Snowflakes and Spider Silk

I'm halfway through December reviews, I'm hoping to finish up some bullet reviews for December/January in the next week or two and then start writing actual reviews again soon! This week is a little bit of a hodge-podge set of reviews; they are all loosely connected because they are all books that I didn't like as much as I thought I would. I had heard so much about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and I liked it initially, but then I just got kind of bored with it. I was really enjoying Brian Staveley's Unhewn Throne trilogy, and I'd heard glowing reviews about the conclusion, but I liked the second book better than the third. And finally, I read the sequel to Ancillary Justice since I loved the first book so much, but the second just didn't compare. Here are the reviews! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson Genre: mystery, suspense Rating: 3/5 stars What I liked: I listened to the audio version, and I really liked the narr...

Round 4 of Bullet reviews features some not-quite-urban-fantasy books . I say not-quite because all three books involve our modern world and some paranormal creatures but none of them quite fit into the stereotypical UF mold. I was initially planning on making this set of reviews the last few books I read in November, but those three books were completely unrelated so I decided to grab a book from December to make the reviews fit better together. Vampire Academy by Richelle Meade Genre: contemporary, urban fantasy Rating: 4/5 stars What I liked: Full disclosure: I only picked this up because it started with a V and I needed to complete my A-Z challenge. That said, I had zero expectations going into this book and I ended up really enjoying it I loved how it focused on friendship. Yes, there were a lot of messy romantic feelings and such but the core of this story is a bond of friendship, and I'm a sucker for stories about amazing friends Lissa and Rose are bo...

Round 3 of Bullet reviews! I'm still working my way through November 2016, but I'm hoping to finish November this week and then I'll only be 2 months behind on reviews instead of 4! The bar is so low haha This week's books are Heartless, A Torch Against the Night, and Gemina. These were all "big" 2016 releases, ones that I/the bookish community was hugely anticipating. One book exceeded my expectations, one was a disappointment, and one was just as incredible as I thought it would be. So which one was which? Check it out below! Heartless by Marissa Meyer Genre: fantasy, fairy tale retelling Rating: 3/5 stars What I liked: the descriptions of the food! I love cooking and baking, and all the descriptions of Cath's baking made my mouth water and inspired me to try baking some lemon-flavored things Jest was a really cool character, as was the Hatter. It was interesting to see how archetypal Alice in Wonderland charac...

Okay, here's round 2 of the bullet reviews. In case you missed the first set, I'm doing a couple of quick bullet point reviews of books I read last fall/winter so I can catch up by the end of the month (fingers crossed). This week's books are The Trespasser, The Revanant, and The Accident. My loose theme for them is that they are all mystery/suspense novels, and I read them all in October. They're actually very different; Trespasser is a character-focused and psychological mystery, The Revanant is not a mystery but it is very suspenseful and intense historical fiction, and The Accident is more of a fluffy, fun mystery. The Trespasser by Tana French Genre: Mystery, psychological thriller Rating: 5/5 stars What I liked: this is yet another winner from Tana French! She's my favorite mystery author because of her books are character-centric instead of plot-twisty (but there are still awesome revelations!) I loved getting to see the other perspect...