Weekly Book Round Up #39

This is the fourth book in the Virals series written by Kathy Reichs and her son. While I'm a big fan of her Temperance Brennan books, I find this series for young adults a little bit boring. It has more of a supernatural element than the Tempe books, with some crime solving mixed in, but unfortunately I find the main characters quite irritating! Having said all of that, I actually think I enjoyed this one the most out of all the other books in the series. Once I got into it, the clues and investigating sucked me in more than the other books have previously, and we're finally starting to get somewhere with the ongoing investigation into how the Viral's superpowers work. I tend to get these books from the library as I'm not that keen on them, but I'll be looking out for the next one now because we've been left on a bit of a cliffhanger!

Nicola's rating: 2.5/5

Don't forget to enter my giveaway here to win TheBalm's How 'bout them Apples? palette!

Weekly Book Round Up #11

Last Friday was pay day and I ran out of things to read before that, so I decided to download some of the free classics onto my Kindle. I've not read any Jane Austen before, so this might be a bit of an odd review. I found the main character, Emma, to be pretty irritating. She thinks of herself as a bit of a matchmaker after successfully marrying off her governess, and decides to try and set her friend Harriet up with someone. Obviously, it all goes wrong, Harriet gets proposed to by a farmer and Emma persaudes her to turn him down, sets her up with a vicar, except the vicar is more interested in Emma, then Harriet falls in love with Mr Knightley and as soon as Emma finds that out, she decides that she loves him too. It's completely mental. The story is fun, but Emma is so snobbish in places, and some of the other characters really annoyed me as well. I don't think this has put me off reading more Jane Austen and similar classics though, I think it's good to have a go at trying different genres and authors.

Nicola's rating: 2.5/5

 

 

I'm finally up to date with Kathy Reichs! Yay! This is the latest Temperance Brennan novel, and I've been expecting some kind of resolution regarding the Pete (sort of ex-husband) and Andy (on and off boyfriend) situation. So it's two weeks until Pete's wedding to Summer, and Temperance finally hands over the signed divorce papers, and I'm thinking "Yay! Now she can focus on Andy" and then BOOM. At the end of the novel (SPOILERS IMMINENT) HE CALLS OFF THE FREAKING WEDDING. And we're left wondering whether Pete filed the divorce papers or not. By this point I am getting pretty irritated. And also, (MORE SPOILERS) we receive the tragic news that Andy's estranged daughter Lily has died from a heroin overdose. Good god. And that's just the romantic plot, never mind the whole forensic anthropology thing. This story focuses on human trafficking, and the war in Afghanistan. Obviously Temperance gets a reason to go out and visit her daughter (who is now in the marines) and solve some crimey stuff at the same time. Really I felt like this was a bit of a let down. I found the storyline to be quite boring in places, which is usually not a problem I have with these novels. There were moments of excitement/anxiety, but mainly in reference to her cat. At one point, you're almost led to believe that the bad guys have done away with him as a way of intimidating Tempe, but it turns out she just shut him in the wardrobe (facepalm).

 

 

Nicola's rating: 3/5

 

 

Only two books read this week, I'm on 132 out of 150 which is making me feel a bit less confident about achieving my goal. I've only got 9 more weeks to read 18 books, eek :\ 

Weekly Book Round Up #6

So I'm more or less up to date Kathy Reichs wise now! Yay! I just have the latest book to read, but thats only just come out so the queue for it at the library is quite long. I found this book to be pretty disturbing in places, more so than Kathy Reichs usually is. This focused around the deaths of three babies though, and the books are usually based around adults. I appreciate the shake up, but it was quite hard to stomach in places. Still well worth a read if this series is your sort of thing, but I still have the same niggles regarding the main characters private life. In the previous book her daughter joined the army, but in this book we don't get any updates on that. There are no further updates regarding her divorce/Pete's wedding either. KEEP US IN THE LOOP KATHY.

Nicola's rating: 3/5



I really enjoyed the Chaos Walking Trilogy and A Monster Calls, so I've wanted to read this for a while, and have only just got around to buying it for my kindle. It's kind of a fairytale/myth with a modern retelling, and it is written fantastically. It tells the story of George, and how he discovers a crane (the bird type, not a building site jobby) in his garden one night. What happens next is all magical and stuff, so I'll leave that to you guys to read about. While I did enjoy how this was written, I felt a bit underwhelmed by the book in general, and its hard to put my finger on why. I feel like it would have helped me to know the actual myth behind the story, but that isn't ever revealed. I just wasn't as impressed as I expected to be. I would still recommend his previous novels though, and I've not sworn him off forever.

Nicola's rating: 2/5

 This is another series that I have been reading for a while, and I have to say, its getting weird. The main character is Betsy, who also happens to be queen of the vampires. So far, a lot of crazy stuff has happened, including Betsy messing with time and ending up in a parallel universe which is starting to get pretty damn confusing. This is the 12th book in the series, and they did start out really good fun, I just think that maybe the crazy needs turning down a notch. 

Nicola's rating: 2/5

Apologies for this being a day late, I've been ill with a cold for the past 2 days, but regular blogging will be starting up shortly :)

Thanks for reading! xxx

Weekly Book Round Up #5

 

This is not my usual genre, and I tend to stick to authors I know and trust when it comes to Chick Lit really. But a friend read this and said it was really good, so I decided to give it a go. This is the love story of Ryan and Molly, and it is genuinely very touching in places. HOWEVER. It does jump about a lot. Sometimes it's in the present, and then it will flick back to the past, then into the future a bit, then back to the past. It becomes a bit disorientating after a while, and I started to forget what the main storyline was. I did find the characters interesting, in that they weren't totally perfect and lovable in every way. I liked that there were flaws to each of them, and that their story wasn't without its ups and downs. I'm not sure if I would read anything else by this author, and I think most people who enjoy Chick Lit would enjoy this, but unfortunately it just wasn't really for me.

Nicola's rating: 2/5

I've been having a bit of a Kathy Reichs binge this week. I've almost caught up to the latest book, so I'm kind of in a rush to get the last few read. The stories both follow Temperance Brennan (Forensic Anthropologist) as she goes about solving crimes. I have to say that at this point I am starting to find Tempe's love life to be frustrating. It seems to have been relegated to a side story that is sometimes brought up randomly, and sometimes completely left by the sidelines. I'm looking for some resolution people! The storyline of Spider Bones focuses on missing soldiers from Vietnam, and Flash and Bones is based around NASCAR racing. I really enjoy how the locations that Tempe works in are used to create different scenarios. Spider Bones is mainly based in Hawaii, and Flash and Bones is based in Charlotte, North Carolina. For me, these books are great escapism, but I would say that they can get pretty gruesome in places. At one point in Spider Bones I was eating when a particularly grim burial was exhumed, and it kind of put me off my food. So maybe one to avoid if you enjoy reading and eating at the same time!

Nicola's rating for Spider Bones: 3/5 (This one felt a bit slow going to me)
Nicola's rating for Flash and Bones: 4/5


I'm so pleased I managed three books this week! I'm still hoping to achieve my 150 book goal for 2013.

Thanks for reading :) xxx

Weekly Book Round Up #3

Last week I didn't read as much as I wanted to, partly because I was pretty busy both at work and at home, and partly because I was attempting to read this beast of a book, which has taken me AGES.

This the last book in a trilogy, and it is 920 pages long. I've read longer books, but seriously. It's pretty fat. Citadel is set during WWII, and focuses on the struggle of the resistance in France during the occupation. It's different from the other books in the trilogy, as those were set both in the present, and in the past. I think I probably preferred that format, and so it took me quite a while to get into this one. I also personally really struggle to read about WWII. I just find it quite upsetting, so all in all, this book was never going to be really enjoyable for me! I do think the trilogy is worth a read if historical fiction is your thing, but I'm not entirely sure I'll be reading anything else by this author.

Nicola's rating: 2/5

This is a series that I really, really love. It's the basis for the television series 'Bones', which I have never watched. I really need to get round to that at some point! The books follow a forensic anthropologist and her various antics. She inevitably ends up being abducted/kidnapped at the ending of every book, but even if they are predictable, they're really entertaining. I would definitely recommend them to people who are into the thriller/crime genre. They can get quite in depth with the science and technology used, but it's not something to worry about if that kind of thing goes right over your head.

Nicola's rating: 4/5

 And that's it for this week, it's been a  bit of a slow one again reading-wise! Hopefully I'll be able to get some more done next week, but I'm not counting on it.

Thanks for reading :) xxx