The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Title: The Assassin's Blade
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Rating: 📖📖📖/ 5

I'm going to keep this review short because I don't think I was really a fan of this book. Not because it is a book of novellas, but because really nothing happens in any but the last novella. I understand that these stories build the history of Celaena Sardothien and what led her to the events of Throne of Glass, but I just couldn't get into the stories. I don't want to give anything away, so this review will like I said be short.

The book is made up of five novellas, each in a different area at a different time. We see how Celaena reacts to situations such as helping a lowly healer to making a new friend in the desert. Through all five stories we see how Celaena is ultimately caught up in a maze of lies, deceit and ultimately loss on many levels. If you've read Throne of Glass we know something happened to Celaena's first love, Sam. In the last stories of this compilation, we finally find out how it all went down. And it is sad and actually makes me feel bad for her. And trust me, I'm not sold on Celaena yet so making me feel bad for her is quite a feat.

Overall, The Assassin's Blade is a good introduction into backstory of Celaena and helps to understand what led to the events of Throne of Glass. I do recommend you read these BEFORE you read Throne of Glass though I was told to read ToG first. Happy reading!

#books #reading #theassassinsblade #celaenasardothien #novellas #sarahjmaas #mrsmadonnareads #currentlyreading #library #bloomsbury #bloomsburypublishing

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Title: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
Author: Hank Green
Publisher: Dutton
Publish Date: September 25, 2018
Rating: 📖📖📖.5 / 5

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a sci-fi/realistic story of instant fame and how it can affect someone. Even by looking at the cover, you can tell a robot will play a big role. April May discovers a giant robot in New York City and makes a video about her discovery with her best friend which instantly goes viral. But April discovers she is not alone in her find as there are many other robots, which she names Carl, all around the world. The discovery will bring out the best and worst of humanity while the world figures out why the Carls have arrived.

Hank Green, brother of John Green of The Fault in Our Stars fame, has given us a look into the world of a social media star. Through April we discover the positives and consequences of living a life online. Written in the first person, we find that April has always wanted to be more than a struggling art student and when she finds Carl she finally gets a chance to be something more. We find that fame is not only fun and games, but can be a beast that we aren't prepared for and don't always respond well to. In that way, Green does a good job of critiquing the direction our society is headed.

There are major flaws though in the story. One of those is the writing style. As much as I wanted to like the first person, social media style of the book. it ultimately took away from the story. I found that April's interjections through off the flow of the story. I often found myself cringing when I ran up against moments where April acts like a child. I know she isn't supposed to be more than in her early twenties, but there are moments when she just acts like a total child and these are points where the story seems to drop off. I would normally roll my eyes at these moments and wish for the story to move forward.

Overall, Green does do a decent job of touching on the negatives of the internet world as well as describing moments that leave you with hope for humanity. I would recommend this book for any reader, especially those who can suspend reality enough to believe that one day giant robots could be watching our every move.

#books #reading #mrsmadonnareads #currentlyreading #hankgreen #dutton #robots #carl #outterspace #socialmedia

Sandstorm by James Rollins

Title: Sandstorm
Author: James Rollins
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publish Date: June 29th, 2004
Rating: 📖📖📖.5/5

Sandstorm starts with a bang! Literally. An explosion rocks the London Museum and leaves confusion in its wake. Teams from around the world, both for good and bad, race to find the cause of the explosion. At the heart is a source of enormous power just waiting to be harnessed deep within the Arabian Peninsula.  Painter Crowe, leader of Sigma Force, is on the case with help from the the museum staff and friends to find answers to the explosion before a rival group, The Guild, can get their hands on it.

Sandstorm is book one of the Sigma Force series by Rollins and, in my opinion, starts the series off well. I had accidentally read a couple later books in the series and had to start from the beginning. Sandstorm sets up the idea of Sigma Force well and is a good introduction into what will happen later through the series. As I've said before in other reviews, books that take place in museums are usually an instant hook for me. From the beginning pages, the book kept me hooked. There were times when the story was slow and seemed to drag, but there was enough action pieced in to keep the reader interested.

This book has a good balance between science, action, and character building. James Rollins makes his characters and storyline easier to understand than many other writers in the same genre. All in all, this book is a good entry into what I hope will be a good series!

#reading #books #jamesrollins #sandstorm #harpercollins #londonmuseum #arabianpeninsula #mrsmadonnareads #justfinished

Relic by Preston & Child

Title: Relic
Author: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Publisher: Tor Books
Rating: 📖📖📖📖 / 5

In the heart of the jungle is a myth of the Kothoga people and a monster that is only known by a statue bearing its image. When crates from the Amazon jungle arrive at the New York Museum of Natural History, museum researchers create an exhibit to show the discovery. However, a series of murders puts the opening in jeopardy. And DNA from the murderer shows it cannot be human. The museum decides to move forward with the opening. But will it be the right choice?

Relic is the first book in the Pendergast series by Preston & Child. I have always seen their books on the shelves in the library and have even listened to one or two on tape in the car, but I hadn't really had any interest in starting the series until recently. I even found out yesterday that there is a movie based on this book (but with many changes). Still on the fence about watching it...

...Anyway...

I'm a sucker for museums. I'm a sucker for a good mystery. And a monster on the loose in a museum? Sure I'll give it a try! I must say I was sucked in pretty quickly. It has elements of a murder mystery mixed with science ala Crichton with a dash of science fiction. While this may turn off many readers, it can appeal to a large array of people because the story isn't overwhelmingly science talk. The reader is exposed to a lot of gore and scares that'll keep you on your toes. You also have a mix of different main characters: A police detective, a research assistant, a quirky FBI agent and a journalist, among others. All of which I found relatable in some way. The dialogue could be cheesy at times and some of it was predictable, but none of that is necessarily a bad thing. Not everything can be perfect literary writing.

All in all, I will definitely have to start reading the rest of this series. It's not often that I want to tackle a series with over 15 books, but I think this one will be promising. I suggest this book for anyone looking for a scary, fun mystery!

#relic #preston&child #torbooks #reading #books #musuems #monsters #myths #currentlyreading #mrsmadonnareads #accordingtomrsmadonna #nynaturalhistorymuseum

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Title: The Silence of the Girls
Author: Pat Barker
Publisher: Doubleday
Rating: 📖📖📖 / 5


The Silence of the Girls, different look into the Trojan War, follows the story of Briseis a former queen of a neighboring city to the infamous Troy. After her city is ransacked, she becomes the famous Achille's slave. This is often the fate of women during war; a fate that isn't often written about and often forgotten in history. Briseis finds herself in the middle of a personal fight between Greek leaders while struggling personally with her role in the world.

When I was choosing what books to get from my monthly Book of the Month subscription, reviews for The Silence of the Girls were pretty good. Being a sucker for historical fiction and the ancient world, I thought I would give this book a try. Though I have to say I was not overall impressed with this story. I really wanted to like it. A story like this doesn't often make its way onto the page. It started off well enough, but never seemed to really find its footing. Briseis is an interesting enough character but never has any depth. While I felt for her, I didn't really like her. I don't know if it's because there isn't really any history to base the character on or if Barker didn't do enough to develop the character.

Barker's writing is strong which helps the story. Barker obviously did a good deal of research to paint a picture of what could have been happening in a war camp during the Trojan War. And I must admit that the writing does make you feel like you are there. I could almost smell what it must have smelled like (ie: burned bodies and...crap). But it does struggle from conflict by way of point of view. It goes between Briseis' point of view and a sort of third person view but as Achilles. I often had to figure out who's eyes I was reading the story from. Unfortunately it took away from the story for me. I also felt it dragged in the middle and I often found myself skipping to the end of the book to figure out how many pages I had left to go.  Overall, it is a good story even if it wasn't my favorite to read. I do recommend it if you have any interest in this time period and would like a different point of view on the Trojan War.

#patbarker #doubleday #bookofthemonth #botm #silenceofthegirls #mrsmadonnareads #books #trojanwar #greek #trojan #theiliad

Tyrannosaur Canyon by Douglas Preston

Title: Tyrannosaur Canyon
Author: Douglas Preston
Publisher: Forge Books
Rating: 📖📖📖 / 5

Tyrannosaur Canyon starts off on the moon. The moon you ask? Yes, the moon. The reader learns that a rock sample from the moon has gone missing. While this seems to not make any sense in a dinosaur story, it will later. I promise (though I won't give away how). Anyway, we are soon thrown into the desert where our main character, Tom Broadbent, finds a dying treasure hunter who gives him a notebook and the last request to give it to his daughter. Broadbent finds the notebook is not what it seems and is only a series of numbers in columns. Broadbent soon finds himself tangled in a web of murder and treasure. Along the way he enlists help from a number of people including a monk who helps him discover that the murdered man had discovered a T-Rex in the desert. An intact and nearly full specimen at that. We also meet a lab technician who is tasked with figuring out the secrets of a rock sample taken by the murderer off the dead man. What ensues is a scientific adventure filled with fossils, lies and deceit that will leave you turning the pages to see what happens next.

Alright, I'll confess: If there is a mention of dinosaurs in the title of a book, I will at least pick it up. So when I saw this book at the library I had to read it. One of the reviews I saw about it says, "Better than Crichton!" Well, I wasn't going to believe that blindly. Crichton is one of my favorite authors and I have not read any dinosaur book as intricate and entertaining as Jurassic Park, though Tyrannosaur Canyon holds its own for different reasons. I also didn't realize that Preston was the same Preston as in Preston & Child. I feel really dumb for not realizing this until writing this review.

I wanted to like this story more. I really did. The science in the book was pretty awesome, which is also a reason I love Crichton books so much. Preston even throws in a side story from the T-Rex's point of view before it died. In many ways, I found this short story more interesting than the real story, which is kind of sad because this book had so much potential. All in all, the story lacked focus and I often found myself confused about who's point of view I was currently in. There were at least four or five different characters to follow when the chapters changed. Some chapters were even just two pages long which didn't help with continuity. By the last third of the book I was hooked though. I couldn't stop until I knew what would ultimately happen. If you're looking for an adventure story with dinosaurs (not living ones, sorry), science and even mystery then this is a quick, fun read for you!

#books #reading #douglaspreston #dinosaurs #science #trex #mrsmadonnareads #currentlyreading #forgebooks #paleontology #fossils

Current Beach Read 7/10/18

For today's beach read I have picked out Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton. Pretty good so far! I will have an official review when I finish. Hope everyone is having a good summer!

#summer #books #currentlyreading #michaelcrichton #dragonteeth #science #paleontology