HPHBP was always one of the middle-of-the-road books for me in the series.

You learn so much in this book and the series starts to come to a close. It's definitely getting darker, Harry & everyone else is getting older and relationships are starting to develop. You start to see the beginnings of a relationship form between Hermoine and Ron, and you finally get to see Harry be happy in his relationship with Ginny.

Of course we find out about Horcruxes, about Voldemort's past, and how to kill Voldemort.

Re-reading the book, it bugs me all the more about the "Half Blood Prince" bit however. The book is called the Half Blood Prince, yet we spend all of two seconds on "I am the half blood prince". Yes, naturally, the Potions book and the notes from the half-blood prince helps Harry to no end, but shouldn't the book have been "Harry Potter and the never ending struggle to find out the truth" ? Nah, it doesn't have quite the same ring, but that's my point: I feel like the title was just to sell more books, and Rowling certainly didn't need to do that in this point of the series.

I didn't enjoy the pacing as much in this one, and I find myself not liking Dumbledore a great deal, either. I always at least respected him in previous reads of the series, though I hated the way he treated and used Harry. This time though, I just see the poor treatment of Harry, which in real world terms almost amounts to mental abuse. The poor kid - and I think sometimes we forgot Harry IS just a KID just wants some attention, after all. Yes, there's the whole revenge of his parents thing and he's all noble and everything, but he's still a kid who just wants parental attention. Look how quickly he got attached to Sirius after all.

I first heard about this book from another book blogger, and as usual, I don't remember who to give credit where credit is due... One of these days, I'll remember to write it down!

I actually read and finished this one at least a month ago, but I really sat on writing the review because I didn't know how I felt. I don't read a lot of romance, and though there isn't a lot of it in this one there was more than I was expecting. I was really enjoying the book, the world, the characters, and then bang! Love interest shows up and feelings develop... yuck... lol.

After sitting on writing the review, though, I realized that the romance bits do really work, and it had to happen so that we could have the ending that does happen, and since I liked the ending, I guess that means I have to like the romance... lol.

All this to say, Nil is pretty much your typical dystopian book. You meet the characters, you are introduced to a new world, you meet new characters, typical love interest happens, main character grows and learns a lot and is just the smartest ever and is the only one who can ever figure anything out... It's different from some other dystopians in that there are still some mysteries remaining for future books, and other differences that I can't share without ruining too much of the plot. It's just different enough that the book works.

I'll probably even read the next ones in the series, eventually, but I won't rush, either.

I signed up to read the third book in the series - review to come very soon - so you'll see the review for book 2 very soon, too!

So let me start my review off by saying this book - and the series in general - has a very similar feel (at first glance) to the Hunger Games, and even in small part, Harry Potter. The Reckoning, for the first few chapters, will definitely feel similar to the Hunger Games - the reckoning to me is very similar in feel to the lottery in the Hunger Games. After that though, the Silver Blackthorn series has a feel all its own. It's similar to Harry Potter in that you are routing for a small group of characters to survive against evil that is just not understandable (which is usually the case when someone is crazy, after all).
The world and characters are well written, Silver's a great heroine type figure without being over the top, and I enjoyed the book except I did feel the ending was a little rushed, but it was well written the way it was done so the ending still works.
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book received by author as part of a book tour

So, what can one say about the last book in an epic fantasy series?

Surprisingly, I didn't cry my way through the book this time. Was it because I knew what to expect? Too stressed over the real world to find myself really feeling what was going? Hmm...

I honestly don't have a lot to say about this one. I still don't see/can't see Snape as a hero. A million years ago, he supposedly falls in love with a girl, but hates her son. I can see hating him on principal in year one or year two, but after years of getting to know Harry Potter, Snape's feelings should've upgraded, changed to mild dislike, something... Yeah he was a super spy, but he did it all for a girl - how does that make him a hero? It makes him human. Yes, he was brave to be a spy, and he certainly was the only one who did it, so I dunno.

I still feel this book drags horribly in the middle. It's just so much whining and bickering between Ron, Harry and Hermoine, and complaining about how Dumbledore didn't tell Harry anything. Move on, people. (Though I find it interesting that I always really liked Dumbledore, but this time re-reading the series, I find myself liking him very little. He's really horrible to Harry. Yes, he had his reasons, and they were for the right reasons, but he didn't have to be so horrible!)

So I guess I had more to say on the subject then I thought. :)

This is the second book in the Silver Blackthorn trilogy.

It begins immediately after the first book, with only a little recapping, which was nice because I started this one immediately after finishing the first one, and it would have driven me nuts if there was a lot of recapping.

This book is more about the friendship and the relationship between all the teenagers, their families, and the other people in this world.

It's pretty similar to most other dystopia trilogies; in this one, not much happens. It's more character and world building, and setting the scene for the final book.

There's a love triangle that's pretty unnecessary, especially since Silver is just dishonest with both guys which is really out of character. It almost feels like the love triangle is there because there's always a love triangle in these books.

The final book!

Definitely my favorite of the three.

Silver is really starting to mature, to turn into a leader, but she still has her moments where she's just a scared kid who is way over her head.

This book was much more intense, definitely a little darker, much more thrilling, and much more of a roller coaster ride.

The author, Wilkinson, does a great job with the pacing of the plot, intertwining all of the characters and the storylines, drawing you in, and then throws curveball after curveball at you.

In fact, it's rather difficult to write a review because of the curveballs... I don't want to say anything and ruin the book.

I'm going to get killed for this, but I did not like the very last scene. Again, I can't say too much without ruining it, but I didn't like how the last scene was written, though I understand why - for dramatic purposes, of course - but the sudden change for only the very last scene basically told me what the ending was going to be, when before I only suspected what the ending was going to be. Anyone with any sense in them is going to know how the book ends if one only thinks about it for two seconds, so why the sudden shift?

There's also a LOT of similarities to the Hunger Games series, as I mentioned when I reviewed the first book. If you enjoy the genre, then you'll enjoy this series, too, but the similarities - and the fact I didn't like how the ending was written - is one reason why this book only gets four stars from me.

I previously wrote a series review about Xanth.

I'm re-reading most of the Xanth series as part of my Read all the Books challenge: the reviews will be even shorter and pithier than my usual short pithy reviews :) and will serve more as a reminder and a placeholder for which books I've re-read and when.

So, I don't want to re-hash what I said in my series review, but I'll mention a few major points.

First, Piers Anthony is a sexist pig, his writing is sub-standard, but he's an absolute wiz at creating a fantasy world that works. The humor can be so-so at times, but he's a creative genius, and you have to take the books with a grain of salt. So he's a pig, and there's a scene in this book that should just DIE, and the constant, never ending sex jokes just are out of control and get old, but he's aiming his audience at teenager boys and let's face it, teenage boys are horny.

As others have said, you either love or hate these books. I still don't know where I fall as an adult, but I loved them as a kid, have fantastic memories of reading them as a teenager, and for that reason I guess I still like them as an adult, as much as I hate them.

I originally reviewed the Source of Magic on the blog in 2009 here, and wrote a series review about Xanth as well.

I'm re-reading most of the Xanth series as part of my Read all the Books challenge: the reviews will be even shorter and pithier than my usual short pithy reviews :) and will serve more as a reminder and a placeholder for which books I've re-read and when.

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I know I liked this book a lot before, but re-reading it again as an adult it falls way short. It's just too much sexism/constant dirty jokes/lame puns that aren't even trying to be funny/did I mention the constant sexual jokes?

The plot is really thin on this one, too, and the climax of the novel - a debate about setting a demon free - falls really short. I feel like I'm missing the point of the scene or perhaps the entire novel, but I don't think it's me, I think it's how the scene is written.

It's just lacking the something something that makes most of these books so magical and fun to read - even though there's the constant dirty jokes and the women bashing - and this one really just disappointed me.

The only good thing about these books are how ridiciously fast they are to read.

Besides the fact that Piers Anthony is still -oh-so-sexist- (though not as bad as in the Xanth series), and the fact that he can't write female characters to save his life, I still do enjoy this book. Others have said that this one is the best of the series, and I think I agree, though I also really enjoyed #6 (though most say the last two books suck). I definitely enjoyed the re-read and I am definitely looking forward to reading the next one, but I'm going to try to take a break from Anthony for a month or so because one really does need a break from his writing, even when you do enjoy his books (overall) like I do.

Resilience is book one of the Regina Shen series, which takes place in a dystopian-type world. Though I was initially put off by the book covers, the premise behind the series intrigued me enough that I was thrilled to sign up for the review tour.

Regina, of course, is our hero. She's a teenager, as they always are in dystopian books, and has a younger sister and a mom, both of whom we see little of in this book.

Regina has courage, is portrayed as smart, and is certainly loyal to her sister. Much of the book is spent on Regina's mixed relationship with her mother (which I can sympathize with); however, I did feel as if a lot of time was spent obsessing over Regina being mad at her mother for abandoning her and her sister, even though Regina (in the same breath) complains about how her mother was never there for them.

We never really get to know Regina's family, as book one focuses mainly on Regina's search for them. I was honestly bored at times because I didn't really care about her family.

That being said, the world the author creates is great. I do love the setting, and could imagine this future, alternative world rather easily, though the author's continuous descriptions of the setting also got a little old.

Regina herself is an interesting character - I'm not sure I like her, but I do applaud her spirit, her spunk, her "gumption" if you will. She is frustrated throughout much of the story, and grows as a person and begins to turn into an adult a little more. There are a lot of questions in her life that remain un-answered, and it'll be interesting to see how Regina will continue to grow as the series unfolds.



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book received for free as part of a book tour