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Book Review: The Infinite Glade

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The Infinite Glade
The Maze Cutter #3
by James Dashner

My rating: 1 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

Not only did this book have a lot of the same problems as the previous two—too many characters, too little to care about, too many factions and no clear understanding of who was good or bad—but on top of all of that, there was far too few answers given. Elements that were touted as super important throughout the trilogy (like the Cure and the Evolution) are seriously downplayed here and never come to fruition of any kind. More characters are added that end up being completely pointless and a POV character added in the previous book also really had no point by the end. I struggle to understand what Dashner was going for in general or why these books didn’t get stopped before publication. But here’s the thing that is probably important for anyone reading this review to know: I didn’t particularly care for the first trilogy either. I liked the first book and truly wanted to know more about the world set up within it. But it felt like Dashner had written himself into a corner and proceeded to pants his way through the rest of the series, which ended up a convoluted, shallow mess. It was probably my mistake to read this follow-up trilogy, but I really hoped that it would be more of a call back to The Maze Runner, something that could possibly redeem the world for me. Instead, it deteriorated even further. This means that I obviously don’t recommend this trilogy to anyone. And yes, a lot of people enjoyed the first trilogy more than me and thus might enjoy this follow-up more too. Beware, though, that the overall rating, at least on Goodreads, of this trilogy is quite a bit lower than for the original trilogy, and reviews I’ve read indicate that plenty of people who loved the original didn’t like these books nearly as much.

I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

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Book Review: The Lightning Thief

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The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1
by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy adventure

Percy Jackson has always had issues, but then his algebra teacher attacks him and he accidentally kills her, and his dyslexia isn’t the biggest problem in his life anymore. It turns out that he is a half-blood, meaning the son of a Greek god, and now monsters are going to periodically try to kill him. And to top it all off, he’s accused of stealing Zeus’s master lightening bolt. What’s a half-blood to do?

This is one of those series that I’ve heard of for years, but was never really on my radar. But my now-15-year-old daughter read it and loved it and ended up convincing me to read it. It was a fun read! Percy is a pretty sympathetic young hero, with dyslexia and ADHD and a whole lot of catching up to do when he finds out about his parentage. Though he’s not completely ignorant, as he’s been learning about Green mythology all his life. I also really liked Grover, and though Annabeth was sort of meh to me at first, she grew on me too. Of course there are bullies, both inside and outside of the “special” world, but it’s nice to see Percy able to fight back in some way. Some of the minor wins he had along the way in general made me cheer. 

The chapter titles are sometimes hilarious (ch 1: “I Accidentally Vaporize My Algebra Teacher”), sometimes intriguing, and sometimes a little dull, but overall, getting to the end of a chapter and seeing what the next would would be added a little thrill to the reading. And right off the bat, the incident with the teacher drew me in and made me so excited to know more! I don’t have much more than a sketchy knowledge of Greek mythology, so I wasn’t able to figure anything out that wasn’t explained in the story. On the other hand, I did correctly guess how the main part of the prophecy Percy receives would play out. It didn’t bother me to figure it out in advance, though. It just made sense.

There were two main downsides for me, one being just the nature of Greek mythology that comes into play so heavily in this book. Apparently it’s common for them to sleep around and either impregnate women or, in the case of the female gods, get pregnant themselves, only to abandon the baby and his/her mother/father. All through the centuries. I mean…it’s just kind of skeevy to me. The other downside was the motivation for the bad guy and his minion(s). It’s a bit cliché. But I suppose it might be pretty apt given who the main bad guy is. Plus, this book is written for kids around 10-13, so it probably won’t be particularly cliché for them yet. And both of these together only meant a half-star detraction, because the book was overall a lot of fun and excitement with a hint of much more to come. I recommend this to pre-teens and young teens (and it would be a good one for more reluctant readers, I think, especially boys), but really anyone who enjoys younger audience fantasy and adventure would probably like it.

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Book Review: How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale

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How to Twist a Dragon’s Tale
How to Train Your Dragon #5
by Cressida Cowell
read by David Tennant

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When a legendary Viking hero long believed dead rescues Hiccup and the other young Vikings-in-training from certain death, Stoick asks the hero to be Hiccup’s bodyguard (well, I was listening to the audiobook, and I think it was actually called a “bardy-guard,” but I really don’t know for sure how it was spelled). But it turns out that Humongously Hotshot might not have had Hiccup’s best interests at heart.

We’re well past the point of this series reminding me at all of the movies anymore, which is good, because it’s a lot easier to evaluate the stories on their own. The last couple have been much more enjoyable, breaking at least enough from the formula of Hiccup being ridiculed by the other Vikings and sort of stumbling into a situation where he gets to save the day. This one goes back to the formula a little, enough to where it doesn’t make any sense that people keep ignoring Hiccup’s wisdom and acting as if he’s completely inept, even though he’s saved the day multiple times by now. Despite all that, this is another fun story with another good temporary character and another visit from an archvillain. Toothless adds to the story in his own way, both for ill and for good. And as always, David Tennant’s narration bumps the enjoyment level up a notch or two. This is a solid addition to the series, though if you’re interested, I’d recommend starting at the beginning. Though it took me a bit to get into the series, it’s still worth reading all of it.

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Book Review: The King’s Scrolls

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The King’s Scrolls
The Ilyon Chronicles #2
by Jaye L. Knight

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Christian fantasy

Kyrin, her twin brother Kaden, and the half-ryrik Jace are now living with other resistance members in a camp in the woods of Arcacia and helping run missions to free other followers of Elôm, an outlawed religion. When the camp gets some unexpected visitors in the form of a group of dragon-riding cretes who ask for help in tracking down the last original copies of the King’s Scrolls, which contain the Word of Elôm to his followers.

With this book, I realized I was a little off in my comparison of this fantasy world to the time of Nero’s persecution of Christians. It seems much more like Old Testament times now, and I found it fascinating that the couple of times that words from the scrolls were shared, they were right out of the Bible. Knight clearly didn’t want to create her own religion and instead made the decision to mirror biblical history in her fantasy series. As an author who went through a process of trying to decide whether or not to create a new religion for a fantasy world I had dreamed up, this is really interesting to me. There are a lot of great moments in this book, both related to the religious aspects and otherwise. Dragons, family connections, allies and betrayals. And though I began to suspect that Knight was always going to write an out for anyone in peril, there is a devastating loss in this book as well. It’s sad, definitely, but makes the story more real. And it’s a beautiful example of John 12:24 (which may be a spoiler, so maybe don’t look it up if you don’t know it).

There were a couple of main downsides to me, the first being that I still just don’t care about Kyrin at all, which is a shame, since she seems to be the main-main character. She’s just so…blah. A little too shiny, if that makes sense to anyone else. The other issue I had was peril fatigue. It seemed like there wasn’t enough rest time, for me or the characters, between each different danger sequence. But try as I might, I couldn’t lower the rating more than half a star for these things, because there was just so much about the book that was amazing! I was right in thinking that I’d like this book more than the first one, because the first one picked up halfway through, and this book continued from there. It’s like Knight had to sort of clear her throat with the first half of the first book, but so far, what has come after that has been great. Older teens up through adults who enjoy Christian fiction about persecution and standing up for one’s faith should consider reading this book. The fantasy ramps up a little in this book, but I still don’t think you’d have to like fantasy to enjoy it.

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Book Review: The K Team

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The K Team
Book #1
by David Rosenfelt
read by Fred Berman

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Mystery

The newly formed K Team consists of two former cops—Corey Douglas & Laurie Collins, super-human investigator Marcus Clark, and Corey’s former K-9 partner Simon. When they’re hired by a judge to find out who’s attempting to blackmail him, things quickly turn sticky and then downright dangerous.

It’s no secret how much I love the Andy Carpenter series by David Rosenfelt, so I knew I had to check out this spin-off when I got to the point in the series when it came up. The story has its merits with a conspiracy similar to those that are the norm in the Carpenter series and an overall interesting case. But sadly, Corey Douglas (the main character) is no Andy Carpenter and Fred Berman (the narrator) is no Grover Gardner. I realize that’s a little unfair to say, at least regarding the narrator, but Grover Gardner has spoiled me, so it is what it is. Andy actually appears in this book several times, and Fred Berman’s voice for him made me cringe hard the first time or two I heard it. I got used to it by the end, but wow. And the MC is pretty bland compared to Andy’s wit and sarcasm. Every once in while, Corey will make a snarky or sarcastic remark in the narration, but I certainly don’t expect Corey to be Andy (because otherwise, what’s the point of the spin-off?). But that means Corey needs his own kind of personality, and so far, I’m not seeing much. Maybe this will develop in future books, though so far there are only a few, and I have no idea if Rosenfelt plans to keep going with this spin-off, or if it just didn’t quite reach its potential. If you’ve read and enjoyed some of the main series and wonder whether you should read this book, the answer is yes, because a major development related to the main series actually does happen in this book. Major. My jaw dropped, seriously. If you haven’t read any of the main series, don’t start here. But definitely do start on the Andy Carpenter series if you’re interested.

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Book Review: Dawn and the Impossible Three

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Dawn and the Impossible Three
The Baby-Sitters Club #5
by Ann M. Martin

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s classic

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen. And at the time, my name was the same as the founder of the BSC (with the first name spelled slightly different). Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

Dawn was always my least-favorite of the main five kids in the club, and that might just be because her health-food, California ways are pretty foreign to me. But I also feel that she isn’t quite as developed as the original four, at least in this first book from her perspective. Maybe that will come with future books. The title of this book is a little misleading, since, though the three main kids in this story did tend to be impossible for the other babysitters, Dawn didn’t really struggle with them that much and she did most of the sitting for them. Their mom was really the impossible one, but even there, once Dawn talked to her directly about the way she was making Dawn’s job more difficult, things smoothed out. Overall, the story was a good one for the series.

Whether or not this book will translate well to kids and pre-teens now, I couldn’t say. I wish I had thought to start reading this series to/with my daughter when she was around 8-10, because I think she would have enjoyed it, and we could have discussed the good and the bad of the books.

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Book Review: The Abduction

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The Abduction
Theodore Boone #2
by John Grisham
read by Richard Thomas


My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fiction

When thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone’s best friend April goes missing, he knows he can’t just sit idly by and leave it up to the cops to find her.

I enjoyed this second story in the series as much as the first. Compared to the previous, this one involves a lot less of the courtroom side and more of the investigative side of Theo’s interests. He does get to help out in pet court though, up against a real lawyer, which was fun. One of the things I appreciate the most about this series is that Theo doesn’t get up to things that kids could never really do or get away with in real life. Whether alone or with the help of his uncle that was so instrumental in the previous book as well, Theo has to weigh the consequences of every action and make his decisions based on that. When I compare this book and series to others for the same age group that I’ve read that are full of action and adventure, this one might seem a little slow, but it’s so much more real.

Richard Thomas does a great job with the narration, too. For some reason I can’t really explain, every time he says, “Hello, Theo,” I smile. Overall, I’d say whether or not a teenager or pre-teen will be interested in this book will depend on what kind of fiction they like—if fast-paced action is important, this probably won’t suit them. If they’re interested in realistic fiction about crime and law and trials, this could be fascinating for them. There is a brief mention of the story from the previous book, but overall, I don’t think it’s necessary to read them in order (so far).

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Book Review: A Scheming in Parliament

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A Scheming in Parliament
Of Cloaks & Daggers #2
by Erica Vetsch

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Christian historical mystery

After spending years cultivating his reputation as a drunkard amongst the peerage, Sir Bertrand Thorndike, agent for the crown, has been given a mission that requires him to go straight so he can be presentable as he takes his new seat in Parliament. Meanwhile, the Eleos school, run in part by Philippa Cashel, a former courtesan who now attempts to help other women in a similar position, seems to have become a destination for injured or sick women before they’ve barely gotten themselves set up. Philippa and Bertie have to work together when the dirt Bertie is trying to uncover in Parliament ends up colliding with Philippa’s work.

I just love the way Vetsch weaves her stories, and this one is no exception. Philippa has terrible history, but she allows it to inform her present and future and help others who are going through what she did or worse. And Bertie’s completely unassuming yet protective nature is exactly the right foil for Philippa. The slow development of their relationship is one of my favorite kinds, and while they learn to lean on each other, there’s the terrible secret in Parliament to ferret out. Bertie is capable yet just clumsy enough to be endearing, and Philippa adds her own skills to the team. I really enjoy this twosome.

My favorite Vetsch character may have had a smaller role in this book, but that just means that the others get to shine more. And there’s still plenty of Marcus Haverly, so it’s all good. I’m really looking forward to the culmination of this trilogy. I highly recommend this book for fans of this genre and time period, whether you like romance or not, because there is some, but it’s not the focus of the book. But keep in mind that this book is the second in a trilogy. They each have their own main plot, but there’s enough that carries over from the previous book that it’s better to start with A Thieving at Carlton House. Of course, I would really recommend starting at the beginning for the full, rich experience, but diving in here is fine, too.

Note: I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, but my opinions are my own.

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Book Review: Forever Odd

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Forever Odd
Odd Thomas #2
by Dean Koontz
Read by David Aaron Baker

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Paranormal thriller

When Odd’s best friend’s recently deceased (like, super recently) father visits him, Odd starts off on a mission to find his friend and save him from whoever seems to have abducted him and killed his father.

After finding the first book in the series interesting but a bit slow, this book is just as slow and less interesting. I still like Odd himself as a character. He’s very different from what you normally see in fiction in a lot of ways, a kind of throwback to a different time. Some reviewers seem to see this as a fault with the book, but I appreciate that his gifts have led him to live a simpler life—he has no real ambition, no need for vices, and in fact, what most people would see as a minor complication would throw his life out of whack completely. However, the first book really felt like a stand-alone. There’s usually a very different feel to a book that is the intentional first in a series compared to a book that was written to be a one-off, and though plenty of times a sequel or two may come after an original stand-alone, to me, this just didn’t work as a sequel. The main thing that I felt was seriously lacking in this book was the use of Odd’s gifts. His psychic magnetism gets plenty of play (and a new angle, unless I’m just forgetting something being mentioned in the first book), and he does see a few ghosts, but it seemed like a huge chunk of the book was just trying to escape from, hide from, and outwit the bad guys. It dragged down what was already a fairly slow read for me. Good thing I listened to the audiobook, or it might have taken me a really long time to get through this book. As for recommendations, if you haven’t read the first book, you probably shouldn’t start here, since it definitely references back and spoils some things. If you have and liked it, you may or may not like this one, depending a lot on which aspects of the first book you particularly liked or didn’t. That’s all I can really say.

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Book Review: Mandie and the Cherokee Legend

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Mandie and the Cherokee Legend
Mandie #2
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. I would expect nostalgia to affect my reviews for this series, but I sadly have to say that this book did not hold up nearly as well as the first one did for me. There are three main areas in this book that really bug me. Mandie’s too-perfect characterization stands out in this book. I think the author tried to combat that some by having Mandie struggle with her hatred toward her rude Cherokee cousin, but it was a small part of the book, and she didn’t struggle with it that much. Plus, he miraculously changes his tune by the end of the book for no reason, which is one of the other issues I had.

On top of all of that, this book introduces a trope in the series that I remember my sister complaining about when we were younger, though somehow it didn’t bother me. It does now. Every guy that meets Mandie is attracted to her, charmed by her, jealous of other guys’ attention of her…. She inspires a lot of attention for a 12-year-old (though the guys are all at least a year or two older). Of course, Mandie is completely oblivious and doesn’t understand why these guys are so competitive around her. It’s unnecessary at best and a little disturbing at worse. I do hope that some of the issues I had with this book smooth out as the series continues, because plan to keep going and don’t want to continue to be this annoyed.

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