Book Review: The Rise of Nine

            To enjoy The Rise of Nine you would of course have to read I am Number Four and The Power of Six.  If you haven’t read either of these books and you like fantasy fiction then you should DEFINITELY read both of those books.  Oh and one of my favorite parts about this book series is the crazy author.  His name is Pittacus Lore, one of the characters in the books, and prefaces every book by stating,

 “The Events in this book are real.  Names and Places have been changed to protect the Loric, who remain in hiding.  Other civilizations do exist.  Some of them seek to destroy you.”

            Talk about dedication to your craft, he almost has me believing in aliens.  Once I started The Rise of Nine I literally couldn’t put it down.  This book is full of non-stop intense action and every chapter leaves you on the edge of your seat.  No really, it does because the author switches view points every chapter so you are constantly left hanging.  It. Is. Awesome.  I had an internal battle the entire time deciding who was hotter, Four or Nine??  And also, if I could choose any legacy what would I choose?  I did, however, finish this book quite angry and I will tell you why.  I assumed this was the last book in the series so I was very excited to see how it ended but I was WRONG.  There is at least one more book due out and here is the kicker:  there is not even a release date OR a title for the next book.  This means I will have to wait until sometime in 2014 to continue on in this story.  In my mind, there are few things that are worse than waiting two years for a book to come out.  My husband definitely knows I feel this way since I was yelling when the book ended.  If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to read this book or book series then you are in for a treat.  Make sure, however, you have a good chunk of uninterrupted time before you sit down to read because you will get sucked in.  

Book Review: The Casual Vacancy

Being an avid (avid being an extreme understatement) fan of the Harry Potter series I would be lying if I said I didn’t have high expectations for J.K. Rowling’s first adult book since said series.  Perhaps this is why I found myself having extremely mixed feelings about the Casual Vacancy.  It seemed that in an effort to write something as opposite as Harry Potter as she could J.K. Rowling conjured up the Casual Vacancy.  Not only is it an adult book (extremely adult, not for the faint-hearted), it is as far away from fantasy as it could be.  It is almost so opposite of Harry Potter that it seems deliberate. 

            J.K. Rowling goes into heavy detail with every single character in the novel, which I usually love, but the characters in this book are dark and depressing people.  For the most part they are selfish humans with very few redeemable qualities.  Usually in books I become enthralled to the point where I cannot put it down and I start to ignore things like laundry and my child (kidding).  Reading this book felt like a chore at times in the fact that I had to navigate through all of the elaborate back stories and try to keep each character straight.  Basically it is the story of how a town fell apart after the death of one citizen, Barry Fairbrother, who was holding the town together in more ways than one. 

            One aspect I did enjoy about the Casual Vacancy was the writing style of Rowling.  Her ability for description and observations about human nature reminded me pleasantly of why I fell so in love with Harry Potter.  Despite the darkness and rawness of the book I did notice a few underlying positive themes.  The most prominent that I noticed was the importance of family.  As much as the characters were appalling at times they still supported and cared for their family when it mattered most.  As much as I wanted to fall in love with this book, I just couldn’t.  J.K. Rowling’s talent shines through the mundane storyline and characters and makes me hope that she will continue to write in the future.  Next time, please, choose something a lot more interesting to write about.  

Reader Beware:  Once you start you might not be able to stop no matter how unpleasant the journey.

Starting Up

This is the first official post of our awesome new review blog.  We will review all of the many, (I mean MANY), books that we love to read.  Stay tuned for some awesome recommendations and reviews from the books we devour.