Well, here I am finally posting two reviews for books I read for the Once Upon a Time II Challenge. I barely got these in before the deadline and still wasn’t able to complete my challenge. Oh well, there’s always next year!
The books I read for this challenge for the most part were good ones. I especially liked A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren. I highly recommend it. It is set in the near future after a nuclear war has ravaged the earth. There are a few survivors and two of them in particular are determined to see that some spark of culture survives. They are amassing a vault of books. This gives me hope even if the book has some nightmare inducing stuff. Anyway, here is more of my review.
The other book I read was a bit more light and breezy even if it was about witches and demons. Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison was a good start to the popular Rachel Morgan series. The only thing that bugged me about this book, and really nothing to do with the book itself, is that I kept thinking I had read some of it before. A good part of the beginning seemed very familiar to me so maybe I had picked it up at one point. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll check out the second one in the series because I really want to know what secrets one of the characters was hiding! Here is more of my review.
A big thank you goes to Carl V. for once again organizing such a fun challenge. It’s a challenge that gets me out of my reading comfort zone and I like that.
I’m going to check out “A Gift Upon the Shore.” I like those types of books. Thanks for the review!
I’m going to check out “A Gift Upon the Shore” too. I might suggest it to my book club next month. Thanks again for a great review.
Congrats for reading a new genre.
You can be forgiven for not finishing. After all, you had to move, vacation, and take your bookbinding class, and suffer through allergies…..
It’s all about having fun, Iliana, and of course not to mention our reading pleasure! 🙂 I do not do well for other challenges either, and one reason is my reading mood dictates what I’ll read next and most of them aren’t even listed as the challenger lists! As long as we enjoy the books we read, that is what most matters. 🙂
I’m really good at signing up for challenges, not so good at completing them! Oh well, it sure is fun anyway!
Like the others said, all’s well as long as you’re having fun 🙂
Hi,
I am reading the Pandora Prescription by James Sheridan and I was curious if you have ever read it? Also, have you heard about this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbx3qnKKC0Q
-Molly
I enjoyed your review of A Gift Upon the Shore and will definitely check it out. It sounds like it combines two of my favorite sub genres – post apocalyptic and books about books. It is also unusual to find a post apocalyptic book that focuses on women.
I notice that you listed Stolen Child as one of your OUaTII reads but it is not crossed off your list. I hope you still get a chance to read it as it was my favorite read for this challenge and perhaps one of my favorite books that I have read in the past year.
Anna – I hope you do check it out. I loved it, even made me cry at one point!
Jennifer – I really think it’d be a great discussion book because I can see where some people would not like certain things about it. I saw some reviews on Amazon where people thought it got a bit too preachy but well that’s something you can analyze and see if it was warranted or not. If you do read it, let me know what you think!
Isabel – You made me feel better girl 🙂 I don’t know why I don’t read more of this genre because last year I also really liked the books I read. As a matter of fact some of them were favorites of the year! I’ll have to keep reading more of it.
Melody – I totally agree. My mood also dictates what I want to read so sometimes my lists change quite a bit and even then I still don’t finish a challenge – ha,ha.. it’s all fun!
Stephanie – I hear ya! I love signing up and really do get a kick out of reading everyone’s thoughts and reviews.
Nymeth – Exactly. If it’s not fun then I won’t do it. I don’t want this to feel like homework 🙂
Molly – No, I haven’t heard of the book. I’ll have to look into that.
Moo – Thank you! I still plan on reading The Stolen Child one of these days. I have heard so many good things about it and definitely don’t want to miss out. Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
You made a good effort considering how busy you were with moving and everything. And like everyone else said, as long as it’s still fun then it doesn’t matter. I don’t always read much fantasy either but I enjoyed all the books I read for the challenge, I think I need to read more of it.
I have to say, this has made me very intrigued about doing a reading challenge. I love the genre, and your reviews have piqued my interest… Are you doing any other challenges in the near future, or did this one fry your brain? 😉
tanabata – Thanks! I had fun with it and I’ll still try to read the other books… just don’t know when -ha. Now to see how I fare with the other challenges!
Kaite – Oh it’s a lot of fun. There are so many reading challenges that it’s actually hard to narrow down the choices. I’m involved in 6 other challenges so we’ll see how I do on those 🙂