Alanna: The First Adventure book review

Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness book #1 of  4) by Tamora Pierce

Paperback, 274 pages
Read: Oct. 27
Rating 4/5
Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Magic, Young Adult
Summery: From now on I'm Alan of Trebond, the younger twin. I'll be a knight.
And so young Alanna of Trebond begins the journey to knighthood. Though a girl, Alanna has always craved the adventure and daring allowed only for boys; her twin brother, Thom, yearns to learn the art of magic. So one day they decide to switch places: Disguised as a girl, Thom heads for the convent to learn magic; Alanna, pretending to be a boy, is on her way to the castle of King Roald to begin her training as a page.
But the road to knighthood is not an easy one. As Alanna masters the skills necessary for battle, she must also learn to control her heart and to discern her enemies from her allies.
Filled with swords and sorcery, adventure and intrigue, good and evil, Alanna's first adventure begins - one that will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams and the magical destiny that will make her a legend in her land.

Review: This story starts out with Lord Alan of Trebond giving final word to his children, Alanna and Thom, that Thom is to be sent to train as a page to later become a squire, then become a knight, while Alanna is to be sent to the convent to become a lady. I enjoyed this book, although I couldn't really get into it until half-way through the second chapter. The first chapter and the first half of the second chapter were slow for me, and the seventh (last) chapter of the book was kind of anti-climatic for me. I found Alanna a little annoying to me for the first two chapters but I did end up really liking her from chapter three onward, I also really liked when she became friends with, Jonathan, Gary, Alex, and Raoul, as well as the training master, Gareth, and Alana's manservant, Coram, but my favorite characters were King of the Thieves, George, and the page's teacher of history and law, Myles. This book seemed to be more of a introduction of the characters, and Alanna than adventure, meaning at least for me it was more of a slow paced book, it seemed that there wasn't really a main or big plot but that it was setting up for the plots of the other three books. So I don't really have much to say, or really that I can say about the plot. That said I'm am excited to read the other three books in the series.

Hope everybody has/had a great day : )

2 Epic Tales from Adventure Time + Seeds book reviews

Epic Tales from Adventure Time: The Untamed Scoundrel by T. T. MacDangereuse

Paperback, 144 pages
Read: Oct. 17
Rating: 3.5/5
Genres: Adventure, Fan-fiction
Summery: The dashingly handsome Sir Jacobus Gooddog and his loyal manservant Mr. Finnish Biped, set forth on a heroic quest to rescue the fair Lady Rainicorn in this epically adventurous tale from the most celebrated author in all of Ooo, T. T. MacDangereuse.

Review: This tale starts off with Lady and Lord Gooddog giving their son, Jacobus, an ultimatum to find a wife at their ball tonight or be disowned. I enjoyed the story. The beginning was slow, the middle is when I started to get into the story, and the ending was my favorite part of the story and reminded me of the show. There are quite a few characters from the show in the book, such as Jake, Finn, and Lady Rainicorn obviously, as well as Marceline, LSP, Princess Bubblegum, and Susan Strong. Since this is a fan-fiction of sorts the characters meet each other in different ways than from the show. I liked the story and the characters, but it took me a little past half-way into the book, as well as the characters to get into and enjoy the story.


Epic Tales from Adventure Time: Queen of Rogues by T. T. MacDangereuse

Paperback, 144 pages
Read: Oct. 17
Rating: 4.50/5
Genres: Adventure, Fan-fiction
Summery: Set sail with the elusive millionaire P. Gumball, dashing Fionna and Cake, and notorious rapscallion Marshall Lee as they take to the high seas in this awesomely epic adventure from the greatest writer in all of Ooo, T. T. MacDangereuse.

Review: This tale starts with Fionna and LSP arriving at a party on a yacht thrown by Prince Bubblegum. I liked this story much better than The Untamed Scoundrel, the story was easier to get into and enjoy as well as the characters, this one is a gender switch like the Ice King's fan-fiction on the show, so all of the characters featured in this story are the opposite gender then originally. This story has Fionna (Finn), Cake (Jake), Prince Bubblegum (Princess Bubblegum), Marshall Lee (Marceline), Lumpy Space Prince (Lumpy Space Princess), and the Ice Queen (Ice King). The way the plot was executed was done better with this book than with The Untamed Scoundrel book. Also i like the fact that Tree Trunks is T. T. MacDangereuse, the author, that was a cute little detail.


Seeds by Jade Frampton

Kindle Edition, 11 pages
Read: Oct. 17
Rating: 5/5
Genres: Short Story, Tennis, Young Adult
Summery: Sport parents are notorious for taking it too far when it comes to their own super-star children. “Seeds” is told through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old tennis player struggling to understand what is and isn't allowed on the tennis courts.

Review: The story starts with a girl playing a match against a seed on her thirteenth birthday. I really liked this story, it gave a little bit of insight to tennis as well as parents going to extremes with their children winning and losing. I felt really bad for "Janice Beals" as well as the girl you read the story's P.O.V. from.

Hope everybody had/has a great day : )

The Kill Order book review

The Kill Order (The Maze Runner book #4 of 4) by James Dashner

Paperback, 327 pages
Read: Oct. 13 - 16
Rating: 4.5/5
Genres: Young Adult, Action, Adventure, Dystopia, Post-apocalyptic
Summery: They thought the end came in a flash.
Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth, killing most of the population.
The worst is yet to come.
Mark and Trina were there when it happened. They survived. But now a virus is spreading. A virus that fills humans with murderous rage.
There is no cure. No escape.
They’re convinced that there’s a way to save those who are left—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some you’re worth more dead than alive.
The end is only the beginning.

Review: The prologue starts from Teresa's P.O.V. right before Thomas is put into the maze. Chapter 1 starts thirteen years earlier from Mark's P.O.V., and it's been 1 year since the sun flares have hit the earth. I really liked this book. I liked reading about how the Flare virus stared as well as how it progressed and mutated. There's also some explanation as to how the idea for releasing the Flare came about. I liked going through how the sun flares hit and how people survived and how they reacted (a big part of was not surprised with people actions after). I also really liked the dynamic/relationships the main characters (Mark, Trina, Lana,and Alec) had with each other, although a couple you don't see for a good portion of the middle of the book. I liked Mark, but my favorite character was Alec. The most interesting part of the book, as well as my favorite part of the book was reading how the virus spread, and how the symptoms changed people into the people we know as Cranks. According to good reads there is going to be another prequel (whether it's going to be a short story or a good sized book I don't know yet), it's going to be about how they built the maze as well as how they trained the Gladers apparently, which sounds good (it'd expected to be released in 2016). There's also a short story that's between The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure that's about Thomas's first memory of the Flare which I read and enjoyed as well.

Hope everybody had/has a great day : )

The Death Cure book review

The Death Cure (The Maze Runner book #3 of 4) by James Dashner

Paperback, 325 pages
Read: Oct. 10 - 12
Rating: 4/5
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Action, Adventure, Post-apocalyptic
Summery: It’s the end of the line.
WICKED has taken everything from Thomas: his life, his memories, and now his only friends—the Gladers. But it’s finally over. The trials are complete, after one final test.
Will anyone survive?
What WICKED doesn't know is that Thomas remembers far more than they think. And it’s enough to prove that he can’t believe a word of what they say.
The truth will be terrifying.
Thomas beat the Maze. He survived the Scorch. He’ll risk anything to save his friends. But the truth might be what ends it all.
The time for lies is over.

Review: The story starts off a little over three weeks from when The Scorch Trials ended. I liked this book better then The Scorch Trials, the plot was a better paced. I liked most of the characters. Although I had a really good idea about Brenda and Jorge about halfway through reading The Scorch Trials. I really enjoyed the plot to the book although it started to get stretched thin in the middle of the book, also there were places where they could have explained things a bit more/a bit better. Even though I knew what was going to happen with certain events and characters I was still sad when they happened. Though most people didn't like the ending of the book I actually was fine with it and enjoyed it, while it was pretty open-ended I still liked it. I want to read the prequel to find out more about the world before The Maze Runner started, then I will give my rating and thoughts on the series as a whole. But so far I've enjoyed the series and would most likely give it a good solid rating.

Hope everybody had/has a good day : )

The Scorch Trials book review

The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner book #2 of 4) by James Dashner

Paperback, 361 pages
Read: Sept. 21-22 and Oct. 2
Rating: 4/5
Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Action, Adventure, Post-apocalyptic
Summery: Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end.
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn't done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch.
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off.
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

Review: This starts off right where the first one left off, with Thomas and the rest of the Gladers being lead into a false sense of safety. I really enjoyed the first third and the last third of the book, parts of the middle were good but quite a bit was kind of silly, especially chapter 36 and 37, those chapters took me out of the story a little bit. I was also annoyed with the first 2/3's of the book when it came to Thomas' thought process about Teresa. I liked the little bit I got of Group B. Parts of it were kind of predictable, especially with this being WICKED, you know certain things are going to happen, such as Teresa and Aris (that one was a little obvious, and had me frustrated with Thomas), the ending was kind of anti-climatic, and kind of obvious as well (of course it's not over), there were also times that I had felt really frustrated with Thomas because it was obvious what was going to happen, yet he still did them then seemed surprised at what happened after the fact. I liked Jorge, certain moments with Brenda bothered me (the involvement with them was also obvious). I still really like Minho and Newt, I also wish we could have gotten a little bit more with them, as well as with Group B. I also accidentally found out a little bit about what was going to happen in the third book (with Newt) thanks to reading some comments for/about the movie, I'm still trying to prepare for some of what I found out about that. I still really liked the book, it was a good sequel and I'm excited to read the 3rd sequel, as well as the prequel.


Hope everybody had/has a great day : )

October T.B.R. List

I was hoping to finish The Scorch Trials in September but the day after (Sept. 23rd) I ended up with the flu, along with some food poisoning,so I'm hoping to finish, and have a review up tomorrow. I still have a little bit of a flu, I tried reading some today but sadly I have very little concentration right now. I tend not to be able to read much on Tues. and Wed. anyway. I'm going to go back to having a set number of books, along with specific titles. So let's get on with the list.

#1
2nd 1/2 of The Scorch Trials (The Maze Runner book #2 of 4) by James Dashner

While I did read the first half in Sept. I still have to read the second half, so I'm including this on my Oct. T.B.R. list. I'm sad that I got the flu half-way in because it was what I had read so far was really good, so I really hope that I'll be able to finish it tomorrow.

#2
The Death Cure (The Maze Runner book #3 of 4) by James Dashner

#3
The Kill Order (The Maze Runner book #4 of 4) by James Dashner

When I finish with the 2nd book I'm most likely going to want to read and finish the 3rd, last sequel in the series as well as the 4th book, the prequel to the series.

#4
Epic Tales from Adventure Time: The Untamed Scoundrel by T. T. MacDangereuse

#5
Epic Tales from Adventure Time: Queen of Rogues by T. T. MacDangereuse

I seen these in Walmart, and since I love the show I decided to buy them. They sound like they'll be fun, and they're not big so they should be a quick read.

#6
Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle book #1 of 3) by Diana Wynne Jones

I had seen Hayo Miyazaki's film before finding out that it was based off/inspired by this book so when I found that out I had to buy the book and read it. I love the film, so I definitely think I'll like the book, and if I do I will buy the other two book. The second book sounds like it will be either with smaller characters in the first book, and the third book sound like it might be with a granddaughter of the two mane characters of the first book, I'm not sure though so I might be wrong about what both the other books are about.

#7
Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness book #1 of 4) by Tamora Pierce

I seen this book on I think PeruseProject's youtube channel, so I decide to check it out. It sounds like a real good book, and it seems like you get to follow the character for years (similar to Harry Potter and a few others that way) which I tend to like with series.


I have spelled so many words wrong trying to type this (thank you for spell check), I've also had to go back and check and noticed I also put letters instead of numbers for a few before I corrected it, so obviously I am not over my flu yet, and still can't concentrate that well.

Hope everybody had/has a great day : )