Review: Good Behavior

Good Behavior by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to my friend Speedy, I got into Good Behavior last fall and soon found myself addicted. I mean, it's based on Blake Crouch's work, so of course it's addictive. But now I get to see, at last, the source material - three novellas, each one following Letty Dobesh on another heist-y misadventure, some more suspenseful than others. The first of these formed the basis for the series pilot (mostly), while the second and third, aside from some small scenes, have yet to be adapted thanks to the series really doing its own thing. As Crouch states in the notes at the end of each book, there are quite a few changes as well - among them, Javier being based more on Arnold from the first novella than the character of the same name, which is a major improvement.

Though I don't quite enjoy these stories as much as Crouch's sci-fi work - Dark Matter and the Wayward Pines trilogy - they're pretty quick and digestible and recognizably Crouch's style, and the man himself really loves Letty's character, so there's always a hope that he can write more stories with her someday.

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Review: Heir of Fire

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Huh...so I thought I'd rated this one four stars the first time I read this, but turns out it was five. Well, now that I've re-read it, I'm bringing it down to four for sure. Don't get me wrong, Celaena's story - and rediscovery of her true self as Aelin - makes for some pretty fascinating reading, but it takes up a huge, huge chunk of a huge, huge book at the expense of Chaol's story. For Chaol, it's a shame that much of what we get is him angsting over Celaena being gone, and worrying about where to go from here, and where should his allegiance lie, rather than him being the man of action we know he should be. It's also connected to the introduction of Rowan in this book - I used to like him, but compared to Chaol, he's way too perfect and attractive, too devoid of flaws, and his function in the story basically amounts to being a knockoff Fae version of Four from Divergent. And it certainly doesn't help that to indicate his "animalistic" Fae nature, he's consistently referred to as "a male" rather than "a man," another Franchise Original Sin not only for this series, but for SJM in general.

But this book does have a lot of action to spare, and even better, it introduces fan favorite Manon. Despite her being another case of Maas not being able to handle such a good character later on down the line, here, where we see Manon as originally intended, she's more than a welcome presence, adding another layer of complication to the ever-expanding storyline of this series.

Two more books to go on this series re-read. At least I'll go into Queen of Shadows remembering the Valg a bit better from this book now.

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Review: Crystal Storm

Crystal Storm by Morgan Rhodes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally, the fifth - and, unless I'm much mistaken, penultimate - book in Rhodes' Falling Kingdoms series. After the events of its predecessor, here we get some really unlikely team-ups going on, with just about all the original cast forced to clench their teeth and unite against the bigger threats the whole land of Mytica now faces. Those bigger threats, of course, being the various flavors of Kindred and also Amara.

It's great to see Jonas getting the screen time he deserves, even if it's clear that the story is much more about the likes of Lucia, Cleo, and Magnus (the latter, I'm much more invested in his character now, especially since I really couldn't stand him in the earlier books.) Even King Gaius, I feel a little more sympathy for him, for similar reasons to why I feel just a twinge of sympathy for Victoria Aveyard's Maven...but at least Gaius isn't a complete monster, you know what I mean?

And then all this builds up to a Riordan-grade cliffhanger so nasty that of course Rhodes has to apologize for it in the acknowledgments, except not really, LOL. I admit, at that point, I was thinking...



One more book in the main series to go, and at least two more in that Outlander-style spinoff. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to reread Heir of Fire.

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Review: Crown of Midnight

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember it used to be that I preferred the even-numbered entries in the Throne of Glass series to the odd-numbered ones, because I tended to feel like (except for the first, of course), the odd-numbered ones are loaded with filler (HoF and EoS especially are guilty of this.) But after rereading Crown of Midnight for the third time - I actually sort of gave up the first time, then really enjoyed it on the second read - I realize that this book was the one loaded with filler, contributing to a case of Sophomore Slump. Not quite on the level ofHunger or, more recently, Windwitch, but still.

That problem is mostly confined to the book's first half or so, where not much happens other than the occasional look at Celaena being the King's Champion, and the reading of more Wyrdmark books (I still chuckle every time I see the title The Walking Dead, for obvious reasons.) Then the second half picks up the pace considerably, not only with a majorly controversial character death (I'm reminded of the third season of The 100 here, because here the book sacrifices one of its most diverse and interesting characters to kick the story into high gear), but also some majorly shocking (at the time) reveals that really inform the sequels. Reveals that actually come to the reader through Chaol's POV, more often than not - highlighting his importance to the story and highlighting that Maas really didn't know how to handle him properly after a certain point or so. (Not to mention he just wasn't perfect enough for her, I guess...but at least he's getting his own book soon.)

So, while Crown of Midnight boasts a few Franchise Original Sins for Throne of Glass - which I really hope the forthcoming Queen of Shadows TV series works to correct - it's still an enjoyable, easily devourable book in its own right. For the third time, I'm changing my star rating for this one. Hopefully it'll be the last time I do so for any of the remaining books - I'm anticipating sticking by my rankings of four stars for HoF and EoS, and five for Qos, which rightfully earned itself an honorable mention in the 2015 Pinecone Awards for a reason (and, to me, is still Peak Maas if only for its banana-nuts Lovecraftian nature). All of the above, of course, is still subject to change. Stay tuned.

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Review: Windwitch

Windwitch by Susan Dennard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've found over the last year or so that while the YA Cool Kids' Table (the likes of Schwab, Bracken, Aveyard, Maas, Silvera, etc.) all can't stop raving about Susan Dennard and her Witchlands, the average reader has a harder time buying into the hype. I enjoyed Truthwitch well enough, but unfortunately, Windwitch is a come-down, a case of Sophomore Slump.

That's not to say the book is entirely a write-off. Far from it, because like its predecessor, Windwitch benefits from a blistering pace and some high-intensity witchery action. Unfortunately, while those elemental Avatar-esque elements still run strong, Dennard here doubles down on some George R.R. Martin-esque storytelling - not so much in terms of killing your faves off the way Jay Kristoff would, but more in terms of dividing the story between several POVs that get only a few pages at a time before switching to the next one. I loved Safi and Iseult in the first book, but this book, sadly, dispenses a lot with Safi's story and compensates by focusing heavily on Merik, as well as Vivia, who I found terribly unengaging compared with the other POV characters (including Aeduan, who's becoming one of my faves now.) The worst part is, while the book doesn't move any slower for these multiple POVs, it also contributes to a general sense that the plot, like that of Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, or Mr. Robot, is going nowhere fast because the character sheet is just too bloated and un-streamlined.

I'm not done with my exploration of the Witchlands anytime soon - and Dennard promises something really cool right in the title of the upcoming threequel, Bloodwitch - but now I'm going to go forward a little more cautiously, because this is a hype train I'm not enjoying riding nearly as much as, say, Red Queen.

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Review: Take the Key and Lock Her Up

Take the Key and Lock Her Up by Ally Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For the final time, back to Malta...sorry, Adria. (No, seriously, you can't tell me Adria isn't an alternate Malta, not when the capital is a walled city named Valancia and it's been fought over by so many world powers over the years.)

I'll admit, this book started on a bit of a sour note for me because the first fifty pages or so were quite jumbled and chaotic and I was worried that perhaps Carter had taken the series a little too far from its roots. But eventually, the story reaches something of an even keel again, taking the reader on one more wild and twisted adventure across the world and through explorations of Adria's secret royal history. More than ever, this book takes the series into low-fantasy realms, feeling like an odd mashup of Indiana Jones and The Princess Diaries at times. But it works, and works pretty well.

About the only thing that keeps this one from being five stars for me is that beginning. And also the fact that, as usual, my ship doesn't sail in the end. But for this conclusion to the trilogy, Carter delivers some pretty top-notch intrigue and action.

To Embassy Row, I now say ave atque vale...or whatever the Adrian translation of that phrase may be.

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Review: Wayfarer

Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not unlike with Bracken's Darkest Minds trilogy, I feel that her Passenger duology improves considerably going into the finale, with a lot less dead air and a lot more action. Sure, Wayfarer is quite a long book, so it's not entirely devoid of such staticky spots, but when the action and alternate history ideas come in, they come in fast, fast, fast. It's also got a certain unpredictability factor, given how many times and places in history are visited, often with certain twists to keep the reader on their toes. Like, you would think that a trip to San Francisco in 1906 would require experiencing the earthquake of that year, but not here, not when this book surfaces in the quake's aftermath several months later. Also, an alternate New York in 1939...which, at first, I thought was going to be 9/11, based on how catastrophic and horrifying the initial description was. And as for the romance, which I thought was Bracken's strongest yet, that turns out just as unpredictable as the rest of the story, never quite going where you expect it to...but at least once going where you hope it does.

To Passenger and Wayfarer, I now say ave atque vale.

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