"House of Hades" is a Great Edition, Just Don't Read it on its Own

I've always been a fan of the Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan. Actually, I'm not just a fan, I'm obsessed. I loved his original series and I've enjoyed making my way through this series.

Except for the first movie. That was a hot mess.

The thing about this Heroes of Olympus Series is that there is a LOT going on. There are a million character POVs and jumping from like 10 people throughout the entire book can get pretty exhausting. Not to mention the fact that you have to remember things that happened from the past books! This is not easy when you are trying to read the books as they come out, since you are going for months at a time without reading this stuff. To jump back in, you have to readjust and reach into your memory to remember what was established in the last book(s). It's hard to do, but that's the price of liking an ongoing series.

Other than that, though, this book is great: the characters develop, secrets are revealed, and there is action throughout. There's even a part where Riordan came out of left field  with some progressive stuff. It was unexpected, but I am so glad he decided to go that route with the story.

At the end of the day, though, I'm just here for Percy and Annabeth. And, well...whoever was in the first series. The other characters are okay, but I'm just invested in my original peeps. It's like if you read Harry Potter and Harry, Ron, and Hermoine shared time with new main characters. You'd like the newbies, but you would be more interested in reading about the old crew.

Overall, if you are a returning reader, like me, you know what to expect. This book is a great addition and answers all the questions that you had from the last book. However, I DO NOT RECOMMEND READING THIS OUT OF ORDER. You will be so confused and probably end up hating the series, which would be horrible for you BECAUSE IT IS SO GOOD AND SO WORTH IT. If anything, you HAVE to come into this series from the beginning (more preferably the Percy Jackson and the Olympian Series), because it eases you into Riordan's writing style. Once you do, I guarantee that you will be hooked.

"Vampire Academy" Proves That Vampire Books Can Be Good

I'll be totally honest with you: when I first saw this book, I was irritated. It was YET ANOTHER vampire book riding along the coattails of that one major hit...what was it?

Oh yeah, fucking Twilight. (Don't even get me started on that...)

So, imagine my surprise when I saw the TV spot for the movie and realized this series looked pretty kickass. Rose seemed like the most sarcastic and sassy person EVER, so I was instantly intrigued. Plus, everyone was on my ass to finish it since the movie came out last weekend and they seemed to genuinely enjoy this book. If they liked it, I probably would too.

And Rose. Rose made me want to read it just so I could see what she would say.

I wasn't disappointed either. The book sucks you in immediately and you feel an instant attraction to the characters. Rose is exactly what I looked for in a main character and was very refreshing to read from her perspective, since she is definitely NOT a weak or whiny person. They plot was great too. It kept you on your toes and would gradually feed you information so that you wouldn't guess the ending. I appreciated this, because nothing sucks more than guessing the ending five minutes into the book.

I, honestly, can't wait to see the movie this weekend and compare them. I noticed that some of the parts of the trailer are different from the book, but, as long as they make a good ADAPTATION of the book, I'll be satisfied. I also can't wait to get my hands on the next book in this series, because this book is just that good.

"Divergent": Not Bad, but not Great Either

Going into Divergent, I had some high hopes. A lot of people were raving about it and I've started to seen some previews for the movie online. As someone who likes to read the book before the movie comes out, I figured I'd jump right on this and get ahead.

I don't necessarily regret it, but I don't think it did me any favors.

I just feel like I am not a dystopian book lover. I honestly don't think this book was terrible, but I didn't feel connected to it at all. Instead of being sucked in, I just felt like an observer, watching the events of the story unfold before me. This shouldn't be surprising because I didn't care for the original Hunger Games book either, and, while they are two COMPLETELY different books, I feel like they had similar concepts going on.

And, for the record, I would reread Divergent before the Hunger Games. That first one I just did not like...

Back to Divergent, though. It had everything I like in a book: some badassery, a love interest, and a strong main character.  SO WHY DON'T YOU LIKE THIS BOOK KATIE?!

TRUST ME, I want to like this book more than I did. But I just feel like there wasn't a lot of setting change and the same things would keep happening. The end of the book felt rushed, but I was kind of glad because I just wanted to finish this book (it was due in 24 hours and I'm a college student. The struggle). They also didn't really go out of their way to show the importance of divergence, WHICH IS THE TITLE OF THE BOOK. Usually, when that is the case, the reveal leading up to it is full of suspense and guessing what its importance is. Roth doesn't build it up at all and, in the end, you know what it is but it's nothing extraordinary.

That might be the reason why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I did. There was not a lot of buildup to suspense. There is some, but it's not enough to make your heart start to race and want to continue reading. I want that kind of suspense, because that's the whole reason why I read!

So, Divergent. It's not bad, but it's not great. If you like dystopian societies, you'll probably love it, but, for me, it was only eh.

KATIE'S LAST WORDS: I am looking forward to the movie, though. I mean, I didn't like the Hunger Games book, but I loved the movie. Hopefully, the same thing happens with Divergent.