Quarterly Reading Wrap Up

Dear Readers,
It has been several months since my last wrap up and since I have only been averaging two to three books per month, I have decided to go to a quarterly wrap up.  This post will cover the books I have read June through September.

Two graphic novels which were reviewed on the prior post so I won't rehash them here except to say I  did rate them 4 and 5 on GoodReads.

One contemporary Romance and one Historical Fiction/Fantasy Mash-up

I would have dnf'd Natural History of Dragons if I hadn't been listening on audio book and it was marginally better than sitting in traffic listening to commercials on the radio.  For me, the title should have been "How to make dragons the most boring subject ever studied".  The positives were the chapter titles; they were the most entertaining part of the story.  The negatives - there was a plot, even a mystery but a complete lack of action to reach the conclusion.  This book is the start of a series I will not be continuing with.
The Edge of Winter by Luanne Rice was ok.  I was reading it for over a year because it was just a book I picked up during lunch on my work from home days and it never got compelling enough to make me pick it up any other time.  The positives were the setting (Rhode Island) , a WWII subplot (German U-boat that sank off the coast), and interesting facts about the regional coastal birds.  The negatives were the completely predictable romantic story arc and the lack of depth to the characters.  I didn't care about the outcome because I never really got invested in the characters.  It improved toward the end but Luanne Rice has definitely written better books.
I rated both of these a 2 but that seems unfair comparing them side by side; the first should be a 1.

7 YA Fantasy

Buddy reading through The Inheritance Cycle series and I have rated the first two books 3 but really it should be closer to 2.  It is about a boy who discovers a dragon egg that hatches for him and he becomes a Dragon Rider whose destiny is to fight the evil king with the help of humans, dwarves and elves. The first book was written when the author was 16 and borrows heavily from existing genre classics but it does a fairly good job of world building and setting up the larger story arc.  The second book develops the world further and creates story arcs for different characters.  My impressions of the first two books are that the world is interesting but not entirely original and the plot is fairly well thought out but there isn't a whole lot of action from chapter to chapter.  Eragon is quite possibly the stupidest main character and hero that I have ever read.  I don't dislike him but  all of the other characters are smarter than him.  However, we just started the 3rd book Brisingr and the first ten chapters are fantastic.  The author has definitely matured as a writer.

I have never read the complete Chronicles of Narnia, only The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  I enjoyed The Magicians Nephew but it is not a very sophisticated story and I would recommend it for younger children.  The 'Genisis' re-imagining is lovely.
Caraval is a game and the winner gets one wish.  I love the magic of Caraval but the plot a very simplistic, predictable, and the conclusion is over explained.  I would recommend for the tween side of YA.
The Raven King is the 4th and final book in The Raven Cycle series.  I love the characters, the magical realism,  and the writing style in the series and I love the back stories that are filled in the final book.  However, the conclusion was kind of disappointing in multiple ways; one huge let down, one very predictable element, and the events at the conclusion were too rushed.  This is the weakest book in the series and it should have been the strongest.
Crooked Kingdom was a worthy follow up to Six of Crows.  More back story of the characters and the extreme twists and turns of the plot.  My only complaint is the last couple of chapters shouldn't exist. I would rather imagine what happens to everyone after the grand finale over being told in minute detail.
Finally I read 3 thrillers this quarter.

All three are worth a read.  Before the Fall is about plane crash with only 2 survivors and man who shouldn't have been on the flight and a little boy.  The plot is the investigation of why the plane crashed   This is very character driven and the ending was a little disappointing but overall I enjoyed it.
Station Eleven is science fiction / dystopian fiction (imagine everyone gets the flu and all the smart humans die) but there is definitely some thriller element to the plot and that was actually my favorite part of the story.
The Girl Who Played with Fire is hands down best book I have read all year.  I think it is even better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I was on the edge of my seat almost the entire time.