The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Reviews

Friday, August 6, 2010

Vacation: Saturday August 7th - August 14th

I'd like to let everyone know I will be on vacation next week. So no reviews sadly. I plan to read lots of books, so I'll have plenty of reviews when I get back. Make sure to have lots of fun this week and check out my blog roll located on the left sidebar to see reviews from the blogs I follow and read. And I'll see everyone when I get back!

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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

INCREDIBLE News from Cassandra Clare

So today Cassandra Clare hosted a big announcement/interview/chat via Ustream. You can watch it here. She answered some really great questions. But her big announcement was by far the most amazing! Get ready.....

CASSANDRA CLARE WILL BE CONTINUING HER MORTAL INSTRUMENTS SERIES TO INCLUDE TWO MORE BOOKS AFTER CITY OF FALLEN ANGELS!!!

Exciting right?!? The books will be titled City of Lost Souls & City of Heavenly Fire. They are currently called COFA, COLS, & COHF Mortal Instruments Cycle 2. But its very exciting!

Just some other highlights from the interview. There is currently no new movie news. The City of Fallen Angels book trailer will be out any day now. I will be sure to post it as soon as I get news. Clockwork Angel (the first book in the prequel trilogy Infernal Devices) comes out in 27 days (out August 31). Pre-order it here. Just some fun other tidbits:

Aline will find a girl. (Yes, she's gay)
Simon is dating two girls at the beginning of COFA
Cassandra Clare and Holly Black have written two short stories together that will be featured in upcoming anthologies.
Expect unicorn babies from Jace and Clary (see 29 min into vid)
Church and Chairman Meow are gonna hook up (also see 29 min in)
Jem will be on Clockwork Prince's cover and Tessa on Clockwork Princess
And lastly, Clare chooses Dumbledore in the Dumbledore vs Magnus battle

Be sure to check out all the chat. Again you can watch it here. Let me know what you thought of it. Are you excited for the new books? What side are you on the Dumbledore vs Magnus battle?

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The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

Life has always been very average for Meghan Chase. She is practically invisible to everyone around her, including her parents. And when people do pay attention, it’s usually the bad stuff they comment on. Meghan’s sixteen birthday is expected to be just another day, she’ll be lucky if she even gets a card. After a humiliating prank, a weird overheard conversation in the nurse’s office, Meghan discovers her brother has been switched with a Faerie changeling. She is thrust into a world of the Nevernever, where goblins, centaurs, Seelie and Unseelie fey, and talking cats run abound. Meghan and her best friend, Robbie, who she discovers is a fey, travel into the world of faeries to find her brother. What they discover could change the tradition-bound Nevernever in a way that could make all the fey disappear. Meghan must make a choice to save the very people who took her brother or loose her newfound friends.

The Good: The Iron King had interesting, fun, unique characters. Meghan, the protagonist was most definitely not a helpless heroine. She was a take charge, don’t-think-before-you-jump kind of girl. And while that put her into sticky situations it was very enjoyable to read. Ash was also a pleasure to read. With his cool composure and stoic emotions he reminded me of Jace from Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments. But Ash had the tendency to smile a bit more than the Shadowhunter :). Kagawa was very good about keeping the pace steadily moving forward and kept you enticed throughout the whole book. Lately, Faeries have really interested me and not just from the YA fiction standpoint. I’ve seen many similarities between the multiple faery books and I’ve been interested in the “non-fiction” aspect. Kagawa brilliantly added her unique spin to these histories and I really enjoyed it.

The Bad: The Iron King had this weird predictability about it. Towards the beginning/middle of the book the plot would go into a certain medium, where it looked like everything was going to work out. Which is strange to happen in the middle of a book. So if you are an avid reader like I am you know that well happy endings don’t happen in the middle of a book. Assuming all of this you know if the book can’t be happy, it has to get chaotic. And therefore when something bad did happen it wasn’t a surprise. Well, what happened was a surprise but the fact that is was happening wasn’t. Hope that wasn’t too confusing. Overall, not a huge deal but it definitely lacked a big shock factor.

Ugly Updates: The sequel, The Iron Daughter, came out August 1st. Look out for a review in the next couple weeks. The final novel in the trilogy, The Iron Queen, comes out in February 2011. It's covered was just recently released. Find it here. I personally think its gorgeous. Also check out the e-book novella Winter's Passage, a story that explains what happened between The Iron King and The Iron Daughter. Check out Julie Kagawa's website for info on her, fun stuff, and more info on her books.
(Book links to Amazon)

Rating: A-

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Monday, August 2, 2010

Mockingjay Contest Winner!

And the winner of a brand new copy of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, out August 24th is.....

Ashley!

Congrats! Hope you enjoy your book. I'm sending you an email now, please get back to me within 72 hours. Thanks to everyone who entered. I would have loved to given you all books!

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Sunday, August 1, 2010

In My Mailbox (1)

So I've decided to stop doing weekly updates. There is really no point to them so unless I here that you guys really like them they're gone. Instead of an update today I'm going to do my first IMM, a meme hosted by Kristi aka The Story Siren and was inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junki e! Today my mom and I went on a huge book excursion! Spending the whole afternoon looking at books. So half my paycheck gone and this is what I got. (Links to Goodreads)