25% of the way there!

It's been a few days and 2 books read since my last post.

The last two books I read were

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsan

and

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

One of these books I greatly enjoyed. One of these books I really wanted to greatly enjoy.

I really, really enjoyed The False Prince. It's not everything I want in a novel, but it has that something that just sucked me in and made me not want to put the book down for a second. It started off great. It jumped right into action with the main character Sage stealing a roast for his orphanage. Right away he's dodging thrown cleavers and being tripped by strange men. I can't really stand stories that focus too much on build up before they get to (what I think of) as the good stuff. I don't need to know the entire history of minor characters. They're minor. If they have a purpose, by all means give them history and tell me about it. Incorporate it into the story. Do NOT devote a good chunk of the beginning of the book to minor characters who while they may have key roles are NOT the focus of the story.

This is something The False Prince does exceptionally well in my opinion. We are given information and history of the characters as needed. It's not shoved down our throats. Like with Sage, his story is presented from the get go. Not everything. Not even really the truth. But it's more than enough to get you going and curious to find out what the real story is. What's going on behind all the deception and the threats. The False Prince was an great read. The beginning was great, the middle was solid and the ending was satisfactory and left you wanting more. You really can't ask for more than that from a book.

I can think of a few books I've read recently that were nothing but a struggle to get through. A book shouldn't be a chore to read. It should be a joy. An escape into a world that you can embrace. A place where you can identify with a character, find them admirable.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was a chore at the beginning. For me, really, more than half of the book was a chore. Don't get me wrong though, I liked it. But there was far, FAR too much build up and not enough of what I wanted from the book. The back of the book tells me that Frankie is a brilliant criminal mastermind and genius prank puller. What are we given at the start of the book? A girl who is more focused on her boyfriend Matthew and his group of friends. Maybe it's because Matthew and his friends are the kind of people I couldn't stand in school, but to me there was nothing remarkable about them. Nothing fantastic. You certainly weren't given enough information about any of them to find them truly likable. I didn't even really like Frankie until she started pulling pranks. By then the book was sprinting to the finish. The ending was drab and boring and predictable. Makes me think of Wolfsangel I read recently.

I am tired of books that I only really enjoy the last half of. It makes me feel like half my time is being wasted. But unfortunately, I am the kind of person who can't NOT finish a book. Nor can I read multiple books at one time. Sometimes I wish I was. Other times I'm more than content to be myself and blaze through possibly 2 books in one day if left interrupted.

Now off to work on loading up my Kindle with books to read before leaving on vacation and to read while ON vacation. But! I have at least 14 books on hold at the library. Holds set to kick in a day before I get home from vacation!

To be read soon:

1. Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
2. Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
3. Black Dawn by Rachel Caine
4. Singing the Dogstar Blues by Alison Goodman
5. The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
6. The Dragon's Tooth (Ashtown Burials, #1) by N.D. Wilson
7. Seraphina (Seraphina, #1) by Rachel Hartman
8. Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century, #1) by Cherie Priest

See you in a few books!