29. Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling** Obviously this is a re-read for me, but it was one of the most fun re-reads I've ever done because I read it OUT LOUD to my daughter. I put that in bold because reading out loud has never been my cuppa. I don't think I have a good reading voice and doing Hagrid's accent was rather challenging. But why this was so much fun was seeing my daughter's reaction when things would happen (even though she's seen the movie) and how excited she would get knowing that certain characters were coming up. We're currently on book 2 and I hope to keep going with her, and re-read the whole series that way. Though by the time we get to book 5, I may be pulling my hair out because those later books get loooong.
30. Mila 2.0 by Debra Dizra* This one had a very teenage-ry voice and a cool premise that I think will resonate really well with the younger set. For me, I usually like my romance to be a bit more in depth and not quite so instantaneous, if you will. I guess I was kind of hoping for less on the romance side of things and more on the action side (because it is supposed to be a sci-fi story about an android and evil government scientists and all). That's not to say that there wasn't some action and some very tense scenes, but I think that I just wanted... more? In all it was entertaining, just maybe not what I expected.
31. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey** I'd heard so many good things about this book, including that it could be the next Hunger Games. I'm not sure if I'd go that far, although I wasn't as crazy about the first Hunger Games book as I was by the others, so you never know. At any rate this was still a 5 star read for me. I loved the characters and I thought the premise was outstanding. I also really appreciated that for an apocalyptic book, the author didn't go into many of the cliche things that happen during an apocalypse (people stockpiling, jumping off buildings, religious fanatics, etc). There were a few parts that seemed a bit too convenient, but I overlooked them because of the other things that stood out for me--Cassie's voice, the prose, etc. I highly recommend this one and look forward to the next.
32. Blood Promise by Richelle Mead* I was just so-so with this 4th installment of Vampire Academy. I actually enjoyed the first half of it, but when she gets to the point where Dimtrius is trying to lure Rose into changing into a Strigoi, I sort of lost interest. I think part of it was that there was too much telling of how Rose was feeling and not enough showing. The idea of Rose being an addict just didn't worked very well for me, though that's not to say that I don't appreciate her trying to show Rose making more mistakes. It just didn't work, again because I think there was too much telling and I wasn't feeling the emotions of what an addict is truly like. Also, I'm getting the impression that this series is stealing a lot from Buffy at this point, and I feel like I know too well where this is going. I do have the 5th book and decided to start it already because I do want to finish up the series. If I wait as long as I did with this one I'm unlikely to ever get back to it.
