(sorta) Series Review: The Ruby Red trilogy (Books 1-2)

Author: Kerstin Gier

Publisher: Henry Holt

Genre(s): YA Fantasy/ Historical Fiction

*Books 1-2 of series*
~SPOILER FREE~

*That cover! It's so pretty!*

Summary:

The Ruby Red trilogy is about a girl who finds out she can time travel, and she goes on adventures to unlock the secret of the Circle. 

Review: 

*I wasn’t going to make this a series review because I felt that reading 2 out of the 3 wasn’t enough, but as I was writing the reviews for both books, I found that they were pretty similar, so I just combined them.*

I found about this series browsing through the Lost in Translation section, so I guess Ms. Christie indirectly recommended it to me lol.  Thank you! ^_^

So I started off liking Ruby Red (and the series in general), and then two things happened: it ended, and it went into the occult. (Not in that order, of course)

I did like a part of the world-building and the whole set up of time traveling. A lot of questions about the world were answered in the first book, and Gwen was pretty funny. She was snarky and sarcastic- not overly so- and she was really smart.  She caught onto things fairly quickly.  The book flowed so smoothly, I often forgot that this was actually a translation. All fine there.

And then the book ended.

It wasn’t a cliffhanger; the entire book was just building and building and building, and just when things were beginning to pick up and something was going to happen, the book ended.  I also felt like the book went off on tangents.  Even though everything was supposedly leading up to the revealing of the big secret, the adventures (which were few and small) the characters had didn't really relate to revealing that secret.   Also, the building of the plot and the small adventures seemed like filler to me. I assume it'll all come together at the end, but I'm still a bit confused as to how everything that happened in the book (besides the world building) was important.

But to get back to the building (for the plot that is):  all that building did make me curious, so against my better judgment, I picked up the second book.   In Sapphire Blue, we found out a little more about the world, and there were a few complications thrown in, but I still felt like we were building and climbing up that hill (or at least struggling up the hill) for the grand finale. So, while the overall story was interesting, nothing major happened (again, it seemed like filler), and the important questions (not the little details about the world) still weren't answered. 

And the romance?  It was a mess! (Okay hyperbole, but it was still pretty messy.)   To sum it up: there was sort of an insta-love on both parties, they kissed, he got mad, he acted like everything was normal, she got mad, and he does a fake out.  Yea, not fun, but I wasn't really invested into this romance.  Besides the fact that there was insta-love, Gwen sounded/acted really young (oh maybe 10-13 years old; it varied)- not in a bad way, just her mannerisms and way of speaking was much younger than I expected for someone of her age.  So, whenever she mentioned anything that had to do with romance, I always cringed before remembering that she was actually 16 and a half.  (Yep, she said that).  But then again, this was a translation, and I have a sneaky feeling that that was the main reason for her sounding so young.  That doesn't mean the translation wasn't awesome though.  It was; if no one had told me, then I would have never known this was originally written in German.  

The other thing that made me not like the series was that it went into the occult (Freemason/Knights Templar). I didn’t initially know, but it came up fairly quickly.   I don't usually read books that have anything to do with the occult (like the real stuff, not the fantasy stuff)- I actually avoid them like the plague-but I felt I could handle it (lol nope) this time around, so I read on.  As far as I've read, the series doesn't go too deep into it, but it went in far enough.   I also DID NOT like how they advocated Freemasonry as a "cool thing" (it's NOT cool at all).  This is definitely something to be wary about, and I felt they were just going to go deeper into this stuff in the third book ( I've only read the synopsis, so I can't make any solid judgment calls here, but based on what's happened so far, I think it's safe to assume), so I've  decided to stop here.   

Final thoughts?  I won’t keep climbing this hill for that finale; I'm moving onto shorter (and safer!) hills.

Thanks for reading!

Rating: 1.5 out of 5


****Lost in Translation 2014 Read Outside the Box Challenge****

Series Review: A Charmed Life

Author: Jenny B. Jones

Publisher:  Thomas Nelson

Genre(s): YA Christian Contemporary

Pages:  976
(note: this series was released in a 3-in-1 type of thing)

Includes So Not Happening, I'm So Sure, and So Over My Head.  (Can't you just feel the diva aura radiating from those titles? LOL)

Summary (Goodreads):
Bella Kirkwood had it all-A-list friends, Broadway in her backyard, Daddy's credit card. Then her father decided to trade in her mother for a newer model. After that, her mom fell in love with a man she met on the Internet and moved the family to Truman, Oklahoma. To a farm no less! But that's just the beginning of Bella's problems. Her semi-pro-wrestler stepdad signs up the family for a reality TV show. As if having a camera crew follow her around isn't bad enough, Bella discovers a conspiracy against the Truman High prom queen candidates. And that's before the arrival of the Fritz Family Carnival with its creepy clown.Bella is one skinny-mocha frappe away from a total meltdown. How can a girl go on when her charmed life is gone and God appears to be giving her the total smack down?


Review: 

I absolutely loved this series!  It was so much fun, especially with Bella's sassy voice narrating everything-and not to mention Luke. ;) (*swoon*)

I'm once again going to shoot for that brevity! I've decided to do this review in bullet form to see if that’ll help. ;)

Here goes!

1. Characters: Entertaining, lively, and full of joy and spunk ;) (most of 'em anyways).  I think the best way to describe Bella is that she's the teenager version of Junie B (if Junie B's parents were famous celebrities, that is).  She was an absolute delight to get to know, and her witty sass kept me laughing aloud throughout the series. Of course, Bella wasn’t all fun and games; she had issues that she had to deal with, like issues with her father and feelings of abandonment.  I felt Bella  represented the series as a whole: the funny (for the most part) balanced with the more serious (sometimes the humor overwhelmingly so- I’ll address that later).  Besides Bella dealing with her dad, we also had other side characters dealing with issues like being yourself, doubt, bullying, etc.

Ruthie was personally my favorite sidekick. (I'm def. doing a Sidekick Showcase on her this week!)  She doesn't seem like the brightest bulb (oh, but she IS), and her bumbling loyalty to Bella was so sweet!  I also loved how she wasn't the stereotypical "PK."  She dressed rebelliously (don't let that fool you! She was adorable!), and it seemed like she was, but her character was holy (not holier than thou, but she walked the talk, so to speak).   Budge as the bumbling/”partner in bickering” older brother (who happened to be a PERFECT match for another bumbling character) and Robbie, who was a precocious and precious little child, were great side characters also. I wish I could just gush and go and on about these characters and the amazing character development that happened to every one of them as the series progressed, but alas, that would take up this entire review.  So conclusion:  NO cardboards here- everyone had development, character, and growth.     

2. Plot:  Despite a few of the books having darker tones (one’s a murder mystery, and another has to do with a cult), the author balanced it pretty well with humor.  The books moved along relatively quick, and it was FUN.  That sounds weird, especially since one of them was a murder mystery, but the plot was fun and entertaining.  

3. Romance:  Of course, I can not not (lol double negatives) write a review without mentioning the romance! 2 words for ya: Luke Sullivan. SAH-WOON. I LOVED their relationship because: 

A)  No instalove!!!!!!!!!  A sure way to win my heart! ;) It took a while for the relationship to actually get going, and even then, there were a few rough spots. (“Relationship development”=anguish for reader-in a good way.)

B)   LUKE HAD A PERSONALITY. I KID YOU NOT. OMG. FINALLY A GUY WITH A PERSONALITY.  AND NOT JUST ANY KIND OF PERSONALITY EITHER.  He wasn’t exactly sweet, but he was a great steady rock for crazy (I say it with affection ;)!) Bella.  I loved all their interactions, especially their bickering. ;)  He was very respectable (and used common sense!), but by no means stuffy or boring.  He may come across as a little snooty in the beginning, but don’t let Bella fool ya. ;) And that kiss? (You’ll know which one!) *swoon!!!*

C)  Luke wasn’t just the romantic interest.  He was also one of her closest friends (even if he didn’t start off that way), and I really appreciated that that was how he was portrayed too.   Luke, with his steadiness and cute nerdiness, was first her friend and boyfriend second.  So many YA books these days just show the romantic interest as someone for “making-out” or just there as an "accessory" so that there would be a romance. A relationship, esp. romantic ones, is so much more than that. 

Final thoughts? This series was great and fun, but it did over do the humor sometimes.  Take There You’ll Find Me (same author), for example.  The humor and seriousness was nicely balanced, and when it came time to be serious, it was serious.  In this series, I felt a few of the scenes, esp. some scenes with her dad, were not as impactful as they could have been because of the somewhat excessive humor, like Bella was downplaying the whole thing.  I understood that was part of her coping/defensive mechanism, and I did love her sass and one-liners, but for those scenes (and a few others),  I felt it would be better to be more serious.  (That doesn't mean the entire book was like this- just a few places.  For the most part, I actually liked the humor balancing out the darker aspects, which made this book a lot more interesting and fun, imho, than traditional mysteries.)

Thanks for reading!

(P.S. Brevity has escaped me once more, but I shall push onwards! Someday I shall win! Huzzah!;)

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Series (sorta) Review: Mythos Academy (1-4)

Photoshop out in your mind First Frost,Spartan Frost, and Midnight Frost. :) Sorry! I couldn't find a picture where it was just Touch of Frost, Kiss of Frost, Dark Frost, and Crimson Frost. Brrr... that's a lot of ice xD. 

Author: Jennifer Estep 

Publisher: K- Teen
Genre(s): YA Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal 
*Series: Books 1-4*

Spoilers are hidden! Highlight the page to see them:) 

Summary: 
In a nutshell, the books are about an academy of warriors with special powers who need to save the world from an evil god.  You know, the same old same old.    

Review:

My review is more of a rant?  That’s too strong of a word, but I’m brain-toast right now from the lack of sleep (WHY SCHOOL START AT 8 AM?! WHY SO MANY TESTS?!), and I can’t think of anything better at the moment. I guess this would be considered more of a rant than a review, but eh.  A rant implies I cared about this series intensely- and I didn’t.  Was I annoyed with the series?  Mm. Not really?  I wasn't so much annoyed but resigned (and maybe even a little accomplished :)- more on that later) at another cliche filled series. For right now, I think indifference would best describe my feelings.

(So just to clear this up: I read four books of the series in three days.  It wasn’t because this series was enjoyable that I read it so fast, but because the writing was so… common? I’m not sure if that’s the right word.  I wouldn’t say the writing was juvenile, but it was really easy to read; however that doesn’t mean the books were well structured and flowed well.  It just meant they were really easy reads.)

So onward to the rant:

-YA Stereotypes and Cliches galore!

-Very predictable.  

-Insta-love despite denying said insta-love. 

Just like any other YA novels these days, like those vampire books and what not.  (Was it Vampire Academy?  Hush Hush? I don’t know anymore.)   

Again, these books were super fast reads, not because they were super short (about 350 pages each) but the writing just rolled off my eyes (does that even make sense?). It was just unbelievably predictable, and by the second half of the each book, I was just reading to confirm my predictions.  

Even at four books (I think this series is still ongoing; I’m not sure when it’s going to end), I felt the plot was stretched way too thin.  I mean it seems like the books will never get to the main point: killing Loki.   Something happens again and again, and it would be nice if there was a point to everything that was happening, but that was the point: THERE WAS NO POINT. 

Gwen was your stereotypical YA heroine:

*A Mary Sue? The epitome. 

*Special power that no one else had (basically was THE ONE): check (Side note: I actually don’t mind this, like if the heroine/hero is THE CHOSEN ONE, but in these books, it was beaten into our heads that YES SHE IS THE CHOSEN ONE. SHE IS VERY SPECIAL. THAT’S THE GIRL.  SHE IS THE ONE. OBEY HER.  It gets obnoxious after a while.)

*Only gal to stand up to the bad boy (who, of course, happened to be the hottest guy in the entire school) and insta-love: check

*Sounds just like any other YA heroine: check.

Her sarcasm and one liners were so cliché and not funny or original at all. When characters in the books were laughing whenever she said something snarky, I was like

And finally:

Whenever they mentioned Loki, I saw

OOO! He's so scary! 

So why the rating of 1.5 and not a straight out 1? (The .5 does make a difference!)

The books were, in some BIZARRE way, entertaining. (I know, I know. Hypocrite much?)  BUT they were entertaining in that I felt  so accomplished every time one of my predictions came true . (EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. CAME. TRUE. NO JOKE.) Every time that happened I was like:

Usually, I would be annoyed that the books were so cliche, but that usually depends on my mood, and a ego boost now and then is nice xD (esp. after getting caught unaware of a certain plot twist and having your heart ripped out and torn to pieces and as if that wasn't enough they stomp on it with spiked heels and then throw it to the wolves.  But I digress.).   I wasn't really expecting much out of the books anyways, so might as well turn the small and the bizarre into little victories. :)

So yea.
It worked out that way.

Thanks for reading!:)

Rating: 1.5 out of 5