Musing Mondays (1)

     Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading, that asks you to muse about one of the following each week...
• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My Musings for the week...

Trilogy ends, sometimes I kind of dread them because my expectations might run a little higher than it would be for a debut book. I'm invested in the books, the characters, and I want to see how it ends. But I still have my reservations. Regardless I've come across a few good trilogy end's that I've already read this year, and I'm looking forward to a few more...

     The Warrior by Victoria Scott. I personally like this series since it's hard for me to find angel and demon books that can hold my attention for more than a millisecond.

     The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy, a truly wonderful middle grade series with an interesting take on classic fairy tales.

     I'm sure I missed a few but I probably haven't read them.  So as far as the one's I'm looking forward to, all I can think of at the moment is one:

 Double Vision: Alias Men by F.T. Bradley

     So that's it for my musing this week.  But what about you guys, do you have any hesitation when going into trilogy end's, or are you just excited to see where your favorite characters end up?

Review: The Archived by Victoria Schwab

Title: The Archived (Click on Title for Synopsis)
Author: Victoria Schwab
Source/Format: Purchased/ iTunes ebook edition
Age Range: YA
Publisher/Publication Date: Hyperion, January 22, 2013

My Thoughts:

     I’ve had my fair share of woes with the YA genre as of late, and I haven’t read much in a long time. But I finally sat down to read Victoria Schwab’s, The Archive, at last. I found the book to be highly entertaining, as well as refreshing with a cast of interesting characters, and a plot that kept me otherwise in the dark until the very end. I truly did enjoy The Archived.

     To start, The Archived had an interesting premise: the dead supposedly being placed on shelves and you know, cataloged like you would books. Right from the beginning that premise caught my attention, and I wanted to know more about the Archive and the people who worked there. One such person associated with the Archive is none other than the main character, Mackenzie Bishop. She, unlike some YA characters, wasn’t perfect and made her own fair amount of mistakes. Mackenzie also grieved a great deal, but all of her faults made her a well-rounded character that I found relatively likable. And her parents weren’t cookie-cutter folks either they dealt with their emotions in their own way. They had separate…I guess you could say, identities, which made them stand out rather than blend right into the background. Then there was Wesley Ayers…hmmm, what should I say about him? Well for starters he was an interesting character with little quirks mentioned here and there—you could really tell that he cared. 

     The setting, which is something I rarely ever mention in reviews, was very fascinating. The Coronado was and old hotel that was renovated into apartments and you could almost say it was borderline dilapidated. And yet the place held on to its old world, mostly faded, charm. Would I visit the place? Um, no! With all of the trouble that Mackenzie experienced there in the Archive, I have to say no on that one. And by trouble, I mean the plot. The Archive’s opening chapter basically solidified my reason for finally reading this book, and from then on I blew through the rest. So without spoiling things, I’m just going to call it a day. But in my opinion The Archived was a solid opening to a series, and I intend to continue on with the next book as soon as I get my hands on a copy of The Unbound. Five birdcages. That is all.

Mortal Enchantment by Stacey O'Neale

Starting on Thursday July 10th, Mortal Enchantment by Stacey O'Neale will be on sale for $0.99.  The only catch is that the deal will only last for 7 days, so get it while it lasts! Sorry, the deal is now over.

Click here

Have You Heard of Sybil Ludington?

    While this subject has nothing to do with YA or MG books, but I wanted to share it anyway.

     Do you recognize the name in the title of this post? I admit that at first I didn’t even know who was being mentioned. Despite history being one of my favorite subjects, I admit that I never even heard of Sybil Ludington until I happened to be watching a show about historical monuments in America last night. I’ve read numerous history books, seen countless shows on the Revolutionary War, and yet, none of them ever mentioned Sybil Ludington and what she did. We all know the story with Paul Revere and his famous night ride on April 18, 1775 because of its historic importance.

    So, have you heard about the second night ride in 1777? That’s right, Sybil Ludington was only 16 years old at the time, and traveled the dangerous road alone to alert the colonial militia. Did you see her age? Yeah, a 16 year old girl traveling alone through a forest at night during that time took some serious bravery. From what I know, she only had a stick with her that she used to knock on doors, and even her statue near Lake Gleneida in Carmel, New York is holding a stick. But the most noticeable thing about her night ride was the distance. No, it wasn’t 12 miles, or 18, or even 25, it was a whopping 40 mile ride. 40 MILES. That’s insane especially on horseback during the dead of night. The difference in distances is relatively substantial.

    So I was left wondering why many of the history books, and TV shows about the Revolutionary War never bothered to mention Sybil’s ride to warn the militia that Danbury, Connecticut was under attack by the British. Ok, so I guess I'll stop with the history lesson, but if you want to read a little more about Sybil feel free to follow the links below:

Historic Patterson New York

National Women's History Museum
Sybil Ludington Wikipedia Page

     So tell me, have you heard of Sybil Ludington before? Or is this the first time you’re hearing about her?

ARC Review: The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw by Christopher Healy

Title: The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw
Author: Christopher Healy
Source/ Format: Won, Bound ARC
Age Range: Middle Grade
Publisher/Publication Date: Walden Pond Press, April 29, 2014



My Thoughts:    

     This must be the year of amazing trilogy enders, because The Hero’s Guide to Begin an Outlaw by Christopher Healy, was the perfect way for the epic middle grade series to end. All of my favorite characters were back and better than ever, as they raced against time to stop their kingdoms from being destroyed by a foe that was more known than not.

     The League of Princes is back at it again after the Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle, with things not quite how they thought they left them. Liam, Fredric, Gustav, and Duncan once again set out to save their kingdoms, as a threat they thought they defeated comes right back and stronger than ever. At times their situations were ugly and I just didn’t know if they would manage to get out of them, but nevertheless, their antics, plans, and mishaps were as hilariously refreshing as they always were. But Being an Outlaw wasn’t only about the princes and their quests, but the princess’s also got some attention. I liked how they banded together to try and save the day, ultimately forming the Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters. Val was also a nice addition to the series, and overall I liked her as a character.

     Ok, now the plot. It. Was. Awesome! I love it when a book manages to keep me entertained with the right mix of humor, emotion, and action sequences. And the Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw was in no shortage of any of it. The book had the right blend of everything that I think will grasp the attention of middle-grade readers who are fans of adventure novels with new twists on the classic tales we all know so well. So to be honest I can’t see myself giving the final book in The League of Princes trilogy anything other than five birdcages. All in all, it was a wonderful finish to an already humorous, adventure series.