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readwithmesashamarie's reviews
465 reviews
Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian
2.0
I'm definitely of the minority when it comes to my rating of this book. I just couldn't get into it for a couple reasons. I don't have an opinion one way or another on soccer. It's a sport, I don't like it or dislike it. But with most of the book revolving around a sport I'm indifferent towards I couldn't entirely connect. I got to about page 145, which my kindle said was only 40% through the book. I was mostly uninterested with the story and kind of annoyed with the writing and being an English Lit major I have a lot of other reading to do, which is why I decided not to finish this book.
Because I did not finish this book I will not be posting a full review but you can find some of my other reviews on my blog The Dancing Nerd Writes Again .
Because I did not finish this book I will not be posting a full review but you can find some of my other reviews on my blog The Dancing Nerd Writes Again .
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
4.0
You can find the full review on my blog The Dancing Nerd Writes Again .
Initial Thoughts:
Like most book bloggers/lovers I was SO excited to start this series. The hype around it was incredibly high since the movie comes out August 21, 2013. I didn’t know much about the book other than the fact that the main characters were a girl, Clary, and a boy, Jace, and I was already shipping them so hard due to my love of the actors. I knew there would be demon hunting and supernatural creatures but other than that, I was clueless.
Spoilers!
Let me start off by saying what I liked about this book. I thought the character development and character interactions were great. I loved how we got backstory on Clary’s parents from the perspectives of many different characters. I also really enjoyed the supernatural elements in this novel. There were werewolves, vampires, as well as warlocks and many other interesting creatures.
Although the story was interesting and it seemed like a unique spin on the supernatural and demon hunters, the plot was a bit predictable and mimicked other books a little too much. Speaking of plot, I thought many of the actions taken by the characters were not fleshed out. Instead of having an idea and creating a plan, the characters would go right from having an idea to arriving at a location ready to fight. It was annoying and a little disjointing that the preparation and the planning was left to the characters and hidden from the reader.
I saw many aspects of Twilight and Harry Potter throughout the novel, which was actually why I was afraid to pick up this book for so many years. Yeah, it was there and it felt a little bit like lazy writing, but I was still able to look past it and try to enjoy the story. I think ultimately I was let down by the crazy high surrounding this book, especially when it came to the relationship between Jace and Clary that is revealed at the end. I was originally going to give this book a ⅗ stars just because the ending pissed me off so much. But now, I’m settling into it, and hoping the Clare found some way to remove the romantic element between these two characters so I can stop feeling like I’m shipping an incestuous relationship.
There were some annoying elements to Clare’s writing style, where she would have characters repeat words or phrases or sentences two or three times on one page, as well as dragging out concepts and having them repeated when the characters were trying to grasp something. Even though I normally dislike when a book is predictable, which I found this one to be, I was more disappointed with the fact that I never felt a connection with any of the characters, with the exception possibly being Luke. I’m just hopeful that in the next book I fall head over heals for one of the characters, see improvement in Clare’s writing techniques, as well as not figuring out the plot.
Conclusion:
I waited two days after I finished this book to write my review because I needed to think and I needed my angry feelings to settle. Like I mentioned above, I had every intention of giving this book a 3 star rating, when I realized…I’m going to read the next book and some time in the future I’ll probably pick this book up as a reread. As you all know, my rating system works like this: 3 stars-I liked it but won’t read it again, 4 stars- I really liked it and I would read it again. So overall, I would read this book again and I am excited to continue the series. I’m a little more anxious than I was before reading the book to see the movie but it will be interesting to see how they play with the Clary/Jace…thing.
Rating:4/5 stars
Initial Thoughts:
Like most book bloggers/lovers I was SO excited to start this series. The hype around it was incredibly high since the movie comes out August 21, 2013. I didn’t know much about the book other than the fact that the main characters were a girl, Clary, and a boy, Jace, and I was already shipping them so hard due to my love of the actors. I knew there would be demon hunting and supernatural creatures but other than that, I was clueless.
Spoilers!
Let me start off by saying what I liked about this book. I thought the character development and character interactions were great. I loved how we got backstory on Clary’s parents from the perspectives of many different characters. I also really enjoyed the supernatural elements in this novel. There were werewolves, vampires, as well as warlocks and many other interesting creatures.
Although the story was interesting and it seemed like a unique spin on the supernatural and demon hunters, the plot was a bit predictable and mimicked other books a little too much. Speaking of plot, I thought many of the actions taken by the characters were not fleshed out. Instead of having an idea and creating a plan, the characters would go right from having an idea to arriving at a location ready to fight. It was annoying and a little disjointing that the preparation and the planning was left to the characters and hidden from the reader.
I saw many aspects of Twilight and Harry Potter throughout the novel, which was actually why I was afraid to pick up this book for so many years. Yeah, it was there and it felt a little bit like lazy writing, but I was still able to look past it and try to enjoy the story. I think ultimately I was let down by the crazy high surrounding this book, especially when it came to the relationship between Jace and Clary that is revealed at the end. I was originally going to give this book a ⅗ stars just because the ending pissed me off so much. But now, I’m settling into it, and hoping the Clare found some way to remove the romantic element between these two characters so I can stop feeling like I’m shipping an incestuous relationship.
There were some annoying elements to Clare’s writing style, where she would have characters repeat words or phrases or sentences two or three times on one page, as well as dragging out concepts and having them repeated when the characters were trying to grasp something. Even though I normally dislike when a book is predictable, which I found this one to be, I was more disappointed with the fact that I never felt a connection with any of the characters, with the exception possibly being Luke. I’m just hopeful that in the next book I fall head over heals for one of the characters, see improvement in Clare’s writing techniques, as well as not figuring out the plot.
Conclusion:
I waited two days after I finished this book to write my review because I needed to think and I needed my angry feelings to settle. Like I mentioned above, I had every intention of giving this book a 3 star rating, when I realized…I’m going to read the next book and some time in the future I’ll probably pick this book up as a reread. As you all know, my rating system works like this: 3 stars-I liked it but won’t read it again, 4 stars- I really liked it and I would read it again. So overall, I would read this book again and I am excited to continue the series. I’m a little more anxious than I was before reading the book to see the movie but it will be interesting to see how they play with the Clary/Jace…thing.
Rating:4/5 stars