Last 10 Series I Haven’t Finished (Yet)

Top Ten Tuesday

Hello! Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl)! Here’s where we talk about books every week. Today’s topic is supposed to be “The Last Ten Books I Abandoned,” but I really don’t try to abandon books, so I’m going to go with something similar, but different: the last 10 series I haven’t finished. It could be for a variety of reasons, and I’ll tell you why I haven’t finished them yet. Let’s get started!

The Chosen Ones cover

Chosen Ones – Veronica Roth

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: The second book isn’t out yet! It doesn’t even have a title. But I have every intention of reading it once it comes out.

Between Burning Worlds cover

System Divine: Jessica Brody & Joanne Rendell

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The third book isn’t out yet! It’s title hasn’t been announced yet, although the authors know what the title is. The third book hasn’t even been announced on Goodreads, but I went to a book event with the authors and I know they were going to do one.

Chain of Gold cover

The Last Hours: Cassandra Clare

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: Only the first book is available. I’m so looking forward to reading more of this series. I keep looking to see if Chain of Iron is available to pre-order. I might reread this twice before the next book comes out, I love it so much.

Of Curses and Kisses cover

St. Rosetta’s Academy: Sandhya Menon

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The second two books aren’t out yet! I sound like a broken record at this point. But there are other reasons why I haven’t finished a series, just not the last books I’ve read up to this point.

Thousands cover

Dollar: Pepper Winters

Length: Pentalogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: Just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve read four of the five books so far. I’ve put the fifth book, Millions, onto my TBR lottery, but it hasn’t won so far. Plus, I’m having trouble getting books read right now. Don’t know why.

The Guinevere Deception cover

Camelot Rising: Kiersten White

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The other two books in the series aren’t available yet. I do plan on reading them though.

Sea Witch cover

Sea Witch: Sarah Henning

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: So many books, so little time. Maybe I’ll read the sequel someday? I’m a never say never kind of person. But it’s not one of my top priorities.

Call Down the Hawk cover

Dreamer Trilogy: Maggie Stiefvater

Length: Trilogy

Why haven’t I finished it?: The other books aren’t out yet. I don’t think I liked this book quite as much as The Raven Boys, so I probably won’t pre-order it, but I’ll probably get the other books from the library and read them.

This Savage Song cover

Monsters of Verity: Victoria Schwab

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: I haven’t gotten around to it. It’s in my TBR lottery, so I intend to read the finale at some point; I just haven’t yet.

The Beautiful Cover

The Beautiful: Renée Ahdieh

Length: Duology

Why haven’t I finished it?: The Damned isn’t out yet. Like Call Down the Hawk, I’m not sure I liked the first book enough to buy the second book, but I’ll probably get it from the library.

So there are the last 10 series that I’ve read partway through and haven’t finished. So far this year, I’ve finished four series, and this list goes back to mid-October of last year, so I guess I tend to finish most series that I read. Not all of them, but many of them.

Next week is “Reasons Why I Love…” I think I’ll write about “Reasons Why I Love YA.” But don’t quote me on it. See you then!

Enchantée was Enchanting

Enchantée coverEnchantée is an amazing book!  I had a feeling that I would love this book when I first started hearing about it, and I was certainly not disappointed.  This book was so amazing that, with about 30 minutes left in the book, I actually considered coming to work late so I could finish it.  The responsible part of me prevailed; I ended up going to work on time and finishing it at lunch.  When I finished the book and started putting my things away to go back to work, the smile this book left me was so bright, one of my co-workers thought I was going home.  It’s that good!

Netgalley gave me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

I probably should add a little background information on myself because it might influence how much I love this book.  I love history.  Last year, I took a class on Coursera about the French Revolution.  Part of the charm of this book to me was seeing this part of history come to life.  There’s a lot in this book that is historically accurate, and I love that about this book.  While I loved the historical aspect of the book, it’s not a central feature of the story.  The French Revolution is in the backdrop of this powerful story of love, magic, and illusion.

Camille is our heroine.  Her family has fallen on hard times, as it has for most Parisians.  Her brother is an abusive drunk, and they’re behind on their rent.  Sophie, her younger sister, is an excellent hatmaker who dreams of marrying into nobility.

Although everything seems bleak, Camille and Sophie’s lives change when Camille helps a couple of balloonists with their runaway balloon.  Their lives further change when Camille chooses to use la magie to transform herself into an aristocrat and start gambling at Versailles.

She falls in love with Lazare, one of the balloonists.  When she discovers that he’s actually an aristocrat and sees him at Versailles, things become complicated in her life.  To top it all off, the Vicomte de Séguin seems to have taken an interest in her, and Camille doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.

With a half hour left to go in the story (there were no page numbers in my book, just approximate reading time), I was wondering how Ms. Trelease was going to pull off a satisfying ending.  Camille was in an almost impossible situation, and I didn’t know how her life was going to end in anything but disaster.  This was either going to be one of the best books that I read for the first time in 2018, or it was going to have a disappointing ending for me like Allegiant chapter 50.  I was not disappointed.  The ending was more delicious than I could have even imagined.  The ending of Enchantée made me want to perfect the ending of my own novel that I was outlining at the time.

J’aime Enchantée so much!  The writing was magical.  The characters were amazing.  I loved Camille and Lazare together, and I love how Camille cared for her sister.  This story had me hooked from the very beginning.

Enchantée will be released on February 5th.  I highly recommend this book.  It is one of the best books I read last year, and I definitely plan on reading it again someday.

City of Heavenly Fire was Heavenly!

City of Heavenly Fire coverThis summer, I started reading Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series.  I recently finished the amazing conclusion, City of Heavenly Fire.  Having read all the books, I can tell you that this is a series that you will want to read.

Because this is the sixth book in the series, there may be some spoilers to previous books.

At the beginning of City of Heavenly Fire, Sebastian is on the loose, and he’s beginning to cause trouble again.  Around the world, Institutes are being attacked.  None of the shadowhunters are safe; they all decide to retreat (temporarily) to Idris.  This leaves the downworlders vulnerable.

Sebastian and his Endarkened forces attack the fortress of the Iron Sisters.  It’s almost a massacre for the shadowhunters that show up to fight, but Jace turns out to be an extraordinary weapon.  The Endarkened are vulnerable to his heavenly fire, as is Sebastian.  Unfortunately, the heavenly fire makes it difficult for him to get close to Clary.

As our adventure continues, the teens from the New York Institute make a journey to end Sebastian once and for all… and may have to give up a little more than they would like.  You’ll just have to read this amazing book to find out what happens.

I love how this book expands on setting elements that we saw in previous books.  In City of Lost Souls, we first hear about The Wild Hunt.  In this book, we hear more about it.  We are also introduced to places in other dimensions.  The book is full of imagery from Biblical and classical sources, which adds a little bit of color to this series.

I continue to grow more in love with these characters and their relationships.  Jace and Clary, Simon and Isabelle, and Alec and Magnus continue to have their relationships develop in different ways.  We are also introduced to some new characters, some of whom we will see in both The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices books.  I plan on reading both.

Part of me was sad to see this amazing series end, but I’m glad that there are other shadowhunter books to read.  I already have the first two books from The Infernal Devices on hold at the library.  I have to take a short break from this series while they become available, but I’m sure it will be worth it.  At the time I write this, there was a great sale on Lady Midnight, so I’m all ready to read that when the time comes.

Get Lost in City of Lost Souls

City of Lost Souls coverCity of Lost Souls is the fifth book in Cassandra Clare’s series, The Mortal Instruments.  I didn’t want to put it down.  This series just continues to get better and better.

Because this if the fifth book in The Mortal Instruments series, there may be spoilers for the first two books.

As the story begins, Jace is missing.  Along with Sebastian’s body.  The Clave is looking for them, but other, more pressing matters pop up, and the search for them loses priority.  Clary and her friends are not going to give up on him, however.  Especially Clary.

We find out that a demonic force has bonded Jace with Sebastian.  If one is hurt, then so is the other.  Even though Sebastian has evil plans in mind, he can’t be killed without Jace being killed.  The search turns into a quest to separate the two and eliminate Sebastian.

I love the relationship development in this book.  Jace and Clary make this series for me.  Although Jace isn’t quite himself for the majority of this book, they still love each other and have some great scenes together.  Simon and Isabelle seem to be working their relationship out as well, which is nice to see.  I also like to see Jordan and Maia, a couple of newer characters in this series, as they work towards rebuilding a relationship that they once thought was over.  Alec and Magnus are having difficulties in this book, but that’s pretty typical for real relationships.

Sebastian has nice character development in this book.  We know that he’s evil, but evil people usually don’t think that they’re doing wrong.  His mind was obviously twisted by his father and by his demonic blood, but we also see that he’s a lonely boy who is trying to do good (although he’s going about it the wrong way).  He also seems to have a strange fixation with his sister.  While Jace and Clary fought against their attraction when they thought that they were siblings, Sebastian seems to disapprove of Jace and Clary and seems to want Clary for himself.

Clary also develops as a person in City of Lost Souls.  She has to make some difficult decisions throughout the book.  Jace asks her to go with him in the book, and she chooses to go with him.  She sees it as the only way to save him, even though she knows it might be dangerous.  Later on in the book, she makes a selfish decision that could have turned out disastrous.  In the end, she chooses to put someone else’s wishes above her own, even though it might not have worked out for her best personal interest.  It was also great to see her developing skill as a fighter.

I loved reading City of Lost Souls, and can’t wait to read the final book in the series.

I Fell For City of Fallen Angels

City of Fallen Angels coverAfter waiting for several months, City of Fallen Angels became available at my local library.  It is the fourth book in Cassandra Clare’s series, The Mortal Instruments, and the wait was worth it.

As with any book that is not the first book in a series, this review may contain spoilers for previous books.

City of Fallen Angels begins a few weeks after City of Glass.  Everybody is back in New York, and it seems like life is getting back to normal.  As normal as life can be when you’re a shadowhunter, at least.

Clary and Jace are having problems, and they won’t speak to each other about it.  For much of the book, we don’t know why either.  They both love each other, and it’s apparent that whatever problem is going on is affecting them.  They’re both having trouble sleeping and even eating.  This leads to one of my favorite lines in the book.  Simon is wondering whether Jace wants to break up with Clary, and his response is “Break up with her?  Are you insane?”  Okay, so that’s not the problem.  We do find out later what is wrong, but in the interest of not giving out spoilers, you’ll just have to read the book.

Simon is having his own issues.  After being that nerdy kid for most of his life, he now finds himself interested in two girls.  Neither of them know about Simon’s relationship with the other one.  Oops.  And they both expect to go with Simon to Luke and Jocelyn’s wedding, which is rapidly approaching.  As if girl problems aren’t enough, he’s being tracked down by people who want to kill him, and his mother discovers that he’s a vampire and he has to leave home.  What a mess!

Valentine might be dead and gone, but there are still other monsters to contend with.  Throughout this story, we find out what is bothering Jace, who is trying to murder Simon, and what else this new villain is up to.  Our story doesn’t completely end with a happily ever after, but that’s why this series has a fifth (and sixth) book.

I loved this story.  This story, like many of the other Mortal Instruments books, incorporates myths and Bible lore into its story, and it makes it quite interesting.  If you’re reading this far into the series, you probably are already invested in the characters and care about what happens to them, and of course, I wanted to find out more.  Even though I was supposed to be reading another book to review at the time I was reading City of Fallen Angels, I couldn’t put it down.

I absolutely love this series, and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Other reviews in The Mortal Instruments Series:

Crow Flight Soared

Crow Flight CoverRecently, I read Crow Flight by Susan Cunningham.  The description looked interesting.  “The curious flight patterns of crows lead a teen computer programmer down a path of mystery and romance.”  Just like earlier this year, when The Kiss Quotient had me at math (LOL), Crow Flight had me at computers.  I majored in computer science in college, and have been programming computers since fifth grade, so I immediately had something in common with the protagonist of this book.

I was fortunate enough to have been given an advanced reader copy of Crow Flight in exchange for an honest review.

Gin is a computer genius who’s starting her senior year of high school.  She loves computers, especially computer modeling.  She’s taking a computer modeling class with a world-class teacher this year, and hopes that excelling in the class will help her get into Harvard.  When she is paired up in her computer modeling class with Felix, the cute new boy, their model on the flights of crows uncovers something unexpected and potentially dangerous.

I loved this story.  Not only could I identify with Gin on the whole computer thing, I could also identify with her and her feelings for Felix.  She likes him, but there couldn’t possibly be any way that he’d like her, right?  He’s rich, popular, and other girls like him.
The does he like me or doesn’t he is only part of this wonderful storyline.  Gin has a friend that she’s always hanging out with, and their friendship is strained when boys get in the way.  There’s also the mystery about the crow model itself.  While a computer model on crow flight patterns might not sound interesting, it is when there’s potentially a crime involved.  While I did guess some of what was going on, it didn’t ruin the story for me.

You’ll just have to read this book if you want to find out what happens between Gin and Felix, or what kind of trouble the crow model gets out heroine into, but you won’t be disappointed if you do.

I can’t really think of anything I didn’t like about this book.  Maybe the only downside about Crow Flight is that it’s not getting the hype that it deserves.  I highly recommend this book, and hope that more people find out about it.

Legendary was Just That

Legendary CoverLegendary finally became available to me at the library, and I was so happy to be able to read it.  It is the second book in Stephanie Garber’s Caraval series.  Finale will be out next year.

After Caraval, Tella and Scarlett end up going to another Caraval.  Usually, there is only one a year, but this year, there is another one in only a few more days, held in honor of Empress Elantine’s seventy-fifth birthday.

Legendary is told from Tella’s perspective.  Tella discovers that her mom is still alive.  With the help of her “friend”, she’s trying to find out where her mom is and to save her.  In order to save her mom, she needs to find out who Legend is, which means she has to participate in and win Caraval.

It’s not all that easy.

A few complications occur along the way.  First, Tella is forced to fake an engagement with the Empress’s heir.  Then, the stakes are raised even higher: if she doesn’t win Caraval, she discovers that both she and her mom will die.  And then she falls in love.  To make matters worse, if she saves her own life and that of her mom’s, she might just hurt the boy she loves.  The decisions seem impossible.

We don’t see a lot of Scarlett in this story.  While Caraval focused a lot on the relationship between siblings, Legendary focused on Tella’s feelings about her mother.  Scarlett is away for much of the time, trying to sort out the things going on in her life (I don’t want to give away spoilers here, so I’m not saying what).

Legendary kept me wanting to read from the beginning until the very end.  Like Caraval, Legendary is full of magic and mystery.  I love how we got to see more of Tella’s character.  She’s much more impressive once you get to know her.  I love the decisions that she makes, and I wish the best for her.  I will definitely be reading Finale once it comes out next year.

Blitzball ist Sehr Interressant

What would happen if Adolf Hitler were cloned?  Blitzball, a new book by Barton Ludwig, attempts to answer that question.  This is the story of Addie, a soccer player for Reichfield High, and his discovery that he was not who he thought he was.  Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Every weekend, Addie plays soccer against North Prep, their rival school.  As our story begins, Addie and his best friend Thomas have debilitated the star player on the other team so he can’t play.  Shaylee, a girl, ends up playing on the team instead.

As a reader, you might notice something strange about their little town.  Reichfield High is nearly all white (with the exception of one Jew).  North Prep is predominantly non-white.  The students at Reichfield High are encouraged to have racist viewpoints.  They refer to themselves as “Aryan” and have a lot of unkind things to say about people of other races.  They also don’t like homosexuals or transgender people.  Reichfield students also learn German.  This is a typical Nazi town, located in a modern neighborhood in a place that looks a lot like the United States.

Addie begins to have feelings for Shaylee, which he fights initially, because she’s not Aryan, and Addie has been taught that you really shouldn’t develop feelings for people that aren’t white.  Together, they discover that Addie was a clone of Adolf Hitler.  Addie doesn’t even know who Hitler is at first; for some reason people that live in Addie’s town don’t have access to the Internet, although Shaylee and her classmates do.  As he discovers the truth about himself, he tries to defy his genetics and upbringing and become his own person.

What I Liked

There were a lot of things that I liked about Blitzball.  Addie was an interesting character.  He behaved a lot like you would expect someone to behave if Adolf Hitler grew up today.  In a way, the story reminds me a lot of Er ist Wieder Da, a really funny movie where Hitler resurrects in a German park and is found by a photographer, who treats the guy like he’s a joke.  Addie grows as a character throughout the book, which is pretty important when you start off a Nazi.  By the end of the book, he becomes an enemy of the Nazis in this story.

The setting of this story was unique.  It reminded me of The Truman Show.  Addie lives in this small “country” where life pretty much revolves around him.  The people at his school are in on it.  Not only was he a genetic clone of Adolf Hitler, he is being raised in similar circumstances to him.

What I Liked Less

While I found Blitzball to be interesting overall, there were parts of this story that I liked less.  The last part of the book seemed to be a little too much, although I liked the epilogue.  We also never find out why someone created a genetic clone of Hitler and went through all the trouble of raising him to be another Hitler.

There are a lot of German words in this book (mostly swear words).  As a German speaker, it didn’t really bother me, but it’s possible that non-German speakers might find that it makes reading the book more difficult.  I’m not a very good judge of this because I am literate in German, but it’s something to be aware of.

Final Notes

I wouldn’t recommend this book to younger YA readers.  There are some situations that aren’t really appropriate for younger readers.  In addition, the characters of Reichfield High have very racist attitudes; someone with less maturity might not realize that these students are supposed to be the bad guys.

Overall, Blitzball was an interesting book that I enjoyed, but I can’t really put it on the same level as some of the more amazing books that I’ve been reading this year.  If you find the premise interesting, I recommend reading it, but it’s not a book that I will rush out and tell everybody that they need this on their TBR right now.

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys… Oh My!

slasher girls and monster boys coverThe end of October is upon us.  I’m not into scary stories or spooky things, but I figured that I’d read Slasher Girls & Monster Boys for the season anyway.  I’m not really big into short stories, but thanks to a Top Ten Tuesday topic from earlier this year, I’ve discovered that some of them are pretty cool.

This anthology has stories from several authors that I wasn’t familiar with, as well as some that I’ve heard of but haven’t read yet (like Kendare Blake) and some that I’ve read before (including my favorite author, Marie Lu).  They all have their own styles that they bring to this genre, and some of the stories I liked much better than the others.

Each of the short stories in Slasher Girls & Monster Boys was based on a classic movie or story.  I don’t really think that knowing the original story really gave away anything in the ending.  For example, “In the Forest Dark and Deep” was based on Alice in Wonderland.  Knowing the Alice story didn’t really give away what was going to happen in the story.

I didn’t really find these stories to be scary.  They did seem to have a lot of stories of the supernatural and of revenge, however.  I did like that about these stories.

Some of these stories I was just okay with.  There were a couple with bizarre endings that I would have liked to have been explained more.  I think that it’s normal in an anthology that you won’t like all the stories equally well though.

Here were some of my favorites:

“The Girl Without a Face” ~ Marie Lu.  Well, duh!  I’ve never read anything in the “horror” genre by Marie Lu before, but this story definitely has a lot of Lu-like elements to it.  The voice is familiar, as is the overall message of this story.  Sorry, I can’t give away what that message is, because then I’d pretty much spoil it!

“On the I-5” ~ Kendare Blake.  I bought Three Dark Crowns earlier this year but I haven’t gotten around to reading it yet.  “On the I-5” is a story of a girl who meets someone at a truck stop on the I-5 (which runs from Washington State to Southern California).  Again, I can’t really tell you much more than that without spoiling the story, but it was pretty good.

“The Birds of Azalea Street” ~ Nova Ren Suma.  I’ve seen the Hitchcock movie The Birds more than once in my lifetime, and although I did have a guess as to what was happening in this one, I thought it was a sweet story about justice.  If sweetness can be a little dark and creepy and involve death.

“In the Forest Dark and Deep” ~ Carrie Ryan.  This was another tale of jerks seeing justice.  I think there’s a theme to my favorite stories here, because all the stories that I’ve pointed out here include some form of justice for somebody.  This story has a tea party/Alice in Wonderland influence to it.

If you’re looking for something to read this year with just a little bit of the creep factor, but you don’t want to commit to a full length novel or two, you might want to check out Slasher Girls & Monster Boys.  Chances are you’ll recognize a few of the authors, and you might find a new author you want to read more of!

I Was Into the Hollow

Into the Hollow coverLast week, I read Into the Hollow by Lynn Vroman.  I have to thank Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read it.  This is a really sweet story and I enjoyed it a lot.

Freedom (she goes by Free) hasn’t had the easiest life.  After her mother died, her dad took her to Needles, California, where he met another lady and had another child, Little.  Little’s mom had postpartum depression, and they left to go back to Appalachia, where they were originally from.  When our story begins, Free is a doting sister who adores her half-brother.  She works at a grocery store to try to make ends meet.  Her daddy digs up ginseng to try to bring in some extra cash.  It’s a hard life.  They live in a small house without electricity or water, and sometimes there isn’t enough to eat.

Cole is her next door neighbor, but they’ve never spoken.  His life isn’t much to brag about either.  He has a father and brother in prison for dealing drugs.  His sister is a teenage mom and is a former drug addict; her mother still is addicted to drugs.  Cole’s sole goal in life is to graduate from high school and save enough to rent a crappy apartment someday.

Sometimes they see each other when Free drives by in her beat up Buick, but they’ve never spoken.  Still, they seem to be drawn to each other (although Free would never admit that).

When Cole starts working at the grocery store with her, she tries to keep her distance.  He wants to get to know her, but she doesn’t want him to find out her secrets.  Then something happens, and her world is turned upside down.  She turns to Cole for help.  In turn, she seems to help him in a way.

I absolutely loved this story.  Both Cole and Free are responsible teens just trying to survive in a world where the adults in their lives haven’t made it easy for them.  You want them to make it.  And you want them to be together.

The setting of Into the Hollow is fairly unique.  I haven’t read a lot of books set in Appalachia.  As I read the book, I can visualize the forest, and the run-down houses, and the things that make this area what it is.

Into the Hollow was a book that I didn’t want to put down.  I’m not sure how much publicity it’s going to get, but it probably won’t be enough.  It’s one of those books that might end up in a “hidden gems” type of Top Ten Tuesday post, because I enjoyed it so much, but I’m afraid not many people are going to hear about it.  It won’t be released until November 6th, but you can pre-order it now.