Hello everyone!
I hope your week is starting right! Mine is starting rather nicely, having Monday off after working the weekend.
For this week's Mark This Book Monday I'm having one of those books that have been in my TBR pile for quite a while and I've finally read and reviewed! As such I'm counting it towards my 105 Challenge in the physical books in my TBR pile category!
Hover by Melissa West
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read Gravity quite a while back, so I was a bit iffy on the details although I remembered the general overview, and anyways the author managed to include a bit of a reminder/recap in the first chapter and done quite well I must say.
This was an interesting sequel and I wouldn't say it suffers from sequel syndrome, the action has moved from Earth to Loge after the events of the first book, so things are rather complicated for Ari. She's not fully human any more, but she's not really welcome between the Ancients, at least not as far as Zeus goes.
I'm not sure if Ari was this out of control and easily baited in the first book, but being groomed as an operative and a commander in the making, she was reckless and too much of the "jump/hit now and think later" variety for me in this book... Her lack of control and rash actions really got in her way many times and made me shake my head every time, she got a lil better by the end of the book, but she one of her biggest faults in this book was not realizing that she cannot choose for others, if they want to fight for what they think it's right and take risks, you cannot tell them not to! You are not the only one that feels like the cause is worth fighting, dammit!
If Ari annoyed me in this book, Jackson on the other hand did have a lot of character growth and development. We get to see more than just the arrogant boy in book 1, we see him as a leader in Loge, as a friend, as someone that will do anything to save his family, who doesn't shy away from responsability and that will remain at Ari's side as a friend and ally. It was very interesting to see both his strong as his broken and vulnerable side.
What I liked was that the way to challenge and strenght the relationship was done in a very realistic way. Ari doesn't know if she can trust Jackson after he lied to her, he feels like he doesn't know him and she feels completely out of her depth. Jackson remains her friends and ally, even when she refuses to see it and keeps pushing him away, but once they start talking to each other and really getting to know each other, with the good and the bad, their relationship becomes my favourite part of the book.
We meet new characters in this book, all Ancients and we learn a few more things about Loge and their need to find another planet to live in. I was hoping we'll get a bit more about Zeus but he seems to be too mentally damaged and gone insane to be able to understand him. He's just evil and creepy and scary and a bit of an overwhelming villain.
I was quite glad that I had the sequel on hand when I reached the ending, because if even I wasn't as involved as I would have liked, the ending is one of those EVIL cliffhangers that leaves you in shock! 3 stars for this one.
View all my reviews
I hope your week is starting right! Mine is starting rather nicely, having Monday off after working the weekend.
For this week's Mark This Book Monday I'm having one of those books that have been in my TBR pile for quite a while and I've finally read and reviewed! As such I'm counting it towards my 105 Challenge in the physical books in my TBR pile category!
Hover by Melissa WestMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read Gravity quite a while back, so I was a bit iffy on the details although I remembered the general overview, and anyways the author managed to include a bit of a reminder/recap in the first chapter and done quite well I must say.
This was an interesting sequel and I wouldn't say it suffers from sequel syndrome, the action has moved from Earth to Loge after the events of the first book, so things are rather complicated for Ari. She's not fully human any more, but she's not really welcome between the Ancients, at least not as far as Zeus goes.
I'm not sure if Ari was this out of control and easily baited in the first book, but being groomed as an operative and a commander in the making, she was reckless and too much of the "jump/hit now and think later" variety for me in this book... Her lack of control and rash actions really got in her way many times and made me shake my head every time, she got a lil better by the end of the book, but she one of her biggest faults in this book was not realizing that she cannot choose for others, if they want to fight for what they think it's right and take risks, you cannot tell them not to! You are not the only one that feels like the cause is worth fighting, dammit!
If Ari annoyed me in this book, Jackson on the other hand did have a lot of character growth and development. We get to see more than just the arrogant boy in book 1, we see him as a leader in Loge, as a friend, as someone that will do anything to save his family, who doesn't shy away from responsability and that will remain at Ari's side as a friend and ally. It was very interesting to see both his strong as his broken and vulnerable side.
What I liked was that the way to challenge and strenght the relationship was done in a very realistic way. Ari doesn't know if she can trust Jackson after he lied to her, he feels like he doesn't know him and she feels completely out of her depth. Jackson remains her friends and ally, even when she refuses to see it and keeps pushing him away, but once they start talking to each other and really getting to know each other, with the good and the bad, their relationship becomes my favourite part of the book.
We meet new characters in this book, all Ancients and we learn a few more things about Loge and their need to find another planet to live in. I was hoping we'll get a bit more about Zeus but he seems to be too mentally damaged and gone insane to be able to understand him. He's just evil and creepy and scary and a bit of an overwhelming villain.
I was quite glad that I had the sequel on hand when I reached the ending, because if even I wasn't as involved as I would have liked, the ending is one of those EVIL cliffhangers that leaves you in shock! 3 stars for this one.
View all my reviews
"she was reckless and too much of the "jump/hit now and think later" variety for me in this book..."
ReplyDeleteHm. Not sure Ari and I would get along too well Pili! Heroines with this type of mentality drive me absolutely crazy, and with an enormously evil cliffhanger waiting for me at the end, I think it's better for my mental health if I take a pass:) Hopefully Ari grows a bit more in the next book and learns to look before she leaps!
Thankfully she did Jenny, and the cliffhanger was not as jarring as it could have been given that I wasn't as involved in the book as I've been with others, but still!!
DeleteGreat review Pili. <3 And aw, I'm sorry you had issues with this book :( but glad you enjoyed a lot of it, even so :D I haven't read book one yet.. but I will be owning them all, hah :) Reading them one day. Probably. The covers are just so pretty :) Thank you for sharing your thoughts sweetie. <3
ReplyDeleteThank you Carina sweetie!
DeleteThe covers are indeed all sorts of gorgeous!!
Yes to a day off for you! The weather has been so craptastic here my boss has let me work from home since last Wednesday, including today, so my week is starting out great, too! I still don't know why I like the subject of mythology, but not books based on mythologies. Lori M. Lee tricked me into liking some immortals in Gates of Thread and Stone, so I guess there is always hope, but as per your review I don't think my mythological taste testing will start with Gravity or Hover. I hope the rest of your week is great, too!
ReplyDeleteSome days I'd love to be able to work from home! But yeah, my job really cannot be done that way!
DeleteAnd this is about aliens not mythology really!
Thank you, La!
I was not in love with book 1 and by the time book 2 came I had already forgotten too much to continue, but I still like to see how the series fared. It sounds like Ari's character growth was maybe a bit too much on the rash side. It's one of my mild pet peeves in books when characters do stuff without thinking it through (I say minor bc it all depends on the characterization overall). Sounds like Jackson and the relationship was this book's strong suit. Great review, muffin!
ReplyDeleteThank you Giselle! Rash behaviour and too much of the whole act now think later also usually annoys me!
DeleteI probably wouldn't like the protagonist... I admit, I've had this book for years, and never read it. I probably won't, which is sad on my part, but that's okay. Excellent review, Pili!
ReplyDeleteAlyssa @ The Eater of Books!
Thank you, Alyssa! The main character was my least fave part of the book for most of it!
DeleteI remember reading the first book too and wasn't completely enamored with it, so that's why I haven't bothered to pick this up yet. It sounds really annoying though, what Ari has become here, because I definitely don't remember being such a "recklessly reckless to the extreme" heroine. :/ That would piss me off a lot, too!
ReplyDeleteFaye at the Social Potato
Yep, it's one of my least liked tropes...
DeleteI really enjoyed the first book but somehow missed out on the rest of the series....
ReplyDeleteKate @ Ex Libris
Sometimes it happens! I managed to catch up and finish it recently myself, Kate!
DeleteThis one sounds iffy... but really interesting at the same time! Granted, I haven't read an awful lot of spacey type books, so that's mostly what intrigues me, lol. Oh and cliffhangers... the worst! Haha
ReplyDeleteYep, cliffhangers like this one are the worst!
Delete