Hello June!

My stack of library books is ever-growing and this has been a slow week for me.  I’m currently reading Gulp, by Mary Roach and learning lots of squeamish and interesting tidbits about my nose, mouth and digestive system.  Yay!  I’m currently listening to The Selection, and also reading Maggot Moon.  I’m 44% done with my challenge and 3% ahead of schedule.

Completed this week:

• Fragments, by Dan Wells: It took forever to finish this one (sequel to Partials).  This is one of those post-apocalypse teen book series that I pick up and am super excited about but turns out to be a plodder.  Since I have a hard time leaving things unfinished, I inevitably pick up the sequel to something that I wasn’t that excited about in the first place.  Our teen heroine, Kira is trying to save the world and travels across the wasteland of America with a cute Partial boy looking for the answers to the epidemic.

Overall assessment: Meh.

Will I read the sequel? I plead the fifth.

• War at Ellsmere, by Faith Erin Hicks: In preparation for reading the Hicks illustrated Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, I’m on a quest to read everything she’s put out.  I love her illustrations and stories, and yet again, was not disappointed.  Juniper is from the wrong side of the tracks and on scholarship to a prestigious private school.  She becomes friends with fellow outcast Cassie, and they quickly become targets of the popular girls.  Hijinks follow and unicorns appear.

Audience: Honestly, I think ANY teen girl would love this (even boys would!) – plus and Hicks fans and YA enthusiasts.

Overall assessment: Unicorns!

•     The Cove, by Ron Rash: I listened to this on Playaway, and despite the darn thing cutting off on me here and there, it was hard to stop listening.  In Mars Hill, NC Laurel lives with her brother Hank in a cove in the mountains.  Locals are wary and scared of the cove, thus Hank and Laurel have always been outcasts.  A stranger who cannot speak stumbles into their lives, and with his silence he brings secrets, music and new suspicions into an area that is on edge from WWI. (Just realized I technically didn’t read this within the last week, but whatever, the review is written.)

Key Elements: southern charm, North Carolina, intrigue, politics and superstition

Reaction at the end: WTF?!?!

Overall assessment: Really liked it, hated the ending, even though I suppose it fits with the book. **Grumble**

•     The False Prince, the Jennifer Neilson: Another book I resisted but wound up loving.  (Note to self: if you find yourself resisting a book PICK IT UP!).  Sage is an orphan who, along with three other orphans, is bought by Connor a nobleman who wants to train them with the hopes of one being malleable enough to impersonate the lost Prince Jaron.  I could not take off my headphones (another audiobook) because I was enthralled with the twists and turns, shady characters and secrets.  Plus, I love a book where the narrator withholds information.

Key elements: Smart ass, and sword fights

Overall assessment: I ran six miles on the treadmill because I could not stop listening*.

Will I Read the Sequel? Hells yeah.

•     The Ask and the Answer, by Patrick Ness: Another audio finished this week (I did a lot of driving) and again it did not disappoint.  The Knife of Never Letting Go, follows Viola and Todd on their journeys to outrun Mayor Prentiss to Haven only to have him greet them there.  Todd and Viola are now separated as are all the men and women in what is now called New Prentiss.  Here, there is a noise cure and slimy (now) President Prentiss is running the show and controlling Todd, who is now befriending former enemy Davy Prentiss.  Viola is getting drawn into mysteries of The Answer led by shifty Mistress Coyle.  Ness has so much going on, but maintains the story well keeping the tension tight and the twists coming.  The books are dark and gritty and in my mind the world is filtered through grays and reds.

Lingering Thoughts: (In regard to The Knife of Never Letting Go) I’m still not over Manchee.

Overall assessment: Holy crap you can’t end like that!

Will I Read the Sequel? See above

*Listening to audiobooks at the gym is tricky.  I can almost always listen to one on the elliptical. Listening to one while running?  It requires a certain level of awesomeness in an audiobook to do that.