Waiting On Wednesday #78!!

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly feature hosted at Breaking The Spine  that spotlights those can't-wait-to-get-my-hands-on-them books that we are eagerly awaiting!


What book am I eagerly awaiting and bitting my nails while I await its arrival? The Shadow Cabinet by Maureen Johnson!

Goodreads Summary:

"The thrilling third installment to the Edgar-nominated, bestselling series.

Rory and her friends are reeling from a series of sudden and tragic events. While racked with grief, Rory tries to determine if she acted in time to save a member of the squad. If she did, how do you find a ghost? Also, Rory’s classmate Charlotte has been kidnapped by Jane and her nefarious organization. Evidence is uncovered of a forty-year-old cult, ten missing teenagers, and a likely mass murder. Everything indicates that Charlotte’s in danger, and it seems that something much bigger and much more terrible is coming.

Time is running out as Rory fights to find her friends and the ghost squad struggles to stop Jane from unleashing her spectral nightmare on the entire city. In the process, they'll discover the existence of an organization that underpins London itself—and Rory will learn that someone she trusts has been keeping a tremendous secret."
 

Why am I eagerly awaiting The Shadow Cabinet? Well, I read and loved the two first books in the series last year and the ending of book two was rather cruel, so I cannot wait to read this one! I'm not sure if it's the final book in a trilogy or the third book in a longer series though!

What are you all (im)patiently awaiting this week?

Friday Reads: The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson!!

I'm starting this week's Friday Reads with a sequel that is part of my 2014 Series Challenge and that as luck would have it did not suffer from middle book syndrome! The only pity is that the final book won't be coming out this year, but the next which is quite a bummer!

The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Madness Underneath started very shortly after the ending of The Name of The Star, so you can expect some spoilers for the first book in this review, but as usual I will do my best to ensure I won't spoil this one for you.

This is a great sequel and let me tell you, it doesn't suffer at all from the dreaded middle book syndrome. The story progresses if in a bit of an unexpected direction, but that had some crumbs planted on the first book.

Rory is trying to deal with all that she went through at the end of The Name of The Star and as usual, she does it in her own unique style. Half trying to figure out things, half pretending she's okay and ignoring whatever issues she might have, and all around lying to everyone around her about what happened.

She discovers some new and unexpected abilities and feels like she must stay in London and help Stephen, Boo and Callum. But her parents are understandably scared and want to keep her safe and close to them. Her new abilities prove to be reason enough to, through some behind the scenes manouvres, get sent back to Wexford so she can be close to the team.

Back in Wexford she falls back to her usual routine of being Jazza's friend and Jerome's girlfriend, and trying to catch up with all the school work that she missed, but she's no longer the same girl she was and she keeps finding clues and thinking more of her secrets than trying to go back to a normal life.

The plot in this one surprised me, cause at first it seemed like it'd be similar to the main plot of book one but then, a character that I didn't think would be too relevant turned out to be not only relevant but the main villain for the book and maybe the rest of the series! We get a peek at a more deep mythology for the whole purpose of the Shades and after an unexpected showdown we are left with an ending that was quite cliffhanger-y and evil!

I missed more of the friendship of Rory and Jazza, cause those two make a great team, but whatever was present felt very genuine, including Rory's guilt at having to lie to Jazza all the time. As for the romance... I have to say part of it I saw it coming, and felt very realistic as far as teenage relationships go, but the other part... well, I wasn't as sure about it. Hopefully the mess that the romance and the cliffhanger are will get resolved in the final book!

Well deserved 4 stars for this one.



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Mini Reviews: Mitosis & The Boy In The Smoke!!

Hey everyone! I've said it more than once, but I really enjoy novellas, not only they can be excellent prequels to give us more information about a series we already love, but can also work as a bridge between books in a series adding some extra info, or give us a different POV from another character in a series providing more info (again).

So today I have a prequel to Maureen Johnson's Shades of London : The Boy In The Smoke and a bridge between books novella in The Reckoner's trilogy by Brandon Sanderson: Mitosis.


The Boy in the Smoke by Maureen Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have the Shades of London series in my list for my Series challenge and I decided that I ought to start with the shorter book that is also the beginning.

This novella starts in a very prosaic way, with the story of Stephen, a boy of a wealthy family that is ignored by his parents. He wants to be a policeman and do something useful but since he's always been a good boy and do what he's supposed to, he ends up going to Eton and continue to be ignored by his parents.

There are some big issues dealt with here and all done in a very sensible way, nothing crass or cheap. Absent & cold parents, drug addictions, suicide attempts... it all weaves into the story to make Stephen the boy in the smoke. By the end is when we get an glimpse of what else might be there for this series, and this is quite a fantastic setting stone. Well deserved 4 stars.





Mitosis by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mitosis is a short story set after Steelheart. David and the Reckoners are helping Newcago to get some semblance of normalcy, even if people are still waiting "for the other shoe to drop". But that doesn't mean other Epics won't try and take Newcago for themselves, but it seems the Reckoners won't be alone in the fight this time.

While this is a very short story, there are hints as to how to figure out the weaknesses of Epics, and we see that the Reckoners are changing things, not just killing Epics.



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Saturday Pages: The Name of The Star by Maureen Johnson!!

As the final entry for this week's Saturday Pages I have the first book of a trilogy that I had been eyeing for a while and that I added to my 2014 Series Challenge before I knew that the final book for the trilogy had been pushed till next year! Still, I hope it'll count!

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Name of The Star has been in my list of books to read for a while, but after seeing a tweet from Maureen Johnson about a prequel novella, buying and reading (and loving) it, I decided I needed to start the series right away!

As always, I will try to keep my review as spoiler free as possible but I might make some references to the novella, so be warned about that.

I was so intrigued by the Jack the Ripper mention on the synopsis, and though the very beginning started with Rory arriving from the US to be taken to her private school, soon enough we start hearing about how the school is smack in the middle of Jack's old hunting grounds.

Rory was a character I simply adored, she was funny and quirky and didn't mind being different and when she might have been targeted, she didn't cower and she started making fun of herself by being over the top, which worked great for her. She was brave and a little reckless but not stupidly so.

I really liked her friendship with Jazza, and although I was never too sold on the romance bit with Jerome, it seems like they were good for each other if the connection never felt as nothing too special. Which I feel is good, since at high school time you don't necessarily have to find the love of your life right away.

The book does a great job at mixing every day school happenings and a normal life for a teenager that is still quite confused about some of the Englishness of London with the mysterious Jack The Ripper copycat that starts murdering people in the same places and dates that the old one did.

The tension and creepiness that the book manages to add, before and after the more paranormal element is revealed is great. Having read the novella before, I was wondering when we'll be introduced to said element and other characters, but even so the pacing never bored me.

I really liked some of the new characters introduced on the second half of the book, even if it took me a while to warm up to them, even to this different Stephen (since I already liked him a lot from the novella).

A very solid start for a series, well deserving of 4 stars!



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Friday Reads: Mini Reviews: Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi and The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare!

Hello there! For this week's Friday Reads I'm gonna have another two mini reviews! Novellas are so much fun to read, and sometimes they can change your whole vision of a series!


Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As usual, Tahereh Mafi shows us how amazing her writing is. This novella is Adam's POV of the ending of Unravel Me and it's a complete change of style from the rest of the series, Adam's voice so different from Juliette's!

The power of different POV's and how they come across from other character's POV's is very well shown here. We met Adam in Shatter Me and he ended up being Juliette's ally & friend and way more than that. And I was Team Adam if I had to choose from that triangle (which curiously enough is one of those triangles that are relevant and not so annoying). But then came Destroy Me, and I started to warm up to Warner much to my surprise, and then Unravel Me with its many twists and revelations and I find myself a bit more on Team Warner. I was hoping to see if Fracture Me would do for Adam the same thing that Destroy Me did for Warner, and maybe it did, but for me the reaction was quite the opposite.

Adam annoyed from the first page itself with his treatment of James, his kid brother. Yes, there's a lot of tension and stress but you don't treat your only family like that! And even though he redeems himself a bit on that front, it's clear through the pages of this novella that he just doesn't understand Juliette and despite his hoping for a HEA, he's be beyond frustrated with Juliette and her issues. He clearly can't begin to understand what Juliette issues really are, and with his protectiveness there's no way he'd help Juliette control and develop her powers.

This novella has done a wonderful job at bringing us into Adam's head, it might not have been what I would have hoped for, but you can't say that Mafi didn't do a fantastic job of giving him his own voice.

Well deserved 4 stars for this novella, and now I can't wait for Ignite Me even more than before!



The Last Stand of the New York Institute by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think the closer we get to the events of TMI the more I like these novellas, and this one I will have an even bigger amount of love because we get to spend some more time with Tessa, and I really love Tessa Gray!

We get to see the start of the Circle and Magnus facing some of Valentine's allies and Valentine himself. We also are introduced to the doubts in Lucian and how the seed of his doubt in Valentine's great purpose might have been planted. We meet quite a few Shadowhunters that we will hear about later on. And we also get to meet Clary and her mum, and not only that we discover the origin of the last name that Jocelyn and Clary are using when they live as mundanes.

Magnus has some really conflicting feeling about this new generation of Shadowhunters and even more for some of the families that he once knew, but despite everything he seems to be quite prone to niceness the older he gets and less likely to hold a grudge. I guess when you live centuries it might seem quite pointless.

A very short but entertaining read, quite enlightening adding some more perspective to the Circle and the Uprising. A 4 star read.



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Mark This Book Monday: Mini Reviews of No Place Like Oz and The Fall of the Hotel Dumort!

Hello everyone! This week's first Mark This Book Monday are No Place Like Oz by Danielle Paige & The Fall of the Hotel Dumort by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson and are part of my November is for Novellas challenge!

These ones are my third & fourth novella read, so I only have one more to go to complete my challenge!


No Place Like Oz by Danielle  Paige

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


When I first heard about Dorothy Must Die I was quite excited, since I love alternative stories and I'm a huge fan of Wicked, so I thought that an alternative story where Dorothy returns to Oz and ends up being evil would be great, so I decided to dip my toe in the waters and read this novella first. At 196 pages is more than just a short story and it's the how our dear sweet Dorothy goes from wholesome to evil.

No Place Like Oz starts with Dorothy back in Kansas and not so happy to be back as she thought she'd be. She enjoyed the attention she got when she returned and now she finds settling back to her quite ordinary life in the Kansas' farm is near impossible. Everyone thinks all her stories are lies and she feels very much apart. But then on her 16th birthday she is taken back to Oz, with her aunt and uncle in tow this time!

The progression of the story was interesting but somehow the change was a little too subtle at first and then too clear. We meet with other well known characters and we're not entirely sure who the bad guys are or why a choice is better than others. I found some of the suggestions of what Oz does to those who come from outside quite intriguing and I'm still curious enough to read Dorothy Must Die, but I wasn't swept up by the story. I think it managed to show us how Dorothy might have turned bad, but I'm afraid it was done a bit too much in the fairy tale way and not with too much depth. Hopefully the Dorothy in the book will be a bit of a more formidable villain with depth!

An interesting enough read, but not gripping or mind blowing so it gets 3 stars.


The Fall of the Hotel Dumort by Cassandra Clare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Fall of the Hotel Dumort is the next instance in the Bane Chronicles, and this one takes us even closer to the present date, since it takes place in the 70's.

Magnus returns to the US after a pair of years away and finds New York changed, with the vampires acting very violent & randomly. The Downworlders are worried about a possible intervention of the Shadowhunters that wouldn't be just against the vampires, but would put the Accords in danger.

This episode does help us understand a bit better the relationship between Camille and Magnus in TMI, and they each react to meeting again. It also gives us the reason as to why the hotel it's called Dumort now. Seems that the closer to present time we get, the better the stories that Magnus is involved in are weaved in the known human history.

An entertaining read that deserves 3.5 stars.



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