Mary Hades by Sarah Dalton

Mary Hades: Beginnings by Sarah Dalton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I got this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I think a 2.5 rating would be more accurate for this collection. On the whole, I liked the story. It was very well told, was entertaining, and I liked the subject, but it cut it just a little short to keep me turning pages, which in turn made me take forever to finish it.

So, while the idea and execution were nice, I think the failure was in my age. There are YA books that can be appreciated by anyone, and there are YA books that are just a little “simple” (stylistically speaking, I don’t think there’s a better way for me to describe this). I honestly think had I been 13 or 16 I would have enjoyed this one a lot more. I can definitely see a younger girl or boy who is into ghosts and mystery and such enjoying the book plenty. Me, I just couldn’t quite get into it even though I liked it. That doesn’t mean someone else who’s even older than me might not enjoy it, but for me it didn’t quite cut it. I didn’t identify in any way with the main character, and even if I didn’t dislike her, I couldn’t quite find myself rooting for her either.
Perhaps it was also that I was expecting a bit more “horror” than we got.

I would still recommend this to YA enthusiasts or actual YAs.

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The Death Cure by James Dashner

The Death Cure by James Dashner
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

And then no one asked the right questions and the explanations we did get made no sense (well, they made sense, they were just silly).

The End.

What do you mean there’s more books? I thought this was a trilogy? 😦 I’ll pass, I barely made it this far.

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Get the rest of these series:

• The Maze Runner Series (Maze Runner)
• The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner, Book 2)
• The Death Cure (Maze Runner, Book Three) 
• The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Prequel) (The Maze Runner Series)
• The Maze Runner Files (Maze Runner)

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones

Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars 

This is a sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle, and like it, it doesn’t fail to deliver it’s funny moments. The setting is slightly different, however, as it reminds you more of something just out of 1001 Nights. There’s even appearances of characters from Howl’s Moving Castle, including Howl and Sophie themselves, however there is no real need to have read that book in order to fully enjoy this one.

Much like the first, I know I will be re-reading this one often.

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Contamination by Jamie Thornton

Contamination by Jamie Thornton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A free copy of this book was received in exchange for an honest opinion.

I read the first book in this series and it was a pretty decent book. This second one has a lot going for it as well: the take on the ‘zombie’ genre is slightly different than the norm, not much, but just enough to make you curious; what I could see of the plot that was apparently going on in the background seemed interesting, which is why I bumped it one start to “it’s ok” rating; but the thing is, the book seems more about the characters and their past/complex love relationships than about the things that were happening to them at the time – which is fine, I guess, except that in this book I just couldn’t like any of the characters.
The main character seemed rather dysfunctional, and not in an overly interesting way, her original love interested seemed like a bit of a pushover/ass (I can’t quite decide), and someway half through I just lost all interest in the story because although things were happening, it wasn’t what I would have considered the “interesting” parts that the book focused on.

After a while of having it sitting there and not wanting to pick it back up, I’m going to give it as a loss and mark it as abandoned.

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Get the rest of this series:

• Germination (Feast of Weeds, #1)
• Contamination (Feast of Weeds, #2)

Germination by Jamie Thornton

Germination by Jamie Thornton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I won Germination at a giveaway in exchange for a review.

I liked it. I’m not much of a fan of neither first person nor diary/blog posts/etc kind of stories, but the bits of ‘posts’ were only the start of chapters, so it wasn’t such a bother. The writing style was good; I wasn’t very sure at first, but after the first part the story picked up… and although it’s such a short story that you can’t really tell just what’s going on exactly, it is an interesting introduction and I can see possibilities with it. I’m interested enough about what will happen to keep on reading, that’s for sure.

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Get the rest of this series:

• Germination (Feast of Weeds, #1)
• Contamination (Feast of Weeds, #2)

Deeper by Gordon Roderick

Deeper by Roderick Gordon
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Both the first book and this one suffer from the same issue: It’s a very interesting concept, but kinda slow and boring in execution. I guess it’s because I’m a bit too old for these books, I surely would’ve loved it as a kid, for it has sufficient action and adventure. I would definitely recommend it for younger children.

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Get the rest of this series:

• Tunnels (Tunnels, Book 1)
• Deeper (Tunnels, Book 2)
• Freefall (Tunnels Book 3)

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Fire by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I found it rather disappointing, the end felt a bit rushed and the addition of the one “bad guy” made no sense (as in, I felt the story would’ve worked just the same without it, and it was pointless and forgotten for more than half the book, or should have been played with more to make it more interesting).
I can’t say I liked the main character either, I found I felt more for minor characters than for her.

I enjoyed her first book much more.
I didn’t dislike Fire, though, it just wasn’t as good as I expected of it.

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The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This review contains slight spoilers.

Legacy by Cayla Kluver

Legacy by Cayla Kluver
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Un libro relativamente bueno para haber sido escrito por alguien tan joven, pero nada fuera de lo normal ni espectacular.
Quizás si lo hubiese leído siendo yo también más joven, me hubiese gustado mucho más. Pero no fué así y realmente no me gustó. Si le doy dos estrellas es por la edad de la autora y no por el disfrute. Hubo mucha descripción en cuanto a lo que tenían puesto, que en cierto punto ya no era importante ni venia al caso. La historia es típica para la edad.

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Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A great fantasy read. I truly enjoyed reading this book, it definitely went over my expectations for it. The pacing was a little slow on a couple points, but hardly found it to be a bother for the overall reading, I wasn’t very fond of the translation (I read this in Spanish, and didn’t fancy the way it was edited in it), but that is hardly the author’s fault.
As for the story itself, I found it very catching. interesting, and I’m eager to read more on the same vein.
Regarding the characters, I liked the main female and male characters, and I actually found myself liking many of the minor characters as well- even the evil ones.
I would have loved to see more about the villains, but I suppose there wasn’t too much to sa- or perhaps it will be said later on.

Whichever the reason for the lack of development of the villains, I’m certainly looking forward to reading more by this author- and whatever continues this saga.
A recommended read for sure.

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