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Book Review: How to Speak Dragonese

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How to Speak Dragonese
How to Train Your Dragon #3
by Cressida Cowell
read by David Tennant

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When another Viking training exercise goes wrong, Hiccup and Fishlegs find themselves at the mercy of Romans and a nanodragon named Ziggerastica.

This was my favorite book in the series so far. The tiny-but-arrogant Ziggerastica is a lot of fun, Hiccup meets the heir to another Viking clan who also provides some enjoyable moments, and the return of a dastardly villain. Though I’m not a huge fan of the formula these books tend to have with Toothless and Fishlegs screwing up and happening upon something they otherwise wouldn’t, I enjoyed the overall journey more this time. I was considering stopping with the series with this book, but I enjoyed it too much to not keep going. Plus, I really do enjoy David Tennant’s narration, and even his interpretation of Toothless is growing on me more and more. For that matter, Toothless himself, though so different from the movie version I knew first, is growing on me with every book.

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Book Review: Sunrise on the Reaping

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Sunrise on the Reaping
The Hunger Games prequel #2
by Suzanne Collins
Read by Jefferson White

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for The Hunger Games trilogy and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

I’m just going to say up front that I did not expect to care about this book. Similar to the other prequel, I didn’t think it was necessary. Why do we need to see Haymitch’s games? We already know he wins and we even know how. Why do we need to be shown yet another reaping, another Hunger Games? And hearing my daughter call it “Sunrise on the Weeping” over and over didn’t endear it any more to me—she hadn’t read it yet but had seen that online. I’m not a particularly emotional person, and I dislike it when I feel an author is trying to manipulate my emotions, which is what I anticipated here. I am here to say that I was mostly wrong in all of my assumptions. I even teared up a few times while listening to the audiobook, though still not as much as my daughter did when she read it.

I expected a rehashing of the same basic elements from the first book in the trilogy, but the reaping was different; the training time was different; the Hunger Games were very different. It really is its own story overall, while being connected to the main series and the previous trilogy in ways that I absolutely loved. I’ve seen many TV shows where there’s an episode that shows some time in the past, and the connection between characters that know each other in the main timeline of the show is shown earlier than it should have been and feels awkward and forced. In this book, there are several characters from the main trilogy that show up, and none of it feels awkward and forced (except one, but I can live with that). I really liked seeing everyone that appeared, and their roles brought events from the main series to light more. After my daughter read it, we discussed so many nuances that we both had found in it, and I just really appreciate the continuity and detail that Collins included.

I have to admit that the last part of the book dragged a little for me, but I think that was one of those areas where there was emotion that didn’t affect me like it does others. The epilogue, though, was brilliant! Overall, any issues I had with the book were minor enough that I can’t even bring the rating down half a start. I really liked it and look forward to reading the series again some time to be reminded of some of the related details. I did listen to the audiobook, and Jefferson White was an overall good narrator (though maybe if I’d read it instead of listening to the audiobook, I could have glossed over some of what dragged so much at the end). If you’ve read the main series and aren’t sure about reading this prequel, I’d definitely recommend it, though I highly recommend reading The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes first if you haven’t yet.

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Book Review: Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics, the Graphic Novel

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Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics, the Graphic Novel
Mr. Lemoncello’s Library series
by Chris Grabenstein
illustrated by Douglas Holgate

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Children’s adventure, graphic novel

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library.

After their big win in Mr. Lemoncello’s escape game, Team Keeley is challenged by basically every kid in the country. They all want their chance at stardom (starring in commercials for Mr. Lemoncello games) and are unhappy that the contest was so localized. So Mr. Lemoncello grants them their wish, because hey, that means he gets to create more games! The top teams in each region of the country are chosen and invited to Ohio to compete for full college scholarships—against Kyle’s team. The only problem is that Kyle isn’t so sure he’s up to the challenge this time.

I read and reviewed the original book (see review here), so this review is less about the story and content than it is about the graphic novel format. That being said, I enjoyed the story a little more this time than the previous, and I think that might just be because the graphic novel format lends itself so well to this series! Mr. Lemoncello is such a character as it is, and he’s really brought to life in images. (Maybe they should have gone with animation when they made a movie out of the first book.) It’s fun to see the library itself, as well, and being shown the puzzles feels more natural this way (not that I’m complaining about Grabenstein including visual puzzles in the original books). As for this book, though, I think that fans of the series will enjoy this new format, but I’d imagine that the idea for it is more to encourage kids who don’t care to read regular books to pick up this illustrated version and enjoy the story. Since I had already read the original book, I can’t say for sure how the story will come across to a newcomer, but I think it would be a fun read for 8-12-year-olds!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Castle in the Air

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Castle in the Air
Howl’s Moving Castle #2
by Diana Wynne Jones
read by Jenny Sterlin

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

When Abdullah purchases a magical flying carpet, he quickly meets and falls in love with a sheltered princess who is then snatched away by a very powerful creature. In his attempt to rescue her, Abdullah ends up traveling with a band of magical and non-magical creatures alike.

I’m really sad about this follow-up to Howl’s Moving Castle, which overall was an enjoyable, whimsical book with characters that I fell in love with. Though Abdullah grew on me throughout this story, most of the rest of the characters were kind of flat or ended up being…something unexpected. The story is at least as meandering and difficult to follow as its predecessor, but without as much of the charm I enjoyed in the previous book. On top of all of that, I was really surprised by some of the choices Diana Wynne Jones made with this book. Two overweight women are used as compensation and grateful that at least they’re able to get married. In fact, there was so much degradation of women in this book that I kept forgetting that it was published in 1990 and not decades before AND written by a woman. I’m not normally one to point out this kind of thing, but it really threw me off. Plus, I’m not a fan of insta-love, which is a major point in this book.

Because of the connections to the previous book, there was a point nearish the end that I began to speculate about how Howl, Sophie, or even Calcifer might be included in this story, and that probably ended up being my favorite thing about the book. Of course, being near the end of the story, it just wasn’t enough to redeem the rest of the book. And to explain any further would involve spoilers, but I will at least say that I have read many reviews that lamented how little characters from the previous book were involved here, whereas I was pretty satisfied with it overall (after all, this isn’t a continuation of their story, but a separate story that they are involved in, and I think that’s pretty clear from the synopsis). If you read the previous and loved the characters enough to want to see anything else involving them, you might give this book a try. Otherwise, I don’t think there’s much to recommend about this book. There is one more book left in the series, and since it’s also narrated by Jenny Sterlin (who does a spectacular job), I’m looking forward to seeing if the last book brings back the charm of the first.

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Book Review: And to All a Good Bite

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And to All a Good Bite
Andy Carpenter #32
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When a man who once saved a puppy from a burning building is arrested for murder a year later, defense attorney Andy Carpenter is a little less reluctant than usual to take his case. A man who can save a dog’s life can’t possibly want to harm a human, right? This case takes Andy into another area that is foreign to him—high end art.

I may have sounded a little snarky in my synopsis, but really, sometimes Andy’s belief in a client’s virtue simply due to how they treat dogs makes me roll my eyes. Still, that doesn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book (maybe because I’ve gotten so used to the crazy amounts of dog love in this series). I always enjoy Andy’s team, and I liked seeing the inclusion of Corey, a former K-9 cop that is one of the major characters in the spin-off series, The K Team, which I haven’t read yet but plan to start soon. I really liked the angle of Nazi-stolen art in this story, which I felt was a fresh and interesting area to explore for this series. And the conspiracy, though twisty as always, comes together really well in the end.

Andy sarcasm in this book reminded me of why I love these books, and overall, this one ranks up there for me in this series. I don’t know how much longer the series will go on, but it’s good to know that Rosenfelt still brings an enjoyable story 32 books in. And Grover Gardner continues to portray Andy perfectly. If it’s not clear, I recommend this book (especially the audio) for fans of mystery, crime fiction, and courtroom dramas, as well as the books that precede it in the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

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Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Hercule Poirot #20
by Agatha Christie
read by Hugh Fraser

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic mystery

I think I’m starting to get burnt out on this series. I spend a lot of time while listening to these books guessing at reasons why each different character could be the murderer. But not using logic and reason within the story, rather I try to figure out which is the least likely or the one that will surprise the me the most, and then try to figure out how and why they might have done it. I’m usually wrong. I’m not sure if enough information is given to the reader to allow us to truly use logic and reason to pinpoint the killer, but even if it were, I’ve never been great at guessing mysteries correctly anyway. That said, I did have a correct guess about the killer in this book, but that’s partly because I’ve been waiting for this particular outcome for several books now.

I did like the overall mystery in the end, and Poirot is in fine form. I miss Hastings though. And I’m noticing more and more than he goes through several “possible” reveals before he gets to the final one, and by the time he gets to the final one, I’ve got mental whiplash. I think he’s telling us the truth, but that’s not it…then maybe it’s this, but no…it’s not. Because of the aforementioned waiting for this type of killer to come up, I know I’ll never forget the outcome of this book, but with others like that, I can’t really remember who ended up being the bad guy. In the end, I liked the book, but maybe I would’ve liked it more if I weren’t listening to them all so closely together. Still, I think this story is worth reading—or listening to the narration by Hugh Fraser, which is as great as ever.

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Book Review: Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest

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Ms. Pennypickle’s Puzzle Quest
by Chris Grabenstein

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: Middle grade adventure

Twelve-year-old Benjamin Broderick is into puzzles and random knowledge. Eighteen-year-old Ethan Broderick is into sports and girls. These brothers don’t have much in common and aren’t very close, and it won’t get any better once Ethan leaves for college in the fall. Though being coerced into taking a road trip together isn’t how Ethan wants to spend the beginning of his summer, he can’t deny that the perks might just be worth it. Especially when Benjamin wins them a chance at a million-dollar prize, and all they have to do is work together to solve a series of puzzles set up by the eccentric puzzle purveyor, Ms. Pennypickle—before their competition beats them to it.

This book was a lot of fun overall to read. I really felt for Benjamin, who keeps trying to connect with his brother without being pushy. And Ethan isn’t mean or bad, he’s just an 18-year-old about to go out into the world and not exactly thinking about how his little brother fits into his life anymore. There were parts to this book that felt a little too convenient or coincidental or just unrealistic, but it all made sense in the end, and in a way that I really enjoyed. There’s a twist to this book that I didn’t see coming, and then a second, smaller twist that I anticipated, based on the first twist, though that doesn’t mean I wasn’t happy to be right. It actually reminded me of one of my favorite movies, but to even say what that movie is would be a spoiler for this book, to those who know the movie.

The book has a lot of interesting trivia in it, especially about Route 66, introducing me to locations that I’ve never heard of and probably never would have, but I have to admit that it made me want to take a road trip to experience some of these places. There is also plenty of humor and a fun shout-out to Grabenstein’s much-loved Lemoncello series. And speaking of that, I appreciate Grabenstein wanting to go in a new direction from that popular series yet still wanting to include puzzles in this book. I felt there was more diversity in puzzle types in this book, and I really liked trying to solve some of them along with the characters. And while it’s difficult to avoid comparing Ms. Pennypickle with Mr. Lemoncello, due to them both being eccentric, rich, genius puzzle creators, I noted some personality differences in Ms. Pennypickle that made her her own person. And the story focuses more on family and relationships than the end goal. I don’t know that this book can become a series, but I do hope Grabenstein continues to write puzzle-filled, adventurous books like this. I really recommend this book for kids around 8-12, and for parents too—any age, really, especially those who like games.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: The Maze Cutter

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The Maze Cutter
Book #1
by James Dashner

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

Spoiler notice: The following review will contain spoilers for the series that precedes it: The Maze Runner series.

Seven decades after the events at the end of The Death Cure, the final book in the previous series, the lives of the descendants of those who were sent to an island to live in peace and safety are disrupted. A ship appears bearing a woman who insists that some of them need to come back to the mainland with her. Meanwhile, the 3 parts of a mysterious authority group called the Godhead are at odds with each other.

I don’t think I’ve ever finished a book and felt like I was given so little info as I did at the end of this book. Things happened, but ultimately, nothing happened. It was a 250-page set-up for whatever is going to come later, but all that happened here is that we’re given little tiny bits of info that don’t really amount to a whole picture of anything. People are taken by one faction, then another, then another, and in the end, I have no idea who is with who and who is good or bad.

I don’t actually remember a lot about the end of the main series, but I remember that I felt like James Dashner had gone off the rails. The first book was good, but things just went all sorts of weird directions after that. This is basically a continuation of that. I decided to give this continuation series a try because of how much I liked The Maze Runner (the first book, not the entire series) and hoped maybe we could get back to those somewhat simpler roots. That is definitely not what we have here. One good thing, though, is that this first book makes it pretty clear that Dashner has plotted the entire continuation trilogy from the get-go, which is not at all what I feel like happened with the first trilogy. It seemed like he wrote the first one, was pleased it went well, and then just pantsed the rest of the trilogy. This feels like the opposite so far, but the first book doesn’t seem to have its own story goal that gets resolved, at least nothing I can pick out, which explains why I felt like nothing really happened.

I’m going to continue this series, but only because I jumped the gun and requested an ARC of the 3rd book in the trilogy. Since it’s one long story, I can’t exactly just skip the middle book. I do hope it gets better, but at this point, I wouldn’t really recommend the book to anyone, whether you’ve read the original trilogy or not. (On the other hand, if you enjoyed the first trilogy, that probably means that what bothered me about it doesn’t bother you, so there’s a decent possibility that you’ll enjoy this book more than me.)

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Book Review: How to Be a Pirate

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How to Be a Pirate
How to Train Your Dragon #2
by Cressida Cowell
read by David Tennant

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy

Hiccup trains to swordfight and Toothless tries to care about more than fish.

It was easier to evaluate the book for itself this time, since we’re much more removed from the world of the movie (not that the first book was all that similar, but it was enough to make it difficult). The book is overall pretty fun, though I spent a lot of the book wondering why we want a hero who is so incredibly bad at everything he’s expected to be good at. I’m not saying he should be immediately good at everything, but I guess I would just like him to have a win now and then, at least more often than he does and earlier in the book than he does. So far, these books entail Hiccup being bad, defeated, mocked, etc. until the climax, when the situation requires something that he does better than anyone else in the tribe (usually related to brains over brawn). But I just wish there could be a little more to encourage him/us before the end. However, I have to admit that the win he does get made me happy.

David Tennant again does a brilliant job narrating, though his voice for one particular character (while great) may have given me reason to mistrust him more than we might have been meant to. I’ll say it again—if you love the movies and are looking for books like that, I don’t necessarily recommend you read these books. But it’s overall a fun, short read, though I’m hoping to see a change in the formula in future books.

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Book Review: Dachshund Through the Snow

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Dachshund Through the Snow
Andy Carpenter #20
by David Rosenfelt
read by Grover Gardner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Mystery

When reluctant defense attorney Andy Carpenter’s wife Laurie gets caught up in the lives of a family where the husband/dad has been arrested for a cold-case murder, it’s no surprise that Andy ends up with a new client.

Is it weird that I could probably put the same basic synopsis at the front of every one of these reviews and repeat the same opinions on many of them, and yet, I still absolutely love this series? Some are better than average and some are worse than average, but it’s a formulaic series, so it’s difficult to think of anything new to say with each review. For this book, though, I can say that it was nice to have a less complex and widespread mystery. Not that there weren’t still quite a few players behind the scenes that caused me to get lost a little bit, but overall, I’d say this book was on the high side of average for the series. A solid addition to the series. I especially recommend the audiobook, because Grover Gardner’s narration is a huge part of why I never want to stop listening to this series.

This book also births a spin-off series (though it looks like it was a short-lived one), which I’ve known existed but never really known much about. Now I’ll have to be sure to get that a try too!

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