Saturday, August 23, 2014

Saturday Pages: Mini reviews of Outcast & Swamp Bones!!

Hello guys!

This week's Saturday Pages is happening a lil latter than usual, but they almost didn't happen... I was extremely tired last night and went to sleep without having any posts ready and today I woke up feeling rather tired still, but I decided to still manage to crank up a pair of novellas reviews that I had pending!

One of them is a novella that I got this week on NetGalley so it will totally count for my ARC August list!





 Swamp Bones: A Novella (Temperance Brennan, #16.5)Swamp Bones: A Novella by Kathy Reichs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've always been a big of both this series by Kathy Reichs and Bones the tv series (at least till I lost interest once the drama got a bit too much for me) even if they were rather different. I had forgotten a bit about the books till I saw this novella on NetGalley and realized I had missed reading one book and there was another coming! So I just got the previous book to this one and preordered the next!

Swamp Bones is a novella that can be read without having read all the Tempe Brennan books since it's a story on its own, but I don't think it's the best of the Tempe stories either.

But even as one of the weakest stories in the mystery sense of the murder(s) to be solved, cause there was a point were the suspect was pointed at too easily, so much that I was expecting it to be a red herring, the story was always fascinating because of the way the science is weaved in. Even if most of the science was about pythons in this one, and snakes are one of my few irrational fears!

Tempe can be a bit too rash and impulsive and given some of the bad situations that has got her into in the past, it makes me wonder why she doesn't seem to learn given how intelligent a character she is. I guess we all have our flaws, and hers is being a bit rash and overly optimistic on outcomes.

All in all, a good enough novella that really got me in the mood to read more Tempe Brennan books! 3 stars to this one (for the too obvious resolution).




Outcast (Defiance 0.5)Outcast by C.J. Redwine

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Outcast is the very much awaited novella featuring our dear Quinn and his sister Willow's story before they meet Rachel and Logan and become allies. This is the story of why Quinn understands how broken Rachel can be and how both he and his sister got exiled from their tribe and came to meet Rachel's dad.

Quinn has always been a very interesting character and we knew there was a lot more to his past than what he himself or his sister had revealed before, both about what caused their exile and why Quinn refused to kill when fighting and in this novella, we find out exactly how horrible their childhood was being trained to be killers with the excuse of being defenders, and how abusive their relationship with their father was.

We see Quinn from feeling like what they're doing is wrong, to finding the strenght to face his father and try to put a stop to his madness when he thinks of protecting his sister and finds an unexpected ally on Rachel's father when Jared stumbles onto the village's perimeter trying to hide from Rowansmark agents.

For a short novella this one packs a really emotional punch and we find ourselves loving and understanding much better both Quinn and Willow and even get a lil better understanding of what a good man Rachel's dad was. One of those novellas that are a joy to read, even with the tough themes in it which earns it 5 stars.



View all my reviews

6 comments:

  1. I think books and even novellas that come to an easy resolution are such a turn off for me. I think sometimes they can be called which is fine. Sometimes there is no hiding it and the author wasn't hiding it in the first place! It is a shame you did not like the first one as much as the second one! At least the second one was good for you! :)

    Alex @ The Shelf Diaries

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    1. Yeah and usually the Tempe Brennan are quite good at keeping you on your toes about who the culprit is... not so much in the novella.
      Thank you Alex!

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  2. Ooo, I still need to read Outcast! It's sitting on my Kindle. Perhaps on a school day when I don't have time to read a full-length novel :D

    Have a fabulous weekend, Pili:)

    Alyssa @ The Eater of Books!

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    1. That sounds like the perfect plan Alyssa! It is a very engaging read but also a very quick one!

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  3. Hmm, I don't think Swamp Bones would be for me. Sigh. I'm sorry you didn't love it :) But ohh. Outcast. <3 I will be reading it when I start re-reading Deception :) And finally read book two and three. Hopefully soon. We'll see :D I'm so glad you loved it. <3 Anyway. Great reviews Pili. <3 Thank you for sharing :)

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    1. I do hope you'll love the whole series as much as I did Carina! Cannot wait to hear what you think!
      Thank you sweetie!

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¡Muchas gracias por vuestros comentarios, leerlos me alegra el día!/ Thanks a lot for all your comments, reading them brightens my day!!