Classic Summer 2015

Classic Summer 2015

I have decided to begin again on something that I started two summers ago. In the summer of 2013 I vowed to reread the Harry Potter series straight through (something I realized with embarrassment that I had never done.) Shortly after that, I found out that I was pregnant, and quickly lost all motivation for doing anything but keeping what little food I was eating down.

So, this summer I determined to complete this! Not only because I feel I need to. But, if everything pans out and the good Lord willing, my husband and I will be taking a weekend vacation to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in August! I am beyond excited. This is something I have dreamed of doing ever since I heard that the theme park was a concept, and I cannot believe that it is finally happening. ( Although, I feel that it needs to be stated that my husband and I are both working through some guilt about not taking our precious boy with us. We know that it is better this way, and that we deserve it, but good Lord it makes me feel awful when I think about it too hard. :( Praying for peace over this.)

During that summer in 2013 I did manage to reread the first in the series, and I actually wrote a review then. I'm not sure why I didn't publish it then, but last month I found it in my drafts and published it. I will be starting with the first one again because I am a classicist at heart and I just want to! But I will not write another review. Although I may update the one I already have if it strikes my fancy.

I am so ready for this!

The Mara Dyer Trilogy, Books 2 &3

The Mara Dyer Trilogy, Books 2&3

Well, I sort of did a bad thing and instead of stoping to write between books I kept reading. I just couldn't stop myself. I had to know what happened! So hopefully I will be able to separate the two and write two coherent reviews.

The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

We open with a very damaged Mara. The more she tries to control herself, and her abilities, the more she loses control.

This book gave me bad dreams. And I am not normally affected by things that way. ( I am also blaming it on the combo of this book right after watching a particularly disturbing episode of Game of Thrones. Valar Morghulis.) 

Mara tries her best to act her way through  everything and pretend that she is recovering. The meds are helping, the stupid treatments are helping. But they are not. She is more convinced than ever that not only is her EX- boyfriend Jude alive, but that he is stalking her. She knows he has something planned for her, but she could never imagine what.

And Noah. Oh Noah. Amazingly enough, I still haven't wanted to slap the teeth out of his head. He has actually remained a pretty decent bad boy. I can dig it. 

And now, my memory keeps bleeding these two together so I am going to move on to the next one!

The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

 

So at this point I am just going to have to write my feelings because I still can't separate the two books enough for a normal review. I gave this book five stars. I use to be very generous with my five star reviews, but now I make myself find a reason for giving them, and my reason is this. The ending of this book is not exactly cut and dry. There are still several questions that are left unresolved. And honestly until you read the last page you are still not convinced of anything. And even so, its not perfect. I liked that there were still consequences. They were told what would happen if they stayed together, and they are excepting that the best they can. They are not sure what that means for their future. I wrote this in my review on Goodreads: " I think the reason I am choosing to give this one five stars instead of four is because of how complicated the ending was. There was no magic wand waved (technically). Everything didn't just click into place to give the reader a cathartic happy ending. No, there are still some issues when the book ends, but its something we can live with. It was realistic to me, sometimes you can learn to live with something that you never thought you could. That you never knew you wanted."

So there. 

I also have to commend Michelle Hodkin on her use of vocabulary and for not repeating phrases over and over. Some of her imagery combined with her description of color were really brilliant. 

And, am I the only one who felt like the ending of this book could set up for another set of books? 

Sigh, hopefully we don't have another Mortal Instruments on our hands ( sorry Clare, but it's true.) But who knows, I might not mind visiting this world again. :)

Until next time,

Happy Reading,

HLP