Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 375 Pages
Publication Date: 02/02/2010
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. Book #1 in the NYT best-selling series, with cover art from the feature film, The Lightning Thief.

I'm having difficulty reviewing this book, and here's why: It's the first book in a series that I have never read before. I plan to read every book in this series in succession, and to review each book that i read. Because this is a series, I do not anticipate the characters or the writing to change a lot. 

The only thing that changes, then, is the story.

This is a challenge for me as a reviewer, because I like to review books as a whole. I'd love to review the characters, the story, the writing, and the ties to Harry Potter, but I feel that this ought to be saved for a final review of the series as a whole.

And I do intend to write that. I'm making notes for that review. Seriously, I am.

But right now I'm sitting here staring blankly at a screen that I've erased three times in an effort to find the right approach to this book. How do I tell you, as the reader, whether or not this is a book worth reading without reviewing the series as a whole?

Well, maybe for you the jury will be out on that until I've reached the conclusion. We'll see.

Here's what I can tell you.

This book is nothing like the movie. Apart from the general sense of the characters (and I do mean general, as neither Annabeth nor Percy are like their actor portrayals in the movies) and the basic outline of the plot, the events in the book are altogether different than those in the movie.

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, by Stephanie Oakes (Book Review)

Title: The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly
Author: Stephanie Oakes
Genres: Suspense, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 400 Pages
Publication Date: 11/01/2016
Publisher: Speak

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

A hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in yourself. Finalist for the Morris Award.

The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust. And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too.

Now their Prophet has been murdered and their camp set aflame, and it's clear that Minnow knows something—but she's not talking. As she languishes in juvenile detention, she struggles to un-learn everything she has been taught to believe, adjusting to a life behind bars and recounting the events that led up to her incarceration. But when an FBI detective approaches her about making a deal, Minnow sees she can have the freedom she always dreamed of—if she’s willing to part with the terrible secrets of her past.

Gorgeously written, breathlessly page-turning and sprinkled with moments of unexpected humor, this harrowing debut is perfect for readers of Emily Murdoch's If You Find Me and Nova Ren Suma's The Walls Around Us, as well as for fans of Orange is the New Black.

This book was so good. 

It has all of the components of a book that I ought to be slapping straight onto my immediate "favorites." 

I'll start by telling you what those things are, then I'll get a bit more personal.

But first, a trigger warning. If you plan on purchasing this book, please note that it contains a lot of potential triggers. It probably stands out as having that potential, as the book is religious in nature to begin with, but I also want my readers to be aware that this book contains graphic depictions of horrific physical violence and terrible, awful racism.

This book also has many excellent qualities that will have me recommending it for the next year. I'm quite sure that this is going to be on my list of best books that I've read in 2017.

The Job of the Book Reviewer

I've been giving this a lot of thought since Monday Night (when I had a chat with the Facebook group 10 Minute Novelists). 

What exactly is the job of the book reviewer?

We reviewers do a service just by publishing book reviews. Reviews benefit the author in a number of ways.

• Reviews on Amazon boost the visibility of an author's work, regardless of whether the rating is high or low.
• Reviewers provide valuable feedback to the author, indicating areas that need improvement or encouraging the author in his or her strong areas.
• Book reviews increase the visibility of books, particularly where those reviews are shared to social media.

They also benefit readers by helping readers to choose books which they are most likely to enjoy reading (and to finish). This also helps authors in a secondary way (by promoting their books).

Engaged in Danger, by Barbara Venkataraman (Book Review)

Title: Engaged in Danger
Author: Barbara Ventkataraman
Genres: Cozy Mystery
Format: Kindle Edition
Pages: 263 (Print)
Publication Date: 09/11/2015
Publisher: Amazon Digital Servies

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

Finally, life is good for reluctant family law attorney, Jamie Quinn--her father may get his visa soon, her boyfriend is the bomb, and her law practice is growing like crazy--but when she agrees to take on a high-profile divorce case, everything falls apart. What looked like an opportunity to work with her friend Grace and make some serious bucks has turned into a deadly game, one that could destroy their friendship and tear their town apart. Why couldn't Jamie just leave well enough alone?

Let me start by saying that not that long back, I reviewed the Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection. You need to know before I say anything else, that I absolutely love this series. I've been in communication with the author and feel very fortunate to have had this opportunity to get to know this series.

This book hit for me in a time when cozy mysteries have been falling flat. I've read a number of them in the past two years where the events of the story don't follow a logical pattern, the mystery is either impossible or too easy for the reader to solve, and the characters are flat rather than fun.

Jamie Quinn brings us back to a time when cozy mysteries were everything they were supposed to be. So let me talk about the things that are great about this book, since I can't find fault with this novel at all, really (seriously, it's a 4.5 star book for me but I always round down on those so that the 5-star books really stand out).

The Bone Witch, by Rin Chupeco (Book Review)

Title: The Bone Witch
Author: Rin Chupeco
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Amish
Format: Protected PDF via Netgalley
Pages: 432 (in print)
Publication Date: 03/7/2017
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire

Goodreads | Amazon

★★☆☆☆

In the captivating start to a new, darkly lyrical fantasy series for readers of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir, Tea can raise the dead, but resurrection comes at a price...

Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there's anything I've learned from him in the years since, it's that the dead hide truths as well as the living.

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she's a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.

In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha―one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles...and make a powerful choice.

Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Name of the Wind in this brilliant new fantasy series by Rin Chupeco!

Well. Where do I start? 

This is going to be a tough review, in a number of ways.

I want to start out by being as fair as I possibly can about this review, so I'll start out with telling you the most important thing: I didn't like this book. You need to know that going forward, because it's important to me to be as constructive as possible and to provide my readers with information about the reasons that I did and did not enjoy a novel.

So out of fairness to the author, I want to say this: I have not been a fan of fantasy novels for quite a number of years, and this book might actually have changed that. 

Surprising, considering that I didn't like the book.

Let me give you a few other positives about this book (for me, anyway). The leading character (a witch-come-geisha known [called an asha] known as Tea) is a woman of color. Excellent representation in a fantasy novel. One of her friends, who works in one of the shops, is a cross-dressing adolescent whose story I won't spoil for you.

So in terms of representation, this book has done an excellent job of providing adequate representation of these marginalized groups. I like that. It felt good, and it wasn't forced. I like it even more that it was noticeable without being forced.

These are good things that I think might appeal to a young adult audience. 

Unfortunately, for me there were just too many things I hated about this book.

Revising My Book Review Rating System

Star ratings. Some people love them and some people hate them. 

Personally, I love star ratings. They give me a quick at-a-glance of whether a book is something I'm likely to enjoy. I trust most reviewers to leave an accurate rating, and therefore generally assume that any book with 4+ stars on Amazon or 3.5+ stars on Goodreads will probably fit the bill for me.

And some people don't like them, for good reason. It's difficult to assess whether or not you're going to like a book based on somebody else's rating criteria. Not everyone rates based on the same set of factors, and if one person tends to rate high and another to rate low, it can be difficult to determine which books will suit your reading tastes.

Clearly the best reviewers write thoughtful reviews of the book, regardless of the use of stars or other marks to determine its worth.

But I like star ratings, and I'll continue to use them.

It only occurred to me this morning, as I prepared myself for a day of reading in the hopes of finishing my most recent book, that I realized there is no consistency in the way that I rate books.

Previously, my rating system went something like this:

Everything starts off at 3 stars. If I enjoyed the book, it bumps up to 5 stars. If I didn't enjoy the book, it bumps down to 1 star. If I enjoyed the book but there are errors in the writing, it loses stars from there, so a book I enjoyed could wind up being rated 3 stars, but never 2 (because 2 clearly states I didn't enjoy the book). A book I didn't enjoy can earn stars back with beautiful prose (but rarely accomplishes this) to become either a 2 or a 3 star book. 

Wow. Confusing much? And absolutely no consistency! What does 3 stars really mean in this case?

I'll tell you: It means nothing. In the past when I rated a book 3 stars, it literally meant that I couldn't come up with a balanced expression of how I felt about this book. It meant nothing.

So as of this morning, I've revised my star rating system. 

This new system should make it easier for readers to decide whether a book is something that they will enjoy, if they are familiar with my reviews and trust my judgment. It will also tell authors in no uncertain terms what my experience was with their book.

Alright, are you ready?

★☆☆☆☆

Did not finish. Period.

This is a book which, for whatever reason, I simply could not finish. Regardless of the quality of the writing, regardless of the popularity of the book, regardless of my feelings about other books by this author, I didn't finish this book.

By default, this means that books like Revival by Stephen King would receive a 1-star rating, in spite of the fact that I love Stephen King.

A 1-Star rating means nothing at all about the author, and has everything to do with my enjoyment of and my ability to finish the book. That's all.

No book I finished will ever be given 1 star (from this point forward).

★★☆☆☆

I finished this, but I didn't enjoy it at all.

This is in no way a reflection of the writing. The writing could have been amazing, but I didn't like the book enough to give it even three stars. 

Most likely this means one of the following:

I forced myself through this book in the hopes of a good ending that it did not deliver. 

The book bored me but I promised to finish it as it is an ARC. 

I found either the characters of the story uncompelling, but it wasn't bad enough to DNF. 

I have never, in all the years that I've been reviewing books, been prone to rating a book 2 stars. It's a nothing rating and it means very little. Few people read 2 star reviews because they want to know what people really hated about a book or what they really loved about it. 

It's unlikely that there will be many books on this blog (or my Goodreads of Amazon) that get 2 stars.

★★★☆☆

This book was okay, but it was just "okay." 

If you take a look at rating guidelines on review sites like Amazon or Goodreads, you'll see that this is the default setting for a 3-star review. It's an okay book, not great, not horrible, just sort of "meh."

(Alright, so maybe that's my word for it.)

Generally speaking, my 3-star book reviews will be for books that I finished and liked well enough, but that didn't compel me to read them quickly or with enthusiasm.

I'm just not enthusiastic about these books. They didn't impress me as particularly great and they didn't impress me as particularly terribly. A 3-star book took me longer than average to read, and I probably struggled a bit to make it all the way through.

All in all this is not a book that I would highly recommend, but I think that some people might enjoy it if our literary tastes are similar.

★★★★☆

This is a book that I definitely liked and think that my followers are going to like too. 

In general, 4-star books are books which I was able to read through quickly (average 4-7 days) and which I enjoyed spending time with. I probably looked forward to getting time to read these books, but didn't carve out special reading time just to read these books.

I'd definitely recommend a 4-star book, but it didn't absolutely blow me away the way that a 5-star book did.

These are books that I might read again at some point in the future.

If you have similar tastes to mine and you enjoy my reviews, you probably ought to do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of the books that I've rated 4-stars. Do the author a favor too, and purchase these if you can. They're worth it.

★★★★★

This book, without a doubt, blew me away. 

I'll read it again some time in the future. I might even read it annually. It's even possible that I'll read this book again in the same year. And review it again on my blog. It was that good!

5-star books aren't just highly recommended, they are must read books. These are the books that you ought to go out to the book store immediately and purchase. They are the books that make me want to drag the author onto my blog for an interview. The books that make me want to drop a copy off at every Little Free Library I can find.

They are the books that make the world go round. The ones that I can't put down. The books that I read in less than 48 hours (and I'm not a quick reader here!). 

Some years -- some months -- there might be a lot of 5-star books. Some years -- some months -- there might be almost none.

But these are the books that deserve a thousand exclamation marks that will never seem excessive. They are the books you have to read! Over and over again! Every year! They are the books you want to give away! They are the books you want other people to read! 

You see where I'm going with this? 

These are rare gems, finds that I'll treasure for all of my life. 

And I vow not to take the 5-star rating lightly.

Please feel free to leave any questions for me in the comments, and I will be happy to help you with understanding how my rating system works. Thank you!

The Hallowed Ones, by Laura Bickle (Book Review)

Title: The Hallowed Ones
Author: Laura Bickle
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Amish
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 9/25/2012
Publisher: HMH

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the "Outside" abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can't leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family's barn-at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

I'm excited to talk to you about my first book of 2017: The Hallowed Ones, by Laura Bickle.

In reviewing this book, I'd like to start at the end because I feel that it's an important point that there is a sequel to this book and the ending of The Hallowed Ones left me wishing that I already had a copy of The Outside already available to read. 

(I don't, and I won't be able to purchase it until the end of January, during which time I plan to squirm until I can get my hands on it!) 

Since without a doubt some of my readers would prefer not to purchase a book that leaves off on a "cliffhanger," I felt that this should be mentioned at the beginning of the review. 

If that's not your thing, you might want to skip this book because the action picks up fast at the end of the novel, leading into an impressive climax and leaving me salivating for more.

So then, let me tell you about this book. I was thrilled to receive this book among my gifts for Christmas last year, and I began to read it Christmas night. This is exactly the sort of book that I love: Something dark and creepy in the night that the protagonist must fight off in order to save the day. I love a book that sends shivers down my spine and if it gives me nightmares, all the better.

The concept of the book was unique. Bickle takes the Amish setting that so many readers have come to love from Christian romance authors and turns Amish fiction on its head by introducing the end of the world. When I first picked the book up, I was expecting zombies, but what I got was more akin to I am Legend, by Richard Matheson.

Bickle managed to make vampires scary again.