November 2022 Books: Mini Review Catch Up!

 

Oh my word, but I am so behind in reviews. They are all one the YouTube channel though! One minute review shorts!!  And here I'll do the blogging version of that, mini reviews!

So these are the books rounded out my November reading:

The Maid by Nita Prose: It's about a girl who loves being a maid in a fancy hotel. One day she finds a dead dude, and the mystery that wraps up surrounding this guy and the people involved is really quite interesting. I find it fun and engaging, but not as crazy amazing as everyone seemed to be making it out to be. The ending was... surprising. And strange. And I still don't really know what to think about it all. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry: I ended up loving this one! What a great sweet romance. Our main characters have been friends for years, going on a fun crazy trip together every summer. But denying all these years how they feel about each other. We get flashbacks to the previous trips, but spend a lot of time on the current trip where they finally figure things out! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads. I  look forward to reading more by her! I hear Book Lovers is a must!

The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson: This is a book I've had on my shelf forever, the second in a YA SF series. In the first book we learn what happened to Jenna Fox... in this book, we learn what happened to her friends, and it's CRAZY stuff! I remember loving the first book, this one was fun, but not as compelling as that first one. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads.

Not Going There by Terri Osburn: Another book by an author friend! This one is book 3 in the "Not" series where we are following the love stories of a group of fun friends. I totally enjoyed this one about our girl who gets fired and ends up running her own bookkeeping business and then her first client is a dude that she is totally turning her nose up at... and then, she finds out he's actually pretty cool. In fact, I myself quite fell in love with him! I gave this one 4 stars on Goodreads for some fun romantic comedy escape.

Stay tuned for a catch up post on books read in December! Here's hoping I can keep up better this new year! Thought I might keep this format... and just do mini reviews from now on... hmm....

Book Review: Feed by Mira Grant

 Book: Feed by Mira Grant

Genre: YA dystopian

Rating: ★ ★ ★

This was another book club read! The premise is quite intriguing... it takes place several years after a zombie virus outbreak, and the world has come to learn how to deal with the aftermath. Even though this book was written in 2010 (or published then I should say) it has so many similarities to our world now with the whole virus fear and constant testing and everyone staying in and social distancing... AND... the political fall out.

Yes, this book got a bit heavy on the politics for me. Our main characters end up on the campaign trail of a presidential candidate. They are bloggers and in this world, bloggers are the main  news source. The ones brave enough to go out and face the zombie threat and bring people news. Another intriguing premise for sure.

But, I had a lot of issues with the delivery of this story. It's very info dumpy, a lot of telling about how this world works instead of just jumping into the story and showing us. It took a lot of time for something to actually happen. The writing style was a bit dry and just not my favorite. The characters also not so very much my favorite.

That being said, when the story actually started to get going, there were enough crazy things that happen to keep me going. A couple of unseen twists and turns. And I am just a touch curious about what might happen in the next books.

Another interesting thing is the relationship between our main characters. They are brother and sister but dang... they sure don't act like it! And we do learn they are adopted, but I still wondered about whether they are biological or not. That might come out in future books, or I missed it. I don't know. But that whole thing is intriguing to me too. 

We did talk about some stuff that goes on in the next books during book club and it actually does make me want to read more. Even with all the issues I had. Go figure!

Book Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Book: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Genre: YA SF

Rating:  ★ ★ ★

Awhile back I made a pile of books for a Top Ten Tuesday with the theme of "books I've had for years but never read." That stack has been mocking me ever since. So I grabbed one off the top and read it! So there!

This particular one was interesting to me too because of the scifi theme, since that's the sort of book I'm currently trying to finish up writing myself. So I was kind of hoping that reading this would spur me on to finishing my own story. Ha.

Anyway, I remember this one getting a ton of buzz years ago and I'm assuming many of you have read it, yeah? What did you think? I should look up old reviews!

It's about a girl who decides to go on a mission with her parents, which involves them getting frozen for 300 plus years while the ship travels to the new planet they are going to settle and start civilization there. So the catch is, someone wakes her up WAY too early and now she is part of the crew of the ship that lives and dies there while they make their way to the new planet. 

She makes friends with the dude who is up next to lead this crew and there are so many strange things going on and together they get to (or try to get to) the bottom of it all.  Basically, this crew and this mission in general, is not a happy one. WAH, these people are messed up!

So of course this book is just the start and to finish the story, one must keep going! I have so many books where I've read the first one and then totally forget to keep going, even if I'm intrigued. Sigh. Has anyone read this whole series? Is it worth it? Should I keep going?

Book Review: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

 Book: Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth

Genre: YA science fiction

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

This was last month's book club book. And now it's almost time for this month's! I am so behind!

Anyway, I went into it knowing nothing. And was pleasantly surprised with how fast I was sucked in and invested.

This one takes place on a planet where a couple of groups of people are in conflict with each other. Different customs and styles and goals. The story opens when the boy and his brother from one group get kidnapped by some people from the other group, after they murder his father. Now it's a few years later and he is older and ready to try to escape and take his brother with him before it's too late. Because the brother is being changed by the power of the dude who is the leader of these people.

And the sister of this dude has a special power that makes it so if she touches people, they feel intense pain. To the point where she can kill them. And the brother uses her like crazy for his power, and she is sick of it. And ready to escape.

And the story gets great when the two of them meet. 

"Carve the mark" refers to the tradition these people have of tattooing a line on their arm for all the people they've killed. It's a badge of honor. And our boy is collecting them whether he wants to or not, even though he is from the more peaceful people. 

Oh, did I mention that the boy CAN touch the girl? Because HIS power is that powers don't work on him! Yes. Very interesting indeed!

So they get help and concoct a plan and it's a crazy plan and wow. 

And then the book ends and it's really not over! AH, where's the next book?

Movie Review: Space Sweepers

Movie: Space Sweepers

Genre: science fiction

Starring: Song Joong Ki, Kim Tae Ri, Richard Armitage, Seon Kyu Jin

Rating: Two thumbs up

When I learned that two of my worlds were colliding in this movie, I knew I needed to give it a try. Yes, a favorite British actor and a favorite Korean actor...together... in one movie! Also... space! I haven't seen a good fun space adventure for a long time it seems. 

Anyway, it lived up to fun space adventure-ness!

It's about a ragtag group of misfits who are space "sweepers"... with the job of cleaning up junk floating around in space. Also, Earth is dying and a dude has created a utopian-like society in space that is quite exclusive, which many people don't agree with. 

And then there's this girl who somehow gets lost and everyone thinks she is dangerous because of some special powers she has. Our little group of crazy people find her and they are so excited to claim the huge reward for doing so. But then they learn that the plan is to destroy her. So they have to rethink everything.

It's very fun with all these crazy people interacting with a kid.. .and to see that bond happen. And the whole theme of Earth dying and what's the best thing humanity can do about it. And what are solutions that will work. 

Our hero and the kid he rescues.

I enjoyed the acting, and the music and the crazy very unrealistic space fights! And all the characters of course. It was very fun to see my two actors interact with each other, though that scene was very brief in the end. 

The movie is mostly Korean, but there is also lots of English too, and many moments with French and Spanish and Russian ( I think) and even a language I didn't know... maybe something made up? I don't know, but yeah. Lots of languages used, so I loved that. 

Anyway, despite many familiar space movie tropes, it was quite a fun diversion for the night, this movie!

Here's a trailer:

Book Review: Half Life by Lillian Clark

 

Book: Half Life by Lillian Clark

Genre: YA SF

Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★

This answers the question: What if you could have a clone of yourself? Then what?

Would you make her do all the stuff you don't want to do so you can go and party?

Would she not have feelings and desires of her own?

Would she know and think the exact same way you do?

What is truly the ethicality of such an idea?

In this crazy story, our girl is stressed about all the things she has to do, and also, she's just plain sick of her life, so when a company approaches her with a crazy idea, she decides to go for it.

And thus she finds herself going through all the processes of getting cloned. At first she thinks it's going to be awesome, but slowly she realizes that it's not really as great as it sounded to begin with.

The book is written in that once we have a clone of our character, we start seeing things from both points of view. We have Lucille, or original... and Lucy... our clone. And what an interesting way to solve a love triangle, eh? Just have the character clones, and BOTH boys get the girl! LOL!

So very crazy this story is!

And lots to think about. 

I really enjoyed it, though sometimes I still felt a bit distanced from this character, I don't know why. Anyway, for the most part it was really interesting.

Book Review: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

Book: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Genre: Historical scifi/fantasy
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

I knew absolutely nothing about this book going in. It was voted as our book club book this month and I hadn't heard anything about it at all. I actually thought it was a YA comedy of sorts! LOL!

I couldn't have been more wrong!

It reminded me a lot of Life After Life by Kate Atkinson if you are familiar with that one. Our main character, Harry, is born, lives a life and dies, only to be born again exactly as he was before. In this book, he takes us on a detailed journey of his different lives, not in any order, so that's a bit confusing, but we are to understand the process and struggle he goes through.

The circumstances of his lives are all different depending on how Harry approaches things... or the different scenarios he finds himself in. After awhile he gets good at manipulating things for his benefit, but he still doesn't feel it necessary to change history at all. In fact this is what gets him in a trouble the most.

He is born in 1920 (I think... or 1919?) so he lives through many historical events. If his life is "normal" he always gets sick and dies an old  man in the 80s or 90s. One time he was a little more healthy and lasted into the 2000s.

He uses his lives to learn all sorts of things, and experiences nearly every career, travels everywhere, learns all the languages and etc. In one life he finally meets up with others like him and they have a sort of club. The club learns that someone down the line is trying to change history to the point that the world is destroyed.

So now Harry has the mission to stop this from happening, and it's not easy.

It's all actually quite fascinating and crazy and confusing and messes with your brain in a crazy time travelling sort of way. And makes you think what you would do if you had endless lives. And could actually remember everything from all the previously lives.

The book is quite violent in parts (so much torture! WHY???) and there's murder and mayhem and war and some pretty awful people. Harry is sometimes awful himself and sometimes nice, depending on the life he's chosen that time around.

This whole book is like his memoir reflecting on all he's done and if he's made a difference at all. It's quite stream of conscious in parts but I found that if I didn't stress about connecting the dots, they all connected eventually on their own.

In the end, I really enjoyed it a lot! What a crazy ride!

Kdrama Review: Melting Me Softly

Drama: Melting Me Softly
Genre: Romantic comedy with SciFi elements
Starring: Ji Chang Wook, Won Jin Ah, Choi Bo Min
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤


Our boy Ji Chang Wook is back at it! It seems the critics and other reviews felt this drama wasn't his best return to the acting scene, but I found him to be just as adorable as always and enjoyed this drama thoroughly.

It's about a dude who is the director of a popular stunt reality TV show in the 90s and for one of his gigs, he thought it would be fun to be the first frozen human. He gets a girl to do it with him and they are put in the tank and frozen, all of it being filmed for the show. They are supposed to be awakened 24 hours later, but something happens, they are stored away and no one involved knows what to do (or are threatened with their lives) and the two of them or forgotten about for 20 years. Until finally one day in 2019, they are brought back.

And so it's about them dealing with life now that 20 years have passed. Their own health is at risk and they have to find the cure for that or they will die. They have to navigate that fact that their families are older and dealing with heavy things. And of course, everyone's love lives are messed up.

Figuring out phones!

I thought they were really cute together and the relationships they each have with their families is heartwarming. There were some annoying characters that really grated on the nerves, the other managers of the TV show for one... and the girl's ex boyfriend who was bad in 1999, but worse in 2019, for the other.

Cute Bo Min of Golden Child

But they did include another love interest for her... a college student who falls fast and hard for her. He is played by the beautiful Bo Min of the group Golden Child... and idol who we have actually had some interaction with once upon a time at KCON 2018 thanks to the fact that Toto was wearing his name on her head and he saw it and loved it!  He blessed us with that crazy smile of his and we won't ever get over it. LOL. But he plays up that smile a lot in this drama which was awesome.

Bo Min reacting to Toto's headband which had his name on it.

This was also the first drama I've watched since being to Korea myself and to be able to recognize landmarks and locations was SO MUCH FUN! AH!!

Anyway. I enjoyed it and got all wrapped up in how it would all end!

The trailer:





The cute stuff:

Book Review: Mercy by Rebecca Lim

Book: Mercy by Rebecca Lim

Genre: YA SF
Rating: ★ ★

I picked this one up at the bookstore from the "customer recommended" shelf because, for the challenge this store is doing, one of the categories is to read something from this shelf.

Well. I must say. I was not impressed with this one! Dang it! :)

It's about a girl who wakes up and finds herself yet again in someone else's body. So, as she has had to do over and over, she quickly figures out her situation and adapts to survive whatever life she is living this time. We as the readers have no idea why this is happening to her, or what she is, just that she is an entity that is now in someone else's body.

So the girl she is now being has just arrived at a sort of exchange program for the high school choir she belongs to. And she is given to a host family that seems to be dealing with some sort of tragedy. And suddenly she takes it upon herself to help them solve this mystery. Mostly because she is attracted to the brother. Hmm.

It was just a weird story. And kinda of boring until the end, as some of these books go... a lot of set up and then the end gets good and then it's over and then you have to read the next book to see what happens next. And while I'm usually okay with set up, I just didn't feel it this time. Like while we are setting up the plot, let's also get us invested in characters too. Yeah? For me, it didn't happen.

From the book blurb and etc. we know that she is a fallen angel, but that is never really explained in this first book. There are other beings we meet that make us wonder, hmmm, what is going on, but nothing is really explained. Despite the set up feeling. It's just... all weird.

Luckily it was a short and easy to read book. It was a fun experiment to grab some random book off the shelf to read based on some stranger recommendation. But I wasn't hooked and will most likely not be reading anymore from the series.

Book Review: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Book: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Genre: NA SF
Rating:  ★ ★


I was a little leery about this one going in. Not exactly sure why, but just... you know... not too sure. Turns out, I was kinda right. Cause this book was just weird.

It's about a girl who one day as she is walking home happens upon a weird robot statue that seems to have just appeared out of nowhere there in New York...and she thinks it's pretty cool. So she calls her friend and they make a youtube video about it.  Well, and so the next morning they find out that these robot things appeared in cities all over the world, but it happens that they are the first ones to say anything about it. And everyone loved their video and watched and so overnight they become famous.

So then it's mostly about her dealing with this sudden fame and how should she use it to get across her message, which is that the robots are friendly. She has named them Carl, which the world loves, and now everyone is trying to figure out where they came from and why they are here.

There's a lot of science talk, and puzzles to solve, which might be fun for some readers, but kinda made my head spin. Then things turn political as it turns out there are two sides... those that think Carl is friendly and those that don't. And so now she has enemies.

So in the end, the book for me was a little boring.. until the end when things finally started getting interesting and then it was over. So that was sad. But I, for the most part, felt like it was too agenda-y. Our friend Hank was trying too hard to get across a lot of points regarding fame and fortune and tolerance and ... I don't even know what else.

I felt also like the characters weren't that interesting. Gah, I feel bad saying so! I wanted to be more invested with them, but I just wasn't feeling it. More character development Mr. Hank! and less about the agenda!

Yeah. Not my favorite book of the year I'm pretty sure...

Kdrama Review: Longing Heart

Drama: Longing Heart (also called My First Love)

Genre: time travel romance
Starring: Lee Jung Shin, Lee Yeol Eum, Seo Ji Hoon
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

I was going to give the drama watching a break... and read. But I finished my book fast, and I crave the dramas after even only a couple of days of not watching one, so I caved and decided to watch this one because it's so short... only 10 episodes. And the episodes are short too, like only 45 min long. And besides it's been on my radar since last year when it aired.

This one is about a dude who has pined for his high school crush for ten years. And is so sad that nothing everncame of this love he had. And is still baffled after all this time why she just up and disappeared after high school without a word and never came back.

But she suddenly appears in his current life and he tries to approach her. But she is cold and brash and mean and basically drops him flat. So sad. He feels like something is up and he is determined to figure it out.

That's when something happens and he finds himself suddenly 10 years in the past when he was in high school. Only wait. He is his current present day self, gone back in time. And so he is a teacher now to his friends, this girl he loves... and himself... from 2007.

It's trippy.

He's determined to figure out what happened and to change things up a bit so that he can be with this girl.. either now... or in the future. But the minute he gets there, he has already messed things up and dang it, but the girl now has a massive crush him, the teacher, and not him, the student. What to do??

It's great! There are like three parts to this drama. The first few episodes are in the past in 2007 with both our dudes there, both the student main lead and the teacher main lead. Then we come back to the present day 2017, with BOTH our guys again... the student AND the teacher! And then we have the episodes were the guys are both finally back to the proper times, but their memories are so messed up because of the events that have now happened that they don't know what time what happened!

Anyway, our lovely student boy (dang I loved him!) thinks he has it all figured out and he is sure he is going to fix things so his future self will be happy once and for all!

Our two boys! Their banter is the best!

Okay, so my favorite part of this drama was the banter between these two leads. The student character and the teacher character.. because they are the same character, but not really! It's awesome! And they banter like frenemies and big and little brothers or best buds forever. A great bromance drama. And we all love bromance dramas.

The other thing I liked was the mother son relationship. Man, these dramas like to play that up. There are great daughter dad ones, and some mother daughter ones... I can't think of good son dad ones because usually those ones are toxic. But the mom son ones really get to me and this one was no exception. So good.

The romance was fun but frustrating because the girl was so confused as to who she was in love with, as you can imagine! LOL! And even though it's a short drama, it seemed like it took forever for her to finally figure it out!

A love triangle with yourself. Awesome!

Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. Time travel stories are always fun, but they do totally mess with your mind!

(This one reminded me a bit of Back to the Future in parts and I about died when at one point the character was watching Back to the Future on TV! LOL! So funny!)

The teacher dude was played by a guy from the band CNBLUE (those guys seem to get around!) and I've seen him in something else but it took me nearly the whole drama to realize it was him. The kid was someone new I haven't seen before and is so freaking cute. I hope to see him around in more.

Here's a trailer:





And this song sung by IMFACT, a band we discovered this year when we saw them at KCON. Awesome!

Kdrama Review: Are You Human Too?

Drama: Are You Human Too?
Genre: science fiction thriller/romance
Starring: Seo Kang Joon, Gong Seung Yeon
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤


This is a drama that grabbed me from the very first moment. So much happens in the first couple of episodes! The premise here is that our guy is a robot... his genius mom made him because her human son was kidnapped from her when he was about 10 years old by his grandpa (her father in law) and she was never able to get him back.

So he was raised by this crazy powerful guy and so she, because she could, made a robot replacement.

The robot is nice, mannerly, kind, rule abiding, sweet, compassionate and etc. The human is... arrogant, mean, ruthless, playboyish, snotty, greedy, and etc. They are as different as can be.

The robot, with his adorable smile.

One day, the human son is trying to track down his mom, but he is being followed by a hitman hired by the bad guy and is nearly killed. The robot son witnesses this and is freaked out. The mom rescues the human son and begins to nurse him back to health.

Meanwhile, she asks the robot son to step into his place in the corporate crazy world so that the bad guys don't know what happened, and so that the human son doesn't lose his place to inherit the company.

Yeah.

So they teach him to be all the bad things so he can pull this off. But deep down, he is still all the good things. And it might get him caught!

(I found it funny that he, this robot character, continually said he doesn't have emotions, but dang, he totally did! He was chuck full of emotion! How is that possible!? LOL!)

He gives lots of hugs because it's a rule.

And so it goes. He has a bodyguard that he had had a run in with as the human, but the robot took a liking to the bodyguard and won her over quickly. She discovers his secret pretty fast. Which was nice (I hate it when secrets like this get dragged on forever!) and she becomes a great ally. And of course, she falls for him. He is TOO DANG SWEET not to fall for! And of course, even if he doesn't have emotion or a heart, or whatever, he totally falls for her too. It's the best thing ever!

But wow the story gets complicated and all messed up and so much is happening and dang the bad guys ! And then when the human son wakes up... oh boy. It's not pretty.

Robot left, human right. Yeah?

Of course both parts are played by the same guy and that lets you know his acting is spot on! We can usually tell which one it is by the way he holds his face, the way he smiles , the way walks. He can go from human to robot in a flash. Though he does trick us a few times! Beware....

And so I loved it. The end was a bit.. weird and frustrated me. I could have thought of better ways, you know? But all in all it was extremely engaging and fun and suspenseful.

Here's the trailer. It's a bit long, but the best one out there:






This drama is another one with a ton of great songs. Here's the one that seems to play at all the best parts!

Book Review: Exo by Fonda Lee

Book: Exo by Fonda Lee
Genre: YA SF
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

It's been awhile since I read a science fiction and this one was not bad... not bad at all! :) Pretty dang good actually!

It's about Earth after an alien invasion. I'm assuming the invasion happened about our current time. There was a long 30 year war at that time, with humans trying to fight against them. However, they finally gave up and peace between the races was declared. The book takes place near Peace Day, 100 years later.

Most of the human population has just decided to go along with the rule of this alien race. Some of them have wholeheartedly embraced it. And those people have even had their children become like the aliens in a process called Hardening. They alter them biologically so they have the ability to armour themselves with an exoskelton, similar to the aliens. These people, who have gone through that process, are called Exos.

Our boy, Donovan, is 17 years old, and an Exo. He works as a soldier maintaining peace. Because there are outlying groups who are still against the aliens and want to take back the planet. They despise Exos and hate what they symbolize. Donovan's job is to search out these people and have them prosecuted.

Oh, and Donovan's dad is the Prime Liaison... the most important human job....maintaining relations between humans and the aliens.

One day, when out on patrol, things go bad, and suddenly Donovan finds himself captured by these crazy humans. And while with them, he learns about their cause and realizes that they have some pretty good ideas....

And there's a girl of course. As one of these fighting humans. There's also someone else who's in that group that quite freaks Donovan out. And he is so confused he can hardly function.

It's a great book that shows how there really is no black and white. You can see both sides of this issue. You end up rooting for everyone and you want everyone to win. It's frustrating and eye opening.

Sometimes I worry about books with a political sort of premise, but this one was okay in its presentation. It didn't get too bogged down with it.

I enjoyed the intensity of this story. Many edge of your seat moments. It did get a little slower in the middle for a bit, but soon picked up again. So yeah, I really enjoyed it! I'm wondering if this is the start to a series since it ended up with lots of places it could still go. I guess we'll see!! (Well, so I see in Goodreads that there's an Exo #1 by the title.. I guess that answers that question! Yeah, there's many things Donovan still needs to do and figure out... poor kid.)

Book Review: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Book: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Genre: Science Fiction
Rating:★★★★☆

This book was our October/Halloween-y book for book club this month. We'll be discussing it tonight and it should be interesting since I'm getting vibes that there is a variety of opinion. As for me, I thought it was awesome and suspenseful and thought provoking.

It's about a dude who is happy in his life, and yet, he wonders, in the back of his mind what would have happened had he chosen a different path. The other road, if you will. Well, and so he gets to find out and it's not a good thing.

He gets abducted one night and when he wakes up, he realizes he's in a different world, a different reality. And in fact, it's the reality of the very thing he's been wondering...what would things be like if he had chosen differently.

And now all he wants to do is to get back to his family, and his world.

It's not easy.

I thought it was a great page turning and twisty story. And it made you really think about all the different decisions you make in life and how things would be if you chose other things. And how we should love and appreciate the life we're in at the moment. Because what if you woke up one and it was all gone. It's like everyone's classic worse nightmare.

I thought it was great. It's been awhile since a book held my attention like this one. I'd been looking forward to reading for quite some time. I'm glad it lived up to the anticipation.

Book Review Thoughts: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Book: Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Genre: YA SF
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ★


This is the second book in the Iluminae Files. This one is a different part of the story, showing what's happening in another part of the universe during the same events as the first book, Illuminae. Which means we have a whole new set of characters. Even though the first set pops in and out just a bit.

So this book takes place on a space station (the other one on space ship). In fact it's the space station that the space ship from the first book is trying to get to. And just shortly after the book opens, the station is taken over by hostiles. These people are connected to the events in the first book and for some reason, DANG, they want to kill everyone! (Reasons for this may have been subtly revealed, but if so, I didn't catch it in the midst of all the other trauma I was focused on.)

Anyway.

This one follows the tradition of the first book in that the story is told using documents. Such as, emails, texts, surveillance camera footage, journal entries, and etc. It takes maybe a page or two to get the flow of this method, but I think readers fall into the rhythm of it really fast. And once again, I find it a really fun way to tell a story. It's so unique and fascinating really.

Our heroine is the daughter of the leader of this space station and she is one spunky girl. She loves this one dude, but he turns out to be... not so good, and the dude she thinks is not so good, turns out to be the one she really likes. Of course. And she learns all this throughout the course of the events that happen after the take over, which is stressful because she, of course, is the only one who can save the day. So she sort of has her hands full.

It's so very complicated and much much more intense than I can articulate. But let me just say, whew, these are violent books. Let that be a warning to those with queasy and/or weak stomachs. Violent I'm telling you!

So once again, I was sucked in and loved this story. I'm anxious to read more and see how it all ends, because of course, there is so much  more of this story to tell! So now I wait another year I'm guessing!

Saturday Snapshot: Catching up and Sing Along Saturday: Space!

 I haven't shared pictures for the West Metro Mommy's Saturday Snapshot meme for a few weeks, so here's a catch up!

The daughter is moving so here's a last picture of all
the my four kids together for awhile.
Gah, blurry. Ick.

My daughter-in-law graduated!
A couple more years and she'll be full RN. :)

I found Korean kids books in the donation
pile at the library. I didn't nab them yet.
I can't read them but they look cool, 네?

My youngest kid with my oldest (only) grandkid!

My nephew got married.

I went to a writing conference
and had my first chapter critiqued by a bunch of nice dudes!

Sounds like a way too exciting life, yes? Ha!

**************************************************

And now music for the Sing Along Saturday found over at Bookish Things and More. Today's prompt:

What song goes perfectly with a book?

I have several spotify playlists (one I created, some I follow) dedicated to music that has a science fiction space-y feel. I love love love this sort of music and every single one of them could fit to a science fiction book such as Illuminae or These Broken Stars or the one I'm trying to write myself or Ender's Game.... or any of them.

So I guess I'm cheating a bit and sharing a couple favorite songs that fit a genre and not a book. Ready? Ok!

This one makes me think of the end of a long crazy book when all is well again. It starts out a bit slow, but give it a chance and you'll have goose bumps I promise:




M83 always delivers for cool space-y sounding music. I love this one for its build up too.





And one with words now! Starchaser, which is self explanatory for this assignment! I really love this one too:


Thanks for listening! What songs makes you think of a book?

Book Review Thoughts: Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Book: Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Genre: YA Scifi
Rating:★★★★★


What an awesome ending to a trilogy! In this book, all three couples... Tarver and Lilac from the first book (These Broken Stars) and Flynn and Jubilee from the second book (This Shattered World) and a new couple from this book, Gideon and Sophie, who both have ties to the previous characters... all come together in a final crazy nail biting show down! And now... I'm so sad to be done!

These books have it all! (Remember when we talked about plot and character last week and how you truly need them both?) Yeah, these books are dripping with both awesome plot and awesome characters. In this last book, we meet Gideon who is a well known computer hacker and Sophie, who is running away from said computer hacker, among other things. 'Course she doesn't know who Gideon is and when she finds out, she is steaming mad. But alas, it's too late and she is already head over heels. And of course she is because Gideon is IRRESISTIBLE! And then they are both running and at the same time, trying to figure out how to bring down the bad guy. And when they go to do that, they meet up with the characters from the past books and BAM... let the crazy begin!

Gah. I love these books so much.

Bottom Line: If you haven't read them  yet, what the HECK are you waiting for?

Other Reviews:

The authors were very clever in how they make everything fall into place. From The TBR Pile

This was probably my favorite book in the trilogy. All the action! All the intrigue! From A Backwards Story

Their Fractured Light is not only a stunning execution of a cover (seriously, how do they keep doing that!?), it’s a phenomenal execution of ending a beautiful and magical science fiction story. These authors have managed to pull off something incredible here and I want everyone to experience it. From Such a Novel Idea


(P.S. In changing up my reviews, it appears I'm going to just go back to how I was doing them years ago... mostly just a vomit of feelings. I still like to see what others say, so I'll leave those links for now. Anything else I should add or take away? What do you want to know about the books I read?)

Book Review Discussion: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Book: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Genre: YA science fiction/horror
Rating:★★★★★
For: fun
From: bought at Costco

Short Synopsis: The story begins with enemy fire raining down on our characters who live on a small planet at the edge of the galaxy.  They are both rescued but onto two different space ships. It is now the mission of these ships to get to the wormhole that will send them to where they can get help for all the refugees... before the bad guys find them again. It will take six months to get to this transfer spot, and they fear the enemy ship will track them down before that happens. Meanwhile, a few months into this journey, something strange and crazy happens on the third ship of their crippled fleet. The events after this strange and crazy thing is what make up the bulk of this story through an investigation that is being done long after the fact.

The book is a graphic novel of sorts. Actually, I'd call it a visual novel. Lots of illustrations and ways to portray the words visually. This investigation is taking place and in order to process this event, all the documents are put together for review. We, the readers, are then privy to these documents. The documents are made up of emails, chats, surveillance camera reports, on board ship announcements, journal entries, requests for different things, logs, detailed maps and blueprints and computer data.

My Response: Awesome! I started hearing buzz about this book when it first came out and then when I saw it at the store, there was no question, I knew I had to have one! The authors came to my area on my birthday and I so wish I could have gone, but I had other things I had to go to, so sadly it didn't happen. Anyway, now having read the book, I would love to hear what they have to say about it all! And how they did this, and that and the other.

You  may think that having a bunch of documents to read would be... boring... confusing.. disconnected, etc. But no, you get the feel of the whole story. You get the voice of the characters, you get the intensity of the things going on, you get their romantic connection (even though they are on different ships) and you get the conflict. It's really amazing and like I said, so so awesome.

Beware though, this does have a horror element and it's quite violent. Quite.

Bottom Line: I loved it. This! This is the sort of book I want to write! I just, I don't know, it's just so cool! This is story is far from over and YAY for more! One of my favorites of the year for sure.

Let's Talk About: Okay, so what IS your feeling about reading a book that is made up of documents? Do you find this creative? A cop out? Cool as can be? Strange? Too weird to handle? What? What do you think?

Other Reviews:

This book is impressive and a superb start to a promising series. From Good Books and Good Wine

In many ways, Illuminae is a game-changer for the world of young adult science fiction. It bridges the gap between hard-core science fiction fans and those looking for a good story. From That's What She Read

Final Verdict: Illuminae- It's like nothing I have ever read before...and I mean that in the best possible way! From The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

A glorious science fiction read for teens, this book has romance yes, but at its heart it is a dynamic horror story set in the vacuum of space. From Walking Brain Cells

Book Review Discussion: Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Book: Fairest by Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA SciFi
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For: Fun
From: Bought it a the launch party earlier this year. 

Short Synopsis: Before Queen Levena was queen of Luna, she was a 15 year old girl with a massive self image problem. This is that 15 year old girl's story. How she hides her true face behind a glamour all the time, how she loves a guard that does not love her back, how she has to deal with the meanest sister ever, how she struggles and struggles to find her place in the world and how she succeeds by using a method so ruthless I can't even...ah!

My Response: Well, at least we know now what's behind this crazy lady! This book was heart wrenching for me. I don't know, just to see the pain both physical and emotional, that this girl suffers through and how she has no one AT ALL to talk her through things, which means, she makes some really awful decisions. I don't know. I felt bad for her, yes, and at the same time, she makes me crazy, just like she does in all the subsequent books! And the ending. Sheesh.

Bottom Line: But I loved it! The full five stars worth because... wow. It's so cool to have such a powerful back story that it demands to be written and turned into its own book. I mean. Seriously. This book is all emotion and yeah, I just loved it despite the grim sadness.

Let's Talk About: I always have a tendency to pooh pooh the little books, the "oh yeah" books, the "not for real" books, but you know, this one has proved me wrong. The little "accident" books are just as good as the real ones. At least in this case it is! What do you think?

Other Reviews:

I felt very sorry for Levana throughout the book, and I found myself very sad at the choices she made. From One Librarian's Book Reviews

Meyer is an expert at weaving all the little details together into a beautiful piece of art and this book was no exception. From Alternate Readality

I loved that most about Fairest: Meyer doesn't lay the fault of Levana's character on any one person, leaving it open to interpretation. From The Canon

But for those who have read the first three Lunar Chronicles books, Fairest is just as compelling as the others, and is a fascinating look at a particularly nasty bad guy. From Fyrefly's' Book Blog

Book Review Discussion TWO-FER: This Night So Dark by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner AND Heir to Endenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson

I'm trying to get my Goodreads number up! To help with that I've recently read a couple of short novellas. Besides which, I was dying to get a peek into both these worlds again.  Loved them both! Here are my mini reviews for them:


Book: This Night So Dark by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner 
Genre: YA SciFi
Rating:★★★★☆
For: Fun
From: ebook from Amazon

Short Synopsis: This is the story of what happened to Tarver before he came aboard the ship that crashes... you  know, the one where he meets Lilac. (aka. These Broken Stars) and why he has been promoted...much to his chagrin. It's a sad, violent story, but it's nice to know what happened, and what he's like before meeting Lilac.

My Response: Loved it of course. I love this character. I love this world. Love love love. Read it for sure if you are into this series.







Book: Heir to Endenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson
Genre: Historical romance
Rating:★★★★★
For: Fun
From: ebook from Amazon

Short Synopsis: Similar to the above, this is the story of what happened to Philip before he meets Marianne... the frustration he feels having to take over the estate after his brother dies and being a reluctant eligible bachelor. And then we get to be in his head during the events of the inn when he meets Marianne, which is most awesome.

My Response: Um.. most awesome! :) Makes me want to pick up and re-read Edenbrooke in a most desperate way, but I have too many other things to read right now! If you are a fan, you know you have to get this one!



Let's Talk About: What are you feelings about these prequel and in between novellas? I used to be all turn-up-my-nose at them, but I'm finding they are quite enjoyable. As long as I can get them free or cheap! They are really fun!

Now... to find some more short fast books to read before the year is over!