Attachments- Rainbow Rowell

The opposite side of the trip, the drive back from the Outer Banks, was spent reading Attachments, a surprisingly cute and girly book that I ended up kind of loving. I had heard about Attachments several months ago, but didn’t get around to reading it until now. And now having read it, I’m not sure what took me so long.

Attachments is one of those cutesy books that allow you to view a story through emails, but with the added twist of occasional chapters of narrative that isn’t told through emails. It’s a clever twist. Beth and Jennifer know their emails are being monitored, and yet they still use them for personal reasons (email portions of the book). Lincoln’s job is to notify people using the email system improperly, but instead finds himself engrossed in Beth and Jennifer’s lives, and doesn’t reprimand them (narrative portion). 

I liked this book significantly more than I thought I would, it was a very pleasant surprise. Somewhere between a 4 and a 5 for me. Very enjoyable and adorable. 

The Poet- Michael Connelly

Highly enjoyable and perfect for a long car ride, I read over half of The Poet on a 13 hour ride to the Outer Banks. With The Poet, one of the best crime thrillers I’ve read in quite awhile, I think Michael Connelly has officially taken over from James Patterson as my go-to thriller author.

Jack McEvoy is a journalist who is thrown into a serial murderer case when his brother, a cop, is killed in an apparent suicide while investigating a particularly gruesome case. But McEvoy doesn’t believe that his brother would have killed himself, and instead digs deeper and finds a pattern. From there, he finds himself drawn into the disturbing pattern of The Poet’s murders.

Like I’ve already said, Michael Connelly has really started to impress me… I had accidentally read the sequel to this book awhile back, and knew who was/wasn’t the killer, and I still really enjoyed the book. Next I think I’m going to have to get into his big moneymaker- the Harry Bosch series.

4- really liked it, bordered on loving it.

The Hangman’s Daughter- Oliver Pötzsh

The Hangman’s Daughter, a highly reviewed and marketed English translation from its native German, has been talked about quite a bit on Amazon and Goodreads. I expected it to be this blockbuster of a historical fiction thriller. I was greatly disappointed.

Set in Germany, The Hangman’s Daughter is about Jakob Kuisl, town hangman, charged with the torture and so called trial of a supposed witch, accused of killing several children in the village. Jakob, his daughter, and the town’s doctor become absorbed in the case, and discover that not everything is what it seems.

About ¾ of the way through the book, I was still waiting for it to get interesting. In the end, I skimmed through the last 50 or so pages, just to see who the culprit was. Where was the thrill? I can’t even describe how disappointing the book was. I’m not sure if it’s the translation or what, but instead of being edge of your seat suspenseful, it came off boring and overly detailed.

Initially on Goodreads I gave this a 3, thinking that I really hadn’t minded reading it, and it was ok. But a few weeks removed, when all I can think to talk about is the bad parts of it, I have to drop it to a 2. So disappointing.

The Serpent’s Shadow- Rick Riordan

The Serpent’s Shadow is the third book in Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series. As I’m pretty sure I said in my review of the second book in this series, there’s not a lot to say about these books that hasn’t already been covered. This one is a continued story of Carter and Sadie Kane, brother and sister duo out to save the world from chaos with the help of Egyptian Gods. Basically if you pick up something from Riordan, you know what you’re getting.

That’s not a bad thing at all, though. The Serpent’s Shadow was entertaining, if a bit less engrossing than some of his others. I think my biggest problem with the Kane Chronicles is that they’re no Percy Jackson books, even though they’re trying really hard to be. It seemed like when I was reading those, I always could remember the supporting players and what happened in the previous books, even if I needed to look up a summary online it jogged my memory enough. With the Kane books, I have problems remembering who everyone is and what has already gone down in their version of the world, even when I look up a plot summary. Not a ringing endorsement, I suppose, but that being said, I did enjoy reading this last book in the series.

3- Good, not great. Not something I need to read again. Percy Jackson’s got this series beat, and judging by the fact that series is still going strong and this one has ended, I think Riordan knows it too.

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)- Cassandra Clare

Suddenly faced with an unexpected afternoon off, a pleasant day (in the shade!), and a library due date, today I finished City of Bones, which as of this morning I could not have been more than halfway through. Worth it.

City of Bones is a book not unlike many other YA series out at the moment, full of supernatural beings, heroes, villains, romance, and suspense. This particular one focuses on Clary Fray, who witnesses a murder at the beginning of the book and is suddenly wrapped up in the comings and goings of the Shadowhunters, humans that devote their lives to hunting demons and policing the part human, part demon citizens known as Downworlders (which is where the expected werewolves and vampires come in).

Admittedly, the book started slow. It took longer than I’d like to get into it, but it certainly finishes with a bang. This is another series I can see myself getting sucked into pretty easily. It’s not quite up to Harry Potter or Hunger Games level, and I would even say that I liked Divergent more, but I enjoyed it at least as much (if not more) than the Sookie Stackhouse books and Twilight. Definitely more than Matched. (enough YA ranking? I think so).

Another solid 4, thanks mostly to the ending. I’ve already put a hold on the sequel.