I now have a lot of free time on my hands. And waste it doing anything but what I'm supposed to be doing. Sorry this is like a week late.
Champion by Marie Lu, finished 6/1. I think Champion was my favorite out of the entire series. It was also super stressful for me -- potentially because Allegiant kind of scarred me, and I was so afraid that the same thing would happen that would ruin the series for me. (It didn't.) I'm actually really happy with how the series ended, and I think it totally does the series justice. I'm also really glad I got to read it straight after Prodigy.
This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, finished 6/2. The book was actually hard for me to get into at first. It just seemed kind of slow. It did pick up, but my feelings about it didn't really change. For a while I was enjoying it, and then Elise made some pretty stupid decisions. Which she tended to do a lot. I'm not sure the book is all that realistic, but I did enjoy reading about music and being a DJ. I don't think I'd read it again, though.
The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, finished 6/3. (Goodreads says I read this in a day. I'm not sure if that's true.) So, like Champion, I think that The Last Olympian did awesome with wrapping up the first part of the series. It did really well for a final battle that's been building up over 5 books. The only thing I can say is that it might have seemed like it wrapped up too well, but again, it's pretty MG. And there's also another series that comes right after it. Which I'm totally excited about.
The Boy on the Bridge by Natalie Standiford, finished 6/4. The Boy on the Bridge was new for me -- I don't think I've ever read about Russia outside of a fictional account of the last czar's family, and definitely not anything about the Cold War. So while that was interesting, I really wasn't impressed by the romance. It was definitely pretty insta-love and Laura was really dumb with her decisions regarding Alexei. She learns by the end, but I feel like that wasn't really worth reading the entire thing.
Blackout by Robison Wells, finished 6/8. I actually really enjoyed the concept of Blackout. More of the superpowers than the whole collapse of things because of terrorists, though the focus was of the book was on the superpowers anyway. It was kind of weird with all of the military involvement, though. I really don't think the military would act like it did in the book. So, it's definitely not realistic, but once I got into the book it was pretty fun to read. The description for Dead Zone isn't that helpful, though, so I'm not entirely sure if I'll continue reading.
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan, finished 6/10. I had to return this book back to my friend by the day of our last exam, and I timed it wrong, so I ended up finishing the last third of it well past midnight the morning of. And I don't regret that at all, honestly. I really enjoyed the new characters, and the fact that the chapters alternated perspectives between the new trio. I had to google more of the mythology than I had to for the first part of the series, but that was mainly because I have even less knowledge of anything that's not Greek or Norse. Also, while I had an idea what was happening because of Jason, I was completely surprised by what they ended up revealing at the end of the book. And I was extremely mad that I didn't have my hands on a copy of Son of Neptune. Because I'm really excited for that now. AND I CAN'T READ IT YET.
The Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede, finished 6/15. I'm not sure I've read many books that deal with alternate histories, and it took me a while to realize it was actually set in what would be the US. I had figured it was a completely fictional world;; But I found it really interesting! I liked the whole concept of "frontier magic" (which is the name of the series). It took me a little bit to get into, but by the time that they moved west I was pretty intrigued. I'm planning to continue reading the series, though I'm not sure if the library will have Across the Great Barrier.
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, finished 6/23. I really only started this series because I couldn't find Son of Neptune. I figured it had to be pretty similar to what I wanted, anyway. And it was! I liked that it dealt with Egyptian mythology (something I'd really only else found in The Chaos of Stars), but it still hinted that it was set in the same universe as the Percy Jackson series. It also dealt almost entirely on familial relationships rather than friendship (or being stuck on a quest with someone). The formatting was a little hard to get used to, since it was told in a way like the two were recapping their adventure via a voice recorder, but it was still pretty interesting.
Vortex by Julie Cross, finished 6/30. I'd checked out this book once before and never got around to finishing it. It took me about 20 pages into it this time to remember that;; I really liked the concepts of the story, especially in the first book, but Vortex kind of seemed like a mess. Maybe it's just because of all the tense confusion that comes with time travel and doing things that end up not being in chronological order. And the fact that they totally started to undo events that happened. That said, I still don't know much about Eyewall (or whoever they're battling) other than that they've got a sucky future, and I'm really not sure the last book is really going to cover it. Also, the ending was definitely not what I expected and I just stared at the book when I finished it.
