Book Review: The Case for Jamie

TITLE: The Case for Jamie
Book 3 in the Charlotte Holmes series
AUTHOR: Brittany Cavallaro
PUBLISHED: March 6th, 2018
GENRE: Classic book referencing, Mystery
PREMISE: Charlotte and Jamie get thrown together for another case...
MY REVIEW: This series continues to be really enjoyable. I love what the author does with the characters of Charlotte and Jamie. Mystery wise...it's about average. But character development wise...it's top notch. I honestly wish this author had been put in charge of the BBC Sherlock show. I bet we would have gotten much better development for everyone. ;is still bitter about how that series turned out;
I can't really go into much without spoiling a lot of the book. But this deals with the fallout of the last book and I love how it dealt with it. It didn't try to demonize anyone or make the reader pick sides or put any character on a pedestal. That was so refreshing, because that can often happen when there's a conflict in book series.
So my feelings on this series are mostly the same. It's an enjoyable riff on Sherlock Holmes. It does gender-flipping well and does something new with the Sherlock Holmes stories. I can't wait to read the next book.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first two books, Sherlock Holmes fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five excellent character developments

Book Review: The End of Oz

TITLE: The End of Oz
Book 4 in the Dorothy Must Die series
AUTHOR: Danielle Paige
PUBLISHED: March 14th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy/Classic Book referencing
PREMISE: Amy returns to Oz for a final showdown with Dorothy.
MY REVIEW: This series...I don't know what to think about this series anymore. It's been such an up and down sort of series, that was honestly...mostly down. I probably should have quit awhile ago, but damn it, I love this messed up version of Oz.
So, here I am. Reading a finale that was...just okay. Like honestly, the rest of the series was. I wasn't expecting much from the ending, but I was hoping for at least a little more then (SPOILER): after defeat, Amy goes back to Kansas and married her guy. (Edit: Don't know what happened with that sentence there. Fixed it) Like, really?
So yeah. A ho hum ending to an overall average series that I probably should have quit before now. I am such a sucker for awesome fantasy worlds.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that liked the first three books, Wizard of Oz fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five shrugs
RATING FOR SERIES: Three and a half out of Five

Book Review: The Last of August

TITLE: The Last of August
Book 2 in the Charlotte Holmes series
AUTHOR: Brittany Cavallaro
PUBLISHED: February 14th, 2017
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: Charlotte and Jamie go on the case when Charlotte's uncle goes missing...
MY REVIEW: By all rights, I probably shouldn't like this series. On one hand, yeah gender-flipped Holmes is awesome. On the other hand, now suddenly, it's okay for Holmes and Watson to be involved when one of them is female (I hate when that happens and that is one of the reasons I love Elementary: they gender flip a character, but don't do any romance between the two). But this scenario works because it's actually not a gender-flipped Sherlock Holmes: it's an ancestor of Sherlock Holmes who happens to be female.
I love the way the author played around with that. Family legacies play a big part in this, and the idea of Holmes and Moriarty ancestors playing cat and mouse with each other for decades honestly...kind of fits to me. The mystery is good, the fallout from the mystery is even better.
Honestly, if you're going to gender flip Holmes, do it this way. I honestly, don't even mind the romance part between Holmes and Watson, mostly because the author doesn't play it as a true love sort of deal. It's an awkward teenage relationship. With all the drama that implies. All in all, this was a very satisfying sequel.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sherlock Holmes fans, Lock and Mori fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five modern Sherlocks

Book Review: Heartless

TITLE: Heartless
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
PUBLISHED: November 2016
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy, Classic Book Referencing
PREMISE: A reimagining of the world of Alice in Wonderland that looks at the Queen of Hearts before she became the woman Alice knew in the books...
MY REVIEW: I bought this one a while ago because I love Lunar Chronicles and basically everything Marissa Meyer writes, I'm probably going to be buying. Especially if it's great ideas like this one is. I wanted this since the moment I heard about it. For the most part, it did not disappoint.
Now, I'm going to address the elephant in the room: it is not as good as Lunar Chronicles. But that hardly means it's bad. I just don't love it nearly as much as I did that series. It's not really Heartless' fault, I just fangirled really hard over Lunar Chronicles so it's going to take a lot to top it for me. Heartless' main fault is that it is terribly slow. Especially in the beginning. I also...am not fond of the insta-love thing that happened with Jest. Granted, at least Jest wasn't a douche, so there's that. But still, enough insta-love writers. We notice it. It doesn't work.
But despite the slowness and the insta-love bits, this wound up being a rather good character study of the Queen of Hearts and what might have made her the way she was. I can't help but think of the Alice Through the Looking Glass movie because that tried to do a small backstory bit on the Queen of Hearts and....yeah, this version is much better. Not that that would be hard, Alice Through the Looking Glass had lots of story problems.
For the most part, I think this was a successful book. The characters were developed (well, aside from Jest), the writing was Meyer's usual great combination of setting/dialogue. It was a plausible what-could-have-happened before that didn't retcon any of the original Alice in Wonderland to make things easier for the author either. All in all, I enjoyed this one a lot.
WHO SHOULD READ: Marissa Meyer fans, Alice in Wonderland fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five plausible back stories

Book Review: Tell the Wind and Fire

TITLE: Tell the Wind and Fire
AUTHOR: Sarah Rees Brennan
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Urban Fantasy, Retelling
PUBLISHED: April 5th, 2016
PREMISE: A urban fantasy retelling of A Tale of Two Cities
MY REVIEW: Judging from the reviews, I'm apparently one of the few who actually really loved this book. Every review I've seen has ranged from "I hated it" to "eh." and I just am kind of scratching my head because this book was in my opinion, fantastic.
My only explanation is that people probably didn't like the ending. This is a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities and if you know that book, you know it ends very sadly. Brennan does not ignore that, and does not change that fact. And I'm sure people didn't like that. Me, I think it was great and I have more respect for authors who put in a more realistic ending then the typical happy one that is usual nowadays. Once again, I have to ask YA readers: what do you all want? You say you're tired of the "everything ends happily, tied in a bow" endings and then when a author gives you such an ending, you hate the book for it. It's the same story with love triangles and with complicated female characters. I could go on all day about how frustrating this is, but I'll spare the rant for now.
From where I'm standing, this is a great book. It is in fact, one of my favorite reads this year. It's not perfect, this is one of the few cases where I feel this could have done better as a series. But once again, the masses and I don't see eye to eye on something. So, I'm giving it a high rating, but since I seem to have different tastes, I suggest checking it out of the library to see if it's for you, first.
WHO SHOULD READ: A Tale of Two Cities fans, those that don't mind sad endings
MY RATING: Four out of Five magic rings

Book Review: A Curious Beginning

TITLE: A Curious Beginning
Book 1 in the Veronica Speedwell Mystery series
AUTHOR: Deanna Raybourn
PUBLISHED: September 2015
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Historical Mystery/Steampunkish
PREMISE: After Veronica buries her aunt, she's ready for a life of adventure. But before she can embark on said life, she gets caught up in a mystery...
MY REVIEW: I stumbled upon this book randomly while browsing around on Goodreads. So many of my books are found that way, which probably explains a lot about my random reading choices come to think of it. It sounded fun so I picked it up a the library.
It was pretty much what I was expecting from the summary. There's a sassy woman who is ahead of her time, a brooding man who gets charmed by said sassiness, and a mystery afoot. It reminds me a bit of the Parasol Protectorate series but not nearly as delightful as that series. But it is still pretty damn fun. There's bantering romantic partnership to help ease along the somewhat slow parts of the story. If you're going to have a slow story, always have banter, I say.
It's not the most original thing on earth, but if you're in the mood for a fun historical mystery with a sassy female lead, this book should please you.
WHO SHOULD READ: Parasol Protectorate fans, Miss Fisher Mysteries fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five sassy female detectives

Book Review: Ivory and Bone

TITLE: Ivory and Bone
Book 1 in a new series
AUTHOR: Julie Eshbaugh
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: June 7th
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Retelling, Classic-book referencing
PREMISE: A pre-historic gender bending twist on Pride and Prejudice. Seriously, that's it.
MY REVIEW: I wanted to read this book the minute I heard about its premise above. I mean, look at that, how can you not want to read that? Unless you're one of those who hates Austen. I've heard there are such people. I knew exactly what to expect with this book and it delivered on the expectations.
It strays a bit from the Pride and Prejudice plot. Particularly where the Wickham character is concerned. But it is definitely an interesting take on the tale. It also made me think about Darcy a bit more and how probably if Darcy had been the woman, he probably wouldn't be as well-liked by readers as he is. Sorry, but it's really amazing how when male characters are flawed it's fine, but when female characters are flawed they're considered unlikable. Without reading any of the reviews on Goodreads, I'm more then willing to bet money that there are reviews out there saying this was fine, but they didn't like Mya.
The writing style is a bit...strange and takes some getting used too. But on the whole, I enjoyed this take on Pride and Prejudice. Other then the setting, it's not terribly original. Some of the hunting scenes go on a bit too long as well. I'm not terribly convinced we need a sequel, but we'll get one regardless. It's not a perfect book, but its good points far out weigh its bad points.
WHO SHOULD READ: Pride and Prejudice fans, historical fiction fans, Romance fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five hunting parties

Book Reviews: The Steep and Thorny Way

TITLE: The Steep and Thorny Way
AUTHOR: Cat Winters
PUBLISHED: March 8th, 2016
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Historical Fiction, slight paranormal, slight retelling
PREMISE: In a Hamlet influenced tale set in Oregon in the 1920s, Hanalee goes on the hunt for her father's killer. Who killed him turns out to be more complicated then she thought...
MY REVIEW: Once again, I love Cat Winter's ideas. She comes up with such interesting takes on things that otherwise probably wouldn't work very well. In this case, the idea is a Hamlet retelling set in 1920s Oregon dealing with all the race issues that took place then. You wouldn't think that would work, but Winters' manages it.
The story is creepy and vivid and as always with Winters, you can tell she did her research. I actually think this is my favorite book of hers so far. But she has another one coming out this year that looks awesome, so that could definitely change. As far as a retelling of Hamlet...it is loosely done and takes liberties with the tale. But it's still very good.
If you go into this wanting a straight forward retelling of Hamlet, this might not be your thing. Personally, I don't mind the liberties that much. This is still a very good historical fiction book.
WHO SHOULD READ: Historical fiction fans, Cat Winters fans, Hamlet fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five creepy mysteries

Book Review: Yellow Brick War

TITLE: Yellow Brick War
Book 3 in the Dorothy Must Die series
AUTHOR: Danielle Paige
PUBLISHED: March 15th, 2016
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Fantasy, Retelling/Classic Book referencing
PREMISE: Amy gets sent back to Kansas and deals with the consequences of being gone while she searches for Dorothy's famous shoes.
MY REVIEW: For some reason I thought this was the last book in this series. Turns out it's not. There's a forth one coming out sometime next year. Which explains the ending, I suppose.
I continue to like this series mostly for the twists the author puts on the Wizard of Oz. That's the strength of it. I also like the character growth that the author does with Amy. Those are the reasons I have stuck to this series despite some of the issues I have with it. While I do like the author tried to give more depth to a previously one-dimensional mean girl, it was a bit sudden and there are a lot of convenient plot devices going on as usual.
But it remains entertaining and fast-paced. I do look forward to the forth, I just hope they don't drag this series on and on like they have with some series in the past. Because there's only so much stretching out of a plot that one can do. As entertaining as this was, it was very much a filler book and not much happened.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first 3 books, Wizard of Oz fans, Once Upon a Time fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five ruby slippers

Book Review: The Spiritglass Charade

TITLE: The Spiritglass Charade
Book 2 in the Stoker and Holmes series
AUTHOR: Colleen Gleason
PUBLISHED: October 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Steampunk/Classic Book referencing/Historical Fantasy
PREMISE: Stoker and Holmes embark on a new adventure that leads them to discovering that vampires may not be as instinct as once believed...
MY REVIEW: I really enjoyed The Clockwork Scarab and was happy to see that there was indeed a sequel coming. For the most part this did not disappoint. It did all the things a sequel should. It advanced the story, introduced new story lines and had a good mystery along with it.
My only issue is that apparently we really need Stoker and Holmes making catty remarks about each other in their heads even though they're partners and have been through a lot. I'm sorry...we really don't. I get that these two girls have clashing personalities. I get that they aren't going to get along or see eye to eye on things. But we really do not need them making catty remarks about the way the other girl behaves or looks. Same with Holmes making remarks about other girl's appearance. It just is not necessary. It's more of this girls can't really be friends crap that floats around entertainment and I for one am sick of it. Especially because this drags down an otherwise really enjoyable book.
Other then that pet peeve of mine, I enjoyed this one just as much as I enjoyed the first one. If you loved the first one, you won't be disappointed. If you haven't checked out Clockwork Scarab yet, I strongly urge you too. Especially if you're a steampunk fan of any sorts.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of the first book, steampunk fans, Sherlock Holmes/Dracula fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five glass balls