12th Lucky Number

I just completed the Skinned trilogy by Robin Wasserman. All three books were good but the third, Wired, was the best, which is very unusual. Typically, in my experience, a series will start out strong but will often fade a bit the further into it you get. I enjoyed both Skinned and Crashed very much but they were a bit bland and boring. There didn't seem to be too much going on in them but Wired was action packed and interesting all the way through. There were several large twists to the story that I never saw coming and a couple of other small twists that I had seen coming but that fit the story real well and helped to tie in some loose ends. I never imagined it ending the way it did and I applaud the author for giving it an ending that is both happy and not at the same time. Definitely a series worth picking up and finishing.

Shi Ni

My debut author for August (yes I know I'm a bit late), is Julia Mayer and her book Eyes in the Mirror. I am very pleased with my recent book choices, they have all been so different from what I typically end up reading.
This book was a mixture of two of my favorite genres in YA: teen problems and fantasy. Both genres were present but Eyes in the Mirror was more of a teen problems novel than fantasy fiction. The fantasy part of the book showed up in the form of an alternate reality, through the looking glass sort of idea, add in teen pregnancy, losing a parent at a young age and self mutilation and, believe it or not, what you end up with is a very interesting story.

Jupiter Symphony

Another day, another book. Now that I have completed The Secret Circle series I am even more excited to see the TV show. I was able to guess a couple of things in the books but there are quite a few things that I feel LJ Smith left unfinished. I'm hoping the rumors that she will be continuing to write more books for the series are true because I want to see if my unanswered theories are correct. I do believe that the TV show will go in the direction I thought the books would go and I can't wait to see. But mostly I just can't wait to learn more about these characters and follow them through their adventures again.

Got Milk?

Book number forty is done. LJ Smith is still one of my favorite authors. Her writing isn't spectacular or extremely unusual but her story lines are very interesting and I enjoy reading her books. She's good at appealing to the teenager that is still inside me. The friendships and other relationships (whether good or bad) are all well developed and easily relate-able, doesn't matter that they are witches, vampires, other paranormals or just human. I'm excited to finish up the third book in the series and of course I cannot wait to see what they have done with the TV series (I may have said that in my last post). I really hope the rumor of her writing more sequels is true.

Duodecillion

Another book down. The Secret Circle series wasn't on my "to be read list" for this year, though I have had the books for a while now, they weren't top priority. Then the CW decided to turn them into a tv series so they had to move up on my list. I just completed the first book in the series, The Initiation. I enjoy LJ Smith's writing very much. Her books are interesting but are also kind of laid back, they are rather quick reads and are very difficult to put down. She always manages to create a great relationship behind all of the supernatural goings on. Can't wait to finish up the books and then see what the TV producers do with the series.

Magic Hexagon

I finished two books recently, both of which i forgot to blog about. I just finished the blog for one and now I am on to the next. The Maze Runner by James Dashner was a wonderfully original and disturbing dystopian. I enjoy young adult books, especially these days... authors of ya fiction are not afraid to be more out there. They don't pussyfoot around the weird and scary things, they boldly go places that YA authors have always been too afraid to go to. The world is realizing that kids are no longer as naive as they used to be. Though I enjoy their creativity and their ability to throw away the "rules" and take literature to new extremes, sometimes I am taken aback by where they are willing to take their fabricated worlds. James Dashner's writing reminds me very much of The Hunger Games. Both stories have extra shock factor by making a large amount of the characters so young. These two authors have thrown children into situations you could never imagine going through as an adult, things that are cruel and very unusual. Luckily... I enjoy disturbing books. I read so much that I often am unable to be shocked by anything, I love when an author is able to surprise me and throw me off course. I am very excited to continue the James Dashner series.

Four Corners of the World

There is only one author who can take a zombie apocalypse and turn it into a beautiful expression of what humans fear and desire most in the world. Carrie Ryan is exquisite, she has created a trilogy of some of the most unbelievable literature. The characters are all full of life and are so real even though they are living in a very unreal world. Each of the three books had it's own lesson or meaning...the first, The Forest of Hands and Teeth,  symbolized wanting more, not being happy with what we have and always thinking there is something better out there. Every person goes through this at some point in their life. The second book, The Dead Tossed Waves,  was the realization that the choices we made were not the right ones, regretting what we gave up because what we thought we wanted, did not turn out to be all that we dreamed it would. And finally the last book, The Dark and Hollow Places, is the proof that once we figure out what we want, we should go for it and fight for it until the end. It is the realization that survival is no longer enough, we need love and family in order to make our existence worth anything.