Ricky Pine's Blog, page 87

Review: Wandering Star

Wandering Star by Romina Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first time I reread this second book of Romina Russell's Zodiac, I guess my brain wasn't really so engaged, and I didn't really get into it as well as I should have. This time, though, I was prepared to understand Wandering Star far better, I think. I had an easier time making sense of it, and really wrapping my head around a few of the twists in this book - namely, the new threat of someone other than the constantly lurking Ophiu...

Review: An Ember in the Ashes

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For this book, you can picture it as kind of The Hunger Games in a setting that's closer in appearance, military, and technology to the ancient Roman Empire on which Panem was loosely based. This book has just about everything you can expect in a dystopian - an oppressed young woman, a young man who's stuck in the system, evil overlords, an evil Commandant (ugh, the Commandant.) And yet, for all it does that's familiar, Sabaa Tahi...

Review: Eighth Grade Bites

Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

To start your journey with one of the best authors to ever live, begin here, with this magnificent debut novel. Vladimir Tod, thirteen-year-old vampire, is without a doubt one of the best kidlit heroes you've probably never heard of, and now, ten years after he was first introduced (and six years after I first read all his Chronicles all in a row), I'm happy to return to his world and rediscover, in bite-sized form, this first pie...

Review: Never Fade

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It feels pretty normal for me to read an Alexandra Bracken book and find it to be rather longer than it should be, because while it's not lacking in the action, it's also padded with tons of narrative dead air and static that pushes it to a brick-like 500-page length. Normally, I'm the one person who thinks duologies are for no, but maybe in the case of The Darkest Minds and sequels, there should've been only one sequel. Hell, the last...

Review: Third Strike

Third Strike by Heather Brewer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The final novel of The Slayer Chronicles is a short one, perhaps the shortest Brewer has given us yet, but that doesn't make it any less punchy and powerful and cool. Though I still think The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod is Z's magnum opus for always and eternity, this entry in the series, continuing the secret behind-the-scenes saga of Joss McMillan before the events of the final two Vlad Tod books, proves to be an action-packed one, as...

Review: The Silence

The Silence by Mark Alpert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm really bummed that this is going to be the final book in this trilogy - especially since The Silence, in addition to a title that evokes certain Doctor Who memories, really gets into Doctor Who territory with its terrifying implications for not only humanity's future, but humanity's present as well. Not for nothing did this book, according to Alpert, begin as a ghost story - and it's a pretty damn scary one, with some serious twists tha...

Review: Second Chance

Second Chance by Zac Brewer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this middle installment of The Slayer Chronicles - it wasn't going to be the very middle, but then Brewer shortened the series from five books to three - we pick up Joss McMillan's story once again about a year after First Kill, in the heart of another summer of slayage. This time around, though, Joss has a ton of baggage to take with him, and not the actual luggage kind - I'm talking emotional. The events of Ninth Grade Slays have c...

Review: Now I Rise

Now I Rise by Kiersten White
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I'm pretty much suckered in by the pretty covers and the promise of some kind of fantasy shenanigans for this series...but the trouble is, it's such a grimdark slog where nothing seems to happen that it's very, very hard to enjoy what I'm reading.

As I suspected after finishing And I Darken a month or so ago, Now I Rise doubles down on Lada being supremely unlikable while adding next to nothing to her storyline. She's got some kind of mis...

Cover Reveal: The Glitch Mob

Happy Solar Eclipse Day, Pinecones! Now to give you some book-related news from the desk of the Pinecone General...

As many of you may know from my Twitter updates, I've decided that The Dark Ice Chronicles will no longer be a trilogy of novels, nor will they have that title. Instead, I've decided to condense the trilogy, already fairly overblown and stretched out in hindsight, into a single novel which will form a sort of bridge between the new versions of Red Rain books 3 and 4, Wh...

Review: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Silly me, I thought this was Mackenzi Lee's debut novel. Actually, no, it's not...but now I want to read her first book, and all her others after The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue dazzled me.

I've been waiting a while to read this one, and in that time, I've seen a fairly polarized string of reactions from my Goodreads and Twitter mutuals. Depending on who you ask, this book is either a fun romp or brough...