Tag: 5 stars

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Bearers of the Black Staff: Terry Brooks

I was so excited when I read that Terry was going to be continuing his Shannara series. He has written them in a confusing order.
The Shannara Series is set in the future (although it seems more like the past) and has like 17 books to it.
Then it goes WAAAAAYYYYY back to the Word and Void series.
Then we start connecting it all with the Genesis of Shannara series.

This is after the Genesis series but before the Shannara series.
Need more of an explanation? Here you go:

Word & Void

  • Running with the Demon
  • A Knight of the Word
  • Angel Fire East

Pre-Shannara
Genesis of Shannara

  • Armageddon’s Children
  • The Elves of Cintra
  • The Gypsy Morph

Legends of Shannara

Shannara
The Original Shannara Novels

  • The Sword of Shannara
    • In the Shadow of the Warlock Lord – first 1/3 of The Sword of Shannara
    • The Druids’ Keep – middle 1/3 of The Sword of Shannara
    • The Secret of the Sword – last 1/3 of The Sword of Shannara
  • The Elfstones of Shannara
  • The Wishsong of Shannara

A Shannara Short Story

  • Indomitable – An epilogue to The Wishsong of Shannara

A Shannara Graphic Novel

  • Dark Wraith of Shannara

The Heritage of Shannara

  • The Scions of Shannara
  • The Druid of Shannara
  • The Elf Queen of Shannara
  • The Talismans of Shannara

A Shannara Prequel

  • First King of Shannara

The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara

  • Ilse Witch
  • Antrax
  • Morgawr

High Druid of Shannara

  • Jarka Ruus
  • Tanequil
  • Straken

Confused yet? Well don’t be.
Just start with this trilogy and if you like it, go from there.
It’s very Lord of the Ring-esq and a great read. If you are like me and get attached to characters and series, this is great because there are SO many of them!

Anyways, I was so happy that Terry decided to keep the series going awhile longer and so this book just came out.

It was great. I loved it!
5 stars and totally recommend!

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Del Rey (August 24, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345484177
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Mockingjay: Suzanne Collins

Now this was a fantastic conclusion to this trilogy!

It wraps everything up and has everything that you would be looking for for in Book Three.

I am not really going to write a lot about it, but to say that I loved it.

If you have read Hunger Games and Catching Fire then you will love this book!

5 stars and definitely recommend it!

So go read it!

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (August 24, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0439023513
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Her Daughter’s Dream: Francine Rivers

This was my first forray back into reading and I must say, it was the BEST idea ever! 🙂 Thanks to Kimber who kept encouraging me to read it with her, even though I was a little afraid that it would still make me sick.

So anyways, I was so, so, so, pleased with the conclusion of this duet. Her Mother’s Hope was such a great book, and so I was really excited about this one. And I must say that I was blown away by the intensity of emotions. I have a great relationship with my mother, yet I still was wrapped into this story like it was my own life.

I think this is such a wonderful book about healing relationships and how the way you say things can be received in a totally different way and how entire lives can be affected because of the power of words.

SUCH a great book and you need to read it STAT!

5 stars and totally recommend it.

  • Hardcover: 592 pages
  • Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (September 14, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1414334095
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Dead Tossed Waves: Carrie Ryan

This is a the 2nd book to The Forest of Hands and Teeth which is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time!
It doesn’t so much pick up where the last one left off, so I wouldn’t call it a sequal, it just sort of progresses the stories a few decades later.
But just like Forest of Hands and Teeth, it grips you and sucks you in. You connect with the characters and the love and the fear and the tragedy on such a deep level.
I TOTALLY recommend this book with 5 stars! Like seriously, go out and read both of them… like now. This instant!

Summary:
Gabry has grown up safely in the city of Vista. She lives in a lighthouse with her mother, Mary, the daring heroine of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte, 2009), whose job it is to kill Mudo—zombies—as they wash ashore. Then one night, Cira, Gabry’s best friend, and Catcher, Cira’s brother, convince her to sneak outside Vista’s walls. With the attack of one Breaker—a fast zombie—everything changes: a friend is killed, Catcher is infected, and Cira is imprisoned and destined for the Recruiters, the army that protects the loose federation of cities left after the Return. Feeling both guilty for having escaped punishment and self-destructive after the revelation that Mary in fact adopted her, Gabry pushes herself to cross the city’s Barrier again. Some pieces of the narrative are well constructed: the constant, looming threat of the Mudo, Gabry’s quiet determination and daring in the face of fear, and villainous soldier Daniel’s palpably frightening power-grabbing sexual advances. Other details are less believable, like Mary’s suddenly abandoning her daughter and her duties to seek her past in the Forest. Though flawed, this volume has enough action, romance, and depth of character to satisfy, and the cliff-hanger ending will leave fans hungry for the third book.

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (March 9, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385736843
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The Forest of Hands and Teeth: Carrie Ryan

Okay, LOVED this book!

It was all end of the world meets 28 days later, but with less gore and a lot more tragic love.

I really enjoyed this book and was totally into it and didn’t want to put it down. I actually will always have fond memories of this book because I read it on our road trip to Tuscany and my husband kept getting irritated that I had my nose in my book -er- Kindle instead of staring at the majesty of the Alps! 🙂

Anyways, the book was fantastic and totally recommend it with 5 stars!

Summary:
Mary knows little about the past and why the world now contains two types of people: those in her village and the undead outside the fence, who prey upon the flesh of the living. The Sisters protect their village and provide for the continuance of the human race. After her mother is bitten and joins the Unconsecrated, Mary is sent to the Sisters to be prepared for marriage to her friend Harry. But then the fences are breached and the life she has known is gone forever. Mary; Harry; Travis, whom Mary loves but who is betrothed to her best friend; her brother and his wife; and an orphaned boy set out into the unknown to search for safety, answers to their questions, and a reason to go on living. In this sci-fi/horror novel, the suspense that Ryan has created from the very first page on entices and tempts readers so that putting the book down is not an option. The author skillfully conceals and reveals just enough information to pique curiosity while also maintaining an atmosphere of creepiness that is expected in a zombie story. Some of the descriptions of death and mutilation of both the Unconsecrated and the living are graphic. The story is riveting, even though it leaves a lot of questions to be explained in the sequel.