Thursday, November 10, 2011

Explanations

So in case you haven't noticed I typically post more during the school year as I tend to be in one place and have more time with my kids in school. I have been pretty bad so far this year with posting regular reviews and have a HUGE backlog of things I want to write a review for.

However I can FINALLY talk about the reason why. I have mentioned in the past my son has been taking acting classes and went to a national competition in Los Angeles this summer. Well what I couldn't talk about was the fact that he got 18 call backs and that we were traveling back out there to meet with them over a longer period of time. We went back out a few weeks ago and as of yesterday we officially signed with Clear Talent Group Los Angeles. It has been a long few months as we have been evaluating what is best for my son and which agency to ultimately go with. Not to mention he has a crazy swim schedule. I am so proud of my little man and hopefully now that we have chosen an agency things will slow down a little until I head back out to LA for him to work. I am going to start working on that backup of reviews that I have to get done :)

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Reckoning by Lilith St. Crow


I must say that I am very saddened to see the end of the Strange Angels series. I really love Lilith St. Crow’s YA work and like the world that she has created. Here’s the summary of the fifth and last installment from Amazon:

Nobody expected Dru Anderson to survive this long. Not Graves. Not Christophe. Not even Dru. She's battled killer zombies, jealous djamphirs, and bloodthirsty suckers straight out of her worst nightmares. But now that Dru has bloomed into a full-fledged svetocha - rare, beautiful, and toxic to all vampires - the worst is yet to come.

Because getting out alive is going to cost more than she's ever imagined. And in the end, is survival really worth the sacrifice?

I had to actually hunt this book down. I thought it would be released on Kindle however it was only in paperback. Thus, had to hunt a copy down at the local bookstore or risk having to wait to read it. I read it in a few hours. The books in this series are always packed with action and this one this one is no exception.

In the latest installment Dru fully grows into her character. Throughout the series she is strong and independent to a fault. In this book she finally starts to learn to trust others and seek help when she needs it. She does get a lot more emotional in this book as well which might get annoying at times.

There is too much spoiler information in this installment so I will talk vaguely about what I liked in the story. I liked the way that the action is continuous in this book. It is definitely not a book to read if you have other things going on in your life. You will not want to put this book down. There is a lot going on all at once.

I also liked the simplicity of the book. For most of the book it is just Dru, Graves and Christophe. This lets us really see the dynamics between them. There also isn’t five other plot lines going on in the story. Several of the books I have read lately have too many subplots going on. Lilith’s writing is beautiful in its simplicity.

I also liked the flashbacks that happened in the book. Some things that I didn’t get before were finally explained and some plot holes were finally filled in.

 I did not care for the ending of the book. Up until the end of the book I loved it. In the last few pages. I didn’t care for the ending. It would be a good ending for a book but as the end of the series I didn’t like it. I felt it was left very unresolved as far as Dru’s story. I realize what the author was trying to do and it is very innovative, however, I didn’t like it. I am sure there are others that will but for me it was too open.

Overall I give the book a 4/5. I loved it up until the last few pages. While I understand why the ending was done that way, I still didn’t like it.