Review: Trickster's Choice

When first starting this book I was a little disappointed. I had read great reviews about the author’s previous works and in the beginning, Trickster’s Choice, wasn’t capturing me in the author’s world like I had hoped it would. After a couple more chapters I was hooked on this unique story.  I love strong main female characters and this story has a great one, a girl that you will add to your list of favorite heroines.

When I was younger I enjoyed the idea of becoming a spy. Though I knew it was dangerous and possibly a deadly job I always thought about all the exciting things you could learn and experience from having a job like that. The main character from Trickster’s Choice, Alianne of Pirates Swoop better known, as Aly is strong, brave, courageous, and she’s a spy.

I absolutely loved the part in this book that was about Aly and her spy activities.  She was one of those heroines that knew what she wanted to do and she had plans on how she wanted to do it. As a spy she met and helped interesting people, but she also was able to go and do things that she never in her life thought she would do. As a spy she knew how to find things and how to notice little details that others would not notice which helped her in everything she did and also made for an interesting read for someone like me who has thought of being a spy. Though I loved this spy aspect of the book I was a little disappointed in the lack of action seeing as the book revolved around Aly as a spy. When you think of spies you think ACTION! ADVENTURE! and for me that was one thing this book lacked  a bit of. Nevertheless, the way that the author wrote about Aly’s spy work was captivating. I just wished it had included some more of Aly in action.

Mythology is one of my favorite genres to read, no matter the kind. Gods, Goddesses, and myths that we have never heard of come to life in Trickster’s Choice. The author, Tamora Pierce creates her own myths and her own mythology, which makes the story all the more fascinating.

Usually when reading an adventure/action book with a heroine as the main character I enjoy it when there is a little romance on the side along with the action in the book. Trickster’s Choice provides just that with a unique character as Aly’s love interest, Nawat, a person who isn’t really a person at all. Nawat is a crow that has turned man. As an agreement with a god, Nawat is teaching Aly how to communicate with crows and as they become friends Nawat decides to become a crow man. What makes this relationship so special is that since Nawat was a crow before he became a man he does things differently than a normal male might do. This unique character and love interest is just one of the many things that you will enjoy about this book.

Overall, I thought this book was a pretty decent read. The beginning was a little slow but the plot came through and the book took me off on an amazing journey through a new world of mythology and magical characters.

My rating for Trickster's Choice is 4 out of 5 palm trees 

Review: The Son of Neptune

Though this is a spin-off series from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I would highly recommend that you start from the beginning for the full Percy Jackson experience.  These books are truly amazing and will keep you up all night reading especially if you are a big fan of Greek Mythology and even if you aren’t you still will not be able to put them down.

Rick Riordan is one of my favorite authors.  As a kid, in school, I would love to read about the gods and goddesses and their stories.  When I read the first book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series I was so happy to find out that it was about Greek Mythology and I then immediately fell in love with the series and have been reading it ever since.

We first hear about Percy Jackson in Rick Riordan’s first book in the Olympians series The Lightning Thief. From there you are with Percy until The Last Olympian. I thought after this the Percy Jackson series was over, so when I found out that Rick Riordan was coming out with a series that was a continuation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians I can’t even put into words how excited I was.  With three more books to come out, The Heroes of Olympus is looking just as promising and electrifying as Percy Jackson and The Olympians.  I can’t control my excitement to see what happens next. 

Percy Jackson is back in The Son of Neptune.  In Rick Riordan’s last book, The Lost Hero we learn that Percy has been kidnapped and Hera(Juno) has sent him to another Half-Blood camp, but instead of being another Greek camp it is Roman.  Percy wakes up and he has no idea who he is or where he comes from.  The only thing he remembers is Annabeth, his girlfriend.   In this all-new book Rick introduces two new characters Frank and Hazel, who like Percy have a past.

I received my copy this book about a week after it came out and I was ecstatic to learn that parts of it would again be in Percy’s POV (point of view).  Once again Rick Riordan has made me fall back in love with this series. He introduces new and old characters in such a wonderful way that you just can’t help but connect with them and wish that you could be friends with them in real life.  Although I loved learning about the new characters I was especially excited to have Percy back and to learn about what had been happening with him during the time that he was missing.  I love the way that Rick wrote it in a way that the reader could experience with Percy the struggle and frustration that he has to deal with while trying to help his new friends, but also trying to regain his memory. This is one of the reasons I love these book so much. The way the writing is, you feel very connected with the characters.  The problems they each experience are problems that all teenagers have, besides having gods and goddesses for parents and fighting monsters all the time.  They experience problems with school, friends, and even bullies and by giving the characters these real life troubles readers like me can connect even more with them.  While having Percy back was amazing, it was nice to have the two other POVs and hear the other characters opinions on Percy himself.  This let me get to know Percy in so many other ways by getting the different characters view of him.  When I first started reading the stories about Percy one of my favorite parts about them was the Greek Mythology aspect of it, but the way that Rick Riordan has incorporated Roman Mythology along with Greek Mythology makes the stories even more wonderful for me.  I love reading about any kind of mythology and by relating back to teenagers that are my age it makes it all the more fun!  The action and adventure throughout the book was amazing as always.  The sword fighting, the quick thinking, the monster destroying, was relevant to Greek Mythology but also very entertaining and I just couldn’t put it down. If you love to read, you will surely enjoy reading this book.

        My rating for The Son of Neptune is 5 out of 5 palm trees

Review: The Night Circus

With most books I read I have a clear and concise opinion about them; I either like it or I don’t and in this case it’s different.  The Night Circus starts out with a very compelling prologue, which makes the reader think that from the start they will be drawn into this book and they will not be able to put it down, but instead after the amazing prologue the story starts out slowly. It takes about halfway through the book for things to get exciting, for the competition between the two players, Celia & Marco to start. After the competition starts everything comes together. All the different POVs (points of view) and all the different characters come together and it starts to make sense.  Now it may sound like I didn’t really enjoy the book, but in truth I enjoyed it very much!  The imagery and details used to describe the places and circus tents in this book were amazing.  The Night Circus was very enchanting and although I, personally didn’t connect with the characters like I usually do while reading I still wanted to be there, in the story, experiencing this magical, spellbinding circus.  I wanted to visit the circus tents in which Celia and Marco created, I wanted to feel the magic that the visitors to the circus did.  This is one of the most imaginative books that I have ever read.   The circus tents in the story contain such wonders as a labyrinth in which rooms grow and appear, a pool of tears, into which you can release your sorrows, a cloud maze which allows the one who enters the tent to feel as if they are flying in the clouds, and many more tents that are just as fascinating.  This story has a life of its own, just as the circus takes a life of its own.

When this book came out many compared it to Twilight and the Harry Potter Series, but besides the two characters being madly in love and the fact that they are both magicians that is where the comparison between The Night Circus and these other series end. Having read Twilight and all of the Harry Potter books I can say that they are not alike. While Twilight and Harry Potter are full of action and adventure The Night Circus seems to focus more on the imagery and details. Although I did thoroughly enjoy The Night Circus I was a little disappointed that in the descriptions it describes the competition between Marco & Celia as “fierce” when throughout the story the competition remains mostly calm and nothing fierce seems to happen.  Aside from this I found the story an enjoyable read and I hope to make it a permanent book in my personal library.

My rating for The Night Circus 4 out of 5 palm trees

  

Hello & Welcome!

Hi and WELCOME to my blog.    Within the contents of Reviews from the Hammock,  you will find my thoughts, my notes, and my overall opinion of all books that I have recently read.    I decided to start a book review blog because reading and writing are my passions.    By creating Reviews from the Hammock,   I not only get to read books, but I also get to write and I get to share my passion with you as a reader.   With all books I read I will share a detailed opinion of the book.  I hope you enjoy reading my blog and that my review of YA literature will  encourage you to read the books themselves.

I am off to read - stay tuned as my review of The Night Circus will be posted soon