mororke's reviews
733 reviews

This was probably my least favorite book of the series. Honestly, at this point I was just trying to finish the series and see how the story played out.

Mina, as always, is reluctant to do anything to help complete The Story and end the curse on the Grimm’s once and for all. This book didn’t really add to the series in any way, and I feel like it could have been left out and you wouldn’t have missed anything other than learning why Teague is such a jerk, which you could come up with your own story for that.

The most difficult part of this story is that Jared, who has been such a huge character, and the only one Mina seems to listen to is no longer around. The action of the story is great, but I think that the time travel was a bit of a reach when the rest of the story, with the updated fairy tales have been so cleverly put together.

When my husband selects books for us to listen to together, they're generally about war, or history, or both. Generally speaking, when we're listening to a book together, we listen to it just before bed to help us relax and wind down. I set the timer for fifteen minutes, and when it's over we generally fall asleep quickly after. Team Yankee was not a typical book for us. My husband wanted to listen to it constantly to find out what was happening next. We were staying up for an hour or longer to listen.

The book is about Team Yankee, more specifically Captain Scott Bannon's tank crew. The book describes in great detail the atmosphere I imagine as a solider unexpectedly entered into a world. There are sprinkles of comedy and laugh out loud moments to to lighten an ultimately dark topic. As we listened, we experienced the extreme fear, sadness, overwhelming exhaustion, and slight moments of joy throughout the war.

My favorite aspect of the story was that it provided the point of view of both Captain Bannon and his wife. The parts of the story that provide the family's journey to leave Germany and get back home described in great detail the anxiety of waiting and not knowing what is happening all around you. I was a bit disappointed when the family made it back to the states and were seemingly written out of the story all together. Continuing her perspective throughout the story would have added another dimension to the book overall.

The overall style of the books is very fast moving and has a lot of great descriptions of not only the equipment used, but also general military terms. The descriptions add to the story and build up the plot line rather than take away from what is happening.

The fast pace of the story (then entire book takes place over the course of thirteen days) makes the book a quick and enjoyable read.

Read all of my reviews on my website the-pink-moose.com.

I really don’t know where to start with this book. I wanted to much to like it, but it took me just over a month to finish and I didn’t mind reading other books while this one was in progress. For the first three weeks I wasn’t past page 60 but was finishing other books without issue. I found Alosa, the daughter of the pirate king, insufferable.

Alosa should be a great heroine. She’s smart and sassy, and a pirate. What’s not to like? Her know it all attitude is what bothers me the most. No matter what the other characters say or do, and though she is locked in the brig, she’s always a step ahead.

The other characters in the book, mainly men, seem downright stupid and lazy, except for Riden. From page three the sexual tension was forced and made me roll my eyes every time. The predictable storyline, Alosa’s “secret”, the capture of her and Riden, all of it was very boring to me. All 308 pages I was hoping for a page turner, something I could get through quickly and enjoy. I’m sure it’s a great book for some one out there, but for me, a story about a female pirate should have been intriguing and I found Alosa and the storyline lacking.

I’ve read a lot of vampire books. Vampire Academy, Bloodlines, the Sookie Stackhouse series, and even books about vampires that i didn’t realize were about vampires. I tried and failed to read Twilight after having a box set given to me. None of these books or series prepared me for the unique vampire story that this book is.

In Tana’s world, vampires are out in the open. They have dedicated Coldtowns and are even reality stars with their own shows. Vampirism takes a new twist, which I don’t want to spoil, but its a neat addition to the traditional vampire tale.

Tana, the protagonist, is smart, resourceful, and a great heroine. Her only short-coming in my opinion is her attraction to the vampire Gavriel. I feel like Buffy had the right idea, a good vampire is a dead vampire. While vampires tend to be over romanticized, this book didn’t focus on romance, but building the story itself.

I enjoyed the book, I especially liked that the vampires were more traditional than most. They can’t walk in the daylight, or survive on animal blood alone. I enjoyed the depth of the characters and Tana’s compassion. The end of the story made a sequel seem possible. I for one would love to read it.

What if this life is just the beginning. What if in the next life, the choice you make determines where you will live, the rules you live by, your job, and every part of your second life is based on your choice. One choice that determines everything. This is the life that Tenley “Ten” lives in.

Ten’s parents have placed her in an asylum to be tortured to choose their side of the next life, but Ten knows that this kind of choice requires a lot of thought and consideration. Both sides want Ten for her extraordinary skills. Both sides have their benefits and their downfalls.

I found the book to be a new take on a story as old as time. The battle between light and dark, perceived goodness and evil. It was truly refreshing and I felt like it contained a lot of strong themes and some religious undertones.

The characters are interesting, funny, smart, and adventurous. While some may think that the decision is an easy one to make, Ten understands that one decision can change your life and that like a tattoo, you have to live with it forever. The gravity of the decision and how much it ways on her, makes her a realistic character, one that is easy to identify with and some one that I would be friends with. I am looking forward to finishing this series and learning which faction Tenley pledges herself to, and where her story goes from here.

View all of my reviews at the-pink-moose.com.

There is no lack of dystopian young adult novels, but this one is a bit different from most others. In Kira’s world, humans aren’t doing too hot. In fact, they’re almost extinct and are getting closer to extinction with every birth. Due to a virus that the humans are trying to fight, infants die within days of being born. It’s been eleven years since RM erased most of human existence.

Kira is a nursing intern. Watching her friends, who are forced to get pregnant at age 17 by The Hope Act, give birth and then have their babies die is more than she can handle. When her friend Madison gets pregnant, Kira determines that her life’s mission is to cure RM and make sure that Madison doesn’t lose her child.

Kira and her friends capture a Partial, an engineered soldier whose species is responsible for releasing RM to the humans. Kira runs tests on the partial and learns more about the mysterious race.

The storyline is interesting and very science based, not 100% fantastical fantasy. I enjoyed the medical procedures when they would typically bore me. The story was slow to get started but quickly picked up and moved forward. Most of the characters are intelligent and work diligently to get where they need to go. I’m looking forward to the second book and seeing how Kira’s world moves forward.

Read all of my reviews at the-pink-moose.com

I was thrilled when book two became available and downloaded it immediately. the story picks up a couple months after Partials and Kira is on a quest to learn more about curing RM. There’s a new problem now though, Partials, needed for the cure, have an expiration date, and all one million plus of them are close to expiring.

Kira is on her own but meets Offa, a man who has been completely alone for the twelve years since the Break, and is convinced that he is the last human on Earth. Offa worked for Paragen as the IT director and has been gathering and documenting all he can about the Break.

Kira and Offa are found by Samm and Heron and decide to ride horses across the country to find more about The Trust from Paragen’s servers.

I apologize for any spoilers, but knowing a bit about the plot is imperative to understanding the opinion of my review. I was excited about Offa, with his eccentricities but feel like he ended up as an afterthought. I feel the author found ways to ignore him, much like Kira did. He could have been a great character for the story, but spent over half his time in the story incapacitated.

Overall I enjoyed the story, even while traveling the plot line continued moving forward and didn’t seem to drag the story into a lull. The glimpses into Marcus and the rest of the Long Island community helped me to remember why Kira was risking so much to begin with.

The character development throughout the book is awesome. Kira, while she can be whiney, is trying to come to terms with learning what she is, and how to live her life when all she’s ever known has been turned upside down. Samm is my favorite character by far. Though a Partial, his growth and dimension makes him a great character all around. Heron is a wild card and I don’t trust her completely, while she keeps me guessing, I enjoy the dynamic she brings to the main group.

The ending was a bit unexpected, but has me impatient for the third book to see how the Partials Sequence comes to an end.