Crown of Midnight

Hey all! I finally opened my Kindle and read the next book in Sarah J. Mass’s Throne of Glass series, Crown of Midnight! It’s only been, what, half a year since I reviewed the first book?

So, I have to be honest…I can’t quite remember everything that happened in Throne of Glass. And, having finished the second book, I have no idea why this one is called Crown of Midnight, unless it is referring to something in the last or second-to-last chapter (or something like that. One of the last chapters, in any case).

While I felt like the first book was more YA or maybe New Adult, due to the nature of a competition to become the king’s right-hand assassin fitting in with YA tropes nicely, Crown of Midnight blurs the lines even more. I can see teens devouring this book, and some things feel downright YA or even MG esque (talking door knocker). But the overall tone of the book has matured a lot compared to the previous book. Perhaps that’s in part because Sarah J. Maas improved as an author a ton between the two books.

However, some of the tonal shifts are a bit jarring. The Celaena of this book doesn’t quite feel the same as the Celaena of the first book, even though there has only been a few months, tops, between books. Same with Dorian, for some reason. And some obvious bits in the first book were played as unknown in this book, and I can’t for the life of me remember if this is something the reader knew at the end but our protagonists didn’t, or if the protagonists did as well.

So, what did I think of the story? I think having no competition this time helped the story a lot. We got to see our characters more in action, got to understand their motivations and watch them grow a bit. Some of the big reveals were things I’d figured out in the first book, or at least guessed at (one I thought, “well, it’s this or that,” and it turned out to be this and that).

All in all, I enjoyed this book. It’s not like I am screeching and flipping to the next one right away, but I will definitely go back to my kindle and read the third book. And I still think teenage me would be devouring the series (although I would be super duper nervous about the tame and not at all explicit sex scenes that occurred here and there).

The Merlin Effect

The Merlin Effect is written by T. A. Barron, the same author who wrote The Lost Years of Merlin. This book, like that series, takes bits and pieces from the legends surrounding the wizard Merlin and puts a twist on them. How much is from the actual legends and how much is created whole cloth from the author’s imagination, I’m not sure. But it certainly did add enough flavor to keep my interest.

Throne of Glass

A while back, I mentioned that I joined the Monthly Book Club group on Facebook. Well, there are those who keep a sharp eye on deals, and one person posted about a Kindle book deal on Amazon: The entire Throne of Glass series for $6. I’d never heard of Throne of Glass, but I’ve spent far more money on books and regretted it in the past, so I decided after a quick read of the book blurb to buy it. I’m glad I did.

Now, I haven’t read the entire series, just the first book, so that is what the review is going to be about. (According to my Kindle app, the first book is only 9% of the file. So I’ve got quite a ways to go) I may or may not review the rest of the series as I go along, as it gets harder and harder to avoid spoilers the further into a series I get.

The Dead Girls Detective Agency

Oi! I’m back!

I won’t bore you with whatever whiny excuse I have this time, but suffice it to say that I took a hiatus from book reading, started to feel a bit empty, then found a book club on Facebook (literally called Monthly Book Club, with thousands of book lovers all chatting—spoiler free—about their love of books and their current reads) and decided to jump back in with a simple YA book I found at a library book sale a few years back.

The Dead Girls Detective Agency by Lucy Cox fit the bill. A simple enough whodunnit with a twist—Charlotte finds herself recently deceased, and in order to pass on to the next life, she must find her murderer and make them confess. If she doesn’t? Well, she’ll be stuck forever.

Girl Out Of Water

Girl Out Of Water by Laura Silverman has been on my TBR pile for quite a while. I learned about it back when I was still doing Twitter, bought a Kindle copy when it was on sale, and then never read it. Bad Ellie! Bad!

Anise is a surfer through and through. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, she has no desire to leave. This year, though, is her last summer with all her friends. Some are going to college, others enlisting, and she has one more year of high school. They’re gonna make the summer count, surfing all day and partying all night.

But then her dad gets a phone call. Anise’s aunt Jackie—the sister of her always-absent mother and a better mom to Anise than her real mom ever was—got in a serious car crash and will be in the hospital for weeks, if not months. Anise and her dad have to fly out to Nebraska to care for Aunt Jackie’s three kids. All summer. Away from friends, the ocean, and surfing. On this, the last summer.