Book Review: Winter

Winter
by  Marissa Meyer
Date Read:  12/23/15
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★  ★ 

Thank goodness that the string of horrible YA series finales have ended. Thank you, Marissa Meyer. Thank you.  For this reason, even though I will explain one thing about the book I didn’t like, I’m still giving it 5 stars. In all reality, it would be 4.5 stars – but since I can’t give half stars, I definitely have to lean to the 5 star side.

This was an incredibly long book. 824 pages to be exact.  Most of that was because the characters were almost always separated. In order to tell the full story, Meyer had to tell what was going on for each of the characters – which means several chapters were all about the same time period.  I wish that it was a little shorter (so I wouldn’t have had to pay a $0.20 late fee to the library to finish it) but there really weren’t any points looking back that I felt like could have been completely removed.  However, their plans never worked out. While I don’t like stories where their master plans work 100%, I felt that some of it should have gone a little more to plan than it did.

This leads me in to what I didn’t like about this book: everyone was captured or kidnapped at some point in the book.  It was ridiculous. Toward the end, it was actually getting hard to remember who was captured, who was still following the plan, and who was with who.

The only other thing that gave me a bit of a twinge was Cress and Winter’s constant “does he love me?” / “he doesn’t love me” scenes.  Since we as the reader knew their actual feelings, it just got a little overdone I think. In the scenarios that they were facing, I felt like they had more important things to worry about than whether the guy they like likes them back.

Cress is my least favorite character I think…which is disappointing because Rapunzel is one of my favorite princesses.  I just felt she was very annoying with her low self-esteem – while it seems reasonable in her life, I just wish she had gained more self-esteem by the end of the series. I’m glad she did get a little braver though. I loved her techy mind though – I just wish she had a little more a kick-butt attitude like Felicity Smoak (Green Arrow comic and tv show).

Cinder and Scarlet were by far my favorite characters throughout the series and that maintained through to the end.  Cinder had a good transformation in this series. It is actually hard to think back to the very first book where she felt degraded and was trying to save her step-sister’s life.  Scarlet was just a fun character who had such a fun attitude. I also liked their boyfriends. 

Winter was a little hard for me to attach to. While she was sweet, her crazy episodes would get confusing sometimes – but maybe that was the point. She became an interesting character about 25% of the way in to this story, when the Snow White story really took hold.

I thought Marissa Meyer did a great job with this story.  While I enjoyed Scarlet and Cress (Red Riding Hood and Rapuznel), I thought she had done the best job with Cinder (Cinderella).  But now I think it’s a toss up with her Snow White story. The main plot points matched up with the Snow White story so well, but never felt forced. The “huntsman” letting her go was done very well.  And the whole “poison apple” part was just evil. I thought it was genius. 

The best part is the ending.  Once the battle got going, it moved really fast.   I felt the ending was very satisfying. We got a pretty decent amount of wrap up too, which I really appreciated.  But it’s a bit bittersweet, because now the series is over. I’ve fallen in love with Meyer’s characters and world, and now it’s just over. While I will miss those characters, I’m looking forward to what Meyer will write next – and you can be sure I will read it.  This is a must read series, and I will be owning all the books – I haven’t bought a book series in many years – I think since I started the Mortal Instruments Series (and I’ve bought all subsequent books) – so that’s been several years.

Thank you Marissa Meyer.

Movie Review: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

STAR WARS!!!!  Can you believe there is a new Star Wars movie out? And one that didn’t suck?!  Actually, when Episodes 1-3 were released a long time ago, I actually sort of enjoyed them just because they were updated and episodes released in my lifetime. Though, when I look back at it now that I’m 30, I realize that they are not good. They’re pretty bad actually. JarJar, while funny at the time, is super obnoxious to me now.

But have no fear Star Wars fans!  This movie is amazing!  While the story seemed to follow the same sort of path as episodes 4-6, it was still compelling. I’m hoping it changes in episodes 8 and 9, and that this was more a nostalgic story but takes it’s own turn.

I really liked the acting in it. The girl, Rey (played by actress Daisy Ridley), was amazing. There were times where I thought she looked just like Kiera Knightly. I’ve heard she hates it, but I’d just go with it…at least they’re comparing her to someone who is beautiful!  Her story was good and she held her own.  Going in to this, I’d heard that “mothers need to take their daughters to see this movie”…so I was worried it was going to have some statement about Girl Empowerment.  But if that statement was there, it wasn’t obvious in your face. She was just another person fighting the bad guys and holding her own. I thought it was really well done.

I loved all the other characters too.  I found myself very attached to BB-8, the little droid. It always amazes me how someone can create such a compelling character when it never talks – think WALLE.

Of course there are scenes where our old friends from episodes 4-6 appear!  They’ve all aged, but I think Harrison Ford has probably aged the best out of all of them.   Though their delivery isn’t as good as it once was, the nostalgia forgives that.

There was humor in this – and not the stupid Comic Relief humor of Jar Jar Binks. This was more like XMen and Pirates of the Caribbean – a tense plot where the characters just say funny things or funny situations arise. It was really well done.

There were a couple shock moments. I actually liked that you find out who the bad guy is pretty early on in the movie.  That is a big difference from the original trilogy where you don’t find out until much later.  It gives more to the plot and it makes you go back and forth on whether you feel sympathy for him. I think it was done really well.

The ending left a lot open. Obviously we know it’s going to be a trilogy, but I still wanted more at the end. It still felt a little TOO undone for me.  The end scene connects with something stated earlier in the movie and might lend to what may happen later in the series.

I’m really excited about this and that my daughter will get to grow up seeing Star Wars movies also.  She’ll definitely be old enough to see the finale in the theater which will be really cool for us, and for my brother, her Uncle, who is a die hard Star Wars fan.

Ebates Referral for Cyber Monday

If you haven't heard about Ebates yet, today is your lucky day!  I am a huge proponent of Ebates - you get a percentage of your purchase in cash back just for starting from the Ebates website!  What could be easier?

With Black Friday last week and Cyber Monday today, you can get double cash back at over 500+ stores. Right now, Kohls is offering 10% cash back, Groupon is 10%, Walmart is 5%, JCPenny is 15%, Ebay is 5%, etc. There is always cash back throughout the year at these stores too, so use it for all your online purchases.  The best news? You get ebates even if you buy online and pick up in store!

All you have to do is create your account. There is app if you want to do your shopping from your phone or other mobile device (I got extra cash back at Kohls on Mobile Monday this way). Or you can just go to Ebates and click on the store you want to shop at to activate your cash back. They even have a button you can install to your browser now so you can go directly to Best Buy and it will notify you of the cash back back and all you have to do is click it to activate the cash back - no extra website steps now!  It will also notify you and check against your order for other coupons available from the store. How easy!  I've accumulated $50 cash back just on my Christmas Shopping so far!

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Book Review: How to be a Pirate (How to Train Your Dragon #2)

How to be a Pirate
by  Cressida Cowell
Date Read:  10/14/15
Rating: ★ ★ 

This was another fun book in the How to Train Your Dragon series.  I actually really like Fishlegs.  It’s nice that even though Hiccup is kind of an outsider in his tribe, he has a friend, a human friend.

I really enjoyed the parts where they would find something that says “DO NOT OPEN” and they opened it anyway.  Then shocker, something bad would happen.  The tribe should really start listening to Hiccup and give him more credit. He knows what he’s doing!  He may not have the brawn that the other Vikings do, but he’s smart and scrappy, and that’s just as important!

Hiccup had a horrible time learning how to sword fight at sea.  But I really liked the discovery at the end of the book!  What a cute way to say why he had been so clumsy!!!  <SPOILER> Having a dad who is left handed, he was taught sports all right handed. I think it would be really tough to have a dominant hand and then try to learn to do something NOT using your dominant hand!  Poor Hiccup!  But no one will know because they decided it was best not to tell anyone about their discovery and battle in the cave <END SPOILER>.

This book had good pacing.  It had quite a bit of humor.  I liked the lessons in this book about putting the greater good before your own and that you can “receive a hero’s welcome without coming home a hero”.

Overall, I still really like this series and look forward to continuing.

Book Review: How to Train Your Dragon

How to Train Your Dragon
by  Cressida Cowel
Date Read:  10/15/15
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★  ★ 

I will first start by saying this book is nothing like the movie.  The movie basically took the names and the very broad concept of training dragons and that is it.  Well, I guess it also still made Hiccup a misfit, just for different reasons.

I listened to this as an audiobook, and I really enjoyed it.  The guy who read it had a great accent that just added to the story – you really got wrapped up in the Viking lore and such.  There were times where he would do the yelling parts though and it hurt my ears!  Haha.

This book focuses more on the “training your dragon” aspect of the story, which the movie briefly touched on in subduing the dragons.  I really liked the part when Hiccup read the book “How to Train Your Dragon” with all the credits and such, and then opened the body and it just read “Yell at it”. It made me laugh pretty hard.  Silly Vikings thinking they can just yell and control things.

Hiccup had to learn a different way to train his unusually small (and toothless) dragon.  I liked that the dragon language was called “Dragonese”…how cute!  Though, I wonder how Hiccup learned it if no one else in the tribe spoke it…

While Hiccup wasn’t the strongest or have the largest presence, you could still tell he was brave and leader material when he gave his first dragon to Fishlegs and had to go back to get himself another dragon while thousands of dragons were chasing them out of the cave.

Then the Green death, giant sea dragon, appeared on their shores and Hiccup and the others had to show their warrior strengths. 

One very different thing between the book and the movie was that the dragons talk in the book!  Well, that’s because Hiccup can speak Dragonese.  Toothless actually talked with a weird little stutter. I’m not sure if it’s just because he has a stutter or because he was still an infant dragon. Either way it took some getting used to, but he was so darn cute…even when he was making silly comments.

I also enjoyed the dragon scoring at the beginning of the book. I thought it was a nice touch in the movie that they put a scene in there where one of the kids scores the giant dragon they were fighting.  It was a lot of fun.

Overall this book was very entertaining.  This would be a great book to read to kids at bedtime, even if they love the movie.  Both have great stories, and you’ll still love Hiccup and Toothless in both versions!

Book Review: The Beatrice Letters

The Beatrice Letters
by  Lemony Snicket
Date Read:  10/14/15
Rating: ★ ★ 

I’m not sure how I feel about “The Beatrice Letters”.  I read this after I finished book 13.  Otherwise I think I would have been thoroughly confused.  I don’t think they should have released this before book 13 released.

First I will say that it was a very unique way to present the book.  I had a copy from the library, so it was quite beat up, but I could see through to what was probably originally very pretty. I was actually surprised that the letters hadn’t been punched out of the library copy.

I was hoping that this compilation of letters was going to provide some answers to some of our still unanswered questions…but all it really did was pose more questions.  Did the Beatrice really sink on their way back to civilization? If they survived, where are they now? Why doesn’t Lemony Snicket want to see baby Beatrice…she’s his niece after all?

I let others work on the anagram themselves since I had a library copy and people have been able to work on this for years.  The one that seems the most sensible is “Beatrice Sank”.  There was a poster included in the book that showed a boat wreck with a piece that said “Beatrice” on it with items that would have been the orphans. Then there is a cave on the other with a bunch of stuff in it.  So the original thought was that they made it safely to a cave…but after reading the letters, I believe it was Snicket who was in the cave, doing yet more research in the Baudelaire’s lives.

We do know that Beatrice survives the boat ride in the very least as she grows up writing these letters and following Snicket around trying to get in touch with him.  She mentions that Sunny was on the radio…which would have only happened if Sunny survived the boat ride as well.  But it’s unclear when they disappeared again and why.

I feel like Snicket (Daniel Handler) just leaves all these weird open ended questions because it’s easier than planning out his story and making sure he doesn’t contradict himself.  I would like to one day really see the full story and get all our answers…but I don’t believe even Handler actually has the answers to his own story.

Rick Riordan's Sword of Summer, Norse American Tour Event and Trials of Apollo sneak peak info

My husband and I have been dying to see Rick Riordan for YEARS (5 years to be exact since he was last in Arizona).  He normally doesn’t go west of Texas on his tours, which is just too far to drive to attend an event.  We’ve been super bummed because he’s one of our favorite authors (and I heard he’s hilarious).  So when my husband saw the blog post with tour dates and locations for his Magnus Chase Tour and Phoenix was on the list, we signed up as soon as we were able to buy tickets!!

KEEP READING AS THERE IS BIG NEWS REGARDING A NEW SERIES!!!

The event was held by Changing Hands Bookstore at an offsite location in a high school auditorium.  In order to get a ticket to the event, you had to buy a copy of the hardcover book at list price ($19.99 + tax) and this would get you up to 2 tickets to the event.  Since Riordan does not do autograph signings during his events, the book was also pre-signed by him.  The event was scheduled to start at 7pm, with the doors opening at 6:30pm.

My husband and I drove straight there after work and we didn’t arrive until 5pm. I had attended an event at the same location held by Changing Hands for Cassandra Clare’s “Clockwork Princess” release party and the line was super long already by then.  So needless to say, I felt like I was in the twilight zone when we were about the 10^th or 12^th family back in line.  There were maybe 30 people in front of us in line!  Woohoo, I knew we were going to get pretty good seats.

While waiting in line, we were able to pick up our signed copy of the book and they passed out these really cool foam shields. I believe it was part of Riordan's marketing; they had a lot of them. They opened the doors a few minutes late, but we were able to get a good seat in the 5^th row in the middle. Hooray!  The event started late though, around 7:10pm.

Riordan finally walked out and basically gave a long history.  He started from when he was a baby!  He went on to explain about his dislike of reading as a child, the teachers that helped him find books he actually enjoyed, and the teacher that pushed him to submit his first story to a publishing company. While a lot of this history you can get from his website and such, it was still fun to hear it firsthand. He is a great entertainer and storyteller. 

We got to see some very strange covers from the published versions of his stories in other countries.  Some of them are utterly ridiculous…like this cover in Germany!  They've changed the cover since then, but I didn't get a picture with the new cover.

He talked about Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer a little bit, but since the book just came out, we did not get much information so as not to have any spoilers.  THANK GOODNESS!  We did get to see some character art of the new characters from Magnus Chase though.  If you’ve read the book, what do you think about these?  We heard a really neat story that there was a girl who did a really awesome fan art cover for Blood of Olympus.  Disney thought it was good that they included it as bonus content in some version of the book.  And they now have hired her to do the character art going forward.  What a cool story – to go from fan to being paid by Disney!!  Here are some examples of the character art for the Magnus Chase characters, and the 9 Worlds (my picture of Sam was too blurry so I didn't include it).

He told us that the Magnus Chase series is going to be a three book series as of now.  He said it’s possible it could change as he continues writing, but it is currently planned to just be a three book series.  He also went back to one POV in this series.

FINALLY… HERE IS THE BIG NEWS!  Rick Riordan announced he is working on ANOTHER series as well, that is in the world of Percy Jackson.   He stated that there were quite a few loose ends at the end of Blood of Olympus so he thought he needed to go in and round out Percy’s world.  This new series is titled, “The Trials of Apollo” and will be told from Apollo’s POV.  It is going to be a FIVE, did you catch that, FIVE, book series.  He also stated that since this is being written to really close out Percy’s world, we will be seeing ALL of the characters from all of the series throughout The Trials of Apollo’s series.  Are you as excited as me?! 

Here is the summary from Goodreads (it was word for word the description that Riordan read to us last night):

"How do you punish an immortal?
By making him human.
After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour.
But Apollo has many enemies - gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go . . . an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood." 

Disney is also finally putting together a physical version of the the short stories “Demigods and Magicians”, the Greek and Egyptian crossover stories. My husband and I have been waiting for this to happen for a long time now and it’s finally here!  BONUS: if you purchase the hard copy of this compilation, there will be a sneak peak at a chapter from The Trials of Apollo!!

Release dates for the projects Riordan is currently working on are as follows: 

1. Demigods and Magicians – April 5;  
2. The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle – May 3; 
3. Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor – October 4.

I hope this information was helpful to anyone who was not able to attend an event on Riordan’s #norseamericantour.  If you ever get a chance to see Rick Riordan in person, I highly recommend you take it.  He’s was great to listen to and has a great story of perseverance for budding authors!