Library books I've read since my last post
Because it has been a long time since I read some of these, and because I really only snapped photos of the spines before taking them back to the library (because I was too lazy to write blog posts? I dunno), I'm mostly just going to list titles and maybe provide brief summaries. Though I may go back and add more about some of these. Maybe. Grouped by series.
1-3. Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
I really, really enjoyed this series. It was a great take on steampunk and an alternate history of WWI, and I really want a perspicacious loris. Though part of me wishes that either the second or third book actually ended with Deryn and Lilit running off to have awesome lesbian spy adventures together. Alas, it was not so. (Also, Dr. Barlow and Wildcount Volger working together is a thing that fills me with glee, and I wish we'd seen more of that.)
4-6. A Brief History of Montmaray, The Fitzosbornes in Exile, and The Fitzosbornes at War by Michelle Cooper
This series follows the royal family of an utterly tiny island nation through the journals of Sophie, niece to the king and sister to the heir, during the lead up to and through WWII. These books were delightful. Also, there was a bit in the third book where the main character is getting hot and heavy with her future husband, and she's had some experience and he hasn't had any, and his reaction is "oh thank god one of us knows what they're doing", and it is wonderful, I wish more books dealt with it that way.
7-8. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and The Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
I don't know how I feel about these books. I mean, I enjoyed the first enough to read the second, but there's something slightly off about them that keeps me from going "yes these are excellent read them". It's a cool idea! It's just lacking in execution somehow? Maybe?
9-11. Of Poseidon, Of Triton, and Of Neptune by Anna Banks
This is a supernatural romance series where the dude is a overbearing jerk (and also a mermaid), and I have no idea why I read all three because the female lead was kind of annoying and the male lead was infuriating and I hated how it switched between first and second person for their respective viewpoints. So, let me say this about this series: remarkably readable despite annoying bits, mainly because it kept the plot coming at a steady pace. Male lead still annoys the fuck out of me. (His sister is badass, but got maneuvered into a marriage she wasn't quite ready for by jealousy, and that was stupid.)
12-14. Across the Universe, A Million Suns, and Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
Don't remember much about this series. Space travel to a far-away planet, frozen humans, weird things happen to the remaining crew on the spaceship during the trip, general trouble with what happens when space travel gets faster and the old ships you sent out are overtaken by new ones, gene modification. So on, so forth. Decent, from what I recall.
15-16. For the Darkness Shows the Stars and Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund
Sci-fi reworkings of Persuasion by Jane Austen and The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy. I enjoyed them. They were fun. (Dire, because they're somewhat post-apocalyptic, but fun.)
17. Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
I have never felt sorrier for a teenaged boy in my life. I mean, yeah, at the end of it there are dragons, but dear god raising a baby dragon is hard.
18. The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Main character is a teenaged girl whose hunts down dead people who have escaped the Archive, which is basically a repository of dead people and their memories. Mostly my impression of this book is weird because names, since the main character is a girl named Mackenzie who is mourning the death of her brother Ben, while I'm married to a Ben and my dead sister is named Mackenzie.
19. The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Seriously, kids, if someone is named Mr. Teufel, it's not that hard to figure out that he's actually a devil in disguise. LEARN GERMAN. (Okay book, but I think this is something that would work better as a graphic novel or a movie.)
20. Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley
Sort-of-Cinderella. Nothing too exciting here.
21. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Girl is born with bird wings. Near to end of book, girl gets raped brutally by a crazy man who thinks she's an angel, and he cuts her wings off when he realizes she's just a girl. Book is okay in between, but nope. Just nope.
22. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
This book was ridiculous. I loved it.
Good god, I'm not even halfway through. I'll come back to this later.
1-3. Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath by Scott Westerfeld
I really, really enjoyed this series. It was a great take on steampunk and an alternate history of WWI, and I really want a perspicacious loris. Though part of me wishes that either the second or third book actually ended with Deryn and Lilit running off to have awesome lesbian spy adventures together. Alas, it was not so. (Also, Dr. Barlow and Wildcount Volger working together is a thing that fills me with glee, and I wish we'd seen more of that.)
4-6. A Brief History of Montmaray, The Fitzosbornes in Exile, and The Fitzosbornes at War by Michelle Cooper
This series follows the royal family of an utterly tiny island nation through the journals of Sophie, niece to the king and sister to the heir, during the lead up to and through WWII. These books were delightful. Also, there was a bit in the third book where the main character is getting hot and heavy with her future husband, and she's had some experience and he hasn't had any, and his reaction is "oh thank god one of us knows what they're doing", and it is wonderful, I wish more books dealt with it that way.
7-8. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and The Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
I don't know how I feel about these books. I mean, I enjoyed the first enough to read the second, but there's something slightly off about them that keeps me from going "yes these are excellent read them". It's a cool idea! It's just lacking in execution somehow? Maybe?
9-11. Of Poseidon, Of Triton, and Of Neptune by Anna Banks
This is a supernatural romance series where the dude is a overbearing jerk (and also a mermaid), and I have no idea why I read all three because the female lead was kind of annoying and the male lead was infuriating and I hated how it switched between first and second person for their respective viewpoints. So, let me say this about this series: remarkably readable despite annoying bits, mainly because it kept the plot coming at a steady pace. Male lead still annoys the fuck out of me. (His sister is badass, but got maneuvered into a marriage she wasn't quite ready for by jealousy, and that was stupid.)
12-14. Across the Universe, A Million Suns, and Shades of Earth by Beth Revis
Don't remember much about this series. Space travel to a far-away planet, frozen humans, weird things happen to the remaining crew on the spaceship during the trip, general trouble with what happens when space travel gets faster and the old ships you sent out are overtaken by new ones, gene modification. So on, so forth. Decent, from what I recall.
15-16. For the Darkness Shows the Stars and Across a Star-Swept Sea by Diana Peterfreund
Sci-fi reworkings of Persuasion by Jane Austen and The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emma Orczy. I enjoyed them. They were fun. (Dire, because they're somewhat post-apocalyptic, but fun.)
17. Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
I have never felt sorrier for a teenaged boy in my life. I mean, yeah, at the end of it there are dragons, but dear god raising a baby dragon is hard.
18. The Archived by Victoria Schwab
Main character is a teenaged girl whose hunts down dead people who have escaped the Archive, which is basically a repository of dead people and their memories. Mostly my impression of this book is weird because names, since the main character is a girl named Mackenzie who is mourning the death of her brother Ben, while I'm married to a Ben and my dead sister is named Mackenzie.
19. The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
Seriously, kids, if someone is named Mr. Teufel, it's not that hard to figure out that he's actually a devil in disguise. LEARN GERMAN. (Okay book, but I think this is something that would work better as a graphic novel or a movie.)
20. Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley
Sort-of-Cinderella. Nothing too exciting here.
21. The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Girl is born with bird wings. Near to end of book, girl gets raped brutally by a crazy man who thinks she's an angel, and he cuts her wings off when he realizes she's just a girl. Book is okay in between, but nope. Just nope.
22. How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
This book was ridiculous. I loved it.
Good god, I'm not even halfway through. I'll come back to this later.