Friday, September 16, 2016

Book Review: The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner #2)

The Scorch Trials
by  James Dashner
Date Read:  9/14/16
Rating: ★ ★ 
 

The entire time I was reading this story I was blown away by how different it was from the movie. For both “The Maze Runner” and “The Scorch Trials” I had watched the movie first.  I love the movies, I’m just wondering why they chose to make the second movie so vastly different from the book. It’s almost just loosely based on the book.  But that also made it fun to read the book because I still wasn’t sure what to expect.

I feel like this book was a little slower than the first book. Most of the book was about the gang traveling across the desert.  Yeah, there were some action scenes here and there, but it was still basically just a traveling book.  I wish it had been a little more exciting and diverted from the Scorch more often.

Thomas also passed out or slept (and dreamed) a LOT throughout this book.  It really slowed everything down. While I get that the author is making it real, it just really stopped the story and jarred me out of my rhythm.

The change between Thomas and Teresa in this book was done really well, I thought. It was very believable and just like Thomas, the reader has no idea who to trust. I definitely have some strong emotions about this and I tend to side with Thomas.

Several new characters are introduced in this book. Aris is an interesting character. I’m still on the fence about him. I liked Brenda a lot…but I didn’t like how forward she was. But once I got past that I really liked her.

We get a little bit more information on what the world is like now. There are still plenty of questions left open. The main ones being “What the heck is the killzone?” and “How is torturing children going to create a cure?”.  Dashner does a wonderful job of giving you just enough to keep reading and wanting so much more. Curious as to what this is all really about.

I hated the ending. It felt like the author just had a long story and decided to chop it right there. There was absolutely no wrap up at all. The story just ended. All of a sudden there were no more pages. What the heck? Ok, I get that you want a cliffhanger, but you can still successfully have a cliffhanger in your book while still having a little wrap up in other areas.

A little disappointed in this book following The Maze Runner. It’s still entertaining enough to get through, but it definitely took me a while to get through it … i.e. had to re-request from the library several times before I finished it…  I’m looking forward to reading The Death Cure to finally get some answers and see how this series ends.

Friday, September 9, 2016

Book Review: Max at Night (BLOGTOUR)

Max at Night
by  Ed Vere
Date Read:  9/8/16
Rating: ★ ★ 
 

I received a copy of Max at Night from the publisher, Sourcebooks, in exchange for an honest review. I’m so thankful they sent me this because my daughter and I will enjoy this story for years to come!

This book follows Max, a little kitten, as he is ready to go to bed, but he can’t find the moon to say goodnight. He goes on an adventure trying to get as high as he can to find the moon to say goodnight. Then he follows his steps back home to bed.

This sweet book is a wonderful bedtime book for toddlers and preschoolers. There aren’t that many words on the page and the length is perfect to help get a child ready for bed but not too long that they get bored. The illustrations are large and simple with a subdued color palette which keeps it from being too stimulating before bed. The repetition is perfect for preschoolers…you can ask the child what does Max have to do next to get back home?

My daughter and I really enjoyed this story and we are so thankful to Sourcebooks for providing us a copy.

Enter below for a chance to win your own copy of Max at Night and an original sketch by author and illustrator Ed Vere!
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If you’d like to learn more about the author and illustrator of Max at Night, you can find him by any of his social media below.
Twitter: @ed_vere
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ed_vere/

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Book Review: Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies (The Guardians #3)

Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies (#3)
by  William Joyce
Date Read:  9/3/16
Rating: ★ ★ 
 

The first thing I noticed about this book when we finally got the audiobook from the library was that is significantly shorter than the previous novels. Well, just be warned, that is because it ends on a huge cliffhanger and it just says “To Be Continued”.  SERIOUSLY?!

This book was actually much slower in pace than the previous books as well. It has a lot more background on Toothiana than we’ve gotten on the other characters.  Between this and the shorter length, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of action in this book. I did really enjoy the background story on Toothiana. It’s pretty tragic and yet hopeful also.

I’m really interested to see what happens to Katherine and also to our heroes as their journey continues. Pitch is a pretty sympathetic villain – while he’s doing evil now, he wasn’t always that way and he lost his daughter.  Will Pitch and Katherine end up having some sort of connection that helps save him from the evil?

I really enjoy these storylines but I’m disappointed that book 4 in the series is not on audio. Someone needs to remedy that FAST.  My husband and I have both been listening to these on our commute to work – so having to read a physical book will be much more time consuming for us.
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