Ricky Pine's Blog, page 138

Review: Prince of Fools

Prince of Fools by Mark Lawrence
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While reading the Broken Empire Trilogy before this spin-off goes recommended, it's not entirely necessary, because this book is largely standalone. And good thing, too, because it's pretty different in tone than Lawrence's earlier post-apocalyptic fantasies. Jalan is far more likable than Jorg Ancrath, largely because of his somewhat Tyrion-esque personality. And the unique circumstances in which he finds himself, along with an even...

Review: Through the Dark

Through the Dark by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My ratings by story:

* "In Time" - 3/5. It's nice to get a different side of the Darkest Minds world, but did it have to be narrated by such an unlikable dude?

* "Sparks Rise" - 4/5. Here's some crazy action, and quite a few feels.

* "Beyond The Night" - 5/5. Even after our heroes won the war, this glimpse of America in recovery shows that the process isn't quite done yet, so the series still doesn't have a real fairytale ending.

V...

Review: Ice Like Fire

Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The sequel to Snow Like Ashes is pretty different in one key way from its predecessor - it's less about war and more about diplomacy, about trying to unify the kingdoms of Primoria. Of course, this "peace in our time" can't last very long, and boy howdy, after page 400 or so, war is back in a very, VERY big way. Along the way, though, we're treated to a nice little tour of some of the other kingdoms that weren't featured too much in Book...

Review: The Game of Lives

The Game of Lives by James Dashner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As expected, the general of the Dashner Army concludes this series in style. Lingering questions about Kaine, the Tangents, and the Mortality Doctrine are answered - usually in the form of wild and crazy plot twists, natch. The ultimate endgame of this series has some of the more shocking results of any of this year's best YA releases - including the unexpected, and quite unwanted, death of a major character, one who has a little so...

Review: Winter

Winter by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm not happy that I didn't get to read this book before the Goodreads Choice Awards were done - because had I gotten that chance, I would've voted for Winter for sure. It's overtaken Library Of Souls, The Fate Of Ten, Final Strike, and The Rose Society as my favorite book of 2015, an honor only the long-delayed, promising-to-change-the-game Bone Labyrinth stands a chance of taking away now.

Marissa Meyer's latest is 800 pages of perfection. It...

Review: Black Widow: Forever Red

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

***SPOILER ALERT***

This book is just the beginning of what promises to be a super-duper amazing new world of Marvel YA. Not only do we have this new series from Stohl in the works, but a number of other books, likely interconnected with this one. I'm especially looking forward to Eoin Colfer's planned Iron Man book. And my new dream is to one day put my fanfic skills to good use and join this team of writers and put out an exc...

Review: Project Sparta

Project Sparta by BB Gallagher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Boy Nobody...move aside.

Wattpad is where I found this full-tilt YA spy piece, and you can read it there for free. I guarantee, you'll have no trouble gobbling this story up. I mean, you should see the way I ran through the last ten chapters or so when they were uploaded pretty much all at once. Between the Arrow-style anachronic storytelling, and the high-stakes spy action a la Mission: Impossible or Sigma Force, this little book is tai...

Review: Depraved Heart

Depraved Heart by Patricia Cornwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have to wonder - did Cornwell read Gone Girl before writing this book? Because the vibe I'm getting from the dreadfully detestable antagonist of this book is that she fancies herself the next Amazing Amy. She's not quite as loathsome as Gillian Flynn's creation, but she comes very close to it. Maybe it's because Carrie dishes out a little more physical abuse than Amy does, as opposed to working largely on the psychological-abuse...

Review: After Alice

After Alice by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Splintered this was not. What a disappointment this book was - I only got through about 100 meandering pages or so (with almost no mention of Alice - I mean, seriously?), about as much as I did for another dreadful Carroll retelling (Alice In Zombieland) before giving up on this exercise in time-wastage.

And then, having clicked on this book's GR page for the first time to leave this review, I've discovered that it has an abysmally low a...

Review: Playing with Fire

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gerritsen does something a little different for this one, seemingly taking cues from Schindler's List and The Shining, not to mention M.J. Rose's Reincarnationist books (though thankfully minus the ridiculous, cloying use of the perfume motif that pervaded Rose's books starting with the fourth in the series). Instead, Gerritsen uses a particularly creepy piece of music to set up the thrills and chills in this book - a piece which y...