think that with each book the writing only improves which is good. I really love crime shows like if you ask anyone that is literally all I watch most of the time. This is like those in book form and I enjoy it a lot. I always find it so fun to read! These books kind of have an order, but I mean it wouldn't be a huge deal if you read them out of order, you just would miss introductions to certain topics and of course to the characters and their backgrounds. If you like shows like Criminal Minds or books like Sherlock Holmes I would suggest giving these books a try. I give this book 3.8/5 stars.





This next book was our Book Club Book. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. I will say this was a very hard book to read for about the first half. The story was extremely slow and though I understand the need for introducing and establishing context, there definitely was way too much. It felt like they were a student just trying to meet a page deadline by going on and on. The story itself was interesting. As you went on the the second half of the book I was able to read with much more ease and it did get a lot easy to read. However that first part literally was the death of me. I haven't read a book with such a bad beginning in quite some time. Faith was not able to get through the book so I am not able to say if this was just me or if this was the book. This though is my opinion and the storyline itself is pretty decent so if you want to try to read the book I would say go ahead. I would rate this book 2/5 stars.



Yes I still have more books I have read... Okay next book is My Heart and other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga. I really like physics so that was what first got me interested in this book. Though the storyline being about suicide partners was kind of interesting. I have read a lot of contemporary novels of this type before but I have never read one with them being partners. It is always the case of the two people convincing each other not to kill each other not the other way around. Also just the way she sees the world was really intriguing to me. It was also kind of cool because I have completed my grade 12 physics I can understand some of the theory of what she was saying. Of course you don't need to know physics or even like science to be into this story, but it does make it just that much more interesting. I would give this book 4.3/5 stars.




Just a few more books... The next book is Queen by Aimee Carter. This is another third book to a trilogy. I think this was the best of all three books in the series honestly. The first book I really didn't like in comparison. Also the story was nothing like I thought it would be or even like from the first book to the second the story seemed to change so much. From the second to the third however the story seemed to be much more consistent and I could see she had a clear ending. I think her writing had definitely improved over time. I wouldn't say I would want to read this series again, but I am glad that I read the whole series and found out what happened throughout. This last book really was a big improvement and if you find the story to be intriguing I would say the third book would be worth it. I would rate this book 3/5 stars.




This is my last whole book yay! Wow I have read a lot of books already in 2016! This last book is The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost. This book was in my recommendations section on goodreads. I had no books to read one week so I thought hey why not try reading it. I actually really enjoyed it and I was very happy when I found out that two other books are out already so I don't even have to wait for them to come out! It was actually a great discovery! This book kind of reminds me of The Iron Trial in a way though it does have many differences. I think people that liked that book would also like this series as well. I rate this book 4.4/5 stars.








This last thing I read was a short story by Nathan Englander. It was called The Tumblers. It was actually pretty decent. I will be honest at first I had trouble understanding it, however after reading over it a few times I was finally able to really understand the story and I actually enjoyed it. It was kind of weird and random, but I think it was one of the better short stories that I have read. I would rate it 4.0/5 stars.











So this Wrap-Up was quite long but I hope you enjoyed it!!


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