Ricky Pine's Blog, page 109

Review: Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for these ten Simon-centric stories.

Too long, that's how long.

Simon's always been my favorite character Cassie Clare ever created, and after the ending of City of Heavenly Fire, I knew there had to be a set of short stories in his future, the way we got The Bane Chronicles. Ten stories, following Simon's days in the Shadowhunter Academy, bridging the gap between CoHF an...

One, The Loneliest Number

Last week, I made the huge, huge mistake of telling a girl I liked her, and she said she was seeing someone else. Embarrassing as hell for both of us. It'll have been a week since that embarrassment tomorrow, Tuesday, and the more I think about it, the more I realize it's just part of an ongoing, increasingly unhappy pattern.

Unfortunately, largely thanks to my parents keeping me back and discouraging me from socializing and/or dating from my teenage years onward (not to mention me being stupi...

Review: Chaos Choreography

Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally, I'm back in the InCryptid world, and more importantly, Verity's back in the driver's seat after two Alex-led books in a row. Not that Alex's books aren't as good, but I did miss Verity, that kick-ass danger dancer - and this book takes that side of her to new heights by having her investigate some paranormal cryptozoological shenanigans on the set of a TV dancing competition, aptly named Dance or Die.

Coming up next, I bel...

Review: Last Seen Leaving

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I wanted to read this book after taking part in a Twitter book chat a few months back with the author.

I was not disappointed.

Going into Last Seen Leaving, I saw quite a few comparisons to Gone Girl, which gave me reservations because I was one of the few who didn't like that book at all. After reading it, I see that the comparisons were pretty spot-on in terms of storyline - girl goes missing, boy who loves her reevaluates their rel...

Review: Black Widow: Red Vengeance

Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are a few things in the Marvel multiverse that I'm forever salty about. Like the fact that Andrew Garfield isn't playing Spider-Man anymore, but he'll always be Spidey for me, and always my number-one storytelling inspiration. Or the fact that we were introduced to Alexei in Forever Red, only to see him get killed off after only one book. (Yeah, Margaret Stohl, I'm still never forgiving you for that.)

Or the fact that...

Review: Turn Coat

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't think any of the other Dresden Files books plunge the reader into the action nearly as fast as this one does - literally on the first page when that one assbuttish Warden, Morgan, shows up on Harry's doorstep, wounded and on the lam.

That's when you know it's serious trouble Harry's in for on this misadventure, because if Morgan, that holier-than-thou type who's supposed to be beyond reproach, is in trouble...that bodes so badly it's n...

Review: The Rose & the Dagger

The Rose & the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another duology done.

The story begun in The Wrath and the Dawn wraps up neatly in The Rose and the Dagger, which, despite a fairly slow start, picks up the pace in the second half as it completes Ahdieh's lush, multilayered retelling of the Arabian Nights story. As in the first book, characters are this story's strong point, with everyone - especially the points of the love triangle, one of the best ones in YA if I do say so myse...

Review: Once Broken Faith

Once Broken Faith by Seanan McGuire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The lady named for the tenth month appears in her tenth full-length novel...sorry, but I had to go there. Seanan McGuire gives us another addictive October Daye story, this time with more than a few parallels to the real-world political issue of gun control, and also with - at last - a world map of the West Coast Faerie kingdoms. (I'm not surprised to see no less than three covering California.) And along the way, we get more of To...

Review: Small Favor

Small Favor by Jim Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Let's face it - when a Faerie queen, especially when said queen is Mab, no favor is a small one. Ol' Harry Dresden's pretty deep in debt to this supernatural royalty, and it shows in this book with the ironic name even by Dresden Files standards. Rereading this one, I forgot just how long Michael's involvement runs in the series - he's a favorite character of mine mostly because his deep faith always serves as a perfect foil to Harry's chee...

Fantastic Beasts: Expanding The Wizarding World

***THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW.***

I'm too much of a fan to not check out whatever J.K. Rowling gives us - she's by far the number-one inspiration behind my writing. The world of Harry Potter has touched my entire generation and then some, and as Rowling proves in the long-awaited Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them movie prequel, it's not a world you'll soon want to leave the moment you've set foot in it. For proof, look no further than the crowd that gathered when I saw the m...