Booking Through Thursday 08/05/14

Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by Booking Through Thursday and a different question is posted every week.

Which is more important when you read — the actual story or the characters? I’ve read books with great plots, but two-dimensional characters, and I’ve read multi-layered characters stuck in clunky stories, and I’m sure you have, too. So which would you rather focus on, if you couldn’t have both?

This is hard, because in all honesty- I think you need both to make a book great.
What's the point of having an engrossing plot- but uninteresting and compelling characters? 
Or having totally amazing, kick-ass characters but a dull and lack luster storyline?
It's the balance between the two that makes a book fantastic.

Waiting On Wednesday 07/05/14 'City of Heavenly Fire'

Waiting on Wednesday is all about sharing the books that I'm eagerly waiting to be released.

This week the book I'm waiting on is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare, Mortal Instruments book 6. While I haven't reads book 4 and 5, I loved the original trilogy and read them one after the other.  So I think once this, the 'supposed' final book is released, I will actually get round to reading them.  Maybe.
Released here in the UK May 28th.

ERCHOMAI, SEBASTIAN HAD SAID. I am coming. Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they journey to another world to find the chance? Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world changed in the sixth and last installment of the Mortal Instruments series!

W...W...W...Wednesday 07/05/14

To play along, just answer the following 3 questions:

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

My current read is The Scoundrel's Seduction by Jennifer Haymore.

I recently finished 11 Scandals To Start To Win A Duke's Heart by Sarah MacLean.

I think my next read will be The Collector by Nora Roberts.

Teaser Tuesday 06/05/14 "11 Scandals To Start To Win A Duke's Heart"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
  Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

This week my current read is 11 Scandals To Start To Win A Duke's Heart by Sarah MacLean.  Teaser comes from page 236.

 

"He signed, then crossed to the sideboard and poured himself a scotch. 'Just once Juliana, I'd like you to attempt to refrain from causing a scandal. Not every time. Just once."

Seeking Crystal by Joss Stirling

Paperback: 258 pages

Published: October 4th 2012        

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISBN: 0192793519
Benedicts #3

Sparks will fly . . . Passion will ignite . . .

Crystal Brook has always been the dud Savant in her family; paranormal powers just aren't her thing. Dropping out of school with a clutch of 'E' grades and no future, she lives in the shadow of her high-flying sister Diamond. On a trip to Denver, a chance encounter with the dashing Benedict brothers leaves Diamond head over heels in love and engaged to be married. Crystal, on the other hand, is unimpressed by their charms . . . in fact no boy can annoy her as much as Xav Benedict! Back in Venice, their families assemble for Diamond's wedding and a powerful enemy seizes the opportunity to attack. Crystal and Xav must join forces to save their loved-ones, unlocking a secret that, until now, has lain deeply buried . . .

Cover:  I really liked the cover for the first book in the series, Finding Sky, but the covers for book two and three are a bit boring.  There's nothing particularly exciting about them.

I loved book one in this series.  Book two was good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the first.  And this one was ok.
The over all plot of this one was sound.  I like the savant/soulfinder concept.
I really liked Xav, both in this book and over the course of the first two, so I conected to him straight away.
Crystal I had a harder time relating too.
I think that might have had something to do with the pacing.  I found it so slow.  To the point of boring in some places.
The connection between Xav and Crystal was sweet but I was just left wanting more from it. 
3/5 stars.

April 2014 Reading Wrap Up

Substitute Creature (Lovecraft Middle School #4) by Charles Gilman

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Quirk Books (15 Nov 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594746400
 When a giant nor’easter dumps a blanket of snow on the village of Dunwich, Massachussetts, Robert Arthur and his friends find themselves marooned inside Lovecraft Middle School. The kids have no choice but to spend the night—while snacking on cafeteria food, sleeping on classroom floors, and facing off against a mysterious substitute teacher who may have a sinister secret. The latest adventure in the Lovecraft Middle School series features more adventures, more outrageous monsters, and another terrifying lenticular cover!





Cover:  Another fabulous cover, and probably the creepiest so far.

This series is such a great middle grade series, despite me not being the intended reader.
They're full of fun, freaky action that out intrepid heroes- Robert, Glenn, Katrina and the two headed rat Pip and Squeak get themselves into thanks to an alternate world in which a scientist is trying to take over the human world with demons and monsters.
Which sees Robert and friends trapped in Lovecraft Middle School by a terrible, mysterious blizzard along with a strange substitute teacher with a sinister motive.
This was an awesome book, but I feel it lacked some of the suspense and creepiness that we see in the first two books.
Still a fantastic read, that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I still highly recommend this series for children and adults alike.
4.5/5 stars.