Gregor and the Code of Claw

April 2020 Reading Wrap-Up

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Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  March 31 – April 1
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  I love that the ones people pay the least attention to when it comes to ideas and problem solving are the ones who solve the whole prophecy.
Least Favorite Thing:  I can’t think of anything…

I can’t believe how I sped through this book. I just couldn’t put it down even thought it’s my fourth time reading it.

My Posts About Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  April 1 – 2
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  The humans being so shook at the fact that they are referred to as “killers” throughout the Underland. Like what did you expect?
Least Favorite Thing:  Sweet little Boots had to learn what death is and I’m still crying about “where does [character] go when she doesn’t wake up?”…

God I’ve said this before, but these are not kids books. I know they are classified as middle grade, but just…if you’re not reading them because you think they are kids books, they aren’t.

My Posts About Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins
(The Underland Chronicles, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  April 2 – 3
Read Count:  4
Favorite Thing:  Nerd happy dance!
Least Favorite Thing:  So do we believe in the prophecies or not now?

I always forget that Sandwich was a piece of shit human and then I reread this book and I get mad about it all over again lol Whatever I’m just glad Lizzie got her moment in the sun (so to speak, because obviously…there isn’t any sun…underground…)

My Posts About Gregor and the Code of Claw

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  April 5 – 7
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Amy is so devious!
Least Favorite Thing:  At one point I was listening to this at work and of course it would have to go to a scene where they are talking in the shower lol

I already knew I loved the story of Gone Girl, but also the audiobook narrator was pretty good so I’m glad I decided to reread it this way.

My Posts About Gone Girl

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt
Rating:  ★★★★★ – it was amazing
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  April 6 – 14
Read Count:  6
Favorite Thing:  The oh-so-subtle background romance that you barely notice unless you pay attention and then when you do it’s just so presh…
Least Favorite Thing:  I mean…the only thing that could improve this series is more characters of color, so we will go with that as a least fave.

I was going to try to wait until later in the year to do my yearly reread of these books, but I was feeling so slumpy last month and bummed about it that I couldn’t resist picking up my favorite book series again.

My Posts About Jackaroo

To the Boys Who Wear Pink by Revan Badingham III
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review:  Yes
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  April 11 – 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Soooo much LGBTQ+ representation!
Least Favorite Thing:  Twincest…

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

I desperately wanted to love this book, but I just didn’t. I didn’t hate it by any means, but unfortunately I have to admit to some disappointment…

My Posts About To the Boys Who Wear Pink

The Anti-Virginity Pact by Katie Wismer
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  Yes Video / Written
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  April 18 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Really well written.
Least Favorite Thing:  I can’t even think of anything.

I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been a little while since I’ve really connected to a YA novel, but this one grabbed me right away. Totally recommend this book.

My Posts About The Anti-Virginity Pact

Whiskey in a Teacup by Reese Witherspoon
Rating:  ★★★☆☆ – liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Audiobook
Reading Dates:  April 28
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Probably the thing about how to catch frogs…
Least Favorite Thing:  Nothing.

This was a cute, quick read about…something? Reese talks about her experience of the South and gives some life advice from a Southern woman.

My Posts About Whiskey in a Teacup

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
(Rizzoli & Isles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review:  No
Format:  eBook
Reading Dates:  April 23 – May 1
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  There was a woman who started as a total victim, but as the story progressed she sort of got back to a stronger self.
Least Favorite Thing:  “He cuts out the one thing that makes them women.”

Man the tv show was way better than the books…

My Posts About The Surgeon

First Lines Fridays: October 4, 2019

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Gregor’s back pressed into the cold stone floor as he stared up at the words on the ceiling. His eyes and skin were still stinging from the volcanic ash that had engulfed him hours ago.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

November 2017 Reading Wrap-Up

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Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 3 – 4
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Ripred being a little shit.
Least Favorite Thing:  Henry. Blah. Dickhead.

I woke up in the middle of the night with an urge to reread this series, and seeing as I have poor impulse control, I immediately arranged for my husband to go get them all for me from the library.

I know these books are Middle Grade so a few things are a bit silly, like a guy called Sandwich, but the story itself is quality and I recommend it to anyone who likes a fun fantasy adventure.

My Posts About Gregor the Overlander

Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 5
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Twitchtip. I miss her already.
Least Favorite Thing:  Please read this in your most disgusted tone, while screwing up your face as if you smell something foul:  Shiners.

Gregor has a lot more self-restraint that I do when it comes to not yelling at people…

I have to admit though, reading this book is a bit more difficult once one knows what’s going to happen in the next books!

My Posts About Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Gregor grooming Lapblood.
Least Favorite Thing:  The descriptions of some of the grosser things like plague victims and Gregor’s acid toes…

I read this whole book in like 2 hours! I surprised myself lol I didn’t intend to read it that quickly, but since it’s middle grade and the story is pretty engaging, I zipped right through it.

My Posts About Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Gregor and the Marks of Secret by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Boots’ fucking princess scepter lol
Least Favorite Thing:  The Bane. He skeeves me out.

Oh man I had forgotten that this book is way sadder than the others! 😦

My Posts About Gregor and the Marks of Secret

Gregor and the Code of Claw by Suzanne Collins
(Underland Chronicles, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 6 – 7
Read Count:  3
Favorite Thing:  Ripred and Lizzie. It’s too sweet!
Least Favorite Thing:  I hate one very specific thing about the ending, but only read about it if you don’t care about spoilers.
[start] I just hate that they go back to the Overland permanently as if they don’t obviously and completely belong in the Underland! That has literally always bugged me.  Sometimes I just pretend that and the thing with Ares never happened. [end]

I really love this series, I’m so glad it was recommended to me back in high school.

My Posts About Gregor and the Code of Claw

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 8 – 14
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The end when Jane wraps everything up. I like the way she does it.
Least Favorite Thing:  The way literally no one ever listened to Fanny about her own feelings?????

I’m glad I reread it, I think I even liked it more than Sense & Sensibility now.

My Posts About Mansfield Park

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 13 – 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Puppyyyyy!
Least Favorite Thing:  Come on, as if I was going to say anything other than Gabe? Please.

It’s been a long time since I first read this book and I admit to not enjoying it as much this time around, but I think that’s only because it’s geared more for younger readers and sometimes I have trouble with the rhythm of Middle Grade books. I’m glad I’m going to finally get down to going through all of Rick’s books though.

My Posts About The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  lol Tyson
Least Favorite Thing:  Clarisse not knowing when to shut her damn mouth…

Oddly enough I remembered almost nothing from this one except for Tyson… So rereading it felt more like reading it for the first time. I have a feeling the rest of them will be like this too.

My Posts About The Sea of Monsters

The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Bessiiiiiiie!
Least Favorite Thing:  I actually find Nico incredibly annoying…

Would it kill anyone to stop being cryptic? Like wow. Just answer a question somebody!

My Posts About The Titan’s Curse

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 15 – 16
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Poseidon showing up for Percy’s birthday just to be a drama queen. “Blowfish?” lol
Least Favorite Thing:  STILL NOBODY CAN JUST ANSWER A FUCKING QUESTION OR SHARE INFORMATION!

So far this is my favorite of the series. I’m wondering if they will just keep getting better or what.

My Posts About The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
(Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 16 – 17
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  Percy being like “acknowledge your fucking children assholes” at all the gods.
Least Favorite Thing:  Guess what. It’s still the fact that no one will answer a damn question. I’m so annoyed.

Honestly, if someone doesn’t directly answer a question I’m going to scream.

My Posts About The Last Olympian

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 17 – 18
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Leooo! Precious little fireball.
Least Favorite Thing:  It took them way too long to figure certain things out… Like everyone who spoke to them alluded to 2 or 3 specific things and they didn’t get it until the very end? Oookay.

My Posts About The Lost Hero

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 18 – 19
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Ella/Tyson lololololol
Least Favorite Thing:  When Octavian talks I roll my eyes so hard I get a headache…

I’m not sure if this one was better than the first one (Lost Hero), but I was really glad to be back to Percy so I enjoyed it more.

My Posts About The Son of Neptune

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 19 – 20
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  “If they’d let women warriors into their cult, the might have learned some common sense.”
Least Favorite Thing:  Literally only Leo talks about things, everyone else is like “I’ll explain later” and “we can talk about it later” and “I hope it’s not what I think it is” but they never talk about it!!

My Posts About The Mark of Athena

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 4)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 20 – 21
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Bob + Small Bob (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)
Least Favorite Thing:  Gaea is so fucking annoying…

IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR LITTLE NICO TO GET A DAMN HUG????? My poor little spooky baby…

My Posts About The House of Hades

The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan
(Heroes of Olympus, book 5)
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  November 21 – 23
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Nico gets to be happy!!!!!
Least Favorite Thing:  Zeus the douche…

I’ve got all the warm fuzzies from the ending of this book. Thanks, Rick.

My Posts About The Blood of Olympus

In Progress

WWW Wednesday: November 8, 2017

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  Mind Games (Mind Games, book 1) by Kiersten White

I meant to finish this last week, but to be honest I only read about a chapter before I got distracted by other things! Oops!

So this week I’m determined that I’ll finish it I just hope it gets less depressing than it was last time. But I’m hopeful because it seemed like some real action was about to start up.

I still haven’t quite figured out the whole powers thing. I think only women have powers? But it’s never actually explained outright how any of this came to be or how it works, I’m just putting it together as I go along. Or maybe it was explained and I just missed it somehow, who knows.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

I decided earlier this year after rereading Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility that I might as well go through and reread some more of Austen’s novels. So now I’m starting on Mansfield Park.

I didn’t realize this until just now, but I’m actually rereading them in the order I like them. (With the exception of Persuasion which I actually read for the first time ever, so I’m not counting it here.)

Despite all the annoying Bertrams and Crawfords, I really enjoy this one a lot. I think it’s because Jane is so subtly snarky about everything.

Recently Finished:  The Underland Chronicles // Suzanne Collins

I literally just woke up with the urge to read these and couldn’t stop myself from getting them all from the library. I also meant to space out the reading a bit, but if considering I read the last three in one day I can’t really say I managed that either…

Reading Next:  The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book 1) by Rick Riordan

For a while now I’ve been wanting to get back to Rick’s books, but it’s been so long since I read the Percy Jackson ones that I only remember parts of them. I feel like it would be best to just start all the way over.

I’ve got the ebook version of The Lightning Thief from the library so I can start it as soon as I finish Mind Games.

Teaser Tuesday: November 7, 2017

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“Its ideal really. They will come up with a plan. No one will like it. Everyone will feel they have been treated unfairly, but will be happy that their neighbors feel the same. And that is the nature of compromise. Now let’s go eat an awful lot.”
– Ripred

– Suzanne Collins, Gregor and the Code of Claw (Underland Chronicles, book 5), page 395

Version:
Hardcover, 412 pages
Published April 3rd 2007 by Scholastic Press

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.