Today's post is a compilation of reviews of all the books I read in the month of March. I feel like I had a good reading month as I was able to read more books in March than I normally have in the past. I managed to finish 8 books with only 3 of them being ebooks although I didn't get a chance to read any graphic novels this month as a couple of the books I read were pretty long. So without further ado lets get into the books I completed this month.
Title: Chat (Cyber Series: Book One)Author: Nan McCarthy
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 1996)
Publisher: Rainwater Press
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22006627-chat
Sentence Summary: The year is 1995, Bev (a hard working editor) meets Max (an advertising copywriter) in an online chat/forum after Max asks her for advice on being an editor but despite Bev's persistence to keep things professional, Why is it that Max seems to be forming feelings for her?
Mini Review: This was the first book I read in the month of March and it was one that I discovered on Playster that I thought sounded interesting. The book recalls the tale of two people who meet online back in the time when the internet was still a fresh thing in the world. The story is completely told through the emails and chat messages that these two characters exchange between in each other. I love reading books in this style but didn't entirely have high hopes for this book as I was simply just looking for something to start the month with and I really wanted to read something that was told in this format. I must say I am glad I didn't have high expectations for it as it wasn't really a special story. In general it was a pretty basic story of an unlikely friendship with the one of them wanting more than that. It was a very quick read as it was only a short ebook and so there wasn't a lot going on within the plot. Also I didn't find the characters to be very interesting either. I couldn't connect with them on any level and thus I didn't really feel for them as they expressed their own personal stories. Overall it was simply an okay read but is not something that I would necessarily recommend to people.
Star Rating: 2.5/5 Stars!
Author: Nan McCarthy
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 1996)
Publisher: Rainwater Press
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22008905-connect
Sentence Summary: The year is now 1996, Bev and Max's story continues as they find that there might be more than just the internet connecting them to each other.
Mini Review: As soon as I finished Chat, Playster notified me that this book was actually part of a series of 3 books and with the first book ending with what was I assume was meant to be big a cliff hanger, I was interested to see where the story was headed. I must say that this book was definitely an improvement from the first book as I did begin to get into the story a bit more. Again the story told completely through emails and chats that happened between Max and Bev which I enjoyed but like the last book the plot wasn't entirely special. It was more entertaining than the first book but was still lacking in character development as well as detail in the plot. I will say though, that this book did make me question the characters as I tried to figure out whether or not they belonged with each other but besides that I still didn't connect with the characters or the story. Overall this was a better instalment to the series than Chat was but I probably still wouldn't recommend it to people as it was just a bit of fun to read.
Star Rating: 3/5 Stars!
Title: Crash (Cyber Series: Book Three)Author: Nan McCarthy
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 1998)
Publisher: Rainwater Press
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22008921-crash
Sentence Summary: It is now the year 1997 and with over 2 years of online correspondence between them, Bev and Max's story moves into more risky territory as they decide to do something that may just change their lives.
Mini Review: I read this straight after I finished the second book, Connect as I knew this was the last book and figured why not finish off the series. This was definitely the worst book in the series as some things seemed quite rushed and therefore the story kind of just ended abruptly. Again the book was written completely through emails and chats which was still enjoyable to read but you can definitely see a change in the way the characters talked from the first two books which I'm not too sure I liked. The book seemed to start really strong as it picked up right from where book two ended. I did enjoy reading it despite the story being quite cliche and basic. It was actually quite fun to read up until you reached the very end. The ending to this book or rather the series was really pathetic. I kind of think it was a rushed conclusion as it was definitely not satisfying at all. Overall, This was an interesting series that I will remember but would not highly recommend reading as it was pretty average. Considering this series was written in a time when the internet was not the huge thing it is today, I give credit to the author for their attempt at the inclusion of it as it was really interesting. I only wish that ending was much more different than it ended up being, for I probably would of given it a higher rating.
Star Rating: 1.5/5 Stars!
Author: Amy Zhang
Publication Year: 2014
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22103884-falling-into-place
Sentence Summary: It late one afternoon after school when Liz Emerson drives her car off the road but instead of dying on impact, she lies in hospital in a deep coma with a voice telling her to "Stay Alive"
Mini Review: This was a book that I found in a department store a couple of years ago but had no idea what it was about. When I found out it was recommended for fans of Jay Asher, I straight away knew that I needed to get it and read it. I finally decided to read it in March and frankly I was very disappointed with it. There were things about it that I did enjoy such as the writing and the style it presented and narrated but the characters and overall story was not what I was expecting. There was a lot of hype for this book and so I did expect more from it but unfortunately it did not meet my expectations. I don't want to go in full detail in this wrap up as I plan to write a full review this coming Tuesday to express all my feelings about this book as there is a lot of them. Overall I was really unhappy with this book and wish it was done differently. I will explain it all in my review, so be sure to keep an eye out for that when it goes live next Tuesday.
Star Rating: 2/5 Stars!
Title: Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (Harry Potter: Book 3)Author: J.K. Rowling
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 1999)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22037424-harry-potter-and-the-prisoner-of-azkaban
Sentence Summary: The wizarding world is shaken after the mass murderer, Sirius Black escapes from Azkaban and as Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts, he may just discover that there is more to Black than people are telling him.
Mini Review: As many people know, I never finished the Harry Potter books or movies up until now and so this was my first time reading this book. I will admit that I did enjoy this book, way more than I thought I would. I do remember trying to read this book back when I was in school but was unable to finish it. This time round however, I just couldn't put it down. The story is extremely well written and was really detailed. There was definitely a darker tone in this book than there were in the previous two books which I loved. I will say though, that year ago I was spoiled on a lot of things to do with the entire series and so some of the twists in this book did not have a great shocking effect on me as I was already expecting it but I can see how it would be surprising for a first time reader. In saying that though, there were some things that I was not aware of which was a pleasant surprise for me. I loved learning more about Harry's parents as well as the darker side of the wizarding world. I also really loved the introduction of new characters especially Professor Lupin who became a favourite of me. I must confess that I did find the beginning to be really slow but the ending made up for that completely. As soon as I finished this book, I sat with a new respect for this series and wasted no time in picking up and starting the next book.
Star Rating: 5/5 Stars!
Title: Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Harry Potter: Book 4)Author: J.K. Rowling
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 2000)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22037439-harry-potter-and-the-goblet-of-fire
Sentence Summary: After the disruption at the Quidditch World Cup by the Death Eaters, Harry returns to Hogwarts to find out that the dangerous (and possible deadly) event call The Triwizard Tournament will be taking place and that he is mysteriously picked to participate.
Mini Review: This book was AMAZING!!!! The story takes an even darker turn after the conclusion of the previous book with the scary events of the tournament taking place. Again this book was beautifully written and was extremely detailed which helped to keep things interesting throughout the story. I never found myself getting bored as there were so many twists and turns. Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing about this instalment in the series and therefore everything was new to me which allowed me to enjoy all the plot twist and surprises. I loved the return of some of my favourite characters as well as the introduction of new ones. I also loved the whole tournament as reading about each of the tasks that the competitors had to go through were both frightening and exciting. It was also really interesting to learn more about the Death Eaters and the ministry of magic as up until this point, I knew very little about them. It did get annoying at times when it came to some of the things that were going on such as Draco still bullying Harry and even Ron not being a good friend but that all didn't effect how much I enjoyed this book as a whole. This is definitely my favourite of the book so far, although, I am currently reading the final book and it is amazing so far so that might change.
Star Rating: 5/5 Stars!
Title: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix (Harry Potter: Book 5)Author: J.K. Rowling
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 2003)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22037456-harry-potter-and-the-order-of-the-phoenix
Sentence Summary: With the recent return of the Dark Lord, Harry discovers that a secret order created by Dumbledore that consists of many skilled wizards he knows has been revived to take down Voldemort once and for all.
Mini Review: This book honestly took me three days to finally start after completely Goblet of Fire as the pure size of the book intimidated me. This book is exactly 800 pages and would definitely be the biggest book I've read and so I was really scared to get into it. I found this book to be really boring at times but it did have some good moments. Harry was very annoying throughout this book as he was very aggressive and emotional throughout the book. Harry being 15 in this book became really clear to me as I read how he reacted to certain things such as not being involved in tasks or his affection to Cho Chang. There were also a lot of characters that I hated in this book such as Cho Chang and Professor Umbridge (man was she a piece of work...). There were also a lot of things I enjoyed about the book which outweighed the bad. One thing that I really liked about the book was learning more about Snape. There is a lot a things about Professor Snape that get revealed in this book that I really enjoyed. It helped a bit to understand why he hated Harry so much. I also liked reading and learning more about Harry's psychological connection to Voldemort. It was really interesting to read about how they can feel each other and how they connected to each other in so many ways. I will say I was so glad when I finally finished reading this book as it took a while for me to finally make my way through it. The ending was quite good as it was both thrilling and heartbreaking. I kind of feel like this book could of been shorter as a lot of it didn't feel entirely important. None the less, It was an enjoyable read and made me really excited to read the next book.
Star Rating: 4/5 Stars!
Author: J.K. Rowling
Publication Year: 2014 (Originally 2005)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Goodreads Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22037471-harry-potter-and-the-half-blood-prince
Sentence Summary: With Voldemort coming closer to taking over the wizarding world, Harry once again returns to Hogwarts to discover that Draco Malfoy maybe up to something dangerous, but between secret lessons with Dumbledore and important exams approaching, where will he find the time to figure out what it is?
Mini Review: This was a FANTASTIC read! So much went on in this book that I can't even believe J.K Rowling was able to fit it all in a book that ended up being way shorter than Order of the Phoenix. There were so many questions I had throughout the whole book which slowly got answered. I loved all the intrigue in this book as a lot of things get revealed through out it with most of it revolving around Voldemort's past. I really loved reading those parts of the book as well as learning more about the dark side of magic. Again Harry was a bit annoying in this book as he was still very angry and careless about certain things but this time round it didn't take as much away from the overall plot. Another thing I really enjoyed was the mystery surrounding the textbook that Harry obtains as I can honestly say that I did not see the conclusion to bit coming at all. There were a lot of twists in this book and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It was also really amazing to see the return of some of my favourite characters again as they definitely keep things interesting. I held back from giving this book a full 5 stars as it did drag a bit when they weren't talking about Voldemort but other than those times I really enjoyed it and I will mention that the ending did leave me in tears. I am very excited to complete the final book and marathon all the movies.
Star Rating: 4.5/5 Stars!
So those are all the books I read in the month of March. As you can tell, I was in a Harry Potter mood in March and am currently reading the last book as we speak and should have a review up for that in my April wrap up. Let me know if there is a book you would like me to read and I might just choose it for April.
I hope you are all having a wonderful day!
~Louise
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