serinde4books's reviews
894 reviews

This was a short story I picked up as a filler between my book club books. It was a super quick read, novella length. I choose it because I liked Hodge's other book Cruel Beauty.
The story is about Maia (i.e. Cinderella). Maia's dead mother haunts anyone who hurts her, and her stepsisters are desperate for their mother's approval. Then Maia become the messenger for her stepsister trying to win the love of Anax, heir to the Duke of Sardis. Of course nothing goes as planned but maybe there will still be a happy ending.
I liked this story, it was nice to see the Cruel Beauty world again, and the demon king still was granting wishes that were not what the person expected. It was a fun read, I still prefer Cruel Beauty, but it was a nice filler story.

For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

This was a quick filler book for me. A quick romance to fill some space between my book club books. It was a pretty typical romance, just set in the wild west of Colorado. There is a girl who can ride and shoot better than any man she’s ever met, but when the threat of losing her ranch forces her to find a husband. What she didn't expect was to find a husband that makes her want to be a lady.
And there is a man guild ridden over the accident that claimed his best friend, then he discovers there was nothing accidental about it. So he sets out for Colorado, to fulfill his friend’s dying wish and to flush out his killer, the last thing he expected was to find was a bride.
It was a quick read, the writing was good, and it filled a need I had at the time for some romance. Plus there was the murder mystery portion. I liked Abby and Cole, they were a little flat, but again its a typical romance and the purpose wasn't to build complicated characters, it was to build the idea that romance and love are possible and for you too like the characters enough to want them to be together and get their happy ending. Which Kelli Ann did wonderfully.

For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

I read this book because I was in between book club reads and I needed something quick to read. This turned out to be just that. I had seen the movie, so I knew the basic storyline. I have to say the movie glamorized it much more than the book did. It was a bit of a dry read, I mean the story itself was interesting. Like a I said a quick read, but not a literary masterpiece.

If you want to read my full review see my blog: http://adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com/

This is my January BOTM read. The tale is told from two points of view. Molly Ayer, and almost 18 year old foster child. She is just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, as a last ditch effort she takes on a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her attic to avoid juvenile detention and homelessness.
Vivian Daly, the elderly lady, has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine but her attic is full of her memories and her past, which was not always as quiet. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly and Viviane forma remarkable friendship.
I really liked the book from the very start. Viviane had a really rough childhood, and it made me sad hat she was taken advantage of the way she was. I liked both characters Molly and Vivian, and I found the parallels in their lives fascinating. Parts of the book made really angry, especially when it came to the treatment Vivian received as a child.
The ending feel a little unfinished. But I think Kline did that to leave things up the reader's imagination about Molly and Viviane's future. I like to think it was a happy one, but I would have liked it to end a little more on the tidy side.

For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

This was my Feburary NNCC book. It was so good that I sat down and read it in one sitting. And then I read it a second time right before our meeting.
This is told from he point of view of Mia, who has been in a tragic accident, she is in coma and having an out of body experience. She watches her loved ones watch over her and must decide if she wants to stay or if she wants to go.
I don't know why this book was so amazing, but I loved it. I am seriously considering buying the actual book. Some of the characters were unrealistic and the story line was a bit flimsy in places, but something about the writing drew me in and made me love it.

For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

So this is the last in the series currently written. And it is true to Martin's form, he has great writing and an in depth character cast. The problem is that I lost momentum with A Feast for Crows. It focused too much on minor characters and was tedious to get through. And because of that I had no built up momentum to carry me through the start of this book, which felt dull and pointless to me, it took almost 600 pages to get to the new "combined" timeline. It was awful, I really had to force myself to read it, I had to twist my own arm. And there was still no story movement, two books and no closer to resolutions, just more cliff hangers, I hope the next one is good and we actually get movement, because if the story stands still for much longer I may not care enough about the ending to read a 7th book.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

We continue the tale of seven kingdoms in A Feast for Crows.
In 2005, Martin announced that the "sheer size" of his still-unfinished manuscript for A Feast for Crows had led him and his publishers to split the story into two books. Rather than divide the text in half chronologically, he opted to instead split the books by character and location, resulting in "two novels taking place simultaneously" with different casts of characters. A Feast for Crows was published months later, and the concurrent novel A Dance with Dragons was released in 2011.
In A feast of Crows we find ourselves following the stories of many minor character's whom we haven't had their point of view much before now: Cersei Lannister; Ser Jaime Lannister; Brienne, Maid of Tarth; Sansa Stark; Arya Stark; Samwell Tarly; Aeron "Damphair" Greyjoy; Princess Asha Greyjoy; Victarion Greyjoy; Areo Hotah, Captain of the Guards of Dorne; Ser Arys Oakheart of the Kingsguard; and Arianne Martell of Dorne.
Tommen is now the King of King's Landing, with Cersei as his regent, and Margaery Tyrell as his wife. Brienne, the Maid of Tarth, is on a mission to find Sansa Stark, aided by Jaime Lannister. Sansa Stark is hiding in the Vale, protected by Petyr Baelish as his daughter Alayne. Petyr has murdered his wife Lysa Arryn and named himself Protector of the Vale and guardian of eight-year-old Lord Robert Arryn. On the Iron Islands, Aeron Damphair calls a Kingsmoot to identify a successor as king of the Iron Islands. In Dorne, Doran Martell is confronted by three of his brother Oberyn's daughters, who want vengeance for their father's death. Because they are inciting the commonfolk, Doran has them imprisoned in the palace. Doran's daughter Arianne Martell plots to crown Doran's ward Myrcella Baratheon as queen of Westeros under Dornish law. Upon arriving in Braavos, Arya Stark finds her way to the House of Black and White, a temple associated with the assassins known as the Faceless Men and becomes a novice. Jon Snow, now Commander on the Wall, has ordered Samwell Tarly to sail to the Citadel in Oldtown to research the Others and become a Maester.
The writing is still great and the movement is fine, but I think splitting the story the way he did and focusing only on these minor characters (beside the Stark girls) was a bad idea. These were not characters I was engaged with or really cared about, the characters I wanted to hear about, Tyrion, John, and Bran, Rickon, and of course the Girls, and Dany were not there. It felt like filler chapters and I just couldn't get through them quick enough. I was bored and I admit a bit pissed that no one I cared about was talked about, I just have to say he better make it up in the next book.
For additional reviews please see my blog at www.adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com

This is the third book in the Oz trilogy. In this book the Cowardly Lion is interviewing Mother Yackle regarding Elphaba and Liir, and during the interview we find out more about the Lion’s life. And finally we find out what happened to Nor. This book still leaves a great many mysteries unresolved. Some mysteries are solved and/or clarified but if I told you which ones I would spoil all the fun. A Lion Among Men was a more difficult read for me, the storyline seemed less cohesive then the first two books. The storyline jumped between the Lion’s story, Mother Yackle’s story, and Nor’s story in such a way that the entire book seem disjointed. The jumps sometimes were too abrupt and did not allow for a good flow. I was glad to know the backgrounds of the characters and it made some events in the first two books clear, but it made it hard to read and follow too. In the end there were still a great many things left unresolved hopefully Out of Oz will finally answer all my questions. It seems to me in this book that Maguire has lost some of his story telling mojo.

I really like Dune, this is not my first reading and I have seen the movie a couple of times so I know what's going on. Saying that, I think this is the best book in the series, the other never really held me like this one does. And man does it feel good to be back to a genre I love with a story line that holds me and makes me not want to put the book down.
This is the story of Paul Atreides, a young duke, and his rise to power as a religious messiah for the natives of Arrakis. His Father is betrayed and murdered and he finds his way amongst a savage civilization. This is a power struggle for the whole universe, but as all power struggles start is just between two people, it grows to engulf two families and grows until the entire universe is drawn in. We just come into the story near the end. This was written between 1959 and 1965, and to me it has a lot of the themes of the time, religion, politics, evolution, philosophy. Herbert asks a lot of big questions in a digestible way, mainly where are we going as a whole and how do we want to be when we get there. It still feels current to me with all the technological advances we have made and the ethical questions that revolve around our scientific advances. it gives me food for thought on our entire society, I guess the same questions have been being asked for 50 years now, and we still are unsure.
The ending did leave some things open ended, but not so much that if you don’t want to read the rest in the series you feel that it is incomplete. It is obviously part of a series, but at the same time it has the ability to be a standalone book as well.

To read my full review see my blog: http://adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com/2013/11/dune-by-frank-herbert.html

I enjoyed the first Odd Thomas so much that I decided not to wait for my book club to finish the series in a year or so.
In this second installment Odd is still reeling from the events of book one, mainly Stormy's death. A good friend is kidnapped and it is up to Odd to search and rescue him before it is too late.
It was a super quick read and easy to follow. There wasn't any shocking endings or crazy mass murders and I missed the Bodach's presence. But there were some pretty strong poltergeist, and nice set up for book 3. It wasn't as good as the first but, still good.

To read my full review see my blog: http://adventuresofabibliophile.blogspot.com