Hello friends and happy Friday! Welcome to Reading Lately again with Catherine Chicotka and I. We can’t wait to see what you have been reading lately. Before we dive into my reviews, a quick announcement. Reading Lately is moving! The next linkup will happen on July 7. We are moving to the first Friday of the month. We hope you can join us! Don’t forget, you can link up an older book post, we don’t mind 🙂
Alright, May was a terrible month for me in regards to reading. I only finished 2 books. Granted, I started Thunderstruck for The Blended Blog book club but after talking to a few other members while in Toronto, I quit the book. I wasn’t really invested in it (I was only 80 pages in or so) and if it isn’t good, I’m over it. I also tested my ears with an audio book. Hint, it hasn’t been going well. I had to drive to a work conference about 3 hours away and was excited to get a big chunk of the book done. However, after about 10 minutes, I was practically falling asleep. I’m not sure if it was the narrator or what, but I had to stop. I’ve since listened to it more while doing meaningless tasks and am almost halfway through now. I’m listening to A Darker Shade of Magic and have the entire trilogy on audio, so I’ll finish it. Someday. I’m also about 70% through A City of Miracles so the month wasn’t entirely a loss. Here is to hoping that June is better!
What I’ve been Reading Lately
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard: This book surprised me. Which is impressive for a YA book that involves a love triangle and all that jazz. I certainly didn’t see the twist coming. Mare, the main character, is a Red (aka common class), but it comes out that she has magical powers similar to the Silvers (aka ruling class). So she is pulled into the Silver lifestyle with a threat a terrible death if she doesn’t toe the line. But not everything is what it seems in the Silver palace and Mare is right in the middle of it. Read this if you enjoy YA dystopian series like Hunger Games.
4 out of 5 stars
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard: This book picks up right after Red Queen. It sort of feels like it fell to the second-book of a series syndrome. The Red Queen was dang good and this one tried to live up to it, but couldn’t quite do it. I also found Mare slightly annoying in this one. I wanted to reach and shake her! But it does set it up well for the next book in the series and I am impatiently waiting for my library book to come in. But that ending? Ugh. Has a Game of Thrones-esque end of season 1 feel to it.
3.5 out of 5 stars
So tell me, what have you been reading lately?
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I want to dive into this series so badly! Added on my list!
It is really quite good!
I haven’t even heard of these!! Thanks for bring them to my radar!!
You are welcome!
Always love to learn about new books! I’m reading two right now. One’s a Dutch book about blogging and the other is the life-changing magic of not giving a f*ck. Not as good as i’d hoped.
Oh darn! I hate when books don’t live up to expectations.
Red Queen sounds really good! I just finished reading Goodnight from London by Jennifer Robson. It is a historical novel about a war correspondent in the 1940’s — fascinating read!
Oh, that does sound good!
I’ve heard so many good things about Red Queen, it’s too bad the sequel doesn’t live up to the original!
It does seem that sequels have trouble living up to really great book 1’s. But it is still a decent read.
I haven’t heard of these! But those covers make them look like books that would be compulsively readable! 🙂
The covers are gorgeous! And very readable 🙂
I have a lot of friends who are reading this series. Both my teenage friends from church, as well as my adult friends.
This series is really popular right now!
Sounds like interesting books. Thanks for sharing.
They really are!
might have to check these out at some point to branch out a little
My mind is churning trying to decide a book to recommend to you ?
I almost fell asleep several times with Thunderstruck on audio, but the storyline with Belle & Crimon (sp?) was keeping me plugged in- I totally agree though, if it isn’t good…quit it- there are too many other books to read!!
That storyline did seem interesting, but wasn’t enough for me to keep at it!
Oh the Red Queen sounds interesting, I really liked the Hunger Games so I’ll definitely add it to my list. Bummer about the sequel though :/ Funny though, because I thought the sequels of the Hunger Games weren’t as good as the original either – mainly the third book.
It always seems that really big YA book 2s don’t turn out as well. It’s almost like they try too hard.
YA Books!?! I’m in!! LOL
You would probably really enjoy this one!