Prince William Public Libraries’s Comments (group member since Jun 06, 2016)

Prince William Public Libraries’s comments from the The Book Nook group.

Well, I will fess up and admit that I didn't read August's book. Two reasons: 1) it was summer and I am pretty confident that I lost my mind somewhere in the children's area, right before THE ECLIPSE happened and 2) the book never arrived. I am still in 5th position on the hold's list. Lesson Learned: do NOT select a book that is on every school's reading list.

So, I open the floor to you. Have you read it? Sharing is caring!

Alrighty everyone, I'm ready. What took me so long to write this review? I decided, at the end of Fall Out, that I was going to read all three books in the series to see how I felt at the end of it. Not because I was unsure about Fall Out, but because I was wondering if the rest of the books could measure up.

They did. Oh, they so totally did.

Now, the last thing that I am is a huge super hero fan. I watch the Marvel movies, get excited over the teasers at the end of each movie, and sigh over Captain America - that's about the range of my comic book knowledge. I know about Superman and Lois Lane, of course, but my knowledge is very one dimensional: she's a reporter who apparently has horrific eye sight and so can't figure out that Clark Kent is the dude who flies to her balcony...or so I thought. Fall Out put a new perspective on it for me. Gwenda Bond has taken Lois Lane and fleshed her out, the result being a fearless heroine that provides an afternoon of entertainment (because that's approximately how long it'll take you to read the book, it's that good).

I won't go to in depth into the plot, but I did want to touch on how Bond handles Lois and Clark's relationship. In a word? Brilliant. They are online chat buddies, and their relationship progresses throughout the series. You know that he's Superman, but it never gets annoying that you know that you know but Lois doesn't know even though I think a part of her really does know, you know? ;)

I'll say this: while I'm sure that there are a ton of Superman references that completely flew over my head (sorry, couldn't resist that one), I never felt lost. Bond does an excellent job of introducing you to a world that is both new while paying tribute to the original. Upon finishing the three books, I was suddenly in the mood watch Man of Steel...and I did. Siiiigh.

Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Have you voted on the weekly poll yet? And did anyone else find Lois to be a really cool rival of Nancy Drew?

Just finished my copy...trying to hold in my opinions and let someone else talk first...so...hard...

Hey everyone! I dropped the ball on June's book - blame it on Summer Reading Program brain. But I'm back and semi more organized (I think) and excited about this month's book. Grab a copy of Fallout and get ready to enjoy this modern take of Lois Lane and Super Man!

Math. I hate math, have always hated it with a fiery passion that is actually quite impressive. Hours of staring at math problems, knowing that the answer is right in front of me yet not being able to find it, has left scars. I'm talking deep scars here, people. So when I saw that there is a YA contemporary romance featuring a girl who loves math, I was torn. Do I fall down the rabbit hole of numbers, or avoid it like the plague. But never let it be said that a librarian, a Canadian one at that, flinched at the prospect of unknown territory, so onward!

The book opens up on a familiar scene: a tutoring session. Although things are swapped around and I'm seeing it through the perspective of the tutor. Eva Walker loves numbers. Their predictability, complexity, challenge - all of it. And she is a whiz of a math tutor because she can, in a matter of seconds, pinpoint exactly what someone is struggling with. And all it takes is a single touch. She can hold their calculator and boom! know what to do. But this gift is also a curse because if she touches anyone, she gets fractals, an emotional onslaught of all their deepest and darkest secrets.

Dating is obviously a no go. Until she meets Zenn. All it takes is one tutoring session for a chain of events to go off that makes Eva question her past, her present, and more importantly, her future.

Mixed feelings about this one. I like Eva, but at the same time I felt like shaking her sometimes. She feels helpless to do anything when she knows people's deep dark secrets, so suffers in silence, which is definitely sympathizing to read. But at the same time, um hello? Just smile at a person! And her perception of Christianity seems to be that Christians just hide behind a smile and hope no one notices their problems. Which, unfortunately, is true of some, but it would have been nice to see more than one angle represented here.

What interests me the most here is dynamic between Eva and her parents. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that there is definite drama in their past. But, for once, both parents are present in a YA novel...and they are nice! There seems to be a trend of absentee parents, or horrible relationships. I wouldn't say that Eva's relationship with them is horrible, but I was disappointed to see how she handles conflict with them - aka lying. But it wouldn't be compelling if it wasn't dramatic, right?

At the end of the day, I found it to be an okay book. Not riveting, not one that I'd probably read again, but well written.

And I'm the only one here that struggled with math? Throw me a Shakespearean quote over a math equation any day!

You are most welcome! ;)

I know that I'm a day early, but this was such a good book it's worth it. PLUS I wanted to give ya'll a head's up, because the author is coming to Central! So if you liked the book, you'll definitely want to come on 4/6 @ 7 pm. Okay, enough fangirling, on to the review.

I read Snow Like Ashes when I was in the middle of my YA Fantasy kick, and absolutely fell in love with it. The world that Raasch set up is vivid and interesting; she hit just the right tone of creating a new world that is still relatable. You really feel for all the characters, not just the main character, something that is not always easy to do when you are writing in first person POV.

There is a plot twist that you might see coming. But then again maybe you won't. I don't know, because I'm one of those cheater readers who goes to the back of the book first. I know, I know, I shouldn't. But hey, if it has an awful ending I do not want to read it...I have so little time to read now that I'm a librarian! Tragically ironic, but so true. Aaaanywaaays, this first book in the trilogy definitely leaves you wanting to read more. And luckily for you, not only are all three books now published; Prince William Public Library System owns all of them! So put them on hold before you read Snow Like Ashes, because chances are you'll want to binge read.

With magic, fantasy, mystery, adventure, and of course romance, Snow Like Ashes offers something for everyone. So grab a copy, and come to Central next week to meet the author herself! :)

I'm just going to dive right into my review, because I have opinions about A.G. Howard's latest book. And, much to my surprise, they aren't the overwhelmingly positive opinions that I thought I'd have. Because as hard as I tried, I did not enjoy RoseBlood.

Am I in a state of shock right now? Maybe a teensy weensy tiny bit. How could I not love RoseBlood? It's a retelling of Phantom of the Opera, for crying out loud! I loved Splintered and its two sequels - the characters, the imagery, the writing style, all of it. Howard tapped into the madness of Wonderland and turned it into a fresh adventure for YA readers. So when I read the premise for RoseBlood I was all but jumped up and down in excitement.

When it arrived I scooped it up and immediately began reading. And reading. And reading some more. Finally it hit me that it was taking me so long to try to finish this book because it was, in a word, dragging. The suspense kept building and building and building and building...and building. Finally I cheated and looked ahead - the big reveal isn't for more than half-way through the book. And the big reveal isn't so much a "I never saw that one coming" as a "Really? The story is one of these kinds of books?" moment. And, quite frankly, it annoyed me.

I guess at the end of it all, you could say that I just didn't buy into the melodrama. With Splintered it worked perfectly. With RoseBlood, it felt like an episode of Vampire Diaries. Just not quite my thing.

Like it? Love it? Gotta have more of it? Double points if you get my ice cream reference! ;)

The Princess of Nova gets a taste of her own medicine - literally - when she accidentally downs the love potion that she had concocted for her crush. The potion is designed for the victim to fall in love with the first person that he/she sees, and in the princess' case it's her own reflection, taking narcissism to a whole new level. All of the potion experts in the land, including our main character Samantha, enter in a competition to see who can come up with the antidote first. And as the book description puts it, "Just to add to the pressure, this quest is ALL OVER social media. And the world news. NO BIG DEAL, THEN."

What did you guys think of this? I must admit, I totally chose this book because of it's cover. So colorful and unique, it stands out from the latest batch of dark and brooding fantasy YA books (although I love me some good YA fantasy), and seems to be a lighthearted, nonsensical read. Just what you need to get through the mid-winter blues.

But, for whatever reason, I just couldn't get into the story. I understood right off that bat that we are in an alternative universe, but I kept looking for clues/boundaries of just how different this world is. And, from what I can tell, other than changing names, throwing in mythical creatures and magic, the world is just like ours, complete with cell phones, social media (obviously) and Land Rovers. Perhaps it's because I was expecting that; I imagined more of a different universe entirely.

What about you? Did you like it? Dislike it? Love the alternate world or, like me, was confused by it?

I had selected this book at the start of the month....and then completely forgot to post! We have a new book for February, but don't let that stop you from posting about this gem of a story. ;)

Has anyone ever read the Scarlet Pimpernel? I had to read it in high school, and I think it is one of my favorite assigned readings. I started it with the assumption that I would hate it because I HAD to read it, and once I stopped procrastinating in actually opening the book I discovered just how wrong I had been. Mystery! Romance! History! A mysterious hero who goes by the same of a flower! It's no wonder that there have been several movie adaptations of the story, as well as a tv series.

As you've guessed, this is all leading up to Rook because Rook is dystopian take on The Scarlet Pimpernel. While I found the explanation as to why society has basically reverted back to the technology and customs of the French Revolution era to be weak, I was willing to go along because I loved the original. And this did not disappoint.

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's a stand alone book, which is rather refreshing in the world of YA, and balances the mystery of who is the daring hero quite well. It's a thick book, but you barely notice it as you blaze through the pages, going from one adventure to the next with the main characters. And after finishing Rook, you may just one to pick up The Scarlet Pimpernel and see where it all started!Rook

What's your favorite holiday book to read? Share why you love it - I'll add it to my list of books to read! :)

Happy November everyone!

Okay, I chose this book for a variety of reasons: it is awesome, the fifth book came out today so it's pretty much all I can think about, it is awesome, we have oodles of copies, and it is awesome.

I'm going to wait to see what you think before posting my review...although I think it won't be that much of a shocker. ;) Grab a coffee or hot chocolate, settle down under a cozy blanket, and prepare to be introduced to a fun and consuming world.

Oh, Throne of Glass. I had no idea how awesome of a book you were when I first borrowed you from the library – SHOUT OUT TO CENTRAL COMMUNITY LIBRARY! The cover was pretty, the plot seemed interesting, so I gave it a go. Two days later I emerged with that all too familiar feeling that book junkies get when they’ve finished an awesome book, there’s a major cliffhanger, and they have to wait at least a year for the sequel. Head’s up, this series is going to have at least 6 books, but the good news is that book 5 just came out so binge read away!!

I think what I like most about this book, and ultimately the series, is that the characters are not cookie cutter. It may seem like that at first, but the author is not afraid to get out of the box of what we expect from YA fiction. There are plot twists, of course, complete with evil villains, magic and epic fighting. But what stands out the most is the main character herself, Celaena, the country’s most dangerous assassin. She is no simpering maiden, nor is she a hard core killer; instead, she is a complex character that intrigues, impresses, at times annoys, and always interests you.

Sarah J. Maas is excellent at creating a vivid world and characters that are a balance between flawed and heroic, enough so that you can identify with them but not enough to be off-putting. And making an assassin, the deadliest one at that, a sympathetic character is not easy!

What did you think of it? Any ideas of the hints of Celaena’s past? Did you enjoy her character? Why or why not?

I have to agree with you; my overall impression was, "That's it?? That's the big reveal??" Now granted, I've heard that since it's a play we lose the performance that the actors give and miss out on the nuances that bring the characters to life and help make them seem more like the characters we've all enjoyed in the books. But hey, they are selling it as a book, and readers are going to read it as a book.

I am an oddity of my generation: I did not grow up on Harry Potter. Oh, I knew about the books, it would be impossible not to, but there just never was any interest to read them. It wasn’t until senior year of university that I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and even then only because it was an assigned book for a Children’s Literature class. I borrowed the book from the library, went home, and emerged from my room a week later in a triumphant daze that not only had I been initiated into the world of Harry Potter and finally knew what everyone was talking about, but that I’d done it before the professor could drop any more major spoilers. Victory!! Although I am still not a hard core fan, perhaps because I didn’t have that experience of growing up with Harry, I love the world that J.K. Rowling immerses us in and will happily curl up with a book from the series again.

I was curious when I heard that there would be an eight Harry Potter book, more so when it was revealed that it would actually be a script, but not enough to race out and buy a copy. To be honest, I was content with where the 7th book had ended; I was not itching to see the characters 18 years later. But for our book club? It’d be crazy not to read it, am I right?

For this one, I’m keeping mum for a bit; bring on the reactions! Did you love it? Go to a special midnight release party, stay up all night reading it, barely talk to anyone until you knew it cover to cover? As clichéd as the question is, was it everything you’d hope for in a Harry Potter book that’s not really a book? Spare us no detail!

Rosie wrote: "I read this book years ago and was very fortunate to meet Ransom Riggs (and his then fiancee Tahereh Mafi) at a library event where he signed my copy! Unfortunately it's been so long since I read i..."

It's great to have you in the group! :)

Samantha wrote: "I couldn't finish it. It is not my type of book. I didn't like the main character or his parents or his grandfather. I didn't even get to the part about the school. I will wait to read next month's..."

The school doesn't show up until well into the book - took way too long. Next month's book was a much faster read!

I know!! Can hardly wait to see where Stroud takes the story; the third book ended on such a cliff hanger. The movie has been in pre-production for a while now, but if it does get released I'll be veeeeery curious to see who they get to play the different characters.

Agreed!

Meredith wrote: "I actually read this book last summer, but I'll share my thoughts...
I had high expectations for this book/series; it was recommended to me when I was younger and I rediscovered it through a book r..."

Which was your favorite quote? And have you read the other books in the series?