Friday, June 24, 2011

Catching Up, Part One: Blakley-Cartwright, Kagawa, Caletti

This is Part 1 of "Catching Up" - Where I will review three books at a time, covering what I have read from the end of March until today. These reviews will be shorter than usual.
For this installment I will cover The Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa, Stay by Deb Caletti, and Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.

The Iron Queen - Julie Kagawa
2011 - Harlequin Teen
Read: April 5, 2011
Review: With
every book in the Iron Fey series, I love Prince Ash more and more. I feel like this book in the series really stepped up the action with all of
the fight scenes and battles that took place. Meghan really stepped up and started to learn to use her powers and fight for herself, rather than letting boys fight her battles for her, which had begun to wear on me in the previous books. I am really looking forward to the next book and reading about Ash's quest. Julie Kagawa's writing in this series has been just amazing. I originally hadn't liked the idea of the story, but had heard such great things that I set my judgments aside and picked up the first book... and became completely consumed with the story and characters. I definitely recommend this series to people who love fantasy but also people who love a good romance as well.

Stay - Deb Caletti
2011 - Simon Pulse
Read: April 7, 2011
Review: I have been a big fan of Deb Caletti for years, since I first read Honey, Baby, Sweetheart as a teenager. In Stay, we follow Clara as she moves to the beach with her father to get away from her ex-boyfriend Christian, who has become obsessed to the point of danger with her. Caletti writes relationships so well, not just romantic relationships but just the relationships all people have with each other - fathers and daughters, friends, etc. And her side characters always get me, especially Clara's father and Finn and Finn's siblings (and the seagull!). I really felt like I understood Clara and connected with her as a character, which I think is such an important part of YA lit. The way Caletti strings words together is just amazing.

Red Riding Hood (movie version) - Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
2011 - Poppy
Read: April 7, 2011
Review: This was, surprisingly, not as bad as I had been expecting, especially because it was written after the movie was written. It was a quick read, and not very challenging, but the story flowed and Blakley-Cartwright did a great job of putting a preexisting story into her own words and still making it sound believable. And, I honestly didn't know who the wolf was. However, I was rather annoyed that I had to go online to read the "bonus chapter" in order to find out who the wolf was and how the story ended. I recently watched the movie, and have to say the book was much, much better than the film was, so I really commend Sarah Blakley-Cartwright.

To learn more or purchase these titles:

1 comment:

Opie said...

I'm surprised Red Riding Hood was a good read!