leahrosereads's Reviews (1.04k)

So much awesome.

A strange visitor comes to town, offering to raise the townsfolk's dearly departed from the dead--for a price...

That's the premise behind all four stories, and each author in this collection has their own take on this passage.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the stories in this collection, and I'm looking forward to reading work from the three authors I haven't read prior to this collection: Kelley Armstrong, Christopher Golden, and David Liss.

My favorite story in this collection was Christopher Golden's Pipers. I absolutely loved his character development in Zeke, and the plot. I think I liked this one the most because of the hoodoo aspects in it, and for the fact that the ending gave me goosebumps.

I'd recommend this to anyone who doesn't mind short stories.

ARC - review

So many amazing Ledger stories in this collection. Several have been previously released, but some were new, and I really enjoyed reading those ones, and re-reading past stories.

Having just finished Code Zero, I wasn't quite ready to leave the Ledger universe, so I finally decided to download the PDF ARC of this collection and get back to reading, and I'm so happy I did. Grab this book if you get the chance. If you love the Ledger universe, you will not be disappointed.

I absolutely loved the two new short stories, particularly Artifact. I'd to read an entire story revolving around it. Of course, if that doesn't happen, I'll just have to reread Artifact from time to time.

Freaking time travel and Joe beats up Joe. It's really pretty spectacular

.

Fangirling review over.

Rainbow Rowell impressed me with Fangirl, and I think had I read this first, it would have received a 5 star rating from me. However, I had some issues with it.

I couldn't relate as well to Eleanor or Park the way I could with Cath. I was absolutely called names in high school, but no where near the bullying levels that Eleanor endured in this novel. So, while I sympathized with her, there was a disconnect.

If I had read this novel first, I don't think I would have minded this type of lack of connection to bother me, but because I enjoyed Fangirl so much, I put Eleanor & Park on a pedestal prior to reading it. Not right to do, but I did it.

I absolutely loved how this story was written, where the reader got to see both Eleanor and Park's views. It was nice to read it that way, and I think that it added a level to this story.

On the whole though, Eleanor & Park was a YA novel that I had read before. Maybe the characters were different, but the issues of bullying and an abusive home was one that I have read recently.

Still, Rainbow Rowell kept me interested until the end, and that's why this book got a 4. I enjoyed it, and I'd recommend it to any of my friends who'd want a book to read quickly and with characters that were interesting and developed.

I really don't have words. This was just a magnificent book. I loved every bit of it, and I definitely prefer Rainbow Rowell's storytelling in this novel over the other two books I've read of hers.

Lincoln was adorably awkward, and I just thought it was great that both he and Beth were stalking each other. Maybe that shouldn't be cute, but it was.

Just excellent.

I never quite know how to rate/review short stories.

Rebecca Lee did a decent job with each of these stories, and I wish I cold have enjoyed them all. However, I really only enjoyed Bobcat, Min, and Fialta, or 3/7 of the stories in this collection. The other stories, although well written, I just felt no connection with. The characters fell flat to me, and I just didn't care all that much about their stories.

Maybe if they were longer, if the characters were given more of a chance to develop, I'd be more invested in their situations, but, I don't think that's the point of this collection in general.

Each story delved into relationships in different ways, and I felt that each story was realistic in that sense. I just didn't like certain stories.

Quickie Cap:

Dorothy Must Die was an entertaining read for me. Though it had some faults, the book’s a solid first novel in a series. It follows Amy Gumm in an Oz filled with psychopaths and the story kept me interested all the way up to the final page of the novel.

"Oz--where all your worst nightmares can come true.”


One thing’s for sure, Amy Gumm is definitely not in Kansas anymore. And unfortunately for her, she’s also not in our grandmother’s Oz. She has pretty much crash landed (courtesy a tornado, of course) in an Oz so twisted, that I think Tim Burton would orgasm if he saw it.

Amy’s trailer trash, with a druggie for a mother, and a non-existent father. She’s “Salvation Amy”, our damaged heroine, and although she’d wish for a bus out of Kansas, life has always sucked for Amy, so it’s just her luck that she’d be thrown into this wonderfully terrifying Oz.


While thrust into this new world, Amy is introduced to a multitude of characters, including the members of the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked who want to bring Dorothy’s regimen of Good down. How to do that? Name of the title says it all. The Order needs Amy to kill Dorothy.

They begin training her in all the ways that will help her succeed in her quest. Nox (a love interest for Amy) trains her in fighting, Gert (a grandmotherly wicked witch) trains Amy to use the magic that flows all around in Oz, and Glamora (Glinda’s twin) trains her to be a perfectly polished drone. The last one is pretty important, because without that training, Amy would have been captured as soon as she entered the Emerald City (

again

).

Once undercover, Amy has to get close to Dorothy. Not an easy feat, when you’re disguised as a maid who’s at the bottom of the totem pole. While trying to get close to Dorothy, Amy makes several poor decisions, and because she only has bad luck, nothing goes according to plan, and Amy watches one of the Order’s insiders pay for her pigheadedness. Seriously, Amy has a lot to learn. Her mistakes throughout the book made me want to yell at her, possibly even slap her a few times. She’s an idiot, a brave idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. I believe Amy will learn as the story progresses, because she has to, or the Order and everyone counting on her to kill Dorothy will be disappointed.


Once I realized that this was book 1 in a trilogy, I knew there’d be no Dorothy death, and although bummed about that, I understood. Amy has A LOT of growing to do.

There’s a lot of world building and that was to be expected, but I was never bored with learning all of the intricacies of Oz. There were some slow points, but the pages kept turning, and I stayed entertained. I wish there was more on the Wizard in this book, but I’m assuming I’ll learn more about him in future books.

Though I never enjoy insta-love, insta-romance in any novels, I didn’t think Amy and Nox’s awkward, forced love was a detriment to the novel. I was a little concerned that there would end up being a love triangle of sorts between Amy, Nox and the mysterious Pete…

but the last couple of pages cleared that right up for me

.

I’m looking forward to reading more of this story, and I think that Danielle Page did a decent job at retelling Oz as an extremely dysfunctional place to live. Page also did a great job at making a heroine that was relate-able and relatively well formed. I’m looking forward to seeing Amy grow as the story progresses, both in confidence of herself, as well as her trust (or more likely) her loss of trust in those that surround her.

I read this for a Buddy Read to attempt to get into the New Adult genre. I probably should have researched this book a little further, prior to putting it onto my NA list, but I saw it on others' bookshelves in the group. Thought the blurb sounded interesting, and here I am.

This is YA though, and really just not my preference at all. I disliked so much about this book, and I'm disappointed with how it was done in general. There was the potential to make this a serious YA novel, that deals with psychological issues caused by abuse, and it just didn't happen.

I'll probably even avoid this author in the future with how much I disliked this book.

I "read" this for the first time on Audible :). It's a great story to listen to, and the narrator does an excellent job. However, I did pick up the books to read after getting the audio version, because I wanted to have a physical copy of this book.

It's dark, gritty, and has an amazing (anti?)hero, Kylar, that I just fell in love with. Even though he's a wetboy and a killer, he's a good guy. His past is painful, and it made me want to seem him succeed even more.

I just loved this trilogy.