November Wrap Up

Let’s jump right into it!

My Rating: 2/5

My Thoughts: Well, I was hoping I’d like this book better than the first one. I didn’t. I thought it was so boring. I also thought the characters were so unlikeable. The sarcasm (that most of them had) annoyed me and the amount of jackass-ness that Jace displayed was just so unrealistic. I feel like maybe his “bad boy vibes” are suppose to draw the readers in (“ooo how mysterious and sexy”) but it just didn’t work for me at all…I just thought he was so disrespectful and lame. Finally, as a reader I don’t often critique an authors writing style, mainly because I never notice problems. When I read a story I get sucked in and don’t pay attention to style I guess. But I couldn’t help but feel like something was off in the writing style in this book. I get the “trying too hard” vibe…everything seems overly and unecessarily descriptive. It made it hard to actually get sucked into the story when the author was constantly throwing descriptive words one after the other after the other at me. Hmmmm…..

Synopsis: Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what’s normal when you’re a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who’s becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn’t ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary’s only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father. To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

My Rating: 5/5

My Thoughts: This book is beautiful and much more entertaining to read than the original unillustrated version. I did not finish the original release as it got a bit dull reading descriptions of beasts without being able to always picture them in my mind. With this illustrated edition, however, I was captivated instantly and finished the book in a day. I found it very interesting to see how the illustrator turned the descriptions into images and to imagine if I would have come up with the same interpretation. I also enjoyed the different styles of illustrations. I loved the forward by Newt Scamander (I think this is new??), as well as the “What is a Beast” and “A Brief History of Muggle Awareness of Fantastic Beasts” sections.

Synopsis: Prepare to be dazzled by the wild wonders of the wizarding world in this sumptuously illustrated full-colour edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by J.K. Rowling (writing as Magizoologist Newt Scamander), illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill. This glorious new edition of Newt Scamander’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (considered a classic throughout the wizarding world) features an extraordinary array of magical creatures, from Acromantula to Yeti via ten different breeds of dragon – all beautifully illustrated in full colour by the brilliantly inventive, Greenaway Medal shortlisted Olivia Lomenech Gill.  Famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander’s years of adventure and exploration have yielded a work of unparalleled importance, admired by scholars, devoured by young witches and wizards, and even made available to Muggles in the early years of this century. With this dazzling illustrated edition, readers can explore the magical fauna of five continents from the comfort of their own armchairs. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is essential reading at Hogwarts.  This new edition features the fully updated 2017 text – which includes new profiles of six magnificent beasts that inhabit North America and a new foreword by J.K. Rowling, writing as Newt Scamander.

My Rating: 4/5

My Thoughts: If I could give this book a 3.5 rating I would. It was better than most 3 star reviews I give, but not quite as good as the 4 stars. My main issue with this story is that it dragged on so much in the middle. Don’t get me wrong, I normally love slow and steady character driven stories, but this one was just missing something. I will give Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) credit in that this story was incredibly well thought out with every little detail flushed out and explored. This seems like it could be a real murder case given how complex and detailed it was. I think the problem for me was that I just didn’t feel very connected to the victim. She was a celebrity who had a troubled past, so it was hard connecting with her and hard to imagine myself in her shoes. I did really like the main characters Cormoran (the detective) and Robin (his new assistant) and am super curious to see how their individual stories will progress. For that reason I will be continuing in the series. Hopefully I will find the next case a bit more captivating!

Synopsis: The Cuckoo’s Calling is a 2013 crime fiction novel by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. A brilliant mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel’s suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man. You may think you know detectives, but you’ve never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you’ve never seen them under an investigation like this.

My Rating: 3/5

My Thoughts: This marks my 12th Juliet Marillier book, and unfortunately it’s the one that held my interest the least. This is the second instalment in the Shadowfell series, and while I LOVED the first one (I gave it 5 stars) I found this one almost boring. What I love most about Juliet Marillier books is the strong character development mixed with just the right amount of magic and action. Typically, the character development centres around a slow burning romance, while in this story it focussed more on a slow friendship between the main character and her female guard. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I missed the romance aspect that Juliet Marillier is so great at, or if it was just that the storyline itself wasn’t as interesting as usual, but I just found myself less engaged in this story. It was still a solid read though, and I did enjoy seeing the growth the Neryn, the main character, had. I am interested to find out what happens next and will definitely be finishing the series soon!

Synopsis: Neryn has finally found the rebel group at Shadowfell, and now her task is to seek out the elusive Guardians, vital to her training as a Caller. These four powerful beings have been increasingly at odds with human kind, and Neryn must prove her worth to them. She desperately needs their help to use her gift without compromising herself or the cause of overthrowing the evil King Keldec. Neryn must journey with the tough and steadfast Tali, who looks on Neryn’s love for the double agent Flint as a needless vulnerability. And perhaps it is. What Flint learns from the king will change the battlefield entirely—but in whose favor, no one knows.

My Rating: 5/5

My Thoughts: This is by far the best mystery novel that I have read all year! Those who follow me may know that I have been trying to branch out from my usual Fantasy genre. I have tried Contemporary Fiction (which is usually more miss than hit) and suspense/mystery (which I enjoy more…but only if not too gory). The Chalk Man showed up at my door at the perfect time as a happy surprise after I had finished reading a disappointing book. The synopsis captured me instantly and I devoured the book in 4 days (which is fast considering it took me a whole month to get through the disappointing one before it). This is the story of several deaths that happen in 1986. Most of them are somehow connected to the main character’s life/circle of friends. The story jumps back and forth between 1986 and 2006 as the main character retells bits and pieces of the story from the different time frames until at the end it all comes together and makes sense. The story was very entertaining, and for me it had the perfect blend of suspense and mystery without being too gory. I enjoyed it so much more than I would have imagined! The story finished with a few open endings, making it the kind of story that would be fun to go back and re-read to see if you could piece together all the information. I’m shocked this is the authors first novel. I will definitely be checking other future work!

Synopsis: In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same. In 2016, Eddie is fully grown and thinks he’s put his past behind him, but then he gets a letter in the mail containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank–until one of them turns up dead. That’s when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.

Cheers,

Jen @ Habitat for Happiness

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