Book Review: Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire #3)

Title: Long Live the Queen (The Immortal Empire #3)
Author: Kate Locke
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy (Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal), Alternate History, Romance
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 311 pages (Hardcover)
Publication Date: November 12th, 2013

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Xandra Vardan thought life would be simpler when she accepted the goblin crown and became their queen, but life has only become more complicated. Everyone -- vampires, werewolves and humans -- wants the goblins on their side, because whoever has the goblins -- wins.

Queen Victoria wants her head, Alpha wolf Vex wants her heart, and she still doesn't know the identity of the person who wanted her blood. What she does know is that a project from one of the 'secret' aristocrat labs has gotten free and she's the only one who can stop the perfect killing machine -- a sixteen year-old girl. With human zealots intent on ridding the world of anyone with plagued blood and supernatural politics taking Britain to the verge of civil war, Xandra's finding out that being queen isn't all it's cracked up to be, and if she doesn't do something fast, hers will be the shortest reign in history.
The fantastic conclusion to the series that started with the spectacular undead steampunk debut, God Save the Queen and The Queen is Dead.

Review:
I'm trying not to put big spoilers for the past books in this review. However, if you haven't read the first or second books in this series, then please turn back now. This will be spoiler free for this book, but not those two. And I have reviews of both of them up: God Save the Queen and The Queen is Dead.

This book has that same great atmosphere, characters, fast pace as the other two in this series, but it definiely wasn't my favorite of the series (I think book two was, I really loved book two). That doesn't mean it wasn't good, obviously I really enjoyed it as I gave it five stars, and, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the last book in the series. And I didn't have any problems with how it ended, no spoilers, of course.

There are questions answered in this one and shit goes down in a major way. And man was it good. Once again, all the things I've said before still stand for this book so I'm trying not to just repeat myself here, but there isn't much else to say without spoiling this one.

This series is full of Steampunk fun and Victorian undertones and I really do recommend this series with love, because it's a ton of fun.

Favorite quotes:

"Oh, they'll think about it," I said with a small smile. "Just before I eat their liver."
To my surprise, he smiled. "That's my girl."

He grinned at me. "Most people trust their parents and not strangers. You have a habit of trusting strangers more then family."
I stared at him. "Have you met my family?"

Book Review: The Queen is Dead (The Immortal Empire #2)

Title: The Queen is Dead (The Immortal Empire #2)
Author: Kate Locke
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy (Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal), Alternate History, Romance
Rating: 5/5
Pages Count: 352 (Hardcover)
Publication Date: February 5th, 2013

Plot: (from Goodreads)
Nothing lasts forever---and immortality isn't all its cracked up to be.

When her brother Val gets in over his head in an investigation of Half-Blood disappearances and goes missing himself, it's up to Xandra, newly crowned Goblin Queen, to get him back and bring the atrocities to light. Xandra must frequent the seediest parts of London, while also coping with what she is, the political factions vying for her favor, and the all too-close scrutiny of Queen Victoria, who wants her head. Add this to being a suspect in a murder investigation, a werewolf boyfriend with demands of his own, and a mother hell bent on destroying the monarchy, and Xandra barely knows which way is up. One thing she does know is that she's already lost one sibling, she's not about to lose another.

Review:
I talked about how much I loved this world in my review of the first book, but I just want to say it again because the world becomes even richer in this one. I didn't love this book much more then the first one, except for one character we got so much more of but I'm saving that, but maybe a little more. These books are a lot of fun to read, fast passed, and really good to boot.

They're not super heavy on the romance type of books, but - Xandra and Vex's relationship does play a huge part in these books, and in such a good way. Especially because of how supportive he is of her and, even though he's an actual alpha (he's the alpha werewolf of his pack), he doesn't try and tell her what to do. He'll ask, and maybe push her a bit if it's important to him, but he doesn't just tell her something and it's so, and she wouldn't put up with it if he tried - their relationship is just so good and, actually, adorable and it's one of my favorite elements.

Now, the only reason I'd say I loved this book more was because of one character, like I said earlier: Penny Dreadful. She's Val, who is Xandra's brother, sister, so to both of them - they're family. Penny works at this club called Freak Show and is trans and, from what I can tell, a seriously fabulous, impressive drag queen. There are some great descriptions of her outfits, that just made me ridiculously happy, because I love Victorian fashion and in this book it's that but mixed with modern and - basically what I wish my entire wardrobe was.

And now I'm going to go on a bit of a ramble, and I apologize, but this is the first book that had LGBT characters that were treated like everyday people. It was just expected to be accepted as fact from the readers. Xandra's sister, Avery, has a girlfriend (Fiance) Emily and it's not even talked about at first at all, it's just accepted. And I loved that.

There aren't a lot of books with LGBT characters at all, and I haven't read many at all, and I think because most of the descriptions I've read just sound like something sad. And I don't like sad books, I mean I do in a certain mood, but mostly I just can't read something I know is going to make me break down. Also - I've never read a book that had a trans character before. At all. So, yes, they're technically probably 'secondary' characters, but - Penny was in this book a lot, and she's such a great character. Like I said, though it's very accepted and just such a good way to have LGBT characters in books, because they should be there. And now I'm going to stop before I get more into LGBT characters or more diverse characters in general, because - that's probably multiple posts, but I did want to mention it in this review.

And, now to end my rant and review about this book, I just want to say I'd highly recommend this series, whether you care about my whole thing about LGBT characters or not this series is really good and so much fun.

Favorite quote(s):

I told him about my adventure at the chicken place instead.
"I'm beginning to think you shouldn't be allowed to leave the house," he said with a smile. "I've only been back a few days and already you've had more happen to you than most people have in a year." 

Book Review: God Save the Queen (The Immortal Empire #1)

Title: God Save the Queen (The Immortal Empire #1)
Author: Kate Locke
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy (Steampunk, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal), Alternante History, Romance
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 354 (Hardcover)
Publication Date: July 5th, 2012

Plot: (from Goodreads)
The start of a thrillingly original new urban fantasy series—set in a dark alternate world where the Victorian age never ended...

The Year is 2012—and Queen Victoria still rules with an immortal fist.

She's the undead matriarch of a Britain, where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground, and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where technology lives side by side with magic, where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath) and Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day.

Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it's her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But things get complicated when her sister goes missing. Xandra will not only realise she's the prize in a dangerous power struggle—but she'll also uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire itself.

Review:
I read this book when it first came out in 2012 and then never ended up continuing the series. When I picked it up, randomly during the 24 hour read-a-thon, I couldn't remember anything that'd actually happened in it for some reason. And I still don't really remember that first read through of it two years ago, but anyway, onto the actual review.

I really enjoyed this book, overall. I loved the world that was created, that they lived in, it was gritty and fun and had a mixture of more modern and Victorian things. And the Victorian time periods is one of my favorites that to read about, it's interesting to see authors write ways around certain conflicts. This books is much more modern, of course, it doesn't take place in the late 1800's, but still in the Victorian time period - just in 2012. And I haven't read much alternate history, not nearly enough, but I always tend to love it - it's just interesting and this was no exception to that rule, the world building in this was so interesting.

My favorite part of this book, besides the setting, was the characters. Xandra is a kick-ass and just kind of awesome all around main character, and I loved her siblings as well. How they all had the same aristocrat father, but different mothers, and were so different at points. And I like reading about siblings, as an only child it's interesting to me, and all of the Vardan's were just fun to read about in general.

To wrap it up, I'd definitely recommend this book. It was fun and Steampunk, and I'd also highly suggest, if you can read and listen to music, to have Emilie Autumn playing in the background. I had totally forgotten that the author was a fan, until I read the Acknowledgements and Locke mentions her, but it fits the setting so well, almost perfectly.

Favorite quotes:

"Bitch," Penny said slowly, "You are my fucking hero." 

"I assume you've introduced yourselves," I commented.
"Of course," Avery retorted, expression slightly affronted. "His lordship helped me and Em carry in groceries this morning." 

Book Review: The Search for WondLa (WondaLa #1)

 Title: The Search for WondLa (WondLa #1)
Author: Tony DiTerlizzi
Genre: Adventure, SciFi/Fantasy (middle-grade)
Rating: 5/5
Page count: 484 pages
Publication Date: September 21st, 2010

Story Notion: Yes. Yes. That was awesome.

Plot: (from GoodReads)
Eva Nine is a curious and sensitive twelve-year-old who has existed only in a subterranean home called Sanctuary, cared for by a robot named Muthr. Eva's great desire is to go aboveground, and her wish comes true, though not as she had imagined. On the surface, Eva goes in search of other humans--she has never met one--and soon meets both friend and foe.



Review:
I knew nothing going into this book. Well - I knew the name and I knew the author had co-written the Spiderwick Chronicles and that was it. This book was one of those Kindle Daily Deals things and I'm so glad I picked it up and started reading it just. I kind of did just because it looked cute (I have a lot of books on my Kindle that are unread).

I'd definitely suggest a physical copy if possible, I'd like to get my hands on one myself and of the next books. This book has wonderful illustrations in it that my Kindle really didn't do the justice of. They were gorgeous, and so was this world that they were in and the characters and people, it was rich and fun.

And completely bewildered me at first. I read the first about 20-30% of this book quite slowly, just had no idea what I'd gotten myself into, but it slowly started to make some sort of sense to me. Or maybe I just gave into the story. Either was, it was a great decision, because this book was amazing, rich, lovely, and just play interesting. I really want to know more.

I'd definitely recommend this book, it's middle-grade but obviously that just means it's awesome (and can have pictures without judgement! That's how that works, yes?) And I do love myself a good middle-grade adventure story and if you do, I'd give this one a shot.

Book Review: Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers #1)

Book: Disney After Dark (Kingdom Keepers #1)
Author: Ridley Pearson
Genre: adventure, mystery, fantasy (middle-grade)
Rating: 4/5
Publication Date: August 25th, 2009
Date Finished: May 14th

Story Notion: Huh. I might finish this series, I do have book two...

Plot: (from Goodreads):
In this fantastical thriller, five young teens tapped as models for theme park "guides" find themselves pitted against Disney villains and witches that threaten both the future of Walt Disney World and the stability of the world outside its walls. Using a cutting-edge technology called DHI--which stands for both Disney Host Interactive and Daylight Hologram Imaging--Finn Whitman, an Orlando teen, and four other kids are transformed into hologram projections that guide guests through the park. The new technology turns out, however, to have unexpected effects that are both thrilling and scary. Soon Finn finds himself transported in his DHI form into the Magic Kingdom at night. Is it real? Is he dreaming? Finn's confusion only increases when he encounters Wayne, an elderly Imagineer who tells him that the park is in grave danger. Led by the scheming witch, Maleficent, a mysterious group of characters called the Overtakers is plotting to destroy Disney's beloved realm, and maybe more. This gripping high-tech tale will thrill every kid who has ever dreamed of sneaking into Walt Disney World after hours and wondered what happens at night, when the park is closed.

Review:
I wasn't really sure about this book. I bought it on a whim the year before last, I think. We were at Disney after a convention and it was next to the cash register and I'd probably had less sleep that whole week then ever before, so I bought it, for something to read on the plane. Obviously, that didn't happen. What actually happened, if I remember correctly, is I passed out on the plane - unsurprisingly. (LeakyCon wears you out).

I didn't end up picking it up until, as writing this review, last year. I've just reread it recently and realized I'd never reviewed it in any sense. I definitely, now having read all the books out, think that this is definitely the weakest of them. It's setting things up, the start to a long series, but - I still really enjoyed it.

It surprised me the first time I read it, I wasn't honestly expecting much out of it, but I was immediately sold and so glad I had the next book in the series ready to go. I wanted to know what was going to happen next, without pause.

Overall it's a good start to a fantastic series. I love the characters and the plot, and all the weird things that happen that will probably make me never look at certain rides the same way again. The characters are definitely a little underdeveloped a bit at first, but not enough it bothered me.

If you're a Disney fan, or if you're not because I'm actually not a giant Disney fan, more casual, then you should give this series a chance. Or - adventure mystery fan.

Book Review: Wool Omnibus (Silo #1)

Title: Wool Omnibus (Silo #1)
Author: Hugh Howey
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy, Dystopian
Rating: 5/5
Pages: 539 (Paperback)
Publication Date: first published 2011

Story Notion: What... is happening? Oh my god.

Plot: (Goodreads)
Contains WOOLs 1 - 5.

This Omnibus Edition collects the five Wool books into a single volume. It is for those who arrived late to the party and who wish to save a dollar or two while picking up the same stories in a single package.

The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months. My thanks go out to those reviewers who clamored for more. Without you, none of this would exist. Your demand created this as much as I did.

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Review:
All of these five stories are connected, obviously considering they were put in one book, but they're also split up for a reason, I thought. It's almost to give you pause, like that part of the story is over now, or something is different.

And the first one is the shortest and the most confusing and kind of painful, they're all... painful, actually. So much stuff happens but at first it's slow going even though I felt things happening and I was pretty much terrified for the characters through this entire book. And it just got worse, actually, as it went on.

I couldn't tell you exactly why I liked this book, or collection, not exactly, but I can give you a few guesses. The characters would be number one, I'm also a character person, and these charaters are something, that's for sure, and I did enjoy them all and how they were connected and how they acted through out the series.

Also - I found the first three about books slow, because I did like the characters and the weird situation they were in, but it also kind of just meanders a bit at the beginning. And, looking back, I'm not sure it was a bad thing. If you find it too slow at first, just keep going and pushing, it's an amazing story with an interesting world that I want to learn more about and the writing is good.

Amazon
Indiebound

Book Review: Steelheart (Reckoners #1)

Title: Steelheart (Reckoners #1)
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Rating: 5/5
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy, Dystopian, Post/Apocalyptic (Young Adult)
Publication Date: September 24th, 2013

Story Notion: I need more, right now.

Plot: (from Goodreads)
There are no heroes.

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics.

But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics... nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart—the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning—and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Review:
I adored this book and Sanderson is definitely one of my favorite authors at this point, really he was after I read his first book last year and went 'I need all of his books now.' Anyway, I didn't even realize this book was young adult until after, and it didn't occur to me it was 'dystopian,' probably because I thought of it very much more as apocalyptic and post apocalyptic.

Besides that, onto the book itself. I loved all this characters and I adored some of the stories and things Cody said probably much too much, I found myself trying not to burst out laughing. And, of course, David, Megan, Abraham, Prof, and Tia. They're fantastic characters and everything is very intense, it doesn't stop moving, I couldn't put this book down. I finished it in about a day.

I think one of my favorite things about this book is that David, the main character, cannot make metaphors or anything like that to save his life. It was probably one of my favorite recurring things, I found myself laughing to myself more then I care to admit about some. Also the pure just comic nature of some of the Epic's powers made me oddly happy, I'm sure other people found it annoying or a rip off or whatever, but I really loved it, especially in a novel instead of comic, it was different.

Overall, I really love Sanderson's writing and I really liked David's voice and how he changed over the course of the book, I felt it was very different to what normally happened with people thrown into a situation like the one he found himself in and I feel oddly proud of him for that. To sum it up, I'd recommend you check this out if you're into this kind of book, it is truly fantastic and I really need to get my hands on the rest of his books I haven't read already.

Also, there's a short story/novella available for ebook stuff called Mitosis, that kind of gives you a little snap of what the consequences are for the end of Steelheart and it's completely fantastic, I loved it a lot. It's to be read after Steelheart, to just enforce that.

Book Review: Ready Player One

Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy, Dystopian
Rating: 5/5
Publication Date: August 16th, 2011

Story Notion: Why is this just ONE BOOK? Why can't there be a whole series about everything ever? This world is amazing.

Plot Summary: (From Goodreads)


It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?


Review:
This book is amazing, breathtaking and stunning, and has a world that I would love to live in. I guess, more like the virtual world of the OASIS, the actual world doesn't seem that great. The characters in this book are fantastic and the plot and just everything in this book is fantastic. And I should stop using that world, but I'm just so flail-y about this book, I can't help it. The writing and how he can make you see exactly how everything would work is one of the main reasons I love this book so much and why I'd want to live in it because you can just visualize everything so well.

A friend, Haley, actually took the book off my shelf handed it to me and made me start reading it in the middle of March (our sleepovers are very interesting obviously), and I knew immediately that It was going to be a new favorite and I already didn't want it to end.

This book is full of '80's trivia. Full. And not just things that normal people would know, but also random stuff like cereal commercials from the time. It's a huge part of the plot, though, and almost one of my favorite parts. Before I start to just ramble about the amazingness of this book (rambling about it more), I think I'll try and wrap it up.

Overall, I think you should read this book. Even if you're just a casual gamer or if you know nothing about the 1980's, because it's such an amazing book with complex world and amazing writing. I have a feeling this will be the book that I'll be forcing on people for a long time, it was truly an amazing book and I'm glad that someone forced it on me.

Book Review: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Book: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #2)
Author: Douglas Adams
Genre: Humor, SciFi/Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 256
Favorite Character: Probably Marvin. I mean, I adore the other four as well, but Marvin is just perfect with all his comments.

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbabilityband desperately in search of a place to eat.
Among Arthur's motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a longtime friend and expert contributor to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who's gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, the moody android who suffers nothing and no one very gladly. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food (literally) speaks for itself.
Will they make it? The answer: hard to say. But bear in mind that the Hitchhiker's Guide deleted the term "Future Perfect" from its pages, since it was discovered not to be!
"What's such fun is how amusing the galaxy looks through Adams' sardonically silly eyes."


Review:
I really loved this book. I mean, I really liked Hitchhiker's Guide, too. This one wasn't better, exactly, but I could appreciate it more because I was expecting it more, I guess. I knew what would be involved and I adored it even more.

I don't know why I like this series as much as I do, maybe because I do read a lot of heavy books and humor books or just some fluff is always nice, humor, though, is amazing. So in this one, they go to the Restaurant at the end of the Universe and I loved how it was explained and how, if you thought about it, it made no sense. But, then again, nothing really makes sense in these, does it?

Everyone was up to par, no one seemed out of character to me, and I loved how it all happened. Ford, Zaphod, Trillian, and, of course, Arthur are all just hilarious and possibly insane, in the best way possible.

This is definitely what to pick up if you're looking for something completely hilarious and frequently insane.

Book and Audio Review: World War Z

Title: World War Z
Author: Max Brooks
Genre: Horror, SciFi/Fantasy, Post/Apocalyptic. War
Rating: 5/5
Favorite Character: Probably the guy that is bringing us the story, our main narrator. Though, I did really enjoy some of the people he talked to, too.
Publication Date: October 16th, 2007

Plot Synopsis: (From Goodreads)

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. "World War Z" is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"

Review: 
I really, really liked this book. I think that since normally dystopian and apocalyptic books, this is only the ones I've read, tend to just focus on one people, but I just feel like it tends to zero in on one person (or just the US). I don't know why, because it was so much more interesting to read it from all these different perspectives, all these different people who lived around the world and their different experiences

I think the best part was defnitely that it wasn't America-centric. It's pretty well divided, I think, between a bunch of countries. And I really enjoyed that, I also really enjoyed that it wasn't just what happened after everyone excepted it. I also really liked these zombies and how they worked and that was heavily investigated as people just really needed to know, to survive. And it's interesting how much you don't think about all the problems if something can only be killed with destroying the brain.

The way it was written was also, surprising, when I first started it. In the form of interviews, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. The different voices are very distinct, even just in writing, and the interviews are separated, so it was so interesting to learn about these specific people, what they faced, and then the overall outbreak. This book is, truly, incredible, and I'd highly, highly recommend it. (Also get the unabridged audiobook, the full thing, because it's incredible).

Audiobook specific:
I actually reading physically more. This has nothing to do audiobooks, it's just how I am. However - this audiobook was incredible - the way it was done, with different people, and how it wasn't dramatized (that can be annoying), it just had different people as the different voices. It was incredibly fantastic to listen to and I highly, highly recommend you check it out. If you're an audiobook fan or not, and I don't listen to a lot of them (my attention tends to wander), but this one had my attention.

Book Review: Solid

Book: Solid (Solid #1)
Author: Shelly Workinger
Genre: SciFi/Fantasy, Dystopian, Supernatural, Paranormal Romance
Rating: 4/5
Favorite Character: The main girl, Clio, is probably my favorite (even if I have never seen that spelling before. I do still find new ways people have decided to spell my name, though).

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Clio Kaid may be 17 and just beginning the last summer before her senior year, but her life is anything but typical.

She's just discovered she was genetically altered before birth and is now headed to a top-secret Army campus to explore the surprising results of the experiment.

Follow Clio and the other teens as they develop fantastic super-abilities, forge new friendships, and find love as they search for answers.


Review:
When I was first introduced to the idea of this book, I found myself immediately interested. Science interests me more that I care to admit, but DNA is one of my favorite things. This book is pretty short, but it has a lot going on. The characters were probably my favorite part of it.

Overall, I'd say it was good, maybe even really good. I liked the writing, it wasn't perfect, at times it felt a little... clunky, but I was able to look past that, it didn't pull me out of the story any. I didn't have many problems with the book overall.

And I found the story and characters interesting overall. I love trying to figure out something before the characters  it's a weakness. To wrap up this review before I get with the rambling, I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes some YA SciFi/Fantasy with some mystery in it. If you've read Solid, what did you think of it?

The second book in this series is Settling; the third and final book is Sound which comes out the 1st of November.

Disclaimer: I did recieve a free copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Book Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #1)
Author: Douglas Adams
Genre: Humor, Adventure, SciFi/Fantasy
Rating: 5/5
Page Count: 216 (Paperback - 2005)
Favorite Character: Ford. I just... I mean, I adore all four of them, but he just makes the least sense out of all of them, so it seemed like the best choice. Ooh. Or Marvin, I adore Marvin.

Plot: (From Goodreads)

Seconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.

Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.


Review:
I refuse to think that this is a book that you can review in a normal way because it's just too different to do that. You can't say 'well the pacing was good', because there wasn't really any pacing. This is a book that you just have to shrug and go along for the ride to enjoy it, if you're trying to figure out whats happening, you'll probably not enjoy it at all and get a headache.

The Hitchhiker's Guide started with us on earth with Arthur Dent, who at first I was unsure of and then realized he was the best main character, and the earth is about to be destroyed. And, of course, adventure and hijinks ensue. This book is hilarious and engaging and the characters, the four main ones and the others we meet, are all amazing.

If you're looking for a fun, nonsense (in the best way) read then this is definitely one to check out.