Teen Scene Reading: March 2014

Monday, March 24, 2014

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Back-Story: I read a great review on this book when it first came out, but I was kind of unsure if I wanted to read it or not. A while later I read a review on Lola and the Boy Next Door and read that book. After I read Lola and the Boy Next Door I decided to go ahead and give Anna and the French Kiss a chance.

Review: I cannot put into words how much I loved this book. It was funny it was sweet it was swoon-worthy it was amazing. I loved the writing and the characters. Stephanie Perkins has this quirkiness about her writing that I can’t help but love. The book is well paced and never boring and it’s easy to fall for the characters. What I liked the best about the book was that Étienne and Anna’s relationship started off as friends. They weren’t immediately after each other and it was a nice change of pace from other books. Another thing I liked was that Étienne wasn’t perfect. The main girl in a lot of books often meets a guy and he’s perfect. He has perfect hair and teeth and clothes, but in Anna and the French kiss Étienne is short with crooked teeth and he’s terrified of heights. I liked that he didn’t come off as a guy that every girl wants. It’s true that every girl wanted him, but he wasn’t displayed that way. He was average and normal and that’s what made him perfect. This book made me want to book a flight to France and go find me an Étienne, and I so wish I could.

Looks: I love the cover and how Anna and Étienne are shown. I just wish we could see Étienne’s face and I wish there was the blond band in Anna’s hair. I love the title a lot because it goes perfectly with the book.

Content: Some language but I can’t even hold it against it because this book is that good.

Likes: Everything. Anna. Étienne. The city. Étienne. The humor. Étienne.

Dislikes: Not a thing.

Overall: If you haven’t read this book you are deprived.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

Back-Story: I’m a huge fan of Rick Riordan and have all his mythology books. I bought the Mark of Athena the day it came out, but I only started reading it a couple days ago. And boy, I am sad that I waited this long to read it!

Review: I cannot put into words how much I loved this book. This is by far the best book in the Heroes of Olympus series. The characters are great and I loved the Percy and Annabeth interactions. I liked the sort of rivalry between Percy and Jason too. Leo is one of my favorites and it was nice to read from his point of view. There’s a lot of action and romance and a little bit of a love triangle. The ending was shocking and I can’t wait for House of Hades to come out.

Looks: I love the cover because it shows Jason and Percy charging each other and it really shows the relationship between the two. I like how the owl is in the middle of it and I love the title of the book. It’s really fitting and goes along with the rest of the books.
Content: There’s a lot of action and romance. There’s also a lot of Rick Riordan’s humor.

Likes: I liked that there was a lot of character development and the book was action packed. I never wanted to put it down and it left me wanting more.

Dislikes: Jason annoyed me a little bit in this one and I hope he redeems himself in the next book. There was also a few typos which kind of bugged me, but there was only two or three so I’ll let it slide.

Overall: This book is amazing and if you haven’t read it yet then you need to do yourself a favor and read it. Now.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan

Back-Story: I am a huge fan of Rick Riordan. I have all of his Percy Jackson books, Heroes of Olympus books, and The Kane Chronicle books.

Review: I liked this book a lot. It’s my second favorite (the second one book being my first favorite) and I really enjoyed how the things evolved and how their final battle was. The book had Riordan’s humor like all his other books and it was quite enjoyable. I’m sad that the series is over, but I’m really happy with how it ended.

Looks: I love all of Rick Riordan’s covers and this one is nice and goes along with all the other covers.

Content: There’s a lot of action and a lot of things go on at once and sometimes it’s hard to keep up, but you still get the just of things and don’t really miss out.

Likes: I love Sadie’s character and I love Setne even though he’s evil. I also love Walt and Anubis and even though I was rooting for Walt to win Sadie’s heart I’m happy with how things ended up.

Dislikes: I didn’t dislike anything except the fact that the series is over.

Overall: This is a really good series for anyone to read because all of Rick Riordan’s books (Percy, Heroes of Olympus, and Kane) are clean. There are no cuss words and nothing sexual. There’s lots of action and some romance, but it isn’t the kind of romance geared for older audiences. The characters are around fifteen and are just getting into the dating world which makes these books good for kids that age and older people that don’t want to read about how hot a guy is and how much a girl wants to make out with him. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book especially to fans of the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, and even to people that want a light romance instead of hot and heavy.

Valkyrie Rising by Ingrid Paulson

I don't know what to say about this book. It was interesting and fast paced, and it was disappointing and boring all at the same time. The book starts out at a party and then leads to Norway and fishing boats. It's all good and interesting learning about how weird the people are acting, and the interactions between Elsa and Tuck. But then you get to the middle and it's just boring.

One of the things I didn't like was that Tuck would never let Elsa fight. He always tried to get her to stop and prevent her from fighting. While it's romantic that he doesn't want to her get hurt, it was annoying that he wouldn't let her do anything remotely dangerous. To me, a guy has to treat a girl equally and if she wants to fight, let her fight.

Another thing that was annoying was that within what seemed like 12 hours, there were so many confrontations. It basically went like this:

6:00 PM Confrontation with Astrid
6:30 PM Follow Astrid
7:15 PM Confutation with Astrid
7:45 Follow Astrid
8:30 Confrontation with Astrid

I kid you not. That is literally how it went. Confrontation, follow. Confrontation, follow. And each time nothing interesting happened.

What should have happened was a confrontation and a follow, then go home and form a plan before coming and fighting her. There was also a surprising twist with Tuck that I feel like could have been played more, and annoyingly, the twist was never solved in the book. We read about the plot twist and that's it. It annoyed me to no end because we go through the rest of the book like it never even happened when obviously it was a big deal. The author could have made that twist come sooner and gone into more detail and more drama. I'm not sure if there's going to be a second book or not. I've tried googleing and checking goodreads, but I can't find an answer. The book leaves an opening for a second book, and I think a great plot for it would be the twist with Tuck. I hope there will be a second book because it's a refreshing change to have Norwegian Mythology instead of Greek. If there is a sequel, I will definitely read it and I even recommend this book because overall it was good, but it could have been better.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Everbound by Brodi Ashton

Back-Story: I read Everneath when it first came out and loved it, so naturally I wanted to read the sequel.

Review: I loved loved loved this book! The first one was amazing and the second is just as good. Brodi Ashton has this amazing writing style that is easy to read and makes you keep wanting more. You never get bored once during this book and the story is very addictive. When I read the first one I became part of Team Cole. Don’t get me wrong, I like Jack but my heart is always going to belong to Cole and I was so excited when I heard that this book is mainly Cole. Reading the book makes you feel part of what’s going on and you feel like everything is actually happening to you.

Looks: I love the cover. It goes along with the first one and the novella which I like.

Content: One cuss word is used about three times but other than that there isn’t anything bad.

Likes: Everything! Cole, Nikki, the Everneath, the ending was incredible and I can’t wait for the third one.

Dislikes: Nothing.

Overall: If you’ve read the first book and not the second or the novella then you should read it now! If you haven’t read the books at all then you should stop reading this review and go get the book!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Legend by Marie Lu

When I first saw this book come out, I didn't really care for it. I didn't even look into it and therefore knew nothing about it. It wasn't until an author I follow on Twitter (@lindsaycwrites) was talking about it that I decided to give it a try.

All in all I'm glad that I bought the book. It was an interesting read and fast paced, and it was extremely different than other books in the genera. For one thing, it takes place in the U.S and unlike a lot of books that take place in future U.S, the author didn't really change much about the states. The states are still there and the cities are the same. It's not some crumbled city or town and it doesn't have districts like in the Hunger Games. That was really surprising to me and I'm glad that she kept the U.S as the U.S.

The characters were great. I'm really bummed that Metias died. (This is not a spoiler. The information is in the synopsis.) I really wish he was still alive because I really liked him. Tess, June, and Day were very likeable characters. It was nice to read the book from both June and Day's points of views, and I think it was really cool that the font and color and design of the characters changed back and forth.

The book is a quick and easy read with short, yet exciting chapters. The only thing is that I wish that there was more romance in the book. There's a little bit and it kick starts June's want to help Day, but I feel like there should have been more romance to fuel the want because frankly, after I kiss a guy once I don't think I'd be willing to completely risk my life to help him.

I can't wait to read the next book in the trilogy, and will probably go out and buy it soon. I definitely recommend this to readers everywhere, and it's a good read for the younger crowd. It's a refreshing change to have this book in the genera that's consumed by the Hunger Games, and I think that the series will do great things.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Perfect Scoundral's by Ally Carter

Back-Story: I’m a huge fan of Ally Carter and have all her books, so naturally when this one came out I bought it.

Review: I don’t like the Heist Society novels as much as I like the Gallagher Girls series. I don’t know if it’s the way it’s written (GG is first point of view and HS is third person) or if it’s just the book in general. It’s about thieves and at times can be hard to follow along. I was a little let down with this book. When I first read about it I was so excited to learn about Hale and his family and what I learnt wasn’t really all that exciting. I also wanted more interaction between Hale and Kat, but there wasn’t all that much. It was enjoyable enough that I didn’t put it down often and it was a nice addition to the series, but I wasn’t blown away at any point in the book.

Looks: I like the cover. It goes along with the other ones. I don’t really understand the title choice though. I mean, it’s a good way to describe the crew but scoundrels was never used in this book and I don’t think it was used in any of the others.

Content: Like the rest of Ally Carter’s books it’s clean. There’s one point where someone is drunk, but it’s only about a page or so in the book and isn’t a big deal.

Likes: The plot idea was good. There isn’t all the much to complain about.

Dislikes: Didn’t reach my expectations and I wanted more Hale/Kat interactions.

Overall: If you’ve read the other series you might as well read it. If you haven’t read any of Ally Carter’s books I’d say to start off with the Gallagher Girls series.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

2014 March Relesaes

Teen Scene Reading

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