Books of June

Got a little over excited with some revisions early on in the month and I didn't get quite as much reading done as I had hoped. But here are my books of June. Anyone read some of these? What were your thoughts?

45.  Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler ** I really liked the use of second person in this one. The MC seemed more than a bit naive, but I still liked her enough to feel really bad by the end of it. Kind of wanted to strangle Ed though. Also I'm not sure about the form of the book. It was all in glossy print, which felt way overdone to me and the art kind of reminded me of Andy Warhol, which unfortunately I'm not a fan of. So, take that as you may...
46. The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour** For those who want a comparison, no, this book wasn't as good as Hold Still, but I did enjoy it. I really liked that youthful feeling it had, and the MC, I just wanted to snuggle up to him and say, hey you deserve better than this! Nina LaCour is definitely still one of my favorite YA contemp authors, for sure.
47. Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin** Dark and haunting is the best way to describe Masque, Bethany Griffin's retelling of Poe's short story. Some of the images really made me shiver and the world building rocked. There were times when my stomach was clenching, kind of the same feeling I got watching the movie Outbreak. BG really knows how to build tension and then raise it another notch just for fun. Also I was surprised by how much I loved both love interests and couldn't really decide which to root for. Can't wait for the sequel.

48. Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer* A bit disappointing. I had read the first chapter a while back and was kind of, shall we say, not impressed by Cala's actions? But I wanted to finish the series off, and so I put my revulsion for her cheating heart aside and read the final book. I enjoyed the set-up and how they had to go on these sort of "quests" in these dangerous places. That felt a bit Harry Potter-ish, but with a definite more YA vibe, but I didn't really enjoy that she felt she had to give EVERYONE a love interest. I expected what was going to happen at the end, so wasn't really surprised, but it still felt like a cop-out to me. Like I said, overall a bit disappointing, but I'm glad that I finished off the series.
 

49. The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith The beginning - whoa. The middle - eh? The ending - WTF??? I can't really recommend this one unless you happen to be a big fan of alternate worlds in the vein of Stephen King's The Gunslinger/Dark Tower series.I read those about a decade ago and honestly didn't get past the third one. So if you like those and you like endings that don't really leave you with a sense of closure then you might like it.

50.The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jess Rothenberg* Cute, but predictable. Instead of a survivor going through the stages of grief, here we have the dead girl going through the stages of grief. Parts of it felt predictable, but the ending really kind of threw me for a loop. Also a bit too much with the eighties references. Really, I love the eighties, I grew up in the eighties, but it just didn't feel right when there were these references being thrown at me every other page. There was definitely some author intrusion there.

51. Insurgent by Veronica Roth** LOVE the sequel to Divergent. Halfway through I was predicting what the ending was going to reveal, and once that was confirmed, the first book actually made a lot more sense to me. I liked the way VR portrayed Tris going through her grief and how that affected the way she handled things. And of course I loved Four even more than I did before. Eagerly awaiting the third book.

52. Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi** I think part of my feelings about this one stem from the fact that I plotted something similar out a couple months ago, and so a lot of what was happening really clicked for me. I loved the contrast between the two worlds, and I really loved the descriptions of the sky and how the title fit in. Character-wise, I think Aria's transition was a little too fast and a little too... predictable? As in VR couldn't resist but give her MC some kick-ass special powers too. As for Perry, the earlier descriptions of him left me wanting, but then later he grew on me, and IDK, his dreads were forgotten after awhile or something. In the end I really liked him (despite the ew-factor when he describes how Aria suddenly smells better to him when she menstruates). Planning to read the sequel.

Also, but did you notice that it's now July and I'm at 50+ books for the year?? I think I might just blow past my reading goal of 75 books. Might as well bump it up to 100. :)