Month: October 2016

Posted in Uncategorized, YA Book Reviews

Three Dark Crowns

Posted on by Little Bee

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Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Goodreads Rating 4 stars

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Three Dark Crowns was the book included in September’s OwlCrate box.

This book started very slow. I almost gave up on it a couple of times, eventually I read the last 3 chapters and it helped me continue going. The book does pick up, but to far close to the end of the story.

Three Dark Crowns is the story of triplet princesses who at a certain age are split from each other and brought to an area of Fennbrin to study a special talent, with these three princesses those talents are elemental, naturalist, and poison. Every generation produces triplet princesses to be trained and bred for the Beltane. At this Beltane, each princess has to show off her talent to the people. The next day, the three have to set forth and try to kill each other until one princess remains, becoming the queen.

Each princess has her own trials and tribulations. The chapters surrounding The Beltane were the most exciting. It had the most action, the  most betrayal, and the most Oh My God! moments. It ended in a cliffhanger. You have been warned.

The last few chapters and the cliffhanger are really what sold me on this series being promising. I am looking forward to this series and will definitely continue on.  The going comment in reviews is “it is slow, but keep going because it gets better.” Let me tell you…it gets WAY better!!!

Posted in Book Reviews

Dark Harvest

Posted on by Little Bee

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Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

Goodreads Rating: 4 stars

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

 

I have had this book on my To Read list for a very long time. Since my book club’s theme for October was something spooky/Halloween, I decided to go with this book.

The writing style was different for my tastes and it took a little while to get into, but once I got adjusted, I did like the story. The reason I gave the actual rating 3.5 stars is because the narration of the overall story (it jumps back and forth from first person to third person) and also because it seems a lot of information had been left out (I will get to this later).

This story is about a little midwestern town in which every year on Halloween, all boys 16 to 18 must compete in the Run. At the start of this Run a scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern head is brought to life and stuffed with candy. The object of the Run is to be the first boy to bust open this creature, releasing all the candy. For the sake of spoilers, I will not give away any other information.

The idea was interesting, but I feel like a lot was missing. For instance, the story briefly talks about the Harvester’s Guild, who is in charge of the run. The story mentions, again briefly, that no one can leave the town unless they are drafted for war or the creature wins the Run. The story does go into why, or how this all started. I think knowing this information would definitely have made it better overall.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Stealing Snow

Posted on by Little Bee

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Stealing Snow by Danielle Paige, Narrated by Bailey Carr

Goodreads Rating: 2 stars

Narrator Rating: 3.5 Stars

 

Going into this book, I had mixed hopes. I had high hopes that it would be a fantastically interesting story and be different than Dorothy Must Die series. I was mistaken.

This story starts out with Snow being in a mental institution. She has a lot of inner conflict, and is a whiny baby. Seriously. Plus…3 love interests. Seriously?  Three. She came into Algid after a boy from the hospital she was at, a boy she loved more than anything. Then, after she met Kai, she wanted him. They shared a kiss together, she freaked out a bit. She kept thinking about that kiss, and Bale (the first boy). Then after she left the River Witch she got to know Jagger, of the Robbers, better she started thinking about him romantically, while thinking about Bale and Kai. It got really disturbing. It felt like I was reading or was a part of a drama queen teen’s day dream because she is bored with her life and wants to think it would be more exciting if she was the Ice Queen.

The story eventually got interesting at the end. I think if you removed Snow’s character entirely, the story would have been much better. That is very sad. I will probably eventually continue on with the series as it comes out, but it just did not excite me.

I wish my review could be more positive, so I will end on some good notes. The Narrator worked, even though i feel some of the male characters sounded a little similar. I thought the  narrator’s voice sounded childish to fit the character of Snow. (That is a positive…it worked, I believed she was Snow). The excitement at the end was good. Honestly, I am waiting for the shoe to drop that when the series is over, Snow is going to wake up as if the whole series was a dream, and be right back in the insane asylum.

Posted in YA Book Reviews

Lock and Mori

Posted on by Little Bee

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Lock and Mori by Heather W. Petty

Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars

 

I started reading this book in March, and finally finished today, October 1, 2016. I had a lot of hopes for this book, and have been wanting to read it for a while. The story was slow for more than 100 pages out of a 245 page book. The last 100 pages of the book really sucked me in though, and that is why I gave this book 3 stars overall for the rating.

Sherlock and Mori are in high school, and they meet for the first time at a crime scene in Regent’s Park. From there, they go on an adventure trying to solve the murder, which turns into a string of murders. On this adventure, Mori learns the history of her mother’s past while trying to deal with an abusive father who is a DS on the police force in London.

I wasn’t a fan of Mori’s character, but I LOVED Sherlock. I thought his character sketch was well written. Mori was very secretive, and tried to keep everyone, especially Sherlock, out of knowing her life and what was going on. She was very sneaky, and tried to do things that she could have gotten hurt or killed

I loved the last 100 pages of the book. They were fast paced, gripping, and heart wrenching. If you pick this book up, just hang in there. The first half of the story is really slow but gets better.