It's hard to rate this one. There's a lot to love and also a lot of Bat S* crazy. For instance, the ENTIRE gnome king subplot..... So much of it neverIt's hard to rate this one. There's a lot to love and also a lot of Bat S* crazy. For instance, the ENTIRE gnome king subplot..... So much of it never really goes anywhere.
My favorite part: The sparkly combat boots. Evil Amy.
There are several human relationships that Amy works on that were fine but also really don't add a lot to the overall story either.
The Order of Witches, was less defined, I wanted to see their power build from the 2nd book.
The first half of this was kind of terrible, and I almost DNF'd but the second half was worth holding out for. This has happened to me with several ofThe first half of this was kind of terrible, and I almost DNF'd but the second half was worth holding out for. This has happened to me with several of Maguire's books.
It was an interesting take on Finbar and the 7 Swans fairy tale.
While I liked Laura, she just wasn't enough to carry this novel.
This book has a lot of potential, but it is a bit messy and unfinished.
The characters are good, but the plotline is too focused on info dumping on droThis book has a lot of potential, but it is a bit messy and unfinished.
The characters are good, but the plotline is too focused on info dumping on dross. In case you missed it, let me tell you about Dross. It was like Bob Vance refrigeration. Is Dross important? Yes, but readers are more intelligent than that and don't need to be beaten over the head with it.
The Shadows are the best part of the book, and I am definitely not on the side of the university.
There's a lot of potential for this series, hopefully the issues here are just a new series book struggle to get off the ground.
This one contained the short story: Wedding in a Small Town
Hmm Sookie gets herself into the drama I hated almost everything about this, especially the This one contained the short story: Wedding in a Small Town
Hmm Sookie gets herself into the drama I hated almost everything about this, especially the dog deaths. I'm thankful Quinn finally has someone to replace Sookie.. even if I know what Charlaine Harris does to her later. Poor Quinn... 3 stars
Then, there is a strange wrap-up of the first 11 books, which was mostly a waste of space.
There were some interesting sections, such as Sookie's take on True Blood and the chocolate cake recipe.
Overall, good for a complete collection, but not more than 3 stars...more
This still feels like young kids playing at being grown-ups instead of in the adult genre it keeps getting pushed up to. Just let it be young adult; iThis still feels like young kids playing at being grown-ups instead of in the adult genre it keeps getting pushed up to. Just let it be young adult; it is very obviously young adult.
Dragons are awesome. Again, they are sorely lacking in the story.
Romance gets super damn annoying, and if Dain is making a romantic comeback, I will gag.
At least a quarter of this book is Violet constantly questioning her relationship, and it could have been cut to like 3 times. WE GET IT.
As a mother of a tween, Adarna was written ON POINT with this attitude and sass.
The new characters are fun but weirdly lacking depth for the most part. Development time that could have been devoted to that was wasted on Violet's constant inability to trust Xaden.
Why can't there be MORE girl power and fewer catty bitches? This didn't need to happen. Enough issues are going on in this world to introduce teenage mean-girl BS.
The power of this book was that that look at the red-rimmed eyes! Fire! Freaking awesome outro. This is Rebecca Yarros's strength as an author. Maybe it's not how people wanted things to play out, but this was perfectly done.
4 stars. I still love the potential of this series and this world. Bring me the next one
This one was kind of geared toward a younger audience, but not in a way that made it unenjoyable. I instead had a good time with it.
The ponies were tThis one was kind of geared toward a younger audience, but not in a way that made it unenjoyable. I instead had a good time with it.
The ponies were the highlight for me. I loved the details that went into the Rangers and the ponies.
John Flanagan did a superb job introducing the world, the characters, the political unrest and setting everything up to hit the ground running in the next Ranger's Apprentice novel.
This was a great example of writing realistic young characters without making them so annoying I want to throw the book across the room.
This one felt less impactful than What Moves the Dead. Perhaps I loved The March Hare, Alex, and Mrs. Potter too much as they were written in the firsThis one felt less impactful than What Moves the Dead. Perhaps I loved The March Hare, Alex, and Mrs. Potter too much as they were written in the first installment.
For some reason, I felt more removed from Alex in this one. It was almost like I was watching through a window rather than standing by her side.
Maybe it was Gallacia that was harder for me to grasp visually, I don't know.
My favorite scene was definitely the knives under the pillows and the dark hilarity that ensued.
Maybe it was because this one felt a lot shorter, while the last was almost the perfect length for the story to tell. I think this one needed more time to get to it.
I do hope that there will be more Sworn Soldier stories, though.
The introduction of the first kids into Haven's Rock started off a bit slow. And then: Bigfoot! Please tell me we have Bigfoot!!!
All of the regular isThe introduction of the first kids into Haven's Rock started off a bit slow. And then: Bigfoot! Please tell me we have Bigfoot!!!
All of the regular issues were addressed, such as annoyance, fear, anger, and all the related problems of children. Both of them have been traumatized, which is why they are now in the town with their mother.
When the 10-year-old boy goes missing, fingers get pointed at everyone in town, including their own mother. I enjoyed having Max (the boy) narrate some of his sections.
I absolutely loved the middle. I loved the different avenues Casey and Eric took to try to weed out the suspects. I loved every moment Storm was on the page, as well as some cameos by Nero.
I also loved the miners being brought more into the picture as the new neighbors and the territory disputes. However, when it comes to search location and encroaching on the territory of unwelcome neighbors, things were just kind of thrown at the reader, and we know that they are messed up and we don't have answers, but it just ends with "this is something we need to think about and come back to." But no. I don't want to accept this; I need more than all that info dumping about the camp with zero more to go off of.
And now I have to wait for the next book to come out, I have a feeling this isn't the last we've see of our "neighbors" in the woods.
Inconsistency is the best way I could describe this one.
The good parts were spectacular, and the rest was all over the place.
The flow is disjointed aInconsistency is the best way I could describe this one.
The good parts were spectacular, and the rest was all over the place.
The flow is disjointed at best. The characters are great, but the plot loses it way more often than not.
There was a lot missing from the entire Black Queen character, which seemed to be the biggets' problem. She was never described in a manner that made any of the issues with the Poet really make sense or convince me why I should care.
So much missing, perhaps this is filled in with the next book? The nightmare concept was interesting, but the majority of the nightmares seemed too tame to be convincing of their "horrors"
As a combined piece, I'm sitting at a 3-3.5 Star...more