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Alexandra is incredible. She was strong, and suffered at the hands of all of her brothers. The story was beautiful, even in it's sadness. The writing was poetic and kept me reading.

I loved the ending. The scene where Alexandra realizes it was Jesus who she had been dreaming about for much of her life. I loved it. I was still happy when Carl came back and they agreed to get married, but I also liked the idea of Alexandra becoming a nun (it was implied that was what she was considering this.)

The one thing that I didn't like was the victim blaming. Frank Shabata hurt his wife, not physically, but emotionally, for years and years. It was wrong of her and Emil to commit adultry, but two wrongs make more wrong, and I didn't like that first Frank, and then Alexandra essentially blamed Emil and Marie for Frank's murdering them. Besides the fact that this action was a mortal sin for Frank, it also prevented the two of them from repenting their own. Whether he had a temper or not, Frank should not have kept saying that it was her fault for letting him catch them. It was his fault for letting himself become bitter and suspicious. It was his fault for trying to make Marie as bitter as he. It was his fault for taking the gun with him to the orchard when he did not truly think that there were any intruders. And it was his fault for raising the gun to his shoulder and firing. The murder may not have been premeditated, but it was murder none the less. Ivar believes that the Emil and Marie are in Hell for their actions. I don't know whether they are (or whether non-fictional people in their place would be,) but they didn't deserve to die so quickly and without the chance to ask for God's forgiveness.

So, basically I really enjoyed the book, but I didn't like the fact that Marie and Emil were blamed for their own murders. They were to blame for the sins they committed, yes, but not for the sins Frank committed. I do think I will be reading more Willa Cather in the future.

The main characters of this book, Mags and Gillian were both very quirky and odd. There were times when I found them frustrating, but they were more likeable than unlikeable. The narration of the book was mostly from Mags with Gillian interjection occasionally. In Mags, the author captured the voice of a twelve-year-old. Sure, the run-on sentences got annoying, but it felt the way a twelve-year-old would really write. Overall it was a good book.

4 1/2 stars.

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

When I first started reading this book I was thinking I'd give it 3 or 3 1/2 stars. To my surprise, by the time I finished it I'd become so invested that I feel it deserves a solid 4 1/2 stars.

I loved the character development from both Alex and Rob. Alex started as a timid boy who was overcome with guilt for something stupid he did as a child that had longstanding repercussions for himself and his family, and over the course of the book , it seemed like he finally forgave himself, and allowed himself to move on. There was never a point in the book where he put that into words, which might have been nice, but it worked this way too because it worked with Alex's personality. Rob was somewhat selfish in the beginning of the book. He spent a lot of time in front of the television, and he didn't seem terribly disciplined. Training for STP helped him fix his discipline problems, and realizing that his reasons for not letting Alex ride with him were mostly selfish helped him to become more selfless.

Plot wise the book was pretty solid. The STP section was fairly short, but I think the climax of the story was Alex's quest to ride STP, so his training, and Rob overcoming his reservations about letting Alex ride. There were only a few places that I have to comment on. The first is that, somehow, I got it in my head that Alex's accident and Rob's reason for hanging up his bike were related. I'm not sure if that was my fault or if it was implied somewhere in the book. I wouldn't have minded more details about why Meg and Rob couldn't have more kids, but (I think) this book was written so that 10 and up could read it, and details like that might have made it less kid friendly (Hermes's mother's inability to have more kids may have been one of the smallest reasons for Rapunzel Let Down being for older readers, but its affect on Hermes's character was still something that could be upsetting for younger kids.) And finally, I wanted to know if anyone saw the number on the person who caused Alex and Rob's STP crash. One of the other riders asked if anyone saw his number or if he was still there, but that question was never answered.

A lot of the side characters were well developed as well. I really liked the relationship that was set up between Alex and Ronnie, and I found myself wanting to see Ronnie more. I also liked both of the Jacobs, and, though I disliked them, I appreciated the bullies characters, because kids can be really mean. I am somewhat conflicted on Connor. I liked his character at first, but his behavior at the birthday party was quite nasty, and I do think that it might have developed Alex's character more had Connor either not apologized, or otherwise if their friendship had ended. And I liked the fact that he apologized because sometimes we accidently do something mean and feel bad about it later, so it was realistic that he their friendship survived, but I did think it could have developed Alex even more if he had felt abandoned.

I have a few more comments that had little effect on the plot that I still want to bring up. In general when a Veronica goes by a nickname, it's spelled Ronni, not Ronnie. This spelling wasn't terribly distracting, but I think it's worth mentioning. There were a few technically correct, but awkward feeling sentences in the beginning of the book, and one or two grammatically problematic sentences. The only grammar problem that I saw consistently was the dropping of pronouns. I understand that this is how many people talk, including me at times, but seeing it consistently in print bothers me for some reason. At times the words 'cuddling' and 'cuddled' were a bit overused in the chapters where Rob and Meg are talking. I didn't see it at first, but in chapter eleven it was used four times in less than two pages, and after that every time it was used I noticed it. This happens a lot in books, I read one where the word the author overused was 'appendages' of all words (and that book wasn't very good, so it bothered me even more,) and even in The Lord of the Rings I started counting the number of times Legolas or Aragorn 'sprang' somewhere. They never jumped or leaped, they always sprang.

My final negative comments have to do with Alex's music. I am not an organ player, but the descriptions of the organ seemed very accurate from what I do know about the instrument, but I am a music major, and I thought it seemed a bit short for Alex, a eleven to twelve-year-old who was extremely serious about his music to still be having only a half-hour lesson a week. He probably should have had at least a forty-five minute lesson by then. Then again, like I said, I don't play organ, so maybe you don't need as long of lessons for organ as you do for violin and piano. I can't imagine a teacher asking a student to perform for the first time as an accompanist, especially if they were nervous about performing, because if the choir messed up then you have to be able to follow them if they skip or repeat a verse, or if they messed up the tempo. Or if the accompanist messed up then it could completely throw off the choir. I have never liked performing. My first violin teacher forced all of her students to participate in two recitals a year whether we were prepared or not. My second teacher said that we had to be prepared to perform in at least one of her two recitals a year, but she was far more likely to push being prepared than performing. I also found myself frustrated by Rob's comment that Alex needed a sport. The only time I had a sport (ballet) at the same time as music was in the first few years with violin. Just long enough to get the five-year trophy that the dance studio gave out (yeah, I started ballet when I was way too young, but my older sister was doing it so I wanted to dance too,) but it came down to violin or ballet and we chose violin. We had friends who chose ballet, or some who chose Westernaires instead of music. I agree with Rob that Alex needed exercise (this coming from someone who gets out of breath walking a couple of blocks uphill to get from the music building to the church,) and I'm glad that Alex discovered a sport that he loved, but I still found it frustrating that Rob insisted Alex needed a sport.

This is one reason I don't like writing reviews. In my attempt to give authors feedback my reviews always end up sounding negative even when I really enjoyed the book. I used to ride on the trail-a-bike with my dad, although we called it the tag-a-long. This book made me really want to do two things that are quite impractical right now. I want to ride my bike more. I haven't ridden very much for years. I only got a bike that fit me after growing out of my last bike this past summer, and I have too much homework to do much riding now, and I want to write a piece for organ, but I don't think there is anyone at school who plays the organ. I don't think we even have an organ performance program, and I don't understand the organ enough to write a piece for it without talking to someone who plays the organ, especially since Adler's [b: The Study of Orchestration|333298|The Study of Orchestration|Samuel Adler|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348391643s/333298.jpg|323829] only has three pages about the organ.

In conclusion, overall I really enjoyed this book, and I think the author has a lot of potential.

I received an e-copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I am sorry, but I hated this book. It took me months to finish what should have been a day to read. The world building was very poorly done. The book was only 86 pages and around page 70 or so a new concept was introduced to the world, and the world itself wasn't interesting enough for me to forgive such late information dumps. There was a goose trail laid down where Sarah thought that her husband had betrayed her, and then suddenly he's swooping in to save her. Plus, we have the added aspect of going back and forth in time, and knowing that Daniel was the reason the baby was kidnapped, and that for some reason he was also responsible for the guy who kidnapped the baby in the first place taking him back.

I hated all of the characters. I thought I would like Sarah in the first scene when her child was stolen, but in the next scene she was presented as a ruthless leader who was using people by telling them she was fighting for them, when she was only looking for her son. She knew when she sent all of those people into battle, that her attack was not the surprise she thought it would be, but she sent them in anyway. Then the author spent the rest of the book trying to make her seem more sympathetic with her self blame, as though she didn't know that all of those people would die if she sent them into battle, but did so anyway because she wanted to get her child back (that's understandable) and was willing to do anything, to kill anyone, in order to achieve her goal (that is despicable.)

There were also grammar errors and awkward sentences throughout the book.

2 1/2 stars

I liked a lot about this book, and the main character, and it's premise of reading forbidden western books in communist China, but I was filled with dismay by the approach the author took to the abortion. I understand that in communist China, the Little Seamstress would have felt that she had no choice but to get an abortion, but the way the abortion was presented too lightly. The ending of the book was not very satisfying either, I couldn't believe Luo would burn the books for anything less than avoiding discovery, and even then... I was also confused by the sudden character POV switch near the end.

There were scenes I liked. At the beginning when Luo and the main character (whose name, if we were ever told it, I can't remember) saved the MC's violin by saying that he had played a concerto called "Mozart Loves Chairman Mao." That was interesting and served to show what a weird environment they were living in that claiming such an outrageous title for a Mozart piece could save a violin. I liked it when they stole the books from Four-Eyes, and I really liked the scene when they were fixing the village chairman's cavity, but given my high expectations for the book, I was quite disappointed.

This book was better than the first one. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the sarcasm of the characters, especially Jack. I liked the crossovers between the Greek/Roman universe and the Norse one. I liked Sam and Amir, though I'm not certain that Riordan had treated the Muslim religion with respect. Both Magnus and the story itself felt like a repeat of Percy Jackson. The characters were likeable, and, quite honestly, what made the story for me. Besides Jack, my favorites were Hearth and Blitz.

 

Edit 3/5/17

My review was incomplete. The reason for that, quite frankly, is that I've seen people attacking other reviewers for simply disliking a book that most people liked. Given the ugly state of our politics I was afraid to talk about Alex, but if I'm going to try to be a good Catholic book reviewer I guess I need to risk the people who attack anyone who disagrees with them.

I liked Alex against my will. She (she considered herself a girl for most of the book so I'm going to refer to her as she) was feisty, and funny, and with Magnus, surprisingly vulnerable. One could argue that her genderfluidism was because her godly parent Loki had turned himself into a female at the time of her conception and birth, making it not necessarily the type of social justice warrior argument that Riordan hoped it would be. As a Catholic I was discomforted by the inclusion of such a story line, but I still liked Alex's character except for her sex changing, which felt like it was intended to try and force more of the 'social justice' agenda on people who had previously enjoyed these stories. Overall I still think that Magnus Chase has been weaker than Riordan's other stories, and the inclusion of LGBT agenda will make some support it even if they wouldn't have otherwise, and more religious people stay away from Riordan's future books.

4 1/2 stars

Given my current disillusionment with YA literature, I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.

I know that Victoria Schwab said that there was no romance in this book, and that was part of the reason I gave it a chance, but it seemed to me that Kate and August had potential for romance later in life. Don't get me wrong, I am tired of romance in YA books, but for some reason, the books that contain romance tend to be the ones that I think have the best relationships, and have the most potential for real romantic relationships later.

Kate was strong, but not in the way that she portrayed herself. She acted tough, and she was strong in her own way, but she wasn't the kind of strong that she showed to the world. I found her frustrating. She was trying to be like her father, and if she had become like her father, then she would have polluted her own soul. Her type of character is one that I don't usually like, but she fit in with the world that the author had built.

I liked August more than Kate. I liked his innocence and fear of himself. His hate of himself because he is a monster. It made him into a wonderfully, heartbreakingly tortured character. I loved his love of music, and his love and fear of his music. I liked that he was trying to protect Kate, even when she was mean to him. Even after she had killed, and he could have taken her. I didn't like the way the story ended for his character. I know that his excepting who he is was a very strong action, but I worry that he might become more like his brother, and the separation of his caution and dislike of killing (even if they were killers) from his need to kill to survive makes me nervous that he will lose some of his goodness.

The world the story is set in is very interesting, but also very confusing. It was a very dark world, and I think that the plot would have benefitted from some humor or something to break up the dark, frightening and starkness of this place filled with monsters who are human, and monsters who exist because of the actions of humans. I loved the idea of music being the source of a power, and while I don't think of music as a killing power, people often say that it speaks to the soul, or that it feeds the soul, so I suppose it could fit that it brings the guilt, shame or sadness to the surface of their minds, and their souls to the edge of their bodies.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, it was unique, and far better than most of the secular YA books I have read recently.

I'm not sure what I expected from this book, but this was not it. None of the characters were particularly likeable, in the past or in the present of the story. The unpleasant characters were the biggest downfall of this book. The story was confusing and strange, and, while the stories were about how the violin came to be where it was, it didn't feel like the Stradivarius played a very important role. It could almost have been an valuable painting and the story would not have been effected very much. There was also a lot of sex, and sometimes the sex had a purpose in the story, but a lot of the time it didn't. The book was presented as a contemporary story, but some of the characters had weird magical/voodoo-like powers, and for some reason one of them kept going on about how she was immortal and could not die, but wanted to be able to die one day. This was a really weird book, and it didn't really fit my taste in books, even if there was a Stradivarius violin.

3 1/2 stars

I loved the character development of Henry and Charlotte. Their realization that they both loved the other, but they both believed that the other one had married them for convenience. I loved that.

I was disappointed with Jessamyn's death. I was hoping for character development from her, but I suppose we may get it yet in the other Mortal Instruments books since she came back as a ghost. Speaking of ghosts, we were told at the beginning of the trilogy that Will could see ghosts without their appearing to him, but we never had an explanation as to why that was.

I was not fond of Will and Tessa's reactions to Jem's death. It was not normal, and it felt forced. They both cared so much for Jem, that it just doesn't make sense for them to immediately have had sex. When a person's fiancé dies, the first thing they would do would be to mourn. Eventually Tessa and Will could have gotten past the grief, admitted their feelings and gotten married, but it felt really disrespectful to have them have sex so soon after learning of Jem's death. I can't decide if I liked the ending. I am glad that Tessa and Will lived a happy life, and I'm glad that Jem and Tessa will get their chance now, but it seemed too easy for Tessa to get both Will and Jem in her lifetime. Not to mention that eventually, Jem will die and Tessa will resort to the solitary life she had been living since Will's death. I suppose Jem's telling her about the story that took place in the first three books of the Mortal Instruments series indicates that the two of them will appear in the rest of the series, and that does make me happy.

I was surprised that Jem was able to leave the Silent Brothers. For two reasons. The first is that he now knows a lot of their secrets. He is probably the only Nephilim to ever enter the Silent Brothers and then leave them. He's probably the only Nephilim to enter the Silent Brothers for no reason but to extend his life until a cure for his illness could be found. The second is that most of the Silent Brothers were killed by Valentine and the few who are left would probably be less than thrilled about one of the ones who survived just leaving like that.

I enjoyed this book, and this series, but I did not think the plot was as concrete as the first three books of the Mortal Instruments. It may have been slightly less predictable then the Mortal Instruments, but it was also weaker. While some of the supporting characters were excellent, particularly Jem, Charlotte and Henry, the other characters were not any better than the Mortal Instruments.

The characters have been getting less and less likeable, which makes me wish that I hadn't gotten so invested in this story. I still like Cleo a bit, but the others, most of whom I didn't like much in the first place, have been becoming more and more unpleasant. I will probably continue with the series to see what happens because the conflict is very interesting and I have no idea where the plot is going, but I hope that the author will keep Cleo likeable, and maybe make one of the other characters a bit less hateable. Even Cleo, who I don't hate is not someone who I like very much. I want her to win because she has been so wronged, but Jonas has been wronged too, and I still can't bring myself to root for him because he is so unpleasant. I liked Brion, but he wasn't a main character, and now... I liked Lucia in the last book, but she has become nastier since then. I liked Nic, but he has lost a lot of his integrity as well. Alexius seems to have taken a deeply unpleasant turn, though from the way the book was set up, I'd say he was less than good in the first book, but the author concealed his intentions from us so we wouldn't know. None of the character's relationships are realistic. Almost all of the romances are unbelievable at best and instalove at worst. The friendships are less awful, Jonas and Brion's was believable, though it wasn't something that was focused on, but Cleo and Nic, whose friendship was one of the things that made the first book, started to feel forced after Nic declared his love to her and she didn't reciprocate. Never mind that he probably already knew she didn't love him romantically, he still made his declaration and expected her to feel the same. In the first book I had the sense that he loved her--really loved her--to the point that he would give up anything for her, and didn't expect anything in return, but, while he still seems to care for her, I don't think his behavior seems to indicate real love after all.

I liked this book more than I anticipated I would. The movie was still undeniably better than the book, but the book was still fun. It was a cute, silly middle grade book. I liked Hiccup and Toothless, even though their characters (especially Toothless's) are a lot different from the movie. The slightly different purposes for the dragons was interesting to see too, and the fact that dragons can understand the humans (but only obey them if they are yelling) but the humans (except Hiccup) can't understand the dragons, and speaking in the dragon language is illegal. I know that the movie was based on the book, so in most cases like this, the book would be better, but I thought the movie had more depth to the characters, and to the plot.

I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't like this book as well as Clockwork Angel. It didn't seem as though Tessa had any character growth, but Will had so much character growth as to seem out of character. I had trouble buying that Will had went from being an egotistical, irritating jerk to a loving, caring guy. It was implied that he was always that caring person, hiding it to stop people from loving him, but I didn't see that in the first book, and it was a little bit too obvious in the second.

I was also frustrated Jessamyn's stupidity. I had liked her and seen her as a smart, but mentally ill person who just desperately wanted to get away from the magic. Apparently I was wrong about her being smart.

I really like Jem, so it was nice to see some more development from him. I have always liked Jem more than Will, and, quite frankly I wonder why Tessa even wants Will when she has Jem. I liked the development of Sophie and Gideon as well.

Bridget's songs were fun, though I can understand why the characters got so annoyed with them. I mostly liked them because I recognized some of them.

I liked the book, but it wasn't as good as the first one.

So. A few months ago I created my Booklikes account. I happily activated it and told my phone and computer to keep me logged in. A month or so later I got a new phone. Imagine my surprise when, upon trying to log in, I was told I needed to put in the verification code. Feeling the need to prove I could log on without the verification code, having, after all, already done so several times, I foolishly logged out of my account on my computer. You can guess what happened next: I tried to log in, but couldn't because I needed the verification code. The problem is that my old phone had been running out of space, and to make room I'd deleted my deleted items--including the Booklikes verification email, and unfortunately there is no "resend verification email" button on Booklikes.

 

Since that time I have emailed Booklikes many times begging for help, but I have received no indication that they ever saw my emails. My only access to my Booklikes account comes from using my old phone (which is the only reason I was able to post this,) which I would very much like to retire, but I don't want to lose my Booklikes account.

 

Why does Booklikes have an email if they aren't going to look at the help requests they receive? How can I get a verification code so I can get my account back? Will I have to just start over with a new account? Why doesn't Booklikes like me?

This is one of the few books that my dad read to my sister and me more than once. I always liked it, (except for the short chapters because we'd have to beg him for another chapter after each one,) but this is my first time reading it as an adult. I decided to reread it because I have recently become a fan of Rachel Portman's and have been listening to all of her music that I can find. Her Operatic adaptation of The Little Prince is beautiful and, overall, it stays true to the book. (I haven't seen the movie yet and I've only listened to the opera, but I'd say from the movie trailers and the libretto of the opera, that the opera is a much truer adaptation then the film.)

I still liked the book a lot, (for quite a few of the parts I could hear the opera singing along with the words, that's how close Rachel Portman stayed to the book,) but now, as an adult, I'm not simply going along with a curious story of a boy who loves a rose setting off to explore the universe, and meeting a pilot. The story is still there, but now I'm trying so hard to see the messages and themes that are hidden in the work. I almost feel there's an allegory about a little boy who was starting to learn more about the world, and didn't like what he learned. Or about a father who's little boy died, and so would never grow up. In order to keep his childish innocence, The Little Prince had to go back to his planet, but how could a bite from a venomous snake send him back to his planet, unless the true meaning was that the bite would send him to Heaven? Despite all of my puzzling, I do not know for certain what this story means. There are a lot of really sweet bits of wisdom that are hard to come by in this world, and I believe there is a deeper meaning under the words, but I just can't figure out what that is.

The two things I didn't like as well in this book was, first, the multiple times that the human body is referred to as a shell that can be cast off. I used to listen to, or read, those kinds of comments without trouble but, and I can't remember if it was an article I read or a video I watched, not that long ago I had it pointed out that the bodies we have will one day be risen and glorified on the last day, and to call it a shell is to disregard the work of God. The other thing I didn't like was the frustratingly open ending. Just let the little prince be happy on his planet with a safe rose for goodness sake. Why can't he use a thin branch or reed from one of the baobab trees to create a strap for the muzzle? Or better yet, just don't have had the pilot have forgotten to draw the muzzle's strap in the first place.

Even though this book was somewhat frustrating, I still did like it overall reading it again as an adult.

This is one of the few books that my dad read to my sister and me more than once. I always liked it, (except for the short chapters because we'd have to beg him for another chapter after each one,) but this is my first time reading it as an adult. I decided to reread it because I have recently become a fan of Rachel Portman's and have been listening to all of her music that I can find. Her Operatic adaptation of The Little Prince is beautiful and, overall, it stays true to the book. (I haven't seen the movie yet and I've only listened to the opera, but I'd say from the movie trailers and the libretto of the opera, that the opera is a much truer adaptation then the film.) I still liked the book a lot, (for quite a few of the parts I could hear the opera singing along with the words, that's how close Rachel Portman stayed to the book,) but now, as an adult, I'm not simply going along with a curious story of a boy who loves a rose setting off to explore the universe, and meeting a pilot. The story is still there, but now I'm trying so hard to see the messages and themes that are hidden in the work. I almost feel there's an allegory about a little boy who was starting to learn more about the world, and didn't like what he learned. Or about a father who's little boy died, and so would never grow up. In order to keep his childish innocence, The Little Prince had to go back to his planet, but how could a bite from a venomous snake send him back to his planet, unless the true meaning was that the bite would send him to Heaven? Despite all of my puzzling, I do not know for certain what this story means. There are a lot of really sweet bits of wisdom that are hard to come by in this world, and I believe there is a deeper meaning under the words, but I just can't figure out what that is. The two things I didn't like as well in this book was, first, the multiple times that the human body is referred to as a shell that can be cast off. I used to listen to, or read, those kinds of comments without trouble but, and I can't remember if it was an article I read or a video I watched, not that long ago I had it pointed out that the bodies we have will one day be risen and glorified on the last day, and to call it a shell is to disregard the work of God. The other thing I didn't like was the frustratingly open ending. Just let the little prince be happy on his planet with a safe rose for goodness sake. Why can't he use a thin branch or reed from one of the baobab trees to create a strap for the muzzle? Or better yet, just don't have had the pilot have forgotten to draw the muzzle's strap in the first place. Even though this book was somewhat frustrating, I still did like it overall reading it again as an adult.

I loved this book the first time I read it, and all the times I've reread it have not dimmed my opinion of it.