Wrap Up - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2017

I am a huge fan of both series and stand alones but my TBR series list is continuously getting out of hand. I am always trying to finish at least 6 series at once. 

Completed

Duologies

Alices Adventures in Wonderland & Alice Thorough the Looking Glass and What She Found There, Lewis Carrol

Shame and Daughters of Shame by Jasvinger Sanghera

Trilogy

His Dark Materials, Phlip Pullman
The Infernal Devices, Cassandra Clare
Gemma Doyle, Libba Bray
Fred The Mermaid, Mary Janice Davidson
Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynn Jones
Age of Legends, Kelley Armstrong

Series

The Dark Tower, Stephen King (7 Books)

The Selectio,Kiera Cass (5) + Companion

Graphic Novels

Bone, Jeff Smith (9) + Prequels (2)
Overwatch, Various Authors (10)

Started

Dragonlands (3/?)
Matched, Allie Condi(1/3)
The Hatching & The Skittering, Ezekiel Boone (2/3)
Newsflesh, Mira Grant (1/3)
Fallen (3/5)
Lincoln Rhyme, Jeffery Deaver (3/?)
Aliens, Steve Perry + Various  (3/?)
The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare (5/6)
The Collector, Dot Hutchinson (1/3)
Chrestomanci, Dianna Wynn-Jones (4/6)
Verhoven, Pierre Lamaitre (3/4)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (1/3)
Stevens and Windermere, Owen Laukkkanen (1/?)
Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice (3/12)
A Song of Ice and Fire (3/6)

The Posts from Previous Years :

Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies - 2015/2016/2017

 Series, Trilogies, Duologies Completed 2016- December 31 2016
Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2015!- December 27 2015

Ongoing, Unfinished & Won't be Finishing Series - June 9 2015
Completed Series Trilogies and Duologies - June 7 2015

Series Review - Fallen

Fallen

Lauren Kate

5 Stars

YA/ Romance / Supernatural/ 

Fallen

5 Stars

452 Pages
Lucinda Price, who can see mysterious and threatening figures in shadows, is sent to the Sword and Cross reform school after the  mysterious death of her friend in a fire; it is suspected that she was the arsonist responsible. Luce meets Daniel, a mysterious boy who both encourages and shuns her advances and Cam, who is straight forward and honest about his interest in her but occasionally gives off bad vibes. But all is not as it seems.

I went into this book having been a little spoiled and so I was ready for the style. I knew it was very twilight-ie, instalove, love triangles, angsty teens, all those tropes. Having been forewarned I didn't expect a lot, and it was pretty much what I thought it would be. It is a good read, with flaws, light and quick my kind of spring go-to.

Torment

5.5 Stars
452 Pages
Luce now knows that Daniel and Cam are fallen angels on opposite sides of an age old war. Taken to another school for Nephalim(the offspring of angels and humans) to hide and learn. Breaking the curse that has held them captive for thousands of years wont happen in a day but step by step Luce hopes she is getting closer. But the more she knows the more questions she has.  Is it really love that binds them together or is it obligation to the spell? What if being with someone else would break the curse?

I was expecting something like the first novel (which it was) but I got an unexpected surprise in some of these characters and in the setting. The Nephelim school was amazing, the dynamic worked in all the ways the Sword and Cross didn't. There was other things than just the love story. There were a few points in the book where there was so much potential for a novel much better than Fallen, and the idea had just been left on the sidelines.

Passion

5.5 Stars
420 Pages

Luce has decided to find the answers for herself, by jumping into her past lives; reliving them to know what Daniel has been through and too see for herself if it is true love. Daniel, Cam and the others are chasing her down to bring her home, however time travel can be very dangerous and one wrong move could change the course of history forever, with almost a dozen interlopers who will be the one to make that mistake?

I went into this thinking it was the last book in a trilogy but turns out there are two more novels after this one. I still enjoyed this book more than Fallen but less than Torment in some places because it dragged on. There was a lot of repetition which didn't bother me as much as it normally does but I was very aware of that flaw. I feel like some of the book could have been condensed, the whole series in fact could have been to turn it into a trilogy. Not sure when, or if I will get to the rest of the books because I don't know where they could possibly go after this. and to end on a positive note : no love triangle in this book! Yay!

Wrap Up 2016 - Completed Series, Trilogies Duologies

This is 2016 only, I will be doing a bigger post with a complete list of any I have read to date. this will include  series that I started but won't be finishing, series that I intend on finishing but haven't yet, including series that are not yet completed because the final book(s) have not been released yet

Trilogy 

The Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken
The Strain, Guillermo Del Toro
Darkest Powers, Kelley Armstrong
Maeve'ra, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien 
Bill Hodges, Stephen King

Series 

The Lunar Chronicles , Marissa Meyer (4 books)
Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz (7 Books)

Box Sets 

*I am not including any omnibuses.
From Darkness Comes : Horror Box Set (8 Books)

Book Review - Bloodtraitor

Maeve'ra Trilogy

Bloodtraitor

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

series-review-maevera-trilogy - My review of the first two novels before Blood Traitor was published.

3 stars
easy read
ya/ fantasy / shapeshifters / fiction / vampires

I was really excited about this series when I read Bloodwitch, and now I just wish it had been a standalone. There was so much potential and seeing it go to waste it heartbreaking.
These books should be published in a box set or omnibus, they really should be read back to back, in fact they are so short and easy to read if you had to add the second and third novel it should have just been one novel.
Unfortunately for me and for this book review the third novel was not yet published when I read the first two books, so there was a period of more than year between reading the second and third novel. In that period my opinions of the novels changed a little bit and much of that change was from the wait.
The first issue that started before I even started the third novel was how little I remembered from the first two, normally I can read the synopsis of all three novels again and draw the major points out of my memory, when I hit a total blank its generally a sign, and not a good sign. I had zero interest in rereading so I had to put the novel down and give up on the trilogy or go ahead and hope that it all fell into place. Obviously I took the second option.

This is where the mixed feelings come into play.
The overall story is pretty good, the characters are alright - not fantastic and I found no connections other than Vance in the first novel - the setting is terrible, the timeline is confusing, and there is a overall feeling of Incomplete. I could kind of tell where Rhodes had tried to go which leaves me wondering about her editor and the publisher who should have told her to pick method and stick with it.

Lots was missing in expressing this whole world (that was maybe semi set by a previous series I have not read?) the world couldn't decide if it was total fantasy or kinda partially reality based, throwing in names associated with certain cultures or places - past and present such as America, and Aztecs - that specifically stands out as something that took so much away from the book, those referable names added yet more confusion to an already complicated issue. I found there was so much detail that you got no information, the information you did get lead to more questions that in the end were never answered. I would start a list but it would be pages and pages long at this point.
There was little to indicate change as we jumped between past, present, future, reality, internal or external voice and visions - you did eventually figure out that you had made a leap and then when or were or who of it but why would I want to be figuring that out all the time? . I think this was supposed to add mystery or a sophisticated "layer" but failed. Then with each novel a different narrator... So much was lost by having first Vance, then Kadee, then Malachi narrate, and what is really frustrating is how unnecessary that change was, all three characters where present through all three novels. Another character problem was everyone was a main character or a minimal character. It didn't have that three or four tier layer of characters, with your protagonist, his main three or four, the supporting and then the background characters. With every single character trying to be in the spot light it has a serious case of "everyone is special which makes no one special" which is were connecting to the characters fell through.

It would have been so easy to eliminate these problems, it makes me so mad!

Wrap Up - July 2016

Once I started this list I realized I had done more reading than I thought, pretty happy with what I got through this month.

1. One Foot in the Gravc, Jeannie Frost *reread
2. Halfway to the Grave, Jeannie Frost
3. At Graves End, Jeannie Frost
4. Long Hard Road Out of Hell, Marilyn Manson *reread
5. Serial Killers the faces of evil - Magazine
6. In the Afterlight, Alexandra Bracken
7. Killer Families : murder by dads, moms, kids and spouses, Sylvia Perrin

Was really excited to get back into Jeannie Frost's, Night Huntress Series, they are quick and easy reads. I really like her characters and will post a review of it all. I did find that by the end of the third novel I just wasn't feeling it (nothing to do with the book). I didn't start the fourth, tried a different romance, couldn't get into it. Tried a few lighter novels one adult one ya, just wasn't sparking any interest. In a bit of a reading slump.

Also picked up The Stand, read just under half on several occasions, its a pretty sizable detailed slowish read. Around halfway through it now hoping to finish it in August.

Series Review - Odd Thomas (Part 1) SPOILERS!

Odd Thomas 

Dean Koontz 

Mystery/Supernatural/Paranormal

7 Novels

*Read on audiobook by David Thomas Baker

The first three novels in this series where a roller coaster for me, ranging from distaste all the way through to absolute adoration. These are the first books I have read by Dean Koontz although many of his novels (most notably the Frankenstein series) have been on my TBR much longer than the Odd series. Deciding that it was time to start reading - or in this case listening - to a medium sized well reviewed series.

Wrap Up - January to April 2016

Sorry that my 2016 has been sadly lacking thus far. Despite not having a chance to update my blog I have done quite a bit of reading in the past four months. I got through 45 novels which includes; rereading 3 old favorites, completing the Lunar Chronicles, reading The Strain Trilogy start to finish, reading an 8 book box set, reading 18 books out of the 50+ novels in the Dark-Hunterverse and starting the Odd Thomas Series.

My top 4 are:

The complete list of books I read is down below.
*I have done complete reviews for many of the books but will not be doing reviews for all of them

Series Review - The Lunar Chonicles

The Lunar Chronicles

Marissa Meyer

9 stars
Young Adult/ Futuristic/ Fairytale/ Retelling/ Post-Apocalyptic/ Sci-Fi
Easy Read
All Ages

I was incredibly reluctant to start this series, I missed some of the initial enthusiasm when it was released/ first discovered and I was put off reading the novels because of all the hype. My expectations for these books where astronomical. I wanted to feel the same way about these books as I feel about Harry Potter (which can never be read too many times over, and should be read by everyone). I was not disappointed!

None of these books where what I had expected, they where true to the originals - which does make the stories outcome predictable so I have not included that in my ratings - but I still found that the story's stand on their only as something totally unique as well.

I tried to avoid Spoilers in the reviews bellow, as I review each story however there are some details that escaped.

TBR - May 2016

I am going to be making this months list really short, I have no idea how much time I am going to be able to dedicate to reading and would rather be pleasantly surprised vs disappointed in what I get through.

*I have all of these on audiobook I have been listening over reading a lot lately.

Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2015!

This was my TBR Series of 2015

The Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien --> started

The Maze Runner, James Dasher -->

Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris -->

The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer --> Completed :)

the * indicated that I started this series before 2015 

Started

1. The Chronicles of Nick, Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. Lacey Flint, SJ Bolton
3. Jason Bourne Series, Robert Ludlum
4. A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
5. The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan
6. Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken 
7. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz

Up to Date These are the book series that still have books to be published up I have read all the novels that are currently released.

1. The Maeve'ra Trilogy, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
2. Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King

Series I'm Not Going to Finish

1. Arkwell Academy, Mindee Arnett
2. Crank, Ellen Hopkins

Completed : I have tried to order these from my least favorite to my most favorite.

1. The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer
2. The Bone Collector & Skin Collector Duology, Jeffery Deaver *
3. The Dead River Trilogy, Jack Ketchum
4. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Laini Taylor
5. The Chemical Gardens Trilogy, Lauren Destephano
6. The Precious Stone Trilogy, Kerstine Gier
7. The Darkness Rising Trilogy, Kelley Armstrong
8. Divergent, Veronica Roth

Links to my previous posts about this topic

Competed Series, Trilogies, Dulogies

Unfinished Series

Book Review - Off Season

Off Season
Jack Ketchum

9 Stars
Horror / Thriller/ Cannibal/
Easy Read
270 Pages

The Story of the Lightkeeper has been told around campfires for years. The island where the lighthouse stood flooded nearly killing the whole family, severing their connection with civilization, slowly starving to death. Father and son are lost at sea attempting to reach the mainland, the mother dies hours before rescue in her daughters arms, and the final daughter the youngest becomes a feral child in order to survive. The tale only a generation or two from becoming a legend. The facts forgotten and eroded by the passing of time and many many retellings. Dead River is a small town, No-Wheres-Ville to the city folk who flock there during the busy summer. With winter in the air it is the off season, six travellers from New York settle into a rental home blissfully unaware of the cannibal tribe prowling in the darkness.

#1 right under the title the novel was recommended by Stephen King. #2 Cannibals #3 Ketchum wrote The Girl Next Door, which is one of the only books to stop me dead (pun intended) in my tracks.
This was such a delightful quick read, this had such high expectations after The Girl Next Door, I would have settled for nothing less than being deeply disturbed. Wish Granted! From the word go the action begins, I got a little worried once through this beginning part when the descriptions - which where far from boring, built up anticipation until the tension was pliable - got to be a little longer than I had thought. But it was worth the wait, because once The Family begins there hunt you can't put the book down!

**to the uncut version, which I had started and shelved after deciding to wait till I had the whole series - which I still have yet to get my hands on - you people did the world a terrible disservice, we would have had this masterpiece way sooner if not for your small minded mass market paperback, grubby greedy little manipulations.

Series Review - The Chemical Garden Trilogy - Fever & Sever

Series Review

The Chemical Garden Trilogy

Lauren DeStephano

Review For Wither


Fever
8 Stars

I read this on my trip from Canada to New Zealand its my mission to finish as many of my started Duologies and Trilogies as is possible this year.
This is one of the rare sequels that rivalled the first novel. I finally thought that the characters matched the story and the world. During the first book Rhine's behaviour seemed childish and naive there was a whiny tone that I couldn't grasp considering the world she was living in and the life she had lived before. I was left in disbelief and the end of the last novel when she escaped the Ashby mansion.  I was not in love with Gabriel and was very much against a relationship between the two of them.

SPOILDERS BELOW, SEVER REVIEW

Series Review - Precious Stone Trilogy

Series Review

The Precious Stone Trilogy

by Kerstine Gier

Ruby Red

YA/ Historical Fiction/ Fantasy/ Time Travel/
Easy Read
6 Stars

Gwen is a normal British teenager, she hangs out with her best friend, listens to music, goes to school. While living in a large London mansion with her two aunts, cousin, grandmother, mother, brother and sister might be a little out of the ordinary, its nothing compared to the secret that her cousin Charlotte is a time traveller...or so they thought. When Gwen begins to jump into the past her life takes a 180 degree turn.  Brought into London's secret time travelling society, she attempts to catch up on a lifetimes worth of special lessons, avoid her furiously jealous cousin and aunt, jump back in time at least once a day and continue her normal life. As if this wasn't enough to make her head spin the handsome Gideon De Villers captures her heart.

I went into this book with a rather bleak outlook, I had heard quite a few negative reviews and while I found the story to be interesting I wasn't entirely sold on the idea. I thought that this was a great story and the writing was good but not great. The major flaws of this book are Insta-Love primarily, a love triangle between the impossible handsome Gideon with Gwen vs Charlotte. The bad characters are balanced out with the good ones, Gwen is likeable and relatable which mostly redeems for how irritating and frusturating she can be

Top 5 Wednesday - Side Characters That Deserve Their Own Series

Top 5 Wednesday

Side Characters That Deserve Their Own Series

July 22 2015

1. Cassie, Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson
2. Gabriel, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, Holly Black
3. Cadvan, The books of Pellinor, Allison Croggon
4. Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, JK Rowling
5. Girl wanting to be a bride, Wither,  The Chemical Garden, Lauren Destephano

Series Review - The Maeve'ra Trilogy

The Maeve'ra Trilogy

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Supernatural/ Vampire / ShapeShifter/ YA
Easy/ Junior High level Read

BloodWitch
7 Stars

Just browsing through the library killing some time while I got some work done on the car and I found this beautiful little book.
Set in the 1800's. This is a power struggle novel between various shapeshifter clans and the ruling vampire class. Our main character Vance - a Quetzal shapeshifter with bloodmagic-  is torn between the many factions, raised by the vampires they hold his love and loyalty. When his world is suddenly turned upside down by a series of events, be begins to question the integrity of the Midnight Empire.

For a YA novel this was wonderful, there was no romance, the emphasis was on freewill and choices although there was a little bit of prophecy/fate/destiny thrown in. I really liked the main character Vance and found him very believable, he did have some choices to make but there was little of the typical pointless back and forth it was very concise. Overall very a very refreshing read. The only issue I found which has been coming up quite a bit lately was the lack of pleasant characters, although I think as this series continues that will change. The overall character development seems to be setting us up for something!

BloodKin
6 Stars

I am one day going to have to find a second book that is better than the first because this trend is ridiculous. I realize that much of the second book is setting things up for the final novel - which seems to have only two outcomes 1. amazing 2. epic fail - but I always feel like there was so much potential that just wasn't realized... SO frustrating

Overall I really enjoyed this read, I can't wait to pick up the Kiesha'ra series because it is also set in this world. I don't think I have ever read another series that focuses on Spanish, Mexican, Latino Mythology and its really interesting. Unfortunately I also found that this novel was a little too drawn out, I don't understand why we switched over to Kadee's narrative when Vance was there the whole time. I would have rather stuck with him and how he was adapting to his new life. Kadee is a good character but I did find both the story and her to be repetitive in a very irritating way. There was some good info thrown into the mix but I just didn't feel for her the way I felt for Vance. Much of this writing had an unnecessary feeling to it, which is a little bit crushing after how refreshing and original the first novel was...

BloodTraitor

coming soon - April 2016


















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Series Review - The Chemical Garden Trilogy - Wither

The Chemical Garden Trilogy

By Laura Destefano

Wither
Dystopian/ Post Apocalyptic/ YA / Polygamy/
Easy Read
First Person Narrative
7.5 Stars

I went into this book blind, I didn't look at goodreads, I didn't read the synopsis, and while I had heard the name I didn't have a clue what the book was about. I had also never heard of the author Laura Destefano.
I had my doubts about this book when I figured out that it was a dystopian which I love, but has been overdone so much with YA as of late. I was concerned that this would be another spawn of the Hunger Games. This novel had a much different tone, there was no finger to point for the situation, the lack of rebellion by single figure (small group) against government/ impossibly big powerful authority figure was refreshing.  The world captivated me, it was beautiful and tragic. I felt for the characters although a (small) downfall of this book was my inability to relate to the main character Rhine. I occasionally found her "voice" whiney is a very immature childish way. I found the author repeated information about her past and brother a few to many times (it would have been one thing if it was new information each time but it wasn't... for instance I learned that her lost twin brother Rowan loved to fish about half a dozen to a dozen times). I find it very frustrating that she never told Linden more about her past as I feel that would have made some very interesting plot twists. This was a little bit predicable in some places but the ending was a surprise. I will definativly be continuing this series.

Childhood and TBR Series. Comics

Series I loved as a child

The Secrets of Droon
Shivers
Goosebumps
Dragon Slayers Academy
Captain Underpants

Do Comic Books Count as Series?

Garfield
Tintin
Asterix

TBR Series

The Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien

The Maze Runner, James Dasher

Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris

The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer

Unfinished Series

Duologies

The Talisman, Stephen King - read #2

Trilogies

Alaskan Royal Family, Mary Janice Davidson - read 1
Verhoeven, Pierre Lemaitre - read #2
Miss Peregrines Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs - read 1 - 2 published
Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins - read 2
The Circle Reforged - read 1

 Series

Darkest Powers, Kelley Armstrong - Trilogy - read 1
The Mortal Instruments, Cassandra Clare - 6 books - read 1
Immortals After Dark, Kresley Cole - 16 books - read 1
Jennifer Scales. Mary Janice Davidson - 6 books - read 1
Undead, Mary Janice Davidson - 15 books - 3 read
Lincoln Rhyme, Jeffery Deaver - 11 books -  read 1
Elemental Assassin, Jennifer Estep - 13 books - read 1
Sisters of the Moon, Yasmine Galenorn - 23 books - 6 read
Dark Hunter Universe, Sherrilyn Kenyon - 41 books - 8 books
Narnia, CS Lewis - 7 books - read 5
Jason Bourne, Robert Ludlum - 12 books - 2 read
Aisling Grey Guardian, Katie MacAlister - 4 books - Might have finished
Songs of Ice and Fire, George R Martin - 7 books - read 2 - 6 published
Inheritance cycle, Christopher Paolini  - 4 books - read 1
Immortally Sexy, Stephanie Rowe - 4 books - read 2
Lost Heroes of Olympus - 6 books - read 3

Series I Won't be Finishing

The reason I won't be finishing most of these is that I have out grown those particular books.

1. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
2. Janie Johnson, Caroline B Cooney
3. Book of Ember. Jeanne DuPrau
4. Royal Diaries,
5. Shadow Children, Margaret Peterson Haddix
6. Fly By Night, Frances Hardinge
7. Warriors *legend continues, Erin Hunter
8. Son of the Mob, Gordon Korman
9. The Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart
10. The Egypt Game, Zilpha Keatley Snyder
11. Steptimus Heap, Angie Sage

The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon series, Dan Brown *This is the one series on the not to be finished list that is not a YA. I loved the story but didn't enjoy Dan Browns writing style I haven't really heard anything amazing about the other books. I figured it would be just fine as a stand alone

On the Fence With Finishing The Series

Fifty Shades, EL James - trilogy - read 2
Chrestomanci, Diana Wynne Jones - 7 books - read 1
Seal and code name, Christina Skye - 9 books - read 1
Bloody Jack, LA Meyer - 12 books- read 7
FBI Thriller - 19 books - read 1

Completed Series, Trilogies Duologies

Duologie

The Sight, David Clement Davies
If I Stay, Gayle Forman
The Shinning, Stephen King
Daughter of the Lioness, Tamora Pierce

Trilogy

As Dead As It Gets, Katie Alender
Inkworld, Cornelia Funk
Beka Cooper : The Hunt Records, Tamora Pierce

Complete Series

The Books of Pellinor (4 books)
Uglies, Scott Westerfeld (4 books)
Hannibal Lecter, Thomas Harris (4 books)
IceMark Chronicles, Stuart Hill (4 books)
Warriors, Erin Hunter (6 books)
The Beast House Chronicles, Richard Laymon (4 books)
Twilight, Stephenie Meyer (4 books)
The Circle Opens, Tamora Pierce (4 books)
Song of the Lioness Tamora Pierce (4 books)
Protector of the Small, Tamora Pierce (4 books)
Immortals, Tamora Pierce (4 books)
Circle of Magic, Tamora Pierce (4 books)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Rick Riordan (5 books)
Harry Potter, JK Rowling (7 books)
Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket (13 books)
The Nightside, Simon R Green (12 books)
Redwall, Brain Jaques (22 books)

Top 5 Wednesday - Worst Series Enders

Top 5 Wednesday

Worst Series Enders 

March 25 2015

Keep in mind that I haven't really finished a lot of series...

1. Mocking Jay, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
2. Inkdeath, Inkworld, Cornelia Funk
3. Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer

Il list these so that I have 5 but I am unwilling to put them on the same list as the above three monstrosities 

• Series of Unfortunate Events *This was less the final book than the overall mystery unsolved though all 13 books, too many questions left unanswered.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians I hate putting this on a list that says worst because this ending wasn't bad, it was a little anticlimactic but I still enjoyed it.