Sunday, July 8, 2012

Book Reviews: GUARDIAN and STARCROSSED

I know I've been totally MIA lately, but there are reasons! And I promise to update you all soon :) In the meantime, I thought I'd share my thoughts on two books (well, one is technically a Novelette) I recently finished reading.

Guardian (Creepy Hollow, #1)Guardian by Rachel Morgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I downloaded this for free and read it without knowing exactly what to expect. I follow Rachel Morgan's blog so I knew she was a talented writer, but didn't know much about Creepy Hollow. And I have to say - I loved it!

The writing was clean, the plot was fun and engaging, the dialogue witty and real, and I completely connected to her characters. The world-building was seamlessly natural and a unique take on the land of fairies. The only negative thing that can be said about this was that it was too short and I was sorry I didn't already have the next installment downloaded when I came to the end of GUARDIAN - I'll definitely be continuing on with this series and can only recommend it.


Starcrossed (Starcrossed, #1)Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a tough review to write because there was a point in the book where I nearly stopped reading and had to push my way through. The entire middle really dragged for me and felt drawn out - it was obvious where things were going and it felt like the author was delaying to up the word count, imo. I also had a hard time connecting to the style of writing and was bothered by the narrative distance and telling going on. I think this is probably a direct result of not being drawn into the story because if I had been, I wouldn't have been noticing all the smaller, nit-picky things I did notice.

After I pulled through that rocky middle though, the story really took off! The plot had me completely engaged and I either stopped noticing the aspects of the writing style which had previously bothered me, or they disappeared as the author found her groove - I'd have to re-read to be sure. And now, I have a dilemma. You see, I read a version with extended material, and the excerpt from the second book really hooked me. BUT, if I had known about the huge middle portion of the first book, I wouldn't have chosen to read it. I actually wish I'd just read the end of the first book and started right into the second.

View all my reviews

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the heads up. I'll definitely be checking out Guardian by Rachel Morgan... and probably skipping the Angelini book if it comes my way (unless its book 2!)

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    1. yay :) I'm sure you'll like it - I just finished the second one in the series today and I wish I'd had them all on my Kindle so I wouldn't have to stop reading!!! Starting the next one tomorrow :D

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  2. Thank you, thank you for the 5 stars!

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    1. You're welcome :) Thanks for writing a great story! Just finished Labryinth and loved that one too - you've got me hooked :D

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