The Blood by DJ MacHale (Awesome)

Hey everybody!  So, this book, the last in the Morpheus Road Trilogy, came out on Tuesday.  I haven't written a review of the first two books yet, so here is a simplified version: The Light comes first, then the Black.  They are both great, but you should read them in order, otherwise you ruin the surprises.  I'm going to write this review assuming that you've read both of those but haven't read The Blood yet.  There will be no spoilers from this book though.  Here's the cover:



I'm assuming that the cover is of the Coliseum in the Blood, though I don't really get these covers.  I really couldn't tell you who that guy is supposed to be. 

Before I get too reviewy, I want to suggest to read the Author's Foreword.  This is the same author who wrote the Pendragon books (I really suggest that series by the way) and his little beginning thoughts are hilarious sometimes.  I know most of you probably skip those, so I thought I'd point it out.

My summary: Marsh needs a way to help Coop. He can't keep hiding. Cooper needs to find Damon's captives or else the good guys would loose the war. Damon wants his battle for glory. A spirit worse than Damon resides in the Blood.  And Sanger (a new guy) might just be the worst of them all.  When it comes down to the final battle, will the worst of mankind destroy the best place in the world, or will the best of mankind stop it first.

Go find this book somewhere and read it.  It was really good (even if i didn't like Marsh's attitude for a little bit, but it got better quickly).  It's definitely a book that I feel good suggesting.

There is so much that I can't write about what happens with Marsh and Cooper without spoiling anything that it's frustrating.  For example, I can't say anything about the poleax or even why the book's called the Blood. 

I do have one more thing to say, there are a couple Pendragon tie-ins, so I would suggest reading that series before this book so that you can be as excited as I was when I read it. 

In fact, I still am excited enough that I really want to talk about it, but there will be big spoilers from Pendragon and some minor spoilers from the Blood.  I would suggest not reading this if you haven't read Pendragon yet!!!

*SPOILERS FOR PENDRAGON AND THE BLOOD SECTION*

So, in the Blood, Marsh and Cooper do some things until it is revealed by a dark-skinned, quiet woman Watcher that they needed to find another Watcher who was in the Blood.  I'm not going to reveal much about the Blood (the book, not the place), so I'll just say that a couple things happened that lead them into the Blood(the place).  There they met the Watcher, who looked like "a dad... or an uncle". At the time, I thought it was a weird place to put dot-dot-dot, but it was a bit important.  Then the guy talked about how in his last time in the Light he had helped stop one of their own from changing the course of multiple worlds.  Then he revealed his name: Press.

A couple of other things happened, and the next thing you know, Press's twirling around a wooden stave that a friend gave him.  More things happen and Solara is mentioned.  A whole lot of other things happen and Press and the Watcher I mentioned above both stood together and told the group some important things.

So, what did that all mean? The dark-skinned woman was Osa.  Press was an uncle... of Bobby Pendragon.  The guy who wanted to change the course of worlds was Saint Dane.  The wooden stave was from Zadaa.  And Solara was the place that Pendragon saw his family in book 10.  There were a couple other things mentioned in the Light or the Black: Both books main characters were from Stony Brook.  Mark Diamond (about college-aged) was working in the engraving shop that Marsh worked in. 

Altogether, it was exciting to realize all of those things.  I feel like I'm missing somethings, though. If you find any other tie-in please tell me via the comment section.  Thanks for reading this really long post! See you next week!

The Shadow Club Rising by Neal Shusterman (Awesome)

Here's the sequel to The Shadow Club which I posted about a couple weeks ago.  It was really good and wasn't overshadowed by the first book at all.  Without further ado, the cover:

The story was a lot like the first book. Pranks are being played on a boy and they're getting more dangerous as they go. And throughout the whole thing, somehow the main guy, Jared, got caught up in it. It's a desperate ploy to stop the new Shadow Club. Where will it lead? I can tell you that some dramatic plot twists are in play; my favorite involves a bee. Just make sure you watch out for TSC.

This is an amazing book.  I can't really describe it to make it sound as good as it is; the voice of the whole book is what makes it. Well, that and the ending. It's one of the best endings that I have ever read.  Neal Shusterman's, the author's, endings are one of the main things that makes his books so good.

Long story short, I would suggest reading this book.

I'm still behind on books, so I'll give you a tiny review right here until I actually post about them: Seeds of Rebellion= an awesome book and Prized= a great book that I didn't know why I liked. 

Just as an update, the next book in the Morpheus Road series comes out on Tuesday. I am going to read that, and, based on the other books, I suggest you do too.

See you guys next week!

Double Identity by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Alright)

I read Double Identity and frankly, I wasn't crazy about it. Anyway, here's the cover:

The cover is pretty explanatory once you've read it, so I won't get into that. I'll do my description before I tell you about my review of it.

Bethany has a nice, cushy life until one day when her dad drops here off with a mysterious relative and then vanishes. She needs to unravel the truth of her past. There's only one thing she has to go by. A name. Elizabeth.

Before I go any farther, I want to say that I really like the author of this book, Margaret Peterson Haddix.  I particually like the Missing Series and The Shadow Children Series.  

Personally, I was very, very bored when I was reading it.  Bethany just sat around moping all the time!  Then there was a tiny exciting part, near the end, but when I was reading it, I just couldn't get very into it because I hate the character of Bethany so much.  Now, it wasn't all bad by any means. I wouldn't go as far as to advise you not to read it if you have it laying around. But, I wouldn't suggest buying it. It had a couple of all right parts, there was a plot twist (that's good in my opinion), and not everyone would hate Bethany as much as I did; I'm sure that some of you would like it if you read it, but let it be known that I warned you.

Sorry that I haven't really posted very much recently. I'm really behind on books, but i just haven't had any time! I'll try to do some more reviews whenever I can. 

Hope you all have/ had a good spring break!

New page

I added a new page. The Quotes page. You should check it out.
Oh, and by the way. There are absolutely no major spoilers in it. That way you can read my excerpt and then read the book and nothing will be spoiled for you.
Enjoy!

The Shadow Club by Neal Shusterman (Great)

I was a bit worried from the official description of The Shadow Club that it wouldn't really get interesting, but I was wrong. It definitely was good, and I'm glad I read it.  I only just now understood the cover, since it looks really weird.  Here it is:



I'm sorry, the cover's a bit blurry, but what can you do?Anyway, if you also don't get the cover after reading it, I'll give you some hints: Tyler, the lighthouse, that night, Tyler's dangerous problem. I hope that helped clear it up.

Here's my description. Jared has always been second best at track. He always gets the silver medal because of the awful Austin Pace. But Jared isn't the only second best; there are others: the second best swimmer, basketball player, singer, brain. All of the second- bests band together to form The Shadow Club to get revenge on all the unbeatables. It starts out as just harmless pranks, but even when they stop messing with the unbeatables, the pranks keep on coming, getting more dangerous as they go.

I really liked this book. It had a nice balance to it. Some dramatic things, some funny things, and acouple heart breaking things. Neal Shusterman is the author of it, which automatically means that it's stellar.

I would recommend reading it. It's not a very long read, but it's good all the same.

It has a sequel, The Shadow Club Rising, that I'm curently reading. I'll tell you guys about it soon.

I'm a bit behind on books, but I'll post with Double Identity and The Shadow Club Rising as soon as possible.

Hope you all have a nice President's Day weekend. 

Update!

Hi everyone!
I wanted to point out that I just updated my Coming Soon page. It now has all of the books, that I'm aware of, that  are coming out and that I'm planning on reading. Tell me if there's any books that you want to add or any dates/ titles that you know more about than I do. Hope you guys find this page helpful, especially if you're one of the people who like reading the book as soon as it's out.

A Door into the Woods by James Dashner (Good)

Hi! I'm early this week for the first time ever!
The last book I read was A Door into the Woods.  James Dashner wrote this, along with The Maze Runner Series and the 13th Reality Series.  Most people haven't heard about this series, the Jimmy Fincher series, because it isn't very well known. (It took a little while for me to find.)  In any case, I liked the book.  Here's the cover:

I really liked this cover because of all the little details that are on it.  I don't want to ruin any surprises, so I won't mention any of them. But, I would suggest finding them after you read the PERSONAL description of the door.  I know that doesn't make any sense right now, but it will!

Here's my description: Jimmy Fincher is just an ordinary, extremely southern kid from Georgia who likes to do ordinary things like climb trees.  That is, until he sees a woman get killed and then gets kidnapped.  Jimmy learns that the world's not what it seems.  Then he gets advice from people that he thought he knew well and from people who are a bit on the crazy side on what to do about the bad guys (characters such as Monster and Raspy).  The only thing that anyone agrees on is that the door in the woods is important, very important.

Now, my review.  I really liked it.  The whole book had this feel about it; I'm not sure what to call it, but it sounded funny and at the same time sort of intense.  Whatever you call it, it sounded good.  It was written really, really southernly, though.  It was so southern that, being mildly southern, I would have been slightly offended if James Dashner wasn't actually from Georgia.  The only bad thing about it? Jimmy cried a lot in the beginning. I know that's probably what we would all do in that situation, but it was still a bit annoying.

I would definitely recomend reading it.  It was definitely interesting.

So, that is my book review for The Door into the Woods.  I hope you liked it. Have a nice week.

Birthmarked by Caragh M O'Brien (Good)

Hi everybody! I finished Birthmarked early this week and it was...interesting. Personally, I think that it is a more girl-oriented book than what I normally read. (I'm putting that out there for all you guys.) But, then again, I think any book with a more sophisticated love scheme is a girl's book, even if that's not what it's all about.  Here's the cover:

Birthmarked is about a girl, Gaia, who is the midwife for a village and has to give three babies per month to the advanced society of the Enclave.  She happily serves until she hears that her prisoner parents are about to be executed.  The only way to save them would be to break into the Enclave and orchestrate a prison-break.  The problems? Sgt. Grey, who seems to be going out of his way to "help" Gaia; a mysterious black oven; an intervention to a cruel execution that could lead Gaia into deeper trouble; a secret code; and the knowledge of something that might change everything: the birthmarks.

This book builds on itself so much that I can't really give you any hints of the really good stuff.  I can say that a love interest builds between Gaia and another character and almost all of the characters have at least one juicy secret.

The book is the first in a trilogy, and I'm planning on reading the rest of the series after I finish the rest of the books I got for Christmas. 

My only problem with the book was that (mild SPOILER ALERT) the time in the prison was way too long.  Usually when the character's captured in a book, I think that the time before they figure out a way out is a bit short (Black Water, Fablehaven:Keys to the Demon Prison, Ranger's Apprentice, 13th Reality: The Blade of Shattered Hope, Tunnels, The Death Cure, Gone, and probably a couple other books I can't remember right now). Usually the author just skips a little so that it doesn't seem boring; the author of Birthmarked did skip a little, but it still ended up seeming really long.  (It's pretty impressive to get me to think that that part of the story is too long; that might have been on purpose but still.)  SPOILER ALERT OFF

In any case, I liked the book and hope you read it as well.  I finished A Door in the Woods last night and will post on that soon. 

Oh, and by the way, the books that showed as examples above are really good, and I would suggest you to read them along with the rest of the books in their series. In case you don't want to risk seeing a spoiler by accident, here: Pendragon: Black Water, Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison, Ranger's Apprentice, 13th Reality: The Blade of Shattered Hope, Tunnels, The Death Cure, and Gone.

That's all for this week.  Have fun watching the Superbowl!

Downsiders by Neal Shusterman (Really Good)

Sorry that I'm a bit late this week.  It's been  pretty hectic.  Anyway, back to Downsiders. 
I read this book because I absolutely LOVE all of the books by Neal Shusterman (especially Full Tilt, Bruiser, Everfound, Unwind, and The Schwa was Here). This was a really good book, not as good as some of his book but still pretty amazing.  The cover:

For future references, the book has another cover with the title and author in a circle, but I didn't put that one on this post because it had "a novel" on it. (That's my biggest pet peeve.  Look at the cover and you know it's a novel!)

The story goes like this: There's a society under the feet of New York City.  They've gotten about well enough on their own, but Talon wants to go to the Topside so much that it hurts.  He meets Lindsay, a Topsider, by a chance run in and, later, things start crashing down around them, literally.  A simple truth that could destroy everything that all of the Downsiders' lives, a broken-in-half home, a sick sister, and an execution wait within these pages, all you have to do is start reading.

Overall, I really liked this book.  He should have slowed down during the pipe part, and gone quicker during the very beginning, but it was a wonderful book.  I would definetely suggest you to read it.

I'm about halfway through Birthmarked  and I have to say that it is amazing so far.  I'll post on it next week!

The Outcasts by John Flanagan (Great)

I read the first book in the semi-new series, The Brotherband Chronicles.  This is a sequeling series to The Ranger's Apprentice and the short story collection: The Lost Stories.  Those were links to my reviews of those books by the way.  The books before have no mention in this new series.  Just the general setting of the series are the same.  Here's the cover:

This book is about a half Skandian, half Aurlen boy.  He is an outcast because of his mixed race and because he is smart in a land that values strength.  The boy, Hal, is old enough for Brotherband training, which is a competition of sorts/ school where boys learn how to sail, navigate, work as a team, etc. Hal's brotherband has to compete with two others in a bunch of risky, interesting contests.  A lot of things happen that "rocks the boat" (and no that is not supposed to be a bad pun) and everything gets complicated...

The book ended on a cliffhanger, which I absolutely hate!  I really enjoyed this book. I would suggest reading it.  My advice: the sailing terminology at the beginning of the book is really unnecessary, so you can skip reading it if you want to.  It just gave me a headache reading it, and I didn't think it helped me a lot.

I hope you decide to read it.  I'll write again once I finish reading the book I'm on: Downsiders by Neal Shusterman.

Happy Reading!