The Power of Six continues the story of John Smith from I Am Number Four. I don’t feel like I can say a whole lot about this one without ruining I Am Number Four, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed it as much as the first one. Spoilers for I Am Number Four ahead!

This one was a little bit different than I Am Number Four, but then again, it has to be, since now John can no longer stay in one place as he’s been exposed for the alien that he is. Travelling from city to city, Four and Six train together with an eventual goal of taking on the Mogadorians, with Sam along for the ride.

Interspersed with Four and Six’s story is that of Seven, Marina, living in Santa Teresa with her guardian, who has given up on the Loric cause. Both stories are equally interesting, and the narrators of both did a very good job.  

All in all, this one was an extra good three as well. I’m really looking forward to the third book in the series coming out this summer!

I Am Number Four- Pittacus Lore

My latest audiobook, I Am Number Four is another one of those YA books that I am a sucker for. Intrigue, excitement, fantasy, I’m all in. Let’s be real here, any YA fantasy book series that is good enough to have a movie made out of it, I’m going to read. Or in this case, listen to.

I am Number Four is the story of John Smith, Loric alien, who is being hunted by the mortal enemies of the Loric (and Earth), the Mogadorians. Nine Loric guard made it off of the planet and to Earth before the Mogadorians took it over, and those nine are being hunted and killed. Through a protective charm on the nine guard, they can only be killed in order. Three are dead, and John is number four.  

This was a fun book, and I immediately downloaded the sequel once I finished it. It’s about what you’d expect for what it is, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s an excellent 3. 

11/22/63- Stephen King

As my first Stephen King novel ever, I wasn’t sure what to expect from 11/22/63. The fact that it had a reputation as being different from his other ones, I admit was part of the reason I was interested in reading it. I’m not really one for books like It and Carrie. However, if that’s a broad generalization on my part, and more of his books are like this one, perhaps I’ll be reading more of King in the future.

11/22/63 is kind of an oddball book. Not that that’s a bad thing, by any means. Jake, the main character, is a teacher confronted with an interesting choice: if you could go into the past (via an anomaly in time) to change anything, what would it be? Along with some help from a supporting character, obviously, Jake chooses to go after Lee Harvey Oswald and attempt to save JFK.  With 850 pages, multiple trips into the past, and timeline reboots, I’ll make the comment that it was just a bit too long. There are entire portions of the book that are changed and made irrelevant, and though I understand their importance in the overall storyline, I wish they had been a little briefer. That’s my only complaint though.

In the long run 11/22/63 was an interesting and very good book. I really enjoyed the time that Jake spent in the past, living his life until it was time to change history, and also the ripples that he inadvertently causes. It’s a cool concept. What if JFK had never been shot? How would life change? Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that the dilemmas that Jake encounters are very thought provoking.

This is another solid 4- very good and worth reading again. If it wasn’t so long I probably wouldn’t mind owning it. And like I said, maybe I’ll have to look into more of Stephen King’s books. 

The Lock Artist- Steve Hamilton

The Lock Artist is a book about a young, damaged boy who has a way with locks. Traumatized from an event that we do not learn about until late in the book, the boy, Michael, does not speak, but has a unique talent, one that gets him into trouble from page one.

Told in alternating chapters about his education as a “box man” (safe cracker), and his escapades after learning the trade, The Lock Artist was an interesting and entertaining audio book. Michael is introduced as the golden boy, the miracle boy, the boy who survived a disturbing event that is alluded to but not explained right away. And this is part of the reason that the book was so captivating. Hamilton gives you just enough information to keep you wondering, and enough events with their own resolutions to keep it from feeling like a trick. Chronicling Michael’s life from 9 years of age until just past his 17^th year, we see him grow up, become the lock artist, fall in love, face danger, and resolve his problems, one way or another.

This was a really good audiobook. The narrator was, on the whole, easy to listen to. I had one complaint: the way he read the dialogue of the Ghost, but that was minor. Overall this is another 4- I would read or listen to it again. 

The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern

After all the hype about The Night Circus, I have to admit that it was a book I was really looking forward to reading. Top of the bestseller list, fantasy, romance, what’s not to like? But it was different than that, and also more. This was a book that surprised me.

The Night Circus is essentially the story of two young magicians locked in a duel that both were entered into without their knowledge. The setting of their duel? The mystical, fantastical night circus, which is unlike any circus that anyone has ever been to, because it is sustained by real magic.  Celia is an “illusionist,” who doesn’t need sleight of hand or distraction to create her illusions, one of the main events of the circus, who travels around from city to city. Marco is the assistant to the circus owner, supervising from afar and constantly adding attractions, while being tied to it through the circus’ constantly burning bonfire. The book is the story of Celia and Marco’s dance around each other, their duel, their mutual admiration, and their eventual love. But only one of the participants can survive the contest.

I really liked The Night Circus. I was expecting more action in a book centered around a magician duel, but all in all, this is more of a book about the circus itself, and beauty and magic. It’s very well written and engrossing. There was a spot around the middle where I started to get tired of the constant additions to the circus with seemingly no outcome or events that even affected the participants, but near the end I was sucked back in.  The way the story is told is somewhat scattered, jumping from time period to time period, interspersed with brief pages of description as if the reader is a participant in the circus, but somehow it works.

4- very good and I’d re-read it, but the slow part in the middle kept it from being a 5.