Ricky Pine's Blog, page 128

Guess Who's Coming To Instagram?

Yeah, I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I've finally figured out how to make sure my parents don't find out I've signed up for it...

...so now you may find me on Instagram, @redrainricky!

It's under construction yet, but hopefully I'll soon find plenty of cool peeps to follow... :D

Harry Potter Book Tag

So, I found this book tag thing posted by Joey @ Thoughts and Afterthoughts, and while he didn't specifically tag me, he did post at the end of his long, long list of tags, "...and you! (Tagging everyone is difficult.)"

I assume that means I'm free to take part? I hope so...because that's exactly what I'm about to do. It's a Harry Potter book tag, which basically means I need to do this, stat.

Ready? Here we go:


FLAGRATE - A book with an interesting premise but you'd like to rewrite it...

Review: The Stars Never Rise

The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ever wonder what'll happen if religious fascists take over this country? It might look a little something like this book's horrifying post-apocalypse. Here, the Church is empowered to hurt and/or kill anyone who breaks their inhumanly strict rules, like the second coming of the Spanish Inquisition. But unlike the real-life Salem, where I'm inclined to believe the theory that all the witch hunts were the result of the Puritans re...

Review: The Bunker Diary

The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read a couple of Kevin Brooks books in my time. I liked iBoy but wasn't quite so enamored with Black Rabbit Summer. The Bunker Diary, however, is the best Brooks creation I've read so far - not to mention the darkest and most devastating. It's no wonder Adam Silvera recommended this book - like his More Happy Than Not, it's a gripping sci-fi-inflected read that, unless you have no soul, will tear your heart out.

Seriously. Once you...

Review: Shadow Wave

Shadow Wave by Robert Muchamore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

And so, the adventures of CHERUB agent James Adams come to a close in this book. It's not the end of this universe, not by a long shot (and I'll have to look into whether or not any libraries around here have the Henderson's Boys series, or the remaining CHERUB books with Lauren as the main character.)

But at least this book was a nice end to the original series, especially with its increased insight into Kyle's past as he gets a lot of...

Review: The Gangster

The Gangster by Clive Cussler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Isaac Bell adventures are a bit hit and miss for me sometimes (although they're favorites of my dad, who's always into the historical stuff - and hell, this is the Cussler series he's most caught up on at this point.) This one had a bit of both hit and miss involved, so it gets a three star rating from me. It would probably have been two stars if not for the climax involving President Theodore Roosevelt - that's always a way to boost...

Review: Endsinger

Endsinger by Jay Kristoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mister Kristoff's trilogy hit a bit of a sophomore slump for me, despite dialing up the humor a bit. Taking a more action-intensive approach to Endsinger helped this series get back on form for its conclusion. Here we get so many great battle scenes, the increasing danger of the land being irretrievably ruined forever by the blood lotus, and once again, a frantic pace that doesn't really allow for too many gaps in the action.

That ending, tho...

Review: Dorothy Must Die: Stories Vol. 2

Dorothy Must Die: Stories Vol. 2 by Danielle Paige
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was afraid that this book would be absolutely required reading before Yellow Brick War, which would have been a disaster for me because my library has not yet ordered this (or even the first Stories collection), and the only library that has this book in the Link+ system that normally lets me special order from beyond Alameda County is in San Diego. No way will I order a book from that far away...but thankfully, I wa...

Review: The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, so I tried this book once, about two years ago, and I couldn't get beyond page 20 or so at all. Maybe I was caught up in other things that demanded my attention more, maybe I wasn't connecting with the material. It got to the point where, while writing the first draft of Red Rain, I praised Shiver enough to turn it into an excellent in-universe movie, while having my protagonist Alex Snow utterly unable to read The Raven Boys...

The Nerdy Girl Express: Stitchers and Feelings

Recently, I wrote a short but personal article about the Freeform fan-favorite series, Stitchers, which I decided to share with the fine ladies at The Nerdy Girl Express. They happily agreed to put up my article, "Stitchers and Feelings," on their site today, in honor of World Autism Awareness Day.

You may now read my NGE guest post in all its fine glory here.

Happy weekend, Pinecones! :D