Natalie’s Comments (group member since Oct 24, 2015)

Natalie’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Finished

(view spoiler)[Bran dying was hard for me the first time I read the book because I did not see it coming. This time I knew about it and was prepared. Like I said earlier, this was the book that convinced me to keep going on the series. I really enjoyed how they weaved in the Celtic mythology and brought it into modern society. It’s something I feel these books are great at doing and one of my favorite parts.

I’m excited for Magic Strikes! It was the first one in the series to get five stars from me. (hide spoiler)]

Up though chapter 20

(view spoiler)[ I agree the story slows for a while for the fact gathering, but then it picks up a lot.

Aunt B is so fun and I love Kate’s descriptions of her.

Kate’s speech on her loneliness always makes me sad. But I do love the relationship between Kate and Curran in these early books with her causing catastrophes and him being overly macho about everything. (hide spoiler)]

Through chapter 10

(view spoiler)[
The chair thing is one of my favorite parts of the series and I never remember it! To remind myself later, it’s when Bran and Kate agree to race to get the packet and she throws a chair at him and then hits him again to make sure he goes down :)

I love seeing Kate with Julie. A sassy teenager is just what she needs in her life :) (hide spoiler)]

Series spoilers (view spoiler)[ while Curran is who she marries, Julie is who Kate starts to build a family with. She’s so alone (on purpose) at the start of the series and slowly builds up her group. And seeing her interact with Julie, even referring to her as her kid (not out loud) and telling her what happened to her mom just makes me happy. (hide spoiler)]

Through chapter 4. And they still make movie novelizations. I just read The Last Jedi

(view spoiler)[In the thread for book 1, I said the main reason I continued was I had a ton of friends who enjoyed and said it gets better. And early on in this book I agreed with them.

Love meeting Andrea, Julie, and Bran. They were a big part of why I enjoyed the book. I’m excited to keep going. (hide spoiler)]

Series spoilers (view spoiler)[ I do hope they write more for Julie after Magic Triumphs. I read somewhere that if they did, there would have to be a time jump as they don’t plan to write YA and she’s still a teenager. Fingers crossed though! (hide spoiler)]

The Last Jedi by Jason Fry
Spells: A, B, C, D, E, F (author), H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, Y
Characters: Amilyn Holdo, Ben Solo, Chewbacca, Poe Dameron, General Ematt, Maz Kanata, Nien Nunb, Leia Organa, Rose Tico, Luke Skywalker

Classes:
Arithmecy - 304 pages
Divination - Rey and Ben have visions of each other's future and tell each other what they saw. Or what they think is a vision. Not sure if it counts.
Potions - No cover color >50% according to tineye

@Vicki

(view spoiler)[On my first read I felt there was something to her. I don't want to mention why I thought that to avoid spoiling new readers.

And yes, I love that there's a doctor doolittle. I forget if it mentions what type of shifter he is, but it's one of my favorites :) (hide spoiler)]

Starting now! Team Draco Malfoy

I'll find one for the 800-900 page one. I haven't decided on one yet.

I can take one of the longer books and get it read probably within the next week. I just need to know what page range to find.

Kate is 25 according to this timeline someone figured out:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

There's a note that they made a mistake with Greg's age in the first book and he should be 49 in Magic Bites.

It's in my book read post. I don't update the spreadsheet.

Ocean at the End of the Lane has a "U" character so it can be slotted there since it likely doesn't work for Cheering Charm.

For Quidditch, I can probably be Chaser, Beater, or Keeper for one of the rounds.

I can take one of the longer books for Arithmancy. If we get bonus points after completing the class, I would be motivated to read quickly.

Christina wrote: "oh I definitely have to read the blog post you linked above! interesting that they had to cut so much from the book. I wish we'd gotten to know Anna better! does she have bigger parts in the following books?"

She does not unfortunately. I'd have to double check, but I don't think she appears at all again.

The blog is really good, it's one of the reasons I follow their page on facebook since they always link the posts. One of my favorites is Brief Analysis of Alphahole Trope in Romantic Fiction. But Ilona writes a lot of other posts about life and the writing industry.

There's also a post to answer the question of Why do the books get better in the series. Warning, there are spoilers for books 2 and 3 in the paragraph that begins "KD was conceived as an episodic series"

I will head over to Magic Burns either tomorrow or Friday probably.

Saiman: (view spoiler)[And imagine if she didn't get a discount! The short story A Questionable Client tells how they met (hide spoiler)]

Joanne wrote: "How is that mobile game? I've been debating whether I want to play it."

I agree with Michelle. It's slow, but I typically play for 5-10 minutes, then come back an hour or so later when I have energy again. I like the storyline, but the gameplay is basically clicking and tracing shapes.

Michelle wrote: "Natalie, do you think maybe The Ocean at the End of the Lane would work for the cheering charm? Still waiting on the guidelines but you said the creepy character wanting people to b..."

Here's a quote about her:
"She finds what they think they need and she tries to give it to them. She's doing it to make the world into something she'll be happier in. Somewhere more comfortable for her. Somewhere cleaner."

So she is trying to make people happy, but for herself. Also, she basically tries to give people anything they want, but that doesn't mean that is what is right for them. Think a kid being able to eat all the ice cream they want.

Devann wrote: "also i'm reading book 2 now and they turn beetles into buttons so possible idea for transfiguration"

I know we're still getting clarification on classes, but I was trying to figure out how this works. Can it be a beetle on one cover, button on the other, like from the book? Or something in our world, like a seed on one, tree/plant on next. Or bit more of a stretch with tree on one, wood furniture on other?

Also, I've been playing the new harry potter mobile game and in transfiguration class we change cats into pots.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Date read: 5/15
# pages: 259
BR: NA
Spells: (view spoiler)[
G author
H Lettie Hempstock
L Lettie Hempstock
M Ursula Monkton
N author
O title
U Ursula Monkton (hide spoiler)]
Classes:
Arithmancy - 259 pages
Care of Magical Creatures: Set in Sussex, Creepy character who only wants to make people happy (still not sure how this works)

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Date read: 5/14
# pages: 208
BR: My first post for Magic Bites
Spells: (view spoiler)[
A author
B Bono
C Curran
D Kate Daniels
G Ghastek
I author
K Kate Daniels
M title
N Nataraja
O Olathe
R Rowena
S Saiman
T Ted (hide spoiler)]
Classes:
Arithmancy - 208 pages
Care of Magical Creatures: Lion on cover (fur, claws, fangs, I'm not entirely sure how this class works); set in Atlanta; Creature in book feeds on undead and shapeshifters to gain abilities;
Divination: Anna is clairvoyant and has visions during book

Finished!

(view spoiler)[I definitely enjoyed reading this again and I can only say, it gets better from here. I do think this is a good introduction to Ilona Andrews and this series in particular. Also I am dying to know who new readers think Kate is. They drop some clues in this book and I do promise its revealed soon.

Regarding Crest I also put it under a new book. If you read the blog post I had above, they did have to cut roughly 30,000 words from their final draft and I think we would have gotten more Crest development. I think Anna was also supposed to have a bigger role. (hide spoiler)]

Series spoilers (view spoiler)[I always forget we meet Nick in this book! I hope we may get his POV one day. (hide spoiler)]

Christina wrote: "Diane & Natalie, after your very first read of Magic Bites, what kept you going, what made you read book #2 /the rest of the series?"

I did enjoy this book, but the main reasons I kept reading was because I had many friends who recommended this series, and every single one of them said it only gets better from here. The other reason was I had read and absolutely loved Clean Sweep so I had faith in the authors.

The world building I think works better on a reread. It makes more sense to me now, knowing the world and how it works.

Up through chapter five: (view spoiler)[I liked these few chapters where we get to meet the pack and the People and learn more about the different factions in Atlanta.

To those of you new to the series, what do you think of Kate? I remember on my first read I was trying to figure out what her secret is and what it was about her that she was worried about. (hide spoiler)]

series spoilers: (view spoiler)[First mention of Roland! I did like the slow but not too slow reveal of who Kate is.

Also, I do wish we could see an actual fight between Kate and Curran. His strength at this point, while not demonstrated, is obvious, but hers we don't know nearly as well. I think she could have taken him, or at least made it a good fight. (hide spoiler)]

For those new to the series and even me reading it now, I think it feels hard to get into. It kinda throws you into the world with a bunch of explanations, but it does get so much better.

I find it fun to read again the beginnings of these characters and see how they were introduced to the readers.

I'm through chapter 3.

Up to this point: (view spoiler)[ So much of this makes more sense in later books and I feel is better explained. I do like the world and the switches between magic and technology. The "here kitty kitty" scene is one of my favorites and I think indicative of Kate's personality (hide spoiler)]

series spoilers (view spoiler)[ This isn't my first reread of this book, but it always blows my mind how early information regarding the upir is mentioned, but on my first read, I like Kate, ignored it for the most part.

Also getting introduced to the order just makes me sad. I understand that the group doesn't work. Kate's feelings on them is always clear, and I don't think we were ever meant to completely trust them. But there are good people in the group and I just find their downfall sad. (hide spoiler)]