Author: Michelle

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Book Review | City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256683.City_of_Bones

In City of Bones, Clary Fray sees what she believes to be a murder committed right before her eyes and discovers that there is a whole other world beyond what she knows.  A world that she has been hidden and protected from, and one that her mother has kept secret for her entire life.  With these unexpected and somewhat unwanted revelations coming to light, Clary has to decide if she’s going to step up and be a part of this new world or continue hiding from it.

Initially, it was hard for me to get into this book. Clary is such a whiny teenager!  I’ve long since grown out of that stage of life and it was far too annoying for me to read.  I had to put this book down for an afternoon in order to accept that Clary is a kid dealing with things that are entirely beyond the realm of normal.  After that, it was quite easy to fall into the world of Shadowhunters, mages, werewolves, and more.

I’m excited to see what happens with Clary, Jace, and everyone else in book two of The Mortal Instruments series, City of Ashes.

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Book Review | The Course of True Love (and First Dates) by Cassandra Clare

MichelleLeave a comment

The Course of True Love (and First Dates) is a short novella written by Cassandra Clare and is a part of the larger Bane Chronicles.  It shows Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood’s first date and the chaos that ensues, in addition to a glimpse at how Magnus views Alec.  It was an interesting read, but mainly left me wanting both better writing and a better story for these two characters.

While there were some really good bits in this novella, it mostly felt rushed and untidy, as if Cassandra Clare was struggling to meet a deadline.  I was left wanting the rough edges polished and smoothed out.

The following is one example of how good Clare can be with words.  It reads just like poetry, as if she were painting with words.

“If Jace was gold, catching the light and the attention, Alec was silver: so used to everyone else looking at Jace that that was where he looked to, so used to living in Jace’s shadow that he didn’t expect to be seen. Maybe it was enough to be the first person to tell Alec that he was worth being seen ahead of anyone in a room, and of being looked at the longest. And silver, thought few people knew it, was a rarer metal than gold.”

I’m working through the Mortal Instruments books and they seem to be better written and much less rushed, for which I am glad because I really wanted to enjoy the series.

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Movie Review | What Maisie Knew

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Just finished watching What Maisie Knew on Netflix and it’s actually quite brilliant.

While it’s terribly sad and the way that Maisie’s parents treat her like a possession that’s only around as a way to one-up each other is disgusting, the acting is AMAZING and the story that’s told just pulls you right in.

I don’t think I could have walked away from my computer screen, not even if I tried.

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Book Review | On Fire by Drew Zachary

MichelleLeave a comment

There is so much that I like about On Fire by Drew Zachary that I can’t even cover it all.

If there is one thing that will instantly draw the eye, it would be Firefighters or other officers of the law in uniform.  Regardless of why they are drawing your eye, you’ve got to admit that a person just looks good in uniform.  Am I right?  Yeah, I know you’re agreeing with me.

There a moment where Sam allows Robert to hurt him because the older man himself is hurting from things that happened at work and Sam thinks it will help him.  Usually this would be a hard-stop for me, but its such a brief, one-time moment that I was still able to enjoy reading this book.

Sam is a bouncy, genuinely like-able character (even if he has WAY too much energy in his small body, it makes me tired just reading about it, lol) and Robert is the kind of settled, solid guy people dream of settling down with.  Luckily for Sam, that’s exactly what he gets to do.  And the epilogue is a perfect glimpse into Sam and Robert’s future together.

I’ll let you in on a secret, the sequel is really good too.  🙂

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Book Review | Pacific Rim by Alex Irvine

MichelleLeave a comment

In all honesty, I enjoyed everything about the Pacific Rim novelization except for the ending.

Having read the book before seeing the movie in theaters, I was pleased with the details included in the novelization.  While it doesn’t deviate drastically from the main script of the movie, this book does give you a little bit of the history and a look into each character’s minds.

Many authors who write movie novelizations are working with an early version of the script, which often leads to discrepancies between film and novel.  In the case of Pacific Rim, the big difference is the ending and while the movie ends with Mako and Raleigh embracing atop his life pod the book ends with them kissing.

I’ve heard many, many arguments about the perceived romance between Mako and Raleigh and I have to admit that I just don’t see it.  Yes, there is a possibility for a romantic relationship between them but it is also just as likely that they will be bros/best buds for life… Something I would kill to see in the sequel, quite frankly.

The story told in Pacific Rim does not need to use a romantic relationship as a crutch, a theme which is so often found in movies these days.   If there is one thing that I want people to realize about Pacific Rim, it would be that it is so much more than romance!  You have people who are dealing with a world that no longer supports them and their struggle to protect it; men and women who are fighting to protect the family they created; and the innocent masses of people who don’t know anything but a world ruled by the fear of a Kaiju attack.

If you’re interested in more of my thoughts on Pacific Rim, take a look at my post about “Drifting In Pacific Rim.”